Page 27

Shy

“I hate him.”

Rhys kisses my cheek and rolls onto his back. “I don’t even know this version of my brother and I want to punch him in the face.”

He sits up in the bed where he became my husband and stares at the door. “Go away.”

I blink in the morning light and feel the most delicious ache in my muscles as I stretch. I can’t even remember the number of times this man made love to me the night before. He was insatiable and seemed to find a way to make me hungry every single time. “He’s not going to go away. We’re supposed to flee this morning and go hang out in a village that will absolutely not be as comfortable as this bed.”

It’s perfect. Like it is made for me.

“Do we have to flee before we’ve even had proper morning sex?”

Rhys complains.

I’m pretty sure we had that right before dawn, but I don’t correct him. I sit up and look around for my clothes. I find a robe laid out and wonder if a bird brought that in, too. The thought makes me touch the only thing I’m wearing. The Goddess Chain.

Rhys smiles and his fingers come up to touch it. “It’s beautiful on you. One good thing about coming here. I never thought to see you wear this.”

He turns it over and traces the details. “It’s different. I like the silver here. Shy, I think we were meant to be here, and this is yours.”

I can’t argue with him. The chain hums against my skin like it’s so happy to be mine. “I think we’re meant to be here for many reasons, and the main one is in the mountains. I have questions for Lee. For Fae Lee.”

Rhys sighs and leans in for a kiss before rolling out of bed. “Fine. I’m hungry.”

He pulls on the robe at the end of the bed, the larger one obviously meant for him. Immediately he’s got ten pixies on him, the gorgeous creatures landing on his shoulders and in his hair. He barely notices as he jogs down the stairs and I hear him whispering to Lee in a low growl.

He slams the door and turns my way. “Come, my goddess. Let’s take a bath and Lee will return with breakfast and news of last night. Will it bother you if he’s in the room while we’re in the bathing pool? I get the feeling he wants to move quickly.”

Ah, such an odd question if I didn’t live in the equivalent of a sithein for the last several years of my life. Technically Frelsi and its New Zealand equivalent are pocket worlds created by our witches, but they’re filled with Fae and supernaturals, and I’m pretty sure when Lily and the witches were decorating they were all into hobbits.

When I first got to Frelsi, I was surprised by the lack of modesty. What I realize now is it isn’t modesty my friends lack. It’s shame. Wolves and other weres don’t freak out when they change back to human form and find themselves naked. Witches do not mind dancing in the moonlight with no clothes on to strengthen a spell. Or to just be comfortable in their skin.

I won’t even go into the Fae. It took a lot of care for me to wait to see Rhys’s full beauty on our wedding night. I’ve seen his brother, and everyone knows what Fenrir looks like.

I have a decision to make. I’ve always known if I became his goddess, there would be some public nudity.

I slide out of bed and stretch and decide to forgo the robe. The water should cover me. Mostly.

As I walk past the robe, the pixies land on me. My little ones. I love the pixies in Frelsi, but this feels right. Like something changed inside me last night and I can accept the affection they have always wanted to honor me with.

Rhys gives me a once over, his lips curling in a decadent smile. “We’re going that way, are we?”

I give him a prim curtsey. “I am the wife of a High Priest of Faery. Should I cower and hope no one ever sees my body?”

Rhys chucks his robe, too. “Your body is a freaking gift to this world and all the rest, my goddess. Lead the way.”

He gestures for me to take the stairs to the bathing room. “Is it me or is this place nicer than it was last night?”

“Much nicer,”

a deep voice says, and I find a gnome staring up from the bottom of the steps. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so nice in all me days.”

Well, that changed. I stop two steps above him and frown down. “What happened? There were no spirits here last night.”

Rhys stops behind me. His hands go to my shoulders. “Friend or foe?”

