A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(38)

“Because we must.”

“Why though?” I take a step toward him and the wolf matches my pace. The idea of advancing on the king with a beast of the Fade emboldens me some. “Stop…stop shutting me out, please. If you’re really sorry for how you’ve acted, here is your time to change it. If you want me to help you then help me sincerely. Teach me like I asked, don’t berate and put me down.”

His eyes widen slightly and, for the first time, his walls don’t immediately come up. He studies me and I keep myself open, bare before him. This is the last chance I’m giving him, though I don’t say so outright.

“The Human Queen is our link to the Natural World and the redwood throne is her link to the foundations of Midscape. The magic flows through her, and from her, to nurture the earth and give it life. This connection is something that must be nurtured. You don’t sit once and that’s all.”

“Wait, are you saying that I’m to be magically leeched by the throne regularly?” I say in horror.

“Yes, you charged the earth of Midscape, but the magic you put in will fade over time. So you must continue to sit on the throne to keep fortifying the land.”

“That’s too much…” I wrap my arms around myself, fighting off the phantom sensation of the throne grabbing for me.

“Yes, eventually you will be depleted. As your strength wanes over the year, Midscape will cool, and the earth will wither.”

“Then you cast me aside because I am no longer useful?”

“No,” Eldas says sharply. “You truly think so little of me?”

“You haven’t given me a lot of reasons to think positively of you,” I admit.

He grimaces. “Your magic will grow thin, but you will return to the Natural World when it is most strong—midsummer—to recharge and reaffirm your bonds.”

When I arrived, it was a deep winter here in Midscape. After I sat on the throne, spring bloomed into existence. Summer will come next. As my power fades, so too will the earth.

“Seasons,” I realize. “You’re talking about the seasons.”

Eldas nods.

“When I leave for midsummer in Capton, it will be winter again in Midscape because my power will have grown too weak to keep charging the earth.”

“It will be Yule, specifically. Midscape will swing closer to the Veil than the Fade—closer to death than life. But this is part of a necessary cycle to sustain our world that mirrors yours, but in reverse. We are in the process of resetting the balance now, but it will find its equilibrium soon and everything should be better then.”

Nature requires balance, I think. I feel more powerful than I ever imagined. It is because of me that the seasons will turn in Midscape—there can be life itself.

“Our time apart will also be when I reaffirm my power,” Eldas says.

“How so?”

“You are my antithesis, Luella. You are the queen of life.”

“And you are the king of death,” I whisper, staring up into his frozen eyes. Not for the first time, a twinge of fear blooms in me at the power this man holds. Of course, like the completely sane person I am, I decide to turn it into a joke. “Good to know that we were never meant to get along.”

A flicker of amusement alights his eyes. It’s the first real emotion I think I’ve seen in him and it brings a smile to my lips. At least until he steps forward; then my expression falls.

But Eldas brushes past me to stand before the large stone tablet. A pulse of magic thrums through the air like a winter’s wind as his fingers lightly sweep across the etched words. Liquid silver magic, mixed with the deep blue of twilight, spills across the carvings and pushes back the moss. The air around us grows thicker.

“So you understand, now,” he says. It takes me a moment to realize he doesn’t mean whatever magic he just performed. “You cannot be free of this any more than I can. We are held in tandem, you and I. That is why we must learn to live and work together, as you so aptly put it.”

“No, I don’t understand,” I say.

He looks at me incredulously, as if he can’t believe I could be that dense.

“Well, I do. Sort of. As much as I think I can understand the high-level explanation of an ancient power forged thousands of years ago. What I don’t understand is why everyone has just gone along with it this whole time?”

“Maybe because none of our predecessors wanted to condemn an entire world to be consumed by the death of the Veil?”

“Of course I don’t want to condemn anyone to die. But what if there’s another way?” I say.

“Another way?”

I’m heartened by the flicker of interest in his eyes. I think of my father’s discussions around the dinner table, talk of the council lamenting how there was no alternative to the treaty—wondering if there is another way to be free. The memory of his impassioned voice emboldens me. “Why don’t we try to both be free of this?”

“There is no way to be free of this.”

“Have you ever tried?” I ask. He’s silent. “Has anyone?” More silence. “Why don’t we work toward a solution that doesn’t involve Midscape dying and the worlds being thrown out of balance and one that doesn’t involve war breaking out between wild magic and natural magic? A solution without Human Queens?”