by Dawn Madigan
“Princess Grian’s father is Manannan Mac Lir,” Brighid blurted out in response. “Lord of Tir-fo-Thoinn. He’ll send his Merrows to help us.”
“The ‘Land Beneath the Waves’,” Rowan translated in Dara’s ear, not sounding the least out of breath. “Manannan is the Ocean Lord.”
“Why then—” Dara started. They twisted out of the narrow cherry lane into a sloping rosy one, and then the world unfolded before them with breathtaking abruptness. “Are we running?” she finished, her eyes widening in wonder. Abann-na-Óir, the River of Gold, suddenly filled the near horizon. Its rippling face mirrored the eternal daylight in mellow gold. For a second they all stood silently, drinking in the sight and rolling the salty air on their tongues.
“Because,” said Brighid, “we’re late.” She broke into a short run, her cape billowing behind her, her gown miraculously avoiding tangling between her legs. She skidded to a stop halfway from the river and turned back to shout at them, her arms decorating her words with urgent gestures. “D’you two need a royal summons? Get your arses down here!”
Rowan cocked an amused brow.
“Well, Brighid, if you put it that way,” Dara muttered and started towards the banshee, taking a deliberately calm pace. Rowan chuckled behind as he joined her.
Then something growled.
Dara spun around in a blur, gripping her dagger and drawing it in the same movement. The wrought metal flashed wickedly as it met daylight, throwing dancing glimmers over Dara’s face. Rowan was growling beside her, too, low in his throat, molten amber flowing into the green of his eyes. Dara completed her movement to face what he did, her dagger slashing the adjacent air. Her eyes froze in a wide stare, a familiar icy finger touching her core.
A tall, slender figure was silhouetted against the rosy hues at the mouth of the alley they had just emerged from. The darkness of his hair and clothes contrasted sharply with his deathly pale skin. His head was raised as if he were sniffing the air. As Dara watched he lowered his gaze, settling his eyes on her. He greeted her with a slight smile and a mocking bow of his head.
Dara fought the sick feeling that was coursing through her body, weakening her knees. Even from afar, she had sensed the weight of the Hound’s gaze. Her left shoulder began to throb as the memory of a recently healed wound flared into life.
“Dara, run!”
She hardly recognized Rowan’s thickened voice. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her from where she’d been standing, propelling her into a frantic sprint. There were more shadowy figures spilling out of the rainbow-colored streets, some on horseback, others walking with their steeds by their sides. Hooves clattered with dissonance against the cobblestones.
“To the river. Jump!” Brighid was screaming and waving as they loped past her. “Jump, now!”
Brighid watched as the Hound began to change, still smiling behind the mists he had gathered. He shifted slower than he was able to, like he was enjoying every moment of it. The oncoming riders halted at the mouths of the streets opening to the river concourse. One of them, mounted on a massive white horse, advanced forward from the semicircle they made. Silver shone from his saddle’s embroidery and high pommel.
Donn. Brighid tensed, her hands making a cup against her lips, nestling a single remaining white petal.
Donn lunged from his horse, a cloud of mist exploding around him as he transformed mid-leap. The rich indigo of the velvet hugging his skin darkened to a black leopard’s silky-smooth fur. In the rosy alley behind him mists were slowly peeling away from the Hound, baring something dark and huge in their core.
“Grian, by this hawthorn I call on thee.” Brighid exhaled softly over the shuddering petal, and a tongue of flame consumed the white. Calling the Princess by fire…she had never dared this way of summoning before.
The black leopard landed in a crouch and leaped forward. A golden flash suddenly slammed into its elongated dark shape, breaking its jump. The puma and the leopard rolled against the pavestones, gold and black flashing alternately. The two big cats suddenly tore free of each other, immediately becoming engulfed by twin swirls of fog. These quickly receded, revealing the shapechangers’ human forms.
Donn gave Grian a dark smile. “You make a lovely cat, Princess.”
“You should have informed me earlier of your plans to visit.” Grian returned his smile. “Then I would’ve seen to you being greeted…properly.”
