Wild Hunt (13 page)

The strange Fae holding me caressed my cheek the way a lover might and a shudder of revulsion raced through me. His lips met mine, his tongue sliding over my mouth seeking entry, and I opened to him, the way a flower opens to the sun.

The kiss deepened, his tongue plundering my mouth, and I responded in kind, tasting him the way I’d tasted Fionn. Then it changed.

Something in my core tugged. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I wriggled against him as he crushed my body to the pillar. His kiss was no longer just a kiss, and he bit down on my lip with enough ferocity that the taste of copper filled my mouth.

It tugged again from my core and my back arched, driving my body into his as my magic unfurled from the centre of my being. There was a hell of a lot more of it than I’d been able to tap into just moments before and I practically choked on it as it pulsed through my body, racing up my throat and out through the kiss I shared with the Fae.

He moaned softly, his hands sliding over me as he sucked my magic down.
STOP HIM!
I screamed from within the cage Fionn had created in my head.

The magic faltered and crackled to life, no longer meek and mild. The Fae holding me didn’t realise and his grip on my throat tightened as he greedily searched for more of my magic to drink down.

I imagined him burning, his body erupting in flames so hot that not even his immortal body could survive.

He broke the kiss and stumbled away from me, his face a contorted mixture of rage and pain as he clutched as his guts. When he looked up at me again, his eyes met mine, holding me captive for a moment—and then he screamed, the sound ricocheting off the walls as his body ignited like the wick of a candle.

He ran in circles, beating at his own body as he sought to quench the fire, but his motions soon ceased, parts of him crumbling away into ash on the floor until there nothing left but a smouldering heap.

The others gathered in the room watched on in horror, their gazes coming to collectively rest on first me and then Fionn.

I felt his anger before I saw him; his body practically vibrated with it as he approached me where I stood chained.

“What have you done?” he asked.

“He was greedy,” I said, doing my best not to let the memories of the kiss override my brain. There would be plenty time for that once I got out of this alive.

Fionn drew back and hit me, his hand slamming into my face, and then he was on me, his hands a blur as he slapped and beat at me. Pain flared through me and I screamed as I felt his fists connect with my ribs.

“
Please stop!
” I cried out, unable to curl my body into the ball it so desperately wanted to be in.

Fionn stopped as suddenly as the beating had begun and stared at me. “Your human body is fragile; you do not heal the way I do,” he said slowly, as though only just realising it for the first time himself.

“No,” I said, my head hanging low. I could taste blood in my mouth and my shoulders were numb with the weight of my body hanging from them.

“Use this,” another voice called out, and a small petite woman stepped forward. I didn’t bother to lift my eyes to look at her face; I already knew she was Fae, they all were.

“This, too, will mark her?” he said, and suddenly curious, I lifted my gaze to see what he was talking about.

He held a whip, curled about his wrist as though it were a real living snake, and my body began to tremble with fear.

“The wounds will heal by morning; most effective to use on those who are breakable,” the woman said before she took a step back.

Fionn moved up toward me, his hands snaking out to wrap around my waist as he jerked me around until I faced the pillar. I fought to move back but he pressed his face against my ear.

“Be still—this is the very least you deserve,” he said.

My body halted its movements and his hands slipped down over my back. Everywhere he touched, I felt the gossamer strands of the dress slip away until there was nothing between my skin and the cool air.

The first blow came suddenly and I screamed, the feel of the leather material across my back sending fire lancing through my core. One was not enough and more quickly followed.

I bit down on my lip, refusing to cry out until Fionn’s voice was in my ear once more.

“Scream for me, Amber; do this and satisfy all who would see you punished.”

I bit down on my lip harder, but as the next blow flashed across my skin, I screamed, a long, ragged sound that tore from my mouth and echoed through the room. My brain became nothing but a haze of fog and screaming, until eventually there was nothing left in me.

Holding onto the edge of my sanity, I prayed for the darkness to stay away. If I passed out … I dreaded to think what he would do to me if I was unconscious—it just wasn’t a risk I could take.

“Give in to me, Amber; submit,” Fionn’s voice came from far away, but despite the haze of pain surrounding my mind, I tried to shake my head. “Give in, Amber,” he said again, and another flash of pain ripped through me.

“Amber….” Nic voice filled my head and I struggled to move toward him. “Give into me, submit,” Nic’s whispered the words Fionn had spoken, and between the push of power his voice commanded and my pain that fogged head, I nodded. My submission was absolute and with one last pulse of his magic within me, the darkness crowding my exhausted body overwhelmed me.

I
ached everywhere
. Not an inch of my body felt like it should and I opened my eyes slowly, blinking into the darkness.

