I seek out Lexi first, probably because I’m selfish and need to see his face again. It takes some time, but when I find him, he’s a tragically handsome statue with his belly on the grass, turning to look over his shoulder with determination slicing the terror in his eyes. He wanted to turn to stone, most likely to avoid being trampled and killed. He’s always been the one with a plan.
I kneel beside him, my hand on his head brushing over his stone-gray motionless hair. Salem’s eyes are on me even as he works his way through the lengthy charm. At the end, the trickle of numbness flows through my arm and sinks into my chest.
Ah, bliss. I’m numb and cold, heavy with physical weight that far out-measures the mental toll that living with my secrets has burdened me with. I fall back and stare up at the sky, letting the sound of Lexi fill my ears. He’s coming out of his panic, but I can’t help him. I’m not sure I have it in me to help anybody beyond sucking out their curses.
Eventually my body is cradled in Lexi’s arms while he shudders, torn between overwhelming relief and fear of what’s still lurking out there in the night.
“The Gorgonell is dead, but since we’re still locked in here, we’re not out of the woods yet,” Salem explains. My gaze flits to him, curious why he didn’t rat me out. Is he really capable of keeping my secret?
When my body comes back to itself, we move slowly through the statues, liberating and then resting for longer periods with little discussion in between from my end. Lexi and Salem talk over possible escape plans, but we decide to shelve any action until they’re all awakened, which will take the rest of the night and all day.
Lexi enlists the help of two of the women who’ve had a few hours of adjusting to the transition to be able to lend a hand. Most fae are too shaken for reason when they come back to life, and it takes time to explain it all to them. So we liberate them, and then hand the new person off to the two women, who speak so gently to the newcomers, I often listen in on their kindness.
I blink up at the sky and let the women’s assurances wash over me. “You are safe, fae child.” “Come stretch your muscles and be at peace.” They’re so loving. I pretend they’re talking to me. How my heart aches to be safe, to feel the freedom of being able to be me without breaking all that’s good in the world.
There is much to do, so we work, with Salem repeating the charm over and over again as I take curse after curse into my body. We work through the night, through the day, and until dusk starts to set in. Lexi braces me so I don’t clonk my head on anything when I go stiff. My limbs are so weighted and my brain too foggy for sense to slow me down until the last fae is finally liberated.
I’m so relieved, I want to cry, but I’m too tired to commit to the effort.
“Food,” Salem suggests when my stomach growls. “We have to eat. Can ye ask your people to grow some fruit or something?”
“Fine idea, Brother. Look after Lily, will you? I’ll get them going.”
Salem doesn’t sit by my side but lifts me in his arms. “I know ye don’t want to be carried, but I can’t stomach the sight of ye falling, so this is what it is.”
Luckily I can blame my quietness on the physical toll too many healings is taking on my body. I don’t mind him carrying me, actually. I worry this’ll be the last time, though. He takes me into one of the unused houses, kicking the door shut behind him. After a quick glance around, he takes me into the bedroom, laying me down on someone else’s dusty sheets.
I blink up at the ceiling, hoping he’s not going to make me talk about anything. I’m exhausted, and ready to check out.
“So ye can do magic.” Salem confronts me quietly, though he selected a house far enough away from the others that no one’s going to hear our exchange.
Here it comes. I run my tongue across my top row of teeth before I speak. He hadn’t said anything about it for so many hours; I was kind of hoping he’d forgotten. “Not like Lexi, no. My magic is different, and I try never to use it.”
He sits on the edge of the bed, forcing a labored groan from the bedframe. He angles his chin toward me. “Ye told us ye were stupid, tha ye couldn’t do magic.”
“I am stupid. Children can sprout bushes. Teenagers can grow individual flowers and whatnot. I can’t do any of that, unless it’s harmful. I can only produce poisonous plants. No matter how hard I try to do it right, it always hurts people. So I pretend I can’t do a lick of magic. It’s safer for everyone that way.”
