by Amy Sumida
“And she actually answered,” he smiled softly.
“God never did,” I swallowed hard and thought about all the prayers I'd made after my mother's death.
“Even Danu cannot bring back the dead,” he laid a hand gently on my arm. “You shouldn't fault the Christian god for that. Remember, he was once Anu, Danu's twin.”
“I know, but still, this fairy goddess has made herself known to me and helped me every time I've asked her,” I sighed. “Religion has always been a type of training for me. I did it because I was taught to. I was told God gave me my psychic gifts so I could keep the peace between the fey and the humans. God would help us and keep us safe so we could continue our work. All we had to do was believe in him.”
“Everyone needs something to believe in,” he offered.
“Yes, but he didn't keep my mother safe,” I stared straight into Tiernan's glinting silver eyes. “And he wasn't the one who protected us today either.”
“So you're a convert?” He grinned slyly.
“I guess I am,” I laughed and stared up at the darkening sky. I could feel twilight coming.
“And I as well. You've become the face of the Goddess for me,” Tiernan whispered and I swung my gaze back to him just as the twilight magic surged through me.
While it was still tingling beneath my skin, I leaned towards Tiernan. His hands slid around my waist and pulled me in as his lips laid over mine. I could feel the magic rising inside me, condensing beneath his hands. I opened my mouth to him and with the first touch of his tongue, the magic was released. Effervescently bright, it sparkled on my tongue like champagne and sparked between us like a live wire. Tiernan's arms jerked me tighter against him and for a moment, I thought I was levitating but then I realized that he'd simply lifted me off the ground.
I groaned as power surged back into me through Tiernan's hands, arching my back with its intensity. It was forming a circuit within us, a magical flow gaining momentum as it went. I let it go once more and it rocketed through me and into him. Tiernan inhaled sharply, stealing my breath, before he resumed kissing me with increased vigor. I was clutching him, pulling at his clothes, when the magic seemed to crest, reaching its apex. It burst inside us, leaving us clinging to each other in shivering awe.
The silence around us was shocking after being lost to the pound of hearts and the rasp of rapid breath. I looked over to see that the entire camp was watching us with shocked expressions. Even Cat sat back on her haunches, staring at us in fascination. I realized that they must have felt the magic release. Tiernan gave them a brief glance as he lowered me slowly to the ground and then kissed my forehead sweetly. I met his intense gaze as he backed away and offered me his hand. My heart started to pound faster as I looked from his shining eyes to the crowded meadow of spectators who were suddenly trying to find somewhere else to stare. We'd brought no tents with us, only blankets, and there was no privacy to be had.
“Seren,” Tiernan smiled, “trust me.”
And I did. I trusted him more than I trusted anyone else in my life. A feat that was amazing given how long I'd known him. I laid my hand in his and he began to lead me away from camp. Cat whimpered but I gave her a quick shake of my head and she went back to eating berries. I let Tiernan take me through the thick trees, deeper into the forest. Little specks of light rose through the underbrush around us and hovered in the air, growing bigger and brighter as the sky darkened.
“Will-o-wisps,” I whispered as the orbs began to bob happily around us before flying away. “What are they really?”
“Some think they're remnants of magic,” Tiernan glanced back at me. “Some say they're fey souls who are tied too firmly to Fairy to leave. No one really knows. They're a part of Fairy and that's all that matters.”
“Is that all that matters to you?” I asked softly. “Being a part of Fairy?”
We came out onto a patch of ground that gave beneath my feet like a sponge. I looked down in surprise. Moss, bright green, even in the low light. It spread across the banks of a little pond whose glassy surface reflected the moon and the twinkling stars. The whole clearing was lit softly by that luminescent moon. Along the edges of the moss, a multitude of miniature white flowers glowed in that light like they were lit from within. I could smell the purity of the water, it seeped down my throat, into my skin, and left me feeling refreshed without even tasting a drop of it.
“No,” Tiernan whispered as he turned around and took my hands. “Being a part of Fairy is not all that matters to me but I think you knew that already.”
His mouth lowered as his hands lifted and I melted forward into him, letting the twilight magic drift away as night claimed the land completely. I didn't need any magic in that moment, there was enough between us already, and the rush of blood in my veins was more thrilling than any stardust drifting from my fingertips.
One of his hands lifted to the side of my face and then slid back into my hair as he deepened the kiss. He tasted sweet, like the berries we'd been eating. But the flavor was richer on his lips and I lost myself in the taste, so much so that I barely noticed when he slid out of his tunic.
My sword belt with my new sword of fairy steel, was on the ground with his, then my tunic over his. Back and forth, our clothing layered on top of each other until we laid down and mimicked them, his warm skin pressed to mine. His complexion was just a touch lighter than mine but without the freckles that were scattered over my body. He was perfect, sculpted muscles flowing over wide shoulders and down to a washboard stomach. The arms positioned beside my head were thick from years of training but there were no scars to mar him, none but that silvery line beneath his right eye. I traced it with a fingertip as he shifted between my legs and then went still.
“I know you think it's a mark of shame,” I whispered to him, “but I only see honor and it's beautiful to me.”
