by E.J. Stevens
I smiled and shrugged.
“You said I had to kill her,” I said. “You didn’t say anything about her staying dead.”
My grin wavered as a cough racked my body. While we were having our chat, the fire imps were getting busy doing what they did best—burning the place to the ground.
The fire imps had reached the table beside the glaistig and were setting fire to books, maps, and scrolls. Judging by the bulging eyes and the veins popping out along her temples, The Green Lady wasn’t taking it well. She was madder than a bald bugbear in winter.
That would have pleased me more if I could breathe.
“Um, Kaye, a little help here?” I asked, blinking against the smoke.
Kaye lifted her arm and with a flick of her wrist, the tent flew away into the night. The smoke dissipated and I drew in a ragged breath. I started toward the bed where the incubus was strung up, but a familiar chirping voice made me stop.
“Iveeeeeeeeeeee!” Sparky cried.
The little guy threw himself at me, Forneus close on his tail.
“What the…?” I asked.
“Sorry,” Forneus said. “He insisted we come, and I was not swift enough to stop him. Sparky is surprisingly agile for one so young.”
“Um, okaaay,” I said. I looked down into Sparky’s serious face. “What’s so important that it couldn’t wait?”
He pointed to the demon vessel in my hand and shook his head, then pointed to the fire imps, then himself and nodded.
“He can send the fire imps home,” Forneus said. “He can remove the threat without trapping them inside that cursed vessel.”
I looked down at the little demon clinging to my leg. Sparky could do that? Color me impressed.
“Okay then, change of plan,” I said. “When we’re ready, Sparky can give his method a shot. But first, I have something I have to take care of.”
Forneus nodded and Sparky let go of my leg. I spared one glance toward the glaistig, but Kaye was keeping the faerie queen busy.
I ran to the huge bed where the incubus was tied. He was alive, but his wrists were bloodied where he’d struggled to pull himself free. The bottom of the bed was in flames and the pillows on which he crouched were beginning to smolder.
If I left him here to burn, he would die and Jinx would live. Death would break the incubus’ hold on my friend. I grit my teeth and palmed one of my blades.
“Pleassse,” he begged, tears streaming down his face. “Don’t kill me.”
I had every reason to want him dead. I gripped my knife and stepped forward.
Chapter 55
I raised my hand and used the knife to slash at the rope that bound his wrists. The incubus sagged in relief.
“Why?” he asked. “Why sssave me?”
That was a good question, one I’d think about later.
“No one deserves to die as someone’s slave,” I said. “You’re more than a piece of property.”
Heck, the glaistig had been more concerned about her precious treasure chests than this man’s life.
“But I hurt your friend,” he said.
Something inside me shifted and I met his gaze.
“Yeah, you did, but you were under orders, right?” I said. “You couldn’t resist.”
He was a slave, chained to a powerful faerie queen. The Green Lady was the one responsible for Jinx’s failing health, not Adam.
“Yesss,” he said, nodding.
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “Look, you can still make this right. Release your hold on Jinx and I’ll do what I can to get you out of here.”
He covered his mouth with a bloodied, soot covered hand, eyes wide and shining, and nodded. The hope in his eyes was painful to see. How long had it been since someone thought this guy was worth redeeming?
“Yesss,” he said. He placed his hands together at the level of his heart and nodded once again. “It isss done.”
“Good,” I said. “Now come with me.”
Adam staggered, legs unsteady, as I showed him where Delilah waited.
“Go with Delilah,” I said. “I’ll meet you two as soon as we take care of the fire imps.”
He nodded and limped away. I turned back to see Forneus standing rigid, nostrils flaring.
“You let that scoundrel go,” Forneus said, biting off the words.
Flame flickered in his eyes and I had the distinct feeling that I was standing on a powder keg ready to go up in smoke—and it didn’t have anything to do with the fire imps that converged on us.
“Yes, I did,” I said. “He was just as much a victim here.”
“But Jinx…” he said.
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “He released his hold on her.”
He scowled and lifted a sleek cell phone from his pocket.
“Forgive me if I do not take the incubus’ word for it,” he said.
He punched in a number, the other person picking up on the first ring.
“Little witch, this is Forneus,” he said. “I require an update on Jinx’s status.”
Forneus rapped his fingers on his cane, eyes dancing.
“Splendid!” he said. “Yes, I will let her know.”
He hung up, a smile on his lips. Tears welled up, but I blinked them away. Jinx was doing better, thank Mab, but I wasn’t done here.
“Your efforts to persuade the incubus, though misguided, were successful, and just in time,” he said, waving a hand at the surrounding devastation. “As you can see, things are getting out of hand.”
I surveyed the wreckage of the carnival and sighed. Fires were not raging completely unchecked, Ceff and his kelpie guards were making sure of that, but even doused flames left behind scorched property and greasy smoke.
There were fire imps on nearly every surface, scampering from tent to tent, ride to ride. Smoke hung thick in the air, but the imps showed no sign of slowing down. Flame shot from their fingers as they danced around the carnival, eager to watch it burn.
“Make them stop!” the glaistig screamed.
Yeah, it was time to put a stop to this. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t make a few things right at the same time.
