Puck wrapped a warm hand around mine. A woman with a foreign accent announced over the loudspeaker, “Flight 136 for Dublin, Ireland now boarding.”
Lord and Lady Mishap
Milky gray sky loomed overhead casting cinematic tones across the landscape. Puck’s pale skin glowed, nearly iridescent in the light.
Thickets of trees hid away things I was sure ruled the earth at one time. Like the beast hiding inside me. For the first time I—the me I’d become—truly felt home. As out of place as I was, I knew within me was a creature born of that land and those people.
Puck mentioned more than once how it had all changed so much since he’d last been there. I could only imagine what it looked like. As it was, the cobblestone roads and aging brick buildings looked like something out of a storybook.
“It’s like nothing I’ve seen.”
He squeezed my hand. “From a place of knowledge you speak.” He’d grown quiet since we’d landed in Ireland. Anxious.
“You okay?” I asked, watching the side of his face for any sign of worry.
He turned to me, charming grin spread wide. “Always.”
Turning off the main road and onto a narrow hole-filled single lane, Puck pointed out a stone tower damn near taken over by greenery of all types. Castle Hackett, he called it.
“Fairy seers,” he said with a wink.
With his nondescript accent and all-around boy-next-door charm, it was hard to picture him as an ancient fae creature roaming the rolling green hills of Ireland. Time had a way of stripping the true nature of folks.
The narrow lane ended at a pile of branches covering a path that disappeared behind a rounded mound covered in mossy overgrowth.
“There’s not a road that leads to where we’re headed. We’ll need to walk the rest of the way. The entrance to Cnoc Meadha, the Otherworld, is through the trees and over the hill. It can’t be found on a map and cannot be entered by a human.” Puck hefted my bag on his shoulder. “Or an unwanted,” he added, pushing the door shut with his foot.
Soft blades of moist grass tickled the tips of my fingers. A few yards up the trail, a waterless dam of old limbs and a fallen tree. Happy I’d laced my boots tight, I balanced on top, hardly clearing it with short legs and Puck’s help.
A stone path, thick moss curling from between many cracks, led to steps that disappeared around the mound and out of sight.
Puck shrugged my bag from his shoulder. A bright grin eased fear that brewed, a slow boil in my gut. “Are you ready for this?”
I pinched my lips in my teeth, surveying the hill ahead of us. “You’re sure it’s safe?” It was the fifth time I’d asked something similar and just like the first time, he kissed my forehead, smiled, and nodded.
“This is your home. You belong here.”
A smile lifted my cheeks and sent tears to my eyes. My girl grumbled, stretching, ready for home.
“I’ll take you the rest of the way.” He slid the straps of my bag over my shoulders. “When we arrive, you’ll know. You will feel it deep within you. Just like I taught you, call to King Finvarra and ask for passage.”
I swallowed hard. “What if—” He put a finger to my lips.
“You are Cu Sidhe. Warrior. Reaper of vengeance. Do not forget that.” Eyes a shade above black held my stare, speaking to not just me but the beast. “You belong here. Always have.”
Destined from birth, my beast, the fae in my soul, had always made me something different. Something more. I’d never truly belonged in Havana. Maybe my home was just beyond those steps.
Puck pressed his lips to my forehead, quivering breaths shook from his nose. Silver light shook around him. A breath and he was gone. In his place, my shiny black steed.
His hooves clomped over the stone steps. Footfalls hit without hesitation. My stomach jolted with each the higher along the hill we moved. I couldn’t die, but I sure as hell didn’t want to go tumbling down the side of a wet, grassy hill through a thicket of clawlike shrubbery either.
We rounded a bend into an endless arch of trees. Gnarled, leafless branches reached from either side of the trail. Boney fingers, threatening to snag hair and skin as we passed. Breaching the arch, a searing punch hit my gut. Puck shook his mane, flicked his tail.
Crackling magic rolled over my skin, vining lilac volts at the tips of my fingers. Only slight beams of muted light poked through thick treetops, casting crooked shadows over the trail.