“I am a friend of the true king of the Fae, Lee Quinn. His father is the betrayer,”

the gnome announces. “And dat is why I was killed in me own garden this morning by that wizard arsehole. I think the fucker was tryna steal me soul for some reason, but I came here instead. Always loved the temple. Thought I wouldna see it again.”

“Friend,”

I say, and my brand spanking new husband moves around me, hurrying to the steamy pool.

“Thank the goddess.”

He walks right in, leaving me behind. He sighs as he sinks into the water. “It’s freezing. We need some fireplaces.”

It’s good to know now that he’s had some sex, he’s relaxed. I move around the wee one and join my husband because he’s right. It’s chilly. “They killed you for speaking out?”

I’m curious about what happened in the hours since we separated from the royals. I need to stop calling them that. They’re my in-laws now. I think Zoey will appreciate it immensely if I stop calling her Your Highness or Your Grace.

The gnome follows me. “Aye, they did, though I think he was looking fer a reason. He was in a right rage this morning. I’m sure it’s about how the temple has come to life.”

The door opens just after I descend into the bathing pool, and Lee strides in carrying a tray and followed by Cassie and Brendan, who has found his human form once more.

He’s got two mugs in his hand. “Guys, these women showed up sometime after the big sex bomb went off, and they made all kinds of food. Thank the goddess because I went through all the jerky in Cass’s bag.”

Cassie’s eyes roll. “The two pound bag.”

He stares her way. “Yes, you only had two pounds. Did you intend to starve me so you get all the inheritance?”

She snorts. “Yeah, we don’t have that, brother, and one of our dad’s is immortal, so we won’t be collecting that anytime soon. Now that I think about it, it was Vamp Dad who packed my go bag. I know because he included a couple of face masks. We needed them last night. It was a lot.”

“I liked it,”

Lee admits as he moves down the stairs with the tray. “It was cucumber and melon. Smelled nice, and my skin is smoother.”

He stops and gives me a come-hither smile. “Hey, there, Shy. You are looking lovely this morning.”

I turn to Rhys, half expecting him to come out of the water and attack this version of his twin. He merely smiles and winks my way. “You are beyond lovely, my goddess.”

“Eww, they did it,”

Brendan says as he passes me one of the mugs and then Rhys the other. “I can tell because Rhys doesn’t look like he has a stick up his ass.”

“Duh,”

Cassie replies. “That’s why we were stuck in the safe room for five hundred hours.”

She turns to me. “When you are redecorating, you need to take into account that the people seeking refuge from your spicy times might need like a TV or a couple of extra beds. Maybe a full-service kitchen. I had to listen to Lee tell me battle stories and then a bunch of crap about how closely bonded he was to the chimera thing. I told you. Not sorry I killed its ass.”

“That wee thing killed a chimera?”

the gnome asks.

I nod his way. He’s sitting on the edge of the water, his feet dangling, and I can see a thin line where they slit his throat. I feel for him, though he seems perfectly happy to be here. His head tilts back as he looks up at the sun through the skylights as though he hasn’t seen it in forever. “She did. She’s fierce. So my question is how did you escape getting sucked into wherever Myrddin keeps the souls of those he kills?”

“My question is how did the priestesses get in, and where have they been hiding?”

Rhys says, picking up a muffin. “This looks delicious.”

“They took to the woods years back when my father desecrated the temple. I think they were called by the magic you and Shy created. We could feel the vibrations from it, and it would have been so much fun if I could have participated, but no, you shove me into a safe room with a way too young for fertility rites girl.”

Lee’s gaze goes between Rhys and myself, but I don’t think he’s at all disturbed that the two of us are naked. “Do you know how long it’s been since we were blessed with fertility rites? Not that I need a baby, but I’ve been told it’s the best sex ever. That’s how long it’s been. The last time it happened I was a babe.”

I suspect it would have been an orgy. Now I’m worried about my mother-in-law. There is a man who is obsessed with her. “Would it have hit the palace?”

