Blood of Destiny (Witch Fairy #6) (11 page)

“We didn’t mean to wake it up,” I say hurriedly.  “We were just trying to not die from our fall.”

The Queen looks me over with disdain.  Then she turns her eyes to Kallen.  There’s a gleam in them now that I don’t like, and she’s spending way too much time looking at certain parts of him.  It makes me want to sit on his lap and declare him to be mine.  Probably a little premature for that much drama, though.  I’ll settle for giving her a dirty look.

“Where did you come from?” she asks Kallen.  “Why are you here?”  She’s practically purring now that she’s talking to him.

“We came from the Fairy realm, your majesty.  Our sudden presence in your realm was unexpected; the result of a locator charm,” he says in a smooth, even voice. 

She cocks her head, letting her eyes slowly drink him in before saying, “How fortunate for us that you are able to wield such strong magic.  Your presence has caused quite the stir and brought excitement and curiosity to our humble village.”  It’s very well implied that she means
just
his presence has inspired these things.  “Welcome.”

I don’t believe a word her full, red lips are saying.  Her hair is dark brown, long and flowing and her skin is the color of rich mocha.  Right down to her tail.  How do I know?  Because she’s not wearing a shirt.  As we floated through town, I couldn’t help but notice that very few of the women were wearing anything to cover themselves, except the occasional adornment of shells or seaweed weaved into something resembling a bikini top.  I have to give Kallen credit.  His eyes have not wandered below anyone’s neck as far as I can tell.  And yes, I was paying attention.  I can also say that I behaved the same way.  I didn’t stare at all at the gorgeous male torsos we swam by.  Much.

“I am Kallen and this is Xandra, my wife,” he says.  I have trouble hiding a grin.  I guess he picked up on her oh so subtle appraisal of him as well.  Her eyes flash in displeasure.

Queen Undine turns her eyes back to me.  “Such a plain one to have caught this lovely creature in your net.  You must tell me your secret.”

She just called me plain.  The way she said it though, it was clear that she really wanted to say ugly.  I try really hard to remember why we’re here.  My magic on the other hand, doesn’t care why we’re here.  It is primed and ready to go.

The Queen sits up as the magic draws inside of me.  “You dare attempt magic in my home?” 

“Yes,” I say in the same tone she used.  “I didn’t come here to get insulted.  I came to find someone and then I’ll leave, with my gorgeous husband.”  Yes, I sound like a jealous wife.  Because I am.  Jealous, anyway.

“You will leave when I tell you to leave,” Undine says.  Then, lifting her hands in the air, she creates the same rainbow that Coralia did when she was about to do magic.  “Creatures of the sea, bend to my will; fear in these strangers’ hearts instill.”

I’ve heard of attack dogs, but attack octopi?  Seriously?  And these things are huge.  One of them is so big, its tentacles are longer than I am tall.  The suction cups on it are bigger than my face.  Which one is getting mighty close to at the moment.

Like the Fairy realm, this realm is purer than mine, less pollution.  Therefore, the magic is purer.  And stronger.  Pulling a lot of it, I push it towards the closest octopus.  It goes flying backwards towards the window it swam in a second ago and splats up against the wall.  This seems to rile up its friends who have now turned all of their attention on me, forgetting all about Kallen.  Lucky for me, he hasn’t forgotten about them.  He sends his own magic at the two heading my way and they squish up against the same wall.  I use my magic to pin all three of them there.

Turning back to Undine, I say, “Great hospitality, thanks.  What do you usually do next, take away the ability to breathe underwater spell?”  Oh, crap.  I don’t even need to look at Kallen to know that he’s fuming over me giving her ideas.  What was that spell Coralia did?

Undine gets a wicked smile on her face to replace the evil glare she was giving us when we quarantined her octopi.  “Perhaps a few minutes without oxygen will be just the thing to put you in your place.”

If I was Kallen, I’d be so mad at me right now.  Okay, I can fix this.  As Undine raises her arms to start the rainbow swirling, I quickly say, “Bodies of sand, born of soil and sea, protected from you all, we will be.  Let us breathe.” 

I’m pretty sure I got it wrong.  Especially since I had to hastily add that last part.  Yes, we can still breathe underwater.  But, I might have just started a war with the Merpeople.  Blowing out the walls of the Queen’s mansion and throwing her outside, then erecting an invisible wall so no one else may enter are probably good grounds for a war to be declared.  Basically, I’ve ousted their ruler and laid siege on her castle.  Diplomacy – still not my strong suit.  Probably never will be.

“Xandra,” Kallen says slowly.  I’m pretty sure he’s struggling to keep his voice even.  “Do you know what you just did?”

I’m going to go with the positive here.  “Kept us from drowning?”

He tilts his head and nods slightly.  “Yes, you did do that.  Do you know what else you did?”

“Um, saved us from more droll conversation with the Queen?”

He narrows his eyes.  “Perhaps we can look at the bigger picture here.”  He’s moving into condescending which always pushes me into defensiveness.

“Fine, I probably started a war.  Does it make you feel better now that I’ve said it out loud?”

