Betrayal (27 page)

Ian’s smooth roll of the wrist as the sword hit its intended target with little effort gave me courage.  His twist at the last second while his stance held his frame in the perfect position to angle at the enemy was like some kind of art.  I should be morbidly disgusted that the men I knew so well could kill so easily, but they were defending
me
.

“Undressing the man in the midst of a fight is probably bad karma,” Pike closed my mouth with his index finger.  I glared at him though he was right.

I surveyed the room and counted colors seeing it was easy to know friend from foe.  The winter court guards were all in the same dark blue I associated with Kin and his court. Our guards were the green.  I easily identified that we had a three down and they had a little over ten down.  That should satisfy me, but it didn’t.  That meant horribly that loved ones were lost, men were dead, and I was the cause.  I pushed my thoughts away.

When at last the few blue clad guards who were left standing narrowed their target towards me, Pike and Ian encircled me a little wider.  It was then I noticed that the king was gone, and so was Kin.   But they didn’t want me dead, so these guards would surely not kill me.  They were trying to kill those who hid me or the just the Seelie Princes one.

I questioned it with Ian face as he exchanged looks with Pike scrutinizing that something was coming soon and that it was not a good sign.  Not for any of us.

Just then, the doors that had been closed burst open and a flood of fresh guards came bounding in.  Ian whirled me away to the hallway that I knew led to Kin’s rooms and my one night stay room.  As we inched closer and not one winter court resident in sight, I felt the underlying dread that we were heading right for a trap.

When Ian went all Nike air on me and demolished the guard in front of Kin’s doors, I almost screamed out enough air from my lungs to lift
him
back in the air.   Ian walk so confidently like he knew where he was going.

He opened Kin’s bedroom door not even opening any others. “Do you know where we are?”

“Do you?” He was glaring at me.  Whoa!  He did know.

“Unfortunately, yes,” was all I said.

Kin stood inside, half naked and mussed up bedroom hair.  What the hell?

I wide-eyed Ian and him both at the same time throwing my hands to my hips in silent reprimand for whatever ploy they plotted without my consent.

“It’s the only way,” Ian said.  This wasn’t the plan we conjured up. 

I wanted to hide under the bed to escape the dead giveaway my burning cheeks gave off.  

I jumped right over hurdle number one and jumped to conclusion number two.  “You want me to—“

“NO!” Ian’s hands flew up.  “NO!  NO!  That’s not it.  Hell, Grace.  Think a little less of me.”

I was so confused and a lot embarrassed.  Filling me in on the plan might have been good here, but he knew full well I’d have never let it play out.  My flighty response was without too much thought but it wasn’t an illogical conclusion to come to,
fully
. 

“Then why am I here?” I folded my fists down into the folds of my clothes still hearing fighting going on elsewhere.  Who’s plan was this?  And what piece of information am I missing from this equation?

Kin examined me over.  I’m sorry to say, it wasn’t in a friend-like manner.  Kin’s mind hadn’t changed.

“You are here,” Kin announced, “to appear like I have marked you long enough for my father to think you are and give us the edge we need to let him look away.  Remember, he wasn’t happy with your sudden exit last time.”

Okay.  Sick, twisted, disgusting.  Just might work.  “Fine, but for the record, I didn't approve before or now.”

“Which is why you are all the more the prize,” Kin offered as I inspected the messed up sheets and present display of clothes on the floor.  I put my finger to my mouth and made a gagging sound.  He laughed at me, but there was a dirge-like sadness in it. 

Ian grabbed my waist.  “You will stay here,” he whispered into my ear, “I will be back for you in ten minutes and make a sordid fool of myself to convince the king of what has been done.  He will hesitate just long enough for Kin to make a move with the surprise attack from the Nyms and Pike and I will be ready.”

“You had all this planned and ready?”

“I had to, Grace.  It was the only way.”  Ian hated this too.

“And you’d risk me staying here alone with him?” I eyed Kin standing by the bed.

“He will not harm you in any way.” Ian said emphatically.