I stomped over to the glaistig and folded my arms across my chest.
“If I do, then I want your word that you let your incubus and succubus go free,” I said.
“But this is your fault!” she yelled. “How dare you demand a boon from me?”
“You started this when you ordered Adam and Delilah to attack my vassal,” I said.
She looked from me to Kaye and back again.
“Perhaps we can bargain for the lives of the succubus and incubus…” she said, licking her lips.
“I want more than just their lives,” I said. “Removing the fire imps from your territory will fulfill any remaining bargains that they owe you. Deal?”
Forneus cocked an eyebrow at me, but I ignored the demon. Thankfully, he didn’t interrupt. He went back to babysitting Sparky and watching my back, his cane sword drawn and ready.
“Yes, fine, you have a deal,” she said, grinding out the words. “Now get these fiends out of my domain before they burn everything!”
Kaye flicked me a questioning gaze, but I shook my head. We weren’t using the demon vessel I still held. Not yet. I crouched down and gave Sparky a nod.
“It’s all you, buddy,” I said. “Send them home.”
Sparky nodded, long ears flapping, and lifted his spindly fingers. As if conducting a symphony I couldn’t hear, the little demon gestured and tugged at the air, unraveling reality. A small portal opened, just large enough for a fire imp to pass through. I covered my nose and mouth with my arm, trying to block the stench of decay, sulfur, and brimstone from the other side.
Sparky had opened a portal to Hell.
I swallowed hard and watched as fire imps came racing forward, drawn to the fiery land. Sparky waved his hands and chattered at the imps in a strange tongue. The imps bounced from foot to foot and proceeded one by one through the po
rtal. When the last imp crossed through, Sparky waved a hand and the gate slammed shut, making my ears pop.
Sparky brushed his hands together and turned to me with a smile.
“Good job, Sparky,” I said with a grin. I handed him a sparkly pencil and a pack of chewing gum. It was all I had, but the little guy seemed to like it.
I walked over to Kaye and handed her the demon vessel.
“Guess we don’t need this anymore,” I said.
She nodded and took the vessel, slipping it away in one of her skirt pockets.
“We will talk later about your new friend,” Kaye said, eyeing Sparky warily.
“Yeah, I thought you might say that,” I said with a sigh.
“But now you should take your friends, and the succubus and incubus, and leave,” she said.
Yeah, I wanted to get out of here, go see how Jinx was doing, and take a week long shower. I walked past the glaistig who was staring at the remains of her carnival.
“Thank Mab, this day is over,” she muttered.
I didn’t have much sympathy. The woman had brought all of this on herself.
“You’re forgetting one thing,” Kaye said, lifting her wand and moving toward the glaistig. “You have not yet settled the debt between us. This battle is far from over.”
I’m no coward, but I had no desire to get between Kaye and The Green Lady. I waved to Adam and Delilah, collected my friends, and ran.
Chapter 56
Ceff waited for me at the waterfront, his body dry, but a pool of water at his feet. He’d pulled himself from the harbor as soon as we cleared the carnival turnstiles.
My friends and I weren’t the only ones to turn tail and run. Most of the carnival fae had evacuated to the strip of land just inside the gates. They could not leave The Green Lady’s territory, but that didn’t mean they wanted to stick around while a powerful witch and a faerie queen duked it out.
“Thank you,” Delilah said. “You helped usss essscape.”
I shrugged. “Just don’t make a habit of us meeting like this,” I said. “Stay out of trouble.”
“You too,” she said with a wink.
She grabbed Adam’s hand and they slipped away into the night. I glanced back to the carnival, seeing the pained look I half expected would be there. There he was, holding his bow with white knuckled hands, staring after Delilah.
The archer had a crush on Delilah, but this turn of events might be for the best. If the two of them ever got intimate, she would feed on him, draining his life energy until he was dead. You had to be as powerful as a faerie queen if you wanted to knock boots with a succubus, or incubus, and survive.
“You are really letting them go?” Forneus asked.
“Yeah,” I said, stifling a yawn. “It’ll probably come back to bite me in the ass, but I couldn’t leave them with the glaistig.”
“No,” he said. “I suppose you could not.”
Nope, I just wasn’t made that way.
“Let me get Ceff and we’ll go see Jinx,” I said. “Any idea where Torn is?”
I hadn’t seen Torn amidst the chaos, but I was sure he was around here somewhere. Forneus scowled, but nodded.
“The cat sidhe is brokering secrets,” he said. “He said to thank you for a non-boring day.”
“That sounds like Torn,” I said. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
I limped over to where Ceff stood waiting. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, every ache and pain was a new agony. I moved stiffly, but I couldn’t help the silly smile on my lips.
Ceff was gorgeous, standing there in low slung jeans and a button down shirt that pulled tight across his chest and broad shoulders. I moved in close, breathing him in, letting his sturdy presence sooth my battered soul.
“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for keeping the fires under control. There were a lot more imps than...”
Ceff pulled me into a fierce kiss, his arms wrapping around me, pulling me close. As our lips met, I was hit by the visions that his skin held. But I’d grown used to riding these particular visions. I experienced the many tragedies of his life, and a few particularly good moments that we’d shared.
