Searly felt a compelling need to reach out and touch her, to feel her. A rueful smile tickled the corners of her lips as she angled her body toward his. She had beguiled a monk and she took pleasure in knowing that she could turn any man’s head, human or Fae.
It all happened so quickly. One minute, Searly was clutching Elin’s arm in an attempt to escape, and the next he was enamored by a woman so lovely his bones turned to liquid. He was nothing more than a puddle at her feet. Somewhere in the distance he could hear Elin vie for his attention, her voice panicked and demanding, yet he could not look away from the woman before him. Even when a worm crawled out of her left nostril and fell to the ground. Even when the worm grew and wrapped itself around Searly’s boots. Even when it crawled up his legs, squeezing him, slithered up, and wrapped itself around Searly’s torso, binding his arms to his sides.
“ENOUGH!”
The menacing baritone of Zeph’s voice pulled Searly from his stupor. Elin was at his side, tears glistening as she pulled and tugged on the giant worm that held him prisoner.
“Let him go!” Elin cried. “Let him go!”
The woman’s cackle forced Searly to shut his eyes. Humiliation seeped into his veins like poison and he couldn’t look Elin in the eye. Searly, a man who had made promises to God, had been seconds away from breaking every one of them. How had he been seduced so thoroughly, so quickly, and so easily?
He felt sick when he should have been terrified. Had he been tested and failed? Condemnation pierced his heart. He blocked everyone and everything else out. Or tried to. Elin wouldn’t allow it. She still frantically pulled and tugged at the hideous creature that had him bound.
“Release him!” Zeph demanded.
Twice now, Zeph had intervened on Searly’s behalf, and he forced himself to look into Zeph’s eyes, finding Zeph staring at him with sympathy before slamming a wall of indifference between them.
Zeph slid his gaze to the woman. “The human is not a toy for you to play with. Release him.”
Something within Searly’s soul gave rise and once again he found himself praying for strength, only this time, he didn’t just pray for himself. He prayed for Elin too, as well as Zeph, for he felt like Zeph needed the power of prayer as much as they.
The woman waved an indolent hand. “I don’t see why I cannot have my fun.” She grabbed Elin by the arm, pulling her, and positioning Elin in front of her. “You were supposed to kill her, yet I find her still whole, without a single mark.” She cocked her head seductively. “Have you not toyed with her, giving her false hope that you will not harm her?” Zeph glared at the hand on Elin’s arm. “We agreed,” the woman hissed.
“What did we agree?” Zeph asked, stalking toward her, his gait graceful, like a lion’s. The indifference he wore only moments before fell away like armor too heavy to wear.
Elin whimpered as the woman gripped her harder, clamping her fingers into Elin’s tender flesh. Zeph’s eyes flashed with anger.
“Oh, how delicious is this?” the woman sniped. “You’ve grown feelings for her.”
“The only feelings that have grown, Lolith, is my disgust for you.”
“Disgust? Since when?” she purred.
“Since always,” Zeph answered. He moved in a blur, grabbing Lolith by the neck while simultaneously pushing Elin aside, releasing her from the evil woman’s hold.
Elin stumbled, then scurried toward Searly, trembling against him. He longed to comfort her, to protect her, but he had succumbed to the woman’s will and he had paid for it. He could do nothing now except pray this did not end badly for them.
“I am going to end you,” Zeph seethed.
A clattering sound of metal rang out in the quiet of Shadowland. Unseelie emerged from hidden trenches, unsheathing their swords while archers nocked their arrows.
Lolith’s high-pitched laughter rent the air. “Funny story,” she teased in a rasp, licking her lips. “There I was, coming to pay you a visit when I decided to do some snooping beforehand. Why did I find Unseelie chained in your dungeon?”
“I see now I should have killed them.”
“Yes, you should have.” She grinned, even as tears welled in her eyes from Zeph’s forceful grip. “Look behind you.”
Cautiously, Zeph looked over his shoulder, never taking his hands off Lolith’s neck. An Unseelie held a sleeping Arwyn in his clutches on top of a parapet.
“Let her go!” Zeph seethed.
