by Kimbra Swain
I needed to see her. Even if it was just one last time, but I needed a little more courage. I hoped that the other bar on the county line was open. Liquid courage.
11
GRACE
Settling back into my recliner to watch the television, I sighed trying to decide what I wanted to do. After Jeremiah left, I though perhaps I needed a fresh start. If I stayed here with Remy, then my enemies would more than likely come after him. That was just another reason I shouldn’t have a boyfriend.
Looking down at my tattoo, I watched the power make the inked jewel sparkle with life. I had gotten the tattoo on a whim, but it proved to be a perfect implement to store power from the Otherworld. It also kept me off the radar of the fairies. Only an occasional blip when I would pull magic through the nearby trees.
My eyelids fluttered as I drifted off to sleep. Only to be awakened by a knock on the door. I stumbled to it half-asleep.
“Alright. Alright. I’m coming,” I fussed at the door knocker.
Slinging open the door, I found Remy leaned over bracing himself on the door frame.
“Hey, Grace,” he slurred.
“Are you drunk?”
“I didn’t think I was when I left the bar, but then I went to another bar, and another. Maybe I am now,” he said.
“What do you want?”
“You. I just want you, Grace,” he muttered.
“Lord have mercy! Remy, you don’t even know what you are saying.” I reached out to steady him, and he leaned on me stumbling through the door. I had no choice but to lead him to the couch where he plopped down unconscious. “Well, dammit!”
I lifted his feet placing them on the couch and removed his shoes. After a quick trip to the bedroom, I returned with a blanket. Laying it over him, I listened as his snores filled the room.
“Goodnight, Remy.”
A long groan from the living room woke me up the next morning. I rolled out of bed, then wrapped myself up in a plush robe. Walking through the kitchen, I punched the button to start the coffee maker.
“I swear to the gods that I will never drink alcohol again,” Remy muttered.
“That’s a shame. I particularly like alcohol, but have fun with that,” I said.
“Grace!” he exclaimed, bolting up on the couch.
“Morning, Sunshine,” I grinned.
“How did I get here?” he asked.
I laughed, because this was a rare moment of confusion for him. He generally was the kind of guy who had everything in order.
“All I know is the part from the door to the couch. The rest you will have to remember yourself,” I said. “But if the cops come looking for you, I want nothing to do with it.”
He groaned laying back on the couch pulling the blanket over his head. I giggled at his despair. I’d never been in his position. Alcohol had never effected me that way. I’d played drunk a time or two when I dared to escape an unwanted suitor.
“Coffee?” I asked.
“Yes,” he groaned.
“I didn’t know you could get drunk.”
“I can. It just takes a lot,” he murmured. “A whole lot.”
“Why did you drink so much?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know,” he replied.
I sat down next to him on the couch. He lowered the blanket to look at me with bloodshot eyes. Pushing up from his prone position, he took the cup of coffee from me.
“I know what you said when you got here,” I probed, hoping he would remember something about his night before he got here.
He sipped the brew quietly without responding. Finally, after a few painfully silent moments, his deep green eyes met mine.
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
“Huh?”
“To Shady Grove. I want to go with you,” he repeated.
“You have your law practice,” I objected.
“I will quit,” he said.
“I don’t understand.” I retreated across the room from him. I had decided to go without him. We needed to break up, so I could move on with my life. The urge to run hit me hard and fast. “No, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.”
He sat the coffee cup down on the table. “Grace, I thought it over, and I’ve spent my whole life running from my past. I won’t do it anymore. Neither should you, and if that means moving to Shady Grove with you, then that is what I want.”
My head shook involuntarily. “No,” I muttered. “I have enemies. I have secrets. You can’t go.”
“I can’t go?”
“No.”
“Grace, I know this scares you. You’ve never committed to anything in your life, and I’m not asking you to marry me. I just want to be with you,” he pleaded.
“I have committed to…” I exclaimed, then stopped myself. That was something I couldn’t explain, so there was no point in going there. “I’ll get tired of you, Remy. Just like all the others. There is no sense in you going.”
“I should have known you were going to be difficult,” he laughed. “I’m going with you, Grace.”
“No, you aren’t!” I yelled.
He crossed the room gingerly. I felt power move in the room, and suddenly the colors of the world around me melted and swirled into a soup around us. The sky turned dark as stars twinkled in the sky. We stood on a fluffy cloud. I gasped looking at the world around us.
“Gracie,” he said in a scolding tone.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“This is my world. Land of the Star Folk. I wouldn’t suggest looking down. It will make you dizzy,” he said.
I focused on him. Around his head a crown of stars floated around his head. The age he normally showed in his life on earth had melted away with my trailer. He looked younger than me. Radiant with the glow of a celestial being. He looked almost angelic.
“Remy?”
He laughed. The laugh I knew.
“I know I look different here,” he said.
To be honest, I liked him better the other way. This way he seemed too good. Too perfect. Which was why I wore the glamour that I did. I hated my true form. It made me stand out in a group of humans, and I’d spend my entire life just trying to blend in.
