“She is safe now and will remain so under my care.”
Dread trickled down my throat like an IV. I understood what he meant. “I need to do what you say or I will never see her again.” The instant I set eyes on her, I knew I could never walk away again. It killed me the first time when my need to protect her had been my reason to give her up. Now none of those reasons existed anymore. DLR was dismantled, and most of my people were dead from our battle with Luc, a noble fae trying to end the monarchy. I was no longer the commander. I had been swept off the board and was no longer a threat to the fae.
Lars was anticipating a mother’s instinct for her child. That I would do anything for her. Anything…even betraying my own beliefs and principles against everything I fought for.
Sorrow punched at my heart. I glanced at my daughter, still too scared to play with the toys, probably fearing she would get punished if she made a wrong move. I dropped my head in shame. Do what you need to do. She is worth everything.
“I have one condition.” I sucked in, lifting my head, locking eyes with him.
Lars raised one lip in the hint of a smile. “You have gumption, Ms. Cathbad. I will give you that.” He slid his hands into his pockets.
“I want you to unbind Kennedy. She has nothing to do with this. She knows nothing. This is between you and me only.”
The smirk expanded over his whole mouth, and I realized it was exactly what he always wanted. Checkmate. He hadn’t cared about Kennedy’s involvement. He wanted me to be the sole member in this game. As he promised, he had won this round.
Lars took off promptly after I agreed to his terms. He didn’t tell me where he was going, but I hoped it was to Kennedy. To break the bind on her.
When he got back, we were to have a “meeting,” which meant I was going to have to tell him where the cauldron was.
However, I still had cards up my sleeves he would not be expecting. Ones that might get me killed.
Do what you need to do, Fionna, I repeated in my head. She is worth any sacrifice.
Chapter Six
Lars
By the way the Druid held herself, you could easily forget she was only a handful of inches over five feet. Her power wasn’t close to any other Druid’s I had ever felt. Her strength, stubbornness, and ferociousness, even when used against me, were ironically the precise things that kept me from killing her.
She intrigued me.
The woman who attacked my compound, using strighoul against me, kidnapped Marguerite, and threatened my life should be dead. I should have ended her the moment she used her magic against me in Ireland. But I didn’t for two reasons: my respect for the Seelie Queen and the need for the cauldron. Fascination only went so far.
“I also want to see my daughter.” Fionna clicked her chin a level higher, her lips pursing together.
“You mean the one you gave up five years ago?” I rubbed my chin. “To religious fanatics who abused her?”
She flinched, her teeth clenching each other. “I-I didn’t know. I thought I was doing the best for her.” Fionna glanced over her shoulder at the child.
The little girl was watching as Goran played with a toy, trying unsuccessfully to engage her. Something critical and assessing showed in the young girl’s gaze as it moved over Goran. She seemed unsure of his sincerity. Probably because she was used to being hit with the same hand that embraced her.
When she was first brought here, she walked straight up to me. Not fearful, but mildly curious. She didn’t say a word, but her eyes bored into me until I felt as though she was peeling back my soul.
“What is your name?” I had peered down at the tiny thing. She looked so similar to her mother and aunt, even the same brush of freckles over her nose and cheeks. She continued to stare at me, her eyes much wiser than any child I had ever encountered. “Do you have a name?”
Nothing.
Children in general did not scare me, but for some reason the intensity of this little girl was unnerving. I looked away from her penetrating gaze.
“Goran, take her to Marguerite. She needs to be fed.” I waved to my second-in-command, shifting on my feet. “And a bath.”
He walked up to the girl, nudging her. She tilted her head, her blue eyes still watchful of me, as if I were a puzzle she was trying to decipher. She reached up, took Goran’s hand, then turned and walked out with him.
I had faced the scariest and deadliest of enemies, dealt with life-threatening situations, but nothing made me feel as exposed as this five-year-old had.
Her mother was almost as talented. However, Fionna inspired anger in me, a need to marshal control.
