by Eva Chase
“Art.”
“I know.” His mouth grazed my skin again as it moved. A delicate, teasing heat. Almost begging me to lift my head so my lips could meet his. “I’m sorry. I know we can’t— You have no idea how hard it is not to even be able to kiss you.”
My heart fluttered. I set my jaw. I had to say it. “To kiss Emma.”
He swallowed audibly. “I’m not sure I know how to tell one part of you from the other anymore.”
Maybe he couldn’t, but I could. I could tell the part he’d never have wanted to kiss back when we’d been only ourselves. My soul had been in a body that didn’t suit him. Just because that had changed didn’t mean I didn’t remember. And conditional affection... No.
I’d learned over and over how much that hurt. He understood now. I’d been honest with him. I have loved you utterly always, I’d told him a few nights ago, after he’d accused me of rejecting him, of not caring enough. And you have only loved me sometimes.
That was the crux of the problem, wasn’t it? I’d never even known whether his affection and attraction meant anything at all or whether they’d only been conjured by the spell that bound us together, the closeness it created.
Of course, that bond was broken now. And he still wanted to hold me, to touch me like this. But it had only been a few days. Maybe this was only habit, an echo that would fade with the magic over time.
I’d let myself hope too many times. Even all the way back then, when I should have known there wasn’t a chance. A memory swam up, as if I needed the reminder.
“There’s nothing wrong with taking advice from others, Your Highness. I’d never suggest as much. Gods, I hope you listen to my advice now.”
“Then what exactly are you suggesting?” Arthur’s voice rang cold from the private alcove where one of the local lords had stopped him for this little chat. It was just down the hall from the king’s chambers, which was where I’d been heading when my fae-sharpened hearing had caught their conversation from down the castle hall. I stood now with my back braced against the hard plaster of the wall and my stomach twisting.
“He always has your ear. He’s always at your side. I’ve seen you change your mind after a few words from him—”
“Because I trust him,” Arthur interrupted. “Because he has proven himself right time and time again. He’s earned that trust.”
“My point is only that the extent of his influence... it’s concerning. You want to be seen as a king who rules with his own mind first.”
“And I do,” Arthur said, his voice absolutely icy now. “My mind tells me that my rule can only be stronger with Merlin’s support. If you have proof that he’s caused any harm, by all means, bring that to me. But all I’m hearing at the moment are vague and baseless assumptions.”
The lord muttered something else, but I could tell he’d been dismissed. I murmured a hasty distraction spell. He stalked past me down the hall without a glance in my direction, totally oblivious to my presence. Arthur strode into his chambers, shutting the door a little harder than necessary behind him.
My heart had squeezed. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know my king trusted me, valued my assistance. But hearing him defend me so firmly and absolutely left me a little short of breath. I gathered myself and continued my own walk to his chambers.
“Good afternoon, my liege,” I said breezily as I ambled in. No need to remind him of that troublesome conversation.
Unfortunately, my king knew me far too well now that I’d spent more than a dozen years in his service. He turned where he’d been standing by the chair near the door, and the second he caught my expression, he grimaced.
“You heard,” he said.
“Heard what?” I said. He cocked a skeptical eyebrow at me. “Oh, well, there might have been some lordly blathering carrying down the hall, but it didn’t sound like anything I should worry myself about.”
Arthur shook his head. “It really isn’t. If they could see everything you can do...”
“Hmm, let’s not push things too far. I spent most of my first year here afraid you might decide to send me to the chopping block for sorcery.”
He winced. Then he reached out to grasp my arm, just below the elbow. Not an intimate touch by any means, but these days, even a faint brush of one of those capable hands was enough to make my pulse leap. I steeled myself against my internal reactions. I couldn’t let them show. He couldn’t know that.
But he stepped closer, until there was less than a foot of space between us. His voice dropped low, making my heart thump even faster. “You do know you never have to worry, don’t you? I’d rather have you at my side than twenty of those preening lords. How can they understand loyalty when they barely know how to demonstrate it themselves?”
“I know,” I said. The words came out quiet. My king smiled. His gaze held mine. The rattle of my pulse echoed in my ears. For one instant of insanity, I almost thought his hand would rise from my arm to stroke my cheek, to draw me closer, to—
He stepped back, his eyes jerking away. “Well, maybe if you played the fool a little less, they’d see why I respect you.”
My head reeled for a second before I caught myself. “Ah, but then you’d be even more bored during those bloody conferences.”
“That’s true. Forget I said that.” He smiled again, with a distance that was only friendly. Damn my sodding overactive imagination.
That was all it’d ever been. Hope feeding my imagination. Wanting to read more into a kind word, a warm look. We’d been best friends, or as close to it as liege and subject could be. I hadn’t needed more.
Darton tipped my head so he could tuck it under his chin. I let out my breath, the twist of longing and tension in my chest relaxing now that his mouth was no longer quite so close to mine.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. “I’ve done that too many times already without meaning to.”
“I know,” I said. “This is enough, Art. It really is. As long as you’re by my side, I’m happy.”
I’d be a whole lot happier if I could count on keeping him there.
