A scream that went on forever woke Eve, only for her to realize it was her that was making the sound. She bolted from her bed. The day was beautiful, but something horrible was going to happen, if it hadn't already.
The images of the dream hit her, hard as bullets, only twice as fast. Kornae. She needed to tell him. But...
It had been another three weeks since she had seen him. Three weeks since the fight that helped her in so many ways. Three weeks since she lay between her lovers and felt that things might actually be okay.
Once again, she found herself running through the hallway, not knowing where his room was. She was too terrified to try to imagine calling for a portal, but she had to try. Stopping her instinctual flight, she closed her eyes and begged, please, I need help, you know I do, where can I find him. Opening her eyes was that familiar circle and not able to care about what it did to her, she stepped in.
There he was, laying across the bed that they shared for such a brief amount of time.
Racing for it, she hit her knees at the bedside, reaching for the hand that hung off the side. She grabbed it, frantically calling his name. "Kornae, wake up. Please wake up."
Only heartbeat had passed and he was looking down into what she knew was terrified eyes.
"Eve, what is it? Why are you here?"
She was breaking down, losing the ability to speak as arms lifted her, held her in his lap as she shivered from the renewed violence of the nightmare.
In the time she had been Queen of the Unseelie throne, her love for the place she once hated had only grown and since she came into her magic, that love had manifested in being able to feel when something was wrong. She took strength from the land and now that was failing her because her home was failing.
"Eve, talk to me." His voice held all the warmth in the world as he continued to stroke her back and she cried against his shoulder.
How could she tell him when she didn't know? It was the earth screaming at her that she knew something was wrong. It didn't tell her what. But, she knew, didn't she?
She lifted her head and let the calm in his eyes enter her. "Shadows move," she whispered as alarms went off around them.
~~~
She sat on the side of her bed, trying to hard to compose herself. Fingers clutched the edges of her blanket, trying to warm her soul as the land cried out for her help. Kornae tried to pull the blanket from her, and her grip tightened.
"Eve, we have to go. Let me help you."
Help her. There was no helping her, not so long as Faerie cried its agony through her. Did it know what it did when crowning someone as ruled by their emotions as she was? But she could do it. Had to do it. Losing herself in the pain that surrounded her was not going to fix what was wrong.
Her fingers went limp and he pulled the blanket from her nude form. She took a deep breath. The Queen of the Unseelie throne couldn't lose herself.
She took the things he offered before turning his back, allowing her a shred of modesty and she dressed. It was a shred she didn't need. He had seen her before. What was there to hide?
"I'm ready." Her voice was low, but steady and perhaps she could do it.
He turned to her, eyes calm and she wanted to fall to her knees and beg him, how to find that place where nothing hurt? But she couldn't.
Thick leather encased her because who knew what was going on outside the palace walls. But they needed to find out.
Find out that indeed shadow moved and it was time to end this. End all of this.
Once and for all.
~~~
The bright light of day seemed to make a mockery of the pain she had tucked into a corner of her mind. She could hear the screams, could feel the agony, but could still function. Mostly. She couldn't feel her heart, and maybe that was for the best as a bird landed in front of them just outside the stables.
A bird.
A fucking bird.
A bird that carried with it a woman screaming in terror, in confusion and in part, insanity. Those screams brought back a nightmare of maniacal laughter and a giant gray fist, squeezing the life from her.
Birds carried messages, didn't they? From the earliest times, in the bible that Eve wasn't sure she ever believed in. The dove, carrying to olive branch, carrying the promise of land.
And this bird also carried a message in the form of the screaming woman.
They tried to talk to her, to console her, to let her know she was safe, but nothing worked. She screamed, she cried, she laughed, she clawed at her face and nothing they said made a difference.
Finally, Eve stood beside the kneeling, shrieking Fae.
The hand that saved her from the someone she loved touched the forehead of the woman and she went stiff beneath Eve's touch. She poured her energy through Gideon's mark. The mark of self. Self control. Self awareness. The woman opened bright teal eyes, shining with the light of Eve's mark before she fell limp against Kornae.
Her fingers clutched at his robe as his arms circled her. "My King," she gasped, fighting for her breath and against tears. Her eyes looked up and met Eve's. 'My Queen."
Eve knelt in the dirt beside them, softly touching the terrified face. "Can you tell us what happened? Where are you from?"
Those stunning eyes filled with tears before they closed. "Monsters, so many monsters. Shadows filled the air and they came from no where. Things..." She bit off a sob. "My lover put me on this bird and sent me here. He said to warn the palace. Then..." She broke down and Eve watched as Kornae held her tight, murmuring soft words and this was what she didn't see before. The man she never knew.
"They pulled him away from me and he screamed and I looked back." Her eyes were vacant. "They have him." They fixed on Eve with a suddenness that startled her. "Can you save him?"
