By the Horns

by Jeanette Lynn

  “Did you not hear me, human?” he spat. “Do you not understand what it is exactly you have done?”

  “Your focus will be on me,” I stated calmly. “If you are correct,” my shoulders lifted in a half shrug, “you will wish for me as badly, if not more, than I you. If I heard your words, dear Robin, I have done everyone else a service.”

  “I said you claimed me! And I you, you Tauran whore!”

  Glancing over my shoulder, I could feel my eyes flashing bright as they met his and I grinned. “Robin, darling, you say that as if it is a bad thing. If you can’t handle it, perhaps you should let my pair bond to his body, hmm?”

  His answer was a vicious snarl, body jerking. The gate creaked ominously as he rattled the bars. Visibly weaker with the All-father’s chain around his neck, he was sweating profusely, chest heaving, straining wildly despite his obvious sudden fatigue. Fear, terror filled his eyes. “Don’t call me that. You’ve no right to call me that! How dare you murmur that name so sweetly from your viperous lips! Pixie! Man eating siren! Devil’s get! I am Puck! Puck the Trickster! Puck, ruler of Minotaurs! Puck-”

  “This is the beginning of the end,” I told him, striding back to bend down, leaning in. With a deceiving smile, I murmured softly, in a lover’s whisper, “We both know I’ll not be the one to suffer eternally, Robin Puck the peacock. One day I will grow old and die, or maybe before then, but you,” my chin jerked to his mark, “you will live on eternally, never aging, and in all of existence the one being you want, wish, will be gone.”

  “Take it back!” he garbled out on a hiss.

  “And leave whatever nonsense you just whispered to curse me to you?” I tsked. I wasn’t stupid, and a vengeful, spiteful sprite of a fae wasn’t about to leave it at that, should I do as asked. It was a curse, had to be... nothing else made sense.

  No matter, I told myself, shaking my head to stand. I’ll live out my days like they’re my last, and when I go, I shall rest easy in the knowledge it would drive my tormentor truly mad. In essence, I’d be dragging the bastard to Hell with me.

  “Cold.” I mock shivered, though my teeth were really chattering, skin prickling and numb in unpleasant places from the cold.

  “You’re bluffing,” he called after me, a boost of confidence belying the way his voice shook.

  Staring off at the garden wall, I didn’t bother to look back. “If you’re ready to remove whatever you just did and give me my Kvigor back, I’ll think about rescinding my claim.”

  “Go to He-”

  “Hell? Already there, Robin, my dearest darling,” I cooed.

  A growl. “You will cease to use that name! You will- I will-” Another snarl. “Riadne! I own you,” he howled. “You will never escape me! Never! It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever let you go! Do you hear me?! Your fate has been sealed, tied to mine the rest of your days! I will relish your pain! Bathe in it! You will beg for me and I’ll laugh while you grovel at my feet!”

  “Bbbrrr. Lovely weather we’re having!” I called over him.

  “Riadne!”

  I was at the entrance to the temple now, and his howling screeching was starting to take on a physically pained note. The numbness washing over me at what I’d just done was yet to wear off, but this sense of rawness beneath it, like my insides had been scraped and left open, grew. Was I feeling this? Was he? Was this intense burning with no end in sight ours together?

  Afraid of the answer, the thudding overtaking my ears beating in time to his emphatic outbursts.

  By the time I’d made it to the main chamber, he’d been reduced to screaming.

  My gut turned at the guttural, heart wrenching sounds.

  “RIADNNNEEE!” He wailed and carried on, like he was dying.

  He sounded just like my Kvigor, but I feared it wasn’t.

  Pain stabbed my heart, actual physical pain. Was I dying? I stumbled, my hands slapping to my ears. It didn’t help, his words echoing in my head. He was in my head!

  “No, no, no...” Humming as loud as I could, my eyes darted around wildly. How he managed to make his voice carry like it did, I’d never understand. I feared I’d hear him even holed up in my room with cotton in my ears.

  “MINE!”

  No. It’s a trick. It can’t be Kvigor. Puck’s just trying to get me to go out there.

  The need to hide myself away was overwhelming.

