Beautiful Delusions (on hiatus)

Ch 2: Pretend

Phoenix POV:

Aton had a daughter.

In the mortal realm.

I stared at the image of the girl as she sank into the grass of some unknown mortal place. Eyes still skimming her book.

They were an unusual color, the exact shade of honey, trapped in a ring of chocolate.

Those were not human eyes. Yet the rest of her was so utterly mundane.

I growled lowly in my chest. Only a fool would miss the key factor in this. "Shes not fully fae."

"No..." the older man sighed, "she is not."

I narrowed my gaze at him, he expects one of us to dilute our bloodline with a halfling.

No...he expects us to strengthen Atons. Of course. If she bred with another human that would be more of the old fairy kings blood gone.

And he intended to use the mystic valleys as a barging chip. Clever.

The seelie next to me frowned, "what about our fated?"

It seemed he for once was asking a somewhat decent question.

Our fated were the fae who shared the other half of our soul. My fated is supposed to become my wife, no other. It is not our way.

We can play of course. But no fae, seelie or unseelie would bond with one who was not fated to them, that would be dooming themselves to an incomplete existence.

And on top of that he desires us to do so with a halfling.

That is quite a low. I personally have no desire to rid myself of a chance to be even better than I am singularly for a halfling.

And he doesn't actually want a marriage anyways. What he wants is an heir. A stronger mix of fae blood in Atons lineage. "Well...I may oppose bonding with her. Would a child suffice?"

I could feel the seelie court families eyes upon me, as well as my own mothers. She practically hissed, "a child with a halfling? You dare ask us to dilute the blood of the royal unseelie?"

Syric shook his head, "I wish to keep Atons blood strong and alive, and whichever boy manages to provide an heir. Without the use of lust charms and the like. win their court sovereignty over the mystic valleys."

I nearly rolled my eyes, I have never and will never need to use a lust charm upon any woman.

The seelie on the other hand. Perhaps it would have aided him.

I could see it in my mothers eyes, her decision.

So I simply nodded, "very well. I simply ask you allow me to observe this woman a little while longer. She is after all the future mother of my child."

I did not miss the faint sound of disgust from the prince next to me. "I would like to learn more about her as well. If for no other reason than to save Atons heir from the tragedy that the unseelie prince is sure to bring."

I smirked a bit, "I think you mixed tragedy with pleasure. Seelie. And lets not pretend you have honest intentions. You may want to save her from me, but you have the same intentions as I."