One moment Derya and Bailey were beside the river, hidden by dense fog and pursued by humans, and the next, she found herself lying on a cold stone floor. Bright light seared her night vision, and nausea overwhelmed her. She crawled to her knees, violently ill despite her desperately empty stomach.
"Guards!" a woman called.
But despite the spike in her adrenaline trying to get her to defend herself, the world tilted and spun as if she imbibed Barbera's wicked ale, and she struggled not to fall over like a child after twirling in circles for too long.
"Desist," Bailey said weakly, "T'is only I. Leave the lady be; she saved my life, Argana."
"Where in the heavens' names have you been, girl? Your brother turned this castle upside down, thinking you were abducted or murdered. Have you no sense!"
"I had to see for myself if it was true," Bailey said as the world slowly settled around Derya, but weakness overtook, black splotches dancing across her vision as she sat down and stared at the tips of several spears aimed in her direction by armed palace guards.
"If what was true?" Argana asked, exasperated, but Derya dared not glance in that direction to see what the woman looked like, afraid that one of those spears might get antsy. Especially since her weakness allowed the wolf close to the surface, and she couldn't afford for these humans to spy it.
"Whether the humans really discovered Andina's home and slaughtered her."
"The human oracle? Yes, Andina, they did. You could have just asked me, and I would have told you. What happened to bring you here in such a fashion when you know you should not use your gifts?"
The woman came closer.
"Look at your hand; you're shaking. Why are you so terribly weak..."
The silence made Derya turn her head despite the motionless steel threatening her life.
The woman, Argana, wasn't what she expected. Possibly the most flawlessly beautiful human she had ever seen, there was definitely something almost fae about her. From that raven hair and cerulean eyes to her feet, she was entrancing, but the look on that perfect face, as she stared at Derya's right hand, froze her insides before she even glanced down.
Bewildered, she glanced at Bailey, who looked shocked and dismayed.
The rune inhibiting Bailey's magic was burned into her hand, not as strongly but clear as day, and it was rather raw, while Bailey's was somehow less inflamed when she expected it to be as it was the first time she saw it. Her awareness of the wound made it come to throbbing, painful life, and she hissed, bringing it close to her chest.
The spears inched closer.
"Go, leave us be," Argana dismissed the stone-faced men with a wave of her hand, but they hesitated. "Now."
The men left the great hall, and Derya stared at her hand. She had no idea what had happened, but instinct told her this was not good.
"What have you done?" Argana demanded of Bailey, who looked close to tears. "Did you siphon power from a fae girl? Is she fae Bailey?"
"Yes. There were men..." her lip trembled as she finally admitted to herself what she had done, and she could not speak as she slowly sank to her knees, cradling her hand against her chest.
"There were manbloods who tried to harm her, and she... destroyed them. No one saw, but they knew to look for fae."
Why did she defend the girl?
"Never say that word out loud in this castle, fae kind."
"If not for Derya, I would be dead, and perhaps she should not have saved me. I am the monster you have always feared. Even with this." She barely lifted her fast-healing hand.
"You are no monster, child, but you are still draining her; get a grip on yourself. She's weak as a babe already," Argana warned, seemingly overly familiar with Bailey and her magic and not afraid of it but rather disapproving.
The growing weakness stopped dragging her further down, and she blinked, fighting the sense of vertigo.
What the actual fae?
"Do you have any idea what you did, Bailey?"
"She had no choice. The manb... men were closing in on us. They had hunted us all day, and I hid with her. She was weak and unconscious, and I couldn't leave her. Not even a halfling deserves their justice. They never saw her, and I knew if we could reach this place, they would have no evidence it was her." A sharp pain stabbed through her abdomen, and she frowned.
"We left the city, and she woke, but the men somehow found our trail, and then we were here."
"By using your essence to shore her magic, something she can do with any creature, she formed a connection with you. With humans, it is temporary and harmless. But you are not human, and I can tell just from the look of you that you are no ordinary fae."
Argana sat down on the nearest bench, folding her hands in her lap, her gaze on the girl.
"Although she did not mean to do it and she didn't know it would happen, Bailey claimed you as her familiar. She's both a mage and an elf, which only four people know. Forged from powerful bloodlines, she's the result of her grandfather's folly and her mother's arrogance. You are bound to her for life, connected at an intrinsic level. There will be no returning to your world or your kind, nor will they take you back with that upon your hand."
Their eyes met as Argana's words sank in.
"That is not possible!"
"Yet, t'is. The mark mirrors its function in you. Whatever fae blood your human features hide, you are as bound as your mistress. Depending on the power of your heritage, using whatever gift or powers you may have might be impossible, and if it isn't, their use may come at a great physical toll. I believe you've seen what it does to her."
She frowned.
"I also believe that for this to have worked, you are a shifter of some sort and a strong one if you carried her around."
"You cannot be serious?!" Derya said, trying to access her wolf, but something separated her from it.
Was it just her physical weakness?
No.
This cannot be happening!
"How could you do this to me after I saved your life?" she lashed out as she popped onto her feet and turned toward the girl, but what she saw there stopped her in her tracks.
"I didn't know," tears flowed down her cheeks in twin iridescent blue streams, staining the paleness of her cheeks.
Her hands fisted in helpless fury.
She had sacrificed her way home by saving this young woman, and now she could never return. She wasn't even a wolf anymore, just... whatever she was now. But Bailey's sorrow and despair were as pungent to her as her anger must be to the halfling, and with what happened in town, having taken three lives... guilt consumed the youngling like the fae fires of Tarutara.
"You smell human. Why do you not fear her, and why do you care for her?" Derya asked, at least still having her werewolf senses.
