Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled) (20 page)

Her body trembled and she melted against him. His taste. He
was kissing her again. She wasn’t sure he would. How could she care who was
watching? How could she ever ask him to stop again?

He lifted his mouth, his voice raspy with desire and
restraint. “And if you lose concentration, allow yourself to be injured in any
fashion? I’ll tie you to the nearest bed until you make me believe you’ll never
put yourself in harm’s way again.”

Kyle sighed loudly. “And he was doing so well.”

Meru snorted behind her. “He’ll learn.”

Ceri, who as an exile was not allowed to enter the royal
area, spoke from the doorway. “Maybe. Finn has always been stubborn.”

Sheridan didn’t respond to any of them. She didn’t look away
from Finn. Her smile, when it came, was meant as a challenge. “I’d like to see
you try.”

A horn blew, drawing everyone’s attention. Damon, his hands
on Meru’s shoulders, inhaled sharply. “Something’s not right. I can smell it.”

“Join the club,” Sheridan muttered, taking a conscious step
away from Finn, needing all her senses for this.

Raj walked up, her training staff in his hands. “They
approved it. You can use your own weapon for this. It’s single combat, with
points for—”

“I know the rules. I think. I trained with this for months.
I still like my gun better, but this will work. I’ll just give them all a great
show and win this.” She nudged him with her elbow. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell
everyone I owe it all to my own personal dragon.”

The dark voice in her head was gone. There was nothing to
distract her. She knew what she had to do. She knew herself.

Take that, Danu.

Kyle tapped her on the shoulder and hugged her when she
turned around. “Personally, I’m just excited to be here. I feel like I have ringside
seats to that episode where Spock fights Kirk.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help it. Kyle could always defuse
a tense situation. It was one of the reasons they’d been friends for so long. One
of the thousand reasons. “Thank you, Captain Geek.”

He shrugged and stepped back to stand beside Nyc, who winked
at her before agreeing with Kyle. “Totally. Let’s hope she’s Spock.”

Sheridan closed her eyes for a moment, refusing to look at
Meru. She’d be worried. She might be crying. Instead, she glanced at Finn one
last time. He nodded, his expression intense. That flawless face she’d been
struck by when she first saw him seemed so familiar now. Frowning and fierce
and loving.

Loving. And loved.

There was no escaping it. He’d said so himself. And if she were
truly being honest, truly “knowing” herself, she didn’t want to. This might
just be her path after all.

She turned and started to head toward the center of the
arena. “Watch my back, Tinker Stud.”

“Try to make me look away,” he murmured, only loud enough
for her to hear.

Game on, she thought, squaring her shoulders as she reached
the center of the dirt-covered fighting area. But where was her sparring
partner?

The horn blew again and Sheridan glanced up at the hovering
balcony where the queen stood, once more with Hawk, Val and Linnea behind her.

“My champion has arrived at last. Welcome, Sheridan Kelly.”
The queen’s lavender gaze was penetrating and curious. Or was that suspicion?

Sheridan lowered her head and bowed as respectfully as she
could with her staff in hand. “Your Majesty,” she raised her voice to be heard
over the murmurs in the stands. “I humbly thank you for allowing me to fight as
your champion.” She remembered what Ceri had told her and added hastily, “Together
we will not fail.”

“Indeed.” The queen’s smile was tense, but not cruel. “How
can we fail with a child who shares the lines of both Áine and Lugh? You might
be hindered by your human upbringing, but you more than make up for it with
your pedigree.”

There were pockets of gasps in the crowd around her and
Sheridan glanced up sharply to see that Linnea was looking at her daughter’s
grandmother askance. She had heard it too. The trace of scorn about how she was
raised.

Show respect. Deference, she reminded herself. Now was not
the time to challenge royalty. “Thank you for overlooking my deficiencies, Your
Highness.”

And thank me for not mentioning that your granddaughter
was also raised by a human. Wouldn’t want to point that out to the gawkers,
would we?
She wouldn’t say that out loud. She’d promised Finn. She also
wouldn’t challenge the woman to a duel for insulting her mother. She was the
queen’s champion. She was better than that.

The queen pursed her lips. “Who will come forward to fight
my champion with staff and wits alone? Who will dare to seek my boon over my
chosen and the most
unique
among us?”

