A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(85)

“I’m glad you like it. The Human Queens have tended it alongside the Elf King. These plants were transplanted from the Natural World. Alice said they always helped restore her power when she couldn’t return to the Natural World.”

“You can transplant things between worlds?” I arch my eyebrows.

“It takes significant magic and tending, but yes. The Natural World to Midscape, and the reverse.” Eldas nods. “Hidden away in the Natural World is a mirror of this garden. Alice told me it keeps the plants alive here and can help rejuvenate the Queen—why I thought coming here might help you. She always said a bit of the magic from her world flowed through, enough to make her strong.”

Mirror—balance, is what he means. It’s natural magic—the queen’s magic—suspended between the worlds. Could this somehow be used for the seasons? That’s a lot more magic than just keeping some plants alive. But it could be a start…couldn’t it?

The palm of his hand lands on the small of my back, distracting me. I stand a little straighter.

“Go on, explore.”

We spend the entire day wandering the grounds. It takes all of my energy not to tear apart the cottage for a clean journal so I can begin cataloging all the various plants and noting their needs. This is a dream, I begin to tell myself. It’s a beautiful dream that I will, eventually, wake from. But for now, I will enjoy it. I will delight in the lush gardens, the wild overgrown brush, and the magic that seems to hang as happily in the air as the eager pollinators buzzing from flower to flower.

“What’s up there?” The gravel pathway that snakes between raised beds winds between the trees, slipping into the dense forest and shadow of the mountain in the late twilight.

“The last thing I would like to show you.”

“What is it?” I demand, somewhat firmly. The path reminds me of the temple and that long walk that took me across the Fade.

“It leads to the Fade.” He affirms my suspicion without realizing.

“But I thought that Capton was the only entrance of the Fade?”

Eldas sighs. It’s the only indication I have that he’s shouldering a burden of worry I don’t understand. “Capton is where the Human Queen is chosen from. The act of doing so honors the ancient pact made between the elves and humans, as the first queen’s home was on that isle and the first keystone was placed there—where the Fade itself unfurled from. However…that is not the only point where the Fade can be crossed.”

“Really?” I’d heard whispers in Lanton from time to time…traders spreading rumors about vampir attacks to the south or ships going down in the north due to beasts with wild magic terrorizing the seas. But I thought those stories were like all the other stories of magic from my childhood—grossly exaggerated and grounded in more fiction than fact.

“May I show you?” He holds out his hand. “I will Fadewalk us there, if you’ll allow? Otherwise, it’s a long trek.”

“You may.” I take his hand and the dark mist that is his power envelops us both.

We step through twilight and into a realm of swirling darkness. Every time I walk with Eldas across the Fade it becomes a little easier than the last. Still, this place between worlds—not quite one or the other—makes invisible bugs scuttle across my skin.

I do not belong here, and the entity that is the Fade makes the fact known.

“I recognize this place.” It’s the same mossy clearing I stumbled on with Hook. A circle of smaller stones rings a large tablet at the center of a small rise.

“You think you do,” Eldas corrects. “You’ve never stepped foot here before.”

I look at the stone and its faded writing. “Another keystone of the Fade?”

“Indeed.” The shadows swirl around Eldas as he moves toward the stone. They reach for him hungrily. Tendrils curl around him with eager embraces.

No, I realize. The Fade does not reach for him. It resonates from him. I was blind to the fact the last time we were here. But now that I understand his magic, I can see the corona of midnight darkness that radiates off of him in waves with his every movement.

Eldas reaches a hand to the stone and a pulse of magic thrums out from him. His power no longer rattles me with fear. It echoes in a hollow, needy portion of me that cries out to be filled.

A starry twilight illuminates the engraved words. Writing I don’t understand shines in tandem with Eldas’s eyes. The power sinks into the earth and the Fade around us thickens.

He pulls his hand away and his shoulders sag slightly.

“It is the Elf King’s obligation to tend all the keystones across the Fade. We charge them with our power to ensure that the Fade remains strong. The keystones weaken with time, and when they are weak…the Fade can be crossed by lesser creatures.”

“One man can’t keep up with all the keystones.” I surmise that’s how the rumors of magical creatures wandering my world from time to time were started.

Eldas shakes his head grimly. “Midscape is a fragile balance, pulled taut with time. Generation after generation, we hold our breath wondering if these will be the final years of peace. Most kings focus on the Veil. Keeping the order of life and death is far more important than keeping humans in the Natural World and those of wild magic here.”

“Let me help,” I offer before I can think better of it.