Chapter 10 #2
After eavesdropping on Tasgall and Harper as they discussed repairing the spell trap, Esme couldn’t decide what to do.
Unlike Ava, Olivia and Grace she hadn’t been at Dun Talamh long enough to form a close friendship with them or anyone else except Darro.
He was the person she confided in when she discovered scary stuff, and he never betrayed her confidences, but he was also extremely protective of his brother.
Alec still intimidated her a little, as did Rory.
There was really only one other clansman she trusted almost as much as her lover.
Hope I’m not wrong about this, Esme thought as she headed for the seneschal’s work room and nearly collided with the man walking out of it.
“Fair evening, my lady,” Farlan said, steadying her with a hand on her arm. “How may I help?”
A few minutes later they sat by the corner hearth in the great hall, and Esme kept watch on the arches as she related the conversation she had overheard between the laird and the new arrival.
“I know I should keep my nose out of this, Seneschal,” she finally said. “But to safeguard everyone, the two of them are going to do what none of the rest of us want, and they’re keeping it secret. That’s two strikes against them.”
He nodded slowly. “’Tis a disturbing pact they made, I agree. Only do you ken why you’re so upset over what you heard?”
“Why?” She frowned. “I’m upset because it’s dangerous, and they’re deciding things without consulting anyone else. We don’t know Harper, who could have her own agenda…” She saw how he was looking at her. “Of course I’m upset at the thought of being trapped here for eternity. Aren’t you?”
“I made my peace with our fate long ago. ’Twas necessary so I didnae run mad.” Farlan’s mouth hitched. “You yet wish to return to your world, if you may convince Darro to accompany you, I reckon.”
“No. Well. If I could, of course, I would. But I know as things are, he’s never going to leave Tasgall and the clan.
” What he’d said brought her resentment bubbling back up.
“The thing is, if I could show him what his life would be like in my world, he might change his mind. At the very least I could introduce him to my aunts and uncles and cousins.”
“The family we left behind, ’tis as an open wound,” the seneschal said, nodding. “My lady màthair, her husband and my wee sisters await me in my time. I should love for them to meet my Grace, and celebrate our wedding with us. Only they’ve been dead these nine centuries.”
She stiffened, aghast that she had inadvertently reminded him of what he’d lost. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just that my family isn’t dead yet. They couldn’t be.”
“We dinnae ken what the outside world shall become if we escape. We may emerge in my time, or yours, or be separated and scattered.” Farlan regarded her steadily.
“’Tis why the laird seeks to repair our prison, I reckon.
In the spell trap we’re sure of being with our lovers.
He seeks to assure that continues, ’tis all. ”
“So Tasgall wants to spend forever with Ava.” She understood that, although it irked her that the rest of them had to suffer for what the laird wanted.
Then a thought came into her head: I’m not suffering.
I love being here with Darro. I miss my family, but they have each other.
I only have my man. I never want to be anywhere but with him.
“When Grace and I pledged ourselves, she told me that only together could we be enough to make up for all that we’d suffered,” the seneschal said softly. “Loving her, ’tis healed me of wounds I’ve carried all my long life. She’s all I want and need. Darro, he’s the same for you, and you for him.”
“Yes. That’s why I shouldn’t tell anyone else about this. Right?” When he nodded she wrinkled her nose. “Thank you for talking this through with me. Seeing it from another perspective makes all the difference. Also, if for any reason you ever need a non-judgmental listener, Farlan, come find me.”
He stood and bowed to her. “Ever I shall, my lady.”
Esme left the great hall and made her way up to the solar, which she and Darro had turned into their personal retreat. Although she expected to find it empty, instead she saw her guy arranging something on the table between the two chairs where they sat every night to talk.
“Hey, mi corazón,” she said as she came in, and grinned as she saw the feast he had prepared for them: little cakes topped with cream and fruit, honeyed nuts and spiced popcorn. He’d also made two of the yogurt drinks they both loved. “Didn’t you have to hear reports from the captains tonight?”
“My brother shall attend to them in my stead.” He came over and folded her in his arms. “I told him I need a night with my lady.”
Thrilling heat shot through her as the chieftain lifted her off her feet to kiss her all over her face. By the time he reached her lips she’d begun sweating, and when he drew back she clutched at him to hold him against her.
“Dinnae you wish your midnight feast, my heart?” he asked, his eyes darkened with his own desires.
“Later.” She took him by the hand and led him to the big bed they shared every night. “I need to work up an appetite.”
Darro had once been too afraid to touch her, thanks to a partial spell Bodach had cast over him.
Now as he undressed her he caressed her with confidence, knowing exactly where to stroke and squeeze and hold her.
The man could arouse her with one small, hooded look, but it was when he put his hands on her that Esme found herself becoming a shivery, needy wild thing.
“You take too long,” she scolded him as she unfastened his trouser lacings, and pushed them down to free his big, hard cock.
She then grabbed his shoulders and pulled herself higher until he pressed between her thighs.
Sinking down on him stretched her, but she’d grown so wet she was able to take every thick inch into her pussy.
“I’m glad we covered the walls,” Darro teased her. “Else the watchers should now watch us.”
“Shhh.” She sank down to his root, clenching around him as she watched his face. “Dios mio, you’re just what I need. Now and always, mi vida.”
As she worked herself over him, Darro’s big body tensed.
The way she used her softness to grip his steel-hard shaft as he stroked in and out of her drove him wild enough to lose his inhibitions.
He wanted to come all over her, Esme knew, so he could mark her as his.
Then, with the silkiness of his seed all over her, he’d fuck her for hours.
“Yes, please,” she told him, and shivered as he lowered her onto her back and withdrew from her.
