Shameless Fae (The Fae Bounties Book 1)

by Cilla Raven

  I swallow the bite of delicious backstrap I have in my mouth before I answer as carefully as I can. “I’m not sure. I’m warming up to you guys, and I think we want the same things, but I don’t think I’ll really know the answer to that question until I figure out what you guys and the rebellion want me for.”

  Nodding, Quinn says, “That’s reasonable, but I can tell you why we want you with us if you’d like to hear it?”

  My eyebrows raise because I didn’t think he’d tell me so soon, but after I nod at him, he tells me what they want, almost eagerly. “Well, the Docongueh was formed over time,” he started.

  “We had each left our homes and set out on our own around the same time, individually, from the different parts of Arorial we all came from, but we didn’t figure that out until later. I met Lazlo first. He was being an ass like always, and I was on the run for the first time in my life, trying to keep a low profile,” Quinn said before Lazlo interrupted him.

  “You call walking around, flaunting those wings, and fighting anyone who crossed your path a low profile, Big Boy?” Lazlo laughs sarcastically.

  Quinn smiles and points at Lazlo as he says, “I won that fight against you, so don’t even try to deny it.”

  Lazlo leans his head to one side as he stares at Quinn with a mischievous grin. “Uh-huh. Whatever you need to tell yourself so you can sleep at night,” he says before he looks back down at his food, his grin growing even wider. “But we all know you could never beat me.”

  It makes everyone laugh, but Priya, who groans as she looks over at me. “They will be arguing about this until the end of time.” Then looking back at Quinn, she says, “Just get on with it, would ya?”

  Quinn chuckles but quickly gets back to what he was telling me. “Well, after I beat Lazlo the night we met,” he sends a mocking smile toward the teal winged fae beside him, “we were both lying there on the ground outside the bar because they kicked us both out. We were exhausted and bleeding everywhere, bloody spent, is what we were. We were still trying to beat each other, but our blows had all lost their rage. Pretty soon, the whole situation and how ridiculous we were both being, had us laughing like crazy. We’ve been best friends ever since.”

  We all laughed at his story for a little bit before he said, “Then, a couple of years later, we found Priya and Roan.”

  “I met Roan after I fled Tavatika. This big brute,” Priya said as she kicked Roan playfully in the shin, “was hiding in the trees somewhere between Tavatika and Lotaque when I found him.” Roan chuckled at her as his eyes looked far away as if he were remembering what she was saying fondly.

  “You’ve seen those wings, right?” she asks me, and I nod as she keeps talking. “Yeah, they’re pretty fucking hard to miss. Now, I’d never seen wings like that in my life, and after everything that went down with my parents and how I was reeling after they were sent to the slums for thinking interbreeding was the best thing, I was instantly obsessed with his wings.

  I chased him down, but every time I got near him, he’d escape me somehow. He probably thought I was annoying as fae because I just wouldn’t leave him alone. I mean, I had to know how his wings were possible, like, you know how impossible they are, right?” Priya turns to ask me, but she doesn’t pause long enough to let me answer her before she keeps going.

  “Anyway, I finally wore him down after I’d been chasing him through the jungle for like a week,” she laughs. “But then I realized he didn’t speak any of the languages I know, and that was yet another mystery I had to solve.

  Once he realized I just wanted to pick his brain, he settled down, and we tried to figure out how to communicate with each other, starting out simply with hand gestures because that stuff is basically universal.” She said that last part with an eye roll before Roan said something incomprehensible in Eruxian, and she laughed in response.

  “He says he thought I was crazy. That he thought I wanted to eat his wings at first.”

  I nearly double over, I'm laughing so hard at the story she’s telling, and how exuberant and enthusiastic she sounds while she says it, imagining giant ass Roan running from little ol’ Priya as she chases him through the jungle trying to get a good look at his wings.

