Silver Hollow (46 page)

“Try catching one,” he said wryly, then chuckled while brushing the petals from her hair. Half the fun was cleaning the other,
giving
another excuse to touch and sneak in a stray locking of lips. He was tempted to shove
her
back down so he could clean her off again.

You’re wasting time and there’s precious little left…

“What is it?”
s
he asked when his smile faded and his eyes lingered back
on
Wenderdowne. His
eyes
flicker
ed
to hers
,
then he shook his head. Amie slid her hands up his chest to tug on his shoulders. “No
,
really, what are you thinking about?”

“Once we leave this glade, things are going to change again.” Wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her flush into his embrace, he added, “If I dared, I’d keep you here in these woods. We’d never have to see another living soul again, unless ye fancied. I’d even weather the
bloodletting
unicorns.”

Burying her face into his shirt, she sighed and said, “Fine by me. I’d rather live like a wild thing than go to Morcant’s ball.”

It was a long time before he spoke again. When he did, he tried to ignore the concern and worry in her eyes, a reflection of his greater sorrow.

You knew what yo
u were and still you misled her.

His conscience warred with him again.

More like she wormed her way into your cave and hasn’t unleashed you since
.

“We’d best return. Slaine will cover for us, but I’d nay reckon with a hobgoblin,” he
said
confidently. Better
that
she feel safe until they had passed the danger. His eyes shifted and saw farther into the forest than
Seelie or w
ight
. The dark shadow approaching them was one he had seen before, only this time the air already tasted of blood.

Chapter 38

Splitting Hairs

His people had been the grandest of them all, once upon a distant age. To recount the tale of their downfall brought him enough sorrow that even he would shed a tear. Loss had become something he understood
as much as
fighting. Dearg had been fighting all his existence and wasn’t about to give up. They never had, truly. Yet after an age of servitude and subjection to creatures he had easily picked clean before, his patience had worn thin.

After his wife died, he
had
lost everything and therefore became less than nothing. He and Slaine had their differing opinions on what must be done to reclaim themselves again. Dearg only hoped that in Amie he might find some kind of redemption. One touch of her soul had driven him to his knees, there in the stables.

Could she undo it all?
h
e thought as they wove through the trees, lingering on the fringe of Wenderdowne’s boundary line. He kept a constant watch for the shadow overtaking the forest
while keeping a tight grip on her
. He was not a shadow being, absent of light, like
w
ights
,
but he could see through the darkness well enough. When he saw the silvery gleam of their blades he knew they were coming at last. How they had made it this far across the border without aid, he had his suspicions. But to share this with her would betray too much too soon.

Since
the huma
n asked to speak with her first.

Amie was oblivious and Dearg knew they must cross into Wenderdowne territory soon. But
as
soon as they did Iudicael would sense her presence. Amie had learned much of her power, but they were still shaping her into their perfect weapon. She wasn’t aware of the full extent, not yet. So he tried picking up their pace without seeming too obvious.

“Why are we running?” she asked, tugging on his hand to slow them back down and nearly slipping on the ice
-
slickened ground beneath her heels.

Dearg winced yet kept his face a study of stoic calm. “I fear your uncle shall not be favorable to me, should you arrive with the dawn in my arms.”

“Why wouldn’t he?” Amie asked, her voice strained, emerald eyes fierce and wild as her spirit.

Hardening his double
-
chambered heart and his emotions, he answered, “Because I am not the one they have given you to. Because there is much about us you do nay ken. I will nay ruin your future, Amie. Too much depends on what you do this night.”

And once you ken the truth about me, you shall be more than willing to enact my punishment.

Animals in the forest had stilled and the light snowfall picked up its pace. Dearg faintly wondered how the weather had changed so quickly. Before her arrival, they had lived in a world of unending summer. It was as if without her, not even the seasons were allowed to continue. He stared at the ring on her finger before glancing up at her jewel-like eyes.

She allowed him to pull her along in silence, but he could sense her frustration building, her patience wearing thin. Her lips pressed together into a tight line, but she said nothing. She was often keeping her troubling thoughts bottled inside. She didn’t want to upset
him
, he thought with a pang of regret.

He relaxed when her
eyes
met his and cleared. A slow smile returned to her face. But when her gaze fixed above him, he frowned and asked, “What?”

“Your hair is on fire.” Slowly her hand rose between them, silver strands of energy lacing up and down her fingers, she ran her hands through his unruly hair. He shivered when she touched him yet leaned forward to give her better access.

“
’
T
would be a first,” he said, teasing her. To his relief she laughed aloud.

“Why do you always know the right thing to say to calm me down?” She stepped further into his space.

His lungs constricted until all breath seemed impossible
. I
nstead there was only fire she alone could contain. Sighing into her caress, amazed she was comforting him, he dared to speak his most hidden thoughts. “Every time you come close you pierce what’s left of me soul. It should be impossible for you to touch me and yet you dare and I can nay breathe until you do.”