“You thought me a fool. You could not hide her from me forever.”
Fangs descended from Zeph’s mouth as he squeezed tighter, lifting Lolith off the ground, her feet dangling. “Let. Her. Go!”
“Let me go, and I will order her release.”
“Arwyn,” Elin breathed, fear cresting over her face. “Don’t hurt her,” she begged the woman. “Please.”
A ripple of disquiet wafted across my skin as the woman known as Lolith considered me with murderous eyes.
“Don’t look at her, Elin,” Zeph warned.
Her cold stare leveled me with contempt. “She is quite stunning now that she looks more like a Fae, isn’t she, my sweets?”
Zeph’s jaw twitched. “Don’t call me that.” His fangs bit into his bottom lip and he dipped his head closer to Lolith’s. “I am not your sweets.”
My stomach contracted, not knowing what to expect or what was happening. Fear crippled me, locking my joints, paralyzing me where I stood. A thick mist rolled in and catlike growls echoed in the distance. The wind blew across my face, and with it, a fetid smell of doom wafted in the air.
“You bastard! I made you what you are! How dare you!”
“That you did. Forgive me if I don’t thank you for it.”
“I made you powerful, you ungrateful child!”
Zeph laughed, cold and biting. “Now you think of me as a child?! Why didn’t you think of me as a child when I actually was one? You made me do things no child should ever have to do! You ruined me!”
“I rescued you,” Lolith hissed. “I gave you love. Not even your family loved you.”
“You mean the family you lied to? You told them I was dead!”
The ground beneath my feet began to tremble, and the sky cracked with thunder. Hairs on my arms and neck rose, scattered pieces clicking into place with quick precision, the scene before me becoming a blur.
“What?” I whispered.
“I-I did not,” said Lolith, her voice but a croak.
“Stop. Stop your incessant lying.” In a low, matter-of-fact voice, Zeph said, “You are a blight on this world. A disease. I killed my own parents because of you.” Her face turned purple as Zeph squeezed her neck harder and harder. “Before I kill you, I’m going to tell them what you really are.”
“Don’t,” Lolith wheezed.
“Don’t what? Tell them you have been impersonating the Seelie queen for eons? That you glamour yourself to look like her and have every day since you killed her? That you are responsible for Elin and…” His teeth flashed, rage coloring his face.
“Responsible for your parents going into hiding?” Lolith managed to finish for him. “Yes. I lied. I’d do it again, because I will rule all of Faery once and for all.”
“Why didn’t you just kill me?”
Something evil lit her eyes, making them glow a fiery orange. “I wanted a toy.”
Time stood still while my mind tried to organize the information into something I could accept.
No, this isn’t true. It can’t be true.
It was then Searly found his voice. “Elin, luv, look at me.”
“No, it isn’t true. It isn’t true. He’s…he’s not…” My voice trailed off when I looked at Zeph. The monster who stole me. The monster who stole Searly. The monster who held us here, not allowing us to leave. The monster who hurt the other monks and killed my parents. “He’s not my brother. My brother is dead. He died. The Unseelie killed him.”
“She lied to me,” Zeph said. “I didn’t know you thought I was dead.
I didn’t know.”
I shook my head, not believing him. “Stop the lies, Zeph. Stop. Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not lying.”
“I told you. I came to you and told you about my brother. You said nothing. YOU SAID NOTHING!”
“What was I supposed to say?” he snapped, his expression all hard lines and sharp angles. “Oh, my apologies, my dear sister, I’m sorry I killed our parents. It was all a misunderstanding?”
His words slashed like a whip across my skin. I flinched. “I hate you.”
Hurt flashed behind his eyes. “As well you should.” He pulled the sword from its sheath. “But I will right one wrong before I leave this world.” He let go of Lolith’s throat and stepped back, holding the sword with both hands at an angle meant for slicing off heads.
“Have you forgotten?” She clutched at her neck, gasping for air. “If you kill me, your little friend…” her eyes drifted to the parapet, “…will die as well.”
