His finger traced the slope of my arm. “Your skin is different now. Does it feel different?”
“Not really. The crying thing is terrifying. Might take me a while to get used to that.” I pursed my lips, not wanting to ask the next question, but part of me needed to know. “I haven’t seen my weird eye yet. Is it…” My palms started to sweat, and I fought to keep myself from freaking out. I’d grown up with a lazy eye, and since it was fixed and pointing in the right direction, looking normal had spoiled me. I didn’t want my eyes to do funky things again. I knew how that could ostracize a person.
Bastien thumbed my chin and took his time studying one eye, and then the other. “I think it’s cool.”
I squinched my eyes shut and nodded my gratitude. “Are they pointing in the same direction?”
I didn’t expect Bastien to swat my butt during my vulnerable moment. His large palm whapped a squeak out of me. My lashes flew open as I frowned up at him.
“Sorry,” Bastien said with an impish grin. “You had your eyes closed, so I had to double-check. Yep, they’re both pointing in the same direction.”
I grumbled, shaking my head at his boyishness that still managed to surface, even in such dire times. “I hope you enjoyed that one. It’ll be your last for a while.”
Bastien reached both hands around and started drumming a rhythm on my butt as he spoke, taking full advantage of our alone time. “I’ll leave Link with you to help Kerdik look for the Sluagh. I’m thinking I should take Mad, so the Sluagh can’t trigger him to kill you.”
“Sounds like a solid plan.” I stiffened against him as an errant part of my brain clicked a missing puzzle piece into place. “Wait a second, you can’t kill my mom.”
His percussion on my backside stilled. “I can, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
29
Taking What’s Mine
Bastien thought I was still playing around, but I wasn’t. “Hold up. I need Kerdik for a second.”
Bastien harrumphed. “Yes, please always tell me about your need for Kerdik while you’re in my arms, and I’m squeezing your butt.”
I sniggered and slid out of his embrace. “Seriously. Hold off on your murderous rage for five minutes.”
I darted into the hallway and popped my head into the bedroom, where Kerdik was interrogating Link on anything he could tell him about the Sluagh. “Hey, Kerdik. I need you for a second.” I couldn’t very well have Bastien try to kill Morgan, when that feat was impossible by anyone other than the Daughters of Avalon. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to tell Bastien that secret, but he needed to know nonetheless.
Kerdik’s wide mouth pulled into a relaxed smile when he took in my face – like the mere act of me entering the room made him more at ease. His eyes turned from no-nonsense when he’d been focused on getting to the bottom of things with Link, to softening when he took in my face. His shoulders rolled back, and the antagonism that was always just below the surface seemed to melt away when both halves of our strange friendship were united in the same room. “I hope it’s for something unseemly.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Nothing like that. I…” My next words died on my tongue. I couldn’t remember what I was going to say, or why it was important. I couldn’t think about anything when my eyes fell to the table off to the side of my bedroom. I hadn’t noticed them before, though now that I was staring at them, gaping like a fish, it felt like they came with their own horns, flashing lights and alarms.
Judah loved his Buddy Holly glasses. He’d had giant gold wire-rimmed ones in elementary school, but he used his tutoring money in the fifth grade that Lane paid him, and saved up for a new pair of glasses. Most kids were spending their allowance money on candy and cell phone apps. Judah wanted better glasses that helped him look like the tech geek he’d always wanted to be. When he outgrew them, he got the exact same pair in an adult size. Only I ever saw him without his glasses on in the morning – his thick black rims lying on our nightstand next to my glass of water and whatever book he’d been reading to me that night.
“My love, what is it?” Kerdik asked, his brow furrowed at my instant state of shock. Draper and Link both hissed disapprovingly at his doting address, but they couldn’t exactly correct the powerful immortal. He followed my gaze to the table, frowning in confusion. “What are these?” He picked up the glasses that were just lying there for anyone to touch.
It never even dawned on me that I’d not seen anyone in Avalon with glasses. Maybe they didn’t have the technology, or perhaps they just didn’t have poor eyesight here. “G-g-glasses,” I stuttered, trying to find the right words. “Draper?” I asked, begging my brother for an explanation.
