Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8) (3 page)

“Calm yourself, my dear,” Tiamat says to me soothingly,
sensing my deep anger. “You are free to leave. I will not allow Aelfric to take
you. You will, however, have to make your own arrangements to get Constantine
back. As much as I would like to help you, I have no way of getting to the Fae
Kingdoms. We are
Draco non grata,”
She says wryly and I almost chuckle.

“If you don’t come with me, you will be making a big
mistake,” Aelfric says. “You don’t want the Dark to have anything to do with
your Union.”

“There is no Union,” I remind him with clenched fists.

“There will be,” he says confidently. “I suggest you make
the decision quickly to choose Kalen’s side over your own. If Drake gets his
hands on your child, I fear for us all.”

He leaps back onto his unicorn and vanishes from sight.

“Go now,” Tiamat says. “Not much will stop your father from
coming for you when he thinks he has waited long enough. You hold all the power
for the moment. Use your resources wisely.” And with that per usual, cryptic
comment said, She Shifts and flies off with Her pals back through the rip in
the sky, which closes up behind them. I can’t believe She just acted like me
knowing my father’s identity wasn’t a big deal. We have never discussed it and
yet She just adapts to the circumstance without hesitation. Maybe that’s why
She is such a great leader. Nothing surprises Her and nothing catches Her off
guard.

“Livvie?” Xane asks me innocently. “Do you mind explaining
how you are the Dark Fae Princess and why the King of Light Fae calls Sebastian
his son?”

I sigh. “It’s exactly how it sounds,” I say and grab them
both by the hands and Astral us back home to my country manor in England.

“No, you are going to have to do better than that,” Xane
says as we land in the library, but he keeps hold of my hand, as does
Sebastian, gripping tightly, clearly worried about what this means for him.

“It’s complicated, Xane, but please, you cannot tell anyone.
No one, do you understand me? Especially about Sebastian. It is important, if
anyone were to find out about him he would be in terrible danger. I cannot
allow that to happen,” I say ferociously, so he knows I am being serious.

He nods slowly. “I swear I won’t tell anyone, but you need
to fill me in, Liv. I’ve got the basic gist of it but…” He holds his other hand
up at a loss.

“Liv,” Sebastian says quietly.

I turn to him and his face is filled with fear and worry.
“He won’t tell. I promise you, Sebastian, that if he does, I will kill him and
anyone he has told myself. I will not let any harm come to you. I promise you.
You can trust me, and I trust him.”

He nods, still wary, but also a glimmer of pleasure shines
through that I will defend him against all odds. But I cannot let him get away
with what he has been doing to me. “I know what you’ve been doing to me.
Constantine all but told me. We will discuss it later and I can assure you that
I am going to beat the living crap out of you first.”

He blanches and shakes his head and says, “Please, Liv,
understand that I had to. I couldn’t refuse him.”

“I said we would discuss it later,” I say firmly.

He gulps and nods woefully as he turns away from me, knowing
that whatever it was that we had is likely over now. I haven’t decided for
sure. I know he acted on our sire’s request and I know that it is impossible to
refuse him sometimes. It is harder for Sebastian as they go further back, a lot
further back--all the way back to when they were human, or at least Constantine
was human and Vincentius was living with his human family. It will hurt him to
think that I am going to end our relationship, and while I dislike that plan of
action, it may make him see that his actions have consequences. Constantine was
right. I am a manipulator. It turns my stomach, but I push it away as I turn
back to Xane and start to explain about Drake and Aelfric and Sebastian. He takes
it all in without a word and then whistles as I finish up. “Fuck, that’s some
story. I did wonder when you started asking questions about the Faerie if there
was more to it than just common interest. You are a crafty devil. So no one
else knows about this?”

“Well, Constantine, obviously. He has known about Sebastian
all along, but he only just found out about me. That is what we argued over.”

“Yes, I can imagine it pushed his nose right out of joint
hearing about a destined marriage and baby,” Xane chuckles.

“No kidding,” I mutter.

“At least you know that he didn’t throw you out of the
windows to hurt you,” Sebastian says, still out to defend our sire’s actions.

“True, but everything else he did was to hurt me. I am going
to rescue him and then I don’t ever want to see him again,” I say.

