by Helen Harper
‘Well,’ Julie said, ‘I’m very glad to see you breathing free air.’ She checked her watch. ‘I don’t have long. I’m supposed to be at the studio in the next hour but perhaps we could arrange to meet for another attempt at dinner in the near future.’ She threw me a sly look. ‘Sorry, Mads, darling, but perhaps without you joining us.’
I pouted, as if I were crestfallen at not being invited to play gooseberry. I was genuinely surprised that she was suggesting a re-match with Rubus because she had already played her first role for today and lured him out of the building. I’d expected her to let him down gently and say she was too busy to meet him again.
For his part, Rubus was eager to agree to another date. ‘Thursday night?’ he enquired. ‘I know a wonderful little steakhouse. Now I know more about who you really are, I feel it might be more up your alley than Italian. You can order your rib-eye blue and bloody.’
I grimaced but Julie just smiled. ‘Excellent. I’ll get Mads to give you my address. You can pick me up.’
He raised his eyebrows suggestively. ‘It will be my pleasure.’
She turned and went back to her car. Rubus and I watched as she drove off.
‘I have to say, Madrona,’ Rubus murmured, ‘you do have your uses from time to time.’
I curtsied. ‘I’m glad to be of service.’
He smiled absently, his mind clearly on other things, then he turned to head back inside. I followed at a slower pace, trying not to look tense. Maybe if I took my time everyone would assume I really enjoyed the rain, especially when it made my hair all frizzy and dripped down my neck.
Fortunately, Morgan stepped up to the plate and chose the perfect moment to appear. Rubus had only just reached the pavement when his voice boomed out.
‘Maddy!’
I froze, as if stunned into inaction. Rubus whipped round and glared. Like we were playing out some ancient Western film, Morgan was standing in the middle of the road less than fifty feet away with his hands by his sides. I couldn’t prevent a shiver of delight. Planned or not, it really did feel like he was breaching the barricades and risking his life to rescue me from the clutches of the dastardly evil overlord.
I raised my hand to my mouth but made sure that my gasp was still audible. ‘Morgan? What are you doing here?’
Even considering how carefully we’d planned this moment, I still half-expected him to pull out a gun from his non-existent holster so that he could defend my honour properly. What he actually did, of course, was simply stride towards me – and what a masterful stride it was. I was genuinely enjoying myself as I watched him approach.
Rubus wasted no time in stamping his way towards me too. He reached me at the same time as Morgan. ‘Brother,’ he hissed.
Morgan’s lip curled. ‘You’re no brother of mine.’ He looked at me as if dismissing Rubus entirely. ‘Are you alright?’
I nodded. ‘I’m good.’
‘Pleased to hear it,’ Morgan growled. He took my arm. ‘You’re coming with me now.’
Rubus narrowed his eyes. ‘No, she’s not. Madrona is mine. She stays with me.’
‘Not happening.’ Morgan pulled me into him, using his body as a barrier between Rubus and myself. It was a shame this was all just play-acting. I hoped that one of the Fey crowd who’d come out from Rubus’s hide-out and were staring at us from the safety of the pavement would take out a phone and record our little show. I’d enjoy watching it back later.
Rubus sneered. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, little brother, she dumped you.’
‘The old Madrona dumped me,’ Morgan returned. ‘The new Madrona is different. She’s forgotten how you manipulated her. She’s like her old self again.’
‘Is she?’ Rubus asked. ‘Because she’s had plenty of opportunity to scurry back to you. She could have left me for you on any number of occasions but she’s still here. She’s still with me.’ He said this last part suggestively, as if there were far more to our relationship than there actually was.
An angry light appeared in Morgan’s eyes – and one that I didn’t think he was faking. ‘You have enough people, Rubus. You don’t need her as well.’
Rubus smiled nastily. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t need her. But you do. And for that reason alone, she’s staying with me.’ He looked at me. ‘Aren’t you?’
I licked my lips. ‘Um…’
‘Don’t forget,’ Rubus said, ‘there are things I know about you that you don’t want little Morganus here to discover.’
Morgan growled. ‘What things?’
‘Take her,’ Rubus said, ‘and you’ll find out.’ He stepped back and folded his arms across his chest. ‘Go on, Maddy. Let’s see just how much my brother really wants you when he discovers the whole truth.’
