Intuition: The Premonition Series (61 page)

“When did I roll my eyes?” Buns asks absently, pacing the room a little too fast to look normal.

“During the binding ceremony when Reed was saying his vows to me. Zephyr grunted and when I looked over at you, you rolled your eyes,” I explain while I try to sit on the chair near the desk again. I’m finding that it’s harder than I expected as I fidget on it with nervous energy, my knee bouncing up and down in agitation.

“Oh, that,” she says with a little smile on her face as she stops pacing. “Well, Reed’s vow to you was a little more elaborate than your vow to him. You will have to ask him to translate it for you later— when you’re alone.”

“Can you give me a preview of what to expect?” I ask with curiosity.

“Sweetie, you know that he’s a Power, right?” she says. Whenever she begins a statement with that sort of preamble, I know I’m in for an earful.

“Uh huh,” I reply.

“Well, he had to tell you what kind of warrior he is. You know… ‘I will eviscerate your enemies and sear them in the fires of agony’ blah, blah, blah—‘if they dare speak your name I will cut out their tongues’ blah, blah, blah, and then he essentially swore the same vow that you did,” she says, grinning at me.

I shake my head because I should have known it would be something like that. “He is such a romantic, my man,” I remark with sarcasm and we both laugh until we almost cry. But when we quiet, anxiety comes back and I listen hard to all of the sounds going on outside my door.

We give up all attempts at small talk and speculation after the fourth hour of waiting with no word from Reed or Zephyr. I eat another protein bar that Buns hands me while trying to listen for any sounds of their approach. I open my door a couple of times to see if I can see them below, but I only see the angels that have been assigned to guard my room pacing up and down the interior balcony. There are other guards posted on the exterior balconies, just above and below the French doors, to make sure that I don’t leave. Reed really shouldn’t be concerned about my going anywhere because this is basically a dungeon in the sky for me.

Just when I am finishing my water, I hear an unusual sound outside my door that leads to the interior of the Chateau. It sounds like a heavy
thump,
and then nothing for a few seconds. I look at Buns to see if she has heard it, too. She nods in quiet assent to my silent question. Tiptoeing to the door, I stand just by it, listening. At the same time, Buns retrieves the jeweled dagger from the bag she brought with all of her supplies. The doors to the balcony are closed, so Buns goes to stand near them.

A soft knock sounds against my door. Looking at Buns across the room in silent question, she lifts her shoulders, indicating that she doesn’t know what to do. “Yes?” I ask in a soft tone.

“Genevieve?” a familiar voice says. Every hair on my body stands on end at the sound of it. Backing away from the door, I look around with wild eyes for a place to hide. Running to Buns, I grab her wrist, tugging her to the bathroom where she gazes at me with fear in her eyes in response to the fear she is seeing in mine. Pushing her in the shower, I hold my finger to my lips, silently begging her to be quiet. I close the curtain on her, hurrying back out of the bathroom and closing the bathroom door behind me.

“What’s the password?” I ask through the door, trying hard to buy time to think. I see the dagger on the floor by the balcony doors so I run to retrieve it.

“Banjax?” the voice says as he pushes the door of my room in without effort. It takes everything that I am, not to cower when I see Faolan, Lachlan, and Declan walk into my room in one of the highest turrets of a fortress swarming with Power angels.

“Wow…you see what I’ve done here? I crashed the gates of this exclusive club and now they are letting anyone in.” I say, watching my hulking Gancanagh bodyguards casually enter my room. “How did you find me?”

Declan sniffs the air around him and looks at me, smiling. “We followed yer blood. ’Tis everywhere. How long did ye bleed before dey decided ta help ye?” he asks. I shrug. “I can smell it on dat knife ye are holding right now. Did ye cut yeself?” he asks. I nod because I’m not about to tell him it was from a binding ceremony.

“Ye see, Genevieve, ye can na trust da
aingeals.
Dey are no good for ye. Ye need a family. Ye need us. We are here ta rescue ye,” Declan says offhandedly, approaching me while scanning the room with indifference. “Dis is kind of a crap room dey gave ye. Dey must na know who ye are,” he states emphatically, shaking his head in disgust.

“What do you mean? Who am I?” I ask with a wary look, glancing around at their faces, completely baffled.

“Ye are our queen,” he replies with absolute seriousness, his pale face registering not a hint of doubt or humor. “We are here ta take ye home,” he adds, picking up the bag that Buns had brought with her and asking, “ye need dis or can we leave it for da next poor bastard who has ta stay here?”

“How come I can’t smell you and why don’t you feel cold to me like you normally do?” I ask Declan, trying to keep fear out of my voice and buy time until I can figure out an evasion plan. Declan doesn’t seem to notice my fear as he studies my room with a perplexed frown; he opens the drawers of the desk to see what they contain, looking puzzled by what he finds.

“Caul? Oh, ye know we’re faeries…’tis magic,” he replies nonchalantly. “We will teach it ta ye when ye become one of us. Are ye ready ta go now?” he asks as he gives up his search for anything that interests him and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. All three of them are standing around me now, waiting for my answer.

“What if I said I would like to stay a little bit longer?” I ask, watching their faces for their reactions.

Declan’s frown deepens. “Brennus said ye might na want ta come back. He is afraid he might have hurt ye a wee bit too much when he tried ta change ye,” Declan says, almost apologetically, which shocks me until I think that they will probably say anything to get me to agree to go with them.

Then, Lachlan chimes in, “He feels really bad about dat. ’Tis jus dat he is always trying ta create soldiers and he did na really know how he should create a queen.”

