Silver Hollow (50 page)
He paused, giving it some thought before saying, “I rather fancy the sound of that. But concerning the Cutterworthys, never fully trust them. They’re about as reliable as a Rumplekin, doing their best to erase their family history, but it’s in their nature to deceive. Second, absolutely
never
trust a Rumplekin, while we’re on the subject.”
Clasping her hands together she feigned despair and said in perfect imitation of Underhill, “Oh
twix whiskers
! And to think I was going to invite him to tea.”
Emrys grinned
.
“I’m bloody serious
,
you know. Grimwich acts harmless, but he’s been cozying up to Hogswillow too long to stay untarnished by her corruption.”
“I know. You’re never anything but serious.”
Throwing his arms up and clasping the back of his neck
,
Emrys paced away in a frighteningly human gesture. “You drive me stark raving mad sometimes, you know? I am trying to help you but ye try and thwart me every twist and turn!”
Before she realized what she was doing, she moved to stand beside him and gently placed her fingers
on his hand
to trace his scars. “You aren’t wearing any gloves.”
He took in a deep and shuddering breath and said, “What of it?”
“Showing off our scars tonight, are we? Where did you get them?”
He hesitated and
this
was all Amie needed to reach inside and place a veil between their bond, to pull back and at last make up her mind. She had to get rid of him. Emrys held a grip over her she did not understand, even with her own
nixy
. But when the time came, if he was truly the enemy like
Ginuog
and Dearg claimed, could she do what was necessary?
The crowd was slowly trickling in together, gathering in a flamboyantly dressed hub of the Grey Folk as had not been seen in a generation. Amie had missed Henry’s entrance at the head of the foray, but he was hard to miss now, gleaming like the sun. Beasts and wilder things on the other side of the glass wall pressed against its panes to listen in. The dull roar of voices faded to a dim hush.
“Friends and distant relations,” he began, “beasts and beings of the Borderlands, it is my delight and privilege to welcome you all to Wenderdowne. Admittedly it has been too long since our last gathering. Too long we have dwelt in the darkness of our past. Tonight…”
Emrys pulled her to face him rather than the events below. Catching her chin with his hands, he pressed his forehead to hers and said, “Jessamiene, there is something ye must know, before anything happens tonight. I have not been an honorable being for over a thousand of your human years.”
“Won’t argue with that
.
” She tried to pull away but he maintained his firm grip.
“Please hear me. Do ye remember what ye saw when I healed ye? When I brought ye to life, did ye see Nimue?”
“Who was she?” Amie’s voice quivered, remembering his initial mistrust of her and his test.
“Those images ye saw were memories, from another life I can hardly remember. All I recall from it is darkness and pain. Many of my scars were from the dig of their claws in my skin. My hands were not the only part of me they marked.”
Passion exuded from his being as he spoke, poured through his eyes and into her so she could not help but to feel it too.
“Nimue was my greatest bane, Jessamiene. She kept me in the shadows and betrayed me when I needed her most. Ye look so much like her. I believed ye were a ghost, another one of her tricks to lure me to join my ancestors. But now I know ye are everything she should have been and more. I know ye are the one who can at last end my curse
.
” He grasped her, pulled her nearer with desperation.
Bloodletting pixies
,
she thought when their lips connected. Flashes of his life filled her mind, ripping aside the veil she had put between them. Once more she was seeing through his eyes as he remembered the black-haired, emerald-eyed beauty
who glowed
with the brilliance of the sun to his eyes. But Amie had no recollection of living another life hundreds of years ago and was certain she would have remembered Emrys if she had.
Amie gasped when he wrapped his hands around her waist to drag her closer and crushed his mouth to hers in a dangerous dance. Her heart was spiraling faster and faster out of her control and Emrys too seemed caught up in frenzy, in something greater than the both of them. Each time she tried to pull away his lips returned to hers. A bold emerald light began to glow from the center of his black eyes.
“Jessamiene…” He laughed breathlessly. Emrys smiled. “Ye have no inkling of
how
you make me feel. Your kisses I shall carry with me to the grave, though I am certain ye shall be my undoing.”
Amie meanwhile had forgotten everything, the flames surrounding her heart
which
belonged to Dearg, her friends, the tiara on her head and the fact Henry’s speech was winding down. This
was
what Emrys would always be, an eat-you-up
-
and
-
swallow-you-whole force of nature. Amie loved the wild things he sparked inside of her, the part of her nature that wasn’t human.
With a fond trace of her jaw he smirked and said, “Much as I’d rather steal you away to continue this conversation, we wouldn’t want you looking disheveled for your guests
,
now would we?”
Amie crossed her arms over her chest and
,
leaning over the balcony to tune in, tried to quell the racing of her heart.
Get a grip! Don’t let him control you again…though you might have enjoyed that a little too much
,
chica.
“Fine, I wasn’t enjoying it that much anyway,” she said.
A growling hiss began deep in his throat and he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Forcing her backside tightly to his front
,
he whispered into her ear, “This tells me otherwise.” He pressed his mouth to her pulse and she silently cursed.
I’m going to kill Dearg for letting me be alone with him.
Amie fluffed out her dress and hoped for the best when Henry’s voice rose in volume and vivacity.
