Blood of Retribution (9 page)

A new wave of murmuring spreads through the crowd as they absorb this Fairy’s words.  I believe it’s dawning on them that dark spell or not, I am still the Princess of this realm.  I suspect striking down a member of the royal family carries some pretty hefty consequences.  But I don’t think throwing my Princess weight around is the right thing to do in this situation.

“I think it was accidental,” I say, trying not to meet anyone’s eyes.

The new Fairy looks up at me with her tight green eyes, then scans the crowd.  “Is this true?” she says to no one in particular.

The murmuring starts up again and I think they’re going to agree with my version of the story when an older Fairy woman with grey hair that only has remnants of black left, steps forward.  “The Princess lies in an effort to spare this stupid ass from being tried for treason.”  She turns her soft, pale green eyes to me.  “Not everyone in this realm is against you.  Do not compromise your integrity because you do not believe this to be true.”

Shame washes over me.  I feel my cheeks darken probably to the color of an eggplant.  I’m thankful when Kallen reaches out an arm to pull me close to him.  “She is correct,” he says quietly.  To the Fairy who posed the question in the first place, he says, “He willingly, and without the inducement of magic, threatened the Princess’s life and laid his hands upon her with the intent of doing harm.”

Oh god, this is not happening.  I am so embarrassed by the whole situation, I just want to curl up into a ball and hide out for a week or two.  Or a year or two.  What these Fairies must think of me.  I believe the old Fairy, and that not all Fairies are against me, but I still believe the majority are and this situation is not going to change their minds.

The law enforcement Fairy drags the guy on the ground to his feet after Kallen lets his magic go.  With her own magic, she pulls his hands behind his back as if she is putting handcuffs on him.  “You are hereby accused of treason and will be brought before the King and the High Council where you will be tried fairly.  If you are judged innocent, you will be set free.”  I’m kind of surprised that she didn’t add what would happen if he was found guilty.  I hope it’s not death by firing squad or something. 

“We should go,” Kallen says quietly, “and let Naja do her job.  You and I also have much to discuss.”

Naja.  I like that name.  It makes me think of tigers in the wild.  Considering how imposing and sleek Naja is, I think it’s a perfect name for her.  What’s not perfect is the serious tone of Kallen’s voice as he says we need to talk. 

He leads me out of the crowd and we walk in silence out of the village, heading towards home.  I try to tug my hand away from Kallen’s once, fearful that he feels the same way as he did earlier, but he holds on tight.  That gives me hope.

Thinking back to the scene in the village, it dawns on me that the scribe was nowhere to be found as we left.  I wonder where he went.

Chapter 11

 We are about halfway between the village and home when Kallen stops.  I look up at him, confused.  My confusion lessens when I see his eyes full of guilt and shame.  “I am so sorry,” he says.

I look down at the ground.  “I know.”  I believe that he’s sorry.  What worries me is that there may have been some underlying truth to his words. 

A finger under my chin lifts my face so my eyes will meet his again.  As if reading my mind, he says, “Every word I said in our bedroom was wrenched out of me by the darkness.  I felt as if I was locked in a cage and the darkness had taken over my body.  It wanted to hurt you and it used me as an instrument to do so.  Please believe me when I say I regret every syllable that came out of my mouth.”  He kisses my forehead and looks into my eyes.  His eyes are glassy, like he’s fighting back tears, “Xandra, I need you to believe me.  Not one of those syllables was true.”

I want to believe him, I do.  “You just watched as the crowd surrounded me.”

Kallen’s head drops.  “I wanted to go to you.  I tried to make my body move, but I could not.”  His head comes up again.  “Until you were assaulted, then the darkness could do nothing to stop me from going to you.  You being in danger will override anything trying to hold me back.”

I stare up at him for a moment, still doubting.  Mostly out of insecurity now.  A voice from my shin breaks the tense silence that has formed.  “I think he’s a whacka and I believe him.  What’s your problem?”

A laugh escapes me, making Kallen raise his brows.  “Taz is pretty smart sometimes,” I say. 

