Flight (Children of the Sidhe)

by J. R. Pearse Nelson

  With a low growl, he spent himself inside her. She clung to him as the wave crested, her strangled scream hovering on the air. He held her open, his body nestled deep inside hers, thrusting slowly as the pleasure receded.

  Propping himself up on his elbows above her, he kissed her chin, her cheekbone, her eyebrow. Each touch was feather light. “Beautiful,” he said, his expression dreamy. He smiled softly and pulled from her body, wrapping himself around her.

  Again she noticed his heat, the comfort of being wrapped in his scent, his naked skin pressed against hers. She could tell when he drifted off, his breathing even and deep.

  Tessa was still; her limbs pleasantly limp as she basked in the afterglow.

  But sleep eluded her for a long while. Abarta haunted her thoughts, his laughing visage a punishing reminder of the plots that threatened the man sleeping next to her.

  TEN

  When Nathan woke in Tessa’s bed, he was alone. Something tapped against the window, and he looked up to find Season watching him with a smile. He frowned, and covered his head with the blankets. The tapping repeated, but Nathan ignored it. He got out of bed and looked down at himself. Naked as the day he was born and no clothes in sight. He had to learn the clothes trick. This was ridiculous.

  Thinking of Tessa, and the way she’d unclothed him, he descended the stairs, looking for her. Her books were spread out all over her desk, but she was nowhere to be seen. He spent a moment perusing the open books, but most of them were written in odd scripts he didn’t understand. He saw two in what seemed to be Old English. They were poetry books. He shrugged. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason to the collection, and he wondered what she was studying. He didn’t know much about her work, except that she was some sort of curator of a library. She seemed pretty proud of it, so it might be a big deal among the Sidhe.

  When Tessa didn’t make an appearance, Nathan soon grew bored. Had she gone out? Maybe Season would know. He looked down at himself again, but it wouldn’t be the first time the pixie had seen him in the buff. It would probably earn some more giggles, but at least he’d know if she had seen Tessa.

  As soon as he stepped outside the pixie blipped into view right in front of him, a maniacal smile stretching her features. “Nathan. You’re without your clothes again.”

  “I know. I don’t have any clothes. Tessa just keeps using magic to clothe me, and then when I shift I lose them.” He resisted saying anything about the way he’d lost his clothes last night, though the memory stirred his blood.

  Season giggled. “I can help you with clothes. Picture what you’d like to be wearing and I will make it so.”

  He closed his eyes and concentrated on the image. He felt the clothes appear and looked down to find…well, Season had gotten it close enough. It was better than walking around nude all day. He resisted the urge to scratch. What kind of fabric had she conjured here?

  “Are you going out to shift?” Season asked. “You should wait for Tessa – you don’t know the forest.”

  “Actually, I was looking for her. Have you seen her this morning?”

  “Not since she rose from the bed she shared with you last night. I had somewhere I needed to be.”

  “I thought you were supposed to be watching me. Were you reporting what you’ve seen?”

  The pixie darted around the porch, trailing pixie dust in her wake. “Yes.”

  “What exactly did you report?”

  “That we’ve met and I’ve extended my offer of help.”

  Nathan waited, suspicious.

  “And that you have taken Tessa as a lover.”

  “What the hell does the Morrigan care if I take a lover? Who is the Morrigan, anyway? Tessa didn’t say.”

  “The Morrigan is looking out for you. The Blood Wars have resurged, and the half-humans are under threat. Tessa has a history of supporting the wrong side.”

  “What does that mean?” Nathan sputtered.

  “Tessa was involved with one of those who incited the Blood Wars. The Morrigan killed him.”

  Nathan was stunned. But he couldn’t believe Tessa wished him ill…especially after last night. At the very least, he owed her an opportunity to explain before he jumped to conclusions based on the word of a devilish pixie.

  Whatever the story, he didn’t wait around to talk to Season about it any further. His words would land in powerful ears, and that wasn’t fair to Tessa.

  “A walk doesn’t sound bad.”

  “You should wait for Tessa!” Season reminded him shrilly.

