Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga)

by S. K Munt

  ‘Don’t look so surprised,’ Ardhi drawled.

  Adele glanced out at the room. ‘Well, regardless, you still need to explain my tail to this lot.’

  ‘After Monday,’ Ardhi said. ‘Things are too dicey at the moment for me to have to confess to siring you and hiding that from them. For now, just be a party crasher, okay? We’ll keep things vague until I know for sure what Ivyanne’s going to do. If she chooses me without the fuss-well-there are plenty of full blood men, looking for a turned wife. You’ll have your pick, and Sherri can pursue Lincoln.’

  ‘I like that idea very much,’ Sherri said, leaning over him to catch Adele’s eye. ‘So back off.’

  Adele’s eyebrows lifted. ‘Well, if you’re going to make it a challenge...’

  ‘Girls,’ Ardhi said quickly, getting a headache, just as he had in Norfolk when they’d constantly been at each other’s throats. ‘You’re not supposed to know each other, remember?’

  ‘So? Everyone here who knows me thinks I’m a bitch anyway.Why wouldn’t I give the girl who replaced me hell?’ She rubbed her hands together, eyes dancing. ‘I Can’t wait to stir Ivyanne a bit as well!’

  ‘Not too much,’ Ardhi cautioned her. ‘Remember that she’ll be your queen soon.’

  ‘So?’ Adele smiled knowingly. ‘The king will always have my back, yeah?’

  Ardhi loved the sound of that. ‘Yeah. I guess so.’

  At that moment, Lincoln began to stalk across the room to them.

  ‘Ardhi,’ he said with a polite nod. ‘And Adele....’ his brows creased. ‘What’s going on? I don’t hear from you for a month and then you show up at my engagement party?’

  ‘I was just asking that very same question.’ Ardhi lied. ‘I know how you want the night to be perfect.’

  Lincoln raised an eyebrow at him, momentarily derailed.

  Adele shrugged. ‘I came to offer you congratulations, hoping it would stop you from posting those embarrassing :‘Don’t kill yourself’ notes on my face book wall.’

  Lincoln didn’t look happy. ‘I was just trying to make sure that you were okay.’

  Adele placed a hand on her hip, her eyes flashing. ‘Actually, I’m as okay as you are.’ She sighed melodramatically. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go say hi to Ilsa and then get some of the free hooch.’ She winked at Lincoln. ‘See you later, Mrs Court.’

  Lincoln watched her go, looking truly off balance, and Ardhi understood. It was all Ardhi could do not to reach out for a glass of champagne to calm his own nerves.

  27.

  Ivyanne fumbled for her phone in her handbag, heart pounding. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Hello. Is this Ivyanne Court?’

  ‘It is,’ Ivyanne didn’t recognize the thick American accent. ‘Whom am I speaking to?’

  ‘Mark Schorer, president of Absalom Industries, California. You left a message for me I believe?’ The man spoke briskly, sounding faintly annoyed that he had to explain himself.

  ‘Oh! Hey, yes I did. I was calling in regards to my uh, business partner you had a meeting with?’ Ivyanne paused, still staring down at the wallet, thinking that this was the worst time to try and sound professional. ‘Tristan Loveridge?’

  ‘Who?’

  His confused tone stopped Ivyanne’s movements cold. ‘Tristan Loveridge….of LoveSun Corporation?’ she repeated, this time more slowly. ‘You had a meeting arranged with him for Saturday the 28th of February?’

  There was a pause. ‘I’m sorry miss,’ the man finally said. ‘I know of Tristan Loveridge, but I hadn’t yet contacted him. I was planning to, as he’s been highly recommended to me, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.’ He paused. ‘This might sound like a strange question, but I was under the impression that Mr Loveridge had passed away recently?’

  Ivyanne’s heart hit the floor. ‘So you did hear?’

  ‘Well, yes I did. From the same person who recommended him to me last year....and then I saw the report in the paper. He and that basketball star, both missing and presumed dead. It’s tragic.’

  ‘It truly is,’ Ivyanne said quietly, feeling the gears in her brain groan in protest as her mind tried to compute what she was hearing. ‘So, you really didn’t schedule a meeting with him?’ Ivyanne asked softly. ‘You didn’t organize his flight?’

