Death Charmed, page 11
Harmon was clear on the other side of the circle when I came into it, but that didn’t stop me from raising my hands and letting energy seep into my arms. Lightning licked out with the barest whisper of power. Heat flowed to the tips of my fingers and danced up my forearms to stop at my biceps. Adrenaline washed over me in a buzzing rush, and I giggled. This was going to be fun. Electric white shot out of my hand and hit his foot.
He let out a little scream. It brought another smile to my face. I should feel terrible, but I couldn’t stand the arrogance. He shook his foot for a second before putting his weight on it again.
This time he advanced as he said, “That’s not playing fair, Princess.”
There was a darkness to the way he said the last word that put all of my bells on high alert.
“No, it’s totally fair, and I did it for a reason,” I said, trying to keep the smugness out of my voice. “You see, when you use your abilities in combat, you can easily gain the upper hand when it comes to distances.”
“Handy, maybe, until your opponent is in your face,” he shouted, picking up the pace.
He was coming toward me in leaps and bounds, so when he said the last word, he brought his elbow down. His goal was clearly to smash my face. I brought my arms up in a quick V and was able to catch the blow. Thank the Gods because the force of it alone sent me down on one knee.
He didn’t let up, throwing a knee into the mix. I danced my midsection back and flowed a little lightning to where our arms connected. Heat and light flared at my forearm.
He let out a louder scream this time. I wish I could say I felt terrible for hurting him, but violence was the only thing some people understood.
I had no sooner stood back up when a knee connected with my midsection. Pain flared in my gut. I gasped for breath. Then he windmilled his arms and brought his other leg around to smash into me. My world rang. The force of the kick struck me down. I fell like a tree.
My whole body throbbed. I caught myself with my elbows before my head connected with the ground. Before I could get up, he was on me, pinning me to the dirt.
The weight of his body trapped my arms underneath me. That was when the first breath of panic hit me. I couldn’t use my ability without my hands. Glitter sifted from me at the realization. It pooled around me until his knees started to slide in it.
But he didn’t fall off me. Instead, he gripped my sides tighter with his legs and started to pummel me. I wriggled and moved, but the most I was able to do was turn till I was facing him. His fists shot into my midsection. I bucked, but he didn’t budge. He just continued to slam his fists into me.
Stabs of pain hit me one after another. My entire stomach melted into a blanket of searing pain. I could feel my body start to give up as my struggles to unseat him became weaker and weaker.
I turned my head to see Anthony’s petrified face at the sidelines. Fear was etched into his face like a rock. Then I saw a decision melt it, and he crossed the two feet to Sansonite. He started to say something, and Sansonite held up a flat palm. Red blossomed onto Anthony’s cheeks, and it quickly turned to an angry purple. His hands waved fervently in the air.
Then I shifted my head to the left of the arguing pair and saw a beautiful faerie with long, ice-blue hair. She made a small tap on her legs. And just like that, it clicked.
I gathered what little physical effort I had left and rocked my legs into the air, swinging them forward. The first attempt I missed, but the second time they wrapped around Harmon’s torso. With as much energy as I had left, I twisted my legs and sent him sprawling to the ground. My head reeled. I blinked the feeling away.
He sprang back up, but I managed to bring my hands up in time in those precious few seconds. With a prayer, I shot lightning into him. I shot surge after surge of energy into him. His body convulsed with the amount of electricity being pumped into him. Only then did it dawn on me I had to stop. I let out a guttural cry as I forced the Kundalini energy out of my body. When I did, he slumped to the ground. And he lay still. Shit. I turned and crawled the couple of feet to his prone body.
Please let him not be dead. Cocky ass or not, I didn’t want him to die.
As I reached his side, I saw the air draw into his lungs with enough force to raise his chest a few inches. I collapsed onto my knees, my effort spent. I buried my face in my shaking hands.
My body burned as I sat there. Something had to be broken. I almost didn’t care, though. Danu’s blessing, that had been close. Too close.
