Snake in the Grass (Fairy Tales of a Trailer Park Queen Book 3)

by Kimbra Swain

  “I’ll probably have to hold her down,” he said.

  “I can do that,” I said.

  “Over my dead body,” he replied.

  Oberon stared at us. When we noticed, we stopped the banter and approached Grace on the bed. Dylan clamped down on her leg holding it still. Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my finger around the head of the nail. Her body bucked in pain. A maid appeared at my left, but kept her distance. She laid a small cotton bag on the bed.

  “Pull it out quick. Don’t hesitate,” Dylan said. “Move to the second one immediately.”

  I nodded yanking the first nail out quickly. She screamed, and her body writhed in pain. Dylan ended up holding all of her down. I wrapped my finger around the second nail feeling resistance. “I think it’s in her bone,” I groaned.

  “Yank it out! Now!” Dylan ordered.

  Pulling with just a bit of power behind it, the nail released as I stumbled backwards away from the bed. Her scream filled the room once again. As soon as I put the nails in the bag, the maid rushed up to tend to the wounds. She cleaned the blood quickly. I gripped the nails in the bag as I tucked them in my jean pocket. Within moments, the wounds stopped bleeding. As if they’d never been there in the first place, the tiny holes disappeared without a scar.

  Dylan spoke softly in her ear as her body relaxed once again. The pain didn’t wake her up. She slept deeply. My arms shook as I realized I’d never released the spell tracking her. My jack-in-the-box exploded releasing the power I’d held in. I backed against the wall sinking to the floor. Dylan watched me, but kept speaking in her ear. I shook my hands to release the spell like she’d taught me to do. Like I’d seen her do so many times.

  Exhaustion took over, and I slumped to the floor falling asleep with my cheek against the stone. It reminded me of the night I moved to Shady Grove. We’d found the two missing children in the woods torn to bits by an aswang. Grace held so much power that when it released, she seemed like a drunken basket case. She fell asleep on the floor in the kitchen of the first trailer. I’d done almost the exact same thing as the power fizzled in my body.

  “Who tells the story when we are both asleep?” she asked.

  “No one,” I said. “We leave that part out.”

  “This seems more and more like our story and not just my story,” she said.

  “It’s your story. I was just along for the ride,” I said.

  “Hmm, well, do I get to take it from here?” she asked.

  I sat back in the chair flexing my tired fingers. “Yes, but I need some rest. My hands hurt.”

  “Oh, poor baby,” she smirked as she pulled a couple of orange sodas out of the fridge. Tossing me one, she lifted her eyebrows and the twinkle in her blue eyes glared at me. God, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  I smiled at her teasing me. “If you don’t mind, I’ll pick it up in the morning,” I said.

  “As you wish, Dublin. But tomorrow, I expect less bellyaching,” she grinned.

  The surreal feeling washed over me as I opened my eyes to my room in the Otherworld. The tapestries hung on the walls just as I’d left them hundreds of years ago. In the next room, I could hear the running water of the Roman style bath. A new addition to the room was perched on the edge of my bed. Levi, my bard, staring at me. “Stop staring. You are making me uncomfortable,” I said.

  “Good to have you back, Grace,” he grinned.

  “I don’t want to do that again, ever. It hurt like hell,” I said.

  “How are you feeling now?” he asked.

  “Sore. Are you okay?” I asked. He looked like he’d aged. Perhaps he was just tired, but I knew all too well that my ordeal hurt him. Probably not as much as the poison that coursed through my veins, but his sensitive-self felt enough of it.

  His hand found mine, and the connection between us tingled up my arm. “I’m fine now. Pulled power, crashed, slept and now I’m just happy to see you awake.” I squeezed his hand.

  “Pulled power?” I asked.

  “To find you. I knew you were hurt, but finding you proved to be difficult. I held it all in until we got here. It wore me out,” he said.

  “I wore you out, huh?” I said, feeling much more like myself. “How long have we been here?”

  He shook his head. “No way to tell really. I haven’t been back to our realm.”

  “Crap. The election,” I said.