“What? No, Liv, you can’t do that. He was angry, with every
right. We blindsided him, especially with the baby thing. You need to give him
a chance to make it up to you.”

“I understand his anger, Seb, but I don’t think I can
forgive what he said to me, and what he did. He ripped me to shreds. My own
hand was holding my guts in so that they didn’t slide onto the floor, and he
enjoyed it. That isn’t just anger, that is hate,” I say vehemently and they
both pale.

“He did that to you?” Sebastian whispers. “Oh, Liv.” He
steps forward to give me comfort but I step back, holding up my hand.

“I don’t trust you,” I say and his hurt intensifies.

“How do you plan on getting him back?” Xane asks. “I am in
on a rescue mission just because I want him back here so I can kick his ass
from here to Hell and back.”

“Get in line,” I say and then turn in a circle. “Tiamat said
to use my resources. What resources? If I can’t Astral there and I can’t use a
spell to get there, then how do I get there?”

“The only way I know, outside of the King’s power, is via
Faerie Ring,” Sebastian says.

“As in a Faerie Ring that is found in the woods?” I ask,
pointing to the woods in my back garden.

“
Oui
,” he says. “But I can no longer find them. For
all the Fae power that I still have, technically I am no longer Fae and
therefore no longer able to find the Rings. On top of that, even if we stumbled
across one, I couldn’t say for sure you would be able to pass through as you
also aren’t technically Fae.”

“Tell that to the burning on my arms,” I grouse as the
searing pain of the markings gets worse as they develop.

“It is hurting you?” Xane asks as he lifts my sleeves up and
his hand tightens on mine as he sees the markings being etched into my skin.
Under my skin, actually, with what feels like a million tiny little daggers.
“Fuck,” he breathes. “How much more of it?”

I shrug and say, “Not sure. I’ll live. I’ve just been
through worse, trust me. This is nothing compared.” I pat his hand and he stays
by my side. “Where is everybody, by the way? We’ve been here a good ten minutes
and nobody has come to see why we’re here.”

“I don’t know. The house was empty when I left it to come to
you,” Xane says.

“I wasn’t here,” Sebastian says. “I went home.”

That has me intrigued, as I have never heard him speak of a
home of his own. “Paris,” he adds as he sees my look. “I do have my own place,
you know,” he says with a smile. “A life of my own. Or at least I did.”

“You gave it up to be with Constantine?”

“Of course. He asked me to stay. Do you know how long it has
been since he asked me that?” he says sadly. “We have to find a way to get him
back. I dread to think what Drake is doing to him.”

“Surely he can’t hurt him? Not much does,” I say.

“Out of all creatures, with perhaps the exception of
Dragons, Drake hates Vampires the most. Because of the blood thing. He will go
to great lengths, I am sure, to make his stay as unpleasant as possible.”

“Well, as much as I never want to see him again, I can’t
leave him there, especially as he is there because of me,” I say with a sigh
and wish I could just leave him there. I fiddle with the ring he gave me and
start to pull it off. If he thinks that we can still be together after this, he
is sorely mistaken. Tower incident aside, even finding out about his
deception--having Sebastian violate my mind to get me to leave Cole – that
alone is unforgivable.

“Don’t,” Sebastian says at my side instantly, his hand over
mine. “Please give him a chance to explain before you destroy him.”

“He destroyed me first and there is nothing to explain,” I
say sadly as I take it off and put it in a box on my desk. My hand feels bare
without it, and my heart feels like lead. It feels wrong, deadly wrong, and
something makes me take it back out of the box and slide it back onto my
finger, almost against my will. I frown at it, but don’t get to ponder the
mystery further as a familiar voice makes me turn with a grimace. “I can help,”
he says.

“Go away,” I snarl at Remiel. I don’t need him messing with
me right now.

He holds his hands up. “I come in peace,” he smirks. “Ah,
young Xane. I had hoped we would have another encounter.”

“Who the fuck are you?” he growls at Remiel’s use of “young
Xane.” He hates that and it makes me giggle to myself. But this is what you get
when you play with the grown-ups. Being eight hundred and sixty-eight, it makes
him older than Devon, Lincoln, and Cole, but he is still younger than me,
Constantine, Sebastian, and of course Tiamat, and now Remiel as well.