I pulled myself together and reached down to check his pulse. No sooner had I touched his neck that his eyes opened, a slow aching flutter. He saw me right away and narrowed blue daggers at me. Reaching up a hand, he grabbed mine and tossed it away. I didn’t want to point out that it was a weak toss. He looked soundly beat and not too happy about it.
Sansonite must have agreed with my assessment because he said, “That’s enough. I think the Princess has proven her point quite effectively.”
The beaten champion propped himself up on his elbows, panting with the exertion.
There was malice in his eyes as he said, “All you’ve proved is you don’t belong here. Those wings on your back don’t make you a faerie. You’re no more faerie than that little whore that was tracking you.”
Anger lit inside me quicker than a match to gasoline when I realized he was talking about Kittie. My gut burned, and I couldn’t tell if it was from my injuries or my anger, but I stood up. I opened my mouth to speak, but Sansonite beat me to it.
“I think that is enough for today. Princess, I will meet with the Queen regarding this matter.” He said with a nod.
There were so many things I wanted to say to the jerk at my feet. Logic prevailed, though. I should leave while I was ahead. I started to do just that when a hand wrapped around my ankle like a snake. Startled, I braced myself. When nothing happened, I looked down.
The champion’s eyes held a cold hatred. “You better watch yourself, Princess.”
Again with the sarcasm. I’d had about enough of it. The best way to handle people like that was to just ignore them, so that’s what I did. With contempt in my eyes, I kicked his hand off my foot, and this time, I did walk away. My pride wouldn’t let me limp, though. I kept my spine straight even though my injuries grew worse after the adrenaline had left my body.
Anthony met me at the sidelines. He was a wreck. When I got close enough that he could see the pain in my eyes, he shook his head. I walked past him, and he fell in step behind me.
He took a shaky breath to calm his nerves and said in a voice that only I could hear, “So this is how we’re doing it, huh?”
“You bet your sweet ass,” I said as I walked across the terrain. It had looked so smooth before. Now it seemed rife with valleys and hills. Much like my life.
Chapter 17
Crackling and crunching erupted from the giant tome in front of me as I wrestled with turning the massive page. The waxy paper sounded like a sail catching the wind when I finally got the thing turned.
“Shhh!” shouted an angry hush from the librarian station. The station sat raised in the center of the library, a mountain of knowledge to be revered.
My cheeks turned bright red. Why did they have to make the book about dragon breeding habitats big enough for an actual dragon to read? Did any dragons plan on showing up? I mean seriously. At this point, I almost wished they would. Then I could ask them where they kept their eggs. It was a good thing I’d decided to do the research on this while we waited for the full moon. I had no idea such a seemingly simple fact would be so hard to find. This was the second day I’d been here, and already I’d been here for an hour. Not that I was any closer to finding out where dragons lived. The most I had found was that it was on another plane. Well, duh. Dragons weren’t wandering around our world. That would have made the news.
Since Anthony could manipulate the Spaces Between, that meant he could go to any plane. Ok, so we could get to where they lived. But where was that? There had to be a better way than going to each plane and doing the equivalent of bird watching until we finally spied a dragon. So I kept searching. Twenty minutes later, I had it. Fireborne. Bingo. I looked back at the oversized book. It mocked me with its hugeness. Dread stayed my hand. I suppose I should put that back.
I’d just put a hand on the worn spine when the librarian laid a weathered hand over my own.
“Why don’t you let me get that. This was dropped off for you,” she said handing me a slip of paper with a reedy smile.
It was clear her patience was on its last thread. Maybe not helping was a form of helping, in this instance. With a nod of thanks, I took the paper and uncurled it. Anointed Consult, Enchantette, 7:00 pm.
