Fae war chronicles the c.., p.48
Fae War Chronicles: The Complete Series, page 48
“Fuck yes!” Rainey dances in her seat as she tears open the bag.
“Are those Skittles?”
Rainey lifts her gaze to me. “Yes. An obsession of mine.”
“She’d eat them for every meal if she could,” Elijah tells me.
She nudges him with her shoulder. “I would. And there’s no shame in that.”
Chuckling, I watch their interaction with only the mildest of jealousy. Not over the Skittles—personally, I prefer Vero Mango suckers I would grab on my way home from the gym every day. No, my jealousy comes with the fact that she and her husband look so happy. So at peace despite the chaos around them.
As do Ridley and Rachel.
And it makes my heart hurt for all that I’ve lost.
“Rachel has been taking care of the fae in the human world,” Ridley explains. “She goes back and forth as a liaison between our worlds.”
“Even though I would rather be here with you,” she replies, nudging him with her shoulder.
“As would I, my love. But I can’t have you here. Not all the time.”
Rachel smiles tightly at him, and I imagine this is an argument they’ve likely had more than once.
“What was the prison like?” Sullivan questions, changing the subject as he squeezes my shoulders. “I’m dying to know.”
Rainey snorts. “That was too easy, Rip.”
“Rip?”
Sullivan rolls his eyes. “Mine was too easy, but you’ve nicknamed me Rest In Peace.”
She beams. “Fitting, wouldn’t you say?” Then, she turns back to me. “But I am curious, too.”
I take a deep breath. “Any of you ever play video games?”
Sullivan raises his hand.
So does Ridley.
Rainey shakes her head. “Figures. Nerds.” But she winks at them both.
Laughing softly, I continue, “It was like that. Respawning every time we died, but the respawn was in the desert, and there are no save points.”
“Yikes.” Sullivan shakes his head. “How many times did you die?”
“Four? Not including the original one.”
“You’ve died five times?” Sullivan gapes at me. There’s irony in the fact that a reaper is so shocked at my death history.
I let my gaze travel around the group, noting that Rainey appears far more impressed by me than earlier. And Rachel looks just as horrified as the reaper beside me. Ridley and Elijah, however, are intrigued.
“I did.” A snort leaves my nose before I can stop it. “It’s actually quite funny if you think about it. I spent five years running from death, only to meet it the same number of times.”
“Sure. Funny. Not the word I’d use,” Sullivan retorts.
“More ironic, really,” I correct. “But going back there isn’t an option. I lost too much time.”
“I don’t know. Seems to me that’s the only place the ancients are not,” Rainey says. “They’re all so ready to be back here and in our asses.”
“How are the fae settling in back in Billings?” Ridley asks Rachel.
“They’re stressed,” she says with a sigh. “Confused, worried—you name it, and they’re battling it right now. Eira is helping make them comfortable, but I doubt they will be until they can come home.”
“Eira?” I ask.
“Back in our world,” Rachel tells me. “She runs a few shelters and has been setting up additional ones to take in the runaways.”
“How many fae have left?”
“Most of them,” Elijah says sadly. “The ones who chose to stay are either here, underground, or—more likely—dead.”
A burning sensation pulses through my chest, so I press the palm of my hand to it and attempt to knead the pain away. “How soon after I died did he lose it?”
No one answers right away. The crackling of burning wood fills my ears as I wait for someone to answer.
“By the time we arrived to bring you over for the bonding ceremony, Raffe was already gone,” Ridley explains, his expression dark. “Wally tells us that when he found your body, you were alone.”
A tear slips from my eye, and I swallow hard. Sullivan wraps his arm around my shoulders again. “It was quick, then?”
“From what we understand, yes.” Rachel smiles at me, though it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“And when did he hurt you?” I ask, gesturing to Ridley.
He raises his shirt to show off a massive scar running from his hip straight up to his chest. “It took us a while to track him. He moved constantly, and even lacking the ability to dematerialize, Rafferty managed to evade us for over a year. When we finally found him, he was with a group of ancients. They attacked, and Rafferty came straight for me.”