Rhys moves to my side, sipping on the tea he’s been given. “You mean would it have hit my mother.”

Lee’s head shakes. “The palace is far too warded for them to have gotten anything but the edge of it. From what I heard this morning, it did hit the dungeons.”

“Oh, aye,”

the gnome says. “I heard them guards talking about how none of their torture came to aught last night and that the spring goddess got away while they were in the woods wanking off. I laughed, and that was when the wizard took me out. I also might have called him a charlatan and thrown some very rich fertilizer at him.”

I wince. “He says your papa is better this morning, and so is Ostara. Sasha got her out. I suppose they left Devinshea because of what could happen to Zoey if they didn’t have him. I suspect Dev wouldn’t leave.”

I hate the thought of him being there, but he has given us some cover. “The magic did what we hoped it would, and the wards held. And my new friend threw shit at Myrddin.”

“Who is Shy talking to?”

Lee counters.

“A newly dead creature,”

Rhys replies. “Do you know of any who would be bold enough to hurl crap at the wizard?”

Lee grins. “That sounds like any number of creatures I know.”

“Dead… Baby, does the dead person have a name?”

Rhys asks.

“Hasn’t introduced himself yet. He’s a gnome. Died this morning in the gardens,” I reply.

“Not Benfal,”

Lee says with a frown. “I love Benny. Tell me it wasn’t him.”

The gnome grins. “Tell him I love him, too. A good lad. Far better than his father.”

Before I can pass on that message, Lee continues. “But you weren’t there when he died, so you couldn’t have saved him. How did he get away?”

“Oh, I felt the pull, but the temple was far stronger,”

the gnome says.

“He felt the temple’s magic and was drawn to it,”

I explain to Lee, but I have more important questions. “Someone else mentioned they felt pulled toward the wizard. So you can feel him forcing you?”

“And it weren’t like that. It wasn’t force. It was a song calling to me, telling me I can move on. But the temple meant a lot to me and I heard its song, too. I chose.”

Now that revelation changes things. I thought I was fighting Myrddin himself. It sparks a memory in me. One I didn’t realize I had, but I suddenly know it’s true. I turn to Rhys. “He’s got some kind of spell that’s tricking the dead into a trap. I was worried he had the same kind of soul space I have and he was pulling them in, but I just remembered the dark prophet told me I was unique. I’m the only one with a space like this, that can hold a whole soul and not have it affect me long term. How did I remember that? The day I met your grandfather, Gray Sloane was there. He taught me how to let Harry in. He explained that it wouldn’t change me the way it would other people. You can house a piece of soul or a ripped up soul for a brief time, but they can stay in me and I’ll still be in control.”

“I’m confused. I thought the wizard was eating souls,”

Lee points out. “That’s what he told the king. He convinced my father he could take back his power by eating souls.”

“Most of my research says the soul is sacrosanct.”

Cassie spends a lot of time with the academics. And Evan and me.

“The theory is the soul can’t be destroyed,”

I explain. “But naturally Hell tries, and so does Myrddin Emrys. At least that’s the working knowledge we have. However, it goes against the reports we have about Myrddin taking pieces of his witches’ souls when he needs to keep them in line. That’s one of the reasons Rhys’s twin and their sister are on the Hell plane right now. Looking for Liv Carey’s.”

“Well, the tales here are that the king eats the souls of those he kills,”

Benny says gravely. “It’s why so many fall in line. It’s one thing to die. Quite another to be utterly destroyed. But it weren’t the king calling to me. It was something beyond the wizard, too. I wanted to go somewhere, to join them.”

A chill prickles along my spine. “Did you want to go to the north?”

He nods. “To the mountains. They sing to me even now, but I like it here. It’s quieter here. Much.”

I turn to Rhys. “He says when he died, he was called to the mountains.”

Lee nods. “So this is about the sluagh. What if he’s been sending the dead to the mountain and trapping them, forcing them to become sluagh? To what end?”

