Arranged (Arranged Trilogy Book 1) (3 page)

S
till feeling a bit groggy
, I flung my legs over the bed, stretched my wings, and stood up while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Something had been bothering me all night, but I was too surprised yesterday to allow it to register in my thoughts. I needed to speak to my mother right away.

I hurried down the hallway in search of her. The building was large and I had no idea where I was going. After a few wrong turns, I closed my eyes and spoke telepathically to her.
Mother, we need to talk.

Where are you? I was just in your room looking for you.

Wandering around lost.
I sighed, stopping in my tracks.

Okay, stay where you are and I’ll come to you.

Just moments later I felt her energy approaching before I heard her footsteps. “I should have given you a tour last night. I was just so happy to see you it slipped my mind.”

Tilting my head to the side, I asked, “Why are we really hiding away here? The real reason.”

She blinked, the only outward sign of disturbance. “You always were too smart for your own good.”

“Like mother like daughter,” I said wryly.

Lacing her arm through mine, she led me down the hall. “There are people that do not want us here. A rebellion of sorts is taking place amongst the thirteen percent of the population left. Not all of them, but there is a small sect that does not want our help and they have been killing off magical creatures in great numbers. So it’s best if we do not bring attention to our status. I refuse to hide who I am. We will not glamour ourselves. However, we should also not flaunt our station.”

Inwardly I groaned. What she said made sense, but I didn’t like that we had to hide who we were, royalty. Yeah, maybe that made me stuck up, but it was something I’d been raised to be proud of my whole life. It seemed wrong to downplay ourselves. “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right to me.”

My mother shook her head. “I’ve had many attempts on my life since arriving. I’ve had to move several times. I assure you, if word got out that you are the next in line for queen, you might as well put a big red target on your back. I will not allow you to be put at risk like that. You are the last of our bloodline.”

Speechless, I stood staring at my mother, my mouth agape. “You never told me.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I didn’t want to worry you. Like I said, this is the best plan I’ve been able to come up with.”

Unconvinced, I glanced around. I couldn’t believe how vulnerable we were to an attack. Not only were there broken in windows, we had no protection. Crossing my arms I raised a brow. “Mother, where are your guards?”

There was a long, silent moment, my mother turned and looked off in the distance.

“They are around, they’re just hidden.”

“Cloaked?” I asked, surprised. Cloaking so many people would put a large strain on her energy storages. It’s no wonder she was starting to age quicker. There was no way she was going to be able to continue like this, not for long anyway.

She nodded her head.

Even though it was weird to think we were surrounded by guards that I could not see, it did make me feel slightly better knowing they were around if needed. I just wished it wasn’t necessary to have them hidden. We should be showing a strong force.

Obviously, my mother had made up her mind. And over the years I’d come to learn when she was set on something, she was unmovable. I resigned myself to go along with her plans, at least for now. Hopefully I could figure out a way to accelerate the healing process. My mother and I were both incomparably strong in our powers, but healing was my strong suit. I could bring life as quickly as I could take it. All I needed was free reign to make a difference.

“So what do we do first?” I was eager to get started. The quicker we got things back in balance on the planet the faster we could return home.

“First we eat, and then I want to take you to the laboratory so we can get to work on the experiments.”

She wasn’t wasting any time, was she? What if we could fix the planet on our own without having to breed my DNA with a humans? I’d at least like to give it a try first. What she was asking of me was a huge commitment.

“Mother, I’d like to meet this boy before I agree to go forward with the splicing or whatever it is you called it. I need to know whose genetics I’ll be sharing. Even though you make it sound abstract, this will still be part of our lifeblood being joined. They will be
my
children.”

My mother stopped in her tracks. Her head snapped in my direction. “No, you cannot think of it in such a way. You must think of it in the same way as if you were to give your energy to heal a tree. Nothing more. These beings will
not
be your children. They will be your energy helping Earth. Nothing more.”

I wrapped my arms around my body, suddenly feeling cold. This was so unlike my mother. She had to realize that if we created life forces, we should be responsible for them. Even if they didn’t have a long life like we did. And I really wanted to meet Michael. What if he was a creep? If I didn’t approve of him, would my mother let me search for another potential mate? I should have some say in the matter. Shouldn’t I?

“What made you so sure of this human boy? You’ve been looking for a match for quite a while now. Why him? What makes him so special?”

We continued walking down the hallway into an open kitchen, which was surprisingly clean and welcoming. It was a stark difference from what I’d seen of the rest of the building. Obviously, some work was put into making it enjoyable. Thank the stars. If there was one thing faeries liked to do almost as much as dancing, it was to eat.

I watched in awe as my mother made her way around the kitchen with ease, as if she’d always taken care of herself. It might sound strange, but we were royalty, and the thought of fixing our own food is unheard of. We’d always had countless chefs and assistants taking care of our home. What really surprised me was how happy my mother looked while cutting the fruit and tossing eggs into the frying pan. Even in this crumbling planet, she’d managed to find peace. I’d always envied that about her. I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever find an inner calm like that.