I snake my arms around Kallen’s neck and he pulls me close.  “I love you, Xandra.  Do not ever doubt that again,” he says.  He bends down and his lips capture mine, making me forget everything else.

When he pulls back, he makes my heart lurch again by saying, “We still need to talk.”

My shoulders slump as I drop my arms back to my sides.  His brows scrunch together.  “What is wrong?” he asks.

I half laugh, but there’s no humor in it.  “In my realm, when someone says ‘we have to talk’ it’s usually a prelude to breaking up.”

Kallen chuckles.  “In this realm, it simply means we need to converse.  Besides,” he says, pulling me close again, “under Fairy law, you are stuck with me for the rest of your life.”

“My god, give it a rest why don’t ya,” Taz grumbles.  “I’m going to be ill down here from all the sickeningly sweet ooze that is pouring from you two.”

I reach my foot out and try to kick him, but he’s fast.  I think he was expecting it.  “I’m going to bed,” he grumbles, ambling off into the forest to look for a cool place to lie down.

Kallen kisses me again, long and hard.  When he pulls back this time, he says, “Have I ever shown you my favorite spot in the woods?”  There’s a gleam in his eye that has nothing to do with being in the forest.

“I thought we needed to talk,” I say, curling my fingers into the back of his hair.

“There is plenty of time for talking.”  The gleam in his eye grows brighter.  “Later.”

A shiver of anticipation runs down my spine.  “Show me,” I say with a husky voice.

Stepping back, he grabs my hand and leads me off the road and into the forest.  All the while he has a mischievous grin on his face.  When we are far enough from the road that it is no longer visible, he leads me to a humongous tree.  From its girth, I’m guessing it has to be a thousand years old. 

Backing me up against it, he kisses me again.  This kiss is hungry, as if it wants to eat away at what happened earlier. From where I’m standing, he’s doing a fantastic job.  As our hands start to wander and our bodies are yearning for each other, I feel the fabric of my tee disappear.  Kallen’s is gone as well, and when our bare skin meets I’m surprised there aren’t sparks from all the combustible heat we’re giving off.

“Eeeeeewwwww!” the voice of a young child says from behind Kallen.  Obviously, we were both too distracted to sense the kids coming.  Kids don’t register the same in our minds as adults do.

Thank goodness I still have a bra on, and in the blink of an eye my shirt is back.  I’m pretty sure the kid didn’t see anything except Kallen’s bare back.  When we’re put back together, Kallen turns to find the source of the ‘eew’.

There are actually three kids standing behind Kallen.  The smallest one is male and he’s the one who had spoken.  I would guess him to be seven or eight.  The other two are a little older than him and are female.  Their little cheeks are bright pink and there’s a knowing glint in the eyes of the oldest one who looks to be about twelve.

“Um, hi,” I say weakly as I peer from behind Kallen’s torso.  I slap Kallen’s chest to try to get him to stop laughing.  “This isn’t funny,” I whisper.  “We may have scarred them for life.”

This only makes him laugh harder.  Turning to the children, he says, “Go on home now.  I am sure your parents are wondering where you are.”  The oldest girl gives him a ‘whatever’ look, but leads the other two away.

I am beyond embarrassed.  “We should go home.”

Kallen nods, still amused.  “That is probably best.”

I shake my head at him.  “You’re terrible.” 

With that, I teleport us back to the mansion; into the kitchen, not to our bedroom, where I would really like to be.  I still have the darkness from Kallen that I have to get rid of.  I know that would be pushed completely out of my mind if we went directly to our bedroom and I don’t want it to take root.  I get a disappointed look from Kallen when he realizes where we are until his body collides hard with another one.  Suddenly, both he and Garren are on the floor, tangled up in each other.  I must have put us directly in Garren’s path as he was walking through the kitchen.  Neither of them is very happy with me right now.

“Oops,” is all I can manage without giggling.  I reach a hand out to Kallen to help him up.  Garren is on his own.

“Perhaps you could limit your appearances to a certain area of the house to avoid physically marring the rest of us?” Garren grumbles as he stands up and straightens his clothes.

