Page 1 of Swords and Curses

PROLOGUE

Snow crunched underfoot as the hunched hooded figure walked along the cold lakeside. She leaned heavily on her rosewood staff and did her best to hide the growing pain in her body. Her attendant had said nothing about the staff or their destination. He knew better than to question her. He carried a red cloak lined with fox fur and maintained a respectful distance behind her.

The shoreline of the lake was already freezing in webs of ice although the winter had barely begun. She had to stop the infernal curse that was threatening to destroy them all, even if that meant summoning one of her enemies to help her. She stopped by the water and brought the butt of her staff down upon it three times. On the third strike, the ice cracked, and her magic poured through it, feeding down into the lake in a stream of golden light. Power wrapped around the prisoner and began pulling her through the icy water, shattering her deep slumber.

A pale, bloodied arm punched through the ice, and a woman stumbled to the rocky shore. Her skin was blue and wrinkled under the translucent white fabric of her dress, and her hair was snarled with mud and lake weed. She looked up at her mistress with pale blue eyes before vomiting up a lungful of lake water.

"M-My Queen," the woman replied, dutifully lifting her frozen fist to her chest. The Autumn Queen beckoned to her servant who dropped the cloak over the shivering woman.

"You disappointed me once," The Autumn Queen said as she placed her hands on the woman's wet head. "I'm going to make sure you don't do it again."

Power poured from the queen's hands, and the woman started to scream.

CHAPTER ONE

"How have you been, Father?" the stranger asked. "And what the hell do you know about the snow in Faerie?"

The room was silent for a long moment. Rosa's heartbeat pounded in her ears as the tension in the room rose higher. Eldon's smile slipped as Eli's glamour was burned away until only a ferocious Unseelie prince remained. His startling emerald eyes glowed with fury.

"Youare not my son," he hissed.

Balthasar pulled Rosa behind him as Eli leaped from the second-floor balcony. Bright blue fire stretched out of his hands towards Eldon. The air crackled, and a shield appeared in Eldon's hand, blocking the inferno that closed in around him.

"Cut it out, Bleddyn! It's me."

"Liar!" Eli hissed as he circled Eldon. "You are a shifter, a doppelgänger sent by the Autumn Queen to disarm me."

"The queen! Father, seriously, stop it." Eldon's shield vanished and he held up his hand in surrender. "You turned a Wylt. Did you think I would let that go unanswered?"

"My son has been dead for centuries," Eli snarled. Smoke gathered around his hand before it materialized into a shining sword.

"I'm not dead. I was temporarily…misplaced for a while, but I'm back now, so you can putWidow's Furyaway before someone gets hurt."

"I will not be fooled by that insipid witch of a queen again." Eli rushed towards Eldon, sword raised.

Eldon raised his hands, and his clap echoed like thunder, drowning out Rosa's scream. Roots shot up through the marble floor, catching Eli mid-swing and separating him from his sword.

"Enough, Bleddyn!" Eldon said, the command washing over them. Gone was the quick talking, joking man. Instead, something ancient and angry remained. Eldon took two steps toward the struggling Eli, a dagger in his hands. With eyes filled with golden rage, he ran the blade over his wrist and held it up to Eli.

"Here, see for yourself, you pig-headed faerie."

Eli hesitated only for a moment before his tongue shot out and tasted the blood. His eyes went wide, and Eldon lowered his dagger. The two men stared each other down with almost identical frowns.

"Myrddin, I'm… I am so sorry," Eli whispered.

"Save it, old man. I've been traveling for days, and I need to sleep. Get one of yournewsons to help you down," Eldon muttered, turning his back on the mess and his father. His golden eyes lingered on Rosa for a moment with a tired smile, "Rhosyn."

No one stopped him as he walked up the stairs and disappeared into a guest room.

Rosa satacross the mahogany table, watching Eldon Blaise devour the rabbit and rosemary stew she had prepared. Despite Balthasar's puzzled amusement, she still wanted to cook for the family even though she was now a part of it.

Rosa had needed to do something to take her mind off Eldon's sudden appearance and the abilities she now had. Cooking calmed her, and with Balthasar needing to help Eli with the uproar in Albion, she had headed into the kitchen to keep herself busy in a house full of stressed men. Cecily knew what Rosa had become, that she was now a part of the Gwaed Teulu—The Blood Family—but insisted on keeping her position as housekeeper.

"You are going to need to slow down if you wish to taste the food," Rosa said, fighting the urge to throw a bread roll at the stranger. He'd been at Gwaed Lyn for less than a day, and after nearly destroying the entrance to the mansion, he had gone to sleep in a guest room and hadn't moved for ten hours.

"If you had spent the last four days traveling through the back roads of the Otherworld to get here, then you would be hungry too, Rhosyn," Eldon replied before draining another glass of red wine. The last person to call her Rhosyn was her grandmother, Glenna Wylt. Rosa still remembered her Welsh accent that was as thick as the sourdough she used to bake.

"And why were you so desperate to get to my lover?" Balthasar asked coolly. Like everyone else, he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask and had hated waiting for Eldon to wake up.

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