“Why are we here? It doesn’t change anything,” I said.
“I wanted to show it to you. Have you ever been here?” he asked.
“Most certainly not,” I replied.
He swept over to me like he wore wings. I started to step back, but he grabbed me. “Easy there. You wouldn’t want to fall,” he said. Across the clouds, I could see other beings walking around with crowns of stars.
“Is that possible? To fall?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t let you fall, Grace. Unless it’s for me,” he said.
“Remy, this doesn’t change anything,” I repeated.
“Change for me,” he said.
“What? No,” I said.
“Please,” he said, brushing my cheek with his lips.
“Remy.”
“Grace Ann Bryant, stop being a pain in the ass and change for me,” he coaxed.
I dropped my glamour not because he asked, but because I wanted this to end. I was beyond my comfort threshold.
“You have things you keep hidden. I have things I have kept hidden, but we are the same. Two beings that don’t belong in either place. Here or there. I need you, and you need me,” he explained.
“Remy, you said yourself that you don’t have a lot of power. I have enemies that would use you to hurt me. It’s best if we part ways,” I said.
“You were going to break up with me,” he muttered.
“Yes,” I said.
He hung his head. The stars faded, and the clouds dissipated. We stood facing each other in my trailer.
“I don’t care about any of that, Gracie. I just want to go with you,” he said.
I shook my head refusing to give in. “No,” I whispered.
“Moving to Shady Grove isn’t an easy move for me. I will give up my law practice. Pe
rhaps I can open one there. I don’t know what I will do, but it won’t matter because I’ll be with you,” he continued.
I shook my head in disbelief. Something inside of me wanted him to go with me. A commitment to him in a way that I’d never allowed myself to admit. That hope of being normal. That spark needed to die. Right here and right now.
When I was younger, a gypsy fairy by the name of Fordele captured my interest, but I ran from him at the worst possible moment. Never once did I consider staying. I ran in fear. Here I was once again, presented with a choice. Run or stay.
“I need a drink,” I said.
“I’m not touching alcohol,” he snorted.
“You are a bad drunk,” I laughed.
“I am. I admit it wasn’t an easy decision, but I came back to the same answer every time,” he smiled.
“To be with me,” I said.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Alright.”
12
REMY
I almost fainted. It wouldn’t have been very manly of me, but I gasped for air when she said it. So simple. So Grace.
“Alright?” I asked.
“Alright,” she repeated.
I placed my hands on her cheeks, leaning in to her forehead. My lips met hers. I felt the hesitation in her, but despite it, she had given in to me. I couldn’t believe it. I had prepared myself for the worst.
“Thank you, Grace,” I said.
“You look like you need a drink,” she suggested.
“I might could. A celebratory drink,” I agreed.
Taking her hand in mine, I lead her to the front door. I hoped Judy would serve me after last night. When we stepped out into the darkness, several figures emerged from the shadows.
The men approached us from all sides, wearing dark clothing and hoods over their heads. I pushed Grace back inside the trailer, but she refused to go. Stubborn woman.
“Who are you?” I asked the men. I had called Niles and canceled the wild goose chase, but these men looked like his types.
“Just want to have a few words with you Mr. Blake,” one of the men said.
“You need to move along. I called Babineau and canceled my order,” I protested as they inched closer to us.
“We don’t work for Mr. Babineau,” he said.
“Who is Babineau?” Grace asked.
“A business partner,” I muttered. “Then what do you want?”
“We represent an interested party. You need to come with us,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I protested.
He snapped his finger, and I felt Grace lean into me. I turned just in time to keep her from hitting the deck of the trailer.
“Grace!”
“She’s just sleeping. I’ll wake her once we arrive at our destination,” he said.
“Leave her here and take me,” I begged.
“Nope. She’s coming too,” he insisted as a giant, black SUV pulled up at the end of the drive. “Let’s go. Do we need to carry her?”
“Don’t you touch her!” I growled.
“Have it your way, lawyer boy,” he taunted.
I lifted Grace’s limp body. What kind of power did this guy have to put her to sleep? I’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t have the same kind of magic sight that she did. I only felt a wide-field of disturbance around him indicating that he could do more than he appeared.
Awkwardly placing her into the vehicle, I climbed in behind her. The men got in on the other side of the backseat with us, then another got in the front. I didn’t see where the other men went before the SUV took off into the darkness.
It wasn’t long before I realized we were going to my house. I held Grace close to me. I felt her heart beating and the faint breaths from her nose.
“I’m sorry, Gracie,” I muttered.
The spokesman sitting in front of me snickered. “She won’t forgive you after this,” he said.
“She’s there?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“I beg you to leave Grace out of this,” I pleaded.
“You had your chance to leave her out of it,” he said.
We pulled into the drive of my home. My wife stood on the front steps waiting for us.
“Don’t do this, Phoebe,” I begged my wife.
