Faire Eve Page 18

  “Lord Scott, I trust you know whose delicate little neck you were about to sink your fangs into. As a member of the Daoine, I feel it necessary to tell you that if you come within ten feet of our soon to be crowned queen, I will kill you.”

  Lord Scott backed away bowing slightly to Eldon and tossing Eve one last wicked smile. Eldon turned on her. His anger was close to the surface and she worried he may hit her or drag her out of the room. Instead, he pulled her into his arms and forced her to dance with him. He didn’t speak, his eyes drilled into hers, and his grip did not lighten.

  Her voice betrayed her disturbance but she tried to make her words show her disapproval. “Why, Eldon, you could have asked. I would have danced with you without making such a scene.”

  His eyes went wide for a second before narrowing into thin slits of anger. “You are the most stupid girl ever to curse Evalon.”

  Eve tried to pull away but Eldon spun her quickly to the music and she faltered.

  “Let me go, you ass. I am not stupid. I will not tolerate this.” She was trying to keep her voice down but her anger was taking over. She could feel her hand shaking under his.

  “Stop, Eve. You are a magnet for trouble. Do you even know what that thing was you were dancing with? He is an Almamanon, a soul sucker, a psychic vampire if you wish. Regardless of what you call them, it is dangerous to allow one so close.”

  Eve’s hand fluttered up to her neck and she felt the tears sting her eyes. She was ashamed of herself. She had allowed the beauty and glamour of the night to overtake her. Feeling like the belle of the ball, she had almost gotten herself in to trouble again. “I didn’t know. I swear. I thought he was charming.”

  Eldon’s face softened and he gently pulled her closer. “An Almamanon charms their victims into compliance. You couldn’t have known. I should not have let it go so far. It wouldn’t have hurt you. He would have kissed your neck right about here.” Eldon let one finger gently stroke her throat below the ear. “When he planted the kiss he would have also attached his own invisible parasite. The bug would drain you in a week and leave you more human than Sidhe. In two weeks, you would be dead.”

  Eve suddenly felt weary. She let her head drop onto Eldon’s shoulder. It felt good to have him so close. She felt safe and warm in his arms. The music rose and fell in a deep tone that made her feel lighter. The edges of her world were beginning to blur but she was not afraid. She could dance with him forever.

  Eldon lifted her chin, intending to kiss her. He was lost in the sight of her. The classic beauty of the gown and the girl captured him. He stepped back and held her swaying body at arm’s length, drinking in the sight of her in all the finery. Eve continued to move to the music. She breathed a soft sigh of contentment and Eldon’s eyes sought out her face.

  When he looked into her eyes, she did not see him. She was slipping. No one had expected Eve’s Sidhe blood to take over so quickly and to fill her with the strength and weaknesses of a thousand queens. Suddenly, those weaknesses pulled her down as much as the power had boosted her upward before. The Krásny Večný took Eve in to its dangerous folds. The beautiful sleep pulled her away.

  Eldon roared for someone to stop the music but too many of the guest were already lost in the void. Even the non-fey were adrift. They shouldn’t be. Only the Fey could fall victim to the Beautiful Sleep. Something was wrong. Eve’s living, breathing beauty had mesmerized Eldon so completely that he was immune to the Krásny Večný. The others were not so lucky.

  He pulled Eve along beside him as he made his way to the carlion. Within five feet of the magical box that produced the music, he could smell and feel the darkness. He couldn’t make the music stop, dark magic enchanted the song to play on. Eldon recognized the waltz as Nocturno and the irony was not lost on him. His mind reeled. He knew he should have sensed time was in a slow motion continuum, allowing them to dance for what had seemed an eternity.

  Eldon found Bibesia and Edesia but even the powerful Earthly Immortals were lost to him. His only hope was to wake Eve. If she could resurface the power within her, she could sweep the Krásny Večný from the room and break the spell. He dragged Eve towards the front of the building. The light dimmed outside. The twilight hour was coming, hours before its time.

  Backing away from the windows, Eldon tried to think around the music. The sound tugged at the corners of his mind. He felt the pull to take Eve in his arms and sway her gently. Safe and comfortable, they could fall into the waltz forever. He felt himself giving in but he fought against the desire.

