Stubborn Girl
Book Seven in the Faîte Falling Series
Mary E. Twomey
Contents
1. A Mother and Her Daughter
2. The Terrible Plan
3. Over my Dead Body
4. Kerdik’s Moment of Weakness
5. The Tease and the Terror
6. Gilliam the Puppet
7. The Beautiful Hag
8. Cailleach Turning Cold
9. Vegetarian with a Knife
10. My Friend and my Enemy
11. Down to Depths with the Damned
12. Duke Henri’s Children
13. The Best Friend a Spice Girl Could Ask For
14. A Duplex Built for Nine
15. My Own Personal Judas
16. Lane’s Assault and Kerdik’s Protection
17. A Little Girl and Her Mother
18. The Darkness I Didn’t Mean to Do
19. Worth it All
20. Convincing Cailleach
21. Fighting for Faîte
22. The Darkness Inside of Me
23. My New Vampy Life
24. My New Digs, and Good Old Rigs
25. Vampire 101
26. Tea Time with Rigby
27. Letting Him Hold Me
28. The Death of Superman
29. Bloody Mad for Bastien
30. Needing a Little Lot
31. Leaving Avalon Once and For All
32. Scarecrow and the Tin Man
33. QR Code
Epilogue
Common Girl
1. My Name is Rosie
Other books by Mary E. Twomey
Copyright © 2017 Tuesday Twomey
Cover Art by Shayne Leighton
of Parliament House Book Designs
All rights reserved.
First Edition: July 2017
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
For information:
http://www.maryetwomey.com
For April Nank,
whose patience and unfettered acceptance of everyone’s quirks makes me wish I was a better person.
On a side note,
one day I’ll beg you to get me organized.
That day is not today.
1
A Mother and Her Daughter
If anyone ever thought to put together a manual about what to do if an immortal had a full-blown heart attack out of nowhere, I would read that book. Or, more accurately, I’d have someone else read it to me.
Kerdik grasped his chest as I held him on the floor of my bedroom, panting in confusion and fear. It was the latter emotion that clinched in my chest. Kerdik wasn’t supposed to be afraid of anything. What hope was there that any of us could stand against something that scared the most powerful being in all of Avalon?
My emerald dress was pooled on the floor around us as I clutched him tight. When his breathing started to even out, I nearly cried from the relief. “Honey, what is it? Kerdik?” I ran my hand over his chest, hoping to calm either one of us.
“Rosie?” he whispered, his eyes wide and worried.
“What happened? We were talking, then the palace started shaking, then you grabbed your chest like you’re having a heart attack, and now… What? Are you hurt?”
I didn’t know how much more weird Avalon stuff I could handle. Kerdik had just admitted to me that the ring he’d put on my finger when we’d first met held all of the lost magic in Faîte – both the good stuff and the bad. The ability to turn Fae into Vampires and werewolves had been locked away, along with other, less devastating magic, like the ability to fly or turn yourself invisible. The higher magic had been locked away when it was clear it was doing more harm than good. No one knew what became of it, except for Kerdik, who’d been waiting for someone he trusted to come along. All this time, an atomic bomb of magic had been perched on my ring finger.
“Something’s happened to…” Kerdik’s pupils flicked from side to side in alarm. He appeared as though he was seeing a scene far away that I couldn’t witness.
And then suddenly, I could. Kerdik was in distress, so our connection made me see what he saw. The first time this happened, I’d seen through his eyes. Now it seemed I was seeing the world through his mind’s eye.
Brìghde was on all fours, teeth gritted as she clutched at the stone floor of a dungeon with her mannish hands. Her pale skin and red hair were filthy. Her dress looked like it was pure earth – made of moss or something – and it was torn at the hem up to her knee. Her face was burned, but worse than pain, one of her cheeks and her forehead were now disfigured. The puckered and shiny skin was immoveable as she spoke. “Ye don’t know what you’ve done, mortal! Once I break free of whatever it is you’ve got tha’s holding me, I’ll take my time tearing ye apart. Whatever protection ye have tha kept me from killing ye, I’ll find a way around, make no mistake.”
The focus shifted upward, and I saw before I heard the cruelty of my birth mother. Morgan le Fae was standing over Brìghde with a sneer that looked well-practiced. She wore a red satin gown with no bustle, her chocolate-colored hair tied up in a crown of braids. Her pinched nose matched mine, though her face looked so murderous, I wished none of my features matched hers. “That was a nice little surprise. I can’t be killed by an immortal, eh? Why, if only I’d known earlier. The fun I could’ve had.” She kicked Brìghde in the ribs, and Brìghde exhaled a puff of black smoke. “Now, summon him.”
“I wouldn’t wish you on Kerdik, and I wish a fair many grave depravities on him. Summon him yourself.”
Morgan picked up the hat Kerdik had given me to wear back when we’d first met. When I’d been thrown into the well, my belongings had been left in Morgan’s castle, leaving the Newsies cap up for grabs. “I’ve got a token from him, so you can use that to call him here.”
“Call him yourself!”
“Why my acid doesn’t control your will, I can’t understand. At least your abilities have been weakened. I can’t be killed by you, but I wonder if you can be killed by me?”