  He just grinned at her. “You’re welcome to watch.”

  He took off down the trail Tessa had led him on yesterday. He wouldn’t go far. He was growing bored of the four walls surrounding him, and a quick walk was just the thing for his impatience. Besides, as long as he was in a different world, he was going to learn all he could.

  Season flitted about nervously. “I don’t think this is wise. I can disappear when I need to, but you have no such power.”

  “I could always shift.”

  “You have mastered shifting forms in the last two days, Nathan?”

  Nathan waved the buzzing pixie off. She could sure be annoying when she wanted to be.

  Season fell silent, except for the hum of her steadily beating wings, for a mile or so. She darted between the branches along the trail, from cover to cover, her tiny mouth set in a grim line. “You shouldn’t be out here. We should return at once.”

  “Thanks for the advice.” Nathan kept his original course. He hadn’t left the trail he’d started out on. What could happen?

  Yet the farther he went, the more sinister the forest around him felt. It wasn’t any change in lighting, and the trees were about as dense – yet the air felt heavy with despair, and fear.

  Season flitted closer, and he held out a hand. She took him up on it, clutching his palm as he continued on.

  “You could disappear.”

  She thrust her tiny chin into the air. “No. I won’t leave you out here alone.”

  Her words brought Nathan to his senses. He was in a different world, a couple of miles deep in an unknown forest, with heaven only knew what inhabiting it. He stopped on the trail, looking around. “I need a container of some sort, and a shovel,” he told Season, his voice sounding loud in the hush of the forest.

  “Picture them, Nathan.”

  He did, and the bucket appeared in his hand, the small gardening shovel rattling inside it. “Nice work,” he told her appreciatively.

  Her wings fluttered, but she didn’t move from his hand.

  Nathan set the frightened pixie on a branch with an apologetic glance. “Okay, just let me collect a sample and we’ll go back.” He couldn’t ignore the hairs standing up on the nape of his neck. His instincts screamed the alarm. This forest wasn’t safe. Not by a long shot.

  “Wait here.” He didn’t need her buzzing around his head. He jogged a few steps off trail, and stooped down with the bucket Season had conjured. He brought out the shovel and worked at the earth. He wanted a couple of inches of topsoil to examine. When he had it, he started to retreat, but he found a thick vine had wrapped around his ankle while he worked. He tried to shake it loose, but the more he pulled, the tighter it became. Sentient plant life? That wasn’t possible – was it? He’d certainly seen more surprising things in the last couple of days.

  Season came after him, and hissed when she saw the vine. Finally, he hacked at it with the shovel, and it fell away with an intense vibration Nathan felt more than heard, as though the plant’s scream was in an octave his ears couldn’t pick up.

  Nathan stumbled back onto the trail, the bucket heavier than he’d expected.

  Season glared at it. “I can have that back to Tessa’s in one second.”

  He set it on the ground.

  She touched the bucket and blipped out of sight for literally one second before she was back. She buzzed past him with a whispered, “Let’s go. Right now.”

  Nathan took up a brisk
pace; it was definitely time to be back within walls. Since the moment he’d hacked at the vine with his shovel, the forest had seemed to focus on him, its malevolence directed at him. At least he had what he’d come for. A soil sample to study. Something to do instead of going crazy with inactivity. As long as he was here, he might as well learn something.

  ELEVEN

  Tessa let out a soft wail when she saw her study. Nathan had cleared off her desk – a pile of her things was resting on top of a cabinet. At the moment, her desk was covered in dirt. Dirt!

  “What are you doing to my desk?” Tessa usually prided herself on her composure, but she couldn’t keep the fury out of her tone now.

  “Oh, it’s just a soil sample.”

  “A soil sample? Why is it on my desk?”

  “I thought I’d be able to clean it up easier. I didn’t know when you’d be back.” Was that supposed to be an apology? If so, it was terribly inadequate. “I wanted to know more about what’s out there. It’s hard to ignore the fact that I know nothing about this place. I’m stuck here for now, so I might as well use my mind. Say, I was thinking – you have a lot of books around here. Do you have a reference cataloguing species in the forest? That would really be helpful.”

