Midnight Enchantment

by Anya Bast

  They entered the room. A blond woman in a huge Victorian-style, silver and gold gown stood at a table with a handsome dark-haired man whom Elizabeth recognized as Gabriel Cionaodh Marcus Mac Braire, the Shadow King. They looked up as she entered and their faces went stony as recognition bloomed.

  “Please meet Elizabeth Cely Saintjohn, asrai, and former keeper of two pieces of the bosca fadbh,” Niall announced.

  The Shadow Queen moved toward her, her expression stormy. “Please come here, Elizabeth.”

  Elizabeth moved toward her, uncaring of what they thought of her or what they intended to do with her. Her mother was going to die.

  “You are very good at keeping things hidden.” The queen’s voice had a steely quality. Had the temperature dropped in the room suddenly? It felt a little chilly.

  “I had a reason,” she answered, her voice breaking.

  “I know you did.” Aislinn’s voice softened. “Sometimes when you’re trying to protect those you love, others get hurt in the process. Sometimes there are hard choices to make.” Aislinn’s gaze met Niall’s before returning to Elizabeth’s. “I’m not saying I condone what you did, but I do understand why you did it.”

  “I know where the Summer Queen is. I can lead you right to her.”

  Aislinn studied her for a moment. “I thought you were allied with her.”

  “I only agreed to hide the pieces to save my mother. The Summer Queen is a dangerous, selfish woman who cares about no one but herself. I would really enjoy seeing you take her down.”

  Gabriel stepped forward. “Actually, we’ve known where she is hiding for some time. Our concern was the pieces. Now we have reason to believe she’s moved from her caves to the city, along with Gideon Amberdoyal. They plan to attack the Black Tower.” He paused. “Tomorrow.”

  That reached through the numb cloak that had settled itself around her shoulders. She knew how powerful the Summer Queen was, and allied with the archdirector of the Phaendir…She glanced at the pieces of the bosca fadbh lying on the table. “And you’re not worried…?”

  Aislinn smiled, and all the warmth fled, not only from her expression and voice, but literally from the room for a moment. It made Elizabeth gasp. “The Black Tower is able to handle whatever that bitch wants to throw at us.”

  “You’re free to stay in the Black Tower, Elizabeth,” said Gabriel. “The queen has issued an edict that you’re exempt from punishment. Anyone who tries to harm you will suffer the wrath of the Shadow Queen.” He turned, and he and the queen went back to the table. It seemed like a dismissal to her.

  Niall drew her away. “Come to my apartment. You look exhausted.”

  She nodded, glancing back at the king and queen. They were about to ensure the death of her mother, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  NIALL’S apartment was decorated in a comfortable fashion, leather couches strewn with pillows and blankets, hardwood floors covered with thick area rugs. It was clear he didn’t care much about decorating, but the space was definitely made to be a place for him to take his ease and relax.

  He ushered her into the living room, sat her on the couch, and tucked a blanket around her. “You’re freezing,” he chided her when she tried to push it away.

  She noticed for the first time that he was right, she was freezing.

  “It’s shock. You looked like I detonated a bomb on you in the elevator,” he said, sitting down beside her.

  “I never expected this to happen.” Her voice sounded wooden. “I never expected my mom to go dig the pieces up and bring them straight to the queen.” She paused, grief welling. “She just signed her own death certificate.”

  “I wish I could make all of this go differently.”

  She said nothing for a long time, curling her icy hands into the soft blanket. “Speaking of bombs, shouldn’t the Black Tower be evacuated? We’ve seen firsthand what Amberdoyal’s magick can do and now that he’s teamed up with the Summer Queen…”

  “The warning was given right after you arrived. The queen ordered that all children are to leave the tower, along with everyone who wants to leave voluntarily. It’s sad because traditionally the Black Tower has been the safest place to be in the city. People have been coming here for sanctuary, even knowing that the Summer Queen and Gideon are teamed up in their bloody, unholy alliance.”

  “Yes, but that magick.” She shuddered. “Like lightning bolts from Danu, herself.”

