“When I was seven, my grandfather told me a spell,” she said, her eyes remained on Devin. He was completely open with her right now. Even though he was watching the road, he was entirely attentive to her, and only her, and her words. She had to tell him the truth.
“Well, rather, he told me two spells. The first one he told me would turn the person’s hair green for a day and that I should practice it on anyone and everyone I could find. Being that I was seven, I did just that. Unfortunately, I thought I was really bad at magic and the spell didn’t work. No one’s hair turned green, not even my older brother. I really wanted to see that. I went back to my grandfather, and he said maybe it just didn’t work for me. Instead, he told me I should try the second spell on myself. I tried and tried, day after day, to turn my own hair green.” Devin snickered and Nessa smiled. “Come on, I was seven. It would have been cool. It wasn’t until years later, in one of my grandfather’s books he gave me, that I found the spells. They were original spells, ones he made up on his own, and as far as I can tell, he had never told anyone about them. They weren’t spells to turn someone’s hair green. They were protection spells. The first would cause any death blow to be reflected on the wielder, that one led to Rhys’ death. And the second caused any death blow on me to be deflected.”
Nessa waited for Devin to respond. He wasn’t the type that seemed to appreciate sidhe magic, maybe because it didn’t mean much to him.
“Your grandfather is a smart man. I truly hope he can help us with breaking the bond,” Devin replied.
Nessa had never told anyone about the spells before. Her grandfather had made her promise she would never tell anyone the specific words, because it was something sacred and special. But Devin was right. They were not sacred. Her grandfather was smart and had to have planned it all along. He let her put the spell on half the palace before he taught her the spell to protect herself. Devin did understand the sidhe better than she thought.
Realizing that Devin understood her, Nessa felt her own emotional walls go back up. He was even more perceptive than she thought he was, which made his kindness hurt even more. They were bonded to save his life and nothing more. Even if she thought he was cute, Devin still belonged to Arianna.
“What do you want to know about the sidhe?” Nessa asked. Temporary or not, he was her only ally. She had already told him something sacred to her, so there was no harm telling him more.
“Start off with social structure and ruling structure. Who is in charge since your brother was…,” Devin paused.
“Since I killed my brother?” Nessa replied, and laughed a little. Now he was concerned with her feelings? He didn’t seem to care before. “Technically speaking? Me.” Nessa waited for a shocked look, but instead found him nodding.
“Makes sense. Your brother was in charge, thus now you are. Are you the only sibling?” Devin asked. Nessa nodded. It did make sense, but it was also somewhat demented that she could take power by killing off the king she was sworn to never hurt.
“Yes, there was just me and my brother,” Nessa replied.
“What about older generations?” Devin replied. He was back in planning mode. “Your parents for example.”
“My father is dead and my mother hasn’t been around, and she’s not in the direct line to the McKinny family,” Nessa replied.
“You father is dead?” Devin sounded shocked at that.
“Yes. It was thought to be natural, but now I doubt that. I have a feeling Rhys had a hand in coming to power earlier than everyone expected.” Nessa shrugged.
The thought had crossed her mind several times since in the past month and a half. Rhys had shown a new side of himself she never thought was possible. Yes, as kids Rhys would play mean jokes on her, causing her friends and family to defend her, but she had always been the annoying little sister. She was eight years younger than him, and he didn’t like her to hang around. He was never a bad person, or so she thought. She now saw him differently, even if she didn’t want to. Her older brother who she saw as a hero was gone. Instead, all she saw now was the madman he was at the end.
“And the structure below the ruler?” Devin asked, getting back to details.
“Below the king are the five high families, and one hundred and forty-seven lower families. Originally, the king would come from the five families, and rule for twenty-five years and pass the kingship onto the next family. Each of the five would come to power and rule once every hundred and twenty-five years. It was a way to keep the peace between the upper five, and thus the lower one forty-seven. When my grandfather came to power, he decided that our family should rule completely as we had the strongest blood line. When his twenty five years were up, he refused to step down and he had the lower families support to stay on as king, and pass the crown down to his son when he was done.” Nessa explained. She was breaking sidhe oaths by telling Devin, but she had decided to use the excuse of sidhe blood to keep him safe from his knowledge.
