by Lexi Blake
“I didn’t do anything,” I protested. But I had wanted the bikes to work again.
Could I wish us out of this?
“She doesn’t think she’s worthy of the power,” a familiar voice said. My dad was standing outside his tent, my mother next to him. “She’s blocked it, and until she accepts that she can handle it, it won’t come back. It’s harder than you think. She can’t simply want to be worthy. She believes if she has the power, she’ll screw it up. Like I believed I was unworthy of my place as a king. I believed it that night she was born. I sometimes still believe it, but my partners bring me back in line.”
My mother was covered in pixies. They clung to her hair and landed on her shoulders. But I noticed they carefully stayed away from my dad.
So odd.
Kelsey frowned my parents’ way. “I’m already pregnant. I do not need random fertility rituals. Lucky for me the kid here is really good at putting up walls. Are we heading out?”
My papa emerged from the tent looking right at home in the middle of the faery forest. He glanced around in obvious satisfaction. “Hello again, pixies. And don’t think I don’t see you, little sprites. Good morning to you as well.”
I glanced over and sure enough, there were some shy-looking sprites clinging to the trees and watching us. All the Fae creatures had been attracted to the magic. They were looking at the Green Man with wonder in their eyes.
“I’m glad to hear the bikes are ready,” Papa said. “But I think I’ll make the path the witches will take a bit more inaccessible. A few mighty oak trees should do the trick. Perhaps some thorny bushes will make them think twice about following.”
“He can do that?” Taggart asked.
Papa nodded as he moved across the camp. “He can indeed.” Papa stopped in front of Marcus. “You will take care of her?”
Marcus’s shoulders straightened. “With every beat of my heart.”
Papa sighed and held out a hand. “Then you are welcome in my family.”
Marcus only hesitated a moment before shaking Papa’s hand. “What changed your mind?”
“I was reminded that love is all that matters.” He smiled, a brilliant expression. “And that I can be an asshole who holds a grudge for far too long. So let us be done and let us be family.”
Marcus nodded. “Yes, let us be family.”
Papa went off to delay the witches and Taggart laid out his plan. We wouldn’t all fit on the bikes, so the Dellacourts were returning to the Vampire plane where they could easily get to Tír na nÓg without the problem of having a fugitive with them. They agreed to go through the direct door and make the kings ready for our arrival. That left us with four bikes. As they would all carry three, we would be fairly comfortable for the ride.
And when we reached Tír na nÓg, I would have questions to answer. Questions I didn’t even want to contemplate.
I turned to Marcus. “If I asked you to take me away from here, would you?”
He drew me close. “Yes, but Summer, my love, that won’t solve our problems. The worlds will still collapse.”
I stood there, letting him hold me and wondering if mine already had.
* * * *
Kelsey
I couldn’t help but watch as Dev shook Marcus’s hand. Mostly because I needed to make sure they weren’t about to get into a fight over Dev being a protective father. But it looked like the queen had at least talked some sense into that one because it seemed to be a perfectly peaceful conversation.
Then Summer was in his arms and Marcus looked…content. My heart felt fuller looking at him, knowing no matter what happened Marcus finally got a moment with the woman he’d been born to love.
I missed Gray and Trent so fucking much.
“Taggart says the bikes are working again.” Dean had his hands on his hips, staring over to where Summer remained wrapped in Marcus’s arms. “He seems to think magic made it happen.”
There was a lot of magic going on these days. “You didn’t do anything, right?”
He shook his head. “Nah. I wouldn’t even know how to start. Even a witch working on tech has to know something about the tech. But Summer isn’t a witch.”
He’d given me a rundown on some of the theories whirling around camp. “No. She’s something else. Do you believe she stopped the bikes?”
“And fixed them. The Taggarts spoke directly to her, told her what could happen to Marcus if the bikes didn’t work. It was a ploy to see if they could get her to fix the bikes,” Dean said. “She doesn’t even realize she’s doing it. I think she’s holding herself back. If they’d asked her directly, she wouldn’t have been able to. She’s so invested in this belief that she’s a danger to everyone.”