Salem goes quiet for a few beats, so I stop breathing. I can feel our connection teetering on a precipice I’ve feared for so very long.
Finally his hand reaches over and rests atop mine, and I exhale. “Tha’s not stupid. Tha’s different.”
I give a dismissive “pfft,” but that’s the most I’ll engage. He hasn’t left me yet, so I take my good luck where I can find it and change the subject. “Why are we in here? The fae need us. They’re all freaking out because we still haven’t found a way out.”
He kicks off his boots. “We’re taking a break before we tackle tha. A nap. We haven’t slept in a long time.”
I would protest, but saying goodbye to the gloom of the night feels like the best option. Salem waits for my nod and then surprises me by taking the spot beside me on the mattress, folding the musty blanket over us. There are hardly any trappings in this room—a lamp, a bed, a chest in the corner and a fallen broom in another corner. Nothing important, and all of it forgotten.
I can’t believe Salem wants to sleep beside me. I’m dangerous. “I won’t hurt you,” I promise. “I only killed the Gorgonell because he was going to collapse the house on our heads.”
“I know.” The corner of Salem’s mouth draws upward, as if I’ve said something funny. “I don’t think ye understand how deep the mate bond goes. Ye could stab a wee puppy kitten in front of me for no reason, and I’d figure out how to explain it away. Ye could stab me, and I’d be mad at myself for dirtying your knife.”
My face pulls with horror. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“Your needs, and us being together, are the most important things. Everything else doesn’t feel quite so urgent.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses my fingers one by one. “When ye wake up, there will be fruit for us to eat. We’ll have a plan of how to get ourselves out of here. It’ll all look shinier after a nap. The world always does.”
He wraps an arm around me, and I’m unable to keep emotion from choking my response. “You love me.” I have no idea how I got this lucky.
He brings his knee to sandwich between my thighs. “Aye. Always have.”
To test his words, though I know I should take them as they come, I run my ringed hand over his chest. I need to hear the words, yes. To see the man beside me stay when it’s impossibly difficult. I also need my ring to confirm Salem is the right man for me to gamble my future on.
“Oh!” It’s a different sensation I get than when I touch Des’ chest. With Des, I feel settled with this inarguable faith that he’s not capable of lying to me. I don’t get that same assurance with Lexi, but it’s never bothered me. There’s enough good stuff there for me to lean on. With Salem now, my hand heats up. Actual heat. It flows through my wrist like melting chocolate, relaxing my joints and reminding me that I am not alone. I live in Salem’s chest, and he exists in mine. We feel like one body as my ring knits us together. Whatever lies he has, they are now mine, and mine are his. Though I don’t know them all, they are my truths that I will swear by and take to my grave.
When my eyes meet the blue and gray of his, I know he’s experiencing the same phenomenon I am. That though the world is broken, it breaks around us. It cannot break us.
“At last, ye got there.” Relief coats his words as they kiss my face. Then his lips follow suit, meeting mine with acceptance of all the horrible things I am, and all the wonderful things I will never be. I’m his villainous queen, his wretched love.
His lips are velvet framed by soft pine, his prickly facial hair teasing and coaxing me to l
ive the life I thought could never be mine. It was too grand to belong in my hands, yet here it is, begging me not to crush it. I’ve got Salem’s hair tangled in my fingers as if some lost part of me deems it’s finally safe to come home.
My leg has just enough mobility to wrap itself around his hip, marrying my pelvis to his. Salem’s fingers dip inside the hem of my worn t-shirt, tracing lines on my skin that prove to us both that he’s very much mine.
His tongue parts my lips, and I’m positive I’m levitating. We’ve transcended this house, this space, this world, and claimed our own. His shirt comes off because I want to admire the full expanse of him, memorizing his hairy chest with my hands and lips. I love the feel of him—so very male in all his parts. When my tongue sweeps over the low peak of his nipple, he throws his head back through a shiver that ripples through his body and jerks his groin closer. His hips grind into mine as he groans, hungry and determined, letting me know things are about to get real adult real fast.
