The Thrice Marked

by Liddie Cain

  “My ass has arrived,” he snarked, his bright spring-green eyes glinting amusement. I would have laughed and given him the flirtatious response he deserved if Meredith was not trying to press Mac into her service at that moment.

  “Help him,” I said quietly, but we were far too close for me to be able to whisper any secrets around the supernatural senses of the immortal beings around me.

  “Macory doesn’t require help, King of the Unseelie. He is simply making his pledge to the archdemon of his dominion.”

  I felt Mac staring at me and met his gaze. He mouthed that he loved me as Meredith spoke to Conall.

  “Does he do it willingly?” Conall asked. Me and Mac were still looking at each other and I gave him a little nod, not wanting to mouth the words back since Meredith could see me. He stood and slid his arm around Meredith’s waist.

  “I do. Meredith has demonstrated what enormous power we could have together and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted,” Mac said and Meredith molded herself against him afterwards. He ran his hand up her back and took her into his embrace without hesitation. Only his face, which she could not see, showed the tension he was feeling. He gave Conall a wide eyed glare and gestured towards me with a slight tilt of his head.

  Meredith lifted her head. “And what of Roz?”

  “My feelings about Roz haven’t changed, but as I told you, we are not monogamous. Conall has arrived for their date, as you can see.”

  She turned to look at Mac as if she were examining him for honesty. Conall reached out and took my hand, lifting it to his lips and brushing his mouth against my knuckles. It made me shiver. He knew that it would get that kind of reaction out of me and that Meredith would see it. Even knowing that he had done it for her to see, there was a heat in his gaze that made my pulse skip.

  “Interesting, but you cannot keep her Conall. I have plans for her blood just as I’m sure you do.”

  “Of course,” he responded. He turned, taking off his crown and his jeweled cloak and handing him to the guards behind him. “Please deliver these back to Court, you have done your duty and ensured I arrived safely. I have my dinner plans with my lady Rozalyn and her parents for their formal blessing on our courting.”

  I spared a desperate look at Mac while Meredith was watching Conall. He gave a slight shake of his head, letting me know not to save him. I let Conall guide me out the front door, but couldn’t help myself as I held Mac’s gaze until the last possible moment. He blew me a kiss with only his lips right before the door closed and I responded with a small smile despite having to fight the urge to bring him with us.

  Once we were off of the porch and in my parents’ SUV, Conall spoke quietly, “Go get Darby. Macory will play this game with Meredith and try to keep your people safe. We will go to my world immediately, the longer he must keep her happy the more things he will have to do that he will not like.”

  I gripped my hands together in front of me as Dad back out of the driveway. My fingers clenched white together as I tried to not be overtaken by anxiety. The success of this mission into Fairy would mean saving all of the men that held my heart. I was starting to feel the pressure.

  “Will Mac be okay?” Mom asked as we drove back over to Darby’s house.

  “I think so. Meredith wants him to work with her so she will try and keep him happy,” I responded.

  Conall was sitting in the back seat with me and he reached over and touched my knee before saying, “Your parents are not aware of what we have planned.”

  “Right,” I breathed out then scooted up closer behind the passenger seat where Mom was sitting. “You two are going to travel with us and remain at the Unseelie Court as Conall’s guest. Mac is afraid Meredith might try to use y’all as leverage to get her way. I don’t think it has occurred to her yet but it’s just one less thing for him to have to worry about.”

  “Certainly,” Dad instantly replied.

  “Are you sure?” My mom asked nervously.

  Conall turned his gaze to her face. “You will be very safe. The members of my Court will treat you with great respect for the gifts that Rozalyn has given us.”

  “Gifts?” Dad asked.

  Conall looked at me and I quickly answered, “Conall and one of his nobles temporarily gained some lost abilities when they drank my blood.”

  “Because of your angelic essence?”

  “Yes,” I answered him.

  “Not everything was temporary. When I drank from you, it brought new magic into the Unseelie Sithen itself which has not faded,” Conall said.

  “Really? You hadn’t told me that.”

