Radiant Shadows

Chapter 35

Devlin opened his eyes to find Rae and Ani both staring back at him from Ani’s body. He was holding them against his chest. The sensation of holding Ani was still new enough to be breathtaking; to realize that he also held Rae was a heartbeat too near perfection.

They are my life.

With them, he would rebalance Faerie.

And become enemy to both my sister-mothers.

Gently, he cupped Ani-Rae’s face in his hand. “You were right.”

“About?” Rae asked.

“Saving Ani. Pushing me.”

“And?” Ani prompted.

“That I am king.” He didn’t kiss them as he’d kissed Ani before. In truth, he didn’t know if Rae would mind his kissing them, so he was careful as he pressed his lips to theirs.

Either Ani or Rae—he wasn’t sure which—had no such hesitation. The gentle kiss he’d offered became something as fierce as the kisses he’d shared with Ani when she was draining his energy from him. Then Ani-Rae pulled back and grinned.

“I’ve been waiting for that kiss for decades,” Rae whispered.

“Welcome to the New Dark Court,” Ani said.

The wicked laughter that spilled from Ani’s—or Rae’s?— lips made Devlin shake his head. “Shadows. The Court of Shadows,” he corrected. “We’re not a replica, but something new. We don’t use an old name.”

Rae and Ani separated. They exchanged a look.

“I like it,” they both said.

In a breath, he removed the wall between them and the outside. The wolves leaped from Ani’s skin. Darkness fell in front of the Shadow Court, allowing Rae to walk alongside them. With Rae on his right and Ani on his left, Devlin stepped out of the High Queen’s palace, and together they walked to the moonlight veil, the first but not the only gate in and out of Faerie.

Just inside the gate, Barry stood. The steed was currently in the form of an actual horse. He was shadows made solid. Leaving without me was bad form.

The steed spoke in Devlin’s mind, but before he could answer, he realized that it was speaking to Ani.

I’m sorry, she answered. Her words to the steed were inside Devlin’s mind as well.

Other steeds waited in the shelter of the hazel trees.

I have called the Unclaimed for our New Hunt, Barry said.

We are here, Ani and Ani’s Partner. The steeds watched their approach, but none advanced.

Devlin answered aloud, “Welcome, Ani’s Steed and all.”

Barry laughed. I may grow to tolerate you. Get on with it, Devlin. They need to claim their riders.

Faeries had begun to gather, as if they had responded to a summons. Curiously, they watched the steeds, Devlin, Ani.

You will make a wonderful queen, Barry assured Ani. Worthy of being my rider. Worthy of beginning the Hunt that was lacking.

Ani’s words, to Barry and to Devlin, were confident. I just needed to find my pack.

“And we needed to find you,” Rae added with a smile, and Devlin realized that they all three could hear the mental conversation with the steed.

“Let’s do this.” Ani held out the sgian dubh she had used to cut her arm earlier. “Blood and breath.”

Devlin took the black-handled blade from Ani’s hand.

“With the hands that they made”—he cut a diagonal stripe in his right palm—“and the blood of Faerie…”

A chiming noise began to echo through Faerie.

Rae slipped into Ani’s body, so the breath they shed was hers as well.

“With the breath”—Rae and Ani took the blade—“of mortal and faery…”

“We close the veils between the worlds,” they all said.

“Closing this veil is as all veils,” Devlin whispered into the air. “So mote it be.”

For a moment, the world was still. Behind them, more faeries had gathered. The cries and murmurings swirled together in an emotional cocktail of fear and hope and wonder. He could feel them, not all of them, but those faeries that were meant to be a part of his court, the new court.

This is right. He felt a calm that he’d never known before. The world was in order. He had found the place he belonged.

He turned to Ani and saw a look of fury on her face. “Ani?”

She was looking past him though—at the faery who now held a knife to his throat.

Ani had raised her own blade in reply.

“What have you done?” Sorcha asked from behind him.

Ani snarled, “You do not threaten my king.”

The wolves around her growled in agreement, as did Barry.

“Your what?” Sorcha asked.

Devlin turned to face the High Queen. Her knife pressed against his throat as he moved, leaving a trailing cut there.

“Our king.” Rae moved so she stood to his right. Her hand, though not solid, appeared to rest on Devlin’s forearm.

“The King of Shadows.” His gaze was only on Sorcha, but Devlin spoke loudly enough that the assembled faeries could all hear. “The king to balance the High Queen in Faerie. Faerie was never meant to be ruled by only one court. Our faeries were not meant to have only one choice.”

“You cannot.” Sorcha stared at him. She lowered her knife. “Brother… Devlin…”

Seth came behind her and put a supporting arm around her. He did not speak, but the expression on his face was not one of surprise. He’d known what was coming long before Devlin had.

“I am neither son nor brother to you, Sorcha. I am that which stands as your opposite within Faerie. I am that which balances your court.” Devlin spoke softly, wishing he could say the words to his queen-no-more in private, but she had removed that option by appearing here with her knife to his throat. He clung to the hope that she would see the rightness of his actions. “Bananach cannot come here. She cannot touch you, your son, or the faeries of your court or mine.”

Sorcha stared at him. Her expression shifted to a familiar one of objective observation as she felt the change within Faerie, as she became more herself again. Devlin hoped that she understood: what he did, he did to balance her; what he did, he did to keep his sisters from killing each other; what he did was the right answer for all of them.

This was the inevitable next step for them all. Every emotion he’d repressed for all of the long millennia behind him felt like it was rising up inside of him. His would be a court of passions, of emotions, of the very things that he’d fought to hide.

As such, he didn’t hide his relief or his sorrow as he told the faeries, “To prevent Bananach from coming here, our worlds are divided. None among you can cross the veil to the mortal world without the aid of both the Shadow Court and the High Court.”

Sorcha’s spine was stiff; the emotional instability she’d been falling prey to of late was no longer present in her visage or her posture. She nodded at him, and then turned away.

“Those of you who belong not to me, who would choose the… Shadow Court, know that I understand your actions. They are—as this was—inevitable,” she told them.

Then with a regal air that had been missing since the day Seth had left Sorcha to return to the mortal world, the High Queen turned her gaze to her son. “My advisor and heir, my son, your prince, will be liaison to the Shadow Court.”

With not another word, Sorcha left, attendants and many faeries in tow.

But not all.

In front of Devlin, Ani, and Rae were faeries, several score, who looked to them expectantly.

This is ours. Our world.

A twinge of grief washed over him that he’d lost both of his mother-sisters. To keep them safe from one another—to keep everyone safe from the conflict between the twins— he’d betrayed both of his mother-sisters.

“This has always been the next step,” Rae whispered.

“It’s the right choice,” Ani agreed. “You know that.”

Devlin nodded, and together they crossed the expanse of Faerie.

As they walked, new vistas sprang into existence, filling in voids that were meant to be something more but hadn’t had the chance.

Until now.