by KB Anne
The perimeter boundary of Granda’s cottage shimmers in front of us in a hazy wave. It’s meant to keep everyone out, and since Lizzie and Ryan couldn’t escape from the boundary, it seems that it also keeps everyone in. But the spells protecting the cottage are attached to me, so we shouldn’t have a problem penetrating it either coming or going. I clutch his hand. “Hold on,” I whisper as if the spells might overhear my intention.
“I’m not letting you go,” he says, and we step through the boundary spell together.
A faint shock ripples through our bodies and then immediately vanishes.
“That was weird,” he says. We’re so much alike it’s actually scary.
“It’s about to get weirder.”
We travel together in companionable silence across the countryside between Granda’s and Clarissa’s cottage. It almost seems strange not to talk incessantly to each other, especially after being separated for so long, except it isn’t. It’s like our souls are communicating even if our lips aren’t flapping. We can just “be.”
Finally I sense a pull, almost like a magnetic force. It’s the sign I’ve been waiting for. “The portal’s up ahead. Are you ready for this?”
He stops and tugs me to him. “With you, I’m ready for anything.” Then he drags my lips to his.
Electricity shoots through me when our lips meet, but this time the shock doesn’t disappear. It grows more intense. I tangle my hands in his hair to ensure he can’t break the kiss until I’m ready to. In response, he slips his hands around my back and pulls me closer. As our bodies press against each other, an insatiable need surges through me. He lifts me to him. My legs dangle in the air until I wrap one around him.
My heart races with the thunder of a thousand stampeding hooves. He reaches under my shirt. I prepare for the explosion of his touch that I know will result as his fingers crawl across my skin at an impossibly slow speed toward my breasts. I push my body closer to him if that’s even possible. He purrs deep within his chest as my fingers skim along the seam of his jeans. Why did we wait so long to do this?
“Now,” a voice fills the air around us. A voice reeking of empty promises and betrayal.
We break apart in time to notice Breas’s minions edging toward us.
But he’s too late. They’re too late. I step closer to the portal entrance.
The wavy edges of Brigit’s portal appear next to us, and we leap together. A stronger shock pulses through us as we land softly on a bed of pine needles. I inhale the sweet smell of the pine forests of Western Pennsylvania, and my heart soars.
“Where are we?” Alaric asks.
I tug him to me. “Home.”
“I like the sound of that,” he says, his voice husky with need.
His lips find mine. With surprising efficiency, we disrobe as if we’ve waited a millennium to be together. And maybe we have. All I know is that a hunger has overtaken me that can only be quenched by Alaric filling it.
The voice of Lizzie, the one I once knew and loved and above all else trusted, whispers in my subconscious, Do you have protection?
It’s almost enough to make me hesitate, but Alaric and I have waited too long, for too many lifetimes, and have overcome too much to stop now.
He trails kisses down my throat as his hands explore the rest of me. I’d savor his gentle caresses if my own hands weren’t busy exploring the ridges of the powerful muscles that sculpt his body.
His heart pounds against my chest, matching the beat of my own. As my fingers skim along everything that makes him a man, he shudders. He reaches between my thighs, but he doesn’t have to. They’re already slick with need.
He enters me quickly. Sensation riffles through me. It’s by no means my first time, but I’ve never felt like this. When he’s fully engaged, he falls on his back, my legs still straddling him.
“Oh Gigi,” he moans as I edge up and down his length. When I return to his base, it is enough to undo us both, and we explode together.
We gasp for breath as I collapse against his chest. Lizzie’s warnings come back to me, and so do Scott’s, but I push them aside.
I wanted this. I wanted him, and whatever happens later, so be it.
7
Ten of Swords
When Gigi didn’t immediately return with the map, Caer took to pacing around the room. It was a habit she never noticed she had until she witnessed Scott’s speed pacing. Hers was nothing compared to the acceleration he was capable of, but she still moved faster than the average, well, faerie princess.