Draper’s face turned stony. “I wanted to wait until Dad came home to tell you, but I guess now that Master Kerdik’s sealed you in the castle, I can tell you the rest.” He cleared his throat twice, working up the gumption to say his piece. “Morgan sent the ransom note around the peluda’s neck, warning us to hand over the jewels if we wanted Lane and the others back.” He kept his eyes on his hands, and I could tell he wished his body was fully functional again, so he could bolt out of the room and not get stuck with the short end of the stick. He didn’t want to have to tell me the truth about the darker parts of life. “In her dungeon, Morgan has Lane, Reyn, Remy, Damond, and your friend from Common. She sent us a token from him, so you’d know she wasn’t messing around.”
My heart pounded so loud, I thought for sure all other sounds in the world must’ve gone mute under the weight of my touchstone crumbling to pieces. “The note,” I demanded, my voice cracking. “I need to see that note. Do you have it?”
Kerdik picked up the piece of parchment that rested on the quaint, round table. Instead of waiting for him to read it to me, I moved across the room and took it from his hands, my fingers shaking as my eyes poured over the page. I had to see the crime for myself, to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that the worst of it all had come true.
Trepidation trembled in my lower lip as my eyes tried to make sense of the page. I don’t know why I expected extreme duress to make me better at the thing I was no good at, but when the words didn’t make themselves any clearer, frustration flared up in me over the limitation I’d accepted about myself long ago. My fingers trembled, and I knew all eyes were on me, watching my slow death and impending panic attack.
“I can read it to you,” Draper offered, his voice gentle.
“No!” I snapped – more at the paper than at him. “I can figure this out. I need to read this for myself.”
Link quirked his eyebrow at the guys. “Why would ye need to read it for her? She can see the threat plain as day.”
I froze, realizing that perhaps Bastien had been a decent guy and kept my limitations private. I’d assumed Link and Mad knew about my dyslexia by now. I let Draper explain the situation to Link while I tried to make heads or tails of the note. “Why do people write in cursive?” I shouted, losing my temper and my grip on the world all at once. Cursive was my nemesis, throwing me off with all of its loops and curls that only complicated everything. Life was better with straight, definable lines you could depend on. Cursive did what it friggin’ felt like, mocking me with its effortless elegance that I would never have. “‘I p…’” I shook my head. “No. ‘I ho-ha-ha-hap-hab-hab-habu-habu…”
Kerdik came up behind me, quiet as I suffered through a waking nightmare my own imagination wasn’t even cruel enough to conjure. “Come here,” he offered, moving us toward the table and pulling me to sit on his lap. He rubbed my back in soothing circles, and then wrapped an arm around my waist as Bastien came into the room. Bastien’s jaw clenched that I’d found out about Judah – or maybe it was because I was sitting on Kerdik’s lap. Kerdik took the page from my hand and kissed my cheek. In a steady voice that didn’t allow for any confusion, he read aloud for the room to hear Morgan’s victory in kidnapping Judah, Lane, Reyn, Damond and Remy. She would exchange one of them for each jewel I brought back
to her, and every day I delayed would be another they would remain in her dungeon, at the mercy of her merciless soldiers.
Tears were streaming down my face so fast that Bastien could barely dab them away before my jeans were sprinkled with droplets of blood. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Don’t worry about it another second. I’ll get them and bring them home.”
It was a promise I needed, but one I was too familiar with the lows of Avalon to believe. “Judah’s not built for Avalon. He can’t handle a legit dungeon! He’s supposed to be in school, studying and getting his degree. He’s… Bastien, be careful with him. He’s not an athlete or a soldier or anything like someone who can survive this kind of world.”
Bastien tucked a curl behind my ear and wiped a streak of red across my face with his sweaty bandana, which was now ruined. “I won’t break the people you love. But you have to do me a favor while I’m gone, okay? I need you to stay with Link. I mean, morning, noon and night, make sure he knows where you’re at.”
Kerdik’s hand on my back was a comfort. “She won’t be going anywhere, so Link can help me track down the Sluagh.”