  The man drew in his breath. ‘I’m sorry miss, no. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had. To think that-’

  Ivyanne ended the call, too shocked to continue her interrogation. She sat down on the closed toilet seat lid, trembling like a leaf, staring at the wallet in her hands. Mark Schorer hadn’t called Tristan overseas. There had been no free, first class flight, courtesy of Absalom. And still, Tristan had ended up reluctantly boarding a plane to Los Angeles, too tempted by the lucrative offer to even consider turning it down. A flight that had killed him-a flight that neither Tristan or LoveSun, had paid for. So who had?

  Ivyanne’s fist clenched around the wallet, letting the most horrible thought force its way into her mind. Had it all been a set-up? Had Ardhi masterminded the whole thing? Was he actually capable of bringing down a flight? Surely he was, if the plane was low enough, and the weather he generated fierce enough-which was what had brought the plane down. A sudden, un-anticipated storm which had dissipated without shedding a drop of rain.

  Ivyanne braced herself against the door, feeling tears fill her eyes. It was all too dark and twisted to contemplate. But she’d asked herself, what her childhood friend could be capable of, and suddenly, she had a good idea. Her theory, however far-fetched it was, would explain why out of all of the people who had survived, her ultra-strong merman had been one of the few to perish. In a random crash on water, Tristan would have been the only survivor, if anything.

  But if it had been a personal attack, then perhaps someone had gone one step further to ensure that his rival was dead, knowing the world would see it as an accident. Tristan had been seen knocked out-he would have been utterly defenseless if someone had purposefully been seeking him within the wrecked plane.

  That’s why there’s no body, Ivyanne realized suddenly. And why Leah couldn’t find his soul in a dolphin. He was murdered, not lost. Someone took him somewhere else, and disposed of the evidence! It’s improbable, but that note left for Lux-

  Ivyanne sank back against the wall. The idea of Ardhi dragging Tristan’s unconscious form to land and killing him so he had a human body to bury repulsed her almost as much as the actual crash did. She wanted to fall apart but knew it wasn’t the time. After all, if Ardhi had been willing to do that to Tristan for the crime of having slept with her-what did he have planned for the man who was about to marry her?

  Ivyanne opened the stall and stalked out. She needed to find Bane and her mother. The time for incognito recon had passed. If she was right, drastic measures would need to be taken. But more than that, Ivyanne needed to speak her theory out loud, and have someone else tell her she was crazy. Desperately crazy.

  It was all too much, too elaborate a plan for one man to pull off on his own. And if she was right...then Ardhi was dead on the inside-whatever part of him thought he loved her was being ruled by his lust-not his heart.

  Ivyanne stopped in her tracks when she stepped back into the restaurant and saw that Ardhi was standing at the bar still. Sherri was talking to him from behind the counter, but Ardhi’s eyes were firmly fixed on a stunning blonde in a gold dress conversing with Ilsa, who was filling in for Remi that night, a few feet away. That blonde was Adele.

  What on earth? Ivyanne blinked, wondering if the scene would vanish, but they were all still there when she focused once more. Where did Adele come from?

  Ivyanne was aware enough to recognize instantly that Adele seemed to be in excellent health. In fact, she’d never looked better. Her cropped blonde hair had grown several inches during her short absence, and her skin gleamed with vitality. She looked too good for someone who was supposed to be recovering from an emotional crisis coupled with a bender that spanned
the Eastern Seaboard.

  At that moment Sherri looked up and saw Ivyanne. Her mouth snapped shut and she turned away from Ardhi abruptly, gazing at the fridge doors as though interested by something within. That caught Ivyanne’s attention further-why would Sherri be talking to Ardhi again? Why was he sticking so closely to the bar and the waitress he barely knew? And why was he so intently watching Adele?

  Two blondes. One from New Zealand, and one who had been missing for several weeks. They had several common denominators that Ivyanne couldn’t ignore-both had an intense hatred for Ivyanne, coupled with a deep affection for her fiancé, and both were bar managers who seemed to have a rapport with Ardhi all of a sudden.

  Ivyanne almost blacked out on the spot as she realized that Sherri and Ardhi had a connection that pre-dated Ivyanne’s first meeting with her. Sherri was a mer now...and she’d been a mer then too. They’d all been fooled! Link had never sired anybody! Ardhi had-to steal Link away! It had all been a set up-every single element in her life that had been unravelling, Ardhi had masterminded. It was enough to make her want to kill him then and there.

  Suddenly Adele looked up and smiled at her, handing her untouched champagne glass to Ilsa, before advancing towards her slowly. Ivyanne swallowed, trying to compose herself. She could hardly alert anyone that Adele was a possible threat when Ardhi was standing right there. There were too many humans nearby to kick up a fuss in general.

