“Okay, I’ll worry about myself more right now,” I said with complete honesty. The twins, too, but that was obvious to me.
“Now, explain this evil intent you saw,” Eloden told me.
I looked away from the boy I had almost killed and tugged one of my hands from Eloden’s warm clasp to point out a direction into the woods. “There,” I said. “When I closed my eyes for my magic to focus my aim, I saw red and it felt wrong.”
“Stay here,” Eloden ordered.
“No, don’t go,” I cried out, springing up. I grabbed the back of his arm and clung. I didn’t care what he thought of me. I wasn’t waiting around here for Dain to come back.
The hard muscles of Eloden’s biceps flexed under my hands. He was sweaty and tense with indecision. My fingers slipped over the thick, bronze metal circling his upper arm, almost burned by the power sitting dormant under it. Eloden felt like a warrior ready to fight and I was cramping his style.
“Let’s go together,” I suggested. The rest of them followed me everywhere, so it only seemed fair.
Eloden drew his twin swords. “You stay behind me, and I want your bow nocked and in your hands.”
“But,” I protested.
“Don’t hesitate,” Eloden ordered.
“I nearly killed a boy!” I exclaimed.
“I’m doubting it.”
“What if something eats the boy while we’re gone?” I asked, giving the sleeping Fae a glance back.
Eloden stopped. I was not pleased this was a legitimate concern. I knew there were wolves and bears out here.
“Falin should be full. The boy never touched you,” Eloden said and started creeping forward again.
What now?
“Uh, Falin is here?”
Eloden didn’t answer right away, studying something on the ground before he prowled forward. I gripped the back of his shirt and followed.
“You saw Falin earlier,” Eloden said.
“No, I did-”
The fire-breathing dragon in the sky.
I hadn’t heard any sounds of battle for a while now. I had thought things were really going to blow up once Dain arrived but other than the dark pressure of his magic in the clearing and a couple of explosions from Aeric before Dain flew off, the fight seemed to be winding down.
Did that mean Falin would be coming to find us? Would he be in dragon form? I wasn’t sure I was ready to face him after seeing how scary he had looked. I would take Falin’s metal pierced grin over the twenty-foot dragon any day.
“Falin doesn’t really eat people, right?” I whispered.
“You should ask Falin,” Eloden suggested. “Now, hush.”
Sure, I’d ask him someday when he wasn’t in a form that could devour me in one big, sharp bite.
I snapped a lot of sticks as I walked behind Eloden, the irony not lost on me. My bare feet felt them break but strangely, the sharp ends weren’t hurting as much I thought they would without shoes. The freedom from the too tight runners gave me more grace than I had in front of Eloden at the cage.
I ran into Eloden’s back as he suddenly stopped, testing that grace. My bow jabbed him in the ass.
“That’s not where the arrows are intended to go, Kitten.”
Eloden cursed and his swords were suddenly on fire.
“Did you come all this way to exchange barbs?” Eloden asked Loren, shifting away from my bow. “Those are iron arrowheads,” Eloden warned me.
Kheelan had armed me with iron?
Loren answered in Fae. I didn’t understand and with our weapons out, I needed to ensure there were no misunderstandings.
“English,” I bit out, redirecting my errant bow to point in the direction of Loren’s voice.
Loren repeated himself. “Fight’s over. Selvyth ran before it even began. Guess he can count Marks as well as the rest of us illiterate buffoons.”
Kheelan had won. I closed my eyes and saw cool, green magic to our right, the opposite of the voice direction. I instinctively brought my bow up to the right and then opened my eyes. The draw was still hard on my arm, quivering as I held it and tried to maintain my aim. “Eloden told you to run, boy.”
Loren was suddenly there in front of us and he was dragging something heavy.
“Kheelan’s going to have the hissy fit of his life when he sees you without glamour, Kitten. I want to stay and watch.”
“She’s already Marked and Claimed as you noted, Elf. Get going before Eve’s arm gets tired. At this distance, even she can’t miss,” Eloden commented.