  MINE. MINE. MINE. The words literally rang in my head, making me cry out in alarm. My hands fisted my hair and I wove drunkenly. They were a demanding buzz in my skull, summoning me to my master like a demon on a leash. His laugh when I gasped suddenly, pricked my chest anew.

  “You won’t have me,” I whispered. “Not really.”

  The nasty laugh curling my toes, pricking the hairs on my nape, said otherwise.

  Then I saw it.

  My eyes fell on the temple’s waters and I let out a deep breath.

  Scrambling towards it, I kicked out of my boots, leaving my dagger tumbling the floor beside it, heart racing, head pounding. The water was warm as I rushed in, wading through until it was waist deep. “I accept. I accept. I accept, temple god, Oberon, fae king, All-father person, whatever the fuck you are! Just take me already!” Diving in, I swam to the bottom, curling into a ball to sit there like a rock.

  A sharp shock reverberated through me. The great peacock stilled in my head. It was too early to sigh in relief when something akin to panic raced up my spine. He was scared? No. Terrified, panicking, thrashing inside me wildly.

  And then it hit me, in great waves, screaming shouts in my head, like he’d suddenly gone ballistic, completely frantic, dragging me under along with him for the ride.

  Shaking my head, I screamed, bubbles of air surrounding my face as they escaped.

  Go away, I shouted in my head. Leave me alone!!

  NO! The wild bellowing commanded.

  Did he... did he think me drowning myself... to get away from him? Was that it? I questioned. And if so, how did he know what I was currently doing? Could he somehow sense that too?

  It had briefly occurred to me I could just drown myself and be done with this, but I’d never actually thought of following it through. It was a snip of a thought, there and gone the next. Desperate, yes, but I was a long way yet from feeling that hopeless.

  Thinking all of this through, I wiggled around, lying stiffly, flat to the pool’s rocky bottom.

  Go away or I shall do it, I threatened, shrieking the words in my head. As if my calm feelings gave my words credence, the thundering ramming my brain stopped altogether.

  Worry niggled my subconscious. He was taking me seriously, obviously, though why he’d worry if he was so concerned with being rid of me was beyond my understanding. The great Puck, care? Impossible.

  We are connected, I argued, frowning.

  Forcing my limbs to relax, I slowly began to float towards the surface.

  There was such a tranquility to the temple’s waters, like if you were willing to give yourself over to it, the dark liquid would allow you, if only for a short time, to wash all your worries away.

  My face breached the surface and I took a deep, cleansing breath. Just let it wash over you.

  Water rushing my ears, I could sense a rumble on the surface but not much else. Was it working its magic? Or had the peacock taken a break?

  Wash over you, Ri. Let it wash it all away. Blanking my mind, I succumbed to the water’s sweet promises.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Like a tickling trickle of thought, a silent whisper, I felt it, a gentle caress.

  Once, twice, he whispered my name, and I smiled. My heart stuttered to a stop, then sighed in relief. About time, I thought, the answering chuckle that whispered in my ear tickling my nape.

  Warmth sluiced across my skin, lapping at my face, fingers, toes, other places. My mind perfectly empty, no noise to trouble or fill it or cloud the senses, I could hear him loud and clear, feel him as if he was actually near.

  I
accept, I belted out in my head, turning towards the lips tickling the shell of my ear.

  They met, there and gone in a moment, but I’d felt him all the same.

  A rumble shook me, a sound, muffled as if from a great distance, bringing me around.

  It wasn’t until I took a deep breath that this wakeful dreaming state let me free.

  Another garbled noise.

  My eyes popped open and my head turned. Lashi stood hovering over the marbled edge of the pool, screeching. Tauran shrieking left much to be desired, the combination of human and bovine coming together in a distractingly unpleasant cacophony, worsened with a feminine touch.

  There was a splash. Water sloshed about, rocking my frame, forcing me to move or sink as I began to tense. Senses heightened, I wasn’t alone in the water.

  “Lashi,” I muttered in a low, hushed voice, tackling one problem at a time, “quit shouting, would you.” Noting from the low light coming in it was still fairly early. “You’ll wake the temple.”

  Glancing around, I found my would-be rescuer, popping to the surface but a foot from me. Horns gleaming wetly, curly hair dripping, golden eyes narrowed in consternation found mine.

