“And I admit that this new life scares me a little,” I said. “I don't know if I can do this; bring peace to Fairy, much less between the realms.”
“Seren, do you know what the motto of the Extinguishers means?”
“Yes, of course I do; Never fear the darkness,” I answered immediately.
“But do you know what that means?” He asked again.
“Many think it's a play on the name Extinguisher. That one who snuffs out a light, should not fear the dark which they create, but that's not it at all.”
“What then?” I never thought to question his knowledge; he'd already proved how knowledgeable he was.
“It refers to the Courts,” he said. “Saying that you have no fear of the Dark can also imply that you have never even considered being afraid of the Light. So, if, as a human, you can conquer your fear of both courts, then you should have no trouble with it as a fairy.”
“Well, after seeing you burn Uisdean's blood tonight, I may have a little less fear.” I grinned.
“Attempting to kill you was bad enough, but then he made the mistake of breaking the law and sending the Sluagh after you.”
Keir grinned back.
“You enjoyed kicking his butt,” I teased.
“Perhaps a little.” His face fell. “Fatherhood has filled my heart with love but it has also awakened the violence inside me.”
“I understand.” I nodded.
“I wanted to kill him, Seren,” he confessed. “My own brother. I wanted to watch him burn until he was only ash.”
“He's done some horrible things,” I noted.
“Yes.” Keir swallowed hard. “But I overlooked all of them until he did them to you. How could he betray me like that?” A tear escaped his eye and trickled down his cheek. “To kill Catriona was wicked but it wasn't an unexpected move from Uisdean. I always knew Cat was in danger. I'd just hoped she was strong enough to survive. You, on the other hand, are my only heir and as a childless king, Uisdean knows how important you are to both me and our kingdom. Attempting to murder you is an act so vile that I can't fathom it.”
“And that's why you're the Twilight King.” I smiled gently.
“I thought I'd seen the worst that Fairy had to offer when I was in the Unseelie Court but when I was taken to the dungeons of the Seelie Court, I saw...”
“I keep telling you, Seren. Dark or Light”—Keir laid a hand on mine—“we are all Fey, just as all races of humans are simply human. It's the magic which makes us Light or Dark... or Twilight, just as race makes humans light or dark skinned. Both courts hold evil—horrible evil—but they also hold great good.
Honorable men and women like your Count Tiernan.”
“My Count Tiernan,” I whispered with a smile. “Yeah, he's all right.”
“The Dark is led by a twisted heart at the moment,” Keir continued, “and they must follow where their king leads. It does not mean that there is no good in the Unseelie. Do you understand yet?”
“Yes, I think I do.” I blinked as a picture came to mind; of a bean-sidhe holding the hand of a little shellycoat. Compassion.
Even in her hopelessness, she found the ability to be compassionate. Keir was right, I needed to look beyond the surface and see the true hearts of all the Fey. I set my gaze back on my father with a new determination. “If we want true peace between the kingdoms, we must either change Uisdean's heart or stop it from beating.”
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 crepuscular ones who were active at dawn and dusk.
I had already glimpsed the way I could communicate with the fey animals, but I hadn't known that there were different ways of greeting each one and different mannerisms to use. Tursas (a type of fairy bear) for instance, preferred you to sit down in front of them; something I would never have thought to have done with a bear. But to them, it's a form of respect. It says; here I am, you have my attention, I want to speak with you, but I'm not looking for a fight.
Keir didn't have time in our short trip to go over all the intricacies of speaking with the animals but it was a good start, and
when I told him about the moths, he was so proud that I thought he was going to cry. He confirmed what Tiernan said; that the mending moths were fickle and rarely came when called, but he added that this wasn't their fault. It wasn't that they were malicious or ambivalent even, they simply didn't have as great a capacity for reasoning as say a tursa. It took a lot of magic to be able to connect with that erratic, insect mind and then even more to lure it into doing your bidding. Oh, and it had to be twilight magic of course, because moths are crepuscular.
My fairy father also pointed out that I'd done well by playing the statue for them with my outstretched arms. Moths like stillness, gentleness, as it was kind of necessary for their wellbeing. A soft voice was helpful too, as it was with most animals, but Keir taught me how to call them in my mind and connect with them on a more psychic level; making speech unnecessary. Having my Extinguisher background and my psychic abilities helped immensely, and I was able to pick up the technique fast. Plus, I'd already sensed the connection I had with the twilight animals the evening they crowned me.