“Well, that would explain the enemies within the families and the assassin guild,” Devin replied. “I’m guessing they would like a chance to have power again.”
“I don’t think it was the assassin guild, but just family assassins. The assassin guild isn’t one of the five, and can’t become king. I don’t even know if it was from a family or just someone that didn’t like me. We’ve signed agreements between all the five families not to use assassins on each other. Formally, the families can’t hire hits on each other. I’m technically part of one of the five families, and thus protected- or at least should have been,” Nessa replied.
“Unless they have already made you ruler, and not one of the five families,” Devin suggested. “Then it could be a family targeting you and not just one person.”
Nessa stared at him. That was a good point she hadn’t considered. Even though she had watched her brother die and seen them take his body away. It didn’t feel like he was dead to her. It still felt like he was around.
Devin drove a bit more before asking his next question.
“How do we go about unbinding us then?” Devin asked. “Do we just walk in and find your grandfather? How do they treat day humans?”
Nessa didn’t really want to reply to that one. Day humans were the lowest form of life to sidhe. Even the animals and plants came above day humans. Nessa had seen only a handful of day humans over her lifetime even enter the sidhe village. They were almost always for sacrifices, and it never ended well for them. The remaining few were considered pets of the sidhe that they belonged to. She was pretty sure there was a law that forbade day humans from leaving the sidhe villages, but she had never really paid attention in her classes and therefore she couldn’t be absolutely sure. She was taking a risk by bringing Devin in, but it was necessary. If anything, he was strong enough to get out. She didn’t doubt that.
“That bad?” Devin asked, seeing her hesitation.
“Worse,” Nessa replied. Devin couldn’t imagine how day humans were treated.
“What do we need to do then?” Devin asked, obviously already making a plan on how to get through the village and unbind himself from her as soon as possible. He took her lack of description as the big warning that it was meant to be.
“We need to go back to my place first. I have all my grandfather’s books, and even those no one knows about. He wrote a lot that he didn’t want in other’s hands. I was hoping that the answer will be in there,” Nessa responded.
She didn’t have a concrete plan, since she never really read the books that well, and she never intended to be bound to someone. It was her hope at least that she had the answer to unbind there. The second option wasn’t going to be easy to explain to him.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just go to your grandfather?” Devin asked. Nessa didn’t reply right away. Devin turned and looked at her before looking back to the road. “Why isn’t your grandfather still in power? He was the most powerful of you-” Devin paused. “Was?” he asked. He finally realized she hadn’t used pr
esent tense.
Nessa bit her lip. She had to spill more secrets, and she was worried how much to tell Devin. This one was for his safety more than anything. Rival families were always looking for someone who knew how to wake the sleeping sidhe. Then there was the overall problem of telling him too much of anything. She was still not sure how anyone would treat him once he entered the village. If she told him too much and he was found to have that knowledge, they might never let him leave or even live for that matter.
“How good are you at keeping secrets?” she asked. Devin rolled his eyes. That had to be obvious to Nessa by now, and it was.
“Better than most,” Devin humored her with a reply. Nessa nodded. She was sure of that, but she needed him to be sure of that, too.
“The sidhe won’t let you leave if they know I told you all of this. My own family alone won’t let you leave with the knowledge I’m telling you, let alone the rest of them. We keep our knowledge close to home, and that has given us the advantage over every other night human race we’ve ever encountered.” Nessa worried about Devin. He wanted the bond to break, and to do so might make him more of a target, unless they could get him out of the village.
“You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve had a bit of training in that department, also,” Devin replied, trying to reassure her.