  “Not Danu, Labrai.”

  She nodded.

  “But don’t forget, Aislinn is a powerful queen. She looks all soft and friendly and, honestly, she is soft and friendly most of the time. But when she wants to kick ass, watch out. She can command the goblins and, between herself and Gabriel, they have the power of the sluagh. Caoilainn and Gideon had better be planning their attack very carefully.”

  “The Summer Queen thinks Aislinn is too young and fluffy to be a threat.”

  “The Summer Queen is an idiot.”

  Her breath shuddered out of her, and she allowed her head to drift down and rest on Niall’s shoulder. Surrender. She closed her eyes. She’d lost. “It’s over.”

  “No, Elizabeth, this is only the beginning.”

  AISLINN and Gabriel were still staring down at the pieces on the table, frowning, as Niall reentered the room.

  “Where’s the woman?” asked Gabriel as he approached the table.

  “Sleeping in my apartment.”

  “You have a soft spot for her, don’t you?” he asked, studying his face.

  Niall shrugged. It was more than just a soft spot, but he wasn’t about to admit that out loud. Not now, not to them.

  Aislinn pushed the pieces closer together, lining up the grooves on each side like a puzzle. When she had the pieces in their respective spots and all she had to do was push them together to fuse them, she drew a breath and stepped back.

  “It feels like there should be a ceremony or something,” said Gabriel, taking his wife’s hand.

  She nodded. “Or at least that more of us should be here—Aeric, Emmaline, Charlotte, Kieran, Ronan, Bella…everyone.”

  Niall stared hard at the pieces. “It’s better not to create a fuss. Right now we’re the only ones who know that we have all the pieces. That’s a good thing. We don’t need any more excitement.”

  Aislinn nodded, saying nothing for a long time. Finally, she drew a breath. “There are three of us, so let’s do it together. All of us take a piece and push them to the center.”

  They positioned themselves around the table and each one of them touched one of the pieces.

  Gabriel looked up at both of them. “Ready?”

  “No,” said Aislinn.

  Niall stared hard at his piece. “Let’s do it anyway.”

  The three of them pushed the pieces together. A bright flare of light pushed them back as the pieces seared into one smooth metal object with jagged sides—the bosca fadbh.

  “There it is.” Aislinn pressed a hand to her mouth.

  Niall squinted down at it. “Doesn’t look like much.”

  She lowered her hand. “It’s just a means to an end. A key.”

  “Speaking of the end.” Gabriel walked to a nearby wall and pulled off a painting that had a safe hidden behind it. Producing a key, he unlocked the safe and took out a book wrapped in red velvet. So that was where they’d been keeping the Book of Bindings; Niall had always wondered.

  He unwrapped the book, tossed the velvet to the couch, and laid it on the table. It was an unassuming tome, clearly old, with a worn, red leather cover. At the back would be the portion of the book that was locked, with a grooved indention where the bosca fadbh fit. The rest of the book was filled with fragile vellum pages with spells handwritten in Old Maejian. “If we can open it up and work the spell inside right now, before the Summer Queen and Gideon attack, we can save some lives.”

  Aislinn nodded and opened the book, her long fingers flipping through page after weathered page of various spells. Th
is was the book where Aislinn had first come across the magick that had pointed out her necromancy to her. She reached the end of the book, and that’s where Niall saw the indention where the key was supposed to go. It made his stomach clench.

  The legend was that the back of the Book of Bindings contained magick to break the warding, but no one really knew for certain. They might unlock the back of the book and find something else in there, recipes, or a spell to shear sheep, or some other useless thing.

  Even though that was his worst fear, Niall didn’t really believe that would happen. After the war between the Phaendir and the fae, the ancients had gone to a lot of work to hide the bosca fadbh. There had to be some kind of powerful magick contained in there. Whether or not it was powerful magick that would knock down the walls of Piefferburg remained to be seen. If not, many, many expectations and hopes would be dashed.

  “Niall, you do it,” Aislinn said.