I noticed Eloden stepped subtly in front of me, staying clear of the bow but giving himself the strategic positioning to be able to get between me and any attack from Loren.
“She never missed,” Loren defended me, pulling the fully-grown body of a Fae out of the woods behind him and throwing it at our feet with a thud. He did it one-handed and I remembered just how big and strong he had looked in our cage.
My honey bear had gone hunting and brought me back a gift.
It was my arrow that was protruding from the back of the body. If it had gone all the way through it would have pierced the heart. There was very little blood for such a mortal wound.
“I killed him with only one arrow?” I exclaimed.
Loren coughed over what sounded suspiciously like a laugh. There was somebody dead here by my hand. He better take this more seriously.
“The fallen was a soldier without the strength to withstand the iron of your arrowhead,” Eloden said. “You could put a dozen through Dain’s heart and he would spit them back out after a few minutes.”
Fae strength and magic must really vary if one arrow could kill someone and a dozen only slowed another down. Eloden had to be exaggerating Dain’s strength to intimidate Loren.
“Was he evil?” I asked, trying to reconcile the bow in my hand with my new killer status.
“He was going to shoot me,” Loren answered, dark eyes probing mine.
I felt rage quickly fire up in my chest but tamped it out. The Fae couldn’t be shot dead twice. Loren’s lips twisted into a brief smile as he caught my unspoken response.
“Were you going to stand there and make an easy target?” Eloden disparaged.
Loren ignored Eloden’s insult and his sword as well as my bow, bending over to yank my arrow out of the dead body with a nasty squelch. I kept pointing my bow at him until it was nearly directed into the ground. He offered the bloody arrow back to me from his knees.
“It wasn’t her kill,” Eloden said, kicking the dead body over to reveal arrows through both of his eyes.
I was going to throw up. I bent to retch and Loren suddenly grabbed my bow and arrow, yanking them from my fingers and disarming me. My fingers burned from the friction as he tore my bow from me loaded.
I fell into Loren’s arms and we both hit the ground, Loren rolling us away from an irate Eloden. He left me in the dirt and had my bow nocked and drawn in a heartbeat, this time aimed at Eloden. “Now Kitten, is that any way to treat the Fae bringing you your first arrow released in battle?”
Loren had his gaze focused on Eloden, which was smart, but he completely dismissed me by giving me his back. I hissed at him like the kitty he called me. “You broke my fingers,” I whimpered like some girls whine they broke a nail.
Loren’s shoulders tightened.
I wiggled my fingers in front of me, letting Eloden get a good look that they weren’t permanently damaged. The sting had already started to ease.
“I hit my head on a rock when you threw me on the ground. I think I have a concussion because I also hit it earlier when the guard threw me against the iron bars.”
I winked at Eloden as Loren inched backwards, shuffling his feet.
“Are you bleeding?” Loren asked.
“I might have bit my tongue,” I answered, pulling an arrow from my quiver and choking it by the neck in my hand. With the iron arrowheads, I could use this as an impromptu knife and teach Loren some respect.
“You
have a problem with biting things you shouldn’t,” Loren taunted.
Eloden’s swords had been pointed at Loren the whole time, taking a step forward to keep them dangerously close as they both moved towards me. He raised them a minute inch and gave me an assessing glance.
“Did you bite this Fae after we all warned you to keep your teeth to yourself?”
“It was a nibble,” I dismissed, backing up myself. I didn’t want Eloden getting any closer with his cranky temper.
“On the mouth. She drew blood,” Loren ratted me out. “Kheelan let me spank her for it. I don’t think she learned her lesson well enough.”
“I saw you patting her butt,” Eloden grouched. “Do you normally discipline your Marks with your tongue lashing their honeyed curls?”
I shot up, shocked by Eloden’s sly vulgarity. I pointed my arrow-dagger at him and shouted, “How long were you watching us? No wonder Dain sent you after voyeurs since you know it so well.”
