Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  When he finally collapsed against her, barely holding her up with his hips, he dropped his head against hers. His breathing was ragged, and a pure, feminine smile lit up her face at the effort it took him to get his words out. “Buy…more…of…these…dresses.” He lifted his head long enough to let his electric gaze bore into her. “Lots more.”

  She couldn’t help it, her smile bloomed at the dazed and satisfied look on his face. He’d given her free rein to pick and choose whatever garments she wanted, assuring her he’d be able to afford anything she wanted. But these dresses called ‘sundresses’ were the only garments she’d found comfortable enough to imagine wearing.

  Sure enough, once they were both steady enough on their feet to get dressed and leave the dressing room, he made her buy one in every color he could find for her.

  “So,” he murmured a few minutes later as he opened the back door to his car to stow her bags, then turned to slide his arms around her waist, hauling her up against his chest. “How did you like your first real day among humans?”

  She went up on her toes and kissed his chin. “I don’t like shoes, but I do like shopping. I like the park, and the chocolate ice cream, and I can probably get used to the cheeseburger and French fries.” She hooked her arms around his neck and smiled when he straightened, lifting her off her feet. “And I like you.”

  He grinned, and leaned down to kiss her. “Glad to hear it.”

  Good gods, she thought as he turned her around and carefully set her in the seat. No one should be allowed to be that charming.

  For all his charm all day, his uneasiness and worry had never been far from the surface. There hadn’t been a moment since before the witch had shown up that morning that he’d been completely relaxed.

  She studied his face as he slid into his seat and closed the car door. “You’re worried,” she murmured.

  “Yeah.” A muscle in his jaw ticked as he turned the key, then worked a lever to get the vehicle moving. “I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall.”

  She frowned in confusion, wondering if she’d ever get through an entire conversation with him without getting lost. “I don’t understand. Why would a shoe fall? Is someone throwing it?”

  “It’s a figure of speech,” he chuckled. “It means I’m waiting for the next disaster.”

  “Oh.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Then why didn’t you just say that?”

  He opened his mouth, before snapping it shut again and laughing. “I have no idea.”

  She shook her head at him. “This human world is confusing.” Her nose wrinkled as she thought about what she wanted to ask him next, knowing it would sour the mood between them. There was just too many things she didn’t understand, and she knew she needed to. “Nathan?”

  He groaned. “What?”

  Katenia frowned at him. “Why did she curse you?”

  His hands tightened around the wheel, the only outward sign of the temper she could feel still boiling inside of him. “Because I didn’t want her, and Rhiannon doesn’t do well with rejection.”

  Though his words made sense, Katenia still wasn’t sure she understood. “But she’s beautiful. Was the sex between you not good?”

  He slammed the vehicle to a stop and swung his head around to stare at her. “What?”

  She fought the urge to scoot back a little from his temper. “I just don’t understand. If humans don’t take life-mates, are your relationships not just about sex?”

  “She was crazy,” he muttered, “and I have standards. I’m not so hard up that I’m willing to tolerate a psycho-obsessive looney toon just so I can get my rocks off.”

  While she only understood half of what he’d said, she was pretty sure she at least understood the meaning, if not the phrases he’d used. “So she decided if she couldn’t have you, no one could?”

  “Yes.” Fury flashed in his dark blue eyes. “I just didn’t realize she had the magic to make it possible.”

  Though she’d done her best to hide it, her own temper started to peak. “If she cared about you so much, wouldn’t she want you happy, even if it wasn’t with her?”

  His laugh was filled with so much bitterness, it hurt Katenia to hear it. “That’s not how psycho-obsessive works. If she takes away my every shot at happiness, she thinks it means I’ll go crawling back to her.”

  Katenia nodded, her mind made up. “Take me to her.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “No, I’m not,” she snapped back, seething. “You’re going to take me to her. That’s who I’m going to turn into a gnat, and after I do that, I’m going to stomp her into nothingness.” She glared at him when he laughed. “I’m serious, Nathan. That witch is dangerous and you deserve to be happy.”

  A frustrated sound rumbled in his chest as he started moving the car forward again. “You cannot turn her into a gnat, Katen.”

  Her brow winged up as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Why not?”

  It was his turn to look confused. “Because you can’t just go around turning people who annoy you into gnats.”

  She snorted at him. “You’re the one who demanded I do it to that nice lady in the room with the pretty clothes.”

  “It was a threat,” he muttered. “I wouldn’t have actually let you do it.”

  She threw her hands up again. “Please make sense, Nathan. If you didn’t want me to do it, why did you tell me to?”

  He dragged a hand down his face. “To get her to back off and leave you alone.” He sighed when the thing he called a phone chirped. He glanced down at it and growled as he hit the screen with his finger. “Tell me you have answers, Aunt Mellie, or we’re going to have a problem.”

  Nathan grit his teeth at his aunt’s hesitation. He didn’t know why she was playing games, or what the hell she was up to, but it was going to stop now. “Speak!” he snapped.

  “I’m not a dog, Nathan,” she snapped back. “I am still your elder, and you will talk to me with respect.”

