“And what are you going to do to stop me? Your strength fails you because you are too weak to feed from humans as you should. If I want what you have, I will take it. I don’t think your mother would do much to stop me from solving this problem.” He sneered over his shoulder in my direction, clearly suggesting I was the problem. “She would probably thank me.” He reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me up to my feet before him. “Now, where were we, Faye? I think you were just about to promise to take Christine’s place, weren’t you?” The arrogant gloating in his voice was suffocating.
“I…I…” I babbled incoherently like a child. Everything had happened so fast, and I couldn’t really think of a way out of the situation I was in. I had planned on Dayne rescuing us like he always had before, but that didn’t appear to be an option. “I…I just need to say good bye to Dayne,” I looked to Garyn pleadingly.
“Weak humans,” Garyn disdained, and tossed me toward Dayne. He walked over to Christine and took her in his arms. It was the tiniest second of broken concentration, but it was all Dayne needed.
In an instant, he was by my side, and I stepped into his arms.
“Yes, Garyn, you may be stronger than me, but you’ll never be faster,” he said and leapt easily up to a tree branch with me in his arms. “Or smarter!” he added spitefully, as he slung me to his back and took off into the canopy.
I clung to Dayne’s as he swung through the treetops like Tarzan. He sprung off trees and just as I thought we would crash to the ground, a vine would find its way into his hands and we would swing further away into the distance. I couldn’t look down. The ground passed by too quickly and made me dizzy.
The sounds of a stream gurgled up from below and Dayne sprang from tree to tree, back and forth over its waters as it flowed along through LisTirna. When he finally stopped, we were perched on top of a rock that leaned out over the waterfall feeding the stream he plucked the wishing pearls from.
“Do you trust me?” He asked as he tightened my legs around his waist and held them securely in place.
“Yes,” I answered.
Before the “s” was out of my mouth, he sprung forward into the air, his arms out to the side, his legs out behind in the swan dive of a professional swimmer. We hung in the air, suspended in time as we began to freefall to the water below. We didn’t fall at a normal speed. Again, it was as if gravity didn’t exist in this world, and we slowly drifted to the water below like slow motion. The second before we hit the water, Dayne’s body spun beneath me so I lay against his chest.
We plunged into the water, and in an instant he was pulling me to the soft green grass of the bank.
“That’s better than a carnival ride!” I said laughing with disbelief as I looked at the waterfall towering a hundred feet above us.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he began to look me over.
“I’m fine, what about you?” I said running my hands over his face and arms, amazed that there were no scratches or bruises anywhere on him.
“I’m fine.” He pushed my hands away and stood up. “Why did you go with him? Did you not recognize him?” Dayne grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet. I crashed into his side when he turned to look at the top of the waterfall to be sure we hadn’t been followed.
“I thought it was you,” I said wide eyed, shaking my head and turning around to face him. “I didn’t follow him. I followed Cotton into the woods. I didn’t think…” I grabbed my forehead with my hand rubbing at the temples as I tried to forget the cold blue of his eyes.
“He was Cotton?” Every bit of emotion drained from Dayne’s body and his head slowly turned to me.
“Yeah, why?” I whispered, knowing already that I didn’t want to hear his answer. Dayne’s eyes closed and he began to rub his own temples.
“That means he’s been watching us.” I watched the words fall slowly from his mouth as if in slow motion.
“I have been watching you.” We both jumped when Garyn’s voice rang out from the trees around us.
Garyn emerged from the cover of the forest and Dayne stepped in front of me, shielding me with his own body. The fear that had subsided surged back through me. This wasn’t over.
“You are faster, Dayne, but you are also predictable. You’ve gotten soft in your years as a human. Fighting you isn’t nearly as much fun as it used to be.” Garyn adjusted the sleeve of his shirt causally as he approached.
Dayne’s jaw clenched in anger.
“What do you want with her, Garyn? Why won’t you leave this alone?” Dayne’s arm reached protectively around me, and he crouched low, readying himself for an attack.