“How do you know?” It was everything inside of me to not scream, roll my eyes, and push off away from him.  I mostly wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the plan.  I didn’t think Kin would hurt me either, but with war waging, men can change.  Especially now that I know what it will gain him.

“I just know.”  He caressed my cheek and kissed my forehead.  His fingers interlaced with mine and for a minuscule of a second, he looked like he might change his mind.

When I was alone with Kin, I avoided his movement to the bed.  He swung his heavy body and legs onto it with ease and leaned against the headboard.  I kept looking away, but his nakedness sent bad, terrible messages into my brain.

“Are you just going to stand there, Grace?” he asked with his hands outstretched behind his head now. 

“For the entire time if need be,” I spat at him mad as heck at the farcically laden plan that I was never privy to.  Accusation led my words, but I was angry at being left here in the first place.  No one asked me if I thought it was a good plan.  It was all male prowess trying to show their domination over the female population with their direct need to protect us.  Dang them all!

“I am not the enemy no matter how little you think of me.” A muscle popped in Kin’s jaw echoing all the way across the room as he rubbed the tip of it.

“If you were any less the enemy I would have killed you myself,” I couldn’t believe I’d just said the very words.  I knew now why Ian spent a lot of time telling me to watch my words.  He was right.  They bite back.

“I’m sorry for that.” He sat on the bed, stone faced.  I stayed where I was.  “In about seven minutes my father will come bursting through that door.  If this is to work, you need to appear only,” he pressed his voice louder, “like you are in the bed with me.”

“No freaking way Kin.”

“You have no choice if you want to live,” he was half hurt, half scared.  “I will put my arm around you and play the part I have to Grace, not violate you.”

I looked at him fully for the first time since arriving.  “Why should I trust you?”  I pursed my lips accordingly.

“Because Ian does,” he clucked his tongue and let his gaze affect me long enough for discomfort.

Reasonable enough.  I played with my engagement ring, flipping it around and around.    With a ring on both hands it was fast becoming a new nervous habit to twist both.  I sighed heavy with thoughts and let my feet do the same.  My lead dropped footsteps landed on the other side of the bed.  I reached for the covers and Kin pulled them back to let me in.  His pants were on thank the heavens.

He saw me eye this and sneaked a smile in.  “It is my last and only chance to have you near, so don’t hate me that I like this.”  Hate is too powerful a word to throw around with him here.  Now his father....

“I don’t hate you Kin.” I felt like a spiteful shedog switching moods on him.

“I know that, but you don’t like me either.”  A very patient smiled formed on his lips that was far from his usual.  An oblique way of saying we both had a love/hate relationship going on just not in a way he saw it.

“True enough.”

“Would you let me hold you just once?”

“I’m going to go with a bigger than average no here.”  He
was
asking. It had to appear real.  Fine!  I scooted anyway over to him and lowered the sleeves on my shirt to below the top of the covers for the sham of our little soap opera moment.  His huge scalding hand wrapped around my shoulder.  I tried not to wince, but it still felt wrong.  I wanted to look up at his reaction, but was afraid of what he might think I wanted.  I chanced it anyway when I heard him sigh deeply.  His eyes were closed.

“Grace, just let me stay like this.  Don’t move.”

Okay!  I didn’t move a muscle.

“You should be overreacting more.  You usually do,” he didn’t move anything but his mouth.

“Oh, believe me.  I am majorly freaking out.”  I twisted my rings under the covers to keep away then removed them in an attempt to keep my eyes focused on Ian. The sight of my rings made me happy and hopeful.

Kin chuckled and we stayed in silence while he watched me twirl the rings with every hypersensitive twitch of my fingertips.

To pass the time, I used the private moment to beg him of an answer I’d never allow Pike or Ian to know about unless required to do so.  “What happened to Switch?”

He looked down at me.  “I discussed the situation with him.”

“Discussed?” I raised my mouth in a smirk knowing his form of discussion meant with his fists or worse.

“He is aware of what I will do to him should he attempt to harm you again.”

“Was that wise?”  Treasonous.  I didn’t even know I sucked in a breath waiting for his answer.

“Yes, Grace.  It was.”