  “I will show you when we arrive.”

  Mom had grown quiet and I knew she was worrying. I reached up and laid my hand on her shoulder. She responded by laying her hand on mine and squeezing. “I know you’re scared, but I need to find Felix,” I told her softly.

  “And you know I’ll worry anyway. Just stay careful.”

  “I will.”

  Conall gave me a nod of reassurance when I glanced at him as we pulled into the driveway at Darby’s house. Jason was waiting on the porch. I hurried from the car to his waiting arms and he swept me off my feet and held me firmly against his chest. Sylvia opened the door behind him and I listened as they all assembled in the kitchen around the roving candle that Conall had brought from my parent’s house.

  I tucked my face into his neck and breathed in the familiar scent of his skin. My exhale came out on a sob. “I didn’t get to tell Mac bye. He was having to cuddle up to Meredith.”

  “He knows what you feel, baby girl. You’re his little Dove.”

  I gripped him harder. He eased me down to my feet and got my face in between his big hands. He kissed me reverently, reluctant to pull his mouth from mine. He spoke with our lips only a breath apart, “Come back to me soon. Come back to us soon.”

  “I will. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” I pressed my lips against his again and he let me cling for one more moment before guiding me to where Conall, Darby and my parents stood. Sylvia laid one last kiss on Darby’s lips before stepping back and linking her fingers through Jason’s.

  “I’ll miss you, Sylvie,” Darby whispered as the smoke from the roving candle had started to thicken and swarm around us.

  “You’ll be back before you know it, Cutie,” Sylvia replied. Her face held that beautiful and elegant smile she always wore, but I saw how tightly her fingers gripped Jason’s. I knew they would take care of each other.

  I raised my eyes to meet Jason’s gaze as the smoke started to obscure our vision. I expected it to be as normal smoke that irritates your lungs and braced myself. But it smelled faintly sweet and didn’t try to invade as I breathed in. I couldn’t see Jason’s face anymore, then I was no longer grounded.

  My body was weightless and nothing. There was no sensation of movement. It was as if I were suddenly in a dream that was only a void. I had no awareness of anyone or anything around me. The only thing I could cling to was myself and my own mind. I had no voice or mouth to speak with. There was only that consciousness that made me left.

  It all came back in stages. My feet were on the floor. I could blink my eyes and lift my hand in front of me. The atmosphere around me was something tangible again and I felt Darby shift to the side and brush her arm against mine. Light pierced through the veil of the smoke and then it was gone and I was myself again.

  We stood in what appeared to be a study. There were many high backed armchairs that begged you to sit down with one of the many books that lined the shelves on the walls. A tall Sidhe woman stood beside a desk and curtsied as we appeared in front of her. She straightened and clasped her hands in front of her. Darby’s hand grabbed mine and I clung to hers. Somehow I knew that she was feeling the same sense of wonder and anxiety mixed together. In fact, I strongly knew that we were feeling the same.

  We looked at each other with wide eyes as I quickly said, “Me and Darby can feel each other’s emotions.�
��

  “Not a surprise, neither of you are exactly mortal.”

  He looked to my parents who were not paying attention to us. They were gazing around them with expressions of awe. Conall cleared his throat and looked at the Sidhe woman by the desk. “Some clover oil for Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, please Treda.”

  “Yes, my King.”

  She pulled a small blue vile out of a draw of the desk and walked over to Dad. Darby looked at me again as Treda applied the oil to keep my human parents from being so overwhelmed by the magic of Fairy.

  “Feeling you so closely again makes me suddenly realize how much I was missing it,” Darby said quietly.

  “Me too. I get glimpses in the human world, but here it is like a constant companion like it was when we were angels.”

  “I get nothing as a human,” she said with a small sigh.

  “Rozalyn, I wish to show you the magic you gifted us,” Conall said, holding out his elbow for me to slide my arm through his. I smiled and let go of Darby’s hand then stepped over and took his arm. My parents had been protected by Treda by then. They still looked around but they were themselves and followed with Darby as Conall led us out of the study.

