Calling Eira Read online

  "No, stop," she insisted, barely concealing a groan.

  How was she going to face all of that? Even the thought of eating and drinking too much was making her feel queasy. At least she'd have a reason to turn down the wine the winter fae loved so much. She'd never developed a taste for it, but that was probably because they seemed to enjoy it for how drunk it made them, and she always decided to not let the alcohol affect her. She couldn't afford a single misstep as Queen.

  "Why is this happening?" She asked, not really needing the answer.

  "Probably all the sex," Rueben responded, a hint of amusement in his voice.

  She uncovered her eyes and stared at her vampire mate. It wasn't like him to make jokes like that.

  "You don't know that," she countered.

  "Except that's how people have been procreating for years."

  "You'd know, you've been around for all of them," Leth threw at the vampire.

  Rueben chuckled. "Exactly. There are things I've known so long that you weren't even born when I mastered them."

  Eira smothered a laugh as Leth's cheeks heated. Rueben tended to be more reserved than her other two mates, but once he got going, he could beat anyone at a verbal spar.

  "That's beside the point. We used protection." If magic could be counted as protection.

  "That doesn't work a hundred per cent of the time," Josh reminded her. "And we could easily have let our spells lapse."

  "Or mine just didn't work. We both know my control over my witch powers is non-existent," she said.

  "You'll get better," Josh assured her. "But maybe now isn't the best time to try."

  She chuckled. "I'd have thought this was the best. We can't have my magic playing up once the baby gets here. What if he or she needs my help in mastering it?"

  "Won't he or she be fae?" Josh raised an eyebrow.

  "I don't even know," she admitted.

  "A girl would be fae automatically," Leth put in. "That's how the fae bloodline works. Any girl is completely fae."

  "And boys?" she prompted, fairly certain she knew the answer.

  "It depends," Leth responded. "Sometimes they come out boring, like me, and have watered down fae magic. Or they can take after their father, and have his magic. And in some rare cases, it can cause hybrids."

  "So what you're saying is that there could be some weird combination of all four of us in there?" Josh asked, gesturing to Eira's stomach.

  She cupped her hands protectively over the non-existent bump. "There's nothing weird about him or her."

  "Of course not." Josh's voice softened. "That little one will be the most loved child in the fae realm. We'll all make sure of it."

  The three men drifted into a conversation about everything they were going to teach their child, and who should be responsible for what. But Eira didn't pay any attention to it. There was plenty of time for that when the baby arrived.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling more settled than she had before. Why had she been worried about telling the three of them? Each and every one of them would make a fantastic Father, and she knew that.

  Together, they could do anything.

  3

  Aknock sounded at her office door.

  "Come in," she called, expecting it to be one of her mates. Not many other people bothered to come by at this time in the morning. She was only here herself because she'd been having trouble sleeping in the past few days. It was too early to be able to feel the baby inside her, but she hadn't been able to shake the idea that she could. Perhaps it was to do with the magic connecting the two of them.

  "Do you have a moment, Your Majesty?" a young fae woman asked as she peeped around the door.

  Eira set down her pen, not having expected the woman to visit.

  "What is it, Samantha?" she asked, gesturing to the chair on the other side of her desk.

  The woman walked in and sat down, wringing her hands together as she took a seat, clearly uncomfortable with whatever it was that had brought her here. Eira's curiosity was piqued, though she knew she had to be patient and she'd find out. She needed to let the fae come to her in their own time or they'd never trust her with anything.

  Most of the people at Eira's court had come to terms with her being their Queen, and they never said anything against her fulfilling those obligations. But then again, they couldn't do anything about it. She was the one who had the magic, and that was more than Yuna's Mother had. Or any of the Queens between her and Nieves. In that regard, the winter fae had no choice but to accept Eira as their Queen.

  But in other matters, the trust was proving hard to win. She needed them to come to her whenever there was a problem, or she'd quickly lose control over them, and who knew what would happen then. She didn't think anyone would go as far as to organise a coup, but they might. And if Nieves losing her powers to Jack Frost was anything to go by, it was fully possible for Eira to lose hers too, and that wasn't something she was comfortable with.

  She pushed those thoughts to the side. None of them mattered at the moment, and she might not ever have to deal with them. The young fae woman in front of her was another matter, especially as she was fairly certain that Samantha had only just turned eighteen and come of age. While Eira was only ten years older than that herself, somehow it also felt like an age.

  "How can I help you?" she asked softly, trying to appear approachable, but not too friendly. Being royal was much harder than she'd ever anticipated.

  Samantha bit on her bottom lip. "I have a problem," she said.

  Eira nodded. That much was obvious, though she didn't want to push the fae too far.

  "Is it something I can help you with?" she asked.

  "I don't know. But I didn't know who else to turn to."