Nessa nodded. It wasn’t exactly reassuring. She didn’t expect him to break under torture, but she still didn’t want to be responsible if someone knew. She hoped he was right, and she wouldn’t need to worry.
“My grandfather was the greatest king of the sidhe,” Nessa responded, repeating what she had said earlier. “He was the greatest grandfather also, or at least to me. He was so great that my family worried that he was going to rule absolutely and never share his power with my father or us. They forced him into an eternal sleep when I was a child. When a sidhe goes into eternal sleep, their descendants gain power from their slumber. The sleeping sidhe doesn’t completely lose their power, but some of it gets syphoned off and passed to the next in line. Same goes when a sidhe dies. If the right rituals are observed, the descendants can take that power to increase their own. Rhys was strong because he had grandfather’s power, and that was only a fraction of it.”
“He can’t help us then if he is sleeping?” Devin asked, not very shocked by their system as Nessa thought he would be. A way to grow in power with every generation had led the sidhe to be powerfully advanced against the other races.
“I had planned to look through his books first. He left everything to me, and gave me books years before they took him away. He said every answer I ever sought would be in there, but then again I don’t know if he would’ve had the foresight to know I’d bind myself to a day human.” Nessa shrugged. Those had been his exact words. Every answer she ever sought would be in those books. “If that doesn’t work, then we have a harder task. We’ll have to wake him.”
“And that’s why you agreed to let me come with you, isn’t it?” Devin asked. He could sense from the beginning she had hesitations about him coming into her world, but now he knew why he was needed.
“I’ve never woken a sleeping sidhe before, but I know for my family it will take both of us, a day human and a night human, to do so,” Nessa replied. “I wasn’t there when they put him to sleep, and they say only legendary assassins protect him. I don’t know who chose them, but if it was someone that wanted to keep him asleep, then there’ll be a fight to be had.”
“Then I guess we hope the answer’s in the books. If not, we get to knock some heads and wake the dead.” Devin smiled.
The crazy day human wasn’t deterred by meeting deadly assassins or an old sidhe with the power to crush him in just his pinky. Nessa still wasn’t sure it was a good idea to tell him everything even now. Obviously, Devin thought the trip was going to be more worthwhile than he originally thought it would be. He even looked excited for their trip into danger.
CHAPTER 3
Devin stopped the car in a parking spot at the national park Nessa had directed him to and looked over at her. The last part of the ride was shorter then they both expected, and it was probably because they were both lost in their own thoughts after they met the sidhe assassins. She still seemed a little worried about everything, but Devin was a bit excited. It was crazy to be excited about seeing the reclusive sidhe and not knowing what they would find, but it was actually a little thrilling to him. He had spent his whole life knowing what he had to face day in and day out. Not knowing was a change, and he had never woken a sleeping night human before. That part sounded exciting, too.
“How exactly do we enter?” Devin asked, pulling Nessa out of her own thoughts and back to the car and their plans. “With butterflies?” Devin suggested. Nessa frowned at his joke.
“It’s a little hike, and then you’ll have to fight Lindsey,” Nessa explained, cautiously following him out of the car. Devin had already scanned the area and was proceeding out of the car. If he saw or felt something, they would’ve stayed inside, but Nessa’s eyes darted around anyway. If one assassin lived to go back and say she wasn’t killed, it was likely more would be sent. Even if he didn’t know the sidhe, Devin understood assassins.
Devin waited for her to calm down a bit before he continued their conversation. The area was safe and he had no clue why the assassin wasn’t waiting for them. It didn’t matter, though, since he would keep his guard up. An assassin wouldn’t be stabbing Nessa in the back again this time. He was going to make sure of it.
“And what, exactly, is fighting her going to do?” Devin asked about Lindsey, whoever she was.
