2 Witch and Famous (20 page)

He responded immediately. When Niall’s hands went to my clothes, I didn’t tell him to stop. He peeled everything I wore from me carefully, but there was nothing slow about it. In less than a minute, I was naked, goose flesh rising both from the touch of cold air and from the thought of what we were soon going to be doing there. That was a good thought, taking this place of suffering and giving it at least one moment of joy.

“Elle.
Elle.
” He said my name like an incantation as his hands explored my skin.

I found the buttons of his shirt by feel, undoing them in the dark as quickly as Niall had peeled my clothes from me. I wanted him then. More than that, I loved him. His hands felt almost burning hot where they touched my skin, and I couldn’t get enough of that contact, pressing closer to him as we sought one another by feel and scent and taste.

There in the oubliette, I learned Niall’s body a different way, by touch and scent and taste. My eyes already knew how beautiful he was, but now my hands learned his body, too, tracing every contour of his flesh as his fingers moved over me in turn. When they glided into me, I gasped, my back arching as Niall took me expertly to the edge. He withdrew his fingers gently, so tenderly that I moaned at the absence of his touch.

“I want you to remember this,” Niall whispered.

He softly pushed me back down onto the warm stone of the oubliette—as warm as the rest of the goblins’ tunnels—and the fact that I could feel nothing else in there simply meant that I could feel him perfectly as he pushed himself inside of me. Just the two of us, Niall and me, joined as closely as we had ever been.

I could feel every emotion he had in that moment. There were no barriers between us as I felt every spark of love. Everything he was—and everything I was—unfurled into each other as we moved together there, my hips eagerly moving up to meet his.

I was close, so close, and I could feel that Niall was on the verge as well as he bent over me, his lips finding mine to swallow my cries of pleasure. I felt it then. I felt the first threads of his life energy pouring into me. An enchantress couldn’t take from another of her kind, but they could give that energy willingly. They could allow it. Niall was doing exactly that. He was giving and giving and giving.

 “Niall—” I was going to beg him not to. I was going to tell him to stop, but now it was too late. My climax washed over me in a wave of pleasure, and that was enough to bring Niall, too. Energy slammed into me from Niall, moving into me as our pleasure bridged the last gap between us, seeming to pour over my entire body at once.

So
much
energy. More than I had, by far. It poured into me, and it didn’t stop, moving into me so that I couldn’t think, couldn’t move. Could barely breathe. I screamed, and I didn’t know if it was a scream of pleasure, or a scream of anguish. I knew what Niall was doing and I couldn’t see how he would be able to pull back from me in time. No, he couldn’t do this. He couldn’t.

But he did. Niall breathed energy into me, long after the point where I thought he would stop. Long after the point where it was safe. He breathed energy into me while my back arched in ecstasy, while the pleasure rolling through me was too great to even try to stop it.

When he rolled away from me, I lay there panting in the darkness for long seconds, too weak to do anything else. Yet, I wasn’t weak. I could feel the layers of energy burning within me. Rising up from the dark space inside that normally hungered without end, filling up the corners of that silent space until even my skin felt stretched by the power.

“Niall, what on Earth have you done?”

There was no answer in the dark.

“Niall?
Niall!
”

I summoned up a witch-light, knowing I easily had the power to kindle and maintain it. Its flickering light illuminated the inside of the oubliette, showing me our scattered clothes, the rocky walls, and Niall. Niall lay so still in the middle of the floor. So very still. His body was a pale slash on the dark stone floor, as if moonlight emanated from within. But it was a cold light, and dwindling.

“No.
No
.”

I moved over to him, trying to remember everything I could about first aid. Trying to work out if any of it would even apply to someone who wasn’t human. Niall had given me his energy. All his energy.

Or
almost
all of it, anyway. As I put my face next to his, I could feel his faint breath on my cheek, and he had a pulse, but for how much longer?

“Wake up, Niall.”

He wasn’t moving. His open eyes stared glassily up at me, and he eerily showed no signs of responding when I called his name. I could barely even feel his presence. Niall had given me so much of his energy that he was comatose, a nearly empty shell.

“No, I never meant for you to do
this
. Niall!”

I knelt beside him, trying to work out if there was anything I could do to restore him. Could I give the energy back to him? Maybe, but then what? We would still be trapped in this hole. We would still be starving. I held Niall’s hand in mine, but I knew he had given me the only gift that might get us out of here.

I also knew that he wouldn’t have
had
to give me almost all of his energy if I had only been able to bring myself to feed the way I was meant to. If I hadn’t restricted myself to secondhand sips of energy from Niall, tiny tastes from his staff. I’d been so afraid of what I might do, so squeamish about the thought of kissing a stranger, that I’d done
this
.

