‘So that’s your brilliant plan? Giving them exactly what they want? Me?’, Ian asked unbelievingly his eyes wide from the shock of what his uncle had told him.


    ‘Absolutely. You are of our blood and very much able to free yourself ones you are with them. Your powers will guide you. In the meantime, the rest of us are going to sail into the open sea and wait for you out there.’, his uncle said seemingly resolved to do just that. Leave him, Ian, to fend for himself in the clutches of the order of the holy cross.


    ‘And in the off-chance I manage to escape on my own… how am I supposed to meet you in the open sea?’, Ian asked rubbing his face his hands in a gesture of complete exhaustion. He couldn’t believe his uncle would do that to him.


    ‘Come on. That’s easy. You simply ask the sea to guide you.’, Ron answered in Sean’s stead.


    ‘Brilliant. You two know, that I don’t know a first thing about my so-called powers? Hell, I don’t even know what they are! And you two tell me to trust in myself and go to the last place I ever wanted to be in my whole life. Risk my damn life.’, Ian near shouted.


    ‘Yes, you will do just that. And though it would have been better for you to have more training, we don’t get that luxury. You know your way around a sword. Ron told me that you’ve inherited our family’s battle instincts. The rest will come to you when needed. You just have to rise with the stakes.’, Sean answered matter-of-factly, seemingly bored with his nephew’s insistence.


    Shaking his head he added ‘I really don’t know why you are so shocked. You are thirteen and a Sidhe. My father simply left me in the dark ice grove when I was your age. Your mother was sent to Scathach to be trained as a warrior-maiden. I don’t know which was harder. Everyone gets their own challenge and this is a fabulous opportunity that presented itself.’


    The ancient demi-god, that was his uncle, devilishly grinned ‘And since we can’t directly harm them without breaking the accords… well they laid a claim on you… let’s see if they are able to claim what they wish for.’


    The knights came early next morning. Ready to force their claim it seemed. Grimm faces. Swords ready to be drawn. Sean met them on deck. Ian stood beside him with a grave expression. His uncle he now knew would really send him away. A part that had trusted him crumbled into nothing. He was alone again. Like he had always been. Everyone left him. No matter what they claimed. Looking at the knights and then back at the Sidhe he didn’t even know why it had surprised him. His mother, a Sidhe herself, even if she had never told him about it, had always told him to never trust anybody because everyone had their own motives and goals. And trust only led to heartbreak and becoming a pawn. He had been a fool. Looking now at the bleak future ahead he straightened his back and waited for the deal to happen.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ‘We will do as you ask. I will give you my nephew, just like you have asked. But know if he ever frees himself of you, you cannot ask for him a second time for then he is Sidhe and no longer human.’, Sean Mac Lir told the head knight looking straight into his eyes.


    Sir Lorenz knew he should have felt triumph but he didn’t a cold feeling sinking into his stomach.


    Those words had sounded far too much like a curse of old and the part of him that remembered his grandmothers hushed voice when she had told him the old legends of the Sidhe. Suddenly he was again the small boy hiding from the shadows the fire had painted. Fear. He recognized. And the recognition made him angry. Anger was a much easier feeling to cope with. And looking for a victim to release some of the tension those two emotion had created he looked at Ian, who stood in front of him his eyes cast down but his posture straight infuriatingly unbroken.


    A cruel smile grazed his lips. ‘Come on, boy. You see how much you are worth to your so-called relatives. But what else is there to expect from creatures old enough to be the stuff the fairytales are written about them. Old devils. Not as bad as demon vermin, but not by far. Let’s try and make an upstanding knight out of you.’, he said in his mind already planning a torturous training regime to make him obedient and forget his accursed fey blood. The boy would curse the day he was born before long. He turned to take the boy without so much as a good-bye to the arrogant Fey prince he feared and despised with all his heart. Happy to have had the last word.


    They had nearly left the ship when a voice behind him said ‘In your own interest, be careful what you wish for and who you are insulting. Old magic remembers.’


    The head knight turned to see who had spoken and immediately wished he hadn’t done that. Ian, too looked back. Both the Sidhe prince and the Kelpie next to him had dissolved their glamours. The eery white horse and his master shone in a blindingly bright light. It was Ian’s first time to see a high Sidhe without glamour. And like the head knight’s grandmother had warned the true form of a high sidhe was not for the mortal eye to see or mind to comprehend. Beautiful and horrifying at the same time. In Ian it formed a deeper understanding for who he was. In the head knight it planted the seed of madness. A deep part of Lorenz knew he would never get rid of this picture in his head.


    And as he shuddered, he heard a laughter so haunting, he knew even though he had thought he had won instead he had lost. When he turned, he eyes found Ian’s black eyes that now looked to him as if he was gazing into the abyss.