The beast roared, baying, forcing room where there was none. Ahead, those jagged branches had grown together, overtaken by flowering vines.
Puck’s hooves slowed to a stop. He puffed encouragement from his snout.
Cnoc Meadha. I let out a long shaking breath. “King Finvarra,” I shouted, my own booming voice startled me. I swallowed back fear, squared my shoulders. “I am Sharlene Carolynn Diamond Russell from Havana, Arkansas. I am Cu Sidhe.” Puck snorted. “I request entry.”
Silence met me. A breath. Two. “Did I do it right?” I whispered.
Small yellow flowers, in full bloom, shrunk, pinching closed. Vines slithered over one another, leaving their home to twirl midair. The smallest reached first, skinny little things that flicked a snakelike tongue. Thicker, more menacing tendrils unfurled, reaching for me.
The first wrapped around Puck’s strong legs, tugging him forward. Heart wild, untamed, galloped in my chest. The beast roared, rumbling up my throat. Vines fell from overhead, curling into my hair, sliding down my shirt.
Spiny tipped branches poked into my back, claws capturing prey. Never penetrating my skin, those slithering vines wiggled deep into my soul, tickling my beast.
“Puck,” I strangled, leafless branches growing up my throat and out my mouth.
Flowers bloomed at the ends, growing, spreading, engulfing me and the horse I rode in on. When the earth swallowed me from the inside out, I thanked the heavens it hadn’t come with thorns.
Air sucked into my lungs, dragging in the taste of wet earth. Music played in the distance. Slender green vines slid up my back, uncurling themselves from my body.
I blinked. And blinked again. A constant motion, flowers and leaves and vines trailed over every nonmoving thing. Opening, closing, slithering.
Overhead, thick treetops filtered golden light, spilling in long strips on cottage roofs and ever-blooming petals.
Otherworld.
Green and purple waves of energy zipped up and down my arms. My girl wanted free. If I didn’t let her loose soon, she’d chew her way out. A sensation I’d have rather not live again. I clung tight to my steed, silently begging Puck to come back to me.
Glittering specks, no bigger than a pill bug, flittered over and under and around everything. A horned being, tall as the nearest eave, eyed us over a furry shoulder. Wings surprisingly scant in the land of the Sidhe, it was overflowing with a bustling community of creatures. Most of which were starting to notice we’d arrived.
“Time to come back now,” I whispered, keeping my eye on those things closest, with the biggest claws.
My beast, the Cu finally home after so long, fought to break free. Claws and teeth stinging my insides. Puck had been right, I’d’ve never made it past the vining gates without the control I’d gained in my years playing death.
Heavy footfalls quaked the tight village. “Padraic O’Kain!” a man’s voice bellowed through the trees and over the rooftops, shaking loose petals and leaves.
All movement ceased. Critters scurried for shelter. Some, the bravest of them, stopped to watch, huddled together, whispering—pointing at the girl and her black horse.
Full breaths puffed from Puck’s nose, heaving, panting. Without so much as a shimmer, he popped back into existence. Sending me crashing to the ground, knocking the air from my chest.
A giant of a man clomped toward us, shoving aside any creature not clever enough to move away
. Long, braided red beard billowed in a breeze of his own creation. A crown of twigs and leaves sat on his head. Puck didn’t take his eyes off him, kneeling to help me up.
“Remember who you are,” he whispered to me, lifting me from the ground.
Feathers from shoulder to foot swooshed behind the heap of a man, a cape fit for a king. Puck’s natural calm had been left behind in the human world. Now his heart fluttered, flipping over itself. My beast growled, rumbling deep in my chest.
Puck’s hands clamped tight on my shoulders, silently begging, pleading for help. Whatever he’d expected from me I didn’t think I could give it. Even held tight under my imaginary lid, the beast was wild, feral, home and happy to be there, ready to kill to be free.
Gigantor stopped a foot from us, towering over even Puck’s six feet. “You have defied banishment, Puca. Exiled to earth for eternity. How did you penetrate my gates?
Puck stood tall, as though he wasn’t completely naked, held his shoulders tight. Jaw clenched, he looked up at the man’s murky olive eyes.