Keir explained the “crowning” as well. It was the process of opening the mental paths between me and the animals. Once opened, the animals collectively placed a link in my mind so powerful that it could be seen in my aura. If they looked for it, fairies or clairvoyant humans could actually see a circular glow around my temples like a crown on my head. It was one of the highest honors Fairy could give a monarch and was what Keir had been referring to when he'd told Uisdean that I wore the crown.
Once he looked past his prejudice, Uisdean had been able to see my crown-like aura. An aura that Uisdean did not possess, but one which I could clearly see upon my father's brow.
The day I spent with Keir showed me just how much I needed to learn about Fairy and how much he could teach me. I'd thought I was at least informed enough to handle myself in the Fairy Realm, but I'd been so wrong. The Human Council had been
right to be concerned over their lack of information. They knew even less than I'd thought.
Even with our massive libraries holding book after book of knowledge on fairies; how to interact with them, how to protect ourselves from their magic, and how to kill them, there was still so much we didn't know. A whole kingdom had been kept secret from us; a kingdom which was large enough to cover a third of the world. If I was to rule this kingdom, I needed to learn all of the things that had been held back from the humans. It was a good thing I was immortal now because one day in the forest with my father was not going to cut it.
When we arrived at Castle Twilight the next day, it was to find Tiernan waiting for us. He stood on the steps of the main keep; one hand on the hilt of his sword and the other on the top of Cat's head. Before the coach even stopped rolling, Cat was down the steps and barking at my door. I opened it as soon as we stopped, and she bounded in.
“Whoa!” I laughed and hugged her tightly. “I missed you too.”
“I'm glad you have her. It helps ease my mind when you're away from me.” Keir spared a moment to scratch Cat behind the ears before he climbed out of the carriage.
“I'm glad I have you too,” I whispered to the puka. “Were you good for Tiernan?”
“No, she's been a royal pain in the ass,” Tiernan said with a smirk as he leaned in the doorway. “Just like her mistress.”
“You!” I narrowed my eyes at him, and his face went slack in shock. “You have some nerve, buddy.” I pushed Cat out, effectively backing Tiernan up, and then climbed out to face him.
“What did I do?” He gaped at me.
“You tell me that you love me just as I leave Fairy?” I poked him in the chest. The large gathering of twilight fey around us went silent. “You're such a wuss. A lily-livered, fraidy-cat wuss.”
“I...” he stammered. “How was that being cowardly?”
“It gave me no chance to respond,” I huffed. “So, if I didn't return your feelings, I could just come back and pretend I didn't hear what you had said, and you could pretend you never said it.
No risk.”
“Bad move, my friend,” Conri called out from the sidelines.
“There was risk,” Tiernan growled, ignoring Conri.
“Simply loving you is risky.”
“Yeah?” I snapped. “Well loving you is no cake walk either, Legolas.”
“How many times do I have to tell you I'm not an...” he trailed off and blinked. “Did you just say that you love me?”
“Maybe.” I started to smile. “Irritating isn't it, when you're not given a normal declaration of love?”
“Well, you had better say it again.” Tiernan put his hands on his hips. “More clearly this time.”
“Humph,” I huffed and began to walk away.
“Seren,” I heard his aghast tone come from behind me. I could just imagine his arms dropping down in defeat.
“Oh, hey, Tiernan.” I looked back at him over my shoulder when I reached the castle stairs.
“What?” He snapped.
“I love you.” I gave him a sassy look and ran into the
castle; laughing delightedly as Cat ran beside me, barking in matching delight. Beneath the barking came the sound of heavy footsteps, and I glanced behind me to see Tiernan chasing after us.
“Children.” I heard Keir sigh as I passed him.
Maybe I was acting more childish now that I was a fairy.
Perhaps it was because compared to most of them, I was still a child. I had a lot to learn about my new life, my new magic, and my new people, but I was willing to put in the time. An extinguisher is never afraid of hard work... or the dark.
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 to have a friendship with a fairy, much less call one my boyfriend, but there it is. He's my boyfriend, and I'm kinda head over heels in love with him. The best part is that he's just as in love with me, but when he talks about forever, I know he really means forever and it kind of makes me nervous. I don't know what's going to happen between us or who I'll become when I finally learn all about my own magic, but I'm enjoying what we have right now and who I am in this moment.