  Tessa glared at the back of Nathan’s head as he turned back to filtering through the soil. Every once in a while he added another object to a pile Tessa guessed he meant to study further. It was hard to stay mad at him. She understood the need to stay busy. He was obviously into what he was doing, and now that she looked closer she saw he’d carefully stacked her books in the same order they’d been in on her desk. He hadn’t really harmed anything, but she certainly wouldn’t have chosen to have his soil sample in her study. Gross.

  Nathan picked something up. It was long, almost an oval shape, like…a pixie’s wing. Tessa stepped forward, almost involuntarily. It couldn’t be.

  But it was.

  “Nathan,” Tessa said softly, “Bring that and follow me.”

  “What is it?” He gave it a little wave, and then paled as he caught her expression. He stood, and followed her outside.

  “Season!” Tessa called.

  Blip.

  The pixie popped into view directly in front of her. Tessa didn’t give an inch to the little bug. “You must see what Nathan has found.”

  Season looked curious, and buzzed over to Nathan. She almost alighted on his hand, as Tessa had seen her do before, but this time she swerved away at the last second, her chest heaving.

  “So it’s true,” Tessa said. “The llaiadains? They’re back?” Tessa sat down fast, her legs crumpling beneath her.

  Nathan dropped the wing he was holding to reach for her, and Tessa resisted the urge to scurry from it. In itself the wing couldn’t hurt them. Her brain knew that. Yet the llaiadains had never been known in Tir Nan Og in her time. She found herself speaking. “The dark pixies haven’t been seen in Tir Nan Og in millennia.”

  “Dark pixies?” Nathan asked, sounding fascinated. Not a reaction Tessa was comfortable with.

  “Llaiadains are created when a pixie turns dark, and loses its wings.” Tessa took a deep breath, the ramifications of such a discovery still coming clear to her. “Their reappearance has to be taken as a sign of the darkness welling up in Tir Nan Og with recent events.”

  Nathan stooped beside her, his hand a comforting weight on her shoulder.

  “I saw one in the forest yesterday. That’s what made me fall. I didn’t want to admit it could be so. It was hateful, it radiated rage like I’ve never felt – certainly not from a pixie.”

  “We’re usually a cheerful sort, it’s true,” Season contributed helpfully in her singsong voice.

  Tessa frowned at her, and then turned her worried gaze on Nathan. “I don’t like this. Not at all. It is a bad sign.”

  Nathan looked at the pixie still flitting about their heads. “Season, the Morrigan should know what we’ve found. Will you take her this news, right away?”

  Season considered him. “Will you stay safe while I’m gone?”

  “I’ll be with Tessa.”

  The pixie squeezed her lips into a thin line. “Tell me you will stay safe.”

  “What is that supposed to mean? Nathan is safe with me. I’ll not let any harm come to him. Besides, my brother will be here for dinner soon. He’s an Authority Guard – it doesn’t get much safer than that!”

  Season glared at her, and turned a quick smile on Nathan before she blipped out of the clearing, on her way to take a message to the Morrigan.

  TWELVE

  “Mikhail, I have something I have to tell you,” Tessa started as soon as they were alone in the sitting room. Nathan had gone back to the study to continue with his soil sample, promising all the way that he’d have it cleaned up before she had to see it again. His smile had said she was definitely overreacting, but he would humor her to stay in her good graces. As long as she didn’t have to see dirt on her desk again, she’d take it.

  “If it’s about the half-human sauntering about like he owns the place, you don’t exactly need to speak the words. It’s obvious you like him.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you do.”

  “Not now that I suspect he’s been far too friendly with my sister,” Mikhail growled.

  Tessa waved him off. Rather than confirm or deny his allegation, she changed the subject. Like that wasn’t obvious enough. “It’s not about him. Well, it’s not about him specifically…it’s about Abarta.”

  Mikhail’s eyes narrowed at the name. “What about him?”

