Dream Five, Chapter Twenty-Eight

(Anything in asterisks is meant to be italicized.)

After more conversations over the next few days, we decided to shutter the bookstore for "repairs," even though I could fix everything in seconds, which I did. We didn't expect anyone to buy this but it was a good cover story as to why the bookstore was going to be closed for a while. Eventually, I temporarily relocated the cafe I had made for Korrie to the roof of a nearby building so she could continue working, even providing a tunnel underneath it back to the bookstore so she didn't have to walk alone and exposed at night. Barrons also warded the store against humans again, with Kat, Korrie, and my parents being the exception. Ryodan even went and got Dani for an hour so Barrons could make sure she was also welcome.

It took more than one conversation to convince my parents that our request was the right course of action for everyone but they eventually did. If no one knew where they were, they couldn't be targeted, either. Dageus and Chloe agreed to my request, as did Christian and Sean, who was still living in Christian's castle since the abbey where Kat and Rae lived was only for women.

Barrons and Fade had picked up the scent of whoever attacked my bookstore and followed it back to where it had originated, but the place was abandoned and the trail ended there. However, they did detect both human and old god, which is why Ryodan helped me install a panic button into the cafe that would send an alert to my phone and Barrons's when pressed. The Nine also kept a constant watch over my parents like they had done with Dani when she was a kid once we felt it was safe for them to return home. We agreed not to move them until they could quietly find someone trustworthy to take over the foster care they had started, but the house Barrons and I drew up plans for before I built it was ready for them. (It took about half a day to design the thing, and then about a week to build. I was inviting the elements to build it and had to redo parts of it several times.)

Christian and Lyryka alerted us to some possible answers two weeks before my due date. We had decided I would give birth in the residence half of the bookstore so we were meeting there. Barrons had emptied one of the usually locked rooms on the second floor to make into a birthing suite for me. Kat advised me on everything we might need and what I hadn't stashed away after the walls fell, I slowly invited the elements and the True Magic to make during the weeks leading up to my due date, hoping I wouldn't go into labor early.

I was propped up on my favorite Chesterfield in front of the gas fireplace in the back of the store. No one could see back to that part from outside, which made it perfect for our meeting so I'd summoned some of the other couches and chairs from the other reading nooks and placed them near me. Barrons was seated on the other end of the sofa, graciously rubbing my very swollen feet because I'd had a meltdown earlier.

I was very hormonal and very uncomfortable and we hadn't had sex in what felt like forever (but was only two weeks) and I wasn't sure when we were going to have sex again because we agreed it was too risky with how big the baby was and how big Barrons was and I'd have to get over the trauma of pushing someone out of me and I couldn't eat the Guinness fish and chips platter at Chester's that I loved. I'd looked in the mirror and felt huge and my feet and ankles had doubled and they hurt and I'd realized how long it'd been since I'd worn high heels.

Realizing how much I missed wearing them was what had set me off. The fact that I was so sick of still being so emotional only made it worse. My meltdown had covered the first and second floors of the store in ice and snow. We were both more than ready for me to no longer be pregnant.

Ryodan had raised an eyebrow at Barrons when he arrived and saw him rubbing my feet and I watched them have a silent conversation where the muscle in Barrons's jaw twitched a couple of times as Ryodan tried to hide his amusement. I did my best to ignore them. He otherwise stood in his usual corner by the fireplace while Christian and Lyryka sat opposite of us. Kat and Sean sat in two of the three armchairs that separated the two sofas, with Masdann in the third.

"Before we start," Christian said once we had all assembled, "do we want to address the elephant in the room?"

"What elephant?" Kat asked.

"The elephant of seeing the big and terrible Barrons rubbing Mac's feet," he said with a smirk. I saw Ryodan smile out of the corner of my eye as I heard a rattling in Barrons's chest.

"I'm sorry," I said with saccharine sweetness, "I didn't realize you'd rather have this meeting covered in ice due to me being the most uncomfortable I have ever been in my entire bloody fucking life."

"Understood," Christian said as he swallowed a smirk and nodded.

"What have you learned?" I asked Lyryka before anyone else could make any funny comments.

"Well, there have been extremely rare occasions where humans have produced offspring that were half human and half Fae," she said, "but they are not well documented. However, it does seem that the child is not born fully Fae. Rather…" she trailed off and looked at Christian who nodded.

"Rather what?"

"Rather the child develops powerful abilities," Christian finished. "We theorize that is particularly true if the child also comes from one of the *sidhe*-seer bloodlines."

"What would make you think that?" Kat asked.

Christian and Lyryka suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"Out with it," I gritted. There was not a lot of patience left in me.

"I've put a lot of thought into this and Lyryka and I have discussed it at length," Christian said.

"However, we haven't found anything to confirm or deny a part of it," Lyryka added.

"Confirm or deny what," Ryodan said.

