Gasps and murmurs filled the ranks.
“You are still a criminal, Jiarmand, and your father will be without an heir. That means you’ve left his throne up for grabs through your own device. I doubt he’ll mind if we kill you before he does.” Twist drew a sword and shouted, “Besides, can a ‘human git’ do this?” He shot lightning from the sword into the soldiers facing us and blasted them to the sides.
He whistled loudly then called, “Come, boy, I’ve got your dinner waiting,”
In the path between the fallen soldiers, the Cu Sith advanced. The rest of the troops disbursed in panic while Twist laughed.
“Cover your ears, Meg,” Puck whispered quickly.
I did, and kept my eyes on the beast. Its big doggy grin was anything but friendly. As it grew closer, the grin turned to a snarl which rumbled across the ground and through the clear night. I nudged Puck with my elbow. Anytime now would be good….
When the hound stood within two feet of the net, snarling, but not barking, I glanced at Puck. Sweat beaded on his brow and his fingers flexed over and over.
“It’s not working?” I asked in a scared whisper and flexed my own hands. No surprise that mine didn’t work, but his?
We were so screwed.
Metal creaked and clanked as a harsh blow fell on my back. Grappling hooks were being launched into the iron net, and one bounced off my shoulder.
Puck cursed and pulled me closer. “Listen to me,” he urged against my hair as I whimpered. “We’ll have one shot when this net raises. I don’t think he’s going to let the Cu Sith bark until we’ve been mauled, so we’ll have to be fast.”
I trembled, realizing the stakes, and nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
“Be ready for anything.”
Great. A clear plan.
The iron net raised slowly. I guessed Twist wanted to draw out the drama and increase our agony, right before our swift mauling and death. As the net pulled away from my shoulders, I was glad we weren’t standing.
The lifting of the net was just enough to relieve the power-numbing pressure of the iron, but not high enough off the ground yet for the hound to slip through.
Puck must have foreseen this when he told me to kneel, and my estimation of his skills increased. I just hoped the reopening of the wound hadn’t sapped all his strength.
I focused my senses outward and began silently begging the ground, the wind, the nearby water, and all the fires in lanterns to give us some of their power. I touched the crown, and silently prayed that if my mother’s spirit lived somewhere, she would come to our aid as well.
When the net had cleared us by another foot, Puck collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. Gasping, I fell next to him. “No, no, no! You can’t leave me now.”
Laughter bombarded me from all sides. Twist, the remaining soldiers, and I could have sworn even the hound, laughed. Its snout was almost under the net, and its blazing red eyes mocked me, but it couldn’t come closer. I tugged at Puck’s sleeve, trying to retrieve the wand without the beast or anyone else noticing.
I made a show of distress, pulling on his arm as I worked the wand downward. The net was almost high enough for the hound to crawl through by the time I’d managed to get the wand to the edge of Puck’s sleeve.
His eyes opened, and he grinned. “Perfect. Now hold on.”
The hound snarled but it was too late. Puck sent a white-hot blast into its mouth, knocking it backward several yards while we flew low to the ground right behind it, with me barely hanging on to Puck for dear life.
Twist screamed. “Capture them!”
Arrows and bolts of light flashed behind us, but the element of surprise had been effective. By the time they were organized enough to pursue, we were too far for them to reach.
We flew high and low for many miles, managing to stay out of their range long enough to finally lose them. It was sunny and warm when Puck brought us to a gentle landing and handed me the wand.
“You should practice with this. You’ll probably need it.”
His face was pale and tired, and I rushed to check his wound. The torn fabric around it was dirty and crusted with blood, but the skin was clear and healthy. I sighed in relief and examined it in wonder.
“I can’t believe it’s healed again so quickly.”
He laughed. “Well, you did an amazing job back there, if I recall.”
The sparkle in his eyes reminded me of how, exactly, I had managed to heal him. I hoped there’d been no psychic connection when it happened.
Flustered, I said, “But not enough so that it didn’t open again. You should probably sit down, just in case.” Twist was obviously well-versed in poisons, and who knew what he’d put in that iron bolt.
“Yes, you have a point.” Puck gestured for me to join him. “Maybe you should make certain the flesh has completely closed.”
“Will we be safe to rest here for a while?” I asked as we settled onto the grass.
“Should be. Were in Seelie lands now. The flora and fauna here are much nicer.” He smiled when I cast nervous glances at the trees. “And, despite Twist’s taunts about my father, none would dare move against us here. It would be a major act of war, and one Twist couldn’t win yet.”
He frowned, and I asked, “Yet?”
“I’m concerned by how many he already has at his command. He must have been planning this for a while.”
“He mentioned something like that.” I shuddered. “He admitted to slowly poisoning Boran and Grainne.” My voice broke a little on her name. I’d only known her a few hours, but she had given birth to me, and, in her own misguided way, had tried to keep me safe.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Meghan.” His expression seemed genuine. When he pulled me into a quick embrace, I allowed it.