  At Mikhail’s ready suspicion, Tessa decided to just come out with it. She would face his rage on the subject eventually. Why not tonight? “Abarta has been blackmailing me, trying to get more information about the Sidhe children.”

  “What does Abarta have on you?”

  “It isn’t my secret I’m protecting, brother.”

  Mikhail jumped up from where he’d been resting on the arm of a chair. “Abarta knows about Rosa and the child?”

  Tessa frowned at the woman’s name. “Yes, he knows about your mistake. I couldn’t figure out how he knows, but he’s told someone else as well. I felt I had to help him – or at least pretend to help him – to save our family’s reputation.”

  Mikhail was silent for a full minute, and Tessa found herself fidgeting. She’d gotten in way over her head here, and it was one of the first times she could remember when she should apologize to him. Suddenly she decided to do just that. “Mikhail, I’m sorry. I should have come to you right away. I just knew you’d do the noble thing, despite what it means for you. I was not so willing to sacrifice you.”

  “But what about them? Does he know enough to find my daughter?”

  “I believe he does.” Tessa saw the hurt in her brother’s eyes as soon as she spoke the words. “But he didn’t seem apt to use it. He wanted to trade on the knowledge instead.”

  “And you let him. It shames me.”

  “More than common knowledge of your half-blood daughter?”

  “Few of our kind have such a fierce reaction to half-bloods as you, Tessa. Haven’t you realized it yet? Your mode of thought is outdated. The Blood Wars have returned, but only through tactics of concealment and magic. Not because there’s support for it.”

  “You’re the one who left your daughter, Mikhail. You made that choice on your own.”

  “Oh, you supplied plenty of advice, sister. I knew my mistake had no welcome home here.”

  Tessa sucked in a pained breath. So it came out. Like a punch to the gut. She had no reason to be so affected. He was right. She’d made her opinion plainly known. She’d told him if he wanted a child he could live beyond the veil with her. She’d been disgusted, especially at the thought of the mother’s heritage.

  And now, surprisingly, those same viewpoints made her stomach ill.

  She finally spoke softly. “Don’t be angry, Mikhail. I’ve said I was in the wrong. I’m telling you now.”

  “For your
own reasons. Always for your own selfish reasons.” Mikhail nodded in the direction of the study, and Tessa turned her face from him. He was right. She was beyond selfish. Even with Nathan. She’d taken him in because he might have some value. She’d taken him as a lover because she liked the way he made her feel. None of that was fair to him. Not when he didn’t even understand her past, her feelings about his sort. But what were those feelings now? She didn’t know. The abstract idea of lesser beings sharing her superior blood was all muddled up with the reality of Nathan, and the unanswered questions she had about her niece.

  Mikhail gathered a deep breath. “I can tell you’re struggling with this. I’ll try not to be angry. I hope you figure out just how wrong you’ve been. Until then, I need to be sure of your plans. Can I assume that if you believe my daughter to be in danger you will tell me the instant you know? Do you have that much honor where your family is concerned, Tessa?”

  Tessa had to forgive his tone. This wasn’t a pleasant discovery. “I’ll tell you the moment I worry for her safety. Let us hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  Mikhail paced across the room, stopping to stare out the window. Maybe he was trying to come to grips with the news she’d shared, or maybe he was just getting his emotions under control. Tessa had never responded well to emotional arguments. He knew her well enough to know that.

  “So...” Something in his voice made Tessa’s attention snap back to her brother. “What is this, with Nathan?”

  “Why would you ask me that? I’ve known the man all of three days.” Tessa glowered, and turned away. Her brother didn’t deserve her ire – that’s what his tone had said. Dare I broach a sensitive subject with my bitter sister?

  She took a deep breath, resigning herself to the awkwardness of honesty. “I don’t know what this is. Distraction? Comfort? He’s been through something, and so have I. And he’s really good looking.”

  Mikhail laughed out loud at that, and Tessa smiled. Her little brother; she loved his laugh. Moments later, he turned a solemn expression her way. “Don’t get involved if you’re going to throw the half-human thing in his face later. That’s just cruel.”