Betrayal Read online

  “If that’s the case,” I turned halfway back around, “then I will follow him wherever this stranger wants me to go!”

  A thumb brushed across my right cheek. His same grin slid open making me momentarily blinded as he folded a hand on my hip moving in slow measured deliberation. He led me through the tall brush and hanging vines letting his hand slide up onto the center of my back causing me to inch closer and take his jeans belt loop in my hand like I’d always wanted to. For years. When we were on the road, he purposefully sped up to force my grip tighter to his waist. I didn’t mind. I was the girl hit with the love sting of a cobra in action and following his patterned lead. That’s when you know you know. The knowing of how you feel about someone that your feelings were hidden deep and suddenly they were free. You like someone for everything they do and say, good and bad. They irritate you in all the right ways. They make you melt in all the right ways. Their skin feels like it’s inside out, exposed and raw. But that person likes everything anyway and gets you one hundred percent. I wanted to follow him wherever he went. And I did.

  After reliving every bike fantasy I had with Ian in my teenage years, I returned to reality when he pulled up to the Burger Giant. Some fantasies do come true and others just get put on hold till further notice.

  After settling in a booth parallel to him and waiting for our meal, I popped a burning question to Ian. “So you were actually older all those years when I was young. How did you act so much like a young person?”

  “I did what was needed to keep you safe.”

  I thought back to a few scenes in my head as a young girl. Ian had always seemed older than he was. It made sense now that he was always a step ahead. And Pike and Kin too.

  “And to think you’d dated people before me. Isn’t that the least bit weird to you?” Why was I asking this?

  “Um, no.” He watched the same waitress we always had set down our drinks and leave. “I am a guy Grace. I dated. And they were mostly Fey anyway. And long before I met you. I only looked young to you, not to my court.”

  Ugh! I still didn’t know who the Fey girls were but after thinking back to certain events where I’d had the evil eye drill me to the ground by several jealous kill Grace eye darts, I could come up with some great conclusions.

  He may not be good at telling the way he feels sometimes in so many words, but he seems to get his point across nonetheless. He was guarding himself on this subject, and he didn’t like talking about time before me. It bothered me that he didn’t.

  “Oh my gosh! You so didn’t tell me you were coming to town. I can’t believe your here...in the flesh.” Caylie bounced through the door and over to our table before I could remove myself from the booth to hug her. We stood in a half gripped tangle in mid air. Ian didn’t move, but just watched.

  “Oh, Caylie. I missed you,” a tear sprang to my eye. I really did miss her. It’s a shame to keep her in the dark when she was always bluntly honest with me. “How are you?”

  “Oh, you know. Junior college and stuff. Mostly stuff,” she giggled. “How are you?” She keyed up her eyebrows with a hint of “Who’s been naughty?” like the old Caylie. Her eyes were aimed at Ian in a silent reference to her request.

  “Right as rain,” I smiled giving her more to chew on. I had to explain our being here when we should be at college like she just said herself. “My mom brought us down for a little R and R. We are reminiscing.”

  As if natural, Ian smoothly leaned out and stood, held his hand out for Caylie to sit, and placed himself scooted right up against me on my side of the booth. Caylie didn’t bat an eye, but only sat and proceeded to “catch us up” on the local gossip as we ate and she ordered food to take home.

  Ian coughed once when Kin was mentioned as being seen riding his bike around town. We both no doubt wondered why. He made eye contact with me giving me the we’ll talk later look and pretended to smile at our girl talk lingo.

  Caylie droned on and on about Pam and how she dropped out of the first class she’d taken only to end up getting a scholarship to the University of Texas. She left two weeks ago.

  Ian whispered to me that time was up and I kindly smiled back giving him a peck on the cheek. This was a very chaste kiss, but Caylie didn’t know the meaning of tactfulness.

  “Get a room!”

  I blushed. “Get a boyfriend.”

  “Hang a sock on the back of that bike I saw in the lot.”

