Link nodded. “Tha looks to be the way of it. They tracked Mad for a while, and we dealt with them as they came. When the last one standing couldn’t kill us, he went for Meara.” Link shook his head. “She was a good lass. Didn’t deserve what they did to her.”
The pieces started to fall into place like slow-moving dominoes waiting for me to push them over. “But they’re targeting me now. It was two separate attacks, then. The Sluagh guy is after me, and Morgan le Fae sent the peludas to kill me, too.”
“Aye. The Sluagh’s after ye because ye were engaged to Mad. There’s only one nasty Sluagh left. We can’t seem to get our hands on him, no matter how hard we try. He resurfaces a few times a year, but we manage to fend him off. Now tha we’re rooted here, it’s a bit more complicated.”
“But I’m not Mad’s fiancée anymore. Why didn’t the last Sluagh dude lose interest?”
“Because they’re manky spirits, Rosie. They don’t see much reason.” Link swallowed hard, his eyes on his boots. “Mad loves ye, so the last Sluagh will have your soul. Then he’ll do what he likes with your body once he gets ye.”
28
Morgan’s Best Laid Plans
My mouth was dry, and my ears felt like they were filled with cotton. “They did stuff to Meara’s dead body?” I finally asked, cutting through the many questions and accusations the men fired at each other.
“Mad was going crazy from the hunt for the last Sluagh, searching for Meara’s body. When we found her...” Link looked out my window, seeing something that wasn’t there, as if searching out a memory he’d blocked from his mind long ago. “I went to the pub to blow off some steam after seeing sweet Meara like tha. I didn’t know Mad would call the Cheval Mallet while I was out. I was at the pub for a couple hours, and when I came home, he was gone.”
Bastien’s voice was tensed. “So now it’s come here to kill Rosie and steal her soul?”
Link’s chin touched his chest, his shame palpable. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think they’d follow us to Avalon. Sluaghs are only known to do their dark deeds in Éireland.”
Kerdik’s response was tart. “That’s quite the oversight. Sluaghs stay mostly in Éireland because you have a colder climate, which the undead prefer. But they can travel and glean from anywhere they please. You brought chaos into Urien’s home, and now there’s a target on his daughter.”
Link ran his hands through his honey-colored hair, messing the follicles and trying to find an answer that was both truthful and not damning. “Aye, but we didn’t know the last Sluagh would track us here.”
I swallowed hard, banding my arms around my waist. “So the last Sluagh’s after me because he thinks Mad loves me?”
Link softened. “Mad does love ye. And yes, tha’s what I can make of it. I didn’t realize the cloaked man ye described was a Sluagh, but then I saw the ravens coming in from the west when ye were being attacked by the peludas. The ravens always come first. Then your cloaked man appeared, and there he was. I tried to kill him, Rosie, but I was also trying to keep ye from being eaten by the peludas.”
I suddenly felt two hands on the small of my back, silently dueling for purchase on the coveted space. Kerdik and Bastien closed in on either side of me, as if they expected I might be snatched at in the next five seconds. “So he brought in the peluda monsters to finish me off?”
Draper fielded this one, his eyes darting to the guys warily, warning them to be cool. “No, those were courtesy of Morgan. She tied a ransom note to one of the peludas’ necks. The men found it after they’d slaughtered the beasts.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose in consternation. “Super. So the Sluagh dude wants to kill me, and can activate Mad, the super soldier, to get at me. Add that to Morgan still being pissed that I have the jewels, plus a ton of her people. What’s she holding over my head this time? She already let Demi get killed.” Throwing out the horror so cavalierly made me wince, but just speaking the terrifying event aloud helped me name the beast, which made me hope that one day somehow I might get a little closure on it all. That was my theory, anyway.
Draper pursed his lips and blew out a loud breath of unconcealed nerves. “Before you get worked up, know that a small battalion’s already forming. They’re going without you, so promise me that you understand that you’re to stay here.”
My eyes rose up to the ceiling at the big brothering, but on the inside, my guts started to roil. “I’ll be a good little princess and stay here. What’s she threatening this time?”
