“It’s okay, there’s no reason to be alarmed at this stage,” I said. My guards knew I had met a fae with a lioness familiar before, but they still didn’t like it.
We wound through the labyrinth, until finally turning a corner to find a tall and striking male. I had a moment’s pause. I’d been expecting that same woman from before. But as the lioness walked to the male, nuzzling into his side, it made perfect sense. The female fae had said she wasn’t very powerful; she couldn’t have been an heir. The lioness was not her familiar. It was this man’s.
He looked to be around my age, but age was probably impossible to judge on a fae. He was well over six feet tall, with a strong, wiry build, and long silky blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, except for a few braided strands that hung at the side of his head. He had deep green eyes, slashed through with gold threads. He was probably one of the most beautiful males I’d ever seen, but there was no mistaking his otherness. His ears were slender and pointed; he wore no illusion to hide his fae heritage.
Crossing his left arm over his chest he gave me the slightest of head nods. “Your Majesty.”
I didn’t know this man, but I didn’t want to offend, so I decided a slight nod in return was appropriate. “Pleasure to meet you,” I said.
My guards were at my back fanned out in an arc and the fae eyed them. “I’m Caspien, one of the princes of the Summer Court, and I would like to speak with you in private.”
“No!” Blaine stepped before me and gestured to the prince’s weapon. “There is no way we’ll let our queen go off alone with an armed fae.”
Prince Caspien nodded and unsheathed his blade, placing it on the ground before his familiar. “You have my word that no harm with befall her at my hand.”
Violet stepped in beside me. “I’ll accompany the queen,” she said, clearly not convinced.
It looked like my best friend didn’t completely trust this person, and I thought that was wise. This could be a ploy to kill me and weaken the mecca, weakening the shifters so they were ripe for the killing.
Caspien did not look worried. “As you wish, magic wielder.”
Violet and I shared a look at this unfamiliar term. Blaine, Victor, Ben, Jen, and Monica looked less than happy as we walked away, leaving them to stand guard over his weapon and familiar. I was calm though. Few beings could rival Violet and I together, and I sensed Baladar would also come to my aid if needed.
Violet was at my left, a few paces behind me, and the prince was on my right. “Dalia sends her warm regards,” he said formally.
Dalia? Oh … that must be the name of the woman I met in Astoria Park.
I nodded. “Thank you. Please return those regards. So what brings you here?”
He didn’t hesitate, which I liked. “Things are reaching crisis point in the Otherworld. We sent Dalia across to try and warn you after your queen’s death. This was the catalyst that has set the Winter Court off on a destructive path. Why, we do not know, but they are determined to take over both sides of the veil.”
“Why send Dalia before and not just come yourself?” The prince was clearly far more powerful, and a leader in his own right.
“The less powerful the fae to cross over, the less ripple effect. We were hoping the Winter Court would not know she had come. But, as this escalates, we felt it was imperative that I seek your council in person. My father is the king of the High Court of Summer. From here on I’ll be the direct liaison between our two courts. Now more than ever we need this alliance. We have information to share, and hope you’ll do the same.”
Whoa. The son of the king of the Summer Court. I felt a little in awe, even though I was an actual queen. Something about the Tuatha de Danann had that effect on me, an ethereal otherworld energy and power. I nodded that he should continue.
“The mecca is weak in the land of fae. Ever since your late queen fell, our world has begun to die.”
I was no longer walking. I didn’t want to miss a single word. “Dalia did mention there was an imbalance. What happens if the Otherworld dies? Would Earth also perish?”
His expression shuttered. “Right now we have no idea. Everything requires a balance, so there is a very real risk that your world will fall with us, but we cannot know for sure. Maybe, because the mecca is stronger here now, Earth would survive.
“Even more pressing, the Winter Court has stolen a precious item of ours, a power object that promotes energy and fertility. Without that object or the mecca empowering our lands, our food, and eventually our people, will die off. This means that time is running out before war spills into your land. We are weakening. We cannot hold them off for much longer.”
“What can I do to help? How do I fix this?” I would not let an entire race die because of some imbalance my queen had created.
I knew it had started with her. I just had to figure out what she had done to make it so. Plus we needed all the allies we could get, especially since the Winter Court was gunning to take us out.
The prince’s skin glowed then, almost as if happiness was bleeding from him. He gave me a slight nod. “Thank you. Very few leaders offer to help. My father made the right decision in trusting you. The Winter Court believes the only way to survive this imbalance is to destroy all shifters. Then they’ll return to Earth and reclaim the mecca. My father believes you can fix it, that you can send the mecca back to the fae lands and restore the balance. If the mecca is returned, we’ll gain much-needed strength to not only retrieve our object of power, but push back against the Winter Court. We have more numbers than them; the Spring Court is on our side, and they are numerous. We need the power back though.”
Well, great. “Okay, and do you know exactly how I am supposed to do this?”
Of course, give me another impossible task when I already have ten to get through this week.
He nodded. “You’re the queen of mecca now. You have the full force of the Earth side power at your disposal.”
“I don’t understand what happened, what my late queen did in the first place to offset the balance. To be honest, I was raised without any knowledge of the fae or your world, so the chance that I can somehow send the mecca back there is very slim.”
“Slim?” He looked confused.
I tried not to groan in frustration. I needed to brush up on my Shakespeare.
“Not happening,” Violet clarified. “Difficult. Impossible. A true pain in the butt.”
The prince frowned. “Oh, right.”
Some of his glow dulled. I had to offer some hope. I needed them to keep fighting the Winter Court until we figured this out, because he had just all but told me that if I didn’t fix it, his kind was going to make my kind go extinct.
“I know an expert in the mecca and I’m training with him. So I’ll do everything in my power to find a way to fix this. I make no promises, but if there is a way, I’ll figure it out.”
It was the right thing to say, because his eyes softened and his posture relaxed. “How much time do I have?” I asked him.