Authors: B. Kristin McMichael
“Do you think we’re ready?” Cassie asked, not getting specific. Maria and Turner were still tracking the witch trail through the palace.
“Can one truly be ready for things like this?” Devin asked in reply.
Cassie squished up her nose at him, not happy that he answered a question with a question. “I’m almost ready for the other thing, too,” she said.
Devin approached and sat down beside her.
“Good. We can take care of that after we take care of this.” He was still looking over the place, but no longer pacing around. His watchfulness couldn’t be dulled, even when there was no one around.
“Why is that good?” Cassie seemed confused.
“Why what?” he asked, scanning the seats now.
“Why break the bond?” She was braver now that she was alone with Devin. “Anyone can see that she loves you and only you. Why break it if that is so?”
“How much do you know about these bonds?” Devin asked. He couldn’t go into specifics about night humans, but Cassie had some sort of understanding of the bond between him and Nessa.
“It’s some sort of magical blood bond. I’ve been trying to learn more from studying yours, but I don’t know much,” Cassie admitted.
Life would have been easier if someone had told the young witch about night humans, but Devin was sure she could be given a little more information without giving away the night human world.
“This bond connects us, that is true, but do you understand what that means?” Cassie shook her head no, so Devin continued. “It means I feel what she feels. I know when she needs me. She knows when I need her. We are always connected. We feel each other mentally, but we also feel each other more physically. When she’s in a room, it’s like she’s the sun, and I’m a planet. I gravitate to her no matter what I do. I’m always drawn to her, and her to me. You can’t even look at another person again without thinking of the one you are bonded to,” Devin explained.
“Wow, instant love like I read about in books?” Cassie tried to bring the situation to a level she understood. It was similar, except that they chose to bond to each other permanently when they swapped blood.
“That and much more,” Devin replied as he finished his scan of the chairs.
“And that’s a problem because …” Cassie still didn’t understand.
Idealized love was appealing to anyone, but Devin knew the truth. He didn’t want insta-love, he wanted the real thing.
“Because I want her to choose me because she has an actual choice. I don’t want her to think she had to choose me. I don’t want how I feel to play across the bond and make her choose me,” Devin explained. “This needs to be her decision, and it can’t be when the bond is intact. Nothing is just my or her decision now. We feel everything the other person feels.”
“But you want her to choose you?” Cassie asked, still a bit confused. She thought for a moment and added, “You don’t want to make her choose you, but you want her to choose you.” Cassie was getting it a bit. It sounded a little messed up, but it was true. Devin wanted real love.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” Devin answered as their first guest arrived. Devin stood, and Cassie followed him to a chair that was way off to the side.
“What if she doesn’t want to break it?” Cassie now talked in hushed tones, though Devin knew that the sidhe that entered would want nothing to do with the day humans in the room.
Devin shrugged. “I don’t think she knows what she wants. That’s why I need to break the bond. She can finally listen to her own heart and discover what she wants.”
Cassie opened up her mouth to argue when another sidhe entered.
“Stay here and don’t move. I have a better vantage point right there.” Devin stood and pointed to the stage right next to where Cassie was sitting. “I can keep watch over you and the sidhe from there.”
Devin watched the crowd as more sidhe trickled into the room. The nobles and those that felt they were the highest in line were obvious by their air of superiority. None of them even glanced his way. He didn’t care, but he understood what Rolf had been worried about. Nessa didn’t know that Devin had been in the guest room with Turner and Maria planning their search of the palace.
While the announcement was going on, and everyone was gathered in the auditorium, it would be the perfect time for Turner and Mria to go into rooms to search. They just had to be careful, and Devin helped them plan the most efficient route. He had heard everything Rolf had said. Devin respected the older man and understood that it wasn’t personal that he didn’t like Devin, he just wanted Nessa to be safe. He couldn’t blame the man—Devin wanted that, too.
