Fae war chronicles the c.., p.42
Fae War Chronicles: The Complete Series, page 42
I peer through a crack in the door, scanning the night just outside.
Another scream. This time closer.
A body thuds to the ground just in front of me, though I am unable to make out anything more than a shape in the cloudy moonlight. Until—a massive form drops to the ground, clawed feet digging into the dirt just outside. Leathery wings flap to the creature’s vast sides as its horned head tilts.
Dammit.
“What is it?” Mac whispers. I turn, surprised to see him standing beside me. He peers out through the crack and covers his mouth on a gasp. “You must kill it!”
For some reason, that order resonates with the darkness inside of me. And, for another reason entirely, I cannot bother to care that there is likely no one else here who can slay such a creature.
I look to Bea. Her hard gaze lands on mine, and I turn back to Mac. “Must I?”
His golden eyes widen with the terror those two simple words inflicted. For once, this man might need to get his hands bloody. “You have to! You are honor bound to—”
“To do what, exactly? Honor bound, I was. To Fearghas the First. He is the reason I continued fighting. The reason I kept trying to re-instate peace in this world. But as you’ve so pointed out, my fighting did nothing but cause you more pain, did it not?”
Another scream.
“It’s going to tear apart my village!”
I lean down, hoping he will see the anger reflected in my gaze. “Then perhaps you should have stood with the Dirty Rebels.” I rip the door open. “Go get him, leader!” I roar and shove Mac outside.
“Rafferty!” Thorish roars. “You cannot do this!”
I pass right by him and stop beside Bea. “Then perhaps you should stay and die with them.” Turning to Bea, I try to ignore the disappointment in her gaze. “Let’s go.” She doesn’t argue, doesn’t push back, though her pursed lips and furrowed brow tell me she does not approve.
Which is okay. She doesn’t have to. Other fae get the luxury of not making the hard choices because I always do.
The creature bursts through the door and into the pub as Bea dematerializes us outside. Below the ridge we stand on, the village begins to burn. People scream. They run, and the creature tears them apart.
Thorish appears beside us, a grim expression on his face. “You condemned them to death.”
“If it wasn’t this monster, it would have been the ancients,” I tell him. “We do not have the manpower to challenge such a creature, and I am unwilling to risk my life for someone who would not do the same for me.”
“That’s not being a hero,” Thorish replies.
Meeting his gaze, I see what I’ve been looking for since the moment I met the bastard—courage. “Neither is dying for the sake of death. You should remember that in the coming months, young fae. It might just save your life.”
Ember’s fingers knead the sore muscles of my chest as I lean back against her. Her legs are on either side of my body, the water moving gently around my waist.
Her fingers are bliss, her touch far more than anything I should deserve. Yet here she is with me.
How I managed to earn a second chance, I’ll never understand, but I do know that I will never take it for granted. “You are too good for me,” I tell her, voicing aloud what I know to be true.
“And you are frequently wrong, it seems.”
I peer up at her. Bright red hair falls to her shoulders in soft waves as the sun casts a halo around her head. Sharp eyes regard me with a passion that I know to be reflected in my own. “Oh?”
“You and I are a good match, don’t you think?” she questions. In her eyes, I see the briefest doubt, I pull away and turn to face her.
My hands go to her soft thighs, and I massage her flesh. “I do.”
“It just took you way too long to see it,” she replies with a grin.
I return the smile and lean in to press my lips to the side of her throat. As I do, I inhale, breathing in her scent and letting it fill my lungs. “I regret every moment I denied what I wanted.”
“So do I,” she replies.
Her words spark the need in me now, and the fabric separating us feels far too commanding of distance when I want to be inside of her. “Denying you was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I truly do not understand, though, how you make me feel.”
She swallows hard. “And how is that?”
“Like you are mine,” I growl. “As though we were born to love each other.” Had I not already been mated, I would have believed she was my one and only. Which makes no sense.
“What is so hard to believe about that?”
“I already had a mate,” I tell her, the words toxic, “And what I feel for you is so much stronger. According to our lore, to our history, the way I long for you should be impossible.”
Ember smiles softly and leans in to press her lips to mine. The contact is soft, pleasurable, and singes even as it soothes. “According to my lore,” she whispers. “To our history, this very place shouldn’t exist.” The world around us darkens as thunder booms overhead.
Fire flares to life, a ring around us, and I panic. “We need to—”
“This place will no longer stand should she fall,” Ember speaks, the words no longer in her voice.
“Ember.” I step back as flames spark to life along her skin. “Ember—” I choke out.
“She cannot fall, Rafferty. She needs you.”
Breathing ragged, I shoot up. My skin is slick with sweat, my heart hammering against my ribs with so much force I honestly wonder if it won’t be the death of me.
But that would likely be far too easy.
With a deep breath, I get to my feet and briefly glance at where Thorish sleeps beside the fire. Bea’s mat, on the other hand, is empty.
I scan the clearing, spotting her sitting against a tree on the opposite side from the cavern. I move toward her and drop down beside her as she continues sewing something in her hands.
