by Bonnie Lamer
This is going to go over well. Through a clenched jaw, I say, “If I admit that Xenia and I are hand-fasted, she will stop the rebellion.”
Rhiannon opens her mouth again. “Kallen, really. She does not even have the grace to enter a room with dignity. Where was she raised? Oh, right, among the Cowans. I know how much you love anything that has to do with them.”
My eyes snap back to her. “You have no idea how I feel about anything. What you can be sure of is that your sister will never call herself my wife.”
All conversation comes to a screeching halt. An explosion outside shakes the house and through the noise of the blast is a scream. Alita. I am on my feet in a heartbeat but Xandra’s mind is already moving. “Kallen, see to Dagda. Kegan, come with me.”
Rhiannon is smiling, as if she is not surprised at all. Xandra does not miss that. “You, stay put,” she says on her way out the door. Then she uses magic to make sure she does as she is told. Rhiannon tries to move but she cannot get out of the chair and now she looks scared. As I am leaving the room I hear her swearing and she knows some words I have never heard before.
I will check on Dagda but I am checking on Alita first. Xandra and I hit the beach at the same time. Alita is lying on the sand and one leg is badly injured. If Xandra was not here, I fear she would have lost it. But Xandra is here and she will not let her friend suffer that loss.
Xandra kneels next to her. “Alita, are you okay?”
Alita, ever the brave one nods slightly as she fights back tears of pain. I take her hand in mine as I feel Xandra pull magic. The healing will be painful at first as the magic pulls the torn tissue and bones back together. I encourage her to squeeze my hand. Kegan is on her other side and he is as pale as Xandra’s parents.
Suddenly, Xandra’s magic is redirected. I feel the incoming magic propelling the bomb that is aimed for the house. No wonder Rhiannon looked scared. She knew this would happen. That bomb is not coming near the house with the defensive wall Xandra has in place. She and I are both surprised though when the bomb explodes in midair. As one, we turn to the terrace where Grandmother is standing.
Looking down at us, she says, “Can you heal her?” Her tone implies that if Alita cannot be healed, she will personally kill whoever is responsible for this. Which of course is Xenia. Whether she is the one who physically propelled the bomb or not.
“Xandra, leave me. Go attend to King Dagda,” Alita says and her grimace and the powerful squeezing of my hand indicate how much pain she is in.
“Before saving you? I don’t think so. Lie still, I’ll try to make this quick. Kegan hold her other hand.”
Another explosion in the sky tries to break Xandra’s concentration. But there is nothing to worry about. Neither Grandmother nor I will let anything close to the house while Alita is being healed. Nor after that. For the moment, Grandmother has everything under control on her own so I focus my energy on helping Alita through the pain. I murmur comforting words to her while Xandra’s magic invades her body and repairs the damage done to her.
A small, stifled scream escapes Alita’s throat. “I’m so sorry,” Xandra says as she finishes. Looking down, I can see that Alita’s leg is fully healed. She gives us a weak smile as she sits up.
Xandra’s whole countenance changes now. The ire is seething from her pores as she stands. Looking up at Grandmother, she yells over the sound of another explosion, “Where are they coming from?”
“There is a small fishing lodge about a mile down the beach. That would be my best guess.”
I stand and am ready to run that mile in less than four minutes when Xandra begins to speak. “Sand and sea, heart and mind, with my will may all combine. Protect my body, my life, my soul, from forces dark who strike first blow. Evil magic based in sin, sent back before it can begin. Let those in my heart and in this home be unharmed by this Witch’s protective charm.”
The magic that surges from her is blinding. Grandmother shouts that we must close our eyes but I am way ahead of her. I kneel back down and pull Alita into my chest so that her eyes are better protected. I hear the ocean responding to Xandra’s magic just as I hear Grandmother shout, “Xandra!” She is closer now. She must have come down the terrace steps to where we are. “It is done. I have seen it, you have stopped the attack. But if you do not let this magic go, you are going to create a tsunami.”
But she cannot let it go. I can sense that. She is too consumed and there is no turning back for her now. I hear her shout, “Circle.” And then there’s a blinding light. Not the blinding light from a moment ago, this is retina burning, eye exploding light. Grandmother’s magic cocoons us into a circle as Xandra’s Angel magic helps her call back the magic from her spell before she destroys the entire realm. I open my eyes as Xandra falls to the ground from the weight of the magic as it burns back through her. And there are her wings in full glory for anyone to see.
Chapter 18
I have risen to my feet and I storm back into the house to make sure that all is well. I know Grandmother will find Tabitha and make sure she is okay so I take the stairs three at a time to find Dagda. He is still my uncle and I want to make sure he is unharmed.
I throw open the door to the pink room. “Uncle, are you here?” I call.
“Here,” he growls from behind the small terrace curtain. Coming back into the room he says, “Damn it, I will not tolerate this blatant attack. Where is my daughter? I want to put an end to this right now. She must do what is necessary to make Xenia stop.”