  “Get some couth.” Only Caylie would see it that way.

  “Girls, do you two ever stop?” Ian teased. He was so good pretending to be human and yet at the same time, far from it. His inner radar was sending me signals that he was doing a zoning safety search of the room while he listened to us. I haven’t spent much time in the human world with Ian in the know of what he was, but I knew enough that his magical talents were at work.

  “Ian, we haven’t seen each other,” I retorted searching quickly around to see if any “bad guys” were near. Nothing that I saw.

  He was so paranoid.

  “Quit your caterwauling. You two sound like cats during rutting time,” Caylie spat at the two of us playfully. What? She hadn’t changed. My blush couldn’t be hidden.

  After saying goodbye twenty times and a million hugs, Caylie drove off and we mounted the bike. I’d never noticed his personalized plate. Was it there before? It read, “SHDW.”

  His soft chuckle at me checking out his bike made me send him a dirty look. “You checking out my bike is kind of, well, hot to watch.”

  This was definitely not the Ian I was accustomed to. My blush was far from hidden, but he let me climb on and hide my drooling face.

  We drove around for a long time. I had a feeling he just wanted to drive faster up the steep hills so I would pull tighter against him on the back of the bike. Best day ever list.

  We stopped in a secluded spot at the side of the forest we knew well from both worlds and made out on the bike. Ian had a way of stopping it every time before it went too far, but not at my request. Deep down, I knew he would always stop so I guessed that made me daring, but trusting. With his shaky voice, he would groan, grab my wrists, and put way too much distance between us too fast. Oh, virtuous Ian. He was determined to drive me insane.

  When we returned to where the bike would remain hidden and we would traipse through the woods back to the Seelie court, I asked him again a question I never really had answered. This was a day for unanswered questions. “Can you take me for a hike up to Devil’s Den?”

  “Not finished with one date and she’s already looking for seconds?” A tiny grin touched his lips. His thumb brushed my cheek and lingered there.

  He read my embarrassed face and said, “My lady wishes to hike, my lady gets.” Mr. Prince Charming bowed and kissed my hand in a blurred fast motion of chivalry reminding me once again he already owned the same super-nonhuman speed I was getting better at. He was superior at it. Just when he was pulling me up to kiss him, a shrill voice standing lower behind us cleared their throat and yipped, “Beg your forgiveness, but Master Pike needs assistance of the worst kind.”

  We eyed each other fast and moved through the court to where the Fey messenger led us. When we arrived, Ian told me to stay inside, so I did the opposite. Right past the garden Rion was laid out flat, a position I’d never seen him in. I saw him first and raced to see if he was hurt. He was cut up bad, but alive. He actually smiled I think when I moved his hair from his face.

  What happened? Who could have actually taken this hulk down?

  “I’ll get someone," I told him. I didn’t think anyone else would lay down their life for me like he had several times. A complete stranger just doesn’t do that and that’s what he was to me the first time he took a strike intended for me. He was loyal, and I owed him my allegiance back.

  I stood to see who else was hurt trying my hardest to use magic to help me get to others faster. Everyone around the court made it look so easy.

  I heard his thoughts first screaming,
“No!” and lots of cursing. A pang of fear coursed through me worried Pike was hurt too.

  An arrow swooshed by my head and landed somewhere behind me. I flipped around to see several Nym armed men in a fist fight, sword swinging battle that appeared like they were losing. Yet below their feet lay two of our guards. Neither looked dead, but both were severely wounded.

  I raced away knowing I didn’t have a weapon to defend myself. In my head I tried to think of some magical way to help myself, but for the life of me I couldn’t think how blocking would help me. It was the first time I had to think fast with someone hurt before, not the first time I panicked. There’s a huge difference. Lives could be ended. One of the first things I learned from Ian was making objects appear, but I hadn’t developed that handy dandy trick yet so well that I could rely on it if my life depended on it. But persuasion could work.

