“We needed a fourth anyway.”
“No, we needed water anyway,” the first man responded, sounding a little condescending, but it was hard to tell without opening her eyes. For all she knew, the two men were sitting side by side, putting this all on for her.
“And she’s water?” The man snorted. Actually snorted. She didn’t think she’d heard anyone do that since she was a child at the palace. Bruce had received the scolding as a result of it. Apparently, it wasn’t seemly for a Prince to act that way. If anyone asked Macey, she’d tell them it was antiquated and stupid. Unfortunately, no one ever actually asked her.
“She might be,” the second man, Camdan, replied.
“I think I’d have recognised my opposite, don’t you think? You knew when you met Jared, didn’t you?” Silence stretched on after the first man’s words, and an itch on Macey’s thigh was making it impossible for her to stay still. Which was a shame, their conversation was more than a little intriguing and she wanted to know what they were on about. Probably not the most rational response to being kidnapped, sure, but it was the one her brain was apparently going with.
“Maybe not if...”
“Stop. She can’t be water, that means...”
“That it’s all true. Yes.” Camdan said the words quietly.
“Believe what you will. I’m finding Jared.” A shuffle and a slammed door after his words must have meant he’d left the room, leaving her alone with just Camdan, the man who’d taken her. That should have filled her with more dread than it did.
“I know you’re awake,” he said, and Macey gave up the pretence of sleeping, opening her eyes and finding herself staring into the same misty grey ones that she’d seen before blacking out.
“You,” she croaked, her hand flying to her throat. Why was she struggling to speak? She really shouldn’t be.
“Yes, me. Sorry about that, you were a little out of it.” He chuckled.
“Out of what?” She pushed herself up so that she was sitting, allowing her to study the man more fully. Was he the same figure she’d seen approaching in the mists? That didn’t seem right. He had the same grey eyes she’d seen, sure, but he was far more solid than the mist-man. Far, far more solid. In fact, he was verging on drool-worthy, with wide rugby player shoulders, and pale hair that was an odd colour between white and grey. Actually, it kind of matched his eyes.
“Consciousness? You fainted.”
“I did? I don’t faint.” At least, she didn’t think she did. She’d never done it before. “No, something hit me, I think.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but you fainted.”
“Fine,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, not quite convinced, but her memory was all fuzzy. Camdan’s eyes flickered down briefly before returning to her face, and heat rose in her cheeks. That wasn’t a reaction she was used to. Normally when men checked her out, it filled her with a slight sense of unease. “So, where am I?”
“A safe place.”
Well, that was informative of him. “Who are you?” she tried a different question, hoping he’d be more forthcoming on this subject. Though if he knew she’d been awake the entire time, then he should know she was already aware of his name.
“Camdan,” he answered anyway.
“Camdan,” she tested the name out. “Anything else?”
“No, just Camdan. Some people call me Cam though.” He shrugged, as if it was of little importance.
“Who are you, Cam?”
“Just a man,” he replied. Damn, he was an infuriating one. “Ignore Flint, his temper runs a bit hot.” He chuckled to himself.
“Going to let me in on the joke?” she asked, growing more irate by the second.
“Not yet, no,” he replied.
“Well, then I’d quite like to leave,” she said, getting up from the bed she was lying on and shooting Cam a challenging look. She was not going to show how insecure she felt.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
She huffed, anger bubbling up in her. “And why is that? Am I your prisoner?”
“Not at all. But if you look outside, you’ll see we’re no longer on Earth.”
“What the fucking waves? Is that a joke?” In two steps, she was by the window, ripping open the curtains. A wall of mist blocked the view. This house could be anywhere. She looked around the room. It was simple, generic, boring. A small bed, a wardrobe, a chair - currently occupied by Camdan - and a sink. Nothing special. And definitely not something that was going to tell her anything about where the heck she was.
“I wish it was,” Cam said sadly. “I’m sorry I took you, I don’t know what came over me.”
She whirled around. If only looks could kill.
“So why did you kidnap me? What did you do to my brothers?”
He looked at her, his forehead scrunched in confusion. “Your brothers? I didn’t do anything to your brothers. Didn’t even know you had any.”
“But they were lying on the ground... Unconscious...” Her voice faltered as she realised what that meant. If he was telling the truth, Cam wasn’t the only one who’d been out in the mist.
“I didn’t see anyone. I saw you collapsing so I caught you and brought you here,” he explained, looking down on the ground, evading her eyes.
“You still haven’t explained why you did that,” she snapped, her voice harsher than she had intended.
“Did you hear me talking to Flint?” he asked and she nodded. “It felt like the right thing to do. I was travelling on the Staran, the hidden path, and felt a weird kind of tug, so I left the path and found myself in your village. I planned to hide in the mists but the fàth-fiata were already there. Then I heard shouts and found you. End of story.”
“That doesn’t explain anything,” Macey huffed. “What’s the Staran? Why were you going to hide?”
“Sorry, I’m not used to talking to humans,” he apologised but stopped when she growled.
