“So much for keeping it from Louie,” Jared muttered. “Sorry about that.”
“I don’t blame you, after everything I put Megan through. And truth be told, I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. I came to the same conclusion as Puck, and knew we were in big trouble. If O’Malley or anyone else gets ahold of that ring, we’re doomed. The fairy world will be destroyed, and the earth will go with it.” The dread on Louie’s face made me shudder.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.” I was already majorly homesick, but now I just wanted to pretend that this entire magical world didn’t exist.
A deep rumbling shook the palace, and we were knocked to the ground. Pieces of the ceiling fell, barely missing us. A crack opened in the floor near Louie. I scrambled toward him and helped him up, only to have to dive the other way. When the quake finally stopped, dust hung in the air, making it hard to breathe.
Louie pushed himself up and waved the dust away from his face. Jared helped me stand and glanced around the room.
“Another attack?” I pulled a cloth out of my dress pocket and wiped the blood off Jared’s forehead where he’d been hit. “We need to get this stitched.”
“We don’t have stitches. Use your powers.” Louie coughed, then snapped his fingers. The dust cleared, showing the devastation around us. “No need to get his injury dirty before you heal him so he can die of infection later. Now, concentrate on the wound and make it close up. Or at least, that’s what I’d do. Every form of magic is a little different.”
“Um, that doesn’t make me feel better. April?” I hadn’t seen her in days because of the battle going on, but I needed to figure out how fairy magic worked. When she didn’t show up right away, I knew I just needed to try something. I closed my eyes, pulled on my luck, then tried to locate the other magic inside. Except that I didn’t really feel anything else. But then, if I could use luck to grow vines at Blarney Castle, I could make skin grow together, right?
I concentrated on the skin and slowly pushed my luck through my fingers and into Jared’s skin. I pictured the skin doing what it would normally do as it healed and just tried to make it go faster, like I’d done with the vines. Jared gave a sharp intake of breath, and my eyes flew open.
The skin had grown together, leaving a small scar. Jared reached up and touched it. “Whoa. That’s amazing.”
“I can’t believe I just did that.” I stared at my hands and then at Jared’s forehead. “Wow, this magic stuff is pretty amazing.”
Jared laughed and leaned forward to kiss me. “Thank you. It feels much better.”
“No problem. But let’s try not to make this a habit.” I stood and wiped the dust off my dress, then picked my way to the door. I needed to see what was attacking us to cause so much damage. Just as I reached for the knob, someone knocked. I had to pull some of the debris away from the door before I could open it.
Puck stood outside, cuts on his arms and forehead. “I’m here with reports of widespread damage throughout the kingdom.”
“How bad is it?” I took the reports from him, but I was too stunned to read anything from the sheet. What had caused this?
He shrugged. “Trees fell in a few places, and cracks opened under some of the swamps, causing them to drain.”
I jerked my head up. “And the swamp creatures?”
“Gone. Some died, but most were sucked down with it.” He took the reports back. “I’m going to inspect everything. I’ll be back later tonight.”
“Thank you.” As soon as he disappeared, I pushed Jared and Louie back into the room and closed the door. “We need to go. I want to see what’s going on.”
Jared clenched his jaw. “It’s not safe out there while this is happening.”
“It’s not safe here either. Hello, we just had the ceiling come down around us. Louie, you can take us, right?” My mind kept going back to that cave. If anyone else found it, that would be devastating.
“Aye. Where do you want to go?” He looked up at me, clearly avoiding Jared.
I hesitated. I couldn’t let him come with us to the cave because I didn’t want him getting ahold of the ring. But we still needed to check on it. “Let’s start with the marshes.”
He nodded and held out his hands for us to take. “We can only be gone for a moment. With the chaos from the destruction, you will have others who want to meet with you.”
“I know.” I took his hand and waited for Jared to take his other one before we disappeared. When we stood on firm ground again, I stared at the devastation around me. Trees had been knocked to the ground, and the marsh really had dried up. A few creatures lay on the ground gasping, and I had to turn away.
Jared stepped past me and walked over to one of the large cracks in the ground. “This makes no sense. We should be able to see the water below.”
“It’s probably there. Just too deep for us to see.” Louie nudged one of the fish over the edge, and it was a good ten seconds or longer before we heard a splash. “There we go.”
“So they’ll be fine down there, right?” I bit my lip as I watched Jared move to the next creature. It was large, brown, and covered in spikes.
Louie shoved a larger fish into the crack. “I don’t know, but it can’t hurt to try, right?”
Jared took a large moss-covered branch and pushed the creature into the crack. “So, you want to keep doing this? We only have so much time.”
“April?” I called again.
She appeared next to me, covered in dust from head to toe. She sneezed and wiped her face. “Wow. Thanks for getting me out of there.”
“Uh, where were you?” I pulled out a cloth and handed it to her.
“Fighting. Or, I was, until this whatever-it-was happened.” She sneezed again. “I was trapped in a hole, so you saved me from suffocating. Or sneezing to death. One of the two.”
“Are you two finished? We have work to do.” Louie’s gruff voice brought me back to the present.
