by May Dawson
“Visitors?” He sounded amused, but there was no way to see even his eyes through that supernatural mask. “Trespassers, more like. There haven’t been humans in the Spring Court since my brother freed them.”
“They’re shifters, actually.”
“Well then, that’s even worse. Our shifters live in the cursed forest now for a reason.”
He dismounted in one easy movement, standing in front of Tyson. He stood preternaturally still as he took us all in. The masked head never moved, though the eyes beneath the flat blank surface must have, and then he raised two fingers in one smooth movement and twisted them to the side. Jensen let out a grunt as the sword flew out of his hand and slammed into a tree trunk.
“Why is any child of men in my land armed, Fenig?” he asked lazily as he turned to her. “More importantly, why are they still on their feet?”
He jerked his fingers again, and suddenly my legs gave way under me. I hit my knees hard, slamming my right kneecap into a rough root that broke above the leaves. Breath gasped out of my lungs, and the small sound seemed to draw the dangerous Fae’s attention. I immediately tried to rise to my feet, but I seemed to struggle against my own body, which refused to rise.
He moved toward me, all languid, feline grace, like a cat stalking its prey. When he paused in front of me, he leaned forward and studied my face. His mask loomed large in my vision, and an unsettled feeling raced along my spine.
I felt my men’s protectiveness bristle around me, but they waited, and I loved them for it. I knew how much discipline it took for them to resist their protective impulses for their mate. But I was their partner too, and our mission mattered more than their possessiveness.
“They’re at war with the witches in their own land,” Fenig said. “They came here seeking help.”
He scoffed at that, turning back to her. “Help? For trespassers on Fae lands? Within my court?
Then abruptly, his attention seemed to zero in on Tyson.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
I turned to find Tyson standing. The rest of my men still knelt—though I could see Rafe’s fingers flutter as his arms hung straight by his sides, as if he was preparing for an attack. Jensen shifted faintly as if he were preparing himself to spring. I could practically feel him preparing his trajectory past those armed knights who rode their horses back and forth around us to the sword that glinted in the grass yards away.
There was no way we could win against all these armed knights, though.
“Tyson Atlas,” Ty said.
“He’s half Fae,” Fenig said.
“The only thing worse than a shifter or a human,” the Fae said. Still, he drew his mask off, as if he wanted to get a better look at Ty. He slipped the mask into his pocket. He was a ridiculously beautiful man, dark hair falling around a perfectly symmetrical face with a chiseled jaw, cruel but lush lips, and eyes that glimmered bright silver in the forest shade.
“What do we have here?” Turic muttered, half to himself.
Then he looked to Fenig. “The punishment for trespassing on Fae lands—on my lands—is still death, Fenig. In case you’ve forgotten.”
In a flash, his sword was in his hand.
Fenig stretched out her hand as if she were telling us to stand down, flashing us a look that was full of concern despite the fact we were the ones on our knees. There was suddenly steel glinting from the hands of all the Fae knights who rode around us, and they urged their horses faster, the knights and horses riding around us gathering speed. Their hooves raised dust and leaves.
“They can’t be executed,” Fenig said, her voice steady and confident. “They already went to trial by combat. Tyson Atlas fought for the whole of them, and he emerged victorious.”
“Fenig…” he said, his voice warning. She still hadn’t risen from her knees, and that felt wrong—she seemed too proud to kneel to any male.
“We followed the old laws,” she said. “I thought that was your order.”
The horses around us slowed.
“Of course,” Turic said smoothly.
We might be able to fight our way past the Fae. If our magic weren’t blocked, I’d put Silas’s skills up against the Fae lord’s. But then again, we might not be able to fight past them now.
The Delphin’s demand that Tyson face the Feddlewig had been lucky for us.
Perhaps it had even been a gift.
He made a gesture, and it felt as if invisible bonds around me released. Tyson noticed and offered me his hand, helping me to my feet. My knee throbbed as I stood.
