Chapter 19
Iwas worried. Zara had been distracted all evening. She was here in the dell with me but kept mishearing what I was saying. She told me she was just tired, but I worried she might be having second thoughts.
She appeared to relax a little after spending time with Marin, Seeley, and their children.
“Zara’s lovely. You did good there.” Seeley clapped me on the back after the women had gone to visit the bathroom. “Fingers crossed for tonight, my friend. Are you nervous about the speech?”
I was worried about one thing only: Dornan. He’d been goading me all night, making loser signs at me, or looking at me as if I was inferior. Though I refused to let him see he was getting to me, inside I worried about what would happen if he did win tonight.
When our speeches were over, I returned to Zara and my friends. This was it now. In around thirty minutes the dell would vote and my future would be revealed. A future living in the dell, or possibly having to leave.
Music began playing while the council got things organised for the vote. Those around us began dancing, and more joining in. Then the crowd parted, and Dornan came swaggering up to me. He took one look at me and laughed. “You might as well go home, my friend. This dell will be mine.” He took out his iPhone from his pocket and held up an earbud to my ear. The faint tinkling of faerie music could be heard coming from it. The song of the lost.
“Noooo,” I screamed, leaping forward, but Dornan had his goons with him, and they grabbed me and marched off holding me in the air.
“You’re just going to hang around while Dornan takes your woman and the dell.” One of them teased me and smirked at the others.
The crowd became more distant and as I saw the men approach the tree of my childhood humiliation, I knew what I had in store. I didn’t care about whether or not I was hung with my arse for all to see though. I only cared about Zara.
As they hoisted me up in the tree, I could see Dornan and Zara dancing, albeit from an upside-down viewpoint. I watched in horror as Zara took Dornan’s hand and allowed him to swoop her around and around, laughing. People backed away, scared to not get knocked by the woman dancing wildly, lost to the music. They didn’t realise she’d have Dornan’s music in her ears, being played the dance of the dead. As a human, Zara was losing her life in the dance that would keep you in its thrall until you collapsed.
My heart began to shatter. It was all over, and it was all my fault. I’d brought Zara here. I’d brought her into danger. All because what? I wanted to win over Dornan? I wanted to show the dell I could bring in an outside female? My priorities were all wrong. Did I learn nothing from Seeley and Marin? Love came first, not duty. And now the love of my life—because deep down I knew that’s how I felt about Zara—was losing her life in front of my eyes, while I was uselessly stuck upside-down from a tree branch.
I had to rescue her, but how?
Then I watched as Zara’s arm reared back and smacked Dornan straight in the temple. He went down like a moth touching a hot lightbulb.
What the fuck?
Zara looked around until her eyes found me. Then her gaze went to the men who’d hung me from a branch. Men who quickly took me back down and apologised profusely as Seeley stormed near them, alongside other council members. Meanwhile, Zara yelled for the DJ to turn the music off.
Free from the tree and with my trousers pulled back up, I walked back to the clearing and to Zara. The reason why she’d been behaving oddly all night became clear when she removed earplugs from her ears.
“The beauty of long hair,” she said, looking down at Dornan who was still out cold.
Marin and Seeley joined us, the children safe. Sylvan kicked out his little foot, connecting with Dornan’s balls. “Dornan’s a twat,” he said loudly, just as Chester strode into the circle.
Marin’s hands went to her forehead. “Sylvan,” she admonished.
“Don’t repeat that word, young Sylvan,” Chester said. The little boy’s eyes went wide at the thought of being told off by the elder. “But on this occasion, you are quite right.” He tapped Marin reassuringly on the back and then he turned on his microphone and addressed the crowd.
“Let’s get this man checked over and then put into a cell. Dornan Oak shall stand trial for attempting to coerce a young lady into the dance of the dead,” he announced before approaching Zara. “My apologies. It is not the way of our people to treat humans in this manner. Not in this dell.”
“I’ll be fine.” She smiled at him. “Now is it possible for you to just wait a few minutes before the election?”
“Sure.” Chester looked at me. “I’ll be supervising Dornan’s removal and calling order.”
He left and I took Zara in my arms. “That was amazing. You’re amazing. I’m so sorry, Zara, for bringing you here to the dell and putting you in danger. I will move to Withernsea town if that’s what it takes to be with you. I know we’ve only had a few dates, but I’m falling in love with you, Zara, and I want many, many more dates with you.
Zara put her arms around me and gazed up into my eyes. “Ebony, the Seer, warned me what would happen and so that’s why I had the earplugs in. But when Dornan grabbed me, I realised something.”
“Oh yeah?”
“All I had needed to do was to eat some of the faerie food and his dance wouldn’t have affected me. But I didn’t want to eat it and become Fae because of him. I want to do that because of you. I’m falling in love with you too, Boone.”
“That makes me very happy, but there is no rush on my part for you to eat the food. Let’s take one day at a time now, hey?”
I could wait for her to be sure. But no, my feisty girlfriend walked over to the buffet table and took a biscuit. I followed her over.
“Are you sure about this, Zara?”
“I can eat all the biscuits I like, right? Fae calories don’t count?”
“Zara, you are considering changing to Fae because of our love, right, and not just because of the biscuits?”
She laughed. “It’s a close-run thing.” She ate the biscuit, and I watched as she shimmered, and then faerie wings erupted from out of her back.
“Tonight, I’m going to teach you to fly,” I told her. “In and out of bed.”
Taking her in my arms I kissed her deeply.
“Oh my god, let’s get this bloody election won,” she said, adding, “and seeing as you’re the only one running now, I’m going to say it’s a sure thing. Just like me.” She winked.