Beauty

by Sophie Oak

  * * * *

  Bronwyn crept out of bed after she was sure Lachlan and Shim were fast asleep. Sleep. It was a state she would deeply appreciate, but it would not come for her. She’d lain for what felt like hours, her body perfectly sated, but her mind raced.

  It had been right there, the need to fully bond. She understood the process. It was a bit like a marriage of convenience versus one of true, pure love. She could do what she needed to do without the deepest of bonds. She would still be able to bridge the twins, giving them access to both halves of their soul. She would still be able to feel them both and share sensations, but she wouldn’t know them, not in the deepest, most intimate sense.

  Bron picked up Lach’s shirt and drew it overhead. It hung past her knees, covering her efficiently. She stared down at them. Shim’s arm was still outstretched as though reaching for her. Lach was on his back, his head to one side as though he needed to hide his scars even as he slept.

  What had caused those scars? They had scarred the man deep. Bron knew he would tell her if she asked, but if they bonded, she would feel his pain, perhaps know how to heal it.

  She stepped away. Did she even want that? Goddess, she didn’t know anything. Her whole world had been turned upside down again as surely as it had thirteen years before. Torin had killed her parents, but Lach and Shim had just as big an effect. Her world was changed, and she was forced to decide the way her life was going to go.

  She walked out to the river, cool grass beneath her feet. The night air held a slight chill, but she welcomed it after the heat of their bed. Bron stopped at the river’s edge, not daring to go much further. She wouldn’t run again, but she intended to take a stand. She couldn’t leave.

  The river ran past her feet, a bubbling swell of water that kept going until it reached the sea. The river was in constant motion, but Bron felt caught. She could jump in and bond and allow Lach and Shim to carry her off or she could stay stubbornly in place like a log that had gotten caught in the middle of the river. It didn’t move, simply allowed the water to strip off the bark and pulp until nothing was left.

  “Bron?”

  Bron closed her eyes briefly, immediately recognizing the voice. It was the same voice she’d heard every day for the last thirteen years. It was a voice that had cajoled and softened the world around her, but now all she heard that voice saying was how Bronwyn had been used.

  “What do you need, Gillian?”

  There was a little huff. It was a laugh completely devoid of humor. “I need to take back about three minutes of my life.”

  “Only three?”

  Gillian moved to stand next to her. “I wouldn’t take back a second of our time together, Bron. I wish we’d been able to flee the plane. I truly do, but I wouldn’t have left without you. Never.”

  That was brutally obvious to Bron. “Yes, well, you did seek me out with a plan in mind, didn’t you?”

  “Don’t we all have plans? We all have hopes and ambitions. It doesn’t make us terrible. I wanted to find the woman who belonged to my brothers. I wanted to unite our tribes.”

  “You wanted power.”

  “Of course I wanted power. I still do. You know what it means to be a woman. Without power we have to rely on our men or our king and Torin proves that this is not a good idea. Goddess, even my own father uses me as a bargaining tool and I know for sure he loves me.”

  Bron had seen the way the vampire mercenary and his lieutenant had stared at Gillian all the long trek through the woods. “It’s not so different is it? You did the same to me. You walked into my father’s palace with the intention of either purchasing me or selling yourself.”

  “Damn it, Bronwyn. Why do you have to put it that way? It’s not the same. Not at all. I went to negotiate a marriage between the crowns. You knew you wouldn’t just be allowed to marry as you liked, didn’t you? And my current situation is not at all like yours.”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “Because you’ve known them all of your life and they all of yours. I did not consider it buying or selling you. I thought I was bringing you home.” Gillian reached out for a moment and then seemed to think better of it. She pulled back into herself. “Since my brothers could speak, they talked about their princess. I felt as though I knew you as a sister before I ever set foot in the White Palace.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me?”

  Gillian shook her head, staring into the river. “Because you were so lost afterward and then you said something about the connection being broken. You cried out at night that you couldn’t feel them, that your Dark Ones were gone. I thought my brothers were dead.”