Something wet and warm lapped at my wrists and as my eyes slowly adjusted to the gloom, I realised with horror that it was one of the Heart Hounds. It stared up at me with with a keen intelligence in its eyes that spoke of an ancient power and then went right back to lapping at my wrists.

Shifting slightly, I became aware of the cuffs still clamped around my wrists. The skin rubbed raw and bruised—it was that that the Heart Hound was licking. I jerked away. The Heart Hound snarled, its mouth clamping around my arm—not hurting me, but a show of dominance nonetheless.

“Leave her.” Fionn’s voice rang out in the darkness and I felt the bed shift as he moved closer.

His hands stroked down over my cheek; the Fae hound might have been scary as hell and I’d seen what its jaws were capable of doing, but it would still have been preferable to having Fionn touch me.

The cuffs chafed against my wrists as I pushed up and tucked my knees beneath my chin. I didn’t remember getting into the bed. In fact, I didn’t remember anything after hearing Nic’s voice. I was wearing the same dress and my back didn’t feel as though it was on fire anymore, but then, the Fae who had given him the whip had mentioned something about it healing before morning.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice still hoarse. The simple act of getting the words out had my throat aching.

“You collapsed, so I brought you back here and tended your wounds….” He paused and I could feel his gaze on me. “I’d forgotten just how fragile humans are,” he said finally.

I didn’t answer him; the thought of his hands on my body when I was unconscious tightened my chest, making it harder to breathe.

“Did you….” I cut off. I didn’t want to ask him; asking only made it real, but I needed to know. I needed that part of my memory. “Did you rape me?” I blurted out, the constriction in my chest increasing as I dug my finger tips into my legs in an attempt to keep my emotions in check.

“Of course not…. You do not love me yet, and when you do, you will come willingly to me,” he said.

A long, shuddering sigh escaped me, my shoulders drooping beneath the weight of my relief—but it was short lived as he leaned in toward me, his breath hot on my neck.

“Children of the Fae must be born of love, and you will bear me many, many sons….”

Jerking away from him, I threw myself off the bed, my legs protesting at the sudden movement. They fought me and I very nearly lost the battle as I stumbled around in the dark, pain echoing through every inch of my body.

“Why do you keep running, always trying to escape? Would it be so terrible to stay here with me?” he asked, his voice coming out of the darkness.

He wasn’t on the bed anymore—I was certain. His voice moved fluidly around the room, and while I couldn’t hear his steps, I was acutely aware of him because his power was still coiled beneath my skin like a snake ready to strike at any moment.

“Yes,” I said, sucking in a deep breath as I searched for my centre.

“Why? I know what you are; you’re safe here. No one will ever harm you.” He sounded genuinely curious.

My laugh escaped me before I could even try and stop it; bubbling up my throat and rumbling from my mouth, it sounded vaguely hysterical. “Are you kidding me? You really don’t see any of the things you’re doing as hurting me? In one short night, you’ve done more damage to my human body than anything else that might have happened in my entire life.”

“Only because you would seek to deny what we share. Think of the power you could wield.”

“You mean the power you would wield; all I would be is a mindless automaton. That’s not the life I want, so I fight you,” I said, but silence danced around me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention.

“Then I will just need to find another way to persuade you,” he said, his voice suddenly behind me.

His arms locked around me and I screamed, bringing my wrists that were still locked in the manacles down on his leg as I attempted to side-step his grab.

Fionn roared, his pain obvious, and it sent his Heart Hounds into a frenzy. They howled, their paws hitting the floor with enough force to echo around the room as they pranced around us.

Even if I escaped Fionn, I would still have the Heart Hounds to deal with, and here in this small, enclosed space, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Hunt with me,” he said, his voice low, the pain still in his eyes.

“No,” I said, catching sight of something over his shoulder.

She moved slowly toward us, her movements jerky, and she flickered in and out of my line of sight. Why hadn’t I seen her before now?

It was the Fae from my vision, the one whose body we had found in the woods. She was dead; I’d watched her die, and yet she crossed the room toward Fionn with the same intensity of focus as any killer I’d ever seen in one of my visions.

Her eyes met mine and my heart sank; it wasn’t Fionn she was focussed on, it was me.

She reached for me, her long, delicate fingers practically transparent as though the act of crossing the floor had been too much for her. Hadn’t Darcey said something about the Fae not having anywhere to go? That there was no Heaven, they simply faded? So why hadn’t she faded?

Her fingers touched my arm. I jolted in Fionn’s grip and he glared down at me.

“You cannot fight me,” he said.