Reluctant to let go of his warmth yet more nervous to stay there, I pulled back and said, “Here, let me see your side.”
He pulled off his tunic, which was not what I meant, but couldn’t deny the view was impressive. He moved a well-honed arm out of the way so I could inspect the grooves of muscle over his right ribs. I prodded along the smooth, golden skin. Trying to sound matter-of-fact, I said, “It’s a good thing it didn’t get your left side where your—”
Oh, crap. But wait …. I grabbed his hand. “Puck, do you still have your heart?”
His smile was tired and edged with an emotion I couldn’t identify. Sorrow? Regret? Maybe even some type of amusement?
He picked up his discarded tunic and pulled something out of the pocket. When he opened his hand before me, the small gray stone had a small crack in the outer shell, which wasn’t there before, and it shone with pale light.
“What happened?”
“I think it was you.”
“Me? How?”
“I felt it change soon after I left Grainne’s room. My guess is it happened either when your mother died, or when you received the crown. All I know for certain is, not long afterward, I felt your distress and the crack began to glow. Burning pain, different from the one before, started in my chest. There was an urgency to it, and the sensation was more like fear than the desolation I’d been living with. It’s how I was able to track you to the maze. I believe your fear pulled me there.”
I didn’t trust myself to speak without crying. He put the broken heart in his pocket and took my hands. When I winced from the burns I got from removing the crown, he turned my palms up and blew gently on them, murmuring soft words I didn’t understand, but they cooled and healed my skin.
“I’m sorry, Meghan. For your childhood. For using you. For all the lies.” He looked up from my hands, his blue eyes blazing with light. “I could try to justify it by my lack of heart, but that’s no excuse. I was irresponsible and thoughtless.”
I bit my lip and blinked against the heat of unshed tears.
“Most of all, though, I want to thank you,” he said. “By cracking open my heart, you helped me do the right thing at the end. I just wish it had come sooner. I�
�m still not whole, and still not wholly good, but I promise I will try to do better in whatever time I have left. I will be happy to die as Puck, and not as Nonagon.”
My efforts to not cry failed. He let go of my hands and his fingertips lightly traced the tracks of my tears, gently removing the moisture from my face.
I shook my head back and forth. I could not, would not, accept his death. As irresponsible and annoying as he’d been, he was all I had left. Thanks to my mother’s spell, there was no one in the human world for me, and now even she was dead at Twist’s hand. Twist, whom I’d hoped to take back to Texas and raise as a little brother.
“No. I won’t let you die,” I cried. “Give me your heart. I can fix this, somehow.”
Hope flashed over his face then quickly disappeared. “I don’t think it can be done. Our bargain was that you would give the heart back to me after I took you and Twist away to live in peace, and there is no way that can happen now. Not to mention that I had started to renege, even before he revealed himself.”
I tamped down a flicker of annoyance at the reminder. “We still have to try,” I insisted.
He put his heart in my hands, and it felt different than what I remembered. The small, glowing crack somehow gave it a lightness that the hardened stone didn’t have before. “What do I need to do?”
He took my hand with the stone and placed them over his chest. His skin was warm and soft over the firm muscle. He pressed and I tried to picture his heart sliding into place, healing and growing into what he needed.
Nothing happened. I tried again and again, becoming so frustrated I nearly threw the heart away in a fit of anger.
“Stop, Meghan. It’s all right. I’m grateful for what I have.”
“No. I’m not giving up.” I swiped at tears that dripped on my face. “Maybe if I try the wand! Where is it?”
“I’m not sure that will help, and you need rest and practice before even making an attempt.”
His heart still clenched in my fist, I pounded on his chest. “You have to let me fix this.”
He grabbed me close, trapping my arms. “We can try again another time, Meghan, but listen to reason. It will take a while for you to become proficient with your power. It is sporadic at best.”
I hated that he was right. But I was afraid time was running out. Yet … whenever our lives were in imminent danger, I sometimes was able to summon starlight. Maybe I could still pull it together. Mollified for the moment, I slumped back, but knew we had to start my training right away. He and Anweena had been right—I had so much yet to learn.
Anweena.
I pulled back from his arms. “Do you know what happened to Anweena?”
“I didn’t see her after I left the queen’s room,” he said.
“She told me those coming for the throne would kill anyone connected with her or me.” Fear and bitterness hardened my face. “I went for Twist because I was afraid he was in danger. She was going to wait for us at the stables. Do you think she will be all right?” I feared the worst and hoped he could allay those fears.
He half-grinned. “Don’t worry about that crafty old crone. She’s probably smarter than any living fae, myself and Twist included.”
“Wait, so Twist is actually fae after all? I was stunned when he did magic, but he said he’d made some sort of bargain to do it.”