My name is Seren Sloane Bloodthorn. I'm an extinguisher, but I'm also the Twilight Princess and my work has just begun.
Keep reading for some sneak peeks into Amy's other series and
the next book in the Twilight Court Series:
Pixie-Led
Pixie-led: The process of being led astray by pixies; bewildered.
Life as a fairy princess wasn't getting any easier. I'd thought that once I'd made the transition from Extinguisher Seren Sloane to Ambassador Seren Sloane Bloodthorn that things would start getting easier and more comfortable for me. As an Extinguisher, I was a psychically gifted soldier who kept watch over fairies in the Human Realm(and occasionally executed them). Now I'm a half-human fairy princess of the previously unknown Twilight Court, not only an ambassador between fairies and humans but also between the fighting courts of Fairy. I was getting used to the lavish living conditions and being surrounded by the strange blends of seelie and unseelie which were the twilight fairies. I was even comfortable with my new puka pet, Cat, who rarely let me have a moment alone. What wasn't getting easier was the constant revelations about the fey.
Every day I learned something new, which sounds wonderful. I think I even saw that embroidered on a pillow once...
learn something new every day. Except I had thought I'd known all there was to know about the fey. Turns out, I literally hadn't known the half of it. The very court I was now princess of was unknown to me. It was unknown to all humans actually, because its king had wanted it that way. Bringing me to Fairy had meant outing his court to the Human Council and now not only I but all of the Council and the Extinguishers were reeling with the knowledge that there was an entire kingdom of Fairy we hadn't known about.
As the new half-human princess to the neutral court of Twilight, which lay between the warring courts of Light and Dark, I was in a unique position to expand my peacekeeper status into that of an ambassador. I was all for it but an ambassador needed to know the people she was working with and, as I mentioned before, I didn't know as much as I'd thought. There were all kinds of things that the Fairy Council hadn't seen fit to share with us humans. Not
that I blamed them, if the Human Council had known some of the things I was learning about, it might have caused a panic. It definitely would have threatened the truce between fairies and humans, and in the end, the knowledge wouldn't have helped them.
Then there was the magic I'd unlocked when I'd first stepped into Fairy and released the power of my fey blood. So far I knew of two different magics that I possessed. One was called star-crossing and I could use it to render both humans and fey fairy-struck, a condition which resulted in the victim becoming so passive, they wouldn't even eat without my commanding it. My other magic was dream-dusting. I could blow a sleep inducing dust from my fingertips. Both of them were pretty cool but the soldier in me longed for a more aggressive magic, something like my new fairy father, King Keir had. He could burn the blood within someone's body. Now that was cool... well hot. Whatever, you know what I mean.
As if all that wasn't hard enough, I also had to deal with a romantic entanglement. Okay, so that part wasn't so bad. Count Tiernan Shadowcall sounds like some stuffy royal fairy who spends his days strolling through extravagant gardens but actually he was kind of badass. A Lord of the Wild Hunt (which he loved reminding me of over and over... it's kinda a big deal), he was from a family of seelie sidhe who possessed the only strain of Light magic which could actually command the Dark. Well, not the Dark exactly, the shadows made by his light.
We'd met on my last Extinguisher mission, which ended up being a complete scam designed by King Keir to bring me home to Fairy. I'd been raised by a human named Ewan Sloane, a man whose wife, my mother, cheated on him with a fairy king and then had the nerve to pretend the child resulting from that union, namely me, was his. She had her reasons, mainly to protect me from all the nasty fairies who didn't want a half-human heir to the twilight throne. Still, my life had been a lie and she had paid for that lie with her life. Unfortunately I was paying for it too.
The man I'd known as my father for most of my life, Ewan Sloane, wouldn't speak to me anymore. He basically disavowed me as his daughter and told me to go to hell... or Fairy rather. It hurt. A lot. I don't know if it will ever stop hurting so I'm not going to stop trying to get through to him. I know my Dad, my human Dad, he's all bluster and gruff but there's a soft heart beneath it. My mom's betrayal had hurt him. He'd already been driven to the edge by her death and I knew he needed someone to blame, someone to hurt for this additional pain or he would truly go mad. I was a convenient candidate.
