The Fae woman chuckled and cut Marlon a look. “You surprise me. Your ruthlessness shows no limits.” She tapped a blunt fingernail on the metal bars and stared at Reese. “We will keep her. For now. I am curious to see what ability she possesses. You are correct in using her to gain access to your father.”
The woman’s head shifted slightly and she studied Marlon out of the corner of her eye. “He never viewed you the way the rest of my kind do. He accepted you, to a certain degree, and he will accept her as well. Particularly if she possesses powers. He will not wish to kill his Halven daughter the way most Fae do. But are you certain of this path? Your father stood beside you when no other would. I will be most displeased if I find your fealty remains with him.” Ice cut into the woman’s tone, and suddenly Reese was happy to be on her side of the bars.
Marlon’s gaze remained inside the cell. “Would I have created the only virus capable of killing my father—had that Halven not intervened—if I’d sworn him loyalty?”
The virus. This guy had created it? And he’d said a Halven intervened. He must mean Elena. Had she managed to cure it?
Did they really believe Reese was like Elena? A Halven? Reese’s parents were known for their infidelity…
It was possible.
The woman paused for several seconds. “We will press forward with the plan.”
That didn’t sound good.
The woman glanced at someone out of view. “Do not indulge her, Ulric.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” It was the voice of the Fae guard.
The woman’s gaze returned to Reese—hard, cold, like the cell Reese lay in. “I want her weak.”
2
The flashing lights and rainbow of colors were always disorienting while traveling through a portal, but Keen’s nerves manifested more from his return home for the first time in years than from his mode of transportation. And because of the task before him.
Failure wasn’t an option.
Landing on the rich Tirnan soil inside the Fae realm, Keen looked up, expecting to see a horde of soldiers running toward him.
He wasn’t disappointed.
The moment he’d entered New Kingdom, a Presence Charm would have notified the castle of an intruder. At least fifty soldiers gunned for him.
Keen took a deep breath of Tirnan air that smelled of allon trees and a sweet herb that resembled Earth’s lavender, glanced up at the native patchwork of red stars in the darkened sky, and braced himself. He raised his palms in a display of submission. Any signs of aggression wouldn’t get him what he wanted.
Fortunately for Keen, after a tense but brief conversation—in which he’d been knocked from his feet and pinned to the dirt—the soldiers detained him instead of killing him, while they confirmed his claim that he’d worked with the queen in the Fae realm embedded on Earth.
Keen’s boots, along with several of his captors’, were nearly soundless on the stone floors of the palace as they made their way up two flights of stairs with ornamental balustrades. They entered a room that could have been a guest suite.
So not a prisoner. Not yet.
“We will see what the queen has to say about your uninvited arrival,” the first commander said as he exited the room, leaving several soldiers behind to stand guard.
Keen turned and took in the space. He’d never entered New Kingdom Palace—few Oldlanders had and lived to see the next day. He couldn’t help but notice the differences compared to his native Old Kingdom, a land and castle that was more of a hardened fortress. The soldiers and people there were taught that luxuries such as these—upholstered chairs, gilded ceilings, and masterpieces of unimaginable fortune—were extravagances meant to distract from magic and power. To weaken Fae.
It wasn’t until Keen had traveled to Emain, the Fae realm embedded on Earth, that he was exposed to such finery. And to televisions and vehicles—human technologies Keen found particularly enjoyable.
New Kingdom didn’t hold the same beliefs as Old Kingdom. The palace possessed great wealth, thanks in part to trade with humans. Tirnan was ripe with precious minerals, and New Kingdom rulers mined and sold valuables to humans in exchange for goods. It didn’t make up for the magical weaponry Old Kingdom possessed, but it kept its inhabitants fed, clothed, and never wanting. Which made them strong in other ways.
A familiar older woman with silver hair and flawless skin breezed past the guards at the door and entered the room. “Keen,” she said, her eyes shrewd as she took him in from head to toe. She’d exchanged the simple black attire his people wore for a courtly smock with bejeweled sleeves and a collar of emeralds around her throat.
Portia was an Oldlander, like Keen, but she’d spent centuries as a companion to the New Kingdom royal family. Keen had detected ambition in her thoughts before she’d joined forces with the Halven Army, but she’d hidden her true intentions. Keen possessed telepathic abilities. Few could hide their thoughts from him. Unfortunately, Portia was one of them. He’d never suspected the perfidy to which she would succumb. Betrayal of her own people? Mass murder? All to wrest control of New Kingdom from her supposed friend and its rightful ruler, Theda Rainer Rosales, the mother of Keen’s Halven charge, Elena.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of your company in our humble palace?” Portia waved her hand at the opulent furnishings of velvet drapes, silk-covered furniture, and crystal vases. “And why should I keep you alive after you fought my men in Emain and dared to enter my land?”
Keen had battled alongside the Emain guards to fend off Portia’s attack. She’d wanted to wrest control of Emain the way she had New Kingdom.
She’d lost.
“We are aware you hold the human, Reese Fisher. Emain wishes to ensure her health and negotiate her release.”