My shirt slips over my head, and there I am, bared and open for him. My bra is lacy and white, which I was told is standard for fae women. It’s definitely a step up from the ratty beige one I wore even after the underwire busted months ago. Judging by the widening of Salem’s eyes, he likes what he sees. His large hand scoops my breast, thumbing the tip that can be clearly detected through the thin fabric. A soft noise of longing escapes his lips as my back arches into his touch.
He toys with me, taking his time to make sure he’s lit each nerve ending on fire. I’m writhing in the sheets, gripping any part of him that hovers above me as he shifts his weight so he’s caging me in. He’s so very big, sheltering me with protection and affection while a wicked smile plays on his lips at making me squirm for him.
“I love seeing ye like this,” he admits between kisses.
When the door opens, I freeze and Salem shields my body with his, protecting me even from errant glances.
“Might want to lock the door next time,” Lexi suggests as his footsteps find us. Lexi’s eyes climb up my body, his teeth digging into his lower lip. He makes his way over to us, nudging Salem aside. He leans down without hesitation to sweep my lips in a kiss that’s entirely different from Salem’s. His lips are soft but not as full. They’re forceful and dominating, telling me what he wants. His knuckles graze down the scope of my bare side, forcing a rough cry from me as my hips jerk at the air, seeking out friction neither of them give me.
When the kiss ends and Lexi stands, pinching the bridge of his nose, I instantly crave more of him. “Man, this is just the worst timing, but Des is here. I came in to get you two.”
Salem kisses my lips leisurely, as if the great news of our liberation is no big thing. “We’ll be out in a minute.”
Lexi sighs unhappily. “Might want to make sure it’s only a minute. Des is in a right state, not being able to get to us.”
We steal two minutes together, and then go meet Des at the gate.
25
Almost Rescued
Destino
I reach through the bars of the gate, holding Lily’s fingers. Instantly the void that’s been growing ever since my family left is filled, the holes of my psyche spackled in with just enough hope to heal some of my more broken parts. “Blue eyes, are you well? You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”
She’s got bags under her eyes and her fingers are stiff. Still, she does her best to reassure me. “I’m okay. We’re stuck in here, though. Any chance you’ve got like, a key or something?”
“No key. Alex told me it was your father who locked you all in here?” I shake my head. “He’s a right cruel bastard. I searched the dead bloke out here for the spare key, but General Klein must’ve taken it.”
She leans her forehead on the bars that separate us. “We have to get out of here. I can’t think of any way other than sending you back to the palace to tell King Fairbucks about it all. Then he can send you back here with a key.”
My gaze flicks to Alex, and I hate that I have to tell him stuff like this. “King Fairbucks knows.”
Alex grins. “Then we’ll be feasting in no time. How far behind you is my father?”
I swallow hard, grateful the fae they’ve brought back to life are too afraid of Salem and me to get near enough to eavesdrop. I reach my fingers through the bars, waiting for Alex to take hold before I say the words I know will break him. Fae believe so strongly that the lies they tell are trivial, that they’re justified, so the consequences won’t be so bad. But when they’re tricked by their own, the shock hits, contrasting the belief that people aren’t completely dreadful. This time, they are. Or at least, their leader is.
I grip Alex’s fingers, watching his free arm wrap around Lily, connecting the three of us while Salem flanks Lily’s other side, his massive forearm leaning on the bars over my head. “I overheard General Klein tell your father he’d taken care of the problem, and the kingdom wouldn’t have to be bothered by your interference with his plans anymore. The treaty with Drexdenberg is already in the process of being redacted. It’s a mess. I stole a horse and rode through the night as soon as I heard.” Serves them right for not remembering how hard it is for a vampire to sleep at night, especially on enemy soil.
Lily’s gasp is a portion of the horror I felt when I first overheard the horrid plan.
