“Wh-wh-what is this?” Aisling’s lip trembled.
Summoning his courage, Niall slunk across the room, until he was standing behind the piano bench. The tune continued to play, the exact same tune from his dream – a haunting waltz that echoed through every corner of the room.
He swiped his hand over the bench, but there was nothing there. The piano continued to play.
“Who’s there?” he whispered at the bench.
Niall … the rasping voice called to him from nowhere and everywhere.
“Can you hear that?” he called to Aisling, his gaze fixed on the moving keys.
“Niall?” Aisling’s voice choked with fear. “Help me.”
He whirled around. Aisling held her hands up in front of her, staring at them in horror. “What’s happening to me?”
Her hands no longer glimmered with the blue aura. Now they positively pulsed. The blue was so thick and deep, he could barely see her skin beneath. If he’d seen that kind of color on an object … he’d guess it to contain more than seventhy thousand units of atern.
“My hands …” she gasped. “They’re getting warmer. There’s this weird tingling going up my arms.”
“It’s atern,” he said, reaching out through the blue and grabbing her hand, gripping her hard. He could feel the magic pulsing through her. “You’ve just been given a huge influx of power.”
“But how … where did it come from?”
From behind Niall, the piano struck a deep, ominous chord. Niall raised his eyes to the ceiling, watching thin, almost invisible tendrils of blue light descend toward them. The tendrils curled and swirled as they became one with the blue cloud encircling Aisling’s hands.
“I think … I think the house is ramping up for war,” he said. “I’ve noticed your power growing, ever since you worked on the replenishment spell. I think the house has been siphoning power into you, and now that it knows the fae are coming, it’s giving you the power you need to fight them off.”
“And the music?”
“I could be wrong, but I think it’s trying to give us a moment, the same way it let me find that room with the forest the other day. We keep thinking what happens in here are just coincidences, just the result of the forces acting on the house. But what if the house has some kind of sentience? What if it actually cares about you?”
“You think the house is doing this? But that’s crazy.”
“Is it? Think about everything that’s happened, all the times the house has kept you safe. Your grandmother died pouring her magic into these walls. She did that out of love for you, a pure, selfless act. Perhaps she poured some part of herself inside, as well.”
Aisling paused. “Something happened yesterday. I didn’t want to tell you about it. I thought I must be going crazy.”
“What? What was it?”
She told him about the phone call, about the rasping voice that said it would keep her safe at any cost.
“Do you think the house was giving me a message, telling me it was going to look after me?”
“That’s the best theory I have right now,” Niall said. “And it ties in with what I’ve been experiencing.”
“What’s that?”
Niall sighed. “I didn’t tell you something, because I was worried that I was crazy. Ever since I got here, a rasping voice has been calling to me through the cracks, telling me to jump into the void.”
Aisling gasped. “But why? I’ve never heard it.”
“I think it’s the house, trying to make me destroy myself to save you. The house believes that I’m responsible for bringing the fae here. It knows they’re coming. It’s trying to change the future.”
Behind them, the music swelled into a crescendo. You brought our death, the rasping voice whispered to him, a voice only Niall could hear. But we can still save her.
“Why would your presence bring the fae?” Aisling said. “They were already coming, weren’t they?”
Niall closed his eyes. The words in his note etched themselves across his eyelids, desperate to come to light. If you tell her, she’ll never, ever forgive you. And what use will that be? How will you be able to keep her safe if she won’t let you? A split second later, he opened them again. “Because they’ve probably figured out that I came here to warn you. Fae don’t like it when their own betray them. They get all angry and vengeful. They may have overpowered Odiana, so that she no longer prevented them from attacking. They may feel my life – the life of a traitor – is a small price to pay to get to you.”
“If the house thought you were a danger to me, why didn’t it just let you leave, the way it let you in? In fact, why did it even let you in at all?”
Because she deserved the happiness only you could give her, the voice rasped.
Niall shrugged. “Maybe it thought you could use the company?”
On cue, the music started again, the notes of the waltz filling the air. Aisling smiled, and looked over at the playerless piano.
“Perhaps you’re right.” She held out her hand. “Come on, then.”
“Come on where?”
“If war is coming, then let us take our perfect moment while we can.”
Niall took her hand in his, placed his other hand on the small of her back, and twirled her. “As you wish.”
19
Aisling
The music swelled, and so did Aisling’s chest. The magic in her blood flared with heat as Niall clasped her hand in his.
Niall spun Aisling in a circle, holding his arm up so she could twirl beneath it. As she came back towards him, he spun her back into himself, so her back rested against his strong chest.
He kissed a trail of fire along her neck. Aisling tilted her head back, giving him access to her bare skin. Her whole body flushed with a strange heat, not just from her desire, but from the magic that pulsed through her veins.
She felt so different. Her skin tingled. Her veins felt like they ran with liquid sunshine.
Niall’s lips trailed up her neck. He gripped her chin in his fingers and turned her head, his lips seeking hers. Aisling turned in his arms, sinking into the kiss, devouring Niall, thinking this might be the last time she could ever touch him like this, and how much she wished that weren’t true.
