At once the entire staff fell to their knees, heads bowed so low, their foreheads touched the floor. “Oh, jeez. Kerdik, it’s alright. Thank you for being sweet to me, but this isn’t how we run the household. You’re all fine. I’m just a little out of sorts, I guess.” They picked up their heads tentatively, but didn’t rise. “Someone want to tell me what I missed in the last two days?”
Jean-Luc and Montel burst through the front door, panting at the news they needed to confirm with their eyes. Montel’s mouth was agape at the sight of me. “Princess! You’re injured! You’re covered in blood! We thought you dead! The Untouchables have been going mad trying to find your body. Jean-Luc, do something!”
“Where did he take you? How is it you’re whole? It worked, then? Kerdik’s blood healed you? Or did it make you worse off? I honestly can’t tell with all the blood. Though, you’re upright, so that’s a definite benefit,” Jean-Luc said in a flurry of words.
I nodded to Jean-Luc, but didn’t answer aloud. The last thing I needed was people trying to attack Kerdik for the use of his blood. “Kerdik gave me some rare herbs, and basically did what you told him to do, Jean-Luc, and here I am.”
Kerdik’s arms tightened around me, no doubt miffed that I’d cheated him out of the almighty credit. “You’ve all seen her now, so go on about your business. She’s not a fountain to be gawked at for your amusement.”
“Please, someone tell me where my dad is. And what about Draper or Bastien? Has anyone seen them around?”
Montel motioned me toward him and Jean-Luc when the others scurried away without a word. “Come with us. We’ll fill you in on everything you need to know. Let’s go to the study.”
I made to follow, but Kerdik held me tight. “She’s not going to hold court dressed in a wet, bloody nightgown. You can explain things to her upstairs, where she can change into something people won’t gawk at her in.”
I obeyed, moving forward with Kerdik’s arm around my waist. He kept me tucked tight to his side, not permitting an inch of space between us. I was worried at the unfocused state of the house, and it seemed Kerdik had the same misgivings. Something had happened while I was away, and until I had everyone back under the roof where I could see them, I wasn’t going to be able to calm down.
We moved quickly up the stairs, though Kerdik held my elbow and my hand, escorting me as if I was fragile, and might fall without his support. My bare feet tiptoed on the stone steps, feeling cold with trepidation. When we entered my bedroom, my chest heaved to find Draper sitting up in the bed. His arms were the only ones I’d seen that I would leave Kerdik’s for. I ran to my brother and jumped up on the mattress, crawling to him in my bloody nightgown so I could fling my arms around his neck.
“Rosie! You’re alive?” He let out a grateful sob as we held each other. “The blood! So much of it. Jean-Luc, hurry! Do something!”
I kissed Draper’s cheeks four times apiece before answering. “I’m not hurt. Kerdik saved my life. That’s where we were. He took me so that I had time to heal up.”
Draper cupped my cheeks, his eyes sparkling with moisture as he took in my face. “I wouldn’t have survived if you’d died. Remember that.”
I nodded, kissing his forehead before I realized that I was essentially pushing my bloody boobs in my brother’s face. “Let me wash up and get dressed. You’re okay, though?”
“Um, not really. Everyone’s searching for you, readying to fight, but my legs still aren’t cooperating. I’ve been stuck here since I woke up.” He stared at my shoulder, perplexed. “Your skin looks… different. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’ve got my brother back. What more could a girl need?” I grabbed clean clothes while Kerdik slipped behind the partition to fill the tub for me. “So what’d I miss?”
Before anyone could explain what their reluctant covert glances meant, the bedroom door banged open, startling all of us. Kerdik ran out from behind the partition, his hands raised to dole out whatever magic could send a reckoning to the intruder. His arms deflated when he saw who it was. “Oh, you again.”
