Page 26 of Fae Tithe (The Cursed Courts #1)

H elena refused to wait a moment longer, so a short time later, she and Lance stood side by side in the late morning sun.

They both wore their cotton cloaks, hoods shadowing their faces.

She studied Tithe Manor, appreciating its undeniable beauty.

She frowned at the grand building, its unusual red stone a stark contrast to the white, cream, and beige architecture of Seelieland.

Tithe Manor’s towering scarlet walls gave way to neat pathways of crushed black gravel, spreading out from the building into the emerald gardens.

The longer Helena looked, the more the combination of red and black reminded her of the gonads of a gutted fish.

She felt sick, swallowing back bile as the floral scent wafted from the gardens.

She heard Lance sniff deeply and she half-turned her cloaked face to him. “They smell beautiful,” he said quietly. “What kind of flowers are they?”

“Roses,” Helena replied.

Normally, she would enjoy looking at such exquisite blooms. Spring was her favourite season for all the wildflowers after the winter rains.

Helena examined the blossoming hedges. The greenery circled around dozens of fountains dotted throughout the grounds, each featuring granite statues of exquisitely carved Fae.

“Roses? Like our Rose? This is the flower she is named after?” Lance asked.

It occurred to Helena that the Merman may well have never encountered a rose before. The villa’s garden had only useful plants, like fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

“Yes, that’s right.”

She studied them. The longer she stared at green briar hedges, the worse she felt. To her, the red blooms looked like bleeding hearts skewered onto the savage thorns.

“Len… I don’t see a way from here. Let’s walk around?” Lance suggested.

Helena nodded in agreement. Together, they slowly circled the manor, set back a fair distance, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Their eyes were trained on the wrapround border fence, trying to spot a way in.

“There is something wrong here,” Lance concluded with a frown.

“What’s that?” Helena tilted her head up to him curiously.

“No guards… you’d think two strangers walking around like this would draw them out, but nothing.”

“I was so focused on looking for a way in, I didn’t even think of that,” Helena admitted through gritted teeth. Get it together.

“I can smell magic here.” Lance stopped and picked up a small stone. “Something is in place…” He rolled the pebble along the cobblestone. Three steps from the iron-barred fence, it bounced off, clattering against the road.

Helena’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. “What’s that?”

“A ward, I think. It’s woven into the fence and gates…

” Lance straightened, pinching the bridge of his nose, and scoffed.

“The arrogance of Fae! They’re warded, so they don’t even bother posting guards in the gardens.

This could work to our advantage. If we can find a weakness in the ward, then I may be able to sense it. ”

“And we could get in from there?” Helena ventured, hope blooming in her chest.

“If there is a hole in it somewhere… possibly.” Lance nodded.

They continued walking for hours around Tithe Manor, searching for some kind of weakness or fault.

The sun began to set, catching the glint of the black fence in its light.

Helena, once again, eyed the savage briar thorns growing along the top of the tall fence that completely encircled the gardens of the manor.

It was a fortress, seemingly impenetrable.

Helena felt her stomach drop the longer she stared at the defences of the opulent building.

She felt Lance’s eyes on her and he gently squeezed her shoulder. Helena had been staring at the locked gate for quite some time, and her Merman’s gentle touch blinked her out of it.

“Sweetheart, it’s sunset. We should head back to Bright Sun. Have a meal? Bath? Sleep?”

Helena looked up at him. “You want to leave?”

“No, I just think we will be able to think more clearly after some food and rest. We can come back first thing tomorrow. Find a weakness. Help El,” Lance explained.

Helena’s eyes glanced back to the manor again before returning to meet his face. She felt pulled two ways. She needed to stay. Figure it out.

Frustration needled her as she clenched and unclenched her fists. She’s so close, and I can’t get in.

She also knew she was in no condition to get her daughter out, even if she managed to get through the ward and inside the building. Exhaustion dogged Helena’s steps and hunger gnawed at her empty stomach.

