Prince by Blood and Bone: A Fantasy Romance of the Black Court (Tales of the Black Court) (33 page)

“Back away. I don’t want him to lash out with his magic and hurt you.”

“You could have been worried about that the first time,” Trina said, and moved hurriedly across the room.

Bryanna sent up a prayer and pulled more energy. It poured into her exhausted body as if the Goddess Danu herself wanted her to heal the puca. Who knew? Maybe she did.

She took the sharp point of power and softened it, heated it to a glowing point and ran it over the wound. The stitches in Solanum’s hide glowed, dark blue heating to white. His aura shuddered and bucked, but the stitches held. Bryanna pushed more power into Solanum. There was a bright flare of blue and white mixed with purple and black.

The last of her energy drained out. Bryanna collapsed next to Solanum, her pants soaking up blood as both the puca’s body and his aura spasmed, and he screamed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Haddon surveyed the masses of boxes, bags, and servants the queen insisted they take with them to the Brethren
’
s keep. This was the last thing he wanted to do, take nearly the entire court to a tiny outpost near the White Queen’s territory, but he couldn’t see any other way to get this situation solved.

He clapped his hands together. “Everyone must carry at least four pieces of gear when they go through the portal.” Food and drink and dresses. Far too much and all of it necessary to the court’s sense of pomp and circumstance.

The queen’s uncle Niall hobbled past the piles of luggage, tents, and paraphernalia. “Damn foolish waste of money, if you ask me.”

It was. But the court was jubilant. Not only had the prince appeared, but he was to be married, and arrangements were in full force. Even if it was in a hurried up ceremony in butt-fuck nowhere.

Haddon smiled at Niall and bowed. “Your Lordship.”

No one must see his anxiety or his anticipation. This was his moment. Everything must go according to plan. They must get Agrona and Kian married and Agrona must suck up all of his powers. Then, with Kian out of the way and the queen not yet in possession of the prince’s Gift, he himself would engineer a disaster.

The prince and his lovely fiancée would die, the queen would have a final conniption fit, and the court would be grateful to let him take over and rule.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“Bryanna, are you okay?”

Bryanna shook her head and sat up. She ignored Trina and the black spots floating in her vision. All her attention was focused on her patient. A black mist obscured his equine shape and in the inky darkness, two glaring red eyes appeared, seeming to pin her in place. Then the mist evaporated, and instead of the jet black stallion, there stood the devastatingly beautiful youth she’d met the first night. The blood and mud were gone, and he was impeccably dressed in black jeans and a t-shirt that showed off his sleek muscles. His dark eyes flashed red as he demanded, “Bloody hell, woman. How the fuck did they find ye here?”

Bryanna couldn’t answer. He was fine. More than fine. He had clean clothes, clean hair, and spanking clean leather boots. And he was cursing up a storm.

“Well? You were safe here. How did the Brethren find the fucking lodge?”

“I don’t know,” she said, looking helplessly at Trina.

“Bullocks!” Solanum stalked toward her, sniffing the air. “Don’t deny it. It’s masked, but you have something—something you shouldn’t.”

Bryanna’s hand formed a protective fist around the locket in her pocket, and Solanum’s eyes tracked the motion.

He held out his hand, palm open. “Hand it over.”

“No.” She shook her head and scrambled back on the bloody floor. “It’s mine.” Even though she knew Beezel had been a traitor, the locket still worked. And with Logan and Kian gone, she needed it now more than ever.

Solanum’s face softened. His smile was gentle. Seductive. “Let me see the trinket, lass.”

As if drawn by a string, Bryanna pulled the chain out from its hiding spot. The golden locket slid out and dangled from her fist over Solanum’s patiently held out palm.

“Please, Bryanna, he’ll be able to tell if that’s how they found us.”

She didn’t want to let it go. It didn’t matter if it was a tracking device. It was the secret to her heart’s desire.

“Now lass.” The puca’s voice vibrated with power. It tingled inside her bones. The chain slipped from her slick fingers and dropped into Solanum’s waiting grasp.

“No!” She lunged, but it was too late.

He’d already snatched the locket back from her grasping fingers and had turned away. He sniffed the gold, his elegant nose wrinkling. “It reeks of the magic of the Tuatha De Dannan.” He held it out of her reach, the shiny surface glinting as it spun on the end of its fragile golden chain.

“Beezel said it would lead me to my heart’s desire. I need it to find Mama and Cassie. Now, maybe we can use it to find Logan and Kian.” She stretched out her fingers, but Solanum yanked the locket out of her reach. “It’s mine,” she said. “Give it back.”

“You trusted a gnome?” He shook his head at her. “Stupid git. They’re nothing more than money-grubbing rats. They have no loyalty except to their own kind.” Solanum snapped open the locket and examined its smooth surface. “Ah,” he said, and snapped it shut.

“What?”

“It does what he said it would, it shows you the route to your heart’s desire, but there’s an added spell to it. Look with your sight.” He laid the locket flat in his palm, and Bryanna focused her Gift. The bright white light of the locket’s heart’s desire spell sprang into her vision. Then Solanum breathed over the locket. In the fog of his breath, the shiny surface flickered with lurid, yellow runes that disappeared as the heat of the moisture dried.

“I didn’t see that before.”

“You were glamoured not to see, but you should have looked anyway.” His expression told her she’d fallen far below the mark.

“What are those marks?” Trina asked.

“It’s spelled to be a beacon. It calls out and reveals its location to the one whose name is inscribed there.”

“And who is that?” Bryanna asked. She suspected she knew.

“Why, your trustworthy gnome, of course.”

She’d wanted to believe Beezel. Wanted to trust him. Was she so gullible she’d let just anyone pretend to be her friend? Why hadn’t she trusted Kian instead?

