by KB Anne
“Naisha, it has come to our attention that you are visiting other realms without our permission,” the King says.
She bows in front of them. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I hoped to make new contacts with whom we can trade.”
“Lies,” the Queen replies with the same intensity of Caer. “You were searching for Balor. You were seeking to overthrow the Kingdom.”
Naisha places a scene in the Queen’s mind just like her mentor, Carman, taught her to do.
“No, I would never . . .”
The Queen rests her hand on her stomach. “Lies.”
“Enough!” the King roars. “You are upsetting my wife and our unborn child. Do not let me catch you visiting the other realms or you will find yourself without your head.”
The visions become blurry and scattered as does my mind. Anger replaces the joy of witnessing Lizzie and Alaric’s births. Rage fills me.
“Let go, Gigi,” Alaric murmurs in my ear. “Let go. You’re losing yourself. Come back to me.”
I release the hate and bitterness and embrace the light surrounding Alaric’s voice. My eyes blink open, and I find myself staring up at the blue sky. My head is cradled in Alaric’s lap.
The world’s soft around the edges. I smack my lips together. I am a desert.
“Water. I need water.”
Maddie pours some water in my mouth.
The cool moisture sharpens my vision, and my eyes find Alaric’s green ones with the golden halos hovering above me.
This is where I belong.
11
Nine of Wands
Caer watched Alaric cradle Gigi in his lap. Her eyes slid over to Scott’s who stood just a few feet from her, still holding the sword to Naisha’s throat. She wondered if one day he would show her the same pure love and tenderness that Gigi and Alaric freely expressed.
Scott grinned at her while four white doves circled his head. They arrived when he had breathed life back into Alaric and hadn’t yet left him.
White-feathered birds suited him. She blushed at the thought, realizing the double meaning. Even though her belly felt like birds were flying around in it, she smiled back at him. She was going to try not to be so shy around him, but at times of intimate moments between Alaric and Gigi, it was difficult. And there were a lot of intimate moments. Neither Gigi nor Alaric had appeared embarrassed when she, Scott, and Maddie had caught them together after arriving from the portal. Caer was embarrassed enough for all of them because after staring at Alaric’s well-muscled buttocks, she longed to see Scott’s.
Get it together, Caer. Focus.
As if reading her mind, Scott nodded, and the white doves flew over to her. Each gently nudged her cheek before circling three times above her head and flying away.
“They like you,” he mouthed to her. “I’m jealous.”
She dropped her eyes and studied her feet but kept her sword in position.
Alaric and Maddie helped Gigi up. She brushed herself off and strode over to her and Scott. Naisha stiffened. Caer didn’t know what Gigi had seen in the visions, but given the number of gasps and names she’d muttered, combined with Scott, Alaric, and Maddie’s reactions to them, the visions had provided shocking news.
Gigi’s nostrils flared as she breathed in and out. “You’ve been a very naughty faerie,” she said to Naisha. “Some of which was warranted, and some of which was definitely not.”
Naisha gurgled as if trying to speak.
“Hold on,” Gigi said and flicked her wrist. The vines around Naisha’s mouth broke apart and fell to the ground.
“I will tear out your throat,” she growled.
Gigi rolled her eyes. “One would think, after everything you’ve been through, you would have learned to choose your words wisely. But then, you weren’t a very good student, were you.”
Naisha began chanting something.
Gigi threw her hand at Naisha’s mouth. “Ciúnas.”
Naisha’s lips clamped shut.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Gigi chided her. “I wanted you to be able to respond to some of your actions, but you blew it.”
“What did you see, Gigi?” Maddie asked.
Gigi’s chest rose and fell as if deciding what to share with the circle. “Let’s sit, because what I’m about to share affects all of us. Caer, Scott, you can drop your swords. She’s not going anywhere.”
“Are you sure?” Caer asked.
“I am,” Gigi said.
The five of them positioned themselves in a perfectly aligned circle.