This question was the one Eve had been dreading since the woman spoke. And it was one she couldn't answer. "I'll do everything withing my power to help him. But, it may not be enough." She stroked hair the color of the rainbow. "However, this is something that I will promise. The one responsible for this will pay. He will pay by my hand, and you will have your vengeance through me."
Her eyes met Kornae's and there was something in them. Something she couldn't define. But whatever it was gave her strength. He looked past her to nod at the guards. They closed in and helped the sobbing woman to her feet, taking her inside the walls of the palace. They would take her to the healers, but there wasn't a lot they could do for heartache. Eve knew this. Kornae knew this.
"My Queen, what is your desire?" His voice was soft and for a moment, she wondered if Naiel told him about what he said to her. It didn't matter. Kornae was asking her and she replied.
"We fly."
~~~
It was only her and Kornae, as they could look into shadow and remain themselves. And she had no wish to try to confront the madness on Unseelie soil. That would be useless. But she wanted to see. Wanted to know what they would be up against when they dove into the heart of insanity.
They flew on a horse, the same Eve rode when beginning her mad dash that lead to this moment. So black, it absorbed the sunlight, yet giving off a glow that could be seen in the light. Strips of red and white, constantly changing colored the mane and had the hooves been on soil, she knew the tracks would be in fire and ice.
Kornae rode behind her, her back against his chest, one of his arms around her waist, hand splayed across her stomach, holding her tight. The other held reigns of black leather.
She would have liked to said that she rode with the same confidence that she spoke the words that led to her being in the air, but she was far to Fae to lie. However, some part of her held onto the knowledge that they were flying to a place of death and horror and she kept her screams locked inside. She would only give voice to them as she fell, so far down, to her own death.
Kornae's fingers pressed against her as she stiffened at a particularly strong jolt of air and she knew he remembered she was terrified of flying.
A terror she forgot all about as gray began to appear on the endless blue horizon.
Her hands tightened on red and white hair, trying to will it away, but instead, as if mocking her will, it grew larger the closer it came.
This this was it. That was what the voice told her to look for. This was the thing that tortured her sleep. The creeping gray that moved unstoppable over her birthright.
"Take us down," she said. She could see the small town, lying at the base of the shadowy mountain. She could feel the fear, hitting her in waves.
"Eve I ca—,"
"No, take us down now." She twisted slightly. "Take us, or I swear I will throw myself off this fucking horse."
His fingers tightened on her once again and with a curse, he headed down.
The hooves had barely touched the ground and she was on her feet, running straight into the towering shadow, Kornae right beside her. People fled the other way, ones who knew not to look into the writhing mass that was swallowing their home. But some weren't so lucky. Things loomed out of the dark, snatching those who stood screaming, clawing at their eyes. Those she couldn't help. But others... Like that little girl, who was far too young to know why she was making her face bleed. Eve dropped to her knees, pulling her close and putting her hand on her head. As she pour self into her, she whispered things to her. "Run outside of the gray, follow the people, don't look back. Please, god, don't look back." The child let go of Eve and met her eyes and in them, Eve saw her future self with a child of her own and she kissed the girl on her head and watched her run away.
Tears wouldn't help anything and she held them inside and looked for others, catching Kornae's eyes and she couldn't look at him now, not knowing what she did. Because somewhere inside her she knew it would never happen for her. Would never have small arms hold her tight and trust her when she said things would be okay. Would never have lavender eyes look at her and smile because she touched her.
She made a face as that new pain found its way into a corner of her mind and Kornae held out his hand. She took it, got to her feet, and looked around. Her crying about never having a child could wait as she looked for others to help.
Being after being she helped as Kornae fought at her back, keeping the tentacles from snatching her away into the gray. A gray that she was willing to throw herself into to stop this. Stop the madness. Protect her people, protect those she loved and end this fucking prophecy.
Her magic began flickering, working then not. and Kornae tried to pull her away from the people that were left and she lashed out at him. These were her people, damn it. There, by a shop, a young boy. She raced for him before he opened his mouth in a scream that would haunt her every hour. She tried to heal him. Tried to bring him back. Tried to give her last to pour into him. And there nothing there. It was gone.
She grabbed him, intending to take him with her, when he bit her, teeth meeting through her skin and she dropped him. Her flesh held between his teeth, he ran off into the dark.
Kornae snatched her hand and pulled her away. She fought him. She could heal the boy, she just needed a minute. Her magic would work again. She wasn't that hurt. He lifted her, slinging her over his shoulder as she struggled, screaming at him to let her go.
They were again on the horse and as they flew away from hell, Eve found that cold place in her heart. Her shoulder continued to bleed, but it slowed as her body recognized she was Fae. They could be hurt. They could bleed, but they healed pretty fast.
She couldn't heal. Her magi was gone.
She could have saved him.
