My stomach dropped, and I staggered back as the Dearg Due released red streams of smoke—her victims’ mingled blood and souls. The skin on my fingers tingled and itched, and the burned flesh faded to a healthy pink.
“Your Majesty!” Nessa screamed from behind.
I spun to find Nessa pointing at another of the monsters grappling with Aengus. He wrapped both hands around her throat, keeping her at arm’s length. Behind her, Rosalind plunged a dagger into the creature’s back, releasing more of that red vapor into the air.
Bloody clouds filled the royal suite, expanding until they engulfed Aengus and the Dearg Due. I was about to help Rosalind and Aengus, when another of the soldiers screamed and pointed behind them.
The contents of my stomach turned to lead, and I forced my gaze toward the bedroom area. Another red-haired female lay face-down on the mattress, her face joined with—
My mind went blank, my body consumed by blind rage.
In the blink of an eye, I stood above the third Dearg Due with the iron sword. It sliced into her back, filling my ears with screams that shook me out of my stupor. Cold fire burned through my flesh, boiling my bones and searing my marrow into embers. I released the hilt and slammed my shoulder into the monster, who screamed a mouthful of green vapor.
“Drayce.” My voice broke.
Nessa appeared behind me and placed a hand over his heart. “He’s dead.”
“No.” I shook my head from side to side. “He is death. There’s nowhere for his power to go but back to him.”
She drew back and stared at my belly.
“No,” I screamed so loud that the window cracked.
Somewhere deep within my soul, beyond the guilt and grief and gloom, I lamented ever having inhaled the breath of the Banshee Queen. I had just condemned us all with that terrible wail, a wail that accompanied death.
Darkness seeped into the carriage like liquid smoke. I placed the unburned tips of my fingers on Drayce’s shoulder and shook, but he rattled like a hollow shell. Chaos filled the carriage, and the laughter of the Dearg Due filled my ears.
I slipped my charred hand into the pocket of my skirt and pulled out the ring.
“Your Majesty,” Nessa said with a gasp. “If you use that thing—”
“It doesn’t matter anymore.” My voice broke. “The magic protecting the coach is gone. With a cracked window, it’s no longer shelter. If the cú sídhe barks, we’ll all die.”
Nessa remained silent, but the guards in the other side of the suite scuffled and screamed. That wretched dog must have herded Enbarr into Dearg Due territory.
A breeze curled around my neck like an invisible noose. I raised my head to find the black smoke whirling into a column at the other side of the bed. It took on the shape of a female and coalesced into another Dearg Due, whose amber eyes danced and flickered like flames.
“Queen Neara,” she rasped. “The Fear Dorcha demands your presence.”
Fear Dorcha.
Fatigue set into my bones, and defeat turned my heart into lead. Slumping against the wall at Drayce’s side, I slipped the ring onto his finger and waited for the magic to pour my power into his body.
Nothing happened.
The Dearg Due clambered over the mattress toward us, her tattered gown drifting with the swirling breeze. She stretched out her long-taloned fingers. “You will come to no harm if you surrender quietly.”
“And my people?” I whispered.
Her lips spread into a closed-mouth smile. “The females will join our ranks. We will feast on your strong males.”
My heart pounded so hard that I felt its reverberations through my ears. I darted my eyes to the left of the suite. Rosalind and Aengus struggled against a pair of the monsters. Another column of smoke appeared from beneath the bed and clamped a black hand over Nessa’s face.
I was out of options. If the Dearg Due hadn’t already killed the rest of my soldiers, they would capture my friends and corrupt their souls. They would consume Aengus and Drayce. They would take me to the Fear Dorcha, who would use my body as a vessel for Queen Melusina.
No.
I couldn’t let them win. Couldn’t let that monster take control of the throne and spread her malevolence through Bresail.
“No.”
I picked up the dagger and plunged it into Drayce’s heart.
Chapter 17
Drayce bolted upright and screamed. Shadows exploded from his chest, his hands, his mouth, and pierced the Dearg Due through the abdomen. The windows smashed, spraying splinters of glass across the room. I dropped to my hands and knees, dragging Nessa down to the side of the bed.
