Beauty

by Sophie Oak

  His tears fell now. For Duffy, for Bron, for himself, for Shim.

  “I love you, brother.” Shim got to his knees and put a hand on Lach and reached for Duffy.

  “Love you, too. You were the best brothers I could have hoped for.”

  Lach reached out and completed the circle. He and Duffy and Shim. His childhood in a circle of hands grasping. “I love you both. My brothers. I will keep you in my heart, Duffy.”

  “That is a good place to be.”

  Lach released his hold.

  Duffy smiled, closed his eyes, and walked into eternity.

  Lach rose to his feet a completely different man. He looked to Roan. “Gather what we need. We make for Aoibhneas tonight after I bury my brother.”

  He expected an argument but Roan bowed deeply. “Yes, Your Highness. I am at your service.”

  “As am I.” The phooka leapt from the trees and, in an instant, switched to his horse form. “I will get us to Aoibhneas. I know a secret way in.”

  “Dad, isn’t that Uncle Max’s horse?” Charlie asked.

  Zane shook his head. “We’re just going to go with it, son. And I know exactly what you’re talking about. The mayor has a series of caves he keeps hidden. We know how to get home.”

  “Then we leave in an hour.”

  Shim picked up Duffy, holding his small body close. “Lach, I…”

  Lach shook his head. “I love you. No more fighting. All that matters is winning this war and getting our wife back.”

  Shim nodded and followed. Lach prayed the morning would find him closer to his goal—getting Bronwyn back in his arms.

  * * * *

  Bronwyn awakened to the smell of home. She could smell the bread the bakers in the White Palace made for each and every meal. It was a smell that had haunted her dreams since she’d fled. She’d tried to re-create the bread, snowy white and buttery soft with the smallest hint of honeyed sweetness, but never got it right.

  She opened her eyes because no matter how lovely the smell was, this place was no longer home. She groaned a little. How long had she been here? A day at least, though it already seemed like a lifetime. A day away from them. Would she ever see them again?

  “The hags certainly worked you over.”

  Bron turned her head and then wished she hadn’t. Her every muscle ached. She was so, so weary. All through the long night the hags had tortured her with spell after strength-sucking spell. Pain had wracked her system and then a horrible weakness had overtaken her.

  “They’re sleeping now. They don’t sleep often and no one knows where they go to do it, but it seems the only time they don’t listen in.”

  A blonde woman came into view. She was regally perfect with her thin crown and slender figure. Cold blue eyes and a narrow chin completed the usurper queen’s appearance.

  “Maris. To what do I owe this honor?” Bron wished she had the saliva in her mouth to spit at the bitch.

  Maris chuckled a bit. “Goddess, you’re loud. I actually heard that.”

  Bron’s whole heart sagged. She’d forgotten. Maris was a bondmate. It was exactly why she’d been engaged to Bron’s brothers. How could she pull this off if the queen herself knew what she was planning?

  A little smile curled Maris’s thin lips. “You’ve been an annoying hum in my head for years.”

  She’d been so stupid. So very dumb. She should have listened to her husbands. She wasn’t cut out for this. She was just a girl. She was still just a dumb girl.

  “Stop scaring her, Maris,” a deep voice said.

  The queen rolled her eyes. “It’s the only fun I have anymore, Niall.”

  Niall stepped out, dressed in the livery of the Queen’s Guard. “Your Highness, I see you finally made it. Though I might point out that if we’d done this my way, you wouldn’t have been horribly tortured last night and most likely for a few nights to come.”

  “A little torture never hurt a girl,” Maris said. “And she looks strong. If she’s anything like her brutish brother, then she should know a thing or two about torture.”

  “You know he doesn’t like it when you talk about Beck like that. He explained that.”

  Maris nodded and a bit of her bile seemed to flee. “I know. I hold on to it though because it’s what got us here in the first place. Where is he?”

  “Making certain the hags aren’t around. And why are you here? If your husband catches you, he’ll find us all out.”