Somewhere beyond a grove of shrunken trees where the mist was the thickest, a roar rang out, an unholy cacophony of growls and snarls. Four creatures emerged like warriors on a warpath, bent on destruction. And Lochlan stood in the center, a dark, avenging angel.
I wept at the sight of him.
Zeph’s angered expression did not let on he was surprised Lochlan had found him. “Look what the cats drug in,” he quipped, angling his head in their direction.
“I’m coming for you, Zeph!”
“I’m a bit busy, half-breed. You’ll have to wait your turn.”
Teeth, claws, and blades flashed in a blinding frenzy as the cat-creatures wasted no time battling Unseelie.
A scream shrilled from behind. I looked over my shoulder and saw Arwyn’s panic-stricken face. And then…the Unseelie let go of her.
“ARWYN!” Zeph shouted, pure terror in his voice.
My head snapped back in Zeph’s direction and a cruel glint of steel behind Zeph’s right shoulder caught my eye. My mother’s words rang through my head like an angry bell. Save him, Elin! You have to save him!
I didn’t think or plan. I didn’t weigh my options. I merely leaped into action at my mother’s behest. I advanced, pulling Zeph down just as the blade sliced the air. He stole a morsel of a second to ensure he’d survived the attack, then he bedimmed past me in a whirl of shadows. Zeph caught Arwyn in his arms mere seconds before she hit the hard, unforgiving Earth.
Relief cascaded over me, rolled and tumbled. It was short lived because I’d made a ghastly mistake. I’d turned my back on Lolith. A stabbing pain was accompanied by the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. I looked down and saw a blood-soaked blade burst through my chest.
“ELIN!” Lochlan roared.
His eyes wide and wild, Zeph shouted, “NO!” before the world went black.
“Let me heal her,” Zeph pleaded with Lochlan. “Then you can kill me.”
Lochlan barreled through the melee toward him, unforgiving, but Searly stepped in front of him.
“Let him try! He has the power to heal. Let him try!”
Lochlan came to a halt, his eyes raking Zeph with freezing contempt.
“Let him try,” Searly begged.
Lochlan’s entire body shook with fear and rage as he struggled to pull back the reins of his madness, his nails digging into his clenched palms. His lips thinned into a grim line, but he nodded at Zeph to do what he could to save Elin.
Zeph held Elin’s head in his lap as blood rain fell from the sky. He pulled the sword from her chest and applied pressure to her gaping wound, his heart thrumming a frightening rhythm. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his healing powers.
Heal! By God’s bones, heal!
Searly quietly prayed. Arwyn, still shaking from almost dying herself, slid in next to Zeph to assist with the healing. Lochlan stood guard over her body while they worked at fixing her.
No one spoke.
Lochlan’s gaze roamed over the courtyard that had been anointed with bowels and a putrefying stench, because if he looked at his beloved Elin, he would shatter in a million ways.
The Cait-Sidhe had defeated the rest of the Unseelie and Lochlan had destroyed Lolith. He had seen the woman drive the sword through Elin’s back and his whole world had tilted sideways. His fear of getting to her too late had come to fruition. Caught up in a tunnel of unspeakable rage, it was only after he held the woman’s head in his hands that he realized what he had done. Somehow he had twisted Lolith’s head clean off her shoulders, and he had no memory of doing it.
The worm that had been holding Searly captive shriveled to ash, freed by the death of who Lochlan now knew had been the Seelie queen, or rather, who had convinced an entire realm that she was their queen. A moment later, the sky had split open and blood rained from the Heavens for several minutes, eventually tapering off.
Lochlan cared about none of that. He only cared about the girl who he now rocked in his arms. He forced his eyes away from the carnage and stared at her lovely face. He nuzzled his nose into her hair, whispering things he wanted only her to hear, and cried like a man who had lost his soul. Because Elin had died in Zeph’s arms.
Of all the times he had dreamt of holding Elin, it had not been like this.
He was vaguely aware of his surroundings. He heard the murmurings of quiet words of sorrow, but he pushed everyone out of his mind and held onto Elin, stroking her hair, letting his tears fall on her skin. He stared at her face, knowing that he should recognize the changes from human to Fae, though thinking she looked the same. Because in his eyes, she had always looked like an angel.