  I made a beeline to the shielded area of trees where I eyed one of our guards hiding behind a big oak. How I made it this long without a knight in shining armor was a miracle. Another arrow flew by my head telling me the last one came from one of my own men aimed at the enemy.

  I hid with the guard, knowing the face but not his name. He’d helped Bane and Ian on occasion at the range. I jerked upward to see an attacker that kept avoiding my fellow guard’s arrows. He was my height, built like an ox, and baring his teeth like an animal at both of us. I concentrated on his hands and the second Nym who was closing in to join in his chaotic raid. Focused, I used my magic to make the beafy one pick up a stone lodged against the base of the tree and strike the other one beside him, then drop it and run the other way until I couldn’t hold on any longer.

  My energy spent, I twisted my ankle wrong jolting to my right upon hearing my name.

  Pike face’s was hidden behind a layer of wet and dried blood as well as the front and backside of his clothes. He was bleeding on his neck and shoulders, that much I could see. I panicked hearing a painful roar in his head. Underneath the blood on his face were obvious cuts and puffy skin abrasions. He was a mess. Down on the ground before him lay a body.

  Lorah!

  Chapter Two

  strike- v. hit forcibly and deliberately with one’s hand or a weapon or other implement.

  I ran to her, hovering over her broken body. A sword had slashed through her middle and her eyes were left open where she lay staring at the tops of the trees. Her once sunshine yellow dress was a mix of death and earth. I picked up her body ignoring the blood that spattered over me and the ground around me.

  Pike was frozen to the spot where I found him. The guards surrounded me standing with their backs and swords upturned in all directions. I didn’t think any danger was still there.

  “They led a strike without warning. They were ready for us,” a guard said to all of us, returning his sword to his side.

  I didn’t hide my tears or pain. How could I feel this much pain? Just days ago we were laughing at silly girls and the men in our books. I showed her how to make coffee so she could surprise Pike and the others with it brewing for the next meeting day. When she did, the boys had simultaneously spit it out. She’d only put half the amount of beans in the grinder.

  My eyes blurred but I could see the white of Pike’s eyes amid the blood on his face and wondered if it was all his. “Why didn’t you save her?” I choked out.

  He dropped to his knees. “I did.” His sword fell beneath him, a huge gash in his side.

  No, he didn't.

  Ian swooped me up and yanked. I held on to Lorah until I couldn’t see straight. “Grace!” I heard Ian call my name. “Grace.” I didn’t feel my feet touch the ground as Ian sat me in the garden himself covered in blood. “I told you to stay inside.”

  Pike stood over me, holding his hand against his ribcage where I’d seen the wound spilling out. When I looked up into his eyes, his face was streaked with tear stains running through the bloody mess on his face.

  “I’m sorry Grace. I’m so sorry.”

  I didn’t have the power in me to answer. I just laid my head on Ian’s shoulder and cried, tasting the bitterness in mouth.

  A scream blasted through the hurried air. My arms flailed, weapons flew up in defense. The essence of a kamikaze Nym burst through the shocked and disturbed mass of hurt and bleeding. Still coming towards the ones I love, I refused to lose any more of them to any raging basket case Nym. So I took action as I jumped up from the ground and swerved around to grab the sword from Pike’s side with the intention of holding it straight out and letting the hellion fall on it. As if my plan wasn’t fool proof, Pike slammed his body against mine placing himself in front of the madman at the same time Ian sandwiched me in from the back. Any other time I’d say this situation was highly inappropriate.

  Still advancing towards us, Pike took the sword back from me, yelled something to Ian, and readied for impact. Several of our guards moved swiftly in our direction aiming for the wayward killer, but all missed. Pike aimed and all at once there was a crunch, smack, and thud to the ground.

  Pike’s sword didn’t miss the target, but the other hadn’t missed his either.

  Clean through, the sword of the enemy had penetrated the other side of Pike’s rib cage breaking a bone and who knows what else. The pain of his body crushing into me was nothing compared to the pain he shot through his mind. He sounded like he was dying. The next thing I saw was the dead Nym on the ground, and Pike lying beside him.

