Heir of Iron Hearts: Iron Crown Faerie Tales Book 2 Read online

  “Chelsea Douglass,” Ivy said.

  “Exactly. What would Chelsea Douglass do?”

  “Anything it takes to get what she wants,” Bear chimed in. “Jules, you might just be the smartest strategist in the room.”

  “That’s why I’m the family outcast,” she said. “I’m always just outside the realm of possibility.”

  Lochlan was on board now. He worried his beard between his thumb and forefinger, turning it over in his mind. “Violet would have had to have wanted something desperately to agree to anything Alena offered. So we need to figure that out.”

  The room was engulfed by silence. Ivy and Jules had zero insight into Violet’s dreams, but Bear had been her guard before he had been assigned to find Violet.

  “If Violet fled to Summer, then maybe there’s something in Summer she wants badly enough to betray her own sort-of mother,” Jules said.

  Bear stopped pacing. “Damarion.”

  “What?” Ivy said.

  “Prince Damarion,” Bear repeated. “The only son of King Zane and Queen Vera—heir to the Summer Throne. The royal family visited the Winter Court about a year ago to strike a new peace accord. Damarion and Violet danced. It was a weeklong affair. They were together in the gardens or in the ballroom almost every day.”

  “Poor Ardan,” Jules mused. “Guess Violet didn’t want him, either.”

  Jules’ comment drew an unusual burst of laughter from Bear. When Lochlan slapped him with a sharp glare, he tried to disguise it as a cough.

  “The theory is plausible, and it’s the best one we have at the moment until we can find someone to corroborate,” Lochlan said. “And I know just who to ask.”

  “Speak of the Devil,” Ivy said, raising her brows at Lochlan.

  She had spotted Prince Ardan walking through the door just in front of Prince Padraic and King Odhran.

  Ivy moved the greet them, dipping into a low curtsy as they bowed.

  “Your Majesty, thank you for coming. Won’t you sit down?”

  Ivy gestured toward the three chairs where she and Ardan had sat down for tea with her mother.

  “I’ll stand if all the same to you,” the King barked.

  “Suit yourself,” Ivy said. “I have requested your assistance because, as I’m sure your sons have told you, the Lady Alena attempted to kill me and my mother and Prince Ardan by poisoning our tea with Oleander. Whether she intended to involve Prince Ardan or not, he was still put at risk. Had he drunk the tea, he could have been killed.”

  “Yes,” King Odrhan said. He narrowed his eyes. “Do we know any more about how the Oleander came to be in the tea in the first place? Or how Summer guards were able to access the royal rooms of the Winter Castle? It’s like a fortress. Not even I can come and go freely here.”

  “Lochlan has questioned the guards on duty, all of them stunned by Summer Magic and silver blades dipped in oil of Oleander.”

  She explained then how Lochlan had managed to revive a few of the guards and get answers before they had died, writhing in agony. The royal cup-bearer had likely been forced to poison the tea. Lochlan had discovered his body in the pantry off the kitchen. She added the details of Violet’s involvement, about how she had tricked Ivy into giving her the Imperial Key.

  “What we want to know,” Ivy said, “is what, exactly, Violet wanted so badly that she would align herself with Alena.”

  King Odrhan gave her a blank stare. “And why, exactly, do you think I would have that information?”

  Ivy bit back a thousand smartass words she wanted to hurl at the King about his despicable son. But it was Padraic who finally spoke.

  “Father, they aren’t talking about you. They’re talking about Ardan.”

  “Me? What would I know about that?” Ardan argued.

  But his voice was too insistent, too offended. King Odrhan slowly turned toward his son.

  “Boy, you’ve been nothing but trouble to me since your mother died, so accusing you of knowing such a thing is not completely beyond belief. So help me, if you know something or if you were involved in any way, you’d better tell it.”

  Ivy had the feeling that the King already knew Ardan had helped Alena escape. No one had accessed the Summer Court through Winter portals, so Alena and Violet would have had to use the Unseelie portals. Not that it mattered. The only thing that mattered now was that Ardan tell them what they wanted to know and that King Odrhan get angry enough at his unfaithful mistress to launch his armies.

