by J. C. Diem
Shocked titters sounded and King Lod leaned forward to glare at the man past his daughter. “I’m not sure I heard you correctly just then, Corvine,” he said in his guttural language. “Surely, you’re not suggesting goblins are akin to animals?”
Paling that he’d managed to put both feet into his mouth, the warrior back-peddled. “Of course not, your highness,” he said. “I was referring to her dryad half.” It was a lie and everyone knew it.
“Dryads are fae, just like fairies,” Asha pointed out in a bored tone. “I guess you think all fairies are animals then. Frankly, I’m not sure I disagree from what I’ve seen of your kind so far.”
The room went silent that they’d all just been soundly insulted. Corvine mustered up another sneer, but he couldn’t think of a comeback for that one.
After a couple more hours of strained conversation and frequent sly leers at the pair who were about to become bonded, the banquet came to an end. Corvine stood and mockingly offered Asha his arm. Standing, she took a deep breath and forced herself to place her hand on his arm. Again, he was wearing armor. She’d never seen him wear anything else.
Kurtus automatically fell in behind them to act as her escort. Corvine glared at the warrior, but received a flat stare in return. Kurtus had grown accustomed to Asha and her strange ways during the past few days. He felt uneasy at the thought of what she was about to endure. He’d known Corvine for eons and hated him just as much as the other soldiers did. They all knew what he did to women in bed. Even Unseelie fairies had their standards when it came to mistreating others. The would-be king didn’t have limits and reveled in causing pain.
An unwelcome pang hit Kurtus at the thought of the dryad’s innocence being stripped away from her so roughly. While he felt nothing for the girl himself, it just didn’t seem right that she would suffer so horribly.
They reached Corvine’s quarters and Asha sent a pleading look at her guard. Kurtus knew there was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen. If he tried to step in, he would be branded a traitor and he would be sent to the goblin dungeon. Giving her a regretful look, he turned his back to keep watch and to make sure no one tried to interfere. Their entire realm was at stake here. He couldn’t take pity on one woman even though he knew deep down that this was wrong.
Chapter Seventeen
ASHA CAST A LOOK AT Kurtus to see the warrior was struggling internally. It was clear he didn’t like the idea of her becoming bonded to Corvine, but he wasn’t about to risk his own neck. Knowing there was nothing he could have done anyway, she allowed Corvine to push her inside. He pulled the door shut, then contemplated her through his brown and yellow eyes.
Ignoring the warrior, Asha took in his room. It was as opulent as every other room in the palace and had the same red and black theme. Her eyes skittered across the bed uneasily. When she turned to face her intended, his fist was rushing towards her face.
Pain exploded when her nose broke. Blood sprayed, splattering her black dress with red droplets. She had enough time to realize she now matched the décor, then his hand was around her throat, squeezing hard. White spots danced in front of her eyes as her air was cut off. Swooning in a near faint, she was tossed onto the bed.
Her wounds healed even before she landed, but she was dazed from the swiftness and ferocity of his attack. She dazedly rolled her head to the side to see Corvine shedding his armor. His eyes were locked on her and his expression was filled with malicious lust. “You think you’re better than me just because you’re a princess,” he sneered. “We both know you’re just another vessel for me to spill my seed inside.”
Asha’s stunned fog was beginning to fade and anger was taking its place. The warrior was completely naked now and strode over to her. Rolling away, she didn’t get far. His hand closed around her ankle and pulled her backwards.
Rage unlike anything she’d ever felt flowed into Asha when Corvine yanked her dress up to reveal her undergarments. She looked over her shoulder and their eyes met as he put his hands on her legs. “There’s one thing you should know,” she told him, voice thickening as her skin began to turn gray and silver light emanated from her eyes. “Men only ever get one chance with me and you’ve just blown yours,” she added, then her self-defense system kicked in.
Corvine shouted in pain when sharp stick-like spikes jutted from the dryad’s legs and pierced his hands. He’d hoped to stun her with his brutal attack and force himself into her before she could recover. He hadn’t realized her kind could heal as fast as his could.