Just great. Another Anointed meeting, just what I needed. I tossed the paper into a nearby trash bin. After I’d talked to Avalynn about it, it seemed like the meetings were about once every other month. I thought I’d be able to squeak by without having to suffer through another one of these. Looks like I wasn’t going to be so lucky. Darting a look at the clock, my heart jumped. I only had 12 minutes, and I knew how the Dame felt about tardiness. My knuckles ached at the memory of the smack of her pointer stick against them.
I made it to the Croí. I plopped down into the brocade chair, praying the Fitting could be done in record time. I only had 3 minutes until 7:00. To my absolute relief, it took less than 2. It helped that the will of faerie hadn’t tried to give me the queen’s crown again. There wasn’t time to argue with it.
Picking up my beautiful sheer overlay skirts, my heels clacked down the hall as I ran the last few steps to the white thorn trees that formed the intricate door to the Croí. With a breath of relief, I burst into the doors, pretty damn proud of myself.
That pride was wiped from my face as I looked at the spectacle before me. It wasn’t a private tea party for the Heir Anointed. It wasn’t the Enchantette. Whoever had written the note had deliberately wanted to make me look like a fool. And I had a damn good idea who that someone was. Well, mission fucking accomplished.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone from the Heir Anointed was there, but they were all dressed for cleaning, not socializing. Flora was plucking dead blooms from the winding roses above. Under the direction of the Dame, Brigad was repairing part of the ring that had caved in. Avalynn was sweeping the blooms off the floor. And Stacia was cleaning out smashed blooms from the floor, like the snake that she was. Anger clenched my fists.
My bursting in had gotten everyone’s attention, and they all stared at me with big eyes. Everyone except Stacia, that is. She had a satisfied, snarky grin on her face. My fists ached to go snatch it off her face.
Avalynn rushed over. Dipping her head low, she whispered, “I am so sorry. When Stacia offered to send you the note about the Consult, it didn’t even occur to me that she might do something to embarrass you.”
Fury clenched my jaw. I knew it was that little witch. That’s ok. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing it bothered me.
Waving Avalynn’s apologies away, I laughed and said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Are you kidding? It’s been so long since I had a Fitting. It felt good to have one done again. I do so love what the will of faerie does for us. What are we doing here anyway?” I asked, changing the subject as I walked over to grab a bucket.
Avalynn took the buckets I’d grabbed and separated one out for me.
“Oh, service to our community is one of the tenets of good leadership. So we’re here to clean up these sacred grounds.” Avalynn said, putting the other bucket back in the pile.
“Oh, dear. You’re all dressed for the tea party. And didn’t you just have a Fitting like a month ago? That’s not long at all. This must be horribly embarrassing for you.” Stacia cooed as she came over to grab another bucket.
“You know, now that you mention it. That’s right. I did have one recently. It was the same Enchantette where the will of Danu gave me a throne, didn’t it?” I asked, not bothering to keep the smirk off my lips.
Everything in me itched to tell her about the crown, but I stopped myself. Whispers got back to Mother. And if the Queen of Munster found out about that, she’d have my head. Her eyes blazed daggers at me.
Her hot breath fanned my face as she stepped closer to me. “You better watch yourself, Princess. You don’t know who you’re playing with.”
Suddenly, pieces came crashing together. She was the one threatening my friends. It all made sense. She didn’t want me here. I had taken her friend, and in her mind, I was taking her crown. There was no doubt from the set of her shoulders that she considered herself to be the next Queen of Knockaine. My coming had killed all of her chances, crushed all of her dreams.
I threw the bucket on the ground, “No, you watch yourself. If you harm a single hair on anyone I love, I promise you, you will wish you never set foot on this Earth.”
“Big words with no way to back them up,” she said with a sneer and then laughed in my face.
Rage boiled in my stomach. That was it. I’d had enough of her shit. My hand shot out before I even knew I’d made the decision to hit her. The sound echoed with a crack before I remembered where we were. We were on holy ground. Lighting crackled over my closed fist and Stacia was out cold on the mossy floor. Shit.
