“They’re what? Gone? You let them escape?” He hadn’t heard her voice this under control for months and it grated on his ears.
“No, Your Majesty, the dungeon troll let Bosco out. And somehow that arrogant prick must have convinced Cassandra to go with him. I don’t know how, but it had to have been him. No one’s seen her since.”
“You fool! She’s my mirror, mine! Her Gift is the only reason we’re beating Kian. If that idiot takes her to him, they’ll gain the advantage.”
Ah, she was loosing it. Now was the time to take advantage and get her back under control. “Your Majesty, it isn’t good for you to be this stressed. You need to calm down.” He reached into his pocket but she slapped his hand away.
“Don’t think you can manipulate me any longer, Haddon. I’m on to your tricks.” Behind Aeval’s eyes he glimpsed her third persona, the crone. A chill crawled up his spine and his palms went clammy and cold.
The drugs were wearing off and she was nearly the old Aeval. And with the old Aeval came a resurgence of the other personalities. They’d all gain power without the drugs. And if the crone came out...he was screwed.
The old woman scared him. She was smarter than the other two personas and she never lost her temper. She was cold and calculating and thought long term. He remembered the very first time he’d met her and the Morrigan, after the Princess Aeval came back from her ill-fated secret sojourn in the Gold Court. Her father, the old king, had changed her into a human and given her to the Gold King as a slave. The poor sot Oberon, King of the Golden Court, never knew that his seed would be stolen and his one opportunity to have a child stolen.
She’d come back pregnant, just like the old devil had planned. But she’d come back changed, with the Morrigan to fight for her and the crone to take revenge. The king hadn’t lasted long, and Aeval had become queen. And the crone. Haddon shivered. The crone had seen through Haddon like he’d been glass. It had taken years for him to gather the courage to put his plan into action. If the old woman figured out he’d been drugging the queen, not just to control her, but to eventually kill her and replace her, all would be lost. He’d have to flee the court and his plan of being king would be gone. If she left him alive.
“My lady, please.”
“What are you going to do about this, Haddon? This is entirely your fault. You thought giving the chit to Bosco as a lover would keep her passive, but now she’s gone and you are the one responsible.”
He had no idea where they’d gone. No one had seen Cassie since the night before. In the chaos of the court arming for battle and heading to the rendezvous point, she could have easily slipped away. But why would she want to? Was it simply that the queen had taken Bosco away?
“Are you listening to me?”
He jerked his attention back to the queen.
She leaned over, looking into his eyes from the height of her throne on the dias, so close a tendril of her hair brushed his cheek, searing his skin with its touch. “My Lord Haddon, you have only one chance to stay in my good graces. Get out of this castle and hunt her down. And if you see that scroungy Bosco, bring him back too. I want to cut off his balls myself. One at a time.”
He bowed low. Years of first being her whipping boy, and then her servant, and finally her advisor had taught him never to show what he was feeling. Outside his face was passive. But inside, oh yes, inside his mind was a mass of churning rage.
Cassie would pay. Bosco would pay. And finally, the queen herself would pay.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Bosco picked up another log and carried it over to the fire. He hadn’t told anyone this story, ever. It was too close to home. It made him too vulnerable. But tomorrow he would turn Cassie over to her fate and he would take his power boluses and go north to face the Winter Queen. He owed it to her to give her some of the reasons why he couldn’t steal her away.
And he owed it to her from his own face. He dropped his glamour, and then started his story, stripping himself of his last defense.
“I come from a land ruled by another powerful queen. The White Queen. She’s different from the Black. Older, stronger. More controlled. Slowly she’s enlarged her territory until she’s taken over all of the north. She’s even used the mists to add new lands to her holdings. She’s held power for several millenia using fear and sacrifice as her weapons.”
He placed the log on to the burning pile and added another. He wasn’t doing a good job of this. How could he tell her what it had been like to grow up in the cowering villages under the Winter Queen?
“It’s a hard life up north. The people are used to earning what they need. Doing without when they must. And what the queen wants, the queen gets. The villages tithe food and animals to her, but she takes more. Once, every hundred years, the villages are required to send a special sacrifice to the queen.”
He’d been young. So painfully young.
“What do they send?”
“A boy. An adolescent boy. Just old enough to think he’s a man.”
“What happens to them?”
“No one talks about it. They’re safe for another hundred years. That’s all they care about.” Even now the taste of bitterness on his tongue was a surprise.
“But you know.” She got up and came around the fire and sat next to him. Her body heat was warm against his thigh. But not warm enough to erase the memories.
“I know.” He stared into the flames.
“Bosco?” She slid her hand into his.
“I’m sorry.” He linked his fingers with hers. It was strangely comforting. “It was exciting. In the month of the ivy there were games, and I did well. The judges evaluated us. I was so proud to be chosen, but my older sister, Siobhan, was furious. I made fun of her. Told her she was just jealous that the queen didn’t take girls, but after I’d won she’d seen through me to how scared I was inside. For a whole year I was the king of the land. There were parties. I had my pick of food and clothes. Girls flirted with me. Grown women flirted with me. I forgot to be scared. Then the month of the holly came—and so did the queen.”
