by A. K. Koonce
I’m not filled with nervousness like I thought I would be. He sets the pace and all I can think about is how amazing his hands feel against my damp skin.
He tears his lips from mine as he presses sweet and delicious kisses across my collar bone, slowing us down ever so slightly. I arch my neck to him, my back bowing into his chest, my brows creasing in pain and pleasure as his hand trails down the side of my dress and settles between my legs.
Just as my eyes widen, my breath scraping against my lips with the feel of his meticulous fingers, it occurs to me—far, far back in my foggy mind—that this delicate and complexly laced dress will need to be taken off. The thought vanishes as his pace quickens, a moan escapes me just before he seals his mouth to mine and rips my virtuous white dress up the side in one quick move; saving us both a lot of time and trouble.
* * *
“What do you think will happen to us?” I ask him in the darkness, just as my mind begins to settle, the furling energy within me calming finally.
He holds me against him, the bed is small, almost intentionally small. We have no choice but to wrap ourselves around each other. His hand makes leisurely work of trailing up and down my ribs at an irresistibly slow pace. Soft kisses feather over the curve of my neck, waking me once more.
“We’ll live happily ever after?” I can hear the smirk in his voice, lightening the mood with his words, the tingling kisses starting up once more. Part of me knows it’s a distraction tactic, he’s trying to distract me from my thoughts, maybe he’s trying to distract himself as well.
It doesn’t work though, my mind is trailing over all that has happened this week, the good and the bad.
“It just feels like a waste now. We gave my camp hope. Hope we could have spread to other villages with their help. Now what? We go back and tell them we’ve been attacked. That the government doesn’t like us nearly as much as our lord thought they did?”
A soft kiss is pressed to my temple, making me close my eyes and just enjoy the way his love feels.
It feels like… warmth and safety and… happiness fluttering through me on a whirlwind of feelings.
“I think we should contact your father,” he says, his voice a ghost of a whisper.
My spine straightens, my muscles no longer relaxed beneath his calming touch.
“You know about that?” A cracking sound fills my nervous tone.
“I—I didn’t follow you. That would be… weird. I just overheard you.”
“From over a mile away?” I ask, a small smile tilting my lips.
“I can’t reduce my impeccable hearing, baby.” He dips his head into the crook of my neck again, making me shift restlessly against his hard body.
“You didn’t go out of your way to focus on our conversation?”
Silence fills his response for a moment as he takes a deep breath, breathing me in, his breath skimming over my flesh, making me squirm in his arms.
“I think tomorrow we should gather a few close friends and make an undisclosed trip to the Capitol. Your father obviously cares for you, Fallon. Ayden obviously cares for you. You have friends in high places. We need to take advantage of those friendships.”
With every breath, his smooth, bare chest moves casually against my shoulder blades, a minor movement but I realize my own breaths are now matching his. I relax a little in his strong arms, the swift movements of his palm resume up and down my side, lulling comfort into me with every sweep of his fingers against my skin. I close my tired eyes once more.
Asher’s right. Tomorrow is a new day. With enough time we’ll fix everything. Everything will be different tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-One
Emptiness
Asher
Restless fingers traced her beautifully jagged scar long into the night. Soft skin met my palms, trembling beneath my touch. I couldn’t believe it was real. I couldn’t believe she loved me, that she’s my wife.
I fell asleep with that thought circling my tired but bliss-filled mind. It was the most peaceful sleep I’ve ever had, her light breathing and restless movements lulling me into quiet dreams.
Until now.
My frantic eyes search her out in the dark room, hands pushing at the covers to find her slim body that warmed my side during the night. But she’s gone.
Shadows and silence are all that accompany me. I’m across the room and flinging open the heavy door in an instant. A muted sunrise greets my squinting gaze as I assess the miles and miles of blue crashing waves.
Panic floods me, clenching my lungs and crushing my chest with each passing second.
Something is wrong here. My human intuition mixed with my mystic heritage is enough for me to know immediately that something is very wrong.
Fallon wouldn’t have left me.
Would she?
I tramp the illogical doubt down. My kind is a scar to this imperfect and disfigured world but Fallon has never seen me that way… Maybe in the beginning, at the compound but that was before… Before our lives tangled and twisted around each other, forcing us to see each other clearly.
Throwing on a clean shirt and jeans, I tug on my boots as I walk down the makeshift sidewalk to the shore.
I can smell her here. Against the salty smell of the sea is her calming scent.
What the hell was she doing?
Up the winding coastline, I follow her scent, the strong morning waves of the sea push against my footsteps, against the trail of her.
Why would she have walked the shore? Did she need space away from me? A breath of air from the cramped house I built her? Did she hate it?
I wish I knew where all the festering doubt is coming from. My instinct is to push it down and smother it out before it crawls deep in my mind. Harsh words of the world have always been thrown my way. This time it’s different. This time I care what this human thinks of me. More than she will ever know.
Her scent fades in the breeze as the cliff that surrounds me ends and opens to the place that the Wanderers cast out their dead to the greeting ocean that will swallow them up—if the water fae don’t get to them first.