“Isn’t it obvious?” He tossed his hands dramatically into the air as if Dayne were stupid for not knowing his motives. “I want her because you want her.” He shrugged a shoulder and tossed his head in my direction. “And losing her will make you suffer.”
“Why do you want me to suffer?” Dayne shook his head as he stood back up to his full height. Dayne was bigger than Garyn, but I could tell by the size of his muscles, and the battles I’d witnessed, that Garyn was a warrior, too.
“Why do I want you to suffer?” Garyn snorted with disbelief. “Come on Dayne, you aren’t that stupid. I would never bow down to a king as unworthy as you, someone who would change our ways and the lives we live. Neither would the rest of LisTirna.” Garyn’s face twisted as if the thought made him violently ill.
“I don’t want that crown any more than you want me to have it, Garyn, but it isn’t our decision to make.” Garyn was circling us now, and Dayne moved expertly with him as he stalked us looking for an opportunity to pounce. “I would gladly leave this world to you if I could.”
“See? That’s exactly what I mean. You would betray this world just as easily as you betrayed your best friend.” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t deserve to rule over this world anymore than you deserve my forgiveness.”
“That was ages ago, Garyn. Isn’t it time you let our past go?” I pulled at the loosened folds of Dayne’s shirt as I moved to stay behind him. What had Dayne done in another age to make Garyn hate him so much?
“Uh–uh. I still owe you one for your betrayal, my friend.” Garyn’s lips snarled as he hunkered down before us. “And taking her from you might just make us even.”
“Never. Not while there is breath in my body,” Dayne hunkered down low like Garyn, fists clenched at his side.
Garyn laughed to himself as he circled us. “You always were stubborn, Dayne.”
“And you were always jealous.” Dayne’s voice was low and threatening.
Garyn let out a guttural growl. Dayne continued in the circle until his back was facing the safety of the woods. I looked up to the tree line where I saw Christine watching us. Without looking at me, his eyes fixed on Garyn, Dayne pushed me toward the safety of the trees. I knew what he meant and ran as fast as I could to the cover, not looking back until I reached the woods.
I realized how right Dayne was about this place. At first glance it had seemed perfect, but I hadn’t been here 24 hours, and it was quickly becoming an eternity in hell.
Dayne leapt at Garyn like a pouncing lion, and again the two men were rolling around on the ground, trying to defeat the other in some sick, twisted version of mortal combat. I couldn’t stand to watch this over again.
“Stop!” I finally screamed out when I couldn’t take it any longer. Dayne stopped and looked to me. Garyn seized the moment grabbed him around the neck in a chokehold. “No!” I screamed even louder when Dayne struggled for the breath that Garyn was squeezing out of him. I knew Garyn’s strength would kill him in an instant. There was no way he could escape from Garyn this time. It was all up to me.
“Stop! Please don’t hurt him. Please don’t. I’ll do it. I’ll do what you want. Just don’t hurt him!” I began to sob and Garyn eased his grip around Dayne’s neck.
“Faye, no!” Dayne managed to spit out as he gasped for the breath he needed to live. Immediately, Garyn’s gri
p tightened again.
“You’ll do what Faye?” Garyn asked as he walked over to me, dragging Dayne behind him.
“I’ll do what you want. I’ll take her place,” I said as the tears streamed down my face. I looked to the ground below me and realized I was giving myself a death sentence if Dayne wasn’t right about my powers. If I agreed to this and didn’t actually possess elemental powers, I was giving up my mortal life. But it somehow seemed worth it. I could save Dayne and Christine. All I had to do was say the words, and they would both be free.
“Christine?” Garyn called her name and in an instant she was by my side, reaching for my hands. The warm softness of her fingers slid into my palm. I thought about Mary, how happy she would be to have her daughter home. Then I immediately thought about Rose and how devastated she and Phin would be to find me gone.