She liked Gigi well enough, at least after their short time together. Neither one of them were patient, and both wanted answers. Caer had slept her whole life. A few days of wakefulness wasn’t going to affect her. She had never had a friend before, and Gigi’s presence gave her courage. She felt strong with Gigi around, especially since Scott sometimes made her feel weak. Mathair Mhór had warned her he would be a protector in this reincarnation, but she was a protector too. A protector of her people.
She didn’t know why she was so intent on helping Gigi interrogate Lizzie’s mother, but something within her felt like it was important. If her mother was Naisha, the lost faerie from the Faerie Realm, she might have answers about how she’d been able to leave the realm as she pleased. Keturah had mentioned that Naisha had traveled between realms when the veil was thin, but then wouldn’t everyone travel between realms? Besides, she’d still require a means to travel, like a portal and someone to open it for her.
The Witch on the other side of Gigi’s flame shield troubled her. Darkness emanated from every pore of the Witch’s being, and that form was only her vessel. The true version of the Witch was still back in the Otherworld’s purgatory, waiting for an opportunity for her Fomorian brethren, including Balor, to arrive in the Earthly Realm. Well, Caer would be ready for him. She gripped her iron spear as she paced around the room. She never let it far from her sight, but right now, with Gigi occupied, she needed to feel the promise of Balor’s death in her hands.
What Alaric had said about eliminating future generations gave her pause. If she could find out the true reason why Balor had killed her father, it might help her discover a way to take his life without risking her people or her friends.
And what was Alaric? He was the son of Clayone, but Keturah and the other women believed he was Fae too. She hadn’t caught his scent since her arrival in the Earthly Realm, but she had in the Faerie Realm, and though the scent was new to her, it was familiar. If his mother was Fae, that would explain why.
Alaric believed his mother had died in childbirth, yet Keturah was adamant that if his mother was Naisha, she would not have died during the birthing process. Fae were immortal. Caer as Faerie Queen was immortal. If she chose to remain in the Faerie Realm, she could live forever and never return to the Otherworld realm reserved for gods and goddesses and their kin. That concept both thrilled and scared her.
Caer remembered the desperation in Alaric’s voice when he was asking Keturah and the others about his mother. She was desperate for answers too. Was Alaric’s mother somehow connected? Was she the reason Balor had been able to penetrate the Faerie Realm? Were they working together? And if so, did that mean he wasn’t able to immediately arrive into any realm Caer visited as she had once thought? Had Caer constantly lived in fear and on the move for no reason? She’d lived with Mathair Mhór for years until Balor found her. The Land of Shadows had provided her sanctuary until Balor finally penetrated its shields. But the question remained, why was Balor so desperate to obtain her? Did he want to kill her or imprison her? The answer would make all the difference.
The confines of Gigi’s bedroom grew too small for Caer’s roaming. She needed space, but more than that, she needed answers. She crept down the hall, knowing she could go invisible if she heard anyone stirring.
Maddie was sleeping on some type of cushioned bench beneath a beautifully knit blanket. Caer never had the luxury of possessing a blanket made of anything other than animal fur. Sh
e reached over to touch it and found the material soft and warm against her fingertips without the smothering heat of a fur. She watched Maddie sleep, curious about this friend that had become a part of the family as Scott had told her. She had once been told by her nursemaid that family meant blood, but she had come to learn from Mathair Mhór, and then Gallean, that family could mean anyone someone shared a special bond with.
Maddie’s scent filled the air around him. She inhaled deeply. He was something other than a werewolf too. Perhaps he was Fae also?
He stirred in his sleep. Caer stilled and waited for him to return to his dreams. When he settled back in, she glanced around the room. The hanging baskets and dried herbs reminded her of Mathair Mhór’s cottage. The stone fireplace and the piles of books were the same too. The Earthly Realm appeared to be similar to the realms Caer was familiar with.
