by E.J. Stevens
I flinched, remembering a recent moment of weakness.
“I wasn’t that strong,” I said. “I-I-I gave up on you.”
“You were tricked by a man who has been manipulating people for a millennium.”
“But I shouldn’t have believed him,” I said. “Not for a second. How can you forgive me?”
“He was your family,” he said. “We all have a blind spot when it comes to family.”
He had a point. His ex-wife Melusine had been his blind spot, and Kade was mine. I guess in a twisted way that made us even.
I nodded, letting him know that I accepted his argument, though I’d likely never shed all of my guilt.
“Do you still wish to marry me?” he asked.
Ceff stared at me, his eyes glowing with passion, and with hope.
“Yes, Ceff, yes,” I said. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. Yes. I want to marry you, and I don’t want to wait.”
“There is no rush,” he said with a pleased laugh.
“Is next month rushing?” I asked.
“Next month?” he asked, eyebrow raised. “We have forever, and we are already rushing our engagement. Are you sure you want to become married so soon?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’m ready to begin forever.”
We walked hand in hand down the frost covered path. We would face the portal in the same way that we would face our future—together.
Chapter 58
I stumbled and retched, bile rising to burn my throat. The sleeve of my jacket vibrated as Torn and Ceff shuddered in unison.
I was struggling not to puke on my boots when Torn let go of my arm. He jumped back, and hissed as if the leather jacket burned his fingers.
“Did you have to take us through one of Mab’s personal portals, Princess?” he asked, glaring at me with his slit pupil eyes. “My stomach feels like it’s filled with angry spider fae hatchlings.”
That did it. We’d encountered spider fae when we’d traveled to Emain Ablach. That seemed like a lifetime ago, but the creatures had left an impression that I would probably carry to my grave.
With images of spider fae dancing in my head, I threw up. I managed to miss getting vomit on our clothes, not that I would have any regrets puking on Torn right now. The cat sidhe lord had a knack for getting under my skin.
“So tell me again why it was so important that we arrive in a junkyard of all places?” he asked.
I wiped my sleeve across my mouth, and surveyed the world around us. Somber had been true to his word. The portal had deposited us in the middle of Jinx’s father’s junkyard. I’d never been so happy to see those twisted scraps of plastic and metal. And flitting through the gaps in that metal were tiny glowing lights.
The wisps were still here, their bodies pulsating with a sickly shade of green.
My head was pounding, but I pushed away my own discomfort. I may have put the Wisp Court into the hands of Skillywidden and the wisp people, but that didn’t strip me of my duties as princess. Plus, I’d taken on a job here, and I planned to finish it.
I pulled off my jacket, and stripped down to my sports bra. I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs, and drawing my power up through my body. When I felt ready to burst with magic, I extended my wings.
The wisps voices were muffled, the proximity to iron dulling my abilities, but I reached out with my magic, and opened my mind. Thoughts and words rushed in, and a tear rolled down my cheek. These wisps had suffered so much.
But I was about to set things right.
My uncle had taught me some healing magic, in particular how to heal wisp physiology. I’d never attempted to heal more than my own scrapes and broken bones, but I had the knowledge, and it was time to put it to good use.
“Come,” I said, a smile touching my lips as I raised my hand palm up. I let my voice resonate with power, using my wisp magic to communicate with them. “Come, my cousins, let me heal you from this sickness.”
The wisps came closer and, with my magic opening a conduit between us, I could hear their cries for help. With tears streaming down my face, I sent my power into the wisps, cleansing their bodies of the taint of iron. It was such a simple thing now that I knew how to tap into our connection. Talking to and healing these wisps was as strenuous as walking a city block, nothing more.
Within minutes the wisps were glowing a bright healthy yellow hue. Ceff brought over a plastic container of water that he found while I worked, and set it on the ground at my feet. Even Torn shared the remainder of the rations he had in his pockets, setting the food beside the water with a shake of his head.
“You did it, Princess,” he said. “You saved them.”
“We did it,” I said.
I looked at Ceff, my heart swelling at the secret I still needed to share with Jinx when I arrived home. I smiled, and turned back to the wisps who were darting in and out of the water.
I knew that these wisps needed more than this healing. They needed a home, and food, and safety. I decided then that I would do everything in my power to give them those things, and more.
“We did it, together,” Ceff said, a smile on his lips.
I nodded, wondering once again how I’d come to have such amazing people in my life. I’d spent so much of my life alone—my childhood, the months in Faerie—but I didn’t have to do things on my own anymore. I had people that I loved, who, by some miracle, loved me in return.
I smiled, and slid my gloved hand into Ceff’s.
“Together we can do anything.”
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Hound’s Bite
By E.J. Stevens
Hound’s Bite
The night was broken by howls that sent icy claws skittering down my spine.
“What the Hell is that?” I asked, gloved hands reaching for my blades.
Ceff lifted his hands apologetically, mouth struggling to form words in a way that wouldn’t upset me. I could read his discomfort in his stiff posture and the tightening of the skin around his eyes.
Torn had no such concern for my feelings.
“You didn’t think you could enter Faerie without consequences, did you, Princess?” Torn asked with a mocking sneer.
