Cruel Enchantment (38 page)

For as scary as he was, he was still a man. He could be killed. She had to remember that.

She nocked another quarrel. Moving slowly and blinking so she could keep the tree in her view, she inched closer and closer.

A wet branch cracked beneath her shoe and she cursed inwardly. She’d given away her position.

Will leapt. Yelling out for her death in a guttural voice, he rushed her.

Sighting on his chest, she loosed. The quarrel arched through the air and Will tried to dodge it. No luck this time. With a wet crunch, it hit his chest and broke bones.

Eyes wide, he stumbled and went down into the wet leaves. Blood poured from his mouth. He rolled on his side, gurgling and pulling at the shaft with weak, blood-wet fingers.

Heart pounding and breath coming fast, she lowered the crossbow to her side and walked over to him. ���So, you were sent to kill me.” She looked down at him as he lay bleeding in the leaves. “Didn’t Gideon tell you it wouldn’t be that easy?”

His eyes widened a little, he gurgled, and then he died.

AERIC
felt her a moment before she walked in the door, as if they’d forged some kind of psychic link. “I have it,” she said as soon as she’d cleared the threshold. Angry bruises marked her face and she was streaked with grime and blood. Her hair and clothes were damp and her boots were covered in mud. “I’ve got the piece in my backpack. We need to take it to Queen Aislinn.”

“Hey, hold on a minute,” he said, going to her. “I have a feeling you’re skipping a few things.” He drew her against him and held her for a moment. “What the hell happened to you?”

She melted into him and sagged against him bonelessly, her arms coming around his waist. “I don’t even know where to start.” She sounded exhausted.

He drew the crossbow and quiver off of her, then her pack. “Tell me everything.”

She started from the time she left Piefferburg. As she spoke, he drew her into the bathroom, taking care to place the precious pack on a nearby table, and carefully stripped her clothing off. While he ran a bath for her, he cleaned up the cuts on her face and arms, then herded her into the warm water. As he did all this, she told him about David, Calum, and the strange fae who had the same magick she did. While she sat in the water and he washed her back and hair, she told him about Gideon’s suspicion and then about Will.

The Will o’ the Wisp. She’d fought him,
killed
the bastard.

All on her own.

After she’d finished he was silent for a while, content to have her safe in his apartment and pissed as hell she’d been in danger in the first place. Rage and relief, all at the same time.

He dropped the washcloth in the water and, swearing low, rose and turned away, his fists tight.

“Aeric?”

“I want to kill Gideon for what he did.”

“You’re not the only one.”

“I feel so fucking helpless trapped in here.” He leaned against the counter, emotions pulling him all over the place. He was coming to care very deeply about Emmaline and the thought that she’d been in danger and he hadn’t been there to protect her made the caveman part of himself insane. He knew she was totally capable of taking care of herself. That had been shown amply by recent events, but he was a man and he’d claimed her as his—and a man protected what was his, no matter if she needed it or not.

She touched his shoulder. “Hey.”

He turned and pulled her against him, uncaring that she was wet from the bath, and buried his nose in the place where her neck met her shoulder, breathing in the scent of her skin.

Her arms came around him. “I’m okay, Aeric.”

“Yeah, I know.” He didn’t let go.

He slid his hand to the nape of her neck, angling her face up to his, and kissed her softly, aware of the cut on her lip where Will had hit her. He kissed the corner of her mouth on the side that wasn’t hurt, her chin, her throat.

Her body went taut against him, her breathing becoming heavier. His, too.

“Do you want this right now?” he murmured against her throat.

She nodded and swallowed hard. “Make me feel something other than scared.”

“And I need to feel you, Emmaline. Warm, breathing.” He paused. “Mine.”

She went very still and tense. After a moment, she looked at him. “Where is this going, Aeric?”

He studied her, his throat going tight. “Going? I’m already gone. I love you, Emmaline.” He dipped his head and kissed her again very gently, then proceeded to try to kiss every remaining water droplet from her skin, starting at her throat and working his way down.

By the time he’d trailed his tongue to the junction of her legs, neither of them were capable of speech.

He pulled her forward by her hips and slid his tongue between her thighs, licking up stray droplets of water and finding her clit already blooming with need. It made his body tight with desire. She’d only been away from him for a couple weeks, but every day had felt like twenty. He lowered her to the plush carpet of the bathroom and gave it the much more thorough attention it was begging for.

She shuddered and came, moaning his name in that way that heated his blood. He moved up her body and she pulled his shirt over his head, then her fingers went to the button and zipper of his jeans as if she couldn’t wait.

He covered her hand with his. “We have lots of time. Let’s take this slow.”

“Slow sounds good to me.”

Once he was as bare as she was, he gently brushed his lips across her hurts and limned the bottom of her mouth with his tongue. Then he dipped down and gave the same attention to each of her nipples in turn, until they were hard and red, like little cherries.

Skating his hand down the gentle curve of her spine to her rear and then to the tender back of her knee, he lifted her and fit her against his groin. She positioned herself against him, the heat of her sex warming him as she moved to push him within.

Sliding deep inside her was like coming home. Her breath hissed out and he emitted a low groan of pleasure. He stayed like that, not moving, just looking down at her for a moment. Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes glazed with desire, her pain forgotten for the moment. She was beautiful.

Holding her gaze, he moved inside her with long, slow strokes. Their bare bodies brushed together like silk and her breath came faster, the look on her face more passionate with every passing moment. He loved watching her approach orgasm, how her body and face showed her heightening pleasure—he loved it even more when she came apart beneath him.