Wow. Apparently the news about her genetics really
had
ticked off the queen.

A woman’s voice, strident and strong, broke the silence. “I
will come forward. Willingly and eagerly, Your Majesty.”

Sheridan nearly bit her tongue in shock. It was the woman
from the other night. Finn’s fellow tracker, Meara. Whip girl. Sheridan had the
strangest desire to grin. Wishes really did come true.

The queen clapped her hands together to silence the roar of
the crowd. “Meara of Aisling, formerly of the house Aereon. You have challenged
my champion, and on her behalf, I accept. Let the battle begin.”

It was surreal, Sheridan thought, as she held her staff in
both hands, studying her challenger. A year ago, her life had seemed so full.
So normal. Something like this? This straight-out-of-fiction scenario? It wasn’t
even a glint in her eye.

Neither was finding out her drive-by sperm bank of a father
came from a line of Fae/Archon stock…or acknowledging that she was in love with
a ginger who was several thousands of years her senior.

Life was strange.

“Should I go easy on you, Druid?” Meara tossed her long
braid over her shoulder and smirked. “I’ve fought your kind before. I know all
about your slow reflexes and intolerance for pain.” Her staff rushed out to hit
Sheridan’s hip. She deflected it just in time, but the power of the blow jolted
up her arms.

“Really getting into this, aren’t you, Meara?” Sheridan
huffed, swinging her own staff low, looking for the extra kneecap point. She
missed. “I’ve heard you like causing pain. But I thought cat-o-nine’s were your
preferred method.”

Meara’s expression was one of surprise. “Finn told you? I
suppose there’s no reason he wouldn’t, apart from shame. I refused him to marry
his brother. Not because he martyred himself over his poor, dead sister, though
that was rather pathetic.” She licked her lips and circled Sheridan, alert for
an opening. “Fortunately his brother truly enjoys my
special
brand of
affection.”

The Fae had gotten a point. Sheridan fell to her knees with
the blow Meara delivered to her rib cage. She’d been taken off guard. Finn said
he’d never slept with Meara. Had that been a lie?

Trust him.

She shifted her stance and sent Meara a mocking grin. “You’re
better off, regardless. He would have never been happy with you, since I’m his
síorghrá
.”

Sheridan heard Meara gasp, saw the fingers loosen for an
instant on her staff and took the opportunity to strike. Hard.
Yes
.
Right on her kneecap. Point to her.

Meara rolled over with a cry of anger, leaping to her feet
with the grace of a cat, staff still firmly in hand. “How do you know that
word? It’s a child’s story. A fantasy.”

Sheridan shrugged. “So is most of my life lately. That doesn’t
mean it’s not true.”

“Just one more reason,” Meara muttered, her eyes brightening
to an eerie purple. A familiar light that made Sheridan’s heart race. She had a
feeling this particular Fae wouldn’t need that big a nudge to turn Horde.

She reached out to know Meara. Just enough. There. Right on
the surface. Not even that well hidden. “You’re close to the queen and her
ladies, aren’t you, Meara? You are one of her favorites. Do you tell your evil
puppet masters everything she says and does? Or only the really juicy gossip?”

Meara bared her teeth and came at her with renewed speed and
aggression. Sheridan blocked most of the blows, but not all. She could feel
Meara’s rage and jealousy. Knew her thirst for power, thwarted as she was by
her station, had been her weakness. Knew she wanted the spear, and if it could
not be retrieved, she was determined to stop the
Fianna
from possessing
it.

But she wasn’t the only one.

Sheridan swung her staff like a baseball bat, feeling it
connect with Meara’s shoulder. This was no longer just a game. “
All
the
queen’s ladies? I admit I wasn’t expecting that, but it would explain why she’s
letting this happen. Have they been whispering in her ear? Making her doubt her
loyalties? Making her question the
Fianna
? Her faith in Myrddin?”

She knew Damon would be able to hear their conversation. She
trusted that. Because from the expression on Meara’s face, she had a feeling
she might not make it out of here on her feet.