“I’m not human,” she said through clenched teeth. “Don’t insult me.”
He held up his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t know. You were in a human village, so I assumed... What are you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” She shook her head. “Answer my questions first.”
“Sorry - I seem to be saying that a lot today.” He grimaced. “The Staran are the paths between worlds, a quick way to travel through the mists. I think humans call them ley lines, but that’s a simplistic term. They’re not set routes, they change all the time, and sometimes, they bring you where you need to be, not where you want to be. Like today, I guess.”
“What the actual fuck? You expect me to believe that?” her voice rose higher at the end as her outrage seeped in. He’d brought her here, without checking if it was okay first, and now he was expecting her to believe he’d travelled along these Staran to some place that didn’t seem to really exist. Next, he’d be telling her that the gods existed and actually controlled stuff, and she knew that was a lie.
“Look out of the window, it’s a little hard to deny then.”
“Not true, it could just be really crap weather.”
Camdan started laughing. “I know you’re from Scotland, but you have to admit that this would still be a little extreme for just bad weather.” Damn, he had a point.
“How do you know I’m Scottish?” she demanded instead, going as far as stomping her foot on the ground. Maybe not as mature as she should be, especially with the weird pull she was feeling towards Camdan. At the same time, he couldn’t exactly say anything about it, not after kidnapping her.
“Your accent is a bit of a giveaway.” He gave her a self-satisfied smirk and her hand flew to cover her mouth. She hadn’t even realised that she had an accent. “Do you have a name?”
“No, my Mum decided she wanted to be different and gave me a number instead,” she snapped and he stood there in stunned silence, confusion written over his face for a moment.
“Which number?” he asked once he’d regained
his composure.
“What?”
“Which number did your Mum give you?” He smiled at the end, his soft grey eyes boring into her and distracting her from her train of thought.
“Two,” she replied dryly. When he stared at her, she sighed. “She called me Macey.”
“So why did you say Two?” he asked her in confusion.
“Ever heard of sarcasm?”
“It’s a very human concept,” he said slowly and she shook her head in frustration.
“One last time, I’m not human.”
“You certainly behave like one.”
“Well, I’m not. And anyway, what are you?”
He smirked. “You’re not telling me your species, so why should I tell you mine?”
“Point taken,” she sighed. “But you really need to let me go. I need to find my brothers, I need to make sure they’re okay.”
“Not possible.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, showing off his hard muscles. She swallowed at the sight. It was hard to focus on being angry with him when looking at those distracting muscles.
“Why not?” She was getting really impatient now. Couldn’t he just answer her questions with more than a word or two?
He shrugged. “The Staran won’t let me leave.”
She huffed. “Well, I never said that you needed to leave. I can go on my own.”
“Only my kind can use the Staran. You need one of us with you to travel on the paths of mist.”
“But what about the other guy? Flint?” She knew she was clutching at straws now. She needed to get out of here, away from these crazy men who had kidnapped her for no apparent reason.
“He can try, but I doubt it will work. The Staran have brought us here, together, and they have a mind of their own. We haven’t done what they want us to do, and until we fulfil our purpose, they won’t let you leave.”
She shook her head, swallowing a growl. “But that’s just a theory, right? You’re just making this up, you want to keep me here. Pervert.”
He chuckled. “Seriously? You’re calling me a pervert? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you checking me out.”
She blushed, very aware of the truth in his words. But then, she didn’t really have a choice. He shouldn’t be allowed to look that good. Hot. Sexy. Fuckable.
Macey cleared her throat, trying to get her stream of thought back to the issue at hand. “I’ll try it anyway, when Flint is back. Will that be soon?”
“I don’t know,” Cam said, looking at the clock above the door. “He was a little annoyed when he left, which usually means that he’ll stop by the tavern on the way to pick up Jared.”
She frowned. “Why does he need to pick up Jared? And who is he, anyway?”
“Jared is not like Flint and me. He’s not... he can’t travel on the Staran on his own. Just like you.”
She sighed, sitting back down on the bed in defeat. “Can you contact Jared somehow? I really need to know if my brothers are well.”
Camdan frowned and sat down next to her, cautiously putting an arm around her shoulders. She was tempted to shake him off, but somehow, it felt good. Calming.
“I’ve already asked him to, but he hasn’t replied.”
“Huh? How did you ask him? You’ve been with me ever since he left and you’ve not used a phone.”
He smiled and tapped a finger to his forehead. “We don’t need human toys to talk to each other..”
“Ohhhhhh. That’s what we do, but only underwater.”
“Underwater? You’re a mermaid? A selkie?”
She shuddered at the insult and instinctively grabbed his throat, letting her nails grow as a statement. “Never call me a selkie if you want to live.”
Instead of being afraid, he looked at her in fascination. “Interesting,” he murmured. “A kelpie.” He stared at her hair until she followed his glance and sighed in frustration. It had turned green. Again. She really needed to work on her self-control.
“And not just any kelpie. A member of the Royal family,” Cam mused. “Well, that certainly makes things more interesting.”
