Kingsbane

Chapter 32

Siva sat on the edge of the bed, arms secured to the bedpost, his head resting on it's cool wood. "Siofra." He snarled, his voice almost as thick with arousal as his cock. "Knock me out. I can't do this."
Siofra turned from the window, where she'd been a semi-permanent feature for the last two hours. "There's no choice." She breathed, her eyes downcast as she dropped her robes, her bare skin shimmering like milky silver in the moonlight. She quickly braided her hair as she slowly approached him. "Please, be gentle. It is my first time."
"Put your clothes back on."
"Siva, we have to. Faery-"
"Fuck Faery! What has Faery ever done for you!? We're just being used!"
"Stop shouting." She commanded, drawing a bed sheet around her. "If we don't do this then our people will die."
"I won't do it."
"Is this about Grayson?"
"No, this is about the lack of fucking common sense! Two people who do not love each other should not be made to bring a child into the world. How many Queens before you were forced to do such a thing? Name them!"
"There were none."
"Give Faery an ultimatum. Make it right, or die. It's that simple."
"How is threatening the deity that sustains our existence simple? Are you even hearing yourself?"
Siva looked her in the eye. "I can not further sully my brother's memory. Find someone else. I won't do it."
"Sverre would want us to do our duty!"
"Would he?!" Siva bit back.
She raised her hand as if she was going to slap him, but just like her determination, the blow crumbled before it had fully formed.
"I don't know." And she didn't. She had no clue. What did Faery want from her? In a land were love supposedly conquered all, why was she being made to do this?
'Wait for me.' His voice reverberated around her heart like a ricochet bullet, as she moved about her room as if the answers were engraved somewhere on the cold stone beneath her feet.
"My Lady!" Blair cried through the door suddenly. "Siofra!"
"What's happened?" She inquired, her stomach twisting in knots and her heart fluttering. The familiar hum in the air began, and she knew. Faery finally gave her the clarity she'd been praying for and her heart was full to bursting. Blair entered, her eyes running with tears and a huge smile across her face.
"Unseelie has bloomed!" She cried happily. "It's happened! Father Faery has finally granted forgiveness!"
'Wait for me.'
"Siofra, untie me." Siva snapped, pulling at his restraints. "I want to go."
He went unheard. Faery's buzzing and her own immense excitement drowned out all his pleas. She didn't even hear Blair's energetic babbling. All she heard was the thrumming of magic in the air and Sverre's voice blowing through every crevice of her being.
'Wait for me.'
"Siofra! Damn it, come on!" The King roared, furious. "Blair, undo these sheets!"
Blair began to do as he'd asked while the Queen donned her riding clothes, but before the woman had gotten halfway through the knot, Sio grabbed her arm and whisked her out the door.
"SIOFRA!"
Beyond irritated, the King began to pull at the knot with his teeth. Thankfully, Blair had managed to loosed it for him. With a little furious persistence he was finally able to free himself. He shook his hands to return the feelings in his arms and bolted out the door.
He passed a few chittering servants on his way, but none of them questioned him. Just as he took the corner, his frantic sprinting was brought to an abrupt halt. Rafferty didn't even move as Siva collided into him. The impact caused the smaller man to stagger backwards.
"What are you doing?" The General inquired, catching Siva's wrist and steadying him. "Shouldn't you be with Siofra?"
"Haven't you heard? Unseelie bloomed. Sio ran out and left me tied to the bed. I just got free." He explained quickly, "Come on, we-"
"Siva." The tone in his friend's voice made him sick, spoiling his excitement and killing the effects of the drug.
A chilling fear spread throughout him, numbing his limbs and causing his face to tingle. He felt the flush drain from his cheeks, a long with any small, lingering happiness. "What is it?"
"Grayson's taken a sudden turn for the worse." Raff sighed, "I'm sorry. Avalbane says his organs-"
That was all he heard. Leaving Rafferty standing there, he took off again. Forgetting about the miraculous events in Unseelie, he hurried toward his private chamber where his lover lay. What did it matter if that cursed wasteland bloomed if Grayson withered?

* * * *

Sverre sat on the hill where he always had, every night for years. The difference was that now, the ground was soft beneath him, carpeted with thick grass. He was not alone, either, as was the previous norm. Sed stood beside him, arrow notched and ready to punish any who dare step past the barrier his men had made at the base of the incline. Sverre had no want for the questions, accusations, and misplaced worship the gathering crowd offered him. All he wanted was his woman.
"Why don't we just go straight to the castle? Wouldn't that be easier?" The younger Fae inquired with a sigh.
"No." Sverre mumbled around the butt of his pipe, throwing another stick into the small fire burning near his feet, sending the familiar blue smoke into the sky. "We'd be mobbed. Besides, this is more romantic."
"Romantic? You're sitting in the dirt, smoking a pipe and wearing your brother's clothes. How is that romantic?"
"Grass." Sverre corrected.
"So the quality of the ground makes the difference?"
"Just you wait and see. This is going to be a moment talked about centuries from now. It's practically a book already." He smiled and straightened his crown. He felt Faery thrum beneath him, felt it's power surge within him, and heard it's breezy whisperings in his soul. She was here. "Watch and learn, boy. You're about to witness my life's greatest moment."
Before Sed could question him, the throng of people around the hill hushed and parted. Siofra's old gray mare trotted down the path they made for her. She was dressed simply, in boy's clothing, and her hair was pulled back, but to him she'd never looked more glorious. He was eager to feel her against him, he could hardly bare to stand there watching her approach. She stopped the horse at the foot of the hill and dismounted, her eyes never leaving him.
"Faery has released Siva from his title, and given it to me in his place." He proclaimed. "Along with the ability to harness Faery's purest power." The mass of people began to murmur, but Siofra barked out a sharp command to remain silent.
"So, Father Faery heard my demands after all?"
"You were never intended to marry my brother, Siofra. From the very beginning you were mine. Before we even had breath to breathe, we were fated for this. All of it." Unable to resist a moment longer, she began to make her way toward him.
"Why? Why was this much suffering necessary?" The audience around her was forgotten as he reached out to her. Tears ran openly down her face and she could not contain the joy inside of her. Her skin began to glow white like the hottest fire when their skin met, and he smiled that handsome smile that sent any doubt in her heart fleeing.
"Our people had forgotten love." He replied, pulling her into him and lifting her chin. "And I will personally be sure they never will again."
A pulse of power shook the world around them as he kissed her. Flowers sprouted and bloomed around them and trees that should have taken years to grow, cracked and twisted up from the soil, bearing ripe fruit and verdant foliage. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tangled her hands in his long hair.
Her stomach clenched and her entire body began to quiver with need. He laughed against her lips and ran a hand down her side, splaying his fingers over her waiting womb. Faery gave him the go ahead he'd been waiting for, and with a stomp of his boot, a opaque barrier went up around them.
"What's happening?" She whispered pulling away.
"I'm about to ensure an heir to the throne." He breathed. "Before anything else can be done, Faery demands this of us."
"Here?" It wasn't that she had the slightest problem with his request, it was simply that she could not believe the miracle before her.
"I sat alone here for centuries, Siofra, only able to wordlessly profess my love to you, praying for just one more touch." He cast his crown aside and shrugged the rob from his shoulders. "Tonight this same ground will see those desires realized."
That was good enough for her.
She allowed him to take her to the ground, his blue eyes shining brightly with excitement. Unlike with Siva, everything he did made her crazy, and the thought of bearing his child only made aroused her more. She couldn't wait to spend every day together, to sleep next to one another every night, to never again cry out in the lonely dark.