“What was that?” she hissed.
“I don’t know.” My voice shook.
“What did you do?” she asked in a voice as hard as iron.
I couldn’t speak. Not when the red smoke covering the ceiling doubled and filled the suite, not when Drayce’s screams mingled with the cries within the carriage and beyond.
My blood turned to ice. What. Had. I. Done?
Wood splintered, metal groaned and creaked and buckled at our backs, knocking Nessa and me into the mattress. Drayce continued screaming.
“Your Majesty.” Nessa grabbed my arm. “He’ll destroy this vehicle in his rage. Stop King Drayce before he kills us all.”
Her words struck like a hard slap, and I placed my forearms on the glass-strewn coverlet and pushed myself to kneeling. Drayce sat upright, his eyes as black as the darkness that surrounded the carriage. It was as though my mate had gone, replaced by the death and destruction of his magic.
“Drayce.” I placed a trembling hand on his muscled arm, which now felt more solid but still unearthly cool. “Drayce, come back to me.”
I smoothed down his hair, pressed kisses on his cold cheek, but the shadows still poured from his chest. They pushed out the red smoke until they were mere wisps beyond the glassless windows, and swept the broken pieces of glass into the air. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, trying to suffuse him with my warmth.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I repeated these words like an incantation. Repeated them until my throat and eyes burned with tears. “Come back, Drayce.”
His chest vibrated against my arm with the force of his screams, and something cracked overhead and tumbled off the carriage. I drew back, my hand grazing something both cold and burning that sent a flare of pain up my arm.
My throat thickened. The dagger was still embedded in his chest. I wrapped my hand around the sheet, gripped the iron hilt, and pulled it out.
Drayce collapsed on the bed with a sigh. I dropped the dagger onto the floor, rested my head on his chest, and let my eyes flutter closed. His chest rose and fell with deep, even breaths. Whatever I had done had pulled enough of him into his body to drive out the Dearg Due. Now, we needed to return to the palace and see if Osmos could heal his soul.
“Thank the saints,” I whispered.
“It’s too early to celebrate, Your Majesty,” Nessa wrapped a hand around my shoulder and gave me a hard shake.
I raised my head. Out of the glassless window, somewhere in the solid blackness, thin wisps of green approached in the distance, taking on the shape of a dog.
“It’s back.” I pulled myself to my feet.
“We need to board up the windows,” Nessa said.
“There isn't time.” I edged around the older female and walked into the dining area, where Cliach and one of the soldiers lay on the ground, their eyes open, their faces twisted with terror.
Rosalind knelt beside an unmoving Aengus. The muscles around my chest squeezed tight, and my throat thickened with grief.
She stared up at me through red-rimmed eyes. “He’s alive. Four Dearg Due tried to steal his air, but the shadows turned them into smoke.”
I exhaled my relief in a long breath. “We’re still in trouble, and I need your help.”
“What’s happening, now?” she asked.
“The cú sídhe is returning.�
� I swept my arm toward the window. “We need to kill it.”
She rose to her feet. “How, when his barks are so deadly?”
“It’s working with the Fear Dorcha, who needs me alive for Queen Melusina.” The painful prickling in my palms faded to a dull itch.
Her features tightened with apprehension. “What do you want me to do?”
I wanted to ask her to fly me out there, so we could confront the wretched dog, but I couldn’t leave Drayce and Aengus helpless and alone. The cú sídhe was trained to collect women for the fae. Now that the Dearg Due had revealed their association with the Fear Dorcha, I had no doubt that the dog was coming to collect me.
Reaching around the back of my sword belt, I unhooked the Dullahan’s whip. “Hold me as I lean out of the window.”
Rosalind’s gaze dropped to the bone whip, and she gulped. “Will it work?”
I eased a leather glove over my right hand. It was hard to tell if the cú sídhe was a corporeal creature like the Dearg Due or a wraith like a banshee. The monstrous dog might even be like the Banshee Queen, who could switch between solid and spirit. None of that mattered when I had the Sword of Tethra and the blood of Dana.