And I still had an awful lot of work to do toward that end. I started to straighten up, and this time Darton let me.
I’d just eased off of his lap when a pounding on the front door resonated through the house.
Chapter Eight
“You weren’t expecting anyone to stop by, were you?” I said, yanking open my closet. I grabbed a sweatshirt and jeans at random and tugged them on, modesty be damned. Darton was enough of a gentleman to avert his eyes anyway.
The knocking rang through the house again. “No,” Darton said. “Keevan and Izzy had exams to study for. They’d have called or texted if something important came up. And it’s not like I’m talking to anyone else about what we’re up to here.”
“Right. Well, let’s see who’s hassling us tonight. I’d have hoped we were too far off the beaten track for door-to-door solicitors to bother.” At least we could assume a dark fae army here to make good on the Darkest One’s promise wouldn’t have bothered with knocking. I was pretty sure of that.
Darton followed me into the living room. I was about to wave him back, to keep his distance while I opened the door, when a voice carried through it with the next knock. “Emma. Darton. If you’re in there, don’t leave an old friend hanging.”
It was Jagger’s voice. I hadn’t known the grizzled fae hunter very long, really, but considering he’d blown up his house to save the bunch of us not that long ago, I figured he’d earned the right to call himself an “old friend.” A smile leapt to my face as I hurried the rest of the way to the front hall.
Jagger was just turning away from the door when I opened it. His head jerked back around, his face lighting up under its spider web of pale scars. He grinned. “Good. I figured the car meant you were around.”
He hadn’t come alone. An even more recent friend stood beside him. Eric, the young fae hunter who’d come with his mother to give Darton and me a hand when
we’d arrived in Britain, ran his hand through his dark hair. He gave me a sheepish smile. “We meet again.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Oh. Hey. When did you get here? How did you get here?” With the tantrum the Darkest One was throwing over his country, it couldn’t have been easy to get out.
I stepped back to let them in. Eric shrugged, gripping the strap of his shoulder bag. “The network can create opportunities most people don’t have. I made it over to France and got a flight from there.”
“And I’d just made it back in town,” Jagger put in. “One of my buddies reported he’d seen you stopping by your parents’ place, so I knew you’d made it home relatively safely.” He gave me a questioning look.
The fae hunters had been invaluable allies, but I hadn’t given them the full story of my identity, or Darton’s. They didn’t know why the dark fae were so interested in us, only that the fae’s determination in coming after us obviously wasn’t good for anyone. So far it had seemed simpler not to complicate things by getting into legends and so on. Talking through the explanation with Keevan and Izzy had been hard enough.
“We made it back by the skin of our teeth.” I motioned for them to sit in the living room. Darton was still standing by the sofa, his expression hesitant. He’d gotten along with Jagger okay, but he and Eric... There’d been a bit of a clash. “You should have told us you were coming.”
“I tried,” Jagger said. “But it seems your old numbers aren’t doing me any good.”
Oh. Right. Which was the exact same reason I hadn’t reached out to him or Eric earlier. I’d gotten their phone numbers, but they’d been in the phone that was now being thoroughly rained on and wind-blasted back in Britain.
“Sorry about that,” I said with a grimace. “It’s been... kind of a chaotic few days. What’s going on?” My gaze shifted to Eric. “Why did you come all the way over here? Have you seen any activity from the dark fae—I mean, other than the obvious storm? Is your mother all right?”
He nodded. “She sends her best. We were pretty worried about you for a while there. But then Jagger mentioned you’d turned up back on this side of the pond... It sounded like this dark fae queen has a particular bone to pick with you. I figured she’d be heading this way before too long, so maybe you could use some extra help.”
It seemed like a long way to come when he hadn’t been able to help all that much with the actual fae-fighting even on his home turf. Maybe he simply hadn’t been able to tolerate sitting around in the middle of that storm, not knowing what was going on. But it was a generous gesture anyway.
“You’re probably right about her intended direction,” I said. “As, er, you may have figured out, we didn’t quite succeed in our plan the other day. We stopped the dark fae who was trying to free the Darkest One, but not soon enough. She’s totally free now. We’ve just been regrouping, observing, deciding on our best steps for trying to contain her again. I... I’m really sorry.” The country she was tearing through had once been my home, but it was currently Eric’s.
“Please. I’ve seen what a force of nature you are when you put your mind to something.” Eric gave me one of his flirty smiles. “I’m sure you gave it your all. I can only imagine matters would be much worse if you hadn’t intervened.”
“Well, that might be true.” I glanced at Darton, but his gaze was focused on me, not Eric. His expression had relaxed. A little jealousy had reared its head thanks to Eric’s flirtatious nature before, but that was also before I’d confessed my eternal love to my king. I guessed he felt a little more secure in my affections after that.
Jagger leaned forward, resting his sinewy elbows on his knees. “The whole fae hunter network is on high alert. The second we can act against the dark fae, we will—in any way we can. But the folks over in the U.K. have been pretty much overwhelmed. They haven’t even been able to determine what part of the country your dark fae menace is throwing her magic from, there’s so much of it whirling around in the atmosphere.”