“I owe you no answers.” Donn kept smiling. “Last I heard, your Knockgreany was not Mumha’s Ruling Mound.”
“Last I heard, your Knockfierna was no more a Ruling Mound than my Knockgreany. Which makes you a Lesser, just as I. High Prince Bodb has command of the Kingdom’s only Ruling Mound, hence he’s the only one who outranks me in my own dominion. You are standing on my land, Donn. You’re not to give any orders here.”
They stared coldly at one another, bodies tight like bowstrings. Neither one moved.
Diving from the sky, Brighid tore furiously with beak and claws at the golden eye of the monstrous mac’tir that the Hound had changed into.
“Ready to jump?” Rowan shouted beside Dara, squeezing her hand.
The Hound’s howl of agony and rage sounded frighteningly close behind their backs.
Neither dared turn and look. The riverbank was briefly touching their feet, and then they were both airborne, water and sky swirling into a nauseating blur. A black smear crossed their visual field.
Brighid? Dara thought hazily, and then, I didn’t get to sheathe my dagger.
Just before the water slammed into her body she drew in one last deep breath and tightened her grip on her dagger. Another stray thought leaped into her mind…
I hope the water isn’t really gold.
Chapter Thirteen
All sound was cut off sharply, and then there was nothing but stillness, aside from her own blood pounding in her ears. Dara tore her eyes open and twisted around with a few practiced movements. She had lost her grip on Rowan upon hitting the water, but her fist was still clasped tight around her dagger.
There he was, his long hair swirling in slow-motion about his face, like dancing flames. He jerked his eyes open, and they blazed an oddly fresher green beneath the water. He wrestled out of his ballooning robe before it drowned him, and the swelling garb floated to the water’s surface like a huge, green jellyfish.
Dara slid the dagger back into its scabbard, struggling with her own billowing shirt. She easily swam the short distance to Rowan, her legs thrusting behind her with long, powerful strokes. Down here, in Mananann’s water realm, she was the faster one. Trying hard not to stare below Rowan’s waist, she lightly touched his arm.
He signaled to his mouth, then up.
Dara understood. They wouldn’t be able to hold their breaths much longer, and would have to go up for air soon. And what might be awaiting them up there?
Dara’s chest was already burning with the effort. She guessed that by now they’d been holding their breaths for over a minute, and she was no expert freediver. Somehow she doubted Rowan had more diving experience. It was either opening their mouths to take a deep, deadly breath of river water, or going up to face whatever was lurking there.
Where the hell was Brighid, gone when she was needed? And who, or what, had the whimsical Sidhe intended they would find here, in the river’s dark depths?
Dara’s eyes locked with Rowan’s. Oddly, this time he’d entrusted their fate to her. Finally, Dara jerked her right thumb up. Rowan nodded, placing both his large hands on her hips, preparing to drive them both towards light and air.
Out of nowhere something snagged one of Dara’s ankles with a steely grip, pulling her down with force. Down, to the river’s darkness, and away from the capering golden shimmers above their heads. Rowan threw a wild downward glance. Dara’s mouth tore open against her will. Her breasts heaved as her rib cage expanded with a futile breath, about to pump her lungs full of algid water, and a few unfortunate minute fish…
Only instead
, she was inhaling chill, mossy air.
Cool, succulent lips were sealing Dara’s mouth. Long fingers enfolded the back of her head, like an eager lover’s hands, but they weren’t Rowan’s. As precious oxygen again saturated her lungs, the red veil blurring her vision gradually dissipated, revealing an extremely close pair of large, luminous eyes. Hard nipples, grazing Dara’s flesh through her sopping shirt, told her that whatever was holding her captive was likely female.
A low protesting moan caught deep in Dara’s throat. Her muscles strained in reflex as she struggled to break free of her captor’s forceful grasp. Her mind wrestled as well, trying to unearth Brighid’s recent words. What had she told them exactly, before?
We’ve got ourselves a date with the Merrows…
Manannan Mac Lir…
He’ll send his Merrows to help us…
The Merrow kept her firm grip on Dara, their lips locked together in a forced kiss. Unperturbed, she exhaled more air into Dara’s reluctant mouth.
