Page 24 of Destined for the Fae King

“Prince Lysandir.” I dip a little curtsy. Bailey echoes me and does the same.

He waves his hand. “There’s no need for that on my account.” To the kids, he asks, “What are we working on here?”

I’m sure he already knows, but he smiles and nods along as some of the younglings explain the game. Askar does most of the talking, finally releasing Lysandir’s hand so that he can gesture in broad motions about the things we’ve built.

“Miss Mira and Miss Bailey are great builders,” Kispet pipes in.

“I’m sure,” Lysandir replies with a wide grin at Bailey and, to my surprise, me.

In fact, it doesn’t even look the least bit forced, which shocks me enough to make me sit back down on the grass. To my continued bewilderment, Lysandir sits on the grass a few feet away, his legs crossed in front of him.

Askar all but climbs into his lap as he asks, “Can you tell us about the tournament? You said you’d tell me about it, but you haven’t yet.”

Bailey looks up from where she’s helping one girl with a block. “We’re going to have a tournament?”

Lysandir shakes his head and opens his mouth to reply, but another boy answers for him. “No, the tournament in the Court of Air!”

I’ve heard of it of course. Most up on coven news probably have, even though our coven has limited ties with the Court of Air. Still, it’s a rare thing for a human to participate, much less win, to say nothing of the fact that it was the King of Air’s mate, Wren. Or rather, I guess she wasn’t exactly his mate then but is now. Anyway, it should have been the biggest news of the year, but with the happenings involving the Unseelie court, the supposed rise of an Unseelie King, and two previously untracked gifted families now having members as consorts of Seelie royal courts… Well, it’s been one hell of a banner year.

“Ah, where to start?” Lysandir muses, as if setting in for a long tale. He tips his head toward the sun, basking in its light.

The younglings all move to sit near the prince, a few so close they’re touching him, though he doesn’t seem to mind. He even pulls Askar into his lap and says nothing when a young girl leans on his knee.

“The Court of Air was not eager to let an outsider compete in their tournament,” Lysandir begins before pausing for dramatic effect. “But I can be quite convincing when I need to be.” His gaze flicks to me for the briefest moment, and something does a little flip in my chest.

“Did you fight your way in?” one of the boys asks as he leans in eagerly.

“No. That would not have earned me entrance,” Lysandir replies. “I explained the benefits of positive relations between our courts to one of their senior advisors, but I don’t think that’s what you all want to hear about. You want to know about the challenges I competed in, right?”

A chorus of agreement follows from the kids, and I have to admit, he’s piqued my interest too. The little girl Bailey was helping has given up all interest in blocks and joined the others, so Bailey settles in near me to listen as well. Lysandir takes his time telling the kids about the competition—the feats of skill, bravery, and even luck that he participated in. As he talks, he gestures with his hands and pitches his voice up and down, even changes his tone completely to voice a few of the others he encountered. I’ll give it to him; he’s a great storyteller and even better with the kids.

Even so, I can’t keep my gaze from wandering across the oval toward the king. He does something I can’t quite see, and all the nearby kids cheer for him. He seems to eat up their attention, shifting into a pose that elicits more applause. Zoe and Gabriella both buzz around him until he moves from their group onto another with Katherine and Grace. He hasn’t even bothered to look our way.

“What did you plan to ask for if you won?” one of the kids asks.

I glance back at the prince just in time to see his smile abruptly fade. He looks away, down at the ground before giving himself a little shake so subtle most of the kids probably miss it. “I saw something I would change if I could.”

A few of the kids gasp.

“In one of your visions?” a little girl asks. Others clamor for more details.

Seelie fae magic is linked to the power of the court itself and the territory in which they reside. Some skills are court specific,but others manage to appear at random throughout the various courts. Fae histories say it’s a result of how the ancient queen Aine split her powers ages ago, back when there were just Seelie and Unseelie. She felt her power and life force fading but could not decide which among her children should inherit her magic when the time came. Rather than leaving it up to the magic to decide and because she loved her children dearly, she split her powers among them and faded away.

Fae scholars argue over whether she simply did not section off some of her powers and thus they went to all courts or if she intentionally planned it. I suppose we’ll never know, and it doesn’t really matter. But one of the rarest magical gifts to appear among the fae is the gift of foresight. Some fae blessed with it may only get a few visions in their lifetime, but Lysandir with his royal blood, is powerful, and so is his gift.

“Do your visions always come true?” I ask.

The kids stop and look between us.

Lysandir blinks at me, a hint of surprise in his features before he nods. “Yes, the ones that have the chance to be fulfilled. Not always how I expect or in exactly the way I see, but yes.”

It must have been something truly terrible then, whatever he saw, to make him go to such length to try and change it.

“You won’t tell us what it is?” Askar groans.

“Not today.” He pats the boy on the shoulder.

Askar looks up at him with big, golden eyes. “Tomorrow?”

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