  “Do you care about the election now?” he asked.

  Before I answered, I thought about everything that had happened since Stephanie Davis walked into the community center on that first night. I thought the Yule Lads were annoying, but we had lived through pure hell with her in town. Did I care?

  “I made a promise to a lot of people. Seeing it through would be the right thing to do,” I replied. My thoughts drifted to Dylan. Part of me didn’t want to deal with it. The other part of me wanted to have a long fight and make-up sex. It sucked to be a fairy sometimes. Irrational bullshit. “Is he still here?”

  Levi hung his head, and my heart dropped. If he was gone, I’d hurt forever. If he was here, then it upset Levi that he was here. Levi might be young, but I knew he would protect me fiercely. “He’s sleeping in the next room. I finally convinced him to lie down. He sat in that hallway for hours just watching you through the healing,” he said.

  Taking a deep breath, I admitted to him, “The truth is, I don’t even know what to say to him.”

  “Loss for words? That has to be a first,” he grinned. “I’ll go get him.”

  “No, let him sleep. I want to get a bath,” I said.

  “The bathtub is huge!” Levi smiled.

  “I told you,” I replied.

  Slowly I sat up as Levi reached to brace me. “Do you need help?” he waggled his eyebrows. So damn cute.

  “I think I’ll manage,” I replied.

  The chemise the servants put me in did little to hide my body, but Levi had seen me naked enough by now. He didn’t gawk or leer. Placing one bare foot on the floor, I winced at the pain. “Whoa, easy there.” He steadied me. Healed or not, it still hurt like hell.

  “Thanks,” I muttered as I put a second foot down. I expected the pain this time. If I could just get to the bath, I knew the healing waters would soothe my pain. He blushed when I kissed him on the cheek. My hormones went wild at the sight. I suddenly remembered that I was full winter queen in my own realm. Cold tendrils of power surrounded my body starting at my legs and working their way up to my chest. I shuddered at the influx of raw energy.

  “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “The realm is welcoming me home. Just being here strengthens me in ways that the trees in our world can’t do. It’s almost like a living creature in itself. The magic of the world knows me and feeds me power. It’s like a drug,” I sighed. “We don’t need to stay here long.”

  “Well, then, go get your bath, and we will leave,” he said. “If you need me, I’ll be right here.” He grinned like a schoolboy, but I knew in his heart he meant it.

  The pain no longer stabbed me with each step because the magic dulled its intensity. As I dipped down into the warm, healing bath, my aches subsided. Leaning back on to the edge of the giant pool, I closed my eyes, letting the healing and power sink into my body.

  The bathroom stretched long and wide to host the Olympic sized bath. Two currents of water fed the pool on each side. Everything was smooth stone with a mosaic above the bath on the ceiling. The mosaic depicted a snowy scene with a stone castle. My father’s castle. It was breathtaking. I stared up at the beautiful sight, resting as much as I could before we left for home. I loved the bath, but because of the court, its politics and mostly my father I was happy to leave here.

  “You are up,” a voice came from behind me.

  Turning around, I pressed my naked body up to the edge of the pool. It was only about four-foot-deep around the edges where a small ledge was built to sit on. I looked up into the piercing blue eyes of Dylan Riggs.


  “Hey. Yeah, I needed to clean up before we go home,” I said.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked, keeping his distance.

  “Better. Actually, the realm is feeding me power,” I replied.

  His brow furrowed as a strand of sandy hair fell down upon it. He wanted to say something, but he struggled to find the right words. He sat down on the stone floor several feet away from me, burying his face in his hands. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up.”

  “Levi said you’d kept a long vigil. You needed to rest,” I said. Something about being home made me feel responsible and calm. No matter what happened back in Shady Grove, I didn’t feel the need to jump down his throat. His pain-filled eyes met mine. Part of me knew that no matter what Stephanie said that Dylan hadn’t done anything with her. He didn’t know what to do to make everything right. Neither did I.

  My body longed for his touch, but my heart ached over the trouble between us. I reminded myself that we both had flaws. By no means was I perfect. My hormones had just went wild looking at my blushing bard. I resisted that urge. Had he truly resisted Stephanie? Misaki? Even Kady?

