Rhett smirked. “I’d like that.”
Mia stepped back from Rhett and dove under so she wouldn’t have to face him, swimming back toward the shore.
When she poked her head up in the shallow end, she found Rhett behind her. Uncharacteristically, he didn’t say anything about the almost kiss at all. Neither of them did the whole way back to the car. The entire way back home... the tension hung between them, unspoken words hanging in the space unsaid but heard loud and clear.
Chapter Eighteen
When they got back to the house, Mia had looked forward to some training with Rhett... until he got a call from the sheriff who said he needed to talk to him about the curse. Rhett gave her an apologetic smile, promised he would be back as soon as he could to rescue her from Ryker and headed out.
Ryker gave Mia a lecture about running off to go swimming instead of protecting her magic before they started some sword training. Mia actually beat Ryker twice to his extreme surprise. Her sword felt so much lighter, more planted in her hands. It made it easier to use it. Ryker attempted to teach her some magic. He wasn’t nearly as good a teacher as Rhett.
“I thought you said you weren’t very good at this kind of thing,” Mia said as she sat cross-legged.
Ryker stared down at her, hands on hips. “I’m not as proficient in it as the prince but I also know a thing or two. And it does not involve sitting on the ground like that.”
“This is how Rhett teaches me,” Mia said, grinning up at him.
“Well I’m not Rhett. Get up. You’re a Seelie. You should be taught by a Seelie. Our magics are slightly different from one another.” He waved his hand, waiting for her to rise.
Mia sighed but dragged herself to her feet. She folded her arms as she half-listened to Ryker explain using magic again. He went little more in depth about all the different things Fae could do with their magic. Mia paid attention as he demonstrated some of them as well. They could glamour. At that, Ryker used magic to hide his true self. His ears rounded like a human’s. He became a little less perfect looking and an inch or two shorter. “It’s all to do with the details. Imagine what you would look like as a human, you have to believe it, envision it. What helps me is imagining draping a veil over myself, like putting on a mask or stepping into a costume,” Ryker explained.
They could control the elements – though not as well or as strongly as elemental creatures like the Mer-folk or nymphs could. He created a ball of fire in his hand. Mia had to admit that was pretty cool. With a flick of his hand he created a whoosh of wind, and a stomp of his foot made a dozen daffodils sprout between them. There wasn’t any water around, so he didn’t demonstrate that one.
“What else can you do?” Mia asked, her attention now captured by him.
“Many things. Levitate things, as you know,” he said making his sword unsheathe itself and hover in the air in front of his hand. “And with that move objects around wherever and whenever we want. It can also be a pretty deadly skill. With telekinesis comes being able to make things explode or shatter. We can also create spells. You did just that for the barrier, though it’s quite surprising for someone of your youth. Spell-binding and such are extremely difficult skills. Very few can access that kind of magic. I’ve never been very proficient in magic, hence the reason I joined the guard at such a young age… I never pursued much magic training, so my spell-binding is very inadequate. But it’s still a skill that’s well known and used often by those who have mastered it,” Ryker explained.
Unfortunately though, Ryker went from fun to boring pretty quickly. He listed off a few other super minor things they could do, and then pulled out his sword. Seemed that had been enough “magic training” for one day.
Mia made a face as she pulled her own sword out. Ryker explained something about technique, but she glanced back at the house, thinking how nice it would have been to have Rhett here. He could have explained all the magic stuff. Probably even better than Ryker had.
She would have enjoyed this training session more if Rhett was there... although maybe it was for the best that they parted ways. She knew how she felt even if she didn’t want to feel it. Mia was starting to realize that feelings couldn’t be controlled. There was no way to shut off how she felt for another person. No way to tell her heart that she didn’t want someone, didn’t love them. Her heart wanted what her heart wanted, and she was starting to realize, it was dumb to deny it.
“Mia,” Ryker snapped his fingers in front of her face, making her blink and come back to the present. “This is serious. Why are you smiling like that?”
Mia hadn’t realized she was smiling until he pointed it out and even when he did... she couldn’t school her face into anything resembling seriousness. The thought of using magic, training at all made her want to collapse in exhaustion. Rhett had been right. She needed a break... Going for a swim had helped, but she needed more than just a swim. Mia needed a month of no magic and no training. Her body and mind rebelled at the thought of doing anything other than resting, even though she knew she needed to train. People’s lives were at stake.
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I’m just tired... I’m tired of training. I’m tired of all of this. I just want it to be over with.”
Ryker frowned, hands on hips. “Well sadly, only you can put a stop to all this.”
“Yeah but once I do, you’ll bug me until I open the door and be bait so you can get to my father. It won’t end...”
He said nothing, just stared at her without a hint of humor or pity on his face.
Irritation and annoyance bubbled to the surface of Mia’s emotional well. “Why are you so annoyed all the time? And why’s it so important that I go back to Faerie with you?” Mia hadn’t had the guts to ask what her father had done to Ryker during all these weeks. She’d wanted to ask, of course. Mia just wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
Ryker grimaced down at her. “You know why.”
“I know, I know... because my dad’s a jerk and a horrible person. But, like, what did he ever do to you?”