"We suspect that particularly and unusually powerful *sidhe*-seers may have been the result of a parent being a particularly powerful Fae," she said. "High royalty."

"Have you any way to prove that theory," Ryodan said as I began to get a bad feeling.

"Well, there's Rae," Christian said. "The daughter of an Unseelie prince and a sidhe-seer. She's got a pretty powerful gift."

"She does also have spots on her back that might be wings someday," Sean offered.

"Are there other examples." I looked at Ryodan and saw him studying me.

"No one knows the identity of Mac and Dani's fathers, correct?" Lyryka said when Christian hesitated. "Nor the father of Mac's deceased sister? While Mac and her sister's ability to detect Fae objects is rare, it's not unusual as I understand there is another *sidhe*-seer at the abbey who could detect the *Sinsar Dubh*. However, they're also Nulls and it had long been thought that Nulls were myths. Dani also has extraordinary abilities with her speed and strength at a level that is unseen among *sidhe*-seers."

"Does this mean you have an idea as to who fathered them," Ryodan asked. I no longer wanted this conversation to continue and seriously considered sifting out of the room but Barrons slanted me a look and I stayed put, knowing it would only bring him with me.

"We think it might have been the Unseelie King," she answered. "The former one."

The room got eerily still and quiet because everything had suddenly been covered in a layer of ice. Barrons and Ryodan were able to shake it off first with Barrons growling, "Ms. Lane," and Ryodan snarling, "Mac."

The ice disappeared as I stared at Lyryka and everyone stared at me. Eventually I was able to quietly and shakily say, "Please tell me that's a joke."

She and Christian glanced at each other before shaking their heads no.

"Okay," I said softly as I looked at the ground. "Okay." I pulled my feet away from Barrons and sat up, putting them on the floor. "Okay." I pushed myself up with both Barrons and Kat automatically moving to help me but I waved them off. "Okay," I said again, one hand on my stomach and the other on my lower back, "I'm going to need a minute because I think I'm going to be sick."

Then I sifted into the bathroom, decided it was too close to everyone and didn't want them to hear me throwing up, and sifted to the bathroom in my room that was currently on the fifth floor. It was a couple of minutes of emptying my stomach and dry heaving before Barrons had joined me.

"Ms. Lane, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like, Jericho?" I asked in between dry heaves.

"Overreacting." I grabbed a spare roll of toilet paper and threw it at him. "And what was that supposed to accomplish?"

"It was supposed to make me feel better."

"Did it?"

I smiled sweetly. "A little." He narrowed his eyes at me but pulled me to my feet when I gestured for help. "And I am *not* overreacting. Do you realize what that makes all four of my rapists? My *half-brothers*, Jericho!" He had to grab me when I almost stumbled backwards. "Oh, God, I killed so many of my half-siblings before killing, like, all of the ones that remained." I somehow got even more shocked when I realized and said in what was barely a whisper, "And Cruce wanted...he was going to..."

"But he didn't, Mac," Barrons said firmly, putting his hands on my cheeks and forcing me to look at him. "We got you out of there before he could do anything. All four princes are dead so it no longer matters who they were. Thinking about it is only going to upset you more."

"Oh, my *God*, I thought he was dreamy and he was my *father*!"

"Not necessarily." I jumped because I hadn't realized Ryodan was there and Barrons immediately grabbed onto my arms again to make sure I didn't lose my balance.

"What do you mean?" I demanded.

"My predecessor split himself into multiple human skins in order to walk among us," he said, leaning against the door frame. "I've been going through his files and it wasn't your 'Dreamy-Eyed Guy.'"

"Then which one was it?" I demanded.

"Does it matter."

"Yes, I'd like to know if it was my elementary school principal!" Barrons gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. "When Cruce was absorbing the Book and the King revealed himself and gathered all of his skins, I had known several of them before even coming to Dublin and met more once I was in Dublin. One of them was my elementary school principal. Another was one of the hotel clerks at Clarin House, and another was an old man at a newspaper stand I asked for directions on my first day here. The *sidhe*-seer Liz, McCabe, and the Dreamy-Eyed Guy, too. He was the one I saw most often in Dublin." I thought about that for a minute. "You're sure it wasn't the Dreamy-Eyed Guy?"

"Yes. Nor was your father an elementary school principal. The skin who sired you and Dani was one you never met."

"Who even uses words like 'sire'?" I grumbled, buying myself a second to think. "You're saying it was the same one? Dani and I aren't just chosen sisters?" Ryodan inclined his head and I relaxed a little. I took a few deep breaths and steeled myself. There was a lot to process here but I couldn't keep everyone waiting and there were more answers to be had. "I'll be down in a minute." Ryodan inclined his head again and sifted away.

I looked up at Barrons and saw him studying me. I got a look of approval when he saw that I had locked what my brain had immediately tried to begin to continue processing up in a box. It made me preen a little, which only strengthened the chains around the box.