  "Why don't you tell me about it, and if I think there's someone who might be able to help more, I'll help you find them," she suggested, hoping this was some kind of teenage problem and not one that would involve complicated politics. It was never easy to tell which it was going to be with fae. Not even the younger ones.

  "I think my sister has kidnapped my mate," Samantha blurted.

  "Oh." Eira leaned back in her seat, studying the young woman. "What makes you say that?" She didn't want to jump to conclusions, especially as the punishment would be so severe.

  Samantha shuffled uncomfortably on her chair. "I met him at one of the balls earlier in the year. The Valentine's one, I think. He's the son of one of the Autumn fae. Not the Queen, I'd never presume to take one of her sons."

  "You wouldn't have much choice, if he was your mate," Eira pointed out. That was the thing about the mating bonds. They were absolute, and nothing could break them. One of the reasons the punishment for kidnapping someone else's would be even more severe than simple kidnap.

  "Yes. That's how I felt about him when I met him," Samantha said. "His name is George."

  "Okay. So you met this George, then what happened?" Eira prompted. She needed to work out if the woman in front of her was telling the truth about the mating bond. Fae were one of the only paranormals who didn't need their fated mate to reproduce, which led to a lot of the fae women forming relationships, however fleeting, with some of the half-fae males who hung around the courts. It was possible that this woman was in love, but not mated. Not that it would stop her sister being punished if she had done the deed. Eira had strengthened the laws and punishments surrounding kidnap during her brief reign. It hadn't been a popular decision, especially as kidnapping unwitting men had been fae tradition for centuries, and even if it was outlawed, many of the women at court still participated in the practice, even if they weren't supposed to.

  Samantha sighed dreamily, bringing Eira back to the matter at hand.

  "I felt something I never had before. Like we were meant to be together. I'd say complete, but that isn't right. I don't need someone else to complete me, Mama always taught me that b
eing myself was enough."

  "She sounds like a wise woman," Eira agreed.

  "But being around George was magical. And when we...err...when we..." Her cheeks flamed red.

  "Went to bed together?" Eira suggested, hoping to get the young fae unstuck.

  Samantha glanced away, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Yes. That. There was a lot of magic, and we weren't making it."

  "It happened on its own?" Eira nodded. "That's one of the things about mating."

  "It is?" The woman perked up. "Sorry, no one has ever really told me about it. I'm only guessing from the stories I've heard."

  Eira cursed inwardly. The fae cut themselves off from the rest of the world far more than they should. If they'd opened up to the rest of the paranormal world sooner, then there wouldn't be problems like this one. At least they were better than they were, which was saying something.

  "I assume you told your sister all of this?"

  She nodded. "I even introduced him to Valerie. I thought she'd appreciate it. She's always complaining that I don't trust her enough. But this time, she was the only person I told."

  "Has she told you that she's kidnapped George?" Eira asked.

  How was she having to deal with this? Shouldn't the girls' parents be interfering between the two sisters? No. That wasn't fair. There must be a reason why Samantha had decided to come to her monarch rather than her family, and Eira had to respect that. For all she knew, there were no parents around any more.

  "No. But he's not answering any of my messages, and when I had dinner with Valerie last night, she kept asking me lots of questions about where he was, and she looked as if she knew something. I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I know it's not a lot to go on, but I know deep down that something bad is going on with him."

  "You don't need to be sorry," Eira assured the girl. "You're right to come to me with your concerns. If your sister is up to something like this, then something needs to be done. Why don't you write down everything you know about George, your sister, and the situation, and I will look into it and find out the truth of the matter." She pushed a piece of paper and a pen towards the other fae.

  Maybe her time was better spent on other matters, but if this would help her win over some of the younger generation, then it was worth going through with. Besides, if Samantha's sister had kidnapped this George, then it would be good to have someone to make an example of. It would put an end to the grumbles of malcontent about the new rules.

  "Oh, thank you, Your Majesty." Samantha grabbed the pen and started scribbling away furiously.

  "Don't forget to include how I can contact you," Eira reminded the woman. She didn't want to be caught asking around for where one of her subjects lived.

  Once the woman was gone, she'd ask Rueben to look into what she was saying about her sister. He was good at moving around the palace unseen, and Eira knew she could trust him to be discreet. They'd get to the bottom of this, whatever that was.

  4

  Eira pressed her hand against her stomach, trying to ease the sickness that had started inside her.

  "This better not last the entire pregnancy, little one," she muttered under her breath, even though she doubted the baby was big enough to even hear what she was saying, and that was without understanding.

  She didn't know enough about fae pregnancies' for her comfort. If she'd had more time since finding out she was a fae, then she'd have done what she could to learn about the ins and outs of how it worked, but as it was, her attention had been pulled away by small matters such as stopping her mother-in-law from plunging the world into an apocalypse, and then finding out that she was the Fae Queen Of Winter.

  Despite it all, Eira chuckled. It had been an action-packed few years, and nothing like she could have imagined her life being when she was a child playing with her twin.