I pulled my hands back and looked up at Christine. She smiled at me just as sweetly as she always had. Is this what I would become? Some dream-walking Barbie doll that didn’t have a clue about what was happening to her? It was funny how that thought gave me comfort. At least I would be blissfully unaware of what was happening to me, about where his foul hands rested on my body. Bile rose up my throat when I imagined his lips lingering on my neck, just as they had on hers.
I blinked the haze of my tears away, looking into the cold eyes where I saw not a single drop of remorse. He was nothing like Dayne, clinging to the old ways of protecting innocence. He would use me up and throw me away like a dirty needle if I didn’t have the power to get away from him. Dayne looked up at me from where Garyn held him at his side, tears in his eyes, too, as he did his best to shake his head to tell me no.
“I’m sorry. I’m doing it because I love you,” I said through my sobs and reached again to put my hands on Christine’s.
“I…I will stay…”
“What is going on here?!” A new voice boomed just before the final word that would have sealed my fate slipped from my mouth. I sucked my breath in to keep even the first sound of that dreadful word from leaving my lips.
“Arabette!” Garyn immediately dropped Dayne and fell to his knees. “My Queen!” Dayne sprung from his grip and landed beside me.
“Get up off your miserable knees, you pathetic thing. Do not mistake my brother’s weaknesses for my own.” Arabette’s voice dripped with a regal contempt for the miserable subject before her.
“No, your majesty, really…I was doing it for us. I only meant to replace Christine. Her power is almost gone and this one would be such a pleasurable addition.” He stumbled clumsily over his own lies. For once, I was glad to see Arabette’s fire turned on someone else.
“Shut up! I have no patience for your lies.” Arabette stormed into our midst with the fury of a hurricane. Garyn cowered against the ground for protection. “She will not remain in LisTirna. I do not want anything to remind me of my brother when I am Queen.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Garyn said. Ara turned to face us.
“Why is he calling you Queen, Ara?” Dayne asked as he pushed me behind him again. “That is treasonous talk while Mother still wears the crown.”
“Because he knows, as does the rest of LisTirna, that I am the only logical choice after mother has learned of your treason against our people. Mother will have no choice but to make me queen now that she knows the extent of your disloyalty.”
“Mother would never be so foolish. Even I know that.” Dayne answered glancing from Arabette back to Garyn amazed to see him cower before his sister like a fool.
“Not without a little help she wouldn’t.” She reached out with a foot and kicked Garyn away from the hem of her gown like a peasant. “But you’ve done that all on your own. All I had to do was bring your sins to light.” Ara crossed her arms over her chest and studied her fingernails, the smile of victory on her face. “You see, after Garyn told me about his little…” she looked up as she searched for the right word. “ … run-in with you at the festival, I knew your crown was as good as mine. It was only a matter of time before your weakness for the human made you break our rules. Mother would never forgive your betrayal. Exposing us to an outsider is unforgivable.” Ara sighed and shook her head as she looked at me.
“Loving her does not doom me. Mother will see that she is one of us. I have done nothing wrong.” Dayne’s eyes wrinkled to tiny slits and he glared at his sister before he turned and walked away from her, guiding me along before him, no longer afraid to turn his back on her.
“Oh, please, Dayne,” she yelled out behind us and Dayne turned, shielding me behind his massive back once again. “She obviously isn’t normal, but there is no way she is one of us. Look at her? Cowering behind you? She has no Sidhe blood in her veins if she refuses to face me.” I shook my head and let a little of the steam that had built up in me release in one long gust of breath. Dayne chuckled, slightly amused by my anger and didn’t try to stop me.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said as I stepped from behind Dayne and faced Arabette. “You don’t have a clue what I’m capable of.”
“Ooooohh…I’m really scared,” Arabette said, cowering in front of me sarcastically. “Look at you, trying to defend Dayne like he is yours. Please, it’s pathetic. You don’t even know Dayne,” she said as she walked over and picked up my bracelet. She laughed before she released it back to my side. “Besides, he is bound by his duty here. He can only promise you forever in LisTirna.”
Her words felt like a slap in the face.
“Dayne, what is she talking about?” I asked, turning my head slightly in his direction, but not taking my eyes off her.
