A Dark Guardian

by Donna Grant

  Hugh looked away, and she began to lose hope.

  “I stayed the night locked in a dark chamber. I’ll even take you to it.” She swallowed as she searched for some proof she could give him. “I also learned something today.”

  “What?” he asked quietly.

  “They weren’t my brother and sister. Bernard wanted me for his wife.”

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  This time Hugh looked at her closely. “Aimery,” he called.

  In a blink, the Fae stood beside them. He looked down at Hugh’s hand and smiled. “Aye, you found the stone. Very good.”

  Then he looked around them. “’Tis old and dusty in here.”

  They followed him back onto the roof. Mina walked to him and said, “Please, tell Hugh the truth. He won’t believe me.”

  Aimery looked down at her and she saw the sadness in his bright blue eyes.

  “Hugh has to see it for himself.”

  “Nay,” said Hugh. “I demand that you tell me. Never once have I asked for anything since I’ve been a Shield. This is twice now that I have asked you about Mina.

  Why won’t you tell me?”

  “The Fae are not allowed to meddle in the affairs of humans.”

  Mina found herself grinning at the curses Hugh said as he paced in front of them.

  She stopped him and said, “I speak the truth. I am not a blood relative of Bernard and Theresa.”

  Hugh looked at Aimery who nodded.

  Mina swallowed and licked her lips. “I did not know where the stone was.”

  Aimery nodded again.

  “I was with Aimery the day the stone was found in my chamber.”

  Aimery

  nodded.

  “I am not a part of any evil involving the creature.”

  Hugh wanted to believe her. He saw the question in her gaze and knew she spoke the truth. He smiled and went to gather her in his arms, but she held him away from her.

  “I’m not done,” she said.

  He groaned. “Then finish.”

  “I love you.”

  He pulled her against him and closed his eyes. Life was perfect now. When he opened his eyes it was to find Aimery grinning at him.

  “You knew?” he asked the Fae.

  Aimery nodded. “But you had to realize your love for her despite what your instincts said.”

  “Now that Hugh knows what an idiot he has been, might we look for the creature?” Gabriel asked from the stairway.

  Hugh laughed and gave Mina a quick kiss. “We’ll finish this later.”

  “Aye, we will,” she promised.

  * * * *

  They searched the entire monastery, twice, to no avail. “I don’t understand,” Cole said. “I can feel that its here.”

  Hugh looked at Aimery. “Can you help?”

  “I also feel that it is very near, and I cannot understand why we haven’t found it.”

  “Are you telling me the creature is cloaked from you?” Hugh asked.

  Aimery nodded dejectedly.

  “The sun will dip into the horizon in just a few hours,” Cole called from the window.

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  Mina jumped up and ran out of the monastery. Hugh ran after her to find her outside staring at the monastery.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer him as she walked around the monastery, her eyes focused toward the sky.

  “Mina,”

  he

  urged.

  She looked at him. “I think I found it.”

  Hugh looked at her arm which pointed at the roof and a gargoyle. “There are gargoyles across England. There are even some on your castle.”

  “Exactly. No one pays attention to them because they are everywhere.”

  “It would explain why our information said you could only kill it while it slept,”

  Aimery said.

  Hugh turned and ran back into the monastery but then had to wait on Mina because he didn’t know which one.

  “I suppose we could destroy them all,” Cole said.

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” Aimery said as he walked past him to lean against the bell tower.

  “Why?” Gabriel asked.

  “You really don’t want to know,” Aimery said ominously.

  “Which one, Mina?” Hugh asked.

  Mina walked around the roof. “I’m not sure.” She inspected one gargoyle and then another until all of them had been looked at.

  “I was so sure that was the answer,” she said.

  Hugh wrapped an arm around her. “It was a good guess, love.”

  She smiled at him and leaned against one of the gargoyles.

  “The sun is just about to set,” Cole called.

  Mina was sick to her stomach to realize they had failed. “At least we have the stone,” she said.

  They all nodded. She sighed and turned to look over the beloved lands where she had grown up. Her eyes lowered as she realized just how much her life had changed in a matter of days. And that was when she saw it.

  “Hugh,” she whispered.

  In an instant, he was by her side.

  She pointed to the gargoyle she was leaning against. “Is that not from your crossbow?” she asked of the missing part of the gargoyle’s wing.

