The Fox’s Tale

“Proof? Proof of what?”

“Treachery.” Together we explained to Esmeralda our theory about the attacks, the possible alliances that Peregrine made, the evidence we had so far and who our suspects were.

“Alastair? You think Alastair is not truly a Fae?”

“Mathair Mhor, I know you like him, but he is horrible to everyone but you.”

Esmeralda looked at all of our faces in turn and shifted her seating position. “I realize that he’s rather vulgar at times, but to accuse him of being… I don’t even want to say it.”

“He smells wrong, your majesty,” I insisted. “He might not be a, you know, but he’s not Fae.”

“Plus, Quinn says his magic is weak,” explained Ellery.

“and ill fitting,” added Quinn.

“Esma, we know they’re involved somehow. Alexander had the same mark behind his ear that was found on Rowan after she…” Lucas looked away. “The handbook further proves their connection, and involvement with my father.”

“But if what you all say is true, then why have the attacks only been focused on my heirs? Why not come after me as well? Usurp the throne that way?”

I sat back. “Legitimacy. A full fledged insurrection would cause chaos and possibly resistance, but if they infiltrate the royal family through forced marriages and pregnancies then they can take over from within.”

“Again, you ignore that I can also be made pregnant, to the best of everyone’s knowledge that is. No one has ever laid an unwanted hand on me for hundreds of years,” protested Esmeralda.

Quinn winced. “The female branch of your family tree wasn’t exactly lighting it up with fertility, your maj. You didn’t have Rowan until you were one hundred and eighty four. Your mother was one hundred and sixty before she had Drystan and one hundred and seventy five when she had you. Your grandmother was one hundred and ninety five before she had Isolde, and Isolde’s grandmother was two hundred or something when she had Lady Arabella.”

“How do you know so much about my family tree, Meridian?” asked Esmeralda.

Quinn got a sheepish look on his face. “Well, you see, Plum and Ola liked to play this game with me-”

“Enough, Quinn,” Lucas said in exasperation. “We do not need the intimate details of the types of games those two played with you while they had you in their clutches.”

“Luc, I know you didn’t approve, but honestly they aren’t bad eggs. Besides, they let me go when I asked them to, so it wasn’t like I was held prisoner.”

Lucas bristled. “Don’t sit there and pretend that you were content in that arrangement for the entire ten years.”

Quinn spread out his hands. “I wasn’t not happy.”

Esmeralda broke into a fit of giggles. “You were miserable by the end, Meridian. Why else do you think I intervened?”

Quinn and Lucas looked at her in disbelief. “Come again?” asked Lucas.

Esmeralda turned to Ellery. “Is your Other as unobservant as mine? Or is this simply my hair shirt to wear?”

Ellery covered her mouth with her hands to keep from laughing and Esmeralda turned back to Lucas who glowered.

“Did Quinn not ever tell you what prompted him to tell Plumeria and Oleander that he wished to leave?”

Quinn opened his mouth to speak and Lucas shushed him. “No. Please enlighten me, Esma.”

“I arranged for Plumeria to bring him to the palace for some trifle of an errand, and then created a fake crisis for the High Council to deal with, forcing her to leave him alone. Then I sent Ellery and Rhiannon to find him to get him to play with them. Some normal, non-sexual game, mind you.

“When Plumeria returned he said he wouldn’t go back with her, as I suspected he would. Plumeria acquiesced because she had witnesses to his desire to break up the arrangement. Had he expressed his desire to leave when they were alone, or worse, on Oleander’s property, he would not have been given his freedom.”

“Come off it. Ola and Plum aren’t like that.”

“You underestimate their infatuation with you and your,” Esmeralda glanced at his crotch and Quinn’s mouth fell open in shock. “They still bitch and moan about how their sex lives haven’t been as fulfilling since you left, no matter how many other males they’ve brought into their beds. They’d have used every underhanded tactic to make you stay.”

Quinn shoved his hair back and winced. “Really?” he asked, incredulous.

“Yes. Do not return to them, Meridian. Despite your dreams, your heart does not crave a harem; it craves the acceptance that comes from finding your Other.” She sat back with a satisfied smile on her face.