"Please don't go anywhere," I told him as I went to the sink and brushed my teeth. I really didn't want to have vomit breath. When I was done, he let me pry his crossed arms from his chest so I could wrap my own around his neck and kiss him. It's a bit awkward trying to kiss someone taller than you when you're also two weeks away from your due date, which is why I held the kiss for longer than I had intended and entwined my tongue with his when he invited me in.

*I have never been more glad that you rejected the Unseelie King's mantel than I am right now*, I sent him once our lips had parted. The backs of my curled fingers were brushing back and forth against his cheek as I smiled up at him. His face softened and he leaned down to kiss me before I sifted us back downstairs.

After a mumbled apology and settling myself back down onto the sofa, Barrons began rubbing my feet again and I sent him a grateful smile before turning to Ryodan.

"Is there anything more on this matter that you'd like to share?" I asked.

"The Unseelie King's skins are genetic blank slates when they reproduce," he said. "They act like mirrors."

"Which would explain why Alina and I looked so much like Isla," I thought aloud. One look at Barrons confirmed we were thinking the same thing. If this child was his, it should have some of his genetic traits. It was relieving to know that question would at least soon be answered. Then I turned to Christian and Lyryka. "Have you learned anything else?"

"We were able to find my father's notes on his version of the former King's elixir," Lyryka told me. "It's quite ingenious, actually. You and I postulated that his elixir would not allow the drinker to reproduce but that the king's did. We were right about the king's, but Cruce somehow found a way to control it. The drinker could turn on the ability to reproduce by drinking an additive, and turn it back off by drinking another. He would have complete control of his children."

"Cruce told the former King and I that he had given me his 'improved' elixir," I said before I turned to Masdann. "Were you able to find the dream?"

"Yes," he said with an incline of his head.

"And?"

"It is…fogged," he informed me. "I was unable to see much. All I was able to determine, besides confirming the dream's occurrence, is that it was the essence of the Unseelie King and he did have you drink something."

"But you don't know what he gave me?"

"No, my queen, I do not."

I looked at Ryodan.

"Would have told you," he gritted.

&&&

Not much more came of the conversation. We decided to decide what to do about my potentially immortal fertility after the baby was born. Everyone else left until it was just Barrons, Masdann, and I, but I didn't even see Masdann until he stepped away from where he had moved to a bookshelf.

"My queen," he said as he stepped into the light.

"*Christ*, Masdann," I said as I jumped. "You're as bad as he used to be." Barrons laughed from where he had moved to the floor, his head in my lap so I could run my fingers through his hair. I think he enjoys when I do it, or when I outline the features of his face with my fingers. I usually only do it in bed but I had really missed doing it and I was still feeling agitated, so he was letting me do it to keep me calm and content now that almost everyone had left.

"My apologies," he said with a smile. He had once told me that I would eventually come to see differences between him and Barrons. There was kindness in his eyes, something I'd never really seen in Barrons's and had grown to not want to because it wouldn't have been him. But it fit Masdann. "May I speak with you about something?"

"Of course," I said as I stopped running my hand through Barrons's thick hair and rested it on his shoulder. "Please, sit."

"I would like to offer my counsel," he said as he sat down on the sofa opposite mine.

"By all means." I glanced at Barrons and saw him watching Masdann with elevated interest. He really did like him.

"I do not think it wise to hide your child from the Fae," the Prince of Dreams told me. "I've looked at the possibilities. There are many. My counsel is to surprise them after the child is born. Literally tell them you were keeping it a secret to surprise them. Let them coo and swoon and be joyful. Show them their queen—to some, even a mother figure—trusts them. Loves them so much that she wanted to surprise them. Bring the child around on occasion as a reminder that their queen trusts them to know she has a child."

"And if I don't?"

"You could successfully hide your child from them. Or they could discover the child on their own and feel that their beloved queen, who united and helped rebirth many of them, doesn't trust them. By extension, doesn't love them. I know it might not sit well with you to use your child for political gain, but it could secure your reign, and quite possibly your child's safety from the Fae. Just something to think about."

Barrons insists we can trust Masdann and there's no one I trust more than Barrons, though that wasn't always the case. I'm still adjusting to someone who looks and sounds and moves so much like him and holds an unbelievable amount of power.

"I will take that under consideration," I told him. "Was there anything else?"

"I recommend avoiding stairs until after the birth," he said solemnly. "Otherwise, no." He leaned forward and held out his hand to Barrons who shook it before he bowed to me and sifted out.

"He has a point," Barrons said as I started to run my fingers through his hair again.

"I know," I sighed.

After a few minutes, Barrons removed my hand and placed it on my stomach as he sat on the edge of the Chesterfield. I smiled a little when he leaned down and kissed me.

"Remember what the former king told you, Mac," he said softly. "He got premonitions, too."

"You know, sometimes it's really irritating when you're always right."