Even though I was certain that he was referring to the fact that it was my actions that had trapped us here, I felt a genuine tremor of trepidation. Were there other atrocities I’d committed that I didn’t yet know about? Truth be told, Rubus could probably say anything and we’d have no way of knowing if he was lying or not. Stupid amnesia.
I looked from Morgan to Rubus and back again. ‘I don’t know,’ I whispered. ‘I think I’m better suited to Rubus.’
‘I don’t care what you’ve done, Maddy,’ Morgan said. ‘Whatever it was, it is in the past now. You have nothing to feel guilty about. You have to stop blaming yourself.’
I was no longer sure where the line between acting and reality was. I stared at him and the truth reflected in his eyes. He turned away from Rubus and took my hand, kneeling down in front of me.
‘I’ll prove it to you,’ he said softly. ‘I’ll prove to you how much you mean to me.’ He reached into his pocket and drew out a small box. It wasn’t the same one that we’d acquired from Mendax. This version was even smaller. It was also covered in velvet.
‘Oh, this is priceless!’ Rubus said. ‘Are you actually going to propose? You know she’ll turn you down. You’ll be humiliated in front of everyone again, Morganus.’
Morgan didn’t pay his brother any attention. ‘I can’t imagine a world without you in it,’ he said to me. ‘You know we can be so good together. I’ll help you get past whatever turmoil is going on inside you. I can help you be a better person. We’re so much stronger together than we are apart.’
Rubus snorted. ‘Madrona doesn’t want to be a better person. She knows who she is. She’s already a fabulous person, a fabulous person who is loyal to me.’
I stared into Morgan’s eyes, melting into their green depths. Then I swallowed. ‘Morgan, you’re a great guy,’ I began.
Rubus crowed. He already knew what was coming.
‘But I don’t think we belong together.’
Go me. It was a shame Julie wasn’t still here. If she were, she’d already be declaring her retirement from acting forever in the face of my Oscar-winning performance.
‘It’s not you,’ I said, gesturing helplessly. ‘It’s me.’
Morgan’s body tensed. To anyone looking, it would have been because he was desperately hurt by my rejection. At least, that’s what I hoped.
‘We can still be friends,’ I continued.
‘You can’t,’ Rubus interrupted.
I ignored him. ‘And part of me will always love you, even though I don’t remember you.’ I sighed. ‘The fact is, I’m just not good enough for you.’
‘Now you’re lying,’ Rubus scoffed. ‘You know that the opposite is true.’ He put a hand on Morgan’s shoulder. ‘You’re making a fool of yourself, bro. Give it up and go home.’ He couldn’t disguise the glee in his voice.
Morgan’s head dropped. I bit my lip. He was overdoing the rejected suitor part, I decided; he wasn’t the type to be so publicly devastated. Fortunately, however, it didn’t last long. In one swift movement, he thumbed open the box, twisted round and flung the oath breaker into Rubus’s face.
The blood-red squidgy gloop attached itself to Rubus’s cheek. He yanked himself back, his hand immediately rising upwards. H
e scrabbled at it, trying desperately to scrape it off. ‘What is this? What have you done?’
Morgan stood up and backed away. ‘Nothing more than you deserve.’
Several Fey ran over, hands flailing in panic. ‘Get this off me!’ Rubus roared at them.
Amellus reached up, clawing at the oath breaker in a desperate bid to remove it. The harder he tried, the more it seemed to embed itself. ‘Where’s Carduus?’ he bellowed.
The oath breaker sank deeper and deeper into Rubus’s skin. I stepped forward, as if I were trying to help, but Morgan shoved me back. ‘What have you done?’ I screeched. ‘You’ve hurt Rubus!’
Morgan’s eyes glittered. ‘Clearly he’s all you care about. You can have him.’ His lip curled. ‘It won’t be for long though.’ He tossed the box to the ground.
‘This was never about me,’ I whispered. ‘This was always about him. You were expecting me to say no.’
‘Because you’ve not changed at all, Madrona. If anything, you’re even worse than you were before. You were a means to an end. That’s all.’ He cast me a disparaging look. With his back turned to the others – and to the still-yelling Rubus – only I could see the flicker of pain in his eyes. He was losing his grip on his role.