I kick at the smooth rocks, trying to make sense of what the hell is happening.
Fallon wouldn’t have left me.
She just wouldn’t.
After all we’ve been through. After last night… She loves me.
Then why isn’t she here?
I drop to my knee’s as the strength to stand starts to become too much. Water trails up in smooth, lazy waves, lapping at my jeans and drenching my thighs in cold salty water. My eyes trace the surface of the sea and I find myself leaning toward it.
“Where is she?” I whisper to the ocean, knowing it can hear me.
My heart pounds a nervous beat. I know what I’m asking for. I’m disturbing a race that would murder me just for addressing them, but I don’t care. I have to know if she’s safe.
The waves begin to still, the body of water becomes motionless, and I lean into it a bit more, looking into the clear blue water.
A long mass of white movement slithers up the coast just beneath the surface, rippling the stillness with every twist of its spin. The water fae slips through the ocean until it’s in walking distance, it crawls up to me on spindling colorless limbs. Slick white flesh covers its bony body, from its thin, lengthy feet to its smooth hairless head. Blank orbs stare into my eyes, she’s just inches from my face and studying me intently. Her lips part, each small tooth comes to a jagged point that she’s raking her pale tongue across as she breathes me in. Slits at the side of her neck move rhythmically as she inhales and exhales.
“You dare to call on me?” she seethes in a scuttling whisper. Eerie, clear eyes narrow on me, pinning me to the sandy shore.
My hands drape lifelessly in my lap, my shoulders pulled low with vulnerability. I clench my jaw at the weakness that’s slipping into my body as my heart thunders through my chest. “Where did she go?” I ask again in a hollow voice.
The water fae exte
nds her willowy arm, running an eager and glossy wet finger over the black lines that now scar my forearm.
“We witnessed the offering yesterday. The two of you crashed into our world, wishing to find our blessings on your bonding.”
I wouldn’t have let these things take Fallon away. We jumped to make the Wanderers happy but if the water fae believe they’re entitled to the woman I love they’re in for a rude awakening.
“She flailed in the water like she might kill herself without our help. She released your bonded hand the moment she was able to.” I jerk my arm out of her clenching reach, her slender finger hanging hesitantly before she brings her hand back to her side.
“Where is she?” I ask again through clenched teeth.
The fae lifts her smooth face toward me, the sun drying her features as the waves continue caressing her legs and arms. Her boney spine twists, curving her body unnaturally as she looks at me with a playful smile.
“She left.” A mysterious light flickers in the hollowness of her eyes as she points a lengthy finger in the direction I already know Fallon went. “A look of emptiness was all the girl possessed. Perhaps she escaped our ready claws yesterday but the girl has more demons than meets the eye.”
A shaking breath slips through my tight lungs, my fists clenching at my sides, a battle of helplessness and anger fill my body. I stand from the water, staring down at the creature that kneels at my feet.
“Disrupt my morning again and I’ll rip your pretty face from your chiseled jaw and eat it for breakfast, my darling.” Giving me one more long stare she slips back into the calm waters, her body snaking into the waves as she swims toward whatever hell she resides in.
I race up the cove, running in a blur as fast as my feet will carry me. I need help and the only mystic that will help me is the only friend I’ve had since my brother died.
Gabriel’s white eyes fall on me with a smile marring his smug face.
“I thought you’d hole up down there with you wife for weeks. Didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
He almost laughs but his face falls. Without even seeing me, he knows something isn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, rushing to my side.
I push my hand through my hair that still holds the smell of the sea we dove into yesterday. My breath is ragged, not because of the run, but because of fear. Fear of losing her. Again.
“She’s gone. I—I don’t know where but she’s gone.”
He grips my shoulder, grounding me with his worried and cryptic stare.
“Gone? You would have heard her if she left, Ash.” He nods, trying to calm me with reason, but it doesn’t help.
“I didn’t hear anything. I slept with her in my arms. Not a sound was made but when I woke up this morning I was alone.”
The word alone comes out as a broken and pitiful sound that makes me cringe.
“Hey, she didn’t leave. She wouldn’t have left you. Get rid of that thought. That isn’t what happened, I’m sure of it.”
Thousands of worse ideas come tumbling through my mind at the sound of his reassurance. If she didn’t leave me then she’s missing… She was taken...
“What’s going on out here?” Luca emerges from our hut in one of Gabriel’s shirts, hugging her arms around herself as she squints up at me. “Why are you here? Where’s Fallon?”
I shake my head and keep shaking it for several moments. Fear wrecks my body, pressing in on me with nowhere to go and my breath comes out in a long and jagged heap. Where is she?
Luca’s lips part, as her wide eyes search my face.
“Let me get dressed. We’ll wake my father. It’ll be okay, Asher.”
I nod at her as I swallow hard, pushing down the climbing fear that’s clawing up my tight throat.
Last night I told her I wanted to take care of her.
I couldn’t even keep her safe for a day…
* * *
Anger replaces the dread that consumed my body just moments ago. The hybrid—the traitorous hybrid is hiding something. I didn’t tell Fallon how much it felt like a set up when I was captured. How quickly Declan fled when the guards arrived. How little trust this hybrid holds in my eyes.