“Please, let me see her.” Fionna set her brown eyes on me.
“There.” I held up my hand toward the girl on the other side of the glass. “Don’t say I did not give you what you asked for.”
“You know what I mean.” Fionna stepped forward, her hands in knots at her side. Magic bubbled under her skin. “Let me talk to my daughter, wanker.”
In a blink, Fionna flew back against the wall, her hands reaching to wrench away the invisible hand gripping her throat. Just enough to let a little air in but bottle up any words in her throat.
“You. Forget. Yourself,” I ground out, making my way to where her body was pinned to the wall. “You are my captive.” I leaned into her, my warning licking her ear. “You threatened and tried to kill the King. You should not be alive. My rights say I can kill you. Torture you. I have been quite generous.” I added a little more pressure to her throat. “However, my patience is thinning, and my respect for your sister will only go so far. You do not make demands. I do not need you as much as you’d like to think.” I stepped even closer, the scent of the shampoo I provided her wafting up my nose. “I can do whatever I want to you. I own you.”
The whiff of soap and her natural smell, something close to a crisp rain and baking apples, gripped my chest. A low growl vibrated up my throat. My muscles tightened, my body jerking back in reflex. Fuck. Where had that come from? My hold on her dropped, and she fell to the ground, hacking and gasping for a breath. Fury circled up my windpipe, spilling over into the room, thickening the air.
“You will see her when I say you can.” I tugged at my cuffs. “The sooner you show me where the cauldron is, the faster you can be with her.”
Fionna’s head slowly peeled up from her knees, her lids narrowed with rage. “You are a monster.”
“Something I have never denied.” I moved a hand to straighten my collar as I faced the mirror. “And what makes you even more disgusted is you would do the same. You are no fool. This is how it works, Ms. Cathbad. You understand that perfectly.”
Her nose flared, her head jerking away to stare at her daughter. Both of us were quiet for a few moments.
“What is her name?” The question came out like wisps of wind.
“Her name on the adoption papers is Mary, but when Marguerite asked, she told her it was Piper.”
Fionna gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes filling with tears. “What?”
I turned toward the rising figure, watching her hands press against the glass.
“Th-that…” Fionna blinked, but a single tear escaped, trailing down her cheek. “It was the name I was going to give her.”
My gaze shot back to the little girl, who was now helping Goran put a puzzle together, her eyes never swaying from him. How was it possible? How would she know the name she was never given? Did she have the power to see the future and past?
“She’s too young to be this powerful,” Fionna whispered to herself.
“She is.” I nodded. “That means she needs you more than ever to help guide her. Power without understanding can only lead to destruction. Of herself. Of others.”
Fionna wiped away a single tear, her expression losing all emotion, before she faced me.
“Fine. Let’s get started.”
A smile curved over my mouth. “Exactly what I was hoping you’d say.”
Chapter Seven
Fionna
“You get twenty minutes with her.” Travil yanked my arm roughly up the closed door. Lars’s kindness only extended to this brief time with Olwyn. He would keep Piper from me until I did what he wanted. It hurt being this close and not being able to touch her or hear her voice. However, the pain was mine alone. She did not even know I existed, much less I was here. At night she would call out for the people she considered Mummy and Daddy. Not me.
I would have to live with this. My choice had been both right and wrong. There could be no resolution to this, and I would have to come to terms with it.
Travil opened the door to a large room that stole my breath away. It looked as though a princess should inhabit this space with its intricate chandeliers, four-poster bed, lush rugs, and designer furniture. A huge fireplace burned bright, and in front of it an overstuffed rocking chair held the woman I knew better than anyone.
I grew up in a tiny, drafty shack on the coast of Ireland, where fog and rain seeped so deep into your bones you forgot what warmth was. I slept wrapped in a moth-eaten comforter on a thin mattress in a loft, a bucket next to me to catch the rain coming through the hole in the roof.