  We walked into a large sitting room with two sets of double doors on either side of us. Conall pointed to the left and said, “The doors to my suite.” He turned and walked to the doors to the right. They were opened as we approached them by a guard who must have heard us coming. We exited into a hallway that was purple carpet with gold floral designs. The walls were a very light grey toned wood paneling and the ceiling appeared to be a fog of glowing light which kept everything illuminated.

  “Hallways are in between places. The Fae have an affinity with magic of such things. In the Sithen, hallways are enchanted. If you do not enter with a sense of where you are going then you will continue without reaching a destination. With a destination in mind, the doorway you need is always close.”

  “So there is no defined layout to the Sithen?” Dad asked.

  “There is. There is just no defined path for the hallways.”

  Dad seemed to accept this and nodded seriously. I glanced back over my shoulder to watch his face and could see the excitement under his carefully guarded expression. It suddenly occurred to me that my parents could have passed for Sidhe, one of the high born Fae.

  They were both tall and fit. My mom’s dark hair and younger-than-her-years-face left her looking ageless. Dad’s hair was a dirty blonde like mine and it hardly showed the grey sprinkled through it. At six foot, he stood a few inches taller than Mom. They worked out daily. Dad’s strong jaw and high cheek bones made him almost aristocratic looking.

  Darby stood in between them and looked like a fairy princess walking down that hallway. Those deep red curls framing her pale blue eyes and flawless complexion with her tall and willowy frame made her look like she belonged in mythological legend. I had one of those sinking moments as I walked arm in arm with the Unseelie King that I was surely not enough. His interest was not for my appearance and he had not gotten to know me much as a person. The only thing about me that intrigued him was what power he gained through my immortal blood.

  Darby had noticed my darkened expression, paid attention to the turn in my emotions that she could sense again, and I felt her touch my back. “Are you okay, Roz?”

  “Oh, yeah.” I looked back at her again and smiled. “You know you look like a fairy princess walking down this hallway with your hair and your pretty eyes.”

  Mom and Dad both smiled in response. Mom said, “Yes, darling. You look like you could live here.”

  “All of you do,” I said.

  “Roz,” Darby dragged out my name, “Tell me you are not standing there thinking you pale in comparison. I can feel it, you know.”

  Conall stopped walking, all of us stopping with him. He directed that inhumanly bright green gaze at me, his surprise quickly followed by a look of set determination. “If you think that my only interest in you is what benefits your blood supplies, you have clearly not been paying attention.”

  “I know I am not eye catching, it’s okay.”

  My parents both made noises of dismissal. Conall held up his hand to shush them then took hold of the tops of my arms. I rushed to speak as he took in a breath, “It’s okay, I promise. I’m not unfortunate looking, I realize that. It’s just a pity party from being surrounded by all you works of art.”

  A smile broke across his face and he shook his head. “Unfortunate looking. And is the Mona Lisa any less of a masterpiece because she has dark eyes and hair? She has entranced the human world for over 500 years with that quiet enigmatic smile. Your kindness seeps out from your very skin. Your dark eyes shine when you are teasing me. Your laugh crinkles your adorable nose. Perhaps when you stand before a mirror you see something average, but you hold a quiet elegance and an enthralling innocence that has nothing to do with that drop of immortality in your veins.”

  It stole my breath. “Conall, that…”

  “That was romantic as hell,” Darby inserted when I found myself speechless.

  “Yeah, that,” I responded.

  “But not the place to have such intimate discussions. Just know that telling Meredith of plans to court you was not all in jest for me,” he said as he released my arms. He gestured behind him with a sweep of his hand. “Our stop is through this door.”

  We followed as he opened the door. I was still lost in the emotion of what he had just said and my eyes remained on his profile as I walked through the door. I was very aware of how close his broad frame was. The air between us could have sparked with the sudden tension when he looked down at me as I hesitated in the doorway. It wasn’t until Dad let out a low whistle that I actually looked around me.

