by Raine Miller
“To approach the cloaked castle would be an act of aggression. I mean no harm. The move was intended to be a conciliatory gesture on my part.”
“Fair enough,” Leraye replied.
But Barbas had had enough. He felt exposed, raw. His earlier anticipation at seeing his lover again had dissolved into a conflicting mass of emotions. Primary was unease. They were too out in the open here. Too public.
“Let’s go.” Barbas glanced around one last time. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Within minutes they were on their way to the Demon Castle moving slowly. The three remained silent. Like bald book ends, they flanked her body. The sweet scent of heather and rose wafted from her skin and Barbas’s cock flooded with the remembrance of their erotic encounters. Gods, he had missed her. But now was not the time to have his body respond.
Leraye had one hand on the hilt of his knife. He continually scanned the forest as if expecting company.
“I came alone,” Aine informed them. “As another act of trust.”
Leraye snorted and continued to search their surroundings, with high sense of defense. When they hit the fork for the path to the Castle, Leraye went left toward the beach.
Barbas jerked to a stop. “Where are we going?” In his grasp, Aine tensed. Her body prepared for attack. “I will keep you safe,” he whispered.
“I don’t need your help to keep me safe,” she snarled. “What is going on?”
“Leraye?”
“Change of plans,” the Demon of Battle said calmly.
Barbas’s heart started pounding with renewed anxiety. Leraye had deviated from the original plan, which meant perhaps, Barbas had not been privy to the final plan. Did they not trust him?
***
They hadn’t taken her to the Castle. They’d brought her to the beach. Aine breathed in the scent of the ocean. The waves shushed against the sand. Seagulls squawked in the late evening air. The fading rays of the softer sun bled down on her and filled her with power. She’d been imprisoned, away from the sun since she had revived her father, and her body was weak. Depleted.
She needed to pull more energy. To be ready for whatever was coming. Because based on the reading she was getting from Barbas, he didn’t have any idea what was going on. Which meant her one ally was in the dark.
Aine got ready to take a stand. They were in a protected cove. Boulders shaped like bosoms rose on her right side. The ocean swirled like a swarm of angry bees to her left. And Aine knew, knew that Prince Gaap was close by. Hadn’t she watched before when he’d commanded the brook in the clearing? So, her gambit had failed.
Barbas stumbled onto the beach. “What is going on?”
Leraye said, “Ask her.” More Demons surrounded them. She was trapped.
“I am an innocent party,” Aine said regally, chin in the air, shoulders back as if she were going to her execution. Which was possible. Because she’d trusted Barbas, she might have damned herself. “It was clearly a mistake to come here.”
Except, with Barbas’s grasp on her, she knew that he was as in the dark as she was about what was going on. His sense of betrayal pierced her heart. Aine was overcome with disappointment, despair.
“What’s really happening here, Princess?” Leraye asked menacingly.
Before she could answer Finn appeared behind them. “Finn,” she said faintly. Goddess damn her father, he’d had her followed. Like a flock of geese, more Fir Bolg appeared and flanked Finn, fanning out in a V formation behind him.
Finn inclined his head. “Ma’am.” The Demons slid into defensive mode and appeared at Aine’s side, pressed their blades to her ribs. But Finn didn’t move.
“Don’t bother. They are well aware of who I am.” Her heart thundered in her chest. This wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to find peace, a truce, a place for her babe.
“Why are you doing this?” Barbas addressed Prince Gaap. His confusion at the surfeit of Demon guards came through loud and clear. They had both been betrayed.
“It seems your Demon prince didn’t trust you either,” she said evenly. “Did you, Prince?”
Tactically the location was perfect. The large body of water was a threat by itself. Gaap’s superior ability to wield the power of the ocean would give the Demons the advantage. It was also far enough away from the castle so that whomever her father’s Fae spy was, they would have a difficult time overhearing what was happening.
Prince Gaap stepped out on the boulders, his body shouted antagonism. He didn’t like her. “I never trust the Fae.”