  “I’m not dead, or dying,” I said in answer to that look timidly.

  Moist nostrils flexed, water spattering my face as thick ears in a dark face flicked in annoyance, lifting up until they hovered over me.

  “It’s not my fault.” Hooking a thumb over my shoulder as he scooped me up without a word, placing my free arm over his shoulder with a grunt, and headed for shore, my mouth lifted in a crooked smile. “It’s hers.”

  Lashi gasped, sputtering. “I- She- I thought-” Thick hands wrung nervously, her smaller frame trembling under his brooding look.

  “Still early,” Adelric grumbled, making his way out of the water to stride right past her. At the end of the hall that led to his room he bent, picking up the sword he’d discarded there. “Go back to bed,” he told the maiden. “No more shouting, eh, you’ll wake the others.”

  “Yes. Of c-c-course. Forgive me.” She left in an ungodly hurry, tripping over her k’h se in the process, bowing over and over until I worried she might run into a wall.

  “I didn’t mean to frighten her,” I mumbled, scrubbing at my face tiredly. Glancing down, I noted his undressed state, cringing. “Or you.”

  “You flatter yourself,” he stated flatly, his voice devoid of emotion.

  Hurt coursed through me and I stiffened. “I didn’t mean-”

  “I know what you meant,” he grumbled curtly, his deep voice even deeper than I’d ever heard. He was livid.

  Of course he was. Naturally, I was left to figure it out. Lovely.

  When he got to my room he practically dumped me in front of my door.

  Standing rigid, I didn’t bother turning to thank him for the ride to my room, opening my door to rush inside. A hoof blocked my door when I would have shut it on the blistering look he had leveled on me.

  “I assume you’ve accepted the All-father?” He was borderline volatile, glowering down at me in the wedge of space left open for him to give me a one-eyed dirty look.

  “No.” My brow lowered. “I didn’t.”

  He blinked, scowling confusedly. “Then what was all that howling and shouting?” Voice dropping to a whisper, he hissed, “I heard you. Out by the garden gate. You think me a fool?”

  “No,” I said slowly, my anger rising, face reddening with my temper, “I think you an idiot!”

  At his stunned look I pressed my hand to his wet chest and gave it a push. When that didn’t work I began smacking at him, punching at his shoulder wildly. He took a step back at the look on my face.

  “Could have asked me, but you accuse. Could have asked how I fared. You’re envious of the yelling you heard? What did you see, hmm? And what of it to you, huh? At least if he had, I wouldn’t have to worry about hiding it from anyone, pretending. I’d like to think a vessel worthy of the All-father would make me feel worthy of him. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll be Kvigor, if I can get that bedeviled fae out of him. Maybe he’ll grow a pair of testicles worthy of the sac hanging betwixt his legs and I can walk around proudly, owning a male who’s not afraid to be owned by me. A male who doesn’t make me feel ashamed of who I am, by no other dint than birth, species, realm! Hah! Maybe the All-father will grant me a human bonded when he comes! Wouldn’t that beat all?!”

  Adelric’s chest rattled with a deep noise, the eye peeking through the crack in the door shifting from left to right. “Has he sent someone?”

  My hand went to my forehead, putting pressure on that spot between my eyes, right above the bridge of my nose. “What does it matter who he sends? I don’t get to choose. I accepted him, and he’s finally acknowledged the fact. Now get out of my room. I’ve had a long night.”

  “Is that what you were doing, pretending to be dead?”

  “I wasn’t pretending to be dead!” I shouted, slamming my open palm to the door, startling the bull enough to send his face jerking back. The door closed an inch. “I was drowning out-” Snarling in frustration, I cut my words off. He was concerned his prize piece was out fucking another. Forget it. He doesn’t deserve the explanation. “Never mind you what I was doing. I am nothing to you. Or you me, as you have so perfectly proven, time and again.”

  He sniffed, sniffing again, his fingers curling around the door. “I smell blood. Are you injured?”

  My hand burned a bit, the skin, looking to have scabbed over despite the water, was split open anew. I understood it all too well, wounds that wouldn’t heal. Adelric, Kvigor, and now Puck, and maybe even the great Oberon when all this was through, just another slow gushing wound among many, slowly draining me of everything I am. Would there be any of me left in the end?