Chapter 18
“I can’t believe you knocked out Stacia,” Avalynn said from where she lounged on my crimson sofa.
She had it coming didn’t seem like the appropriate thing to say when you’d laid someone out cold for just harassing you. Was it really only harassing, though? I was beginning to think she might have something to do with the threats against me* If that was the case, she deserved a lot more than being knocked out cold. She deserved to be locked up. And if she was indeed the one doing it, she’d be locked up with the Department of Truth a million times faster than my fist had been.
“And you fought Harmon,” she added with a shake of her head. “You better cool it or people are going to start thinking you are here to cause trouble.”
Word had gotten back to her about the fight last week, and she’d come over to get all of the gory details. Nestled in like she was, she looked every inch the Heir Anointed., especially with her diaphanous gown flowing over the side of the couch and spilling onto the floor the way it was. I was jealous of the way she seemed so content there without a care in the world. What I wouldn’t give to be able to have that. Instead, here I was preparing to go tango with some werewolves. Tonight, the full moon was upon us.
“Hey, you were there. Stacia started it. And as far as Harmon is concerned, how else was I supposed to get my point across? We shouldn’t still be practicing ancient arts when we have real powers we could use instead. It’s like using sticks and stones when we have a bazooka,” I said, not bothering to sugar coat it.
She was my friend, so I shouldn’t have to sugar coat it. Besides, the sooner people accepted how much sense this made, the better. I looked up through the high ceiling of my living room and admired the carved designs there as I stretched my arms high and my wings far out. A girl could get used to living here. Too bad I wasn’t going to be staying.
The stretching wasn’t because of sore muscles. Anthony and my visit to the Bardais and their healers had me feeling better than I had in years. No, I stretched to mentally prepare myself for what was to come. If the last round of ingredient gathering was anything to judge by, this wouldn’t be a stroll through the woods. Thankfully, Anthony and his wing had been healed at the Bardais too. That’s what had taken so long. Bones were harder to knit back together than muscle tissue.
Avalynn sat up. The movement made me look over. She leaned forward, a look of earnestness on her face.
“You better be careful, Cy. There are a lot of people who like the old ways. People who are desperate to keep them that way and frankly don’t like that you are back. Not everyone is like Anthony and me.” She said concern etched into her regal features.
My mind immediately went to the last time we were in this living room and the gruesome warning that had been left here.
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t scare easily.” I said with a smile. When I saw the frown pull at her face, I added. “And don’t worry; I will make sure you aren’t hurt either.”
The smile I gave her had more confidence than I felt. Truth be told, there was always the uncertainty underneath the smiles: uncertainty in what I’d done, uncertainty in what I was about to do, hell, even uncertainty that I was doing the right thing. It was a hard truth to admit to myself, let alone anyone else. It was easier just to act like I knew what I was doing like I had all of the answers. I didn’t.
“So are we going to chat like old housewives all night, or are you and I going to get out of here? There’s only one full moon a month, you know.” Piped up, Anthony coming out of the bedroom.
I opened my mouth to tell him that wasn’t always true, but Avalynn piped up from the couch. “Where are you guys going?
I could tell she was curious but had been trying to hold it back. Politeness, it ground at me. She always had a habit of being overly polite. In the wrong situation, that could get you killed. With the gods’ blessings, she’d never know that.
Pushing the uncomfortable thought away, I turned towards Anthony. “Just waiting for Your Royal Slowness.”
“Oh, haha.” He said with a roll of his eyes walking his muscled torso over.
The soft light of the recessed lights played across his chest. Shadows farther down his torso, let me imagine the rest. I shook myself. Had he always been this good looking? I found myself walking over to meet him halfway. My cheeks flamed. Had I been staring at his chest the whole way over? I pulled my eyes up and stared instead into the topaz of his eyes. My mind immediately went to our earlier kiss. From the way, his eyes darkened, and his nostrils flared, I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