  I’ll kill her, Ivyanne thought, forcing herself to smile and look surprised. I’ll lead her elsewhere, and I’ll take her out. Maybe I can even get a full confession first.

  ‘Ivyanne...’ Adele purred, ‘the girl of the night. I’ve been looking for you all over.’ She embraced Ivyanne’s elbows and kissed her cheek. ‘Mind if we have a chat alone, hon?’

  Over the back of Adele’s shoulder, Ivyanne saw Link look over at the exchange and frown, taking one faltering step towards her. But Ivyanne held up her hand, and he stayed put.

  ‘That would be fine,’ Ivyanne said softly, allowing Adele to steer her outside. She glanced back once to see that Ardhi was watching her with keen interest as well. Had he planned this?

  When they were outside Adele began to walk her faster, nodding politely to other guests, and leading Ivyanne around the pool, to where the path between the restaurant and the diving pool were shrouded in darkness. The night smelled too sweet to have turned so sour.

  ‘You’ll have to excuse me for wobbling in my heels.’ Adele giggled. ‘That mouthful of champagne did my head in a little. He was right...about that, you know? I should have tested the theory before I was in such a situation.’

  Ivyanne felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. He? Ardhi? And why would Adele be so effected by champagne unless…..

  ‘Where are we going?’ She suddenly asked, her step faltering as their surroundings grew darker and lonelier.

  ‘Somewhere really, really secluded,’ Adele said quickly, tightening her grip.

  Ivyanne was beginning to panic. She didn’t like Adele having control of the situation so completely. ‘Adele I can’t believe the way you vanished. We actually thought you’d been kidnapped! We were so worried!’

  ‘Not worried enough.’

  Those words terrified Ivyanne, so dark were the implications. ‘I’m sorry for what Link put you through, with me, but what’s done is done and I can’t take it back.’ She swallowed when Adele only rasped out a laugh in response. ‘Adele I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you need to get gone! Whatever you’ve gotten involved in, it’s not too late to extricate yourself before you-’

  ‘No can do,’Adele said grimly. ‘As much as I hate the situation, I’m stuck in it for now.’ She began to frog march Ivyanne off the path to the long gravel walkway between the amenities and the priciest bungalows. ‘Walk. Quick. If you don’t, I can always make a scene in front of the humans.’

  The emphasis on the word ‘humans’ wasn’t lost on Ivyanne. ‘Don’t manhandle me!’ Ivyanne tore her arm free, digging in her heels and kicking up dust as they approached the side entrance to the function room. ‘I can hurt you, you know.’

  ‘Oh I know. But if you shut up and follow some orders for once, you’ll want to thank me instead.’ She surprised Ivyanne by forcing her forward a few more steps so that she almost collided with the freshly installed mermaid feature near the entrance to the function room, but Ivyanne gracefully side-stepped it, only to be forced through the open door of the darkened event space.

  ‘Get in there-quick!’

  Ivyanne looked around wildly-she didn’t like being alone with the new mermaid one bit. ‘Adele I know you’re a mer, okay?’ She announced, forcing the wobble from her voice. ‘And I know you’re all buddy buddy with Ardhi.’

  Adele whirled on her and frowned. ‘He told you that?’

  ‘He didn’t have to-I can tell.’ Ivyanne shrank back against a wall. ‘You’re allies, right? To break up Link and I?’

  ‘You’re only half right,’ Adele said quickly, the metallic fabric of her dress was illuminated by the second-hand moonlight shimmering through the glass doors, and fear made her glacier-blue eyes positively glow. ‘But Ivyanne-you cannot fall for his lines, okay? He’s got you all fooled and if you don’t snap out of it, this is going to end tragically.’

  Ivyanne inched away from Adele along the cool wall, feeling blindly for tables as she aimed for the corridor near the kitchen, hoping to get near witnesses before it was too late. Ardhi had sired her, just like he had sired Link. Perhaps Adele had inherited a power too, and if it was weather, Ivyanne wouldn’t win.

  ‘What? Don’t you want me to break things off with Link for Ardhi? Isn’t this what it’s all about? Isn’t that why you and Sherri are here?’ Ivyanne was too shocked to control her words-she knew she should be playing dumb to Ardhi’s scheme, but Adele had caught her off balance.