‘Fuck off out of here,’ I snapped.
‘Before I do…’ He spun round, curling his fingers into a fist to punch his brother. His hand stopped in mid-air and he emitted a brief, strangled growl of pain. My insides tightened. It wasn’t working yet, then; the damned oath breaker still hadn’t done what it was supposed to.
‘You’ll pay for this, Morganus!’ Rubus shouted as Carduus finally appeared and started to drag him away to relative safety inside. ‘Just you wait and see! You’ll pay!’
I glared at Morgan, hoping that the others were watching me. Then, without a backward glance, I sprinted after Rubus. We’d done it. And no one suspected a thing. Stage one complete.
Chapter Twenty
Several Fey barricaded the front doors as if Morgan were about to storm the building. Carduus half carried, half dragged Rubus through the corridor towards the lab. I followed, hot on their heels. Before I could enter with them, however, Amellus jumped in my path and glowered at me.
‘Only Carduus and Rubus inside.’
‘But he’s hurt!’ I yelled. ‘I want to make sure he’s alright, you lumping zounderkite!’
He folded his arms, an implacable statue. I lunged past but he sidestepped in time to stop me. Gasbudlikins. I wanted to make sure the oath breaker was going to start working. I couldn’t do that from out here.
‘Are you okay, Mads?’ Lunaria asked behind me.
I turned to her. Her face was pure white. ‘I’m fine,’ I said shortly. ‘Rubus isn’t, though. I want to make sure he’s okay. What was that thing that Morgan threw at him?’
She shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’ Her head dropped. ‘Why did you do it?’ she mumbled. ‘Why did you choose Rubus instead of Morgan?’
I could prevaricate and blurt out reasonable sounding excuses to the others but somehow I didn’t think they would work with Lunaria. She was in love with Rubus. I suspected she recognised the same emotion in me, albeit for a different brother. Then I paused. Was I in love with Morgan? What a ridiculous notion. I wanted to shag him senseless, sure. Love was… I shook my head. Nah. I didn’t love him. I probably wasn’t even capable of such a feeling.
‘Maybe the others know what that thing was that Morgan threw,’ I said, ignoring her question. ‘Let’s see.’ With a final, evil-eyed stare at Amellus, I grabbed Lunaria’s arm and whirled back down the corridor.
We entered the kitchen. Faeries of all shapes and sizes were hovering there, anxious looks on their faces.
‘What was Morgan doing?’
‘Has he found a way to break the truce?’
‘If Rubus dies, we’re all lost. We’ll be stuck here forever!’
One by one, the mingling Fey fell silent as they saw me. I glared at them. ‘What? This isn’t my fault!’
I still received several nasty looks. Good grief – what exactly did I have to do to get this lot to trust me? ‘You idiots couldn’t pour water out of a wellington boot if the instructions were on the side,’ I sniped. ‘You were there and you didn’t do a damned thing to stop Morgan. He forced me back but what was your excuse? When Rubus recovers he’s not just going to be disappointed in you. He’s going to—’
Amellus appeared in the doorway, interrupting me in mid-flow. ‘Boss wants you.’
I stiffened. ‘Is he alright then? Has Carduus managed to get that crap off his face?’
‘You’ll see.’ He jerked his head. ‘Come with me.’
My heart in my mouth, I trailed after the lumbering faery. I still managed to give the other assembled faeries a sneer of dripping disparagement before I left though. ‘Rubus wants me,’ I said to them smugly. ‘It’s obvious who he thinks is worthy of him now.’
Several faces blanched in response, Lunaria’s included. I tossed my head and caught up with Amellus. ‘I told you I should have been allowed into the lab. I’m one of you guys,’ I said. ‘I’m not the freaking enemy!’
Amellus didn’t say anything. He shuffled down the corridor and pointed me in. I stuck out my tongue at him as I entered. This was going better than I could have hoped for.
The lab door closed behind me. It took me only a second to realise that there was no sign of either Carduus or Rubus. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. Where exactly had they gone?
‘Hello?’ I called, in case they’d decided this was an excellent time for a spot of hide-and-seek.
