by Sarina Dorie
A snort behind me startled me. I glanced over my shoulder, finding Thatch leaning over me. He was shaking with silent laughter.
“I didn’t say you could come in yet.”
“This is why . . . why you didn’t want me to see him.” He burst into peals of laughter. He leaned against the wall to keep himself from doubling over. “What did you convince him to do? Where a latex condom?”
“No. It was lambskin. But something was wrong. It must have had some kind of lubricant or something on it.”
He laughed even harder. “Maybe it wasn’t organic.”
“You aren’t helping. I need to cure him. You said his father would accuse me of trying to kill him. Were you serious about that? Or was that just a ploy to get a good look at what I’d done and entertain yourself.”
He cleared his throat, snickered again, and regained himself at last. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. “I wasn’t toying with you. You’ve buggered up worse than ever.” He crouched beside me.
He must have seen the worry in my eyes because he went on. “Sit down next to him, and we’ll see what we can do. Don’t expect a miracle.”
I sat in the cold puddle, trying to find a comfortable place next to Elric. I followed Thatch’s instructions, cuddling against Elric’s side. I closed my eyes and stroked his naked chest. I tried to find my affinity within myself. It wasn’t charged and thrumming like it had been earlier. I meditated, but nothing happened.
Thatch’s warm hand closed over mine. I opened my eyes. He crouched beside me. His expression had turned grim. “You need a jump start. Try again.”
I closed my eyes. I was acutely aware of Thatch stroking my arm. It was bad enough he’d had to touch me alone in his bedroom to heal me, but it was ten times worse that he did so right beside Elric. He couldn’t have made Elric more jealous if he’d tried. I could only imagine how this was going to go down when he bragged to Elric about it later.
Thatch squeezed my shoulder, not unkindly, but firmly enough to get my attention. He nuzzled against my ear, thrills jolting through me as he did so.
One side of his mouth lifted into a sardonic smile. “What are you thinking about? I’d wager it has nothing to do with healing.”
I suspected that was a rhetorical question. He swept my damp hair away from my neck. His hands were warm, but shivers ran through me. My affinity fluctuated in an arrhythmic dance.
Thatch slipped a hand inside the loose sleeve of the bathrobe, fingers exploring my upper arm, my shoulder, and a ticklish edge of skin near my armpit. His hand crept closer to my breast, awakening dormant desire once again. I tried not to judge myself. I needed to let go and welcome the magic, no matter how I made it happen.
This was Elric’s life on the line. And I didn’t want his penis to fall off.
Thatch kissed the back of my neck.
The pressure cooker of magic inside me exploded. An immense burst shot out of my limbs, feeling like lightning. The moment it shot into my arm, Thatch’s hand clamped over my wrist, stopping the charged energy. He contained the surge, cooling the simmering electricity and transforming it. I observed and imitated what he did. The more we worked, the more the energy felt foreign and Fae, like something that didn’t belong in me. My magic matched Elric’s temperature, his essence, and his frequency. It felt like sunshine and moonlight and angels dancing on clouds.
This is what Thatch had meant about synchronizing.
When Thatch loosened his grip on my wrist, a trickle of this energy flowed out of me and into Elric’s chest. Elric gasped and flinched. I didn’t open my eyes to gauge his reaction. I just kept visualizing the healing flowing into him, bathing his skin and sinking into his flesh. Even without looking, I sensed the cooling ablution reducing his inflammation and soothing his pain.
Elric drew in a long shuddering breath and relaxed as he exhaled. I continued the healing magic for several more minutes, but the longer I worked, the foggier my head felt. It grew more difficult to concentrate. Elric stirred underneath my hands.
I opened my eyes to find him watching me. His eyes were half closed. The corners of his lips curled up into a smile. “Has the prince been rescued by his white knight?”
My heart swelled with relief seeing Elric safe and smiling. I kissed his cheek and squeezed him around the ribs. He lifted an arm and draped it around my shoulders, his movement sluggish and uncoordinated.
I peeked under my wadded-up nightgown. The blood was gone, as were the open wounds. His skin wasn’t black, but one would have thought he’d caught some kind of venereal disease from the mottled surface, swellings, and lumps. Still, it was a better sight than before.
Carefully, I lowered the fabric, not wanting the nightgown to chafe him.
He clasped my hand in his and placed it on my knee. “You need to stop giving me so much of yourself or you’re going to drain yourself again.”
I turned my head to see what Thatch said to this, but he was gone. Elric didn’t mention Thatch, so I assumed he didn’t know he’d been present. That was one less conflict I had to endure.
Thatch had been . . . selfless. I hadn’t expected that from him. My relief was as short-lived as everything else good in my life.
The captain of Elric’s guard showed up a few seconds later. Jeb stood at his side. The principal was dressed in a long white nightgown that looked like it belonged to another era. He wore a cap on his head, and one side of his beard was flattened. The right half of his mustache remained curled. The other drooped.
I artfully arranged my nightgown over Elric’s crotch to save what was left of his dignity.
“What is the meanin’ of this?” Jeb hollered.