Rolling my shoulders, I turned my gaze to the open window, where the glowing green mass faced toward us. “My swords would do a better job, but I don’t want that thing close to the carriage.”
“Alright.” Rosalind folded Aengus’ torn cloak into a pillow and slipped it under his blonde curls. She and Nessa pulled the dining table aside, giving me the space I needed for my attack.
I braced a bare hand on the window frame and stared into the approaching silver eyes. The lighter shades of its green fur floated toward us but it still wasn’t close enough for an attack.
“Your Majesty.” Rosalind wrapped both arms around my waist. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold onto you if it barks.”
“Then I’ll have to attack before it tries,” I said.
The cú sídhe’s rapid, excited panting rasped against my eardrums, and hot bursts of blood-scented breath filled my nostrils. A shudder of disgust seized my muscles, and I pushed aside the thought that the monstrous dog ate its dead victims.
I raised the bone whip in the air and threw my arm down. The Dullahan’s whip flew through the air, its vertebrae separating as it raced toward its target. The cú sídhe dodged left, but the bones’ trajectory curved, slashing one of its eyes.
A high-pitched howl filled my ears, making my pulse flutter in my throat. After the whip completed its arc, its vertebrae retreated back into place with a snap.
The dog’s remaining silver eye glowered at me through a mass of shaggy fur. It bared giant teeth and snarled. Alarm spiked through my heart. I drew back the bone whip and struck once more, hitting the cú sídhe’s remaining eye. With a howl, the monster exploded into a cloud of green.
Rosalind released my waist with a long, relieved breath. “What now, Your Majesty?”
I stepped back, surveying the dead and unconscious bodies strewn about the floor, the sofa, the window seat. “Let’s tend to whoever’s still alive and stay alert for any more attacks.” I said.
Rosalind, Nessa, and I moved Cliach and the dead soldier’s bodies to the other carriage, which was now a mess of broken walls and windows. After laying Aengus and the driver on the window seat and sofa, I checked on Drayce to see if his soul had returned along with his power.
As I approached the sleeping area, the doe poked its head out from under the bed and stared at me with mournful, green eyes. Eyes the same color as Drayce’s.
“Drayce?” I asked.
The doe lowered her head.
I turned to Nessa. “Is he inside the deer?”
The older female’s shoulders sagged. “One of those Dearg Due creatures got too close, Your Majesty. It’s going to take a few days for me to be able to see anything.”
Guilt squeezed my heart. “I’m sorry—”
She raised a palm. “That surge of death magic that rescued us could only have come from one person. Whatever you did has brought us a step closer to rescuing King Drayce.”
The heaviness in my chest lightened a fraction, but the petrified faces of those guards, drained of air and blood and soul, would forever haunt my nightmares.
After a harrowing twelve hours of traveling through the Summer Court, the first signs of light pierced the darkness. We had spent the entire time wide awake, protecting Drayce and the two unconscious males from wraiths and specters and mischievous crows.
By the time we emerged from the shadows, the morning sun hung above the distant mountains, coloring the landscape gold. A warm, woodsy breeze circulated through the carriage, chasing away the scent of death.
The morning chorus filled my ears, a balm to my aching, fatigued muscles and to a throat hoarse from screaming. I slumped against the window frame and stared out at the dense forest of mixed trees, whose canopies of emerald and jade and olive-green spread for miles up to the Apex Mountain.
It was an impossibly sharp peak of vertical slopes and jagged edges that looked impossible to climb on foot. At its summit stood the Apex Palace, its tall towers and spires blending with its flint exterior.
For the first time since Drayce had brought me to the realm of the fae, I no longer looked at the building with dread. It was now the seat of my power, my sanctuary, my shelter. As much as I wanted to devote time to developing my faerie power, I still needed to fix the Dagda’s staff and defeat the Fear Dorcha.
