Faery Revenge

by Donna Joy Usher

  He nodded and reached out to thread his fingers through mine. It felt very natural.

  ‘Izzy.’ Aethan stood off to the side. This time there was no mistaking how his eyes lingered on where Turos was touching me. ‘Can I have a word with you?’

  ‘Can it wait? There are wounded I should attend to.’

  He nodded his head but said, ‘It will only take a minute.’

  I squeezed Turos’s hand before letting go to walk over to where Aethan stood to the side.

  He didn’t talk straight away. He scratched the side of his nose and looked out towards the field at the dragons that were settling down to rest. I sighed as I realised I was going to have to heal them as well.

  ‘You did well,’ he finally said. ‘We’re going to need them.’

  ‘That’s not why I brought them here.’ Dark Sky, I wasn’t so ruthless as to potentially commit a whole nation of people to their deaths just to try and save us. ‘We had to leave. This was the only safe place to come.’ I let out a snort as I realised the ludicrousness of my words. I had taken them from the frying pan to the fire. ‘Is that what you wanted to talk about?’

  ‘I missed you.’ He took my hand. ‘I miss you.’

  I pulled my hand back. ‘We’ve had this conversation. It didn’t end well last time either.’ A wave of exhaustion rolled over me.

  ‘Yes well….’ He stopped and stared at me intently. ‘You told me you hadn’t met anyone else.’

  ‘I hadn’t.’ I looked over my shoulder at Turos. He stood facing us, his enormous frame tense as if he was about to explode into action. Oh great. That was the last thing I needed. ‘He’s a friend. A good friend.’ I decided now was not the time to mention that there had been kissing involved.

  Aethan looked over at Turos. His eyes narrowed and then he nodded his head. ‘You may think that, but I know a possessive male when I see one. Well, I’m throwing my hat in the ring.’ He looked back at me and this time when he grabbed my hand I didn’t shake him off. ‘I’m not letting you go that easily. I’m going to fight for you.’

  ‘But Ebony….’

  ‘Ebony be damned. It’s you I love.’ The intensity of his words hammered into my heart.

  I could feel my breathing coming in short, ragged bursts. It was too overwhelming. All too much. The political ramification of what Aethan was suggesting was disastrous. But I knew I wanted him to try. And that fact – the fact I wanted him to try, made me realise that Turos had become more than just a friend. My feelings for him were no longer just my hormones calling. Somewhere along the way he had stolen a piece of my heart. And now I didn’t know who owned the biggest piece.

  The last of my strength gave out. A wave of nausea rolled over me. I heard Aethan call my name as my sight disappeared and my knees buckled. I felt hands catching me and lowering me to the ground. I heard Sabby speaking urgently, calling my name. Felt the sharp snap of a palm connecting with my cheek.

  I felt big, gentle hands cradling my head while still others held my hands. And then I escaped to the blissfulness of darkness, and the comforting buzz of white noise.

  10

  Do or Die

  Galanta was waiting for me in Trillania. Time hadn’t improved her wardrobe. She still wore the same black leather, decorated with human teeth and bones that she had worn the entire time I had known her.

  She stood with her back to a tree, her dreadlocks pulled over one shoulder as she watched. When she saw me, she straightened, pushing away from the tree to stride towards me.

  ‘I come in peace.’ She held her hands in the air as if to convince me she was unarmed.

  I snorted. In Trillania, a weapon was only a thought away. It didn’t matter though. Once upon a time she was my better, but I knew that I had surpassed her in strength, speed and power a while ago. And I knew that she knew it too.

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t gut you right now.’

  ‘Curiosity killed the cattle. If you kill me, you’ll never know what I had to say.’ Her accent was thick and foreign.

  ‘Honestly Galanta, repeat after me. Curiosity killed the cat.’

  She snarled and worked her jaw from side-to-side, her eyes burning with hatred.

  ‘What you had to say? Or what Santanas had to say?’

  Her lips pulled back to reveal her pointed teeth. ‘You never were stupid.’

  ‘I know if you had your way, I would be dead.’

  ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘If I had my way, you would be tied to a stake for me to torture.’ Her eyes gleamed like black stones as she ran her tongue over her lips. ‘I would eat a little bit of you every day. The tip of a finger, your earlobe, your little toe. I’m betting you would be delicious.’ She let out a laugh. ‘I would keep you alive for a very long time.’

  I couldn’t suppress the shudder that ran down my spine. ‘Well, this has been a real pleasure. I can’t thank you enough for dropping by.’

  ‘But that is not what Santanas wants.’ She spat on the ground at her feet. ‘He won’t even let me have a little nibble.’

  ‘For once he and I see eye-to-eye.’ We stood a few metres apart, our hands on our hips, glaring at each other. ‘You’ve got ten seconds to give me the message. After that, I kill you.’

  She spat on the ground again. ‘He will call off the army if you join him.’

  ‘Pardon?’

  She shook her head, her face contorting as if the words tasted bad. ‘Join him, and he will call off the army.’

  ‘So he won’t attack. Now or ever?’

  ‘I have given you the message.’

  She turned as if to leave and I said, ‘Ten.’ I whipped a loaded crossbow up in front of me and released the shaft.

  Her laugh echoed back to me as she disappeared from view. The shaft flew through where she had been. I bit back an oath and willed myself after her.

  ‘Wait.’ It was Aethan.

  I spun to look over my shoulder.

  ‘I knew you’d be here.’

  ‘That was fast.’

  ‘Sabby helped me get to sleep.’

  I nodded my head. ‘Are you coming?’

  He disappeared and reappeared by my side a second later. Then he grasped my hand and said, ‘Always.’

  I closed my eyes to will us after her but before I could, I heard Isla call out, ‘Wait.’

  I sighed and opened my eyes again. ‘I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the help,’ I said, ‘but we have totally lost the element of surprise.’

  Isla smiled as she pranced up to me and took my other hand. Wilfred’s wrist band was back on her slender arm. ‘No we haven’t. She’s only expecting you. There are three of us now.’

  ‘That’s true,’ I said. ‘Come on.’ I willed myself to where I could feel Galanta, knowing that she could feel me coming too. Isla was right. Probably the only element of surprise I had was the two of them.

  We were in an empty cave. I blinked, and it was full of goblin warriors.

  ‘Not again.’ I let out a sigh and pulled two short swords out of the air.

  ‘Do you think it will work here?’ Isla asked.

  I didn’t need to ask what she was talking about. ‘Only one way to find out.’

  I cleared my mind and attacked, but unlike the previous fight, everybody else was moving at the same speed as me.

  ‘Oh poo,’ Isla said as she fired off a couple of arrows.

  ‘Too much to hope for.’ I used a shield to block a dagger thrust and then hurled an axe at my attacker. The head of the axe lodged in his chest.

  ‘What are you two talking about?’ Sweat gleamed enticingly on the part of Aethan’s chest I could see in the V of his leather vest.

  I spent a little too much time watching it roll over the edge of his pectoral muscle and didn’t dodge quite fast enough when a goblin threw a dagger at me. It lodged in my bicep and quivered as the tip bit deep into the bone.

  ‘Garrrrrrrr,’ I said, staring at the evil-looking blade. I plucked it out and threw it b
ack at him, managing to land it in the soft part of his throat between his clavicle bones. It sunk to its hilt and he let out a gasp as he clutched at the dagger.

  Blood trailed down my bicep and dripped onto the ground.

  ‘That’s it.’ Aethan scooped me up. ‘I’m calling it.’

  Isla bounded towards us and the second her hand touched Aethan he took us back to where we had started.

  ‘And I was having so much fun.’ Isla threw her arms in the air and whirled on the spot.

  I expected Aethan to put me down but he didn’t. ‘What were you thinking?’ he shook me gently.

  ‘I was thinking “Owwwwww”.’ I frowned up at him.

  ‘No. To get hit. That was a rookie error.’

  His chest was right there at eye level, and it looked just as delicious as it had before. Come to think of it his arms felt pretty damn fine wrapped around me. Maybe this wasn’t a total disaster.

  Isla let out another laugh. ‘I think I know what she was thinking.’ She plucked a flower out of the air and then she disappeared.