  “You should know that your mother came after me,” he said. “I have got to learn to just tell you everything even if I think you are going to get mad. Your mother tried to seduce me with you dying on that bed in there. Right there in front of your father, Levi, everyone,” he said.

  “Tried?” I asked. If my mother came after him, there was no way anyone resisted that kind of seduction. No one.

  “Grace, I cannot be seduced by magic. It’s part of my heritage. I am the seducer. Over the years, I played that part. A womanizer for hundreds of years. At some point, after all of it, I looked back and asked myself what had I gained? I still didn’t have an heir. My natural instincts to protect only served people on an individual basis when I found someone to help along the way. Overall, I had failed my father and mother. I met Jeremiah. He told me about Shady Grove, so I bought the house and land. I moved in without even a thought. The first week I met Stephanie at the bar. From that point, she lived with me for five years, but you know that. I’d made up my mind to fulfill the destiny that my parents wanted for me. I just picked the wrong girl,” he said, pouring his heart out. He revealed more about his past in those few sentences than he’d ever said to me.

  “Dylan, we can talk about this when we get home,” I said.

  “Actually, things happen at home. We have a daughter, the election, your new job, and a plethora of fairy problems that keep us from talking. We’ve spent our free time in bed,” he said. “Not that I’m complaining, but it leaves little time to talk.”

  “So, while I’m standing naked in a bathtub while you sit on the floor is the best time?” I said.

  “Now is the best time,” he said.

  I sighed. “What else?” I asked. Clearly, he had more to say.

  “To answer you directly, no, I did not take your mother’s overt offer. I was horrified that it even happened. Of course, Levi proceeded to tell me that you’d done the same thing to him when I died,” he said looking away.

  “Damn it, Dublin!” I yelled. I knew he was just outside in the room. I could feel his presence.

  “No, leave him out of it. I’m not mad. I just wanted you to know that I knew. Heck, I wouldn’t have blamed you had it gone further. I told him that I considered not coming back to Shady Grove after I died, but I couldn’t let you go. Perhaps you and he would have been together,” he said.

  “It’s not like that,” I said looking around for a towel. Suddenly I felt completely vulnerable before him. “Will you get me a towel and a robe over there?” I said pointing to the supplies stacked neatly on a shelf behind him. Levi peeked around the door from the other room. “You! I’m going to bust your ass!” He grinned ear to ear. I flipped him off as he shut the door. Calm and collected Grace didn’t apply to Levi. Making my way to the stairs, Dylan laid the towel and robe down for me to retrieve. He turned his back on me which seemed extremely strange after all the naked moments we’d had together. It was weird for him to turn his back on me, but perhaps he sensed my vulnerability. In fact, he made me angry observing such things about me. If it fwere true, that he watched me for so long, I needed to realize that there were very few things, if any, that I could hide from him.

  As if he could read my mind, he explained, “If I look, I’ll want it.”

  “No willpower?”

  “Right now? None,” he said.

  “Okay,” I said tying the belt on the robe. “I’m covered. What else?”

  He told me about finding Stephanie at the house. The power was off, so she probably got back into the house easily after he left. She was a piece of work. I hated her. Not just for what she was doing to me, but what she’d done to Dylan all those years. What she was still doing to him. “I know my promises don’t mean much right now, but I promise that I won’t hide anything else from you. My fear of losing what we have made it so easy to just hope you never found out that I even saw her,” he said.

  “It’s not like you did anything wrong,” I said.

  “No, not in the sexual sense, but if we are going to do this, then I’ve got to tell you everything. That is if you ever put that ring back on,” he muttered.

  “I have no desire to rehash every relationship that the two of us have had. A string of one-night stands for hundreds of years is not the kind of pillow talk I dream of,” I said. He still kept his distance from me.

  “Grace, there are some things I expect from you, too,” he said.

  “What?”

  “This has to go both ways,” he said.

