Blood of Sirens: Book 13 of The Witch Fairy Series (15 page)

“Have I mentioned that I hate Sirens?” I grumble as I disarm the third unconscious warrior we find on the second floor.

“Have I mentioned I hate Witch Fairies who are constantly complaining about what they hate?” Taz snarks. 

I glower at him.  “I am seriously considering replacing you with a puppy.  A mastiff would be a lot better protection than you are.”

Taz is unfazed.  “Yes, because evil beings are just lining up to make you another Familiar.”

It’s true.  Some weird magical rule will only allow Familiars to be made by someone other than the intended owner.  The process takes dark, dark magic, as well.  And honestly?  I don’t need a larger version of Taz.  There isn’t enough bacon in the realm to sustain a larger version.  “You could at least make yourself useful and help me take the weapons off these guys.”

“Me and my opposable thumbs will get right on that.  Oh, wait, I don’t have opposable thumbs.”

“You get more annoying by the minute.”

“Just a part of my charm.  Wake me up when you’re finished with this one.”  The Tasmanian devil stretches his fat belly out on the floor and pretends to fall asleep.  I’m not blind.  I can see he has one eye trained on the door of the sitting room we are in. 

Back to focusing on the task at hand, I put a small dagger in the leather bag I’ve created.  The bag is getting heavy with the weight of swords, daggers, and knives.  These guys came prepared.  Most of them are Cowans but I have come across one Fairy and a Sasquatch.  I have no idea how he got into the palace unnoticed.

The night is half over by the time I’ve checked the third floor.  I never realized how big the palace is.  According to Taz, we’ve walked a hundred miles tonight.  It was probably more like five.  Still, with the small amount of sleep I’ve had in the last few days and the weight of the bag I’m pulling around, I’m exhausted by the time we’re done.  I did eventually get smart with the bag and put wheels under it, but it’s still heavy.  Some of the swords I put in it, I could barely lift.  I’d never be able to wield one.

When every inch of the palace has been searched, I teleport myself, Taz and the bag of weapons to Isla’s office.  I startle both her and Tana by our sudden appearance.  Moving her eyes from me to the bag, Isla remarks, “You have been quite busy.”

I flop down in the chair across from her.  “Too busy,” I complain.  “I cannot believe a Sasquatch got in with no one noticing.”

Isla grimaces.  “Neither can I.”

“What are we going to do with these guys now?” I ask.  “I have their weapons, but they’re going to wake up back under the Sirens’ control and they’re going to be determined to wage war.”

“Most of them are Cowans?” Tana asks.  When I nod, she says, “They will be of little challenge to the guards, then.”

“It is best not to underestimate your enemy,” Isla reminds her.  “These males entered the palace unnoticed.  They will awaken around the same time as the males under Xandra’s sleeping spell.  Our males will be groggy and disoriented and not at their best.  We will be torn between helping them and making sure none of them are still under the Sirens’ spell while fending off the intruders if we do not do something to render them powerless between now and then.”

“What do you suggest?” I ask her. 

After a long, assessing look at me, she says, “You are about to drop.”

What a nice way to say ‘you look awful.’  “I’m fine,” I assure her.

“You have worked powerful spells this evening.  Leave the intruders to Tana and me.”

Before I can argue, Tana says, “As I was saying before Xandra popped in,” she gives me a stern look, “I can perform a spell which will trap them in their own minds.”

Isla sighs in frustration.  “As I was saying, it is too risky for you to dabble in dark magic.”

“I am in control of my magic,” Tana argues.

“Yes, because it’s not a party until you add vengeful psycho to the mix,” Taz snarks. 

“Okay, you can’t tell me not to go in the black magic section because you are afraid of the consequences and then decide to do dark magic that could send you over the crazy cliff,” I tell my soon-to-be evil stepmother.  She definitely has the glare down pat.

“We better take cover,” Taz tells Felix, “one of them is about to blow.”

Even though she can’t understand my Familiar, Isla agrees.  “This conversation is not going anywhere good.”