The Seelie’s whole face closed up and his eyes darkened. “This isn’t the time.”
Mia shrugged. “I think it is. I’m not doing any more training. I need a break... so just tell me.”
All at once, all the fight left Ryker’s body, and he ran a hand over his face. He shook his head leaving his hand on his face as if to hide his pained expression. “I was warned by several people not to tell you anything more of your father.”
She sat up and frowned at him. “Who said that?”
She already knew who, but she needed to hear him say it. No one had any right to bar her from knowing the truth about her father. Mia could take it... She needed to know.
Ryker blew out a breath and removed his hand from his face, so she could see his pinched expression. “Your mother, Rhett and your little nymph friend Angie. They all cautioned me in various forms of threats to not divulge information to you.”
Her jaw clenched as she stared up at him. Why would they do that? She deserved to know. She had the right to know. Her mom had said she didn’t want Mia to get involved in any of this, that she had never wanted Mia to be involved with her father in any way, but it seemed Mia didn’t have a choice. Now she needed to know what she was getting herself into. The full picture.
“Tell me,” she commanded. “I have to know.”
Ryker frowned down at her. She thought she saw pity in his gaze, which only made her temper sizzle even more. “It isn’t for the faint of heart.”
“I don’t care.”
He glanced around as if almost afraid her mother might jump out and hurt him for saying anything at all. Ryker sighed. For the first time since meeting the guy, he looked genuinely upset about the whole thing. But he sat down in front of her, looking more casual than she’d ever seen him. Ryker gave her a hard look. “Your father has ruined many people’s lives. Killed many, hurt many and overall has done terrible things in the name of anarchy. He doesn’t
believe in the rule of the courts and wants them both gone. Seelie and Unseelie. I was – and still am – one of the royal guards set to protect the Seelie royalty. I had a... a family,” his voice broke and he glanced away. “A wife and a daughter.
“Your father attacked the Seelie palace one night with his band of rogues. They tore the palace apart, killed anyone who stood in their way. Of course, they never made it to the royals, but we lost many good soldiers that night. The guards killed or chased away his rogues. I was the one who faced him. We fought... I struck him in the face with my sword. Left a brutal scar. I’m still proud of it to this day,” he said with a bitter smirk as he traced a line down his face from the tip of his eyebrow to the corner of his right eye. “He promised vengeance and ran off. I didn’t think much of it. Empty threats from a depraved and monstrous man.”
Mia pressed her lips together, holding her breath. She knew what came next wouldn’t be pleasant, but she needed to hear it. Hearing it would make her realize why she was doing all this training. Why she hadn’t tried to fight Ryker in the first place. Because deep down, she knew Ryker had his reasons and even though she hadn’t known what her father had done, she had known that he deserved justice.
Ryker met her gaze, his eyes hard and cold as he finished his story. “The next night I came home to find my wife and daughter killed. Your father had hunted down my family and killed them for merely scarring his face. He left a note, saying next time we crossed paths he would kill me too for stopping him from ending the Seelie bloodline, and for what I had done to his face. My life ended that day,” he whispered, his voice breaking. He glanced away and Mia could see tears shining in his eyes. “A part of me died with my wife and child. Fae are immortal Mia. Death is a rarity. So uncommon that we sometimes forget that we can die at all. So, to come home and find my whole world dead...” Ryker shook his head. “It ruined me. I vowed from that moment on that I would do whatever it took to take that man down. So, when the king approached me saying he had new information and perhaps a way to draw him out, I jumped at it. It’s not like I left anyone important behind in Faerie. If I never get back, no loved ones are waiting for my return.”
Mia placed her head in her hands, staring down at her lap. Maybe she shouldn’t have demanded he tell her after all. What kind of person killed a woman and a child all because someone scratched up his face? He was a monster... Mia’s father was a monster. Pure evil. Her hands shook as she blinked back tears. He had destroyed Ryker’s life and from the sounds of it, many others before him. All because he wanted the courts gone. He was sadistic and horrible... Mia never wanted to see that man. How could her mother have ever fallen in love with him?
And if her father was so evil and his blood ran through Mia’s veins... then what did that make Mia? The only reason Mia had any Fae qualities at all was because of her father. Her magic, her power, it all came from him. She wished she could give it all back. Mia didn’t want anything from him.
Suddenly two hands gripped her wrists and forced her hands from her face. “Look at me,” Ryker demanded, his voice leaving no room for disobedience.
Mia blinked hard and then glanced up at him, finding his jaw clenched. “I didn’t say any of that to make you feel bad. You wanted to know, so I told you. That was your father. Not you.”
“He’s my father, though,” she whispered, hating how wobbly her voice sounded. “My magic is his magic. How do you expect me to face him?”
Ryker shook his head, frowning. “You don’t have to.”
Mia jerked her hands from his grip. “You plan to use me as bait. Which means I will have to face him. I can’t do that. He’s a monster...”
