Cassandra's Dilemma (21 page)

Helcyon nodded slowly, grimly picking up the threads of the tale. “More than five hundred years later, only a handful of Elven women remain. They are cosseted, protected, and shielded. Of those women, only the Danae may go forth into your world, but shadowed and shackled Underhill, they no longer give birth. In the last one hundred years, only one child has been born of pure Elven blood. The need for Wizards, though hated, has grown—and one hundred and fifty years ago, the Danae took matters into her own hands.”

Cassie clasped her hands together, aching to reach out to each man, wrapped in his own personal history.

Helcyon seemed so far away from her, gazing into that distant past he spoke of. “She fell in love with a human male. She dallied with him a time, for she was the Danae and few could refuse her. When she found herself with child, she should have ended it, but she refused. She looked into time itself and said that the child would prove our salvation.”

“But that’s forbidden.” Jacob’s expression creased with horror. “The hybrid children of Elven women, they are immune to magic. They cannot survive Underhill. They break with the balance of order.”

“They are not fully immune, but there are complications. She carried the child to term, living away from the Underhill in the mortal realm. As the night of her birthing approached, she sent her guardsmen to a dozen different locations. In each one a couple prepared to give birth—she chose the Belles.”

Cassie froze. Unlike most families, her great-grandmother kept her maiden name after marriage and her daughter the same. They both buried their husbands early, and her mother never married. There could be no coincidence.

“She chose the Belles for their kindness, their generosity of spirit, their curiosity about the world, and their wealth.” Helcyon paused, staring steadily at Cassie and Jacob. The air was heavy, laden with unforeseen possibilities just waiting for the first crack of thunder to break open the dam.

Cassie stole a glance at Jacob, but he was glaring at Helcyon. Emotion boiled to the surface of his expression. In sixth grade, Cassie watched her neighbor across the street discover that dogs had dug up his iris and hydrangea beds. All the fresh blooms littered the front lawn, carelessly strewn like a toddler’s toys. He’d been apoplectic with fury. His Adam’s apple bobbed dangerously as his face went beet red.

Jacob looked nearly as angry now.

“Cassie’s a Changeling?” His harsh whisper of words could not have sounded more horrified if he’d asked if she were a leper.

“Her great-grandmother was,” Helcyon replied succinctly. “Not Cassandra.”

“Changelings are put to death,” Jacob said flatly. “Changelings are dangerous to Underhill.”

“So the Danae was aware,” Helcyon sighed. Cassie said nothing, listening to their discussion as though she were not present. Their emotions ran high, colliding tides of passion cresting into frothy waves. Questions bubbled desperately to the surface of her mind, but she feared the tsunami of fury the men were whipping up.

Jacob turned his gaze to Cassie, the tenderness in his expression edged with unease. She tried not to flinch away from the depth of feeling in his stormy gaze.

“Go on,” he urged the Fae, staring at Cassie.

“The Danae chose her family, holding off her delivery until the Belle mother was also in labor. Her child was born only an hour before the Belles’ own babe. We spirited the Danae’s to the midwife’s home, where the two were exchanged. We carried their daughter back to the Danae. The girl was taken Underhill, where the Danae cared for her as her own.”

“Her name?”

“Does it matter? The Danae wanted her child safe, and she wanted the Belles’ child protected. They both lived long and full lives.”

“And they both died within the last year.” It wasn’t a question. Jacob stood up and walked away from them toward the edge of the water. The horizon grew darker with the promise of rain.

“My great-grandmother passed away last year,” Cassie said softly. “But she was just shy of her hundredth birthday.”

“Was she?” Helcyon clearly didn’t think so, and the careless shrug of his shoulders was all he offered.

“It was a betrayal,” Jacob spit. “Those women died for the Danae’s freedom.”

“I don’t understand?” Cassie looked from Helcyon to Jacob and then back again. The breeze grew fierce.

The wind yanked at Helcyon’s hair, jerking it to and fro like the ocean waves. “The Earth is a witch, Cassandra. The humans have continued to burn her to strengthen the spell that the Wizards laid when they hunted our females. They used their deaths to force us Underhill to keep us from surviving in the mortal realms—they thought if we were pushed back, we would no longer interfere with them.”

“They thought you’d leave no more fatherless bastards out there to stumble and fall on their faces to fight wars you started.” Jacob’s voice deepened a hoarse octave as he shouted. “You broke the covenant. A Changeling would destroy the Underhill—so she created symbiosis with the human child—the lives of those two children tied together in a spiral dance that would unwind the magical seals.”

“Yes. The Danae sacrificed much to win our freedom. But we are a dying people. You killed so many of our females that within the millennium we may be no more. We must come out into the mortal world if we are to save ourselves.”

“I’ll be damned if I allow that to happen.” Jacob’s gun appeared from nowhere. One moment his hand was empty and the next moment he held a gun. Helcyon’s sword exploded into being, and the two men advanced on each other, completely oblivious to Cassie’s presence.

“Stop!” she shouted. The world wrenched sideways, dumping them back into their mortal coils. Cassie slid sideways, colliding with Jacob’s body. The hard heat of his nakedness against hers startled an oath from both of them. Jacob snarled as he surged to his feet, carrying her with him. His arm wrapped around her middle like a steel band.

“Let her go,” Helcyon ordered.

