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Chapter 53
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Fairy-Struck Chapter 54
The tunnels were empty, and we made good time in reaching the lower levels of the castle, but once we were there, I realized there was another flaw to our plan. I had no idea where they kept the seelie prisoners. Tiernan saw me hesitate as I stepped out of the tunnels, and he stepped past me to look around."Prisoners are commonly kept in cells." Tiernan glanced back at me. "True for humans and fairies.""Excellent," I said and looked around the large room. "You think those cells are down here?"We were in the bowels of the castle and the room we stood in was carved out of the mountain itself. The stone was roughhewn, with obvious tool marks marring its damp surface. The floor was smoother than the walls, laid with tiles of some kind of gray stone. Directly in front of us was a set of stairs and although it was too dark to see how far up they went, I knew from my last journey down them that they went quite far. At the base of the stairs, a hook was set into the wall and a lantern hu
Fairy-Struck Chapter 55
"Does everyone who needs assistance have it?" I asked the group and saw them all nod. "Will you all be able to walk?""Yes," a bean-tigh answered, her elderly appearance tugging at my heart. "If you can lead us out of here, we will walk. We'll crawl if necessary."My throat constricted with her words so all I could do was nod. They were all beaten, cut, or broken in some horrible way, and yet they would have dragged their broken limbs across a field of glass to escape the Unseelie Court. After witnessing only one night of what they had been put through, I know I would have too. I would have done anything to escape that existence.I had to take deep breaths to calm my rising anger. I wanted to run out of that room and slaughter all of the Unseelie for what they'd done. Instead, I focused on what I could do to help the injured seelie while we waited for the others to return. I pulled clothes and shoes off the guards and passed them out to the fairies; tearing some of the clothes to ma
Fairy-Struck Chapter 56
We couldn't risk taking the seelie back to the Twilight Castle and have my father discover what we'd done, so we had to take them directly to the Seelie Court. Unfortunately, the fairy mound which led to the Seelie Court was all the way on the other side of the Twilight Kingdom and we couldn't make it that far by nightfall. So, after a few hours, we decided to make camp.When I opened the door of my carriage, the moth that I'd completely forgotten about flew out and landed on my shoulder. "There you are." I gave it a quick glance before I reached up to help my passengers out."I don't know how you did it, but thank you for bringing us a mending moth," said an apsara—a fairy of clouds and waters—as she took my hand."A what?" I cocked my head at her as she found her feet."A mending moth." She drew a graceful finger down the blood-red fur of the moth's body. "They can heal almost anything with their dust." Then she leaned down to speak to the moth, "Thank you again, little one."Th
Fairy-Struck Chapter 57
Tiernan brought us to the edge of camp where a bush grew; heavily laden with large, round, canary-yellow berries. He pulled a handful free and gave them to me before taking some for himself. I popped one into my mouth and savored the honeyed sweetness of it before tossing one to Cat. She snatched the berry from the air and chewed happily before she decided to cut out the middleman and went directly to the source to harvest the berries herself."That was Danu, wasn't it?" Tiernan asked me in between bites of berry."Blocking our pursuers in a creative and very dramatic way?" I asked with a lifted brow. He just lifted his brow back. "I'm pretty sure it was." I shook my head as I watched Cat expertly divest the bush of its bounty. "You know, I was raised Catholic... in a fashion. My rosary was made of rowan wood." I laughed when Tiernan grimaced. Rowan wood is a strong charm against fairy magic. "But I'd never thought to see the day when I prayed to Goddess for help instead of God.""A
Fairy-Struck Chapter 58
It took a full day to get to the Seelie Castle. We had to go through another fairy mound; this one was set with silver gates with a stylized sun in the center of them. Beneath the golden sun was a castle that perched high on a hill, the base of which was surrounded by a forest, just like the other gates, but this castle and forest were carved from ivory.I thought back to when we'd left the Unseelie Kingdom and remembered how the mound we'd traveled through to get there, the one with the golden moon gates, had a different scene entirely on the other side. When we'd returned to Twilight, the gold gates we passed through had a silver star in their center with a silver castle and forest beneath. Just like the door leading from Gentry to Twilight. I was right; the doors were an indication of where the paths led.It was a few more hours to the Seelie Castle from the rath. We once more pulled off the dirt road early so we could sneak up on foot. Although, there would now be quite a few mor
Fairy-Struck Chapter 59
We were almost to the fairy mound that led to Gentry Technologies when Aodh caught up with us. I've never been so happy to see a fairy in all of my life. I screamed like a little girl when he landed on the seat beside me and then jumped up in delight and nearly fell off the carriage."Thank Goddess you're all right," I declared as I hugged him."It's good to see you too, Princess." Aodh laughed and looked around. "Where are we going?""I need to get Amanda home." I waved toward the clearing Tiernan's coach was just entering. "I'm taking her back through the rath in Gentry Technologies, my father's company.""Oh, right, the human girl." Aodh cast a glance down to the carriage. "Is she all right?""I think she will be," I said confidently. "She's been traumatized, but she's already trying to move past it." I pulled the horses to a stop and handed the reins to him. "You couldn't have better timing. I need you to drive my carriage to the Unseelie Castle." Then I saw Tiernan come walki