  He jerked in surprise. “Me? Why me? Are you afraid the book is booby-trapped or something?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. I was simply trying to bestow an honor on you.”

  He thought of all the ways he’d misled Aislinn in recent days in order to protect Elizabeth. He didn’t deserve any honors. “I think the Shadow Queen should do it.”

  “I agree,” replied Gabriel.

  “All right.” Aislinn stepped forward and picked up the bosca fadbh. Holding the object over the book, she said, “Freedom for the fae.”

  “Freedom for the fae,” chorused Gabriel and Niall.

  “May this key unlock a new era of peace and happiness.” She slipped the key into the grooved section of the book, and then backed away, shielding her eyes.

  Nothing happened.

  Aislinn straightened, frowning. All of them took a step toward the book. The key lay harmlessly in the grooves, but the book was still locked.

  The bottom dropped out of Niall’s stomach.

  Oh, Sweet Lady…the bosca fadbh didn’t work.

  TWENTY

  “WAIT,” said Aislinn. “There’s writing, but it’s not in Old Maejian.”

  Niall took a step forward, stomach roiling, fists clenched. Writing was slowly appearing on the blank page above the bosca fadbh. It was written in a glowing, flowing script, but in a language he didn’t recognize. It looked a little like some mutated form of Old Maejian, perhaps the language they knew as Old Maejian had originated from. Ancient Maejian?

  “Can you read that, Aislinn?” Gabriel asked.

  “Maybe, give me a minute.”

  “How could you possibly read that?” Niall asked, studying the odd symbols.

  She shrugged, leaning over the book. “I don’t really know. It first happened when I came across a necromancy spell in this book. It was in Old Maejian, back when I didn’t speak it. I didn’t understand what it was I was reading, I just read it anyway.”

  “That makes no sense at all.”

  “I think it must have something to do with my magick.”

  “Maybe it has more to do with your bloodline.”

  She looked up at him. “Maybe.” Her blood was Unseelie royalty. It made sense she’d have the power to read an ancient fae tongue.

  Leaning over the book again, she squinted, her mouth working and no sound coming out. Finally, she spoke. “It says we can’t open the book until the sun is at its highest point in the sky and no shadows mar the land.”

  “Noon.” Gabriel rubbed his chin. “Great. It’s just after one in the morning right now. We’ll have to wait almost twelve hours to open the book. So much for doing this before the Summer Queen and Gideon launch their attack. So much for saving lives.” His voice came out as bitter and as angry as Niall had ever heard him.

  Niall studied the strange text, swallowing his frustration. “How do we know it means noon in this time zone? It could mean noon anywhere in the world.”

  Aislinn chewed her lower lip, deep in thought. “I strongly suspect it means noon wherever the book is. Of course, we can’t know for certain.”

  “So, we hold our breath until noon tomorrow, then.”

  Aislinn gazed out into the black of the night through the picture window opposite them. “Yes, we wait. We hope.”

  “Not like we haven’t been doing that for years,” said Gabriel. “We can survive one more day, right?”

  Niall met Aislinn’s eyes and knew they were thinking the same thing, and so was Gabriel, judging from the grim tone of his voice.

  Twelve more hours just might kill them all.

  Aislinn gave him a slow smile. “We wait, we hope…we prepare for battle.”

  Sounded good to Niall. Kicking a little butt was just what they needed. Although, thinking of the woman back in his apartment, he knew what he needed even more.

  ELIZABETH roused when Niall slid into bed beside her. His arms came around her, and she stiffened when she realized he was completely—lusciously—bare.

  She turned over. “Hello.”

  He grinned. “Hello.”

  “I assume the walls haven’t fallen yet?”

  His expression grew serious. “I would warn you before that happened.”

  Grief closed her throat for a moment. Right, so she could be with her mother. “So what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be off with the queen, redirecting the future of the fae?”

  “Redirection has been postponed, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than here.”

  She moved her hip, feeling the press of his cock. “Yes.” She smirked. “So I see.”