A sob broke from somewhere deep and he shook with so much sorrow his bones rattled.
When the owl/woman sat down beside him he barely spared her a glance. He wanted everyone gone to let him grieve in peace. The Cait-Sidhe must have sensed this need in him because they gave him the space he needed and were quietly keeping a watchful eye out from some distance away.
Zeph had tried to heal her, pulling the sword from her body, though all he accomplished was staining his hands crimson. Then a girl, Arwyn he’d learned, also tried healing her to no avail.
“They cannot heal the dead,” the owl/woman said.
Lochlan’s nostrils flared. “Stop. Leave me be, woman. Just…leave me be.”
“You will heal her. The curse is broken,” she said, softness underscoring her words. “She will wake up in your arms. Believe me. Please. Your despair is breaking my heart.”
He shook his head, her face a blur when he tried to look at her. “How do you know the curse is broken?”
“Because…” she pointed to Arwyn and Searly, “they can see me.”
“Aye,” Searly said, his brows drawn together. “What does that mean?”
“That’s why they sent me. The minute anyone other than Lochlan could see me, it would mean the curse was broken once and for all.”
Arwyn looked puzzled. “How?”
“The omen came to pass.”
“What omen?” Lochlan asked, impatient, agitated.
“Aye, the omen hidden within the curse.” Searly recited it out loud, having studied the curse for so long, he had it memorized.
When what is blue turns red, your child will bring man to his knees in sorrow
For they will not see the light of tomorrow
Let it be so until the mountains move and the rivers shiver
As soon as what’s been shrouded is revealed, all wicked souls will quiver
A refusal shall mark an age of tranquility
And the restoration of balance shall bring forth a remedy
The owl/woman smiled that secretive smile of hers. “As soon as what’s been shrouded is revealed... The Faery of Light learned of her brother, the deception, and lies spun by Lolith, the Seelie queen who was never the true and rightful heir to the throne. She was also the one who issued the curse, and when Lochlan killed her the curse was broken. Part of the…all wicked souls will quiver bit. Also… a refusal sh
all mark an age of tranquility…” She looked at Arwyn then. “Zeph refused to kill his sister. He set everything in motion the moment he made that decision.”
Although Lochlan wanted to believe, he was fearful of doing so. Believing Elin would rise from the dead was too fanciful to accept, too outrageous to comprehend.
“How do you know this?” Lochlan choked.
The owl/woman placed her hand on Lochlan’s cheek. He quickly arched back, his heart stuttering in his chest. “What are you doing?” He was only touching Elin now because her heart had stopped beating. When she had taken her last breath in Zeph’s arms, he had gotten up without a word and left. No one knew where he went. Lochlan couldn’t be bothered to care. But the owl/woman touching him? He couldn’t risk killing an innocent. “I’m proving to you that the curse is broken. That you can now heal her. Only you.”
“How?”
“It is your destiny.”
Lochlan scoffed. “How could you possibly know my destiny?”
The owl/woman reached out a gentle hand once again. This time, Lochlan tried not to flinch. She touched his cheek, and Lochlan stopped breathing. No one lived after touching him. No one.
Yet nothing happened. The owl/woman remained, her hand on his face. Lochlan closed his eyes, relishing the feel of a warm touch on his skin. “It was prophesized that if I forfeit my life for my son’s that he would save the Faery of Light.” She bent her head and kissed Lochlan’s cheek. “It is written. And so it shall be.”
Lochlan’s mother had indeed forfeited her own life for her son’s. She had only gotten to hold him one time. Once. Immediately following his birth. He was a mess of dark hair and eyes like she’d never seen. It had been love at first sight.
She had held on to that memory in the afterlife. And now, she couldn’t believe she was touching him. She wanted to wrap him in her arms and hold him for as long as he would allow, but she pushed away her own wants and encouraged him to have faith in the path he was born to follow.
“I know you have questions about me,” she said, softly. “Let’s save her first, shall we?”
The Moon Shines Red (Heart of Darkness Book 1) Page 21