I knew just from our touch that Ceff hadn’t suffered anything severe during our altercation with the glaistig. If he had, I would have experienced it firsthand through the visions. The fact that he left himself open like that, allowing me glimpses of the man he was and what he had endured, took my breath away. Trust didn’t come easy for either of us, but somehow we’d managed to find each other and lay our hearts open. That never ceased to amaze me.
When the visions passed, our lips were no longer touching, but Ceff had slipped his hand inside my shirt to rest on the skin at the small of my back. My pulse quickened as my body became hyper aware of his touch.
We’d learned that if we wanted to keep touching, then it was best to maintain constant skin on skin contact or risk another round of visions. This was Ceff’s way of telling me he wasn’t letting go. That was good because I wasn’t done with him either.
“What was that for?” I asked.
His hand on my back worked in slow circles and warmth flooded my body.
“I lost you today,” he said.
“I got better,” I said.
“It is not funny, Ivy,” he said. “You died. I keep telling myself that you are here, you are whole, but my mind does not quite believe it. I need to feel you, to know that you are really alive.”
I licked my lips and smiled. I wanted to go visit Jinx, to see with my own eyes that she was okay. But Ceff needed reassurances too, to know that I was safe and whole, just in a much more tactile kind of way. If I listened to my heart, I had to admit that I needed that too.
Visiting my friend was important, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take a detour along the way.
“Change of plan, Forneus,” I said. “Ceff and I have to run an errand. We’ll meet you and Sparky at The Emporium.”
“An errand, right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Fine, but I am not sticking around if Kaye returns. That witch is scarier than a starving pack of hellhounds.”
I turned back to take in the battle still raging within the carnival grounds. Multicolored light and smoke streaked the air. Kaye was scary alright. She struck fear into me before when she was at half strength. Now that her powers had returned, she was downright terrifying.
I shivered and Ceff pulled me close. His fingers trailed along the inside of my waistband and I shivered again, but this time the response had nothing to do with fear.
“You. Me. Loft. Now,” I said.
It had finally happened. Ceff had turned me into a monosyllabic sex fiend. If Jinx were here, she’d throw me a party. But I didn’t need a party—all I needed was Ceff.
I grabbed his shirt and started dragging him down the street toward my apartment, Forneus chuckling behind us.
Chapter 57
Ceff’s hand sent shivers up my spine as we entered the loft and kicked shut the door. Shedding my jacket and weapons while continuing to touch each other, skin on skin, was like a game of naked Twister. Fun, but challenging.
I removed each of my blades, a dozen stakes, and a utility belt full of charms and Ceff pulled a trident and a small blade from sheaths on his leg and back and tossed them onto the growing pile of weapons. He lifted my burner phone from his pocket and set it on the counter.
“My phone,” I groaned. “Jinx is going to kill me.”
“Why would she kill you?” he asked.
“That phone’s not waterproof,” I said. “I should have thought of that before you went swimming in the harbor.”
“The phone is dry,” he said. “I formed a pocket of air around the device, keeping the water at bay.”
“Your water magic can do that?” I asked.
“You would be amazed at what my water magic can do,” he said, eyes shifting to pale green and beginning to glow.
“Then amaze me,” I said.
“I thought that you would never as
k,” he said.
His mouth slanted over mine and I moaned. The fatigue that had held me down all day vanished with the flick of his tongue. Our kisses deepened and Ceff pulled me further into the loft apartment.
“Shower or kitchen?” he asked, lips moving from my mouth to my neck.
“Shower,” I said.
Now I was the one doing the pulling. I dragged him into the bathroom, shedding clothing as we went. I fumbled at the button on Ceff’s pants and growled.
“Here,” he said, his lips grinning as he kissed my neck. “Allow me.”
His hands slid between our bodies as he deftly undid his pants. His hand brushed against my body and I moaned. Desire rose up through me and my skin burned.
I tugged at his jeans, growling again as they caught on his hips and toned buttocks. Ceff’s body was a thing of perfection, absolute beauty, and it was all mine.
He stepped out of the jeans and I pulled him closer. He turned on the shower and my skin began to tingle. His skillful hands returned to my body, and additional tendrils of water began to slide across my skin, coaxing it into a frenzy of desire.
“You are really here,” he said, voice ragged. “You returned to me.”
My magic rose up to meet his, water and fire filling the room with steam. Tears mixed with water and sweat, but I smiled as I laced my fingers in his hair.
“I will always return to you,” I said. “You can’t get rid of me that easy.”
I raised myself up on tiptoe as I guided his head down toward mine.
“I never want this to end,” he said, his breath whispering across my face.
“Then don’t let go,” I said.
I pressed fiery lips against his and water and heat filled the room. For this precious moment, the rest of the world slipped away. We didn’t let go of each other, not for hours.
Chapter 58
I pulled a tank top on over my head and winced at the pain in my chest, side, and abdomen. My skin had knit together over my wounds, but the areas where I’d been shot with poisoned arrows were still tender—a constant reminder of the danger I’d faced, and would soon face again.