When the door smashed open and body after body forged in.  Ian was there.  Pike was with him.  King Sane stood in the doorway sneering.  The scents of all of them were mixing in the air with sweat and blood and death.

Ian shouted, “What have you done?”

Pike started throwing things everywhere. 

Sane laughed vigorously and left like the madman he was.  He took the bait.

I saw the quick nods between all three of my princely men and the emptiness the room rendered as fast as it had filled.  I was left alone again with Kin with the assumption they were going after Kin’s father. 

“I am to take you to them.”  He kissed the top of my head and I knew without a doubt he'd taken a second to take my scent in. 

“You are taking in my scent before I’m changed, am I right?”  His surprise was what I wanted, but I felt bad for letting him know I knew of his weakness.  Men hate weakness.  “I’m sorry.  That was out of line.  I shouldn’t have said it just like I shouldn't hate this plan like I did before.  I consider it honor to be here though it is all a lie and I think you can change and be a better man Kin.”  I climbed off his side of the bed after him. 

He slipped into a shirt.  "I can admit that I would do anything to keep you if that’s what you want to hear.  I know that you’re not mine and never will be, but I will remember you the way you have always been to me.  I don’t like that you had to go through with this, but it was the only way.”

I needed to get my head on straight.  I was disgusted at first, but it really wasn’t a bad plan.  I had a weird thought and decided to voice it.
              “So you will just forget about me afterward?”  I kind of liked being liked and wanted, but I didn’t want to be shafted to the side.

“That is far from what will happen next, my dear Grace.  You will always be the queen of me no matter the circumstance.  I will forever serve you.”  His shirt was back on and tucked now.

I coughed out my response.  “Kin, that is more than you should give.  You speak from your heart and not with your mind.  That isn’t always wise I’ve learned.”

“And yet he won you with just that.”  I couldn’t stand the loneliness these men found when they poured their heart out and gained nothing.  It just wasn’t fair.  And I wasn’t anyone’s prize to begin with.  They had this vision of what they thought I was based on a prophecy and not who I really was.  “You only feel this way because of a prophecy.”

He had his clothes back on completely now making me settle my shoulders down.  “I wish it were so.  I could move on if it were that easy.  Grace, not one of us will ever doubt the effect you have on men that you so easily miss, but that is only half of your appeal.  You ease into your own body like you were meant for this world and never miss a beat on what to do with our people.  You are loving and kind and never self-centered.  You are the very opposite of any of our Fey women.”

I, of course, have heard all this before from both Pike and Ian.  So to accept it was maddening, but finally after all this time, I did.  I wouldn’t tell him that Sarah didn’t fit that bill, but he wasn’t meaning simple Fey women.  He meant queenly prospects.  And I was selfish way more than given credit.

“Okay, all three of you have said that now so I will accept it as honesty from the lot of you.  However, I beg of you to just be Kin after all this is over and let me know the real you.  You’re not this horrible evil creature that you want everyone to think you are.”

“Grace, it is far easier to be that than to let others see the real me and be let down.”

Let down?  I meant it solely in friendship as I crossed the floor and hugged him.  “You would never let me down.”

“Never again.”  He feebly acknowledged his past transgressions aloud.

I let the hug out and stepped back making my shoes echo on the floor.  “So where to?”
              He surveyed the rock covered door and after a while said, “We can leave when you are ready.”

I pushed through the door, with all the force I could muster, as he moved ahead of me guarding my body with his the whole way.  We ran through the lit by candles hall down to the main room in time to see Sane and Ian in a heated sword battle over the same steps I’d met the swine long before.  The high stoned-in ceiling soared above me with the stench of death.  A glorious winter haven of pure beauty ruled by evil.  

At the sight of more dying, I cried out in horror and stepped in front of Kin to run to Ian afraid for him.  Not smart on my part, but sometimes one just reacts.  Sane looked my way and nodded at a certain blue clad feather helmet warrior with an arrow cocked in his bow. It was Switch, my most current kidnapper.  How many more disguised creatures hung out in class with me all those years?  Forget that, I don’t want to know.

