“Faithless males,” Melissanda said. I saw her violet eyes flick up to Kier behind me and I knew she didn’t just mean Derrik.
“Why help him?” I asked, puzzled at her conflicted loyalty.
She looked on either side of me to the twins. I felt anger and disgust. She didn’t like Keir but her loyalty could be bought and my brothers were the price.
“Sing for me,” Melissanda said.
I’m sure she wanted me to get my swan song over with so she could drag my brothers off. It was best for the boys and myself to delay her plans. Derrik had to be getting help. He had seemed brave, even if he was small and outnumbered earlier.
“I need an accompaniment. Do you have something on you?” I said.
“What?” Melissanda said, eyes snapping back to me instead of eating up the twins.
“You don’t seem to be carrying anything. Perhaps there is a piano downstairs?” I said.
The slap to my head from behind told me that at least one of them had figured out what I was up to, but the jerk couldn’t force me to sing. I tried kicking back, but he was keeping himself clear of my limbs.
“Performance anxiety?” Melissanda mocked.
“Not all of us are born to sing the birds from the trees,” I said.
“You just need the right motivation,” Melissanda said, looking at both of my brothers again. “Sing for me or I’ll make them break your fingers one-by-one.”
Nothing would stop her from making them hurt themselves if that failed. I prepared myself to sing away my voice, taking a deep breath before Kier behind me interrupted.
“Do it. Break all of her fingers. Screams should be good enough for your purpose and I could do with a more malleable hostage,” he said. “Losing her voice isn’t enough for that bash to my head.”
I wanted to be brave but the thought of my own brothers snapping my fingers made me willing to crawl and beg. How could I even rescue the boys if my hands were broken? Because I was going to save them. There was a way out of this mess and I would find it. I just had to hang onto hope.
I sang. It was soft at first, then I picked up the volume so Melissanda wouldn’t have any excuse to hurt me or the boys. My song drowned out Kier’s insults behind me and I saw Melissanda’s eyes finally focus on me, lighting up with interest.
“Glorious,” she praised. “Contralto. I have so few voices like yours.”
I kept singing, knowing I might be hearing my own voice for the last time. This was a price I was willing to pay if the boys and I escaped this situation otherwise unharmed.
“Hurry up,” Kier said. “That pixie might be bringing trouble back if he didn’t scare off.”
Melissanda flicked him an annoyed glance over my shoulder and reached out one hand with curved shell nails, coloured oyster pearl with a faint pink. I pictured how they would look painted in my blood. The nails started to grow like the twig boy’s hands and sharpen as she got closer to my neck, and then I couldn’t see them anymore.
“Head back and hold still,” she sang to me, voice accompanying my own perfectly.
I swallowed and felt the first prick of her sharp nails then a burning line as she sliced my throat across. It hurt even more than I imagined, my voice stumbling until Kier ordered me to keep singing and I smoothed it out in fear for any further retaliatory suggestions he might make.
My last words were of love.
The silence when Melissanda finally stole my voice was louder than the din of the fighting downstairs. It was a whooshing of the blood racing through my veins and beating in my ears. The pretend muteness was nothing to the emptiness in my throat now. She had ripped the voice right out of me and the theft left me feeling truly helpless.
“She’ll be quiet as a mouse,” Melissanda said, licking her fingers of my blood. I really didn’t appreciate the comparison. Only Kheelan was allowed to call me mouse. “If you’re done with my services, I’ll take my payment to more private quarters to enjoy.”
“Dispose of the bodies when you finish. We don’t need to leave anything for the Bastard Prince to track,” Kier said, dismissing her.
My brothers released me at Melissanda’s beckoning voice. I tried to grab onto them but Kier threatened to break my fingers again and I could tell he was eager for any excuse. The blood I had spilled already hadn’t been enough. He ripped me backwards by my shoulders, dragging me the opposite direction that Melissanda was bringing my brothers.