  The room grew silent, as everyone slid their eyes toward Prince Ardan. His expression was so panicked, Ivy almost felt sorry for him. When he came out with the whole truth, Ardan would have to explain what had occurred between him and Alena that had prompted him to help her. Not exactly a cozy spot to be in with your fiancé and your father, who was also sleeping with Alena, in the same room.

  “Okay, okay,” Ardan said. “Violet stole the key from Ivy because Alena knew she’d never give it to me. She bribed Violet to do it. You know Violet. Obviously, she was angry at Lyric for lying to her all these years, but Alena promised her she would provide her legal passage to serve Queen Vera—so she could be close to Prince Damarion.” He scrunched his nose as if he’d sucked a lemon. “I still can’t figure out what she sees in him.”

  Ivy exchanged a satisfied look with Lochlan and Bear. She wouldn’t press Ardan for details about why, he was involved with Alena, though it didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess. But before she could move on, King Odrhan took up the subject.

  “What, exactly, did Alena offer to you that would make you complicit in such an underhanded—and illegal—scheme?”

  Beside her, Jules perked up like a popcorn-binging moviegoer. But it was hard for Ivy to watch. Ardan wasn’t her favorite person, but she had a feeling that he wasn’t used to thinking for himself about moral issues beyond his own selfish desires. He seemed to shrink beneath his father’s towering figure. He wore a fearful expression that sent a shiver through Ivy as she recalled the vicious teeth marks that marred his flesh from his last punishment. No wonder he stayed away from the Unseelie Court looking for trouble. He’d never live up to Padraic, and his father’s wrath was as dark as the rules of their court.

  “Answer me, Ardan, or it will be the end of you.”

  Padraic dropped his head massaging the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Clearly, it was difficult for him to watch, too.

  “A few years ago, I was at the Iron Cross, completely wasted,” he said. “I had made a few wagers and played a few bad hands. When I couldn’t pay up, a couple Red Caps dragged me out back. They had just bared their teeth when Alena showed up. I knew who she was, of course. Everyone did. She hung out there a lot. She told them to leave me alone, and then…well…”

  He filled in the rest with a circular gesture of his hand that confirmed what everyone had concluded before he even began his story. King Odrhan looked like Ivy had always imagined the Devil would look. His black gleaming eyes shone like polished, rage-filled stones, but whether he was angry with his son or with his mistress, Ivy couldn’t tell.

  “Father, I didn’t know,” he said. “I never knew that…well, I’d never seen her at the castle, so how could I know? By the time I found out, it was too late. She swore if I ever told anyone about us, she would tell you about the gambling.”

  King Odrhan lifted his head as if summoning strength from the heavens.

  “I am the King of the Unseelie Realm, Ardan. Do you think I never knew about your gambling debts at the Iron Cross? Those Red Caps never would have laid a hand on you unless the order had come from me. Alena probably arranged the entire thing. You were just another moth in her web that night.”

  Ardan looked floored, his face devoid for the first time since Ivy had met him of that arrogant smirk that had come to define him in her eyes. She was ready to move on.

  “Your Majesty, can we count on you to help us bring my mother home? We have lost at least thirty guards in the castle alone that
will have to be replaced, and we have no way of knowing how many casualties are lying in the forest.”

  “Yes, yes,” Odrhan said. “Padraic, I leave this to you and Ardan. I will send the full force of my guard to the Summer Court. But all of you listen and listen well.”

  He met each of our stares in turn.

  “When you find Alena, you bring her to me.”

  “Thank you,” Ivy said.

  “Don’t thank me yet, Princess,” Odrhan said with a smirk. “Your mother signed a contract in blood. I’m honoring the terms of that contract. When this is over, you’ll have to honor yours. Understood?”

  “Understood,” she said.

  “It’s settled then. You know, I like you. You’re assertive, like your mother. I like that. Maybe you’ll even be good for my son.”

