20. Kiaran
Kiaran
T he door flew up so hard I thought a torrential wind had taken through the Forest.
My girl was needy to get back to me and my heart skipped a beat at the thought. I lazily strode out of the library with the hope of my tall, dark haired, sapphire eyed girl to be waiting for me in the kitchen.
But instead, a small, Dwarven woman and two small Fae stood where Amelie should’ve been.
“Ethel? Amelie isn’t–”
“No time! Amelie isn’t well.”
My stomach sank, my head whirled and my heart was shooting out of my chest trying to find the other half of it.
“Where is she?” I panicked. Steadying my erratic breath, I locked my eyes on the doorway and waited.
“She’s coming, but Kiaran, it’s not good. Your brother showed up when she was wandering. He tried to take her.”
What the fuck. Why the fuck was Adan here?
The family fuck up, the family disappointment until I came of age.
My mother hated him, despised his existence, and used me to make up for her eldest’s shortcomings.
He’d been estranged for most of my life, exiled from the Coven before he reached the age of ten.
No one mistook him as a true McCalmont, people rarely even knew he existed.
“Where is he now?”
“He vanished. Amelie.. Amelie did things to him that I’m not sure she’s processed yet.”
“What do you mean?”
Just then, a cloud of despair stumbled in through the front door, an arm slung around Friedrich’s neck.
It was Amelie but her eyes were on fire, the gold in her eyes were lit up so bright they were covering the sapphire blue I loved so much.
It would be a breathtaking sight if it weren’t for her unorganized movements and dead expression on the rest of her face.
Rushing to her, Friedrich grasped a crumbling Ethel as I grabbed Amelie’s cheeks. “Amelie?” I searched for a sign of life, any notion that her soul was in there.
“Hey, pretty girl. Please talk to me, it’s Kiaran,” I pleaded with her as the fire danced chaotically through her beautiful blue eyes.
The mention of my name brought life back to her but it was malevolent. It was dark, my hands on her face felt like they were being crushed under the weight of a thousand bulls. My arms went rigid and my legs became weak under me.
“Amelie stop! It’s Kiaran, honey! Don’t hurt him!” Ethel cried out. The black haired Fairy was over Amelie’s shoulder, the blonde one was rapt watching from her perch on Friedrich’s shoulder..
I tried to speak but my voice was muted by my throat closing in on itself. The air being sucked out of my lungs, inch by inch. Amelie’s eyes were burning into me like seeing me on fire was her life’s purpose.
Amelie please stop, it’s me.
The hot white flicker turned to a deep red, the blaze steadying for a moment. She could hear me.
That’s right, baby. It’s Kiaran. Come on.
I could see the blue in her eyes coming forward through the flames.
You’re safe. Please.
My body softened, I could move again. The fire was gone leaving only ashes in its wake against the sapphire banks of her gold rivers.
She stared at me in terror, looking at my hands, then my eyes, then to those who were watching behind her. She let out a sob and I pulled her tight to my chest.
What the hell was going on? Adan being here was the furthest from what I could’ve guessed would happen today. Or any day for the rest of my life.
Amelie and I woke up this morning and made love over and over again.
We spent the entire morning wrapped up in each other, falling deeper into a dangerous kind of love.
We ate breakfast together, I fed her bits of the pastry she loved and she laughed at how cliche it was.
I didn’t care, being blissfully happy with her was a dream and I didn’t consider that anyone could take it from me. Or try to anyway.
I supposed if the High Priestess knew that my punishment had made a turn for the better, it was only a matter of time before they sent someone to ruin that.
I’d spent two centuries in pure agony waiting for my sentence to be over, now I found a reason to wish I would never break the curse at all.
That wouldn’t suit the evil woman who ruled our Coven.
The High Priestess must’ve believed that my selfish streak would continue with Amelie, but it wouldn’t. I wouldn’t give her up.
Amelie continued to sob into my chest, twisting my shirt like she was in pain. I scooped her up and held her in my lap on the couch. Ethel took residence in the chair in the corner of the room, both Fae sat on either side of her and Friedrich leaned against the pillar by the door.
“What happened, Ethel?”
She bowed her head and closed her eyes tightly, like reliving the memory was painful to her .
“We heard her screaming.”
“Who’s we?”