Barbas jerked. The Prince’s obvious distrust of Barbas’s motives had hurt him.
“And your judgment has been clouded, my friend,” Gaap spoke directly to Barbas.
Aine glared at the prince. Surrounded by Demons, she refused to cower.
“I would never betray the Demons.” Barbas spat.
“I realize that,” Gaap replied evenly. “But she has no allegiance to us, only to her own people.”
And that right there was why she would never have peace. True wish for peace or not, no one would ever believe her. Not Fae, not Demon.
“Why did you contact Barbas?” the prince asked.
“I am having a child.”
“What?” Finn shouted at the news and not in joy. “But...the king did not foresee this.”
“You are the Fae Princess, are you not?” The prince queried, drawing her attention away from Finn. Gaap already knew that, so she wasn’t sure why he asked.
“You know this to be true.”
“So what do you have to gain from coming here?”
Aine jerked back. “The babe will not have a chance in the Fae Realm.” With her arms crossed over her belly, she protected the small life force growing inside her. Both Leraye and Barbas nodded their agreement.
And here it comes.
“What do you want?”
“Knowledge.” Aine licked her lips to draw his attention away from her calm lies. They wouldn’t believe her if she confessed what she really wanted. In order to get them to acquiesce to her real reason for coming here, she would have to make her ‘request’ believable. Then when they denied her, she would ask for a lesser request. Her true purpose. They’d believe they got the upper hand and she would get what she wanted. “How have the Demons gained so much power in the last few months?”
“There is no way in hell we would give that information to you.”
“I had to try.” Aine said, “For the sake of my babe.”
“You want power for your child.” The Prince raised a mocking brow.
Aine wanted to stomp her foot. “No. I want peace for my child.”
“Giving the Fae the tools to increase their power will not garner peace.” Gaap refuted then attacked. “You have to know that we would assume a trap. Why did you really contact Barbas?”
She looked around at the gathering of Demons. Gaap stood with a number of Demon aristocracy and while he was the one asking the questions, she could tell that he had a consensus of opinion. He was not a solitary ruler. He garnered the advice and wisdom of his people, then made a decision. She could only hope that he was a reasonable and just ruler.
“Fine. Since you won’t give me the source of your power, I need asylum for the babe.”
CHAPTER 16
Pain, sharp and acute, stabbed at Barbas’s heart. How could he have been so wrong about her?
“You would give up your child?” Pure rage bled out of his pores and into the sea air like a mist, surrounding him, obscuring his thoughts. She did not deserve to be a mother. “How could you do this to your child?”
Tears shimmered in her chestnut eyes. “Do you really think that someone as alone as I would give up this gift casually?” she whispered. “Is that what you think of me?”
A hush fell over the clearing. The only sound in coming dusk was her labored breath as she struggled to heave in oxygen. “My father hates Demons. How do you think a child of yours would fare in the Fae Realm?”
She paced away from him and thirty Demon guards shifted with her and into a higher state of readiness. “I have been imprisoned for merely engaging in sex with you. Can you imagine what horror he would visit upon our child?”
Aine stiffened her spine, stood straight and addressed Prince Gaap. “The babe needs protection.”
“I want to keep her.” Barbas bowed before the prince.
“You cannot keep the Fae Princess. It would be an act of outright war.” Gaap denied his wish.
“I meant I want them both.” Barbas demanded.
And ultimately, wasn’t this what she wanted for her child? The baby needed to know both Fae and Demon halves. Only Barbas could give the child that. She covered the small bump protectively and stroked her palm over her growing stomach. A swell of love so fierce it threatened to take her under swamped her.
“Impossible.”
Aine’s heart sank. All her life she had been alone in a crowd of Fae. A truthsayer no one would touch and a princess no one wanted to befriend. She did not want this same alienation for her child. She would abandon her dream of having a place, a community for herself, if only she could assure that her child would not suffer the same fate.