  “I tell you everything,” I said. As the lie passed my lips, I dropped to one knee. Fucking fairy. I couldn’t lie as Gloriana without paying for it. Alarm crossed his face.

  “Grace, you should be sitting down. The poison almost killed you. You are right this can wait,” he said not realizing what I had done. He approached me slowly to help me up.

  I swatted him away. Hurt settled in his eyes as they turned a deep shade of cobalt. “If I lie in this state, I pay for it.”

  “You just lied?” he asked.

  Instead of getting up, I sank down to the floor shaking my head. Disappointed in myself. I couldn’t hold him to a standard that I didn’t reciprocate. “You don’t know everything about Levi and me,” I said.

  His jaw flexed. “What about Levi?”

  “Ever since we shared power the first time, I can feel his presence. We are connected on a magical tether. I’m sure it’s how he found the truck. When he pulls on that power, I can feel it. Even though I was mostly unconscious as someone dragged me through the woods, I knew Levi was looking for me. There is nothing I can do to break the bond. We aren’t intimately involved in any way. He’s like my best friend. If he hurts, I feel it. Every time Kady tortures him, I feel it. The only way to break it would be to forsake him as my bard. He’s a servant to me as much as Kyffin is to Stephanie. I love him dearly. However, I have no intentions of ever being with him like that. I didn’t tell you about the connection because I didn’t want to upset you. I didn’t want you to send him away or beat the shit out of him.”

  “That’s why he hit me,” he said.

  “What?”

  “When he told me about the truck, I flew back from Montgomery. My car is still there. As soon as I got to the truck, he laid the hardest punch I’d ever taken across my jaw. He looked like he was in pain. He feels it when you hurt, too. Right?”

  I nodded. “Did he apologize?”

  “Yes, we have reconciled. I didn’t get why he was so angered. You being missing was enough to upset both of us, but this was pure rage,” Dylan replied. “I know about fairy servants. I should have known it was like that for you. I’m not concerned about your relationship with Levi.”

  “I’m not concerned about your past with Stephanie,” I said immediately. He looked surprised.

  “Really?”

  “She or any other woman you’v
e seduced over the years,” I admitted. I couldn’t believe I was going to give into him this easily, but we had come to an understanding for the first time in our relationship. I knew there were things about him that I didn’t know, but I did not intend to let those things keep us apart. I stood up to face him even though I was several inches shorter. “You said you needed things from me.”

  “Just that when things come up, you will tell me. I also need to know you aren’t going to run when trouble arises. If we run, we run together. Promise me that we will face whatever it is together. I don’t tell you things because I hate when you get mad. You are irrational and impulsive,” he spouted without holding back.

  “You are right. I am,” I said. “I promise to discuss things with you instead of getting into a fit of rage. I was so angry when I left your house. It was dangerous to drive like that, and look what happened,” I said.

  “You were set up. I think she had something to do with all of this. She is trying to take you out completely. Not just the election, but you. She wants you dead. I don’t know why. This is new to me. I knew she was a vindictive whore, but this need to destroy you is beyond what I know of her,” he said.

  The wreck was a blur to me, but he was right. There was someone there waiting on me. It wasn’t a coincidence. “Maybe I should give up on the election,” I said.

  “No. You have to do this. You can’t let her have Shady Grove, and if you don’t stop her, I will,” he said defiantly.

  “Really? Because I’ve heard you more than once claim to want to bail on it,” I shot back at him.

  “Yes, because of you. But I can’t let that cloud my judgment. I love you, Grace. I want to do this together, but if you don’t want to go back, I’m going back without you,” he said stepping toward me. I stepped back out of instinct because I felt the fire growing within him. However, there wasn’t a step behind me, just the bath. My toes brushed the edge of the bath, slipping backwards I tried to steady myself.

  His body burst into flame as large wings spread out behind him. He covered the distance between us in an instant. Warm fiery limbs wrapped around me, and we floated on the edge of the bath. I tensed at the sensation of fire lapping around my body, but realized that it didn’t harm me. The icy cold protected me from the flames. His eyes burned into my soul. “Dylan,” I whimpered.