Blood and Apples: An Annora Park Novel: Book One

Chapter Twenty: Raining Red and Bleeding Gold

   "I'm sorry, sweet boy," I croon at Bento, the only creature of the male persuasion in this room at current moment that I don't hate.  "I'm so sorry I dropped you, and forgot about you."  I feel awful.  I'd totally dropped Bento to the ground when I was yelling at the Fairy King.  I'm happy to see that he doesn't seem any worse for wear, and that he's once again snuggling up to me.  "Aren't you a good boy, a sweet, good boy." I murmur, stroking him softly.
   "Soon shall I have you stroking me in such a manner," King Terrenel says softly.
   I shoot him a look filled with all the loathing I can muster.  "In your freaking dreams, Mr. Oh Great dickhead."
   "Dickhead?" King Terrenel queries.
   Walker laughs.  "Appropriate.  Also I'd add, you can eat a bag of dicks, dickhead."
   Chamuel sighs.  "Children, children, can we all try to put aside the...animosity for a moment so that we can discuss the reason we came here in the first place."
   Oh-ho, now Chamuel was calling ME a child? Whatever.  I wasn't the one that just sat back watching those two go at it and carve one another up like a Thanksgiving turkey.  Oh wait...I kinda had sat back and watched them...but only for a little bit.  When it got real I'd put a stop to it.
   "Yes, yes, you stopped them.  At great injury to yourself, amour.  I need you to promise me that you shall not do such a thing again."
   Couldn't promise him that.  In the end I would always do what was necessary to protect the ones that I lo—OH MY GOD! What had I almost said, thought?  No....I meant, cared for, in the end I would go to any lengths to protect the ones that I cared for.  Yes.  Yes.  That's better.  I catch the smirk on Chamuel's face and I give him a dirty one in return.
   "Quite right, High Heavenly Host...it seems we have much to discuss," The Fairy King Terrenel turns those amazing eyes to me once again and nods solemnly.  "We do indeed have much to discuss."
   "Chamuel El Epp, you may call me such," Chamuel says just as solemnly.   And the Great King Terrenel nods.
   "Then you may call me King Terrenel, or...Terrenel if you wish.  It is not as if we do not have history, Chamuel El Epp."
   "That we do, Terrenel, that we do."
   I look between Chamuel and Terrenel and then I turn to Walker as if to say "do you know what's going on here," he merely shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly.
   "But first," Terrenel says, "Do you know what this Dickhead is?"
   I almost choke and Walker busts out laughing.  Chamuel sighs.  "Trust me, you'd rather not know, Terrenel.  It is just one of my amours quaint turn of...phrases.  You need not worry over such things."
   I snort.  Yeah right.  He'd soon learn just how wrong he was about that.  But I wasn't going to correct him right at this second.  I continue to stroke Bento and smile when the cat purrs loudly, happily.
   "Come," Terrenel says, "We will be more comfortable in my war room."
War room? We'd be more comfortable in his WAR ROOM? That didn't sound comfortable at all.  What the hell was this king smoking?
   "Please, amour, not now," Chamuel implores me as we all follow the king out of the room into an equally impressive hallway.  We've only gone a little distance when we reach two huge wooden doors.  Terrenel murmurs a few words that I don't understand and the doors open.  We all step into the room and I stop short.
Well hell.  War room is right.  There are weapons, more weapons than I've ever seen in my life lining almost every surface of the room.  There are maps hanging from the surfaces that aren't covered in weapons and in the center of the room there is a HUGE, and I mean HUGE circular table covered in papers.  At least there are chairs.  Carved wooden chairs all around the table. Frankly, they do not appear all that comfortable.  How the heck the king thinks this room is comfortable and cozy is beyond me...but again, I'm not about to argue.  This isn't my place, after all.  Then again, right at this moment, Walker's house is starting to appeal to me more and more.
Jesus.  When did I ever think I'd ever say that?
   "Please, amour..."
   Oh right, I'd said—thought—the "J" name again.  I sigh deeply.  This was going to be harder than I'd ever thought it would be.
   King Terrenel pulls back the largest and most ornately carved chair and sits.  His motions with his hand.  "Sit, sit, all of you, you may all be seated."
   "Oh, so nice of you to give us your oh-so-great-approval for our making ourselves comfortable in your freaking armory," I mutter.  Clearly the Fairy King has great hearing because he begins to laugh.
   "She is absolutely charming."
   Charming?  Hell.  I'd never been called charming in my entire life.  Ball busting bitch.  But never charming.
   "She is singular," Chamuel murmurs.  "She is the beat of my heart, and the completion of my soul, Terrenel."