Please, she begged the house. Please don’t destroy Niall. He’s the only thing I have left.
Niall’s hands caressed her body through the silken dress, cupping her breasts. His fingers sought her nipples. He tugged one through the fabric, causing it to stand erect. Aisling reached up, and unhooked the clasps that held the dress.
“Was this how your dream went?” She grinned as she stepped out of the dress, leaving a puddle of fabric on the floor.
“This is already much better.” Niall grinned back, embracing her once more, his lips meeting hers in a ferocious kiss. Aisling’s fingers dug under his shirt, running over the taut muscles of his back, over the raised scars that marked his skin. She lifted his shirt over his head, relishing the sensation of her charged skin against his.
His lips still locked on hers, Niall dragged her across the room, until the backs of her legs banged against the piano bench. He pushed her shoulders down, so that she was sitting in front of the piano, facing out into the room. The keys continued to pound out the eerie waltz. Niall’s fingers twined through her hair, his body tense. Aisling ran her hands over his thighs, toying with the drawstring of his trousers.
“Don’t tease me, witch,” Niall growled.
He started to climb on top of her, his eyes determined, but Aisling pushed him back. He’d given her so much, and this might be his last time as well. She wanted it to be something more. She wanted to know what it would be like to—
She reached a hand beneath his drawstring, and drew his length out. He leapt against her fingers, hardening further against her touch. She admired him from all sides, the tautness of his skin, the veins standing out around the dark head, the way he jerked between her fingers whenever she breathed against him.
/> Aisling leaned over, and took him in her mouth. Niall moaned as her tongue slid over his length. She gripped him with her right hand, her other running over his sac, exploring everything about him.
She drew him back into her throat, as far as she could, sliding her hand along his shaft. She slid him out again, and took him in deeper, trying to fit as much of his length as possible while keeping the pressure strong. Niall’s hands gripped her hair, tugging at the strands. She loved the way his muscles tightened when she drew him in, as though he was holding himself back, desperately trying to maintain control.
He tasted warm, and slightly salty. Aisling moved her hand faster, building a rhythm while her fingers danced across the skin on his thighs. Niall’s breath came out in shallow gasps, and his fingers tightened around her hair. She sucked him right to the back of her throat, loving the sensation of being completely full of him.
“Aisling, stop. No more.” His fingers gripped her hair. His face had twisted, poised on the brink between agony and ecstasy. “I won’t be able to … I can’t—”
Aisling grinned, and dropped him. “So I did okay then?”
Niall grabbed her roughly, tipping her back so she laid down on the bench. He yanked up her legs, placing one on either side of him. He slid up between her legs, burying his face into her sex. His tongue worked her furiously, forcing the ache through her body, bringing her right to the brink.
He sucked her up into his mouth, and she toppled over the edge, into the galaxy of pleasure, the world within her where nothing existed but her and Niall and his tongue on her body and oh … her mouth was open and she was crying out, but she didn’t register the sound. All that existed was the pleasure.
Niall didn’t wait for her cries to die down. He flipped her body over, so her legs hung off the end of the bench. He grabbed her around the thighs and dragged her back, driving into her in one smooth movement. Aisling drove her hips back, forcing him deeper. She gripped the end of the bench, her head tossed back as his length slid inside her.
From this angle, he lit up all new places within her as he thrust hard and deep and furious. The music swirled around them, the keys pounding in time with Niall’s strokes. He leaned forward over her and gripped her nipple between his fingers. She cried out as the sensation flooded through her.
His pace grew frantic. His fingers dug into her thighs. Aisling’s body surged with heat as the magic inside her swelled with the ache forcing itself up from inside her. She cried out as the two forces collided, the ecstasy coiling around her, sinking deep into her veins.
Niall shuddered, hardening inside her. With a final gasp, he collapsed against her back, his body tensing, then slackening. The warmth of his body pressed against her, and her magic wrapped around them both, cocooning them in a state of peaceful bliss.
The piano struck one final, haunting note, then fell silent.
“Do you think Lady Greymouth used to do what we just did in here?” Niall asked, stroking her hair. He rolled off her and sat on the ground, one heavy arm draped across her back.
“I bet she did it on piano benches every night,” Aisling said, grinning back.
Later, after they had recovered enough to move, Aisling made them both dinner, and they sat in the drawing room and watched the fae archers stalking around the wall. Behind them, the lights of Medietes twinkled across the blackened sky. The city appeared strange, foreign, without the glittering lights of the university spires. He wondered what had happened, but he guessed he wouldn’t ever find out.
“It looks like they’re guarding the place,” Aisling said, pointing to one of the fae standing sentinel along the wall.
“I agree, but I don’t know why,” Niall said. “I don’t see a weapon anywhere.”
“Maybe they’re just here to make sure we stay inside until they use the weapon.”
“They know we can’t leave.” Niall pressed his face against the window, squinting at the guard. “It’s almost as if they’re trying to keep something out of the house.”
“Odiana?”
“Maybe.”
Weariness overwhelmed AIsling. She yawned, and set down her book. “I don’t want to think about this anymore. I’m going to bed. You coming?”
