Fairyville (Fairyville #1)(45)
Author: Emma Holly

At least not without losing her.

Magnus had been at war with his sexual requirements for far too long. He’d chained them with love and caring, but now he heard the sound of metal squealing with strain. His eyes glowed in the darkness, the furious burn of green the literal embodiment of his envy. He couldn’t even tell Zoe the truth of what he’d done for her, for fear that knowing would endanger her. He had nothing to fight with, nothing to hope for.

Worst of all, he’d put himself in this position by invoking the particular magic he’d used to steal into the human realm. He couldn’t even soothe his spirits by blaming someone else.

He threw his head back, roaring his frustration until his throat was raw, until the points of the purple crystals that lined the ceiling chimed the sound back to him.

He knew the tantrum wouldn’t impress the Will-Be, but—just then—anger seemed a hell of a lot better than the helplessness he could have felt.

Chapter Twelve

Titania, Queen of all Fairy, strode through the pitch black cave with nothing but her glorious aura for radiance. Water roared behind the enchanted lapis lazuli wall ahead, an earth stone twisted from its natural state to guard this valuable portal.

In a moment, Titania would step through it, would leave her beautiful Fairy realm for that of humans. Entering that magically anemic place wasn’t a pleasant prospect, but it needed doing. Magnus’s location had been pinpointed, only the second time that had happened since he’d succumbed to his childish madness and run away. Though leaving her own world meant many of her spells would be rendered useless, she had to take this chance to speak to him herself.

The minion’s report of how it had been foiled the first time had been predictably confused—elementals hated admitting to mistakes—but its failure was inarguable. Clearly, messages sent through others would not do. She needed to make her son understand how important it was to her that he come home, how much happier they both would be. Then surely he would see reason.

Beside her, Titania’s minion made a snarling, hacking noise that was its idea of a polite cough. Illuminated, quite literally, by her beauty, the elemental was a lumpy fog of darkness wrapped around a sickly, greenish-yellow spark. The creature bowed from a spot that could have been its waist, its cavernous pseudo-eyes rolling upward to watch her face. Its not quite solid nature caused one socket to billow larger than the other.

"Your gloriousness," it said in a rolling profundo bass—but not as if it meant the compliment. "Do you wish me to accompany you into the chamber behind the falls?"

Titania frowned at the elemental, the falseness of its sycophancy making it even uglier to her eyes. Tracking fairies in the human world was difficult, in part because of the magical imbalance, but also because time ran differently between the realms. A delay of moments could mean a chance was missed. This creature had located Magnus, and that ought to have earned it the right to come along, but in Titania’s opinion the elementals in her employ spent too much time spying on humans. They were, she had discovered, beginning to ape them in little ways—this less that perfect respect for her supremacy being one of them.

"Thank you for offering," she said. It would have been better to use the creature’s name, more binding, but unfortunately all her minions looked the same to her. "I prefer privacy tonight."

The minion bowed even deeper and backed away, its smokey, amorphous face shading into an expression that could have been a smirk. Possibly it knew how little she was looking forward to the task ahead.

Titania pretended not to see the reaction, refusing to waste time quibbling with his sort. The elemental was her creature, magically bound to her will. That was all she needed to know.

In any case, this was her door. The elementals had their ghostly hot spots to work their mischief through, and that was more than good enough for them. As queen, no one but she had the right to access this ancient entryway. Had she been able, she would have barred it from being used to transfer changelings, but that was an old tradition, a magic set up long before she won the throne. If she discontinued it, the other royals in her realm would be up in arms. They liked adopting humans; said their unpredictability added "spice" to the process of parenting.

Titania snorted to herself. Her own son was pure fairy, descended from the best bloodlines, and in the century or so since he’d been born, she’d found him quite unpredictable enough.

Satisfied that the minion had really left and wasn’t lurking disembodied in a shadow, she flicked her hands at the enchanted wall and willed it to collapse. Air rushed inward, carrying the nasty green scent of water that supported too many living things. Human gardeners have no discipline, she thought, but a moment later her lip curled even harder in distaste. Hot on the heels of the waters’ smell came the even more offensive essence of fairy sweat mingling with human.

Her son was here, exactly as the minion said, and he was copulating with a native. Shuddering in disgust, she moved closer to the curtain of falling water. Already, she could feel her queenly magic beginning to leach away. Despite the stay-put spell on her slippers, she almost slid on the wet sandstone.

I will be quick, she promised herself. One quick preemptive strike to let him know I mean business.

That she had to be quick before too much of her magic faded she chose not to dwell upon.

With a spine as straight as any queen had ever boasted, Titania took a good grip on a crevice in the rock and leaned through the icy water. She couldn’t lean too far because the current was forceful, and, consequently, the mist obscured her vision. Even more annoying was the fact that, with her head in the human realm, she was forced to rely on purely physical sight. These handicaps aside, Titania didn’t need her usual 20-200 vision to identify what had been going on.

A human woman straddled her son’s loins, blocking Titania’s view of his face. Her frizzy black human hair fell in a braid down her slender back. Her shape was pretty from the rear, but nothing said a human couldn’t be tolerably attractive. Some of them cleaned up well enough when raised in Fairy.

Titania’s mouth formed a thin, hard line as Magnus’s hands came up to frame the woman’s face. This was a tender gesture, one that spoke of love and care, and Titania knew all too well what sort of weakness "love and care" led to.

A ruler could lose half her world from weaknesses like that.

I can spare you that, my son, she thought, and by all that’s magic I intend to.

Alex’s hands came up to clasp Zoe’s face. Even if she didn’t love him, he couldn’t stand to see her look sad.

"I’m sorry," she said, her lashes falling to hide her eyes. "I should be brave enough to do this."