I could practically hear the words before they came out of Draper’s mouth, as if my whole world had been set up to break down into slow-motion. My mouth went dry and my palms started to sweat when Draper lowered his head. “Her soldiers intercepted Lane, Reyn, Damond and Remy on their way back from Lot’s kingdom. She’s holding them in her dungeon until you give up the jewels.”
I didn’t hear much else. I think I spaced out for a solid minute before my feet started moving of their own accord. I went to my wardrobe and shoved my toes into work boots, lacing them up without participating in the conversation in which Kerdik was asking question after question. It wasn’t until my hand slipped on the doorknob that Link and Bastien came to life and stopped my progression by slamming the door shut and holding their hulking arms across the exit, so I couldn’t get out. “Move, please,” I requested quietly.
Bastien shook his head, his mood somber and respectful of my crushing agony that someone would snatch at my mom. “You know I can’t do that, Daisy. You’re staying here. The people need you. They just lost hundreds of their own from the poisoned wells. You have to stay here with Urien. We’re going to try and extract Lane, Reyn, Remy, Damond and…” He cleared his throat, stopping himself short. “We’re trying to get them out in secret. We just don’t have the manpower to send in our men. Our guys are tradesmen, shepherds and farmers, for the most part; Morgan’s got a whole army to defend herself with. We have to be smart.”
Draper spoke up from the bed. “Duke Lot’s sending a group of his fastest riders to meet our search party halfway, so we’re not alone.”
“Give Morgan the Jewels of Good Fortune,” I ruled as I whirled around, resolute that this would all end in the next five seconds. “Give her whatever she wants.”
Draper was levelheaded when I was ready to go all kamikaze. “No. The welfare of the kingdom is worth more than one life – even Lane knows that. You can’t betray your people. I know it comes from a good place, but it’s not the right move. If you cave now, then Morgan knows all she has to do is keep abducting Lane, and you’ll hand over whatever she’s got her eye on. This is her first move in a series of moves to take control again. Trust me Ro, Morgan has no intention of giving Lane back. Even if you marched in there with all the missing jewels, she’d kill Lane right in front of you just to show you she can.” Draper ran his hand over his face, his expression hard. “Though believe me, I had the same thought when I first found out. Dad had to knock a fair bit of sense into me.”
Draper’s logic was solid, but I didn’t care. “Whatever. I’m going. If I can’t figure out how to bust her, Reyn, Damond and Remy out, I’ll trade myself for them. Morgan hates me most anyways. She’d go for it.” I gulped when images of the torture I guessed she’d have in store for me plagued my vindictive imagination. Whatever. “Morgan can have me, but she can’t have Lane. The world needs Lane.”
Bastien wrapped me in a hug from behind, his lips pressing to my temple. “Remember that promise you just made your brother that you’d stay in the palace? It’s still in effect. You’re not going. You’re staying right here.”
My breath came in shallow pants as the many possibilities dawned on me, playing with my worst fears and showing them to me in various twisted forms. “I can’t wait here like a chump while Lane’s scared, Bastien! She puts up a good front, but she can’t handle this! Her own sister holding her hostage?” I tried to wriggle out of Bastien’s hug, but his arms tightened around my torso to ensure I didn’t escap
e. “Let me go! Lane’s my mother!”
Bastien barely jostled with my fight, so I implored my whole body to try and get myself free. My legs kicked up, and my head thrashed around wildly until Link came to his aid, the jag. Link sandwiched me with his arms hugging Bastien, so my face was pressed to his chest. “Settle, Rosie. I’ll go with Bastien to make sure he comes back to ye in one piece.”
Fear like none other lit me up from the inside. “No! No, Bastien can’t go! That’s exactly what she’ll be hoping you’ll do!” My shallow breaths were now on the verge of hyperventilating gasps as Link tightened his grip on Bastien’s shoulders, squishing me so I couldn’t knee him in the groin to escape. When my best fight wasn’t enough, I wailed the name that sliced a tear through my unhealed heart. “Demi!” I felt Bastien stiffen, but I didn’t stop. “She let Demi get beheaded because I loved him! She’ll kill you, Bastien! There’s no way that’s not in her plan. You can’t go! You can’t! I can’t go through that again! I can’t hold your head in my hands like I held Demi in the well. I can’t do it!”