  “Torin is scared of the girl. He was angry the hags brought her to the palace in the first place. I had to think fast on my feet or he would have had her throat slit and most likely by his own guard. We don’t own them, Niall. I should think he would be pleased with me.”

  “Who are you talking about? Goddess, am I in some strange dream?” Bron asked. She was so deeply confused.

  “Drink this.” Maris held a cup to her mouth and forced her head back. It was slipping down her throat before Bron could cough it back up. “Give it a minute.”

  She stepped back and Bron tried to gag, but her arms were bound tight to the chair she sat in. The hags, she’d discovered there were two of them, had cackled as they’d cinched her in tight and began the ritual that would loosen her soul from her body. Now Maris had used her bindings to force some poison on her.

  Maris grinned at Niall. “She thinks I killed her.”

  Niall sighed and got to one knee. “Bron, Maris is on our side.”

  Bron shook her head. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Maris was an evil bitch. “No. She is the one who let Torin in.”

  Maris shrugged. “Can’t a girl make a few mistakes? Ooops. I made the wrong move and got your parents killed. Your father has forgiven me.”

  “My father?” What Niall had said before came back to her. Her father had become a sluagh and chained himself to this place. At the time she’d barely believed it. Could it really be true? “My father is here?”

  A cool wind seemed to pass through Bron and a phantom coalesced in front of her. Her father floated, an insubstantial but welcome presence. “Hello, my little pixie. It’s been a long while.”

  A little sob threatened to escape her throat. “Father.”

  He smiled down at her. A ghostly hand reached out to touch her face. “We have so little time. The hags are waking. You’ve figured out what you are? And what you can do?”

  She nodded. “I’m a conduit. That’s what they called me.”

  “Your mind works on a frequency that every bondmate can hear and you can access your blood’s powers.” His voice, not quite above a whisper, tightened. “If you’ve tapped into power, I have to assume your brothers are here. Beck and Cian have come into their powers, then? They’ve formed a true triad?”

  Bron stared at her father. “No. I mean yes. They have bonded and have power, but they aren’t here yet.”

  “Then whose power have you accessed? It should only work with a true triad.”

  “My husbands. Lachlan and Shim McIver, princes of the Unseelie Fae. My Dark Ones.”

  Her father’s image shimmered for a moment and then became a bit more solid. “They were real.”

  So real. “Yes. And they’re here. They are going to Aoibhneas to gather the troops.”

  Her father was silent for a moment. “So many things to have gotten wrong. It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is they will come. If they came for you each night in your dreams, they will come for you now. You have to be brave, my daughter. You have to be the princess I never taught you to be. I am so sorry to require this of you, but you can’t do what you need to do until the battlefield is set.”

  Niall stepped in when her father became quiet. He pulled a knife from his belt. Her knife. “I didn’t do what I should have done. I didn’t find another to take your place. I came back here to wait for you. There is only one Princess Bronwyn, and I knew she would come here. This is for you when we win the day. We have to kill Torin and the hags, too. We get one shot at this. They’ve become very powerful.”r />
  “They control the guards for Torin,” Maris explained. “If you don’t kill the guards as well, even with the hags gone, they will continue to fight and continue with their mission to kill you and your brothers and everyone who is against them. Even now Torin is pulling them back from Aoibhneas since you’re here. They will guard the palace now and they will be in place when the kings arrive. Goddess, tell me they’re bringing an army with them.”

  Bron hoped so, too. “I know the Unseelie are sending a force. And from what Lachlan told me the village will come.”

  Maris groaned. “I hate that village. They’re all insane. Aoibhneas is where the crazies go. The mountains do something to their brains. And I heard some of them prefer to walk about naked. I pray they bring weapons.”

  Bron wanted a few answers. “Why are you doing this?”

  Maris’s cornflower-blue eyes turned down. “I was a foolish girl.”

  “You hated my brothers.”

  She shook her head. “I hated the fact that my father sold me to them. I was chattel and nothing more and Cian couldn’t stand the sight of me. And quite frankly Beckett Finn scared me. I’d heard rumors that he liked to hurt his partners.”