I turned around and saw the most beautiful sight I could’ve hoped for. Bastien was unshaven, unshowered, flannel shirt untucked, and completely and totally perfect. His mouth fell open as he took me in from head to toe. He let out a bleat of anxiety, stumbling as he closed the distance between us. “Jean-Luc, help her! Rosie, how are you… Where are you hurt? I… but they told me your body was…” The words didn’t matter anymore. Bastien crashed into me, forgetting our audience and kissing my lips the way they were meant to be seduced – stripped of all reserve. His arms around my waist tightened and lifted me so that my toes were two inches from the rug. His eyes squinched shut like he was in pain, and the moan he let out when he tasted my lips sounded equally agonized and relieved. I could feel his ache from our separation, and the elation at having me in his arms again. My lueur inside of him had kept him from finding rest, and had kept me from finding any sort of peace for very long, even in fake Heaven.
Link shut the door so that the household didn’t see our reunion. “Welcome back from the dead, Rosie. I think our boy missed ye just a wee bit.”
Bastien finally set my toes back on the floor when Draper and Link started whistling and catcalling at our display. He couldn’t stop kissing my face, but finally pulled back when he caught sight of my one freaky peach eye. “Rosie, your eye! It’s… Where did you take her?” he demanded of Kerdik.
Kerdik straightened with a sneer. “You’ll watch your tone with me. I don’t answer to you.”
I turned to Montel, trying to assemble my bearings. “Montel, would you mind going down to the kitchen and waiting for the cook to put together some food for us? I’ve got to talk to the guys about some family stuff.”
“Of course, your majesty.” Montel bowed to me, which wasn’t like him when we were on the wall together, but I knew Kerdik got people all turned around. Before he left, he met my eyes, startled when he noticed the wonky color. He recovered gracefully, swallowing his nerves when he parted with a, “I’m so glad you’re well, and that you’re home safe.”
I smiled at him, and waited for the door to shut. Then I let my shoulders drop and my body sag against Bastien’s. It was a delicious relief to be near him. Couple that with the fact that I hadn’t eaten in two whole days, and I was a little woozy from all the excitement.
“Easy, babe. Let’s lie you down. What’s all this blood from?”
“I’m not hurt at all. Better than new, actually.” I shook my head. “Where’s my dad, and where’s Mad?”
“Madigan’s gathering the army, and Dad’s with a few men, knocking on every door to see if anyone knows anything about your disappearance.” Draper pointed to the partition. “Wash up, and then start talking, little bird.”
“I’ll help you in the bath. I need to check your injuries anyway.”
“I promise you, Jean-Luc, there’s not a scratch on me. I don’t need help, but thank you. I’m just exhausted, hungry, and you know, glad to be home.”
“I’ll help her,” Bastien insisted, not taking no for an answer. “What? She’s my charge. I need to know if she’s injured.” His arm around me was firm and steady as he led me past Kerdik, who met my eye with silent agony that Bastien was going to see me naked in the tub he’d drawn for me.
I caught Kerdik’s arm, pausing our slow progression to the partition. “Kerdik, would you mind explaining what you know to Jean-Luc and the others? I didn’t tell him down there in front of everyone because I didn’t want to make you a target.”
Kerdik’s nose scrunched. “What are you talking about? Who’s foolish enough to target me?”
“People who find out your blood can bring people back from the brink of death. I don’t want people attacking you for your blood, so the confession stays here.”
Kerdik straightened in confusion. “You’re trying to protect me? That’s not how this works. I protect you.”
“I think you need to learn
a thing or two about me. I don’t feed the people I love to the wolves.”
Kerdik let a little of our secret rapture for each other slip through in his passionate stare. Then he disregarded Bastien’s presence and reached out to touch my cheek. “I’ll tell them everything they need to know. You go wash up.”
Bastien led me away from Kerdik and behind the divider to our own private little hutch. It felt just separate enough for me to feel the heat of his stare, and still be able to hear Kerdik walk them through what they’d missed.
Bastien didn’t say a word as he lifted my bloody nightgown over my head, and I didn’t stop him. He kissed my lips, sending shivers through the both of us. His eyes poured over my body, trying to be clinical as he searched for abrasions on his charge, but he failed miserably. I could see the lust and feel his eyes caressing my curves. His voice came out in a husky whisper that made my knees tremble. “If your brother wasn’t right out there, I would memorize every inch of your body with my tongue.”
Kerdik’s voice cut through our sexy moment with an unforgiving sharpness. “Her brother might not be able to hear you, but I can.”