Gigi was nowhere to be seen. Caer inhaled again to catch Gigi’s scent and found it layered beneath Alaric’s. She followed the trail out the front door and into the daylight.
* * *
Scott tossed and turned in bed. It felt strange to be back in his room in Kildare, acting as if nothing had changed when everything had changed. Gallean had sacrificed himself to save Caer and by auxiliary, Scott. Clarissa had died because her lifeline was connected to Gallean’s. Scott had shapeshifted into a swan to catch Caer before she disappeared from his life forever, and they had battled Balor and his Fomorian army. The world had gone to shit, and he was still reeling from it. They all were.
He and Alaric had ignored each other when they first entered the bedroom, but eventually Scott broke down and tried to engage Alaric in conversation. He figured that since apparently Alaric and his sister kept finding each other in each reincarnation, he might as well get to know the guy. Although after discovering that Alaric had killed Gigi and begged Brigit to return her life to her, he really wanted to rail him instead. Moralltach had shifted back into a small knife, but it would return to a sword upon his need.
For instance, if he needed to swipe Alaric’s head off. That gave Scott a substantial amount of consolation.
He seemed like an all right guy. Intense, sure. Preoccupied with Gigi, definitely. But his intentions, as far as Scott could tell, seemed genuine. His family ancestry definitely gave Scott pause. And the fact that Lizzie was Clayone’s daughter? He hadn’t seen that coming from several realms away. And Ryan was alive? The guilt that ate at Scott’s soul for taking his best friend’s life all but disappeared, but Breas was going to pay for messing with all of them. It didn’t worry Scott in the least that Breas was an actual god. With Moralltach, a god would bleed all the same.
He adjusted the blankets on the bed. It was hard to sleep when it was light out. Plus his mind was still buzzing with activity. There was much that needed to be discovered before they battled Balor and his Fomorian army. Rest was the key to all of it.
A loud creak shot him out of bed and into a fighting pose with dagger in hand. He glanced over at Alaric’s bed and found it empty.
“I’ll kill him,” Scott hissed as he prowled out of the room and stalked down the hall to Gigi’s room. He found the door open and the room empty.
Panic kicked in.
“Where are they?” he growled, appearing in front of Maddie at god speed.
Maddie sprang off the sofa almost as fast as Scott had moved. “What? Who?”
“Gigi, Alaric, and Caer. They’re gone.”
“Gone?” Maddie echoed.
“Can you track them?”
Maddie inhaled. “Caer is the most recent. Alaric and Gigi’s scents are more faint.”
“Which way did they go?”
Without answering, Maddie followed the trail out the door with Scott close behind him.
There, standing in front of Lizzie and Ryan’s cells, stood Caer. Scott didn’t think he’d ever get used to her beauty. It literally took his breath away. As he neared her, he sensed tension exuding off of her.
“Do you know where my sister and the wolf are?”
She shook her head. “I was tracking them until their scent disappeared.”
He clenched his fists together. Adrenaline surged through his body. Someone was getting an ass kicking. “Come on, Maddie. Let’s see if you can pick it back up.”
Caer reached for his arm. No ordinary human woman would ever be able to hold him back, but Caer was neither human nor ordinary. “It won’t do any good. They’re gone. But I think I know where they went.”
Scott stared at Ryan still curled up in a ball. He sensed conflict in Caer. “Tell me.”
“Well . . .” she said, sounding more and more like his sister, “Gigi and I were going to question Naisha.”
“Naisha, as in Nancy? Lizzie’s mom, and possibly Alaric’s too?”
“The one and the same.”
“How were you going to get there? Were you two going to use a portal and leave us?”
Her eyes skirted away from him. “Yes.”
He stiffened.
“But we were going to return as soon as we were done.”
He shook his head. Betrayal cut deep. “I thought both of you were going to recharge your energy stores like Granda asked you to.”
“We were going to use a portal only accessible to someone of Brigit’s line.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know where it is, but Gigi must have found it. I don’t think you’ll be able to access it.”
