by KB Anne
“No,” Naisha shrieks. “No!”
“So, it’s decided?” Scott looks at each of us. We nod unanimously.
“Caer, can you open a portal here?”
She whips out her sword. “I don’t see why not.”
Maddie steps forward, careful to keep a distance from Caer and her swinging blade. “I’d like to go and meet my mother. Keturah was her name?” His eyes slide to mine for reassurance.
“Yes, Maddie.”
He lifts his chin confidently. “Do we have time?”
“We do. Alaric and I will go to Kilkenny and find the coven. We’ll see if they can undo Naisha’s spell on Lizzie.”
Scott rubs his hands together. “Let’s do this.”
Caer lifts her sword, preparing to rip open the portal.
“Wait,” Naisha screams. “Wait!”
Caer pauses.
Scott rolls his eyes. “What is it this time?”
“I need to see Lizzie one last time. Think of it as a mother’s final wish. Calliope was able to see you one final time before she died.”
Scott stomps over to her. “Don’t bring my mother into this.”
“Please,” she cries. “One last time.”
All of our eyes meet except for Alaric’s. He stares outside the grove, his jaw working overtime. Everyone had received some type of shocking news, but his burdens were the greatest.
Maddie raises his shoulders. “What harm can she do, with all of us around her?”
“Alaric?” I call out to him. When his green eyes meet mine, I whisper, because I know he can hear me with his wolf hearing. “What do you think?”
“I will not be a part of this decision. She means nothing to me,” he says with enough venom to take down a pack of wolves. Pun intended.
You don’t mean that.
“I do,” he growls.
The five of us agree to take her to Lizzie before the other three take her to Caer’s realm. I add new bindings and a few spells to dampen her magic and keep her wings to herself. Caer’s blade shoved between her shoulders should also make her behave. Caer does not approve of anyone who betrayed her people. For all my faults, neither do I.
As we head back to the portal, a wave of unease, like I’m forgetting something, falls over me.
Alaric stops beside me. “What is it, Gigi?”
I don’t want to voice my concern aloud. Words give power, and Naisha doesn’t need any more of it.
There’s something I need to get, I drop in all their heads. I’ve never done that before, but all their heads snap up, indicating they heard me.
“You all go ahead. I’ll meet you back in Kildare.”
“No, not a chance,” Alaric says, gripping my arm so as not to lose me. “I’m going with you.”
“No way,” Scott shouts.
“Scott, we’re not going to have another wham-bam-thank-you-godsdamn. I need to grab something.”
My brother’s jaw feathers across his cheek. “What is it you need to get?”
Naisha’s ears prick with curiosity.
I can’t say. Trust me.
Fine. “But no touching my sister, and clothes remain on.”
Even with the fate of the world in our hands, my brother is still worried about my virtue. It takes everything in my power not to roll my eyes and zing an energy ball in his chest to knock him flat on his ass.
“Meet you back at Granda’s,” he says.
“You got it.”
I mean it, he think-shouts at my disappearing back.
“I know,” I say aloud as I also drop it in his head.
* * *
“So, what is it you need to get, or did you really want a wham-bam?” he says, trying to flirt, but there’s no life in his voice. Naisha’s attack on him along with my revelations about what I saw weigh heavily on him. He carries a giant yoke that even the Hulk would have trouble with.
Something tells me not to say my intentions aloud. That even in the sweet-smelling pine forest surrounding Vernal Falls, we’re not without enemies.
“Just trust me.”
He stiffens. “You don’t trust me enough to tell me because of my heritage?”
Oh, here we go. He’s going to try and pull that card from the tarot pack.
“I trust you with my life, and clearly Scott does too or he would not have let you stay with me.”
“Then what?”
The trees have ears.
His ears twitch as he glances around. They do?
Something is amiss. Stay on alert.
Should we go back with the others?
No, there are actually two things I need.
I have your back. “And your front. And, well, anything else you have in mind.”
“Maybe Scott shouldn’t have let you stay.”
He laughs, and after the anguish he’s been through, the sound is like bells—which makes sense since he is part Fae.
“Hey, did your back ever twitch and you found wings sprouted there?”
“Not that I remember, but there are black holes throughout my childhood.”
Maybe you’re glamoured.
“Maybe.”
Now that I’ve mentioned it to him, he is curious, but he knows he has to wait for the right time to discover his Fae attributes, if he even has any.
We stop at the perimeter of Gram’s property. Her sweet little house sits all by itself surrounded by overgrown gardens that need attention. My fingers twitch, wanting to work in the earth, but there’s no time for weeding.
My eyes pool with tears. It’s the first time I’ve been back since Gram passed. She won’t be working in her pottery studio or making me my tea blend. She won’t be doing anything because she’s dead. Sadness gathers in my chest. I was never able to properly mourn her passing, and all the emotions come rushing into me like a tsunami.
Don’t you realize that I’m with you always? Gram’s voice says.
I jump and look around.
“What is it, Gigi?” Alaric asks, searching for a possible threat.
He’s a good one.
I smile at Alaric. “He is.”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Gram. She’s here with us.”