“Seren,” he groaned and kissed me again. Little lights appeared in the air around us as I opened my eyes and I lifted a brow at him. He gave a low chuckle, “I want to see you.”
“No fumbling in the dark like a couple of teenagers?” I teased.
“I haven't been a teenager for a very long time,” he bent his head to my neck and began to nibble and bite the tender flesh there.
“How long exactly?” I asked breathlessly.
“I'm not telling you,” he laughed and it vibrated against my throat. “You'll only find a way to use it against me.”
“I'm a trained interrogator,” I pushed him over and straddled his waist. His eyes went wide as he stared up at me. “I have ways of making you talk.”
I reached between us and slid him inside me, shivering through the amazing sensation of connecting to him so intimately. I splayed my hands on his chest, feeling his heart beating steady and strong beneath my fingers as I started to move.
“You forget who you're with,” Tiernan grabbed me around the waist, holding me tight against him, and rolled us so I was beneath him again. With a wicked smile, he pulled his hips back and then drove himself in deep. “I'm a Lord of the Wild Hunt and I have ways of making you scream.”
Chapter Forty-Five
It took a full day to get to the seelie castle. We'd had to go through another fairy mound, this one was set with silver gates with a stylized sun in the center of them. Beneath the gold sun was a castle, perched high on a hill and surrounded by a forest, just like the other gates, but this castle and forest were carved from ivory.
I thought back to when we'd left the Unseelie Kingdom and remembered how the same mound we'd traveled through to get there, the one with the gold moon gates, had a different scene entirely on the other side. When we'd returned to Twilight, the gold gates we passed through had a silver star in their center, with a silver castle and forest beneath. Just like the door leading from Gentry to Twilight. I was right, the doors were an indication of where the paths led.
It was a few more hours to the seelie castle from the rath. We once more pulled off the dirt road early so we coul
d sneak up on foot, though now there would be quite a few more of us doing the sneaking. Night would be better for us this time. For one thing, it would help hide both our approach and departure, and for another thing, the entire castle was filled with seelie, so daylight didn't exactly give us an advantage over them. We waited for dusk and then headed up, leaving Amanda behind with the horses.
I couldn't help but be impressed. The twilight castle was stunningly beautiful and the unseelie was both intimidating and majestic but the seelie castle was the fairy tale come to life. It was the castle every child dreamed of when their mother read them bedtime stories. A soaring, shining edifice of pure white stone adorned with gold vines crawling up its sides. Vines so life-like, I wasn't sure if they were actually golden plants or works of art until I was close enough to touch them and feel the cool metal. The coned tops of the towers were gold too and the largest, most central one was crowned with the same stylized sun that was on the fairy mound gates. It glowed like the real sun, even in the deepening dark. The seelie castle ruled from her throne, high on a lush mountain, beautiful and untouchable, like a queen.
Aodh led us through the maze of brambles at the mountain's base and into a narrow passage which cut through the rock. The wards recognized the seelie and we had no trouble getting past them but the tunnel was unlit and unused. Tiernan risked a globe of light and a curving, narrow path was revealed. We headed down it, shushing the excited seelie more than a few times, but despite the echoing voices, we made it up into the castle without incident.
The lower levels of the castle were bright and clean, with pearly walls, high ceilings, and cream-colored marble floors. Gold sconces were set at intervals, making sure not even a corner was left to wallow in shadow. Not at all like the unseelie castle but that wasn't a huge surprise. We followed Aodh down a corridor and then to a spiraling gold staircase. This was where we said goodbye to the seelie fey and where I was surprised to receive several hugs and kisses from them.
The seelie had agreed to go up into the main halls and cause as much of a distraction with their appearance as they could so we could escape with the unseelie prisoners. So as soon as we we said goodbye, they hurried up the stairs and Aodh led Tiernan, Conri, and I to a passage further down the corridor. There, we found another set of stairs but these stairs went down in a straight, diagonal line.
The pristine white stone fell away and bare rock was revealed as we went lower and lower. This passage was well used and as brightly lit as the rest of the castle, with delicate lanterns hanging from the ceiling every few feet. Our leather-soled boots padded quietly but quickly down the stairs as the four of us made our way into the seelie dungeon.
I could hear the murmur of voices as we neared the bottom and I stopped Aodh with a hand on his shoulder. I motioned for him to let me by and he eased back, his wings flattening against the wall so I could pass. As I came to the last corner, I called my magic to hand. I leaned around the edge just enough to see five seelie guards gathered around a baobhan-sith. She was crying, laid out on a table, her wrists and ankles held firmly by four of the men as the final fairy took his pleasure. My jaw clenched and I had to take a deep breath before I could concentrate enough to blow a cloud of stardust over them.
The baobhan got dusted too and I couldn't help feeling that it was a small mercy for her. I stormed around the corner and pushed a snoring seelie off her naked body. He slid out of her and fell to the ground, still erect despite his slumber. I almost stomped on that offensive bit of flesh but Conri was suddenly there, griping the man by the throat and growling low in his own.
“Conri,” Tiernan whispered harshly. “We don't have time for this.”