“King Finvarra, you will be pleased of my return. Of that I can promise you.” Puck’s naturally warm hand heated my lower back. “I’ve returned something you’ve been missing.” He squeezed my arm, shoving me toward the man. “Your Cu Sidhe has come home.”
Crime and Punishment
“What?” I growled, looking back at him.
Puck shoved me to the ground at Finvarra’s feet and tore off into a sprint. The king groped for him, but Puck was too wily and quick. He snaked around the oaf of a man, white cheek clenched, an inch from being snatched up by the king’s mitt of a hand.
The brutish king stomped after the naked Puca, reaching and just missing. Puck’s feet hardly touched the ground. He leapt to a nearby rooftop, inches from Finvarra’s reach.
I scurried back, frantically searching for a handhold to get to my feet. King Finvarra whipped his cape back, drawing a long sword from a sheath at his hip. Puck looked at the sword, then to me. The corner of his mouth twisted, curling into a grin. He winked. White wings flapped once, pulling his human form into the shape of a dove. A feather floated to the ground at the king’s feet.
He’d left me. He’d tricked me. All that time. All those years. To the end of the earth. “Fucker.”
“Cu Sidhe,” King Finvarra bellowed. Those who’d stayed to watch the show turned to me, mouths and eyes full circles.
I gulped noisily and pushed myself to standing. On earth, I was stronger, faster, older than anything alive. In the land of the fae people, I was a human with a big, mean dog stuck inside me. A beast desperate to break free.
King Finvarra stood over me a good two feet. Ruddy, freckled skin more like an old farmer than an ancient fairy king. He bent at the hip, nose touching the tip of mine. A sinister grin curled wormlike lips over his teeth.
“Good dog.” He patted my head and the beast growled, rumbling up through my chest, snarling my lip. The thin membrane that kept her inside rattled, stretched, almost broke under her pressure. “Hush now, madra. None of that.”
The beast hadn’t been happy to return home. She hadn’t been tumbling around with joy. My girl wanted to be free to wreak vengeance on the things that lived there. “Why do I feel like you’re not a good guy?”
“Good guy?” He looked confused. His thick accent muddling most of his words.
“Up to no good.” Wooly brows pinched together. “Rotten… ornery…” He shook his head. “An asshole?”
He laughed again. “When Croí na Tlachtga planted my Cu into your kind, I thought it a curse on the house of fae and its king. Now, oh, now, it’s a blessing. A feisty human woman come traveling right down to me. Aye, that’s a sight.” He looked me up and down.
“Now, you look here—” I started and pointed my finger in his face. King Finvarra chuckled and playfully bit at my finger. “I want to see Puck and then I want to go home. My real home.”
“Puck? Your Puca betrayed you. Why would you want to see him?”
“I want to deliver him my thanks.” Fire ignited in my eyes, glinting copper on his shiny nose.
“Oh, can’t be having that now.” The king snapped his fingers. A cloak fell around my shoulders, weighing heavy. Burdensome.
My stomach clenched, a fist tightening in pain. The beast reared, and bucked, and roared, and clawed, breaking the membrane, but trapped inside her worthless human.
Without another word, the king hoisted me up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I kicked and screamed and cussed, but the thick cloak and Finvarra held tight. With a leather boot, he kicked open a wood slatted door, tossing me to the floor on a pile of animal pelts.
Eyes flaming, Black Sentry aglow, I growled, low and menacing, daring him to come closer.
Trunk-like legs straddled over top of me as he looked down over his thick beard. “Quite a shame I can’t keep you, girl.” Heavy, sneering breaths snorted from his nose. He climbed down to stand over me on all fours.
I refused to sit back, refused to make it easy. “You’d better pray my beasty stays put, asshole. She’s dying for a piece of you.” I longed for that sweet violet vision to call my girl out to play. The cloak kept us weak, jamming our signals.