His eyes widen. He swallows hard. “You’re talking to a . . . to a ghost?”
Gram laughs in my head as I laugh aloud. “You’re the son of the Original Werewolf and an evil faerie, and you’re concerned about a harmless ghost?”
“Yes. I can’t fight what I can’t see.”
A sense of knowing falls over me. “You already have. You chose me even when you were tortured and conditioned not to.”
“I’d choose you every time. I will always choose us.”
Aw, Gram whispers.
“She thinks your adorable.” I step up to him and wrap his shirt around my fingers. “And so do I.”
My lips find his. Electrical charges surge through me. Kissing him feels so right. I could do it forever.
Except you do have to collect the spell book and the eyeball necklace. By the way, why didn’t you tell me about either one?
I break away from Alaric. “Gram, way to spoil the mood.”
My eyes fall on the nosy, judgmental neighbor’s house. It should be empty now with Naisha in our captivity. If she had the spell book, it could be there.
Is it? I ask.
You know I can’t tell you those things.
“Of course not.” My eyes shift from the neighbor’s house to the woods behind Gram’s. “Alaric, it’s time to go digging.”
“I dig you,” he says, trying to pull me back to him.
I laugh and tug him with me. “While I do appreciate cheesy innuendos, we’ve got to hurry.”
A pain pinches the center of my forehead. I rub my hand over it to try and calm it.
“What is it, Gi?”
Your third eye. It senses trouble.
“Something’s happening. We need to hurry.”
I sprint to the spot beneath the giant oak tree whe
re I hid the eyeball necklace. I try not to think too hard about the fact that if I had embraced my inner goddess months ago, I would have destroyed the eyeball necklace rather than bury it. Something tells me it’s somehow linked to Lizzie, and I need to remove all the Maleficium curses connected to her.
I use a stick to dig. The thought of touching the eyeball even by accident makes me nauseous.
Alaric hovers beside me. “I’ll dig.”
A small pile of dirt gathers on the side of the hole. “No, I don’t want you to touch it. I don’t want anyone to touch it. Once it’s exposed to the air, I’m going to destroy it.”
The stick hits something hard. I slowly push the dirt aside to completely expose it. The eyeball winks at me.
I throw up my arm and knock Alaric away. “Get back,” I hiss.
We crabwalk away from the hole. When we’re far enough away that the necklace shouldn’t be able to hear us, I’m still not willing to take any chances.
She saw us, or at least she saw me.
Who did?
Carman. She knows I’m in Vernal Falls.
What does that matter?
I don’t know, but it’s not going to be good. We need to destroy it.
Alaric searches around him and lifts a giant rock.
I shake my head. We need something magical.
He raises his eyebrows.
Yep, I’m going to curse it. Stay here.
No way. I’m coming with you.
I don’t want her to know you’re here.
He groans inwardly. It reminds me of a purr.
You’re sexy when you do that.
He rolls his eyes. I don’t like this.
You’re close. What could possibly go wrong?
Let’s not find out.
13
Ten of Cups
Scott wasn’t happy about leaving Gigi alone with Alaric again. Though he trusted Alaric with Gigi’s life, he didn’t trust him not to sleep with her again. Sure, they were destined for each other in some cyclic reincarnation sort of thing, but that didn’t mean that in this life they had to be all over each other like a pair of bunnies in heat. Of course, he wanted Gigi to be happy, he just didn’t want her to have sex. And he especially didn’t want to see her having sex.
His eyes slid over to Caer’s as they continued toward Brigit’s portal. He wondered if he’d ever get the opportunity to be with her the same way Alaric and Gigi were with each other. Yes, he was a hypocrite. Sue him. He was protective of his sister. In his mind, that made it okay.
Caer saw him looking over at her and blushed. The heat rising up in her cheeks did something to him, and he found it almost impossible to focus on where he was going.
Maddie broke the awkward silence between them. “Uh, Scott, I might be wrong, but shouldn’t we have turned right at that pine tree we just passed?”
Scott shook his head. Evidently he did get distracted with Caer nearby. Caer pursed her lips, trying not to smile. She knew he was thinking about her. Good. She needed to be reminded that, even though he wasn’t constantly flirting with her, it didn’t mean she wasn’t always on his mind. He’d had a lot of girls back at Vernal Falls High who had needed repeated assurances that he cared about them, but the truth was, he never cared about any of them. Not really. It didn’t matter how smart, or beautiful, or athletic the girl was, Scott didn’t want to date anyone for more than two, three weeks max. After hearing the tale about the swans from Granda, he finally understood why.
“Yeah, let’s take a side route.”
Caer laughed.
“What?”
“Gigi said men don’t like to ask for directions. Now I understand what she’s talking about.”
He grinned at her. “So, you and Gigi are friends now?”
Her eyes shone brightly in excitement. “Yes, I guess we are. Though I’m not happy that she left to find Naisha without me.”
Naisha slowed, her eyes flashing red. She was trying to use their conversation against them. It wouldn’t work. Especially since Caer, Scott, and Maddie knew what she was trying to do.
“Hey, Caer, what will happen to her when she gets to the Faerie Realm?” Maddie asked.
