“You do not need to explain anything to me Bree,” Taveon said, answering words and questions that she hadn’t even voice aloud. “I do not think badly of you, and I will still look at you just as I always have. My only concern is that he is one of the most dangerous fae alive. You need to stay away from him. He keeps coming into your life, and I worry what that might mean.”
“And you think that he would have survived this, too?” Bree asked, searching for a way to get the conversation away from the kiss and back onto the curse.
“Fillan is much like you and Eurig. Different. Unique. Unusual. He is something of an enigma, and I am not certain where his loyalties lie. If I were to bet, he did not fall prey to the curse either.” Taveon suddenly reached out through the bond, and she swore she could feel him wrap his hand around her wrist. “I fear I should not have told you this. I fear you will search for him, and you need to stay as far away from him as possible.”
“What if he has answers?” Bree asked, gently pulling her wrist out of his grip. “What if he knows information that could lead us to some kind of cure? Not to mention…”
Taveon did not know what Fillan had asked of her. He did not know that Fillan had been searching for his own answers, answers that involved Taveon’s past. Was there some sort of connection? Did all of this have to do with who and what Taveon was? Bree needed to ask. She knew that Taveon was desperate to keep this information hidden not only from her but from everyone else. But she couldn’t help but wonder...what if his strange past was now catching up to him?
“I know what it is you want ask,” Taveon said, his voice so quiet that she could barely hear it through the bond. “But if I am going to reveal my secret to you, then it must be done in face-to-face. Not like this. I have only ever told one other fae in this world, and if I am going to reveal the truth to another, I want to be able to look into her eyes when I do it.”
Bree yearned to know what it was that Taveon kept locked up so tightly inside of him. She wanted to know what it was he was so scared of telling her. She knew there was a part of him that was worried what her reaction might be when she found out. Brea wanted to show him that it didn’t matter. Nothing he said could change how she felt. No matter where he’d come from, no matter who he was, or what he was, Taveon would always be Taveon to Bree. She wished that he would give her the opportunity to prove her feelings for him, but she also understood his need to look into her eyes when he revealed the true depth of his nature to her.
“I understand, Taveon,” Bree finally said. “But whatever it is you’re hiding…are you certain that it has nothing to do with what’s going on? Are you certain that it won’t help me find a way to get you back?”
“I am certain,” Taveon said, his voice sure and strong. “There is nothing about what I am that has anything to do with this curse. This is about the throne. Whoever is behind this wants to rule Underworld instead of me. If I were to guess, the Wilde Fae are behind this. They are likely angry about what happened at the Battle for the Crown. I would start there…though I am wary of sending you out alone. Before you go, you must promise me that you will find Eurig. And trust him. I would not tell you to go to him if I was not sure that he was on the side of good.”
Bree hesitated, but not at the idea that she must seek out Eurig. She hesitated to leave Taveon. Again. She had left him so many times like this, and now she was leaving him to stew in his dark thoughts. She knew what it was like to feel powerless, and it was a feeling that she’d never wish on anyone else.
Unfortunately, she had no other choice.
Bree leaned down and kissed his cheek. He was warmer today, or maybe she’d just turned cold.
Chapter 14
Bree
The first order of business was finding Eurig, as much as Bree hated the thought. Taveon might be certain that his old friend had nothing to do with this, but Bree would not believe it until she found the true culprit behind the attack.
She stopped by her own quarters first and grabbed the dagger she kept hidden underneath her mattress. It was the dagger that Dagen had snuck to her during her first few days in the realm. She had never had an opportunity to use it before now, but she had a feeling that would change very soon.
She wrapped her fingers around the golden hilt and examined the engravings. Wings upon wings upon wings lined the handle, sparkling under the light of the fireplace. Dagen, Bree thought, her heart squeezing tight. He would be among the fallen in the Great Hall. Before she left, she would have to check on him, even if there was nothing she could do for him, and even if there was no way for him to hear the soothing words she wished to whisper into his ear.