I gestured toward the crack. “April, do you think you could bring your friends here to help us? We’re trying to get these creatures back into the water.”
April’s eyes widened. “Oh, dear. Of course.”
She disappeared, and I went back to pushing slimy things over the edge. It was exhausting work, and I was pretty sure I’d never wash the stench off my hands, but I hoped they would survive with our help. A few were already gone, and it broke my heart.
“Here we go.” April appeared with several other fairies. “I brought some naiad friends, since the swamp seemed to suck up the one who was guarding this place.”
“Oh man. I’m sorry.” I hoped the fairy had survived, but with the depth, it was unlikely. “How about you start over on the other side and work your way toward me?” I turned and leaned up against a rather large and ugly whale-looking creature. I had to dig my heels into the mud to get my footing, and then shoved as hard as I could.
I nearly lost my balance as the creature finally gave and rolled into the crevice. I watched the others around me for a moment as they did their best to save the creatures that were still alive.
April landed on my shoulder. “Man, I left the battle thinking this would be more fun. I was wrong. But we’re done. Hopefully those creatures can find another pond to swim in. That is, if they don’t make their way to the human world.”
“What?” I asked. “No one could go to the human world, remember?”
April gave me a funny look. “Where do you think all your sea creatures come from?”
I grabbed her out of the air. “Are you telling me there is a way back?”
“Of course there is. If you’re a fish.” She gasped, her face turning red.
Jared set his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, Megan. Loosen up. She can’t breathe.”
“Oh, sorry.” I let go quickly, then knelt down to where she lay on the ground. “Are you okay?”
She glared at me. “Of course I’m not.”
August landed next to April. “That is no way to
speak to your queen.”
“Well, I—she—” April sighed. “I’m sorry. Yes, I’ll be fine. When I can breathe without feeling like my ribs are broken.”
“How dare—” August began.
“Hey, it’s okay. I deserved it. I shouldn’t have treated her like I did. It’s just that I didn’t know that the rivers and marshes here are connected to earth.”
April stood and wiped her skirt off. “We didn’t either until I watched the news with your dad once. They mentioned something about strange fish washing up on the shore. Ones they’d never even seen before.”
“I remember that.” Jared crouched down next to me.
“Those are all from here. And so far, it’s been okay because humans just think they’re cool. But if some of these others end up there, it could be bad.” April glanced over at the crack. “The ones we saved today should be fine. But others . . .” She shuddered. “Others would make the kraken seem like a cute little puppy.”
I glanced over at Jared and then back at April. “You’re kidding me. The kraken is real?”
There was a collective snort between the creatures, and April doubled over laughing. When she could finally calm down, she held her arms out wide. “You are in the fairy world right now, and the kraken surprises you?”
“Well, yeah. I guess so. I thought it was just a fake creature from an old movie.”
“It’s real, all right. Or, it was. It was defeated not long ago near Atlantis. Anyway, my point is, we have to make sure that the other creatures don’t get released into your world or things could get very ugly, very quickly.”
I turned to Louie. “We should check out the other marshes, then.”
Louie shifted uncomfortably. “While that’s a good idea, we need to get back to the palace. April and her companions can check the other marshes and report.”
April looked like she was about to argue, so I jumped in. “That’s probably a good idea. You can do that for us, right?”
“Fine. But only because Megan asked.” April shot a glare toward Louie before disappearing.
“What’s that all about?” I asked Louie.
Louie sighed. “I told you that no one trusts leprechauns. Now, let’s go.” He held out his hands, and Jared and I took them. He transported us back to the throne room.
“Whoa.” I was surprised at how nice everything looked. It had been a mess when we left.
“You didn’t think they’d just leave it that way, did you?” Louie shook his head. “I need to go check on Eoin.”
Jared took my hand as we watched Louie walk away. “Wow. I never thought I’d feel sorry for the guy.”
“I know.” April hadn’t liked Louie from the time I met her, but this was the first time she’d been so rude to him.
“So, what do we do now?” Jared asked.
“There you are.” Puck’s voice thundered through the room. “Where have you been?”
I cringed and turned to face him. “It’s not really your business. But if you must know, we were looking at the damage to the swamps.”
He studied my face for a minute before landing and walking toward me. “Some of them are bad, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen. A few forests suffered major damage, and we had a few rockslides to the south. Otherwise, I think we’ll survive. There’s just no indication as to what caused this.”
“Thank you for your report.” I rubbed my forehead. “Have you heard anything about the movements of the armies?”
“O’Malley suffered a few losses when a boulder rolled into their camp. There’s still no sign of the mystery army, and your brother is on his way back to the palace.”
Adam was coming back? That didn’t make any sense. Unless he found something that we didn’t know about. “Wait—where’s Beth?”
Puck shrugged. “I don’t know. My scouts didn’t say anything about her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap.”
I stood frozen to the spot, even after he disappeared. I really hoped Beth was okay. Adam wouldn’t have gone on without her, right?
Jared put his arms around me and pulled me close. “She’ll be fine. She’s tough. Besides, who would want to mess with those herb bombs she carries with her?”