And that shameless ocean fairy was giving Dara some tongue, too!
Dara moaned her protest, putting up a good fight. Finally, the Merrow withdrew, replacing her lips with a long, lean finger over Dara’s mouth.
A warning.
Don’t breathe now, that sinewy finger hinted.
Dara curbed an urge to jerk herself away, instead daring a bolder peek at her lecherous savior. The Merrow’s triangular, high-cheekboned face was delicately featured, tapering to a narrow chin. Huge slanting eyes of variegated green took up most of her face, their gaze unreadable and oddly penetrating. Her skin was pale and had a slight sheen, as if dusted with finely crushed pearls, and her hands were slender and fine-boned. She had finely webbed fingers, and…
Goddess!
Her waist tapered, and then flared into an iridescent, hazel fishtail!
A mermaid, Dara thought with shock.
The mermaid removed her finger completely from Dara’s lips.
Damn, it seemed she was about to kiss her again!
Rowan was just parting lips with his own mermaid.
So, this was what Brighid had meant back on shore.
Manannan, the Ocean Lord, had sent his mermaids to help. The servants would probably get the two of them across to Inis, leaving them there to find Brighid’s contact, the Leprechaun.
Rowan drew back a little to take a better look. His gaze fell from the dappled green eyes and lush, cool lips. The twin swells of his rescuer’s breasts were bejeweled with small hard nipples, like a pair of rare pearls. His fingers itched to touch them, just to see how they felt. A red cap of feathers was fitted tightly over the mermaid’s scalp, and beneath it long strands of silvery hair fanned about her body. The red cap was called a cohullen-druith, Rowan recalled from old legends, the enchantment allowing a mermaid to travel between dry land and her undersea world.
Rowan turned to look for Dara. A soft grin lit up his face as he watched her wrestling with her own mermaid, while she was kissing life into her mouth.
Truthfully, Dara’s mermaid seemed way too pleased with her task.
Lean fingers flickered over Rowan’s chin, diverting his attention back from his mate. A sleek tail wound between his legs. His own mermaid’s face hovered close, her strange eyes on the same level as his. She swayed into him with a soft flick of her tail, and her lips again claimed his mouth.
His mermaid’s lips were soft and chilly, her breath seasoned with the ocean’s salty tang. ‘Twas an odd feeling, and not exactly an unpleasant one. The mermaid’s quick, sinuous tongue stroked over the gap in his lips, but to Rowan’s utter relief, didn’t attempt to invade deeper into his mouth. Seemed like their mermaids liked girls.
Rowan moved curious fingers through the silky cloud of silver hair. The mermaid’s long cap feathers teased his face and shoulders. He tentatively touched her face—her shiny skin felt as smooth as a seal’s beneath his fingertips.
The fairy broke their kiss and tilted her head. She slinked her arm about his waist and her tail beat forcefully, propelling them both forward. Dara and her mermaid were already spiraling through the darkening water just ahead of them. Rowan tightened his hold around his mermaid’s slim waist. She advanced like an eel through the shadowy underwater world, her body flowing in sinuous undulations. Like well-aimed torpedoes, the two odd pairs shot stealthily through the water. Their speed slowed each time the mermaids joined their mouths with those of the Kanjali shifters, breathing air into their lungs.
Suddenly, with an elusive flick of a tail, the mermaids were gone with the same abruptness with which they had appeared.
Dara swung wildly about. Rowan hovered close, a few feet away. Daylight trickled into the water in glitters and jittery currents. She drove herself up with a forceful thrust, her head finally breaking the water’s surface. Eyes shut tightly against the light, she opened her mouth wide and gasped loudly for air.
“Oh, Goddess,” she mumbled and drew another breath, a slower one.
“Strange.” Rowan’s voice was so sudden within the intimacy of the water and the sky that she startled and jerked her eyes open.
“What’s strange?” she asked.