Now he was lost.
They were back at the palace, her feet touched the ground, and she twisted, arm coming up, everything she had left into her fist that she swung at the man that pulled her away. She hit him and he still held her as her fury spent itself on his chest. "Why!" she screamed, body dropping to its knees as she let go of her magic. "I could have helped him."
"My Queen," His voice was soft as she stared at the dirt, fighting the tears so hard, she shook. She couldn't look at him. She couldn't. Would he see the rage in her eyes as she met his? "You are exhausted and your magic failed you. Was I supposed to let you spend your last and watch as you die?"
"I could have saved him," Her head drooped under the weight of that life lost because she wasn't strong enough.
Fingers took her chin and lifted. Velvet blue eyes met hers and she shattered, sobs breaking free and his arms were around her and she pressed her face into his chest.
Arms lifting her, carrying her and holding her and still she wept. Why did her magic fail? What went wrong?
His eyes met hers as she lay on a bed. Other faces loomed over her. Healers.
She reached out for him and he took her hand, despite her earlier actions.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
"I'm not," he said and did they always have to disagree?
~~~
Eve stood with her back to the room as Kornae told her lovers what happened. She was fine, injury gone. She was perfectly okay. Except for the memories. Things that she couldn't stop playing back over and over in her mind. There was no exhaustion as she moved through the people. Yes, she was tired. But she had done more with less. Why did it stop? Why couldn't she heal him? Why did she have to see him, her flesh in a bloody mouth, running into the swirling mists?
The night sky showed nothing of what was going on so far away.
As calm and beautiful as any.
Why couldn't it reflect what was happening in Faerie, Because it made sense now, didn't it? The one who ruled the Shadow Court was going to take over them all, Unseelie and Seelie alike.
Spinning, she turned her back to the beauty of the dark court.
"We have to go," she said, refusing to look at anyone. "My magic failed, and I don't know why. But this is that the King of Shadow said. 'When shadows move, come to me'." She took a deep breath and finally looked up. She met each set of eyes without losing her composure. "I gave you all a choice before, and you stayed with me. But this time it's different. There is something happening inside me and I think it has something to do with that place. I can't guarantee that I won't fail again." A deep breath. "If you choose to stay, I won't blame you."
No one took her up on her offer for an easy out. And that almost broke her heart. There was something inside her that warned her that her time was almost up. Time. Tick Tock. It started when that little girl looked into her eyes and she knew she would never be the mother that Rosewen was. And it wasn't really because of Kornae's opposition to the idea. It was more basic than that. She simply wouldn't be alive long enough.
It was a sobering thought. A chilling thought. But everything came down to it, didn't it?
That night on the road, so fucking long ago, when she should have drowned. That was when she should have ended. But, she was needed for prophecy. Prophecy that was almost over. Her purpose was almost complete.
She could only wonder what her statue would look like. Would she have one? Had she been apart of the world long enough? Would she stand proud and determined beside her mother? Did she make her proud?
After a mental shake, she met Kornae's eyes. "It's time for a new queen."
There was a look in his eyes that she didn't have time to figure out as he gave her a nod. "A temporary one."
~~~
The next evening, Eve watched as Kornae gave the throne to Cora, with the condition she give it back when Eve returned. Cora laughed and said she would wait for the day.
Eve tried to smile from the sidelines, but it faltered when Kornae met her eyes.
People dispersed and Kornae dragged Eve from the room, telling Cora he needed to talk to her before they packed up to go where ever in the hell they needed to go to to get to the hell lands.
"Are you afraid?" he asked as soon as he pulled her into a tiny side room off the main hallway.
"Excuse me?" she asked, the question coming from left field.
He gripped her arms. "Are you afraid?' He repeated.
"I'm fucking terrified."
He watched her, eyes cold. "No, it's more than that." His voice was soft, at war with the look in his eyes. "You've been distant... quiet."
That was what was bothering him? "I have a lot on my mind, Kornae. That's all."
Gotta love those lies without lying.
He stared at her until she rolled her eyes. "Fine. The little girl. When I held her and I looked at her, I..." She trailed off. How could she explain what went through her mind... "I could see myself at some point in the future with a child looking at me with so much trust. So much love."
"Eve, I—."
She gave him a smile that she was sure matched to pain in her chest. "This isn't about us, Kornae. You could have done what the prophecy asked. You could have done it and it wouldn't have mattered." She stepped back from him and squared her shoulders. "I never felt time before." She looked down at her hand, and as always, was surprised to see it empty. Not the handful of sand she could feel, each grain leaving a mark as it slipped from her grasp. "Not until the night I marked Gideon." She closed her hand, trying to keep more from sliding through her grasp. She looked up and met empty eyes. "I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming that mark. Because until I got it, I didn't realize how fast it moved. How fast it disappeared and once it was gone, that was it."
