Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Ossian!” I beat my fist mercilessly against the locked black door, breathless and elated. I’d run all the way here, despite the exhausted state working on the curse always left me, but I couldn’t contain my excitement. My victory . Sucking in another breath, I pounded on the door and continued my jubilant hollering. The door was so thick it didn’t even rattle on its hinges. “Ossian! You must come. Ossian!”
The door wrenched open, revealing a tall dark figure with a strange shadow backlit by bluish light. I’d never even caught a glimpse of what lay beyond that door before, and what I did now was somewhat disappointing. Just a descending stairway that curved slightly to the right that revealed no secrets other than the chamber it connected to was illuminated with blue light.
It reminded me of a similarly lit tunnel network under a farmhouse, though I had no idea why.
Ossian snatched my knocking fist out of the air before it could accidently bash him in the face and took a lunging step out of the stairway, closing the door firmly behind him with a thickly gloved hand. The fae king’s face was a dark as a thundercloud at the interruption. “Meadow, you know I don’t like—”
“Come on !” I exclaimed, refusing to be cowed by his expression. My fist twisted free of his grip, then it was I who snatched his hand and tugged him after me down the hallway towards the atrium.
“Meadow!” His footsteps stumbled before he found his pace. “I am a king. I am not to be hauled—”
“It worked,” I said, flashing him a dazzling smile over my shoulder. I didn’t release him, and I didn’t stop hauling him towards the atrium. “I took the energy from the roses and fueled my magic and unlocked so much—”
We were in the atrium now, and I released him to sprint the remaining steps to the cloch na wight. Without hesitation, I melded my thorn-scratched palms against the crystalline sphere and felt the warmth of the wight within surge from the contact. Instantly the trapped spirit flashed poppy red, definitely one whole shade lighter than the cardinal red of this morning. Maybe even two.
Ossian’s jewel-green eyes blinked in surprise. “Well that’s definitely not nothing.”
I blew him a raspberry. “You don’t say. I freed entire sections .” Metaphorically speaking, if the oak tree of my magic was a woman and my curse a dress, the full-length gown she’d been wearing just this morning, which revealed only her feet, had been replaced by a maxi dress that fell just above her ankles.
I felt like a creepy Victorian voyeur ogling a woman’s ankles , a memory whispered to me. Why did that sound like Shari’s voice?
I shook the strangeness away and released the cloch na wight, practically skipping back to Ossian and grabbing his hands. “Now imagine what I could do if I was truly outside—”
“Meadow, no .” He pulled free of me to grip my upper arms, squeezing firmly through the white fur coat to impress the gravity of his words. “You’re not leaving this castle.”
My dashed excitement was a dropped clay bowl of fresh-picked blackberries—shattered and ruined and staining everything dark. I wrested free of him, my heart beating wildly at this betrayal.
“But you promised,” I began.
“I did no such thing,” he said, looking down at me coolly from his greater height. “I allowed you to pursue a theory. And you’ve proven you can extract vital energy from plants in your weakened state, removing more of the curse than you can do on your own. Thus, you can remain inside the safety of the castle and I’ll bring you all the potted plants you want.”
“But, Ossian, I’m a green witch. I need —”
“Except you’re not just any green witch, Meadow, and you know it. Wystan is hunting people like you, draining them of their magic. And if he can’t get yours, he’ll use you to get to me.” He took a step closer, brushing the back of his fingers down my cheek. It felt more patronizing than enflaming. “We are so close, love. My work prevents me from keeping a constant eye on you, Alec and the Brotherhood are gone, and I don’t trust any one of those beasts in my court to protect you properly. You’re staying put.”
Trembling with anger, I fought to keep my voice level. “I thought this was a partnership, Ossian. Not employment or servitude. My wants and needs matter. I’m going insane in here!”
The fae king’s expression hardened as he pinched my cheeks in his hand. Not hard, but firmly enough to prove we both knew who was the stronger in this relationship. “ I wasn’t the one who insisted on a deadline on opening the portal, Meadow. My refusal is not the byproduct of misogynistic possession. It is quite literally keeping you alive.”
“Something I might not remain if I don’t unlock the rest of this curse in time!” I shoved his hand away, the pressure of his pinch not dissipating fast enough. “ And become one with my magic! Can’t you see this is something to take advantage of?”
“I do,” he said flatly, his patience gone. “And we will. With potted plants.”
“You’re not listening—”
“You’re not listening to me!” Ossian thundered, his golden aura vanishing. He seemed impossibly tall then, gaining another foot or two in height, a halo like branching antlers crowning his head. His jewel-green eyes sparked with power.
“A-antlers?” I sputtered, every alarm bell sounding in my head. I shrank back as Grandmother’s favorite warning surfaced from a suppressed part of my mind:
Beware the Stag Man who hunts in the forest deep.
His arrows never miss a maiden’s heart to keep.
I felt a pain then in my heart, like something tugging on my heartstrings, a parasite feeding off that which did not belong to it. Distantly, in the great hall, the grizzly bear roared.
Oh my Green Mother, that wasn’t the high fae I’d come to know as my lover. That was my enemy.
I couldn’t call upon my feeble magic fast enough before the Stag Man seized my wrist, wrenching me close. “You’re as troublesome as Violet ever was,” he snarled down at me.
Then, before I could scream, or suck in a breath to curse him, the fae blew white Caer powder into my eyes and I knew nothing more.