Guardians of Hellfire (Guardians of the Fae Book 2)

by Elizabeth Hartwell

  “Lorelai?”

  The door opens, and he steps into the bare stone room, which in ancient times used to be a bell tower. Lorelai’s sitting in the archway, the bloody sunlight of dusk staining her and the entire room red.

  “Have a seat, Cole.”

  Cole, who’s faced dragons, demons, and more in his centuries of service with Cassina, would willingly face those foes rather than face his sister again.

  “I was told that you wished to see me. Something about taking away Eve’s demon inside her?”

  Lorelai nods, looking at him with those eyes, so like his own. When he was a child, and their mother was harsh to him, she had been the one to console him on those long nights. The brave, unflappable young warrior set aside his outer mask to reveal to his big sister the lonely, terrified child who had never felt a mother’s love. Now she sits before him again, powerful and the source of his only hope for the future.

  “It’s been a long time, Cole. Even for our kind.”

  Cole nods, looking down. Far below, in the courtyard, he can see the changeover of the watch, and beyond that the short walls to the inner village, the collection of dwellings and buildings that contained all of the castle’s workers and servants. Further on, outside the northern walls, lay the rest of the city of Vale, spread out and stretching for at least a mile.

  “It has. If you would believe me, I was afraid. Afraid of what to say . . . even of your anger at what I did.”

  “Angry?” Lorelai asks. “Cole, my anger with you evaporated the second I learned that you were not responsible for your actions. I wrote you that letter long ago explaining what happened and why you did what you did. Your actions were not of your own.”

  Cole nods, feeling the utter blackness and misery in his heart. Lorelai’s letter had been mysterious, but had told him he wasn’t at fault, although she never explained other than to say a magical spell prevented him from being in control of his actions .

  “Still-”

  “Cole,” Lorelai says, a stern note of command in her voice. Cole tears his eyes away from the view of his home city to see Lorelai reach up, removing the mask that covers her face. The sight of her wound makes him gasp, tears springing to his eyes, knowing it is of his doing, but before he can move, she puts her hand on his shoulder. Somehow, the lithe woman has strength to force her brother to remain where he is, and Cole finds himself staring at Lorelai’s face as much as it pains him.

  “Lorelai . . . I am so sorry, I can never say it enough.”

  “And you’ve said it too many times already,” she replies. “For a long time, I was angry. I was bitter, and that was a very dark time for me. I hid myself from the entire world, either here or in my underground chambers, cursing myself and damning you. But that was before I learned it wasn’t your fault. My anger has long gone. There’s nothing left but love and forgiveness.”

  Cole swallows thickly and nods. “And what now?”

  “Now . . . until I heard about your recent adventures, I was sad. I was sad that I’d never get the chance to see you again, and tell you what I need to tell you,” Lorelai says, bringing Cole’s forehead forward to touch hers. “Cole, I love you. You are my brother, and nothing will ever change that. You’re a good man, and I’m proud of you and the man you’ve become. I love you.”

  Cole’s shifts in his seat, and he feels something inside him unknot, a centuries long dam of resentment and self-hatred loosening as tears start to flow down his cheeks, and he reaches across, embracing his sister. They hold each other, like so long ago, and he’s reminded of just how much he’s missed her.

  Cole clears his throat. “I am sorry . . . for not coming home sooner. I had much to think about, many . . . personal issues to confront. And then, the more years passed, the more inertia seemed to keep me away. Still, I was wrong.”

  “Mother still would have objected, I think she likes things just the way they are right now,” Lorelai says as they break their hug. When he looks at her face again, the wound is still there, but it doesn’t seem as bad somehow. There’s still his beautiful sister beside him, her eyes wizened with years but still full of love.

  “Is Deara . . . is she good for The Vale?” Cole asks, looking out over the city again. “Her greeting to me was pretty direct.”

  “That’s Deara. She is not as witty as you were with the commoners, but she is fair and the people love her. When our father steps down, she will be ready.”

