Chapter Eleven: Clark Endless
1695 Words
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CLARK ENDLESS
When I pictured ruling fey, I pictured having Emma by my side. The entire reason I had wanted to take Oberon down was because I thought we would be King and Queen together. But she wasn’t there. For weeks now, she had been coming then going. Between faerie and the realms. Meanwhile, I was stuck with a position I had never wanted.
I had been born to Tatiana, the Queen of faeries, after her affair with a human. She had conned The Endless family into taking care of me, raising me as their own. I had fallen in love with their daughter, Emma. But she had been betrothed to the faerie King Oberon as part of a bargain. When Oberon had tried to force Emma to become a faerie against her will, then locked her up in a tower to force her into agreeing. When Emma refused, it created a war between them. Emma ended up killing him, declaring me King.
I hoped that the two of us would lead faerie together. But after defeating Oberon, Emma had only stayed with me a full week before announcing that she was going back to the human world.
Now, she was gone, back in the human world. I had to keep my mind busy. I was in the palace’s war room now, with a faerie named Nia. Nia was one of the ladies-in-waiting who had been to protect Emma but since then I had made her my advisor. She was tall, with ebony skin, and curly hair.
“You should start visiting the villages,” Nia said as she sat down in the chair next to me.
“I wanted to wait to do that with Emma,” I told her.
Nia frowned. “Your highness, with all due respect…. I know you want Emma to be your Queen, but you also promised her that you would give her a year to find herself. You have to accept the possibility that she might decide to not be your Queen. Didn’t you say that she had a fiancé before you? That scrawny, writer that was here?”
I frowned at the mention of Ben. He was the one that Emma had been engaged to as a way to try to stop Oberon from marrying her. Now, he was with her, in the human world doing who knew what.
“I know but….”
“No buts,” she said, “your Mother is Queen, and you were born to this role, with or without Emma. These are your people. You have a duty to them.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What about the Queen?”
“What?”
“My Mother,” I said, “when Oberon died, shouldn’t his curse have ended?”
Nia frowned. “I suppose you have a point.”
“She can still rule, and if she can still rule----”
“Are you suggesting you don’t want to be King?”
“The only thing I want in this world is Emma,” I told her.
Nia sighed. “If you want Emma, you should focus on being different than Oberon. Oberon didn’t care about his kingdom. Do you know what kind of monsters work in faerie?”
I stared at her with interest. “Monsters?”
She frowned. “You really are green around the crown, Clark. There’s a reason faeries are into tricks, and bargains. We’re from the blood of fallen angels. Our entire world is not supposed to exist.”
I leaned up against the table, staring at the map that showed the whole of the realm. “How do we start?”
“The dispute between the Summer and Winter courts would be a start,” Nia told me.
“That’s how Emma got injured,” I said, interested once more. During her stay here, Emma had received an injury from an attack from the Summer Court. It was what had started the war between her and Oberon in the first place, and it had been retaliation for the way the Summer and Winter court feud had been handled.
Nia rolled her eyes. “Well, at least that has your attention. Not the way that I’d like, but it is your attention. Do you know how it started?”
“The Winter Lords Daughter?”
She nodded. “Blizzard, or Bliz, fell in love with Solis. One of Solis’s guards was found murdered on the outskirts of the court.”
“Are you certain?” I asked. ‘That seems too obvious. Did you question the guards? Or the rest of the summer court? Perhaps any of the other lords?”
“Question?” Nia asked.
“In my human life, I was a lawyer. We looked into wrong doings, and we held court to decide who was legal and who was illegal.”
“Well this should be perfect for you then,” Nia told me, “we’ll portal between the courts tomorrow, and investigate. As for now…. you are King, and you have no understanding between you and Emma about fidelity for the moment. Might I suggest you indulge yourself a little? Autumn, Breeze, and Fall all served Emma, and they’ve all been extremely curious about the new King. As have many ladies on the staff. Or gentlemen, whichever you prefer.”
I laughed, for the first time since I had taken the throne. “Is that an offer, Nia?”
She snorted. “Hardly. I have other doors I’d like to open, but unfortunately the gatekeeper has been keeping hers shut.”
“Are you ever going to tell me what exactly happened with you and Louisa?” I asked.
“Never,” she replied, “enjoy your evening, your majesty.”
Nia left, and once she was gone, I stared at the map on the table showing the four courts, Spring, Winter, Summer, and Fall. They were each ruled by different lords and ladies that I had yet to meet. What I should have done was visited each, then gotten to know them so that I could form alliances. But I could bring myself to none of those until I knew precisely where I stood with Emma.
I had the same nightmare over, and over. Emma leaving me for Ben. Or worse, Oberon, coming back from the dead to take her from me. But those weren’t the worse ones. The worse were the visits from Lilith.
Lilith, who never gave me a moment to myself.
“Do you have an heir yet?” she whispered into my ear.
I flinched, then turned to face her. She was standing behind me. Tall, with red hair, pale skin, and eyes narrowed like slits. “You said that you would protect her if I gave you my heart.”
“You know as well as I what a heart means in deals. We’re not like you humans. We don’t use colorful metaphors to describe something. You became a fey, breaking our deal, which means you can’t give us your heart. If you wish for my protection to continue with your darling Emma, I suggest you work on completing your end of the bargain. I require a human heart, and since you do not want it to be Emma…. well….”
“My first born is the next best thing,” I said, “I know, you’ve made me perfectly aware.”
Lilith grinned. “Well, at least you listen. That is one thing you’re better at than Oberon.”
“I won’t do that to Emma,” I said.
“Plenty of Kings have bastards, your majesty,” she reached out to stroke my cheek, “it would not hurt anyone if you were to have a little dalliance to complete the deal. I am not even asking that it be Emma’s child, if you wish to spare her the pain. But I am asking that you hold up your end. Have you ever heard of something called the hunt?”
I grimaced. “Run by the huntsman. Used to kidnap young, human maidens to bring them to faerie.”
“Yes,” she said with a nod, “glad to see you’ve done your research. I suggest you use that to your advantage, your majesty. It might even win you the respect of some of your Lords and Ladies. It will certainly win your mine.”
I stepped away from her, turning my back. “I am not that kind of man.”
She laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder as if we were the oldest, and dearest of friends. “Haven’t you heard, your majesty? You’re not a man. You never were. You’re faerie. Embrace it. Embrace it or perish.”
I clenched my jaw. “What if I refuse?”
“Well, then, I suppose that I will have two royal heads to decorate my bedroom. Oberons and Emma’s. They’ll make quite the pair, don’t you think?”
Her laugh bounced off of the walls of the war room, as she disappeared in a puff of black smoke leaving me by myself. All I had wanted was to save Emma, but I feared all I had done was damn the both of us.
But perhaps Lilith did have a point. I needed a human girl, and I needed her now.
On my first night as King, I had been shown all of the portals in the palace. The most important one was a giant mirror, in the war room where I now was. I stood before it, and said, “Home.”
The Endless estate appeared before me, and I stepped in, determined to see my girl.
- Writer