“Outsiders aren’t allowed into the sidhe villages. Lindsey is the judge of whether you’re strong enough to be there or not. Technically, I don’t think you should have to fight Lindsey. You have my blood in you; hence, you are theoretically one of us, but I doubt Lindsey will stop to let me explain. When Lindsey sees you approach, you’ll stick out as a day human and not as a sidhe. Fighting is Lindsey’s job,” Nessa replied.
“What exactly is Lindsey?” Devin asked. Nessa was holding back something and smiling too sweetly to make Devin not feel a bit hesitant.
“An ogre or a troll would be the best description. Lindsey is over a few hundred years old, and has been around since the villages moved in. Lindsey is the gatekeeper,” Nessa replied. It sounded like an ordinary answer- well, as ordinary as one could be in the night human world. Devin didn’t understand Nessa’s sweet smile.
“Do I have to defeat her, or just fight her?” Devin asked. Fighting an ogre didn’t sound like bad practice, but he didn’t want to overstep and hurt the girl if he didn’t need to.
Nessa smiled more. “Just fight. Lindsey can tell intentions by how a person fights.”
Devin nodded before retrieving his clothing and some weapons from his trunk. There was no telling how long they would be stuck in the sidhe village. He dug around, looking for one last weapon before tossing it in a backpack along with his coat and a change of clothes. Nessa watched him. There was nothing she needed from the dead metal box.
“This way.” She pointed in the opposite direction from the marked trails at their stop in the parking lot. Devin was comforted a little bit to know that the sidhe were not openly taking humans that were out hiking if they lived in the other direction.
Nessa led the way, and Devin kept alert through their hike. If the assassin didn’t give up, being surrounded by trees would be the perfect opportunity to take things up again. Nessa was gazing around. They both could feel the tension. It would be a strained stay in the sidhe world no matter how long it took to find the answer to unbind them. Neither talked as Nessa wove between the trees and Devin followed right behind her. They walked for a couple of hours as daylight was finally nearing, and she eventually slowed. They were approaching a clearing and Devin had yet to see any village or other sidhe on their walk.
Nessa stopped in the clearing and waited. Devin stood beside her, ready. He had no clue when a fight would be
gin, so Devin was always ready.
Nessa rolled her eyes at him. “Only the assassin would start a fight without announcing it. The rest of the sidhe are honorable,” she told him.
Devin wasn’t completely convinced. He hadn’t met a night human yet that he considered honorable. It wasn’t in their nature.
“Lindsey,” Nessa called, looking straight ahead into the empty knee-high grass.
Devin looked the same direction and tried to find the fuzzy shape that told him where a hidden night human was. He didn’t see anything beyond hills and grass. It was only spring, but here there was already an abundance of growth on the ground and the trees, unlike where they came from, which was still covered in dead grass with no leaves on the trees.
“Lindsey, I brought someone to enter the village,” Nessa called again.
The ground beneath them rumbled a bit as Devin and Nessa tried to regain their balance. Soon, the hills that Nessa had been talking to moved and a very large, somewhat deformed, sidhe stood and stretched. The sidhe had to be over seven feet tall and three feet wide. Devin hid his shock as best he could. It would just make Nessa laugh more. He could already tell why she hadn’t told him much in in the way of details about Lindsey. The old sidhe was enormous and scary just to look at. The sidhe was covered in grass and moss, adding an additional bulk to it. Devin analyzed the sidhe from head to toe briefly. He looked for soft spots and easy targets, but there wasn’t much difference between the mass of green that was the body and that which had to be the legs. He couldn’t really even make out the face at that point.
Slowly the sidhe unfolded a bit more, now towering over eight feet, and shuffled forward. The mass of green foliage, grass, and moss didn’t move smoothly, but with more of a limp.
“I’m supposed to fight her?” Devin asked Nessa quietly. The sidhe didn’t look to be much of an object beyond size. Lindsey looked like an old grandma sidhe that obviously hadn’t been called out in a long time, based on the grass and moss growing on her.
The Day Human Prince Page 4
