I grabbed her shoulder. “What do you mean ‘depending on what exactly she is’? Isn’t she fae?”
“I don’t know. The longer we’re around her, and watching her reaction to the blood, I believe she’s part fae, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she was something else as well,” Neva answered.
Shit. Hybrids were dangerous. Like shifters but with less control. Their minds often went crazy as one side battled for control of the other. If Maeve was fighting with the magic within her, the blood we’d just given her might only make her more irrational.
I took a step back and inhaled deeply. Clearly, I was capable of growth. The old me would have lost my shit just then.
Maeve came back out, this time with two fae behind her. All three of them were dressed in blue garb like the guards of the king, and I glanced back at Maddox. “Want to fix the rest of us up? With all the new additions they supposedly have, it could give you longer to get to Ivy if we blend in.”
He nodded and got to work. The process took less time than before since he wasn’t changing our faces. I could have asked Maddox to do that as well, but saving his energy seemed more important.
Finn was closest to him, so Maddox started there, followed by Neva, who had wrapped her curls into a tight bun again after they’d sprung free back in the ocean.
I snapped my fingers at her. “No fighting for you. I still don’t want you to have anything to do with killing. Especially not after—”
She cut me off. “I’m going to be fine, Lucy.”
Finn glanced between the two of us, confused. I didn’t think Neva would be okay with me filling him in while the others were around, so I kept my mouth shut.
Maddox finished changing my clothes but didn’t move away. “Want me to at least do something about your hair?”
“That’s probably a good idea. Something short and dark,” I replied.
He nodded and within seconds, my indigo locks were nowhere to be seen. I lifted my hands and felt an A-line cut. Pulling the hair forward as far as it would go, I grinned at the obsidian strands. “Very good, Maddie.”
When we were all changed and wearing the hideous navy-blue outfits, we strode casually to Maeve. We might have been waiting for this moment for a couple of days, but Maeve had pissed me off, and she was on our terms now.
By the time we reached her, the overly happy fae she’d been minutes before was gone and in her place was the bitch we’d been dealing with.
“I don’t have all day,” she complained.
“Yeah, and I didn’t want to take a swim in the ocean. Deal with it, Marge,” I tossed back at her.
She ignored my jab and began moving her hands. I glanced at Neva since she’d been the one to consider Maeve wasn’t only a fae. Neva was watching her closely, and I tried to keep an eye on both of them.
Within moments, Maeve opened up a portal. Something fae definitely couldn’t do. She stepped through it without looking back, and her men followed.
Neva met my stare and mouthed, “Witch.”
Witches were sneaky bastards, and I was not happy about this, but instead of calling Maeve out, we all stayed quiet and moved through the portal. She stared at us, waiting for a comment, but thankfully, Finn and Maddox had caught on and kept their mouths shut.
“After you.” I smiled and put my hand out once we were all standing in a forest I assumed was just beyond the castle.
Maeve sneered in what seemed like disappointment but moved on.
It was less than a minute later that we stopped. There were no buildings or castle in sight. “What are we doing?” I asked.
“This is where we part ways,” Maeve said confidently.
I stepped into her personal space. “I don’t think so.”
Chapter 20
Maeve squared her shoulders at me, silver hair swirling with magic and eyes glowing in the darkening evening. She pointed to what appeared to be a discarded piece of wood covered by dead brush. “I got you to the entry. That was the deal.”
I glanced back at Neva. “Was that how it was worded?”
She shook her head. “Maeve is to get us inside the castle unless you choose not to have her help all the way through.”
Hmm, did I want her help? More importantly, could I trust her word that whatever this entry was would get us inside?
Deciding it wasn’t just up to me, I turned to Finn and ignored the daggers that Maeve was throwing at me. Whatever her oath was, I assumed it meant she couldn’t hurt us, or she likely would have already.
“What do you think?” I asked Finn.
He was keeping an eye on Maeve even as he answered me. “If she is required to tell us the truth about this entrance, then I say we don’t need her.”
“If she doesn’t get us to an entrance that will honor her word, she will suffer greatly,” Neva answered before I could ask for confirmation.
“Well, that settles things. Where does this lead?” I asked Maeve.
Her jaw tensed as if she didn’t want to answer, but I could tell she had no choice. Whatever this blood oath was, it was ironclad. I would have to remember that for future dealings.
“It will take you through an underground tunnel that leads to an old cellar beyond the cells. It’s not used anymore and will put you within the castle walls undetected as promised. I am not responsible for whatever happens after you enter the cellar,” she said through clenched teeth.
Neva stepped forward and offered her hand to Maeve. “Your honor has been kept.”
I scoffed at that. I was pretty sure this woman had no honor, but I let them keep their formalities and moved aside as Maeve and Neva shook, finalizing the oath. There was a weird glow between their hands, then they parted.
Maeve sneered at me. “I really didn’t expect you to come back from the waters.”