“Give Eve her bow back. We’ll deal with this once Dain’s back,” Eloden said, putting his swords away with a disgusted sigh.
Loren snatched the second arrow from my hands no less gently than the first, pulling me with it and turning me by my shoulder so he could slip them both in my quiver and attach my bow.
“Get your hands off me,” I groused.
“Not what you were saying earlier,” he whispered into my ear.
“I should let Eloden flambé you.”
“Let me, Sweetheart?” Eloden said, pulling me into his arms. He threaded a hand through my hair and forced my head back, bending to lick my neck over his Mark, slowly and thoroughly. I saw Loren watching, eyes flashing with barely held restraint.
“So obedient,” Loren snidely remarked.
“She just needs a firmer hand. Didn’t she already describe the inadequacies between Light and Dark Fae to you earlier?” Eloden taunted, releasing me. “I believe she said your dicks are small.”
“From what I hear, you haven’t gotten close enough for her to measure yours to compare,” Loren retorted, giving his back to us as he walked towards the clearing we had vacated.
He stepped over the body with its stick eyes. I tried not to look.
“Right, Peaches?” Loren prompted, reaching back to give me a hand.
I took his cool, firm hand and closed my eyes, letting Eloden lift me by the waist from behind and place me on the ground on the other side. I remembered my bare feet and was grateful, but not enough to let them step all over me in return.
“You both are big dicks as far as I am concerned,” I replied to Loren’s teasing prompt.
Eloden bent over to whisper in my ear as we walked. His heated breath nearly burned me.
“The only way to deal with this is to make things fair.”
“Fine, I’ll whip out the measuring tape when we’re no longer in danger of dying.”
Loren snickered up front. “Keep walking,” I told him.
Eloden bent to whisper again. “Well, Peaches, you can measure if you want but I want the same taste you gave him.”
I stumbled, and he caught me. Right here? “No,” I muttered and quickly started walking away.
Another foot and he caught up to whisper in my ear again, hands slipping around my hips. “Your panties will do, Sweetheart.”
I blushed. Geezus, he really had heard everything. I still didn’t see how he could rip them off me right here. “My charm is in there,” I excused.
“I doubt it since everyone can see your bow.”
He didn’t whisper that last bit and Loren called back. “What’s wrong?”
“Keep walking,” I told him again, not wanting him to see my blush.
“Eve was asking for help with her charm. She seems to have misplaced it,” Eloden said.
We all knew exactly where it had been last, but Loren merely said, “I’ll make her a new one.”
“Kheelan made that one,” I said, a little put out that I had lost it.
“I know, I recognized his magic. I’m sure he’ll make you another once he gets over your new form, although he’ll have to work on the translation spell so it doesn’t give you a headache.” Loren responded.
I think Loren was trying to be nice about it. He sucked. I didn’t say anything about the revelation of the translation spell. It was further evidence that Kheelan had planned all of this, but why had he done things to aid me if he was only using me?
Eloden bent down to whisper in my ear again, hands unbuttoning my jeans while I wasn’t paying attention and trying to squeeze into the tight confines meant for my hips before the change. I elbowed him before he could get another word out to complain about fairness and who got to what base.
“If you can get my panties off like this, then you can have them,” I hissed at him. I didn’t care if Loren heard.
Fire licked my hip bones for a second, too short to even hurt. He had burned my panties off at the side strings.
I stumbled. That was so hot.
“Now to claim my prize, Sweetheart,” Eloden whispered into my ear, adding a nip as I squirmed against his hand delving deeper into the front of my pants. Loren stopped and looked back as Eloden boldly cupped my mons, curling a finger around the loosened string covering my clit. My legs gave way and I cried out before I could stop myself, biting my bottom lip and fighting back a renewed surge of lust.
This was the absolute worst moment for a gleaming, white unicorn carrying the twins to pop out in front of us.
Chapter 21:
THE TWIN’S EYES MISSED nothing, narrowing on the hand stuffed down my pants like it was a big, red arrow.