Cassie squeezed his hand and he squeezed back.
“She was beautiful. She rode in on a white sleigh drawn by snow white reindeer and she brought her court of finely dressed lords and ladies with her. Her eyes were like blue ice and she was much smaller than the other women. She almost seemed childlike. She had a basket of snowballs she tossed to the children that turned into flowers. There was singing and dancing. I’d never seen so many people in my life, and it was all for me.” It had made him feel special and strong. He was going to be a member of that glittering court. He would be one of the men riding on the pure white horses with the flashing eyes and sharp hooves.
“What happened?” Cassie’s voice was quiet.
“She took me to the White Court.”
“Were you scared?”
“Yes. I was very young. I’d never been away from home before and the lords and ladies of the court had powerful magic. Much more powerful than the rest of us. You may not know it, but the Courts are held by right of power. Siobhan held my hand until the crowd took me. She said if it was horrible, she’d come get me, no matter what. She gave me a token to call her by. But I laughed at her. I said the queen was beautiful and it must be lovely at court. We’d seen the hunting parties ride by. In a thousand years none of the other boys sacrificed to the queen had ever come home, why would I?”
“But it wasn’t lovely, was it.”
He shook and she squeezed his hand tight. She was so warm. Even now the cold from the icy north could steal the heat from his bones.
“No,” he whispered. “It wasn’t lovely. But I wasn’t aware of that for a long while. I believed she loved me and what she did to me was out of love. And at first she was gentle. Then she wasn’t.”
He’d never talked about it. The first few weeks the queen had been gentle, but for her it had all been just a game. She’d taken her time. Wooing him with sweets and games and pleasure un
til he’d do anything for her. And then, she’d asked for more. Taken more. He’d learned the cruel side of sex. And learned she’d never loved him at all.
“The queen be-spelled me so I didn’t look behind the facade. Until I grew nearly into manhood and became too old for her. She’d used all of my youth, taken everything I had. Then she tossed me to the rest of the court and laughed at me when I begged to return. That was when I woke up and called to my sister to come get me.”
Siobhan had come, but the queen had been too strong.
“In the end the queen gave Siobhan a choice. One of us could go, but not both. She wouldn’t give up her sacrifice, even if she had tired of me. My sister chose to free me. It was terrible. I lost my temper. I argued. I wouldn’t have her go through what I’d been through. The queen laughed. She said what I’d gone through was nothing compared to what the men of the court would do to Siobhan.
“But I begged her. If she’d ever cared anything for me, to free my sister I told her I’d do anything. I’d go to the ends of the earth. I’d fight her to the death.”
He’d never forget begging the queen to let his sister go. The things he’d promised. Her blue eyes that he’d thought so pretty, were chips of ice in her cold, cold face. But it was too late. It had become a game and she loved games.
“She froze Siobhan into a pillar of ice and gave me a hundred years to the day to see if I could become strong enough to free my sister. And if I don’t show up this year on the day of the summer solstice to challenge her, Siobhan will be killed.”
“So why haven’t you gone back and saved her?”
“I wasn’t always this powerful. And my Gift of glamour is nothing compared to what the White Queen wields.” He let her hand go. “You asked me why I do what I do. I get paid in power. Dribs and drabs. Some so small that no one even thinks of what they’re paying. But it’s added up and I have enough now. Enough to take on the icy bitch, kill her, and save my sister.”
“And the hundred years?”
“It’s nearly time.” He stared up at the moon. “I turn you over and my contact hands me the last of the power I need to take down the White Queen. And then I go save Siobhan and repay the debt I owe my sister for coming to save me.”
Only a few inches separated them, but Cassie could see the distance in Bosco’s face. He was remembering his sister, frozen in ice. The victim of the Winter Queen.
His story pulled at her. She’d been so angry at him. He’d colluded with Haddon and kept things from her, but she’d only thought of his actions from her point of view. She hadn’t really understood why he’d done the things he’d done.
She’d used him to get out of the castle, used him to help her meet up with her sister and the prince. She thought she’d known who he was. But now, looking into the sorrow in his face, she felt like she saw beneath the final layer of his facade and into his heart. For the first time, she knew who he really was—not just the reflection he portrayed to the world.
She reached out her hand again and laced her fingers into his. He turned, surprise written on his face.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“It was a long time ago, I don’t talk about it.”
“But you still feel it. It’s driven you all these years.” It had stolen his life. He’d been driven to do nothing other than what he had to do to save his sister. “Once you realized you didn’t have enough power to fight the queen you could have forgotten about your sister. Moved on. Many people would have. It must have seemed impossible.”
“Siobhan didn’t forget about me.”
He was a deceiver. She’d hardened her heart to him when he’d betrayed her to Haddon. She’d told herself she couldn’t depend on him. But tomorrow she’d be on her way to her sister and the prince. And Bosco had trusted her with the story of his heart. She shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t want to take away his pain, share some part of herself with him. He had so many layers, she’d almost missed the true heart of the man underneath the exterior.
She reached up and touched his cheek. “Kiss me.”
