Bound to the Fey (Book Four of The Mortal Champion): (A Supernatural, Fairy, College, Erotic Romance)

by Reed James

  Gunnar grasped her left arm with his right, pressing the sliver of cold iron against her flesh. If she was human, it would do nothing to her.

  Corrigan screamed. Smoke curled from Gunnar's palm pressed against her arm. The flail cracked, slamming into Gunnar's chest with such force he stumbled back. A black burn, only a sliver in size, marred her arm.

  “You fucking bastard!” she snarled her flesh rippling. The lines of her face grew harsher, more angular and alien, and somehow even more breathtakingly beautiful. Her pupils narrowed into black slits and her violet hair shimmered like the northern lights. The leather flail frosted into pristine ice.

  “You are a Lean Sidhe,” Gunnar growled.

  The flail cracked again, wrapping around his right arm. Icy, numbing pain filled him. His hand shook. The sliver of cold iron flew free and tumbling to the floor.

  “Maeve was right, you fucking bitch!”

  “Yes, the little cunt was right!” Corrigan snarled, jerking harder on the flail and pulling Gunnar along behind her. She was far stronger than he thought, his arm tearing at his shoulder joint as he struggled to fight her. “You will howl tonight, Gunnar! You will be my fucking hound and grovel at my feet.”

  “Never!” Gunnar spat as the icy chains around his heart tightened. A strange part of him wanted to be hers, wanted to finish submitting to her domination. He had come so close to giving in during their games. By playing along he had, at some deep level, come to think of her as mistress. “I'm Maeve's!”

  “You were that Pixie's!” Corrigan seized him by the throat as he entered his frigid bedroom.

  Icy winds full of icy daggers attacked him, shredding his clothes, leaving bleeding scratches. Gunnar grit his teeth, ignoring the pain. Corrigan hurled him with one hand onto the bed. The frosted sheets crackled beneath him, icy shards digging into his back.

  “But you didn't love her enough to trust her,” Corrigan mocked. “You didn't love her enough to see through my glamour. You let fear tear apart your love. And that left you so vulnerable to me.”

  Gunnar tried to fight as his arms were stretched over his head, manacles of ice freezing his hands to the headboard. “Well, I still love her! She wasn't a monster! She should have told me she was a Pixie, but I would have forgiven her. I love her!”

  “Not enough!” Corrigan slammed the icy flail across his chest. Gunnar howled in pain. “You called me Mistress. You've already began to submit.”

  Crack!

  Blood matted his chest, leaking from a dozen, red gashes, the bubbling blood frothing into pink ice.

  “And you will howl in pain until you submit, Mortal Champion.”

  “What?” Gunnar demanded, fighting the pain, clutching on to Maeve's face.

  Crack!

  “You will wield the Balance for me as my faithful hound! You will tip the Equilibrium into Winter's favor.”

  Crack!

  “I will make you run down your precious Maeve!”

  Crack!

  “I will laugh as you rip her to pieces and feast on her entrails!”

  “Never!” he howled, bleeding stripes covering his broad chest, stomach, and thighs. “I'll never be your fucking hound. I will never hurt Maeve!”

  Crack!

  “The pain ends when you call me Mistress, hound.”

  Crack!

  “The torment ends when you grovel at my feet and beg to be my hellhound.”

  Crack!

  Gunnar's arms bulged as he fought against the numbing ice entombing his wrists. His entire body was agony. His skin was raw. Every crack of the flail sent pain flaring through his body. He concentrated on Maeve. He pictured her face, focusing on it.

  Maeve's the Mistress of my heart.

  Crack!

  Gunnar cried and screamed, bucking on the frozen bed.

  “Be my hound!”

  Crack!

  “Let the pain end!”

  Crack!

  “Call me Mistress!”

  “No!”

  Crack!

  He kept screaming his denials. Every time was harder than the last. His body was icy fire. He burned and froze. The ice was so cold, he felt on fire. His tears froze to his cheeks, his spittle to his lips.

  And the flail kept falling.

  I can be strong.

  Right?

  For Maeve?

  Crack!

  Chapter Nine: Moonbeams

  Gunnar didn't come to class. And neither did Corrigan.