The Fae turned to Fenig, and I wasn’t sure what passed between them, but after a few long seconds, she pressed her palm to her thigh to propel herself as she rose to her feet.
“This is Turic, the Lord Regent of the Spring Court,” Fenig told us. To him, she began, “And these are—”
“Irrelevant,” Turic said, with a wave of his hand.
Turic’s gaze returned to Tyson again, and his eyes narrowed in a way I didn’t care for at all.
“I’d like to have dinner with the victor,” he said, “before they go on their way, if they are.”
I had the feeling the invitation wasn’t optional. If we didn’t want to have to fight off the Fae knights, we had one more dinner to get through before we escaped.
Under his breath, Rafe sighed.
But we followed the Fae back to the keep.
Chapter Thirty
When we reached the keep, Raura greeted us all with a tight smile.
“Congratulations on the victory. You reek,” she told Tyson.
Tyson pressed his blood splattered sleeve to his face and inhaled, then shrugged. “Maybe I do smell like mega death spider. Silas, got any of that weird cologne?”
“Maddie likes it,” Silas said defensively, and I smiled at the memory of the heavy cologne he’d worn so I wouldn’t recognize him when he was pretending to be Echo.
“Maddie does not,” I assured him, but tucked my hand over his elbow and bobbed up to press a kiss to his smooth, chiseled cheek. I murmured in his ear, “I like the way you smell.”
“Mega death spider is a distinct scent,” Raura said. “Lake and I are to take you to the baths so you don’t offend Lord Turic at dinner.”
“Any more than our ‘human’ presence already does?” I asked.
“I’m not sure it’s the human aspect that bothers him,” she said, then shrugged. “Although he would like to kill you for it.”
Rafe and Lex exchanged the briefest of glances. I was sure they would plot to get information from Raura and Lake about Turic, if these baths provided any kind of privacy.
We’d planned to skulk through the Fae world, reach the temple, get in and out of the Fae world before we caused any commotion.
We were definitely causing commotion.
Raura and Lake led us down broad stone steps and we stepped from the sunshine into the gloom. It felt as if we were heading into a dungeon.
“Are we sure we want to go this way?” Tyson murmured to me.
I pressed my face against his shoulder, and inhaled the musty smell that overwhelmed his own delicious scent. I crinkled my nose as I looked up at him. “I think we have to risk it.”
I was pretty sure that Fenig was more-or-less on our side; I was just less certain that she had any real power against Turic.
Steam seemed to hang in the air as we walked further beneath the keep, the air so heavy and moist it felt hard to draw a full breath.
We turned a corner, and there was Arlen, leaning against the wall, picking his nails with the fine point of a very long and wicked knife. Penn turned his back to our Fae guardians, walking backward for a few steps so he could roll his eyes at Tyson and me. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He was right, Arlen was ridiculous.
“We’ve brought your packs here in the hopes you have clean clothes,” Raura said.
“And here I thought you left them for the Ravagers.” Lex headed for the row of packs. He checked the first one, t
hen nudged it with his foot. “Maddie, this one is yours.” He moved to the next.
I pulled out one of the Ziplock bags that held a set of my clothes—to protect them from the elements if we were rained on.
“Of course, your weapons will be held until you finally leave,” Arlen said.
Penn and Lex exchanged a glance.
“We’re happy to leave today if you want to show us the door,” Tyson said.
Then Lex muttered, half to himself, “You’d think that they’d at least pick one: feeling morally superior or feeling terrified of us.”
“Some logical consistency would be nice,” Penn agreed.
Arlen straightened from the wall. He sheathed his dagger in the jeweled sheath that hung from his belt—making a show, it seemed, of being rather reluctant to do so.
“Is this really what you’re wearing?” Raura asked, plucking the Ziplock bag from my hand. She crinkled it between her hands, holding it up toward the light, and frowned. “Tonight will be a celebratory dinner. Since your…friend…survived. You should borrow something of mine.”