She felt a strange sense of loss when she thought of Dagen having fallen like all of the others. It was a feeling she did hadn’t expected to have. It was Dagen, after all. He had done so much against Taveon, and she hadn’t been able to trust him ever since. But…he had tried to make up for it, hadn’t he? And she felt so drawn to him regardless of anything else he had done. That moment they’d shared in Midas’s quarters haunted her like a misty ghost just out of reach.
Did she care for him? The same way she cared for Rafe and Taveon? Surely not. Surely she was just confused. Dagen had been the enemy, or at least he had seemed to be the enemy at one point in time. His motivations had always been cloudy to her, but in the end, he’d still stood by the King’s side.
As she shoved the dagger into a leather belt she had slung around her waist, the door to her quarters creaked open. She whirled, eyes wide and heart banging wildly inside her chest.
Eurig eased through the crack in the door, his hands held up high before him. “Don’t stab me with that. I have not come here to attack you.”
“Then, what are you doing here?” Bree said, slowly raising the blade up before her. “You ran off before, so why come back now?”
“Because I did not do it.” Eurig took another step inside and slowly closed the door behind him, as if it made any difference. No one would hear them. No one else inside the castle had the ability to hear at the moment, except for Taveon. And he had gone silent through the bond, seeing the situation unfold through Bree’s eyes.
Bree held herself steady as she stared at Eurig. “Let’s just pretend for a moment that you did not put a curse on the entire court. What would be the point in coming to me now? In my opinion, the only reason you would come here now was if you did do it. You didn’t realize that I would be immune to whatever you did. So, you’ve come to finish the job.”
“If I wanted to finish the job, Bree, I would have come here as my shape-shifted beast. I would not be standing here, holding my hands up before you, and making myself far more vulnerable than I’ve ever wanted to be.” He raised his hands even higher, as if to illustrate his point. “I came here to talk to you about what happened and to come up with some kind of plan going forward.”
“Plan?” Bree asked, arching her brow. “You actually expect me to believe that you, of all fae, want to come up with some kind of plan to fix this? Ever since you got here, you’ve acted like you could not care less about this Court, let alone the King, even if he is supposed to be your friend.”
“I came to this castle because I owe a favor to Taveon. I came here to help him. He thought making me undergo ridiculous training with you would be the way I pay my debt to him. If you want to know the real reason why I have been so annoyed this entire time, it’s because I felt there was so much more I can do for him than that.” He shrugged. “Perhaps I was wrong for acting as I did.”
“Perhaps you were.” Bree lowered her dagger and shoved it into the leather belt. “Maybe you shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions and assumed that training with me was so meaningless.”
“You can see how I might have come to that conclusion,” Eurig said. “I have been training all of my life. You have been training a few days. To say that we are on even ground would be ridiculous. I wanted to do more.”
“Well, how lucky that you get to do just that.”
>
Bree wasn’t sure just how much the Dark Fae understood sarcasm, but by the look on Eurig’s face, she had a pretty good feeling that he understood exactly what she meant.
“There you go again, acting as if I wanted this to happen.” Eurig ran his fingers across his close-cut hair, and he began to pace from one end of Bree’s room to the other. “This is as bad for Taveon as it could get. Right after his coronation, he is cursed. He is unable to do anything but lie in his bed. If it weren’t for you, he would not be able to interact with anyone at all. And then his entire court falls prey to the very same curse. I would never do something like this to him. Ask him yourself. I know you can.”
Bree watched him. And she couldn’t help but notice that the emotion roiling off of him in waves could not be faked. Eurig might be intimidating and terrifying and a little bit rude at times, but he was not that good of an actor. She didn’t want to trust him though. He had stormed into her Academy, acting as though he were better than everyone else. Hell, he still thought he was better than everyone else. But the Academy had become her home. It felt like hers, like hers and Rafe’s. And then Eurig had come barreling in, trying to tear down everything they had built between them.