That could happen when someone so young, so sheltered, faced true tragedy. “So what we really need is a therapist. I wonder if the planes can hold out until we can convince Summer she’s worthy.”
“I think Marcus is working on that,” Dean said with a wistful smile. “I think that’s why the bikes stopped. That’s why the convergence stopped. She’s found her true mate and takes strength in that.”
My heart ached for him because he’d believed he loved her. “Oh, Dean, I’m sorry, but I think you’re right. Are you okay? Unrequited love sucks ass.”
What can I say? I’m not a poet. I was sure Dev or the queen would have lots of lofty things to say, but I simply gave him the truth.
He turned my way. “Do you want to know what’s funny? I think I had a vision of my mate last night. With all that magic flying around maybe it was nothing more than a crazy dream, but I swear I saw her. I only know I’ve never felt like that about a woman before. Not even Summer. She was the whole world to me. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. She looked like an angel from the Heaven plane.”
I thought he’d probably simply been dreaming, and though he’d done a fab job of keeping those pesky lust waves out of our tent, I’d had a pretty sexy dream about my guys, too. But then I remembered the vision I’d seen of him and the blonde woman at his side. “She sounds lovely.”
“Yeah,” he said with a hint of a smile, like he was remembering something wonderful. “She was amazing. She was a witch, too. Our powers complemented each other. I was stronger with her. If only that other dude hadn’t been there.”
I pointed at him, oddly relieved. “You were definitely under the influence. You’re having threesome dreams.”
One shoulder shrugged. “He was attractive, and I’ll admit to a certain fluidity when it comes to my personal sexuality. But he didn’t like me. He reminded me of the Green Man but he had a lot of scars, like he’d been through many battles. Maybe that’s why he was so crabby. Dude needs to relax and stuff.”
I thought Dean had a vivid imagination, but hey, anything could happen. Maybe there was some witch on the Earth plane waiting for this kid to sweep her off her feet. And maybe she had a crabby guy who’d seen too much battle waiting for Dean to shake things up. Who was I to say since Gray and I had been in a holding pattern until my superhot alpha wolf had truly brought us together.
“Kelsey, I wanted to tell you how lovely it was to meet you.” Kaja approached with her husband tagging along. She reached out a hand and I took it. “We’re going to head to the gate now. The witches aren’t looking for us, so we doubt they’ll even pay attention to a handsome vampire and his wolf out for a walk.”
I’d talked to Kaja a bit the night before and she’d told me of the great wolf pack on the icy plane she’d been born on. A whole world of wolves, it seemed, hadn’t been that great. Lots of assholes where she came from. But I admired the hell out of her. “I’ll see you in Tír na nÓg. Maybe we can go for a run when the moon is full.”
“And you can tell me more about my supervillain other self.” Dante had been fascinated by the idea of his Earth plane mirror. I’d explained that his human self was a massive asshole.
“You should understand that if I ever meet the Earth plane Dante again, I plan to show him my good right arm, if you
know what I mean,” I replied. But I shook his hand because this Dante seemed pretty cool. “You really think Summer will be safe in Tír na nÓg?”
“I think it’s the safest place for her to be,” Dante replied, stepping back. “And we’ll be waiting. I promise she has nothing to fear from my cousins. None of you do. My cousin is a Green Man himself. He’ll be thrilled to meet one from the old world. We’ll fix this situation. We have to. Keep the tablet I gave you so we can communicate. I’ll send you the number to my new one when we get to the Vampire plane.”
“How long will it take you to get to Tír na nÓg?” I was super confused about all the gates and doors and pathways.