“Oh shit,” I whimpered, getting my feet under me in a panic and grabbing Eloden’s arm with a strength I didn’t think I had to whip it out of my pants. He had my panties in his hand when it emerged, which didn’t help the situation, but he pocketed them before I could protest.
Loren had looked away from us and had a bow pointed at the unicorn. My brothers pulled their own bows, a little slower to nock and draw their arrows.
“Stop,” I yelled. My pants were still undone but there wasn’t time to fix them.
Loren lowered his bow to the ground.
The unicorn reared, and the boys barely held onto their bows to grab onto the reins made from its braided mane that had been lying loosely on their laps. Leaping forward the unicorn charged Loren with its head lowered. The big Fae backed up faster than I could run towards the disaster, hitting a tree with a sickening thud. By the time Loren had shaken off the concussive knock to the back of his skull, the unicorn had him pinned with a foot-long horn that ended in a very sharp point pressed against his abdomen, ready to gore him.
“You can’t kill him, Orin. She bit him,” Eloden said.
I slowed my mad pace to a walk. Orin was a motherfucking unicorn.
Orin pressed his horn harder against Loren, not ready to give up his prey and a trickle of red ran down his pearly, curling length to stain the pure white coat between his eyes. This was disturbing all my childhood dreams of petting a unicorn.
“Evie-baby, I don’t remember this guy from the rink,” Matthew said.
Jackson jumped off the unicorn and wrapped me in his arms. He wouldn’t let me go even after I hugged him back, picking me up and carrying me over to the unicorn still pinning Loren. He made me sit on the unicorn’s back.
“Orin, he’s a healer,” I said, sneaking in a little pet. His fur felt as soft as my old pet bunny, aptly named Fluffy.
Orin backed up enough to let Loren slide down the tree. His leather jerkin was bloodstained but he looked alive enough. Orin pawed the ground. Jackson pulled himself up behind me. I hugged Matthew from behind.
Orin started walking away from the clearing we had been headed.
“Where are we going?” I asked, straightening as much as I could in the middle of a twin sandwich.
“Wherever he wants,” Matthew answered.
“Orin’s in charge,” Jackson told me.
“You’re
in so much trouble when you get home,” Matthew added.
Jackson slipped his hands around my waist to grab the braided mane reins. He rested his chin on my shoulder, very close to my Marked neck. I shrugged him off and looked back. Loren and Eloden were rapidly disappearing.
“I’ll have you know none of this is my fault,” I told Matthew.
“You lied,” Jackson said from behind me.
“As if you would have believed me,” I pointed out.
“We’re riding a unicorn that we saw transform from a nice guy called Orin to save you,” Matthew said.
“Who’s not gay,” Jackson ground out, words heating my neck.
“Give her the charm. Orin wants to say something to her, too,” Matthew informed me.
Jackson stuffed a little leather charm that looked a lot like the others I had been given into my side pocket. He noticed my pants were loose and yanked them up with more effort than was necessary, rebuttoning them for me.
I blushed hard. My brother shouldn’t be the one doing this but he couldn’t see anything from behind me. Our boundary issues were going to have to wait until we were out of Faerie.
—Fewer layers between me and your punishment are fine.—
I choked back my response. What happened to my sweet Orin?
“So, does this charm allow two-way communication, and if so, how does it work?”
I was dropping the damn thing overboard the first moment I got the chance.
“Orin can read your mind and send his thoughts. You don’t have to do anything,” Matthew said.
Shit. Fuck. I tried to find the little charm that Jackson had shoved deep into my tight side pocket.
—I will transform back and take care of your punishment in front of your brothers if you touch that charm.—
I was being threatened by a fluffy unicorn that gored people like some demon horse of the apocalypse. I slumped against Matthew’s back.
“So, does Mom know?”
“Mom thinks we’re sleeping over at your house playing online games,” Jackson said.
“Your dad believed that?” I said, dubious. Their father wasn’t stupid. My mother would have figured they were up to something else but been reluctant to ruin their fun.
No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1) Page 33