by Marie Hall
“Does Rumpel know you’re here. Did he really send you?” Giles had the strangest sense that the fairy was lying, at least in part.
Rumpel may share these truths with his wife now, but he doubted his prince would send a fairy to come and find him just to tell him what was pledged. It made no sense, especially with his son’s well-being on the line, Giles would think romance to be the least of his prince’s concerns at the moment.
“Well, he did ask me to come and tell you to hurry it up. He asked you both to make haste, though he is fully aware the journey to Fyre would take nigh of a month, if not longer. Truth is, once I explained to him the length of the journey and gave him a tonic to help keep Erualis’s life force strong enough to weather the month, I didn’t technically need to make this trip out to see you.” She pinched her lips.
“So the boy is okay?”
“For now. The daily tonic treatments will stave off his death for a little while longer. He’s got another two to three weeks at most, but that should be enough time for you to reach the chalice.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” he snapped. “I’ve been worried sick and it never crossed your mind to tell me we had a little more time?”
She spread her arms wide. “A little subterfuge just so that I could get in to see you—you can’t blame a girl. The magic of this shack was such that Lilith willed all away from it unless they had some dire news to impart.”
“So you fooled the magic?” His lips twitched. The fairy was not nearly as mad as he’d first assumed.
“It’s what I do, demone.” She smiled broadly.
And for just a moment Giles felt a quickening of respect for the doll-sized woman.
“I did indeed have news, though not nearly as dire as I’d first alleged. And let’s face it—Rumpel is hardly concerned when it comes to matters of the heart. Unless of course it involves his own; outside of his family the man is fair blind. But Lilith’s heart is near and dear to me and she is the real reason I’ve come.”
Her tone was suddenly much more serious.
Beyond curious to know the truth, just this once, Giles broke his own rules. “What did she pledge?”
“Her death.”
Her eyes were so serious that Giles could not doubt it.
“In return for what?” he asked in disbelief.
Death had occasionally resulted for a pledge who had not met their end of the deal, but it was a seldom occurrence and one Rumpel resorted to only rarely. Only when left no recourse. No matter that the outside world believed his prince had no heart, Rumpelstiltskin had a sense of honor that he clung to. Rumpel was fair and brutally honest.
“For completing the mating pact.”
“What?” He snapped as ice ran through his veins. “Why would she do that?”
Danika closed her eyes as she slowly drifted down to the edge of the bed. Landing, she drew her wings down and sat crosslegged before him, picking at a loose thread on the sheets. The tiny fairy was suddenly cloaked in sadness, and as much as he liked to believe himself immune to emotion, he felt too.
He tried to hide it, because emotion was a weakness in his line of work. Not as Rumpel’s personal valet, but as the master of the games. Time and again Giles had seen hearts shatter, seen dreams wither and die when a pledge realized that their life’s ambition would never be realized. Always he’d told himself that they’d known the rules before entering and if they failed it was on them.
But on occasion he’d felt the prick of remorse and had had to swallow it down deep. Knowing to give into it would cripple his ability to perform.
Now, with Danika before him staring down at the sheets with a look of hopelessness, he couldn’t turn it off. Because this time he knew the applicant, and though at times she vexed him, he liked her more than he ought to.
“What did she do?” he asked again.
It took another few seconds before Danika would look back at him. “Did you not wonder why her parents did not argue when you came to them?”
“Because Violet knew I’d be coming—”
Shaking her head, she cut him off in midsentence. “The Heartsong might be powerful, but she is not a mind reader. She knew because I told her. Because Shayera told me about your quest and immediately I concocted a plan, our last hope of salvation for that dear girl.”
“I don’t understand, is she dying now?” Just the thought of it made a strange buzzing sound in his ears. Lilith was so vivacious and lovely, full of youth and verve, why would anyone like her wish their death? It made no sense.
“I’m sure she is terrified out of her mind. Her petition was very specific, the child thought every last little detail through. There is hardly any wiggle room out of this mess.”
“What did she do, Danika?” he repeated more forcefully.
Squaring her shoulders, she looked at him. “She was thirteen and mocked daily because of the love shared between her father and mother. Not of the same species, it is a match highly frowned upon within their settlement.”
“So why didn’t they just move?”
“Because he was the Big Bad Wolf and she the Heartsong, evil incarnate. Who would take them in? Any other village and the two of them would likely have been stoned in their beds. At least there the pack physically left them alone, but the verbal abuse was horrific, especially for a child as tenderhearted as Lilith. The moment she’d gone through her reaping, she took the journey to Rumpel’s castle and pledged her soul to him. That she should never mate with anything outside of her species. And if she did, that she would keel over dead.” She snapped her fingers. “Problem is, wolf shifters are normally rotten bastards.”
He shook his head. “They’re regal and—”
“No, dear.” She shook her head slowly, picking at baby’s breath blossom on her bodice. “The actual wolves, yes, but not the shifters. Their humanity can be their greatest weakness. Their lust for violence and anarchy, their quick tempers… She could never fall in love with one of them. Lilith is an alpha, anathema to a shifter because of her headstrong and willful nature she would be reviled. Not seen as a peer but as someone trying to usurp their authority and leadership. And because a female alpha within shifter circles were so rare they would not understand the treasure they’ve been handed. Their callous and cruel nature would slowly destroy her.”