I smiled in return. “I know. Too bad I’m not that easy to kill. Something you should remember. What I don’t understand about you and Edgar is that we all hate the king. We didn’t have to like each other, but we sure as hell could have worked together and dealt with the rest later. Instead, the two of you had to act like idiots. Take this as my promise. If you fuck with what we’re doing here today, I will find you, and things won’t be pretty when I do.”
Maeve didn’t flinch; she held my stare and nodded, which was more than I expected. “I hear you, Lucinda Morrow. Loud and clear. We’ll be seeing each other.” Then, she snapped her fingers and disappeared along with the two fae she’d brought with her.
I swiveled around to the others. “Did that bitch just threaten me back?”
Finn and Neva grimaced while Maddox nodded with a gleam in his eyes. I’d rubbed off on him a little too much. Fairy boy really needed Ivy back at his side to balance his ass out.
“I think she did,” Maddox replied.
“Something to worry about later. Let’s see how much fun this tunnel is going to be.” I kicked the brush out of the way as Finn bent down to find a handle.
He yanked then glanced up at me. “It’s locked.”
“Well, then use your muscles and break it open. It’s not like we give a shit if anyone else gets in, right?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Depends on why they’re coming.”
“True, but that’s merely a potential problem for future us,” I said.
Finn’s brow pinched together. “We’re starting to stockpile those future problems.”
“Eh, I said potential.”
He nodded and gripped the rusted handle with both hands before giving it a jerk. The hinges groaned as the wood splintered. Within a matter of seconds, the entire covering broke into dozens of pieces.
Finn tossed the bits he could to the side and pulled the brush back. “We can at least cover it back up when we’re inside. Looks like there’s a ladder.”
Neva stepped closer, a ball of magic in her hand illuminating the area around us with a soft glow. “Something to help lead the way.”
I nudged her. “What other tricks do you have up thos
e sleeves?”
She only smiled at me and dropped the ball of light down the hole, then moved aside. “After you.”
“Uh huh. Don’t think when this is all over that I’m going to let you go back to the way things were,” I said as I moved toward the opening.
“Oh, I doubt anything after this will ever be the same, but I look forward to it nonetheless, Ms. Lucinda.” She winked as I glared at her for the formalities that I’d thought we’d finally moved past.
Now that I was getting to know her even better, I was pretty sure the elf had purposely been proper with me just to irritate me the last couple of years. She was evil in an adorable package, and I kind of liked it.
Finn reached his hand out to help, and I hesitated. “Did you want to go first?” I asked.
“I think you’re more than capable of handling anything that could be down there. I’ll be last to make sure everything is good up here,” he replied.
I took his offered hand and winked at him. “Maybe I’ll reward you later for your progressive thinking.”
“And maybe I’ll let you.” He grinned in return.
That was as affectionate as I was going to get while the others were still around. Given I could see the light Neva dropped down, it didn’t appear too far. I jumped into the hole without using the ladder.
My legs bent, and I landed on the dirt ground with a soft thud, then coughed as dust swirled around me. The opening was only about four feet wide and Neva was already on her way down, so I moved out of the way, hitting my head on the ceiling.
Well, this was going to be fun. The stupid tunnel was less than six feet tall. We were going to be hunched over the entire way if things didn’t change as we traveled closer to the castle. All of us except for Neva that was.
She moved to stand next to me when she got down. “Comfortable?”
“Did something give you the impression that I wasn’t?” I asked in return with a fake smile.
Maddox joined us before she could answer, and Neva picked up the light as we squeezed together, waiting for Finn.
“This is pleasant,” Maddox complained, but there was an underlying excitement to his voice that hadn’t been there since Olida’s juju had been influencing him.
Finn jumped to the bottom and turned around. His head was nearly a foot higher than the ceiling we were crammed under.
Without complaint, Finn bent down to a knee. “Lucinda, you should lead the way. We don’t know if Maeve lied about where this will lead. Oath or not, I still don’t trust her. We go in assuming there is an army waiting for us.”
My lips moved into a smile on their own. Not because I felt that Finn was becoming more like me, but because he was being realistic. It was unfortunate his world had to come tumbling down around him for that to happen, but he’d fought reality for much too long.
“I’m good with that. I want Maddox behind me, then Neva, and Finn, you can watch the back,” I suggested.
Nobody objected, and considering I had no idea how long it would take us to get wherever we were about to end up, I didn’t wait any longer to start moving. There were no identifying markers as we moved slowly through the tunnel, everyone but Neva wincing when we tried to stretch even a little.
Red dirt clouded around us, likely worst for Finn since he was last, but nobody complained as we continued. I held Neva’s ball of light in my hand, surprised to find the orb stayed cool and bright even after half an hour.
Finally, the ceiling began to get taller and, while I couldn’t stand straight yet, I only had to keep my knees slightly bent to avoid impact.
Another ten or so minutes passed, and the tunnel opened even more. We were all clear of hitting our heads, even the giant Finn.
Nobody talked as we continued to move, but this time, grouped closer together. Power hummed around all of us. Even Neva was ready for a fight, much to my dismay. I mainly wanted her around to keep watch over Ivy if we found her and couldn’t get out without a fight.