  “Pretty soon we had our own language,” she says as everyone’s laughter settles out into happy smiles. “We spent about two years together, just Roan and me while we figured each other out. I helped him hide who he is from everyone so he could walk through the streets without being murdered, and he taught me what life was like in Eruxus where people of all different color wings live in relative harmony, even though the crime there is astronomical.” She rolls her eyes again at that but keeps the story going.

  “We were coming into Wrogmar through the Tavatikan pass when we met up with Quinn and Lazlo. People can only go through that pass during certain times of the day, and if you get there too early, you have to stand around and wait until it’s time for the Wrogmar guards to let you through. Well, the pass was packed that day, and somehow, we got pushed up against these fools while we waited, and for almost two hours, we talked like we’d known each other for our whole lives.

  Roan and I were going to Wrogmar to find a few of those plants he uses to disguise his wings so we could have a larger supply at the ready, and these two,” she points at Quinn and Lazlo, “were going to see what kind of trouble they could get into, I guess.”

  “Were not,” Lazlo says, pulling another round of laughter from me.

  “Whatever,” Priya says. “Anyway, the trek we needed to go through to find those plants was going to be difficult, and Quinn said he and Lazlo would go with us to make sure we stayed safe. Always protective, that one,” she says as she points to Quinn.

  “All of us nearly died on that journey, but we got the flowers Roan needed,” Quinn says.

  “And there’s nothing like almost dying together to bind you to the people you’re with,” Lazlo says sarcastically, and I giggle some more.

  “We’ve been together ever since,” Quinn says as he turns his head, so his blue eyes sparkle in the firelight as he looks at me. “We rarely find someone with the same, or nearly the same ideas as us. Especially ones that have skill sets and a mentality like we do. When we got paid to bring in The Ghost and started looking into you, it became apparent pretty early on that we might be able to use someone like you.”

  He takes a moment to eat another bite of his food, and I ask, “Use me how?”

  “You have a unique situation in the city walls of Tavatika. You know it better than most, I’d imagine, while we have to guess about a lot of things or go in blind to certain situations. We think if you’re with us, we could make way more of a difference outside the walls because of the insight you could give us on the inside. Plus, the added benefit of another set of muscles if we needed it.”

  “But, Priya, you’re from Tavatika. Don’t you know enough about it?” I ask.

  Turning to me, she says, “I grew up in scribe boarding school my whole life. I was only ever to visit my parents on certain weekends and holidays. I know a great many things, but most of it has to do with history or politics, science or math, linguistics, that kind of thing. In the real world, my knowledge is almost useless when it comes to street smarts.” She admits this as if she’s ashamed of her lack of knowledge, and though I want to tell her she’s probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, something makes me hold my tongue.

  Quinn’s words flow through my head, and when I really think about it, he’s not asking for anything unreasonable. At least, to The Ghost, it isn’t an unreasonable request to join with them and fight against the wrongs we see, together. As far as they know, I am bound to no one, a free agent, doing what I want, when I want to do it. They might even think I live a relatively lonely life, and they see that their comradery might actually enrich my life and theirs.

  However, as the princess, what he’s asking for is absolutely out of the question. I can’t abandon my people, Uncle, or my friends. In fact, n
ow that I’m thinking about it, a hefty dose of guilt slaps me right in the face as I consider how everyone back home must be feeling right now in my absence, while I’ve been having a good ol’ time, traipsing about naked with outlaws.

  “I would love to join you,” I say softly, genuinely.

  “I sense a ‘but’ coming,” Lazlo says as he eyes me.

  “But,” I nod once at him, “I have obligations in the city walls that would prevent me from joining you in the way that you guys live. I mean, you are all together, all the time, right?” I ask, and they all nod at me in response. “Yeah, I can’t do that. I support your cause, and you’ve definitely made me see the world through a different lens, and I fully intend on addressing all the problems I can, but to leave my life behind would be impossible.”