  Fear gripped Maeve's stomach as she went through the motions of school. She feared her gambit to plant distrust in Gunnar's mind had backfired. Now only the challenge remained. Be strong, Gunnar. I'll free you from her control. I hope you'll be able to love me again, but...

  The anguish in his eyes still haunted Maeve. He had been so hurt, so devastated by Corrigan's trick.

  Maeve put that concern out of her mind. Either way, she would free Gunnar. She would live with the consequences. It was better for Gunnar to be free and happy than to be any Fey's prisoner. Maeve would always cherish their month together and the ring he gave her.

  She walked to the sorority with Evan, Akiko, Brad, Felicity, Raven, Billie Jo, and the rest of her sorority, her Mortal friends wanting to protect her, to support her. Maeve's heart beat with love for all of them. They were risking so much. They each knew what Corrigan was capable of and they didn't flinch at the task ahead of them.

  Everyone was nervous at the sorority. The disgusting spikes were divided up into ten different piles for tonight's ceremony. Even down in the basement, Maeve shuddered at their poisonous presence.

  Dinner was cooked, and they all tried to act normal as they ate, laughing and joking. Maeve didn't have any appetite. She just had to get through tonight and to tomorrow evening. It would all end. She was defeat Corrigan and win Gunnar's freedom or she would die.

  “Everything will work out,” Felicity said, finding Maeve staring out the window. The blonde put her arm around the Pixie. “Love always works out in fairy tales, and since you're a Faerie, I know you and Gunnar will be happy.”

  “Not in the tales I hear. Love between a Fey and a Mortal rarely ends happy.” Maeve clasped her hands together. “Even if I save him, he'll grow old and die one day, and I'll keep living and living, slowly forgetting him as the centuries wear on.”

  “You'll never forget him,” Felicity said. “And you said he was special.”

  The Pixie nodded her head.

  “So who's to say he won't live forever like you. Or maybe you could help him out, do some task or find some object. There's stories like that. Right?”

  There aren't. Maeve turned and hugged Felicity anyways, savoring the hope. “What sweet words you say. Thank you.”

  “You saved me from Corrigan. I think it's the least I can do.”

  A giggle escaped the Pixie. “Yeah. I guess it is the least you can do.”

  “That and help you trap a murderous Fey that's already tried to kill me twice.”

  “If everything works out, she won't ever get the chance to kill you,” Maeve said. “I'll win Gunnar back, and we'll begin searching for the Balance.”

  “What is the Balance?” Akiko asked.

  “Yeah,” Evan nodded. “Do you have any idea where it could be. It's important. Right?”

  Maeve nodded her head. “It is so important. But only Gunnar can find it.” Maeve smiled. “I bet he's already found it and has no idea.”

  “So what is it?” Akiko pressed.

  “In the distant past, great wars raged between the Seelie and Unseelie Fey. The wars began when Titania and Mab contested for the love of Oberon, the Master of the Wild Hunt. Mab was jealous that Titania won the hunter's heart and took him for her consort. So Mab attacked Summer and the world froze. Back and forth Summer and Winter fought, sometimes Summer would prevail only for Winter to come back and seize victory. There were a few powerful Fey not aligned with either side who saw only futile war. So the three Norns—Urd, Skuld, and Verdandi the sisters of fate�
�decided to act. They created the Balance and gave it to a Mortal. The first champion.”

  The entire sorority crowded around Maeve, their faces filled with awe, disbelief, and rapt attention.

  “The Mortal Champion balanced Summer and Winter, siding with one or the other depending on which was stronger. Each time, the Equilibrium between the Seasons was reforged. Eventually, the Seelie and Unseelie Fey abandoned their wars. Nothing ever was gained.

  “And then Cinniuint stole the Balance.”

  “Who's that?”

  “She was like the Norns, another weaver of fates. She witnessed something that made her steal the Balance and take it to the Mortal world. Now Queen Mab is plotting, and the Balance has sensed the Equilibrium has shifted. So it chose its Champion. But if Gunnar is controlled by Corrigan, he will side with Winter and instead of protecting the Equilibrium, he will destroy it.”

  “And that means...what, an ice age?” Akiko asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I guess we don't have to worry about Global Warming then,” laughed Raven and a few girls gave nervous titters.