“For sixty years our gate has been left without its true keeper, this house without its true mistress. With her return we have come back to life. And it is my belief
that
with her shall return the true golden age. Once the usurper sought to ruin everything the ancients before her built. Today the lost queen has returned to us.”
“
’
Ti
s our cue,” Emrys said into her ear.
“What?” Amie couldn’t believe Henry would ever ask
him
to escort her to meet her potential kingdom. “No way are
you
taking me down there! I’m supposed to do this solo, Princess Diaries style, not with you dragging me.”
Yet he had already snatched her arm and was leading her to the head of the stairs like a perfect gentleman. “Iudicael
asked
me to escort you, foolish lass. Besides, who’s to say I do nay honor you by
my
presence? Did you really think I could get away with my trolling ways unless I was royalty?”
“Royalty?”
“Shh! You’ll spoil the effect.” Emrys faced firmly ahead, a smile twitching on his face. Amie wanted to
nix
him so badly her silvery energy laced over her arms and through her clothes.
“Face forward and do try to look regal instead of royally pissed,” he commented.
Gritting her teeth
,
she schooled a classic Scarlett pose and swished her hips for extra measure. “I know how to do it.”
“…I present my niece, Jessamiene Nimue Wenderdowne!” Henry’s voice thundered over the roar
sweeping
the hall. Voices fought one another to toast to her, eyes of dazzling blues, greens, pinks and startling milky white fastened to hers.
Once they found the foot of the stairs their voices came together as one, saying, “Creator empower our Queen.”
‘
I’m going to kill you.’
Amie mouthed to Emrys in the pause before the music began. His sharp white teeth bared into a maniacal grin.
Si
ck sadist, you’re enjoying this.
She wanted to stab him with her tiara. As it was, her entrance, dressed as a replica of the ancient royals, had been enough to dazzle her guests. Now they watched on from the ring they had made around the starlit couple with adoring eyes.
Emrys mouthed back, ‘
Bite me
.’
All it took to tame her was one look from Henry. His eyes were filled with familial love and pride. Part of her rebelled against that look, wanted to withdraw into herself, wanted to punish him. How could he have allowed her to leave all those years ago? Even worse, how could he allow her to believe all the lies Drustan planted in her head
?
Yet unlike Drustan, Henry was here and Amie realized she wanted him there for everything in her life. Her anger ebbed along with her decision.
This is where I belong.
“Left foot first,” Emrys said between clenched teeth and Amie rolled her eyes as he led her into the first steps of the dance. Obviously they had rigged the dances to match her limited repertoire.
“You’re trying to make me trip o
ver
my feet
,
aren’t you?” She narrowed her eyes subtly at him. The shake of his head was her cue to sway to the right, pause as he picked her up by the waist and twirled her in the air. Amie couldn’t help her gasp of delight and smile once he returned her to her feet. She was surprised after executing the second twirl he drew her closer, dragging her scandalously closer. “What are you doing?” she hissed, hoping her voice was low enough for inhuman ears.
Emrys grinned, keeping her near for longer than necessary. “It terrifies them to see our affection, love. For once I fought against them, made them suffer for what they did to my people. So now I make you even more powerful.”
Amie pretended to ponder over this as he pushed her out, spun her in mad circles and released her to dance on air alone. Tapping into her
nixy
,
she unleashed a fine layer of silvery dust from her skin which shimmered then faded onto the floor.
With wide eyes she doubled over, hands outstretched. “Okay
,
that was weird
.
” And then a new pair of hands had clasped hers. Righting herself
,
she was turning in circles with the man from the village, the man who had watched her watch Faye dance, a familiar man.
Once more he was d
ressed in a costume mash up of Errol Flynn and D’Artag
na
n
. S
he knew instinctively this must be the one Emrys called Grimwich.
So this is Morcant’s lap dog.
Blue eyes laughing and shining with an elderberry wine glaze, he exclaimed, “Pardon the intrusion
,
my dear, but you are
simply
too irresistible!” Linking their gloved fingers, they each stepped back in time to the music
, d
uring which time his eyes spent the vast majority roving over her outfit. “This creation is simply too divine!”
He fla
s
hed
a devilish grin
at her
. “I realize this may seem sudden, but no other lass has been able to hold a cup to you, dearest. I do hope you’ll consider my proposal.”
“Proposal? Are you kidding me? We don’t even know each other!”
That I c
an recall at the present anyway.
And from the smile Grimwich gave her after bringing her back into his embrace, she could tell his thoughts were steered the same way. Amie turned to the rapidly crowding dance floor in her search for her missing partner. Where had Emrys gone off to now?
Grim’s laughter interrupted her concentration, “Oh
,
slippers of glass! This is too rich!”
“What are you talking about?” Amie grumbled upon spotting Emrys flirting with a new, bejeweled partner.
“You are completely unspoiled by the ravages of your human life. Don’t look so surprised, dearest. I know everything
that
goes on in and out of the Borderlands. I make it my business to know the affairs of every House, particularly.” He smiled again and she saw through his pleasant, blond and blue-eyed mask of perfection, to a darkly appealing creature beneath.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, averting her gaze and trying desperately not to give away her surprise. He wasn’t supposed to know she was half human, none of them were.