More protrusions were expelled, latching onto his arms. Yanking himself free with effort, he snatched up his sword. His intended bride rolled over and pulled her dress back down. Her eyes glowed with malevolent intelligence as she continued her transformation into her goblin half. “You’re a horrible person, Corvine,” she said in a low, guttural voice. “It’s about time you were taught a lesson on how to treat women nicely.”
An accomplished warrior, he was confident he could protect himself from this monster. All he had to do was subdue her long enough to bed her. Even though she now looked hideous, he knew he was still up for the task. Nothing excited him more than causing women pain.
Asha was ready when Corvine swung his sword at her. She nimbly leaped to the side, then darted forward and shoved him hard. She was much stronger in this form and he flew across the room and hit the wall. He scrambled to his feet, chin bleeding from a cut that healed while she watched. “I’ll tame you yet, monster,” he taunted and gestured at his erection. “Nothing you can do will save you. You will be my Queen.”
“Over my dead body,” she replied, then she succumbed to her evil alter ego. Her arms turned into long gray vines and lashed out at her foe. A deep wound opened on his cheek and he shook his head in a daze at her speed and ferocity. Her other appendage whipped out, knocking his sword from his hand. Before he could scramble after it, the vine grabbed it and speared it across the room. It hit the fireplace and became lodged in the marble.
Their fight was vicious, but brief now that the fairy was unarmed. Furniture lay in pieces and blood splattered the floor when it was over. Asha stood over the barely alive body of her would-be husband, staring down at him with a malevolent grin. “Do you still want me, Corvine?” she crooned, gesturing at her malformed body with one of the extra branch-like limbs that she’d grown. She’d become a hunched, twisted, hideous thing with vines for arms and legs. They were wrapped around the warrior’s limbs in preparation of ending their battle once and for all.
“It will be the ruin of our entire realm if you kill me,” he said, eyes rolling in terror. Even with his eons of experience, he hadn’t been a match for the enraged creature he’d attempted to bend to his will. She’d turned into a half-plant, half-goblin thing that he’d never seen before. It was as if she’d drawn a tree into her body and could command it at will.
“Oh, I’m definitely going to kill you,” she said with a chuckle. “But I’m going to make it as painful as I possibly can first.” With that pronouncement, she tore him limb from limb.
Bloodcurdling screams of utter agony rang throughout the palace. The courtiers paused in their revelry, terrorized by the noise that was surely a portent of doom. Moments later, thunder crashed and lightning flashed. The windows shattered, allowing the torrential rain to flood into the palace.
Lord Nicolaia and King Lod sprang to their feet in the sitting room where they’d been waiting with the other advisors. The palace shook so hard that they fell to the floor. The other advisors were tossed off their chairs and held onto each other in terror. It seemed to last forever until the rumbles and lightning died down.
Climbing to his feet in a daze, Nicolaia felt his magic diminish even more. “I fear we’ve made a grave mistake,” he murmured as his colleagues stood and dusted themselves off. “We’ve attempted to control fate and we’ve failed.”
“What does this mean?” Lady Mildra asked, vainly trying to fix her now messy hair.
“
It means we’ve probably doomed the Unseelie realm,” King Lod said flatly. Now they would have to try to come up with a plan to fix this disaster before it could get any worse.
“Come,” Lord Nicolaia said to his ugly little ally. “Let’s check on Asha and see if Corvine still lives.”
They headed into the hallway to find chaos in full swing. Courtiers were panicking, rushing around as if there was anywhere safe left to hide. Brownies were already repairing the damage and replacing the windows. They at least still had their magic it seemed.
Lod hurried after Nicolaia to Corvine’s suite. They found the warrior Asha had chosen to be her personal guard standing at attention. His face was pale and he kept darting uneasy glances at the pool of blood that had seeped beneath the crack in the door.
“Does Corvine still live?” Nicolaia asked quietly.