  He turned to Eve. She moved slightly from side to side. Her lips pressed together as she hummed along with the lilting song. Her eyes were milky white and unfocused. The curse she suffered was worse than the Krásny Večný. Whatever had leached on to the people in the room could kill them. He couldn’t watch Eve die. He couldn’t die alongside her. Grabbing her by the shoulders, Eldon shook her violently and cried out her name.

  Eve didn’t see or hear him. She was somewhere else. She was lost in a world where he could not follow. Eldon hung his head and a feeling of desperate longing overtook him. Despair, so thick that he felt as if he were breathing it, filled the room. He wanted to weep as he looked upon the beauty that claimed his heart. He lost her.

  Brushing her hair from her face, he pulled Eve close to him one last time. Suddenly, the glass exploded all around them. The music shrieked to a stop. Even as the glass cut into flesh, the patrons were slow to come around. The pain could not strip away the heavy fog of dark magic hanging on them.

  Eldon’s wings unfurled instantly and he used them to shield Eve as best he could. He felt the shards of flying glass cut deep into his arms and neck. The shock from the explosion rocked the building and the screams of those who were finally surfacing from the depths of the spell pierced his eardrums. Eve still danced in his arms as if she could still hear the haunting music.

  The dragon came. An icy chill swept the room like an arctic breeze. The silk trappings ripped and waved in the gust. Through the broken windows, Eldon watched the massive, dark figure as it wound around the building with its snake like body. The darkness and cold seethed. The twilight became nightfall for the first time in the daylight landscape. Only the most powerful of all the Sidhe, the queen herself, could change a landscape at will.

  The voice was hollow and deadly and the laughter that followed seemed to echo inside Eldon’s head and heart like the shattering of crystal in an empty marble chamber.

  “I am Tiritchiq and I have come for my bride and enemy.”

  Eldon roared an inhuman sound. “You will never take her, you bastard. She is not your bride and if she is your enemy, then so am I.”

  “Puny fairy, you think you can challenge me? You are nothing to the guardian of darkness. I am the soul of night and the ice of winter. I could destroy you in a breath, boy. Still, I am not pure evil. I bow to your dedication to our fair lady and I offer you a deal.”

  “I make no deals with monsters of black magic.” Eldon was searching the darkness outside. His training had taught him that a dragon wears its heart in a soft spot on its underbelly near the place where the long neck meets the powerful torso. He tried to access his enemy and its weaknesses but the unnatural darkness concealed the black dragon in secrecy.

  The victims of the spell were beginning to blink away the haziness and as the magic wore away, the fear and shock set in. One by one, they resurfaced from the peaceful Krásny Večný into the nightmare the world had become. The dragon’s laughter sent a fine icy mist through the room.

  “Why do you challenge me? The darkness does my will. I am not a slave to the black magic, it is my tool to use and bend. You cannot fight me children, hags, and beasts of Evalon. I am the black dragon.”

  Eldon did not respond. He felt the movement without seeing who approached. He knew only a few people in the room would be brave enough to come to his side. He trusted each of them with his life. Caleb, Vandel, Yath, Daryn, Jaryn, Faya, Bibesia, Edesia, and ev
en Elsie came to stand shoulder to shoulder to each other. Their bodies built a circle of protection around Eve. Unseeing and unknowing of the danger awaiting her, Eve was a fragile nucleus.

  They stood silently, awaiting the dragon’s move. They knew they could face death but no one would run or hide. They were an army of the queen. Soldiers, witches, immortals, and a child, they faced the darkness without fear despite the danger to themselves.

  The dragon did not disappoint. Two eyes, the color of ice found at the heart of a glacier, appeared outside the shattered windows. A low rumbling growl echoed through the building, and when the dragon breathed, ice began to flow from its great and cavernous mouth. The world outside the diner became a wintery terror. The sweat on Eldon’s brow froze into tiny crystals and each breath resulted in a puff of foggy air.

  Eldon’s hand tightened on his sword and he quickly plotted his plan of attack. Rather than die standing frozen like a statue, he would sacrifice himself to save the others. Drawing his arm back, he prepared to launch his blade towards one of the large, iridescent eyes. An instant before he could throw his sword, the beast turned to face a new threat.