“All of us, everyone from the Forest. The gremlins even came out of the cave. We thought she needed help.”
“Of course she did! You have never met my brother. Adan is evil! He is who haunts the nightmares of children!”
Ethel’s lips curved into a proud smile through her tears. “Well, your girl will now be the one who haunts his.”
Chills broke out over my skin.
“What happened, pretty girl? Are you okay?”
Amelie lifted her head and through her sobs said to Ethel, “Is he dead? Did I kill him?”
Ethel joined us on the couch then, smoothing Amelie’s hair behind her ear. But Friedrich answered.
“You didn’t kill him, but nobody would’ve blamed you if you did. Fucking Witches.”
I was taken aback at the dwarf’s profanity. But it was fair. Totally fucking fair, my kind has done nothing good for this forest.
“What did you do to him?” I asked Amelie.
Her sobs turned into quick breaths. “Please don’t be mad at me.”
“I could never be mad at you.”
“She broke every single bone in his body. Then told him if he ever laid a hand on another girl she’d finish what she started,” Ethel said with pride for my girl, it bloomed out of her.
Amelie bested him. My girl.
“He touched you?”
“He said he was taking me to your mother. That she sent for me, wanted to meet her son’s newest toy.” The pain in her voice cracked my heart open. Newest toy. My mother knew exactly what Amelie was, and she sure as fuck wasn’t something to play with.
Beyond confused, my mind reeled for an explanation. Amelie was my curse breaker, my fated mate. They couldn’t tamper with that tether unless they changed the fates, if they did I was entitled to know about it.
I held my girl close and thought about all the reasons why Adan would’ve showed up here today. Why he would’ve found her in the woods instead of clipping her right from the cottage. He’d known where to find her, he knew if he would’ve come in here I would’ve killed him myself in an instant.
They didn’t come for me, they came to take her away.
“You were so brave today Amelie,” Ethel started. “Your grandfather’s were so proud of you. You should’ve heard Al bragging to his friends. He told everyone you were a Bloch and that it was an honor to bear the same name as you.”
Amelie’s eyes softened. I wanted her to be proud of herself.
Proud of what she did today. She fought back.
He threatened her safety and she took it back tenfold.
I wanted to be the one to protect her from the horrors that could occur in the enchanted world but she proved today that she could do that on her own.
“I’m so proud of you,” I whispered only to her.
“We all are,” Friedrich said, the Fae nodded in agreement. They turned to leave, but the black haired, winged creature let her eyes linger on Amelie, something like rage stirred as she watched my girl cry.
Ethel gave me a knowing smile and rubbed my shoulder before tucking more strands of hair behind Amelie’s ear.
“You call for me whenever you need to. Both of you. I will have everyone here to help however we can.” Ethel’s message was clear.
She’d been here a long time and knew when there was trouble in the distance.
She was an anxious woman, fidgety and worrying constantly but her offer said this isn’t over.
When it was time to fight back again, we didn’t have to be alone.
I’d been alone for two hundred years, and in the face of danger right now, I felt more protected and thankful to be here with the creatures of the Forest outside and me and my girl in here.
After everyone left, I grabbed food from the table for Amelie. Fern laid out all of her favorites, lit candles that smelled like comfort and ran a bath. I helped Amelie eat as she stared into nothingness and then picked her up and set her between my legs in the bath.
We’d been sitting in this position for at least an hour when her voice finally cut the silence I’d been trying not to drown in.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?”
I never admitted to anyone that Adan was my brother. In more ways than one, he wasn’t. He was fated to be the next High Priest but was so outwardly sinister that he was exiled before he even made it halfway through fundamental school. I wasn’t privy to where he was exiled to though.
Since being here, I hadn’t thought of him once. His existence was better off not being remembered. Mia’s memory was the only one I cared to keep.
“It’s been a long time since Adan’s mattered in any way to me or my family. It never crossed my mind to mention someone who was dead to me,” I replied.
“He said your mother sent him.”
That was what threw me more than his appearance today. My mother despised him. If she had control of his demise she would’ve placed it already but mother’s couldn’t kill their children. For some reason that was a part of our Witches Oath.
“Apparently a lot has changed since I left home.” A shake trembled through my throat. It could be assumed that if I ever made it back there life would be drastically different, it was just never so obvious as it was today.