Faith is Fallen (Broken Fantasies Series)

Chapter 23

Author's Note: Just realized I hadn't posted a chapter yet today. Major spaz moment. My bad. Problem rectified.

"Your Majesty!" a runner screamed, dashing into the Throne Room as if his very life depending on reaching it. He collapsed in front of Caoimhe.

"What is your news?"

Breathlessly, he looked up, still on his knees where he'd collapses, his wings limp at his sides from exhaustion. "It's the Unseelie. They've attacked. The outer territories have been laid to waste. Fires erupt everywhere."

Caoimhe's jaw dropped slightly, but she gained control of herself before any could see. She'd been queen too long to let even the slightest emotion slip if she didn't wish it. But how could this have happened? She had held good relations with Eachann, king of the Unseelie, for centuries. She'd heard no rumblings, no rumors, and she'd talked with him just last week. What could have changed?

"Go and collect Roderick, and clear the Throne Room."

"Yes, Your Majesty," he said, weakly getting to his feet and going off to do her bidding.

Once the room had been cleared, she walked to a mirror on the wall, the twin of which resided in the Unseelie Throne Room. She waved her hand in front of the mirror, speaking the secret phrase they'd both set when they gifted each other with them. She waited. And waited.

#

A runner crashed through the doorway, startling both Beathan and Roderick from their seats.

"The queen asks for your presence, Lord Roderick."

"Thank you," Roderick said, before running off.

"You are dismissed," Beathan said, not able to start his plans until he truly was alone.

The man nodded and left.

Beathan did as well. He took a circuitous route through the castle, then to the Seelie Gate, the chaotic sounds in the background music to his ears. He stepped through the gate as the subtle wisps of smoke touched his nostrils.

He made quick time to McKay lands, but any Fae could tell even from a distance that no one as powerful as his sister resided there any longer. He stepped through the gates, feeling the absence of her power. Even when he'd left her dying on the forest floor, her power had been locked inside her, still sensed.

Now, all he could feel was the faintest hints of magical power. Why, he hadn't sensed something so weak since... A changeling. At least one changeling live there.

Beathan smirked, a new plan forming in his mind. He boldly stepped through the keep doors, searching for the source of the minute power he sensed.

"What business have you here?" a bold, male voice called from across the room. A man with bright red hair and a matching beard stood, and stormed across the room.

"And you are?"

"I think as you are the one entering my lands without permission, you should be the one to answer the question."

"Ah, then you would be the current Lord McKay, then?"

"Aye, I am."

Beathan nodded. The small amount of power he sensed was definitely coming from this man. "Pity." With a touch of his hand, he drew the life-force out of him, killing him instantly.

#

"What are you working on?" Valerius asked, leaning over Cara's shoulder.

"A family tree."

"I thought the entire point of leaving was to distance yourself from them."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I want to forget them entirely. I still want to keep up with them. At least, as much as I can." Cara looked around, but they were the last occupants of the inn's downstairs eating hall. The inn's owners had long ago gone to their quarters to sleep. Cara held her hands over the book, which she had written in beautiful swirling letters the members of her family tree she knew. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and started to speak a spell.

When she finished, she opened her eyes, dropping her hands. The pages shimmered slightly, much like her skin did when she didn't have her glamor active. As she watched, the family tree expanded, annotating references to new pages where those pages she'd not filled in herself connected with those she had.

She flipped through the pages, marveling in the names that had been filled in, indicating births, marriages, and deaths. Some, she'd never met, but it was all quite marvelous.

She turned back to the original page, and she squeaked in alarm when she saw the name Ruadh McKay, with a year of death magically scribed on the page. "No," she whispered.

"Cara?" Valerius said, turning her to look at him.

"I wasn't expecting that. He was only twenty. So young."

"Who, Cara? Who?"

"Ruadh."

"What?"