Solanum pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and unfolded its crisp, starched folds. He wrapped the locket up and tossed the bundle into the air. At the height of the toss, it disappeared.

“No!” Bryanna stretched out her hand, too late. It was gone. “What have you done?” She sagged onto the floor, suddenly more tired than she ever thought she’d been before. “Now I’ll never find any of them.” Her exhaustion took over and a deep depression settled into her body.

“You don’t need it,” Solanum said. “I know where your mother and sister are being held.”

“Where?” She lurched up, nearly grabbing the puca’s black sleeve.

“Hmm, anxious are we?” He waggled his brows at her. “I might tell you.” His pretty features contorted into a ghastly leer. “But I think I want something in return.”

She flinched away.

Under the youthful exterior there was something so dark about the puca that she wasn’t even sure what he was. She’d healed him, and she still wasn’t sure. One thing she did know, she’d glimpsed what he was truly formed of and he had nothing that bound him to her or her family. And the binding that held him to Logan was as thin as the life of a man.

Solanum’s knowing black eyes gave her the once over, stripping her naked from the top down and back up again. A strange unwanted sexual knowledge burned along her skin. She flushed.

Trina stepped forward, placing her petite figure between the two of them. “Back off, Solanum.”

He gave Bryanna a long, lewd wink, and turned away. “You’re no fun, Katerina MacElvy.”

“Now, where are they?” Trina’s face grew hard, her voice harder.

“The same place I would imagine Logan and Kian are now prisoners. In the Caer Bol, the sodding Keep of the Brethren.”

Bryanna’s chest seized, and she struggled for breath. Everyone she loved, besides Trina, was now held by Agrona and her troll-kin soldiers. Black spots danced in front of her eyes. “I think I need to sit,” she gasped, and stumbled to a chair.

“The what?” Trina asked.

“They’re held prisoner by the troll-kin, the soldiers who attacked here.” He gestured at the wide-open door and the glowing black force-field outside. “The same troll-kin who even now have surrounded the lodge and would be coming in the door if it weren’t for the shield.”

Trina’s face went dead white. “Oh,” she said and made her way to the chair next to Bryanna’s.

Bryanna reached out to her cousin and gripped her shoulder. “We’ll go get them,” she reassured her. “But first we need to take care of you and that baby.”

Right now, she only had Trina, and the baby inside her. If she could focus on them, then she could put forward one foot at a time. She pulled Trina up and guided her toward the dining room. “Food. You look like you’re going to pass out.”

Solanum laughed and capered behind them. “Of course! Fire and brimstone…blood and slaughter await, but first, let’s eat.” He danced around them and into the dining room, halting just inside the door. He balanced one elegant hand on his hip and waved them inside. “And plan,” he said, his lascivious grin changing his face from a near innocent youth to one of ancient evil.

Bryanna shuddered.

Trina picked up a plate and began selecting from the fresh food on the sideboard.

Bryanna looked at her own bloody hands and soaked clothes. “I need to change,” she said. “I can’t eat like this.”

She went up to her room and washed off quickly, putting her dress back on and leaving her soaked outfit in the tub. When she went back down Trina and Solanum were discussing their situation.

“How many are out there? Can’t you tell? Can we fight them off?”

“Nay.” Solanum shook his head. “They bear iron-tipped weapons, and there are many of them. You might escape while I fought, but they would catch you in the end and be grinding your bones for their suppers.”

“So we’re trapped here.”

Despite her twisting stomach, Bryanna forced herself to load up a plate and eat. She’d learned if she didn’t eat now, there might not be another chance.

A soft voice startled her. “I’ll show ye the back door.”

She nearly dropped her plate. She’d been sure the room was empty, but from the corner stepped a tiny, wizened creature, dressed in a faded dress and no bigger than a child. Her brown skin was soft and crinkled, like a worn out paper bag, and her eyes glowed the color of glazed maple sugar. Where a nose should be, she only had two slitted nostrils in her flat face, and the opening for her mouth was only a gash.

Trina gasped.

“Ah, the brownie finally appears.” Solanum snickered. “And how can ye help us, madam?”

“I’ll not be helping ye, ye good for nothing puca. I’ll be helping the lodge by getting ye out of here. Once all the guests are gone I can shut the lodge down. No one will get in again until the master opens it himself.” She sniffed. “Not even you.”

“Brownies. You act all high and mighty, but you’re just parasites.”

The brownie turned away from him and faced the women, her nearly non-existent chin lifted high.

“Trina needs to stay,” Bryanna said. “Can we fix the front door? Can we leave the shield to protect her?”

“I’m going with you.”

“You have to protect the baby.”

“And you think I’ll be safer here? With the troll-kin outside the door.”

“The force-field is keeping them out and you’re pregnant.”

“I know I’m pregnant, but I’m barely showing. Once Solanum leaves, the force-field goes with him, leaving me and fifty soldiers with a battering ram and a shattered door between us.”

Byranna clutched Trina’s hand. “I can’t lose you again.”

“You won’t.” Trina pulled her into her arms and Bryanna shuddered as she sensed the glow of the baby tucked safely inside her cousin. “But this baby needs her da. You, and I, and Cassie have given both of ours over to the queen. I’ll be damned if I’m going to raise another MacElvy without a father.”

“Fine, you get your way, again.” Bryanna gave a broken laugh. “But only if you promise you won’t die.” She squeezed Trina close and blinked back her tears. “Promise me.”

Trina whispered. “I promise.”

Bryanna twitched the parlor curtain aside, checking again on the soldiers. “That shield is almost transparent. They’re going to figure out that it’s only made up of mist and illusion, and that Solanum is gone.” It had taken all night to prepare their arsenal of spells and come up with a plan. Solanum had left that morning to round up reinforcements, but something was wrong.