Authors: B. Kristin McMichael
“So where do you need all this stuff?” Jackson asked, opening the back of the truck. It was packed full of boxes of various sizes.
“I have a place I made not too far away. We’ll have to carry it, but Keaton can help,” Devin replied, motioning to the sidhe still standing in the grass.
Keaton’s hesitation came from the five years he’d not left the village. Seeing the day human world was always shocking for the sidhe, who liked everything around them to be natural.
“Are you sure he can help?” Jackson asked, noticing the hesitation.
Devin shrugged. “He’ll help, but you might have to carry the boxes to him. It’s been a while since he’s been out of the woods.”
Jackson nodded like that was a completely legitimate explanation. Devin grinned. It had been a while since he had been around day humans, and then with the witches in camp it made everything even more strange. It was odd for Devin to be around day humans that pretended the night human world didn’t exist. He had forgotten how easy it was to joke around with Jackson, who had been there the whole time Devin grew up in the night human world.
“How’s everyone doing?” Devin asked as he grabbed a box.
“By everyone, you mean Ari?” Jackson replied.
Devin shrugged. At one point, she would have been the first thing on his mind, but it was different now. Nessa came first. He didn’t know when that changed, but it had. He really had completely fallen for the sidhe princess who was now queen.
“Ari understands. So does everyone else. I actually think it’s really good for you,” Jackson added as he grabbed a box. “You needed to get away from all of that. You’ve never really been out in the world. He raised you to only be concerned about Arianna. Now you’re free to do as you please.”
They walked over to the wooded pathway where Keaton was standing. Devin handed him the boxes he carried, which the sidhe readily took. While it seemed like Devin was free, he wasn’t. He felt too connected to the sidhe to leave them. He was one of them now, even if they didn’t see it that way.
“So where are we going again?” Jackson asked. The day humans may have lived in the night human world, but they still were a bit at a disadvantage of not being able to see as well as their night human counterparts.
“Give me a drop of your blood, and I can make it easier for you to see,” Devin replied.
Jackson’s mouth hung open. “You really are one of them now?”
“Not really, but kind of,” Devin answered, handing Jackson a knife.
Jackson shrugged. “How much do you need?”
“Just a drop.”
Jackson pricked his finger and held it out for Devin, who wiped his own fingers across the drop and then placed his hand on the ground. Concentrating on nature, Devin looked for the pull of the life in the ground. He really hadn’t thought through what he was going to do, but it just came to him. Slowly, Jackson’s blood seeped into the ground along with Devin’s magic. For a moment, the world quieted around them, and then suddenly a glowing pathway lit up the way they planned to walk.
“Awesome,” Jackson said in a bit of awe. “And you didn’t let one of them change you into them? Like possibly a curly, raven-haired one that fancies you?” Day humans couldn’t sense whether someone was a night human or not like night humans could. It was a legitimate question.
“No, I’m still day human, but yes, one did turn me into this,” Devin explained. Jackson wiggled his eyebrows. “And it wasn’t Nessa that turned me into a day human with sidhe magic. It was her grandfather.”
Jackson’s joking immediately disappeared. “The old king did this?” Devin nodded. “So you really are one of them without being a night human?”
Devin nodded again. Devin already figured that no one was believed Mori when he told them about it. It made no sense, even to Devin, and he still had no clue how the old man had done it.
‘
Are you kidding me,’
Nessa said across the bond.
‘If I have to sit through another one of these dates, I might kill a suitor.’
‘
You might want to come back before she really does hit this one,’
Ronan added into Devin’s mind.
“Can you take him to the buildings? You can put the boxes anywhere. Once Mori gets here, he’ll set it all up,” Devin told Keaton and Jackson. Keaton nodded to Devin without questioning him. “Nessa isn’t in the best mood with her latest suitor.” Devin shrugged at Jackson.
“Suitor?” Jackson asked.
“Long story. Keaton can fill you in,” Devin replied, going over to the closest tree. “Oh yeah, by the way, Jackson this is Keaton; Keaton this is Jackson.” The two men looked at each other and nodded because their hands were too full to actually shake hands. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“We got this,” Keaton replied, much more confident now that he was surrounded by the woods.