Bastien had the nerve to coo at my anxiety, which morphed me into a ball of rage. I renewed my efforts to get away, and thrashed with unquenchable devotion to my desire to escape. “Hey, it’s alright. I’m Untouchable. She can’t hurt me, Daisy.”
Tears sprang to my eyes, and though I should’ve been expecting the red goo to cloud my vision, I panicked anew when I couldn’t breathe, and on top of it, couldn’t see. Link jumped back from the horrific sight that was me bleeding from my tear ducts, the red drooling all down my face. He cried out, his hand over his mouth. “Jays! Somebody stop her! Rosie, no more!”
Though Kerdik had explained my body’s new quirk, it was frightening all the way around. It wasn’t until Kerdik shoved Link aside and brushed his fingers down my face that I quieted from shrieks of fear to mere whimpers of a girl on the verge. Water dripped from his fingertips, and he shushed me as he washed my face. “Darling, it’s okay. Bastien’s right; Morgan won’t touch him. She can’t. The rule of the Untouchables is the highest law in Avalon. Even if she ordered it, no soldier in his right mind would carry it out. And Bastien can handle the ones not in their right minds well enough.”
Bastien was surprisingly calm. “He’s right, Daisy. I have to get Reyn. I can’t leave him to rot in Morgan’s dungeon.”
“You don’t think Morgan knows that? You don’t think she set this up as a trap? Come on, Bastien! You know she’s trying to lure you in. What other possible use could Reyn have to her?”
Bastien leaned his forehead to the back of my head, and I could practically feel the agony radiating off of him. “She’ll use Reyn to torment Lane. They publicly announced their engagement in Province 5 while visiting Lot. Morgan doesn’t have any use for Reyn other than to take something precious from Lane and break it in front of her. That’s how she works – it’s what she did with you and Demi. I have to go get him.”
I was shaking in Bastien’s firm grip, his chest moving steadily against my back, while Kerdik stroked my cheeks with his wet fingers. “Let me come with you,” I begged in a whisper. “I can be the bait. She’ll trade me for the two of them, no problem. She’ll probably even throw in Remy and Damond if we play our cards right.”
Bastien placed a pained kiss to the nape of my neck. “It’s like you don’t know me at all. That you think I would trade you for the whole kingdom shows how little you get that I’m in deep for you. You’re staying in this palace. If I have to tie you to a chair myself, I will.”
I gasped, but Kerdik was unperturbed. “No need.” Then he closed his eyes, held my face and murmured a string of syllables that sounded like evil sorcerer kind of gibberish. When he opened his eyes, he brought my wrists up between us and exhaled on the tender insides, giving me the shivers. “She won’t involve herself now,” Kerdik assured everyone. “She’ll be staying inside the palace until I say so.”
My upper lip curled in a sneer. “I’d like to know who you think you’re talking to. I said I was going, so that’s where I’ll be. I’ll send you a postcard when I get there.”
Kerdik smiled at my sass, as if he found our bickering adorable, which only steamed me more. “You’re bound with an écrouer charm, which means you won’t be going anywhere. You won’t be able to set foot outside the palace until I release you, which I have no intention of doing. This manic desire to throw yourself to the wolves needs to get out of your pretty little head.”
I had a strong desire to run to the nearest exit, just to prove him wrong. “Let. Me. Go,” I seethed, speaking to both men, who were just as stubborn as I was. It was one of the things I loved about them – their unbendable spirits, fierce and awe-inspiring. Now it was just plain pissing me off.
Kerdik acted as if I was a pouting five-year-old, his cheek dimpling with indulgence. He brushed a few stray curls from my face, ignoring my feral snarls that came through clenched teeth. “I’ll see if I can’t find this Sluagh who’s haunting you. After I tear his soul-sucking body apart, I’ll catch up with Bastien and the rescue team.”
“I can handle the Sluagh,” I claimed foolishly. I knew I was all talk; dude had already bested me twice now. I just couldn’t stand the thought of Lane in the dungeon one more second. “Lane! You don’t understand, because you don’t need anybody. But I do. I need my mom. Please.”
