by L. P. Dover
Her dagger throws to the target are right on. She hits the middle of the target every time and even does it with her eyes closed. It looks like she is now done with the daggers. I don’t see why she even practices using them when she is so perfect at it. She grabs her long sword while Merrick grabs his. They circle each other before planning their attacks. Calista gives Merrick an evil grin and charges. She battles with an intense ferocity in her eyes and it’s good that she takes her training seriously. I knew she was strong, but I didn’t realize how much until now. Merrick has his long sword drawn and dodges her attack. She spins in the air, lands right behind him and then kicks his feet out from under him. I silently laugh as I watch him fall flat on his face. He jumps up and scowls. Calista just smiles back and laughs at him. She makes everything look so effortless.
Merrick must have an affinity for fire because once she turns her back on him he throws one that hits her right in the middle of her backside. She pauses and turns around slowly, looking surprised. Her evil grin is back and she throws numerous fire balls at him, one after another. If she wasn’t a princess she would be a very valuable fighter in a war. They stop with the fire balls and move on to hand-to-hand combat.
I knew it was what I didn’t want to watch. I can tell from a distance that Merrick is loving every single minute of it. Calista gets a few good hard hits in and even Merrick gets some hits in as well. She smiles at him and motions for him to bring more. They grapple for a few more minutes and then Merrick takes her down to the ground. I can’t see what’s going on because of the tall grass in the field, but a few minutes roll by and I still can’t see them. Oh, hell no, this is so not going to happen. My power expands over the field and the snow begins to fall. I make my way to where I saw them land on the ground. My steps are heavy and I’m surprised the ground isn’t shaking because of the forcefulness.
I see them on the ground with Merrick on top, one hand on her waist and the other one holding her hands in a vice grip above her head. How am I going to get through this without killing him?
I say in an ice cold voice, “Well, well, what do we have here?”
Chapter15
Alasdair – Dark Sorcerer (Black Forest)
“What news do you have for me?” I ask as I peer into the scrying bowl.
“I am sorry to bother you, Master, but I have some news,” the fae says.
It better be good news. I only have until tomorrow before the princess will be mine. I have everything in order and nothing is going to stop me now.
“What do you have to say?” I ask impatiently.
The fae smiles and continues.
“I have done as you wish. The seed of doubt has been planted and I don’t think we have to worry anymore about the prince and our precious princess. He was livid after what I insinuated about her and her guardian. He stormed away after I told him.”
This news brings a smile to my face. Young love is so fragile sometimes. Jealousy and doubt can do wonders to the heart. She will need someone to fill the void in her heart and I can make her see that I am the one to do that. Once I take most of her power, she won’t be able to fight the compulsion. I can make her believe that I’m the one she’s been searching for. She will be mine. I have longed for the feel of a woman, especially a beautiful and powerful one. Weak women do nothing for me except make me angry. Once I have the princess, there will be no way the prophecy can be fulfilled. I can taste victory in the air.
“I do have other news, Master, and it is not exactly bad news, but it is not good news either,” the fae says sheepishly.
I give him a menacing look and gesture impatiently for him to continue.
“I was speaking with your other informant in private about certain matters, but we were overheard by a couple of the Summer Court council members. They put up a fight; we had no choice but to kill them. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I don’t think their absence will be fully missed until after we are gone. We will be gone directly after the meeting. With Ryder in displeasure with the princess, I am sure he’ll want to leave quickly once the meeting is over.”
This is very bad news. What the hell was he thinking?
I roar with menace, “We need a change of plans, NOW! The princess needs to be taken today so you better find a way to figure that out. Our plan cannot wait until tomorrow because if King Oberon finds out about the death of his council members there is no way he will let his family out of his sight.” I walk away from the scrying bowl to try and calm my nerves. Seeing the idiotic fae is not helping me to calm down. If I didn’t need him right now, he would already be dead and in a pile of ash. This dumb ass idiot could be ruining my plans as we speak. I return to the scrying bowl and continue.
“I can have arrangements made for someone to assist you once you pass the edge of the Summer Court territory. If you fail in this I will rip out your entrails, shove them down your fucking throat and then I will tie you up with iron chains and happily watch while the iron dissolves your pathetic body inch by inch. Are we understood?”
The fae shakes his head in agreement and prepares to leave. He looks terrified, but confident he can fulfill his task.
“It will be done. I should be able to get away with the princess. I heard that she secretly trains with her guardian every morning about a mile past the house. Maybe I can get her alone then and find a way to subdue her. I can use the gift you gave me to get close to her undetected.”
“Why did you decide to betray your court and friends? These are people you have lived with your entire life. Why would you betray them?” I ask.
He takes a deep breath. His eyes are empty and blank, probably from the persuasion I have sent his way and the power I have taken from him in the past. There is no love in his eyes. I only see betrayal and deceit.