Kerdik and I both shouted for Morgan to stop when she set down the hat on the floor of the dungeon and picked up a knife. Our cries were ineffectual as Morgan picked up Brìghde by her hair and stabbed her through the chest.
Brìghde’s howl had a hawk-like shriek to it, making my spine tingle. For a moment, she went limp, and Morgan released her to slump to the floor. I called out her name, but we were on opposite ends of the country. I could hear pounding and shouting, but those noises were in my immediate reality – no doubt Urien or Bastien realizing we were walled inside the bedroom, and trying to bust through the thick stone. Some people just lock the door when they want a little privacy, but not Kerdik. He’d erected stone to cover the door and window, so we could have a few moments uninterrupted.
I hadn’t been expecting him to propose – to ask instead of demand I spend my second life with him. Neither of us expected me to say yes, but here we were, trapped in my bedroom while the world fell to pieces.
Brìghde began to stir, and my heart nearly stuttered. I didn’t know Brìghde, but her lifeline was the same eternal circle as Kerdik’s. If something could kill her, it might take him down, as well. Brìghde coughed out a raspy, “Harder next time, ye rotten bitch.”
“Oh, I can make it hurt far worse than that.”
“Pain doesn’t mean the same to an immortal as it does to ye. Even what you�
��ve done to my face will heal.”
“That would be true, if I didn’t have pools more of it, ready to dowse you as soon as you get your bearings back. I’ll have you here for as long as it takes to get what I need.”
“Ye can’t have it. It’s a myth. I can’t make ye immortal.”
I paled, wishing anything else had come from her mouth. Morgan somehow knew about my extended lifespan now. She knew, and she wanted. It was the ultimate power – to remain on her throne forever, to be the second immortal to reign over Avalon.
Morgan’s fist shook around her bejeweled dagger. “I know that Rosalie’s immortal now! Only Kerdik, you or Cailleach could’ve made her that way, and I know it was Kerdik. He turned fool for her long ago.” She stabbed Brìghde through the back, puncturing her lung. Her fury made it seem like she wasn’t just angry at Brìghde, but that she meant the knife for me, whom she couldn’t get at. Morgan spoke above Brìghde’s gasp and scream. “If he can turn Rosalie immortal, then you can grant me that same favor! Do it, or your long life will be spent in my dungeon, howling like an animal.” When Brìghde couldn’t answer because of her punctured lung, Morgan huffed, as if her prisoner was being annoying on purpose. She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the wound to heal enough for their tumultuous back and forth. “I must warn you; if you don’t give me what I need, I’ll trap Kerdik here next. Don’t think I won’t do it. I’m not afraid of him!”
Only I knew how very untrue that declaration was.
Once Brìghde’s injury closed up enough for her to breathe, she growled out a venomous, “If ye cross Kerdik, it’ll be the last thing ye do. What a sweet sight it’ll be to watch ye fall.”
“But he can’t kill me. If you can’t, then I’m certain I’ve become too powerful for his tricks. I thought he simply didn’t care what I did to Avalon, but all this time, he was powerless to stop me.” She picked up Kerdik’s Newsies cap and twirled it in her hands. “Perhaps I’ll lure Kerdik here with the same sort of mental torture that brought you to my doorstep.” Morgan’s laugh had a dark edge to it that made my spine stiffen with the chills. “Poor, poor Brìghde. You should know better than to take a human lover.”
Brìghde’s eyes sparked with angry tears. “Tha ye still draw breath means Kerdik knows he can’t kill ye. I don’t care what it takes; I’ll find a way to tear your heart out, so I can feast on it at the Moon’s Festival for all your enemies and followers to see. I’ll end ye for what ye did to my Gilliam!”
Morgan laughed – a shrill, rueful sound. “Ah, yes. Your sweet love. You haven’t taken a lover since Lugh, and that was when I was just a girl. It’s good to break the heart every few decades. It reminds you where your weaknesses lie.” Morgan strolled around the dungeon as if Brìghde hadn’t just threatened her. “Now, do you think Kerdik will be more moved to come for my daughter if he thinks she’s dead, or if he thinks she’s injured? I know he wouldn’t come to save you.” Morgan spat on Brìghde’s head, and I could practically feel her radiating with fury at being chained to the floor and treated like a dog. She leaned over and held the hat in front of Brìghde for her to sniff. “Use this to send our dear green friend a vision. I know you can do that. I saw Kerdik reach Urien decades ago like this.”
“I don’t know what this Rosalie looks like, so I can’t send him an image, ye twit.”
Morgan frowned and pulled out a paper from a book that was sitting atop a table that held various torture devices. I winced at the sight of the metallic and jagged instruments. “This is a sketch her soumettre drew up during his time in her bed. Use this.”
I gasped as I saw Demi’s careful drawing. It was me, but distorted. I was… I was beautiful in the black sketch, my hair curled perfectly across my pillow as I slept. To Demi, I looked like an angel, the sheet stretched taut across my breasts and a sweet dream making my features docile. My heart ached at the thought of Demi, and I hated Morgan for rifling through his things and using them against me like this.