I despise that I’m the one fracturing Alex’s last shred of hope in his father. I can’t even properly hold him while his worldview shatters. Now I’ve got two fae I love whose fathers care more about public appearance than they do about their own children. I trust Lily to hold Alex, and she does so without having to be asked. He’s too stunned to speak, so none of us force words out of him.
I want to tell him it’ll all be okay, but not once during my ride here did that feel true. It’s going to be dreadful for a while, on both a personal and countrywide level.
Alex finally manages single syllables. “I… um… it’s…” Then he closes his eyes and shakes his head, his next word coming out in a whisper. “No!” Then his eyes widen as they fix on a point over my shoulder, his whisper turning into a shout that blasts me in the face. “No! Des, run! He’s got silver!”
I start to turn, but then a force I can’t see slams my body into the bars of the iron gate, knocking the breath from me. I don’t understand what’s happened, and then something hot spreads agony through my entire being. My mouth opens, and I’m fairly certain sound comes out, but it’s not making sense to my ears. This is different than the arrow piercing my shoulder. Something that feels like lightning and dread seeps into my veins. “Silver!” I manage, gripping the bars as my arms go numb on the outside, but turn to pure flame on the inside.
Lily screams and holds onto me, gripping my shirt through the bars, lowering me gently as I sink to my knees. My legs are useless—numb on the outside while fire races through each artery. It’s all I can feel, all I can think as Lily and Alex hold me tight to the bars, reaching around my back to rip the… knife? Arrow?
I don’t feel my throat cry out, but I hear the sound of my shout as the sharp edge is yanked from the back of my shoulder.
The silver is gone, but it’s too late.
Ronin trusted me to rule in his stead, and now I’m dying. I can feel the silver working its way into me, killing and deadening as it goes. I can’t feel my hips, but for the fire that’s erasing all other sensation.
Salem shouts at the offender, and I hear the General’s voice saying… something as he approaches. He stands behind me and pats me on the head. Actually pats me on the head like I’m his dog. I’m dying playing the part of a fae’s dog. I’m dying in front of my best friends who can’t get me to safety. I’m dying in front of my wife, who stands and thrusts her arm through the bars, jerking her father by the shirt and banging his head against the iron. It doesn’t knock him out, but the message is clear.
My wife will avenge me. She will find a way to tell the world I am no man’s dog.
The silver must be warping my brai
n. A handful of purple petals fall like confetti all around me, and suddenly, I’m very sleepy. The inferno in my arteries dies down because, I realize, I am dying along with it. Pain means I’m alive, and now that it’s going, so will I go into the void of night.
My body collapses, and the last thing I see is Lily holding her father’s shirt to the gate while she stabs him in the belly with her silver dagger.
26
Silver Poison
Salem
There’s so much blood; I don’t know which puddle belongs to which body. Alex is in shock, but something clicks in my brain the moment Lily plunges her dagger into her da’s stomach. “It’s a poison!” I remind us all. “Silver is a deadly poison to vampires. If we can get it out, Des might live!”
“We just yanked it out, but it still stabbed him!”
I’m not saying it right, so I try again. “We’ve been purging curses all day and night. Maybe a vampire being poisoned by silver is no different. We have to try, Lily!”
Her mouth pops open as my words start to make just enough sense to her. Lily nods quickly, her dagger still in her tormentor’s belly, the hilt still gripped in her fist. She looks like a wee girl, scared of standing up to her abusive parent.
But she did it.
I start the two-minute-long charm, frustrated with how long the whole thing takes. I’ve never heard of a vampire living after silver made its way through their bloodstream. But this is the only hope I can grasp at. I need it. I need Des.
Des is my… I can’t let this happen. I speed through the syllables, glancing at Lily, who yanks out her knife from her da’s gut. She snatches the keys from the General’s belt before she thrusts him backwards. He stumbles, but I know the wound isn’t enough to take him out completely. She does her best to bend her arm around the bar to fit the thing into the lock. Her hands are shaking, but she finally turns the key, liberating us all.
Wicked Prince: Book Two in the Territorial Mates Series Page 17