Devin nodded. Keaton would be fine, and Jackson was more than willing to help Devin in his new adventure. That’s what friends were for, after all.
Devin placed his hand on the tree and willed himself back to the palace. He had concerns showing up in the courtyard but knew that Nessa was just annoyed and not yet ready to kill her latest suitor. He still had time to observe, so he ended up outside the palace. Devin snuck inside and then kept to the dark hidden corners as he stalked his way closer. Ronan was sitting in his place across the courtyard while Nessa was standing, staring at the large sidhe named Henry.
Nessa rolled her eyes at her date.
“So let me see if I get this right; you believe all women need someone to protect them?” Nessa asked.
“Well, of course.” The sidhe puffed out his chest. Nessa rolled her eyes again. Devin couldn’t wait to see how she would handle this one.
“And if I don’t, you’ll just go away?” Nessa questioned.
“Yes. If you don’t need me like that, then I have nothing to offer,” Henry spoke like he was talking to a small child. Devin could feel the anger from her even across the courtyard where he hid in the shadows. “Women need to be protected. That’s what every man should do for the woman he loves.”
Devin smiled. The sidhe was correct, and he completely felt that way as well, but he would never tell Nessa that. She wasn’t the kind of woman that wanted to be protected ... well, at least not all the time. Henry might not have had bad intentions, but he was surely rubbing Nessa the wrong way as she glared at him.
“And if I told you I didn’t need protecting?” Nessa replied.
Henry gave her another humoring smile, which kicked her annoyance up a notch. The large sidhe waved to Ronan across the way. “Then why bring your cousin?”
“So that I don’t kill you myself. It’s been a long night, and I’m not really in the mood to humor people who just want to be king. The last one was lucky he left here alive,” Nessa spat out, but the sidhe wasn’t scared of her. He still thought she was something she wasn’t.
The anger grew in Nessa. “If I can prove you aren’t needed, will you walk away from all of this and quit trying to pursue me?”
The shock on the sidhe’s face was evident, though he covered it up quickly.
“I guess that would be true. If you don’t need me, then yes, I’d walk away.” He didn’t seem to mind the bargain he was striking with Nessa. Her anger was replaced with determination. She looked over the sidhe, sizing him up. He was larger than her, and much taller. A hand-to-hand fight wouldn’t be to Nessa’s advantage. From his physique, Devin guessed any sort of head on combat wouldn’t favor the smaller Nessa.
Nessa reached forward and grabbed the knife at the waist of the sidhe. He was startled by her quick movement but didn’t let it throw him off. Nessa stalked over to where her cousin was sitting and drew an X on the bench back next to him. Ronan stared at her, and then quickly stood. She wasn’t asking him to move as she would have no problem hitting the mark. She would be fine, but neither knew how good the other sidhe would be. After returning to her suitor, she dragged her foot across the ground, making a line to stand at.
“Two chances or one?” Nessa asked.
“One,” the man replied, and took a second dagger out of his boot. He offered Nessa the choice of blades. She kept the one in her hand.
“Will this be enough to prove it to you?” Nessa asked for one last agreement.
“If you can hit closer to the mark, then yes, I’ll decline being your suitor,” Henry replied.
Nessa nodded and waved her hand to indicate for him to go first. Henry hesitated, but stepped forward to the mark she had drawn on the ground. He looked back one last time at Nessa and carelessly tossed the blade at the target. He hit a bit to the side of the mark, but close enough that in any sort of actual combat it would be enough to injure or kill a person. He moved aside with a condescending smile. Nessa stood up to the line and didn’t even look at the sidhe she was getting rid of. Tossing the blade, she hit the mark exactly. Henry’s mouth hung open. He slowly walked to the blades now stuck in the bench.
“Thanks for playing, but maybe now you’ll believe I don’t need protection from you. I can do a pretty good job of it myself,” Nessa replied.
Henry bent down and looked closer at the two blades. Devin had no doubts what the sidhe saw. Nessa had perfect aim.
The courting sidhe stood up and pulled both knives out of the bench before tucking them away on his person. As he approached Nessa, he held his hands up in surrender.
