The Witch's Quest

by Michele Hauf

  “Great. Untrustworthy faeries. And vicious mermaids. Just what we need to make this adventure unforgettable. You hungry?”

  “Always. Should we head to the buffet?”

  “Sure, but first...” She wrapped her fingers about his wrist again and paused to summon her courage. Eryss’s words resounded, yet she wasn’t quite ready to go all in. “This is the last time I’m going to say sorry to you, but you do deserve this one. I’ve been kind of flaky around you and it’s going to stop.”

  “Valor, I understand—”

  “You might think you do, but that doesn’t mean I can’t aspire to a different tactic and try to be...” A real girl. Someone with whom a man could see relationship potential. “I want us to be good.”

  “We are good.”

  “All righty. But maybe I want us to be better than good. Like, you know, good is for friends. Something a little beyond that kind of good?”

  “Such aspirations are a fine thing to have,” he said, standing. “Beyond good it is.” He offered her his arm and Valor stood and hooked hers in his, pleased he’d agreed so easily to her not-so-definitive suggestion about their relationship. “Can I take you out on a breakfast date?”

  “I’d like that. Oh, hey, look.” Valor ripped the paper tag from the slot machine. “You won twenty pounds from the purple kitty chicks.”

  “Nice. We are definitely getting the plate-size upgrade.”

  “Whoo!”

  * * *

  “What’s a thin place?” Valor asked Kelyn as, two hours later, he navigated to the village for which the faery Never had given him GPS coordinates. “I’ve heard it mentioned and suspect it’s to do with Faery.”

  Kelyn possessed an ease driving the car, one wrist propped on the steering wheel and his eyes taking in the periphery, as if he were adventuring and searching for great sites. She found it sexy, so casual and sure of himself.

  “You know Faery is everywhere?” he asked. “Though it’s not as close in the more populated places, like big cities.”

  “It’s another dimension, of sorts, that overlies or underlies the mortal realm.”

  “Right. But you can only get there through a portal and you must be sidhe or have another means, such as a spell.” He winked at her.

  Valor caught that wink as if he’d given her a hug. She smiled to herself and felt that, whatever happened between the two of them, it was going to work. It had to.

  “A thin place is where Faery bleeds into the mortal realm. It’s not Faery. It’s not the mortal realm. It’s sort of both.”

  “Can you get into Faery through a thin place?”

  “Maybe. It’s not a portal. It’s a place where the sidhe exist without being seen by human eyes. Sort of like FaeryTown in Paris. And like the Darkwood. That’s a thin place. You did know that about the forest before you went there, right?”

  Now he didn’t offer a wink but instead a sideways glance.

  “Maybe? First time I’ve heard the definition for thin place was today. But I get it now. Faery exists on top of the mortal realm. And woe to those who try to exert their power there. Or borrow a few mushrooms.”

  “Borrow? What about invoking a dangerous spell?”

  “Dangerous?” Arguing would open a can of worms she wasn’t willing to shake. Valor could but offer a guilty shrug.

  “I understand pretty much the entire shoreline of Wales is a thin place,” Kelyn said, “though not the major ports. That must be the village ahead where those thin puffs of dark smoke are curling out of chimneys. Quaint. And that is what we are looking for.”

  Valor looked in the direction Kelyn pointed. A long, winding fieldstone fence hugged the road, looking ever so Old World. And atop it crouched a man with dark hair and wings.

  “Seriously? He sits out in the open with his wings revealed?” Valor wondered.

  “I suspect he’s wearing a glamour against human eyes.” Kelyn pulled the rental car over to the side of the road thirty feet away from the faery, who hadn’t moved from his perch. “You ready for this?”

  Valor shrugged. “Are you?”

  “I am. And so you know, he requires payment for this venture. Which I’m perfectly willing to pay.”

  Kelyn got out and strode ahead. While Valor, gripping the door handle, wondered exactly what sort of payment a faery would ask of another for the map to a thin place.