She’s right.  Ignoring Tana’s fuming, I ask, “Have you heard from Kallen?” 

“No.” 

I try not to take the worry on her face to heart.  “That’s good, then, right?  They’d only send word if things were going badly.”  At least, that is what I’m telling myself.

“Dagda should have checked in by now,” Tana says softly. 

Kallen and I didn’t set a time to check in with each other.  We probably should have.  “When was he supposed to check in?”

“Two hours ago.”

Oh.  Ten minutes would be okay.  Even twenty would be understandable.  Two hours?  There’s no excuse for that.  At least, not one that sends the right message.  I rise from my chair so fast, I send it skittering several feet.  “I need to check on them.”

“Xandra, we discussed this before,” Isla begins.

“Yes, we did.   That was before I found all of the bad guys and put them to sleep.  Now, there is no reason for me not to go to the village and check on Kallen, Dagda and Kegan.”

Tana also rises from her chair.  “I think she should go.”

That’s all the encouragement I need.  Without waiting for Isla’s response, I teleport out of her office directly to the middle of the village.  I should have picked a side street.  I land in the middle of a crowd, jostling several and knocking one Fairy to the ground.  “Sorry,” I mumble, helping her up.

“The Princess is here!” is shouted by a Fairy to my left.  All eyes turn to me.

It only takes a second for Naja to push through the crowd until she is standing directly in front of me.  “Princess, what a relief.  The Palace must be secure.”

There is fear in her eyes.  Naja is never scared.  “What happened?”  I had to force the words through my throat because I’m pretty sure asking the question is going to guarantee a bad response.

“You have not heard?” Naja asks hesitantly.  “I thought it was why you came.”  Turning back to the crowd, she says, “Let the Princess pass!”  She begins walking and the Fairies part.  I follow in her wake.

We don’t go far before she stops.  On the ground in front of us is my biological father.  Unconscious with a heck of a shiner.  I kneel down next to him and make certain he still has a pulse.  I sigh in relief when I feel it.  Looking up at Naja, I ask, “What happened?”  Glancing around, I ask, “Where are Kallen and Kegan?”

“Kegan followed them,” Naja says, still not wanting to tell me everything. 

I stand up and face the guard leader.  “Naja, if you don’t tell me what is going on right this minute, I will drag the words from your throat with magic.”  I don’t know if I can do that, but I am more than willing to try.

Squaring her broad shoulders, she says, “They came to attack the village.  There were thousands of them.”  She pauses and I draw magic, ready to make good on my threat if she doesn’t keep going.  After a second, she says, “We were grossly outnumbered.  We could have prevailed, but there would have been much bloodshed.”

“I understand how war works,” I snark.

“Kallen bravely chose another path.”

My eyes narrow and my magic grows.  “How, exactly, did he do that?”  I am becoming less angry with Naja and more so with my husband.  I know he did something stupid.  Why now?  Out of all the situations we have been through together, why did he pick this situation to do something stupid?  Doesn’t he know it’s my job to do that, not his?

“He gave himself to them.”

Naja spoke so softly, I’m not certain I heard her correctly.  “He gave himself to whom?”  I know the answer, but my lips form the words anyway.

“He willingly agreed to go with the Sirens.  He is now under their spell.”

I shake my head.  “No.”

“Princess, I am so sorry,” Naja whispers. 

“No,” I say again.  “That’s impossible.”  He loves me too much to be under their spell.  They can’t take his heart from me.  It is written in the cosmos that he is mine and I am his.  My mind can’t even comprehend it.  Therefore, I will focus on something else.  “What happened to Dagda?”

Startled by the change in conversation, it takes a minute for Naja to respond.  Finally, she says, “Kallen rendered him unconscious when he tried to stop him.”

None of this is making sense.  “How?  Kallen is strong with magic but Dagda is stronger.”  Surely, Dagda wouldn’t succumb to a magical attack like this. 

“Not with magic.  He hit him.”

She must be making all of this up.  There is no way any of it could have happened.  “You are telling me that Kallen chose to go off with the Sirens and he punched Dagda so hard he knocked him out when he tried to stop him.”  She had better say no.