“Good!” Bastien shot back without apology. He held my hand above my head, and turned me around in a slow twirl so he could see my body from every angle. I felt like a ballerina on a music box, beautiful and precious. It was a steep change from the disaster of the first time he’d seen me naked. His brows furrowed, and then he turned around so I could take off my underwear and step into the tub. “What’s all this blood from?”
Kerdik explained with clinical detachment everything that had changed as a result of him giving me his blood. He conveniently left out the fact that I could kiss him now without breathing fire, for which I was grateful.
I washed myself thoroughly, scrubbing the dried blood that had caked between my fingers and streaked my body in cruel ribbons. I didn’t want to confess my sin to Bastien, but knew that I couldn’t take the adoring look in his eyes without telling him the truth. I wanted to deserve his affection, not lie to him to keep it. In a whisper that shook me, I said, “I thought I was dead when I woke up, that I was in some sort of afterlife. I didn’t know I would be able to come back to you.”
“Oh, that’s terrible.” Bastien’s compassion made the guilt roil under my skin, and I knew I had to come clean before the deception ate me alive.
He still had his back to me, and somehow talking to the back of his head made the confession a little easier. I got out of the tub and worked the towel around my body, hoping my next words wouldn’t push him away.
“When I thought I was dead, and a couple times when we weren’t together, I kissed Kerdik. I didn’t know, Bastien. I thought…”
Bastien turned around to face me. His eyes widened, his expression steeled, and then a few heartbeats later, his shoulders deflated. “It’s okay. Even if you’d known, you were clear that we weren’t back together yet. Stings, but I get it.”
I mulled over the logic, grateful he’d come to it first. “I want to be together, now that you’re not drunk, and I’m not dead.”
Bastien met my gaze, and we searched each other for signs of flight. When he finally spoke, it was slow and quiet, his breath tickling my nose. “You and me, then. I’m in.”
My heart swelled as my cheeks lifted in a smile that couldn’t be contained. We’d been through so much just to get us to this place. I wanted to get closer, to forget the world and sink into his arms until the craziness stopped spinning.
Bastien kissed my lips once, inviting me in, instead of pushing me away. The stark contrast was not lost on me. He kissed my lips over and over, keeping our light moans muted so the others wouldn’t know the tawdry things we were up to behind the partition. I mean, obviously they knew, but we tried to keep quiet all the same.
The scent of the stew I’d grown attached to was brought into the room, distracting me from the sensual moment when my stomach growled. Bastien’s eyes were lidded when I pulled back from our kiss, stepping toward the stool to slide on my clothes. He wet his lips, and I could practically feel the desire rolling off him, matching my own. We were going to be in a whole heap of trouble if we weren’t afforded a smidge more privacy than this.
When we rejoined the others, Kerdik had caught them up to speed, but I was still in the dark. “Anybody want to tell me what I missed while I was out?”
Draper’s eyes darted to Link, who looked to the side to let us all know that he wasn’t about to be the one dropping the bomb on my head. Draper rubbed the back of his neck, staring down at his knees on the mattress. “We lost four-hundred-thirty people while you were out. They didn’t get the guérison elixir with a queen’s touch because you couldn’t get through everyone before the peludas attacked, so they succumbed to the poison and died.” Draper paused only for my gasp of shock and guilt, but pressed on. “The peludas attacking our village were meant to take you out.”
“I gathered as much when the whole herd surrounded me.” I wanted to apologize for being unable to heal the people who had died, but I knew nothing I said would bring them back. Instead, I tried to focus on the problems that were still unfolding, putting off my self-flagellation for later. “Is Morgan up to her normal awesomeness again?”
Draper nodded. “I don’t understand why she would try and kill you like that.”
I shrugged, poking at a guess I’d been pondering. “I don’t think it was supposed to kill me. I think she was testing my ability to hear unknown languages. Like, she knows I can talk to animals, but she didn’t know if I could communicate with mutant creatures. Now, I guess she knows.”
Draper’s jaw dropped. “Those are some high stakes for an experiment.”
“What else would you expect from a megalomaniac?” I scratched an itch on my elbow. “And did we find out who black cloaked dude was? Sluagh or something?”