  I tried to school a look of neutrality as Aethan looked down into my eyes, but my hormones, running riot through my body, had taken my mind hostage. My heart was ruling with an iron fist, demanding I take back what was mine.

  ‘Oh.’ Aethan’s voice was husky. His pupils widened and I felt his chest move against me as he sucked in a deep breath of air.

  He had no memory of the times we had spent here together, but I remembered each and every one of them. They started playing through my head like a slideshow; from the hesitancy of our first kiss, through to the raw power of him pinning me down and ravishing my mouth and my mind. Wild nights of passion, when time had had no meaning and all I had known was the feel of his skin moving against mine.

  My breathing increased at the memory, and suddenly I wanted to finish what we had always started. Finish it in a way we never had. With him possessing me totally. I wanted to have him, before Ebony did. Suddenly the thought of being the other woman didn’t seem quite so bad.

  He let me slip out of his arms so that we were facing each other. We stared into each other’s eyes, each of us seeing a mirror of what was on our own face.

  My hands reached out to rest against his chest. He stepped closer, grasping the nape of my neck with one hand, and then he pulled my head to his. His lips closed on mine with a hunger, a ferocity that sucked the breath right out of me.

  Every single cell in my body stood to attention as an electric shock coursed through me. I ran my hands under the edges of his vest and he moaned and clasped my buttocks, jamming me in against the hardness of him.

  It was my turn to moan against his mouth as I jumped up, wrapping my legs around him. We were so close to where I wanted to be. Just a couple of layers of clothes in the way, but it would be a matter of seconds to discard those.

  A bucket of icy, cold water hit me from the side. I opened my eyes and…

  We were back in the cave, and it was empty except for Isla, who still held the bucket she had used to sluice us.

  ‘What the?’ I slid my legs down from Aethan’s waist and stepped away from him. The remnants of the lust still remained but it was one tenth of what it had been a second ago.

  I looked down at my arm where the dagger had lodged. Smooth, whole skin encased the area.

  He looked around the cave, shook his head and then looked at Isla. ‘What happened?’

  ‘One minute you were standing there, and the next you were going for it like a couple of horny teenagers. I tried talking to you but it was as if you couldn’t hear me.’ She held up the bucket. ‘This was the only thing that worked.’ She tossed the bucket into the air and it disappeared before it landed. ‘Can you still feel her?’ she asked me.

  I nodded my head. ‘She’s that way.’ I pointed through an opening in the cave wall.

  ‘Well, come on then.’ Isla took three steps and then froze.

  ‘What is it?’ I started to step towards her but Aethan grabbed my arm.

  ‘Stop,’ he said. ‘There’s something going on here.’

  ‘You think?’

  Isla now had her arms held up in front of her as if she held a parcel. She started to rock them from side-to-side as she sung a soft lullaby.

  ‘Isla,’ I called.

  She ignored me and kept singing.

  ‘Isla,’ I yelled a little louder.

  ‘What is she doing?’ Aethan’s voice was amused.

  I turned to look at Aethan. ‘Haven’t you ever seen someone rock a baby?’

  ‘I’m normally out killing things. I don’t have time for babies.’

  I snorted. ‘Do you think we should try the cold water trick?’

  He nodded. ‘And then we should get out of this cave.’

  ‘She spelled it and then lured us here.’ I kicked at the ground. One of these days I was going to outsmart Galanta. It hadn’t happened yet, but I had high hopes.

  ‘Oh Wilfred,’ Isla said when she was finished with the song. ‘She’s going to have your hair.’

  I turned to Aethan. ‘It’s possible she’s nursing a baby orangutan.’

  One corner of his lip curved up and a bucket appeared in his hands. ‘Do you want to do the honours or should I?’

  ‘You go,’ I said.

  The water from the bucket sliced through the air and smacked into Isla’s head.

  She spluttered and coughed and then her arms fell to her side as she looked around. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Oh.’ Tears welled in her eyes. ‘It wasn’t real.’

  ‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘But it will be.’

  ‘Do you think?’ Her beautiful face crumpled a little more.

  ‘I have no doubt that you and he will be reunited and that the two of you will have a bunch of furry children.’