“I am tired of living in the shadow of the prince. I am a good fighter but our people do not notice that. All they see is the royal family and how great they are, but what about the rest of us? We work hard and we defend our court. Siding with you will give me the power to be greater than I am. I can show them how powerful I can be and demand the respect when we take over the Land of the Fae.”
I dismiss the fae and close the scrying bowl. They will all bow down to me, not anyone else. I can let them all believe that for now, but when I get the power there will be no mistaking who the powerful one is then. My plans are finally coming together. I can’t believe the princess will actually be here this evening. She will be staying in my dwelling, away from the army. I don’t want anyone able to touch her other than me.
Chapter 16
Calista
We reach the field and set up the targets for dagger practice. I am excellent at dagger throwing. It’s my favorite thing to do. I have won a lot of treasures by challenging the other warriors to contests. Most of them thought it would be easy to beat me since they believed I had no real practice. I showed them though, and I won their respect as a fighter and there was no better feeling than that.
Merrick and I both stretch to get our bodies ready. I promised him an ass kicking, and that is exactly what he’s going to get.
“Alright, Princess, it’s time for the dagger throw.” He sits back and watches me. He watches me a little too intensely and it makes me nervous. I stop stretching and bend down to grab two daggers.
While bending down, I silently send Merrick a warning.
“You better not be staring at my ass. I have two daggers here and I am not afraid to use them. I’m sure your body could make do with one less appendage.”
Merrick laughs.
“To get to that appendage I would have to drop my pants. Is that what you wish? I would be more than happy to oblige.”
He grabs the waist of his shorts and pulls. I point one of my daggers at him and yell for him to stop.
“No, I was kidding. Don’t you dare drop those shorts. If you do, I will use this blade and I don’t think you’ll be laughing then.”
He backs away and keeps his shorts on, smart
man. I turn to look at the targets and with two daggers in my hand, I throw them at the same time. I hit both targets straight in the middle. Damn, I’m good. The targets were placed fifty feet down the field and I nailed them.
“Now, this time do it with your eyes closed,” Merrick says.
I grab two more daggers and walk over to the other two targets. I close my eyes and concentrate on everything going on around me. I can picture the targets in my mind. I lift both hands with the daggers and release a slow breath. I count to three. One…two…three…and throw. I open my eyes to look at the targets. What do you know? Bulls eye, both times.
“Damn, Princess, you are just amazing at that,” he says. Silently he adds, “You are amazing at everything.”
I speak out loud, “I know I am.” I feign a mock arrogance and brush my hair off my shoulders. To change the subject, I pick up my long sword and point it at him.
“Pick up your sword, guardian, and let’s see what you got,” I yell.
He picks his sword up and circles around me. We continue like this for about a minute and I know he will never attack first so I give him an evil grin and charge. He dodges my attack and we continue this dance for a while. I decide to bring my magic into the mix so when he runs toward me, I run toward him and at the last minute I use the wind to help me jump in the air and over him. I land behind him and kick his feet out from under him. It is so funny to see him land on his face.
Merrick jumps up and gives me a scowl. I shrug and brush my shoulders to aggravate him more. I turn around and laugh out loud when all of a sudden a fire ball hits me right in the back. I stand perfectly still because I’m shocked into place. Did he just do what I think he did? I turn around slowly and give him a surprised look. My surprised look turns into my menacing one and his eyes widen at knowing what’s coming next. If he wants a fireball match, I’ll give him one.
I throw more fireballs at him and he dodges and hides while throwing some back at me. With an affinity to fire, the wielder of it can determine how lethal they want their fire to be. Merrick and I just use a slight amount of heat with ours so nothing in our fire balls can hurt the other.
Merrick puts his hands up in defeat and yells, “I forfeit!”
I meet him back in the middle of the field and say, “I knew you would give up, but you started it in the first place.”
“I know, I know, and it was my mistake. I can’t believe you made me land on my face like that. It almost broke my nose.”
I narrow my eyes and make a point to stare at his nose.
“Breaking it probably would have helped it. It looks kind of crooked,” I tease and laugh so hard I can’t see straight.
He shifts his feet quickly and gets into his fighting stance.
There’s a gleam in his eye when he says, “Very funny, princess, let’s see how you do with hand-to-hand combat today. I am not holding anything back on you, either.”
Before I can catch my breath from laughing so hard, he comes after me. Before he gets to me, I crouch and swing my leg out to trip him. He jumps over my leg and rolls across the ground. He’s up in second and comes back at me. I land a hard punch to his jaw and he reciprocates with a kick to my side. The air is knocked out of me and I bend over to get a breath. He was right about not taking it easy on me. Well, let’s see what else he can do. I stand up, smile at him and then motion my hands for him to bring more.
We go back and forth dodging each other’s blows when finally Merrick takes me down to the ground with a lightning fast move. The air is knocked out of me again by one of his blows. When I regain my breath, we are both breathing hard. Training is always strenuous and tiring. He lands on top of me with one hand on my waist and the other one holding my hands above my head. I am in a vulnerable position and I don’t like the way he is looking at me now. I look at him questioningly, hoping he will understand that I am waiting for him to get up, but he makes no effort to move.