Esme took hold of his gleaming cock, stroking it slowly as he parted her folds and rubbed her clit with his thumb. They both watched each other, their eyes filled with love, and too soon they began trembling on the brink.
“Give me your love,” she murmured, gripping him tighter and stroking him fast, releasing a breath as his shaft jerked and the first thick ribbon fell on her heaving breasts.
“Aye, my heart. ’Tis ever and always yours.” He moved closer as he jetted over her belly and sex, bathing her sweat-slick skin and exposed clit until she exploded with delight.
He tumbled down beside her, and held her as they looked up at the night sky.
Being with him was all she could ever choose, Esme thought, even if it meant never again seeing the rest of her family.
He had become so much a part of her she grew lonely and hollow even when they were separated for a few hours.
Without Darro, she would have no love or life.
Bodach gazed over his revenant army, smiling with satisfaction over how fearful they appeared.
Whatever the McKeran Clan did to them, they would not stop fighting until their bodies fell to pieces.
He’d also armed each one with a dirk or sword coated with strychnine, which wouldn’t kill the clansmen, but it would incapacitate them in minutes, and make them wish for death.
“When I open the spell trap, proceed inside,” he told the dead men, and gestured toward the torchlit entrance. “You are to kill anyone who crosses your path until you can take control of the castle.”
A trilling laugh echoed in the hall behind him. “You’re mad, Goblin.”
Bodach turned around to regard the ancient being he hated almost as much as the McKeran. “We meet again, Chlíodhna.”
Of the same race as the old mage Aosda, the female only slightly resembled a mortal.
Her dark green hair and long rabbit ears lay concealed under a hooded cloak, but the green quills forming brows over her huge brown eyes bristled as if she were some oversize porcupine.
She hadn’t worn the mound of partly liquid jewels she favored today, but had dressed in a hand-sewn linen shift that looked older than his castle.
“I know what you’re planning to do with those rotted things,” she said, casting a disdainful look at his army. “This is your last chance to save yourself. Do not enter the spell trap again. Break the enchantment, release your prisoners, and accept your punishment.”
“If I don’t, what then? You’ll kill me?” Bodach slipped a hand into his pocket. “You know I can’t die any more than you can.”
Contempt filled her expression. “All living things end, Goblin. Someday even I shall go to eternal rest.”
“I would love to watch that, especially if you give me some time to open a bottle of champagne. Unhappily, I’m in a bit of a rush now.
Here.” He removed a crystal, holding it on his palm and offering it to her like a piece of candy.
“Eat this, and you don’t have to go on any longer. You can finally sleep.”
“I told you he wouldn’t listen.” Aosda entered the hall and stepped in front of her. “Put that thing away before I lose my temper, Goblin.”
Bodach sighed. “Now I suppose I’m to quiver with fear at such a threat? Just how long has it been since you’ve fought a dark Fae, old man?”
“You should be afraid, Gobster.” Mirry trudged into view, wearing only her black pelt of fur and a jaunty white fedora.
“I told you this was a bad idea, Da-da. Come on, Klee. Let’s go back to my place and start up my new fire pit.
My humans just installed it and it’s great.
We can roast marshmallows and make s’mores until Jake arrives. ”
“I thought you wiped that mortal’s mind, sweetheart,” Aosda said, frowning.
The giantess rolled her eyes. “I did. He just keeps coming back to the compound. I think it’s like sleepwalking, you know? Or that thing salmons do when they want to breed.”
“Will you shut up?” Bodach snapped at her. “I don’t care about you, Jake, or these two doddering fools. Get off my property before I feed you to my power.”
“Go back, my dear. I shall join you and Aosda at your home shortly.” After the old mage and the giantess walked away, Chlíodhna regarded Bodach.
Instead of anger in her eyes there was something softer.
“If you stop this and make amends to your victims, your punishment will not be an eternity of torment and suffering. The universe will permit you to finally die. I think that may be the only way you find peace in your existence.”
“Peace.” He spat on the ground between them. “Do you really believe you can stop me with that sort of dismal offer? I will have my treasure, and use it to assume my rightful place among my kind. Go and play with your lover and that idiot ape while you can.”
“I heard that,” Mirry called from elsewhere in the castle, making the walls and the ground shake.
Bodach saw how the immortal bitch was looking at him now, as if she pitied him. “I don’t need your sympathy.” He cupped one ear. “Do you hear that? It’s the sound of the world you know teetering on the brink of destruction.”
“No, that was the sound of your last ally abandoning you and sighing with relief, you foolish creature.” Chlíodhna’s expression grew strangely commiserating.
“I’ve done much wrong in my past, and I now exist as I do because of that.
I have accepted that I must pay the price for my transgressions.
I spoke the truth to you because I understand why you hate this world, and Elphyne.
I could be your final and greatest ally, but you’ve done nothing but insult me and those I care for most.”
“Mirry talks shit about you behind your back, you know.” He laughed at her. “And Aosda only uses you for your power and whatever else you two do. Are you even capable of having sex with someone else? I’ve always wondered.”
“What little hope that remained for you shall soon vanish,” she said, ignoring his taunting. “It’s not your fault that you were born like this, but you’ve had ample time to learn and change. Stop this before the universe takes its own vengeance for–”
“Shut up.” Bodach lashed out and battered her with all the power he possessed.
The ancient bitch disappeared in a black cloud that dashed itself against a wall and vanished.
He knew she hadn’t been killed by his attack, but at least she was gone.
“You know nothing about me. None of you ever could. I will be the King of all the Fae, and when I am crowned, my first act as monarch shall be to toss this mudball into its ugly star, so you may all burn.”