  He scoffed. “Not until you do something to deserve it. I’m not kidding, Mellie. I want answers, or you are not going to like what happens next.”

  She wanted to argue, and he knew it, but he also knew she was smart enough not to push him. She counted on his generosity every month, and with Katenia’s life on the line, he would cut his aunt off without a cent if she didn’t fix the mistakes she’d made. “Just get here,” she said finally. “Thad and I found a spell.”

  He wasn’t stupid, and he was aware of Katenia watching him with wide eyes. “Spell for what?”

  “To give her back her wings,” she snapped again, “what do you think?” She hung up on him without another word.

  The vague ache in his chest he’d been ignoring all day spread. He knew giving her back her wings was the right thing to do. At least it should have been. But Nathan was no longer sure he was willing to let her go. Not when all that was waiting for her at home was banishment or breeder, and not when he knew that she belonged with him. That if she gave him half a chance, and they could find a way to neutralize Rhiannon, he could make her happy.

  SIXTEEN

  KATENIA DUCKED behind him the second she was out of the car. She scooted into his back and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I don’t like it here,” she whispered.

  He nodded, because he got it. Whether it had just never been there before, or he’d simply never noticed it, his aunt’s house gave off a bad, bad vibe. Enough that with the sun just beginning to set behind the house, it was enough to even give him the creeps.

  Wrapping one hand around both of hers where they rested on his stomach, he turned his head toward her slightly. “Just stay close to me. This shouldn’t take long.”

  “Nathan.” She tightened her arms when he started to move forward. “We need to talk.”

  He closed his eyes. No matter how much he wanted to hear her say she wanted to stay with him, he knew better than to wish it. He sure as hell wouldn’t ask her. Being a fairy was what she was. He had
no right to ask her to walk away from it.

  “About?” he asked.

  “There’s nothing for me in the valley anymore.”

  He growled quietly and turned to face her. Her beautiful face was upturned, her brilliant eyes terrified and lost. “There are other valleys.” He used the sternest voice he could manage, despite his heart breaking. “Other fairies that will take you in.”

  She snorted at him and planted her hands on her hips. “And who is going to take care of you if I’m not here to do it?”

  “Who says I need to be taken care of?”

  She laughed and skirted around him, heading for the house. “You’d let people walk all over you if I wasn’t here to defend you.”

  “Katenia, I run one of the largest, most acclaimed non-profits in the world. I am not a pushover.”

  “Ha!” She stopped walking and turned to glare up at him. “I don’t know what a non-profit is, but you, Nathan, you need to stop letting people yell at you.”

  He wasn’t sure if he was more amused or insulted she thought he was that weak. “I don’t yell at women unless I have no other choice.”

  Confusion flickered in her eyes, before he saw the realization dawn. “Your parents.”

  He jerked his head in a quick nod. It was all he was capable of doing.

  She moved in closer to him, and rested one hand on his heart, the other on his hip. “You are not your father,” she said fiercely. “It does not make you a monster to yell at women who deserve it.”

  “Where is the line?” He demanded. “Where are the guidelines to what is deserved, and what is not?”

  Katenia took a step back. Not because of fear, but because she could see the way this ripped at him. He assumed she thought he was weak, but that was so far from the truth it was laughable. He didn’t trust himself, and because of it, he fought to protect everyone from something that could be inside of him.

  Holy stars, the man was beautiful. Inside and out. With his chin-length black hair pulled into a ponytail at the back of his head, it emphasized the brutal blue of his eyes. The sleeves of his gray plaid flannel shirt were rolled up to his elbows, showing off the dragon tattoo that wrapped around one forearm.

  Yeah. She nodded to herself. She wanted to devour him and protect him all at the same time.

  Aware he was still waiting for an answer, she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up. “You don’t have it in you to hurt someone innocent, Nathan. If you did, you’d have left me to figure out my own life when I appeared in your office yesterday.”

  “You’re not getting it, Katenia. I am the head of a firm that fights for the protection of abuse victims. We provide shelter, safety, and all the help we can possibly get them. The last thing they need is the person behind their rescue harassing women half his size.”

  Katenia stared up at him. His hands had tightened into fists, the corded muscles of his throat tightened with every swallow, and the muscle directly under his left eye was ticking. But it was the ferocity in his blue eyes that made up her mind.

  She nodded once and grabbed his hand. Without a word, she turned and headed for the house. All of the fears boiling just under the surface for the last two days had vanished, leaving her only with purpose. And peace.

  She smiled. Nathan’s head was going to explode, and she couldn’t wait to see it.

  His aunt and uncle were waiting on the porch as they climbed the steps. Behind her, she could feel Nathan’s body coiling tighter with every step they took. If this place and these people made her uneasy, it felt magnified for him. She tightened her hand around his.

  “Good, good,” Thad murmured, a grin spreading across his mole-like face. “Come, come.” Without a word, he opened the old screen door and stepped back to allow them entrance.

  Nathan leaned down to murmur in her ear. “Stay next to me.”

  She nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with him. She had no intention of taking even so much as a step away from him. Instead of following, though, she stood her ground and smiled at Mellie. “I’m sorry, but we can’t come in right now.”