  Quinn looks down at his food for a second before his eyes raise back up to mine. “Let’s give it some time. Maybe we can still figure out a way to make things work,” he says, and despite the guilt I feel, a small smile forms on my mouth.

  Roan gets up when he’s through with his food, sighing as he gestures to Priya. She gestures back, and then Roan heads over to the horses and begins untying one.

  “Where’s he going?” I ask as I watch him climb onto the back of the horse, looking like he was made for riding on that animal.

  Priya says, “He’s got somewhere he needs to be. He’ll be back before morning though, don’t worry.”

  It doesn’t escape me that she doesn’t tell me where he’s going, and even though it’s hard, I try my best to ignore the small pang of hurt I feel that she doesn’t think she could just tell me whatever it is he’s gone off to do, seeing how forthright everyone just was with me. But pretty soon, the rest of us are joking around the fire as if we were all old friends, myself included, and my smiles and laughter come so easily I have to wonder if I’ve ever felt so free and happy before, ever in my life.

  I’ve come close with late-night talks with Mika or short stints with Riah over the years, but for the most part, the answer to that question is an absolute ‘never.’ I’ve never felt this way, and I love it instantly so much that the idea of leaving it behind for any reason is enough to make my heart want to crack in two.

  “What did he do then?” Lazlo asks, holding his stomach while he laughs as I tell him one of my funnier bounty stories.

  Getting up from my seat for dramatic effect, I twirl side to side, jumping from one leg to another with high knees, my hands pushed out in front of me, imitating the guard I captured over a year ago, perfectly, as I say, “He started doing this, screaming no, no, no, I’ll do whatever you want, Ghost! No, no, no, no, no!”

  I’m laughing so hard at myself, and my memory of the incident while I move, that it takes me a second to realize that their laughter died down about halfway through my routine, and I look down at all of them to see what’s going on.

  Their faces all turn an ashen color, and for a second, I think something scary is behind me, but when I check by whipping my head around and find nothing there to cause them to react that way, I turn back to them and ask, “What?”

  It’s as if that’s the word that snaps Quinn out of his stupor. Within a half second, he’s looming over me, his broad chest butted right up against mine as he glares down at me, and I do everything I can to hold my ground and not cower before him, even though something inside me wants to desperately.

  “You’re the princess,” he says as liquid fear sweeps through every part of my body at those words.

  I glance back at my wings and see that, yes, they have most certainly turned back to their natural black coloring, and my stomach drops all the way to the ground as I see the hate in his eyes.

  Sighing, but still hopeful, I say, “Yes. I am,” and no sooner do the words leave my lips, than Quinn grabs me around my neck and kicks my feet out from under me, following me to the ground as I land hard on my back in one smooth and brutal movement that knocks the wind from my lungs.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you,” he spits in my face.

  Struggling to pull air back into my lungs, I kick him as hard as I can, claw at his hands and arms where they hold me down, and buck against his hold on me, but everything I do is utterly useless against him.

  Spots start to show up in my vision, and since he’s leaving me no other choice, I reach down, pulling my daggers from my hips, and slice them across the bottoms of his forearms in one swift motion.

  He lets go immediately, and I stand up quickly, gasping for air, holding my daggers at the ready in case he comes back at me, or if anyone else decides to turn on me too.

  “Let’s all take a second,” Lazlo says slowly and dramatically as he walks over to us with his signature bent kneed crouch, holding his hands out a little between Quinn and me while Quinn holds his forearms tightly across his belly to stop the bleeding.

  “For what? I say we kill her right now,” Priya says with disgust as she comes around the other side of Quinn, and the look on her face cuts me deeper than I thought she had the power to do.

  “Why? Why does me being the princess make you want to kill me?” I ask, eyes wild and probably a little crazy with the shock of everything going on around me.

  Quinn huffs and asks, “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Chapter 14

  “You represent everything we stand against,” Quinn says with so much hate in his voice, the image of him smiling at me while he untied my hands earlier, floats through my mind with a level of hurt I’m definitely unprepared to face.