I wondered if it were that obvious to everyone that Tyson and I were involved, even though it felt like complicated feelings and tension crackled between us constantly.
She flashed Arlen a sidelong glance, full of mischief. “I’m sure between Arlen and Lake, we can find something to fit your friends. Even though your men make our Fae knights look almost dainty.”
Lake scoffed at that, and if Arlen expressed any emotions, I had a feeling he would’ve looked scandalized.
“You guys seem to have packed an awful lot of jeans and t-shirts,” Raura added, cutting Arlen off just as he began to speak.
“You know enough about our fashion to critique it?” I asked her skeptically.
“Oh, we go over into your world all the time,” she told me. When she smiled, I realized her teeth were a bit pointed, like a cat’s.
The thought we might have constant Fae visitors might be a bit terrifying.
“No one is scared of you,” Arlen said, and Lake sighed and ran his hand through his hair, as if to say here we go. “But humans bled magic from their world. You ruin everything you touch. We’d like you gone—or dead—before you ruin our world.”
“Oh please,” Raura said off-handedly. “Like our world is such a paradise. Let’s just take them to the baths and not fight.”
“I’m not fighting,” Arlen said, his voice a bit of a rumble, exactly as if he were fighting.
I’d thought the night before that Raura was trying to seduce Silas, which had immediately caused a significant loss of sense-of-humor for me. Now, as she baited Arlen, I decided she might be a possible friend.
“Show me these baths,” I said, and she walked with me ahead of the guys. “Are they co-ed?”
“I have no idea what that means,” she confessed.
“Males and females together?”
“Oh yes. Otherwise, what would be the point?”
I glanced over my shoulder at my men, and at the two stone-faced Fae males. Jensen winked at me—of course he did. Jensen was up for any adventure, but especially one that involved nudity.
The stone walls around us seemed to shimmer with steam, and the hallway slanted down as if we were headed even deeper under the stone keep. Then we emerged into a long, wide room with a swimming pool carved out of the stone. Marble columns soared to meet the ceiling far above, and ivy climbed the walls. A faint floral scent hung in the air, and I stopped and inhaled deeply.
“It’s nothing like Earth, is it?” she asked, smiling.
“No,” I admitted, feeling defensive of my own world suddenly. “But my world has its bright sides.”
“Like very handsome men?” she asked lightly.
I glanced at Lake and Arlen again. “I don’t think you’re supposed to notice my men.”
She laughed at that. “Oh, I’m not supposed to do a lot of things, Maddie.”
She was already kicking off her leather slippers, stepping out of her leggings and leaving them across the stone floor, then she pulled off her tunic and left that behind her too. She was slender and elegant, her skin glimmering in the light, and suddenly I felt clunky in comparison in my strong, athletic body.
She barely rippled the waters as she went down the stone steps, then turned back. “Come on in. The water won’t hurt you, but that stench will.”
“This is ridiculous,” Arlen grumbled.
“Don’t be smelly and gross. Turic won’t like it,” Raura called to him.
“Turic can wrap his lips around my fiddle for all I care,” Arlen grumbled.
Penn grinned, genuine delight spreading across his face. “They tell people to suck my dick everywhere in the universe,” he whispered to me.
“It’s truly a magical world, Penn,” I agreed.
Arlen stopped to kick Raura’s abandoned shoes and clothing against the wall, then both he and Lake disrobed with the same complete lack of fanfare.
Lex said, “Well, when in Rome…”
Whether or not we were a bit uncomfortable to go skinny-dipping with our new Fae besties, we needed to learn more about Turic.
And Tyson really did stink.
I shrugged and pulled off my jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt, which was damp with sweat after watching Tyson fight this morning. I hurried to undress while the two Fae men had their backs turned as they waded into the water. I had a general impression of muscled shoulders and tapered backs, despite the slender elegance of their frames.
“Eyes over here,” Jensen teased, bumping his shoulder into mine.