  The thunderous beat of hooves pounded on the hard earth like war drums and caused the dragon to turn away. The Ki’Lin attacked the beast with the magic of their kind, the power of their hooves, and the sharpness of their horns. The darkness was so complete the powerful white silhouettes dancing outside were barely visible. Tiritchiq howled in pain, fear, and pure hatred.

  In the next minute, a flurry of activity swirled. The Ki’Lin attacked, Eldon and his men ran out of the building, and the witches and Goddesses began to chant a protection spell over Eve while Yath clung to her. The four women joined hands to forearms to form a tight circle around their queen. Their voices rose in a powerful and wordless song, bringing a field of magic to encase them all. The brave Yath did not hide his face, but expertly pulled her to him to hold her from danger.

  Outside, the darkness was inky and thick. Eldon and his men did not possess the magic of the Ki’Lin and could not see the dragon. They moved forward with calculated quickness, despite their blinded eyes. Eldon was the closest to the dragon when the tragic miracle took place. His eyes honed to the white streak crossing the sheet of ice in front of him.

  The unicorn known as Jayno drove his horn into the dragon. Tiritchiq breathed a burst of icy fire that lit up the night and Eldon leapt. In a split second, he saw an opening and took it. His sword missed its mark and the dragon struck out at the attacking unicorn. The sound of Jayno’s cry drove nails through the brains of all those within earshot.

  The painful, wordless cry fell upon the ears of his clan and the Ki’Lin doubled the strength of their assault. Eldon faltered at the sound and shame filled him for his inability to save a fellow warrior. Instead of piercing the small-unprotected spot in the dragon’s armor, the sword had stuck deep within the black scales. Eldon rushed the dragon, grasped his sword, and tried to wrench it away. Tiritchiq roared and threw Eldon’s body from side to side.

  The great black dragon could not take his focus from the Ki’Lin and yet, he knew Eldon was merely inches from his weakest point. The struggle was great and he was not prepared to face an army of warriors and beasts. His magic had worn thin from being away from the cold and powerful regions of Northern Alaska where he housed the dark source of his power.

  As Eldon freed his sword and jutted it forward with all his strength, the dragon vanished. A heavy sulfuric smell filled the night and the battle ended. The darkness began to recede and the light returned. The sky changed colors quickly from ebony into a deep purple, to an artful array of violet and rosy hues, and the sun appeared on the horizon. It glided in reverse, a great ball of fire casting light upon the landscape once again.

  17

  Eldon and his men stood blinking into the light of the sun for a moment before an odd animal keening erupted behind them. A black Ki’Lin mare stood above the body of Jayno, distraught and hurting. Her mate lay forever bent to the dragon’s will and encased in ice. No man or unicorn moved to comfort her. A Ki’Lin female was a dangerous foe when her heart was broken.

  The mare’s cries and the rays of the sun woke Eve from the Krásny Večný. She felt as if she had just awoken from the most beautiful dream into a nightmare. The world around her was foggy and unclear. The superficial cuts from the shattered glass bled freely onto the precious gown given to her by Bibesia and Edesia. Yet, she did not feel the pain nor see the crimson stains on her dress.

  She could only feel the leftover presence of Tiritchiq and the evil accompanying it. She could only hear the mournful wails of the Ki’Lin mare. She felt nothing but the desperation and despair hanging around the remnants of the diner like a great cloak of sadness. She walked outside into the sun, and even its warming light did not break through the abyss.

  She looked like the apparition of a goddess as she walked across the blood soaked ground. Without seeing, she managed to glide effortlessly over the deep gouges in the earth where the dragon’s claws had dug ravines in the streets. Eldon wanted to go to her, but something inside told him to wait and be cautious. The girl was not his Eve. The fairy queen replaced the broken child as she went to kneel beside the Ki’Lin mare and her mate.

  Bright tears rolled down Eve’s cheeks as she laid a comforting hand on the mare’s withers. To the group’s astonishment, the mare turned to Eve and nuzzled the girl with her nose for a brief second. Eldon made a move to go to Eve, intending to pull her away but something in the tenderness of the moment stopped him. No other creature would have been able to approach the grieving Ki’Lin and yet, the mare seemed to welcome her.