Morgan moved Brìghde’s bloody hand to Kerdik’s abandoned cap and urged her on. “Summon him here, and I’ll let you go. If he’s in my castle, then Rosalie will be unprotected. I need her here. I need her Compass if I’m to find the higher magic and put it to good use.”
Brìghde spat in Morgan’s face, but steadied herself to comply. Her eyes closed, and an incomprehensible murmur flowed from her blistered lips.
I fell onto my butt as Brìghde’s voice filled my head. “Kerdik, stay far away from Morgan le Fae. Take your doll somewhere safe, and send Cailleach to rescue me. I can’t save myself. There’s an army of acid-enhanced soldiers marching on your Province 10 this very moment! Morgan’s sending them to kill the civilians and capture this Rosalie person. She thinks your doll can find where Avalon’s lost magic went to, because of her Compass birth blessing. Morgan wants more power, and is tired of chasing after the Jewels of Good Fortune. Go! I’ve seen the bodies in this dungeon. This is what will happen to your Rosalie if Morgan le Fae gets her hands on your doll! This is what she did to my Gilliam!”
An image too graphic to compute flooded my senses, making me cry out. I couldn’t even make out the face of the man, so mangled was his entire body. His arm was twisted in a funny way, an eyeball and his nose were missing, and the black hair was matted with blood. His mouth was frozen open in a perpetual scream, which no doubt had been his last utterance to the universe. There was something familiar about his face, but it was so covered with blood, I couldn’t examine the inkling too closely.
The image of the man faded, and was quickly replaced by the drawing of me come to life. Demi had sketched me sleeping peacefully, but the animated version had me missing an eye, blood pouring down my face, and a scream frozen on my lips. I was a macabre cartoon in black and white. A sketched dagger plunged into my chest, wrenching a terrified scream from me. It was the worst movie ever, and I was the star.
Kerdik’s hand reached out and landed on mine, clutching it so we didn’t lose each other in this altered state of reality.
Brìghde’s warning was clear, and boomed so loud in my ears that I winced. “Take this Rosalie away somewhere safe and call Cailleach. I’ll get her to lift your curse if ye tell my sister to rescue me!”
Kerdik gasped, holding tight to my hand as the graphic image of my defeated body faded, leaving us staring at the stone wall in my bedroom.
2
The Terrible Plan
“No,” Kerdik ruled, ignoring the men who were shouting at us to let them inside as he stood to address me. “I’ll not involve Cailleach. If she falls, Éireland has no one.”
I started gesturing animatedly with my hands, as I often did when people brought me a crazy idea and had the nerve to call it a plan. “But if you fall, then Avalon’s on its own! Same argument, pal. Try again.”
Kerdik scoffed at the audacity that I thought anything could make him fall. “Oh, darling. That you doubt me is always so surprising. I’ll get Brìghde out without any harm coming to me.”
“And then what? Morgan will always have another plan, another way of trying to control you. She’s got an immortal locked in a dungeon, you dummy! You’re not going anywhere near her castle.”
Kerdik reared back, looking at me with a mixture of offense and mild amusement. “Did you truly just call me a dummy?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, deflating. “I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. Totally mean of me. But still no. You can’t go there.”
Bastien and Urien had sledgehammers, it seemed, and were ramming them against the stone to try and break through. Kerdik rolled his eyes. “Oh, honestly. Can I not have a moment of privacy?”
“Here’s a helpful tip: you’ll probably get them to leave you alone if you don’t lock yourself in a room with me during a supernatural earthquake.”
“I didn’t do that! It was an effect of Brìghde’s distress. The immortals connect like that in dire circumstances, like how you can see through my eyes when I’m suffering.”
I t
ouched Kerdik’s shoulder to get him to focus. “Can you let me out of here? I need to go to the castle.”
“You’re in a castle.”
“Not here. Morgan’s home, I meant. I have to go finish this.”
Kerdik scoffed in my face, as if the very idea that I could be useful was preposterous. “Obviously not. You’ll remain locked in this stone prison until I return after freeing Brìghde.”
“How exactly are you going to do that? Morgan’s got some crazy mojo that can render immortals useless! Like it or not, you can’t end Morgan.” My eyes flickered with fear at the words that tumbled out of my mouth. “You can’t kill her, but I can. I’m a Daughter of Avalon, Kerdik. We can’t fall by the hands of anyone, except for another Daughter of Avalon. I can end this. I can end the madness for all of us.”
Kerdik’s mouth fell open, angry and shocked that this was my plan. “No. No, and never! Morgan will never lay eyes on you again.”
Hurt slashed through my heart at the terrible conversation we were stuck in. “You’re only thinking about me; you’re not thinking about all of Avalon. Don’t you understand that this is bigger than us? If Morgan isn’t stopped, she’ll find a way to end Brìghde. Then it’s eternal winter in Éireland, if I’m predicting correctly, since Brìghde has the power to usher in the spring. If Morgan can lure and trap Brìghde, then what’s to say she won’t do the same to Cailleach or to you? Avalon needs you, Kerdik!”
Stubborn Girl Page 1