“You’ll have to teach me how to cook,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t think I would enjoy it like my mother clearly did. But I wasn’t about to go hungry.

“It’s relaxing,” she replied with a gentle smile.

“Don’t you miss our world?” I asked, with interest. The thought of being stuck here filled me with unease.

She glanced away before nodding. “Very much. But what we must do here is our highest calling. Eventually we will be able to return home. Just not anytime soon, I’m afraid.”

I leaned forward, rested my forearms on the table and lowered my voice. “Don’t you worry about us both not being there to rule the lands? What if there is an uprising?”

A musical laugh escaped her full lips. “Oh, daughter I worry about a lot of things but that is not one of them. I check in often, and the council is doing a wonderful job in my absence. If anything were to happen that they could not take care of on their own, I would return. No one will try to dethrone me.” She continued chopping, before adding. “They wouldn’t dare.”

A shudder ran through me at her words. Deep down I knew she was correct. But the thought of being left here alone if for some reason she did have to return… let’s just say I really hoped that didn’t happen. I couldn’t imagine being stuck here without my mother or any friends to speak of.

Once she set the food down before me, I realized she’d never answered my earlier question. She’d always been very good at evading issues she’d rather not talk about. “You never told me why you picked this boy.”

Without meeting my eyes, she said, “He’s got great genetic markers. Athletic and intelligent. Honestly, he’s the best we could find. The pickings are pretty slim, I’m afraid.”

Great. Sounds promising
. I plopped a large grape into my mouth. The taste was slightly off but still delicious.

We finished our meal, mostly chatting about our realm. Mother was curious but also distracted. I could tell her heart wasn’t into the conversation. When I told her how I’d left things with Aiston, she barely glanced up. “He was never to be anyway. I knew he was just a passing fancy.”

Well it sure didn’t feel like a passing fancy to me
, but I kept my thoughts to myself. Just thinking about the breakup hurt my heart and my ego.

A
s soon as
we were done eating my mother whisked me off down a very long staircase into the basement. After walking down a long, dark corridor, a door was suddenly pushed open in front of us. It took me a second to realize it must have been one of her guards. That was going to take some getting used to.

Slowly, I cast an appraising glance around the large open area. The laboratory sparkled and shined with bright white and stainless steel. I’d never seen a place so clinical in my life. There was something almost enchanting about the clean lines. Where I came from, medicine was practiced in nature. This was something completely foreign to me. If I was honest, it kinda freaked me out.

Everything was spotless, untouched. The only thing that was in disarray was the man standing behind the microscope. His hair was a wild mess of dark curls, his skin a deep mocha, and his glasses only had one lens. His jacket was crumbled and he had papers sticking out of his pockets. He’d barely glanced up when we walked in.

My mother cleared her throat. She wasn’t accustomed to being ignored, let alone by someone from the opposite sex. Her voice rang throughout the room. “Henrek, this is my daughter. The one we talked about.”

It took a couple of minutes before his eyes finally darted up, focused on us, and just as quickly they went back down into the microscope, as if we weren’t important enough to deserve his time. My mouth hung open in surprise.

“The queen is talking,” I said in a sharp tone. His demeanor was making me angry.

If he heard me, he didn’t acknowledge. Who did he think he was to ignore a queen and a princess?

Gently my mother pulled me aside. “Henrek is unique. We have to have great patience with him. I assure you his beautiful mind is worth the inconvenience. I know it may seem as if he’s being rude, but it’s just his nature. We must honor that in him. Plus, I told you not to mention our station while here.” In my annoyance I’d completely forgotten my mother’s talk on blending in, which I still found absurd.

I gave her a skeptical look. This sort of behavior would never have been accepted back home, but we were not home, I had to remind myself. “Does he know you are queen?” I whispered.

“Yes, he knows. It’s why he agreed to work with me on the project. He wants what we want, a world in harmony.”

I glanced over my shoulder at him. “So … what, we just stand here until he’s ready to talk to us?”

She shrugged, a half-smile spread, lightening her expression. “You’ll get used to it.”

I merely nodded, not wanting to discuss it any further.

Antsy, I walked around the room. There was a large calendar on the wall with big red marks through the days. The year was 2133, Thursday, June 24th. I’d always found it strange how different our calendars were in different dimensions. The wars between magick and humanity had been going on for over one hundred years. To us it was a blink of an eye, but to the people of Earth it was generations. Their lives were so fragile. I couldn’t imagine living in such a way. Death could come at any time.

I walked closer to Henrek, my hand trailing on the cold steel. “What do you think the life span will be for the halflings you want to create?”

Finally, I’d caught the man’s attention. He looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. “That, my dear, is a very good question and one I’m not sure of the answer. I would like to believe we are going to create super humans, so their lifespans will be anywhere from three to ten times the normal lifetime.” He gave a shrug. “But who knows, I could be completely wrong.”

Well that didn’t sound very reassuring at all. I also didn’t like that he called them super-humans. Would they be more human than fae? “Are you even sure this plan of yours will work?”

