Page 36 of Fae Unleashed
The inside of the foyer was more like an arboretum than a castle now. The towering trees bent over the central room and their shaking leaves painted the floor in dappled light streaming in from the stained-glass windows above.
The small fae gathered in the foyer. Dryads held onto one another while the redcaps pulled out weapons and set their eyes on the door behind us like the danger might find us here. Other joined in, fae that I’d never seen before. There were brownies wringing their aprons between their hands. Pixies hung from nearly every surface as they leaned forward to see what was going on.
I would have liked a little privacy, but it seemed like that wasn’t going to happen today. For a moment, I considered taking Cerri up to her parents’ bedroom, but that seemed wrong in a way. So, I set her down and stepped back to let her breathe.
The tree roots bulging from the floor moved to cradle her body. When I stepped back, Cerri met my gaze. I could tell what she wanted to say:
We need to talk.
“I should go get Taliesin,” I said and took a half step back.
The fae here would keep Cerri safe. The redcaps would fight for their new queen. I made a mental note to find other warriors to keep here so that we could have others to depend on when things like this happened.
“No.” Cerri stood. She swayed on her feet.
I rushed to catch her. My beast snarled at the scent of her. A purr almost rumbled out of me. I had to swallow the sound down because now was not the time for the beast’s needs.
Cerri pushed off my chest and staggered back before pointing towards the stairs. “Up. We need to talk, and you’re not getting out of this.”
15
CERRI
Iwas tired of getting caught in the middle of Rhoan’s fight with Faust. If Rhoan couldn’t tell me what was going on, then I was going to leave him here. He could stay out of sight long enough for me to finish what needed to be done in the mortal world. Taliesin would help me—if he’d escaped the fight with Beryl and Faust.
Upstairs, behind closed doors, I clenched my fists and cursed. That’d been one hell of a clusterfuck. Beryl and Faust had surprised us. Our guard always seemed to be down, allowing them to roll in when least expected.
We were a mess, all over the place with so many holes in our defenses. At least, here, Beryl couldn’t follow. This domain belonged tome. None could enter without my permission. When others entered the domain, I could feel their presence. I could feel their intentions, and I was given a moment to permit or deny them.
But I didn’t want to hide here. I wanted to go home and live my life in the mortal world without worrying if Beryl and Faust were going to try to turn me into a pincushion again.
“Speak,” I told Rhoan.
I could have been kinder, but I was out of patience. When I leveled my tired glare on him, he still wore that same look of astonishment. There wasn’t a drop of blood in his face. He’d watched me die in his arms, and now he couldn’t figure out how I was still walking and talking.
To him, this must have felt like a trick.
So, I started. “The first time we came here, I planted a seed. I anchored a part of myself here at the castle in an effort to bring it back to life. That might be why I have a hold on it now. That seed helped heal me before I could truly die.”
I hadn’t expected that to happen. I’d brought Rhoan here in an effort to save him from Faust. If I’d died back there, Faust would have gotten what he wanted from Rhoan. I had a feeling that Faust had been halfway to his goal when Rhoan turned into a beast once again.
I paused. That’s what Faust wanted. He was trying to bring Rhoan’s beast out of him, but I wasn’t sure why. It made no sense to me. Rhoan’s beast was a good creature, even if it looked Unseelie in origin.
I marched up to Rhoan, grabbed the front of his shirt, and held onto him for dear life when I asked, “What is he trying to get from you?”
Rhoan touched my wrist. His sigh was so heavy that it fell to the floor and almost cracked the stone. He ran his fingers down my arm and made my lips tremble.
I couldn’t lose him. Rhoan would become my king someday. When the court was won, I would put everything I’d built in his hands. He was the only one who cared enough, the only one who deserved what I wanted to give.
“Talk to me,” I begged quietly.
He ducked his head so that his forehead touched mine. Our breaths mingled. I would have pulled him in for a greedy kiss had I not been waiting for the answer to my question. Damn man was stretching this moment as far as he could.
We didn’t have a lot of time. We would have to go back and find Tal eventually, but I wanted to stay here in the moment and savor Rhoan’s warmth again. Over and over, we gravitated towards each other’s arms.
I wanted to find safety in his embrace and melt into his body, but Faust’s relentless antagonizing stole that away from me. So, when I tugged harder on Rhoan’s shirt, and he purred in response, I quietly promised to kick Faust’s ass for everything he’d done.
“I wasn’t always the man you know,” Rhoan began.