  Eve knelt beside Jayno for a moment, crying openly, as if she too, felt the cavernous rip in his mate’s heart. A shadow passed over her face and she hesitated. Rising to her feet, she turned away from the fallen unicorn and walked a few yards away to where the heart of the battle had taken place. Eldon stepped forward, willing her into his arms so that he could comfort her. When he looked into her eyes, he froze.

  Her eyes were empty of all recognition or want. They shined as brightly as they had moments before the dragon had come but something in them lay listless and dormant. Not seeing the others, Eve continued blindly until she stood above the place where Eldon had struck out at the dragon. A small pool of black blood steamed at her feet. Unaware of the dangers to herself, Eve knelt and plunged her hand into the sticky fluid.

  Outside, her body was numb. Eve did not feel the terrible heat from the dragon’s blood blistering her hand. She did not smell the scorching of her own flesh. Inside, she was not in control of her own mind. She acted on magical instincts and thousand-year-old knowledge passed down through her royal line that she did not understand. She was still partially lost inside the dragon’s spell.

  No one moved to stop her or help her. Most of the onlookers trembled in fear. Even Eldon’s men, soldiers and great warriors, found themselves frightened by their queen. Unblinking and moving with a strange stiffness, Eve rejoined the fallen Ki’Lin and his mate once more. The mare snorted and pawed at the ground in trepidation but did not move to intervene with Eve’s task.

  Eve knelt by Jayno. Her voice rose in an eerie sonata that filled the streets and echoed in the silence. She sang an ancient hymn with no recognizable origins. The melody was timeless and the words foreign. A power began to build around her. The skin of her hand burned and cracked under the heat of the dragon’s blood.

  At last, Eve was silent and she placed her bloody hand on the unicorn’s ice sheathed horn. The mare neighed in protest and reared back on her powerful hindquarters. To touch the horn of a living Ki’Lin was taboo unless the creature offered the privilege. To touch the horn of a dying Ki’Lin was sacrilege. Eve’s head twisted towards the mare but no fear showed in her eyes.

  When she spoke, her voice was quiet but the tone raised the hairs on the back of the others’ necks, “Calm down, Kellan.”

  The Ki’Lin mare stumbled and he
r powerful hooves came crashing down inches from where Eve sat. Eve did not flinch. As Kellan lowered her head and gazed intently at Eve, the girl returned her focus to Jayno. She held his horn in her burned and gore-covered hand as gently as cradling an infant’s head. She whispered words no other could hear and the ice began to melt.

  Eve’s body shook with pain and power. Her eyes blurred with tears. She was a ghost inside herself, watching as her own injured and matted hand held strongly to the horn. She felt a strange and nameless sensation creeping through her body. Icy fingers trailed along her spine, followed by the gentle lapping of a candle’s flame.

  She heard herself cry out but her voice sounded miles away. A ripping sound echoed in her ears and she felt as if a dull knife had filleted her shoulder blades. She felt her body arch in response to what must have been pain, but the recesses of her mind closed the physical sensation off from her. She knew she was hurt but could no longer remember what the perception of pain felt like.

  Behind her, Vandel fell to a single knee. Since the tragic demise of his father, his ability to sense the darkness had become a strong force. The strange mixture oozing from Eve remained mystery to even him. The lingering chill of the dragon could not explain the force of both pure darkness and even purer light that poured itself out from Eve. The force of it made him buckle under the weight of the magic. He didn’t understand how the others remained oblivious.

  As the wave of power reached an unbearable height, a strong burst vibrated through her as if it were an explosion. No one noticed as Vandel sucked in a jagged breath of air because they gasped in awe. Eve’s wings erupted from her back in a glorious blaze of light and color. The deepest shade of ebony filled the body of the wings and the tips resembled white antique lace.

  Vandel looked away, confused by the conflicting auras flowing from Eve like lava from an erupting volcano. He directed his eyes to his leader, hoping to see some realization on Eldon’s face. Instead, he saw rapture, fascination, love, and blatant lust etched into the young flesh. Casting a glance at his other brothers in arms, he saw that they were both concerned for Eve and mesmerized by the events unfolding in front of them.