Chapter 19

"Give me a lift out of here," I told Caspian.

"There's going to be a thing..." He said.

I was already shaking my head to refuse.

"What will it hurt?" he asked. "It is daytime at home and this will be a proper farewell to one whom we consider a great friend, all of us."

I thought about it. Eric wasn't on his serum so he wouldn't miss me. I would get home before dark.

Say what you want about them, faeries knew how to party. I knew they had no respect for personal space. On the middle plain they feared me enough to keep their distance. No more. Once I was dressed and out of the room, I was hugged, kissed on the cheek, and patted on the back by more people than I could count. There was a baby in my lap and I didn't even know to whom it belonged.

It was a girl. I later found out that her mother was Janiya, a defector from the Water Fae. The father had been a human she didn't know. Whatever her origins, the little girl seemed perfectly happy slobbering on the ring of my left hand. I let her. Thoughts I'd never had before of a child of my entered my mind. It couldn't be now, but with this warm, squirming bundle in my lap I couldn't help the tug I felt in my womb.

The silence from the banquet hall full of people made me look up. They stood as Niall entered the room. I stood too because I felt like being polite. I watched the Sky Prince make his way to the place where I was and bowed his head to me. In sync, the whole damn room dropped to take a knee. I gave him a full curtsy because this was his castle, but there was no way I was taking a knee.

"Sookie Stackhouse," Niall said. "Emancipator of the dead, Seer of those who are living, Defender of the Fae Princess of the Sky and Vampire Kingdom of Nevada,"

I obeyed. Niall took my free hand and clasped it in both of his. I didn't know what to say to that but I didn't have to say a thing. The room erupted in as much chaos as I thought well-dressed faeries were capable.

"Long may she live and evermore will she find an ally and refuge in the Sky wherever she may be," Niall said and that only made the crowd crazier. To think I was missing Jeopardy for this, unbelievable! Still, I had to admit that this much collective joy was almost contagious. It would be infectious if Eric was here, but still there wasn't a single frown or look of indifference to be seen. In the castle were thousands of overjoyed Fae.

Being BFF's with me scored Caspian major points. He had been bombarded with more marriage and mating proposals than he could keep up with. I got my share too. Seeing this whole new world had been great, but I wanted Eric.

Nothing my senses perceived meant anything if I couldn't share it with him. It was more than that; I wanted to go home to all things familiar and real. More than anything I wanted to feel the contrasting temperature of Eric's body against mine.

"I thought this would be enough to make you see that you belong here," I didn't have to turn to know the speaker was Niall. Even here amongst so many Fae, he alone was cloaking. It made him stand out, kind of like a low fat cupcake next to several slabs of chocolate cake.

"You are at the pinnacle of glory here. Mothers are naming their daughters after you, in the hope that their children will reach a fraction on your greatness."

There went the novelty of my name. "You sound like my dad," I told him honestly. "When I was little, he used to fly us to the tallest building in his state and make me jump."

"Obviously he did not allow you to fall to your death. So why would he do this to you?" The Prince asked, clearly baffled.

Our game was done so I let myself smile as I told him the truth. "Because the higher you climb the longer the fall if you fail. He told me never to forget every step that took me where I went, whether I was on an ant hill or a hundred-story Skyscraper."

If by some measure of insanity I was considering staying, there was nowhere to go but down. To stay on top I would have to go back to being the Queen my father had raised, and I didn't want to be her. I valued the lessons she learned, but I loved the woman I became when I was free to feel, free to love Eric.

Niall and I were silent for several minutes. "A part of me hoped that you wouldn't return my powers after I'd imparted them onto you."

Oddly enough I knew that. I felt as though we were alike and that he did too. That was why he had so freely given what he couldn't have easily had returned. He had given his power with a hunch that I was the one person who didn't want them. It would mean being responsible for all these people. I wanted nothing to do with it. If that had been his mode of retirement, he had miscalculated.

"The cost of power is steep."

I didn't want power. I didn't want a throne. I wanted the same thing I'd always wanted, my husband. It hadn't changed no matter who was asking.

He nodded. "Come," he said holding his hand out. "I will return you to your husband."

From across the room, I found Caspian and waved goodbye. He was doing a good job of keeping up with two dance partners, but he managed a wave and smile. I looked around and the faces I recognized stared back at me. Claudine was with her siblings. Dillon, her father, was seated beside the vacant throne that was meant for Niall.

Colman, who had been acting as my arch nemesis until yesterday, was in a quiet corner with his back to the wall. The Sky Ranger was making googly faces at his son while his daughter hung from a sling across his chest. There were many others. Some caught my eye, smiled and nodded. Others were too busy enjoying the moment to notice. Both reactions touched me equally.

Taking the job wasn't just about me needing money, or the blood debt I owed, or me wanting to earn my own stripes. Since that day at the ranch, I'd been carrying guilt about what I'd done to the faeries. My upbringing didn't let me register it. I couldn't see it, but now that it was gone I saw it for what it was. I'd been raised to pay my debts, and now the faeries and I were even.

"I'm ready," I said taking his hand.

When our skin touched, he stilled. It must have been my imagination because he wasn't even looking my way as the scene in the castle began to fade.

It was just after first dark when Niall returned me to my home. With a nod at one another, we parted ways for what was the last time. Eric wasn't in Bon Temps or the house in Shreveport. It wasn't unheard of for him to crash at Fantasia, especially if I wasn't home. That was where I went to wait. Seeing I was already in a pretty dress and smelled like a thousand faeries, I didn't change my clothes. I would go surprise him there.

Early as it was there were some vampires there already. Like a child, I eagerly awaited the one person I wanted most. When Eric walked in he wasn't alone. Ocella was with him at his side. Behind the pair were Pam and Alexei. It was then that I noticed that there was no one in the bar but vampires and a few human employees.