   Terrenel's eyes narrow dangerously then, and he leans forward.  "Oh Chamuel El Epp...great secrets have you been keeping from me and mine."
   "It was not up to me, Terrenel.  I had no...no say in the matter.  They were not my secrets to reveal.  I did make an argument for revealing all earlier than now, I was...vehemently denied."
   "You wish me to believe that the High Beings denied you...you the get of Archangel Michael?"
   Chamuel sighs.  "You may believe what you wish.  I only know that I speak the truth to you now.  I respect you too much to do any less, Great King Terrenel.  Even my father denied me.  The Graces had spoken, and their will would be obeyed."
Terrenel leans back in his chair and turns those magnificent eyes to me. And once again, I feel myself swaying. They are are beautiful. His eyes are so beautiful.
"So, too, are yours, my beloved," Chamuel says, taking my hand again. "You see a mirror in his eyes of your own."
I frown. "Chamuel my eyes don't look like that."
"No, my beloved, they are even more extraordinary. In his eyes you see stars. In yours...universes."
Nope, my angel had been smoking something too. There was no way I had eyes that looked like this freaky freakity kings eyes. "Chamuel, can we not go there right now?"
"I was not the one thinking it, my beloved." He retorts.
"I know...I know..." I mutter. "Still getting used to that shit, you know."
"So, you have come to me because of some human problem," King Terrenel finally says. The expression on his face is one of absolute boredom now, and I kinda feel like smacking it off of his face. I'm not sure what it is about him, but he really annoys me. "And I say now, what I said to you before, Chamuel El Epp, what do the problems of the human sheep have to do with me and mine? Why should I care what happens on the Earthly plane?"
"It is as I tried to explain to you when we first met, Terrenel, this goes far beyond a mere human problem."
Stupid sanctimonious piece of shit. I open my mouth to speak and Chamuel grips my hand—hard—to stop me. I glare at him. I don't like how this king is speaking to us. And I certainly don't like how he's referring to human beings.
"I don't see how. All I see are the secrets you've been keeping from me, Chamuel El Epp." Terrenel once again leans forward. "How am I to trust you if you keep secrets like this from me."
Secrets? What secrets?
Chamuel sighs, "Again, I had no choice in the matter. And the secret he is referring to, my amour, is you, my beloved."
"Me?" I squeak, and I actually squeak. "Wait...wait a second...I'm the secret? I mean, I get there have been some weird revelations, but how the heck am I some big secret?"
   "Awe come on Annora darling.  You find out that you're an angel, and now a Fairy...I mean, those are more than mere revelations," Walker quips.
   "Not you too, Walker." I shake my head.  "I get it, I have weird shit in my past.  Shit that I'm just now beginning to deal with," I ignore Walker's snort and continue, "...but you are all making this sound like some super secret shit that was like, held back for some super secret shit reason, and I..." My voice trails off when I see the look on Chamuel's face and my own drops.  "All righty then...you ARE trying to tell me that you all kept this from me for some big reason."
   "The Graces..."
   "Seriously!" I shout.  "Enough with stupid Graces.  I'm sick of hearing about how The Graces did this, and The Graces did that, and The Graces decided to keep things from me for my own good.  Enough!  This is MY life we're talking about, my freaking life.  This isn't some stupid TV show or some damn supernatural movie, it is my fucking life and you know what, you are all fucking with it."
   "Her language is very unladylike," King Terrenel says suddenly.
   "Tell me about it," Walker snorts and laughs, "It's all part of her charm, though."
   "Yes...she is charming, isn't she," King Terrenel smiles at me, and the full force of his smile is like looking into the sun, it's that brilliant.  "Ach, an te bhoidheach agam, you are as the High Heavenly One said...singular, just as your namesake bespeaks of."
   "I really don't like not knowing what you're saying, Mr. Fairy King guy," I mutter.
   "He just called you his beautiful one," Chamuel translates for me.
"And I REALLY don't like you calling me pet names."
"The War Lak and the Heavenly One both have pet names for you, an te bhoidheach agam." King Terrenel says, his blindingly brilliant smile only growing more so.
"Well that Warlock and angel have known me longer than a hot potato minute. And, hell, ask them, I barely tolerate their pet names for me. You, you I don't know."
"Well, we shall be changing that, milis," He says still smiling. "It is, of course, pre-ordained. And now, now so much is made clear to me," He finishes on a murmur.
"Listen, I have no idea what you're talking about Mr. Fairy King but—"
"Terrenel, you shall call me Terrenel, or darling if you prefer."
