Winter, My Love

Prologue: The Seelie Queen

Fate's wheel at her fingertips, the world's axis beneath her feet, the Seelie Queen breathed in the snow that drifted lazily from the sky. She was powerless to stop it; had been powerless since the moment Winter had taken leave of his senses and shattered her staff.

The rowan staff, twisted and knobby as it was, was all that gave her the power to change the seasons, to bring humanity from the grasping fingers of winter into the warm embrace of summer. Well, spring first, but that was only a precursor of the splendor to come.

It won't come, not anymore, not now that he's-

The Seelie Queen batted away the thought like a fly. She would not allow herself to think that way. But then, unbidden, another thought clambered its way out of the darkest recesses of her mind, from the hell in which it had lain for eons.

Maybe if you hadn't taken Summer's power-

She tried to bat that one away too, but it was unrelenting, suffusing into the very membrane of her fey mind, forcing her to face the evil she'd done so many years ago.

-and killed her so that you could be the one to bring summer, so that you could be the Seelie Queen, then humanity wouldn't be in this mess.

She sank to her knees, giving up on Fate's wheel and the world's axis, giving up on bringing warmth to the world. She had failed. Summer's power, which had lain in the rowan staff since the day she'd killed her, was now dispersed into the world. It would soon coalesce once more into the form of a new Seelie Queen, and she would lose everything. It had been a good few eons, but that was nothing to a faery, not even a human's decade in her life. It wasn't enough.

"I should have had more time," she whispered, her words drifting up into the snowy sky, where they were lost.

"You should have been content with being a member of Summer's court." The voice was like marble, cold and strong and unyielding. There was no playfulness to it, not a hint of warmth. It could only belong to one man, and he was no man.

"Winter."

"My lady." His voice held no hint of sarcasm, and yet she felt as though he mocked her. Tears pricked her eyes. She squeezed them shut, refusing to allow him to see her cry.

"I knew I could do a better job. She'd been born with the powers, and it wasn't fair. I was the better faery, and she was weak. She could never do what had to be done. They should have been mine. It was mine, by rights! So I took it back. Was that so wrong?" She looked up at him expectantly, eyes glistening.

He shrugged. "That isn't for me to say. When the new queen comes into her power, you'll be executed. The gods will pass judgment on your deeds."

"But-"

"What? Is a fair trial in Asphodel not enough for the woman who should have been Summer, but wasn't?"

"That's not fair."

"What isn't fair is that you killed my mother."

The world was born into an endless summer. Humanity was not yet upon the earth, and fey wandered the planet in complete harmony. Then, the Seelie Queen had a son. His name was Winter, and he plunged the eternal happiness into a cold, logical, and balanced exchange of seasons.

"You've done things too, you know."

Winter smiling down at her. Was he looking at her lips? Gods, his were purple and blue with chill, but they were full and round like no lips had a right to be. But he patted her on the head and called her sister, and her heart broke.

"We've all done things. No faery is perfect. That's one thing we share with humans."

"But-"

"What?"

"I had to give up my name."

Her new subjects could never know of what she had done. She stood above the body of the great Queen Summer, golden ichor dripping from her hands, and knew that she would never be clean again. She had to hide the evidence, along with all traces of the person she had been when this happened, so no one would ever know.

"You did not."

"Can you even remember what it is anymore?"

"Yes. You were called Mab before you took the name Summer, and you were of the Unseelie Court."

"Can you remember your name?"

"I have always been Winter."

"No, you haven't. First, you were the son of Summer, so you must have had another name. There was no word for a cold season."

"My mother named me Oberon, yes-"

"Why did you change your name? What were you hiding?"

"Nothing. Oberon is an old Seelie name. It didn't fit me anymore."

"So you were hiding from your past."

"No. Only you, of the two of us, was weak enough to do that. I know full well that I betrayed my mother's trust when I brought balance to the world, but summer was wreaking havoc upon the land, and I was the only one who could see it. You would not have liked your sweet fey paradise so much when it burned to ashes under your dancing feet, would you?"

"It sounds like you have regrets."

"Not for my actions, but for the way my mother received them."

"You will always be the incarnation of evil to the Seelie, you know."

"Yes."

"I could change that. Make them see you for the savior you are, if you would just give me back the power of summer. Help me to kill the next Summer who appears to take my place."

"You could. But I will do no such thing. I am resigned to my place as the villain."

"Please."

"Not for you. Not anymore."

"Please! For all the brotherly love you once had for me-"

Winter turned away. His voice was harsher, colder. "Never invoke my love for you in a selfish plea to save your traitorous skin. All that's left of my affection towards you is mild dislike, if that. You made your choice a long time ago."

Mab's voice was soft as she replied.

"Not so long a time ago as it seems."