  “That it is.”

  She stepped back as Cole, Gabriel, and Hugh tried to shove it off the roof, but it didn’t budge. The darkness beginning to surround them made it hard to see.

  But she definitely saw the small movement of the gargoyle’s wing.

  “It’s waking up!”

  “Try this,” Aimery said as he handed Hugh a mace.

  The first swing knocked a chunk out of the stone gargoyle’s wing. The second knocked the entire wing off. The gargoyle’s stone eyes glowed red and they heard the unmistakable sound of a growl.

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  “Hurry,” Aimery warned.

  When the gargoyle’s mouth opened as he bared his long teeth, Mina gasped and wished she had a weapon of her own to hack away at the creature. She said a prayer that they would succeed as Hugh hammered away at the stone creature as it continued to growl and hiss and slowly wake.

  Chunk by chunk of stone fell to the ground until there was nothing left but its legs. Hugh, Gabriel, and Cole were then able to push it over the side.

  She rushed to the edge to see the creature shattered into pieces before it began to sizzle and melt away.

  “Just in time,” Aimery said.

  They turned and saw the sun sink below the horizon. She held her breath expecting to hear the creature, but there were only the sounds of the night.

  “Thank you,” she said as she turned toward Aimery only to find him gone.

  Cole began to laugh. “Don’t worry, Mina. He does it all the time.”

  She looked at Hugh. “What now?”

  “First, we tell the villagers they are free.”

  He held out his hand, and she eagerly put hers in his.

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  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Hugh watched as the villagers crowded around Mina. They had decided to keep what Bernard and Theresa had done a secret. Their bodies had been brought in and readied for burial, but for tonight there would be celebrating for the freedom.

  “What do you want?” Aimery asked as he walked to him.

  Hugh looked at the Fae. “What do you mean?”

  “You have found what some people search their entire lifetimes for. Love. A soul mate.”

  Hugh tamped down the hope that blossomed in his heart. “I am a Shield. I lead my men.”

  “And you’ve been an exceptional leader,” Aimery said with a smile. “I’ve been sent to grant you removal from the Shields if that is your desire.”

  Hugh thought that over for a moment.
“The Shields have dwindled to five. If I leave, there will only be four.”

  “Oh, you’ll still be a Shield,” Aimery said. “You will just be here. Stone Crest will be a safe haven for the men and a place where you can train them.”

  A smile broke across Hugh’s face. “Truly?”

  “If Mina will have you,” Aimery said.

  Hugh walked to Mina and dragged her away from the villagers. “I love you,” he said.

  “I love you, too,” she said and smiled. “What has gotten into you?”

  He answered by pulling her into his arms and slanting his mouth over hers. He plundered her mouth, sucking her tongue and twirling his around her mouth. He didn’t end the kiss until she was limp in his arms.

  “I missed that,” she said.

  He placed a kiss on her forehead and pulled her tightly against his chest. “Will you be my wife?”

  She stiffened and pulled out of his arms to turn her back on him. “Don’t. That is too cruel.”

  He heard the tears in her voice and turned her back around to face him. “Just answer me, love.”

  “I would be honored to be your wife, if you were staying,” she cried against him.

  He laughed and took her head in his hands until she was looking at him. “But I am staying here.”

  “What?” she asked with a sniff. “You’re a Shield.”

  “Aye, and I still will be one. Just here. The castle will be a safe haven for the men. If you agree.”

  She threw her arms around his neck. “Of course I agree, you silly man.”

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  “Well,” Cole said, “I guess we’ll find a way to go on without you. It won’t be too hard to take over the leadership.”

  “Leadership my arse,” Gabriel said. “If anyone is going to be the leader it’s me.”

  Mina sighed as contentment began to settle around her. “I do have one question though.”

  “What is that?” Hugh asked as he nuzzled her neck.

  “You said that you owed the Fae your life. What happened?” She didn’t take the question back even when he stiffened and stopped kissing her.

  She turned and looked into his brown eyes. “I want no secrets between us, Hugh.

  There is nothing you could say to me that would make me stop loving you.”

  “’Tis no secret that I keep,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. “I was a poor man’s son when I joined the king’s army. I was looking for adventure and anything that would keep me from becoming a farmer like my father.”