“Tomorrow,” she conceded, turning her back on Tithe Manor.

The following day, Lance and Helena returned, standing side by side outside the ward. Lance stood for a while, cupping his chin, gaze focused on a gate. His mind turned as he flicked through his limited knowledge on Fae and their magic.

“The gates are the secure points,” the Merman theorised. “I think that, perhaps, if they are unlocked, it may lower the ward. We need to watch for people coming and going. Then perhaps we can slip in?”

Helena nodded. “How do you know so much about wards?”

“I have my own, made from my water magic, but these are different. The spell is in the material, rather than needing the concentration of the person who cast it. These are all just ideas – guesses, really – so I am open to anything else you might suggest,” Lance admitted.

“I’ve never seen you use one,” Helena mused, “and right now, I don’t have any better ideas. So, let’s see if anyone comes in and out, like you said,” she agreed.

For the following three frustratingly long days, they visited Tithe Manor. They looked for a weakness in the ward while waiting for someone to enter or exit, but no one did, and Lance could not sense a fault in the ward as he studied it.

Finally, on the fourth evening, the Merman could feel Helena’s frustration spill over.

“Tomorrow, ward or not, I am climbing over. Fae knows what they are doing to El in there! That’s if she is even still in there. We have taken too long,” she growled.

“You can’t even get close enough to the ward to do that, Len.

It will just throw you off. You would get hurt, and we can’t get El out if you’re injured,” Lance countered on their walk back to Bright Sun Inn.

His throat bobbed as guilt pricked at him.

He knew it was time to talk about what he had been keeping from her.

After all, it was possible it could help.

“I have another idea. I need to tell you, I—”

He stopped mid-sentence, a prickling sensation crawled up the back of his neck. Lance glanced over his shoulder and saw a thin, cloaked figure dogging their steps. The Merman lowered his mouth to Helena’s ear.

“Turn down this lane,” he said quietly.

“Why?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“Someone is following us.” Lance placed his hand to the small of her back, steering her down the next laneway.

The Merman, shepherding Helena, sensed the cloaked figure rush up to them from behind. Lance stopped abruptly and spun on his heel. Before the follower could attack or flee, he slammed the figure against the closest brick wall.

The Merman ripped the hood down that covered the face of the stranger. A thin, bony face, set with a pair of hazel eyes, stared back at him. He can’t be far into his twenties. Lance tightened his grip on the young man, his scowl threatening in the quickly fading light.

“Why are you following us?”

“Aunt Bethy. Beth from the inn. She said you might need my help,” he gasped.

“What’s your name?” Lance growled.

“Declan,” he replied, squirming beneath Lance’s grip. “Your daughter is still in there, I checked… none of the Tithe girls have left yet.” He nodded in the direction of Tithe Manor. “I want to help – anything to take the Seelies down a peg or two.”

Helena took a step towards them. Lance watched as her eyes narrowed at the young man in his grasp, studying his face.

“Declan… are you part Fae?” she asked.

Lance turned his head back to look at him. He had fluffy blonde hair, slightly pointed ears, and highly angled cheekbones. His youthful face looked so familiar, but Lance could not place it.

“That was fast.” Declan grinned, meeting Helena’s eyes. “It usually takes a while for people to guess.”

“I have some… friends, close to me, who are part Fae as well,” Helena explained. She placed a hand on the Merman’s bicep and gently squeezed. “Lance, come on, put him down.”

The Merman slowly released Declan’s collar from his grip, lowering his dangling feet to the ground.

Lance wore a scowl, lines furrowed into his brow and the edges of his eyes.

He did not trust anyone who would follow them in such a manner, and something about the young man’s demeanour needled at him.

His arrogance, his swagger, that smirk that screamed trouble.

“Thanks,” Declan said, brushing the front of his grey cloak, smoothing out the wrinkles from Lance’s grip. “Aunt Bethy asked me to talk to you. I can help,” he repeated. He raised his eyes to meet the Merman’s, but quickly turned them down to his boots again.