  Gillian had thought Lach and Shim were dead? Bron searched her memory and remembered those first few months. She’d been dead inside. She’d searched for the connection but nothing had come as though a black space had opened in the center of her being and something that had always been filled was now empty. Bron had walked around, a simple body moving without any more purpose than to be alive.

  What had Gillian gone through? Cut off from her family and everything she knew, she’d been the one who had forced Bron to survive, finding tutors so they could both learn the skills they needed. It would have been so much easier to find her way off the plane alone.

  “Why did you stay?” Bron asked.

  “Because I wasn’t sure at first,” Gillian replied after a long pause. “I thought perhaps that the magic I had used cut the connection. I used a white spell that drew energy from someone who cared about you. I gave you a bit of my own life force. I’ll be honest, I was surprised it worked. I was desperate. I didn’t know what else to do. After a while, when the connection didn’t return, I had to assume they were gone or something terrible had happened. Then I decided I would honor my brothers. They would have wanted you taken care of. And then somewhere between years two and three, I simply loved you as a sister and would have done anything to protect you.”

  “You certainly reverted to form the minute you realized your brothers were alive.”

  “I am not proud of that. I was so happy and felt so powerful. I had succeeded. Bron, I had done the impossible. I had survived and all I wanted was to celebrate that fact. You belong with them. You have to know it.” Gillian spoke with the fervor of a true believer.

  “I don’t know them. You don’t understand what it’s been like, Gillian. You seem to think that I went into these dreams and Lach and Shim and I exchanged all sorts of information. We didn’t. They were dreams. I didn’t even know their names. I didn’t even understand they were real.”

  “No, I don’t understand the connection. I don’t know how it works. The way they explained it to me, they could hear and feel you clearly, but they didn’t think you always could hear them. That’s why you need the full bond. You’re strong, Bron. You’re a strong bondmate. Roan says you glow more brightly than any consort he’s ever seen. Maybe that means your powers to bridge them are stronger, too. So strong that they could feel you, be pulled to you even across the planes. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they know you. They love you. You’re married. Accept it.”

  Bitterness welled despite the fact that she was already deeply involved with them. “Yes, you should take your own advice. Accept it. You’re practically married.”

  Gillian frowned and a weariness came over her. “It’s not even close to the same. They don’t know me. They simply want a consort to strengthen them and elongate their life. I mean nothing to them. And I doubt I shall be able to get away. I thought about trying to run.”

  “Why don’t you?” If she was truly miserable at the thought, then Gillian could run. She surely knew how to survive. She knew the plane and had lived here for a long time.

  Gillian looked back at the tree line. “I will never get the chance.”

  Bron followed the line of her sight and there he was. Tall and dark, with broad shoulders and a brooding stare. He was larger than his partner, though he was the subordinate soldier. Harr
y Riley stood watch over his treasure. No. Gillian wasn’t getting away. Not if Harry had anything to do with it.

  “I heard them talking.” Gillian’s voice sounded hollow. “They intend to take shifts and the other vampires have their orders. I am not to be allowed privacy. They must keep their eyes on me at all times. Roan told me he won’t touch me until my father blesses the union, but he insists that it will happen. I am going to ask my father to find another consort. Surely there will be more once the plane is open. If your brothers do their jobs, I can be free. Unseelies who can bond are rare. They would be happier with a Seelie mate.”

  But the look on Harry’s face told Bron he was already invested in the one he had. He wouldn’t listen to her pleas. He would simply take her.

  As Lach and Shim had taken Bron. “Well, then, sister, if you manage to talk your father out of selling your body for his convenience, then you’ll be better off than me. I have no father to look out for me and I doubt your father made a deal with my brothers that didn’t include my marriage.”

  “Gillian. It’s time to go back.” Roan came out of the woods, a frown on his face. “We have a long day tomorrow. Come back to bed.”