“You don’t know?” Arabette turned on her heel and looked from Dayne to me with utter delight. “She doesn’t know?” She asked as she turned to Dayne again. Dayne’s head hung down, and he shook it slowly. She threw her head back and cackled like an evil queen, haunting peals of laughter escaping from her perfect throat. I wanted to yank every strand of blonde hair from her head, but settled for tearing into her creamy skin with a razor sharp glare. “This just keeps getting better and better,” she said and rubbed her hands together in delight, circling us for effect.
“Dayne is bound to the Queen. At any moment she can call him back. And... POOF!’” She clapped her hands together, and I jumped in my skin. “He’d be gone, leaving you all alone.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said shaking my head, stepping back to Dayne, and taking his hand in mine. “You’re lying.”
“No sweetheart, he’s lying when he promises you forever. That decision is not his to make. His promise to the Queen trumps all.” Her hands were on her hips and she leaned into me to be sure her words struck exactly where she was aiming them.
“Dayne?” I looked at him now. He raised his head to look at me and then hung it down again. “Oh, don’t look so sad.” She reached out and lifted my chin with a finger. Dayne did nothing to keep her away. “All is not lost. You could be the key to everyone’s happiness, Faye.” She came even closer, encouraged by Dayne’s lack of protection and circled her arm around me, pulling me along with her. “If you tell mother that Dayne revealed our secrets before he had any clue you were anything more than human, she will have no choice but to deny Dayne’s succession to the throne for such disloyalty. Once I am Queen, I will gladly banish you and Dayne from ever returning to LisTirna.” She stopped and turned me so I could see Dayne over her shoulder. His head still hung down, shaking slightly like he was trying to forget his promises in this world. “So see?” She smiled at me and whispered in my ear like we were friends as she followed my gaze to Dayne. “We all win. I have my crown, and you have Dayne and the real world. It’s practically perfect, isn’t it?” She squeezed my shoulders in an almost hug, raising one eyebrow as she waited for my answer.
I was just about to agree to her plan. It sounded perfect. Everyone would have what they wanted. Everyone but Dayne. There was no way he could continue to live in my world. He was growing weak, and every day in my world broug
ht him one day closer to the inevitable. I couldn’t love him in my world. I could only lose him.
It was an impossible decision to make, but in the end I really didn’t have a choice. There was no way I could drag Dayne back to my world and watch as he suffered. I loved him too much to do that. There was only one solution.
As I stared at Ara and weighed my options, the sound of bells began to echo through the forest. Every head snapped to attention at once, and cold fear swept all my swirling thoughts away.
Daoine had decided.
Chapter 28
It’s All In The Game
“Show time,” Arabette said and winked her beautiful jeweled eye at me. The warmth of Dayne’s hand fell into mine as he walked by, and I thought about how much I would miss his touch. The remorse of everything we hadn’t done settled on my shoulders already slumped in defeat. The thought of having to let go of the future I had planned for us was unbearable. I stifled the sobs in my throat—not wanting to give away my decision and risk him trying to talk me out of it— as we walked back through the woods to the stone alter.
The entire population of LisTirna was gathered to hear our fate. A beautiful congregation of supermodels and animals watched as we approached, some craning their swan–like necks to get a glimpse of me, others leveling dagger–like glares at Dayne. Garyn and Christine fell into line with the others, Garyn’s eyes narrowing to rigid slits as Dayne passed. I reached out for Christine’s hand, giving it a quick squeeze. She continued to stare at Garyn, not even noticing me. I would find a way to take her with me.
I stood staring down at the amethyst stones before the ornate alter, my body curled around Dayne’s strong arm. Arabette posed with a hand on her hip and a haughty stare at our side, eagerly waiting for the right moment to seize her crown. The eagle and fox watched us approach from their perch on the altar, transforming in beams of light when the movement of the crowd silenced.
Daoine walked over to me and picked up the arm that wore Dayne’s bracelet. Her other hand reached out and grabbed the matching key that hung around my neck.
Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Page 41