“Boy needs new trousers,” she says, holding up what I now see is a pair of dark green pants.
“Why are you sewing his pants?”
“He’s young. Doesn’t know how.”
“And that is not your problem.” I’m angry, irritated, though I’m not sure why. Bea truly enjoys mothering the Rebels. She’s done it since the moment she stepped foot in my camp.
“You are struggling.” She sets the pants aside and folds her hands in her lap.
“Yes.” I don’t see the point in lying. Not when she can likely see the inky black lines snaking through my eyes. “Ember being with Ailis…it’s tempting to forget why I cannot embrace the darkness.”
“Because doing so would mean you likely wouldn’t care about Ember’s fate.”
I nod.
“You are a good man, Rafferty, and that is yet another thing the darkness is making easy to forget. What you did tonight—letting that village burn.”
“Why risk my life for his?”
“But it wasn’t just him you fed to that creature, Rafferty. In fact, he survived.” Before I can ask her how she knows that, she shrugs. “I went back to check. They were counting the dead.”
“How many?” I don’t want to ask, but I need to know.
“Twenty-seven. Women, children, and a few men.”
My stomach burns with guilt. Regret. Even as I know both are useless emotions. I had my reasons, though even I can admit it is not something I would have done before. I am slipping—dangerously close to not having a choice.
“You cannot win a war by sacrificing your soul.”
“I may not have a choice,” I tell her. “If we cannot stop the ancients—”
“You already said your power does not work on them.”
“It doesn’t. But it might give me the strength to put them down.”
“You can’t, Rafferty.”
“We’ve been to nearly a dozen villages, and every single one of them believes staying out of this war is the best move.”
“They’re afraid.”
“They’re fucking cowards.”
“On that, we agree.” Bea lifts the trousers again and begins patching the holes. “You are not alone in this. I am here. And Thorish—he may be young, but he has the best of intentions. Perhaps training him might be where you find peace. Until we find Ember.”
We fall into silence, and I consider her words. The young fae is green—that is true. He could benefit from formal training, but that is something we do not have time for. Not when Ember is at the mercy of a woman who would sell her own young if it would benefit her.
And the thoughts of what Ailis might be doing to Ember—of what my love must be suffering through—they entice the darkness in me.
Chapter 28
Ember
I don’t know how much time has passed.
But I do know that death is not far out of reach for me. I’m barely able to open my eyes, but when I do, I wish I hadn’t. Rafferty stares down at me, his eyes completely black. When he smiles, there is no remnant of the man I love in the sadistic grin.
“She’s awake,” he growls in a voice that is so like his it hurts my heart.
Even as I know this is not real.
“Oh, good.” Ailis steps up beside him and smiles down as she strokes his bare arm with her fingertips. They’ve been screwing solid for—shit—who knows how long. But at some point, I’d heard enough that it became repetitive.
That or I passed out. Could truly be either. I’m so damned exhausted I’m asleep more than I’m awake at this point.
“Did we bore you?”
I close my eyes and turn my head to the side as a tear slips free. Truthfully, even knowing it’s not real—seeing him pleasuring her is too damn much for me to handle. And, shit, she knows how to make it real.
Because she’s been with him. The real him before.
“Oh, Ember, come on, don’t be like that. We’re having so much fun.”
I’ve been berated.
Cut open.
Beaten.
Literally pissed on by more than one ancient as I lie here helpless.
And yet, she calls it fun. Sadistic bitch.
“Just let me die,” I plead. “Haven’t you tormented me enough?”
“Torment?” She clicks her tongue. “Honey, there is worse torture than seeing a man like this naked isn’t there?”
I turn my head toward her. “That’s not Rafferty.”
His grin spreads.
“No?” She reaches behind my head and grips my hair, yanking my head to the side and giving me an eyeful of fake-Rafferty’s dick. “Doesn’t it look like him?’
“The real Rafferty would be disgusted by you,” I snap back. “He would kill you before he’d touch you again.”
Rendered helpless, my words are all I have left. And I will use them to make her kill me until the day she—or this broken bond—finally does.
“Oh, but he did touch me plenty when we were mated. Did I ever tell you how he fucked me from behind in the throne room of the castle? Bent me right over the arm of it and drove into me until I could hardly walk.” She releases my hair and kneels beside me. “Rafferty can fuck like an animal, though I imagine he hasn’t shown you that side of him, has he? Given that a single touch could break such a weak person.”
I close my eyes against the tears. Again, not because her words are affecting me in any way other than reminding me of what I lost.
“Has he? Fucked you that way?” When I don’t answer, she laughs. “I didn’t think so.”
“You ever think he fucked you from behind so he didn’t have to see your fucking face?” I shoot back.
Ailis stops her retreat and turns toward me. “Excuse me?”
I smile. Finally. I’ve been shooting every possible insult her way since she tied me down, and nothing has gotten this reaction. Truthfully, Ailis is beautiful. And, to second that, I rather enjoyed having Rafferty behind me, but this thread I’ve found—I will tug at it as long as it works. “I bet he always knew you were not worth his time. Back in my world, men simply love to fuck. And they turn you around when they don’t want to look at your face,” I lie. “Which, given that you lied and drugged Rafferty into believing you were his mate, I imagine is likely the truth with you.”