“And miss out on this fun?  No way,” I say with a grin.  He shakes his head and smiles.

“You fit in quite nicely around here with that tongue of yours,” Garren says, but he’s more amused now than annoyed. 

“What brings you two barreling back here?” he asks, moving to a stool and taking a seat.  He’s rubbing his elbow, which must have hit the tile floor pretty hard with Kallen falling on top of him.  “I thought you were spending the day doing research at the palace.”

“Haven’t you heard what’s going on?” I ask, sitting across from him.

Garren shakes his head and says sadly, “I find myself living in a void around here.”

My first thought is to suggest he move, but that would be cruel.  I know he’s only staying in hopes of winning back Isla.  “To make a long story short, I accidently let some dark magic out of some books in the archives of the palace, and it’s terrorizing the entire realm.”

Garren’s brows rise practically to his hairline.  “You are quite the overachiever.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I say.  “Apparently, my subconscious figures if I’m going to do something, I might as well go big.”

He laughs.  “Perhaps you should learn to pace yourself.”

“You are not affected?” Kallen asks abruptly.

Garren’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead again.  “Me?  I feel just fine.”

“It has been affecting everyone.  It seems odd you are free of symptoms.”  The suspicion in Kallen’s voice is screaming to be heard even if his words are spoken evenly.

Garren shrugs.  “I feel just as I did when I rose this morning.” 

“The wanker is guilty,” Taz says through a yawn, scaring the crap out of me.  He really does go wherever I do.  That’s kind of creepy.  “I say execute him and then we can take a nap.”

“I am not executing anyone,” I snap. 

Two pairs of eyes are looking at me as if I’m crazy.  “I am glad to hear it,” Garren says cautiously, like he’s afraid to stir up the crazy in me any more than it already is.

“I wasn’t talking to you guys, I was talking to Taz,” I say, realizing this doesn’t make me sound any saner.  “He wants to take a nap.”  Nope, that didn’t help either.

“He wants you to execute us so he can take a nap?” Kallen asks.

“Not you, just Garren.”

Garren’s eyes cloud with fear.  “He told you this?”

I nod stupidly.  I sure hope it doesn’t turn out that I’m imagining these conversations with Taz and it’s really me wanting to do all the crazy stuff.

Suddenly, a loud boom echoes through the house, snapping me immediately from my inner turmoil.  It sounds like it came from a higher floor and bits of plaster begin to rain down on us.  My sanity can wait; we need to see what that was.  Kallen and I both take off, his long legs besting mine as he reaches the stairs first and tears up them.  When I catch up to him at the top of the stairs, he is not moving, just staring at the spot our bedroom was only moments before.  I try to go around him, but he holds out an arm and stops me.

“We do not know what caused this or if there are more explosives,” he says flatly, still in shock.

“I believe vacating the house is prudent,” Garren says from behind me.

He and Kallen are both right.  We need to get the hell out of here because there could be more explosions coming.  God, if I had teleported us back to our bedroom instead of the kitchen, we would have been in there.  We would have been in there when this bomb, or whatever it was, went off.  Snapping me out of my shock, Kallen grabs my hand and pulls me back down the stairs.

“Should we call someone?” I ask stupidly, forgetting for a moment that technology is different here.

“I have already notified Grandmother and the King.  I believe Tabitha is with Alita, so she should be safe,” Kallen says.  When we reach the terrace, he stops again, pivoting his head in all directions as he searches for any sign of danger.  “I believe whoever did this has gone,” he says, “but we need to be cautious.”

“Cautious?  Hell, you may want to consider moving,” Garren says, looking up and down the beach as well.

“If you find this residence too dangerous, feel free to find another,” Kallen growls.

Garren looks at him in surprise.  “It is not my safety that concerns me.  This was obviously a direct attempt on your lives and I only meant that you should take every precaution so that the next attempt is not successful.”

Clearly, Kallen doesn’t believe him.  Narrowing his eyes fiercely, he says, “An empty house would work to your benefit in attempting to win back Grandmother’s heart.”