“I’m not really sure. In my youth, there were sometimes strange noises coming from the dungeons. Maybe my father imprisoned other fallen faeries?”
“Are they still alive?” Maddie asked. Scott heard both the curiosity and the concern in his voice.
“I don’t know. Keturah says Fae are immortal, but I didn’t hear any noises from the dungeons when I snuck back into my father’s castle.”
Scott wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch the long, powerful muscles of her arm, but he couldn’t get distracted. Besides, Caer had a tendency to whip out her sword and slice the air around her with very little provocation. If not for her sword pressed between Naisha’s shoulder blades, he could be her next innocent victim.
“Caer,” he said in a husky voice he didn’t recognize, “you need to start thinking of it as your castle. You are the Queen.”
“You are?” Maddie asked with admiration. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she said, then laughed at his enthusiasm.
Maddie was very easy to like and trust. Scott was thankful that he had joined their side, especially now that he was the long-lost baby of Keturah, Caer’s most trusted guard. He still had a hard time believing that werewolves actually existed, let alone that there were at least three part-Fae werewolves who he knew personally. Gigi was probably still holding out for glitter-farting unicorns to reveal themselves, but every other supernatural being appeared to be based on fact.
“Do you want me to check the dungeons when we get there? So you don’t have to?” Maddie asked. Scott could tell Maddie was terrified of the idea of finding dead evil faeries in long-lost dungeons, but he would do it for Caer.
“We don’t have to make a decision about the dungeons until all of this is over,” she said, indicating Naisha. He knew Caer didn’t want to or couldn’t imagine a future in which she wasn’t fighting Balor, but if Scott had any say in the matter, she’d have a long, successful reign as Queen.
Brigit’s portal shimmered as they approached. The goddess sensed her bloodline and presented her portal to them.
Gigi had mentioned that Breas, the Fomorian witch, and some of their minions had tried to lay a trap for Gigi and Alaric before they leapt through the portal. “Be ready,” he warned the others. “We don’t want any surprises when we return to Ireland.”
Maddie curled his fists together.
Scott glanced at him. “Do you have a blade?”
“I don’t need one,” he murmured, sounding very threatening.
“No, I guess you don’t. All together now.”
Naisha darted to the left in a last-ditch effort to get away from them.
“Not so fast,” Scott called to her as Maddie quickly had her under his control. “Caer, ready your sword.”
She brandished it in front of his eyes as if to prove that no man would tell her what to do.
No, he expected no man would dare to do so.
He readied Moralltach. The blade hummed with the potential promise of blood. His sword had grown hungry for action. It wasn’t that Scott relished killing—he definitely didn’t—but now he wasn’t afraid to take a life if warranted.
“Join together,” he called out.
The four of them stepped into the portal and left Vernal Falls a distant memory.
* * *
Upon landing back on the grass knoll, Caer swung her sword to warn anyone who was idiotic enough to approach her that they’d be run through.
Caer and Scott had killed many foes in the Land of Shadows, but since their arrival in the Earthly Realm, not even an ounce of enemy blood had soaked their blades. Gigi’s protective fire shield around the home of Clarissa, Gallean’s counterpart, had kept the god Breas (gods how she hated him) and the Fomorian witch (gods how she wanted to slice off her head and send it to Balor t
o serve as a warning of what would happen to him) out of Freagarach’s reach.
Neither Breas nor the Fomorian witch appeared when they returned from Scott’s homeland, and neither did any of their counterparts.
Amorin had warned her that Balor and his Fomorian allies most likely wouldn’t be able to penetrate the Earthly Realm again until the lunar eclipse on the Storm Moon, but it didn’t hurt to be ready ahead of time. It would be a storm indeed if Caer had anything to say about it.
Could she be Balor’s relation? Was that why she could never tell if he wanted to imprison her or kill her? Was she as much an anomaly to him as he was most certainly to her?
A light mist cooled her hot skin. She was naturally always warm, and with Scott so close, she felt herself radiating heat most of the time, especially when she caught him looking at her, which he always seemed to do.
Amorin stood at the perimeter to greet them when they made it back to his dwelling. His eyes widened when they landed upon Naisha. Her clothes didn’t bear the mark of a warrior, but Caer never underestimated the enemy. She would be very lucky indeed, however, if they underestimated her.
“Who is this?”
Maddie kept his hands firmly locked on Naisha’s arms, which were still bound behind her back. She had already tried to escape once. Caer, Scott, and Maddie weren’t taking any chances a second time.
“This is Naisha, aka Nancy, aka Lizzie’s mom, aka Alaric’s mom, aka Clayone’s sometimes concubine,” Scott said, prodding Naisha forward with his tip of his blade. “She’s an evil fallen faerie from Caer’s kingdom, and she’s committed unforgivable crimes.”
Amorin studied her. The wizard was wise and knew that no one should pass judgement of someone’s appearance. Caer couldn’t believe the verbal lashing Amorin had given Gigi when she’d used her blood in the Chalice of Healing to save his life. Gigi, of course, stood her ground. She was formidable. Perhaps not on the battlefield, but with her spell making and the manner in which she used her words, she was terrifying.