  “And you?” Cole asks, planting his hands on the small lip of the bell tower. When he was a child, he used to be afraid up here, knowing that the inch-high lip was the only thing preventing a stumble from turning into something far more dangerous. “You do have primacy over all of us.”

  “Maybe, but my destiny lies in another direction,” Lorelai says without remorse. “As does yours . . . if you can be brave enough.”

  Cole tilts his head. “What must I do? You know I will do my duty.”

  Lorelai nods, sighing. “But it’s not duty that you must do, but something you must do of your own free will . You’re more than just a warrior, or a member of that Bitch’s Guard. You’re a king, but you never learned the number one rule of being a king. You must forgive yourself and move on . . . and you must be willing to risk damnation for her.”

  “I care for her,” Cole says softly. “I . . . love her.”

  “You haven’t told her enough,” Lorelai says. “I read that in her mind and her memories. Cole, I can remove the demonic influence on her mind, but I can’t completely remove her demonic powers. Those are as much a part of her as my magic is for me. I’m willing to do it, but it will mostly be to give her confidence is fighting her ‘other’ side so to speak. It will become a matter of choice for her, every second of every day. I can teach her what I know, but it is you and your friends who must give yourselves to her fully, to be willing to sacrifice everything if she is to be what I sense she can be.”

  “For me, that is no sacrifice, I would do it willingly. But what is it that she can be?” Cole asks, tilting his head when Lorelai smiles.

  “I can’t say, for it would influence your destiny,” Lorelai replies. “Besides, I wouldn’t be a very good witch if I didn’t have a few secrets to keep to myself.”

  Cole nods, reaching out and taking Lorelai’s hand. “I love you, Lorelai.”

  “I love you, too. I always will. That’s the secret, by the way. In all my centuries of study, the most powerful magic of all lies in the heart.”

  “So you think she’ll help us?” Noah asks as the four Fae sit around the fire in Cole’s former quarters. They’d been converted into a storage room, but to Cole, the slight comfort of having the long-missed archways and stone around him helped with the torment he’d been through.

  “I believe so,” Cole replies, sipping at his tankard of Vale cider, a potent brew that is only available in that particular region. “She said though that even if she does, it falls on us to be Eve’s control. We will talk more later. I’m not sure exactly what it all means, but I need to rest and think.”

  Jacob nods and watches Cole leave before turning back to the others. “So what do you think?”

  “I believe Cole is facing more personal demons than he’s even aware of, and I think I’ve learned more about his past in one day than I have in hundreds of years,” Noah replies, tapping his fingers together. “He is certainly . . . stressed.”

  “That’s probably true, but I mean about Cole’s sister and her helping Eve!” Jacob chides, looking at Tyler, who’s still watching the door to Cole’s room. “Tyler?”

  “Well . . . I think we need to talk to Eve,” Tyler says, getting up. “And then she needs to go to Cole and find out what Lorelai means.”

  The room is quiet, and the door makes almost no noise as Eve opens it, stepping into the dimly lit bedroom. On the hastily installed bed, she can see Cole, his hands on his stomach as he looks up at the ceiling in the darkness.

  “Cole?”

  “I’m awake,” he whispers
, not moving. “I’m not sure how much sleep I’m going to get tonight, even though I’m exhausted. Were you told about my conversation with Lorelai?”

  “Yes,” Eve says, crossing the room carefully to sit on the mattress next to him. Cole looks at her, her body clad in a nightgown that he suspects is borrowed from his younger sister, they’re about the same height. “How do you feel?”

  “Empty, angry . . . at myself,” Cole admits, sighing. “I have stayed away from here for centuries, and after that, I failed again. I have not told you what happened right after I was exiled from here, have I?”

  “No,” Eve replies, curling her legs underneath her and watching Cole. “Where did you go?”

  “South, inside Cassina’s kingdom but not in her service. I thought maybe I could just live a peaceful life, one without the sword. So I became a farmer, if you can believe that. For nearly twenty years, I lived in a village. I grew pumpkins, potatoes, things like that.”

  “So you gave up the sword,” Eve asks, and Cole nods. “What then?”