Remiel’s eyes shift back to mine. “You haven’t told them?
Well, well, I am honored that you chose to keep our little rendezvous a
secret.”

“Don’t be. I haven’t told them because they wouldn’t
understand why I tolerate you,” I say.

“Tolerate me? You are quite amusing, my dear. I think you
have that backwards. I am tolerating you because I enjoy our chats,” he
retorts.

“Chats? I wouldn’t say that exactly.”

“Liv?” Xane interrupts. “Who is this? And if you turn around
and say The Thirteen, I will stake you myself for being a fool.”

Remiel lets out a loud laugh. “Now that I would gladly stick
around to see. Although I was under the impression the common stake would be
useless against you?”

“It is,” I say through gritted teeth. “Xane, Sebastian, this
is Remiel. The artist formerly known as The Thirteen.”

“It has a name?” Xane asks incredulously. “And It gave it to
you?”

“
He
has a name and you should be more respectful of
your ancestors,” Remiel says with more loft in his tone than I could ever
accomplish, even on my best day.

“Ancestors?” Xane now looks like he is about to faint and I
put my hand on his arm to focus him.

“Yes, Remiel is of the House of Dracul. In fact, he is Dracul’s
grandson.”

“Grandson?” he stammers. “How do you know all of this?” His
piercing blue eyes pin mine with a furious intensity that I have never
witnessed from him before. If he starts throwing punches, I am so out of here.
I have had enough of a beating for one day.

“She asked and I told her,” Remiel says smugly. “We have
formed a special relationship.”

“One based on tolerance, I assume,” Sebastian says, sidling
up to my other side with his arms crossed. “How can you get my sire back?”

“Now, now, don’t be so hasty,” Remiel says, settling down
into his favorite chair and holding his hand out for a cup of tea.

I hand him one much to the surprise and consternation of the
other two. “Where is the Wolf today?” he asks idly pointing to the table where
I slam the cup down in annoyance that he still won’t drop his shields. “I quite
like him.”

“Good question,” I mutter. “But leave him out of this, what
do you know?”

“I know I can get to the Fae Kingdoms. They exist on a
completely different plane, but unlike the Dragon Realms, I have access. Don’t
ask me why,” he says and shrugs.

“Then what are you waiting for?” I shriek at him. “Go and
get him!”

His eyes harden into two shards of ice in reaction to my
banshee impersonation, clearly not used to being spoken to like that.

“Excuse me, young Alice,” he says, his clipped British
accent even more pronounced. “Who do you think you are speaking to?”

“Don’t call me Alice,” I sulk. “Please, will you be so kind
as to go and fetch my sire?”

He sighs and sips his tea. “Better, but I am sure you have
more grovel in you than that,” he says and hides his smirk behind another sip
of tea and if he hadn’t had that blasted barrier up I would have smacked it off
his face.

“What do you want?” I ask, slightly terrified of what he
might say.

“If I can’t call you Alice, then what can I call you?” he
asks instead to my ire. “You have such a multitude of names, it’s confusing.”
He frowns slightly into his tea.

“You can call her, Your Majesty,” Xane snarls at him, having
finally adjusted enough to rejoin the conversation, but that was not very
helpful.

“Hah!” he says. “There is not a chance in Hell, young
Draconis, that I will ever bow down to The Pretender.”

“Pretender?” I yell at him. “How dare you? Just because you
never got to…”

He holds his hand up, stopping me in my tracks. “I would
think very carefully about your next words, Alice. You wouldn’t want to make me
mad when I am your only hope now, would you?”

I button it, with great effort, and he smiles all genial
again in the blink of an eye. “So, your name?”

“You pick. But not Alice,” I sulk.

“Hm, I suppose I should go with your Dragon name, really,
but it’s quite a mouthful, ValamAtrux.” He casts his gaze over me, head to toe,
critically. “Although it is a fitting name: Fanged Queen. But I do not
recognize your rule so maybe I should call you Xerxei? No, I don’t like it. It
doesn’t suit you as you are. Aefre it is then.” He stands as he replaces the
cup and saucer on the table and walks forward to stand right in front of me.
“Well, Aefre, time to bargain. How much is a trip to the Fae Kingdoms worth to
you?”