“So why pair her off with me in this manner? It is cruel. If she made the deal with Rumpel it cannot be undone.”
These revelations only hardened Giles’s resolve to stick to the plan. Retrieve the chalice and send Lilith back to the safety of her home. Perhaps there wouldn’t be a love match for her, but there were worse things in life. At least she had a clan to return to, a home where she was loved.
“You are not understanding, Giles. You saw what those wolves meant to do to her.”
“She was in heat.”
“No.” She swatted his words away. “The first night.”
His jaw clenched remembering the group of men, he’d wanted to rip them limb from limb for cornering her. For entrancing her as they had, very nearly raping her. “I’ll kill them if they try again.”
Her lips twitched. “Then there would be others. And others still. They don’t want her, Giles, none of them do. They want to break her. To own her. It is sport for them and nothing else.”
Standing, he began to pace. “Are you saying she can never return?”
“No. Not there. Not without a mate. It is her only source of protection now. She will move on to one pack after another, but the moment it is discovered who she really is, she will run. An endless vicious cycle for her, she has tainted blood. She is impure. She would never be cherished by a wolf. She couldn’t have known that when she made that deal, but it is the truth nonetheless.”
“Why should she even need a mate? She is a grown, beautiful woman. You say we’re in the twenty-first century—isn’t the idea of a mate antiquated?”
“You’re preaching to the choir there, demone.” She held up her hands. “I’m all
for blazing your own path, believe me. The idea of a fairy falling in love and marrying, it is blasphemy.” She shrugged. “And yet that did not stop me from doing just that with the Man in the Moon. Unfortunately, even fairies are more progressive than wolves. They’ve just barely evolved one step up from the Neanderthal. As much as I wish it were otherwise, it is what it is.”
“And so it is me or nothing.”
“Well, not entirely.” She thinned her lips. “It is demone as a whole. You see, when Lilith made the deal Rumpel asked her to specify which genus in particular she wished to stay away from. She mentioned all species of Kingdom, except—”
“For my kind,” he finished for her.
She touched the tip of her finger to the side of her nose. “Indeed.”
“Rumpel would not allow her into the castle to find herself a mate, Danika.”
Nodding vigorously, she gave him a look as if to say, Now you understand. But he wasn’t entirely sure he did just yet.
“Demone rarely venture outside of the castle. And once they do they are prompt to return. You are the first in centuries, and undoubtedly it will be years more before another comes along. By that point it might be too late.”
“So either I bind myself to her, or she faces an eternity of running?” He sighed.
Not that he didn’t enjoy her company. But that didn’t mean he meant to make it eternal. What did they know of one another? Other than she made him laugh and cooked terrible meals, and that sometimes she’d glance at him in a way that would make his breath catch and his body burn. But she was also slow to listen to his advice. Twice she’d run headlong into danger, once very nearly dying because of it.
His heart had nearly stopped beating in his chest at the sight of her bound and at the mercy of a sword’s blade. But then he recalled the kiss she’d given him after his rescue and how she’d looked at him in a way that shook him to his very core because he’d never known it before.
“Does she know? Is that why she was willing to run off with me? Is she hoping I will save her from herself?” he asked slowly, measuring each word, feeling the importance of it.
“Lilith is aware of how she is feeling, and knowing that cub as I do, I’m sure she’s terrified out of her mind. As far as she’s concerned she can fall in love with no one outside of her species or suffer death.”
“Why did she lick my finger?”
Standing, Danika smiled softly. “Because she likes you, Giles. She’s terribly confused. She understands that what she’s doing might very well end badly for her, and yet I believe that were you to ask her why, she’d simply say because it matters.”
“What matters?”
She shrugged. “Ask her, she’ll tell you.”
Giles shook his head. He set out on this journey with the mindset of finding the chalice and returning back to his castle. There’d been no other goal in mind. Falling in love had played no part in any of this, and he still wasn’t there. He liked her, true enough. But was that enough of a foundation to base ideals of love on?
“But my people, we do not mingle.”
“Who cares, Giles? Those are old conventions that mean nothing.”
“No, there are reasons. We are sterile outside of our species. I could never have a son, bear a daughter. Pass on my line.”
“Oh.” Her brows lifted. “That I did not know. Then I suppose it makes the decision all the harder for you. In truth, you do not need to take Lilith on as your mate. I understand that what I am asking isn’t part of your journey. You will find the chalice and return to your castle and your employment and your life can continue on as before. But I can promise you that if you choose to open your eyes and your heart, Lilith will bring you great joy.”
“But she believes this to be impossible anyway, so why would she even want me to?”
“Because as she’s matured she’s realized the truth of what she’s done. But I believe not until recently has the matter impressed itself upon her. I believe in my heart that she loves you, or is very nearly there, and love makes fools of us all.”