I’m horrified to see the level of rage in Ridley’s golden gaze. The inky tattoos on his arm begin to move, and at first, I wonder if it’s a trick of the light—until I see the exact same tattoos on Rachel’s arm doing the exact same thing. Strange. I don’t ask about it, though, because no matter the answer, it pales in comparison to what they’re telling me about Rafferty.
“I tried to reason with him, to help, but he was so cold. So detached. I was an obstacle, and he was determined to take me out. That was when we brought him here to try to shove the magic down. Needless to say, it didn’t work.”
“Maybe he didn’t mean to hurt you? I’ve seen Rafferty fight; I don’t know that he would have—” Missed.
“He meant to hurt me,” Ridley interrupts me. “And trying to paint him as a hero in this story is going to get you killed.”
I swallow hard.
Rafferty will always be a hero to me. And there’s not enough dark magic to convince me otherwise.
I just hope I can get him to see it, too.
Chapter 4
Ember
“Focus, Ember.”
“I’m trying,” I assure Wally as I dodge yet another dagger from Rainey’s killer arm. She lunges forward, and I jump back, barely avoiding getting gutted by her short sword. She moves like a freaking tornado, everywhere at once and completely unpredictable.
Two weeks training with her nearly every day, and my body has taken more of a beating than running for my life through Faerie barefoot. Flames roar to life along my arms, and I charge, but Rainey spins and slams the bottom of her boot into my abdomen before I can reach the dummy I’m charging for.
I’m thrown back as the wind is knocked out of me. The skin of my back is scraped as I slide along it, wheezing.
Two weeks and she can still kick my ass all over the place.
My vision unfocused, I struggle to draw deep breaths even though my lungs burn. A shadow blocks out the sun, and I glance up at a grinning hunter. “You get some kind of twisted satisfaction out of kicking my ass, don’t you?”
She reaches down and grips my hand then yanks me up to my feet. “Wouldn’t say I don’t enjoy it.”
I laugh, though the sound is far hoarser than normal. “I am getting better, though, right?”
She wraps an arm around my shoulders and squeezes. “That you are.”
Lessons with her might end with me on my ass, but learning to control my magic? That is getting easier every single day. I can call it forward now even in the middle of a fight, though I’ve yet to actually reach my target.
Which, I suppose, could be seen as a problem.
Alarms screech overhead, and Rainey whips out her blade, spinning it with precision that makes me insanely jealous even though I’m also awestruck. She turns in a circle, scanning the area as pixies and fae take off in all directions.
“Ancients!” Falcon screeches.
Rafferty. Something tugs in my stomach, an invisible thread pulling me toward the edge of the thicket.
Wally grips my arm and squeezes. “No, Ember. You must stay put.”
“He’s out there.” I start to think of him, and Rainey slams her fist into my gut.
“Sorry. But needed your attention. No dematerializing. We don’t know that Rafferty is out there, and as of now, you are our secret weapon.” She doesn’t directly mention why, likely because she worries they can hear somehow. But her sharp gaze says it all.
I take a deep breath and nod. “If he’s out there—”
“We cannot risk you. Not yet.” She clasps my shoulder, smiling apologetically as she moves past me, Wally right behind her. They rush toward where the soldiers have gathered and with one nod from Ridley, the fae dematerialize, taking Rainey and Elijah with them.
Sullivan comes to a stop beside me. “You all right?”
“He’s out there, isn’t he?” I ask, turning my face up to him.
Lips flattened, he nods. “Falcon told Ridley he is.”
Heart in my throat, I cross the Thicket. The closer I get, the stronger the pull, so by the time I reach the thorny barrier, I can feel him on the other side, just out of reach.
“Ember!” someone roars my name, and I open my eyes. Gone are the secure thicket walls. A wall of muscle stands in front of me. Brown pants cover powerful legs, stopping just below a muscled abdomen.