  Daggers still at the ready, I stand up straight and slide them back into their sheaths on my hips, hoping that if I don’t seem aggressive in any way, it will make him calm down as well. I know it’s a risk, but it’s one I’m willing to take to get us back to how things were only a few short minutes ago. He can’t have forgotten how easily we got along so quickly, right?

  “How can you say that? I might be the princess, but I’m still The Ghost, the same person you liked so much you were asking me to join you right over there a few minutes ago,” I say pleadingly as I shove my prideful self down deep inside, knowing that that part of me will only get in the way right now.

  Quinn’s radiating anger and hostility, and even though my words were meant to remind him of who I was before he knew I was the princess, it’s as if he has filters in his ears, skewing everything I just said, since he says, “I see who you are now.” His tone is absolutely chilling, his eyes hard and unforgiving as he stares a hole right through me. “You don’t catch bounties because you have morals,” he chuckles darkly without an ounce of humor. “You do it for the power high you get as you wield it over everyone who’s beneath you.”

  My mouth opens, but no words come out as the pain of his words trickle into my heart. The image he must have of me in his mind isn’t someone I want to know, much less, be accused of being. As I stare at him for a few seconds while I try to get my wits about me, he crosses his arms over his chest smugly as if the time it’s taken me to reply to what he said is some kind of admission on my part.

  “I don’t enjoy having a lot of power,” I say somewhat meeker than I wanted to, the truth of my words and the conviction I feel as I say them, seeping into what I’m saying without my permission. “And I don’t wield it over anyone unless I’m forced to.”

  “Who the fae could force you, Princess, huh? Your fucking father?” Quinn’s tone is vicious and so condescending, I feel like a piece of shit on his shoe. “That’s the only person you have to answer to, and we all know he’s never here! So, who’s running this fucking country while he’s away, huh?” He asks like what he’s said is the final nail in my proverbial coffin, but he doesn’t even give me a chance to explain myself before he continues.

  “You are! You’re the one running this shitshow into the ground, letting people starve under your watch! And all this time that you could’ve been doing something about it, you’ve been out acting like a fucking skilled child on a power trip, capturing criminals before they’ve ev
en faced a trial, acting all self-righteous, as if you were this benevolent figure who graces us by lifting her pretty little finger just so you can say you’re doing something!”

  He finally pauses for a breath, but at this point, I’m so lost in my anger at what he’s said, I can hardly even think straight. His words cut through me like nothing I’ve ever felt before because, for a while there, I felt like we were kindred spirits, that something was blossoming between us, between each of them and me. But as the pain of his words sinks in deeper, anger replaces my pain in a heartbeat, protecting the most vulnerable parts of me.

  How dare he tear into me like that without even giving me a chance to defend myself?

  “I was going to try and explain my side, but you know what? I don’t have to explain anything to you,” I say savagely. “Believe what you fucking want to believe since you’ve already made up your mind. See if I care.” I turn away knowing damn well, I really do care way more than I want to admit, honestly, but I’m certainly not going to show that to them now.

  Fuck that.

  Stalking off in the direction we rode in on for a few steps, I flap my wings and start heading back home. I don’t care how long it’ll take me to get there or how much trouble I get in when I arrive. I’m not staying here, not after what Quinn just said to me.

  I haven’t made it far before someone is grabbing the apexes of my wings from the air behind me, while someone else grabs each of my hands from below me, and within seconds, I’m relieved of my weapons, and my hands are rebound behind my back, along with my wings. I look back to see who’s doing this and see Quinn holding my wings while Priya ties me up, and since I’m not on the ground, I have absolutely no leverage to fight them back with.

  “We still have a delivery to make,” Quinn says menacingly through gritted teeth. “You’re going to the rebel camp because we always stick to our word,” he finishes, not so subtly, insinuating that I don’t keep mine.