“Now, do you have any other proof that it is specifically Alastair?”

We lapsed into silence as we mulled over her question. Esmeralda’s smile grew even more smug.

“As I suspected.”

I snapped my fingers. “The door! When he showed up uninvited and unannounced at Yule he gained entrance to our home by using acid on the lock. If he were Fae he wouldn’t have needed to do that.”

“Alastair came here at Yule? Whatever for?”

Ellery answered. “He said he was there to deliver a message from you, about how hurt you were by my behavior at dinner, and that I had chosen to not spend Yule with you. Then he made a lewd comment about how my subjects deserved to see more of me.”

Lucas growled and Esmeralda gulped. “I told him that in the strictest confidence!” She stood up, furious. “I wished that Rowan were still with me so that we might have all enjoyed Yule together, that your father had been someone other than who he is so that I wouldn’t have to share you with him.”

Angry tears fell down Esmeralda’s cheeks. “But of course, if he was then you wouldn’t be you, and I love you, dearest, and I know your father does too.”

“Mathair Mhor, why did you keep Jones away from Mama when she had me?” Ellery asked, choking on her emotions.

“Do you have any idea how bitterly I regret that decision?” Esmeralda’s voice shook. “When Rowan was born, she needed blood, as all infant Incorruptibles do. Lydia had prepared me for that-”

“My mother knew Rowan was mine?” choked out Lucas.

“What? No. I certainly didn’t tell her. I just asked a number of questions about Quinn’s birth when he was still an infant.” She looked at Quinn and Lucas’s shocked faces and hurried to explain.

“I know it was a secret, but Lydia confided in me when she was pregnant, and I never told a soul. At any rate, with Ellery we were in uncharted territory. We had no idea what you would look like when you were born, or how you’d act. Rowan and I were both afraid that Jones would harm you and possibly her if he realized that you were partially Incorruptible.”

“Rowan knew?” Esmeralda looked up at Lucas with an expression so filled with pain and regret that I had to choke back tears. She nodded. “I see.” Lucas looked away. “When did you tell her?”

“I didn’t. That is, I confirmed her suspicions when she confronted me.”

“When?” Lucas ground the word out.

Esmeralda let out a shaky breath. “When she told me she was pregnant.” She turned away from the faces staring at her.

“I didn’t believe her when she told me Jones hadn’t marked her. He’s a Sinclair, they’re notoriously kinky bastards, and I thought Jones a spoiled, over indulged child at the time.”

She reached out for Ellery’s hand and patted it. “This was before I got to know him. I don’t think that now, dearest, but the men in your family are kinky bastards.”

“I am aware.” Ellery steadfastly avoided making eye contact with me. “What happened, Mathair Mhor?”

Esmeralda sighed. “We fought, the only time we ever did. She told me she and Jones were not manipulative schemers like I was. When I asked her what she was referring to, because I had always done my best to be open with her, she said ‘I know Lucas is my father.’ Then she accused me of using you for my own selfish reasons.

“She said I was no better than my parents had been, and that if I truly loved you nothing would have kept me from you. I felt as if I had been disemboweled, that my own beloved daughter thought so little of me because of a situation beyond my control, and so I told her everything.

“I’m not sure she ever fully understood why we needed to keep it a secret from you, but she agreed to say nothing until we could tell you as a family. Of course, that never happened.”

“Why did you have to keep it a secret?” I asked.

Esmeralda scowled at me. “You’re smarter than this, Alexander. Do you think that the distrust and dislike of the Incorruptibles began with Peregrine’s machinations? Do any of you have any idea how hard I’ve had to work to create stability in that realm all while maintaining a façade of decadent frivolity? I care deeply for my subjects, but I could give two shits for the throne itself.

“I would burn it all to the ground, even that horrid palace, if I thought it would help, but all that would lead to is a power grab. Revealing that Lucas is not only Rowan’s father, but my Other when there is so much unrest would put him in harm’s way, something I would never, ever do. Incorruptibles do not take Chosens for that very reason. Kill their Chosen and they will die as well.”