“How wrong you are to think I don’t need you.” He cupped my cheeks, ignoring Bastien’s low growl, warning Kerdik that he was about six inches too close to me. “Your life comes first; everything else is a distant second.” Then Kerdik took a chance with his immortal life, and leaned in to brush his lips to mine.
The pledge was so beautiful and precious, that I didn’t pull away or lash out.
Bastien was not quite as tranquil. He moved me to the side and pulled back his fist to take a swing at Kerdik. Though Bastien was bigger, Kerdik was just plain more powerful. He caught Bastien’s fist and tsked him, as if Bastien was a naughty boy. “My, my. You seem to forget your place, worm. Save your brute strength for freeing your friend and your love’s mother. For her sake, I’ll spare you my wrath today.” Then with a ferocious glint to his eye, he warned, “Only today.”
“You don’t kiss my girlfriend and act like you get to walk away with your face intact. Rosie, do you want Kerdik to kiss you?”
I rubbed the nape of my neck with chagrin, confused as to how we’d gotten so off-topic. “I’m with Bastien now, Kerdik, so you can’t kiss me anymore.”
Kerdik’s eyes narrowed. “I do as I please, and being near you pleases me. Now give your lueur to a Brownie you trust, and Bastien will be on his way.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “Huh?”
“Give us a minute, guys,” Bastien said to the others as he pulled me out into the hallway. He shut the door and tugged me into the next room, which was empty, and probably had been used as a guest room at one point or another. The lackluster bed had no posts, headboard or footboard, but it was nice enough, with a desk in the corner and emerald-colored silk tapestries to match the rest of the house. As soon as Bastien shut us in the room together, he heaved a breath of relief that we were finally alone. “There are too many people in our business. I can barely think.” He came to himself a marginal amount and pointed his finger at me. “No more kissing other men. I don’t care how immortal they are.”
I lowered my chin in contrition. “I can get on board with that. What’s this business about giving someone else my lueur? I don’t like that idea.”
“It’s necessary, babe. I’m going to bust everyone out of Morgan’s dungeon. I don’t want to take your lueur that far from you again. That was awful, having part of you, but not all of you. I know it messed you up too, being divided like that. We need someone you trust who’ll guard you, and who will also give back your lueur without a fight when I come home.”
I shrugged, chewing on my lower lip as I stared at my boots. “I dunno. I mean, a few of the guys I work with on the wall are Brownies, I think. I prefer so
meone I already know. Someone we already trust. How do you feel about Montel?” I recalled my friend’s light brown eyes.
Bastien’s mouth drew to the side as he thought over my suggestion. “I could see that working. He’s not exactly dead weight, though he’s not a soldier, either.”
“Draper trusts him to work next to me and walk me home at night. I wouldn’t mind hanging with Montel for a while.” When I met his eyes, I tried to communicate my plea quietly, since attempting to barrel my way out to get to Lane did nothing but get me incarcerated inside my own home. “I don’t like you going off to Morgan’s. She’ll hurt you, Bastien.”
Of all things, Bastien smiled. The corner of his mouth turned upward in time with his notched eyebrow, as if he thought a threat on his life was cute. “I’m going to make sure she can never get at you again. I’m taking Mad with me, and we’re putting an end to her.”
My intake of breath probably shouldn’t have happened, but there it was all the same. My boyfriend wanted to murder my biological mother, and part of me thought that was a good idea. I hung my head in shame. “What kind of a person does it make me that I’m mostly okay with you putting down my birth mother?”
Bastien reached out to stroke my hip, tethering me to him when I felt on the edge of drifting off into my own abyss. “The kind of person who has true goodness in her, plus an evil mother.” He leaned his forehead to mine, his hands moving around my torso in a loose hug that kept me centered. “Tell me not to kill Morgan.”
I considered his plea, and after a few beats, obliged. “Please, Bastien. Don’t kill my mother.”
He kissed my lips once, softly and so quietly, it felt like we were trying to hide a secret from the empty room. “I have to, Daisy. Avalon can’t unite with her on the throne, and I can’t let it slide that she attacked Lane, Reyn, Damond, Remy, and...” He cleared his throat. “You tried to stop me just now, so your conscience is clear. I’m acting on my own with this, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Broken Girl: A Fantasy Adventure Based in French Folklore (Faite Falling Book 5) Page 18
