Silver Hollow (28 page)

Looks like my superpowers don’t come with automatic manicures, thank heaven. I hate long nails.

“They didn’t tell you who you were
,
did they?”

For the first time Amie saw a flicker of
deeper
emotion when their eyes met. “No. My parents died before he could tell me anything. I know it’s so much bigger than faeries and enchanted castles
,
you know. That’s what scares me the most right now. Emrys—well
,
he keeps hinting things to me, like there’s a war coming or something. And I keep relying on whatever he says because I’m too scared to go to anyone else. I feel like such a freak.” She didn’t tell him this wasn’t the first time she’d come to this conclusion.

“What is a
freak?”
His lips played with the word, ending with a grin
which
hugged his firm jaw easily. Amie saw how once he might have smiled easily and often.

She laughed at his confusion and said, “Like, oh
,
I don’t know, someone who doesn’t fit in and you make fun of.”

His eyes warmed to a deeper blue. “Aye, you are most certainly a freak.”

“See what I mean?” She lifted a hand in admission but stilled when he finished.

“Not
only
to us but outside too. You will never be free because of
this
.” Reaching out his hand to hover over hers, over the ring, he was close enough she felt the heat of his skin bounce off hers. She didn’t know why but she wanted to close the hand
’
s brea
d
th space.

Stuttering, she broke the tension. “Everyone has two names around this place
,
it seems. Like you all have split personalities. If you listen to the way Underhill talks you’d think she was schizo for sure.” Where before his blue eyes had seemed hard as ice now they were granite. For
some unexplained reason Amie felt she had grossly insulted him and scrounged her newly gained knowledge for some clues on
What Not to Say to a Stable Boy.

“There is power in a name. Most of us don’t give our true names freely.”

Amie puzzled over this. It certainly explained why she’d heard Henry referred to as Iudicael by Emrys and why her father went by Rusty instead of Drustan in the States. Then of course others, like Slaine and Eddie
,
she’d never heard called anything else. Was Jessamiene her true name?

“What’s the difference between the two?” she said.

“The one you give power to is the true name. Whichever has the sweeter meaning.”

“And if they know your true name?”

“Terrible things have happened,” he said with the rumble of thunder behind his voice.

Shivering at the weight and tremor of his words, she wondered what sort of things had happened to her father to make him run so far away. She set her tea cup beside his and held her chest, watched the unnatural steady flames change shape and occasionally wink back at her. So she was shocked when he clenched his fist and stood, pulled her out of her chair with firm gentleness and spoke so low she had to turn her ear to catch it.

“Dearg is my name,” he said to her, slipping his hand to clasp her waist. For one infinitesimal moment the fire in the hearth peaked. So exhilarating a rush of feeling wrapped around her inner core and exploded out, pushing its way through. Instead of closing the last space between them he turned. Without a word, he led her away from his snug keep, through the caves and secret door, past the stables and to the nightly sleet. Snatching a horse blanket from its hook nearby, he covered her with it.

“Thank you,” she blurted out. She was trembling from the brief contact of his thumbs against her collar as he fused the fabric together with a small drizzle of sparks. She had felt covered by a strange veil of feeling ever since he told her his true name, knowing she was privy to something few others knew.

“Fair be the fillies…
Amie,
” he said, bidding her farewell.

…

Emrys glared at the amber liquid swirling around within its crystal decanter and leaned heavily on the mant
el
. Fire had always fascinated him, untouchable, unbearable as it was to his flesh. He was a creature of the shadows, of cold and dank places. Jessamiene’s close ties to the
moon were what drew him. If she was the silvery surface of
its
perfect face, then he was its darker shadow, the flip side of its beauty.

Pity she takes after her namesake so easily,
he thought angrily, before tossing the rest of the goblet’s contents in the flames. The Armory had always been a place of comfort on the rare occasion he was sucked back to the castle he most despised. After what he had witnessed moments ago, Emrys had half a mind to outfit himself with the worst of these killing tools and rush to the stables.

She doesn’t belong to you, fool.

His conscience could drone on all it wanted
. S
till
,
he couldn’t ignore the monster that had risen up in him to see her in that idiot’s arms. The Cutterworthys were the worst enemies a person could have, lower than humans in his eyes, worse than
Sidhe
.
The fact she had gon
e straight to
him
instead of the kitchens like he
had
half expected her to
troubled him. So
he had watched from a distance as the game keeper took her into his lair.

Again, he clenched his fists and stared long at the double
-
bladed axe sitting above the mantelpiece. “Don’t be a slitherkin, Myrrdin,” he morosely said.

Jessamiene had passed the test he gave her this evening. She was who they claimed her to be, not an enchantress pretending to be their little princess all grown up. She had been under their protection when he found her years before and he had to be certain she wasn’t playing them all for fools. It was too dangerous a folly to be wrong, this time, he reminded himself. Once, they had trusted that seductively sweet face
a
nd been nearly undone. Not that he wanted to be counted amongst them. But he was the last of his kind, now. All that remained of his people was here in the place he most hated.

“Nimue
,
” he said to the flames, “how could ye have deceived me so?”