“Help me up,” Draper requested, sliding his legs off the bed. Link hoisted him up and let him lean when he was unstable. “I’m going with you, Bastien. Lane’s my mother.” His conviction was so resolute that no one bothered to argue with him. I wanted Draper to stay home with me, but I couldn’t begrudge him the freedom to do what Kerdik wouldn’t let me.
“Please,” I begged Kerdik quietly, while Bastien stood and started to go over the extraction plan with Draper. “Please let me go. Judah’s my…” I gripped the t-shirt material over my heart, because the words were running out.
“I know. Though you have the kind of compassionate disposition that would throw herself in front of a chariot if it saved a mouse, so I’m not sure how serious to take your little tirades.”
I didn’t respond, but merely lived in my nightmare while Kerdik held me on his lap. Eventually I stood and started pacing the room, picking a different point of concern that I could address. “Bastien’s going to try to kill Morgan.”
Kerdik’s voice turned sharp. “Bastien, you can’t kill Morgan. I’ve made it impossible for anyone to murder the Daughters of Avalon, except for the Daughters of Avalon themselves. Not even I can do it.” He paused for the gasps that echoed around the room, but then pressed on. “That information stays in here. Only Rosie was trusted enough to know that, but I can’t very well have you going off to kill Morgan if you can’t actually do it, Bastien. Lane can end Morgan. So free her and the others my darling requires. Protect Lane until she kills Morgan, then bring everyone home.”
Bastien’s nostrils flared in time with his finger-jab at Kerdik. “She’s not your ‘darling’. I could go my whole life without that kinda talk coming from you about my girlfriend.” He pursed his lips, and then deflated. “And, you know, thanks. That’s helpful information. How do you know that about the Daughters of Avalon?”
Kerdik’s jaw clenched. “I know that because I was foolish enough to fix them with that protection. Urien knew of my temper, and how vexing the Daughters of Avalon could be, so he asked me to seal them against my wrath. I went one further to add protection against all foes they might come across. So no one can deliver the final blow to any of them, except for a Daughter of Avalon. It simply wouldn’t work if you tried. They can die from each other’s hands, an accident, a natural disaster, animal attack, or old age. That’s all.”
“And they don’t know this about themselves?”
“No. I only trusted Rosie with that knowledge, and she came straight to me when you said you wanted to kill Morgan yourself.”
Something about the way Kerdik said “she came straight to me” came with a snide undercurrent I didn’t miss, but chose not to comment on.
Bastien shot me a warning glare, letting me know he was on his last nerve with Kerdik. “Fine. I’ll give the lueur to Montel on my way out, and send him in to watch over you once he’s ready.”
I tried one last time to get Kerdik to revisit the terms of my incarceration. “Please, Kerdik. Please let me out.”
“Not if you took off all your clothes and begged me on your knees. I’ll not let you set foot in Morgan’s dungeon.”
“Talk about her naked again, and see what happens!” Bastien shouted, his temper rising like a balloon in danger of bursting. He took an ominous step in Kerdik’s direction, and as if in slow motion, Kerdik rose ominously from his chair, chest puffed.
I ran to stand between the two bulls, my arms outstretched to stave off their stupidity. “Knock it off! Bastien, go do your thing. I can handle it. And Kerdik? You know you’re just trying to get a rise out of Bastien. You want what’s best for me? Then focus on more important things than this.” I half-expected one of them to stick out their tongue at the other, but luckily, they seemed to have reached their maximum on childish behavior. “Lane, Judah, Reyn, Damond and Remy are suffering through who knows what, so all bickering can take a backseat to actual rescuing work.”
Link nodded, following my example of getting back on track. “Aye. I’ll go out as soon as your new Guardien comes in, and I’ll scout out the border to see if I get any signs of the Sluagh.”
“I’ll wait with her until her new Guardien comes,” Kerdik offered, and though he could’ve said it with a jeer at Bastien, he chose not to. Kerdik was actually trying to be a team player, interacting and being part of something, instead of always being above it. My shoulders lowered as I gazed on him with appreciation. Then he met Draper’s eyes, swearing a vow of protection to my brother. “Nothing will harm your sister while I’m around.”
