“Yes,” I said, handing him back the canteen.
“What magic have you learned?” Kheelan asked.
“I can break magic binding me and make glowy light up, but both depend on me getting mad.”
“She entered Faerie completely helpless?” Loren said, sounding as upset about it as when he found out I had been alone at home without my Marks since the battle.
“More room to learn,” I said, trying to inject some cheer into it.
“You are using raw power for both tasks, although it is primarily Light magic. Dark magic can also be used in raw form but it is more volatile. We will stick to Light magic for your lessons,” Kheelan said.
Dear god, was I going to blow myself up? Dark magic could definitely wait.
“What are we going to do?” I asked, hoping for something between a lightning bolt and static electricity.
“You’re going to learn to hold the walking stick properly,” Loren said.
Now I was picturing something more like wipe on and wipe off. Maybe I was too tired for this nonsense after all.
“Can my hand work wait until morning?” I asked, smothering a bored yawn.
“We thought you might want to have a weapon with you tomorrow,” Loren said. “One with magic would be a better choice unless you are skilled with your manual weapons.”
I think he was referring to my bow and arrows, short sword and the various daggers I had brought with me to Faerie.
“I practiced my archery,” I said. Loren has seen my aim.
Kheelan looked doubtful.
“Show us,” Loren said.
Great, this was a three ring circus and I was the main attraction. I hadn’t lied to them, my improvement in archery was quite sufficient to warrant some bragging. I still was nervous to try to demonstrate my skills in front of Fae that had probably been shooting arrows at trees since about five minutes after they had toddled their first steps.
“Did Aeric mention anything about my first attempt at archery?” I asked.
The twins had tickled me mercilessly every time I missed, which led to my giggling yet miserable attempt to get an arrow even near the tree, forget the target center. I had bargained with Aeric for his guiding hand in order to win a bet against Falin. It was probably too much to hope that Aeric kept the embarrassing details from his brother.
“Aeric told me you needed a bow of your own,” Kheelan said. “He thought you had a good eye and only your strength needed practice. Has the bow we fashioned you served well?”
I was secretly pleased that Aeric hadn’t disparaged my fledgling skills. I had improved and now I was a little more excited to show off.
“Pick a target,” I said, walking over to the weapons. Loren had sorted everything out from the pile we had left him. My bow and quiver were easy to spot.
By the time I had turned around with my weapon ready, Loren was almost out of sight. I saw a flash of something metal in his hand that he slashed at the tree. He stepped to the side and waited.
“Uh, tell Loren to move out of the way, and does he just want me to hit the tree, or what target?” I said.
“Find the wound to the tree,” Kheelan said, coming up behind me.
“I can’t see the slash from that far away.”
“Is that what Aeric taught you, to use your eyes to sight?” Kheelan said. His warm breath tickled my ear.
“He was a bit more hands on, but he had me close my eyes just before release,” I said. “Want me to try?”
“Yes, show me the aim Loren exclaimed.”
So he already knew. They were making me do this exercise to prove it wasn’t luck when Loren saw me in the woods. Taking a deep breath, I nocked my arrow and raised my bow to aim.
“Tell Loren to move, just in case.”
“He can redirect it with magic,” Kheelan said.
Just how fast was Loren?
“Fine,” I said. They were grown Fae. I wasn’t mothering them.
I immediately saw what Kheelan meant when I closed my eyes. The colours of life and magic were even more numerous in Faerie but the bright green of the tree where Loren slashed it bled over everything else, faded in comparison.
I opened my eyes as I loosed the arrow, continuing to exhale slow and steady. As I blinked, the arrow thudded and I knew it had hit the mark by the way Kheelan’s warm breath also released over my ear.
“Didn’t think I could do it?” I said, aware he had been holding his breath.
“It was satisfactory for an undistracted arrow while your heart isn’t racing, mouse,” Kheelan said.
I pivoted, getting him in the gut with an elbow intentionally.