“Yes.”

She said yes.  She believes my husband, the one who swore to love me forever, the one who believed to the bottom of his soul merely hours ago that the Sirens would never be able to convince him to leave me, the one who owns my heart completely, has dumped me to run off with the Sirens.  For nights of endless pleasure.  Where he’ll be a King instead of a Prince.  Where I will never be able to find him.

“Princess?” Naja says but her voice is a million miles away from where I am.  I am at the edge of the world, ready to fall off into the void.  My vision is darkening.  My heart is pounding.  My breathing is ragged.  I can barely hear her through the storm raging in my brain.  My world is tearing apart and with it, my heart. 

“Princess!” Naja calls. 

Can’t she see I’m falling apart?  Does she believe I can focus on her when I’m trying to hold myself together?  My mind is not capable of processing anything else at the moment.  My vision is black around the edges and my ears are filled with the sound of betrayal.  Loud, soul wrenching, mind blowing betrayal.  He left me.  He chose to leave me.

“Damn it, Xandra!  Freakin snap out of it!  You are hurting people!”  Taz’s voice seeps slowly into my brain.  It takes time to process his words as I am consumed by pain.  Every cell in my body is bursting with agony.  He has it wrong.  I’m the one who is hurt.

Teeth ripping into my flesh shocks me back to reality.  I open my mouth to scream when I realize I already am.  Surrounded by white light, I am screaming into the night as magic pours out of me.  The magic borne of the mixing of Witch, Fairy and Angel.  Magic strong enough to make the ground tremble and crack beneath our feet.  Magic powerful enough to light the oxygen around me on fire.  All around, Fairies are littered over the ground.  I look down at my bleeding ankle.  Taz bit me hard enough to tear tendons and ligaments.  Blood is gushing from the wound.  What bothers me, though, is the fear.  Taz has fear in his eyes as he gazes up at me.  He is afraid of me.  He is afraid of me like Felix was afraid of my doppelganger. 

This is not who I am.  I need to pull it together.  I will pull it together.  Closing my eyes, I calm my breathing.  The pain in my chest remains, but I force myself to take deep breaths.  Slowly, I pull my magic back.  Falling to my knees, I take in the carnage of my temper.  Tears that couldn’t penetrate my rage before begin to fall as I take in the scene.  I have torn the village square apart.  Glass litters the ground.  Some of the shards have burrowed into the unconscious Fairies.  Roofs have blown off buildings.  Shops have been laid to waste.  “Taz,” I whisper.  “What have I done?”

It is not Taz who answers me.  “You have allowed your pain to control you.  You have used your power against the innocent.”

“I have,” I admit to the Angel standing behind me.

A hand rests upon my shoulder.  “You are correct, this is not who you are,” a new voice says.

“I am so sorry.”

“It is not us who need your apology,” yet another voice tells me.  “But know this, you do not stand alone.”

I turn to the trio who has answered my wings’ call for help.  Before me are Urim, Lailah, and Valoel.  They are the Angels of illumination, love and peace.  They have come to calm my spirit, to help me through the bitterness of betrayal.  For the first time, I feel connected to the Angels as one of them.  That they would come to me when I need guidance the most is proof enough that I am part of their family.

“How do I make this right?” I ask.

Lailah, my grandmother, helps me to my feet and wraps her arms around me.  “Oh, my darling, your grief is so raw.  Only a perfect love can cause such perfect pain.”

“Grandma, that doesn’t make me feel better,” I cry against her shoulder.

Arms wrap around the two of us and a calm I thought was beyond me descends upon us.  “Your husband sought peace for this realm and others.  His sacrifice is woven through with the love he has for you and his kind,” Valoel adds.  Still not feeling any better about it.

“Your path was always going to be difficult,” Urim assures me.  Wow, these guys suck as spirit lifters.  “But you have experienced enough to know there are many paths to choose.  Perhaps fate has not steered you quite in the direction you believe it has.”