Indebted to Faerie

by WB McKay

  My jaw worked up and down, my brain not sending it any coherent words to say.

  Belinda had no such problem.

  Her tirade was so vile it made me blush. Suffice to say that she advised The Morrigan to do several very improbable things with various orifices. When the insults were done, she finished by saying, "If you think you are keeping her in your presence for another moment longer, you are even more delusional than I originally believed. From what you've said, she's more than fulfilled her obligation to you. She is free to go, and going to be doing so promptly. And before you go on about the training she still needs to complete, I know you've realized by now that she's pushed her abilities as far as possible and would learn nothing more from training with you. As a matter of fact, working with you would probably hinder her use of magic as you would have little use for her healing ability, and little idea of what her death magic can accomplish." Belinda tipped an invisible hat. "We are so done with you."

  The Morrigan had been impassive throughout Belinda's tirade, and Owen's smile grew with every curse word. He already liked Belinda. I was sure he'd be insisting on weekly meals at her house after this.

  I was trying to ignore Aengus, but he made it difficult. He'd been hopping from foot to foot for a while now. He appeared to be torn between annoyance and happiness. I had no idea why.

  "If I interpreted that inane nattering correctly, you are not mistaken. Sophie's debt to me has been paid in full." The Morrigan's smile returned. "But that does not mean she will be leaving. She is now almost my equal and ready to rule at my side."

  A raucous laugh with a hint of mania echoed through the room. After several seconds I realized it was mine and everyone was staring at me. "Wow, you really must be out of your fucking mind. You got me to come to Faerie and put me in a shitty situation where I succumbed to my worst impulses. None of that makes us buddies." I brushed past Aengus, and stared The Morrigan down. "I may have some inclinations to behave terribly like you, but we are far from the same. I realize that my actions have been wrong and I am working to change them. I will never be like you, and nothing you do to manipulate me will ever change that."

  With that said, I turned my back on The Morrigan, effectively dismissing her, and centered my attention on Aengus. His eyes darted from me to her a couple of times, then I heard the rustle of hundreds of feathers signaling her departure.

  "You didn't have to be rude to your mother," said Aengus. "She is making room for you in her life."

  I cocked a brow at him and he looked me straight in the eye. He wasn't joking. "Oh, is that what you were doing when you locked me away in a tower?"

  Aengus shook his head, and I saw both Owen and Belinda step forward to come to my defense. I waved them off. "You were injured and had lost consciousness," he explained. "I've kept you safe."

  He really was a master of wordplay. That would have sounded like a plausible reason to put me under guard. I could tell that there was something else he wasn't saying though. "So, if you were doing it for my own safety, why wouldn't the guards release me?" I nodded as if accepting his answer, then followed it up immediately with the next question. "And how long were you prepared to keep me in there for my own safety?"

  "Indefinitely," he replied, not even a hint of shame coloring his features.

  "You don't even understand how messed up that is, do you?" I asked.

  "I would do anything for those that I love," he replied, lifting his chin.

  "Including locking them away from the rest of the world for the rest of their lives," I clarified.

  "Yes," he agreed. "You've gotten into a lot of trouble in a very short amount of time. You need protection, even from yourself. I'm your father, it's my job. I love you, Sophie."

  "I could just barf, that's so disgusting—on so many levels. If you love me so much, where have you been for the last twenty-five years?" I jabbed a finger into his meaty chest. "I always figured you didn't know I existed or were dead. What else would keep a father from his daughter for that long?"

  Aengus's brow wrinkled in what appeared to be genuine confusion. "Twenty-five years? That is but the blink of an eye to one such as myself, your mother, and you. I have missed hardly anything of your life. How does missing the time in your life where you were drooling and unable to communicate equate to not loving you?" He puffed up his chest. "I didn't put you down when I saw that you were upsetting the balance of order. There is no greater love I could have shown you."

  There was that laughter again, bubbling up out of my chest. "Wait!" I coughed a few times and got myself under control. "Are you saying that by not murdering me to protect your precious 'order' you were showing your love?"

  He sniffed. "I wouldn't expect someone as young as you to understand."

  Owen stepped up behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist. "Come on, Sophie. Let's go. You don't need to hear any more of this."

  I allowed myself to be pulled away and Belinda's arms immediately wrapped around my free side. Several guards stepped in our path and then dispersed. I imagined they'd been waved off by Aengus, but I didn't turn around to see.

  "Home?" Belinda asked me.

  "Home." I sighed happily. "We'll have to stop by the clansmen's castle first."

  "That's on the way," Owen assured me.

  "But why?" asked Belinda.

  "I have a friend to check on." Graulfv would have gone home after everything happened. Even if he hadn't assumed I'd go to find him there, he'd always return to The Morrigan. There was no fighting that with him; that' was just who he was, and I was his friend regardless. I'd have to apologize for surrounding him by those black dogs, and maybe warn him about the redcaps that would be on their way. "Also, I left a book there for you." I kissed Owen on the cheek. "Did you know there's an On Seelie Fae?"

  "You can't mean—are you serious? You found a copy of On Seelie Fae?"

  I nodded happily. "I thought you'd like that."

  "You can't be serious." He talked for a while after that about the book and how he'd tried to find it over the years. Belinda and I shared a look of amusement. He was really geeking out about it.

  Eventually, after a good ten minutes of walking through the castle, I sensed we were finally nearing the exit. That's when my body jolted upright with the sense that I was forgetting something. It only took a heartbeat for my hands to move to my hip and shoulder.

  "What's wrong, Sophie?" asked Owen. "Don't worry. I don't think he's going to try and capture you again for the moment."

  "It's not that," I said. "You guys head on out. I forgot something upstairs. I'll meet you outside."

  Owen looked from me to Belinda, his brow wrinkled with uncertainty.

  Belinda took him by the hand and pulled him toward the door. "I think we'll want to be as far away from the castle as we can. She'll catch up."

  He looked between us again, and took in what I was sure were our matching grins. He shook his head, knowing there was no sense in arguing when he was outnumbered. "Fine, but if you're not out in ten minutes, I'm coming in after you."

  I bolted toward the set of stairs to our left and called back over my shoulder, "If it takes me half that long, I'll let you plan our next one hundred dates."

  Four minutes later, I was jumping out the same window I'd used to steal Aengus's armor with a half dozen guards leaning out after me. Strapped in their usual places at my hip and back were Epic and Haiku. I didn't care where they'd come from. I'd cared for them for ten years; they were mine. I wasn't about to let Aengus sully our relationship. The matching spears that I clutched to my chest? Let's call that a tax on assholes who thought they could lock me up for all eternity.

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  A Note From the Author

  Thank you for reading Indebted to Faerie. We promise, we're always working on the next one. The best way to keep updated is to sign up for the WB McKay newsletter at McKayManor.com. Everyone who joins gets an exclusive free copy of Born of Faerie, a prequel to Bound by Faerie that shows Sophie's first case at MOD. Our newsletter is the only way to get this book, so sign up now!

  - Faith and Robert (WB McKay)

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  The Stolen Magic series so far:

  Bound by Faerie (Stolen Magic, #1)

  Reaped from Faerie (Stolen Magic, #2)

  Hidden by Faerie (Stolen Magic, #3)

  Immersed in Faerie (Stolen Magic, #4)

  Abducted by Faerie (Stolen Magic, #5)

  Indebted to Faerie (Stolen Magic, #6)