  Her puckered mouth spread into a smile. ‘And you will be their godmother so you had better start saying nice things about them.’

  ‘We need to go,’ Aethan said. ‘If all three of us get caught up in a spell we’ll never get out of here.’

  He was right. It had been her intention to snare me in a spell. I was lucky that both of them had come with me. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of what would have happened if Isla hadn’t come as well.

  We transported back to our starting spot individually. None of us willing to move in the cave unless we triggered the spell again.

  ‘What do you think it was?’ I asked.

  Isla sighed. ‘Well, for a few seconds there I had everything I wanted.’

  I reached out and squeezed her arm. I hadn’t given enough consideration to how much she must be missing Wilfred.

  ‘So,’ she continued, ‘I’m guessing it was a spell that invoked your greatest desire.’

  My eyes darted guiltily towards Aethan, as I said, ‘But my greatest desire is to end this damned war and send Santanas back where he came from.’

  She pursed her lips and tapped a finger against them. ‘Well the two of you got caught in the same spell. So I’m guessing it was a culmination of your greatest desire where each other was concerned.’

  I was grateful Aethan didn’t say anything. I would have had to break his nose. I didn’t want my greatest wish where he was concerned to be all about sex. I wanted it to be about more than just that. Why hadn’t I found myself nursing his child? That might have given me the answer I needed.

  ‘You able to go back yet?’ Isla asked.

  I concentrated on being back in my body. Nothing happened. I shook my head. ‘Still unconscious.’

  ‘You should be up at the house by now. I’ll get your dreamcatcher and put it under your pillow.’ Isla disappeared, leaving Aethan and me alone.

  ‘So,’ he took a step towards me, ‘want to take up where we left off.’

  Oh great. I was going to have to break his nose after all.

  ‘I thought I made myself clear on how things stood between us.’ It was hard to keep a stern voice when he was so close. The hair on my arms was standing on end a
nd little tingles ran across my skin as if he were already stroking me.

  ‘Oh, I thought you had as well.’ He took a step closer. ‘But now I’m not so sure.’ His lips curved up in a cheeky grin and a dimple appeared on his cheek as he closed the space between us.

  ‘That was a spell. It meant nothing.’ I took a step backwards and slammed into a tree.

  He stepped forwards, so close now that I had to look up at him. He lifted a hand and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. ‘Ah Izzy,’ he said as he trailed his fingers down my cheek. ‘When are you going to realise?’

  ‘Realise what?’ My traitorous voice caught in a hitch.

  ‘That you’re the only woman for me.’

  My fist was clenched and I knew I should have been doing something with it, but the depth of his eyes blazed all rational thoughts from my mind. I was frozen in place as his mouth moved closer to mine.

  His hands settled onto my waist and he pushed me back onto the tree as he closed the last few inches between us.

  My head was screaming no, but my heart was clambering for what he was offering. The memory of the moments in the spell wiped away all self-restraint and I was powerless to resist the lure of him any more.

  One second I was sighing as his lips melted onto mine, and then I was gone, fading from Trillania into a blissful state of unconsciousness.

  ***

  Ice-blue eyes stared into mine. I blinked a couple of times and my vision expanded to encompass the whole of Turos’s face. I was in my room, on my bed, and Turos sat next to me with Scruffy curled up on his lap and Mia hugging his neck. Her little eyes were closed and contented snores rumbled out of her.

  I raised a hand to my head. Someone had undone my braid and brushed out my hair. I suspected that someone may have been Turos. Thankfully, I still wore the same clothes I had been in.

  ‘Sabby,’ he called out. ‘She’s awake.’

  Scruffy stretched and yawned and then leaned over to lick my face. His tail thumped against Turos’s chest a few times.

  ‘Well, it’s about time.’ Sabby appeared at the top of the stairs, and Phantom, her huge, black cat, appeared a few seconds later. She strode into the room and placed her hand on my head, closing her eyes as she did. I felt a tingle where her hand touched me. ‘You can get up Little Miss Lazy Bones,’ she said as she opened her eyes. She softened the words with a smile. ‘There’re people waiting to see you.’