  The Fae filled the large banquet hall. Sidhe, tall and lean, hundreds standing quietly beside the long tables that ran down the length of that cavernous room. Other creatures of Fae also watched us intently. Pixies hovered mid air to get a better view, their bodies obscured by their various bright balls of light that emitted as their wings flapped tirelessly. Short statured Corrigans in robes of white were child sized versions of the Sidhe nobles around them. Green Maidens with their delicate beauty huddled together in elaborate green gowns with trains that trailed several feet behind them. Goblins whispered back and forth between themselves, their fur covered torsos bare. They varied in size and color and some had tails, or canine like whiskers, or both. Translucent figures floated along the far wall with ghostly Sidhe features watching us, my past life memories recognizing them as Fuath.

  Fairy dogs and fairy cats lazed on the floor between the tables waiting for some kind of eating to begin. One white cat sat perched on the throne dais which sat on the back wall in the middle of the room. Conall pointed above the dais. “We are keepers of the night.”

  A moon hovered around six feet above Conall’s throne. It looked real except for being about the size of a VW Beetle. The night sky hung like a phantom curtain behind it, obscuring the wall or perhaps it had become the wall. Stars glinted in the darkness.

  “The Dark Court, the Light Court, we are the nocturnal creatures of Fae as they rule the day, Roz. There was no division of good and evil. Just similar sleeping patterns.”

  Dad and I both looked at him in wonder. He smiled. “Fairy is tied to nature. Good and evil have no definition with the Earth. A foreign concept to a creature of Heaven, yes?”

  I nodded, “Yes.”

  “Look above, Roz.”

  I looked up at the impossibly tall ceiling. The room could have held a 10 story building. It really was like a rock hewn cavern at the top. Bird-like creatures danced through the air with long curly tail feathers of white and silver. Their bodies were black, their wings scarlet and white. “They had left us. When I drank from you, our Trooping Lune flock returned to us. Their song is magic and calms an angry soul. One cannot raise the will to fight when in their presence.”

  “A warm peace in the night,” Dad whispered.<
br />
  “Yes,” Conall replied.

  “You brought them back, I only gave you a little boost.”

  One suddenly swooped down in front of us. The long feathers made it nearly as tall as me as it flapped its great red and white wings in front of me. It looked at me with night sky eyes that glistened with a bright star for the pupil. A crown of silver feathers graced its delicate head. It held a red and white feather in its beak and extended its neck as if it were offering it to me. Conall gestured for me to take it.

  I grasped the red and white feather and the bird allowed me to take it. It let out a little happy chirp then vaulted back up to the ceiling again. It was a flight feather off of their wing as long as my forearm.

  “A favor bestowed on the one who helped bring them back from the void.”

  He walked us across the banquet hall to the throne dais. The room grew loud as all the Fae started taking their seats at a gesture from him to sit down. “Gwina?” He called as he walked up to his throne.

  A short woman the color of a pecan walked over to me. Her face was wrinkled and there was no nose, only nostril holes. She was a Brownie. Her hair was done in elaborate braids that twisted up into a bun. “Allow me to style the feather into your hair, Lune Weaver.”

  “Lune Waver?”

  “Yes, it is what some of the Court members have been calling you once I explained what had happened.”

  “It is a compliment,” Gwina told me with a quirky smile. She took my arm and led me up on the dais where more regular looking chairs sat on either side of the throne. I took a seat and Gwina quickly pulled the top part of my hair back. Another male Brownie had taken Darby and my parents to sit at one of the long tables. I watched Dad immediately introduce himself to the Sidhe lord he sat down beside and start asking questions. One of the Green Maidens sat down across from Mom and Darby and started talking to them. Fairy dogs started collecting around them to sniff these new human smells.

  “There you are, Lune Weaver.” She pulled a mirror out of the thin air beside her and held it up for me to look at. I caught my stunned expression in the reflection, to which she just winked at me. She had left half of my hair down and put two braids on either side of my head with the top half. They met at the back where she had designed a braided knot which the feather wrapped around the base of.