“Then why not just talk to us?” Lance scowled.

“I wanted to see how… committed you were,” the young man explained. He looked left and right down the lane. “I have seen you come back again and again. You’re trying to get in so you can get you daughter out, right?” he whispered.

“This isn’t a game.” Lance replied, feeling a spike of irritation at his theatrics. “If you could have helped us before, you should have let us know. We have no idea what is happening to El in there. We need to get her out.”

Helena, hand still on the Merman’s bicep, gently squeezed him again.

“Yes,” she responded to Declan’s question. “How can you help us with that?”

“Some of the servants…well, most of the servants, actually… they hate how they are treated by the Fae of Tithe Manor. Lesser faeries are treated like dirt. Most of them are sick of it, but they’re stuck there with their Bargain Bracelets.

Many are part of my… group,” he rambled, the words spilling from his mouth.

Lance scoffed at the young man. Clearly, the Merman had scared him a little. He was not sorry about that, as the lurking and following had perturbed him. He did not trust people who behaved that way.

“What’s in it for you? For them?” Lance asked.

“Besides a chance to say ‘fuck you’ to their masters, you mean? I am sure they wouldn’t say no to some Seels in their pockets. Most of them are indentured for life, after all,” Declan replied, finally lifting his face to Lance’s, but not quite meeting his eyes.

Helena patted her riding leggings. The Merman could hear the jingle of dwindling coins in her hidden money pocket. “I will pay, but after I’ve spoken to Beth. I don’t know who you are,” she said firmly.

Declan shrugged. “If you must. Leave the money with Simon when you’ve made up your mind.”

“Alright.” Helena nodded. “When is this happening?”

“Soon. Head back to the inn. Check with Bethy about me.” He cupped his chin. “I assume you’ll say yes, so I’ll need to put some plans in place. What’s her name?”

“Eleanor Neycur,” the couple said together.

“Good, wouldn’t want to get the wrong one out.” Declan nodded, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

The young man stepped out of Lance’s towering shadow and glanced into his eyes. The Merman glowered back. Declan side-stepped him and scurried off.

“We can’t trust him. I don’t like people who behave like that,” Lance grunted as he watched Declan’s smoke coloured cloak whip down the darkening lane.

“You were a little hard on him.” Helena sighed, meeting his face. “But you’re not wrong. He seems like he is a little shit, but Beth seems trustworthy enough, and she sent him to help. Remember, she gave us a room and told us where the manor was without even a second thought.”

“We need to check with her first,” Lance insisted. He felt as though he could at least trust the Blue Cap. “Before we go any further with Declan.”

“What choice do I—”

Lance shot Helena a withering look. “We.”

“— We have,” she corrected. “You’re right.

Sorry. We. I am exhausted, frustrated, and angry.

I know you’re here with me too, and I’m so grateful for that.

” Helena took a deep breath. “What choice do we have, Lance? This is the only lead we have had since we got to Solas. It has already been too long. The longer it takes to get her out, the more chance there is that something awful has happened to her.”

“I know, Len. I know.” Lance folded her into his arms and pulled her into his chest. He pressed a kiss to Helena’s sweaty forehead. “We’ll check about Declan with Beth. If she says it’s alright, we can pay Simon. Then, when he comes back, we’ll see what he comes up with. Sound good?”

Helena let out a long exhale into his chest. “Alright. Good plan,” she agreed. “Thank you, Lance, for being here. It means everything.”

The Merman brushed his hands up from the small of her back.

They patterned in and out of Helena’s curves, eventually landing on either side of her face.

He stroked his thumbs along the bows of her cheeks.

Lowering his head, Lance pressed a soft kiss to her lips, which she eagerly returned as she pushed back into him.

He broke the kiss, coming up for air, before touching his forehead to Helena’s. “There is nowhere else I would rather be, sweetheart. We’ll get El back.”