My eyes narrow as I ask, “Are you suggesting that she kill Xenia?”
He hesitates for a moment before saying, “If it comes to that, yes.”
I shake my head. “What has happened to you, Uncle? Surely you know that Xandra would never agree to that.”
He musters a look of self-confidence. “I am king of this realm and she will do as I instruct. Where is she?”
I snort. “You do not know her at all if you think that argument is going to get you anywhere. You will soon learn that the greatest threat to your reign is not Xenia. It is how you treat Xandra.” He gives me a hard look but I know he heard the truth in my words. “Xandra is busy at the moment making sure that all is well.” Not to mention trying to shed her wings before Dagda sees them. “She will arrive when she has seen to the rest of the house.” With that, I turn around and walk out of the room.
My mood is already at an all-time low when I open Xandra’s bedroom door. It bottoms out when I find her in Kegan’s arms. I slam the door so hard that it splinters the frame. Xandra drops her arms from around Kegan’s waist as if that is going to help the situation. “I came to check on you. I see I need not have bothered.”
She rolls her eyes. She actually rolls her eyes. I suspect that reaction from me in a similar situation would be greeted with an act of magical violence. “Kallen, don’t be stupid. I needed a hug and you weren’t here.”
Seriously? That is her explanation. “I am disappointed to learn that I am so easily replaced.” On some level, I know that things were probably not as they seemed but turning off my jealousy is harder than I ever would have imagined.
“Good lord, it’s not like we were rolling around on the floor naked.” I find myself too stunned to move my mouth to produce words. Does she mean that anything up to that point with another male is fine?
“Though, if you would have suggested that, I would not have been opposed to the idea,” Kegan says snapping me out of my flabbergasted stupor.
Xandra closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Kegan, do you have a death wish?” I believe he does. I am happy to help him out.
Kegan laughs. “Not at this time, so I will leave you here with my charming cousin.” He has to walk around me and the hardest thing I have ever done is refrain from hitting him. I am afraid if I started with my mood like this, I may not stop.
“Really, you’re jealous because I needed a hug? Do you really think I would actually do anything more than that with Kegan?”
; I run my hand through my hair and take a deep breath. Then I answer honestly. “No, I do not.”
“Then quit being a jerk and give me the hug I really wanted.”
I can either continue to act like a jealous idiot or wrap my arms around her beautiful body. I am already doing the latter before I have even completed that thought. Xandra snuggles into me. “Much better.” I can think of ways to make it even better but now is not the time. “What excuse did you give Dagda for why he can’t see me?”
“Heard that, did you?”
“Yeah, you guys were pretty loud.”
“I told him you were busy making sure the house remains standing and that you would inform him of what is going on when you are ready.”
“Was this the first time they tried to kill him?”
I asked Grandmother about this last night while Kegan and I were playing cards. “No, there have been several attempts according to Grandmother. He lost his driver when his coach exploded a few days ago. His food tester is gravely ill from the poison his cook put in his dinner a week ago.”
Her face scrunches up into a cute frown. “Do I want to know what happened to the cook?”
“No, you do not.”
She does not ask. “Have you talked to Isla yet?”
I shake my head. “No, I came here first.”
“Aw, were you worried about me?”
More than she will ever know. “As if you had to ask.” I step back and frame her face between my hands. Then I lean down and taste her lips in a long, sensual kiss.
Which of course gets interrupted. A loud knock on the door cuts our kiss short. Tabitha walks into the room and Xandra and I step apart. Tabitha mutters something under her breath about young people and hormones but I pretend not to hear her.
“Xandra, you need to get in the bath and get that sweat and grime off your body. Are those wings of yours waterproof?”
“Um, I’m not sure.”
“No better time to find out. Kallen, go join Kegan and your grandmother in the kitchen. We are not going to be caught unawares again.”
“Where’s Alita?”
“She’s next door washing away the blood.” Tabitha stops and takes a breath and there’s soberness in her eyes that I have rarely seen over the course of my life. “That was a wonderful thing you did taking the time to save her. Not every Fairy would have. And if left to one of us to heal her, she may not have survived the blood loss, or kept her leg.” Other Fairies can heal, but not instantly like Xandra can. Tabitha is right. Even with her skill in the art of healing it would have taken days to recover from such serious injuries. If she survived at all.
“What do you mean, not every Fairy would have?” She is not that naïve and the look Tabitha gives her makes her say the truth out loud. “Are you telling me that others would have left her to die?”
Tabitha’s cheeks turn red as she too has to speak the truth. “Blatantly left her to die? No. Worried first about the attack before caring for her wounds? Yes.”
Xandra shakes her head in disgust. “I’m going to get in the bath.” She turns around and walks into her bathing room without a backward glance.
Tabitha sighs. “It is never as apparent that your civilization is not as civil as you would like it to be as when it is seen through the eyes of an outsider.”