  Ivy’s heart pounded. She glanced at Ardan, who was still staring miserably at his feet. Taking a deep breath, she extended her hand toward the Unseelie King. Her hand disappeared in his giant palm, striking a bargain just as unbreakable as the document her mother had signed in blood the night Ivy was born.

  After they rescued her mother from the Summer Court, Ivy would have no choice but to marry Prince Ardan.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Bear was torn between overwhelming nausea and the desire to assassinate the Unseelie Prince as King Odrhan and his sons left Ivy’s room, as if Ivy, not Ardan, had been in the wrong. And now, they had exactly what they wanted. Access to Winter through Ivy.

  Bear had been denying the inevitable for weeks. He knew in his head that Ivy would eventually marry Prince Ardan. But in his heart, he had still carried the hope that Queen Lyric would relent. That somehow, she would find a way to release Ivy from the contract. Plans to extract the queen would be finalized by morning, and with the right strategies in place, Queen Lyric would be back in Winter where she belonged in a matter of hours.

  He tried to meet Ivy’s eyes, but she wouldn’t look at him. She wouldn’t look at anyone. She stared at the floor, visibly stricken by what she had just done.

  None of this had been her fault. Bear couldn’t be angry with her. All the conflict bearing down upon her from all sides had backed her into a corner. Prince Ardan was her only way out. She had been forced to choose between her love for Bear and her long-lost mother, not to mention the future of the Winter Fae. She had made the only choice she could have. And Bear loved her more in that moment than he had ever loved her before.

  Jules tried to wrap her in a hug, but Ivy pushed her arms away.

  “Don’t” she said in a broken voice. “Please, Jules. I can’t even think of this now.”

  Nodding, Jules backed away from her, giving her the space she wanted. Finally, she looked at Bear. Her expression was ghostly, stricken. Now, he saw only a faint whisper of the Ivy he knew at Kingston Academy when the Faerie world had seemed so far away, it could never touch them. He wanted to say something, do something to comfort her, but he couldn’t grasp the right words, the appropriate gestures.

  It was Lochlan, though, who stepped toward her.

  “Your Highness, until your mother returns, Winter is yours to rule. Everyone in this room knows what you just sacrificed for your mother and your Fae. This moment will never be forgotten.”

  Jules nodded, wiping black watery mascara from her eyes. Ivy collapsed into Lochlan then, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her like a father would. Holding her, perhaps, because he knew Bear couldn’t. And he was grateful that someone could give her comfort.

  Before he realized what was happening, Jules crossed the floor and wrapped Bear in a hug. He was stunned for a moment. He and Jules got along great, but they had never hugged before. But then she stretched up on her toes, bringing her face close to his ear.

  “From Ivy,” she whispered.

  With that, Bear wrapped his arms around Jules and looked over her shoulder. Ivy was watching him, icy tears falling like crystals onto Lochlan’s shoulder.

  During his time in the human realm, Bear had heard a song on the radio he liked, something about waiting being the hardest part. At the time, it had struck him as true, but now it held even more truth for him, as he waited for the return of the Unseelie Princes and the forces they had vowed to bring with them.

  Ivy paced back and forth with such concentration that Bear wouldn’t have been shocked to see that she had worn a path through the marble of the floor. Lochlan stood just inside the door, waiting on his second lieutenant to bring him a full report of their numbers and how many casualties they had discovered, while Bear kept watch at the servant’s entry. Jules perched in the window seat, looking from Ivy to Bear to the Iron Cross that marked her arm and then back again.

  Time seemed to creep along until the gray sky darkened to a muted orange as the sun began to set.

  Finally, a knock at the door sent Bear on high alert. Lochlan opened the door to Callum, the second lieutenant in Queen Lyric’s Guard.

  “I have the casualty list and the other reports you ordered,” he said.

  With a nod, Lochlan exchanged a look with Bear. “Guard her with your life,” he snapped.

  “Always,” Bear said.

  Lochlan followed Callum out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  Finally, Ivy stopped pacing.

  “Jules, Padraic and Ardan will be back any minute. I need you to help me into my fighting leathers. You’ll need a set too.”