I tried to call Kheelan, then Loren, slapping my hands on their Marks and soundlessly speaking their names. Nothing happened. Thinking myself foolish but desperate, I slapped the spot of one of my most faded Marks, just a memory now, and I called for Dain.
My headache intensified but there were no midnight wings and golden eyes.
I couldn’t even hear Melissanda’s singing voice any longer. She had disappeared, and with the twins no longer in sight, my fear intensified. The danger in Faerie had never been so apparent as this moment. The twins had done nothing but care for me and now I might be the death of them.
We stopped and I was shuffled as my captor fumbled for his key.
I had one weapon left. It usually got me into more trouble when I did it, but these were desperate times and my Fae form had very sharp teeth. Glamour might hide them but they were still there.
Do not bite a Dark Elf.
Derrik’s return and his warning came too late. I grabbed the arm holding me and sank my fangs into my captor’s wrist, not holding on for a Mark but tearing my teeth at his flesh for maximal damage. It happened too fast for me even to be disgusted and the arm was already being yanked away in shock. With the room key in Kier’s other hand, I was suddenly free.
“Spit the blood out,” Derrik shouted in my ear. I obeyed, feeling ill now it was over. Derrik must have snuck back when we stopped to open the door. I felt his return feed me more courage.
It wasn’t too late. I ran full speed in the direction I had last seen my brothers headed, ignoring the pounding in my head and the dangerous way the lights flickered and darkened as my vision threatened to black out. I had to be concussed but it couldn't stop me.
“Get back here,” Kier shouted with rage.
Yeah right. I bent down and grabbed glowy as I ran past the weapon pile, never stopping for a moment.
“You’re going the wrong direction,” Derrik said.
Without my voice, I couldn’t tell him we were going after my brothers. I tried to think it, but it seemed that telepathy was flickering in and out with my pounding headache.
I passed the stairs with a quick glance. I could go down there and try to find Kheelan and Loren, but what if it made us too late to rescue my brothers? Melissanda had sounded greedy to get a taste of the twins.
“Eve!”
I didn’t stop running.
“Who was that?” Derrik asked. “Uh, Eve?”
Mark. Claim. Dangerous.
Any other time, I would have frozen in fear to see Dain after our last encounter, sure he would only seek me out for revenge, but right now, I just hoped he chase after me. I was still sure Dain would want to kill me personally, but he would have to rescue me to do it and the twins were a package deal for saving me from trouble.
Chapter 16:
Dain was hot on my heels, likely just behind Kier, who was definitely the lesser of the trouble chasing me.
I ran into an invisible wall with a silent curse.
“Sweetheart, stop,” Eloden told me. His arms reached around and crushed me to him as he swept me out of the way. Dain thundered past us and halted a foot away, quickly backing up.
“Who was he?” Dain shouted at me.
I shook my head, pushing at Eloden to move.
“Kill him,” Dain said, turning to speak behind us.
“He jumped. Is that his blood on your lips, baby? I could use a taste.”
Falin grabbed my shoulder and twisted me in Eloden’s arms, licking my lips from behind before I could refuse.
I twisted away from Falin’
s bloody kiss.
“Where are your brothers?” Eloden asked. His hands tightened on me. “They should be here protecting you.”
I wiggled and hopped and pulled and pushed. Eloden finally got the message, letting me go. I ran down the hall, hearing all of them following.
Dain barked out an order as we ran. “Falin come. The other male will have to wait. I’m still feeling the effects of the gate’s price and Eve’s brothers may be in danger.”
“I can handle this on my own,” Eloden said.
“Let us see what we’re up against first,” Dain retorted.
I stared at the hallway full of doors, slowing down my run as I faced them in frustration. We could kick them all down but each wrong door would only delay rescue and might warn Melissanda we were coming.
“Last room,” Derrik whispered in my ear, figuring out my purpose. “I can smell the human blood from here.”
Oh God. I started running again. It couldn’t be too late.
In the end, despite Dain’s complaint of illness, he just beat the rest of us to the door once it was obvious where we were headed and he kicked it down. It flew. I heard the screech of the Siren before I saw her, the blood of the twins drenching the front of her gown. I launched myself forward, pushing past my Marks.
