Chapter 3 #2
If he couldn’t find the druidess and steal her ability, he would be unable to possess another Fae body.
That failure would seal his fate, for when the spell trap finally collapsed the ruination of the melia magic would backlash on him as the original spell caster.
According to the warnings other Fae had given him, the power that had kept the McKeran Clan imprisoned for close to a thousand years would ricochet onto Bodach and his beautiful crystals.
That might obliterate his existence, or it might subject him to an eternity of torment.
Either way, unless he could shed this body he was doomed.
Bodach drifted off, waking only after the shards of red crystal had fully infused him with their power.
He dreamed of his conquest of Elphyne, which would begin in the court of the dark Fae queen.
He would possess the body of her consort so he could get past her personal guard and share her bed.
He’d force her to service him in the most humiliating fashion before he took permanent possession of her body.
As the ruler of the dark Fae he could easily defeat the other monarchs until he conquered all of the kingdoms, and brought them together to destroy the light Fae and the mortal realm.
For the remainder of eternity he would rule over Elphyne, sculpting it to suit his long-leashed hungers. Every female would desire and belong to him; every male would bow before him and beg for his favor.
He smiled as he imagined the entirety of the Goblin kingdom falling on their knees before him while he brought his parents to judgment.
He had already considered every lengthy and grotesque manner in which he could assure their suffering, but both had grown so evil they might relish such torments.
Instead he would serve them up on a banquet table, trussed together and bespelled so they were unable to move but could experience every sensation.
Then he would order their most loyal followers to carve up and devour them alive.
All the goblins in the dark Fae court would fear him then.
The satisfaction of imagining his parents’ ultimate fate suddenly faded away from his thoughts, replaced by the hairy face of Mirry, his dark Fae giantess ally.
Shame, shame, everyone knows your name.
No one knew his name; since Bodach had been cast out, everyone in Elphyne had forgotten him.
When he returned, he would be hidden inside whatever Fae body he stole.
The druidess’s body-snatching power would protect him against the backlash, for the broken enchantment couldn’t find his spirit, only his first body.
He’d leave that old, ugly form in the dungeons at the castle and escape the realm before the backlash even began.
It didn’t matter what he called himself. Nothing could thwart him this time.
The cave had grown dark by the time Bodach opened his eyes, and he yawned as he walked out to look at the star-studded night sky.
Luckily for him there was a full moon rising, which would make his work in the old prison cemetery much easier.
All the boredom he’d endured in exile would soon come to an end.
He would surmount every obstacle to his pleasure and happiness, and take vengeance for every moment he’d been cast out of his rightful place.
He stretched and yawned, shaking off the last of his weariness as new elation filled him.
“Let’s go dig up some pretties, shall we?” he said, popping a red crystal into his mouth and crunching it happily.
Ava watched Rory walk through the gardens with Harper, who kept tilting her head back to study the green sky.
Day time in the spell trap had begun changing to night within an hour, yet since the vlogger had arrived the rapid movement of time had inexplicably slowed.
Ava had also seen some of the red crystals in Dun Talamh’s castle walls cast white lights over the granary and gardens, which now appeared fully restored.
That hadn’t happened for several weeks since the enchantment controlling everything had begun to fail.
Then there was Harper’s extraordinary size and beauty, which nearly matched that of their armorer.
All of that had Ava very on edge. None of the other women from the outside modern world who had been caught in the spell trap had set off her internal alarms. If Harper was connected to these changes, then how could she be an ordinary human being?
Was she an immortal, or something else? Not having the answer was starting to get her nerves in an uproar.
What is she? Fae? Dark druid? Other?
A large warm hand spread against the small of her back, and her husband’s comforting warmth wrapped around her.
“You didnae come to share the morning meal with me, Wife,” Tasgall chided.
She nodded, but kept watching Rory and Harper until they disappeared from sight.
Since Ava had arrived in the spell trap she’d been aware of the armorer in an almost painful sense, thanks to the fact that they were very distantly related through his mortal mother’s bloodline.
They shared more than just some genes in common as well; somehow Rory had awakened in her a power that they both had been born with, one he’d warned her was very dangerous.
Every time she used it to break a spell she would suffer backlash from the ruined enchantment.
The last time she’d had a fever for days.
“Ava?” The laird kissed the top of her head, distracting her from her thoughts. “What do you brood over now, love?”
She didn’t want to bother him with her worries—Tasgall had enough to manage with the failing enchantment, and how it was affecting the clan, their vassals and their small world—but she couldn’t figure this out on her own.
“What is Harper Ensley?” she asked, trying to keep the testiness out of her tone and failing. “She anything like you and your brothers?”
Her husband looked startled. “No, Wife. She’s mortal.”
“All right, then could she be a mortal with some kind of tainted blood like me and Rory’s momma?” When he didn’t reply she turned to face him and saw how he was controlling his expression. “I know you don’t like me calling it that, but it’s true.”
“Mistress Ensley doesnae share your bloodline,” her husband said, and then almost said something else before he tightened his jaw.
“Don’t do that.” She had to take a deep breath to keep from shouting her next words. “This is not the time to hold out on me. There’s something odd about that girl, and not just her size. Look at how Rory’s been with her. It’s like she’s got him tethered to her.”
“I cannae tell you what you wish to hear,” the laird finally said. “’Tis true that she’s the largest female I’ve ever encountered, and she does seem to me a wee bit strange. Shall I tell you what I reckoned of you when you first came to us?”
Ava stopped wanting to yell at him; he was being honest. At the same time Tasgall’s strength was in reading situations and people, so his confusion over the new arrival seemed just as ominous as her own inability to get a proper read on Harper Ensley.
There was one man in the clan whose job was to assess threats to their people and home.
“Where is Alec?” she finally asked.
Tasgall walked with her to the garrison hall, where the clan’s war master stood surveying a map of the stronghold’s interior. On the parchment someone had marked several x’s, and Alec was writing in the notebook Olivia had made for him out of bound sheets of parchment.
“My lord, my lady.” The war master eyed the laird before he continued writing. “You’ve come about the newest outsider to arrive, aye?”
“You saw her in the hall,” Ava said, and when he glanced at her added, “There’s something different about her.
If what she says is true, then Torra MacBren hauled her into the spell trap from the outside world.
That’s never happened before now. She’s something we’re not seeing, and I want to know what it is. ”
“Rory shall ken, I expect,” Alec told her. “Oddness, ’tisnae a reason to lock away the lady, or treat her as an enemy.”
“It’s not just that she’s peculiar.” She realized she had clenched her hands into fists, and forced herself to relax them.
“While I was explaining the situation to Miz Ensley she didn’t believe a word I said.
It was all over her face. Instead of screaming at me or running off, she joked about it.
When she went down to try to walk back through the spell trap’s entry, being thrown down the hall didn’t upset her.
She went and tried again—and she was fine with failing.
I’ve never seen anyone react to becoming trapped here that way.
It’s like nothing rattles that gal, or maybe she was expecting it. ”
“Not much does rattle that girl,” Esme Martinez said as she walked into the common room beside her lover, Tasgall’s younger brother Darro.
“Harper Ensley is a very popular social media influencer and vlogger. She’s travelled the world to investigate urban legends, haunted houses, ghost sightings and other kinds of paranormal activity.
I doubt our little magical prison here would scare her very much. ”
Ava rubbed her eyes. “So she’s what, a witch hunter, then?”
“More like a specialist journalist, but without any professional affiliations,” the petite woman said.
“She’s made a solid name for herself among my community.
She’s very skeptical, honest, and focuses on exposing frauds and con men.
Might explain why she gets more death threats than the president every week. ”