  “A demon horde attacked,” Cole whispers, shivering. “The village guard was swept aside like they were nothing, and the demons, minor but still powerful enough for a bunch of farmers untrained in the ways of war, spent days hunting and torturing their victims. There was a girl, a farmer’s daughter, that I was fond of. She and I were growing close, her father was a good man and she was a kind soul. I found her on the second night, her body desecrated. I tried to make sure she was safe, yet I was helpless to stop it. I had failed again. But I also found nearby a village Guard, and his sword was left on the ground. I picked it up, and I fought. Still, it was an unenchanted weapon and all I could do was hobble them until the Queen’s Guard arrived the next day. By then it was too late, the street ran ankle deep with the blood of innocents. The funeral fires burned for a whole day and a half it took so long, and it stained the sky red, black clouds of smoke choking everyone within a mile. When the Guard left to return to Lunare, I went with them. From that day I swore to never let myself open my heart again, because I’d done it twice. Once with Lorelai, who I loved like a surrogate mother. And once with Jasmine, the farmer’s daughter. For what seems like an eternity, it worked. Then, I met you.”

  “And you’re afraid of what could happen this time?” Eve asks, and Cole nods. “What else are you afraid of, Cole?”

  “I’m not afraid of loving you. I’m just afraid of not being a good enough man, a good enough warrior, a good enough-”

  Eve silences him with a kiss, cupping his face and not letting him pull away until he opens up to her, and their tongues touch. “You are, I think you know that. What are you really afraid of?”

  Cole looks up into the amber flecked gold eyes that have come to mean more to him than anything, licks his lips, summoning from deep in his heart the courage to state the truth.

  “I’m afraid that if I say the words, that I would damn you with them.”

  “And what are those words, Cole?” she asks him, stroking his face. “I need to hear them.”

  “I love you.”

  Eve doesn’t reply but kisses him, lowering her lips to his and touching not just his skin, but his very soul. His hands come to her body, slipping the nightgown off her shoulders as Eve swings her leg over his body, pressing him down into the bed.

  “Cole,” Eve says as she lifts her breasts to his lips, “I love you too. Deeply and completely.”

  In his mind, a still young, immature part of Cole knows that Eve loves the others too, but he doesn’t care. May she love only him, or a hundred others, he will love her with all his heart.

  “Eve-”

  “I have a dream,” she whispers, stroking his face and pulling him to her right breast. Cole wraps his lips around her nipple, sucking tenderly as his instincts take over and his cock surges to full hardness in his pants. “A dream of us, all five of us. Of us . . . and children. One with your dark hair.”

  Cole moans around her nipple, tugging on it with his teeth as she whimpers, sliding her hips over the ridges of his stomach muscles. He can feel the wetness, slick and magical against his skin as he moves his hands over to her other side, reaching down to cup her ass as he sucks hard on her pebbled skin.

  She’s not flawless, she’s not perfect, but Cole doesn’t care as he kneads her ass, knowing that even if he lives another five hundred years, he would not find a woman like Eve. Even the light bulge of her fangs against her upper lip is beautiful to him, and as she lowers her lips to his again, he licks them, making her gasp.

  “What?”

  “That felt . . . good,” Eve says in a throaty, sexy purr.

  “Just be careful with them,” Cole replies, smacking her ass lightly. “Some things don’t grow back.”

  Eve grins naughtily, reaching between them to slide her hand inside Cole’s pants and freeing his cock. “You keep that in mind, and when I demand your obedience, you better give it.”

  “I swear to serve you, Princess. I love you,” Cole whispers as she kisses down his body, her hair golden against the pale ivory of his skin in the dim light filtering through the small window in the wall. Eve smiles, taking his cock in her hand and licking him from tip to base before swirling around his balls and licking back up, dragging all the way up before taking his flared head in her mouth and kissing the tip.

  “Mmm . . . you taste amazing,” she whispers, rolling the head of his cock around in her mouth before pulling off in a soft pop. “I missed doing this while we were on the run.”

