“A guest—an important guest?” Chance appeared surprised.
Royce made no remark to this, but she looked from father to son. Chance’s father was excited, but he obviously meant to keep it a secret until they returned to the house.
“Aye, coom then—she will arrive at any moment, and we must be there to greet her,” Chance’s father said as he rubbed his large hands together and started to lead them towards the house.
“Her—an important her?” Chance pursued the subject.
“Aye, then, coom … now … coom along—hurry.” He touched Chance’s shoulder, and since Chance had a hold of Royce, they shifted all three together to the large, bright, beautifully furnished receiving room of the manor house.
Chance exchanged a meaningful glance with Royce, who shrugged her shoulders; however, she knew more than she was letting on and was a touch nervous about it as well.
She had experienced a short flash that had given her this information, but she decided to keep quiet on the subject and allow it to play out naturally.
Chance sighed and moved over to the sideboard where coffee and food had been laid out on hotplates. He poured three cups, giving one first to Royce and then another to his da. As he sipped, he eyed his father and asked, “Who is this person?”
“Not just a person,” said his father, beaming proudly.
Suddenly the room was filled with a circular aura of gold dust, and Royce smiled with anticipation.
Chance’s eyes narrowed as dawning flitted across his face. His father went forward towards the gold dust.
Queen of the Seelie Fae Aaibhe stepped into the room.
She was stunning. Her white-gold hair fell in waves down her back to her waist. Her gown of sheer white and silver was embroidered with silver sparkles throughout and clung to her tall, provocative figure. Her manner was easy as she gave them all a soft smile of greeting.
Morgan LeBlanc inclined his handsome head and extended his hand. She allowed him a moment as he took her fingers to his lips. Her iridescent eyes smiled at him, and then she glided towards Royce.
Unceremoniously, Royce dove into her arms. “Forgive me, my Queen … but the Fallen Druid was not human when he was killed.”
The queen patted Royce’s head and answered sweetly, “I know, child … the Fallen Druid was scarcely human when I imprisoned him all tho—”
Royce drew back and looked at her as she unthinkingly cut her off. “Then … you aren’t here to send me into a mountain?”
The queen’s laugh was light and musical. “I am here to commend you and see for myself that you are healing …” She turned to Chance. “I know that you are responsible for her well being.” She inclined her beautiful head. “Thank you.”
She turned then and walked over to Chance’s father. “Morgan, you have a lovely home. The wonder is that I have never been here before.”
“We must repair that in the future,” Morgan said earnestly. “You must come often.”
She gave him a smile that
said nothing and yet did not say no. “Is that coffee you are all drinking?”
He gave her his arm and led her to a ladies chair. “I shall fetch it for you, Queen Aaibhe.”
“Morgan … we are way past formalities after all these years.”
“Indeed, Aaibhe … formality was never my strong suit,” he said and gave her a lingering look.
“Ah, but you have so many other … strong suits,” she answered sweetly.
Royce watched this exchange with interest. What was going on here? She looked at Chance, who looked dumbfounded and whose lips had parted to allow his lower lip to drop.
Aaibhe glanced across the room at Chance and Royce with a quick smile. Then a quiet, solemn expression came over her face as she said, “As it happens, I am also here because I have remembered something disturbing that you need to know.”
They waited for her to proceed.
“The Dark King, as you might have heard … or not, experimented with time travel. You see, in making his human love and consort, Crystal … more Fae than human, something went wrong. The spell combined with the elixir produced an unexpected side effect. It left her … infertile. She wanted children. The Dark King believed if he went back in time, before he had given her the elixir, he could get her with child and then simply make both his consort and their child immortal.” She paused for a long moment and then said sadly, “I do not like conjecture. Guessing is a dangerous thing, but I shall venture this guess, for I have no way of knowing the truth. It is my belief that Pestale watched his father perform time travel experiments and learned the trick of it. It is my belief that when the Dark King, at both his beloved’s and my request, gave up the notion of reversing what had been done, Pestale stole the Dark King’s Time Relic, and I believe he has it now and plans to use it to go to a past where he will cause havoc if he attempts to alter it. He cannot co-exist in the past. He cannot live in both the Dark Realm and somewhere else at the same time. It will cause a fissure. We must either stop him or return him to the present by finding and removing the Time Relic from him.”