“I’m not sure, but we need to figure it out,”

Rhys says, starting in on another muffin. “Or we could stay here for a couple of days.”

I turn to stare at my husband.

His eyes go straight to my breasts, and I realize I need to sink down a little more. “Well, it is our bonding time, my goddess. And you don’t have to do that on their account. You’re a fertility goddess now. You’re supposed to walk around in your gorgeous skin knowing no one will touch you or they risk the wrath of the god.”

Lee actually bows his head and looks serious for a moment. “He is not wrong about that, Your Grace. I am irreverent at times, but you bless our sithein with your presence, and you should understand that every Fae here will consider you holy.”

“Except your father and Myrddin Emrys,”

Cassie points out. “And anyone who happens to be under their spell.”

“Don’t know about dat,”

Benny says. “I think the rites disrupted the spells. It’s why I flung that shit the wizard’s way. For the first time in years I could feel again. I never had the whole can’t talk spell, but everyone in the palace and on the grounds were under the pall of the king. It made things dull and kept us submissive. You will scare the crap out of them all, Your Grace.”

“Because we brought the temple back to its beauty?” I ask.

“Because you bring hope,”

Benny corrects.

“You bring hope,”

Lee replies at the same time. “You are a rallying cry. You are a pause in the misery that allows my people to remember who we are, what we can do when we are together. This temple is the heart of the Seelie Fae. Not simply of our sithein. The Green Man is a reflection of who we are as a people, and when he becomes corrupt it is up to us to fix the problem. You are revolution, Your Graces, and that is why I know you will cut this short and come with me to the village.”

Rhys growls and frowns my way. “I don’t like him.”

But he knows he’s right. I know how to calm my irritated sex god. I look to Lee. “Go and get everything ready. We will join you in half an hour.”

Rhys growls.

“An hour,”

I say with a sigh.

In moments we’re alone with the exception of Benny, who is still staring at the sun.

“Do you see a light?” I ask.

His head tilts down, long white beard against his chest. “Of course. I see several. You are the strongest.”

I give him a smile because I’m absolutely certain he’s flirting with me. As I’m a naked, newly married woman, I can’t blame him. “That’s sweet. I’m talking about a light you can move through.”

“Yes,”

he says with a nod of his head. “You’re talking about a door. You’re talking about the first door, the oldest one.”

A pretty way to put it. “If you go through, you begin again in some way.”

“Is it hard, goddess?”

he asks, and he’s staring at me with wonder.

I feel Rhys’s hands on my shoulders, but he doesn’t do anything. Merely lets me know he’s with me. “Hard?”

“To be the door and never know what’s behind it? You do, you know. You know. It’s in your heart. You’re confused because it’s been so long.”

The way he’s looking at me… “Since what?”

“Since you were born the first time. Since he had to hide you,”

Benny whispers. “I was there. I served him, un sanctaidd. She belongs to the world. Mae hi y llwybr i dragwyddoldeb.”

“She said that to me. What does it mean? It’s Welsh, right? I thought you spoke Gaelic.”

The words unnerve me, cause those tears to pulse behind my eyes because I know I’m close to understanding. But I’m also close to knowing something hidden. Something lost. Something that might need to stay lost.

He stands and his expression gentles. “All of his followers speak his language, sacred one. You are the path to eternity. She’s coming. She’s fought so hard to get here. Do not be afraid. Call his name when you need him. He will always come for you.”

And then he dives toward me. I put up a hand, though I know he can’t hurt me. He’s non-corporeal. But instinct has me backing up against Rhys and holding a hand out.

He falls against it, and a gold light shines and he is gone.

What the hell just happened?

“Are you okay?”

Rhys asks.

I hear the sound of rushing water that is not from this stream. That sound is soothing and this one…so familiar and yet so deeply frightening.

The Drowning Woman is here. She floats ten feet away.

I turn to my husband, wrapping myself around him and trying not to cry.