I tapped at Eric's mind and he denied me access. He was making a bee line for me, but his form was…frightening. I felt as if I was looking at a face I knew, but it was no longer familiar. He wasn't sporting my smile. He wasn't even looking at me.

"I am here to free myself of my marriage to you," Eric said.

My mind kind of short circuited, it seemed to trip over every single word a handful of times, making it difficult to make sense of that sentence. Two other vampires slid up on both sides of him. I'd never seen them before. They weren't residents; they looked like vampires in any other monarchy, rigid. One held a piece of paper that already sported my signature. In a distant part of my mind I knew I'd seen the stack of papers before. Eric had given that one piece to me to sign before I left just days ago, before I left for Florida. I hadn't even read it before signing my name! I just thought it was a something to do with Bruce and our taxes.

Beneath my signature was Pam's and across from hers was Ocella's. Eric signed and while every sane thought still left in my mind was screaming for me to act, I just couldn't. I literally watched the ink dry on the dotted line. I looked up to catch Eric's eyes, but he wouldn't look at me. Just as the procession arrived it receded, and then like an elegant dagger Freyda entered the club. The whole thing became sickeningly clear.

'We came from Canada and made way from there.' Ocella had told Eric so very long ago. 'Our stay in Oklahoma was the most pleasant and promising.'

What I thought had been conversation was a plot. I stood there shocked beyond all possible reason. It wasn't until Eric stood beside her did I snap.

"Eric!" I called.

I don't know what I was expecting. It certainly wasn't for him to turn and face me. When he did, all my thoughts evaporated. My eyes were pleading with him.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Don't make it any harder than it has to be."

Ocella chimed in and said, "No, she must certainly should not. She has done enough to you, to all of you."

Ocella was facing the room and a part of me was tracking him, but I was still watching Eric. "Thank you all for allowing me to return so I may free my creation from this mutt." He sneered at me. "She is the reason why Eric is no longer a sheriff. She is the reason why your great queen fell. She is a spy for the King of Nevada!"

The aggression in the room rose. Almost every single vampire had their eyes on me. I only had eyes for one person and he wouldn't look at me. Not even as my secrets were exposed to a roomful of people who would kill me, slowly. He didn't as much as blink.

"Do you deny this?" Paloma asked. I could hear her fangs in every syllable.

I didn't say a thing.

"Damn you! Answer her!" Someone else growled.

My silence should have been answer enough, but not for Ocella. "She is guilty! She is why so many of your colleagues fell. Now is the hour for her to answer her crimes against us, my friends."

With a final look of disgust aimed at me, he turned and left taking Alexei with him. Pam went too, and then Eric. Freyda looked at me, and it was clear that she didn't think I was worth the trip she'd taken to come steal my husband. I wanted to beg him to stay. I wanted to give into the tidal wave of pain crushing my chest. Tears stung my eyes and it was then that my training kicked in. My heart might be on the floor, but my body refused to give into emotion in front of so many people. I held my head high and I stood taller as I faced a bar full of angry vampires bent on revenge.

I was sitting at the little kitchen table in the farm house. I wasn't sure I was awake though. I wasn't sure anything that had had happened today had been real. The banquet in the Fae realm, the…I couldn't even bring myself to say it in my head. I couldn't process it. It couldn't be real. By the presence of the hostile Long Shadow sitting across from me, I knew it was.

Back at the club, Paloma wanted to kill me and she wasn't alone. Indira stepped in and reminded everyone of the system, and there had to be a vote. My guilt wasn't debated because I didn't care to argue it. I was driven back to Bon Temps presumably because no one would hear me scream and there was a handy cemetery next door.

Thalia and Paloma walked into the house. "Indira has the numbers," Paloma said. "It was close, but it has been decided that she is to die by fire."

"That is too good for you," Long Shadow hissed, getting to his feet.

Thalia watched impassively while Long Shadow tied me to the chair where I was seated. I didn't fight. A sick part of me felt like if I didn't fight, Eric would come back if only because I needed him. I waited. The vampires filed out of the house and I waited for Eric. I smelled gasoline and I was still waiting for my husband to come back. I was his mate and he was all I had, he knew that. He wouldn't just abandon me. He couldn't, he had some plan.

I smelled smoke and saw it rise, but I refused to believe that any of this was real. Flames roared as fire consumed the house. Glass cracked and exploded. In the midst of that, I heard my house phone ringing. There was nothing I could do about that or the fact that I was going to burn to death. Strangely, that sounded less painful than what I felt at the moment. When the fire reached the kitchen I watched the path of the flames in morbid fascination. How long would it take for me to die? Would being part vampire work for or against me? Smoke was blinding and suffocating me, and I wondered if I would live to actually feel the bite of the flames.

A pair of hands slammed into my shoulders and yanked, hard. My chair fell back but never hit the ground. The breathlessness and the twinkling of light were familiar. I'd used the Fae mode of transportation enough to recognize it. I came up coughing and gasping for air. Whoever had gotten me out of the house was doing much of the same. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I was actually able to see. I was in back in my dorm room in Florida. Caspian was there beside me. He looked worse than I did. His face was covered in soot. The length of his left arm was sporting a nasty looking burn.

"How did you know?" I asked. Maybe Eric had sent him?

"The Prince had a vision. He said to watch that house. He didn't know why though. I didn't know what to make of it either so I went in search of you. I've been calling too. I stopped at your other house, the vampire bar, and the shifter bar. By the time I arrived back there…" It was almost too late.

Eric hadn't sent him. Eric had left me to fend for myself.

"What the hell happened?" he asked.

It happened then. I fell apart utterly and completely. I cried for so long it felt as if my eyes would bleed. I sobbed so hard it racked my whole body and none of it did a thing to diminish my pain.