“I’m not going to share all the visions. Most of them, especially when she was young, are unimportant. It’s her more recent history that bears relevance to us and our situation.”
“Just tell us, sis. Enough of the drama,” Scott said.
She gave him a mischievous grin. “You do know how I love drama.”
He groaned.
“Okay, fine. Who to begin with . . .” she said, tapping her lip with a finger as she glanced around at each of them. “I’m going to start with the Northern point and work my way around the circle.”
Her eyes stopped on Maddie. “Maddie, you know how your parents accused you of being a fairy changeling when you went invisible for the first time?”
He leaned forward. “Yes.”
“You are. And she,” Gigi pointed at Naisha, her voice filled with bitterness, “stole you from your mother who is Fae.”
Maddie’s mouth dropped open. “And who is my mother?”
“Keturah.”
Caer gasped, as did Scott and Alaric. They all knew her. She was Caer’s second in command. The fact that her child was stolen from her was a cruel twist of fate.
“Keturah,” he repeated.
“And soon, we will introduce you to her.”
Tears filled his eyes. “You know her?”
Gigi smiled at him. “We all do.”
Alaric and Scott both reached out to grasp Maddie’s shoulders in congratulations.
Gigi’s eyes shifted to Scott’s. “To the East, I share with you that Naisha, Nancy as we knew her, has been spying on us for Carman and Calliope since we were born.”
“How?” Scott asked. “We never saw her.”
“We did. She watched us from the window next door. She was Gram’s judgmental next-door neighbor who we never saw.”
Scott’s forehead bunched. “But how?”
“She hid behind the curtain or used the window as a scrying glass.”
“Gram didn’t know?”
“Apparently not, but I guess your mom was keeping tabs on you. She wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Scott’s jaw feathered with tension. Caer and Maddie reached over to comfort him. Caer sensed confusion in Scott. She’d do anything to ease it.
“Now, to the South,” Gigi said.
Caer stiffened. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear how Naisha was involved in her life.
“Naisha was born in your parents’ kingdom. She tried to excel in all aspects of her life, from her studies, to magic, to love, but always failed. One day she stumbled upon a forgotten portal—I know where it is. I’ll show you sometime and we can block it.”
Caer nodded.
“Naisha traveled to different realms. She was secretly meeting with Carman and Clayone, although she planted a false account in your mother’s mind that she was searching for Balor.”
Caer took a sharp intake of breath. “Did she?”
“Not at the time she was accused by your parents.”
Caer sensed there was more. “When?”
Gigi blinked away tears that had pricked her eyes. “She was the one who opened the portal for Balor the day he attacked the Shadow Realm. She’s been in constant communication with him. Caer, he knows where you are.”
Caer swallowed. She wasn’t going to run anymore. There was no point anyway. Balor would find her. She was going to face her demon and kill him. Besides, Gigi hadn’t told her anything she didn’t already know. It just gave her a deadl
ine, and the person behind the betrayal.
Alaric and Scott squeezed Caer’s shoulders. Scott pushed energy into her. It felt like a warm embrace. For now, it would do.
“And finally, Alaric.”
He dipped his head to look at her. “Do I want to know?”
Gigi breathed in and out. “I would.”
“Fine,” he sighed, locking eyes with her. “Tell me.”
“Naisha is your mother. She clearly didn’t die in childbirth.”
Alaric’s jaw clenched. “So she abandoned me?”
“No. Carman and Calliope lied to her. She thought you were stillborn.”
He frowned. “But faeries are immortal.”
“Given that Clayone was the father, she believed the Fae-werewolf combination bore too much power for a baby. She trusted Carman and Calliope. At the time, she had no reason to believe otherwise.”
Alaric’s gaze fell on Naisha. She watched him from across the grove. “She tried to kill me,” he said bitterly.
Gigi leaned forward and rested her hands on his folded knees. “No, she tried to turn you.”