Portia tilted her head. “Human.” She said the word as though it tasted wrong. “And negotiate, you say?” She chuckled, and then her expression grew serious. “I am curious. What do you feel you have to offer me?”
He remained still. The truth was, he had very little to offer in exchange for the girl’s release, though secure it he must.
Portia didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I’ll allow you a visit with the girl,” she finally said, “and then I’ll tell you what I want.”
She snapped her fingers, and two Newlander guards just outside the room entered. “Take him to her, but cut off his head if he tries anything.” A smile spread on her face as she stared at Keen. “Reese Fisher resides two levels belowground. In the dungeon.”
Keen’s heart pounded beneath the walls of his broad chest as he descended stairs made of dark stone. He’d searched for Reese for nearly a week—a fact that infuriated him. It should not have taken him this long to find one small human.
At the bottom landing, an eight-foot timber door, blackened with age, blocked passage to the dungeon. One of the guards assigned to him used both hands to lift the wooden bar that secured the door. He grunted as he heaved the bar upward, which said more about its weight than the guard’s might. Fae possessed unparalleled strength.
The guard swung the door open, and they strode down a narrow hallway, the air growing stale and chilled.
Another soldier at the end of the hall faced a cell, his arms crossed, his expression pensive. Keen recognized him as Ulric, one of the Fae who had led the full-fledged attack on Emain. But Keen and the Emain soldiers were not weakened by disease the way the New Kingdom soldiers in Tirnan had been. Ulric and his men had lost that battle and barely escaped with their lives.
Ulric turned at the sound of Keen and the two guards entering. He stepped away from the cell and pulled out his sword from the sheath at his back.
“A pleasure to see you again too, Ulric,” Keen said.
One of the guards beside Keen held up a hand. “He is here at the command of her majesty. Put away your weapon.”
Ulric hesitated, then re-sheathed the sword. His expression shifted from aggressive to furtive as his gaze flickered back to the cell.
Keen had spotted the bars in his periphery before Ulric’s weapon had drawn his attention. Now he took a closer look.
And nearly stopped breathing.
Inside the cell, a small female figure lay barely clothed atop a filthy mattress, her skin as pale as death.
The air inside the chamber was too cold for Keen’s comfort. For a human with little clothing, it was deadly.
Ulric stepped back in a courtly bow, his arm wide as he gestured to the prisoner. “By all means. Visit. She is a pretty thing, though not as lively as she was when she first arrived.”
Pressure built behind Keen’s temples. Having a sword pulled on him hadn’t bothered him, but now Keen wished to crush Ulric’s skull into the stone wall.
He paced to the door between the bars. “Open it. Now!”
Ulric glanced at the other guards, who merely shrugged, then used a large skeleton key to unlock the metal door.
Keen swallowed the knot at the back of his throat, steadying his breathing as he searched for movement from the girl. Her eyelids flickering, her chest rising—anything to indicate she lived. “What happened to her?”
Ulric pushed the door open and tucked away the key. “She was already shaking when she arrived. She hasn’t stopped shaking, and now her coloring…”
“And you did not think to give her a blanket?”
The idiot looked momentarily surprised. “Wasn’t told to.”
Keen let out a steadying breath. It would be okay. She was simply cold. “What have you fed her?” he asked as he entered the cell.
“Fed her?” Ulric said as he entered behind Keen and peered curiously over at Reese on the cot. “Her majesty wanted her weak.”
The pounding beneath Keen’s temples spread down his neck, knotting the muscles along his shoulders. “She is a human, you idiot. They cannot go without…” He let out a harsh breath. “Never mind. How long has she been here?” Afraid to harm her in such a fragile state, Keen paused before reaching out. It was dark in the cell, but he detected a blue tinge to her flesh, her lips a purplish hue.
There was a pause, and then the sound of Ulric’s feet shifting came from behind. “Three days.”
Fury blazed through Keen. “Three—” He closed his eyes and compressed his lips. Nothing would come of killing Ulric right now, other than a battle. And Keen needed to care for Reese. “The girl comes with me,” he finally said.
“Her majesty—” Ulric began.
Keen shot him a deadly look he dragged to the other guards as well. “Her body shivers and I sense her shallow breathing, but she barely lives. Should anything happen to her, you will not like the consequences. Neither will her majesty.” It was a threat—one that could get him killed—but he didn’t care.
He stared down at Reese. The girl was innocent, and they’d—
The red fabric covering her body caught his attention. It was stained with dirt. And one of the smudges appeared to be a large handprint. Keen swiveled his head to the others. “Has she been touched?” he said in a deadly tone.
Ulric stepped back and gripped the hilt of the blade at his waist. “She has not been—touched—other than to secure her inside the cell.”
Keen drew stiff fingers across his lips. Had Ulric given him any other answer, he would have made sure the Fae suffered a slow death.
He bent over and slid one arm beneath Reese’s knees, the other beneath her back. Her small body vibrated with spasms. Her skin was too cold. He rocked her toward his chest and lifted her.
She immediately curled into him—toward the heat.
Shifting her so that he held most of her weight with one arm, he swept the hair from her face. Her lips were cracked and bleeding, her breaths barely visible. “Reese, can you hear me?”
No response.