When the room finally filled with people, Rolf led Nessa into the room and up to the stage. She smiled at everyone, but Devin saw how fake it was. It was a good thing none of the sidhe really knew her, or they would see right through her façade. Nessa stood on the stage awkwardly as she waited, and Rolf began to talk. Her discomfort and awkwardness in the spotlight made her even more endearing to Devin. She wasn’t in a position of power because she wanted it. People like that tended to make the best rulers. The sidhe were lucky to have her, even if they didn’t realize it themselves.
Rolf talked about the history of the sidhe and their traditions, but Devin tuned his words out. It didn’t matter that much to him at this point. Maybe in the future he could learn more about traditions, but right now he had a job to do. Liam was planning to make his pledge, and Devin need to be sure that wherever the witch was, they would find him before he had a chance to attack Liam. Devin was startled as the crowd began to stand and move. He jumped down from the stage to be next to Cassie.
“Umm, guess we go with them?” she asked hesitantly.
“Go with them?” Devin asked. He should have been paying attention to Rolf.
‘
We’re going to
a dinner
and second ball in too few days,’
Nessa told Devin, who smiled. She had to have seen his confusion or felt it across the bond.
‘
So no ring yet?’
Devin asked. He was ready to find the witch.
‘
No, we have all night to wait. Seems there’s much more than even Ronan expected,’
Nessa replied with a mental sigh.
She was tired. Devin wished he could just scoop her up and put her back to bed. This had been a stressful trip back to the sidhe, and even now the excitement had not ended. They had thought getting her crowned would bring things to an end, but it didn’t. There was always more just beyond what they thought.
Nessa was still looking at him as they left to be sure that he was coming. Devin nodded and followed behind all the sidhe. He wouldn’t leave her unprotected. The few straggler sidhe that were unlucky enough to be behind him kept their distance. While the newcomers didn’t know about Devin and his power, the people behind them did. Devin watched the crowd in front of him, but he tried his best to keep an eye on the ones following as well.
He entered the ballroom behind the crowd and noticed everything was set up exactly as it had been for her coronation ball. The decorations had been changed, but the arrangement was still the same, except for one little detail; Liam was now sitting at Nessa’s table. Devin waited as everyone made their way to the same seats. He nodded to Cassie, and they made a wide circle around the sitting sidhe to their own table near Nessa. Only two seats remained.
“Table for two,” Cassie giggled as she noticed they would be alone.
At least she found the sidhe’s behavior humorous and not as hostile as Devin saw it. He wished sometimes that he could be as blind to the night human world as Cassie was. Blissful ignorance would have been nice for a life, but there was no changing that. He was stuck. He’d never admit it, but he was happy to be stuck with Nessa. Without the night human world, he would have never met her.
Food was brought out as soon as everyone was seated. Devin looked down at it but was more interested in finding the witch. He could feel the tingles of witch magic in the air … or at least he thought so. The witch was somewhere. He looked from face to face with each bite he took, never really looking closely at what he ate. Each time he found a new face that could be the witch, he was sure that they weren’t. It wasn’t like Devin could pick out a witch by looks alone, not even Cassie could do that, but Devin felt that if he looked hard enough something would make the witch sidhe seem different. Devin kept checking with Cassie, but she didn’t seem to feel a witch.
As the meal progressed, he grew more disappointed in his inability to keep Nessa safe. The witch was still in the room somewhere, and he couldn’t find them. Maybe she did need someone like Liam after all.
“Don’t drink that,” Cassie told Devin as he grabbed the glass in front of him. Startled out of his thoughts, he let the drink remain on the table.
“Why not?” he asked quietly, but urgently.
“I don’t know what is in it, but your drink is different than everyone else’s,” Cassie explained.
Devin looked at the red mixture. Of course his was different. The staff wasn’t clueless enough to feed him blood, so his would be just wine compared to the glasses around the room filled with blood, but how could he tell Cassie that? She didn’t know about the night humans, and he had promised Maria that she wouldn’t find out while in the village. When Cassie took her glass and brought it to her lips, Devin reached up to stop her. If his was the only different one, then he had to keep her from drinking blood and asking what was going on.
“What?” she asked.