And now he was the only one in this castle that she could trust. Well, and Fillan, if the assassin had even stuck around. Bree was pretty sure he got the hell out of dodge as soon as he’d warned her of the attack.
“Why do you owe Taveon?” Bree asked. “What did he do to earn such loyalty from you?”
Eurig slowed his pacing, and he came to an abrupt stop just before Bree. As short as he was compared to the other Dark Fae, he still towered over her. His body was large and wide, like a tank, like a brick. Bree suddenly felt very small and feminine. She swallowed hard, her heartbeat racing due to nerves she hadn’t expected. He clearly wasn’t going to hurt her, and if he tried anything, she had more than a dagger to help her fight back. But she was nervous anyway. Why? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“What happened all of those years ago is between me and Taveon,” Eurig muttered. “If he has not told you himself, then I cannot tell you now.”
Bree raised an eyebrow, forcing back all of the questions now bubbling up in her mind. Once again, Taveon was hiding secrets. Did this have to do with his wings and his immortality? Or was there something else that he was hiding? He had told Bree that only one other fae shared his secret. No, that wasn’t right. That wasn’t exactly what he’d said. He said that he had only told one other fae. So, had Eurig somehow found out? Was that what he was now hiding from Bree, too?
“So many loyalties,” Bree said, raising an eyebrow. “You were loyal enough to come here and fight for him. And you are loyal enough to hide secrets. He must have done something quite big for you. Why can’t you just tell me what is?”
Eurig drew a deep breath into his lungs, a motion that made his entire chest press out toward her. Her eyes caught on his rippling muscles and the way his shirt strained against his chiseled abs. She swallowed hard she stared at his body, and a strange tightening sensation clenched her core. Blinking, she took a step back, wondering at what was going through her mind. She needed to get a grip. This fae was bad news, and she was only feeling drawn to him this way because the rest of the court had fallen to the ground.
“What he did for me inspired this loyalty,” Eurig said, his voice sounding as rough as her heart felt. “And telling you more would reveal something about Taveon I swore I would never reveal to anyone else. So, I am afraid I cannot tell you, even knowing that it would help you trust me.”
“Right.” Bree sucked in a breath, trying to calm her nerves, hoping that Eurig had not noticed the pink now spreading across her cheeks. “So, am I just supposed to trust you without question then? I’m supposed to put my life in your hands not knowing why you’re here?”
“You do not have to put your life into my hands for us to work together,” Eurig said. “We can look into this curse. Together. As a team, just as Taveon hoped we would be one day. But you do not have to trust me in order to do that. You can keep your distance if that is what you wish to do. Just know that we would get much further if you would only open your eyes and see that I am exactly what I claim to be.”
Bree just continued to stare at the outposter. He was right. They did need to work together. It was the only option they truly had. She could go out into the realm on her own, and she could try to storm the Wilde Fae villages without the help of anyone else. But deep down inside she knew it was a suicide mission. She could hear Taveon’s voice in her mind, urging her to do anything but that. After everything they’d been through together, she trusted Taveon with her life. She only wished she had trusted him sooner. And it was the kind of mistake she did want to make again.
Bree timidly held out a hand. “Okay, we’ll do this together. But the second I see you do anything that seems even slightly suspicious, I will take this dagger, and I will put it right into your heart.” Eurig stared down at her hand, slight confusion rippling across his features. In the Dark Fae realm, they did not shake hands. It was a foreign transaction, one made only in the human realm. But then Eurig reached out, his strong, warm hand wrapped around hers, and they made their pact with each other right then and there.
Chapter 15
Bree
There were hundreds of Dark Fae in the Great Hall, but Eurig and Bree took care of as many as they could. Bree’s physical strength had grown during her time spent in Underworld, through all the training she had done with Rafe. Together, they carried many of the bodies out of the hall and back to their living quarters. Some they were forced to leave as they were, but they made sure to shift them to more comfortable positions for if and when they woke up. They checked each body for wounds or bruises and tended to anyone that had been harmed during the fall.