Daylight flooded the carriage’s interior and warmed my face. I clung to the edge of the window and exhaled the trepidation and tension that had knotted through my insides the entire night. We were finally out of the Summer Court, out of the realm of the Fear Dorcha, who was probably working out another way to attack.
A flock of capall flew out from the mountain, their riders’ silver armor glinting in the morning sun. I turned from the window to where Drayce lay on his side under the sheets. I threaded my fingers through his hair, and smiled. He must have shifted in the night—a sign that his soul was either occupying his body or it was close.
“Are you in there?” I murmured.
The guards accompanied us back to the palace, to a courtyard of glittering moonstone buildings that glowed like pearls in the sun. When we reached the palace’s front steps, Enbarr’s hoofs clinked on the stones, and the carriage landed with a hard thud.
Two rows of servants lined the entrance, each clad in silver livery. Osmos rushed forward with a pair of guards on his heels and entered the royal suite. The tip of his horn caught the sunlight, which also colored his platinum hair blond.
“Your Majesty.” Osmos took in the wrecked carriage with wide, azure eyes. “What happened? Did you awaken King Drayce?”
My gaze darted to my slumbering mate, whose curtain of blue-black hair covered most of his face. “It’s hard to tell.”
Osmos stepped forward and frowned.
I walked to the end of the bed, flipped up the coverlet, exposing the frightened doe. “Can you sense anything from this animal?”
Osmos knelt at the foot of the bed and held out his hand. The doe shrank away from him, which was a peculiar reaction to an aon-beannach. From what I learned about Osmos’ kind, they were supposed to be the most benevolent creatures in existence.
He glanced up at me and frowned. “This is not a doe, but a powerful being under the influence of dark magic. Would you like me to heal her?”
Disappointment shoved my heart down to my stomach. Why had I seen the doe in the dreamscape if it wasn’t connected to Drayce’s curse? Maybe the doe’s eyes had been a coincidence and it was a member of the Autumn Court who had been cursed to become a beast.
Osmos rocked forward on his feet, his brows raised with expectation. I rubbed the back of my neck and cringed. He was waiting for me to answer his question.
“After you’ve checked on King Drayce and settled him in my room.” I turned to address the guards hovering by the door. “Please place the d
oe in a comfortable room close to the queen’s quarters.”
I stepped aside to let four guards coax the hissing doe out from under the bed with their magic. My brows drew together. She ran toward us for shelter when the cú sídhe emerged from the dark. Why didn’t she want to enter the palace?
Osmos walked past the retreating guards and stopped at Drayce’s bedside. “The humans’ representative has been making more demands.”
“What does he want, now?” I asked.
“They would like passage on one of the boats to Hibernia.” He raised both hands above Drayce’s chest, moved his fingers like a puppeteer, removing red and green wisps of magic.
“Did you tell them about the mist surrounding the island?” I asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Osmos cringed. “I took great pains to explain that no ships can leave or enter Bresail apart from a single day every seven years. A cartographer and historian also came to explain the situation with the Fomorians and the creatures that dwelled along our coast.”
“What did they say?”
Osmos turned his gaze away from mine and raised Drayce off the mattress. “They wish to be placed in an enchanted sleep to make the next seven years pass quickly.”
I ground my teeth. The Summer Court was suffering under a cursed sleep, the oak sprite was willing to risk her life to break the curse over her people, and Drayce had nearly lost everything from being cursed. Now these people wanted the same?
“Do these people know what they’re asking?” I asked.
“The druid, Cathbad, tried to reason with the other humans, but they don’t want to spend another waking hour among faeries.” He raised a hand, and the sheets around Drayce wrapped around his body like a cocoon.
The muscles of my jaw tightened and throbbed. Father and I had wanted a new start in a new country. I was happy to give it to them, but if I refused their request, it would make me no better than the faeries who had tricked them into slavery.
I could understand their desire not to return to their old villages. By now, their families would be generations gone. Those of them who had been taken as infants and replaced with changelings had nothing—not even a name.
Mate of the Fae King (Dark Faerie Court Book 2) Page 15