“If we could have read you, we could have discovered a way
to retrieve the spear before anyone found out what you are. What you
had
to
be to get it in the first place, which those morons guarding you would know if
they had two brain cells to rub together. Then this wouldn’t have needed to end
so bloody. And in front of your poor, helpless cousin too.” Meara pretended to
pout, but her eyes sparkled. “That would have been a shame though. I do love to
have my fun.”

Sheridan was done. She’d allowed herself to be bruised and
bullied. Allowed herself to be put in this ridiculous outfit. But now she just
wanted to kick this Faery’s ass. “By all means, let’s not miss your fun time.”

She was strong. And now she knew it wasn’t just because she
was Druid. She had powerful blood in her veins, and Raj had trained her
endlessly for months. She also “knew” the kind of fighter Meara was. She didn’t
need help to bring this bitch down.

Sheridan ducked when Meara’s weapon whizzed over her head,
sliding her staff beneath hers and between Meara’s arms and falling onto her
back. The move sent the Fae flying over her body to crash onto the hard ground
behind her.

She got to her feet just as Meara stopped rolling, using her
staff as a walking stick to hide her limp from the watchful Finn. “Having fun
yet, Meara? I am. I’ve lost track of the points thing,” she added with a shrug.
“But points are for sissies, right?”

Meara was at her side in a heartbeat—she really needed to
learn that trick—with a cut on her forehead and murder in her eyes. “So are
rules.”

Sheridan felt the static charge an instant before she was
flying. She’d been hit with one of those Fae bolts. The bitch was cheating.
God, and it hurt. She spoke to the air. “Damon, tell Finn not to overreact. I’m
still breathing.
Ouch
. God, I don’t like fairies.”

It was a good thing Meru’s husband had such big ears. She
used her staff to pull herself to her feet again and glanced up at the queen.
The woman’s hands were fluttering and she seemed more unsure than she’d ever
seen her. Good. At least she hadn’t gone completely dark side.

She hadn’t done anything to stop the fight either, a fact
both the Vikings had noticed. Sheridan grinned past her pain. The queen wasn’t
going anywhere, not with them standing on either side of her.

When Meara landed with a cry of pain at her feet, Sheridan
sighed. Damon obviously hadn’t relayed her message to Finn.

“Meara of Aisling has used her powers in single combat,” he
shouted to the crowd of shocked onlookers. “This disqualifies her without
equivocation. She has also admitted to attempted treason and collusion with the
queen’s ladies to incite discord and to hand one of our sacred artifacts over
to the
Dark
. Let her punishment be suitable to the crime.”

Meara got to her knees, shaking with rage. She looked off to
the side, where those favored by the royal court were gathered. “Get the human.
We end this now.”

Sheridan watched as several flashed away before her eyes.
Before she could register what Meara had said. Get the human? She met Finn’s
gaze across the space that separated them. “Kyle.”

“Over here, Druid.” Sheridan heard the male voice close
behind her and turned. It was a man who looked very much like Finn. Her heart
sank. Whoever he was, he was holding Kyle up in the air with one hand. As if he
were a toy. A breakable toy.

He sneered at her expression. “Worried about your little friend?
Don’t be. No one wants him dead yet. We all want to taste him first. I’m
surprised my brother hasn’t already. But then, he’s been on a strict diet since
he killed my sister. Did he tell you about that? That he went off to play hero
because we couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore? Because he chose a lesser
species over his own family?”

There was anarchy in the stands around her. She could hear
it. Knew some of the Fae were escaping, some were moving closer. She sensed it
all, but she kept her focus on Kyle and the Fae holding him.

She took a few careful steps forward. “So you’re what?
Paying your brother back like
this
? Rude-awakening alert. The human you’re
holding? Finn isn’t fond of him. He’s jealous, if you want to know the truth.
Killing him won’t exactly make Finn suffer.”

She snared Kyle’s attention. He would play along.

He started to struggle in the Fae’s strong grip, legs
flailing. “Oh God, she’s right,” he whimpered pitifully. “Finn hates me because
I’m her partner. He wants her to himself. Oh God, I’m gonna die!”

The Fae was defensive. “I know that. I may not be the kind
of mind reader my brother is. The kind of tracker. But I know his weaknesses.”
His chuckle was not one of joy. “I know what can hurt him.”