“A rapist it the vilest of creatures,” Conri's voice had lowered to a dangerous tone.
“We cannot leave bodies behind, remember?” Tiernan's hand went to Conri's shoulder. “I understand your anger but the seelie must not have cause for vengeance.”
“It's evil,” Conri shifted his burning gaze to Tiernan.
“I know and it was done to those seelie we freed as well,” Tiernan said gently. “You don't know how lucky you are to have been raised in the Twilight Court, where things like this never happen.”
“I know now,” Conri said gravely and then took a deep breath. He cast the seelie guard aside violently.
We piled the rest of the half-naked seelie guards on top of the first one in a rather amusing way and then covered the baobhan-sith as best we could with the torn dress we found beneath her. Conri scooped her up gently and Aodh took the keys off one of the guards. Then Aodh ran down a long corridor at the end of the room, the keys jangling nervously from his fingers as his wings shivered in agitation.
Tiernan and I rushed behind him, urging the prisoners to be silent as we freed them. They all gave us the same haunted, despairing, and suspicious expressions at first but those expressions slowly started to transform into confusion. They stumbled out of their cells to find Conri waiting for them, cradling the sleeping baobhan-sith in his arms like she was a child he was carrying to bed. A smattering of hope began to spread over their faces.
A little shellycoat started to weep, his shells clattering as his shoulders shook, and I laid a hand on him gently. He scraped small fists over his swollen eyes, sniffed hard, and then nodded to me curtly. A bean-sidhe came forward and took his hand. She just stared at me silently. She didn't have to say a word, her eyes said it all. She wouldn't even begin to hope until we were safely out of the seelie castle. Until then, this was just another form of torture for her.
“Alright,” I said to the gathering. “We have to go back up into the castle before we can go down into the escape tunnels that will lead us out. I need you all to be as quiet as possible and help each other as best you can.”
“We will be fine, mistress. Just please, take us from this place,” a little fir darrig answered for the group. His tail was cut down to a stump and his snout was bent at a strange angle but he lifted his head bravely.
“This way,” Tiernan said and led us up out of the hell hidden beneath the beauty of the Seelie Court.
At the top of the stairs, Aodh turned to me. “Do you remember the way out, Your Highness?”
“Yes, of course,” I nodded and shifted the spriggan I was carrying. He couldn't make it up the stairs with both of his legs broken.
“I'll leave you here then,” Aodh said grimly. “I want to be sure the seelie are enough of a distraction.” He turned to leave but I called him back.
“Don't risk yourself anymore than you have to, Aodh,” I cautioned.
“I'll be fine,” he smiled at me. “I'll see you back at the Twilight Court as soon as I can get away without causing suspicion.”
“Alright,” I nodded, though my stomach knotted with fear for him. “I'll see you soon.”
“Seren, now!” Tiernan snapped as he and Conri herded the unseelie down the corridor towards the secret passage.
“I'm coming,” I snapped back but then we heard a commotion above us and I turned back to see Aodh running towards the sounds. “Aodh, no!” But he was already gone.
“Damn it, Seren, let's go!”
I ran after Tiernan and into the tunnels, our large group stumbling through the dark until he once more formed a globe of light for us to see by. Those that could, picked up the more injured ones, and we began to race through the narrow passage. We burst out into the night, all of us breathing hard, and caught our breaths for a moment before Tiernan led us down the mountainside to the hidden carriages.
Then we were once more speeding away from a fairy castle but thankfully, this time there was no pursuit. I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat as I urged the horses on, wondering what that meant for Aodh and if I was going to have to tell Nighean and her mother that I'd got him killed.
We made it through the fairy mound and into the Twilight Kingdom but we continued to ride hard for hours, until the horses were too tired to go on. We found a semi-cleared area, far from the road, and made camp f
or the night.
Conri had to drive Aodh's carriage for him but as soon as we stopped, he was climbing down and throwing open the door to help the now awake baobhan-sith out. She had awoke in the carriage and been informed of what had transpired by the others but was still a bit unsteady, clutching her dress to her as best she could. Conri gallantly pulled off his tunic and offered it to her and she had accepted gratefully, pulling it on over her ruined garment. It hung down to mid-calf on her, making her look like a little girl.
I called for the mending moths but they were either too tired to come or too far away to hear me and they didn't answer my call. So instead, I went among the unseelie and helped them as best I could. I bandaged wounds, set bones, and fed those who couldn't feed themselves. Conri and Tiernan helped too. Tiernan passed out blankets and got the fairies settled while Conri cooked dinner, using the remainder of our supplies.
Conri stood over the fire in only his cloak and leather pants, for which I teased him, telling him he looked more like Conan the Barbarian than Conri the Seducer. He laughed and I kissed his cheek, whispering to him that I knew his secret; he was neither barbarian nor seducer but a true romantic. He had scoffed at that but I simply pointed to where the baobhan was resting, wrapped in his tunic.
“That is all a part of my diabolical plan to bed her,” he huffed.
“If that were true, you'd be over there right now, wooing her while she was still vulnerable,” I shot back.
“Tell no one of this,” he narrowed his eyes on me.
“It will be our secret,” I promised and he gave me a quick grin.