I narrow my eyes. "Mr. Terrenel."
"That is terrible," he counters, "Just Terrenel."
"Fine, fine, Terrenel. Listen, I don't have a clue what you're going on about, I just know that we have a major situation happening on Earth, a situation that requires your...assistance."
"What I speak of?" Terrenel grins. "I am a Warrior King, has the Heavenly Host told you this?"
I nod. "Yeah, so what?"
"I should have been granted by the Goddess who blessed me, a mate long before now. A Warrior Queen to compliment me. I have never had such, and thus we as a race...we are dying out." He says this last with a look of solemnity on his once smiling face.
"I'm sorry..." I frown, "Excuse me if I'm...uh...slow here...but am I to understand that because you don't have a ...a...wife, you guys are dying out as a race?" At his nod, my frown deepens. "How is that even possible?"
"My people cannot breed, unless their King does. And..." that small smile is once back on his face, "...I have had no Queen until now."
"Uh-huh..." I look around. "Listen here, Terrenel, I don't see a Fairy gal just—"
"For the love of the demon lord!" Walker shouts angrily then. "He's talking about you, Annora. I've never known you to be this dense before in my entire life. YOU! You're the Fairy gal he's talking about."
My eyes widen and I jump out of my chair. "Whoaaaaaa....wait a damn minute!" I vehemently shake my head. "Listen here Mr. Hot Shot Fairy King, I don't know you from freaking Adam, as for being a Queen, the fuck with that!" Me, a Queen? I almost bust a gut. Oh my God, that's hysterical. I'd be the worst queen in the history of queens.
"Actually my amour, I believe you will be brilliant."
I swing my head in Chamuel's direction and stab him in the chest with my finger. "And you! You! You knew about this...all of this? You've been keeping all of this from me?"
Chamuel winces. "I thought we discussed this already, my beloved. I told you, earlier, what I went through, how I interceded on your behalf, and my punishment for doing so. I am sorry, more sorry than you know that this is occurring as it is, in such a manner. But...again, I had no say or choice in the matter."
My head begins to pound and sink back into my chair, and continue to stroke Bento for comfort. I close my eyes and count to ten and when that doesn't work I count to twenty.
"What is she doing?" Terrenel asks.
"Gathering herself, give her a moment, Terrenel, this comes as a shock to her," Chamuel murmurs.
"Stop, just stop," I mutter, "I really don't like it when people speak about me as if I'm not right here." I open my eyes and take a few deep breaths. How could this be happening to me? One minute I was Annora Park, freaky Treader girl with a lifespan of probably five more years at best, the next minute I was bound to a psycho Warlock who considered blood foreplay, The Leader of the Heavenly Host who told me we were freaking engaged and now...now I was being told I was to be a Fairy Queen to some crazy fairy warrior king that I knew nothing about? Oh, and wait, that I was part angel and part fairy to boot and that my appearance had completely changed, as if I weren't enough of a freak to begin with.
"Stop referring to yourself as a freak, my beloved. You are a miracle, a true miracle."
"Yeah, well, I don't feel much like a miracle right now, Chamuel. I feel unlucky as fuck." I shake my head. "This...this whole fairy queen thing has something to do with the change of my appearance once we crossed into Tir na nOg, right?" I ask.
Chamuel nods. "It was inevitable, my beloved. Once you set foot in Fairy, you took your rightful appearance."
"My rightful appearance? Chamuel, I've always looked the way I look. You know, freaky Treader Asian gal."
"Again, you are NOT a freak, my beloved. And no, the form and face you have now...it is how you are truly meant to be...to look. Fairy will always right the wrong. Once you arrived here, all glamour was peeled away to reveal you are you are now."
"You're telling me that how I looked on Earth was...was...not real? That it was glamour?"
"Correct, milis," Terrenel interjects. "Chamuel El Epp speaks true. However you appeared on Earth was merely glamour. This...how you appear now...is your true form. And may I say it is truly extraordinary. As I said earlier, there were times I wondered...questioned the Goddess, and now I am put in my place. I should have known never to question Her, or Her ways...she brought me my perfect mate, the mate that was meant to be mine. I have already seen and sensed the power you possess, milis, and I am not disappointed. Blessed be Her ways. You are perfect. You will be the true gem in my hoard."
"You realize you sound like an arrogant asshole right now, right?" I tell him. "Who says shit like that, the true gem in my hoard. I'm not some fucking possession that you can own, jackass."
"Oh," he leans forward, "...but what you fail to realize, milis, is that I believe you shall own me equally, if not more so."
Oh Hell. And shit just got real.