“No, but perhaps she can,” I said, jerking my head in the direction of the ghost who crept closer, the grip she had on my arm tightening and making her a little more real.

The air around her shimmered and she used the hold she had on me to drag herself closer. Fionn glanced back at where she stood but I watched his gaze go straight through her. Evidently, I was the lucky one.

“Obey,” he said, but I felt the waver in his magic, the ghosts grip on my arm breaking the flow of his power enough to let me fight back against him.

“No,” I said again, turning in his arms so I faced him. I moved fast, his surprise giving me the seconds I needed to put my plan into action. Jerking my arms up, I balled my hands into fists and slammed them into his jaw. His mouth snapped shut as the force drove his head backwards.

He released me instantly, stumbling back into the darkness.

The first Heart Hound lunged and, at the last second, changed his mind, veering to the side to land harmlessly next to me. I felt his wet nose pressing against my leg as he drew in a long breath, my scent along with it.

I could feel their eyes on me, their red eyes watching me from the dark as the Heart Hound that scented me dropped to the floor next to my foot with a long whine.

The ghost moved closer until my vision swam with her face. I tried to take a step back, alarm bells going off in my head that being this close to a ghost was a bad idea. She couldn’t hurt me….

She slipped beneath my skin and I cried out, my body suddenly on fire as her icy tendrils took root within.

Kill him.

Her voice was strange and melodic within my head but there was nothing I could do to stop her.

Kill him,
she said again, and I fought against her.

“Why, why did he kill you?”

“Because he thought I had lied, but I hadn’t. He was the liar … my father is both murderer and liar….” Her voice changed as she slipped from beneath my skin once more and stood next to me.

I could feel the void within where she had been and it took all of my willpower just to ignore it.

“Amber,” Fionn called to me, and I felt his hands against my hair, but there was no pull to his voice.

“I will kill him if you help me get out of here,” I said to the girl who stood next to me, her expression mournful. She watched something in the darkness and I knew without having to turn around that it was Fionn.

She glanced over at me and nodded; her hand on my arm once more, she tugged me forward.

Moving with her was hard; one minute, her touch was firm against my skin and the next, I was stumbling through the darkness on my own with nothing but my own poor sense of direction to guide me forward.

Fionn made another grab at me but the ghost wrapped her fingers through mine and tugged me forward once more and out of his reach. The sound of his Heart Hounds howling faded into the distance as we ran through the darkness, a darkness that was slowly beginning to come to life with every step we took.

“Why is it dark here?” I asked, my breath coming in hard gasps as I fought to keep up with the girl ahead of me.

“Because he has made it that way; he prefers the dark. It wasn’t like this before,” she said wistfully, and I remembered the bright sunshine and warm grass beneath my feet from the vision I’d had. “Think of home, Amber,” the girl said, jerking me to a halt at a fork in the road.

When had it even become a road? I cast my mind back but everything had looked the same until she had asked me to think of home.

An image flashed into my mind and the fork faded, leaving a beaten trail through the trees. The sound of the Heart Hounds closing in on me once more grew louder and I felt my heart beat beginning to race.

“Go. I will distract them, but you must run and you cannot look back,” she warned.

I didn’t need to be told twice and I took off at a sprint, diving through the trees and bushes, thorns catching in my clothes and hair as I ran. The Heart Hounds let out another howl, the sound triumphant as though they’d caught exactly what they were looking for.

Picking up my face, I ran, forcing my body to suck in oxygen through my nose as I let my exhausted legs carry me forward. I felt the ground change beneath me, getting wetter, the terrain harsher, and for a second, my stomach sank. What if all I was doing was running in circles? What if that was what he wanted me to do, and all of this had just been part of his game?

I hit the veil, the air getting stiffer as though it sought to hold me inside, but I kept running anyway. Each breath I tried to take was harder than the last and I felt my pace slow to molasses. The baying of the Heart Hounds grew louder and still I ran.

The air popped and I stumbled; pitching forward I dug my hands into the dirt and scrambled back to my feet once more. It was freezing and I wrapped my arms around my body, the thin gossamer dress I wore no help against the freezing air that clung to my skin and caused my breaths to escape in tiny puffs of air.

The frost-covered ground bit through the thin satin slippers I wore and I didn’t waste anytime hanging around.

The sound of traffic met my ears and I ran toward it, my legs carrying me to the side of a guard rail that ran along a dual carriageway. Staring around at my surroundings, there was something terribly familiar about it all. It wasn’t King City, and that was for sure and certain.

Turning my head, I caught sight of one of the familiar green road way signs.

Corcaigh,
or as I knew it, Cork. I wasn’t even in America anymore…. I was back in Ireland.