I agree. “Will you go after her?” I ask.
Tabitha shakes her head. “No, I think a few minutes alone to wrap her mind around all that has happened is best for her at the moment. I will wait until she is ready to come out.”
As much as I would like to stay, I know that I should check in with Grandmother. “I will be downstairs if she needs anything.” Or if she simply wants my company. Tabitha nods and then scoots me out the door before I change my mind and decide to stay.
Chapter 19
I find Grandmother in the kitchen and she is not alone. Dagda is with her as well as Kegan. “How could they have planned this?” Dagda asks to no one in particular as he paces the room. “No one knew that I was coming here today except the guards I brought with me and even they did not know until we were on our way.” He stops pacing and looks Grandmother in the eye. “It had to be someone here who passed along the knowledge to Xenia.”
Grandmother’s voice is icy cold when she replies. “I will not have you sit in my kitchen and accuse me or anyone in my house of treason. If you feel that you are in danger here then you are more than welcome to go back to your palace and defend yourself how you see fit.” That is the way I see it as well.
We sit in angry silence for several minutes, each of us keeping our mouths closed for fear of what we are going to say if we do not. That is how Xandra finds us when she comes into the kitchen. She looks around the room taking in our demeanors and then turns to Dagda. “I’m assuming that you didn’t make a general announcement as to where you were going today?”
Dagda stops pacing long enough to glower at her but his response is civil. He is getting smarter. “I left word that I would be retiring to the country house. The only ones who knew where I was going were the five Fairies I brought with me.”
With possibly a tiny bit of superiority in her voice, Xandra says, “And as I said earlier, you cannot trust anyone right now.”
“It is just as likely that they were aiming for you,” Dagda replies.
Xandra shrugs. “True, it’s probably a package deal.” He raises his brows almost up to his hairline. He must have thought she would argue that point. “Now, we have to make sure they don’t succeed.” Her eyes turn automatically to Grandmother.
Grandmother responds to her unspoken question. “It would be too much of a drain on Kallen, Dagda or myself to place a house this size in a circle and maintain it.” Xandra’s face falls a bit. “There is however a spell I came across years ago that could be the answer.”
Now Xandra looks confused. “You want to use Witch magic, not Fairy magic?”
Grandmother nods. “I believe your Witch magic is not as susceptible to Fairies as other Witches’ magic. The particular spell I am considering is supposed to be worked by at least five Witches, but I believe you will be able to perform it alone.”
“Where did you read about the spell?” Fear is creeping onto her face now. She turns pleading eyes to me. I believe she wants me to argue that her Witch magic is too dangerous but I believe Grandmother knows what she is doing. I give Xandra a slight shake of my head and she narrows her eyes into a hard stare that makes me want to squirm in my seat.
“I have a grimoire that was given to me by a dear old friend who happened to be a Witch. She loved the study of ancient spells and the art of crafting. She kept records of spells that had long been abandoned as impossible.”
Xandra looks aghast. “Are you saying that you want me to do a spell that hasn’t seen the light of day in forever, and was abandoned by modern Witches because it’s impossible to do?”
Okay, now I am starting to get nervous. “Grandmother…” I begin but the look she gives me tells me that I had better not say another word.
Dagda says it for me. “Isla, I understand that Xandra is able to wield a tremendous amount of power, but she is still an inexperienced girl.”
“Um, what happens if I don’t get the spell correct?”
“We will be overrun by rabid spiders.”
We all turn questioning eyes to Grandmother. She generally does not joke about such things but that was so outrageous she must be joking. “You’re kidding, right?” Xandra asks with a nervous laugh.
“No, I am not.”
“I have to do an impossible spell that has something to do with rabid spiders?”
Grandmother smiles at the dismay flowing in her direction from all of us. “The spiders will only become rabid if you do the spell incorrectly.” Well, good thing Xandra’s spells never go wrong then. Is she insane? “On a weight-to-strength ratio, spider silk is five times stronger than steel. Given enough of it in one place, it could be strong enough to defend against bombs, fire and
even cutting or ramming.”
“And a couple of spiders are going to provide this much protection?” Dadga does not quite sound belligerent, but it is awfully close.
“That would be ridiculous, now would it not?” Grandmother replies. “It will take millions of spiders.”
All the color drains from Xandra’s face. “Millions. Of spiders. And I have to call them.”
I cannot help it. The look on her face is so cute it is funny. The fearless Xandra is terrified of spiders. I try not to laugh but it is hard. Kegan and Dagda are facing the same struggle. Xandra is not at all amused. I am finally able to school my face when she starts to pull magic.
Without another word, Grandmother rises from her stool and leaves the room. I hold my hands out to Xandra and she walks to me. I pull her into a hug and kiss her cheek. “You are a lot tougher than spiders. There is nothing to worry about.” It is really hard maintaining a serious tone at the moment.
