Gillie’s black brows raised as he lifted his mug. “Already got that seelie fire in your veins, lad.”
“I can’t step foot back onto seelie land anyway,” Nua said softly. “She banished me after I fled.”
“Not without invitation from the ruler,” Gillie corrected, nodding at me. “And he’s sitting right there.”
I choked out a laugh, reaching over to grip Nua’s hand. “You’re officially invited. How am I supposed to word it? Are there special words?”
Nua laughed.
“No, that’ll do.” He gazed back at me, squeezing my hand. “Thank you.”
Then he looked over at Gillie, a smile spreading his lips. “What do you think, love? Stay out here or move into the palace?”
Gillie took a sip of tea and let out a satisfied breath. “Maybe both. We can visit the king often. But I like the forest.”
Nua nodded, smiling at him. “Me too.”
“Stop calling me the king, it feels weird,” I mumbled, picking up my mug.
Gillie laughed. “But you are. Seelie King. Seelie Ruler. What other names will you have, I wonder?”
I blinked as Ogma’s low, raspy voice suddenly slithered through my head. I licked my lips.
“Ogma called me the Hunter King. And the Oak King.” My mouth quirked. “She called me the thrice-lived king too, actually.”
“Hunter King.” Gillie grinned at me. “I like it.”
“Oak King,” Nua said thoughtfully. “That’s an old one.”
I snorted. “I don’t think that’s a real one. When I was with the unseelie, they made me play the role of the oak king for their stupid Winter Solstice tradition. The battle between the oak king and the holly king.”
My lips pulled down at the memory, my chest aching with a sudden bout of intense longing for Lonan. I needed to find Lonan.
“It’s not just a stupid tradition, Ash,” Nua said. “The two rulers, thousands of years ago, used to meet on the Summer and Winter Solstices to battle—not to the death, obviously. The unseelie king—the holly king—would always win on the Summer Solstice, to start shortening the days and ushering in winter. The seelie king—the oak king—would win on the Winter Solstice to begin lengthening the days again.”
I nodded absently, not really listening as I chewed on my lip. I looked up at Nua and Gillie with a frown. “I need to go and find Lonan. I’m worried about him.”
“Why?” Gillie asked.
“Something’s happened. I can feel it. I didn’t see him at all when I was travelling to Hybra. He’s been out here with me the whole time in his different animal forms.” My lips quirked sadly. “Even though I never remembered.”
“Well…” Nua and Gillie exchanged one of their looks before Nua continued. “Youaresafer from the Carlin now. But it would still be dangerous to go to unseelie.”
I jerked my gaze up quickly to stare at him. “Will I be able to kill her?”
“In a fight?” He shook his head. “You’re matched in strength now. It would be an endless fight that neither of you would ever win. There’s a reason the two queens have never simply tried to kill each other that way. They always searched for other ways to try and beat each other.”
I exhaled.
“I still want to kill her. And I still want to go and find Lonan.” I looked up at Nua and Gillie, twisting the hem of my shirt in my hands. “I need to find him. I need him.”
Nua gave me a small, slightly worried smile. He reached over to clasp my wrist. “You… you love him?”
I pursed my lips to stop them trembling, blinking rapidly when my eyes got hot. “Yes.”
“Well.” Gillie let out a hard breath, glancing between us. “That’ll be a new one. The Seelie King and an unseelie prince together.”
“Who’s going to stop us?” I tried to stop my lip curling into a snarl. I wouldn’t let them.