The six of us sit at the table just as the sun creeps over the horizon. An hour has been wasted making sure all the important parties are present.
An anxious beat pats against the dry dirt as my boot taps restlessly beneath the table.
Kaino’s stern dark eyes hang on every word I speak, his limited emotions cross his face in a look of worry. Lord Raske’s features are set in edgy lines, Gabriel and Luca sit on either side of me. Luca’s as afraid of losing her friend as much as I am. She hasn’t stopped biting her nails since we sat down.
The only person who doesn’t hold a look of fear or worry or even distress is Declan. The hybrid focuses on the deep etched lines of the heavy wooden table. His eyes dart back and forth against the polished surface as he taps his fingers repetitively against the table top.
“And you said you followed her scent up the coastline?” Lord Raske asks, tilting his head at me, interrupting my thoughts on the suspicious mystic across from me.
“It disappeared where the opening lays, the trail was swept away in the wind.” I pause, the rest of my words falling away in thought. “What do you know?” I ask, my burning gaze settling once again on the hybrid.
His head darts up immediately, his wide eyes hold… regret in them, making them appear full of liquid steel.
“I—Nothing. I don’t know anything.” The look washes away, once again full of hidden secrets.
Why did Fallon trust him? He has mistrust written all over him.
“If you know something about where she is, if you consider yourself a friend—she was a friend to you.” I can’t even bring myself to finish a sentence. My fists clench tightly, my nails biting into my shaking hands.
Gabriel’s blind eyes shoot toward Declan, seemingly trying to gauge his appearance, his demeanor.
“He’s lying,” Gabriel says, his unseeing gaze narrowing on Declan.
Raske and Kaino pin the hybrid with a tense stare, the father and son sharing a mirrored look as they watch him.
“I have no idea what happened. Perhaps she realized the mistake she made.” Declan folds his hands neatly in front of him as he settles his sneering eyes on me.
My jaw tightens until it hurts, my teeth grinding together as I stare at the worthless hybrid across from me.
“You had better be careful. The only thing tying me to this community, to the mock kindness I’ve shown you, went missing this morning. Fallon was the only thing protecting you from me. I won’t play nice without her.”
He swallows visibly, studying me without fear.
“I’ll find her by myself. Your help isn’t needed.” I push my chair back in a rush, not bothering to wait for Gabriel or Luca as I storm out of the tent.
“I know where she is.”
His calm voice trails after me, stopping me dead in my tracks. My back tenses, the muscles there strung tight as I wait for Declan to explain. I can’t look at him. I’ll kill him if his words aren’t meticulously careful.
“She went back to the Red Hills.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Crimson Eyes
It takes everyone in the room to tear my furious hands away from his throat. He lies pathetically gasping on the floor, his chair knocked over to the ground as I struggle to push Gabriel, Raske, Kaino and Luca off of me.
“Why? Why did you take her there? Why did you take her to them? You knew they would captivate her!”
Sharp and angry questions flow through me one after the other but I already know the answers. Declan wants acceptance. He wants it as much as I want solitude. The vampires of the Red Hills accepted him. They told me so themselves. He was their pet.
And now Fallon is, too.
I thought they hadn’t done it. I thought they had let her go, for whatever reason. That wasn’t it at all, though. They j
ust couldn’t get through to her while she lived within the protected, spell shielded walls of the Wandering community.
A tremor shudders through my body as I think about what they might be doing to her.
I clench the hilt of the Crimson Sword at my waist, my hands shaking against the cool metal as I stalk from the room. With a leaping start I rush in the direction of the Red Hills without a backward glance.
It takes less than an hour for my anxious but relentless steps to carry me to the base of the Red Hills. The cursed, blood stained air filters through my lungs. I begin the hike up the mountains, my hurried steps faltering against the damp crevices. Gabriel joins me moments later, breathing hard from the run here. A minimal amount of stress is relieved just from his presence.
Until Declan climbs up a minute later.
I scatter down to his level, bringing rocks and debris with me as I land in front of him, my sword raised. My boots echo off the rocky terrane as I stomp toward the hybrid.
He holds his hands up quickly. “I want to help. I want to help her, I swear,” Declan sputters.
Gabriel holds me back lightly, waiting to hear the traitorous hybrid’s reply.
“I didn’t know what they wanted with her. They said they wouldn’t hurt her, that they needed a human to release them from the curse. The race that damned them would have to be the one to release them.”
My lungs burn as I take deep breaths to force down the aggression that’s rising in me.
“They won't hurt her. Just let me talk to them. They trust me,” he adds as I just stare wildly at him.
This lowlife hybrid just ruined her life. I thought I would be the one to do that but she did. With the help of her friend.
I turn from him, sheathing the sword, knowing I shouldn’t waste any more time. Gabriel lowers his arm from me and starts climbing. I raise one hand, prepared to begin the climb, as well, until I think better of it. Declan takes three steps forward before I clench my fist and slam him hard in the face. A pleasant and fulfilling cracking sound meets my ears. I release a long, pent-up sigh as a burst of dark blood flows from his nose and down his chin.