“And the atmosphere is doing plenty of whirling of its own on top of that,” Eric said.
“I think the storm should let up before much longer,” I said. “Unfortunately that’ll be when she heads this way. I’ve laid all the protections I could think of around this house. A bunch of really determined dark fae, or a really powerful one, could still break through, but we’re about as safe as we can get. Beyond that... I’m still working on a solid plan.”
“If you need to put your head together with anyone...” Eric said, his smile returning. I managed not to roll my eyes. To my surprise, he turned to Darton next. “And you have that fancy magic sword of yours. Is that here? There was something I wanted to discuss with you about it. Maybe better as a private conversation to start, man to man.”
One of Darton’s eyebrows arched. “You want to have a private talk about my sword?” he said, not quite suppressing a note of snark.
Eric looked unfazed. “Unless that’s a problem.”
Darton glanced at me. I shrugged. I might have insisted on being in the loop, but they were only going to walk to the other room. If it was important, Darton would fill me in when they were done talking. He wouldn’t enjoy me babysitting the conversation. Anyway, it might be good if they put their heads together a little, in a constructive sort of way, after all the knocking heads they’d done last week.
“All right then.” Darton got up. He led the other guy into his bedroom, where he’d stashed Excalibur.
What could Eric possibly have found out about the sword I’d commissioned and enchanted that we didn’t already know? And that he felt he needed to talk to Darton about privately? I looked to Jagger, but he spread his hands.
“First I’m hearing about it,” he said. “I thought you’d want to know, though, that my guys didn’t see anything worrisome around your parents house while you two were away.”
I’d already guessed as much, but it was still a relief to have it confirmed. “Give them my thanks for keeping watch. And thank you. I’m sure I’ve set some kind of record for amount of trouble caused in under a month.”
Jagger laughed. “Ah, it’s worth it. After chasing after the occasional stray shadow varmints here and there most of my life, I’m finally getting to take on the big guns, if only from the sidelines. I’m glad to be involved at all.”
“Well, your help is more than appreciated.”
“Let me get that new number of yours,” he said. “I don’t want to be left out again.”
I took his phone and typed in the number for the disposable I’d picked up. “I’d guess the people in your network who monitor all those dark energies have noticed more fae activity stirring all over the place, not just in Britain.”
“You’d be right. Lots more activity. Lots more partial sightings. Nothing extremely intrusive, but it’s clear this dark fae lady’s influence has a wide range.”
“That’ll all end if we can deal with her,” I said. “I was wondering—”
A crack rang out, so loud and sharp it seemed to snap my eardrums. A... gunshot?
From Darton’s bedroom.
I threw myself to my feet. There was a thump. Someone shouted. And with a few murmured words, I apparated across the entire house to appear at the foot of Darton’s bed.
Chapter Nine
My feet hit the floor with a jolt. Darton and Eric were tussling by the door, Excalibur on the floor near their feet. Eric had a pistol clasped in one hand. He tried to swing it toward Darton. Darton shoved his arm to the side, but his own arm faltered. Blood was seeping through the fabric of his shirt over his shoulder.
I didn’t have time to find a wand or even a twig. Wrenching at the life energy inside my body, I spat out a phrase. “Melt it, meld it.”
A bolt of energy hit the gun. The pistol’s barrel warped in on itself, the opening collapsing. Eric stared at it in shock. Then he swung its blunt surface at Darton’s head.
I dashed forward to catch his wrist. Jagger burst in the door at the same moment.
He shoved Eric against the wall by his shoulders. “What the hell are you doing, kid?”
I turned to Darton. His mouth was twisted, his hand clamped to his bleeding shoulder. Beyond him, a dark circle showed where the bullet had dug into the wall.
“Let me see,” I said.
He shifted his hand. Blood smeared his fingers. “I don’t want you using any more of your own energy to heal me,” he said through partly gritted teeth. “I can wait long enough for you to get a wand.”
I eased back the torn fabric of his shirt. The bullet had grazed him, taking a chunk of flesh with it, about a quarter of an inch deep and an inch across. The wound was bloody and painful, but nowhere near fatal. Easier to patch up than what I’d done to my hand yesterday.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Eric said raggedly. He grunted as he struggled against Jagger’s hold. “We have to think about protecting everyone.”
“What in light’s name are you talking about?” I snapped. Patting myself down, I found a spare twig in my pocket. I gripped it and murmured to seal the skin over Darton’s wound. The twig crumpled in my hand. “What happened?” I asked my king. After what Eric had done, I didn’t trust his account of the situation.
“I turned around to pick up the sword,” Darton said. “He must have had the gun in his bag. I looked back just as he was about to shoot.” He glanced down at Excalibur with a slanted smile. “I should probably be thanking that fencing training. I managed to smack his arm to the side with a quick block. Didn’t even realize what I was doing or why until after instinct kicked in.”
“As long as he’s alive, he’s a danger to the entire world,” Eric said. His words rippled into me, setting off the itch in my muscles. The itch of the oath. I stepped toward him, my eyes narrowing and my arms crossing over my chest to hold the urge in check.