Draper nodded, his fingers fumbling with his boots as he tried to slide them on his unsteady feet. “Let’s go, Bastien. We need to meet Lot’s riders soon.”
Bastien pulled on my arm and led me out into the hallway, so we could have the illusion of privacy. “I want you with Montel or Link the entire time. Promise me. Even if Kerdik lets you out, don’t come after us. I need you safe for like, a solid two weeks.”
I nodded, glum in my defeat that I couldn’t be of any actual use. “Be careful,” I said lamely. There were so many cooler things I could’ve and should’ve said before we parted, but my heart was too unsteady in my chest. My insides hopped from worried to pissed to scared to defiant, bereft of all the right words.
“Tell me you love me,” Bastien said with a small smirk, seeming to see my limitations and meet me halfway.
“I love you.”
“Tell me you won’t kiss Kerdik while I’m gone.”
“I won’t kiss anyone while you’re gone. Except maybe Pascal. He’s yummy.”
Bastien’s playful growl at the notion that I might take up with Montel’s mid-sixties father was adorable. Then my boyfriend leaned in and brushed a slow kiss to my lips, nuzzling his nose to mine so we could breathe in the scent of each other’s skin. I loved the smell of Bastien. “Tell me that when I come home with everyone, and the job’s done, we can talk about where we’ll land after Avalon’s settled. You and me together, where we’ll go when the dust clears. Tell me we can talk about where our home will be.”
I swallowed, and after a few beats, nodded through my flabbergast. “Um, okay. We can talk about that. I don’t totally know how that conversation’s going to go, but sure.”
He kissed me again, smiling at how dumbfounded I was at his declaration of permanence. “I love you, Daisy.” Then he called into the bedroom, “Let’s hit the road, Draper. She’s about to wear me down and make me stay here.”
I said nothing when I kissed my brother’s cheek, and sent them off to find the missing pieces of my heart. I said nothing when Bastien made his way to Montel, to let him know that he had been chosen to be my temporary Guardien. I said nothing when my dad came back up and demanded to know how I was alive, and what had happened when Kerdik took my mangled body away, but let Kerdik explain it all. I said nothing when Link smooched my lips before
he left to go scout out the province for the dreaded Sluagh. I said nothing when Kerdik brushed his knuckles to my cheek, giving up on trying to make conversation with me. I drank the tea he made me in silence. The two of us sat at the quaint table in my bedroom, like two old friends who had been through too many wars together, and didn’t have the will to fill the silences of life with useless words.
I said nothing at all as the house emptied. I simply stared out the window and waited with an ache in my chest, hoping that my family would come home unscathed.
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Otherwise, Levi dies.
At this point in the story, I have no qualms.
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Untouchable Girl
Enjoy a free preview of Untouchable Girl,
book six in the Faîte Falling series.
1
The Longest Two Weeks of my Life
I don’t care what anyone tells you, two weeks is an eternity to wait for your mom to come home to you. Lane had been gone for so long already, searching out allies in the withering provinces and inviting them to share in our newfound wealth. Stealing half the jewels back from Morgan was a scandal no one took lightly. Refugees from all over Avalon were still pouring in to stake their claims on a plot of land that wasn’t under Morgan le Fae’s rule.
Bastien was still gone, and if Kerdik hadn’t magicked the castle to keep me locked inside, I would’ve gone along to help free Lane, Damond, Reyn, Remy, and… My fragile optimism always waned on that last one. The thought of Judah being held in a dungeon was a mental image I couldn’t deal with if I wanted to keep my sanity. Judah had been my favorite (and often only) friend from grade school on, and deserved the best out of life. I’m talking parades, scholarships, hip-hop songs rapped in his honor – the works. What he did not deserve was to get caught up in my mess, and land himself smack in the middle of my mom’s dungeon, without his glasses, and without me. I could picture him huddling in a corner with Lane, scared and cold. The image woke me up in the middle of the night, wracking me with fear. Then came the crash of self-loathing when I remembered I couldn’t break myself out of the castle and go get him myself.
Broken Girl Page 19