Melissanda had lied about savouring the twins. Their throats were bloodier than mine. Nobody stopped me from confronting her. Dain and Eloden were frozen in their tracks by the beautiful voice singing to them to lie down and go to sleep. Falin laughed and blocked the doorway so the Melissanda’s exit was cut off but he didn’t stop me, either. He was going to let me take the lead.
“She can’t lull you once you’ve broken her spell,” Derrik said. “It won’t last long on Darker Fae, either. It probably wouldn’t have worked at all if she wasn’t so strong on your brother’s blood.”
No idea why Falin was completely spared, but I didn’t need back up. Rage curled my hand not holding glowy into a weapon, claws at the ready to shred the Siren’s hypnotic voice from her throat. The light from the walking stick I brandished at her with the other hand was just as threatening.
Melissanda backed up, almost stumbling in her haste. I scrambled over the bed between the twins, sparing both of them a glance but it wasn’t long enough to know more more than they were breathing and hurt. I saw terrible gashes at both of their necks and their eyes were closed. They weren’t actively bleeding, but that could be because there was little blood left to pump. I didn’t know how long they had left.
“It was Keir’s idea,” Melissanda told me, hands up as she backed herself into a corner.
I caught her panicked look with my sharp gaze. Melissanda had just told me she was an expendable accessory, not the mastermind. I smiled darkly and dropped to the floor on the other side of the bed.
Falin stepped closer, licking his lips. “The one chasing you was named Keir?” he said.
I nodded, supposing that to be right. What did a name matter?
“I was supposed to seduce the Bastard Prince for him. Agreeing to distract the humans instead was a hasty suggestion when Keir saw you enter the inn,” Melissanda said, looking over to Falin.
She was mistaking the wrong one for the biggest threat. It had been my brothers she attacked on what sounded like an outrageous whim. Why? If Keir was who Kheelan was supposed to meet here, then how did my presence change things?
“Siren, did you steal the voice of our Mark?” Dain asked.
I looked over to him, startled. He was in the corner of the room, by the only window. He had shaken off the hypnotizing voice quickly. Melissanda made a small, frightened noise and I looked back to her. I was so close I could see that fear shine from in her eyes. They were darting all around and looking for the escape I would never offer.
“They’re not dead, Blood Prince. I just drained some of their essence,” she said as I walked closer.
Fae lies, the kind that were not quite a falsehood but misled you all the same.
“She bled their lifetime,” Derrik clarified for me. “I doubt she left them more than a few years and only because she was interrupted.”
“We will bleed you until they are whole,” Falin said.
“It won’t count unless I am willing. Life must be freely offered, not stolen,” Melissanda retorted.
Falin laughed and it was as scary as his smile. “You will beg me to make you bleed, enchantress. Such a dark gift of seduction is not only yours,” he said.
“Sweetheart, you don’t have to watch,” Eloden said. He approached, just behind Falin. “Put your walking stick away and let Falin take back what she stole from you.”
None of them were going to be tricked by her voice again. I felt stronger just knowing they were here in the room with me. It didn’t mean I would let them hide from me the kind of task necessary to save my brothers.
I pocketed glowy but didn’t look away.
“Mistress?”
Eloden and Falin sandwiched me between them as Kheelan came into the room, shouting for me before he even entered through the open door. Loren was only a step behind him. Both of them looked harried and scruffy, definitely like they had been torn from the bar fight going on downstairs.
“Took them long enough,” Derrik muttered into my ear.
“What is this, sweetheart?” Eloden said, ignoring Kheelan to raise a hand to move my hair and peer at Derrik, dangling on my ear like a piece of jewelry.
“That is her blood-bonded pixie,” Kheelan said.
“From the gatekeeper’s price,” Loren added. “The pixie warned us of Eve’s entanglement with the Dark Elf and Siren.”