  “Bastard,” Gillian muttered under his breath. “We’ll see who has the upper hand when we return to my kingdom.” She turned. “I wish you would forgive me, but I know you won’t. Please don’t take it out on my brothers. They’ve waited all their lives for you. They don’t know anything else.”

  Gillian shuffled back, seeming determined to take her time and Roan seemed equally determined to be patient. The vampire followed her when she walked past him, giving his lieutenant a nod. The lieutenant nodded back and then his eyes were on someone different—Bron.

  “He won’t leave.”

  Bron was a little startled by the voice, but then noticed what she hadn’t before. The gnome sat a few feet away, his back against a huge tree, his bare feet in the water. Duffy. His name was Duffy and she’d been told that he was Lach and Shim’s brother. Not by blood, but by their mother’s kindness. It had been easy to see that both men cared about the gnome during their long walk. Lach, in particular, had taken care to see that the gnome remained close to him, picking him up when he fell behind.

  “He’ll stay there and make sure you don’t run,” the gnome continued. “I heard them talking about it earlier. Their main jobs in life right now is making sure you and Gilly make it back to the Dark Palace. You because you’re the future queen and Gillian because she’s their prize.”

  Bron thought about saying good-bye and trying to find some solitude, but with Harry’s eyes on her, she doubted she could be alone. She stepped over to Duffy and sank to the ground beside him. The water gave off a definite chill. “Aren’t you cold?”

  “No. Ain’t that funny. All me life I’ve complained about the cold and now I can’t feel it. I know I should be cold, but I just can’t feel it. Must be the spell.” The gnome spoke in a monotone, shaking his head a bit.

  “Are you all right?” That spell had been filled with dark magic. She couldn’t imagine what it had felt like. Duffy’s screams were still ringing in her ears.

  “I’m not good. I know that. I just gotta find a way to be all right again. I think I have some things to do before I can be right.” He sighed, a long breath that seemed to hold a world of regret.

  “It was brave what you did.” That bolt of power had been coming for Lach. It had been meant for him, and the gnome had taken it full blast.

  “No, it weren’t. It was me duty. I know Lach’s not me brother. There’s not a drop of blood between us, but it’s me job to protect him. He’s going to be the king and he’ll be a good one if you would just take the time to teach him.”

  “I hardly doubt he needs to learn anything from me. He was raised to be king.”

  “Yes and no,” Duffy explained. “The king was raising them, teaching them and then one day along about the time they were seventeen, something happened. I wasn’t there, but I know that Shim’s power flared for the first time. Shim was in the stables, getting ready for a riding lesson. I was with Lach. Lach suddenly got pale as a wraith and he fell to his knees, holding his chest. He got up and started running and I ran after him. I could see that the barn was on fire from a long ways away. Flames were shooting out of it like someone was firing a cannon, but it didn’t stop Lach. He ran inside and when he came out, he was on fire, too. It had shot up his face and all around his body. He was engulfed.”

  “How did he survive?” The thought made her heart clench, but she understood why Lach had risked everything. It hadn’t simply been his brother he’d saved. It was half of his soul. If Shim had died and Lach managed to survive, he wouldn’t have been able to ever access his intellectual and romantic sides. He would have been the warrior and nothing more. Lach valued what Shim represented.

  “No idea, but Shim didn’t have a mark on him. We didn’t know it then, but fire can’t touch him. He can walk through it and it don’t burn him. It sure burned Lach. He was a mess. It took five healers to save him and even then, they weren’t able to fix the scars on his face or hands or chest. Anywhere Shim actually touched him. I remember him saying he’d lost his handsomeness and there was a part of him that was relieved you were gone since you wouldn’t accept him like that.”

  “That’s not true.” There was nothing wrong with Lach’s face. Shim’s was more beautiful, but Lach’s had character. He was devastatingly handsome. “But I don’t see what this has to do with making him a king. Did his father value looks so much?”

  Duffy laughed. “Nah, in the Dark Palace, those scars were actually a good thing. It made him look tough. Battle is supposed to harden a man. No. The scars didn’t bother his father, but Shim being in a coma did.”