  “I explained that, Maris.” Her father’s voice was a tortured groan.

  “I know, but I didn’t understand at the time. I wanted a way out. I was in love, you see. I loved my maid. We grew up together and somewhere along the way, I realized she was everything to me. We kissed when we were sixteen. The day before I was sold to your brothers. I was scared I would lose her. I thought Torin would be easier. He would reward me for helping him and send me on my way and Anna and I could be happy.” She took a deep breath. “I did it all because I loved a girl. A girl who Torin killed because she wasn’t pure. Your father found me. He forgave me. I don’t know why.”

  “Because death clarifies all things in life, Maris. And I know that forgiveness is the greatest gift we have to give and a thing we should pray to receive. Hating you wouldn’t have solved anything, but reaching out and offering absolution did. It brought us here. It will bring us victory. Do not misunderstand me, daughter. I have not given up the after with your mother because I want vengeance. I gave it up because I want my children to know peace.”

  Maris frowned. “Well, I want the bastard dead, and I don’t care how it happens. I would have done it myself, but killing Torin doesn’t take care of the hags and they’re worse. Your father figured out what you are long ago and set Niall out to find you. I’ve done my duty and kept that bastard busy, but I’m ready to be done. I’m ready to face Beck and Cian and whoever they’ve married and accept their judgment.”

  Maris wanted to die. She was ready.

  Her father cocked a head sideways. “They’re coming. All of you out. Bron has to face this alone. Bronwyn, they won’t kill you. Stay strong. They think that by eating bondmates’ souls they can take the psychic power into themselves, but they can’t hear you. When they’re through, reach out and find strength in your brothers and sisters. They wait for you.”

  Niall and Maris were already out the door and her father faded.

  Bron reached out, but to a different mind. She reached out to Lach and Shim. She felt their love before the door opened and the hags filled her world.

  She shut it down because her husbands didn’t need to know what was happening to her.

  * * * *

  Deep in the night, when the agony was done, Bron wondered how much more she could take. They’d bombarded her again and again with spells. Some took her strength, some her will. The worst was the one that robbed her of all her joy.

  Call to them. Her father had told her to. Apparently she’d been calling all of her life so it made sense to do so again. She couldn’t call to Lach and Shim. They would be terrified. She had to find strength another way.

  Hello.

  A simple thing. A greeting, but it was all her mind could handle.

  I am Erin. The voice was quiet, but she heard it all the same. And she felt a tiny spark of energy.

  I am Quinn. Again, a voice and a bit of strength shared among prisoners.

  I am Mina.

  They came when she called. A hundred voices with sparks of strength that alone would have been nothing at all, but together, they bound her in will and power, re-forming her soul. They gave what they could and connected together through Bronwyn’s brain and heart.

  I am Maris. That voice was quiet, tentative, but the energy she sent was not.

  They continued through the night. By morning, Bron was smiling when the hags entered and she opened her mind to her loves.

  Come for me. My time is now.

  Chapter Twenty

  Shim looked around the village and wished Bron was with him. She would love Aoibhneas. It was beautiful and the inhabitants were all slightly insane.

  But Bron was miles away and he couldn’t get to her.

  And his brother was gone as well.

  Shim took a deep breath and hoped the mayor had one sane bone in his body. “I promise not to make any deals with demons. Now can we sign this treaty and begin preparations.”

  Mayor Mel leaned forward. “You passed the truth tests.”

  The truth tests had involved drinking an enormous amount of some liquor the mayor made himself and then answering a bunch of questions because the mayor believed no one could lie when drunk. The mayor had asked him and Lach a multitude of questions about their feelings on demons and parallel planes. He seemed to think that somewhere out there was another him and this other version of the mayor had it all wrong and shouldn’t be worried about creatures from the skies, but rather about demons. Shim and Lach, for their parts, had mostly talked about how much they missed Bronwyn and her breasts. Getting drunk made Shim think about all of his wife’s soft parts, and he’d been sick with worry over her. Well, and with the liquor.