Could she be as calm and accepting of what she was about to say as he was when he told her he was going to die? Could she make her eyes reflect the quiet peace that his did? She had to try. "The little girl. I felt it then. And it's hard to accept, though I've been trying. But the thing is, I don't think I'm going to survive."
He opened his mouth once again and she shook her head. She wasn't done. He asked her and he would listen.
"And then, once again, time. Because I can't go back. I can't go back to before it all went to shit. I can't fix the things that were done to you. I can't know the you that was there before you were broken. And that hurts too. But I got a glimpse, didn't I? When she need someone to comfort her, you didn't hesitate. You held her and talked to her and I saw you. And I wish I didn't, because its going to hurt that much more when I go where ever it is that souls go when they pass on."
His hands were on her shoulder and she was against the wall. The ice was gone, and in blue, she caught a glimpse of anger. A anger that was so deep, it could swallow her.
"You are not going to die, Eve. You can't. You are too stubborn to die. And I won't let you."
She almost smiled. "Stubbornness doesn't always win, Kornae. And how can you stop me?"
"I made a vow to you, that I would trade my life for yours. That vow still stands."
"The hell it does! You made that vow when you were trying to commit suicide, Kornae. I absolve you of it. You are free to hurt me if you wish. But you will not die in my place!"
The fingers on her shoulders tightened and she tried to control her breathing. Fighting with him, again, would get them nowhere.
"Kor—," Her words were cut off as her attacked her mouth, lips hard against her softness. He wasn't going to win. He wasn't. But she found herself responding to the one who was supposed to be her lover. Deep long strokes left her breathless and she had to fight to remember that she couldn't touch him. After a moment, the crush of her lips eased and finally pulled away.
"You will fight, Eve, because that is what you do. That is who you are. You fight and you live. You love six men and if they lost you, what do you think would happen to them?" He turned and left the room.
Her heart thumped against her chest and she realized he was wrong. So very wrong. She loved seven and she couldn't lose any of them.
~~~
Sunlight stroked Eve's skin and she woke, feeling every one of her years. Not the twenty-eight she probably was back in Montana, but the several hundred she was in faerie. Physically, there was nothing wrong with her. Mentally, she was a basket case. Death. The realization that she did, in fact, love the king who drove her completely insane. The whole freaking world relying on them. And add to the top of that already mountainous pile of shit, was the womb-deep longing for a child.
When did that happen? She was so dead set against it. And now she wanted it with everything inside her. And it was far too late.
She meant what she said to Kornae, though. It didn't matter. Actually, better. She couldn't have her unborn child dying with her, now could she?
Sliding from the bed, she felt for her magic. It was there. Finally. It had to be from what ever was in that cloud of death. If it messed her up that bad from the outside, how screwed was she going to be when they were in in?
Dropping her magic, her head swam. Maybe it still wasn't one-hundred percent.
But no time now.
She needed to find Cora before they left. A glance at the window showed her that she still had a few hours before her men were up. She would avoid Kornae as much as possible. There was no way in hell he would fail to see what she realized as he left her. And while she liked a bit of physical pain, emotional pain was a safe-word no. She couldn't have him knowing she loved him when he couldn't love her. Wouldn't love her.
She cleared her throat before sliding into her gray leather. Gray for the shadows. Gray for the end of everything.
Minutes later, she was sitting in Cora's room.
"I've been waiting for you to come and ask me about him." Violet eyes smiled at her. "And I don't know what I can say. I know you want to know if he is your father and there is no way for me to know that. He never said. Though, the timing could line up, provided when he quit coming to see me, he found your mother. But things would have had to work out spectacularly."
"What do you mean?"
"It's rare for Fae to conceive so quickly. One could call upon a fertility god to help, but that is usually a last resort thing. On the other side of that, as a balance, so to speak, the gestation for a baby is much shorter that it is for a human. It's generally five months, give or take."
"So, in order for him to have helped," Eve swallowed, still floored by that bit of news, "father me..., in that specific time frame..."
"The gods themselves had to have been smiling on that union."
"What was he like?" Eve knew the probability of him being her father was astronomically low, still she asked. Maybe just to get some kind of idea of the people she was going to be coming across.
"Quiet." Cora laughed.
"How did you meet him?"
"Here at the palace." Cora smiled. "He said he was visiting, wanting to see something other than death and despair. I told him that I didn't blame him and we started talking. Before I knew it, a few months had passed and we were friends. He would come and visit me at my home, then disappear for days at a time. He would come back and it was like he never left. Then, one day he left and never came back."
"I do wonder what became of him, because some of the times he wasn't quiet, he was telling me of things that were going on in his home. How there used to be a balance between life and death, despair and joy. But that something had happened and the balance was dissolving. He was worried about his king. Evidently, he felt there were things happening in the shadows." Cora sighed. "And he was right."