“Back up,” I said. “Trust me, there was plenty of danger just behind me, or do you consider yourself old and feeble?”
“If you are worried about your allies, then your back will never be safe,” Kheelan said.
Loren plucked my arrow with what looked like little effort. I knew how hard it was to get an arrowhead wedged out of a tree trunk.
“Good job,” Loren hollered.
“See, I hit it,” I said. “I practiced every day,” I admitted.
“You kept your bow,” Kheelan commented. “Leave it on the ground for Loren to do maintenance and we will show you the magic needed to wield a walking stick effectively.”
“I thought this would be good enough. You aren’t planning to get us into another war?” I said, not quite ready to put my bow down. I hadn’t practiced the last few days and it already felt like I had gotten rusty. This was a skill that demanded daily perfecting.
“You have shown us that magic should be your second defence,” Kheelan said. “The bow is a long range weapon and cannot be the only thing you employ for protection. Your skill is adequate enough to consider the bow your main weapon at this time. Learn to wear it with you when you are without your Marks.”
I wasn’t getting out of magic lessons. To be honest with myself, I really needed them.
“Fine,” I agreed, walking over to gently lay down my bow and quiver of arrows by Loren’s sorted weapon piles. A breeze blew my hair into my eyes.
“Pick up the stick,” Loren said.
I whipped around. “How did you... so fast?”
“Magic,” Kheelan answered.
“Wind road,” Loren said.
“Like Loren flew here?” I asked.
“In a way,” Loren said. “Now, I want you to pick up the walking stick for your lesson.”
“Isn’t the lesson on how to pick up glowy?” I said, wary of the hidden meaning. I also wasn’t eager to be shocked again.
“You already demonstrated the basic skills needed for this lesson with your archery,” Kheelan said, tone a touch too superior for my liking.
“Because they’re both made out of wood?” I said, playing dumb.
Kheelan’s hint hadn’t been much, but he had to be referring to seeing the colours of magic when I closed my eyes to improve my aim. I guess I needed to do the same to figure out which end of glowy was safe to handle.
“You are in desperate need of a teacher,” Kheelan said and I felt his hand rest heavy on my bottom.
“Duh, which is why you agreed since you’re an expert on sticks,” I said.
“How did all of you keep your hands off of her so long?” Loren asked.
“As if,” I said, feeling the coolness of Kheelan’s magic tickling up my spine. “They had their hands on me all the time and you were no different.”
“Her mouthiness served its purpose when she was alone. It will be an adjustment to learn such sharp words are no longer needed to defend herself when her Marks can provide all the protection she needs.”
Kheelan gave my bottom a hard swat that I barely felt through the dress as he delivered his comment. I managed not to make a sound or hitch my skirts up to welcome another.
Loren coughed. “Not the lesson she needs right now.”
Were they serious? We had literally just finished spanking and fucking a few minutes ago.
“I’m hard as stone,” Kheelan said with a groan, cupping my bottom over the skirts. “Once was barely enough to whet my appetite. Come, take over the lesson.”
Loren grabbed me by one of my wrists and yanked me against his chest. “I always told you so much restraint wasn’t good for you,” he said to Kheelan behind me.
“I’m not opposed to another-”
“No,” Loren said as he cut me off, voice surprisingly firm. “Lessons on magic are more important if you are accompanying us tomorrow. Besides, I feel that as pleasurable as your sweet body was to plunder, Kheelan has only incurred a greater price.”
“What?” I said, straightening in Loren’s arms.
“I want to fuck you more, not less,” Kheelan explicitly stated.
Again, I felt I was being blamed. Sighing my own frustration, I pivoted and bent down to squat by glowy. Closing my eyes and hoping to get this over with so I could get back to pondering what they were really talking about such as the geas nobody could mention without pain, I used my Fae senses to see the stick.
Blue and red, two of the dominant colours I associated with Fae magic were like polar opposites on the stick, no blending where they abruptly cut off midway. I reached over and grabbed the blue end.