“I believe so, my lord,” Kurtus replied. “I can hear him breathing.” They all listened to the gurgling, labored breaths of a man in utter agony.
The courtier put his hand on the door handle, then thought better of barging inside. Instead, he knocked. “Asha? May we come in?”
“Sure,” she replied in a mock cheerful guttural voice that he didn’t even recognize. “The more the merrier.” She added a giggle that had the hairs on the backs of their necks rising.
Bracing himself for carnage, Nicolaia pushed the door open, then froze. Lod peered into the room from beneath his arm. Kurtus took one look, then muttered a curse and looked away, stomach churning. “Get a healer,” Lord Nicolaia ordered the guard.
“It’s too late for that,” Lod muttered. “He’ll be dead within minutes.”
“If he dies, the realm will be torn asunder.” Their gazes locked and they came to the same conclusion. “Does your teleporting magic still work?” Nicolaia asked.
“Sometimes,” the Goblin King said grudgingly.
“Try it now. We have to get rid of Corvine before he dooms us all.”
“Help me,” the naked and horribly mangled warrior pleaded. He would have reached out to beseech them, but his arms were no longer attached to his body. Blood pumped from the severed ends of his limbs. He was wounded so direly that he hadn’t even been able to heal the puncture wounds from the monstrous creature who had torn him apart, let alone to be able to reattach his severed parts.
Asha had drawn her blood-splattered vines back over to herself. They were curled around her body protectively as she smiled at them serenely, proud of her work. “Sorry, Dad,” she said in an uncaring tone. “Corvine and I were never going to work out. I’m not into men who think punching a woman in the face is a good way to woo her to his bed.”
“You won’t have to bond with him,” Lord Nicolaia said in an effort to soothe the girl. He’d never seen a creature like her before. She was both fascinating and utterly repulsive in this form.
“No kidding,” she said dryly. “He wouldn’t make a very good King now that he’s in five pieces.” She giggled at her own joke and the lord turned away, sickened by the sight of the dismembered warrior.
Lod was chanting beneath his breath, dredging up as much magic as he could muster. He was relieved when his spell worked and the warrior and his limbs vanished. Chanting a different spell, he used a broken shard of mirror on the ground to scry the dungeon. Nicolaia leaned over and the pair watched as Corvine appeared in one of the dank hallways. Moaning and crying, he drew the carrion eaters to his location. The vision cut out just as the gray-skinned, silver-eyed gremlins began to feast.
“A fitting end for the man who tried to be King,” Asha said nastily, then snickered.
Exchanging a look, the fairy and goblin retreated, leaving the girl to calm down in her own time. Kurtus sent a longing look after them, wishing he could also flee. Duty to his future queen held him in place. Still, he was relieved when the brownies cleaned up the pool of blood that had almost spread to where he was standing.
Chapter Eighteen
DACRITH AND HEXAM SPED through the relentless downpour that was beginning to flood the plains and low-lying areas. The black roads were covered in water that splashed unwary pedestrians as the hound galloped past. They’d been racing towards the distant palace for three days straight. Dread squeezed the prince’s insides that Asha and Corvine were scheduled to become bonded later that night. They were still several days away from their destination and they would never make it there in time.
Running until he was staggering from exhaustion, the Cerberus slowed down after the faint light from the sun that made its way through the dense clouds began to fade. Dacrith knew he couldn’t push the beast any further. They’d failed their bid to reach the girl in time and there was no point continuing their mad rush.
Spying the lights of an inn just ahead, he spoke. “We’ll stop here for the night,” he said. He slid to the ground when the hound skidded to a stop next to the large gray building. The Cerberus gave him a sorrowful look, then shrank down until he became tiny.
Scooping the exhausted beast up, Dacrith placed him in his pocket. The poor creature was too tired to make his way around to the secret back entrance. He would have to be carried up to their room. Feeling almost as weary as the Cerberus, Dacrith entered the inn. This one was just as packed as the others. Travelers were resting as they made their way between towns. The pair had avoided the settlements, veering around them rather than going through. He’d heard the soldiers were searching for the three-headed dog and his cloaked companion. Neither of them wanted to be caught and sent back to the goblin dungeon.