I blocked, opened, and directed my thoughts to Kin.

Switch is here.

I had to hope he heard.

Two other guards started to head straight for me right beside Switch as he readied his bow by stepping out of the line of warriors looking like they were heading into a military war zone, not the simple disagreement of two courts who refused to just get along.  It was the ladybug effect. Swarm now, ask later.

I willed two flying arrows away from me commanding Switch’s bow to aim above my head now.  I could tell it was futile as the power I exerted weakened me making the next attempt pointless.  I knew now I would have to build the endurance to make objects wield, if I didn't lose the opportunity altogether.

But more, I used magic and it worked.  I didn’t think, I just did.  In a panic, I feared the punishment for using magic when my enemy was not, but I think this counts as doubly unfair in the fighting department.

Kin stepped up to block my face just as Switch aimed his knife threatening me.  Kin’s knife lodged in his throat and he fell like a cartoon stiffly on his back.  I never had time to check his emotional wheel to see if he was even afraid to die. 

Highly emotional myself, I scanned Kin's face to know what to respond with but I found myself without words.

It is done.

He killed his own for me.

He was never lying or trying to use me for his court.  At least, not in the end.

Just then, Danella jumped out from the side door where our guards were pouring in to help Pike and his brigade of green fighting men along the sad, gray rocks that loomed over their heads like faces roaring to hurt us.  She saw me instantly and ran my direction. A blue guard laughed like a horse and aimed an arrow for my head. I looked for Kin beside me, but he was hitting repeatedly towards a blur of several bodies with both fists.

“Not her!” Danella yelled at the direction of the arrow.  She toddled in front of me just as the arrow soared through the air.  It happened so fast I didn’t know what exactly to order it in, but my fast pulse told me the arrow didn’t hit me.  

I pulled fast the small iron dagger that now had a destiny with the rage of a young Fey Queen who would not see her dearest and oldest friend die from the stupidity of the winter court’s king, but it was too late.

“Danella,” I yelled at her face running to her.  What was she doing here?  She didn’t come with us.  “DANELLA!” I screamed at her again.  Her face was stuck in a solid pose of agony.  I cradled her body and pulled her to me, “You’re not supposed to be here, Miss Dan.”  Someone was pulling me up.  Up!  I couldn’t leave her.  Why was she here?

“Grace, we need to go!” a voice was pulling me with the movement.  “Now.  Move!” 

“No!  Not her!” I wailed.  “She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“NOW GRACE!” Pike yanked my arm almost out of socket as I held on to Danella till he made me let go.  He had me over his shoulder and running to the corner of the giant room we were in.  He sat me in the corner and covered me with his body.  The fighter in Pike was itching to go take action, but protecting me was his current death wish.   About the same time my butt hit the reality called the floor, I saw between Pike’s arms and legs the worst of nightmares.  A twisted fate of nightmares.

Ian was down.  The earth shattered around me as the sword made a sucking sound when it twisted odd-like and left his body.  The air was stealing every last breath out of me in furious, whipping waves.   

I clawed Pike to let me go.  He laid his body against me, cornering me. 

“Damn you, Pike.  Let me go NOW!” He didn’t budge. I screamed and clawed blood off the back of his neck.

I beat the back of Pike with my fists as I watched King Sane raise his sword above my beloved Ian.  Pike was just going to lie there.  Watch.

Ian’s hand gripped the sword.  I saw it.  It was the iron sword from the range.  If I hadn’t keenly been watching Ian’s every body part evenly and carefully I might have missed it.  Sane whipped his own sword halfway through the air as Ian sliced the iron sword through the middle of the king.  Sane’s sword dropped to the ground with a crash. 

Pike eased upward letting me grab onto his shoulders for support.  I twisted around him and ran for the barely mobile figure lying on the floor beside where Sane was still in the process of falling.  I grabbed Ian and tugged him with everything I had away from where the dying man would fall.

“Where are you hurt?” I searched his body for anything cut or open.  Blood was everywhere.  I turned the torn up shirt in places to search for wounds.  None.  I patted his legs, thighs, all of it.  He didn’t have a scratch.  “You don’t have a scratch.  I saw…I heard the sword strike you.”