“Drop the wards,” she demanded.
“Let her go!” I screamed back.
She laughed as she lowered the red hood from her cloak. “Now, Remington Blake, my loving husband, why would I let you get out of this? I warned you. I warned her. Now I do as I wish with both of you,” she snarled.
I turned around to get Grace, but the man already had her limp body in his arms. He walked toward the house. Phoebe opened her arms, and he gave Grace to her.
“Drop the wards or I walk through with her. Whatever happens to me will happen to her,” she said. She didn’t hesitate, facing the door.
“Adasdelvdi,” I muttered the Cherokee word for protect which released the wards around the house.
Phoebe marched in carrying Grace. Her minions followed her into the house. A house that she and I had never shared. We had never shared a bed. The marriage was only because I was an idiot once and needed a witch to get out of it. I had no idea she was a fairy witch at the time. Now she owned me, and she had the only woman I have ever cared about in my house.
I followed them into the house. She had laid Grace’s body on the couch. I rushed over to her. Grabbing her hand, I kissed it gently.
“I’m so sorry, Gracie. I’m so sorry,” I muttered.
“You are ridiculous, Remy,” Phoebe taunted.
“Shut the hell up! Do whatever you are going to do. Get it over with,” I yelled.
“Wake her up, Lisette,” Phoebe said.
The man that had approached me melted into a small-framed woman with deeply tanned skin. Her dark eyes fixed on me with scorn and laughter. Her long, kinky black hair swept down around her face. She was exotically beautiful. I felt the power move in the room, and she snapped her fingers.
Grace moaned next to me. I placed my hand on her cheek as her eyes fluttered open. She jolted up on the couch staring at the people standing around us.
“Remy!”
“Hi, honey.”
“Who are these people?” she asked in fear.
“They won’t hurt you,” I said, looking at the tattoo on her arm flaring with power. I just hoped that whatever she was building up wasn’t going to be used on me.
“Tell her who I am,” Phoebe said.
“She’s my wife,” I admitted.
Grace’s hands which were resting on my shirt turned to fists grasping at my shirt. “Your wife!” she screamed.
She shoved me away from her.
“Let me explain.” I don’t know why I bothered. It was over.
13
GRACE
My head was spinning. From the spell to the revelation that Remy was married. I didn’t know which way was up or down.
“What have you done to me?” I yelled making my head pound worse.
“I love ya, Grace. This isn’t a marriage. It’s blackmail,” he said, trying to explain.
“You made me an adulterer. I’ve been with a lot of men, but I’ve never taken another woman’s husband!” I turned on him.
He held his hands up in defense as my head began to throb in pain.
“Grace, I know it looks bad, but you’ve got to understand. I’ve never even fucked that woman,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter. A marriage is a pact. It’s protected by magic and laws. You made me break that,” I yelled.
“Don’t act like you aren’t a whore, Gloriana,” the wife said.
“I don’t care who the fuck you are or how you know my name. I want out of this house right now,” I said.
“That’s too bad, because you are right. You broke a marriage pact and now you owe me,” Phoebe laughed.
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t know. I don’t owe you anything
,” I said.
“I think you forget that my apprentice can put you to sleep with a snap of her fingers,” she warned.
“She won’t do it again,” I growled, pulling power from my tattoo. My hair turned platinum blonde and my eyes flashed a turquoise blue. The air in the room turned colder.
Remy exhaled, and his breath floated in front of him as a frozen cloud. Only instead of begging me to stop, he nodded his head. There was no way in this world I was going to give him the satisfaction of killing his wife for him.
“Your cold doesn’t scare me,” Phoebe ranted. “You are nothing. Nearly forsaken. All but forgotten, Gloriana.”
“Jeremiah,” I growled.
A flash filled the room, and suddenly we were joined by four robed figures. One stepped forward next to me, lowering his hood.
“Good evening,” Jeremiah said.
“We have no quarrel with the Sanhedrin,” Phoebe fronted. She clearly feared the robed men. Her pale skin, ruby lips, and black hair reminded me of the fairy tales of Snow White. Any woman that truly looked like that wasn’t natural.
The younger woman standing behind her hid in her shadow like an apprentice. She kept her head tilted down so that I couldn’t get a good look at her. I called Jeremiah, because I knew he would get me out of here. My agreement with the Sanhedrin sucked, but it also meant that they had to protect me.
“See, that’s the thing, Sweetheart. Grace has a contract with us, so unless you want to buy it from us, then she and I will be leaving,” Jeremiah said. I grinned, then saddled up next to Jeremiah. I shook with anger, but I played my vixen role.
“What is the price?” she asked as if she could pay it.
“Your apprentice, plus 100 years,” Jeremiah said.
She laughed, but I knew she wouldn’t pay it. 100 years of service to the Sanhedrin. There was no way.
“No fairy queen is worth that,” she said.
“Well, then, we will be going,” Jeremiah said wrapping his hand around my arm.