A metal door appeared in front of us. It was old as hell, rusted, and had no handle. “Well, this looks useful,” I droned.
Neva pushed forward and placed her hand on the steel. “There’s no magic pulsing through it. We should be able to use brute force to get past it.”
I laughed. “‘We’ as in one of us and not you.”
She shrugged. “Sure, that works, too.”
“Closet badass,” I muttered as I felt around the edges of the obstacle before us.
I wasn’t familiar with the lower levels of the castle. Only the prison, but even that was on a limited basis. Most of the people I was sent after didn’t live long enough to see the inside of a cell, but there were occasions when it was necessary to keep someone alive long enough to get them talking.
Finn joined me, and we worked together. Maddox was bouncing on his heels, annoying the hell out of me with his fidgeting that kept distracting me in my peripherals. Finally, the rust began to crack, and the groan of metal sounded.
We all froze and paused all movements to listen. The door was cracked, and cool wind came through from the other side, but there was no noise or light.
“Shall we?” I said softly to Finn, keeping my voice low in case sound carried.
He nodded, and we pulled on the door again, slow and steady to keep the sounds to a minimum. When the opening was only about two feet wide, we stopped. I took the light back from Neva and tossed it inside the room.
I waited several seconds again before peeking my head in and was disappointed to find it was actually an old wine cellar. Nobody waited for us. There was nothing but cobwebs and bottles of alcohol.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” I grumbled as I stepped inside first.
Finn was right behind me, his sigh of relief audible. “Where do you think this is within the castle?”
“I’m not sure. We just have to keep moving and hope we start going up at some point. Ivy will either be in the dungeon, which is just a bigger set of rooms near the cells, or she’s being kept in a room near Zephyr’s chambers,” I answered, glancing around the cellar to see if there was anything we could use.
Neva picked up a bottle of wine and dusted it off, reading the label.
I gave her a small nudge. “You picked a great time to take up drinking.”
“Well, I figure nobody knows who I am, and if I can get away with it, I could say I was bringing the king a celebratory bottle of 1796 Lenox Madeira. If they didn’t believe me, I could always smash it against someone’s head as a distraction.”
I had no argument with that. At least she had some sort of plan for staying out of the action while still remaining present, because I doubted we could do this without all of us playing some sort of role. Even if I didn’t like having her in danger.
Maddox moved to the second door first. “Can we continue now?”
Finn didn’t object, and I certainly wasn’t going to. We each moved forward, and Maddox carefully opened the door that led to another hallway, and this one remained normal-sized. Though, it was still dingy. I was thoroughly surprised Maeve hadn’t screwed us over. I was positive we’d be walking into an ambush, but so far, things seemed easy. Actually, too easy.
Maybe it was a sign we should slow down, but that would have taken the fun out of the shitty situation. So, I didn’t say anything as we all pushed forward, staying quiet. Well, until Neva sneezed, and someone shouted from up ahead.
A light shined down toward us, and I smashed the one Neva had created.
The others moved to the side, but I stayed put.
Things could only get better if Gabriel was coming and I could rip his ugly ass head from his body right after I stole his delicious sword.
Chapter 21
The light from whoever was walking toward us disappeared, and I waited for my eyes to adjust. I could see the silhouette of a man, but there was nothing identifying to help me figure out if I knew the fae coming or not.
Warmth covered my back as I sensed Finn through our bond that I�
�d been damn good at ignoring since we left Mosi’s island—except for in the forest. His hand wrapped around my hip as he let me stay right where I was. I didn’t think having his support would mean anything, but the way my chest tightened at having him near was telling a different story.
That was something I’d have to sort out later. The footsteps from the approaching fae were too close, and I readied my hands for a fight. The hallway wasn’t wide enough for me to use my wings, but I always packed an extra blade or two for situations like this.
Without waiting any longer, I leaped and landed on the fae without making much noise. I wrapped one hand around his mouth and the other at his neck as I swung my body around his back and whispered in his ear, “You’re going to die.”
He shook his head, words trying to escape through my hold.
Finn stepped closer, and Neva created another light. Maddox pushed past them both, eyes wide. “Lenny?”
The fae nodded beneath me as my blade began cutting into his skin. I glanced up at Maddox. “How do you know him?”
“I’ve met him here while bringing in goods. He has a farm, or had one, on South Island. I hadn’t seen him in a while.”
“That doesn’t help me. Unless he has any usefulness to us, I’m going to kill him,” I said to nobody in particular, keeping the dagger from cutting any deeper. For the moment.
Finn stepped forward, eyes charcoal and jaw tight. “What do you do for the king?”
I removed my hand from his mouth and placed it to his forehead, keeping my hold tight in case I didn’t like his answers. It would only take a half-second to slice the blade through his throat.
“I’ve been here for a few weeks. When my crops died, my wife and daughter left for Earth. They said there was nothing here for us. I sent them ahead of me, promising to join them in the South hemisphere somewhere, but as I was packing the last of our things, Gabriel showed up. He said the king needed all of his men and I would either comply or die.”
Dark Fae Freed (Broken Court Book 2) Page 15