“We can be there before you,” Kaja assured me. “We’ll inform the palace you’re coming and send some troops to meet you at the gate. You have to cross from this plane to another neutral plane, and then you’ll be at the gate to Tír na nÓg. Taggart knows the way. He fought in the war to free Tír na nÓg. I wish we’d had Summer on our side then, but she was a child. I understand why they protected her. Just let her know she’ll be welcomed home with open arms, and we will find a way to save the outer planes.”
I nodded and wished them well as Kaja changed and they took off, Dante jogging beside her.
The queen strode up and she’d found a bunch of new friends.
“You suck,” I said.
She merely smiled. “Of course I did. It would have been rude not to.”
Sometimes I think she’s spent way too much time with faeries.
“I thought you were going to give me a heads up if you decided to release the lust mojo,” I pointed out. “No one was ready for that. Do you know how much I’ve heard that vampire complain about lube?”
She flushed slightly but there was a satisfied expression on her face. “We thought the wards would hold. Apparently it was a bit more powerful than we imagined. Dean, are you all right?”
“I kept most of it out.” Dean seemed more confident to me after a good night’s sleep. “That was some strong magic. I’m actually pretty good with what we call dirt magic. It’s agriculturally based. I would love to learn a bit from the Green Man. I know he doesn’t do spells and stuff, but I’ve found my spells are better when I understand the magic behind them.”
Zoey grinned. “Oh, there is nothing Dev loves more than teaching. You’ll probably rue the day you asked.”
“I doubt it. I’m a pretty curious guy,” Dean admitted. “And I have to say I love having the pixies around. Apparently they don’t like the barrier magic near the brugh. I thought it kind of sucked that I was spending so much time on a faery plane and never got to meet a pixie. I’ll go help finish getting ready. I’m excited to go back to Tír na nÓg. I haven’t been in years.”
“He seems happy,” the queen said as she watched Dean join the Taggarts and Adam.
“He thinks he had a prophetic dream.” The bikes were humming again and my adrenaline started to flow. No matter what they said, I couldn’t help but think something would go wrong. What can I say? I’m a realist. Dev might be able to delay those angry witches, but he wouldn’t stop them. Even with the bikes it would be a race across two planes to get to the finish line where I hoped Dante and his cousins met us with an army escort. “He believes the sex magic from last night gave him a vision of his fated mates. He thinks they’re on the Earth plane.”
“That’s a lovely thought. I hope it’s true. He’s got a hard road ahead of him. He needs partners he can count on.” She reached a hand out and Arwyna lifted off her hair and landed on her palm. “Arwyna believes there’s something wrong with the energy here. She’s talked to the other pixies and they say there’s a wall around Summer.”
“A wall?” I was confused. “Dean has said nothing about sensing a ward around her. Is it something Erna could have done to her?”
“I think Erna’s done much to my daughter, but I believe this is something she’s done to herself,” the queen concluded. “Arwyna claims she felt Fae magic coming off Erna. She believes that is why the demons went to the brugh. They were looking for Summer but found Erna.”
“She’s funneling magic to herself.” I’d thought a lot about it. “I think she tricked Summer. She used the tragedy of what happened to Summer’s tribe to convince her to take that charm. But according to Charlotte, the magic needs somewhere to go. Dean believes Erna is planning something and has been for nearly a decade. I’ll admit, I saw her nearly shift into something that wasn’t human-looking. It was like I caught her in mid-transition into something vicious and terrible. We’re going to have to deal with it at some point, and I worry that she’ll use whatever power of Summer’s she’s stored up against us.”
The queen allowed Arwyna to fly back to her place of honor. “I would assume we will. There’s something odd about Danny, too. None of this makes sense. Him being human again that is.”
“Because Marcus retained his power. We all did.” Only Daniel had been affected. Could it have been a plot of Myrddin’s? Perhaps, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Kelsey, if things go bad,” the queen began.
I knew exactly what she wanted. “I’ll protect the king as well as I can. I have to take care of Dean, too.”
Because we needed him.
Taggart shouted that it was time to move. Dean and I would be riding with Adam. I had to admit I was eager to try the thing out. It looked incredibly cool, and I did like a little speed.