Giles clenched his jaw. He’d known Rumple his entire life, and that his prince would make such a deal, one that did not benefit him at all, it bothered him. Flexing his fingers, he watched as Danika began to slowly fade from sight.
“Why did Rumpel do that to her?”
Her ghostly smile was all he saw as she said, “I can only speculate. From here on out, her life is entirely in your hands.”
Lilith returned an hour later feeling exhausted but more determined than ever to focus on the task at hand. And that was retrieval of the chalice. For what purpose she still didn’t know, but it didn’t matter to her.
She’d made a fool of herself this morning and wouldn’t do it again. Giles couldn’t have made his position more clear, and regardless that she found him more fascinating than any other male she’d known before, he clearly did not feel the same.
Besides, she’d been playing a dangerous, stupid game with him. She knew full well the implications of her deal with Rumpel, that mating with anyone besides a wolf would mean her death.
Never could she have imagined the emotional strain she’d have to fight to stave off those powerful emotions. At thirteen she’d believed her willingness to never fall in love would have been enough to sustain her through her long-lived life. But now, only nineteen, she was beginning to comprehend the loneliness of the life she’d chosen for herself.
What St. John had attempted to do to her, it would only continue. Her parents knew that once this was over she was never coming back—she couldn’t. It was why she’d stared back at her home with a terrible sense of ache and longing when they’d passed the borders of her land.
If she went back the nightmares would only continue. Her brothers would be safe; they were each alphas and ran as their own pack, they had power enough to keep anyone away from them. But she was a female, one slip-up, one moment where she was out of their sights, and that would be it.
Even though she was an alpha, her will would never be stronger than a male’s. They would dominate and destroy her.
Pack law would not allow any mated wolf to molest another, so even though no one within her community cared for the fact that her mother and father were together, no one could ever harm Violet because of the way the laws of magic worked.
She, however, was under no such protection. As much as her family loved her and would do anything to protect her, they weren’t omniscient, and at some point somewhere she would be found and raped and made a slave to the perverse whims of the victor.
And she would rather kill herself first than to ever allow that to happen.
Staring at the shack, wondering if Giles had fallen asleep again, Lilith debated whether to spend the night outside camped under the stars. She’d not be bothered this night. This was sacred ground to shifters. Unless there was a bitch in heat pumping out her pheromones to every male wolf in the vicinity, the males generally left the clearing alone.
She could gather some moss and make herself a nice little nest, perhaps glamour herself to appear as something as deadly as a basilisk, who with a mere glance could turn any living thing to stone. No one would dare approach her then and she could sleep without being forced to share the knight’s presence.
Perhaps a little time apart would do them well. With any luck by morning she’d be able to plaster on a mask of antipathy and continue on as though nothing had happened between them.
Shifting quickly, she gathered up large clumps of moss and arranged them into a plush nest of sorts.
The bed was far from comfortable, but it was serviceable at least. Calling her magic she wove an illusion of a small green lizard with bright red eyes and then settled onto the spongy, cool bed.
“I hope you do not mean to sleep outside alone tonight. Especially when the bed is more than adequate.” Giles’s voice caused her to jerk in surprise.
He stood directly before her, gazing into her burning red eyes.
“I’m a
basilisk—you should show a little fear,” she hissed.
His lips just twitched. “One,” he held up a finger before sitting cross-legged before her, “basilisk don’t talk, they hiss.”
She snorted.
“Two,” he held up another finger, and this time she could see the ugly red wounds he’d acquired from his fight with the wolves last night, “I saw you change.” He dropped his hands to his knees.
Lilith’s stomach curled with tendrils of heat at the sight of him. His hair looked tousled and his face was lined with exhaustion. The way the moonlight played off the darkness of his skin reminded her of the glimmer of India ink. She wanted to swirl her finger upon his flesh and feel its heated smoothness once more.
As much as she told herself repeatedly to not allow the man anymore footholds in her heart, every time she saw him her caution flitted right out the window like birds in flight.
It was almost painfully hard to look upon him, especially with the memory of his rebuff so fresh. She was grateful to be in an altered form where he couldn’t see the play of emotions on her face. Right now she was a lizard without much in the way of facial expressions to judge her by.
He reached out a hand and his fingers brushed hot against her shoulder blade. She inhaled deeply at the spark of touch, her already-rioting insides turned to jelly, and she hadn’t a clue whether to bolt off or sit still and let him fondle her.
His hand continued its slow exploration down her bicep and forearm until he feathered the slightest of caresses against each fingertip. She shivered under the onslaught.
Finally he pulled his hand away.
“Why did you touch me like that?” she whispered.
Dragging his knee to his chest, he hugged his leg and shrugged. “Your illusions intrigue me. I see nothing but air, and yet you’re tangibly all there.”
So he hadn’t really wanted to touch her? Just experience a taste of her magic. Feeling like a deflated balloon, she sighed. “I’m tired tonight, Giles, why are you out here?”
“I wanted to tell you thank you for the meal, it was good. And I was…unkind. For that I’m sorry.”