  Cole brushes Eve’s hair out of the way so he can take in the sight of the woman he loves swallowing his cock all the way to the base. He moans lightly, nothing that despite his warning to her about her teeth, the feeling of her fangs rubbing lightly on the sides of his cock is a sexy addition to their coupling that he hadn’t expected before.

  Cole lays back, letting Eve pleasure him until the precum oozes from his tip and he’s trembling. “Wait . . . Princess, wait.”

  “What, my love?” she asks, pulling off.

  “One more lick and I’m going to explode, and I want to come inside you,” Cole growls, drawing her up to kiss his lips again. He strokes his tongue over her teeth, rubbing her fangs and making her moan into his mouth as he pushes her onto her back.

  Eve smiles softly as she spreads her legs for him. “Give it to me, Cole. Don’t hold back.”

  Cole nods, lining up himself up with the warm entrance to her pussy and pushes in deep, taking her with one long thrust. Her pussy gives way to his cock only reluctantly before gripping him, sending tremors through both of their body as he finds his way inside the only woman that he’ll ever need for the rest of his life.

  Eve grips him, her hands clinging to him as he pulls back, thrusting again and making both of them cry out. “Eve . . . you never let me go easily.”

  “It’s like my heart,” she growls lightly, looking up at him. “You’re mine, and I want you forever inside me.”

  They move together, Cole’s hips pumping his cock in and out of Eve’s sugary wet warmth as she wraps her legs and arms around him, clinging to him and encouraging him in between deep kisses as they share, developing the bond that will unite them body and soul for the rest of their lives. The bed shakes, the frame crashing against the wall as he thrusts harder and harder, and his heart opens up more and more.

  Cole thought he knew what love was. After all, he is Fae, and a creature of light. Love to him is like water and air, it just exists. But not until this instant did he understand what love really is.

  It’s more than just being willing to lay down his life for her. It’s more than wanting to serve her or to share his life with her. It’s to be so consumed with her that he’s willing to forego all other existence, to lose all identity for this woman that’s giving him the same gift. That together, they forge a being that isn’t two, but one, a being of total hope and stronger than they were apart.

  An explosion rips through their bodies, and Cole isn’t sure who’s coming, who
’s crying out, or who’s gasping for breath afterward. It doesn’t matter, he can feel Eve clinging to him, and as they hurtle through the magic that is stronger than death itself, he knows that he will serve her until his dying day.

  When it’s over, he cups Eve’s face, kissing away the tears. “I love you.”

  Eve nods, smiling. “And I love you.”

  “They love you too.”

  She nods, and he gathers her in his arms, letting her shake and ride out the wave of the post-coupling high. He smiles, stroking her hair and realizing that Lorelai was right. Love is the strongest magic.

  Chapter 28

  Eve

  The training field is all grass, but it’s not the loose, uneven fields of the woods we’ve trained in before. This grass is tightly matted like a golf putting green, beaten down after centuries of being used as the training area for The Vale’s soldiers. Across from me stands Jacob, who’s responsible for my training today since Cole’s mending fences with his sister Deara this morning, following her on a patrol of the city. Tyler and Noah are in the castle village, searching for appropriate weapons for all of us.

  “So explain it to me again,” I ask Jacob as we move through the warmup forms that we’re working on today. “Cassina isn’t all powerful?”

  “Hardly, although we certainly made her seem that way at first, didn’t we?” Jacob replies with a touch of ironic sadness. “No, think of the whole thing like a confederation. Seven kingdoms, six with their own king or queen, the seventh the Kingdom of the Sun Court and Emperor, who rules the farthest east kingdom. He is responsible for not just relations between the kingdoms, but areas like here, which exist as independent territories.”

  “So is Cassina weak or strong, comparatively?” I ask, noticing a few of The Vale guard watching us. “We have an audience.”

  “The training methods of the Queen’s Guard are a highly protected secret,” Jacob says lightly, glancing over. “You are one of the few to get direct access to the forms. They are trying to glean what they can from watching. As for Cassina, she is very strong, just not as strong as the Emperor.”