  He reached up and smoothed her hair behind her ear. “Your mother is still asleep, and there’s nothing to do with the book until tomorrow at noon. We have until morning, just you and me…this bed. I want to be with you, Elizabeth. It’s all I can think about.”

  He ruled her thoughts as well, and when he was this close to her, his low voice murmuring in her ear, the press of his long, strong form against hers, he ruled her body, too.

  She smiled and leaned forward, gently pressing her lips to his. “Sounds nice. Sounds distracting.”

  “Oh,” he murmured against her lips. “I distract really well. Here, let me show you.”

  He rolled her beneath him, covering her body with his. His knee slipped between her thighs, and she was suddenly really, really sorry that she’d fallen asleep in her clothes. Yes, Niall could be exceedingly distracting.

  Hooking her leg over his hip, she pressed against him, forcing his rigid cock against her. He shuddered in anticipation and pleasure and she smiled, loving the power she had over him.

  “There’s only one problem,” he whispered against her mouth.

  “What’s that?”

  “You have way too many clothes on.”

  Her smile widened. “Well, let’s take care of that, then, shall we?”

  Together they slipped her sweater over her head and he snaked his hands behind her back to undo her bra, leaving her breasts warm and bare against his chest. Then he unbuttoned her jeans, unzipped the zipper, and she wiggled them past her hips. Soon their bodies slid together, skin-on-skin, smooth and sweet.

  Outside the wind picked up, blowing snow against the windows, but between the sheets with Niall against her, she had never felt so warm and protected. He pulled her beneath his body, his mouth coming down on hers. She kissed him back ferociously, as though she could consume him—make him a part of her body and soul forever. His tongue slipped inside her mouth and brushed against her tongue, sending delicious shivers through her body.

  He worked his way downward, pulling first one rosy, erect nipple into his mouth and laving it until she moaned, then doing the same to the other.

  Pressing up against him, she flipped the blankets away and pushed him over onto his back, then straddled his hips, bending over to kiss him. He tried to roll her over, gain control again—he was that kind of a lover—but she pressed the issue and he relented.

  Kissing her way down his throat, she ran the tip of her tongue over the powerful hills an
d valleys of his muscular chest, inhaling the scent of his skin and savoring the taste of him. When her tongue made it into the lightly tangled trail of coarse hair that led down to his cock, his fingers found her hair and fisted.

  Ah, yes, now he understood what she meant to do.

  Her tongue touched the head of his rock-hard cock and he jerked, his grip tightening a small degree in her hair. She closed her mouth around his shaft and sucked him within. He let out a low growl of arousal that made the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. Settling in, she took her time with him, sliding her tongue up and down his length, finding the places that seemed the most sensitive, learning his body.

  She had every intention of driving him as insane as she possibly could and, judging from the groans and jerks of his body, she was doing a pretty good job. She loved that she could render this man, so powerful and strong, helplessly aroused only by the power of her mouth.

  A millisecond later, without warning, he had her on her back. She let out a surprised yelp and found herself pinned beneath him. She squirmed, surprised by the sudden turn of events, and he pressed her down, parting her thighs and burying his mouth between her legs.

  Her bones seemed to melt as his mouth closed over her clit, licking and sucking it until pleasure permeated her body and made her moan his name. Her fingers found the blankets on either side of her and fisted as he slid two fingers inside her and stroked them in and out, all the while toying with her clit with his tongue.

  And as fast as that, Niall was back in control. She had to admit, she really didn’t mind.

  One of his big hands held her down as he forced her, hard and fast, toward a climax. Her mind entered that hazy place of total abandon, the needs of her body completely taking over. His tongue slid solidly against her clit over and over, her pleasure building, cresting, until she could brook no more of it. It spilled over the threshold and washed through her in wave after wave of ecstasy, stealing her breath and her ability to think. Her orgasm ruled her for several long moments and he rode her through it, lengthening it and making it more powerful.

  When it was over, he flipped her to her stomach and pulled her hips up, positioning his cock at her entrance. One long, slow thrust had him root-deep inside her. Her back arched and she let out a guttural cry of pleasure.