“If the bullets start flying, I’ll try to convince Danny I need to be out of the line of fire,” she said, putting a hand on her stomach. I hadn’t thought about it, but now I knew why that magic had been so strong. I got a feeling the queen had taken advantage of the king having working sperm and I would have a pregnancy buddy. The queen seemed to realize something. “Oh, Kelsey. I hadn’t even thought about the fact that you’re pregnant.”
And it was all I’d thought about. It was good to be content. “I can’t sit out of a fight, Your Highness. If I do, we lose. I’ll be okay. I have faith and shit.”
“Do you have any idea how far you’ve come?”
Sometimes the queen felt like the big sister I’d never had. “Yeah. But I’m never going to admit to the king that he helped me down that road. I get too much mileage out of his guilt.”
The queen laughed and we started walking toward the bikes. “Yes, guilt is a big thing with Danny. Let’s get going. Hopefully the palace will have good kitchens.”
Now that was enough to get me going.
I was sitting behind Dean as our caravan took off ten minutes later.
We traveled most of the morning and into the afternoon, coming to our first gate of the day. Taggart’s timing was perfect. We approached it as it shimmered into place, showing a different world. We were going from plains to mountains.
From here it would be another hour to Tír na nÓg.
Or so we thought because mountains weren’t the only thing waiting for us.
Erna was there and she’d brought an army.
Chapter Thirty-One
Zoey
I caught my breath as the bike screeched to a halt in front of the massive army lined up in front of us. There was a long line of men on horseback and only one word came to mind—barbarian. They looked savage, and each of them held up either a sword or a bow and shouted their joy at the upcoming battle.
Against the ten of us. There were only ten of us, and I didn’t think even all that sweet vampire tech was going to save us now. Maybe if Daniel had been at full strength—at any strength—but we couldn’t take on an entire army.
I watched as a feminine figure moved to the front of the line. She looked like she had before, her hair and face familiar, but it didn’t trick me now. I knew there was something wicked beneath her everyday appearance. Erna stared out across the field and I knew she was looking for my daughter.
She would try to take my daughter, to steal her power and her life. My heart pounded with fear. Anger played around in there, but it was the fear that threatene
d to overtake me. I’d just gotten my baby girl back. I couldn’t lose her.
“Can we turn around?” I heard Kelsey ask the question through the small earbuds we’d all been given.
I wanted to do nothing more than go back through that door, and then we would simply run until we found a way back to the Earth plane. My daughter would be safe. It wasn’t her responsibility to save the outer planes.
But a voice inside me whispered that it was. That she was special and she’d been chosen. That I would have to sacrifice again.
“I timed it specifically so the door would close after we entered.” Taggart’s voice was calm, but there was a tightness to the tone. “I was more worried about the witches following us. I didn’t realize this plane was occupied. All my data told me there are only primitive life-forms here. Who the hell are these assholes?”
“I fear my two greatest enemies are in league with each other.” My daughter’s voice came across the line. “At least I now know where Erna got the thrall stones. The big guy on the horse is named Turi. The thousand or so men behind him are magically bound to do his will. They won’t hesitate to kill us all. If we can try to make our way around them, we should. The bikes are fast.”
“Summer of the Gentle Winds,” a victorious male voice shouted. “Face me and I might allow your companions to live.”
Fear raced through my system and I felt Daniel stiffen in front of me. He’d been “driving” the bike, but the truth was Taggart had control. He would likely have to let us all flee on our own if any of us were going to escape, and I didn’t know if Danny could control the thing without guidance.
Dev’s arms tightened around my waist. Well, one of them did, and I realized he was getting ready to do something.
The ground rumbled beneath us, though I couldn’t feel it shaking since we hovered a few feet off the ground. I could see the grass tremble and see the way the horses were suddenly moving as though they knew something was about to happen. A wall of green blasted up from the ground between us and the army. It reached at least ten feet high and stretched out in either direction.