Tan skin is stretched taut over ribbed muscle, and as I continue my perusal, I swallow hard, my heart hammering. Dirt, crusted blood, and fresh scars mar his chest as it rises and falls with heavy breaths.
Swallowing hard, I tip my face up and meet the eyes of a stranger. Gone is the gold, replaced by a dark color I wouldn’t even call black.
Rafferty’s eyes are endless, soulless, and my stomach plummets at the same moment my knees buckle. I stumble, managing to right myself before face-planting as I stare up at the only person in the world—in any world—whom I have ever loved. His dark hair is longer now, curling just over his ears. Stubble-covered jaw hard, Rafferty stares down at me as though I am a complete stranger. An enemy, even. “Rafferty?” My voice quivers as I search his expression for any sign of recognition.
But I see none. He tilts his head to the side to study me.
“You are an interesting surprise,” he says. His voice shoots through me, the deep baritone so familiar, and yet it’s the voice of a man I don’t know.
“Raffe,” I choke out. “It’s me.”
He narrows his eyes then grins, but there’s no joy in it. “Yes, I know. The queen will be pleased with my retrieval of you.”
“Not a fucking chance!” Rainey yells from somewhere behind me, though she sounds like she’s underwater, thanks to the pounding pulse in my ears.
He doesn’t recognize me.
That, or he doesn’t care.
Strong arms grab me from behind and yank me back. Ridley shoves me behind him, and it’s all I can do to remain standing as I watch the man who loved me tenderly. I can still feel his hands on my skin, his lips grazing against mine. And yet—
Rafferty laughs, the sound so chilling I want to die all over again. “You think you can keep her from me?” He takes a step closer.
“Get the fuck back, Raffe,” Ridley warns, sword in hand. “You may be my brother in blood, but I will put you the fuck down.”
“You are weakened by foolish sentiment,” Rafferty sneers, upper lip rising in a snarl. “I am no longer the man you knew.”
I scramble forward because I refuse to believe that. “It’s me,” I choke out again, pushing past Ridley.
Rafferty stares down at me, completely uninterested. “You are nothing to me,” he retorts. “Though I sense you mean a lot to them.” He glances past me and to the others, but his declaration burns me from the inside. “And the queen certainly is intrigued by you—a red-haired ancient. If the scent of your magic is any indication. Though, you aren’t just an ancient, are you?” he adds, still looking at me as if I’m an ant and he’s a bully with a magnifying glass, prepared to fry me beneath the rays of the sun.
Every bit of hope I’ve held onto that there is something good in him begins to dissipate. Was I really too late?
“Why is that, I wonder? What could you possibly have that they need?”
Rafferty was there for me when my entire world crumbled.
He risked his life for me countless times. Hell, he risked it for Faerie. For these people who now stand ready to put him down like a rabid dog.
And with that thought, I force the flame of my hope to burn brighter. I will not lose him.
“I won’t give up on you,” I tell him, standing up straighter. My insides might feel like jelly, but my spine is made of steel. I’ve faced every single obstacle in my path, and this is no different.
He shifts his gaze back to me. “You are burning a torch for a man who no longer exists. And the fact that you are willing to risk your life and theirs by standing this close to me shows just how foolish you are.”
Rafferty reaches forward, and my flames spark to life. My entire body turns to one massive flame, my hair swaying in the wind. I can feel it radiating off of me, power rolling from my body and permeating the air around us. Flames shoot out on either side of me, wrapping around the two of us and blocking off anyone else.
Roars fill my ears, though all I can hear is the heavy thumping of my own heart.
Finally, Rafferty betrays a hint of emotion. Fear.
“Not so confident now, are we?” I purr, my power filling me with courage.
He looks to the left and to the right, but I know all he can see are flames. It’s all anyone can see.
“I will be getting my Rafferty back. There is nothing you can do to stop me.”
Rafferty grins at me, a carnal smile I’ve only ever seen directed at his enemies. Which, I suppose, I am now. “I look forward to watching the last flicker of hope fade from your eyes.”
An ancient materializes behind him, and a moment later, they are gone.