  “Goddess, did the healers not do their job?”

  “The healers tried everything on both him and Lach. Lach’s body was healed, but he was weak, so weak. He just sat at his brother’s side for almost a year. Finally he regained his strength. The healers kept Shim fed, but finally he awoke. We thought he would regain his strength like Lach had, but he didn’t. Not until today. Not until first blood.”

  “I don’t understand the whole blood thing.”

  “It’s the vampire piece of their being. Your blood, consort blood, has something inside it that makes a royal stronger and faster and healthier than a normal vampire. They tried to force consort blood on both Lach and Shim but they refused.”

  Because they belonged to her. “So their father thought they were weak.”

  “Didn’t think. They were weak for a long time. The king wouldn’t let them train or teach them anything. He was simply obsessed with keeping them alive.”

  “Rather like Lach and Shim with me.”

  “But Lach and Shim didn’t have the power you have.”

  “I don’t have any power at all, Duffy.”

  “Yes, you do. The bond, the true bond, will show your husbands who you are deep down inside. Lach couldn’t show his father what he wanted, needed. He could only tell him. He couldn’t make him feel it the way you can. I know my brothers. They want to please you. When they realize how important this is, they will back off. They will stay with you on this plane, and they will fight for your people.”

  It would be a gamble. She could get caught in that web, too, but she didn’t like her other options. And it was such a temptation. To meld with them, mixing their souls, never to be alone again. It was everything she’d wanted.

  Could she be brave? Could she afford not to?

  “Do it, Your Highness. Go back to bed and bond with your husbands. The answers you want are right there. And it could answer a few of their questions, too. If it doesn’t work, you’ll know to run.”

  She stood and stared back at the campsite. If it didn’t work, she would have to, but she feared they would be able to find her. Always.

  It was win or lose, but perhaps it was better to find out one way or the other. She would have to think about it.

&
nbsp; “Why don’t you go back to the camp. Roan has devices to warm you.”

  “No. I think I’ll sit here a while and watch the stars. Like I said. I don’t feel the cold no more.”

  Bron nodded and walked off. She wasn’t afraid of the cold, but the heat was another matter. She was worried the heat of their true bond would burn her, singeing away all that was Bronwyn Finn and leaving only a consort in her place.

  * * * *

  Torin looked from one hag to the other. “What do you mean she got away?”

  It had been a simple fucking plan. Go to the district where the hags themselves had promised him Bronwyn resided. Go to the district and kill every woman who could possibly be Bronwyn. Simple. Easy. All fucked up.

  “The Unseelie princes are here.” Glannis didn’t look up from her perch. She stared down at the bones she’d just thrown. She’d rattled them in an open skull, chanting and spitting and offering up blood. Now she studied them. It looked like a nasty mess that some forest creature had crapped out, but Glannis apparently saw something in it.

  “Why the hell are they here? They’ve stayed out of things. Why do they give a shit?” The last thing he needed was trouble with the Unseelie until he was ready to deal with them. The Unseelie king had his own trouble. He had idiot sons, the dumbass versions of the Seelie princes. He’d heard something had gone desperately wrong with the princes. They had been injured in a fire and Fergus was trying to deal with his own kingdom. He didn’t have time to fight with Torin. And Torin liked it that way.

  Una cocked a hand on her ridiculously gaunt hip. “Glannis thinks they might be bound.”

  Torin threw his head back and laughed. The defective princes had snuck onto the plane to retrieve Bronwyn? “So why didn’t you kill them?”

  Glannis finally looked up, her rheumy eyes serious. “I tried. I failed. And they are not defective. Not in the least. The Warrior King has already come into his power. He’s a Death Lord.”

  A shiver went up Torin’s spine. He’d always wondered about that damn divination the hags had given him before his ascension. They had told him he would win the day, he would be the king. Only one person could harm him in the end. He’d leaned over and been prepared to hear the name Beckett Finn.