Eurig silently helped Bree take Rafe back to his quarters and left her alone with him without even asking a question. Even though Eurig had challenged Rafe to a duel, he did seem to have a newfound respect for their instructor. And he seemed to understand that Bree had a special bond with him, a bond that was unlike any of the others that had developed during her time spent in the castle.
Her bond with Rafe was different than her magical bond with Taveon, it was different than the friendship she had found in Ethne, and it was certainly different than the strange push-pull relationship she had developed with Dagen when she had worked as his spy. Rafe was hers and she was his, even though they had made no formal commitment to each other.
With a sad sigh, Bree stared down at his prone form where he lay on his bed, now looking as if he was doing nothing more than sleeping peacefully. She dragged a finger down his cheek, remembering the way he had done exactly the same to her. She hated to leave him in the castle all alone, but if she didn’t, she might never be able to find whoever had done this. And the cure. She would go to the ends of the realm if she had to.
A light knock sounded on the door, a signal from Eurig that it was time to move on. Together, they carried the rest of the council members to their quarters along with Ethne and Dagen. Through the bond, Bree sent information to Taveon, keeping him up-to-date on their movements. She couldn’t bear to go to his side, knowing that she would have to leave him there once again with nothing more than his thoughts to keep him company. There was no telling how the bond would work when they were light years away from each other. Did it only work when they were in close proximity? Would it become weaker the further she traveled away from him? Unfortunately, it was time to find out.
Luckily, the horses had not fallen prey to the same curse their masters had, though they seemed to have an inkling that something was wrong. One of the stable boys had also fallen, and one of the horses had taken up residence next to him, as if she were trying to keep his body warm until he woke from his slumber.
Eurig and Bree chose two to take on the mission, but then set the others free. There was no telling how long it would be before the fae of the castle awoke, wh
ich would leave the horses alone in their stalls with nothing to eat. At least if they were free, they could graze on the land, though there were other dangers outside of the castle, like the Wilde Fae. But, right now, out there was far better than stuck inside of a castle full of ghosts.
“You ready?” Eurig asked as he sat atop a golden horse. He looked as if he belong there, as if he had been riding all of his life.
Bree grabbed the reins of the silver horse and very unladylike slid onto the back of it. She had never been a rider in the human realm and she hadn’t done much of it in the Light Fae realm either. She mostly ran on her own two feet, often in her beastly form. Truth be told, even if it meant transforming into the beast, she almost wished that was how they were traveling now.
“I thought outposters spent their entire lives on the sea,” Bree said as they turned toward the front gates. “So, color me surprised that you’re able to ride a horse so easily.”
Eurig chuckled. “There is much misinformation about the outposters, especially being told within these castle walls. Yes, we are born over water, and we live on the sea, but we are smart enough to know that certain skills can take us far in life. And some of us have always dreamed of going further. I spent my childhood learning how to ride. My parents would take me ashore, we would ride for a day, and then we would go back home.”
His voice was sad, and his eyes were distant, as if they were focused on a memory from a long, long time ago. A memory that was nothing good. Bree yearned to ask him about it. She wished to know more about his history, of his life on the sea and on the land, but he suddenly closed himself off to her, and a shutter went across all of his emotions.
“Enough about that. We better get started.” Eurig flicked the reins and led the way down the stone road past the open courtyard near the front gates. The cluster of fallen guards was another sign that the curse had gone much further than the Great Hall alone. Bree couldn’t help but wonder just how far it had spread. Had it gone beyond the castle? Had it gone across the entire realm? If so, Bree had no idea how they would find any answers. If there was no one else awake in the realm except for the two of them, how would they make any progress at all?
A Heart of Midnight (Dark Fae Academy Book 2) Page 9