the same for time? The celebration went on around us, but I was stuck with a world of questions.
Chapter Twenty
“According to Alexander, they know something happened with Rhys today.” Daniel paced in front of the fire.
“Yes, something happened. Daniel, our son is an elemental.” Devinshea was still reeling from the news.
“There hasn’t been a new elemental born to the Fae in a thousand years.” Declan sat at the small table by the window, nursing his beer and his nose, since I’d punched him upon our return to Frelsi.
Then Dev had done the same after I told him what Rhys had said. I wasn’t sure why the asshole was still here except that he wanted a piece of Rhys, too. He always had, but learning that Rhys’s power had manifested in such a unique way seemed to have made my brother-in-law even more desperate.
“All right, I’ll bite. What’s an elemental?” I had my suspicions, but I liked to have it all laid out for me.
“It means that his powers are defined by an element of the natural world, and he has mastery over it.” Dev sat across from me. He’d been watching Daniel pace as I’d told them my version of what had happened this afternoon. “There’s a fire elemental in the Unseelie sithein. His powers are obvious. There are couple of water elementals here on the Earth plane. From the stories I’ve heard, in the beginning they were more common. They helped form the Earth. Rhys’s powers come from a season. It’s far more rare.”
“Abbas Hiberna was an elemental. He was winter,” Daniel pointed out. “He was incredibly powerful. Is Rhys like that?”
Kelsey had been the one to save us from the duke. He’d frozen the city over and tried to execute Danny. “He was a demon from the Hell plane.”
“The different planes all have their versions of elementals,” Declan explained. “We haven’t seen a seasonal elemental in…I don’t think my mother has even met one.”
I didn’t care what Declan said, my momma-in-law is old. She didn’t look it. She looked like a young Cate Blanchett, if she’d never moved on from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the truth was she was old in Earth years.
“What does it mean for the plane?” Danny asked.
“It means our springs will likely be more productive anywhere Rhys goes. He’ll have some control over wind and rain. I’m not sure exactly what it means since I have never met one,” Dev admitted.
“It means life and fertility for the Fae. The fact that Rhys comes along at a moment when we are on the brink means the Fae can thrive again,” Declan pronounced. “He must come home with me.”
“He isn’t going anywhere with you, you asshole,” I shot back his way.
“Brother, I think you should be silent when it comes to Rhys,” Dev added, his eyes narrowing. “You gave up all rights to him when you told him you would kidnap him and force him to do your bidding.”
“I never said anything of the kind.” Declan seemed genuinely confused at how we’d reacted.
“You told a scared little boy that he would someday have to live in Faery forever.” And now I knew that fear had been with Rhys until this afternoon.
Declan sighed and sat back. “It’s a beautiful place. I didn’t think I was scaring the boy. I thought I was offering him something wonderful. He would seem sad because he wasn’t getting as much attention as Lee or Evan and I would explain to him that one day things would be different. He would be worshipped in Faery. He would be valued.”
“He was beloved by his family,” Daniel replied. “All children think their siblings get more attention. I assure you we spent plenty of time with Rhys. If you asked Lee, he was on the outside because we thought he was human. Evan was too young to be annoyed with us, but it would have come.”
Dev shook his head. “Declan, you forget our childhood. You were jealous of me because Mother worried about me. I was jealous of you because she spent time teaching you how to be king. She could not win. I assure you I remember it, and I took pains to pay attention to all my children and I still failed in their eyes.”
“I don’t think I was wrong to offer the boy a look at the future he could have,” Declan argued.
Dev pointed his way. “You didn’t offer him anything. You told him what he would do and