  A warning growl came from behind her. “Katen, don’t—”

  She ignored him as she watched the confusion ripple over his aunt’s face. “But the potion…?”

  “I don’t want it.” She squeezed Nathan’s hand, her smile going wider. “I’m sorry for the effort and putting you out, but I’ve decided to stay human.”

  “The hell you have,” Nathan roared.

  She squeezed his hand again. “Breathe, Nathan.” Despite feeling completely calm about her decision, instinct had her taking a step back when Thad appeared in the doorway again. She was about to apologize for the difficulty again when Thad lifted his hand and blew something in her face.

  Before she could duck, Nathan roared, as everyone and everything around her started to grow. She screamed, but it was too late.

  She hit the floor hard, skidding across the scarred wood on her butt. She got to her feet and shot skyward, trying desperately to put herself between Nathan and the danger. The look of terror on his face tore at her. He bellowed her name with so much force it blew her backward, knocking her just out of the way of the net that would have closed over her. She screamed and dove downward, but it was too late. The net closed over her as Thad’s manic laugh mixed with Nathan’s furious roar.

  Thad was still laughing as his fingers closed around the net and brought her up toward his face. “Mine,” he grinned, and the pure greed and malice in his eyes had her blood running cold. “Magic is mine.”

  She fought, shooting out every spell and ounce of magic she possessed to try to get herself free. Nathan dove for his uncle, taking them all to the ground, his fists lethal as they drove into Thad’s face over and over.

  Thad’s hand weakened, and Katenia struggled to lift up the edge of the net and shoot to freedom, but Mellie’s face was suddenly there. Without a word, she slipped the net and Katenia out of her brother’s hand and the next thing Katenia knew, they were no longer in the house.

  SEVENTEEN

  ICE COLD TERROR ripped down Nathan’s spine. He lunged for Mellie as she grabbed the net and Katen, slamming into his aunt just as the floor fell away beneath him. He hit the ground hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him while sending mud flying into the air and turning Katenia’s screams into choked gasps as she landed on top of him.

  He blinked as he sat up and pushed the net off her. The second she was free her body hit his, a broken sob tearing out of her. She hugged him so tight he’d have been worried about her crushing his windpipe if he wasn’t so grateful he’d gotten to her in time. He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face up to his, his mouth bruising on hers as he tried to devour her.

  “Nathan.” She gripped his hair and kissed him back in desperation, before she tore her mouth away from his and turned her head, her body collapsing against his. Her chest heaved as she struggled to drag in air. “What happened to us?”

  He shook his head as he hooked his arm around her waist and hauled her in closer, looking around. The storm raged around them, a large plant-like tree the only thing covering them from the pounding rain. With madness boiling in his blood, he got slowly to his feet with Katenia clasped to his chest. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he shouted against the elements.

  He felt the second she realized where they were. Her body stilled against his before she shoved free, her eyes wild as she glanced around. “No. No no no no no!”

  “Hey.” He grabbed her shoulders and forced her to face him. “Katen, look at me.”

  Her eyes flashed with fury as she rounded on him. “Nathan, they shrunk you!” she yelled over the roar of the storm. Her wings fluttered wildly as she gripped his shirt and yanked on it. “I can’t fix you, I can’t send you back!”

  Because he’d figured that out, he didn’t curse. One of them needed to remain calm. “Hey.” His voice was firmer this time, a snap behind the words he’d never used with her. It had
her eyes going wide as the tears dried up, replaced with temper. He nodded once in approval. For as tiny as she was, the woman had a backbone of steel when needed. “It’s not the end of the world, and I get to be with you.”

  He forced a smile when her mouth dropped open. Though he meant what he’d said, he’d be happy as long as he was with her, there was too much rage in him to settle. Too many unanswered questions he wanted his aunt and uncle to answer for.

  Just then, the plant protecting them from the pounding rain collapsed, leaving them faced with raindrops the size of boulders compared to them. He grabbed her hand and ran for cover, heading for a hole in a tree, when suddenly the sky split again, showing a long, regal man standing in their path. His large, iridescent wings were eerily still behind him, as if impervious of the rain and wind lashing through the meadow.

  His voice shook the earth beneath Nathan’s feet. “You dare touch my daughter, human?”

  Nathan bared his teeth at the insult. The man may be a fairy with magic, but even in this form, Nathan had inches on him. And a penchant for fighting dirty when the need arose.

  He flicked the male a sneering glance, his hand imperceptibly tightening around Katenia’s. “Yes. I do.”

  Her free hand twisted in the back of his shirt. “Nathan, stop, you don’t know what you’re—”

  “Silence!” The man bellowed. “Do you know what you have done, Katenia? Have I taught you nothing? Do you care naught for the shame you bring to me, our ancestors, our Council?”

  Nathan had had enough. He shot forward, startling the male as Nathan’s hand wrapped around his throat. “Listen up. You’re going to want to stop talking to her like that, or I will pull your spine out through your nostril, then feed it to you. Do you understand me?”

  “Just like a human,” the male spat. “You threaten and trample and destroy all in your path. You ruin everything you touch. Did you ruin my daughter’s innocence as well?”