A wave of pure power fell over him like a lover’s kiss. Closing his eyes, he stiffened as she came closer behind him. How she knew to find him here, he already knew. She would cut him down if she ever knew what he had been forced to do to sa
ve her life
.

Emrys turned to face her the moment her footsteps touched the vast rug. “And where have ye been, woman?” Even though he already knew well the answer, the image of that pretender covering her with a piece of
filsh
made him see red. “Do ye have any idea what hour it is?”

For a moment, it was Nimue whose emerald eyes burned up before him. “Oh
,
I’m sorry
.
Heaven forbid I actually miss a meal with you! What could have possessed me to keep me away? Oh yeah, now I remember…”
With
a chilled whisper she added, “You left me alone in the middle of the woods.”

Emrys laughed at her. He had followed her from a distance the whole time, determined to catch her cast
ing
aside this childish act. “Is that what has your feathers so ruffled? You know perfectly well if I thought ye any less capable I never would have left ye.”

“I could have died out there! I’m not exactly a Girl Scout
,
you know!” Jessamiene flung her hands at the air, violet streams of energy fleeing her fingertips and falling haphazardly around the room. This only added to Emrys’ amusement of course. She seemed determined to get this through his thick inhuman skull.

“Tsk…tsk…poor little princess got lost in the woods.” She was too adorable for him to not try and wrap her in his arms but Jessamiene shoved him roughly back. Her actions hurt him, though he would never admit it to her. She m
ight
not be one of their mutual enemies, the devils he knew were coming for her, but this didn’t mean she hadn’t inherited more than Nimue’s name.

She would have remembered ye by now. Forget this foolish hope, lad.

“Careful
,
Jessamiene,” he gruffly said. “You do nay want to make an enemy of me
,
remember? What I did I need not justify to you.”

She gaped at him and this time he saw the pain behind her eyes was real. Instead of making him feel better, he felt a
stab
of human guilt.

“You really are a heartless
prick
,
aren’t you?”

Emrys ground out, determined not to have her best him
,
“I believe you are under the impression I am a man and behave as they do. I thought you understood the rules outside do not apply to any of our people here. It is you who have placed impossible expectations on me.”

Jessamiene bit her lip and he was surprised to see a sheen of tears in her eyes. Beneath her anger he felt a well of pain. This time it wasn’t
a human
-
made wound,
but
rather his fault
.
Something shifted inside of him that went beyond her uncanny resemblance to his one love that made him reach for her again. Finding nothing but air when she stepped out of reach, Emrys stilled.

“I left you in the woods for your own good. I had to know what ye were made of, lass. Iudicael sent me to train ye how to harness yer inner
nixy
.
But I want to prepare ye for the things he knows not. Trouble is coming. The ones that protected ye from their own kin are nay able to hide ye now. And once they know ye are more than simply human, they will come to crush ye. I tell ye this because I do nay wish to see harm befall you.” He held his palms out to her, open in invitation.

Amie’s fingers fisted the old
-
fashioned skirt at her waist.

“How can I trust you?” she said, pressing her palm over her chest, and the scar he had mended, when the bond was seared between them.

“Can you doubt I have saved your life, Jessamiene?”

“
No
,” she choked out, “but that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

He took another step towards her. He was going to break the rules then, rules
he had placed over himself which
stood apart from Iudicael and his empty threats. Hesitating briefly before stepping into her space, he pulled her into his chest and shook at their contact.

Get a hold of yourself! What are you doing?

Black pools of desire nearly overwhelmed the emerald rims of her
eyes, so he saw she wanted him,
much as he wanted her. When their lips met, he caressed hers triumphantly. Wasting little time, Emrys dragged her up swiftly and crushed her to him. And just when he felt he had won his prize, as her lips gently tasted his in return, she pulled away.

“No,” she gasped, pressing a hand against his chest to keep him at arm’s length. Nimue, as wild and wicked as she could be, had never turned his kisses away. Rather than feeling offended, he was even more intrigued.

“Where do ye think you’re going? We still need to put food into your belly
,
foolish lass.”

“I already ate.” She turned to the fire.

Emrys ran a hand down the sleeve of her shirtwaist, trying to calm down from the high her touch gave him. “Where did you dredge up these filthy rags?” He knew very w
ell where she had acquired them. T
he bitter memory turned up its ugly head, reminding him that much as he wanted to claim her, she was not Nimue. She was not his.

Stepping firmly out of his embrace, she began to slowly back away, eyes wide, lips still red from their brief run
-
in. “It’s a gift from someone who did better at your job than you.”

Flinching, he had grabbed and forced her to face him, hissing, “If it’s Cutterworthy you’re telling of, judging from the fact this smells like horse
filsh
, ye should think twice. Slaine is loyal to the keeping of Wenderdowne,
the
same cannot be said of that
boy
.”

“If you had done your job I wouldn’t have needed his hospitality.”

“Keep away from him,” he spat, instantly regretting his words when he saw the rebellion in her upturned brow.
L
amely, he attempted to
right
his mistake, replacing ire with concern
.
“I warn you only this once
,
Jessamiene. He’s not to be trusted.”

“Funny, he said the same thing about you!” She pressed an energy
-
charged palm to his chest, filling him with an aftershock of stabbing pangs
,
and fled.