“Such an attentive student,” Loren praised. It was petty, but I looked over to Kheelan and stuck my tongue at him real quick.
“Use more than your tongue if you wish to wound me, mouse,” Kheelan said. He looked pointedly at glowy in my hand. “Do your worst,” he dared me, throwing back the careless words I had given him earlier.
He was going to laugh it off, but I needed the practice and he was immune to the shocking power. Letting my annoyed anger push my magic, I let it burst out of me and down glowy like all the other times I had broken my bonds, then I shoved the red end at Kheelan. I was squatting, so I got a full view of his face as it froze in horror.
“Uh, Kheelan?” I said, pulling glowy back and watching as lightning arced out of it. Holy crap.
I dropped the stick.
Loren slapped Kheelan on the back, making Kheelan gasp and choke.
“What the hell kind of healer is always hitting his patient?” I exclaimed, springing up and grabbing Kheelan’s hands. “Are you okay?”
“If there was any doubt of your Dark Elf origins, then that cleared it up,” Kheelan said.
He was speaking. He would live. I dropped his hands.
“When did you steal some of Kheelan’s magic?” Loren asked, picking up the walking stick I had dropped.
“I didn’t steal anything. I have Light magic, remember?”
Kheelan frowned. “It doesn’t matter. She can use a walking stick if necessary. I’ll make you a belt for it, something embroidered enough to make it seem like a harmless toy for a lady deficient in anything but basic magic.”
“I really didn’t steal-”
“Our magics are compatible. You have no idea how rare such a thing is, mouse. Be grateful that fate permits a transfer and don’t waste the magic unless your life is in danger,” Kheelan said, getting back some of his icy, insufferable tone of superiority.
Somebody didn’t like surprises.
“Next time I will steal more than a little bolt,” I threatened.
“I thought you said you didn’t steal it,” Loren said, handing me glowy. He was holding the red end fearlessly as he offered me the blue.
“As soon as Loren tells me how to steal magic,” I added.
“She got it from fucking me,” Kheelan said.
I swung my gaze up at him. “Did you lose some of your precious control?” I taunted.
“Exactly,” Kheelan admitted.
It seemed a rather easy victory until I realized what he was implying.
“How convenient,” Loren said, clapping his hands together. “Kheelan needs regular fucking to loosen up and our kitten-”
“Don’t you dare say anything about cream,” I interrupted. How could I forget for even a moment that Loren was a big pervert.
“I was going to say ‘magical power’ to grow bigger,” Loren innocently added.
“I’m not sleeping with any of you for power,” I declared.
“Then you’re fucking us for pleasure?” Kheelan practically purred, snaking a hand around my waist. Cool magic tickled my hips.
“I think you know why I’m doing it and I’m pretty sure love spells are illegal,” I said.
“She’s lecturing us on magic,” Loren said with a snicker.
“Sheath your stick by your side,” Kheelan said.
My hands found the silk pocket and belt he had made from my dress, just wide enough for glowy and half as long as my skirt. I peeked at the new addition to my clothing as I pushed the stick in, noting the delicate silver embroidery lining the outside of the pocket. I narrowed my eyes, expecting flowers or butterflies but instead discerning frolicking rodents.
“Are those mice?” I said.
“Squeak, squeak,” Kheelan answered.
“Don’t you think it’s rather ridiculous that one of you calls me a mouse and the other a kitten?” I muttered.
“Prove one of us wrong then,” Loren said.
“You’re both wrong,” I retorted, pushing out of Kheelan’s arms.
Loren caught me from behind and stroked a hand down my pocketed stick. “I love a female unafraid of showing her strength,” he murmured into my ear.
I elbowed myself loose.