Knowing how she best liked him to move, he increased the pace and strength of his thrusts, turning long and slow to long and hard. Gentle to forceful and possessive. She moved her hips in time to his thrusts, until they achieved a perfect rhythm.

Her breathing caught and her muscles tensed in that way that was becoming familiar to him. Letting out a sigh and a long moan, her back arched as she came. The muscles of her sex spasmed around his length and she cried his name.

Pleasure rippled and pulsed in his balls, then exploded upward, engulfing him. He let out a low groan ending with her name as he released inside her. He collapsed on top of her and then rolled to the side, taking her with him and kissing her all over.

After they’d caught their breath, she rested her head on his chest and said, “God, that’s one thing that’s never going to get old with you.”

“What do you mean?”
Goibhniu
, he hoped it meant what he thought it meant. “Does that mean you’re staying with me? Here in Piefferburg?”

She raised her head. “Yes, and it’s not because Gideon won’t let me back out. I’d decided to stay here before that happened.” She paused. “I want to be with you, Aeric. Stay here with you.”

In the mess of the story she’d told him about what had happened with Brother Gideon, it hadn’t occurred to him that she was now trapped in Piefferburg as a recognized fae. He leaned forward and kissed the uninjured part of her mouth. “I love you, Emmaline.”

She held his gaze for a pregnant moment. “I love you, too, Aeric. I always have.”

He set his forehead against hers and let out a long, slow breath of relief.
She was staying.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He stood and then scooped her into his arms, making her squeal. That was one of the advantages of having the build of a blacksmith. “I’m okay now. More than okay.”

She laughed and then hit him. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

He carried her out of the bathroom and put her in his bed—a place he intended to keep her for a very long time to come. He came down over her body and kissed her while he eased his hand between her thighs. “Don’t worry,
hurt
isn’t what I plan to make you feel. Not ever, if I can help it.”

She sighed and relaxed into the pillows. “I can never get enough of your hands on me.”

“That’s, good, because touching you is something I want to make a hobby.” He lowered his head and gave some special attention to one nipple, then the other.

Soon they were making love again, this time softer and slower, while he murmured words of love to her, ones he’d thought he would never say to another woman again.

Afterward, sated and relaxed, they lay in an easy silence, their legs tangled together and with as much skin touching as possible. “Do you want to see it?” she asked.

It took him a moment to remember the piece. He’d been more concerned with her when she’d walked through the door.

Before he had a chance to answer, she’d slid from the bed and retrieved her backpack. Digging into the bottom, she popped a secret compartment and drew it forth. “I had it in my pocket when Will rushed me. After I got through that I thought it might be safer away from my attack-prone body for the rest of the walk into the city, so I put it in my pack.”

He took it from her and examined it. It was small, curved on one side and jagged on the other. It fit, of course, the other piece that the Summer Queen had in her possession. One more piece and it would be whole. Then it would unlock the back of the Book of Bindings and the magick contained within those pages could be used to break the warding around Piefferburg. Copper colored and unassuming, it was something that could easily be lost in a pile of junk or at a thrift store.

The first piece had been locked in a government vault, freed by Ronan Quinn at the request of the Phaendir . . . and then stolen from them. The second piece had been buried at the bottom of the sea and protected with strong magick by an unknown party. There was no telling where the third piece was or if they’d ever locate it. One thing was certain—it was not within Piefferburg.

“We should bring it to the queen as soon as possible,” she said. “There’s no telling what Gideon might try now since his first plan failed.”

Aeric grunted in acquiescence. “We’re only missing one piece.” He looked up at her. “The Phaendir will act soon. We’re getting too close for them to remain passive.”

She nodded. “But they’ll do it covertly. No matter how they may believe they’ve got the fae under their thumbs, they fear us. They won’t come pounding into Piefferburg with Phaendir foot soldiers. They’ll do something like what Brother Gideon might do: use fae turncoats within Piefferburg to sabotage us from the inside.”

Aeric gave the piece back to her. “The Phaendir might use the human military. Send in troops to get the pieces and the book back, along with Phaendir to bolster them with magick.”

“Maybe. It wouldn’t be pretty. It’d be bloody, in fact.” She chewed her lip. “For them.”

He studied her. “So, you’re trapped in Piefferburg now.”

She looked up at him, her eyes suddenly wet. She reached out and cupped his cheek. “I’m not
trapped
in Piefferburg. I’m in love and happy to be here.”

He met her halfway, lips meshing. The piece fell to the bed between them.

 

 

BROTHER
Gideon pushed open Brother Maddoc’s office door with a thump and walked in as though it was already his. In about five minutes, it would be. “Archdirector Maddoc, I’m afraid you’ve got quite a bit of explaining to do.” Seven brothers followed him within. Two were Gideon’s men. The rest were Phaendir that had always followed Maddoc.

No longer.

Maddoc looked up with a surprised expression on his face that quickly turned to anger. He rose. “Brother Gideon, why are you here? I haven’t summoned you. Leave my office immediately.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Gideon took the upper arm of a thin, pale-haired brother named Aloysius. “Brother Aloysius has revealed some very interesting information.”

Maddoc’s face clouded with rage. “What information? What are you saying? Kindly leave and let me—”

Gideon gave Aloysius a helpful push forward.

“They know,” said Aloysius in a small voice, his hands fisted at his groin. He cast a quick, frightened glance at the other brothers in the office. “I just couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. The guilt was too great.”