  Chapter 13

  As they approached the faery crouched on the stone fence, Valor invoked a white light of protection over herself by grasping the moonstone amulet and drawing her other hand from her crown and gesturing downward to the ground until she felt the energy clasp about the bottoms of her boots.

  The air was heavy with a promise of rain. The gray sky flashed with intermittent peeks of sunlight through clouds. Valor noticed the black markings on the faery’s neck and the backs of his hands. Delicate tracings that resembled some kind of mehndi creation, but she knew they were sigils. Most faeries wore them and used them to conjure their own kind of magic.

  Kelyn’s sigils were gone. No amount of massage or restitution could erase her guilt over that. She’d only once seen him in all his wondrous faery magnificence, that night when he unfurled his wings and went after the troll in the Darkwood. Magnificent.

  Damn, she hated herself sometimes.

  “Never,” Kelyn said as he arrived before the faery, who jumped down to clasp hands in greeting. “Erte sends his respects.”

  “I return them,” Never said. Dressed in tight black leggings with tears in the knees and a ripped black T-shirt, he looked like a punk rocker abandoned by his crew after a night lost in the wild. The dark faery’s violet gaze, outlined in thick kohl, moved to Valor. A breeze tickled through his spiky black hair. A smirk of challenge lifted the corner of his mouth. “And this is the witch?”

  “Valor Hearst,” Kelyn introduced her.

  Never stepped forward with a limber bounce that was almost imperceptible and yet Valor thought perhaps his jerked moves indicated a few cels from the film strip had been removed. It was a faery thing, that rapid movement that seemed to jerk and alter space and time. Though she hadn’t seen Kelyn move so quickly.

  She offered her hand to shake, and Never bowed and kissed the back of it. His dark menace whispered over her skin like gray soot.

  The faery released her hand quickly, stepping back. He winced. “You needn’t ward against me, witch.”

  “Probably not,” she offered. “But all the same, I’m more comfortable wearing one in new places.”

  “Of course.” He acquiesced with a tight smirk. “So, mermaids.” He turned to Kelyn. “It’s not often I hear of a fellow sidhe with a hunger to make out with one of those scaly bitches.”

  “It’s for a spell,” Kelyn said. “My wings were... I gave them freely to another and now I want to get them back. The mermaid’s kiss is an ingredient in a spell that’ll open a portal to Faery.”

  “I see.” Never walked around Kelyn, his dark clothing and hair making him look like a gothic punk rocker plopped into the setting of old-world charm, green fields and even a few white sheep grazing in the distance. “Why would you give a part of you away so freely?”

  “It’s not your concern.”

  “Probably not. But that cipher you wear at your neck could be my concern. Why have you a cipher that only the Wicked can use?”

  Kelyn touched the leather cords about his neck, his fingers glancing over the mouse alicorn before he pressed the black circle between his fingers. “This? I don’t know what it is, actually. A friend gave it to me.”

  “A friend? One of the Wicked? Though why one of those terrible things would give up such a thing surprises me. You don’t know what you have? That—” Never pointed to the tourmaline circle Kelyn still held “—is a cipher that can be activated by the Wic
ked. It’s a navigational device used in Faery. It leads to dark and dangerous things, my friend. One such as you has no power to use it. Though—” Never tapped his jaw in thought “—it does connect you to something. I’m not sure what, exactly.”

  “A cipher.” Kelyn shrugged. “Then I’ll be sure not to hand it over to a Wicked One. If it has no power in this realm, it’s but a trinket, isn’t it?”

  “I suppose so.”

  Kelyn stepped before the faery to stop his circling pace. “Are we going to do this or not?”

  “Of course. The thin place is close,” Never said. The faery’s eyes scanned the steel-and-rose horizon. The sun was falling in the sky, despite their early start. “But first I’ll ask my payment, as you’ve promised.”

  “If this is going to cost a lot...” Valor started, but Kelyn’s sudden chiding glance stopped her cold. Step back, witch, was the feeling she got from him. Let him handle this.