I slowly collected my clothes, trying not to think about it as I dressed, but I knew it was true. I’d starved myself to avoid the act of feeding. I’d held back because I’d thought it was wrong to feel anyone’s skin against mine but Niall’s, yet did that change what I was? No. It had just left me too weak to protect myself against the likes of Victoria. Perhaps, if I’d fed normally, I might have stopped Victoria from having me thrown down here. If I’d fed, maybe Niall wouldn’t have done this.

Maybe he wouldn’t have ended up cold and barely breathing on a stone floor in the bottom of an oubliette. I’d been so worried about the meaningless act of kissing a stranger that, for all I knew, I’d lost the man I actually
loved.

No! I wasn’t going to lose him. I wouldn’t allow it. Niall had given me his energy for a reason. I wasn’t going to waste that chance. I looked back at him once more, knowing that he would probably be safer here in the oubliette than in the middle of a fight. Even so, I couldn’t do it. There was no way I could leave my love behind.

I gently dressed Niall and lifted him in my arms, and it seemed so strange to be doing it, carrying the man I loved with such ease. He seemed so light, then. So fragile without any power left in him. That was the hardest part, feeling him like that. So helpless. Niall was normally so strong, so full of life, and now…

Now I would have to be strong for both of us. I lined up the slope above me, gathered up my power, and leapt toward the tiny circle of light above.

The door at the top swung open at a word from me. It was as Niall had said before, below. I had the knowledge to get out of there, while he didn’t. I had my magic. And now, I had the strength to go with it. Enough strength to leap to the top of the slope. Enough strength to carry Niall easily. I stepped out into the tunnel beyond, still holding Niall, his breathing still steady, but shallow.

I looked down the dimly lit tunnel outside the oubliette. There were eyes there, reflecting the little light that there was. Goblins. There were two of them at the far end, presumably guards.

If some goblins were simply strange looking, or even weirdly beautiful, these were ugly. They fit every stereotype humans had ever had of goblins. Their skin was an ugly greenish-grey in the dark, their eyes small and red. They were hairless, with jaggedly pointed features and ears. Their nails were more like claws, and they hulked in rough rags, their bulk enough to almost fill the end of the corridor. One leaned on a rough club, while the other held a vicious-looking machete.

I recognized one of them. The one with the club had been one of those who had brought poor Dougie’s body forward and had dumped it at our feet like old turnips in a sack. He had done it so callously and casually that part of me wanted to simply kill him where he stood. Even so, I gave them both a chance.

“Run,” I said, the word carrying easily down the corridor.

They ignored that, of course, stepping forward and lifting their weapons. I lifted a hand in return, whispering more words of magic as they stepped forward to hurt me. I blew out a witch’s breath with my spell. One flew backwards to strike the wall with a sickening crunch. The other ran. I let him. I didn’t want to put Niall in danger by chasing after him, and it wasn’t like I needed to hurt him. I just needed him out of my way.

I made for the throne room. Maybe Victoria wouldn’t still be in there. Maybe she would be off in some other part of the tunnels making plans, or simply passing the time until she was ready to start trying to break me to her will. Maybe she was off planning the conquest of the surface, or talking to whatever goblin she’d had shoot at me.

Somehow though, I doubted it. Victoria wouldn’t move away from the adoration that came with her throne room. It was too much of a rush for her. It was what she needed.

Well, I needed to end this. And quickly. Niall still seemed stable, like he was just sleeping, but how long would that last? Unable to move, to feed, would he simply fade and die? No, I had to do this now.

“Hang on, Niall,” I said. I had half an idea that if I could not bring him back, maybe Victoria could. If she could be persuaded to do that. Niall was so still in my arms. Almost lifeless, but not quite. Inside that shell, I could feel the faintest flicker of life, cut off from the rest of him. I carried him forward with me, back down the path the guards had dragged me along on the way to the oubliette. I knew that my presence would be announced, thanks to the goblin who had run. I didn’t care. I
wanted
Victoria there.

Victoria’s great hall didn’t have as many goblins in it as it had when I arrived—the entertainment of my capture was over, after all—yet there were still plenty, looking around anxiously as one of their number fearfully knelt before the dais, hurriedly explaining to Victoria that I had escaped from the oubliette with Niall.

Victoria sat with an expression of disbelief etched into her features, while around her, her human prisoners and food sources still sat uncomprehending, with Siobhan among them. I glanced over to her and she just stared back blankly, tears still falling silently from her eyes.

“It’s true, Victoria,” I said, stepping into the hall. “We escaped. And now, I think we need to talk about what you’re doing to these goblins.”

“You escaped? How did you do it? How?” She stared at me, and then at Niall, obviously understanding. “No, he wouldn’t have. He would
never
have given you a gift like that.”

I shook my head. “You really don’t understand him as well as you think you do, Victoria.”

I stepped forward and laid Niall down gently by the dais. I presented him like an offering, but the last thing I would do was offer him to Victoria. This was more like a viewing at a wake. A chance for her to say goodbye.