He grabbed a clipboard, and flipped through some pages before dropping it back down with a clang. Once again he was lost in his own world, oblivious to my mother and me. Frustrated, my voice rose. “I asked, how do you know this will work?”

His glasses were driving me crazy. How could he stand wearing only one lens?

My mother came over and stood beside me. “He knows it will work because humans have long been doing experiments on DNA splicing. This is not something new to them.”

The man ran his fingers over one of his bushy eyebrows. “Yes, yes, that’s quite true, but those were disasters.” He replied bluntly. “None of the species lasted very long. However, this, this is something different. Your regeneration powers are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing short of miraculous.”

Disasters? This just gets better and better by the moment.

“What if this fails?” I looked over at my mother with a raised brow. It was becoming increasingly clear that this was all hypothetical at best. I wondered if she’d avoided telling me how far-fetched this was because she didn’t want to believe it herself.

“Then we’ll try something else,” she admitted wearily. Obviously she wasn’t as convinced as she’d pretended to be.

Something crossed my mind. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it earlier. “Mother, why haven’t you tried with your own DNA? Why do you need mine?”

She gave me a sad smile. ”You know I’m past my prime. I can no longer create life.”

That didn’t sit right with me. “But you said it wasn’t true mating. If it’s just your DNA then it shouldn’t matter. Should it?”

“We need your eggs. We’ve already tried with just the DNA and it was unsuccessful. I would have tried with a random faery, but as you know our bloodline is the purest and strongest in our lands. The oracle told me it had to be royal blood in order to be successful. Believe me, I tried. I really did not want to involve you, but I have no other choice.”

My eggs?
A muscle tightened in my jaw. And yet she wanted me to believe that the halflings would not truly be mine? She couldn’t really believe that. Could she?

“I’d feel better if I could meet the boy.” I could practically hear the whine in my voice. My mother shot me a disapproving look.

“The boy?” Henrek pushed his glasses back on his nose, he seemed mildly curious. “He’s right here.” He waved me over.

Confused, I eased around the table to his side. He pushed the microscope toward me. I gave my mother a quizzical look before I dipped my head. I could see many tiny lines of movement but I had no idea what it meant.

My head shot up. “Mother, I sincerely hope this is not all there is to this boy that you wished me to reproduce with?”

A beautiful laugh escaped her lips. “No, my dear. He is a real, living human. But to Henrek we are nothing more than what he can see beneath a microscope.”

Relieved, I let out a breath.
If this wasn’t weird enough already. Could you imagine just using something under a slide to make babies? Creepy
. The thought made me shiver to my toes.

There was a part of me that was deeply saddened by the whole idea of this plan. I’d always dreamt of someday becoming a mother. The thought of reproducing just for the sake of saving a population and not out of love caused me great unease. I wanted to birth a princess or a prince. Not some freaky experiment.

“If it’s that important to you, I will arrange a meeting.” She was quick to add, “But for now you must give your blood to Henrek. To get the process started.”

“Thank you.” I gave her a grateful smile. My mother didn’t usually give in so easily. She must not have been too worried about her choice, which set my mind somewhat at ease.

Henrek took off his glasses and set them down on the counter. “Over here. I just need to make sure your blood has the same properties as your mother before we get started.”

I followed him across the room to a small chair. When he brought out a sharp, pointed needle I eyed him with a frown. What in the world was this man going to do to me?

Distracted, she said, “It’s fine, Tulupea. It’s barely a pinch.”

Before I had a chance to reply the man had grabbed my finger, squeezed it tightly, and jabbed a needle into the tip. “Ouch,” I cried out.

A couple of seconds later he dropped my hand. I stared at the trickle of green blood running down my finger. My mother was right, it didn’t hurt much but a little notice would have been nice. Immediately the small dot healed and my blood evaporated.

With a subtle smile my mother reached out her hand for me. I grabbed it and rose to stand beside her. “Henrek, we’ll leave you to your work. Please let me know when you need anything else from me or my daughter.”

Already lost in his own world, his expression intent, he didn’t even bother to look up or respond. He really was a strange one. I wasn’t sure I wanted to get used to his demeanor.

It was hard to believe and a little scary that this unusual man was going to be in control of saving a planet. Hopefully, he was as intelligent as my mother thought he was.

“Mother, you should really make him some new glasses. He probably has a headache from the one lens.”

She laughed, amused despite everything. “I fixed the eye without the lens, he wouldn’t let me fix both of them. He said he only needed clear sight in the eye he used for the microscope. He’s an interesting man. Isn’t he?”

“I guess that’s one way to put it,” I mumbled under my breath while brushing an errant curl away from my face. “Will it hurt when they take the eggs?”

My mother lifted her shoulder. “I’m not sure. But we can counteract the pain, of course, if there is any. I can assure you, it should be easier than giving birth.”

That was probably true. I’d been on hand for more than one birth and it didn’t look like much fun, even with the help of magick.