“Jeez, woman. I’m a fairy, not a stallion.” Niall patted his crotch. “Give me some time to recover.”
Her cheeks reddened. “I wasn’t actually talking about that.”
He leaned over and kissed her lightly, his tongue playing along her lips. “I think I’ll stay here a little longer, see if I can figure out what they’re doing. Don’t wait up for me.”
“Goodnight, my fairy.” Aisling dragged her fingers over his shoulder, her skin still buzzing with the new power surging through her body.
“Goodnight, dream witch.” Niall’s grin burned itself on to her eyelids.
Some hours later, Aisling awoke. She’d been called from sleep by a disturbing dream. Now, as she stared into the darkness of her room, she could not remember what she’d dreamed about. She threw out her arm, expecting to feel Niall’s warm body beside her. But all she grabbed was a cold sheet.
Aisling sat upright, now fully awake. A nagging unease crept through her body. Why was Niall always up and around the house in the middle of the night? That was probably dangerous with the fae just outside. She remembered that time she’d seen him leaving his room, carrying that strange object. She’d been so distracted by the forest in the bathroom, and by Niall himself, it hadn’t occurred to her to investigate further.
It occurred to her now.
Something’s going on with Niall.
Aisling threw off the covers, causing Widdershins to glower at her grumpily from the foot of the bed. She found her slippers, and debated taking a lantern to find her way. But she didn’t want to alert him that she was coming. Moving carefully so she wouldn’t bump the furniture, she padded out into the hall.
First, she peered into Niall’s bedroom, but he wasn’t there either. She checked the sheets on his makeshift bed-nest. They were cold.
From somewhere in the house, she heard something clatter on the floor, and Niall curse.
As quietly as she could, Aisling tiptoed to the staircase, and started down to the ground floor. She steadied herself against the wall, placing her feet as close to the edge as possible, avoiding the steps she knew had creaks. As she rounded the corner and peeked her head into the hallway, she noticed a dark shadow standing in front of the boarded-up dining room.
Her breath caught in her throat. In a few moments, her eyes adjusted to the gloom, and she could clearly make out Niall’s shape. His head was bent down, focusing on his task, whatever it was. Aisling noticed several sheets of paper strewn at his feet, pages torn from her ledger book and covered with strange scrawls and symbols.
What’s he doing?
She took a step toward him, and then another, craning her neck to see his hands. Her foot landed on a loose floorboard, and a loud creak echoed through the hall.
Niall whirled around, and his face told her everything she feared. In his hands, Aisling saw a strange metal object.
She recognized it instantly. She’d seen them before – much larger, of course. Huge rays being wheeled across the front lawn by the fae, their tripods planted in the frozen earth while their barrels pointed at the front door. The one Niall had gleamed with a silvery coating, and it had several small dials running along its side.
It was a magical ray, a fae weapon. And Niall was holding it, with an expression of complete and utter guilt on his face.
Aisling stepped forward, her voice trembling. “Niall, what are you doing?”
20
Niall
“Niall, what are you doing?”
“I’m—” Niall looked down at the ray in his hands, then back to Aisling’s stricken face. His heart pounded in his chest. “Aisling, I can explain.”
“You don’t need to,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’ve seen these devices before.”
His mind ree
led, searching for a way to explain, for a lie that would get him out of this. “This isn’t what it looks like. We’re both in danger. Those fae outside, I think they’re getting ready to—”
“I can’t believe this.” Her voice dripped with pain. “Just stop lying, Niall. Please, just stop it. You’ve been lying right from the start, haven’t you? You didn’t come here to warn me, to protect me. You came for the same reason they all come – to collect the magic for yourself.”
“Not for myself, for my brother!” Niall dropped the ray. It clattered on the floor between them. He held out his hands, trying to grasp Aisling, trying to make her understand. “He’s being held prisoner, and the only way I can free him is to get enough atern to pay off his debts. And that’s the honest truth. But as soon as I saw you at the door, I knew I had to—”
Aisling backed away, her face screwed up, her skin pale. “It’s all been a lie. Everything you’ve said, everything we did, has just been to get close to the house.”
“No, it hasn’t! You and me, that wasn’t a lie. The dreams, the forest, the green dress, that wasn’t a lie. The house let me in for a reason … Aisling, please—”
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed.
Niall’s heart dropped to his knees. For the first time, words failed him. There was nothing he could say that would make this better, that would take back the betrayal he’d done to her.
You’ve undone everything. Aisling was the one good thing about your whole sorry life, and you ruined what you had.
Aisling turned on her heel.
“Aisling, wait!” He ran after her, grabbing for her arm. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry—”
“Stay out of my way,” she hissed, yanking her arm away. Darkness clouded her eyes, and a coldness crept into her voice. “I’m never talking to you again.”
21
Aisling
I want to die.
Pain pounded behind Aisling’s eyes, and throbbed in her chest. Her body felt as though it were being torn to pieces, as though the void had seeped inside of her and was tearing all the happiness away.
Hollow: Isa Fae paranormal romance (Fallen Sorcery Book 2) Page 16