Not once did I look at it as an encumbrance. It made me tougher, inside and out, and I relished nothing could break me…cold, poverty, hunger…and especially fae. Anything that made me stronger to fight them, I welcomed.
This room only held warmth, softness, and beauty, not qualities I understood. I was cold, hard, detached. A leader for the Druids. A killer. The fae had made me into this. To play their game I had to become everything they were. I prided myself on it and empowered other Druids to be the same.
Yet in less than an hour Lars had been able to strip back layers of me with the two people I’d let myself care about. The woman who raised me, shared love with, even if her hand was firm, and my baby girl who I thought I’d never see again. She should have had a better life than mine and been loved and held with warmth and softness.
I didn’t think I was capable of that.
“Olwyn?” I pulled free of Travil’s grip and rushed to the woman sitting by the fireplace. Her lids were closed, a soft snore rattling from her chest. She would have died naturally years before, but selfishly I kept her alive with my magic.
I was afraid to be alone, without her.
I went down on my knees, taking her hands in mine. Thousands of life lines ran deep over her face until it was hard to remember the woman she’d been when I was a little girl.
“Twenty minutes, starting now,” Travil snapped, leaning against the doorjamb. My glare did nothing but make him grin viciously at me.
“Bastard,” I mumbled.
“Heard that.”
“I know. I wanted you to.” I whipped back, turning my attention to Olwyn. I bit my lip, rubbing my hand over Olwyn’s.
Her eyes finally fluttered open. “Onie?” Joy and love rushed over her pet name for me. “Ya returned ta me.”
“Yes, Owl. I am so sorry I was gone so long.” She got confused so easy and didn’t understand time the same anymore.
She gripped my hand, her breath coming out in gulps. “Ya know how proud I am of you?”
My jaw locked down, keeping the emotion from her words back. She was not one to say she loved you or was proud of you often. When she did, it felt similar to being swallowed by an ocean.
“Hear me, girl? I am so proud…” Heaving in air. “Of who you have become.”
“Shhh, Owl.” My fingers caressed the side of her face. “Just rest.”
“No…” Gasping. “I need ya to hear me.”
“Why are you talking like this?”
Her lids drifted closed for a moment before lifting to mine. “It’s time, Onie... it’s time to let me go.”
Panic.
Fear.
“No!” My head waggled back and forth. “No. Not now.” Not ever.
“Yes, girl. It’s time.” She took both my hands. For someone so old and with little strength left, she seized them with a bone-crunching grip. “Your journey is just startin’. You have your wings, girl. Use ’em. Fly.”
Dammit. My throat thickened with emotion.
“I had no magic. Not like you, but I still feel it.”
“What?”
Olwyn licked her lips, scanning around the room. “Ye’re home.”
My brows furrowed, not understanding.
“It’s why I can leave ya.” She stumbled over her sentence, as though exhausted. “Now, let me go. Promise me.”
“Owl…”
“Promise me,” she gritted, determination set behind her eyes. “I want ta. Don’t be greedy, girl. Not meant for this world anymore.”
A cry clogged my chest. I knew I was being selfish. She was ready; she had been for a long time. I had held on for dear life. I leaned over and dropped my head into her lap like a child. She ran her fingers gently through my hair. I had vague memories of my real mother, but Olwyn had raised me, cared for me, taught me, pushed me to be more. To fight.
Tears slipped out and I sighed. The unbinding enchantment came out so quietly it hummed in the air like a lullaby. Olwyn began to rock in her chair, magic encircling her. Then it broke the spell keeping her alive. She sighed happily, as though the world was no longer weighing on her shoulders.
“I luv ya, Fionna. Never told you enough,” she muttered, then her hand went limp in my hair, sliding out to her lap. The last bits of her life flew from her body, finally free of their cage.
Silently I sobbed, my heart breaking into splinters. This had been coming for a long time and I had known that, but it didn’t take away the loss in the moment. She really was gone forever now. I understood I wasn’t alone. I had my sister, my daughter. But without Owl, I was truly an orphan.