  “That is nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “I rose quickly in the ranks of the army, and it wasn’t long until I earned my spurs and became a knight. ‘Twasn’t something a peasant does very often, but I was determined to see myself a knight.”

  She smiled at him, knowing it was his determination that had killed the creature.

  “That is something to be proud of.”

  “I was very proud of it. I did whatever the king asked me to do and didn’t ask questions. I made a name for myself, though it wasn’t a good name. I lost my family while I warred for the king. My father and brother were tortured to death and my mother was raped and then hanged. The men had come looking for me, but my family refused to give them any information.”

  Mina closed her eyes at his words. She could only imagine how she would have felt if she had been Hugh. “Did you find them?”

  “Aye.” His voice had become thick. “My service to the king was finished, and I had come home to become a farmer like my father. I wanted to repent for the things I had done, and instead I nearly went insane.”

  “That’s when Aimery found you?”

  Hugh laughed. “’Twas Aimery that came to me. I knew I had to leave my home and the nightmares that plagued me. He took me to the land of the Fae, and there I learned to let go of the past and forgive myself.”

  She ran her hand down his whiskered cheek. “I owe them much then for saving you.”

  A smile pulled at his lips, and she was quick to raise up and give him a kiss. His arms pulled her against him as he again began to nuzzle her neck.

  His warm breath and tongue were doing delicious things to her. He hit a spot that tickled her, and she laughed as she pulled out of his embrace.

  “Ah, I found a spot,” he said and tried to tug her against him.

  Mina did her best to try to get away, but it wasn’t long before he had overpowered her and had her locked against him with her back to his chest.

  “Is this the spot?” he asked as he moved aside her braid and began to nip at her neck.

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  She wiggled around and tried to break free. Just as she was about to get loose, she heard him inhale sharply.

  “Mina, where did you get this?”

  She looked at him over her shoulder. “Get what?”

  “This mark on your neck?”

  “I don’t have a mark on my neck.”

  “Aye,” he said as his hands came up to hold up her braid. “’Tis on the base of your neck.”

  There was no denying the anxiety in Hugh’s voice, and it frightened her. “What kind of mark is it?”

  But Hugh didn’t answer her. “Aimery,” he called.

  Within a heartbeat the Fae commander was beside them. “What?”

  Hugh pulled his eyes away from the mark on Mina’s neck and turned to Aimery.

  “Is this what we needed to look for?”

  “Indeed it is,” Aimery said as he traced the mark.

  “Enough.” Mina spun around and glared at them. “What is on my neck?”

  “A symbol from another realm,” Aimery answered her. “’Tis a three sided interlacing knot that is ringed with a solid line.”

  “Another realm? What does it mean?”

  Hugh smiled and pulled her closer to him. “It means you were sent here from another realm to help give us answers to save Earth.”

  “But I don’t know anything,” she said, her eyes wide.

  Aimery nodded. “When the rest of you are found, then we will have the answers.”

  “The rest of us?” Mina repeated.

  But just as Hugh had expected, Aimery left them. “I’ll explain it all when we’re alone,” he said and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “At least you have some answers now.”

  “But many more questions.”

  He looked up to find Cole and Gabriel still arguing by the stable. “Shall we slip away while there is still a chance?” Hugh asked.

  “I thought you would never ask.”

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  Epilogue

  “Seems strange to have a home again.”

  Mina smiled at her husband as they looked over their people. It had been six months since they had destroyed the creature.

  “You say that everyday.”

  “And I’ll say it everyday for the rest of my life,” he said as he nuzzled her neck and placed a kiss on the symbol.

  A speck on the horizon caught her attention. “I think we have company.”

  Hugh followed her gaze. “It’s a Shield.”

  “I’ll make a chamber ready.” She stopped before descending the stairs. “I wonder if it’s Cole, Gabriel, Val, or Roderick.”

  “We’ll know soon enough, love,” Hugh said without taking his eyes off the rider.

  “Do you really like it here?” she asked.

  “You know I do.”

  “Then I think you’ll be happy to know you’ll be a father.”

  He whirled around to stare at her. “Truly?”

  “A woman does not jest about such things, my lord,” she said with a smile.

  He picked her up and kissed her. “I love you. With you in my life, I finally found peace.”