Daughter of Destiny (29 page)

Katarina imagined the pain
her mother felt and her stomach threatened to heave everything into
her lap.

"I had no choice but to
force her submission at that point. Only then could I heal her and
replace the pain with pleasure. At the end of it, I spent more
energy than I had in centuries. I think the only thing that got
your mother through the experience was the possibility of a
child."

"She wanted one that
badly?"

Finn shook his head. "Yes.
Even one from me was preferable to none at all." Finn patted
Katarina's hand. "Trust me, I more than made it up to her for the
pain. I seriously doubt Patrick ever measured up after me." He
frowned and cleared his throat. "I'm not sure this is appropriate
for a father to discuss with his daughter."

"Since when were the Fae
concerned with propriety?" Katarina had to bite her cheek so she
wouldn't grin at his discomfiture.

He frowned and proceeded,
ignoring her comment. "Our original agreement was she would rear
you and I would visit and teach you how to use whatever power you
inherited." Finn’s expression turned thunderous. "Then Patrick
tracked her down and talked her into forgiving him. He didn’t care
at first that she was pregnant with someone else’s child because
she was happy and willing to forgive him. What he couldn’t stomach
was that I’d be in their lives as a constant reminder." Finn looked
away, but not before he could hide the regret which carved his face
into taut lines.

"You have to understand
that I did things because it pleased me to do them, not because
something was kind or not. I was the only Fae to sire offspring in
several millennia, so I felt a duty the child know my world if it
survived birth. When I showed up and Patrick informed me Maureen
bore twins I was shocked. I agreed to his idea of taking only one
of you before I ever saw you."

Katarina’s heart raced in
her chest at his words. Twins? She had a twin?

Finn looked her in the
eyes. "The moment I held you and your brother everything changed.
Leaving you behind tore my heart in two, but a Fae’s word is
binding. I can never go back on an oath. The only out I had was if
you manifested Fae power and discovered your heritage, and even
then I had to wait until you sought me out."

Katarina blinked back
tears. "That’s why they made me promise. Isn’t it?"

Finn nodded. “Torin
contemplated not telling me, but I sensed his fury and I had felt
the flare of your fledgling powers. I expected you to show up any
day, but he told me what Patrick and your mother made you swear.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thank Fate you are not as
rigidly bound by oaths as a full Fae."

Katarina took a deep breath
to cool the anger which boiled to the surface. Every time she
thought she forgave Patrick, she learned more and hated him all the
more. Instead of the past, she concentrated on what her father had
revealed. "I have a brother?"

Finn smiled. "Yes. He’s
supposed to be at home. I told him about you right before I came
here." Finn was quiet a moment. He raised his hand. "Will you let
me in, Kat? I need to remove a binding spell."

"A what?"

He explained, "You are
telepathically bound to both your brother and me, and to a lesser
degree, Torin. I couldn’t leave that link open or you would never
have been able to live happily in the human realm. Even with the
spell, I know you and your brother maintained a sense of each other
when you were small."

Katarina covered her mouth
as a dim fuzzy memory came into sharp focus. She recalled "talking"
to her invisible brother up until she was about two and half, maybe
three. One day her mother heard her babbling in her room and asked
her who her imaginary friend was. Now she understood her mother’s
fury and fear when she demanded Katarina never speak to the voice
again, to block it out. She recalled her brother’s voice calling
for her, but her mother's and father’s tempers were more real than
a voice in her head. So, she ignored it until she no longer heard
it at all and it became nothing more than a buried
memory.

"Kieran?" She couldn’t help
that her voice came out in a squeak and her hand
trembled.

Finn nodded.

Katarina allowed him to
take her trembling hand and she lowered her mental walls. He had to
go deep, and it made her nervous letting anyone but Zane that far
into her mind. She started to pull away.

"Shh. I won’t hurt you.
I promise, princess."
She felt Finn’s humor and it dawned on
her she really was a princess because Finn was a Fae prince. That
thought distracted her long enough for him to remove the spell and
he pulled back before he intruded on her thoughts.

The sudden shadow of Finn
and two more distant presences in her mind made her head swim. At
first, she felt the urge to throw up walls, but as with Zane, no
amount of walls erased their presence. She could control the
information they received, but the faint shadows of their psyches
remained in the recess of her mind. The connections felt less
intimate than her bond to Zane, more distant, so it took little
effort to filter sending emotions and thoughts did not travel the
links unless she desired it.

She shook her head. "I’ve
been isolated for so long, and now I’ve got all of these people in
my head."

"It takes getting used to.
Aside from you and Kieran, I’m the only other faerie to have a
sibling. He’s much older than me though, so our link isn’t nearly
as strong." Finn grew somber as he looked at her. "I understand
that I cannot make up for the years I missed, but do know that I
love you. Your mother was very wrong." He reached out and traced
her cheekbone with his fingertips. "This faerie loves very much
so."

She grasped his hand and
once again he moved with supernatural speed, standing and scooping
her into an embrace faster than her eyes could follow.

A moment later a voice
snarled in Standard, "Get your hands off my wife!"

Zane wrenched Finn away by
the collar of his black silk shirt, letting go as Finn stumbled
back. Katarina winced at the distinct sound of ripping seams and
the solid thud as Finn slammed into the wall. Finn gaped for all of
ten seconds before answering Zane's fury with his own. Katarina
sighed.
Men.

Zane chambered a fist and
Finn summoned energy to hurl at Zane, but Katarina intervened. She
created a bubble of energy around Finn that would absorb his blast,
at the same time Zane's fist glanced off the bubble.