Had he really not thought about that at all? Mia got up from the ground, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She was shocked and scared and angry, and he was the only person there to propel all those feelings at. “You do deserve justice, and my father deserves to be punished for what he did to your family but... did you really think of no one but yourself when you came here? I’m only seventeen,” Mia shouted, clutching her chest. In the back of her mind though, she thought, technically she was twenty-six what with being immortal and all. She had looked like seventeen for the past eleven or so years. “I’m just a girl. I haven’t even graduated high school yet, and you just expected me to open the portal and go through, all so I could be bait and lure my sadistic, murderous father out of hiding? You were so hungry for vengeance that you didn’t even stop to consider what kind of position you’re putting me in. It’s wrong.”
Ryker had the decency to look ashamed as he got up as well. He took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right,” he murmured. “I didn’t think about it. I didn’t consider how old you would be or what kind of position I would be putting you into. But now I do know you. And yes, I do know you. I’ve been stuck with you for five weeks, and you may not think you’re strong enough to handle this, but you are. In all those five weeks of training with you I’ve realized quite a few things about you. You are strong willed, stubborn, determined. You don’t take no for an answer, and you aren’t afraid to voice your opinion even if your words put you in a dangerous situation. You don’t let people push you around. You don’t even let your own feelings push you around.”
Mia shot him a look that said don’t go there, and yet, he totally went there. “You obviously have feelings for the Unseelie prince, and yet you hold back from them because of your anger and stubbornness. I respect the way you don’t let your feelings get in the way of your choices, and that is why I know you will do this. That is why I know you can do this. Because you won’t let your fear or anger, or pain get in the way of doing what you know is right. And do you know what is right?”
Mia glanced away, hating that his every word was right. Each word pushed a button and made her realize that maybe he had been paying more attention to her than she’d thought in the past few weeks. But he was right. Her father had killed people, and he would do it again from the sounds of it. How could Mia, in good conscious, just step back and let that happen when she knew she could do something to stop him?
She glanced at him and blew out a frustrated breath. “I know what’s right,” she ground out.
Ryker cocked his head, waiting for her to say it out loud.
“Justice is what’s right, and my dad has to be stopped. He’s a monster and a killer and he can’t just get away with what he did,” she said, waving her hand in the air.
Ryker’s lips formed a thin line as he nodded. “Good.” “Because if you really feel that way, we’re going to have to work even harder to prepare you if you really plan to go through with this.”
Mia’s jaw set and she nodded as she let go of his hand. “I am.”
“Good.” He looked like he was about to say let’s start training again, and if he did Mia might have keeled over right there. Thankfully though, the sound of a car pulling up into Rhett’s driveway cut them off. She turned around to find Rhett’s car parked and him heading this way. And of course, as if on cue, Mia saw Angie making her way over from the opposite side too.
“Hey,” Rhett said walking up to them. “You look exhausted.”
Mia made a face. “I sort of am. Ryker worked me hard.”
Angie grinned as she approached them. “You need some time to relax. I say we get out of here, grab some food and sit and watch a movie. Kai’s still with family so it would just be the two of us... and you can give me details.”
The last thing Mia wanted to do was talk about her complicated feelings for Rhett, but she had promised Angie she would fill her in.
“What did the sheriff want?” Ryker asked, turning his attention to Rhett.
Rhett folded his arms, his expression darkening. “Nothing good... There... was another death,” he said, sneaking a glance at Mia.
Mia deflated, dread settling into the pit of her stomach. Another person dead... Because of her. Because she wasn’t training fast enough. The guilt of slacking off instead of training today hit her lik
e a hammer to the heart. Cillian and the nymphs may have slowed the curse down, but that didn’t mean it had stopped completely. People would still die if she didn’t do something sooner rather than later. The nymphs had been working all day every day to slow the spread, and Cillian had concocted some sort of potion that helped to weaken the curse.
“It’s not your fault,” Angie said, her sparkly blue eyes shining at Mia. “It’s the curse. You’re working as hard as you can.”
“You are,” Rhett agreed.
Mia shook her head, tugging at her ponytail. “I shouldn’t have gone swimming. I knew it was a bad idea... I should have been here, training. There isn’t time to swim and mess around.”
Rhett shook his head, gripping both of her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. Fierce sincerity shown in his eyes. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. You were falling apart Mia. All this training is exhausting you... You won’t be able to stop any curse if you’re too drained to even use your magic.”
Angie nodded. “Yeah! You deserve a break every once in a while. This isn’t all on you.”
“Only it is,” Mia said, shrugging Rhett’s hands off. To his credit, he didn’t seem to take offense. He just let his hands fall to his side and took a step back.
Ryker let out a heavy sigh as if he couldn’t believe he was about to join this conversation. Mia glanced at him, his face stony and serious. “I may have been a little... harsh on you earlier. Rhett is right. Any good soldier can’t be training night and day. Strength and energy is just as important. Mental health is just as important as physical health. So... I suggest you take the rest of the evening off. We’ll pick this back up tomorrow.”
“No,” Mia said instantly. “I can’t. I have to keep training.”
Ryker gave her a sharp look that made all her arguments die on her lips. “No, you don’t. Go... hang out with your friends or whatever it is you do.”
“Are you sure?” Mia asked, glancing at all of them.
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