His throat went dry, his thoughts suddenly disorderly. She must live. For… She simply must.
“Didn’t know,” Ulric said. “Most prisoners don’t require food during their time down here.”
“Her majesty will hear of your threat and she will have your head,” one of the other guards said from outside the cell. The man spun on his heel, presumably to inform the queen of what had transpired.
Let them try to take my head, Keen thought.
“See that the queen does hear of it. And inform her that if the girl dies, Emain will attack.”
He didn’t know how he’d follow through on that warning while trapped in New Kingdom with no means of reaching Emain. He was in no position to go up against this queen—a queen without honor. But he would worry about that later. Once he’d gotten the girl to safety.
Reese had been kidnapped by the Halven Army on Earth at the command of Fae. No matter the military skirmish, all agreed on a code of conduct toward the innocent. What harm had the human female caused? She had frustrated Keen while he’d gone about his duty protecting her roommate Elena—severely so—but he’d never wished Reese ill.
This crime—this torture of her—defied the code.
Keen rarely allowed anger to distort his thoughts, but at this moment, his duty to his people was the last thing on his mind. “Someone will pay for this.”
3
I’m dying.
Reese’s thoughts came in fragments. The fraternity party. Angry men. Fae. She had never so much as broken a bone, but somehow she knew she was close to death.
Where were the flashbacks of good times? Where was the sense of peace she was supposed to feel?
Her body shook, but that was all it would do. She couldn’t get it to move, not even to open her eyelids. And a tight band of heat wrapped around her.
Uncomfortable. She whimpered.
“You will be all right,” a deep, melodic voice said, though the man’s tone appeared laced with fear.
That voice. She knew it, didn’t she? Was he one of the men who’d captured her? No. They were cruel. This man wasn’t.
“Open your eyes,” he said.
She wanted to, but they wouldn’t cooperate.
“Please, Reese.”
This time there was anguish in his tone. He worried for her.
She was going to die and she’d done nothing with her life, not really. She wasn’t ready.
She must have drifted off, because her next thought was that the tight band of heat around her was still suffocating, but she was beginning to feel sensation in her limbs. And someone was running a very large hand up and down her back.
Okay, maybe she wasn’t dying. She snuggled closer to the heat in front of her face and brushed her nose against—skin?
Reese blinked her eyes open. She squinted and waited for them to focus…on a man’s chest.
He was the warmth she’d sensed surrounding her. And he wasn’t wearing clothes.
What the…? Reese tried to move away. But even though she got her eyelids to cooperate, her body was more sluggish.
“It’s okay. You are safe, but you need to stay close to me. You were too cold,” he said. “The blankets weren’t working.”
Reese angled her head back and peered up, up…at the face of an angel. White-blond hair that brushed his shoulders, and the most beautiful masculine features she’d ever seen.
Oh, hell no. “You?” she croaked, her throat dry.
She wiggled until some much-needed inches separated her from the hot Fae guard who’d protected her roommate this past week—and frustrated Reese to no end with his pompous attitude. “Where’s Elena, Keen? And what am I doing here?”
He reached over and tucked blankets around her like a mother hen. She could see that he wasn’t as unclothed as she’d first thought; he’d only removed his shirt. And, of course, he had an amazing body underneath all the black he typically wore.
She frowned and slapped his hands away. “Knock it off!”
“You must stay warm. I didn’t think you’d…”
“I was dying.”
He lifted his emerald gaze to hers. “Yes.”
The jewel tone of Keen’s eyes had been alarming when she f
irst met him. They still unnerved her. They were beautiful, there was no getting around that, but the way he looked at her now, with intensity and a confusing air of fear, set her mind whirling.
Reese drew in a steady breath and accepted the glass of water he handed her. She gulped down the liquid and choked.
“You have gone too long without food or water,” he said. “You must drink slowly.”
She took another sip and handed the glass back to him. “Why are you giving me water and keeping me warm? Aren’t you here to finish me off?”
Keen’s head notched back as if he were surprised.
Well, what did he expect after his people kidnapped her?
The arrogant look he normally wore replaced his worried expression.
This was more like it. This was the Keen she knew.
“I am here to help you,” he said. “Elena insisted on it. The Newlander queen who imprisoned you was…forgetful. She left you in the care of someone unfamiliar with the needs of humans. I pointed out your dire physical state, and she allowed me time to help you heal. You must relax. You are not well, and this excitement cannot be good for your body.” His gaze dipped.
Even though she was completely hidden beneath the ten inches of covers he’d packed over her, Reese’s legs shifted under his stare, her flesh slipping across cold sheets. All of her flesh, with the exception of the thin pair of panties she wore. She hadn’t bothered with a bra under her fitted dress. “You took my clothes off while I was unconscious? Goddammit, Keen!”
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “I assure you, it required little effort with the amount of apparel you wear, or lack thereof. That red bandage you call a dress barely covered your—”
“You arrogant—”
“Reese, I did not save your life only to argue with you.” He propped up on one elbow, his broad shoulders encroaching on the space between them, and cocked his head. “It is impressive that after all you’ve been through, you have the energy to yell at me.”
Fates Entwined Page 2