Page 29 of Mountain Man's Muse
He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to.
Question was, would she believe?
“There she is,” murmured the queen from behind him. “Take her if you will.”
And as the crowd edged back, Adelyn was revealed. In the fall of silky crimson around her, she was every bit the erotic fairy princess. She held out one hand to him and he let the iron spear waver to one side, so he didn’t hurt her.
The eyes were too pale, a blue almost white with coldness.
He snapped the spear ahead of him and the fake Adelyn recoiled with a growl. The illusion wavered and he caught a glimpse of bristling fur.
Behind him, the queen pealed with cruel laughter. “At least that one would keep you warm at night, human. The musetta can offer you nothing of herself. After you strip past the veils, thereisnothing to her, only a reflection of what you make of her.”
Josh gritted his teeth. How did the queen know who he was looking for? And how could he be sure when he actually found Adelyn if these lies were all around him? He had done a terrible job of spotting such illusions before:I promise… To have and to hold… ‘Til death do us part…
He wavered.
Another fae waited in his path. She also looked like Adelyn, with her veils in a simple drape around the body he had come to know in such a short time. But what could he really know after such a short time? Could he believe even what he saw? Though his scarred eye seemed clearer than his good eye in this place.
He kept the spear point out, but the one ahead did not flinch. She stared at him over the half-mask of her veil. “Why did you follow me?”
It was Adelyn. He didn’t have to see her. He couldfeelit. “Because I had to know…” He had to know if what they had was real, if anything that had been whispered or shared had been true, or all just one of her illusions.
He took another step toward her and still she did not back away from the iron. Around her form, the air seemed to flicker, alive with secrets.
Did he want to know? The tip of the iron spear hovered at her breast.
“Now you’ll know,” she said. “You’ll see what I really am.”
She took one deep breath, and the iron touched the curve of her breast. A twist of smoke marred her skin, then her glamour fell away in a blink.
Dozens of snakes circled her head and shoulders. They struck at the spear with sibilant hisses, and it was his turn to recoil.
Though he pulled out of range, the silky dark locks he had run his fingers through did not return. Her serpentine hair writhed around her, revealing the delicate pattern of scales that spread over her shoulders and up the sides of her neck to her temples.
She stepped closer, so close the bright scales sent glimmers of jeweled color dancing over the spear’s gray iron. His heart pounded and his suddenly sweaty grip slipped on the spear, but his gaze locked on the fae before him.
Behind him, the queen laughed again. “Did you not know the truth of your own love, poor man? Every inspiration can turn around and bite you. Which is why every musetta is also a medusai.” Her laughter edged higher, and the black veins in the white marble thickened.
He dragged his gaze off the hypnotic sway of the snakes to meet the fae’s eyes.
Her emerald eyes sparkled diamond-brilliant with unshed tears.
“Josh…” she whispered.
He swung toward the queen, angled the pistol upward, and fired.
The queen shrieked as the chandelier shattered.
Pierced by the iron round, the crystal flew apart in a stink of ashes. A thousand tiny lights scattered in all directions, chiming like miniature cowbells.
Fae scattered in all directions too, with less musical shrieks.
Josh shoved the pistol into his pants and grabbed Adelyn’s hand. The scales across the back of her hand slid under his thumb. “I always wondered how fairytale princesses kept their hair so lively and full of bounce.”
“Josh, you shouldn’t have come. Now you’ll be trapped too—”
“If I shoot the queen, will that free us?”