He shrugged her away. “Into a monster who would have wanted to kill you.”
“Yes, but also into someone who would be on her side. She knows you’d never align with her as long as I’m alive.”
His lips turned down. “I’d never align with her even if you weren’t.”
Naisha winced at the finality of his declaration.
“What about Lizzie?” Scott asked. “Did you find out about her?”
“I did,” Gigi sighed. “Naisha is Lizzie’s mother too. To avoid losing her daughter, she conducted the same Maleficium blood-binding spell that she just tried on Alaric, but she did it on the day of her birth.”
“At birth?” Scott whispered.
“Can my sister be saved?” Alaric asked.
It amazed Caer that he so readily adopted Lizzie into his family.
Tears pricked Gigi’s eyes. She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Even a sword to her heart won’t stop the evil coursing through her.”
Alaric stormed over to Naisha. Angry. Hurt. Broken.
“How could you ruin your daughter? What did you wish to gain?”
Gigi stood beside Alaric. She hadn’t flown, and she hadn’t moved at the speed of Scott. She’d just appeared there. She rested her hand on his back to calm him. “She can’t hear you now, and she can’t respond.”
He turned to her, grasping her hands. “Please, Gigi, let me speak with her.”
Gigi glanced at the remaining circle for advice. She was unsure what Alaric’s intentions were or what would be gained by allowing him to speak to his mother.
“Please, Gi,” he whispered.
“Nocht.”
Alaric glared at his mother.
“Hello, son,” she drawled. “You’re quite the disappointment.”
Scott’s chest flared beside Caer. “That is unnecessary. You gain nothing by your cruelty.”
Her eyes landed on Scott’s. “No? I disagree.”
Alaric’s hands curled at his sides. “Why did you bind evil to your daughter?”
“I didn’t want to lose her the way I lost you.”
“But you just nearly killed me.”
“What is it that teenagers say? ‘My bad.’”
Gigi groaned. “You did not just say that. And by the way, I find it ironic that you forbade Lizzie from saying that or even from chewing gum for that matter. Why the Jehovah’s Witness front all those years?”
Naisha’s eyes pierced Gigi’s. “Ever hear of forbidden fruit? It was the best way to ensure that the two of you would become inseparable.”
Gigi’s jaw twitched as she worked through what Naisha revealed to her. “But something happened, didn’t it? Something you didn’t intend.” She paced back and forth.
“Everything happened according to plan.”
Gigi’s head whipped toward her. “Did it? You anticipated that Lizzie would buy that eyeball necklace and become possessed by Carman?”
At the mention of the Maleficium witch’s name, Naisha fought against the bindings.
Gigi studied her. “So, you didn’t know. Did you know that I found a spell book and that she stole it from me?”
Naisha twitched.
“I guess not. Did you know Lizzie intended to release Clayone?”
If looks could kill, Gigi would be dead.
“No? You didn’t know anything, did you.”
Naisha threw back her head and cackled. Caer remembered stories from her childhood about evil witches tossing frog legs and diseased fruit into a cauldron. She believed they were cautionary tales, warning children not to venture into dark magic, but now, with Naisha, she could see the truth in those tales.
“Carman is an all-powerful Maleficium witch, but she is only human.”
“Meaning you orchestrated everything.”
Naisha lifted her eyebrows. Her eyes flashed red. “Maybe.”
“No,” Gigi shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
“You should.”
Caer approached the traitor faerie. She sensed that Naisha was working her word magic to cause doubt in Gigi. She pressed her sword into Naisha’s throat. Not drawing blood, but close. “Tell her the truth.”
“Fine,” she choked. “Carman found out about Lizzie. In order to keep her, I promised to be her eyes and ears.”
“But she didn’t trust you completely?”
Her throat veins danced around the blade point. “No. She possessed my little Lizzie with the eyeball necklace. The spell book was unforeseen.”
“Did you know she sent Alaric too?”