“However the babe is a different matter.” A wide smile curved Gaap’s mouth and his whiskey-colored eyes sparkled with happiness. “The babe is a miracle.”
Barbas snorted. “I’ll bet the babe will not think so once he or she is old enough to understand.”
“The first hybrid child. And the first Demon child to be born in over a millennia,” Gaap said in wonder.
“Not the first hybrid.” Barbas muttered. But no one heard him, thankfully.
Aine placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t.”
Barbas shrugged off her touch.
“I came to negotiate a truce,” Aine said before Barbas could confess.
Gaap raised an eyebrow. “Continue.”
“This fight lingers overlong and benefits no one.” Aine paced back and forth. “I am interested in peace. Not war.”
Finn, who had been silent up until this point said, “She lies. She is here to spy on the Demons for the Fae King.”
Aine gasped. She’d hoped the Fir Bolg would accede to her wishes for her child. But her gamble had been for naught. The Demons wouldn’t believe a Fae was interested in peace.
Gaap only raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Your father will never surrender to these savages,” Finn said derisively. “Why do you think he sent me to spy on you? He didn’t trust you.”
“That’s where he’d be wrong.” Barbas circled back to the Fae bodyguard. “She is trustworthy.”
Aine was surrounded by soldiers. The Demons in front of her and the Fae behind her. Trapped in the middle of the two warring factions with the sun, her energy source, about to set in the early evening sky. Seagulls squawked, interrupting their standoff. A fine, salt water mist lingered in the air. She licked her lips and tasted sodium.
And she realized this was the moment. She stood at a yawning precipice. Her past was behind her in the formation of Fir Bolg guards. She could either step forward, to the Demons and leave the Fae behind. Or she could retreat. Return to the Fae. Return to a life of loneliness and isolation. She already knew what that misery was like. She couldn’t raise her child in the Fae Realm. There really was no other choice.
Could she take a chance on the Demons? Barbas believed in her.
“Perhaps we should summon the king and get his views on the subject,” Gaap said lazily. “Ransom the princess.”
“Over my dead body,” Barbas replied. “That would be an even bigger declaration of war.”
“What if we send Finn back to the Fae Realm with a missive, a request for peace, from me?” Aine rubbed her palms along her elbows and wished for a miracle.
But she knew what the answer would be. She had lied to her father, told him she was coming to spy on the Demons when her true purpose was to engage their sympathies and negotiate a truce. With his hatred of Demons, and his distrust of his perceived enemy, he would rather die than accept a truce. Despair settled in her chest.
“The idea has merit.” Gaap conceded. “Barbas, your thoughts.”
Barbas looked surprised. “Mine?”
“You have actually seen the king recently. Any chance of this working?”
“No.”
“Excellent. Let’s do it anyway.” Gaap smiled, his teeth white and shark-like in his face. “In the meantime, princess, you will be our...guest.”
A prisoner. Again. Not like she wasn’t used to it but she was getting tired of being locked up. “Two hours of sunlight a day,” she demanded. “And a doctor for the babe.”
“You think to barter your imprisonment?” Gaap seemed amused rather than annoyed.
“Those are my terms.”
“Done.”
Barbas held her bicep with a firm touch. The deep and abiding loneliness that she’d sensed in Barbas was gone. In it’s place was the conviction of his loyalty to his king. Loyalty and devotion. Two emotions she’d never inspired in anyone. Not even her lover.
But he had wanted her. She knew this to be the truth.
“You will not defile the Fae this way,” Finn screeched. In a lightening quick move, Finn rushed her, and attacked with murderous intent. He lifted his blade high then his arm arced down. Aine’s only thought was to protect the baby. Even as she kicked out her leg, she covered her belly and rolled to the ground. Her kick missed its mark and Finn’s fierce momentum carried him to the ground on top of her.
Barbas lunged for her and curved his arms around her waist as he attempted to block the attack. But he was too late. The blade sunk into her chest and pierced her heart.