“Better to battle for your bonded yourself, Sir Pixie, than to look for help from Light Faries,” Falin remarked, also ignoring Kheelan and Loren. He looked Melissanda up and down. “This little mermaid has stolen her last song.”
Eloden tickled my ear as he held his hand out and asked my pixie to hop over. Surprisingly, Derrik went, and as I turned to look and ensure Eloden wasn’t doing anything to harm my new companion, Falin struck.
Melissanda made a choked off screech as Falin wrapped his hand around her neck, holding her against the wall with her foamy dress spilled out on the floor, too high for her feet to support her.
“You’re going to sing with her voice,” Falin said.
He loosened his hold a little, using his second hand at her shoulder and chest to pin her to the wall. She used her freedom to spit in his face.
“Eve’s pixie has offered to transfer the magic of her voice back if you can make the Siren sing,” Eloden said.
“Keep him away from me,” Melissanda croaked, trying to melt into the wall.
“Oh, don’t worry that the pixie will bleed you dry,” Falin said. “That pleasure will be all mine,” he added, shifting as close as a lover until his body was pressed up against hers. Melissanda moaned. Falin bent his head and brushed his lips against hers in a slow kiss.
What the hell was he doing? I felt flushed with anger, not jealousy because that was ridiculous. Falin may be my Mark and we kind of had a one-time thing in my bathroom, but it wasn’t as if we were engaged. I didn’t care. Shouldn’t care.
“Sweetheart, he’s using his magic for you,” Eloden said, looking back at my pinked cheeks.
I glanced over at Kheelan and Loren, trying to ignore what Eloden was implying. I wasn’t jealous. Falin didn’t belong to me.
“Your dragon is madly in love with you, kitten. No matter that it is forbidden for-”
Dain cut Loren’s explanation off. “Eve, get closer to prepare for the transfer.”
At least there were no cute pet names from Dain. He hadn’t forgotten that we were enemies now. I didn’t look forward to confronting him about it but I preferred the awkward distance between us than the coziness of Fae lies.
“A pixie transfer involves a bite to you and a prick to the one being either bled or fed magic,” Eloden explained. I already knew from my experience with Kheelan, but I let him repeat the i
nformation. It wasn’t like I could interrupt anyway and I appreciated the effort. Most of the time I was floundering around with anything Fae and magic related. It wasn’t like I was born here growing up and knowing everything like the rest of them.
I offered up my finger to Derrik.
“Come closer,” Eloden said, shifting his hand with Derrik riding on his thumb to Melissanda’s neck.
Falin pulled away, swiping his tongue along Melissanda’s red lips as she moaned and then begged for him to fuck her. I caught a glimpse of his metal ball piercing before he turned to glance back at me, a bored look on his face that didn’t match the passionate kiss.
Loren said Falin loved me.
I blinked away that thought and focused on Derrik as the pixie hopped onto Melissanda’s throat and sank his thorn mercilessly deep into her neck. She didn’t even flinch, still begging Falin and saying such raunchy things that my ears were heating just hearing them.
Eloden’s arms came around me, hand pulling me close so his chin could rest on my shoulder. “Take a deep breath,” he told me as Derrik bit my proffered finger.
“Sing in my Mark’s voice for it is the only one I care to hear,” Falin said.
Melissanda sang. It was so strange hearing my voice in another’s throat. I didn’t even recognize myself right away. She pushed the constraints of my range, pitching higher than I ever dared sing and then dropping to show off the true beauty of my deeper tones.
“Sing, sweetheart.”
I opened my mouth and silently sang a simple nursery rhyme, the last line finally emerging from my own throat as my voice was my own again.
Derrik pulled his thorn from Melissanda’s now soundless throat and I pulled my hand back with him hopping over to hitch a ride, still nibbling my finger. I went to put him back up on my head but he suddenly let go and flitted away.
“Give him a moment,” Eloden said. “That was a lot of magic to transfer.”
“He did more-” I cut off telling Eloden that Derrik had transferred way more magic earlier with Kheelan.
Falling Into Faerie After Page 29