  “Raven, take this seriously,” Billie Jo snapped.

  “But that doesn't tell us what it looks like,” Akiko pointed out. “What if one of us has seen the Balance.”

  “It doesn't have a fixed shape. It could be anything the Mortal Champion desires. And I'm sure Cinniuint has further hidden it. She is a spider, and she is said to spin glamours so convincingly real that only the Faerie Queens, and maybe Oberon, could pierce them.”

  “So this coffee cup could be the Balance?” Brad asked, hefting his mug.

  “Maybe,” Maeve shrugged, glancing out the window. Darkness had fallen and the full moon climbed the horizon. “It's almost time. Let's get ready and head to the Green.”

  ~ ~ ~

  There was only pain.

  Only the kiss of the icy flail.

  Gunnar howled wordless blubbers.

  His pain was unceasing. He fought against his tormentor. He fought against his flesh's plea to submit.

  I will not surrender to Corrigan. I will not surrender to Corrigan.

  End the pain. Call her Mistress.

  No! Maeve is the Mistress of my heart!

  Surrender! Corrigan is your true Mistress

  No!

  Yes!

  The flail cracked. Corrigan laughed. Cruel and malicious. Her naked foot crushed his balls again. Gunnar screamed and bucked.

  I just have to hold on. Maeve has a plan. Maeve will save me.

  Surrender to Corrigan. Love your Mistress.

  No!

  Yes!

  No...

  Yes!

  Crack!

  ~ ~ ~

  Clouds floated dark past the silvery face of the moon. Maeve and ten of her friends trooped out to the grin, each carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle of ten cold iron spikes.

  Maeve shuddered, marching far ahead.

  Everything was wet in the Green. A shower had passed through an hour ago, leaving damp statues dripping with water, puddles lurking unseen in the green grass. The party splashed across the Green, grumbling as they found those unseen, icy pools.

  “I hate having wet shoes,” Raven muttered as Maeve stopped near the rose bushes.

  “Right here,” she declared, summoning a small glamour out of white light, forming it into a circle thirty feet across and laid it on the grass. “Try to keep your spikes evenly spaced.” She added to her glamour, putting crossing hashmarks to delineate a hundred arcs around the circle, a guide for her friends to drive in the spikes.

  “So we just pound them in?” Evan asked.

  Maeve nodded.

  Metal tinked as her friends hammered the cold iron into the ground. Maeve watched, her heart thudding. She was breaking the Pact of Autumn by attempting this, but it was the only way. Corrigan would cheat as well.

  Does that make it right?

  Does it even matter?

  Maeve would save Gunnar no matter the cost.

  The moon climbed higher, nearing its zenith. Evan and Brad finished first, followed by Akiko. More and more of her friends moved away, standing beside Maeve. Felicity was last, wiping her brow, her mallet still clutched into her hand.

  “All done,” she beamed.

  Maeve looked over head. The moon inched closer. The power hummed from it, growing stronger and stronger as it neared its zenith. She reached up on hand, seizing the moonbeams. Silver light burst around her hand as she bent the beam, pointing it at the circle.

  “Fuck,” Raven gasped, watching as Maeve moved around the circle, snatching moonbeams and aiming them at the spikes.

  “That's so pretty,” Felicity clapped.

  Maeve worked quickly, the moonbeams growing brighter and brighter as she circled the trap. Each moonbeam fell on a single spike, silvery sparks dancing when Maeve had the moonbeam aimed right on target.

  When the last moonbeam was bent, and the moon arrived at its zenith, Maeve reached out with her magic. The nearby rose bushes blossomed in the dark, flooding the Green with their perfume. The silver of the moonbeams mixed with flecks of pink and red, drawing in Maeve's power.

  Evan sneezed

  She focused on concealing the cold iron spikes, the holes in the lawn melding away, covered in seamless grass . Maeve swayed as the power rushed out of her. The prickling sensation of the cold iron on her skin vanished.

  But Corrigan was clever. She might find a way to defeat the trap. So Maeve added extra to the spell, weaving more of her roses in with the moonlight. A pink hue bled into the moonlight, growing brighter, flooding around their feet.

  “So beautiful,” Felicity gasped.