She felt the love and fear that pulsed through Barbas as he attempted to protect her. His touch, his arms wrapped around her, bathed her in affection. The loving touch of another living being was what she’d been missing most of her life. And she knew peace.
“No,” roared Barbas.
“The baby,” Aine whispered as Barbas gathered her in his arms. “Save the baby.”
And that was the last she knew.
CHAPTER 17
Barbas clutched Aine in his arms and ignored the Demon soldiers who attacked and subdued the Fae bodyguard. The Fir Bold stood stunned by the vicious attack.
Barbas pressed his shirt against the deep wound and sent healing energy through his touch. Blood soaked the shirt almost instantaneously as her life source poured from her body. Aine lay passive and unmoving as he cursed.
The baby. She wanted to save the baby. But Barbas wanted to save her.
Gaap knelt beside him. “How is she?”
“I am trying to save her.”
“What about the babe?” Gaap said. “It would be the first babe born since we escaped.”
“The babe is only a fledgling life. She is who I want.”
“The babe could be the bridge between our races. You cannot deny that we need this connection. We need to end this war,” Gaap said adamantly. He placed his hands upon Barbas’s shoulders and poured his energy into Barbas’s body, feeding the massive amount of healing power needed to repair Aine’s heart.
“I can’t believe you of all people can propose this,” Barbas snarled, even as he drew Gaap’s energy into his body and sent everything he had to Aine. The knife had pierced her heart. He knit the tissue back together carefully, slowly.
“War serves no one. We are here. If we can get the Fae to agree to a truce then we can begin to live again instead of constantly fighting to keep what we’ve gained,” Gaap said resolutely. “We need this hybrid.”
Barbas continued to send all of his energy to Aine. He had managed to clot her blood. But next he needed to repair the artery or the need for clotting would eventually stop the blood flow and keep her senseless. Her blood coated his hands and edged up his wrists, obscenely red against his skin.
“What if I can give you another hybrid?”
�
�Really. You want to try to create another baby? With another Fae?” Gaap twitched but his hands stayed steady on Barbas’s shoulders.
“Gods, can you let this go right now?”
“I’m sorry but I am the leader of the Demons. I cannot let the subject go.”
“Whether the babe lives or dies, we have a hybrid.” Barbas tried to concentrate all of his energy on healing Aine. He drew from the setting sun and the rising moon, pulling the rays of both to him as he pushed the healing energy into her body.
“What?” Gaap asked.
No hesitation, no regret. His only thought was to save her. She’d stopped bleeding but her torso was covered with her blood. The torrent of blood from the wound had edged even further up his arms to his elbows. “I am a hybrid,” he shouted, horrified by the red curtain against his skin. “Can we discuss this later?”
Silence.
Barbas listened to Aine’s blood flow through her veins sluggishly. Her heart pumped in sonorous beats. Her chest barely rose as she labored to breathe. He bent over her, protecting her body from the crowd around them. There was no time to move her. He breathed in unison with her, and visualized her blood thickening and sending life saving oxygen to her brain and to her heart. And for an instant, he peeked at the small baby growing in her womb. The baby was pulling her energy. As the body was designed, the mother’s body supported the baby first.
For a moment he was distracted by the life growing inside her. He placed his hand over the swell in her stomach. It had not been visible with the gown she wore, but now that she lay flat on the ground, he could see the slight bump that housed their child. A wonder grew in him. A tidal wave of love so perfect it spread throughout his body and poured through his hands.
Gods damn it. What could he do to give Aine more energy? He leaned over her and brushed his lips against hers. “Live, dammit.”
As he leaned back, he realized no one had moved.
And it struck him, he’d confessed his deepest deception. Before today, the worst thing that could ever happen to him was the Demon’s discovery of his half Fae parentage. But now, Barbas knew that was nothing. He would live the rest of his life in exile if it meant that Aine would survive.