Had she any true grasp of his words she might have reacted quite differently. Yet she didn’t. For this small favor Dearg was eternally grateful to that fool of a Wenderdowne who called himself Henry for keeping her in the dark. She would learn the truth and hate him for it.

With his guard down, he
almost
didn’t hear the crash of underbrush in the near distance, or the snarls of foul creatures surrounding them. The unicorn had left them some time back, but he was too under her spell to care. He should have known better.

Amie screamed when a spear lodged itself in his shoulder, missing her by a hand’s breath.

Dearg roared, shoving her behind him to face the enemy.

Too late!

His thoughts turned wildly as he tried to come up with a way out, a road
leading
her to safety. But with Iudicael still holding sway over him, he could not truly protect her. So
,
letting go of her hands
,
he ripped the spear from his shoulder, ignoring the sting of the gaping wound, flipped it around and threw it back into the trees.

A keening wail sang against his ears as the point met its target and shadows darted between the trees.

“Dearg!” Amie screamed as another spear came flying through the air, this one glowing with a bluish sheen. He snarled, reaching up to catch it
,
and this time leveled it in both hands.

“Run! Keep going the direction I was taking you and the house will find you!” He listened to the shuffle of her feet and for a moment believed she might find this window of opportunity and run to safety.

Grriegar’s sake, woman, run!

“No!” she shouted, wrapping her bare fingers around his. He flinched as her
nixy
traveled up his arm, same as it had the other night. The night he knew he had fallen in love with his enemy. Their eyes met briefly and what he saw took his breath away, the appearance of flames leaping in her black irises. Steeling himself
,
he hefted the spear to deflect a thrown knife, and then another spear.

“Climb up onto me! I can nay protect you and fight them.”

Amie grinned and scrambled up onto his back when he bent his knees low, just in time to miss a fire
-
tipped spearhead. One hand dug into the collar of his shirt to remain pressed to his chest. He shuddered at the painful contact, but was able to turn easily now. She weighed less than a feather to him, and yet her touch anchored him, gave him the control he had lacked for more than a millennia.

Dearg
would have said he
was never taken aback by anything, being old as the oldest trees himself. When Amie lifted her free hand and sent out a stream of violet
-
colored energy into the trees, she proved him wrong yet again. The crackling energy split and attacked the shadows, stunning them long enough for him to rush and slice three with the ice blade in his hands. They
screamed under her
nixy
’s
hold,
the
dull glow
of their
eyes burning with hatred as they were attacked.

“What are you doing?” he called to her over his shoulder, unable to keep the laughter from his voice. He had known many Wenderdownes, but none of them could do
this
.

“I don’t know!” she shouted back.

“Do nay let up then!” Rushing again
,
he stabbed another hole through the shadow
-
draped figure’s chest. They were all protected by some kind of guise, a
dark
nixy which made them appear as w
ights. But
Dearg had been around when the w
ights swept across kingdoms with their plague. These were Unseelie with puny weapons. They wielded nixy
-
enchanted
weapons because they had forgotten how to wield their own power, a gift from living too long with humans.

“Dearg, look out!” Amie called after he had finished the last
, who
crumpled to charred ashes. He looked up and was almost too late for the axe blade coming down over them. He ducked and fell back where they had been, eyes widening as he watched the hulking beastly creature pursue them with red eyes.

“It’s
a golem
,
” he warned her, hoping she knew what this meant. Her nixy would nay work on them. He should have known the blighted beasts would be mixed into this mess.

“What do we do?”
she whispered in his ear and he trembled with the urge to shift and take back the control she gave him. The curse was what kept him locked tightly together, weak and unable to fight back. Once, he would have crushed this dark creature in one swipe. Flames were escaping her hold, engulfing both of them. “Dearg!” she shouted, not in pain but fear for him.

Others were appearing from the tre
es, half beast and half men who
were able to shift shape at will.

“Hang onto me,” he said roughly, smoke escaping with his breath. And then he threw up his hands, allowed the fire to escape. White energy came with it, hot
ter than
lightning and hotter than the sun. He didn’t wait to discern why he was able to harness her
nixy
, only savored the roars of the creatures before them. They darted away, fire clinging to their fur and scales and inhuman skins. The moment they did, more figures leapt from tree trunk to tree, slicing their blades.

Dearg readied another blast but her lips against his ear stopped him.

“Wait! Something’s not right
.
”

He watched, all the while back
ing
up to ready their escape. If the
golem
were distracted he was making a break for the boundary line. They were less than a league away. He needed to bring her swiftly home, where the house would protect her and she be safe.

But as he watched the new battle taking place among the dark ones, he knew Amie was right. Something else was out there, fighting off their enemies. As the numbers dwindled down, and other evil creatures spilled from the underbrush with sword, axe and knife wounds spilling onto the earth, he could almost make out the three blurred figures fighting with them.

One was taller than the tallest
golem
, tawny
-
haired and roaring with the strength of a lion. The next was almost childlike and feminine in her twists and acrobatic leaps through the air. He was surprised to see a dull red energy escape the slice of her daggers, the mark of the
Unseelie
.