Fairy-Struck Chapter 60
"That was awkward," Amanda said."And totally stupid." I rolled my eyes. "This is my father's business. All of those fairies work for him so we weren't in any danger.""They were all fairies?" She gaped at me."Uh, yeah." I chewed at my lip. I hadn't thought of how to handle Amanda's knowledge of the Fey. "Look, it could be dangerous for you to talk about fairies. I'm going to take you to the Human Council, and they'll be able to help you get back home and sort things out but they're probably going to tell you the same thing; you need to pretend that you don't know anything about the Fey.""Trust me, I want this all to just go away," she said. "I'm not going to cause any problems. Besides, who's going to believe me? They'd lock me up in the loony bin.""Great." I grinned as we exited the elevator and headed toward the reception desk. "I mean about your not talking, not the loony bin part."Sunlight poured in from the wall of windows; blending with the artificial light shed by the
Fairy-Struck Chapter 61
"Once more, if you please." Councilman Murdock was back to sitting across a tea set from me in the parlor of the San Francisco Council House."I can't give you specifics, Councilman," I said. "Just please help Amanda get home; she's been through a lot.""Of course, we'll help her," he huffed. "But you said you rescued her from the Unseelie. Isn't there something we can do?""Not unless you'd like to storm the Unseelie Castle." Dylan grimaced. "There's nothing that even we can do about it, Mr. Murdock. Princess Seren has done more than any fairy monarch has ever done concerning this situation. The idea that anyone could try and hold the entire Unseelie Court accountable for the abduction of one human girl is, frankly, laughable.""Councilman Murdock not Mr.," Murdock corrected in irritation; probably because he couldn't fault anything else Dylan had said."Ah." Dylan narrowed his eyes at Murdock and then waved a hand at himself. "Duke Dylan Thorn... of the Unseelie."Murdock swall
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Fairy-Struck Chapter 67
Things have been quiet in the Twilight Kingdom. No one has heard a peep from Uisdean or his Dark Court. Although, we now have allies in the Light. Nighean, Aodh, and their mother Neala went home to Seelie, but they've kept in touch with us and have begun to gather supporters for peace between the kingdoms. So far, it must be a secret recruitment since the hatred between the Dark and Light Courts still runs rampant, despite the return of the prisoners, but I have hopes that someday the secret will come out.As far as my relationship with Keir goes, I now call him Dad more easily and try not to mention my other dad to him even though that relationship feels strained to the point where I despair that things will ever be right between Ewan and I. Cat remains a constant guardian and an occasional pain in the butt, especially when I'm trying to find some alone time with my other guardian. But Tiernan handles her antics as easily and as gracefully as he does mine.Tiernan. I'd never thought
Fairy-Struck Chapter 66
It turns out that changing or killing King Uisdean was not what Keir had in mind, but my surmisal had made him think. He wasn't ready to make any plans yet, but we had time, lots of it now that I was fey. We decided to let go of our issues with Uisdean for the moment and simply get to know each other as father and daughter.We had a full day to spend together, including a night of camping in the forest; if you could call it camping when you slept in a pavilion big enough for ten. Keir showed me how to properly call the twilight creatures and how to talk to them. Tiernan's explanation, when he'd told me that fairies could speak to all animals, hadn't been specific enough. We, as in the Fey as a whole, could speak to all animals but not as individuals. Each court had their own set of animals whom only they could communicate with. The Seelie had the diurnal animals who were active during the day, the Unseelie had the nocturnal creatures who roamed at night, and the Twilight had the crepu
Fairy-Struck Chapter 65
There was no need for me to wait another day before returning to Fairy since Keir could take me straight home. Home. Funny that the place I called home was now in the Fairy Realm. We left shortly after Uisdean did; Dylan to fire and do who knows what else to Adam Driscol while Keir and I went back to Gentry Technologies so we could use his personal fairy mound to get back to the Twilight Kingdom.A coach and a contingent of soldiers were waiting for us when we exited the rath. They were all sitting around a fire but there were no tents up so I assumed they expected it to be a short wait. Which meant Keir had perfectly timed his arrival into the Human Realm. I guess Danu did speak to him.The knights were well trained, Keir's personal retinue, the King's Guard, and they were mounted and ready to leave within moments. Soon, we were rumbling through the night-shrouded forest on our way to the Twilight Court. I sat back against the purple velvet seats and sighed deeply; going over the la
Fairy-Struck Chapter 64