  Panic overwhelmed me. “NO! NO! NO! Not him too.” I fell around my own feet lying across Pike’s chest and screaming to whatever creatures of the air could heal the hurt. They were all dying around me. All I could think about was not losing Pike.

  Ian. I yanked up searching to be sure he was safe still behind me though I could feel his hands wrapped around my waist.

  “Help them.” I blacked out at that point and only remember Ian catching my head before it hit the ground.

  The next day I finally emerged from his bed long after dawn knowing the pain had ebbed to a dull ache. I rolled over to my stomach and put my hands under my chin. I stared at the mp3 player on the bedside stand and forced a small smile. I remember waking up again after fainting and being up way too late in search of answers. The day didn't end with any.

  The night was long with talks of war and revenge and secret retaliation. Pike apologized in the meeting room while wincing and cursing the very wounds that he should have died from, but the healing magic of the Fey astounded me still. Why couldn’t all the Fey have that magic?

  His wounds healed, Lorah’s did not.

  I tried not to be bitter towards him knowing it wasn’t his fault or even that he couldn’t stop it before she was hurt. It was wrong of me to do so. But I found it easier to blame someone rather than accept the truth. She was gallant and brave and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  When I finally dressed and headed straight back to the meeting room where all others had resumed from the late night powwow, I heard Bane retelling events in his caveman voice and summing up what my head told me to assume was the unavoidable truth. Upon entering, I let my eyes count the number of guards in the room privileged enough to hear the sordid details and at the same time tally the living. All were here as far as I could tell. I stopped when Pike glared at my absence in listening skills only because one had to actually look at the people as you counted them. I didn’t want Pike riling Ian up with some stupid comment. He’d obviously healed up well.

  “We had no idea the Nyms would attack the boundaries. Their agreement said they would stay peaceful,” Bane continued watching me enter.

  So it was the Nyms who initiated it. I walked all the way into the doorway and watched the room still as I approached. A weepy queen was what they expected, but not what they would get. I wanted answers, not more crying. I cried myself out in Ian’s arms all night. I hadn’t even comforted Sarah with more than a hug and holding her in the garden before I exited to help Ian, Pike, and Bane clean up much to their disagreements. And where was Lo
rah’s body?

  “What do we know?” I asked summoning patience from the walls around me.

  Everyone stayed silent in wait. They tried not to turn their heads in Ian’s direction, but it was obvious to the trained eye I’d developed around this court that all eyes still turned to Ian. In his perfect and wonderful defense, he didn’t flinch an eye.

  “Grace,” Ian didn’t cottle me in front of the others. I admired his trust in me. Should he? No! Does he? Yes! “Lorah will be laid upon a pyre at sundown. The court will take care of the details and we will attend. For now, we need to discuss the attack from the Nyms, who encouraged it, and what action to take.”

  He told me what I wanted to hear and where the discussion needed to lead. I took all of this in stride and noted to myself that though Ian was making it aware to the others that I had a say, I knew very well that he and Bane were the decision makers when it came to defensive positions and I’d do well to let them take that charge. However, this had to have involved Kin and I wanted an answer about the other injured victim first before retaliation talks. Danella had been forthcoming with the whereabouts of my guard.

  “Will Rion be okay?”

  Ian looked at Pike first before me doing a guy look I couldn’t interpret. “He was sent away.”

  Rage, fear, and hurt hit me at once. It clawed at my heart thinking that Rion might think I betrayed him. “What? No! I want him back. Now! He doesn’t deserve that. He is anything but loyal to me.”

  I begged with my eyes. Rion didn't fail if he was defending her.

  Pike’s steady gaze turned to Ian first then said, “He can’t.”

  “No, he will return.” Ian never took his eyes off Pike. Their silent exchange was without words inside and out. I checked both hoping to read them this time and I couldn’t read a single thought. They were too good at the blocking.