So much for not getting in trouble with the principal.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I Dream of Gin
“I demand to know what Fae are doin’ on my school grounds.” Jeb stabbed a finger at me. “I told you I would fire you if you kept seein’ that prince. And now you’ve done it. You’ve forced my hand. You’ll be packin’ your bags tomorrow.”
I shook my head, trying to figure out an excuse before he fired me.
Captain Errol rushed over, elbowing me out of the way. He kneeled beside Elric. “Your Highness! What happened to you?”
“It’s all her fault,” Elric said quickly. “She attacked me.”
“What?” I asked. “No. That’s not what happened.”
Jeb looked from me to Elric, brows furrowed.
Elric nodded weakly. If this was his idea of a plan, it was a bad one. I was still unsettled by the idea of a Fae king accusing me of purposely attacking Elric and giving him an excuse to snatch me.
“Quite sorry,” Elric said with a forced smile as he looked to Jeb. “I shouldn’t have come in unannounced after my date with Miss Bloodmire, but I was so overcome with desperation at being denied courtship with Miss Lawrence that I decided to take the matter into my own hands. I broke in and thought I would surprise Miss Lawrence while she was in the shower. But she must have thought I was someone else, and she attacked me.”
Jeb turned to me. “What in tarnation? You attacked a Fae prince? How’d you manage that?”
I now understood where Elric was going with his story, but it didn’t put me at ease. “I don’t know. I was scared. I lost control.”
The guard stood, glaring at me. “His Royal Majesty will hear about this.”
King Viridios was the last person I wanted to know about this. “It was an accident,” I said. “It was lotion from a plastic bottle. It burned him. That’s not a crime.” I desperately scanned the shower stall for some Morty-made shampoo to blame, but this wasn’t usually the stall I used. My Herbal Essences must have been one shower over.
“Our king will judge this crime,” Captain Errol said.
“Oh, will he?” Jeb asked. “Then I reckon he’ll see we were in the right. Prince Elric had no business breakin’ into my school. He’s to blame for this attack on himself.�
�
The guard rounded on me. “You’re a wicked little Witchkin who should stick to her own kind.”
“Errol!” Elric said. “That’s enough. She can’t be held accountable for attacking me when she probably thought I was someone from the Raven Court or some other Fae. Truly, the fault is my own. I should have minded Principal Bumblebub’s decree in the first place. But I allowed my heart to overrule my better judgment. I’ve learned my lesson. It won’t happen again.”
I hoped Elric debriefed the captain later about what had truly happened so that he wouldn’t hate me forever. Then again, I hoped he wouldn’t explain all the sordid details.
“Damned straight it won’t!” Jeb said. “You ain’t never steppin’ foot inside this school again.”
“I do apologize for giving you a fright, Miss Lawrence.” Elric leaned against his guard, looking exhausted. “And I do hope Principal Bumblebub won’t take this incident out on you when I was the one at fault. Surely anyone reasonable can see that.”
The problem was, Jeb wasn’t reasonable. Khaba had always been the reasonable one. If only he worked here still.
Jeb crossed his arms and grunted.
“But I must confess,” Elric said. “This entire incident has left me feeling out of sorts. I’m afraid I won’t be able to go to that whiskey tasting I had intended to go to.” He sighed overdramatically.
“Is there anyone else you can think of who might like those tickets?” Elric stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Does Miss Bloodmire drink? Or Mr. Thatch? Perhaps one of them would care for those tickets?’
“Get the hell out of my school.” Jeb jerked a thumb toward the door.
That’s when my brilliance came to me in a spark of inspiration. A way to kill two birds with one stone. “It sounds like no one here wants those tickets. I know someone who likes to drink whiskey.” An embellishment. The man I was thinking of preferred Bombay Sapphire Gin. “Mr. Khaba likes to drink. I wonder if anyone would be able to reach him and give him . . . a ticket.”
Elric’s eyelids drooped closed. “Nothing like a little bit of whiskey . . . to help tame a . . . demon.” His voice trailed off.
Captain Errol grabbed his master under the armpits and heaved him up. Two more guards stepped out from behind Jeb to assist. I squirmed back. A school shower was not meant for this many.
The fabric covering Elric fell away, revealing his wounds. Captain Errol glared at me. I’d never known Elric to be shy about his nudity, but I suspected his ego wouldn’t be able to endure the scrutiny of his injured manhood.
Elric leaned against his captain, groaning and shaking himself. They took baby steps toward the exit.
Jeb cleared his throat. “By the way, what day is that whiskey tastin’?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
My Big Fat Fae Family
Even after my healing, Elric remained bed-bound for days. He wrote to me every day, but I worried what might happen if he hadn’t recovered by the time of his father’s ball. In our secret code, he finally wrote to me to meet him in the forest at noon.
There were so many worries on my mind: my impending doom if I didn’t prove my love, Elric finding out about Thatch teaching me healing by using sexy magic, and my growing confusion over what I felt for Thatch.
Thatch hadn’t taken advantage of me when he easily could have in either of those healing sessions. Did that mean Elric had been wrong about him all along? Perhaps Thatch had never kissed me or touched me. He had said he hadn’t. Did I believe him? Or Elric? Someone was lying.