“You’re right. But … what if something did happen? What if a cave collapsed or a tree fell on her?”
“There’s no way Adam would have left her if that was true.” He kissed the top of my head and guided me toward the hallway. “Come on. I think it’s time for you to sleep.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. Not yet. I need to know that Beth is okay first.”
“Fine. August?” Jared stopped and waited for his fairy.
August appeared in front of him, covered in mud from the marshes. “Yes?”
“Whoa. You really got into your job. How did the creature saving go?”
August wiped off his face. “The marshes are clear. Only one other showed much damage, but from what we can see, there was only a small amount of water that drained before the naiads and kelpies were able to dam it up.”
“Great. Thank you.” I smiled at him and yawned. Okay, so maybe a nap was in order.
He bowed slightly. “My pleasure. Is there anything else you need?”
“Yes, would you please go find Beth and Adam? Megan is worried about them.” He squeezed my shoulders.
“Of course.”
“Thank you, August. Please have someone come and wake me as soon as you hear anything,” I said.
August bowed and disappeared. I’d never get used to that whole bowing thing. I walked toward my room. It wasn’t until I reached for the door that I realized that Jared wasn’t with me. I turned to find him frozen several feet away. No.
The cackle sent a shiver through me. “You just thought you could stop me, lass.”
I turned slowly to find O’Malley a few feet away. His face was bruised, and there was a gash on his forehead, but otherwise, it was the same jerk who had tortured me for months. “While I’d love to say I did that to you, it wasn’t me.”
His smile faltered for a moment. “Only the queen of the fairies has the power to destroy this place. I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I suggest you stay out of my way. I’ll be back for your crown, but right now, I have other business to take care of.”
“I’m not playing at anything, and I’d like it if you stayed away. Or better yet, I’d prefer that you were back in your prison cell.” I knew my comeback was weak, but he’d thrown me. Had I been the one to cause the destruction? No. There was no way.
He tipped his hat. “I’d like see you try.”
I lunged forward, but he disappeared with a wink. I really hated that leprechaun. Time started up again, and people moved down the halls.
“What happened?” Jared asked as he caught up to me.
“O’Malley.” I stormed into my room and paced the floor as I told Jared what O’Malley had said. “That can’t be true, right?”
“Of course not. I was standing right next to you when it happened.” Jared sat on the bed.
I clenched my fists in frustration, feeling the bursts of energy before they actually appeared. I was able to push the anger down, even though I really just wanted to throw something at the wall. “What if he’s right, though? What if it really was me?”
Jared stood and took me in his arms. “Hey, don’t let him get to you. He’s not worth it.”
“I know. I just want him to go away.” I laid my head on Jared’s chest, enjoying the closeness.
“We’ll stop him. I promise.” He pulled away. “For now, I want you to sleep.”
I reached up and kissed him. “Yes, Your Majesty. Anything you say.”
He laughed. “I like the sound of that.”
“I thought you would.” I kissed him again before climbing onto my bed. “Now, out you go. I need my beauty rest, and you need to get some sleep too.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He paused for a moment before kneeling next to me. “Look, I know you want to sleep, but
we keep getting interrupted, and this might be my only chance.”
I sat up quickly, my heart pounding hard. Oh, man. He was kneeling. And it could have been nothing, but by the look on his face, it wasn’t nothing. A million emotions rushed through me at once. Excitement, fear, giddiness, panic. It was like my heart and mind were playing ping-pong, and I couldn’t decide how to feel. It made me want to throw up. But I had to say something since he was looking at me. “Yeah?”
Yeah? That was smooth.
Jared took a deep breath. “Megan, I know this wasn’t exactly what either of us had planned, but at the same time, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place. Well, except home, where our family—”
“Uh, Jared? Spit it out.” Giddiness was beginning to win the emotional battle going on in my head, and I just wanted to get it over with so I could scream with joy. Or, at least I hoped so. Unless he was about to tell me that he wanted to leave. He didn’t want to leave, right?
He grinned and pulled out a small wooden box. “It’s not perfect, and I’ll definitely replace this when we get home, but Megan, will you marry me? I mean, when we’re with family. Not now, because both sets of parents would kill me otherwise.”
I pulled his face toward me and kissed him hard to get him to stop rambling. I didn’t realize I had tears running down my face until the kiss finally ended. Jared wiped them away and moved to sit on the bed next to me.
“So … does this mean yes? Or should I go find another fairy queen to marry?” He brushed the golden strands of hair out of my face.
“Don’t you dare. The answer is yes. A million times, yes.” I watched him open the box. Inside there was a delicate ring made of silver and gold that were intertwined to look like vines. Two hands held a heart, like the Claddagh rings I’d seen in Ireland. It was perfect.
He slipped it on my finger, his hands shaking. “I hope you like it. I wanted a big diamond, but apparently that’s one thing they don’t have here.”
“I don’t need a diamond.” I stared at the ring. “Where did you get this?”
“Eoin and Patrika helped me make it while you were sleeping.” He set the box on the table next to my bed.
No Such Luck Page 7