Dacrith took a seat at an empty table, then placed a gold coin down and requested food and wine. Both appeared after the coin vanished and he listened to the conversations going on around him. A strange sense of sorrow welled within him as the night progressed. Right now, the Unseelie Court would be in the midst of a banquet. Afterwards, Asha and Corvine would retire to the warrior’s chambers. Then he would claim the dryad, or at least he would try to.
He was under no illusions about what would happen next. Either Asha would succumb to Corvine’s advances, or she would revert to her goblin form and tear the fairy apart. If she killed him, the realm would suffer even more. If she didn’t, she would become bound to the brute for life. Neither scenario gave him any comfort.
Drinking another glass of wine when the first one was gone, he wished he could get drunk so he could forget about the girl for at least a short while. Asha was always on his mind and he couldn’t get her out of his thoughts. She was sweet, innocent and unlike any woman he’d ever met before. She was also a vicious killing machine when roused to anger. Strangely, he didn’t find that to be as much of a put-off anymore. After all, she’d only ever killed in self-defense. It wasn’t like she killed for pleasure like he had.
A conversation between two female gnomes caught his attention. Most gnomes tended to be good, but some were just as evil as the Unseelie fairies. These two were ancient, gnarled, yellow, had long gray hair and malicious yellow eyes. “The dryad and her intended should be going through the bonding process soon,” one of the hags said. They both wore black dresses that had intricate yellow stitching on the fabric.
“I’ve heard what Corvine is like in bed,” her friend said with a sly grin. “He won’t just take the girl’s innocence. He’ll leave her bloody and broken afterwards. Let’s hope dryads can heal quickly, or she might need the services of a healer.”
They cackled and the glass in Dacrith’s hand exploded when he clenched his fist. A brownie cleaned up the spilled wine and gave him a new glass. The cuts on his hand healed almost instantly, but his chest felt tight and strange.
Several of his fellow patrons had turned to look at him, but their attention was drawn away when the building began to tremble. The windows rattled and the tables and chairs shook. Hexam whined in Dacrith’s pocket as he held onto his table and tried to keep his seat. He only realized it was a succession of rolling thunder when the air was shattered by a roar so loud that it rendered most of them deaf.
Pushing himself to his feet when the shaking stopped, he staggered for the stairs. A door swung open and he gratefully made his way into the room, then sank down onto a chair. His hearing came back and the white spots in front of his eyes faded.
Hexam tumbled out of his pocket, growing to his normal size even before hitting the ground. He huddled against the prince with one of his heads on his knee, shivering and seeking comfort from the storm that had become even worse.
Shaking a little as well, Dacrith stroked the terrified beast’s head as he contemplated what had just happened. Either Corvine and Asha were now bonded, or the warrior had paid a hefty price for attempting to make the dryad his queen. Whichever had occurred, it hadn’t done anything to restore the balance within the beleaguered realm. If anything, things were now worse than they had been. “I wish I knew how Asha fared,” he said to his companion.
“Why?” a brownie declared as she appeared on the table in front of him. Her tone was surly and unlike the usual deference her kind displayed. Her hands were on her hips as she glared up at him. “What is she to you anyway?”
“I rescued her from a boar that would have torn her apart,” he told her, wondering why he was even answering her questions at all. “I gave her my promise that I would escort her to the palace. I suppose I feel responsible for her.”
“Unseelie fairies don’t care about the welfare of others,” the brownie scoffed. “Especially members of the royal family.” His silver eyebrows rose and she nodded knowingly. “We’re aware of who you really are now, Dacrith,” she told him. Unwin and Olsa had figured it out after watching him battle the fairies who had tried to take Asha from him. While they didn’t watch the prisoners fight in the goblin dungeon, it was clear he had to be the warrior known as death and they’d spread word to their kin. “We also know you’re just pretending to be our Queen’s friend to win her to your side so you can become her King,” she added.