“Vanessa McKinny, I rescind my intentions to court you. I do hope you find a man that can match you in your strength as I can clearly see I’m not needed here. I wish you luck.” Henry bowed to Nessa, and then made his way away.
“Is that enough for you? Did I play my part?” Nessa asked Devin as she peered into the shadows. Their bond was too strong for either to hide from the other. “Can we get back to finding our sidhe now?”
Devin stepped out into the moonlight and smiled. She was nothing like any girl he had ever met. He would never grow bored with Nessa, that was for sure.
Cassie was still
at the table mixing herbs when Devin and Nessa returned. Cassie’s head was shaking as smoke puffed from the last combination she had made. Nessa wanted to ask what was going on with her, but Devin passed without stopping, so she decided to do the same. Cassie seemed caught in her own world anyway, and would probably only tell them once she had finished making whatever it was. Nessa hoped it would help, since they still couldn’t find the witch sidhe.
Nessa sat down on the couch and waited for Devin to talk. He had been silent since they’d left the courtyard only minutes before. She hadn’t been nice to the sidhe courtier, Henry, but there was no reason to be. The man was fuller of himself than the last one, even if he meant everything he said with sincerity. Nessa wasn’t interested in her suitors and was just happy to find that Devin was still around. She’d been sure that when she returned from the glen to find him gone that he didn’t want her now. At least that didn’t seem to be the case … she hoped.
“So what’s the next plan?” Nessa asked Devin as he sat down beside her. She had hoped he would take her hand, but instead he pressed his fingers together as he stared at them in thought.
“We know the sidhe entered the village, but the scent went cold somewhere. We know that the sidhe must have had access to your suitors at some point to put the spell on them,” Devin started to list his thoughts.
“But anyone could have access to them. The sidhe were all called together in the amphitheater. Cassie said they don’t need to touch, or even be right next to a person to cast a spell on them. Anyone could have walked around and been close enough to curse them,” Nessa pointed out.
Devin nodded and continued to stare at his hands. “The only other trace of them comes from the dinner and dance. The sidhe we are looking for must have been near Liam at some point because there were traces of magic on him,” Devin added.
“Could the witch sidhe be Liam?” Nessa asked cautiously.
It would make no sense for him to curse himself, but she had seen even more things than that which didn’t make sense since she had returned home. If it was Liam, they would be in a bit of trouble. She needed to be able to reject him in order to be with Devin, but if combining the witch magic and sidhe magic was potentially more powerful than Devin, could she really tell Liam no?
“No, it’s not him,” Cassie said, standing from her spell making and joining them in the center of the room. “Maria agrees with me. That man has the magic on him, but he isn’t the person we’re looking for.” She sat down next to Nessa.
Nessa wanted to ask how Cassie knew that. Sidhe magic wasn’t as distinct. If you cast a spell, you didn’t leave pieces behind on other people.
“I agree; I couldn’t get anything from him that would make it him either,” Devin added. Nessa forgot that he could go into the minds of any of the sidhe. It wasn’t exactly easy to do with a fully conscious sidhe, but Liam had been passed out earlier.
That made things a bit better. Nessa didn’t have to worry about telling Liam no, but they still didn’t have much to go on to find the witch sidhe.
“So what do we do? The witch sidhe knows Liam,” Nessa added, trying to get a grasp of the situation.
“No, the witch sidhe touched Liam,” Cassie corrected. “To leave a spell residue as he had, the witch sidhe had to have touched Liam, not necessarily know him.”
“Touched?” Devin asked, to clarify exactly what Cassie was saying.
“Yes, touched,” Maria said as she entered the room. “Liam touched the witch sidhe, or the sidhe touched him. Either way, they had to have come in contact with each other to leave a magical residue.”
“And since the witch sidhe trace in the village is all gone now …” Turner added, not finishing his sentence.
Devin nodded to Turner, who smiled in return. Nessa hated when they did their best friend guy thing, where they could think the same thing without talking.
“And for the rest of us?” Nessa asked. They were definitely planning something.
“There’s only one place left to look,” Devin told the group. “The palace. Our witch sidhe is a noble, either from here or from another city. If they were a commoner, we would have found at least a trace of something in the village. The only way we could have found nothing was if they didn’t hang out in the village. They must be in the palace.”