  All righty, then. She put up placating hands and took an exaggerated step back. She’d leave the faery business to the experts. It was all a part of the new and untested not-so-aggressive Valor. A girl the guys could see as more than one of their tribe.

  Whatever.

  “It’ll cost no more than a swoon and a smile,” the faery Never said as he walked around behind Kelyn and toyed with the man’s blond hair. He eyed Valor from over Kelyn’s shoulder. “All I ask is ichor.”

  “Ichor?”

  “This is not a problem,” Kelyn said to Valor with that same chiding tone touching his voice. “He’s half-vampire.”

  The faery winked, and now Valor noticed that within his violet pupils were red stars. So, a half-breed Unseelie escapee was going to help them find mermaids? For ichor? She didn’t get it. And generally she was pretty quick on the uptake.

  And then she did get it, when the faery opened his mouth to reveal fangs.

  “Make it quick,” Kelyn said to the faery hugging him from behind, but he maintained eye contact with Valor. “We haven’t got all day.”

  Crossing her arms, Valor stepped back. She didn’t want to watch this. But when the faery lunged toward Kelyn’s neck, she could suddenly imagine nothing more than watching. Pearly sharp fangs sank into flesh, and Kelyn winced at the intrusion. The faery gripped him up under the chin while he fed from his vein. Faery blood wasn’t red, nor was it even blood, but instead, ichor. A clear substance that sparkled with the faery dust that coursed through their systems. Ichor could be extremely addictive to vamps. But to a half faery, half vamp? Valor couldn’t fathom what Never got out of such a drink.

  And then she could, as the faery moaned a long and sexually pleased tone. The hand that grasped Kelyn’s chin seemed to stroke lovingly. Even Kelyn hummed out a satisfied sound, mined deep from his chest. It was as if Valor were watching something illicit.

  And she could not look away.

  When she placed a hand over her heart, the thuds startled her. And she realized her skin had warmed even though the breeze was cool. Was she...turned on by watching such a thing? No. That wasn’t her style. Maybe?

  Kelyn stepped backward, as if losing his balance. Never gripped him surely and licked at his vein. The red-eyed faery caught Valor’s interest and smirked against Kelyn’s neck. He enjoyed that she was watching.

  When, finally, Never released his ichor donor, Kelyn stumbled and put out his arms to right himself. He tossed Valor a loopy grin and she knew he was in a swoon from the powerful bite. As was Never. The dark faery reeled around and caught his hands on the stone fence, laughing and then falling to his knees in a wicked spin of orgasm.

  “Well.” Valor stretched and twisted her neck uncomfortably. She announced, “That was inappropriate.”

  Both faeries chuckled as she strode back to the vehicle.

  * * *

  From the back seat of the Jeep, Never directed the two of them to a sparsely wooded area that fronted the Irish Sea. Sure the rains would begin soon, Valor hoped they could get this done before that happened.

  Kelyn found a clearing of jagged rock scattered with boulders—one the size of a VW—and parked the vehicle.

  Tall grasses hugging the olive trees dashed in painted streaks greener than emeralds. Skylarks soared overhead. And the air seemed kissed with a fragrance Valor could only call life and breath and vitality. Her hair blew in unnatural flutters about her as she stepped out to look around. Her air magic sensed the intensity of the vita about her and responded like an electric force.

  “That’s interesting,” Never commented on her hair. “Air witch?”

  She nodded. “So tell me this. Why ichor? If you’re half-vamp.”

  “Human blood makes me sick,” he offered. “Iron and all.”

  “Ah.” Faeries and iron did not mix. “Got it. So, are you going to stick around for the fun?” She opened the back of the Jeep, where they’d stowed the rope and harness.

  “Wouldn’t think of it. Even if I did have access to Faery—which I do not—the last thing I want to do is return to Faery. Don’t want to end up working for dear old Daddykins. But you...” Never walked up to Kelyn and stood so close Valor wondered if he might kiss him. The two had bonded in some weird way with that bite, but she didn’t want to question it too much. Never placed his palm over Kelyn’s heart. “You do know what will happen if you manage to retrieve your wings from Faery?”