  “Maybe my pride. Now, move. I’ve something to-” Oh, what did it matter to him? If he meant to scold me farther, I wasn’t open to it. My fingers curled over his, my other hand at the door, ready to push.

  “Vacha,” his tone softened. “By the gate...?”

  “Did you come out to look? Did we disgust you?” My tone hardened, lip curling disdainfully.

  Softly turning amber flashed to gold. “Then you were by the gate fucking.” A wealth of judgement in those words. It was like metal striking bone, shattering, crushing, slicing, hacking at me one clumsy blow after the other.

  My nails, still claw sharp, dug into tender flesh. Adelric gasped, mouth dropping open in a gape, and he shook his bloody fingers out. Lifting my hand, I wiggled crimson coated nails at him.

  “Fuck you.” Burning pain filled my eyes, my chest aching, cracking, shattering from the inside out at his callous words.

  “Your eyes,” he blurted, blinking rapidly, “pixie...” Golden eyes darted from my face to his fingers, then back again. “I don’t- You- Vacha-”

  My hand pushed, slamming the door shut on his face with a jarring thud. I slid the latch into place, my hand cupping over my mouth to stifle a sob as I backed up slowly.

  “Riadne?” he called.

  I hated that name now, too. I kept thinking of Puck calling it over and over again, screaming it in my mind, calling me his.

  “Never,” I whispered, shivering instantly at the thought. Was he still out there, puttering around in Kvigor’s body? Had my idea worked, odd a turn as things had taken? I couldn’t say I’d meant for things to go in such a way, but hoped the outcome was what I prayed for. Kvigor and I had blood bonded and it had held, I’d assumed doing so again would reinforce it, not tie me to the fae! I’d played as if I’d meant to, but really, I had to ask myself what I’d been thinking!

  Peacock was blessedly absent in my head, and I found it easy enough to drown out Adelric’s fist pounding on my door, demanding I let him in.

  I’d just slipped a k’h se around my waist, ignoring these insipid tears rolling down my cheeks like they had a right to, fiddling with the ties, when I realized I’d left my dagger and boots by the pool. “Blasted- Ugh!” I cursed.


  There was a snarling bellow, and a crack. The door shook, rattling on its hinges.

  Another dust flying, wall rattling blow, and there, two shiny, thick horns burst forth, impaling the door.

  Scrambling, shrieking, I was on my bed in minutes, hollering my petrified, bemused little heart out. “What’s- What in the gods’ names is happening?!”

  Adelric made a noise a bull would be proud of, part moo and all groan.

  “Have you lost your mind?!” I screeched.

  The door creaked ominously, the sound of hooves shifting outside the door. Twin thump-thumps had me dropping off the bed, bare feet slapping noisily along the smooth floor.

  Drawing closer, eyeing the double protrusions, I reached out, fingers curling around one, and gave it a wiggle.

  More noises to please the herd.

  “You’re stuck.” Dropping back, hands on my hips, I shook my head.

  Muffled words came from the other side of the door, a deep, chuffing snort followed by a huff.

  “Can’t hear you.”

  Louder muffles.

  “I can’t make out what you’re saying,” I reiterated, frowning, waiting, because I knew it was coming. “Do you need help, Ferdinand? Shall I fetch your mother or Vachel? Or would you prefer one of the maidens?” I queried politely, staving off a snicker.

  Steam wafted through the thin cracks lining the door.

  “Definitely stuck.” Scratching at my chin, I made a clucking noise with my tongue I knew he wouldn’t like.

  The steam was starting to fill my room like those coal rooms, those rooms of steam I’d read about. Moist. It was swiftly growing very moist in here.

  “Stop that! You’re going to suffocate me, keeping me held prisoner in here like this!”

  The steam stopped immediately. A vigorous bout of wiggling commenced, thumping, body parts mashing into my door, creating more cracks and divots in the heavy wood, but those things were just not budging.

  When most of the thudding, snarling, stomping stopped, I approached the door. Hand lifting, I gave a spot by the handle a gentle rap.