Draper swallowed twice before words came to him. It was then that I noticed Bastien and Link were looking at their boots, avoiding my eyes at all costs. “A Sluagh is a spirit from Link’s country, not Avalon. That one came here isn’t good, Ro.”
“You want to be more specific? He didn’t look like a spirit. I mean, he touched me without his arm going straight through me. Did Morgan send the Sluagh guy after me?”
Link stretched out his collar as if it was too tight, and finally found his voice. “It’s a spirit with a body. We – Mad and me – back when we first got out of our queen’s army, do ye remember what I told ye we did?”
I nodded, recalling our conversation shared in the cell. “Yeah. You two got your Untouchable marks, and went to the compound Mad was trained in. You took out the young boys, locked the doors and lit the place up to stop them from making any more child soldiers.”
Link bobbed his head, and waited a few more beats before the words came to him. I could tell Kerdik was growing impatient, but he waited out the tensed silence by moving to my other side. His hand rested on the small of my back, relaxing my posture while simultaneously stiffening Bastien’s.
“No,” Bastien ruled, taking the proverbial microphone from Link to highlight his personal vendetta. “You don’t touch her there.” He removed Kerdik’s hand from my back as if it was a chewed piece of gum on my shirt.
Kerdik was livid. “I’d like to know when you thought your Untouchable status extended to me, worm.”
Bastien didn’t answer, but merely shrugged, as if to say that this was the way things would be, no matter who had more power in Avalon.
Kerdik studied Bastien’s resolve, and then pfft’d in his face, deciding the buzzing fly wasn’t worth the effort of swatting. “I’ll do as I please, and being near Rosie pleases me.”
I clapped my hands before the idiocy got out of hand. “Enough, both of you. I’m in both your lives, so best deal with it and get along. Bastien, Kerdik’s my best friend, so suck it up. Kerdik, Bastien’s my boyfriend now, which you knew was coming, so be cool. Moving on.” My cheeks were warm, but I was determined not to lose what little lady
like demeanor I had at my disposal. This would not turn into Jerry Springer, so help me. “Link, you were saying.”
Link rubbed the nape of his neck nervously. “When they died, a flock of ravens flew up from the smoke and bolted eastward in the sky. It… We didn’t mean to… We didn’t know.”
Kerdik closed his eyes as if Link’s incompetence pained him. “You and Madigan created an army of Sluaghs? You traded an army of men for an army of Sluaghs? Is this truly what you’re telling me?”
Link hung his head in shame, while Bastien gaped at his friend. “Are you serious, Link?”
“Aye. Wish I wasn’t. We set to killing all the Sluaghs we unleashed on Faîte. There were forty-eight soldiers, and we’ve killed forty-seven Sluaghs, if tha helps. But ye never know if there were more than we realized. We think there’s only one left, but he’s a bugger of a problem, tha last one. In the beginning, they were tracking Mad, I think.” His voice dropped to just above a whisper. “Tha’s how Meara died. The last Sluagh couldn’t best him, so he targeted Mad’s lady. Took her soul and then did… bad things with her body.”
My hand flew over my mouth to stifle my gasp. I wanted to run to Mad and throw my arms around him. “Where is he? Is Mad alright?”
“Aye. Everyone knows it’s a wasted effort to go after him. The Sluagh eventually learned the same.”
I rubbed my temples, trying to sort out my confusion. “Wait, back up. What the crap is a Sluagh? Like, textbook it for me.”
Kerdik was patient as he turned to explain things to me, while everyone else’s jaw remained on the floor. “A Sluagh is a Fae gone wrong. It’s a wicked Fae that dies and comes back as a malicious spirit, whose mission is to suck out the souls from the living – souls of the good or the bad. Sluaghs aren’t truly alive or dead, but each soul they steal makes them stronger. They become a collection of stolen souls.” He turned to Link with a steely expression. “Your dear Link and his friend unleashed a slew of malevolent soul collectors on the world all at once.” He paused and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And now this last one’s after Madigan?”
Broken Girl: A Fantasy Adventure Based in French Folklore (Faite Falling Book 5) Page 17