Challenge accepted. Operation Ass Kick initiated.
“Won’t I? I’m from Brigit’s line as well, and I’ll be godsdamned if my sister gets into trouble because you two were going to leave without telling anyone.”
“We were going to leave a note.”
“A note?” he said, storming off in Maddie’s direction. “A note. Well that makes everything okay then.”
She hurried to catch up to him. “You’re mad.”
“Godsdamned right I’m mad.”
“What about Breas and the Witch? Won’t they be able to find us once we leave the boundary?”
He stopped and scowled at her. “You and Gigi were going to leave the boundary. What’s different now? Are you scared, or is it that you don’t want me to go with you?”
She stepped away from him, her nostrils flaring. If he wasn’t so mad, he’d ask if he could kiss her again, because she was sexy when she was angry. She held Freagarach in her hands.
“I am not scared.”
“So, you don’t want me to go with you?”
She growled. “That’s not it either.”
“Well then, what are we waiting for?”
Maddie stopped at an invisible boundary line. “I can’t pass through.”
Caer sheathed Freagarach and took both of their hands. “Come on,” she said and stepped through the boundary shield.
Scott felt a passing fuzziness as they walked through, but with Caer’s resistance to magic, it was tolerable. She released them both when they were well out of the perimeter.
Maddie hurried across the countryside, tracking Gigi’s and Alaric’s scents. Scott and Caer kept pace with him as he ventured farther and farther away from Granda’s cottage and the perimeter boundary. He finally stopped at the top of a hill. Caer and Scott joined him. They stood halfway between Granda’s cottage and the remains of Clarissa’s. Smoke still spiraled in the air from the ruins.
“The trail ends here.”
Scott could see the shimmery outline of the portal appear before them. He grabbed Caer and Maddie’s hands.
“Not if I have anything to say about it. Hold on.”
8
Luck O’ the Irish
“What the fuck are you doing?” my brother yells at us.
The irony of his statement is not lost on me. Alaric shields my naked body as he rolls us over onto our sides. I peek over his arm to see Caer studying Alaric’s bare ass. I’m by no means jealous. It is quite divine. Maddie pretends to be fascinated by the pine bark of the tree beside us. Scott glare
s at us with folded arms.
Our clothes are in a chaotic pile next to his feet. There’s no way I can reach my shirt without showing the melons.
“A little privacy would be nice.”
Scott’s eyes narrow. I’m thankful yet again that he can’t shoot red lasers out of them.
“Do you mind?”
“Fine,” he growls, reaching down and zinging the pile at me before turning away.
I slip my shirt on and climb partway into my pants before getting up from the ground. Before I can pull them up the rest of the way, Alaric gently cradles my butt as he stands inches from it with all his spent man glory hanging out. With my brother standing only a few feet away, it’s not like I can scold him (or prepare for round two), so I give him an exasperated eye glare. He winks at me as he slides his fingers down my ass toward my va-jay-jay. I gasp in surprise.
“Gigi,” Scott warns.
I pinch my lips and squint at Alaric as I pull my pants up the rest of the way and buckle them in a take-that move. He waggles his eyebrows as he slowly slips his jeans around his perfectly sculpted gluteus maximus, pausing halfway up. It is definitely one fine piece of man-flesh.
“You,” I whisper, shaking my head.
“We’re standing right here,” Scott says.
“And it’s very awkward,” Maddie adds.
I feel a pang of sympathy for Maddie and Caer, but Scott can kiss my ass (which I definitely wouldn’t mind Alaric doing, but that’s a conversation for another time).
“You can turn around now.”
He refolds his arms. “What the hell were you two doing?”
Hello, Mr. Obvious. “What did it look like?”
He scowls. Soon we will be able to journey into the Grand Canyon via his forehead. “We thought you were going to question Nancy.”
“We took a little side trip.”
“There’s nothing little about me,” Alaric murmurs, his eyes flashing in amusement.
I roll my eyes. “Not helping.”