His mouth quirked downward. “That makes sense. I’m fairly certain he was human when I picked him up. So, he was either a changeling himself, or he’d made an unholy bargain for power.”
Some of the softness I’d begun to feel for Puck hardened at the reminder. An innocent baby had been brought here to suffer, while I’d been left to suffer—less severely, I realized guiltily—in the human realm. And Puck had done the deed. At Grainne’s insistence and under duress, true, but he wasn’t blameless.
“I still want to try to save him, somehow.”
Puck’s eyes widened. “Why? He tried to kill you. He did kill your mother. And Boran. Not that the king was such a loss, but it proves he’s a murderer.”
“But would he have been, if he hadn’t been brought here and tortured his whole life?”
A small shrug. “There’s no way of knowing for certain, but I could point out that others have suffered similarly and not turned into murdering monsters. I believe your kind heart and sympathy are wasted here.”
“He’s still just a child!”
“Only in appearance, love. Time moves differently than your world here, and things are never what they seem.”
“Even so, I don’t think I can just do nothing.”
“What do you think you could do? He will have you killed before you could even approach. In fact, what we need to focus on now is getting somewhere safe. Then you can consider your options.”
He was right, of course. And it rankled. “Aren’t we safe here in Seelie territory?”
“Safer, not entirely safe.”
“What about the human world? He couldn’t—” I stopped. Twist had sent the Cu Sith after me there.
“Do you think your parents would be willing to take you in? You weren’t entirely yourself when you hurt your brother.”
He gazed at the horizon with sad eyes for several moments. “I don’t know. But I do believe they would be willing to band against Twist if he continues his campaign.”
I sighed heavily, releasing all the disappointment and tension in one long breath. “Let me check your wound before we have to start travelling again.”
He lifted his arm and I frowned at the unmarred skin, confused. “How is this even possible? It was bleeding earlier and now it’s closed again.”
“Not sure, love, but maybe you should kiss it for luck.”
“You wish.” I pulled back to glare and he laughed, his eyes sparkling, so I slapped his arm, hard.
Then it occurred to me. “Oh, my God. You were faking it back there, weren’t you?”
“Oy! Didn’t you see the blood? The pain on my face?”
“I saw you grinning when you shot us out of there instantly.”
“I was happy to save your life!” His face was a mime of offended disappointment and he placed a hand over his bare chest. “Don’t I deserve a kiss as a reward?”
I shook my head in disbelief. He was so messed up. And my mother had sent him to me. Then gave me the responsibility for the rest of his life, a responsibility which I soundly rejected.
Her words came back to me. Kiss him or kill him.
Only time would tell.
What’s next for Meghan and Puck?
Their story continues in A TWIST OF FATE. If you would like to be notified when the book is available, as well as learn about other releases and bargains, please join with my other readers through https://keriarmstrong.com/contact/.
Other books you might enjoy:
Novels in The Awakening Series:
Every magical creature you ever heard of is real and coming into the streets.
Rebel Wolf
Rebel Witch
Rebel Mage
Rebels Reset
Rebel Alliance
Stand-alone novella:
Sometimes a vampire hunter can’t catch a break.
Turned
Download Turned for FREE by going HERE.
Afterward
Thank you for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it, and I also want to say a few things about Meghan’s journey and her battle with mental illness. This book is part of the fantasy genre, so what she thought were hallucinations turned out to be real for her, but the story is still just fantasy.
In the real world, mental illness causes genuine suffering for millions of people, and should not be taken lightly. I know. Meghan’s experience of immediately being put on hold after calling a crisis hotline was inspired by one of my own experiences. Fortunately, my weird sense of humor kicked in and I thought it was funny - “Suicide hotline, please hold,” sounded like something out of a Monty Python skit. Thanks to the laughter, I lived to fight anoth
er day.
However, the suffering and stigma that comes with mental illness is not a laughing matter. It can take time to find the right help, and sometimes the treatment feels worse than the illness. But if you or someone you love is suffering, please, don’t give up.
You’ve made it through 100% of your bad days so far, and I can attest that with time and treatment, it can, and does, get better. I’m glad I’m still here – I would have missed out on so many great things if I had checked out early. I hope you will always advocate for yourself and your loved ones, and discover the wonders ahead.
I wish you much love, peace, and happiness.
About the Author
Keri Armstrong lives in the midwestern region of the United States with a spoiled cat and several dust-bunnies. Her daughter occasionally drops by for food and laundry service.
You can reach Keri either through email [email protected] or her website, https://keriarmstrong.com/contact/.
Acknowledgements
Thank you, J-Ro, for your eagle eyes, and for being a great person all around. You never fail. And to Tyler F. for pulling me out of my plot holes – your help has been invaluable. And speaking of invaluable … many, many thanks to all the amazing readers who liked my books enough to email me about them. You inspire me to keep writing!
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