  Adele’s eyes widened. ‘You’re more switched on then we gave you credit for,’ She pushed her back one more time, forcing Ivyanne into the corridor. ‘But just so we’re clear-Ardhi changed me yes, but I’m not working for him. I don’t give a shit who you pick-so long as it’s not Ardhi, and Lincoln doesn’t get killed.’

  ‘Lincoln? Killed?’ Ivyanne felt the blood drain from her face as her worst fears came to fruition. ‘If I don’t pick Ardhi, who else would I choose but Link?’ Ivyanne was confused, and she didn’t like it one bit. ‘Adele, you better start explaining yourself, because right now, I’m pretty sure that Tristan’s death was no more an accident then-’

  Adele banged on the wall. ‘Now!’ she cried.

  Ivyanne opened her mouth to scream, but then the wall flew open in front of her and a deeply tanned arm reached out, closing a hand over her mouth and yanking her into a small, dark room she hadn’t known was there. She got one look at the bright lights of the kitchen before a door slammed and she was shrouded in darkness.

  ⁓

  Lincoln walked up to Bane, clutching two glasses of non alcoholic cider in his hands so tightly he thought they might crack. Bane looked up from his animated conversation with Marcus, frowning.

  ‘Hey man, are you okay?’

  Lincoln shook his head. ‘We need to talk-alone.’ He looked at Marcus pointedly, who shrugged, tossed Bane a bewildered look, and then shuffled off.

  ‘Olelo Mai...’ Bane asked, knitting his brows. ‘You look sorta tense.’

  ‘I was hoping you could tell me,’ Lincoln said sharply. ‘Ivyanne spent five minutes with me then ran off to flirt with Ardhi. Then my ex shows up out of nowhere and now they’ve gone somewhere together. Bit weird, don’t you think?’

  Bane’s eyes widened. ‘I didn’t notice any of that stuff. Maybe you’re imagining it.’

  ‘Really?’ Lincoln drawled. ‘Because I’ve noticed that almost every time Ivyanne disappears lately-you appear to shadow me. Is that just in my head too? Or has Ivyanne asked you to hang around?’

  Bane’s dark eyes darted nervously across either side of Lincoln’s head.
‘She’s your fiancé- ask her.’

  Lincoln sighed. ‘Oh cut the crap. I’ve been busy Bane-but I’m not completely oblivious to the secret pow-wows you’ve been having. So unless Ivyanne’s about to jump out of a cake naked for me, you better start explaining what you’ve been discussing before I flip out.’

  Bane’s eyes finally focused on his. His posture slumped slightly. ‘Honestly Link? I don’t really know what’s going on. But as for Ivyanne flirting with Ardhi...Ivyanne’s not into Ardhi-she’s investigating him.’

  Lincoln’s chest constricted. ‘Why?’

  Bane put a hand on his shoulder. ‘If I tell you, you have to stay cool, okay? One big dramatic reaction could be detrimental -and that’s the only reason we’ve left you in the dark. So do you have your wits?’

  Lincoln hesitated, then nodded. ‘Spit it out before I lose them, please.’

  ‘Pa a’ka awa.’ Bane exhaled. ‘Look...Ardhi hit on her, okay?’

  The champagne glass in Lincoln’s hand cracked. Cool liquid bubbled down his hand and into the sleeve of his coat. He grunted and placed it on the table before wiping his wet, bloody hand on his dark pants. He didn’t know who to be more furious at-Ivyanne for keeping the secret or him, for being too swept up in the party planning and Sherri’s theatrics to notice. ‘Fuck. I knew he would.’

  ‘That’s not being cool Link-that’s being the hulk.’ Bane chided him. ‘But that’s not all, in fact, it’s a lot fucking wor-’ Bane straightened, staring at something over his shoulder. ‘Oh...heads up. Blonde alert.’

  Lincoln spun around in time to see Adele sauntering up to him. Her smile was thin, her movements slow-but her hands were trembling.

  ‘I have a message for you boys,’ Adele said softly, ‘from Ivyanne.’

  Lincoln raised an eyebrow. Adele was acting like she still owned the damn place! And if she was back, where was Ivyanne? What was going on? He could have screamed in frustration.

  ‘Yes?’ Bane asked.

  Adele smiled at Lincoln. ‘Get your dad and any humans out of here-now, and warn the king and queen that this party is about to turn into a hootenanny And most importantly...do not let Ardhi know that anything is going on. You have twenty minutes-tops.’ Adele turned to walk away.