Her golden eyes narrow on my face.
“In fact, I bet he was picturing someone else every single time you fucked,” I spit at her. “Do you know he told me that what he felt for you pales in comparison to what he feels for me?”
“He lied,” she growls. “He was obsessed with me.”
“Because you drugged him,” I shoot back. “Drugged him because you couldn’t get him without it.” I spit the words out, and she takes a step closer.
Fake Rafferty disappears, the illusion she’s projected losing steam. Ailis’s eyes narrow even further. “You are completely at my mercy, and yet you taunt me?”
“Is it really taunting if it’s the truth?” Fear unfurls in my belly, and my body begins to shake uncontrollably.
Ailis closes the distance between us and rests her hands on the table beside me. “You smell like your own shit, and you taunt me.”
I don’t speak, terror closing its icy grasp on my throat. I’ve gotten to know Ailis quite a bit since I’ve been held here—intimately. And never have I seen her look at anyone with the level of cool hatred as she’s watching me now.
“You know, I think it is time to change things, don’t you?” She disappears from view, and I close my eyes tightly, feeling tears slipping from them as I prepare for whatever pain she has in store for me next.
Swallowing hard, I hold my breath.
She comes into view right above me, a blade and what look like tongs in her other hand. Ailis has pulled her dark hair back out of her face, and she cocks her head to the side to study me. “I own you,” she says, tone so calm it slathers another layer of fear over me. “You are not in a place where you are able to talk back to me. And it is well past time I show you that, wouldn’t you think so?”
Fuck. My stomach churns, bile rising up my throat as I read between the lines of what she’s saying.
“Taranus talked too much, too,” she says. “Until I cut out his tongue.” The blade glints in the light as she holds it up in my face.
I shake my head.
“No?” Ailis smiles. “No? You don’t think I should?”
My breathing grows ragged, my eyes wide, and I actually begin to regret the shit I verbally whirled at her. Not because I regret it but because I should have known—after everything I’ve experienced—I should have known that there are things far worse than death.
And it seems I’m about to experience one of those.
“Open your mouth,” she orders.
I refuse.
Ailis leans closer. “Open. Your. Mouth.” The voice is layered with energy so potent even I can feel it, but still, I refuse. Something that seems to interest my captor. “Interesting. It seems we will have to do this the hard way, won’t we? Come in!” she yells.
The door opens, and footsteps thunder closer until two massive fae stop beside me.
“Open her mouth,” she orders.
They grip my face and begin to try to pry my mouth open. I thrash, terror pulsating through me as I try like hell to keep my mouth closed.
I know the moment I’ve lost.
They manage to get their fingers into my mouth, assaulting my taste buds with the bitterness of salty sweat—and another flavor I don’t want to think too long on. One of the fae grabs the top of my mouth while the other holds my bottom, and they pry it open. Ailis reaches inside with the tongs and pinches my tongue. Pain stings the inside of my mouth, but I know it’s nothing compared to what’s coming.
Especially when she grins down at me and the blade disappears from view.
I scream—as much as I can—agony burning through me while copper fills my mouth. Vomit sputters up, and the fae release my head. I cough it up and it splatters all over me, burning the injury inside my mouth and stinging the inside of my nose.
Tears stream down my face freely, and I don’t bother to hide them now. My vision begins to waver, my brain seemingly shutting down from the pain—or more likely, shock.
“Silence,” Ailis sings as she carries the pink flesh away. “Sweet, sweet, silence.”
Chapter 29
Rafferty
“Rafferty.”
I turn, the familiar voice impossible, and yet—Wally stands just behind me, an angry expression on his face. “You’re alive.”
“Clearly.”
“Interesting since the last time I saw you, there was a blade protruding from your chest.” I continue packing up my bedroll before fully facing him. Bleeding myself out this morning did absolutely nothing to curb the darkness. Then again, I doubt anything but seeing Ember again will.
“My kind does not die. We merely get sent back to the Veil.” He cocks his head to the side. “You don’t seem too shocked.”
“I don’t have time for shock.” Though the part about them not dying—that’s fucking problematic. “What the hell do you want?”
He crosses his arms. “I assume you’ve not found Ember yet.”
“You’d assume correctly.”
“Because you’re far too fucking occupied with what—saving your pathetic world?”
“Rescuing Ember is part of saving my pathetic world,” I snap back. “It’s difficult to save a woman you cannot find.”
“I found her.”
My heart stops. “You found her?” I ask. “Do not fuck with me, Ancient. I’m barely clinging to myself as it is.”
“So I can see,” Wally spits back.
Bea and Thorish are at my side a few seconds later. “You found Ember?” Bea questions.
“I did.” Wally’s silver gaze never leaves mine. “She is being held in a house on the other side of Faerie. Within walking distance to the castle.”
Knowing this is a one-two punch to my gut. We were just there. So close and yet so fucking far. “Take me there.” I withdraw my sword and step forward. “Now.”