“Let’s get you to bed. You don’t need as much sleep as your human brothers but even a Halfling needs a few winks after trying to cast her Dark magic over us innocent Light Fae to seduce our-”
“Stuff it,” I interrupted Loren, giving him a push to the side as I strode back over towards my brother’s tent. “You assholes don’t even care about my Dark Elf side. I don’t know why Aeric and Falin made such a big deal about it to begin with, or my fangs. You all have pointy teeth ‘the better to eat you with, my dear’ so I don’t see how my fangs should be any different just because they’re a bit smaller, like baby fangs because I am younger than grampa Kheelan, which means I have time to grow them big enough to take a bite out of each one of you bastards.”
Loren and Kheelan had followed silently behind me while I was lost in a rant. I turned around to ask where the entrance to the tent had gone -it was as if it had disappeared by magic- and caught their shit-eating grins.
“Are you mixing up your fairytales?” Kheelan said.
“Open,” I said. I pointed to the tent. I needed rest so my brain could logic magic and try to overrule my foolish heart.
“Why do you sleep with your brothers?” Loren asked.
“Security,” I answered. “Comfort and loyalty,” I added.
I knew he wasn’t referring to just now when we were in a strange land and forced together by circumstances. Loren was hardly the first person to notice how peculiarly close the twins were to me. His first introduction to Jackson had been seeing him throw me on top of a unicorn and button my pants when Eloden had left me exposed.
“Are you their sister?” Kheelan asked.
Whoa, I felt more exposed than Eloden had left me. “Yes and no,” I answered.
“Kitten, we know you are not blood related to them. Tell us honestly, is there more to your relationship than siblings?”
I sucked in a big breath and let it out. Nobody asked. Everybody joked about the taboo closeness between us but the question they all wondered was never spoken. I didn’t even know if I had the whole answer. The twins were tight-lipped about certain things and their feelings for me masked an old hurt.
“Not on my half,” I said. “I love my stepbrothers as if they were my real brothers, but they lost their mother so young, and I became a recipient of all that hurt and grief. I couldn't reject them. They never cross the line, just edge it and I don’t think it is because of... they do love me as a sister, but they don’t want to lose me, too. It’s an act, a desperate facade they’ve worn for so long to keep others from takin
g me away from them, and now... I moved out, tried to put some distance between us, but...” I trailed off and didn’t finish, but it felt good to finally get it off my chest. The subject it touched upon was so forbidden that I had never discussed it with another soul, not even my mother.
Kheelan snagged my chin with the fingers of one hand and tipped my gaze to his stormy one. This time I couldn’t be blamed for his turmoil. He was the one poking at my deepest secrets.
“Your loyalty to your brothers should be commended not condemned. It matters not what others think, but if you truly love your brothers, then you know what you must do?” he said.
“Let them go?” I answered in a trite, but oh so painfully true response.
Kheelan’s eyes darkened. “You set them free.”
I suddenly thought of Aeric. Kheelan’s younger brother had seemed inseparable from him and yet they were now worlds apart. Had it hurt Kheelan as much to force that separation?
“They’re young and brave and male,” Loren commented. “We ought to be able to find a worthy distraction or two for them while you’re in Faerie.”
“Girls?” I said, still keeping my gaze on Kheelan.
“Or a fight,” Loren said, tone agreeable.
“A fight over girls?” I scandalously proposed, thinking of my own Fae males. They were at each other’s throats, Dark versus Light. “Or do all the males here share a single female without complaint?”
“Kitten, twins are extremely rare in Faerie. We’re going to have to peel the females off of them once they catch the scent of young, virile and human males that have matching dimples. They’ll seed half of the next Light Fae generation if we don’t rein them in.”
I couldn’t protest. I had already accused Jackson of the same once with regards to the female population at his school. The twins clung to me to keep other guys from taking me away, but that didn’t mean they were innocent or virginal.
“Come to sleep with us,” Kheelan said.
I turned my head, pulling free of Kheelan’s fingers on my chin and looked at the twins fast asleep on a very comfortable bed. They were safe and my Marks were right. I was the one that needed to let go.
“I want my own bed,” I said. “Do you even need to sleep?” I asked.
Falling Into Faerie After Page 22
