The Endless Series Book Two The Dragons Heart

Chapter Nineteen: Clark Endless

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CLARK ENDLESS

I hadn’t taken Nia up on her offer of making use of the palace staff. I wasn’t that kind of man. I had never been a casual relationship person. Even after I’d found out about Emma and Ben, I hadn’t had the heart to. Emma was carrying my child. I knew it the moment that I had been near her. I could feel the babe, see the babe inside of her.

It was a boy.

My son.

The future King of Faerie.

He grew within the woman I loved, and I was desperate to have both of them by my side. At home, in faerie, where they belonged. I had grown up believing myself to be an orphan. I didn’t want the same thing for my son.

But Emma was right. Nia was right. I’d made a bargain with her that she could have a year, so she had a year. I needed to give her space. I couldn’t force her. Emma had always liked that I was a gentleman, and if I liked the faerie king inside me change into a beast I didn’t want that.

All I wanted was her, and my son, beside me. I would do whatever it took. Even if it meant staying away from her, though it pained me. I tried to keep myself busy by looking into issues of faerie.

I started first with the issue of the Summer and Winter courts. The courts only allowed members of their own to travel to and from by portal, so Nia and I had to make the five days journey by horseback.

We traveled with several advisors I barely knew, along with a few servants. The main girls who always seemed to be at my beck and call were the maids. Breeze, Fall, and Autumn always brought me whatever I needed sometimes even before I had asked for it.

The journey seemed never to end, and we passed most of it in polite, if awkward conversation. I was the first new King they’d had in centuries. I hadn’t earned their trust yet. I could feel their eyes on me, watching me, judging me.

One, in particular, was an older fey by the name of Thaddeus.

Thaddeus was an advisor from the winter court. Since I had become King, he was one of the only faeries who hadn’t even tried to get to know me. “What’s his deal?” I asked one night to Nia, as we were gathered around the camp fire.

“Thaddeus?” Nia was eating from a wooden bowl, some kind of soup mush that was made of nuts and berries. “Thaddeus is the brother of the Winter Lord. He’s been around for as long as I can remember, since Oberon became King, some say. Thaddeus had a young sister once, a young fey by the name of Snow Drop. She was part winter, part summer faerie. A result of a dalliance between his mother and a summer court knight.”

“The Summer Court seems to have a lot of those,” I commented.

Nia shrugged. “That’s what happens from being hot blooded. Anyway, Oberon took a fancy to her for a time. But Oberon being Oberon, he soon moved on. But Snow Drop soon fell pregnant with Oberon’s child. Oberon, not wanting a halfling for his heir, killed Snow Drop by having the Huntsman rip out her heart. Thaddeus challenged Oberon to a duel, and Thaddeus lost his eye because of it. He only kept his other one because he agreed to kill Snow Drops summer court father.”

I made a face and put down my own wooden bowl of mush. I was unsurprised when one of the maids came to fetch it for me, taking it away. They were very, very thorough those girls. “Get him to talk to me.”

Nia raised an eyebrow. “Why? You’ve not shown an interest in meeting a single one of your advisors since becoming King.”

“Because,” I said, “he’s a man whose sister was caught in between a war with summer and winter, and his sister mysteriously died. But Blizzard, or Blizz, has fallen in love with someone from the Summer court. If anyone could make sense of what has happened, it would be him. We need him on our side, whatever conclusion we come to. He’ll be important.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive,” I said.

Nia nodded. “Alright. I’ll speak with him, see what I can do.” She smiled at me. “Careful, Clark. You’re starting to show potential. Keep that up, you might be a real King yet.”

Although I know it wasn’t very King like, I blushed scarlet, a habit from being a redhead. Nia got up, and went to talk to the strange, one-eyed, man who sat watching us curiously. I nodded politely at him and waited.

He would come to me.

I was certain of it. We’d both experienced loss at the hands of Oberon, in one way or another. If there was anything we could find mutual footing on, it was that. And hopefully that would help with everything.