He raises his brows and crosses his arms over his chest.  “As a matter of fact, it does.”

I give him a sour look.  “I just tried to do the same spell that Coralia did.  I got it wrong.”

To my surprise, he chuckles and shakes his head.  He walks over to me and holds his hand out.  I put mine in his and he pulls me to him.  Wrapping his arms around me, he says, “I love you.”  He gives me a quick kiss.  “Now, before the entire Merpeople population storms the place, how about if you use that rock of yours to bring us to the Angel?”

I nod and step back out of his arms.  I guess we’ll see if it was the Wishing Stone or the rock that brought us to Ray.  I pull the rock out of my pocket and stare at it a moment.  I don’t think I want to go to the Angel.  I think that it would be much safer given our current predicament to bring the Angel here.  Closing my hand around the rock, I think,
Bring the Angel we seek here.

A very surprised looking Mermaid suddenly appears in front of us.  She has long auburn hair and bright blue eyes.  She’s wearing a shirt, thank goodness, and her scales are a beautiful array of pinks, reds and silver.  She’s gorgeous.

She looks around for a moment, and then focuses on me and Kallen.  “I have surmised where I am, yet I am still at a loss as to why I am here.”  Her voice is smooth as satin and even in her confusion, she somehow offers comfort.  Strange.

“Um, I brought you here.”

She smiles.  “I gathered as much.”

“Ambriel sent me for you.”

That causes surprise in her calming eyes.  “Whatever for?”

I shrug.  “I don’t have a clue.  I owe him a favor and he used it to send me for you and two other Fallen Angels.”

Her brow gets tiny wrinkles.  “You were able to converse with Ambriel?  Has he chosen to Fall?”

I shake my head.  “No, he hasn’t.  I can talk to Angel’s.”

“Interesting.  How has this come about?”

“I’m Lailah’s granddaughter,” I say, referring to my grandmother.  I don’t know why I felt comfortable telling her that. 

Her pretty pink lips curve up into a happy smile.  “Then you must be the Witch Fairy.  How exciting.”

“Yes, it is,” Kallen says, “but we have a situation here so we should probably get going.”

“Going?”

“Ambriel wanted me to bring all three of you to my house,” I say.

She laughs that cute little laugh of the Angels.  The one that wasn’t passed on to me.  I don’t exactly sound like a donkey, but I don’t sound like a tiny pealing bell either.  “Ambriel has always been rather pushy.”  I don’t think that’s an ‘okay, let’s go.’  More like an ‘I don’t think so.’ 

Kallen has walked over to a hole in the wall.  “Undine is gathering what appear to be warriors.  Curious, the Merpeople do use tridents.  I thought that was legend.”

Great, three pronged sticks they can skewer us with.  If we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to be the marshmallow part of a s’more.  “I know you would have to give up your life here, but Ambriel seemed to think it’s important for you to come with me.”

She must be able to read the doubt in my eyes.  “I am sure he does.  What do you believe about the request for my presence?”

Crap, I’m not supposed to lie to Angels.  I sigh long and hard.  Here goes.  “I don’t like Ambriel.  I have no idea why he wants me to collect you or why he wants you at my house.  I did something stupid and now I owe him two favors.  Getting the three of you together takes care of one of them.  Personally, I think he’s up to something sinister."

She’s making me uncomfortable staring at me like that.  I keep wanting to swim behind Kallen because it feels like she can see inside of me.  If I had any food in my belly, I bet she’d be able to tell me what I ate last.

“You do the bidding of an Angel you do not trust because you gave your word.  I am not sure if that makes you a good Angel or a stupid Witch Fairy.”

I grimace.  “Yeah, me neither.”

“It is amazing how large these tridents are close up,” Kallen says from his spot by the hole in the wall.  “As well as how many they seem to have on hand.”

Okay, point taken.  Our situation is becoming dire.  What else is new?  I swim walk until I’m next to him.  “Wow.”  He’s right.  It looks like Neptune’s army got together with the angry mob that searched for Frankenstein and then they had a baby.  A very angry, multi-headed baby.  With pitchforks.  If we weren’t underwater, I’m sure there would be torches.

A hand on my shoulder makes me jump.  “Do you always anger others this way?” the Fallen Angel asks.

Great, more honesty required.  “Most of the time.”

“Has it dawned on you that you have not even asked my name, yet you want to scoop me up and take me away from this world I love?”

No, not at all.  Oops.  Sheepishly, I turn to her and hold out my hand.  “Hi, I’m Xandra.  And you are?”

She smiles.  “I am Zoe.”

“Do you think we could go now?  I don’t know what the equivalent to being burned at the stake is down here, but I don’t want to find out.”

She’s taken aback.  “Leave before this is smoothed over?  I do not believe that would be wise.  The realms may be closed to each other, but that is simply by choice.  They are not sealed.”

Oh.  I didn’t know that.  “So, if the Merpeople want to, they can open the realms and go anywhere they want?”  Like to my realm and start a real war.  Not that they would get far with what are basically pitchforks, but still.  A lot of people from both sides could still get hurt.   Kallen looks as happy as I do at the moment.