“Do you seriously think I would hurt her?” Jacob scoffed. His arm remained firm around her. “She’s not responsible for the Danae’s choices, but I’m not about to let you use her in another symbiotic spell to provide a gateway.”

Before Helcyon could respond, Cassie shoved two fingers in her mouth and whistled shrilly. “Time out! You two are about to gut each other over my great-grandmother. But what you’re saying is impossible. Wouldn’t I know if I were Fae or that she was?”

A crash exploded against the side of the building. The floor lurched beneath their feet, and Cassie would have sprawled if not for the hard band keeping her upright and pressed against Jacob’s chest. Another explosive jolt preceded the harsh crack of glass.

“What is it?” Cassie shouted into the whipping wind that tore through the room.

“Feth Felen found us. I’ll be damned how, but it did.” Jacob sounded really, really annoyed. The sound of a clip being loaded into his gun and the distinctive snick of Helcyon’s sword reminded her that seconds ago they were at each other’s throats.

Cassie did her best to not scream like a little girl at the idea of the black tentacles seeking her out in the blindness she was trapped in. Jacob’s arm stayed firm around her as he pulled her to her feet. Another whopping crash, and the sound of wood splintering joined the shattering of glass.

“This is bad,” Cassie said out loud. “Isn’t it?”

“Get her dressed!” Helcyon growled.

She could imagine the looks passing between them. They danced on the precipice of slaughtering each other but seemed to be holding back because of the threat to Cassie.

Wasn’t that nice? Appeasing the blind girl took priority. She had to appreciate the irony. After all, she was the target of the Feth Felen.

“Cassie, stay with me,” Jacob ordered. A shirt was yanked over her bare arms and fell to her thighs. She’d forgotten that just minutes ago they’d been entwined in that bed, Jacob buried deep inside her, and her stomach churned as that memory collided with his recoil over her heritage. The house rumbled again, but he was yanking shorts up over her legs.

She sucked in a deep breath as his fingers skimmed her hips. So not the time for her body to be turned on, but God help her, she was. He tucked her hand into the waistband of jeans, jeans that he must have yanked on himself. His skin was hot against her fingers. The rough texture of denim bit into the palm of her hand.

“We can’t go Underhill from here. It can track us there now,” Helcyon said from somewhere over her left shoulder. “How long until your shields come down?”

“He’s penetrated the glamour. He keeps pounding like that, he’ll tear right through the garage walls. I warded the exterior and work room to a fare-thee-well, but the house is not meant to be a fortress.”

“What happened to the iron and the salt and the spell work?” Cassie demanded.

“That was mostly to make you feel better.” Was that contrition in his voice? She really didn’t have time to analyze his tone.

“Really not making me
feel
better now.”

“Sorry.” Why did she not believe him? “We fight. If it’s only the one, we should be able to take it!”

A large crack snapped through their conversation, wood splintered, and an explosion flooded the room with heat. Cassie flew backward, two hard male bodies pummeling her into the ground, shielding her. The flash fire, the heat, the noise, and then the smell of dirty, wet cabbage assaulted her senses. A scream tore loose from her throat as hands dragged her up by her underarms.

“Stay close, Cassie,” Jacob ordered. The air popped and sizzled like a frying pan when the egg first cracked open.

Something hot seared her cheek. Sulfur and camphor filled the air. Cassie gagged as the smell clogged her nose and throat.

In a moment they were outside. The fresher air slapped her in the face. She could smell water, grass, trees, and the musty, moist scent of earth that spent too much time wet.

“The lake?” Cassie stumbled toward it blindly only to be towed back by a hard arm.

“Just stay with me.” He latched her hand to his waistband again, and the big dark blur gave way to a big light blur. Cassie squinted against it and moved when Jacob moved.

A hard stone bit into her bare foot, and Cassie bit off an oath. She strained to hear where Helcyon was, but the solid ring of sword metal clanged and clashed in multiple directions. She stumbled, tripping over the edge of the grass where it abutted the concrete. Jacob’s arm kept her upright, and then he swung her up in his arms and ran. Cassie grabbed his shoulders, head bouncing at the pace he set.

“Helcyon?” she gritted out as Jacob all but threw her into the cab of the SUV.

“He’ll catch up. Get down under the dash.” Jacob’s hand flattened on her head, pushing her down. She knelt, arms on the seat as the engine roared to life.

Something outside the vehicle screamed.

“Jacob, I think you pissed it off.”

“Oh yeah.” Jacob sounded damn pleased about it, too. The SUV leaped backward, spinning and accelerating down the road. If Cassie closed her eyes, she could feel the vehicle’s pistons firing like the muscles of a horse contracting and releasing around her.

“Stop that,” Jacob ordered. “I need to focus on keeping those things from tracking on us, not on you keeping us in the right place, and leave the spells on the car alone.”

“But it’s not a car!” Cassie complained.

“Woman, you see too damn much.” The vehicle lurched hard to the right, tilting hard up on the passenger-side wheels. Cassie’s head bounced lightly against the doorframe. Her fingers dug into the seats to maintain her balance.

“Can I get in the seat before you kill me?”

“Not yet.” The SUV continued to accelerate, the wheels turning too fast to be seen while under the veneer the black horse’s muscles thundered at full speed. Was it a horse? Cassie squinted through the blur. She could make out the large, flat head and impossibly long and thick legs with hooves made of iron or steel. The gray metal struck sparks where it impacted with the pavement.