Her eyes fell on Alaric. Above all else Naisha wanted him to understand. Caer didn’t know why. She had just tried to poison him.
“She kept him veiled from me. I found out afterward, when Calliope came to retrieve Scott. She was so happy to be reunited with him that she confessed everything. That my son was alive, and that she had helped Carman raise him.”
Alaric’s shoulders stiffened. Caer could picture his inner hackles raising. Hers were.
“How can we reverse Lizzie’s spell?” Alaric asked her.
Naisha’s eyes flashed red again. “She’s mine forever. You can’t have her.”
Without warning, he ripped Scott’s sword away from him and sprinted at Naisha, aiming the blade at her heart.
“Wait!” she screamed.
He slid to a stop in front of her, the point hovering inches above her heart.
“You have ten seconds before I run you through.”
Caer’s eyes met Scott’s. He didn’t seem uncomfortable without his weapon. He winked at her. She blushed, her grip loosening on her own sword.
“Tell me,” Alaric roared, breaking Caer’s attention away from whatever was happening between her and Scott. She shook her head to clear it and repositioned her sword.
“There’s a coven of powerful witches in Kilkenny. They may be able to help. They don’t follow our ways.”
“So, in other words, they aren’t Maleficium witches? That’s refreshing,” Gigi said. “Why should we trust you? How do we know it’s not a trap?”
Alaric pushed the point in harder.
“Because they veil themselves to us. I only know about them from Lizzie’s spell book.”
Gigi’s eyes lifted. “Do you have the spell book?”
“I know where it is. I’ll give it to you.”
“In exchange for what?”
“My freedom.”
“And why should we let you go?”
“Because I won’t tell anyone what you know. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Gigi looked at Scott and waved him forward. He stopped next to Caer. She could feel his heat radiating off him and longed for his warmth.
“Let’s see what this trí cumhacht is capable of.”
Scott’s arm brushed against Caer’s. Tingles skimmed across her skin. Whatever was happening between them was growing stronger.
“What do you have in mind?” he asked.
I’m thinking some compellation.
Caer’s eyes widened. She still hadn’t grown used to Gigi’s thoughts in her head.
Scott rubbed his hands together. “Well, let’s get started.”
12
Exit Stage Left
Naisha had been telling us the truth when she said there was a hidden coven of witches in Kilkenny, or at least she believed there was based on her understanding of the spell book. Not that I’ve had a lot of experience with compelling people, but with the power of the three of us, I’m ninety-nine percent positive she didn’t guide us astray, which means there might be hope for us with Lizzie.
Alaric paces around the grove, his shoulders stiff, his movements tense and jerky. “What should we do with her?”
Mommy Dearest is not the cardigan-wearing strict mother that she appears to be, but a fallen dark faerie capable of committing malicious deeds against her own flesh and blood. The gods only know what she’s capable of doing to the rest of humanity.
“I think we should send her back to my kingdom,” Caer says. “Let Keturah and the rest of my people decide what to do with her.”
Naisha’s eyes jump to Caer in alarm. “No. I won’t go back. You can’t make me.”
Caer strolls up to her. “Actually, we can. We can do whatever we want to you.”
I smile to myself. If I wasn’t in love with Alaric and if she wasn’t my brother’s chosen, I would have a total crush on Caer.
“Alaric, I’m your mother. I carried you in my womb for all those months. We’re family.”
Alaric stops, his mouth open in shock. “Family? You don’t know what family means. Nan, as cruel and evil as she was to Gigi and Scott, was kind and more motherly to me than you ever could be. She didn’t try to kill me.”
Maddie and I share a long look. Alaric doesn’t know how often Carman spelled him to carry out her revenge. If she acted motherly to Alaric it was only because she wanted to use him. She needed his obedience, and “kindness” was the easiest way to get it.
“She may have used me, but she never tried to kill me.”
So maybe he does know what she made him do. He had told me he’d always suspected that he’d done awful things he couldn’t remember.
