Page 91 of Her Irish Treasures
Aidan roared above the din of battle. “Don’t you dare, Riann!”
Bile burned the back of my throat. My fingers trembled and I shifted my grip on the trowel so I wouldn’t drop it. I’d been running for an entire year. Avoiding my ex-husband, dodging his constant demands, sensing the trap. I’d been right, of course, though I’d had no idea the trap had been magical. I’d had no idea he wasn’t even human.
I’d been running. Not from him, but all the hurt he’d caused me. The dark memories hovered beneath the surface of my mind like giant sea creatures, waiting to swallow me. I didn’t want to remember. I didn’t want to think about how long I’d stayed. How easily he’d managed to trap me in the first place. It made me feel stupid. Weak. Like I was nothing. Like I didn’t matter. Nothing I said or managed to do had ever mattered.
Which was only one of the many lies I’d believed for years.
No more. I wasn’t going to run any more. Not from him. Not from my fears. I wouldn’t be controlled by my dread and fear any longer. Not by him or anyone else. I dug deep down inside me, reaching for the artist. The confident woman who’d flirted with a cute leprechaun. Who’d dreamed of a man with giant hands and a broken nose and believed in him enough to go on a wild goose chase to free him.
The same woman who’d stolen a badass biker’s ride for the sole purpose of infuriating him into a chase. Who was confident enough to mouth back to him, secure in the knowledge that his growling and snapping was all for show. The woman who’d bathed in the golden light of truth and wasn’t afraid of ravenous hunger. Who painted with abandon and laughed with her friends and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they would always have her back.
As if she knew I needed even a small gesture of comfort, Vivi lightly touched my back. Reminding me of her presence at my side.
I took a deep, cleansing breath, letting all my fears flow away. All my doubts in myself. The lies I had been told, both by others and myself. All the half-truths and secret shames that held me back.
:The changeling’ll be watching for the treasures’ magic,:Warwick warned.:It’ll be like a beacon, calling him straight to you.:
I gave the wheel a hard spin, willing the magic—mymagic—to flow. Dazzling colors exploded around me, lighting up the cave in glittering rainbows.:Good. I’m counting on it.:
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Magic surged through me like a geyser, raining down in crystal droplets of power. Ivarr’s light blasted free, a formidable solar storm that incinerated through the nearest creatures. Lightning arced from Aidan’s swords, cutting down the larger trolls like they were nothing but paper mâché. Roaring, Doran snapped off one of the winged creature’s heads. But instead of tackling the other two, he whirled toward me.
All of them. Rather than fighting the fae, they started to cut a path through them to get to me.
A green and gold trail sparkled behind Warwick as he blurred. Time slowed. Or maybe I was seeing him through the fae magic I’d called, moving through dimensions where time didn’t matter. His hair swept around him like a black cape, his eyes burning green fire. His mouth moved, but his voice echoed in my head.
:The changeling—:
Still stuck in that in-between plane between worlds, I turned my head ever so slowly.
Jonathan smiled at me, the same nondescript brown eyes and average stature of the mortal man I’d thought I married. “So we meet again, honeybun. Though I dare say that this time you won’t be so happy with the outcome.”
Ice crackled through my veins. I lifted the trowel slightly, drawing his attention to it. “I’d like to make a deal with you.” My voice echoed in my head, high pitched but steady.
He smirked. “Ah, the old folklore still lives. Incredible. I suppose you’d throw garlic at a vampire and try to shoot a werewolf with a silver bullet too.”
For all his bravado, I couldn’t help but note that he didn’t move closer. He didn’t try to touch me. Maybe he couldn’t without violating the old ways, or maybe he really didn’t like the iron. Out of the corner of my eye, I tried to measure the distance between me and Warwick. He still moved toward me, but at a snail’s pace. I could still see the cave behind him and smell the smoky stench, but everything seemed stretched out and thin.
As if Jonathan had lifted this spot up into Faerie. Or brought Faerie down to this cave, changing the rules of physics in the process.
Vivi threw something at Jonathan over my shoulder. “Eat salt, bitch.”
Lightly, he stepped aside, though he shuddered and swept one graceful hand over his other sleeve, knocking stray particles away. When he looked back at her, the narrowed, dark slant of his eyes made me involuntarily push her backwards. Away from danger. I’d seen that look in his eyes all too many times.
“Stupid human plays stupid games. Control your pet, honeybun. You know what happens to your pets when they don’t follow my rules.”
I opened my mouth, unsure what I was even going to say. The words weren’t there. Only a blank spot in my mind. Not empty—I could feel something swirling, fighting to break free. A crying, screaming tornado of fury and pain that had left a lingering, ghostly imprint on my core.
“Ah, I forgot.” He lifted his index finger on his right hand. “Here. You can have that one for free. Such a tasty little morsel.”
I knelt on the ground in perfectly trimmed green grass at dusk. I could still see, though the light was fading quickly. It was the in-between time between day and night, where the sun had slipped beneath the horizon but the sky hadn’t darkened to full night yet.
“You have to go,” I whispered urgently. “Please. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
A black cat stared back at me. I didn’t recognize it immediately, even though I was talking to it like it was my pet. She was mine, I knew that now, though it was also like meeting her for the first time. Her eyes were golden with hints of green, reminding me of both Ivarr and Warwick. Staring back at me with large, sad eyes, she meowed plaintively, and I could almost understand her. If I listened hard enough—
“That’s Vanta,” Vivi said. “You couldn’t ever tell me what had happened to her.”