Still, I knew there would come a day when he'd wake up in his empty house and miss me. You can't erase twenty-six years of love overnight, not even with a heavy application of anger. Until then, he was moping on assignment in Hawaii, and I was hopping back and forth between the realms as I tried to make both councils happy.
The councils had been created after the last great war between the humans and the fey. They made the laws that kept our truce going and to enforce those laws, two military groups were created; the Wild Hunt, which was comprised of fairies and the Extinguishers which were humans.
Tiernan was on the job when we met and so was I.
Technically the Hunt and the Extinguishers fight on the same side, that of peace, but in reality, we didn't work well together. They handled humans who broke our laws (knowingly or unknowingly) and we handled the fey. This made for tension between our groups.
Tiernan and I were the exceptions, mainly because of this instant attraction we'd felt for each other. Originally, I had no intention of giving in to that attraction but Tiernan intended to change my mind... and Tiernan can be very convincing when he wants to be.
After I became the Twilight Princess (don't laugh) and then a fairy-human ambassador, the Fairy Council assigned Tiernan to partner with me. Which means he became my unofficial bodyguard and an official pain in my patootie. He made up for the patootie
pain by making other parts of my anatomy feel very nice though. I meant my heart, you perverts.
“Amazing. How does this just keep getting better?” I curled up into Tiernan's side after he rolled over. Okay so I wasn't just talking about my heart.
“I've had lots of time to develop my skills,” he grinned down at me, silver eyes shining bright in the shadows of my bed.
The ring of black around his irises made them stand out even more but it was the silver scar running across his right cheek that truly brought out the beauty of his eyes.
“How much time exactly?” I asked casually as I traced the curving scar with my fingertip.
“I'm still not telling,” he smirked. “You can't trick me into it, Seren.”
“I will find out how old you are,” I narrowed my eyes on him.
“Not if I don't want you to,” he pushed back some hair from his face, fingers trailing first through the platinum color at his temples, then light gold, blonde, honey, chestnut, chocolate, and finally the jet black ends. No one could do ombré like the fey.
“If you cut your hair, would the tips start turning black?” I asked as I pulled the black ends of his hair forward.
“No,” he took my hand and kissed my fingers. “It's the length that changes the color. The longer it grows, the darker.”
“Interesting,” I mused but my train of thought was cut short by a pitiful howl. “All right, Cat!” I called and slid from the bed while Tiernan groaned. “I'm coming.”
“Can't you leave her in there a little while longer?” Tiernan whined.
“If I do, she's liable to break down the door,” I opened the door to my dressing room (too big to be called a closet) and Cat, my twilight puka who looked like a shaggy, gray dog the size of a pony, came barreling out.
She pushed me aside as she ran by me and jumped into the bed, making Tiernan groan again. I just laughed and climbed back under the covers as Cat did her usual three circles before settling down on the silk comforter. My bed was huge, we could have probably had two pukas and a cat-sidhe in it and still had room, but Tiernan liked to complain about Cat. I think it was a form of affection for him because he liked to complain about me too.
Just as I got myself settled, twilight arrived and with it came a rush of power zinging through my body. I'd learned to control the lavender colored sparkles that used to drift from my fingers at twilight (again, do not laugh) but it was hard to control the shivers I experienced with that burst of magic. Tiernan loved holding me at twilight, feeling my body tremble with power, so I wasn't surprised to find myself in his arms when I opened my eyes.
What I was surprised by was the collection of moths hanging above me in the branches of night blooming jasmine which arched over my bed.
“What in the world?” I blinked up at the fluttering mass of bodies. “I didn't call the mending moths.”
“Those aren't mending moths,” Tiernan whispered with awe and I looked over to see both him and Cat staring up at the moths intently. Cat was completely quiet, an odd response for her.
“What are they then?” I swear, sometimes the fey drug things out to the point of being tiring. It's the whole immortality thing, they enjoy long conversations.
“They're mirror moths,” Tiernan lifted a hand to point at them and I followed it to see that the moths had positioned themselves so that they formed an oval, their wings going still as
the opalescence in their dust caught the light of my bedside lamps.
They turned silver and for a brief moment, they reflected our amazed expressions.