“You.” He spoke low and soft, his voice rough, as he swam closer. The gentle waves stirred by his movements lapped at her breasts and shoulders, sending shuddering chills through her body. “You told me you didn’t believe in ‘the primitive mumbo jumbo’. Yet, I’ve heard you calling for the Goddess more than once.”
“It’s just a figure of speech.”
She spoke breathlessly, sounding like she’d just had sex. She looked like she’d just had sex… The slow, sweaty kind. Rowan extended his arm and caught her waist, pulling her close against him.
“Are you trying to drown us again?” Dara’s arms swung furiously in the water as she strained to keep herself afloat. “You—”
Taking advantage of Dara’s brief lack of resistance, he cradled her head in his other hand and sealed her mouth with his. His legs kept beating in a strong, relaxed rhythm. She gave a surprised moan, her arms slashing the water in steadying arcs. Her legs whipped the water, almost tangling with his. He took advantage of her moaning, sending his tongue deep inside her mouth. She kept making small sounds that threatened to drive him out of his mind. He groaned with the frustration of wanting her, of wishing she’d just wrap her legs around his waist and let him bury his cock deep inside her sweet cunt.
She bit his lower lip, brief and hard, driving herself away from him with a few quick strokes.
“Don’t try that again,” she said shakily, looking dizzy.
“What? Kiss you?” he said. He touched two fingers to where she’d bitten him, his tongue gathering up a budding blood droplet.
“Kiss me like that. Like I’ve got no real choice in the matter.”
“I thought you liked it.”
“Oh, you’re so sure of that?” she snapped, tiny water gems trembling on her eyelashes. She batted her limbs in livid arcs, raising a froth. “And I thought you liked kissing that…that…sea creature!”
“You’re jealous,” Rowan proclaimed, a hint of a disbelieving smile tugging one angle of his mouth. “Look, Dara, the mermaids were just doing our breathing for us, is all.”
“I’m not jealous.” Dara made a fuming turn in the water and started towards the white sandy shore. “And next time, I’ll decide if I want to be kissed or not!” she tossed tartly behind her back.
“Aye, and don’t you bleedin’ forget it!” Rowan shouted after her receding form. “You bleedin’ decide.”
He knew she’d heard him well enough, though she gave no sign of it. A soft frustrated groan built deep in Rowan’s throat. By Danu, his body wanted her to decide quicker! Beneath the hawthorn she’d let him kiss her in the most intimate of ways, and now a simple mouth-to-mouth threw her into a murderous fit. What…
He almost slapped himself.
The chase by the river, and then their underwater escapade—it all must have been too much for her. He
should just let her go right now. Give the lass her sweet time. Rowan gritted his teeth as he watched her dark head and pale shoulders bobbing up and down in the water.
Aye, that he would do.
Give Dara plenty of time. Time to decide. To let her mind understand what her body had already known…that she wanted him.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
Dara sliced through the water like a hot knife sliding through butter. Before she realized it her toes were burrowing into sand and she was wading in waist-deep water.
Dammit, she wasn’t jealous!
She swiped angrily at a dripping tangle of hair that dangled over her face.
Earlier she’d let Rowan kiss her lower and deeper than what he’d just done. And Goddess, every inch of her body was craving his touch. His large hands all over her. It was just that…
She hugged herself against the sudden chill, the water now lapping at mid-thigh.
It was all happening way too fast. She was out of control here. She hadn’t even figured out yet where here was!
Her wet feet kissed shallow grooves against the water’s silver edge. The long shirt’s hem slapped wetly against her low thighs, and she paused to inspect herself with an acid glance.
Wet t-shirt contest finalist, again.
Chapter Fourteen
“Hey, wait. Dara!”
Rowan cursed as he leaped along the already fading trail of her footprints. She didn’t slow down, keeping up a steady-as-hell tempo.
“Mind telling me where you’re heading?” he inquired softly as he reached her, searching her face for answers.
“I wasn’t really thinking about that.”
Thump, thump, thump.
Her small feet kept thrashing the muddy sand with a ruthless, silent rhythm. Rowan ached to seize her arm and stop this senseless march, make her look at him. He didn’t dare.