“Isn’t yours different, too?” he asked. Maria would kill him if he let Cassie drink blood. There was no way she wasn’t going to find out about night humans if that happened. Devin took her glass from her.
“Um, no,” she replied. They had given her blood like everyone else. Yep, that would have been awkward.
“I can tell there’s something in yours, also. Maybe sidhe magic. Don’t drink it,” Devin replied with a white lie. What else was he supposed to say to her? He hoped it would be enough.
Cassie scrunched up her nose at the liquid and nodded.
Clinking glasses brought their attention back up to the main table where Nessa sat. She was clearly uncomfortable, but still played along with everything, doing her best to try to block her thoughts. Devin didn’t need her thoughts to know that she didn’t like to be the center of attention.
“Let us all raise a glass to my niece on this wonderful day,” Rolf said, and the crowd responded by elevating their glasses. Devin and Cassie lifted their glasses along with everyone else, but they didn’t plan to drink any of it.
As the liquid from Liam’s glass swirled, and he tipped it toward his mouth, Cassie stood. Devin only had a millisecond to realize that maybe Cassie was trying to stop Liam, and he had to trust his gut that was what it meant. The liquid hit Liam’s mouth as Devin tossed his dinner knife to knock it out of the sidhe’s hand. The room all stood in shock while those at the table that had come with Liam moved in anger toward Devin and Cassie. Devin stepped in front of Cassie, but there was no need. The men that were going to back up Liam stopped short in shock at the mess at their feet from the glass. The red liquid Devin had assumed was blood was now on fire. The others in the room backed away in fear. The sidhe could control anything natural, but fire wasn’t natural. Devin concentrated to cover Liam in a similar protective bubble as Nessa and Cassie were both in. His face was burned where the drink had splashed him, but he was alive. Ronan and Rolf had rushed out of the room to get the village healers as soon as they had seen the mess Liam was now in, while two men in the audience stood and pulled rain out of the sky to stop the fires. Nessa knelt at Liam’s side but stared wide-eyed at Devin. He wanted to help and comfort Nessa, but Cassie placed a hand on his arm.
“The witch is here,” she said, her eyes glazing over as she looked around the room. “I can feel his residue everywhere.”
‘
Turner,’
Devin called silently to his friend as plants sprouted instantly from the ground. People who had not fled were tied to their spots. Devin couldn’t take any more chances. If the witch was in the room, they would have him, and if he had fled with the many that did, these people wouldn’t get in the way.
‘
Yes?’
Turner replied. He wasn’t too far away in the palace.
‘What do you need, Your Highness?’
Even not finding the witch and running around the palace couldn’t put Turner in a bad mood. He was as cheeky as ever. Before Devin had a chance to reply, a crowd of sidhe must have run past Turner.
‘
Let me guess
…
It’s time to go witch hunting.’
Maria placed yet
another charm on Cassie. Devin wasn’t sure what would keep the young witch safe, but he would do everything in his own power. Maria’s concern made it clear that Cassie was very valuable to her, and Devin treasured his friendship with Maria. They didn’t have much time as they needed to track the witch sidhe, but Maria insisted. Devin was fine with the extra protection, but he still was anxious to get moving. They would cover more ground if Turner continued to track with Maria and Cassie came with Devin, but Maria was still fussing over the logical arrangement.
“You are sure that the witch isn’t here?” Devin asked Maria one last time, and she nodded.
Devin glanced back at Nessa, who was cradling Liam in her arms. The healer was on his way, but that didn’t do much in the meantime. Liam had to be in a considerable amount of pain, even if he kept his mouth shut as he waited. Devin wanted to heal him, but wasn’t sure if he was laced with the same magic as before where Devin’s day human touch would make it worse. Cassie and Maria didn’t have time to make their potion to let Devin help if they wanted to track the witch sidhe. This was the best lead they had so far. Still, Devin was torn. Liam had offered himself to protect Nessa and now was suffering for it. Devin wanted to help, but he wanted to catch the witch scent before he disappeared again.
‘
Go get the bastard,’
Liam projected mentally to Devin even as he lay there, grimacing in pain.