  Finally this morning Roan had found the tear in the wall and gotten Lachlan through to bring the Seelies back.

  Shim wished they would hurry. He’d been left to negotiate with what Dante had called a whack job.

  The vampire had proven to be rather good at negotiations himself. He smiled at the mayor. “Excellent. I assure you the prince has no intentions of allowing demons to take over his kingdom.”

  Shim shook his head. “Not at all. It’s written down somewhere.” And if it wasn’t, Shim would make it a law.

  A woman with steel-gray hair stared the mayor down. “Sign the documents. You know we’re going in.”

  “Fine, woman. You don’t have to harp on me.” He winked at his wife. “But you better tell the women because if I know their husbands, they’ll start trying to lock them up and keep them out of this.”

  The mayor’s wife grinned. “I made sure they all had keys to the lockups and each had a sonic sword and one of those cannon things.” She looked over at the vampire. “One of our daughters bonded with a royal vampire by the name of Stefan. He makes sure we have all the weapons we need.”

  Dante piped up. “And all the sex toys, too, I bet. Sorry, Talbot Industries makes billions off the toy market. And now I find out he’s an arms dealer, too. Kaj, when we get back to our plane, remind me to buy up Talbot stock. I like him. He’s smart.”

  Kaja smiled at her husband indulgently and shook her head. Shim didn’t believe Kaja and her husband were ever going back to the Vampire plane. Not for more than a visit. She seemed very happy here in Aoibhneas.

  The mayor signed his name with a flourish and stood. The town square was filled with villagers, all anxiously waiting. Shim could see the Harper clan standing near the boy named Charlie. Paige had her hand clasped firmly in his. They were young, far too young to wed, but it was plain to see the love in their eyes.

  The whole village seemed to quiet as the mayor stepped up. “We go to war.”

  A huge shout seemed to shake the ground. There were hugs and slaps on the back and celebratory cheers.

  All for a war that might take his wife’s life.

/>   “Your Highness? You seem sad.” Rachel Harper placed a hand on his arm.

  “I’m frightened.” He probably shouldn’t admit it, but it was true.

  She sighed. “So am I, but we’re more afraid of living like this than we are of dying.”

  Shim’s eyes threatened to water again. Damn it. It was always there, that fine edge of grief at his brother’s passing. He kept expecting to look down and see Duffy at his side, making a wisecrack and hauling his axe with him.

  Shim hadn’t been able to leave the axe behind. Perhaps he should have, but something deep inside wouldn’t let him as though he had to keep a piece of his brother with him.

  He kind of wished he had something of Lach’s now. And Bron’s.

  “I was so sorry to hear of your brother’s passing.” Rachel Harper looked up at him with kind eyes.

  She was going to fight. Shim knew it. She would fight and her older children would, too. Her husbands would fight. She was probably terrified, but she would do it because it was the right thing. Rachel understood what Bron knew, what Shim was just starting to discover. “He would have been honored to fight at your side.”

  A ghost of a smile curved up her lips. “I thought this wasn’t your fight, Your Highness.”

  “It’s everyone’s fight. That’s why they call it the good fight, isn’t it?”

  She curtseyed, the first formal gesture he’d seen from anyone on the plane. “You will do your kingdom proud, Your Highness.”

  Shim stood in the middle of the square and breathed in as Bron brushed against him with her mind.

  Come for me. My time is now.

  She was so serene, so perfectly powerful. She was ready.

  And Lach wasn’t here.

  “Mrs. Harper, thank you, but I need to find Harry.” Roan had gone with Lach.

  Dellacourt was suddenly at his side. “What’s wrong?”

  “Bron’s ready. We have to go.” He took a long breath. She was ready and he was miles and miles away.

  “Uhm, we’re two days march from the palace. She better stay ready for a while.” Dellacourt looked around. “Or we can hope Roan brings back an army of bikes. Do you understand how much easier warfare is on my plane? We all sit in our rooms and fire at each other remotely. Seriously, I have snacks and drinks during wars. I always get my face fucked up on Faery planes. It’s barbaric.”