"Her mother was my half-sister. I raised Bailey and our prince, despite being only fourteen years old when Cicily died. They are my only family, as I am theirs."
"How do you know so much about mage magic and who put the mark on her?"
Argana's gaze measured her response as if she found Derya's reaction strange, but she did better accepting a situation she understood.
"I was born a full mage, and I put the mark on her."
"Then you can take it off."
That was only logical.
"No. Bailey's elven and mage magics were spiraling out of control, and she was more powerful than anything anyone had encountered before. A mere tantrum as a toddler shook the walls and sheared off a cliff face.
"If the humans found out, they would kill her, so I bound her gifts with the sigil. Unfortunately, it required a sacrifice—every ounce of my magic, leaving me immortal but human. She was three, and accessing any of her magic should be impossible."
She held out her arms, and Bailey didn't need a second invitation. The mage held her ward close and kissed her hair, rubbing her back as the girl sobbed.
The look in her eyes was the love and guilt of a mother who had sacrificed everything to keep her child from harm and failed.
"What the hell happened?" a man's voice demanded, his boots angrily slapping against the wide stone tiles.
His dark gaze took in the massive old room and settled on Derya with a frown, his hands fisted, his broad shoulders tense, and his manner clipped until his gaze fixed on Argana and her charge. The anger drained away to almost nothing, his eyes softened, and his shoulders became less tense.
"Derya?" Argana prodded, not quite in full possession of the facts.
"Bailey went to see if the hu... people really burned the oracle." Was she supposed to say that word in front of this human male? "Three humans spotted her, seemed to know who she was, and didn't seem to think you'd mind if they availed themselves of your sister's body before executing her." His gaze shifted to her, and the fury firing his expression was impressive.
"She did something, and they were just gone, but she collapsed, and I saved her."
"What do you want for your act of kindness and your silence?" he asked, seeming to think she did it for some kind of reward.
To be fair, if she were him, she'd draw the same conclusion.
"This is more complicated than a bit of coin, nephew. Derya is not some mere human, she's fae royalty, or she was until your sister claimed her and ripped her from her world," Argana said calmly as she wiped Bailey's face with her sleeve as if she were a child.
"Claimed? How is it possible? Will it wear off?" he asked, pouring a cup of wine and just staring at it as if it would give him answers before taking it to his sister and offering it to her.
"Yes. She's Bailey, and no." Argana sounded tired.
"Take this; it will calm you down," he said, and the girl took it, avoiding his gaze, but he gently lifted her chin.
"I know Andina was your friend, but you should not have gone there. Dawn will bring the villagers sniffing at our door, and we cannot afford it. Lettie offered the four guards some of her mulled wine, and come morning; they will not remember your spectacular entrance or the last two days of their lives. Hopefully, that will remain so."
"Now, what do we do with another fae?"
"We give her back as much as we can of what we took from her since the sigil binds her and she had no place to go. A blood debt we owe her twice over," Argana said firmly, and her gaze battled with that of her nephew.
"If the people ever discover what she is, there will be hell to pay. Is this wise?" he asked.
"It is right. That is what it is."
"I don't understand," Bailey said, once again calm and in control of herself, but there were dark shadows in her eyes, and they would always remain.
She was not the only one that didn't follow this exchange.
"Marriage, Bailey," he said, glancing at Derya. "Rank, wealth, power, and safety.
The only things we can offer her in exchange for what we took."
"I took," Bailey corrected, "by disobeying you, and now you both have to pay the price? That is not fair!"
"Life is seldom fair."
"Safiya will have a fit. She's been sharpening her teeth to become your wife for five years," Bailey reminded.
"And she arrives in ten days for the harvest festival. Unless we present her with a sanctified union, she'll find a way to stop this from happening," Argana agreed with Bailey.
"Have you forgotten something?" Derya asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.
"Would you choose to live in this castle with everyone thinking you are my nephew's side piece? Would you like to have the coldest, bitchy woman alive ruling over you and Bailey? And what about being shamed and humiliated daily—if Safiya doesn't insist on having you both sent away to their mountain castle where you will not be protected? Or would you rather rule and not have to hide in the shadows?"
"None of those appeal to me."
"Yet they are the options you have," he said, and she frowned at him.
"You are not overly concerned or opposed to marrying a stranger and a fae."
"You screwed up your life to save my sister. That was a choice, and it marks you as noble and honorable. I would much rather marry you than be forced into a union with a woman who hates my sister and thinks her an abomination but covets my position enough to take my name.
"The Princess Safiya of Afalgar will not stop hammering at me until I give in, and then she won't stop nagging and emotionally torturing my sister until I send her away for both our good."
"There is a price on my head, and if my father finds out I married a human, he will have me killed for shaming our legacy after breaking a cardinal law. He will think I did it to be with you."
"That is true whether you marry me or not. He will assume you are my lover since you now live in my castle."
"How did this day happen?" She stalked a few steps away and wished she could punch something, but her hand still hurt. "How do I even know this bond thing is true?"
She turned on her heel, facing them.
Argana slapped Bailey lightly in the face, and Derya touched her tinkling cheek.
"You two will have to figure out how to manage that. It is dawn, and we will soon have company—time to rest. Are you going to accept the hand you've been dealt or try to run from it?" Argana asked, getting to her feet and yawning.
"She's a practical woman; she'll do what is right for us all," he said, hugging his sister as she walked up to him and holding her for a minute.
"You did the right thing, little one. I only wish it didn't have to happen, but your life is more precious to me than any other living creature. No matter the consequences, I'd kill anything that threatens you with my bare hands."
"What if someone saw me and recognized me?" she asked, looking fragile compared to him.
"We will deal with it."
The look in his eyes convinced Derya he would.