"Stop it, Zane. You’re
being ridiculous. I wouldn’t have come all of this way to save you
if I was having a torrid affair with another man."

Zane lowered his fist, and
mumbled an apology to him in Standard, but he continued to glare at
him.

"English, dear. He’s from
Earth."

"That’s okay, Kat," Finn
said. "I understood him, and while appreciated, the apology is not
really necessary. Any consort would act thusly," he replied, but
his attention was focused on the energy shield around him. "Very
interesting. Usually they're designed to repel the energy back at
the occupant."

"That's fine, if you want
to hurt the person inside. I don't."

Zane made an impatient
sound. "Katarina, who is this man?"

"My father."

Zane’s face clouded in fury
and he made another rush at Finn, only this time he bounced off the
invisible wall. He shook his head to clear it. "Drop the shield,
love. I’m going to kill the bastard."

Katarina’s heart filled
with love and exasperation. "Not that one. My biological
father."

"Like I said, I’m going to
kill him."

"No, you’re
not."

"He abandoned you to that
asshole."

"He had his reasons. Can
you please calm down?"

Just when she thought she
might have to resort to dragging him across the room by his
earlobe, Zane stepped back, exclaiming,
"O mala omea.
You’re
a Danua."

"A what?" Katarina
said.

"Indeed I am."

Katarina closed her eyes as
she went through the possible reasons why Zane would have any
knowledge of the Fae, especially by a name that was suspiciously
similar to an ancient Celtic goddess.

She removed the energy
shield as she said. "Let me guess. The Fae are actually an alien
race that settled on Earth?"

Finn grinned as he
addressed Zane. "She inherited my I.Q. you know."

Zane turned back to
Katarina, utter astonishment on his face. "The Danua live on Earth?
That’s where they disappeared to?!"

Katarina shrugged. "Like I
was supposed to know that?"

Zane spun back toward Finn.
"Why the hell did you leave her with that spineless
woman?"

Katarina went to Zane and
put a restraining hand on his arm. "It’s all right, Zane. He’s
explained everything." Silently she urged him to look in her mind
and
see t
heir conversation. It was simpler than repeating
everything.

Zane held Katarina to him.
He brushed her hair away from her face. "Sure you don't want me to
beat him up for you?"

"I'm sure," she said and
patted his hand.

"What does that vision
mean?"

She looked to her father
and waited for him to answer.

He sighed. "It appears
you're to be the emissary between humanity and the Fae. A prophecy
was made eons ago before our planet was split by war. 'The races
shall divide and tear asunder that which once was whole. Wither and
die they both shall suffer until two once more become one. The
daughter of destiny shall tread the path of both.' In truth, most
of us thought it was nonsense. The Dedanaan are long dead, but I
suppose the human offspring which share their lineage are close
enough."

Katarina tilted her head as
she mulled over the prophecy and the legends she knew of the Fae.
"So we're coming full circle? The Fae destroyed their homeworld
because they could not share it peacefully with their cousins. Now
I get the job of teaching them to play nice with humans.
Joy."

Zane growled low in his
throat. "I do not like this. It is said your kind destroyed a sun
in your war. You erased more than a single planet. Other worlds and
races paid the price for your war."

Finn raised both his hands.
"I don't disagree, but I wasn't even born then. Yes, I'm old, but
I'm not that old. I don't like it either, but seeing as how the
binding spell is removed, someone will have to play
go-between."

"Why can't her brother do
the job?"

"He cares less for humans
than I do. Katarina is the only one capable of commanding the
respect of humans and Fae alike."

"What if we don't let her
do it, at least not until the twins are born?" Zane asked
Finn.

Katarina shoved free of
Zane's confining embrace. "Let?! LET?! Zane Ahmrain
Gratig--"

Finn took a step back. "How
about I let you two--"

"You stay put," Katarina
interrupted as she shot out a hand, immobilizing Finn in his
tracks.

"I'm just trying to protect
you, Katarina," Zane argued.

"I'm not a glass doll. I'm
also not a brainless nincompoop who needs the big strong males to
make decisions for her."

"Of course, you aren't
brainless. I never said you were."

Katarina counted five
breaths before she spoke again. "Zane, I love you, but I need a
partner, not a parent." She jerked a thumb at Finn. "That's what
he's for. I won't be letting him rule my life either. If I have to
be emissary then I will be the emissary and heaven help anyone who
tries to fuck up my planet."

Finn cleared his throat.
Zane turned and snapped, "What?"

"You really think there's
someone else out there with her brains and that 'mess with me and
mine and die' attitude?"

"Point made."

"Zane," Katarina growled
his name.

He raised his hands in
surrender. "Remember that macho attitude problem I have? I blame it
on that."

Katarina covered her face
with her hand and shook her head. "I suppose as long as you
recognize you are overbearing, I'll forgive you for your lack of
brains."

Zane winced.

"Ouch," Finn
said.

Katarina lowered her hand
and pointed a finger at Finn. "We need to go to Fairy. I can't have
the Fae popping up in the middle of an alien invasion and confusing
matters."

"Ah, so that's what broke
the spell. That sounds like a good plan, but you'll have to release
me and cease donating energy to your consort."

She released him. She
opened her mouth to deny his accusation but he shook his
head.

"I'm not a fool,
iníon.
I admire your strength, but I fear you overestimate
yourself." His tone brooked no argument.

"Love, what is he talking
about?"

Katarina bit her lip and
debated how to answer, but her father beat her to the
punch.