There was a creeping lethargy seeping into my limbs. I couldn't lift my hands or focus enough to use either my psychic or magical talents. I started to slide down the back of the couch."It will wear off soon, I promise," Dylan whispered as he caught me and laid me down gently. "You're going to be okay, Seren.""You traitor," I whispered while I could still speak."Technically, I'm a double agent," he clarified. "I was a traitor when I left the Unseelie Court; this is redemption."A ringing came from a panel near the elevator, and Dylan glanced over his shoulder at it. Then he looked back at me sadly, gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek, and got up to go to the intercom. He pushed a button on it and spoke quickly. Then he went to the elevator and pushed a button there before he turned to face me once more."This will all be over soon." He smiled reassuringly. "Try not to upset yourself."I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but I couldn't move my tongue. It felt swollen in my mouth
Fairy-Struck Chapter 63
Finding that middle ground took a couple of hours. When I finally left the council chamber, I found Uncle Dylan asleep on the couch where I'd left him. He had his arms flung out to the sides, across the back of the couch, and his head was leaned so far back that his mouth dropped open a little; a prime pose for snoring. Unfortunately, my Uncle Dylan was too perfect to snore and slept peacefully without a single sound. I shook his shoulder, and he even woke up peacefully; his body gracefully shifting back into an upright position as he opened his eyes and placed them unerringly on me."We can go now." I looked over his tired eyes. "Thanks for waiting for me.""It's quite all right." He gave me a sleep-softened smile. "You're my blood.""You know, you're not half bad for a relative of mine," I joked as we headed out to the car.I was surprised to see that there was still a bit of daylight left. It had felt as if I'd been in with the council forever."I'll take that as high praise,"
Fairy-Struck Chapter 62
The entire San Francisco Human Council convened to speak with me. It was a little intimidating to be the center of their attention, especially since that attention was pretty damn intense. They had already been a meeting to discuss the possibilities of my new diplomatic status, and they had made notes, lists, and even graphs of how they saw my role playing out. Graphs! Damn politicians.I sat through most of the political BS with what I thought was a fair amount of poise; nodding my head in acceptance of the standard expectations they had for me: keeping the peace, carrying out execution warrants, that sort of thing. But when they started in on all the diplomatic duties I'd have to perform, I began to get nervous. I hadn't thought about all the parties I'd have to attend as both an ambassador and a princess. Or all the meetings I'd have to conduct with the fairy royals. The thought of sitting down to have a nice diplomatic discussion with my Uncle Uisdean was a little terrifying."We
Fairy-Struck Chapter 61
"Once more, if you please." Councilman Murdock was back to sitting across a tea set from me in the parlor of the San Francisco Council House."I can't give you specifics, Councilman," I said. "Just please help Amanda get home; she's been through a lot.""Of course, we'll help her," he huffed. "But you said you rescued her from the Unseelie. Isn't there something we can do?""Not unless you'd like to storm the Unseelie Castle." Dylan grimaced. "There's nothing that even we can do about it, Mr. Murdock. Princess Seren has done more than any fairy monarch has ever done concerning this situation. The idea that anyone could try and hold the entire Unseelie Court accountable for the abduction of one human girl is, frankly, laughable.""Councilman Murdock not Mr.," Murdock corrected in irritation; probably because he couldn't fault anything else Dylan had said."Ah." Dylan narrowed his eyes at Murdock and then waved a hand at himself. "Duke Dylan Thorn... of the Unseelie."Murdock swall
Fairy-Struck Chapter 60
"That was awkward," Amanda said."And totally stupid." I rolled my eyes. "This is my father's business. All of those fairies work for him so we weren't in any danger.""They were all fairies?" She gaped at me."Uh, yeah." I chewed at my lip. I hadn't thought of how to handle Amanda's knowledge of the Fey. "Look, it could be dangerous for you to talk about fairies. I'm going to take you to the Human Council, and they'll be able to help you get back home and sort things out but they're probably going to tell you the same thing; you need to pretend that you don't know anything about the Fey.""Trust me, I want this all to just go away," she said. "I'm not going to cause any problems. Besides, who's going to believe me? They'd lock me up in the loony bin.""Great." I grinned as we exited the elevator and headed toward the reception desk. "I mean about your not talking, not the loony bin part."Sunlight poured in from the wall of windows; blending with the artificial light shed by the
Fairy-Struck Chapter 59
We were almost to the fairy mound that led to Gentry Technologies when Aodh caught up with us. I've never been so happy to see a fairy in all of my life. I screamed like a little girl when he landed on the seat beside me and then jumped up in delight and nearly fell off the carriage."Thank Goddess you're all right," I declared as I hugged him."It's good to see you too, Princess." Aodh laughed and looked around. "Where are we going?""I need to get Amanda home." I waved toward the clearing Tiernan's coach was just entering. "I'm taking her back through the rath in Gentry Technologies, my father's company.""Oh, right, the human girl." Aodh cast a glance down to the carriage. "Is she all right?""I think she will be," I said confidently. "She's been traumatized, but she's already trying to move past it." I pulled the horses to a stop and handed the reins to him. "You couldn't have better timing. I need you to drive my carriage to the Unseelie Castle." Then I saw Tiernan come walki