  Kelyn set back his shoulders proudly. “I’ll be whole again.”

  “Not necessarily. If someone else is wearing them, those wings will be tainted by that creature’s essence, be it good, evil or merely malicious.”

  “Merely?” Valor prompted.

  The faery smirked. Of course, faeries were big on malice and menace. And, apparently, black eyeliner.

  “Be wary,” Never said, and stepped away from the two of them. “If you’re ever eager to donate to the cause again...” He winked at Kelyn.

  Spreading out his arms dramatically, Never then released his wings in a whoosh of gray, black and red. With but a jump backward, the faery took to air, transforming to small size within a blink and zipping off across the lush emerald countryside. He looked like a dragonfly darting off to Wonderland.

  “Cool,” Valor commented. “I guess he wasn’t so bad.”

  “If you say so.” Kelyn grabbed the rope from her and wandered toward the trees.

  She probably shouldn’t press regarding the bite, but...

  “Wait up!” She grabbed the harness from the back of the Jeep, checked that the jackknife was tucked in her back pocket, then ran after Kelyn. “So, are you going to tell me about the bite?”

  “What’s there to tell? You saw the whole thing.”

  “I did, and it was...”

  “Inappropriate?” He chuckled and winked at her. “You know what it’s like when someone is bitten by a vampire.”

  “I do. Not from personal experience but from hearsay.” It was supposed to be orgasmic for the vampire, and the victim was generally left in a swoon, as she’d witnessed with Kelyn. “It’s got to be a bummer for a faery who needs to drink blood but can’t. That’s just weird.”

  “I’m not going to question too much. It was what he required for payment. It was something I was willing to offer.”

  “So, did you, you know...?”

  He hefted the coiled rope over a shoulder. A waggle of his brow teased at her. “You know?”

  “You’re going to make me ask it?”

  “I am.”

  “Fine! Did you get off?”

  “I did.” And with that he wandered ahead of her toward the granite cliff.

  Valor followed with a muttered, “Exceedingly inappropriate.”

  Chapter 14

  The inky green sea swirled before Kelyn as he stood at the edge of a granite ledge that hung over the water. The drop to t
he water’s surface was two feet from the stone. Never had referred to finding the tongue of stone that licked over the waters as an excellent vantage point from which to locate mermaids.

  The air was heavy with moisture and brewed the salty ocean scents to a heady elixir that even he, with his muted senses, smelled all over, as if his skin were the nose. The sun had disappeared behind clouds, though a weak half circle of muted gold glimpsed out once in a while. It would rain soon, so he hoped to get this done before the deluge.

  He checked the blue nylon harness he wore, which strapped about him like a vest. Attached to it were a couple D-rings, through which he’d threaded the length of rope.

  Turning, he followed the rope along the granite surface about thirty feet to where the two of them had wrapped the other end of the rope around a massive boulder that had only budged a little when Kelyn testingly shoved against it. Valor had knotted the rope expertly, commenting she’d learned sailor’s knots when she dated a seaman in the middle of the last century. It should provide a good hold.

  And beside the six-foot-high boulder stood Valor. When his gaze met hers she shrugged, and with a wave, she called to him, “What could possibly go wrong?”

  The chick was damn cute when she was working the false hope.

  Turning back to the sea, Kelyn sighed heavily and took stock of this crazy venture he was about to literally dive into. He could not swim. His light bones made a free dive difficult, if not impossible. He wasn’t even sure how long he could hold his breath underwater. And he was now only as strong as a human man.

  Another glance over his shoulder to wink at Valor felt necessary. The witch had a way of challenging him. And he loved it. But was it worth the risk to get back wings that could be tainted by an unknown evil, as Never had suggested?

  “Yes,” he murmured. “I want to be whole again.”

  “I want that for you, too.”

  Kelyn startled at Valor’s voice beside him. He hadn’t heard her approach, which proved he was out of sorts and not on his game. He’d better check that if he wanted to survive this next challenge.