So much for friendship. Apparently, returning to Harborsmouth had brought out Torn’s snarky side.
The doors to Faerie had been sealed by Mab, Titania, and Oberon when they disappeared more than a century ago. The faerie paths no longer led to the Seelie and Unseelie lands. Lucky for me, I’d found a key to a hidden back door.
At least, that key had seemed like a stroke of luck at the time. I’d needed a way into Faerie, to the wisp court that promised clues to my father’s whereabouts, not that my journey had been easy. Nothing worth fighting for ever was.
The ability to come out of hiding? That was worth fighting for. I was tired of slinking around the shadows of my city.
The problem was that, even though I’d been raised human, the supernatural gifts I inherited from my father, Will-o-the-Wisp, continued to grow like wildfire—burning me in the process. With no one to teach me how to control my growing powers, I’d broken the one rule that all fae live by. I used my powers in public, unglamoured, and risked exposing the secret of our kind to humans—a crime punishable by death.
It didn’t take the fae uppity ups long to send out a faerie hit squad to take me out. The Moordenaar, a group of elite assassins, shot me full of poisoned arrows. I died. Thankfully, I had a magic apple up my sleeve—an apple that resurrected the dead, and not in a creepy, zombielicious kind of way.
So yeah. I died, but I got better. Take that faerie assassins. Ivy Granger, 1. Faerie assassins, 0.
With the fae believing I was dead, I used my father’s key to enter the wisp court. As I said, it hadn’t been easy. I did things there that were sure to give me nightmares—more than I already had—but I’d foolishly believed that the worst was behind me.
Surviving a trip through the land
of the dead and into Faerie and back again—homicidal relatives and all—had left me hopeful. I’d learned how to control my powers. My friends and I had survived. Heck, I’d only been back a few minutes and already I’d managed to heal the wisps who’d been living in Jinx’s father’s junkyard of their iron sickness. It was starting out to be a good day.
I should have known better.
But I had so many reasons for being hopeful. I was returning to Harborsmouth after demonstrating my newfound control to the Unseelie Court. The ruling fae had decided that I was no longer a threat to their existence. That meant no more hiding. For once, no one was trying to kill me. Even my relationship with Ceff was a good place. My life was supposed to go back to normal.
Another hungry howl pierced the night, and I grimaced.
“This is no time for games, Torn,” I said. Getting an answer from a cat side was like following the metal ball in a game of Mouse Trap. I was pretty sure that Torn was allergic to straight answers, but I was sick of playing the mouse. Our journey to Faerie had been an exhausting one, and I was short on patience. The sooner we fought the big baddy coming our way, the sooner I could drop into my bed. “Did we wake the Hound of the Baskervilles, or what?”
Ceff and Torn exchanged a meaningful look, faces grim. I flashed Ceff a grin, hoping to lighten the mood, but he shook his head.
“Torn was right,” Ceff said. “It would seem that our trip to Faerie was not without consequences.”
“What consequences?” I said, throwing my blade laden hands in the air. “Will one of you just tell me what is out there? A heads up might make killing the howling monster a little easier. Knowledge is power, yada yada.”
“You will need more than mere blades to fight that enemy,” Ceff said.
I ground my teeth while mentally stabbing a picture of my cryptic boyfriend with my “mere blades.”
“Are you saying we should run?” I asked, eyebrows raised. “Because you should know me better than that.”
“What he’s saying, Princess, is that you woke up something too big for the three of us to defeat alone,” Torn said.
That made me pause. We’d fought faerie queens, pyro demons, a lovesick necromancer, and a psychotic lamia, to name a few. I may not have come through those battles unscathed, or with all my guts still on the inside, but with my friends at my side, and a new arsenal of wisp powers at my fingertips, I felt nearly invincible.
I looked to Ceff, hoping he’d grab his trident and join me for some quick monster cleanup. I may not be on the clock for this one, but I didn’t let hungry fae prowl the streets of Harborsmouth. And if Torn was right, I’d somehow let this one follow us out of Faerie. No way was I turning tail, no matter how tired I was.
But Ceff didn’t reach for his weapons.
“We need allies,” he said.
“And larger weapons,” Torn said, with a wink.
The cat sidhe looked excited, which was a clue that I wasn’t going to like the answer to my next question.
“And what monster do we need to gather our allies and weapons against?” I asked.
“Haven’t you guessed yet, Princess?” Torn asked, eyes gleaming. “We’re not just facing one howling beast.”
Ceff turned to me, closing the space between us. In the moonlight, I could see my reflection in the dark pools of his kelpie eyes—eyes that were tight with worry.
“What are they?” I asked.
Ceff’s voice was low and reverent, and tinged with the taint of fear.
“The Wild Hunt.”
About the Author
E.J. Stevens is the author of the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal romance series, the Hunters’ Guild urban fantasy series, and the bestselling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series. She is known for filling pages with quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.
When E.J. isn't at her writing desk she enjoys dancing along seaside cliffs, singing in graveyards, and sleeping in faerie circles. E.J. currently resides in a magical forest on the coast of Maine where she finds daily inspiration for her writing.
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