He shuddered. “You shouldn’t trust me,” he said.
“I know. Kiss me anyway.”
Suddenly his mouth was on hers, hot, hungry and impatient.
She leaned into his kiss, wanting the intensity of his hunger and the need she sensed beneath his skin. He devoured her, his need set loose. As if something had broken free within him. This was what she wanted. This passion and fire. She’d sensed it between them from the beginning—she’d thought they’d had it before. But how could they, when she hadn’t known who she really was and he had hidden himself so well?
They fell back off of the log and onto the grass. She ripped at his clothes with impatient fingers, tugging at lacings and strings and buttons until he pushed her away and stripped himself naked.
“You too.” His voice was harsh and strained. “I want to see you. All of you. The real Cassie MacElvy.” There was a rush and a tingle and she touched her own face again. Not her human face, but the face that she’d grown used to seeing as hers. This was her now. Fae on the exterior, and human, maybe more than human, on the inside. She picked up the end of a braid, still studded with feathers and silver, but now her own lovely shade of red.
She fumbled with her own unfamiliar clothing, the light armor proved too much and he came over, his body limned in the moonlight. He stripped her down, his mouth streaking fire along her skin with every exposed inch.
She pulled him back down to the grass, pushing him flat and straddling him. “I want to kiss you everywhere.” She tongued his neck and down the cords of his muscles. “I want to show you how hungry you make me when you touch me.”
He shuddered under her touch. “Yes,” he ground out. “Kiss me everywhere.”
And she did.
She stroked and touched and pleasured along the six-pack she’d admired by the pond, skimming along the flat line of his stomach and down the treasured trail to his cock. She wanted to show him that women could love out of wanting to give—instead of wanting to take. She wanted to give. Everything.
She took him in her mouth, playing with his tip and wrapping her fingers around his base. Gripping him tightly she stroked him up and down, with her hand and her mouth and her lust.
He groaned and reached for her. “I want to taste you, come here.” She reversed her position, straddling his face and nearly lost her focus as he sucked her trigger into his mouth. His fingers dug deep into her thighs. And she lost it, riding his mouth as she sucked him into hers.
“Too much, too much.” She pulled off. “I want to come with you inside me. I want to come together.” She climbed on top and slid onto him, easing him into her tight warmth.
And a cascade of emotion raced through her.
She’d been so lost, first without her memories, thinking she was mourning her parents’ loss. Then, afterward, realizing she was a stranger in her own body and she might never see her family again. But this time with Bosco, now that she’d seen into his heart, now she knew, this time felt like coming home. She knew who she was, and it felt amazing. Her body was hers. Despite the fractured-crystal eyes, pointed ears, and exotic cheekbones, she was Cassie MacElvy, psychic, witch, sister. One of the last of the MacElvy’s of the seven Gypsy tribes.
“Cassie,” he ground out, and she reveled in the sound. She rode him, loving the power in her legs and her stomach, the way she could control his every gasp.
He gripped her hips, moving her, taking over, and she let him. Her orgasm cascaded over her. And she let everything go. Her fears. Her worries. All of it lost in the rush of Bosco.
Bosco watched Cassie’s face in the moonlight. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed. Goddess, she was lovely. He’d seen her as a human in her memories, but this was the Cassie he knew. With an elvatian’s tipped ears and sparkling crystalline eyes. But if she ever went back to human he’d still know her, by the sweet honesty in her touch. She rocked through her orgasm and he loved watching every seco
nd, every change on her face. And every pulse of her wrapped around him, pulling him into her.
“Wow.” She leaned back over him and grinned. “Now it’s your turn.” She moved up and down his length, her long red braids flowing over her breasts and trailing across his chest. It was all he could do to watch her and maintain his control so he could string out time. He didn’t want to finish. He wanted to stay like this forever, a honeybee caught in an amber moment.
Her strong thighs kept moving and she clenched her muscles. She made a soft aroused sound. And that was it. His orgasm surged through him, breaking his self-control. Everything poured into her, his seed, his Gift, and finally, his love. She’d broken every barrier he’d ever erected around his frozen heart.
He pulled her down to him and they lay in the grass, her head nestled on his shoulder and he hung on to her.
All those years ago he’d thought watching Siobhan being turned into ice had killed his emotions, but he’d been wrong. It had just walled them up inside, so deep he’d forgotten they’d ever existed. Now they rushed through his body, unchecked and unrepentant. So powerful he had no idea even what to think, let alone what to do.
In the morning he’d lose Cassie in order to save Siobhan. He would hand her over so he could gain the last of the power he needed to save his sister. And it would kill him.
For the first time in nearly a hundred years he thought about what he truly wanted. What he would do once Siobhan was free. And he realized none of it mattered without Cassie.
He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t turn her over to someone who would take advantage of her like the queen and Haddon had done. Like the Winter Queen had done to him. On the outside Cassie looked elvatian, but she was still a very human witch underneath with a human’s weak powers that couldn’t stand up to the dangers of Underhill. And the fae.
Enchanted: A Fae Fantasy Romance (Fae Magic Book 3) Page 20