It filled me with shame that I might have accused Thatch of doing something that he hadn’t done, and now he only looked at me with hurt in his eyes. At breakfast and lunch with Imani he said nothing to me. I hadn’t even seen him at dinner.
I followed the path to the forest to see Elric, the winding trail leading me to the canopy bed next to the pond. There were no mermaids today. Elric reclined against a mountain of pillows. He wore loose flowy clothes that for once left everything to the imagination.
I climbed into the bed, hugging and kissing him.
“Now, now. Not too much of that. I’m not completely recovered.” He clucked his tongue at me.
“Will you heal?”
“I shall, but it will take some time. If I was one to owe debts to people, I might profess proclamations of gratitude.” He grinned impishly. “Fortunately, I try not to put myself in such predicaments. Shall we discuss the details of the ball?”
I nodded. “You need to tell me what to expect. How will they make me prove I love you?”
He stroked my hair, his lids heavy with fatigue. “My family is Fae. They will use you to entertain themselves. It’s nothing personal, that’s just the way they are. Try not to think too poorly of them for it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Remember, we are going to prove to my father that you love me so you can be free of the contract. They are going to try to test you and to stump you. I will keep them from physically enchanting you if they should try, but you will need to be prepared for their questions. They’re going to ask you things like, ‘If you loved Elric, would you do anything for him? Would you jump off a cliff for him?’ You can’t say yes to that because if you do, they’re going to insist you do so. If you say no, they’ll claim you don’t love me, which would mean you didn’t accomplish what you said you would, and I now own your soul.”
And his father owned anything in his possession, so he would own me and use me.
“Tricky,” I said. “By any chance, you don’t happen to have a list of questions they’ve asked former girlfriends and late wives, do you? It would be handy to use as a study guide so I can think up responses ahead of time.”
“I’m glad you asked.” He reached into his breast pocket and removed a piece of rolled-up parchment.
As he uncurled it, I realized it was quite lengthy.
“Shall we begin?” he asked.
It wasn’t just that the Silver Court would test my love for Elric. They also would be curious about me. I had piqued their curiosity at the last ball. They would want to know what I was. If I was alone for a second, they would test my magic to find out what I was capable of. Elric’s protection was only as good as his magic. I had observed what happened to Elric’s magic when he was around electricity or toxins. It wasn’t just the strength and stamina of his magic that would falter, but his ability to think clearly and use sound judgment.
Those Fae would eat me alive.
I dragged my feet down to the dungeon to tell Thatch my problem. I found him feeding Priscilla strips of raw meat while she perched on his arm.
He didn’t look up. “Are you here to apologize?”
“For not trusting you and letting Elric come to my lesson without telling you? Yes, I’m sorry about that.”
Priscilla croaked out a sound that sounded more like a frog than a bird.
“Indeed, Priscilla, I quite agree.” He snorted. “Not for that, but you can apologize for those trespasses as well if you like. I want to hear you apologize for using me. For coming to me only when you . . . have need of me.”
My throat tightened. “I wasn’t trying to use you.” Wasn’t that what I was doing again? “I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have come.” I started toward the door.
“I assume you say that because you’ve come to me to fix your life again.”
That nice guy he’d shown me glimpses of this summer was gone, replaced by his usual snooty self.
“Never mind.” I kept walking toward the door. I needed to find another way that didn’t include his magic.
I didn’t want to use him, and I had to learn to use my powers, limited as they might be. I had healed Elric. That seemed pretty advanced. Surely I could figure out some wards. Imani had studied wards. She could tutor me. Or I could ask Jeb for Vega’s address so I could contact her to give me a lesson. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a human heart to give her in exchange for
helping me. Maybe I could paint a watercolor of a heart.
Somehow I doubted that would work.
The door closed. I turned to find his hand raised, sparkles of magic fading from his fingers. “Sit. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
The door was closed. We were alone. This went against my better judgment. Reluctantly I sat in the metal chair. “I have to prove my love for Elric in a few days.”
“So soon?” Thatch returned Priscilla to her cage. “Will you be able to succeed in so short a time?”
“I hope so.” I swallowed. “I have to go to the Silver Court again, to one of their balls. I’m afraid someone will notice my affinity and use it as an excuse to kill me. Or enslave me.”
“That is a problem. Hasn’t your boyfriend offered to protect you?” He spat out the word as though it were a joke.
“Elric is injured. I’m afraid I’ve made it hard for him to protect me. He thinks I’ll be fine, but I’m worried. I don’t know how to hide what I am. I think I need to learn some kind of ward.”
Thatch lifted an imperious eyebrow. “Such is the cost for restoring your magic. You wanted your affinity back. Now you have enough that you can be recognized, but not enough to use it without damaging yourself. This is the price you must pay for getting what you wanted.”
Lucky me.
He steepled his fingers in front of him. “So you’ve come to me. Without his knowledge. For assistance. Am I correct?”
That sly look in his eyes unnerved me. “You’re going to use this to hurt him, aren’t you? Like you did after you took me to the Olive Garden? You goaded him into fighting with you.”
He grinned. “I could probably win in a duel with him in the state he’s in.”
This had been a bad idea. I stood.