Grief overwhelms me, and I crumble forward to my knees, the flames vanishing from my body. Sobs shake my body, the pain overwhelming.
I thought for sure when he saw me—I shake my head. That was a foolish notion. And seeing him again erased any and all childish notions I had of true love saving the world. It was a stark reminder that I am not living in a fairytale.
There will be no white knight riding in to save me because it is the dragon I am in love with. And, should anyone show up to slay him, it is them who will fall.
Because I will not allow any harm to come to my beast.
Not as long as I breathe.
Guess it’s a good thing I’m unkillable.
Murmurs fill my ears as I move through the camp. All around me, people are staring and whispering, though I don’t care enough to try to make out what it is they’re saying. My gaze lands on the orange cottage in the corner.
The place where Rafferty and I first made love.
The place where we whispered promises of forever.
And now it’s storage for weapons to be wielded against him.
No more tears fall, either because I’m dried out or my agony has turned to anger. Honestly, either way serves a purpose because it focuses me. I’ve never felt more dedicated than I do right now in my mission to save Rafferty.
“You okay?”
Rainey crosses over to me, hands in the pockets of her jacket.
The light breeze is a tad chilly, though it doesn’t bother me. I doubt anything will at this point—I’m numb. “I’m going to save him.” She doesn’t reply instantly, so I turn to her. “You don’t think I can.”
Rainey shrugs. “I want to believe it’s possible, I promise you that.” She stops. “But you need to make sure the man you’re clinging to is still there. Otherwise, you’re fighting a nightmare you hope turns into a dream.”
With a soft smile, she stalks away to join Elijah, who waits at the door to their tiny hut. I continue walking, pacing around the inside barrier of the thicket as I ponder what I can do to bring Rafferty back.
His darkness is being spurred on by an unknown queen—I stop in my tracks. What if Ailis didn’t go into hiding like Ridley believed? What if the woman who tortured me, the same one who cut my tongue out, is leading the very man who she deceived into believing she was his true mate?
“A lot on your mind?”
I jump, whirling around to find Ridley standing behind me, hands in his pockets. “You scared the shit out of me.”
He doesn’t acknowledge what I’ve said, instead, just continues standing there as though he has something on his mind but is terrified to speak it out loud.
“What is it?”
“You could have been captured today.”
I meet his gaze. “I didn’t mean to dematerialize outside. I was thinking about Rafferty and—”
“You are my responsibility,” he growls.
I stiffen. “Excuse me?”
“You are Rafferty’s mate. And he would have died to protect you.”
“I know that.”
“I am his brother. Which means him being gone makes you my responsibility. I have to be able to keep you safe.”
“You are not responsible for me,” I tell him. “Not even a little bit. I am a grown-ass woman capable of making her own decisions,” I snap. “And I will save Rafferty. Even if you all have given up on him.”
Ridley steps closer, and for the first time since I met Rafferty’s middle brother, he looks genuinely afraid. “You really believe I just gave up on him? I have been fighting to bring my brother back for the last seven years, Ember. Seven fucking, bloody, exhausting years, only to be disappointed at every turn. Other than my mate, he is the only family I have left.”
“Then we have to save him.”
“You keep fucking repeating it as though saying the words aloud will make them true. No one can get close enough to him. Do you understand that? Without the dark magic, my brother was a fucking warrior. A leader. With that dark magic? There is no stopping him.” He raises the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a bump on the inside of his wrist. “This is an amulet embedded in the wrist of everyone here who is susceptible to Rafferty’s dark magic. Do you know why we have them?” He shoves his sleeve down. “Because my brother ordered a pixie to slaughter everyone in this Thicket.”
I gasp.
“Luckily, Falcon put him down before he killed anyone.”
My chest tightens. Before seeing Rafferty today, I don’t know that I would have believed him. After what I just witnessed, though, Ridley’s words are irrefutable. Remnants of a conversation pops into my head. “Wait, what about that cure you told us about? The one that will turn Rafferty mortal.”