  She needed to talk to a doctor who knew things about paranormals. Or a fae midwife, but she'd rather keep her condition to herself for a little bit longer. Perhaps she could ask Rose to use one of the summer court midwives though.

  No. That wouldn't work. All four courts would celebrate the birth of an heir. The summer court would be almost as excited as the winter one about her child. It would mean their heir was closer.

  It was too much pressure for Eira's liking. For now, her focus should be on getting the sick feeling in her stomach to go away. It was hard enough to concentrate on some of the more boring aspects of her clerical work as it was, the last thing she needed was a queasy feeling in her stomach making things so much harder for no apparent reason.

  She reached out and picked up her glass of water, taking a small sip and grimacing at how warm it had become. She hadn't been sitting here that long, had she?

  A quick glance at the clock on the wall revealed almost five hours had passed since she'd last left the room. What was most surprising was that none of her mates had come to find her and remind her not to take on too much.

  Where were they? And what mischief were they getting up to? The three of them weren't exactly known for behaving.

  Actually, that was unfair. Rueben knew what it meant to be sensible. Leth definitely didn't, and Josh could be swayed either way.

  A smile spread over her face at the thought of her mates. Her child was going to have the best upbringing with those three around to protect and nurture them. She loved the idea of watching the three of them as Fathers. Though they were going to have to come up with different names for each of them, there was no way they were all being called Dad, it would be far too confusing.

  She took another sip of water, forgetting it was warmer than she wanted it to be. That was no matter. She could easily make it colder again. One of the main advantages of being a winter fae.

  Eira closed her eyes and summoned her winter magic, pulling it up from within herself. The familiar tingle of her powers surged through her, desperate to be free. How she hadn't realised they were more than just a little bit of frost magic, she had no idea. She should have known that there was more to it than her family had believed.

  Though if she'd read the family book when she was supposed to, then she might not have been taken so by surprise. All the information she'd needed to learn the truth had been in there, she'd just chosen not to discover any of it.

  The glass clouded as the outside became covered in frost, making it feel a lot better in Eira's hand already. This was one of the many advantages of being able to control temperature, even if it only worked one way.

  A sick feeling crashed through her as she was about to pull back her magic, and Eira stilled, staring at her hand in confusion. She stopped pouring more power into the glass, and the feeling lessened.

  "That wasn't morning sickness," she muttered to herself, unsure whether or not she was being foolish in thinking it wasn't. She'd never experienced morning sickness before, nor been around anyone who could tell her anything about it, so what did she really know about it?

  Her determination to find a doctor who could coach her through these things only grew. She wished she knew of someone without having to ask around, but there was nothing she could do about that at his stage.

  Once she was certain her sickness had faded, she began the process again, more out of curiosity than the need to cool her water down any more than she already had. It would probably have been fine the way it was.

  At first, nothing happened other than the same progression of ice. A couple of lumps of it even popped up to the top of the water, bobbing along and staring at her as if trying to prove to Eira that her magic was working just fine.

  The sickness hit again. It was stronger this time, almost as if it had a mind of its own.

  Eira's hand began to shake, hot and cold flushes travelling up and down her whole body as she tried to pull her magic back. This time, it wouldn't obey her, and the changing temperatures only became more and more intense.

  What was happening to her? Was this to do with t
he pregnancy? Whatever it was, it didn't feel right at all, and she wanted it to end.

  Her grip loosened around the glass, and it dropped to the table. A loud crack resounded through the air as the glass split in two, spilling the contents everywhere.

  Eira launched out her hand, forgetting about the sickness for a moment as all she could focus on was the need to stop the water from spreading. She had no idea what was happening, only that it needed to stop.

  The water turned to ice in front of her eyes, but she couldn't celebrate for long, as another wave of sickness travelled through her entire body, and the world went black.

  5

  Eira groaned. "What happened?" she asked, able to sense she wasn't alone in her office any more.

  "I'm not sure," Josh answered from right next to her. "Why don't you tell me."

  She reached up and rubbed her forehead while scanning herself for any kind of injury. It was unlikely she'd done any lasting damage, her magic would repair any of that before it could do her serious harm. Unless she was stabbed through the chest, or something like that. But she doubted that had happened while she wasn't looking.

  "I was trying to make my water cold." She looked up at him from her position on his lap. Had she fainted onto the floor, or has he put her there? She supposed the answer didn't really matter, especially when she had more important things to work out, like why she'd fainted for the second time this week, when normally, it wasn't something that happened to her.

  "And that caused you to faint?" The concern on his face said everything his words didn't.

  "I don't know."

  "That doesn't seem right, E. You've been able to do something simple like that as long as I've known you."

  She nodded. "I know."

  "Is it the baby?"

  "That's the only thing that's changed," she admitted. "So what else can it be?"

  "Hmm." The concern changed into thoughtfulness as he considered what she was saying.