No one answered immediately then I heard a groan. Carduus appeared from behind one of the tables, helping a pale-looking Rubus to his feet. Man, Rubus looked like death. He also had a red stain on his cheek where Morgan had thrown the oath breaker. If I squinted, it looked oddly like the shape of the British Isles. I wondered if it would serve as a permanent reminder of the temporary home that Rubus was effectively seeking to destroy. Talk about poetic justice.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘Does he look okay?’ Carduus snapped.
Rubus raised his head, his bleary green eyes meeting mine. ‘I don’t feel well,’ he admitted.
Blimey. For Rubus to confess to a weakness meant he had to be feeling really off colour. That was good news indeed.
I put on my best sad face. ‘I don’t know what Morgan thought he was doing. How could he hurt you with the truce in place?’
‘For all his selfless posturing, my brother is a selfish bastard,’ Rubus croaked. ‘I don’t know what he’s done to me but I have no energy. I don’t understand why he’s so determined to keep us all trapped here.’
His knees buckled slightly. I rushed to his opposite side to help Carduus keep him upright. It was probably better that way; Rubus wouldn’t be able to see me rolling my eyes every time he opened his mouth.
‘We have to leave,’ Carduus said. ‘For all we know, Morganus is on his way back with an army. He’ll do anything to keep you down. We can’t let him take advantage of you when you’re in such a weakened position.’
I was confused. ‘But the truce—’
‘If he can attack Rubus, he can attack any of us!’ the older faery yelled. ‘We need to get everyone together and get out of here.’
‘Nowhere else is ready,’ Rubus said. ‘And there’s all this stuff to move too.’ He waved a weak hand around, indicating the bottles, dried herbs and nonsensical potions.
‘We can come back for everything when it’s safe.’ Carduus raised a bony finger in my direction. ‘In fact, she can stay here and guard it. Even if Morgan comes back, he’ll leave her in peace.’
‘I don’t know if you were paying any attention,’ I drawled, ‘but I’m pretty sure Morgan is over me. He faked a proposal just to get at Rubus.’
‘All the same, it’s obvious he still has feelings for you.’
Rubus nodded. ‘He’s right. I know now that I can trust you properly
, Madrona, so I’m going to trust you to stay here and look after everything. The rest of us will move back to our last place out at the docks. When I give the all-clear, we’ll come back and pick you up, along with our belongings.’ His gaze held mine with a surprising amount of intensity for someone who still looked as if he were on the verge of collapse.
I shrugged. ‘If that’s what you want.’ I could hardly argue. Now that I’d finally managed to sneak my way back into the inner circle, I’d have to act like a loyal minion. It wouldn’t be for much longer; I reckoned I could cope for another day or two.
‘Good.’ A brief gleam crossed Rubus’s eyes. He jerked his thumb at Carduus. ‘Spread the word. We’re moving out.’ His voice hardened. ‘I’ll deal with my brother when I feel better.’
***
All of Rubus’s faeries left with surprising swiftness. I stood at the door, waving them off. Most of them ignored me but one or two, sensing the winds of change, gave me a smile.
Rather than traipsing out with the others, Lunaria paused by my side. ‘Listen, Mads,’ she said. ‘There’s something you should know.’
Amellus appeared. ‘Move.’
For what was possibly the first time in her life, Lunaria squared her shoulders and stood up for herself. ‘I’m talking to Madrona.’
‘No, you in’t.’ He pointed towards the door.
‘Give her a break,’ I told him. ‘She’s only chatting.’ I watched her curiously. Her expression was taut and I sensed that she had something vitally important to tell me.
Amellus stood his ground but he needn’t have bothered. A second later Rubus appeared, still supported by Carduus. He gestured to Lunaria and, eyes wide, she ran to his side. ‘You look terrible!’ she gasped. ‘What did he do?’
‘I’ll explain everything on the way,’ Rubus said. He offered me a crooked smile that was reminiscent of Morgan. The twinge I felt in my chest prevented me from calling Lunaria back and, all too quickly, all three of them were out of the door and stepping into a sleek black car.
Amellus, who still hadn’t moved a muscle, flashed me an ugly smile. ‘We’ll be seein’ you.’