My skin prickled at the sound of Travil on his walkie-talkie. I hated his intrusion in such a personal moment, so I blocked his clear position of my heartbreak. But I wasn’t fae; I didn’t count or matter in their eyes.
“Get up!” Travil was standing over me, his face tight. Pissed.
“Fuck you.” I glowered up at him.
“Not if you begged.” His fingers wrapped around my arm and yanked me off the floor. “Now move!”
Brutally, he tore me away from Olwyn’s body. Rage bloomed in my chest like spring flowers. Every insult I could think of gushed from my mouth, still reaching for Olwyn, her hand sliding from my fingers.
“Shut the fuck up!” He dragged me out of the room and down the hall.
“No. I won’t, you arsehole!” I tugged and wriggled the same way as a snake, trying to liberate myself from his grip. How I wished I could spell his ass with magic. The Dark shite. I wanted to fling him out of the house and crush his brain.
“Stop,” he yelled, slamming my back into the wall, knocking the air from my lungs. “This compound is being attacked right now.” He growled, getting into my face. “By strighoul…and if we find you had anything to do with it…” A vicious grin displayed his white teeth. He didn’t startle me, but his statement did. Attacked? By strighoul? “Let’s say, the King will have fun shredding you into bits. And I will be there watching.”
Fuck.
Chapter Eight
Lars
“We will be there in three minutes,” Goran yelled back at me from the front of the car as he jerked the wheel and tore down the private road to my compound.
Fae were supposed to be these great magical beasts, but I couldn’t feel more human in this moment. Every second I sat in the car, my home and the people in it were under threat.
The magical doors weren’t reliable enough to use since the wall fell. Only Ember seemed to be able to find her way through them without ending up across the world. I wasn’t willing to risk it. Not tonight. But taking the car seemed archaic. I wanted to be there now.
The moment Rimmon contacted me, letting me know we had “guests” waiting at our barriers, I struggled to stay in my skin.
I had given her every
luxury. I had never given the liberties and privileges to any other prisoner I had granted Fionna. Not only did she show no gratitude, now she sent her mangy pets to try and break her out? The only pleasure I took in this was she had not predicted I would find her daughter. With this attack, she was putting her little girl’s life in jeopardy. I was told they had yet to strike, but just stood there clanking their weapons and howling warrior cries.
“That fucking little bitch.” Fury rattled the monster inside me, the one I worked hard to keep contained but lately had been frequently slipping. I wasn’t sure if I could keep myself from killing her this time.
Kennedy was firm in her thinking Fionna had nothing to do with the confrontation and demanded she come along, but I forbade it. I didn’t want her to bear witness or try to stop me from dismembering her sister. The Queen could believe what she wanted, but the Druid had attacked my home before with strighoul, so why wouldn’t they come for their patron?
“Hold on, sir.” Goran whipped the car off the paved road, the car bouncing as it hit rocks and trenches, and crashed through the creek that ran through my property.
My knuckles turned white as I gripped the door handle. We couldn’t come in through the front door. The strighoul formed a crescent around the front part of my property, making it necessary to slip around from the back.
The tires slipped over the wet ground as he spun the wheel, tearing us past the spell-protected barrier, driving the magic and bulletproof automobile up on the lawn to the deck. Goran had not even stopped the car before I hopped out, running for the house.
“Marguerite?” I called the moment I entered through the back door to the kitchen.
“We’re in here, Lars,” Nic’s deep voice called out.
“Do you have…?” I came around the corner to the kitchen, seeing Nic on a stool next to Piper, eating ice cream. Marguerite stood by the stove.
“Mr. Lars.” Marguerite rushed up to me. The sight of her released the tension in my shoulders. If they had gotten her again, I would have shredded each of them, taking extra time with their benefactor. I would deal with her soon.
The Fall Of The King (Lightness Saga Book 3) Page 4