No matter how many times I’d seen him undress, the truth was I still relished watching him pull his shirt over his head. The ripple of his chiseled abs, the lean waist and the hard, tattooed pecs above them—he was delicious to watch.
“I really like your jewelry, you know,” I told him, reaching out to flick his nipple ring.
His golden eyes flared with heat as he caught my hand, pressing it over his pec, the nipple ring cold metal under my palm.
“I know,” he said. “I could tell from the way you looked at me when you first saw me shirtless. That volleyball game.”
“You were an asshole,” I reminded him.
“Absolutely,” he said easily, “and yet for some reason, you thought I was adorable anyway.”
“Adorable might be an overstatement,” I lied. The memory of Jensen with that nipple ring flashing in the sunshine, sweat rolling down his chiseled body, when he and I were still enemies rose—and it made me step into him, pressing a sudden kiss to his lips.
Mine. He was mine now.
He wrapped his arm around my back without hesitation, kissing me back hard.
Love hadn’t come easy for Jensen and me, but it was worth it.
I was almost reeling from that sweet but intense kiss as Jensen pulled away, his arm lingering on my waist to make sure I was steady. The warm, floral-scented water rose around my body as I stepped deeper into the pool.
Rafe paused beside me, his hand falling on my shoulder. He leaned in so close his lips brushed my ear—something I felt all the way through my body, all the way to a throb at the base of my spine--and whispered, “Find out what you can from Raura about Turic and Fenig.”
I gave him a skeptical look—because we were both girls, he thought I could win Raura over?—but I let it go.
I let myself float in the water, feeling some of the tension in my body unknot. I knew Rafe and Lex intended we’d be gone tomorrow, on our way to the temple—whether we were able to stay in the Faes’ good graces or not with our departure.
When I made my way over to Raura, she murmured to me, “Just so you know, Fae hearing is as sharp as I’ve heard shifter hearing is.”
My hearing wasn’t as sharp as it had once been—without my wolf, the world sounded muted—but I took her meaning as she glanced toward Rafe.
“He’s weird but he means well,” I promised.
“Same with Arlen,” she promised.
I let the water buoy me up. The two of us floated side-by-side.
The ceiling of the baths was raw gray rock, craggy and fissured. I’d never been anywhere like this before, and it was strange to think we’d get Cain’s shield and leave this world forever, until this place felt like nothing but a strange dream.
I’d never know if Lake ever told Raura about his obvious crush on her, or if Arlen ever found himself face-to-face with his ‘Huntress’. I’d never know if Turic was overthrown or if he killed Fenig’s orphaned children to get the Delphine to do his bidding. I’d never know if Nat and Tess grew up into happy endings, despite being the wrong kind of Fae.
“So you want to know about Turic?” she asked.
“Anyone who wants to kill me tends to win my curiosity,” I said.
“He’s a dreadful man,” she said promptly. “When the true king of the spring court died in our war with the summer court, Turic took over. He’s a cousin of the King, the nearest blood relation that could be found.”
I looked at her, with her dark curls floating around her in the water and her gaze fixed steadily above.
“King Jorden claimed he had a son. A human son, which normally, we would all despise.” She waved her hand airily, as if she wasn’t going to pretend our kind weren’t hated, just to be polite. “But Turic has failed his people so utterly, and been so cruel, that we’d happily accept a human heir if he seemed halfway competent and decent.”
“So where is this human son?”
“No one knows. Turic claims he’s sent out search parties, but I am highly skeptical. He’s the Lord Regent until the heir is found or declared dead.” She swam slowly through the water. “We’re all scared of what happens if he manages to connive his way into being declared king. There’s magic that belongs to the king alone—that will be his if he takes the throne. Then there will be no stopping him.”
“What kind of magic?”
“How many of my people’s secrets do you think you can pry out of me in one bath?” she asked me. At the look on my face, she burst out laughing. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s real and what’s a myth. They say the king of the spring court commands the trees and the ground itself in his own territory, but I’ve never seen obedient greenery before.”
