A Fae in Fort Worth (12 page)

Mitch stared at me with confusion in his eyes then he shook his head a little and looked back at the queen. This time, I noticed, he kept his gaze lowered.

“That’s right,” he confirmed, sliding his arm around my waist. “I can hardly wait.”

Orlaith’s lips tightened into a thin line. She straightened her back then glided across the room to sit in a white chaise lounge.

“What can I do for you today, hunters?” The earlier warmth had disappeared from her voice to be replaced by a curt, frosty tone.

“We came on behalf of the Hunters’ Council,” Mitch said. “There is a war brewing between the angels and demons and we have been drafted in to help. We were hoping we could count on the Fae to stand at our sides.”

The queen snorted. “The Fae do not get involved in wars of any kind on the mortal realm.”

Mitch nodded. “Yes, but there are a lot of Fae living in the sanctuaries, so anything which goes on there concerns them too, doesn’t it?”

“I do not care about such trivial matters,” Orlaith spat. “If there are problems for the Fae in the mortal realm, I will welcome them back to the Seelie Court with open arms. They belong here. This is their home!”

Her fury exploded in the air around us, nearly knocking me off my feet. Mitch tightened his hold around my waist.

“Is that your final answer on the matter?” Mitch asked.

Orlaith jutted out her chin. “It is my only answer. The Fae will not get involved. If that’s everything, I have much to do.”

“It is,” Mitch replied. “We’ll leave you. Thank you for taking the time to see us.”

Orlaith nodded once then turned her head from us and it was clear we’d been dismissed.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I said, taking hold of Mitch’s arm and leading him to the door. We exited the room and Mitch closed the door behind us. With quick steps, we strode down the corridor, turning the corner at the end.

“I’d say we have about ten minutes,” Mitch whispered. “Before they come looking for us.

I nodded. “Then let’s not waste it.” I made to continue down the corridor when Mitch pushed me against the wall and pressed his body to mine, kissing me hard. When he pulled back we were both breathing heavily.

“So we’re getting married, huh?” Mitch asked, his eyebrow cocked. “Did you just propose to me back there?”

I slapped his chest. “I should have left you to her, you were clearly happy to be there. ‘Your Majesty, your beauty is incomparable’,” I mimicked.

Mitch’s lips twitched. “Are you jealous?”

“Not at all,” I lied. “Come on, we need to find Donella.”

Mitch didn’t move. “It was the glamour, Ash,” he said softly, holding my gaze. “Just the glamour. She doesn’t hold a candle to you.”

I didn’t let it show on my face how pleased I was to hear him say that.

* * * *

Even though we followed Avery’s directions to get to the room where the queen had been holding Donella, the castle was so large that it took us over five minutes to get there. The door was unlocked and there were no guards posted outside. I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not. Mitch pushed open the door and we slipped into the room to find Donella sitting on the edge of a large, four-poster bed. Just as Avery had said, we had the same eye colour, but that was where the similarities ended. Like the Fae from the hamlet, Donella was human in appearance. She had long, light brown hair which hung in loose ringlets around her face. Her frame was long and slim, but she was hunched over. Her posture and demeanour reminded me of Avery. There was an air of hopelessness and defeat about her.

Donella looked up as we entered and her eyes widened. “Who are you?”

“What is your name?” I asked for confirmation.

She stared at me a beat then said, “Donella.”

I nodded. “Do you want to go to Avery?” I had to ask the question. I wouldn’t have taken her to the prince if she’d been opposed to it. We’d just have to find some other way to get the grimoire and make Avery leave the sanctuary. I needn’t have worried. The hope on her face was evident.

“You can take me to him?” she breathed as if she was afraid to say the words aloud.

“We don’t have any time,” Mitch said. “You need to come with us, now.”

Donella stood quickly then paused. “Has the queen agreed to let me go?”

I glanced at Mitch, unsure how much we should tell her, but Mitch shared none of my reservation.

“No,” he replied honestly. “We don’t have much time, Donella. If you want to see Avery again, you need to come with us.”

Her hesitancy lasted for just a couple of seconds then she crossed the room. “If the queen discovers us, she will kill us all,” she informed us. I didn’t doubt it, but it wasn’t something I’d wanted or needed to hear.