“You can get up now, Merrick,” I say.
“I know, but have you given any thought to what we talked about last night? You know I love you, Calista, and all I want is for you to please give me a chance.”
He hasn’t had a chance to notice my skin temperature until now. He looks at my hands and narrows his eyes like he’s trying to figure out why I feel the way I do. He uses his hand to pull down the part of my shirt at my wrist to feel more of my skin. That’s when he notices how pale my skin has gotten. I look him in the eyes. The hurt and confusion is written all over his face.
“A lot happened last night after you left and some things have changed. You may not understand just yet, but please don’t be mad when you see. I’ll explain everything. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
His eyes are searching my face for any kind of answer until all of a sudden the air changes and snow begins to fall. The power circling around us is strong and suffocating. This is Ryder’s doing, but where is he? That’s when I hear his voice. The bitterness and the icy tone send a chill through my body. The thought of him seeing me in this position with Merrick on top of me makes my heart ache. I know the way it’s going to look to him and if the snow falling isn’t a clear indicator then I don’t know what is.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Merrick turns his head to look at Ryder and then down at me. His confusion slowly dissipates and turns into anger. He gets up and holds a hand out to me to help me get to my feet.
“I could ask you the same question, asshole,” Merrick says with venom in his voice looking at Ryder.
I cut in quickly and say, “Ryder, this isn’t what it looks like. We were just training and he took me down. You have to trust me.”
He shakes his head and looks at the ground. When he lifts his eyes I see the hurt he must be feeling at my supposed betrayal. The look vanishes and quickly turns to one of betrayal.
“See, that’s the thing. I’ve watched you both train for the past hour and that is not how I see things at all. Then I find you both on the ground with him between your legs.” He pauses to take a breath and lets it out.
“Did last night not mean anything to you?” he asks.
I start to speak but Merrick cuts in.
“Last night? What happened between you two last night that was supposed to mean something?” He looks back and forth from me to Ryder and then keeps his eyes on me. “Why is he talking about you as if you’re more than a friend, like you two are together or something?” He stops to look at Ryder more closely and I believe it’s the first time he notices that Ryder has changed as well.
“I want to know why you look different but both look the same? I want answers, NOW!” Merrick yells.
“Yes, Calista, why don’t you tell Merrick what is going on,” Ryder spits.
Merrick yells, “Don’t you dare talk to her like that. She doesn’t deserve to be treated that way, especially not from an ice-cold dick like you.”
This is not good. Ryder’s spine stiffens and he looks Merrick straight in the eyes.
“Like she deserved the way you treated her last night,” Ryder roars back. The anger in his voice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He actually sounds very scary and I’m starting to worry how far things will escalate.
Merrick looks at me with a hurt expression.
“You told him what happened?” He turns to look at Ryder.
“It was a mistake and I didn’t mean for it to go that far. I’m not going to kiss her again without her permission,” he says thoughtfully.
Ryder laughs sarcastically, “Well, aren’t you just the gentleman?”
This has gone far enough. I go and push between them putting one hand on Ryder and the other on Merrick to keep them apart. I yell to get their attention.
“Guys, stop it! Let me explain.”
“I think the only explaining that’s going to happen here is me beating the shit out of lover boy over here,” Ryder says while pointing at Merrick.
Merrick takes a few steps back, takes his shirt
off and flexes his tanned muscles. He motions for Ryder to come to him.
“Bring it, dickhead.”
Ryder takes his shirt off as well and his body is magnificent. He wastes no time in charging after Merrick. They land punches here and there and all I can see are blurry outlines because they are moving so fast. I am glad they aren’t using weapons. I didn’t even get to explain anything to either one of them. Men are so stubborn and pigheaded. I guess it will be up to me to end the fight. I gather my energy to throw fire balls at them and once I have them in my sight I let them fly. Both Merrick and Ryder fall back with the blast. I didn’t put much heat on them, but I did send them with force. They both get right back up and start at each other again. I have time to see that Merrick has two black eyes and Ryder has a gash on his forehead that’s bleeding down his face.
I can’t take any more of this. They are going to stop and listen to what I have to say or I swear I won’t talk to either one of them ever again. I don’t have time for this shit. I reach down to touch the ground and draw upon the magic of the earth. I can feel the roots travelling in the soil. I close my eyes to concentrate and direct the roots of the nearby trees to where I want them to go. I envision them wrapping around both Ryder’s and Merrick’s legs and pulling them to the ground. A few seconds later, the roots shoot up from the ground and wrap around both guys. They shout expletive words and land flat on their backs. Both of them are breathing hard and bleeding from different areas of their bodies. I give them a second to cool off and am thankful they are too far away from each other to reach.
I walk slowly to stand in between them while they are still lying on the ground. They look up at me and I look at each one of them back and forth. I shake my head and make the roots tighten on their legs. They will soon understand how pissed off I am.