  Maeve clenched her teeth, her body on fire as she channeled the awesome power. She wove rose and moonlight together. The light grew redder and redder until it shone with the passionate crimson of the rose.

  The moon passed its zenith. The moonlight vanished.

  “It's ready,” Maeve panted, Brad catching her as her knees buckled. He picked up her light body. “Tomorrow night, we'll save him.”

  Just hold out until then, Gunnar.

  ~ ~ ~

  Surrender.

  End the pain.

  The smiling face slowly dwindled.

  Surrender.

  End the pain.

  The color drained from her red hair.

  Surrender.

  End the pain.

  Maeve vanished from his agony.

  Surrender.

  End the pain.

  “Mis...tress...”

  Chapter Ten: Corrigan's Victory

  The Pixie didn't sleep. She didn't have to sleep, but she liked to sleep. There were fantastical dreams to discover, and it was wonderful to fall asleep next to her lover.

  Tonight she didn't sleep because Gunnar was with Corrigan. The scent of Winter was on the air, drifting from the direction of Gunnar's apartment. As she perched on the roof of the sorority, Maeve could only hope that her wonderful Champion wouldn't succumb to the foul servitude of the Lean Sidhe.

  The night was cold, the rain fierce, but the Pixie endured. Tonight she would face Corrigan and win back Gunnar, freeing him fully from Corrigan's icy chains.

  Just keep holding on, she thought. Please, Gunnar, just keep holding on.

  Despite the clouds billowing over head, the horizon lightened. Dawn approached. The Pixie fluttered her gossamer wings as she watched the clouds transform from black to gray to pink to orange. The colors of Summer.

  She flew down and landed on the lawn. She assumed her Mortal guise before anyone witnessed her skulking on the roof. It was deeply ingrained in her nature to avoid being noticed. The last few days had seen her overcome that reluctance as she shared her true nature with those that had seen the Bodath last Saturday night.

  Maeve strode into her sorority. Brad and Felicity awaited, sitting on the stairs. The rules of the sorority had been bent for Brad. He was a part of the fight. He had been touched by Corrigan before. And he was ready to fi
ght back.

  “Are you ready?” Maeve asked him.

  Brad looked up, his brown eyes firm behind his glasses. “I am, Maeve.”

  Felicity tightened her grip on his muscular arm, fear shining in her eyes.

  “It'll be okay, Felicity,” he said to her, stroking her cheek.

  “Will it, Maeve?” Tears brimmed in Felicity's eyes.

  The Pixie smiled down at the blonde. “So long as he followed the rules.” Maeve shifted her gaze, focusing her emerald eyes on Brad. “What are the rules?”

  “I am to agree to nothing, accept nothing, and I will not, under any circumstances, touch her.”

  Maeve nodded. “She may try to touch you. That's fine. So long as you do not initiate the contact you will be bound by the Pact of Autumn as my emissary. So do not be afraid. Do not show fear. Be strong.”

  “See, I'll be fine. Maeve wouldn't lead me wrong.”

  No, I wouldn't. I'm not Corrigan.

  Raven walked down the hallway wearing a long shirt that fell down to her mid-thigh. Her black hair was mused, her eyes puffy. “So, it's time to issue the challenge?”

  “Yeah,” Brad nodded, taking a deep breath. He stood, his chiseled jaw set. “Let's do this.”

  “Good luck.” Felicity hopped up, threw her arms around Brad's neck, and planted a fierce kiss on his lips.

  Brad moaned into the kiss, savoring every moment of their contact. Maeve missed that. Their aura burned bright, shining with their love. A tear brimmed in the Pixie's eyes. I'll save you, Gunnar.

  ~ ~ ~

  Gunnar whimpered and cried before the Lean Sidhe, his body whipped to ribbons by her icy flail. His flesh oozed frozen blood. She loved it. Her blood pumped hot through her body as Gunnar's blood streaked her stomach.

  He was close to breaking. He had experienced such pain, holding out for over a day. His strength was so impressive, and once he had been tamed, he would be a fierce hound, eager to please his Mistress.

  Such power will be at my hands once Gunnar wields the Balance.

  Gunnar spat as he struggled to speak. She let the whip vanish as she leaned over, her body trembling in anticipation.