“Then we’d better hope she doesn’t discover us,” I said.

Mitch checked the coast was clear before we exited the room. We were jogging back down the corridor when Donella said, “There are enchantments on my room. The queen will know that I’ve left it.”

I
really
hadn’t wanted to know that, but I wasn’t surprised by it. Getting Donella from the room had been too easy. As we neared the large staircase which led down to the entrance hall, the pounding of feet coming in our direction halted us.

Mitch cursed. “Is there another way down?”

“Yes, several,” she confirmed. “We can use the staff staircase, follow me.” I was impressed by her composure under pressure. She would know better than anyone what the queen was capable of.

Donella led us by room after room until we came to another staircase on the east side of the palace. We ran down the stairs as fast as we could, but the sounds of shouting and heavy footsteps behind us got louder with each step. When we reached the bottom, Donella looked both ways as if trying to decide on the best route.

“Hurry,” Mitch hissed.

She nodded. “This way.”

We ran down another corridor then Donella came to an abrupt halt in front of one of the doors.

“Ashley, your knife,” Mitch said, retrieving his from a holster inside his shirt. “We need to be prepared.”

I pulled the iron blade from the waistband of my jeans and braced myself.

Donella gasped. “Is that…?”

Mitch and I ignored the question and Mitch pushed open the door and peered inside. “Empty,” he verified.

We entered the room and closed the door behind us. The room was a library with large patio doors leading out into the garden. As we hurried through the room, I noted that the varying shades on the spines of the many thousands of books present, was the most colour I’d seen in the entire palace. Mitch opened the patio doors and we rushed out into the garden.

“We need to get back to the caves,” Mitch said as we ran. “Can we get there without going through the village?”

“Yes,” Donella replied. “But we need to cross the drawbridge first. It’s the only way to avoid the moat.”

I’d thought as much, but I didn’t have time to worry about it as we ran around the perimeter of the palace. When the drawbridge came into sight, I was relieved to see that it was unguarded, but as we neared, the first arrow sailed past our heads.

“Faster!” Mitch urged.

I looked over my shoulder before we took off across the bridge and saw several elves following us, armed with bow and arrows. Mitch and I had the same speed as a vampire, which was unnaturally fast, but Donella had a difficult time keeping up so we slowed down to match her pace as more arrows sailed past.

“They’re poisonous,” Donella informed us. “If they hit us, we’ll be dead on impact.”

Wonderful. Another fact I
really
hadn’t wanted to know.

As soon as we’d made it to the other side of the bridge, we veered left towards the trees.

“You sure you can find your way to the caves from here?” Mitch asked.

“I’m a forest nymph,” Donella explained. “I grew up in these trees. I know them as well as I know myself.”

An arrow sank into the bark of a tree beside me, missing my head by inches. My instincts told me to run faster, but we couldn’t leave Donella behind. We traversed through the wood deftly, but the elves were gaining on us and dozens of arrows whizzed through the air, some hitting trees, others sinking into the ground around our ankles. It only took about ten minutes before we reached the foot of the hill. We began to climb, but there was no cover and I didn’t like how exposed we were.

There were several close calls as we raced up the hill. One was so close that the arrow sliced a hole through the arm of my shirt, but the poisonous tip didn’t come into contact with my skin. I was relieved beyond measure when we made it to the entrance of the cave and stumbled inside.

My relief was short-lived. We’d barely made it fifty feet before the sounds of the elves entering the tunnels behind us reached my ears.

“Crap, we need to move faster,” I said. A second later, I tripped over a loose stone on the ground. Mitch grabbed my arm to steady me.

“You think?” he retorted wryly. It was too dark for him to see my answering glare.

We let Donella take the lead because she knew her way through the series of tunnels and caves, but the sounds of pounding footsteps behind us kept on getting louder. The elves were close behind us. When we finally reached the cavern where Durin awaited, we all but ran into the startled dwarf.

“Open the portal,” I ordered.

Durin stared at each of us in turn as the elves’ footsteps approached. “What’s going on?” he croaked. “Where’s Brokk?”

Thinking alike, Mitch and I pointed the iron daggers at Durin and I ordered again, more firmly than before, “Open the portal, now!”