  “I never thought I’d be thankful for that God forsaken fencing requirement at Kingston,” Jules said.

  “First time for everything,” Ivy said, and then disappeared into her monstrous closet that doubled as a changing room.

  Bear crossed the floor and took up Lochlan’s post, guarding the main entry point to Ivy’s room. They had posted the few remaining guards they had located outside the servant’s entry, so on the off chance that any Summer guards still lingered in the castle, the other door would still be protected.

  A few minutes later, Jules emerged wearing the dark blue leathers of the Winter court.

  “How badass do I look?” Jules asked.

  “Definitely, the most badass human I’ve ever seen,” Bear responded.

  It was true. With her inky spikes and all the metal in her face, Jules looked more than just edgy now. She looked fierce. Intimidating.

  “Ivy needs to see you really quick,” Jules whispered. “I couldn’t get her back lacings cinched the right way.”

  “Um, but I’ve never laced a girl’s fighting leathers before.”

  Jules rolled her eyes. “That I find hard to believe. Just shut up and go see if you can help, okay?”

  Bear shrugged and headed toward Ivy’s closet. When he looked back at Jules, she was gone.

  Weird.

  He peeked inside the closet but didn’t see Ivy, but the room was so gigantic that she could be around the corner where she kept her shoes. He walked inside, heading for the back when the door slammed behind him. He wheeled around with his hand on his blade until he saw Ivy, standing in fully laced fighting gear, watching him nervously.

  “Ivy?” he asked. “What are you--?”

  He never got a chance to finish his question. Before he could utter another word, Ivy closed the distance between them, threw her arms around his neck, and covered his lips with her own. He could hear his pulse thrumming through his ears as she pulled him closer, her breath like cool winter mint in his open mouth. His hands found her hair, his fingers sliding over her scalp as she molded herself to him.

  They shouldn’t be doing this. They couldn’t.

  But as her clean cold scent drifted around him like an intoxicating vapor, he didn’t care. He had spent the last month imagining a moment like this one, scolding himself for thinking it when even looking at her with longing was forbidden by the queen.

  And now he was finally alone with his brave beautiful Ivy, kissing her with all the love he had to offer. All the loved she deserved but could never fully have.

  It was that thought that
sobered him.

  He pushed her away, both of them breathing heavily.

  “We can’t,” Bear whispered. “The Unseelies will be here soon.”

  “Which is exactly why we should,” she countered.

  “No,” Bear said. “It’s exactly why we shouldn’t. Ivy, if Ardan ever suspects that we’ve acted on our feelings, he will find a way to hurt you. Unseelies are callous by nature, but Ardan is cruel. I don’t want you ever to be the target of that cruelty. Especially not when I can prevent it.”

  She blinked furiously, moisture gathering in her eyes.

  “I know,” she whispered. “I know.” She paused. “Bear, I need you to promise me something.”

  “Anything,” Bear said. And he meant it.

  “My first time,” she whispered frantically. She was shaking her head, the tears rushing freely down her cheeks. “My first time can’t be with Ardan.”

  Bear looked at her blankly for a moment before he realized what she was asking. His anguish mingled with pity as it rose from his chest.

  “Ivy,” he started, shaking his head.

  “Just hear me out,” Ivy said. “Please.”

  She looked up at him with all the trust he’d ever dreamed he’d see focused on him, and knew before she even continued that he could never deny her anything.

  “I know now isn’t the right time,” she whispered. “I know. But I have to marry Ardan. I don’t have a choice. I never did. I don’t love him, and I know he doesn’t love me. Please. Please. I don’t want my first experience to be with someone like him.”

  Ivy was leaping over a dangerous line, and if Bear agreed to it, he would be crossing it with her. But what she was asking…the fear in her voice as she said Ardan’s name filled him with dark fury. But would honoring her request only ruin them both? Make things even more painful?

  “Please, Bear,” Ivy whispered. “I know you’ve thought about it. I can see it every time you look at him. You don’t want that for me, either. If you love me, if you’ve ever felt anything for me, please. It has to be you. Because for me, it will always be you.”