He chuckled despite lying prostrate with me straddled over him and Sane still sitting in a praying position staring blankly upward.  Seeing his eyes wide open and pointedly in my direction, I gasped and scrapped the floor to get away.  I screamed and fell over onto Ian’s chest, scooting my legs backward. I felt like I’d been stabbed with a thousand knives and then jolted alive again. 

“He is dead.”

Sucked for him.  “Are you sure?” I asked. 

“I told you before to never doubt me and I meant it,” his voice was strong despite the way he seemed to groan in pain.

“I thought you weren’t hurt,” I pulled off what remained of his shirt and checked the back of him touching every part of him looking for iron marked scars but none were there.  Whatever anger I’d pent up evaporated at that second from the heat of his gaze.  Eyes that penetrate to my very soul and leave me wanting.

“Checking me out while a man’s down is such a turn on, Grace.”

“Not funny Ian.”

“Neither are your doubts.”  Ian said it jokingly, but he meant it.  He did have a wound, not iron, but a stab wound already healing in his side. 

A hand reached out to me.  Kin pulled me to standing and held it back out to Ian.  Ian watched the hand too long and then took it. 

Kin nodded to Ian.  Ian nodded back. Pike nodded to both. 

Kin laid his father gently down to the ground and told us to leave.  Ian signaled the guards to pick up the dead and head out.  I surrounded Kin with my arms blocking his path after he dodged me twice.  “I’m sorry about your father.”

Kin quit moving, “My father was the worst man on this earth.  Feel sorry elsewhere.”

Hurt, I dropped my hands and slunk away.  I heard him begging me to come back but I didn’t blink an eye in his direction again. 

I refused to heed to Ian or Pike’s orders to sit and be womanly.  I helped like the rest.  When everything was gathered, Ian returned inside taking me with him.

Ian bowed to Kin.  I did not.

“We will return to our court now.  If you require any other services we are at your call.”

Kin frowned at him and turned to me.  “I am sorry for the distasteful mouth I shot off earlier.  I was still in shock.  Forgive me, Grace.”

“Always,” My undisputable smile reached his lips.  I leaned up to whisper and instead opened up my thoughts. 
Can you hear me?

I can, my queen.

You are king now, am I correct? 

Yes Grace, are you offering.
  His smile brightened again showing Ian what we were doing.

On the contrary, I wanted to make sure you come to the wedding. 

His face fell. 

It wouldn’t be right without you.

He never answered.  I kissed his cheek and Ian shook his arm in a goodbye.  Ian bowed to him again, but I noted Kin did not bow back.

We arrived back at court many hours later. My most awful of days didn’t come to an end yet.  My mother was at court.  She searched over my ragged clothes for injuries.

“What are you doing here?” I hugged her tight and then reality hit me.  I threw myself back off of her. 

“I’m so sorry.  I should’ve—“

“It’s okay.  I’ve come to terms with the thought of losing you and it’s worth the risk.  Things will change now that Sane is gone. Now tell me what happened.”

I cried forever in her arms.  Fire alarm worse day of my life. 

I learned that father’s memory had been wiped more than once by King Sane, Kin had been a sweet little boy before his mother died, Pike had his mother’s great humor, and Ian was in love with me long before he apparently knew it and she
did
.

I told her how much I hated the amulets and about the many times I snuck out to the Burger Giant to avoid dumplings and that Ian hated them.  She laughed and told me she knew.  How is that for secrets?

She stayed with me as I bathed and cleaned for dinner where I would see Ian again.  I hadn’t really talked with him since.

***

Ian had a separate funeral for Danella solely for me.  I was a mess.  My mother dressed her and covered her in rose petals and jasmine.  I watched her press each and every one across the top of her body appreciating that my mother would cherish her memory as much as me.  Still unable to believe or accept she threw herself to save me or say anything to her before she died, I hid little emotion.

It was goodbye to the most unselfish creature I have ever known. And my own selfish nature wanted her back.