Durin looked down at the blades and his eyes widened. He turned to the wall and there was a blinding ray of light seconds before the portal appeared before us.

“You through first,” Mitch instructed Durin. When the dwarf stepped through, I all but pushed Donella into the gateway after him. I had one foot through the portal when the loud bellow of “Halt!” reached my ears.

Mitch’s body slammed into mine from behind and I went tumbling through, falling into a heap on the ground inside the Fort Worth sanctuary with Mitch landing heavily on top of me. I looked up to see Avery with Donella held against his side, a finger pointed at Durin.

“Close it,” Avery ordered.

As soon as the blindingly bright light had disappeared and the doorway was closed, Avery hit Durin with a blast of energy which sent the dwarf flying backwards until he fell on the ground, unconscious.

I glared at Avery. “Did you kill him?”

Avery shook his head. “He’ll survive.”

“Take us to the Fae sanctuary in Florida,” I instructed.

Avery looked down at Mitch and I with a frown. Without a word, he put a hand to my shoulder and my stomach jolted as he teleported us to the new sanctuary. It didn’t matter if they followed. The sanctuaries were exactly what their name alluded to—safe havens. No Fae could harm another or anyone while they were inside its confines. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as the walls of the new sanctuary came into focus. We’d made it. We were safe.

I chuckled breathlessly when I realised Mitch was still lying on top of me in a heap.

“Hey, get off me, you big lump,” I teased, twisting my body to face him. Mitch’s eyes were wide and unblinking. I panicked and moved out from under him. “Mitch?”

A loud, piercing scream ripped from my throat when I saw the arrow sticking out of his back. Mitch was dead.

Chapter Eight

I shook Mitch’s body frantically as tears began to pool in my eyes. “Mitch, Mitch!”

“It’s too late, Ashley,” Avery said quietly. “He’s gone.”

I ignored him. “No!” I shouted, shaking Mitch harder. He was just unconscious or asleep. He’d wake up. He had to. “Mitch!”

My cries of panic turned into a loud wailing sob when I realised that Mitch wasn’t going to wake up. He was gone. But he couldn’t be dead. We were still getting to know each other and I’d hoped… I couldn’t let my mind go there. I couldn’t bring myself to think about the possibilities that had awaited us. I’d planned on speaking to Roland to see if Mitch could have his job back and if the Council had agreed, I’d been going to ask Mitch to consider becoming my partner. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t. I swallowed down the painful lump in my throat and took hold of Mitch’s hand. Tears continued to fall freely from my eyes and I didn’t bother wiping them away. Why did this have to happen? It wasn’t fair.

Mitch had been through so much in the past few years. He’d suffered endlessly with guilt and remorse after Jenna had been killed. I’d truly believed that he could begin to put her death behind him and start living again, start to recover from the pain and the loss. But he would never get the chance now. How could it end like this? Mitch’s expression was frozen in pain and I traced the lines on his brow with the tips of my fingers, willing them away. Even in death Mitch was breathtaking—the features of his face so handsome and strong. I would have given anything to have him back. Anything. In the short time that I’d known him, Mitch had frustrated me, angered me and made me feel happier and more alive than I ever had before.

Donella knelt down beside me and put a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I was barely aware of her presence until she spoke.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said softly. “You loved him, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation. I didn’t know when or how it had happened, but I’d fallen for Mitch and now he would never know.
I
would never know if he could have one day loved me back, if we could have built a future together.

“You’ve done so much to help me,” Donella said, “at great risk to yourself. And you’ve lost so much.” She looked down at Mitch’s lifeless body and sighed wearily. “I wish there was something I could give you in return. I wish I could bring Mitch back to you, but I’m afraid I cannot—that is, I’m not able to anymore.”

With tears still streaming down my face, I stared at the elf in confusion. “Bring him back to me? What do you mean?”

“It was my gift,” Donella explained, her eyes downcast. “But the queen cast a spell on me when she had me imprisoned. It made me forget. I know what powers I possess and I can still feel them swirling inside me, lying dormant. But the spell that Orlaith cast…” Donella shook her head. “I could have helped him, but I’ve forgotten how to use my powers. I’m afraid they are lost to me forever.”