Our faces blurred, replaced by a human male with light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. The perfect poster boy for the Aryan race. He was wearing a suit and smiling brightly as flashes went off around him, cameras I think. There was a blue curtain behind him with a symbol on it that I couldn't make out. Then the scene changed to one of war and then to just explosions. Buildings crumbled, bridges fell, and the White House burned. I inhaled sharply and Tiernan took my hand as the images faded into gray.
Then, out of the mist, came a wooden staff. It just floated forward and hung suspended for us to see.
It was beautiful. The wood was a creamy white, polished to a soft sheen, and at the top of it was an intricate carving of a raven's head, stained black. It was so detailed, I could see each individual feather. The eyes seemed to focus on me and then the feathers ruffled and the beak opened on a loud caw. With the sound, the moths burst apart and then flew away together in swirling lines, heading out the open doors which led to my balcony.
“Ooooo-kaaaaayyyyy,” I turned amazed eyes to Tiernan.
“Was that supposed to mean something?”
“I think it was a warning,” his face was even paler than normal, the silver of his scar standing out brightly. “The mirror moths show that which needs to be seen.”
“A warning of what? The end of the world?” I huffed. That which needs to be seen. I mean really, could it be more vague?
“Perhaps,” he said in a low voice and Cat whimpered.
“What?!” I gaped at him.
“That staff, did you recognize it?” He sat up and stared at
“No but I'm assuming it's important,” I sat up too.
“It belongs to an unseelie hag, named Cailleach Bheur,” he angled his head down, staring at me like I might come up with the answer on my own.
“Cailleach?” I frowned and searched through my memory.
“That isn't the staff that grants the power of enchantment to any who happen to find it unattended, is it?”
“That's my girl,” he grinned. “Yes, it is and it looks like a human has found it. Or is going to very soon.”
“And is about to use it to destroy the world,” I sighed. “I think I'd better get dressed.”
Saving the world is best done clothed.
As soon as I'd notified my father about what we'd seen, Keir had raced to his bedroom with Tiernan and me hot on his heels. He'd gone through a door to the left of his bed, which opened into a large room reserved for kingdom business. Against the far wall in this room, loomed a large, ornately-carved pedestal.
On the pedestal sat an orb of polished, perfectly clear crystal. Keir veered around the solid wood table and scurried up to the crystal ball.
“King Uisdean of the Unseelie!” Keir called out as he tapped the surface of the sphere.
The center of the orb filled with gray mist. The mist swirled, changing colors and then forming the colors into shapes.
Those shapes stayed blurry for quite awhile, like looking through an unfocused camera lens, and then they cleared to reveal my Uncle Uisdean's uptight face.
“What is it?” Uisdean asked stiffly. There was an enormous bed behind him, draped in dark silk and pale women. Baobhan-sith to be exact, four of them. I was kind of impressed.
“The mirror moths have been here,” Keir said without preamble.
“And?” Uisdean's irritation dispersed immediately.
“Cailleach Bheur will lose her staff and a human will find it,” the stars in Keir's purple eyes were starting to shine, reflecting off the crystal.
“Is that all?” Uisdean huffed. “She's lost the damn thing before. Why does it suddenly concern you?”
“This time the human who finds it will bring about mass destruction,” Keir explained.
“Really?” Uisdean perked up. “For the humans?”
“Do you honestly think that kind of devastation won't spill over into Fairy?” Keir growled. “Not to mention the flora and fauna of the Human Realm. The beasts, trees, the plants, the oceans-”
“Yes, I understand your concern now,” Uisdean interrupted. “But what do you want of me?”
“Is Cailleach at court?” Keir asked, running a hand through his ombré purple hair in an obvious effort to regain some composure.
“I believe so,” Uisdean grimaced. “I don't make it a habit to keep track of the hags.”
“Well you'd better start,” I interrupted. “Because this hag is about to unleash hell on earth.”
“Hasn't humanity already done that?” Uisdean lifted a perfectly arched brow at me as his image began to blur.
The unfocused shapes dissolved into mist and then the mist vanished, leaving a clear crystal ball once more. Distorted reflections of our faces stretched over the polished surface.
“Well, you have to hand it to him,” I shot an amused look at my father. “Uisdean knows how to make an exit.”
“I fear that my brother will be of very little help in this matter,?