“As I for a piece of you.” Hot, steaming breaths heated my face. His slick, slimy tongue slid up my cheek. Crackles on my skin zapped his tongue. He moaned. “Tlachtga magic. Thought she could best King Finvarra.” One loud bark of a laugh. “And here you are, delivered right to my lap.” He thrust his wide hips against me.
“Careful, old man. I’ve killed things scarier than you.” Which was mostly a lie. “My beast and I.”
A sausage finger ran across my lip. “No, dearie, my beast. Come home.”
He grunted and shoved his mouth against mine, probing my lips with his slippery tongue. No fresh rain, Finvarra tasted of human flesh—not salty, sinful. Predatory. My girl ripped me apart from the inside, anxious to tear the king to pieces.
Horse hooves clip-clopped outside, growing closer. A whinny caught the king’s attention. He sneered and sat up to look out the window. My stallion clomped back and forth, taunting Finvarra.
“Godshite, Puca,” he bellowed, hoisting himself from the ground. Finvarra, in two wide steps, flung the door open. “Padraic.” His roar shook anything not nailed down.
Puck dashed in front of the king, tearing off through the crowd and out of sight. The door slammed shut.
I pawed at the cloak wrapped snug around my shoulders. No tie or clasp, it clung there, plastic on a square of cheese.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “That son of a bitch.” I’d followed Puck to the ends of the earth for a chance at knowledge. The thought of home. If he’d just told me he wanted to go home, we could have made a plan. Formulated an attack. “How the hell am I gonna get out of this?”
“By your wit, I would assume,” said a voice I hadn’t heard in years.
“Avery?” I searched the room for her.
“Are ya kicking yourself in the arse yet?” She appeared at the window. White eyes glowed brighter than they ever had.
“How’d you get here?” I asked, more thankful to see her face than I’d admit.
She shook her head. “You missed the lesson and now you must learn the hard way.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “The hidden gates of Cnoc Meadha open to all Sidhe. I’m here now, but I cannot stay.” Checking over her shoulder, she whispered, “You must escape at any cost.”
And how the hell will I manage that? “I need the beast.” My voice squeaked. “Come in through the door. I need help getting this thing off.” I tugged at the cumbersome cape. “I don’t have the strength.”
“And you won’t with it on. Woven with iron. It was the only thing could stop Cu Sidhe when it went feral.”
“Help me,” I begged, panic filled my lungs.
She shook her head, hair billowin
g in an unseen breeze. “You don’t get it, girl. Noncorporeal.” She ran her hand through the bars that made up the medieval window. “I have no touch in the Otherworld. A cruel joke courtesy of our king. Unlike your Cu, Cnoc Meadha is not my home.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I shouted, slamming fists to my head.
“Use your gut, girl. Trust it.”
“I have and look where it got me.”
Avery shook her head. “Cu Sidhe has the knowledge you seek. Always has. Trapped in a human body long ago, before I came to be. More fae than you and me combined. You can feel her, aye? Gnawing to break out.” I nodded. “Her vengeance began in this place. With that king.”
“He did this?”
White eyes darted side to side. Hushed, she said, “Finvarra’s fairy wiles brought on the curse of the Croí na Tlachtga. Dragging human women to Cnoc Meadha. Leaving them broken, and with child. Generation after generation of men born to the same lust as the king himself.”
My girl roiled inside, feeding on my newfound knowledge. “I’ve been ridding the world of a bloodline of… rapists? Why didn’t Puck tell me?” I asked, mostly myself.
“Puck has his reasons, many are selfish. But these are lessons taught by your charge. Me. It’s what you would’ve learned if you’d chosen me over the Puca. You’re dafter than I thought.”
I groaned, hands clenched in fists. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because…” Avery eyed a group of golden orbs zipping by. “…your time is almost up. You came here for answers, yes? Hunting long-lost stories for your future bloodline? This is the price you pay for the choices you make, dearie. Not knowing. You don’t belong here, not anymore. Padraic may want you here by his side, but he cannot keep you. Not forever. Cu Sidhe must transition. The line must carry on. For the sake of the world, Lynnie.”
She hadn’t said my name once in almost a decade. In a flittering of dust, she was gone, my name carried off with her breeze.
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