She released his throat, shrinking her nails back to human size. It was a little painful, and quite a waste of time, seeing as he hadn’t even flinched. Usually, people reacted differently.
“So, one of your brothers is the crown prince?” he asked and she nodded in resignation.
“Both. They’re twins, and it was a caesarean, so they were both born at the same time. It’s created a bit of a constitutional crisis, and my father still hasn’t declared one of them his heir.”
“Which means someone would be very interested in them,” Cam said, more to himself than to her. “But they weren’t taken, they were left unconscious. You went outside to find them... leaving the protection of the house... an easy target. Maybe you didn’t faint after all...”
“Just when you had convinced me of the opposite,” she complained. “Something hit me before I fell, before I saw you.”
“We should thank the Staran for bringing me there just at the right moment.”
She nodded. Whatever these strange sentient paths were, she had to be grateful to it. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be angry at it at the same time. She needed to get to her brothers. Which brought her back to Flint.
“Is there a way you can force Flint to look for my siblings?”
Cam laughed, a deep, beautiful sound. “Force Flint? Oh sweetheart, nobody can force Flint to do anything. People who do that get burned.”
She sighed, hating herself for being so weak. She wasn’t used to feeling powerless. She was so good at finding solutions to problems, usually. Not now, though.
“Then what are we going to do until he returns?”
“How about we get some food?” he asked and she smiled.
“Finally you’re talking sense.”
Chapter 3
She watched as Camdan pottered around the kitchen, making sandwiches bigger than any she’d ever seen in her life. Not that she was complaining; damn, she was hungry. Then again, partially shifting outside of water was energy consuming, hence why she didn’t do it often. Even if it was the only magic she could perform at the moment. Which reminded her…
“How did you know I’m royalty?”
Camdan whistled a tune, making her unsure about whether he’d heard her, but she waited patiently. He’d answer her whether he wanted to or not. She hated thinking that her heritage was so obvious. It wasn’t like she’d been acting like a Princess since she’d gotten here or anything. “Cam,” she said more firmly.
“Huh?” he grunted, finally turning his attention back to her.
“How did you know I’m royalty?” she repeated.
“Oh. Your eyes.”
“What?” She blinked rapidly, unsure how to take that. She’d never once considered her eyes could give her away. They were blue, a pretty blue, sure, but that was all that was special about them. Well, other than that they clashed awfully with her hair when she was in halfling form, but she had no control over that.
“Your eyes glowed when you shifted,” he said, setting down a plate, with an overflowing sandwich on it down in front of her. Macey’s mouth watered at the sight of it. She really was hungry.
“No they don’t,” she insisted before taking a large bite of the sandwich and caught herself almost moaning at the taste. It was as delicious as it looked. Making Cam a hot guy, who could make food. Other than the kidnapping, he was a great catch.
“Have you ever watched yourself shift, Two?” he asked, chuckling slightly at his joke.
“Of course.” It was one of the first things she’d ever done after learning about the halfway shift. It wasn’t something all kelpies could do, only the most powerful ones.
“And you’ve seriously never noticed your eyes glowing bright blue?” He raised a pale eyebrow as he took a bite of his own sandwich. His eyes closed, and she was glad it wasn’t just her that was affected by good food.
“Yes, I seriously nev
er noticed, because they don’t do that. And even if they did, that wouldn’t automatically make me a Princess.” She tried to be mad, but how could she be when he was so delicious? No, wait, when the food was so delicious. Damn, she needed to get her head in check, she couldn’t let herself be so distracted by him. It’d only get worse once Flint returned, she was sure. Just his voice alone had her tied up in knots, and she had no idea what he looked like yet. She could hope he was ugly as sin, but somehow she doubted that.
“Maybe not, but the fact you haven’t once denied that you are royal does kind of give it away, Macey.” The way he said her name sent a shiver down her spine.
“Oh.”
“I’d suggest you eat up before Flint gets back too, or he’ll steal the food right off your plate.” He smiled at her, the act lighting up his face and making him look younger than he had before. Not that she had any idea how old he was. If he wasn’t human, and she fully believed he wasn’t, then he could be anything from twenty-five to three thousand and sixty-two, though she doubted it was the latter.
“You still haven’t told me what you are?” she said, taking another bite out of her sandwich. She wasn’t going to ignore his warning. He clearly knew Flint well, and if he said Flint would steal her food, then she believed him.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Are you going to tell me?” For his sake, the answer had better be yes. Cam sighed, setting down his food and running a hand through his pale hair, leaving it mussed in a way that had Macey wishing she’d been the one messing it up.
“I can’t really. But mostly because I don’t really know myself. I’m some kind of wraith I think.”
“Like a ghost?” She frowned, he hadn’t felt like a ghost. Nor did he look like one. Which was a highly illogical thought given she’d never actually seen a ghost. For all she knew, they were as solid as she was. Cam laughed goodnaturedly.
“I can assure you, I’ve never died. But I’ve also never met anyone quite like me. Well, and Flint.”
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