Chapter Twenty-Three
Lia
Lia had to return to the faerie hill. She sensed something there, something she couldn’t let go of. She assumed her adult form again, ready to stand her ground if the evil creature reappeared.
It was more than just a faerie hill.
A flicker of hope filled her chest, but she quashed it. That hope had been decimated centuries ago.
She strolled around the hill, recalling her younger years, chuckling at the thought.
Wouldn’t Magni and Dyna and all her friends love to see her true self, three centuries old?
A woman who was once in love until her world was ripped apart by an evil overlord, who stole her soulmate and locked him up for a fabricated crime?
The Unseelie operated on their own. All these years, she’d tried to amass the power to free her dear Taranis from their hold, but she didn’t know how.
She had spent decades looking for him, and when she’d been standing near the bogle, she’d felt a glimmer of that old feeling, that connection to her soulmate, the love of her heart.
Taranis was her everything.
She wasn’t there long before the door opened and Gruin stepped out.
“Well, well, well. Look who is here again. A fine evil eve to you, Lia. Are you here to beg me to free those horrid wee creatures, or are you groveling over your dear Taranis again?”
Her breath hitched at his name, a choking grip nearly seizing her heart and freezing her into an irreversible numbness. But she persevered.
“What know you of Taranis, Gruin?”
“I know where he is, Lia. You do not?” He lay back on the dead grass on the hill, lacing his talons behind his head as he stared up at the stars, crossing his legs at the ankle.
“Nay, I do not. Do tell.” She kept her distance from the ugly creature, wary of the reach of his paws.
“Hmmm… You think I would just hand him over to you? I don’t think my overlord would be too pleased with me. Do you? We’ve had him for centuries.” Then he sat up and leaned toward her, whispering, “But the truth is I tire of him. I’d love to be rid of him.”
“Then allow me in. I’ll free him. Tell me what you need me to do.” Her heart soared, but she knew better than to let her hope run wild. An Unseelie would not release her soulmate without a price. And she feared whatever he might want.
She’d spent those centuries doing good, saving the bairns of the world, protecting the wee ones in the hope that someday she would be rewarded.
Tears pricked her eyes as she recalled Taranis’s touch, his brown waves—sometimes as golden as dune waves at midday, but other times as dark as moonlight—especially when he made sweet love to her, not allowing her to touch him at first, but making her body sing with pleasures unlike any other.
Their private jungle of tangled legs, of forbidden pleasures, of whispered sensual desires, of raspy declarations of love that could never be vanquished by any earthly being.
Gruin leaned up on an elbow. “Shall I pull you back from all your depraved and debauched memories to discuss a bargain, Lia?”
“What do you want, Gruin?”
“What do I want? I want to control all of Islay with my overlord. We had nearly accomplished that when someone stepped in and destroyed our chances. We will never forget what you did. You and your sister. I hate you both. Why could you not just leave us be?”
“Because you hurt bairns.”
“We don’t hurt them, we borrow them. We need their youth to power our warriors.”
“And why the three hairs?”
“Because my overlord wants them. That’s all you need to know.”
“We’ll get them for you, but only if you release the bairns.”
“Back to that.” He sighed, leaning back onto the hill, his talons laced behind his head once again. “Bring me the hairs and the MacRuari who was owed to us, and you’ll get the bairns.”
“And Taranis?”
He glanced over at her and waggled his brow. “This will cost you more. I need five items. Get them for me and I’ll give you a fortnight of pleasure with your Taranis.”
“A moon.”
He tipped his head back and cackled, a sound that shrieked through the night. “Oh, you naughty little girl. All right. A moon of pleasure.”
She did her best to hide her true feelings. She’d give anything for one night with her soulmate again. “I’m listening. And be exact, Gruin. I want no riddles. What are your demands?” she asked.
“Five things. I need one for each of the wrongs done by your queen to me years ago. Listen well because I’ll not be repeating myself. I need the emerald ring of Zareth, the changeling blade, a talon of Morgrith, the hollow thorn key, and a section of Monk’s hood ivy. Best of luck to you.”
He sat up and said, “I’ve waited so long for this moment, and it has been as wonderful as I’d hoped it would be, Lia.
” Gruin stood, stopped to glare at her, then returned to the underworld, his laughter carrying all the while he descended the staircase into his dark, greedy world, the door slamming behind him.
Five items. Five wrongs. A moon of time in exchange for the work of evil overlords.
The list was lengthy and impressive, but she now had something she hadn’t had in centuries.
Hope.