“And he has never tried ta change an
aingeal
before—jus faeries, so he admits it may have been a wee bit harsh for ye,” Faolan adds. “Finn told him dat he would have ta go easier on ye dis time, or ye might end up hating him.”

Faolan smiles at me. “He wants ye ta know dat he’s na gonna make ye change right away when ye come back. He said he’ll let ye decide when ye’re ready—if ye do na take too long because he really misses ye.” Faolan says, and I’m aware of what he means when he says Brennus misses me. Faolan leans nearer to me and nudges my side, making me flinch as he adds conspiratorially, “He’s so obsessed wi’ ye dat he was going ta come wi’ us today, but Finn talked him outta it.” I look at him and he raises his brow, like I should be flattered by being the object of Brennus’ obsession instead of being completely freaked out, like I am right now.

“Well, you can tell Brennus for me that he did hurt me, quite a lot actually, so I really don’t want to come back. Tell him he should choose a new queen,” I reply, putting my hands on my hips and looking at them with a stern expression.

They all grin at me while Lachlan says, “Brennus is so lucky. Do ye have an
aingeal
friend dat ye can introduce me ta, Genevieve? I want one jus like ye.”

Declan seems to be getting bored with our conversation when he sighs, “Come now, Genevieve, we have ta leave before our enchantment wears off and we have every bleedin’
aingeal in
da place in here.”

“No. I’m not going with you. You should leave before they find you,” I retort, backing away a step when Declan takes a step nearer to me. “Don’t make me toss you out of here, Declan,” I add, trying to sound tough.

“Ach c’mon, Genevieve. Do na be a bleedin’ hallion all yer life. Ye know we can na go back wi’out ye. He loves ye. Ye have ta come,” Declan says. He is able to grab me when I’m momentarily distracted by an ominous whistling sound that is followed by the entire room shaking violently, like an earthquake has rocked the island. My eyes must be huge because when the fellas look at me they all burst out laughing over my reaction.

Declan squeezes my hand in his. “Do na fret, Genevieve. Dat was jus a wee distraction set off by da fellas so we can get ye outta here wi’out dem harming ye. Brennus was going ta clear da
aingeals
outta dis place and give it ta ye as a present, but den he decided dat he did na like da way dey were treating ye, letting ye bleed like dat for so long. He tought he would jus burn da place down for ye—ye know, as a gift,” Declan says, tightening his grip on my hand in his and talking conversationally. “Did Brennus or Finn tell ye dat we deal in arms? It started off as a hobby, but ye know ’tis really quite lucrative. A couple more rockets and ye will never recognize da place,” he says with a smile, while leading me to the balcony doors and onto the balcony. My heart is in my throat. Reed is in the other part of the Chateau, the part that they probably hit with their rocket.

“Now we are jus going ta go for a wee bit of a dip. Can ye swim?” Declan asks me, but before I can answer him, he says, “No matter. I’ll be holding on ta ye and I…” Before Declan can finish what he is saying, his grip slips from mine as he is plucked from my side on the balcony. My eyes widen as Declan is hurled downward toward the gulf below.

I rush to the railing of the balcony, looking over it just in time to see Declan crashing into the water below. I turn back around as Lachlan rushes toward me. He never makes it near me before his feet leave the ground and his body is sent into the gulf, just like Declan. Looking up, I see charcoal-colored wings beating just out of sight of the doors. Faolan tentatively sticks his head out the door, but he doesn’t even see Reed coming as Reed pulls him out by his hair. Faolan does a couple of flips in the air before making it over the balcony railing on his way toward the gulf.

In an instant, I’m in Reed’s arms, pressing tight against his chest as he speaks to me in Angel. His heart is thumping hard as his hands slip over me, making sure I’m not injured. Finding nothing out of place, he pulls back from me so he can see my face. I must look scared because he presses me back into his chest just as another rocket hits the building somewhere to the west of us. “Buns!” I exclaim, remembering that I had left her inside in the bathroom.

“She is with Zephyr. The Gancanagh were distracted by you and she was able to slip out of the bathroom and find us.” Reed says, holding me back from running back into the Chateau to look for Buns.

“Hold on to me, we are leaving,” he says with a grim look as he waits just long enough to make sure I’m ready before he leaps into the air. I see the destruction to the Chateau from our lofty height. Gaping holes mar two of the sides that face the water as massive, billowing black clouds of smoke pour out of them. The side of the Chateau that my room is on is still untouched. Hundreds of super fast boats that look like hydrodynamic, floating torpedoes and wave runners swarm the Chateau. Pale-face fellas that can only be Gancanagh pilot them. Brennus brought some of his army with him to rescue his queen.

Swarms of angels are flying around in the destruction of the Chateau as the rhythm of automatic gunfire rattles off near the water. I shut my eyes, not wanting to see the fight going on beneath me.
Brennus has been busy.
I think as a surge of terror hits me.
Just how long has it taken him to create all of those soldiers? Is that what he was doing in the mines? There were dozens of cells down there. Do they have an agenda? Have they been finding faeries and bringing them down there for decades to create this army? Did he turn all of them or did he have help?
I had no idea he was this powerful. He told me he was, but I didn’t comprehend the scale of power he was talking about.

I’m surprised I’m alive at all. Brennus could have crushed me so easily, but he didn’t. By standing up to him, I have won his affection and now he wants me back in one piece, so he can break me again. He had been planning on making me his pet when all this began, but now he wants me for a queen.

In a matter of minutes we are on the airstrip of the island. Zephyr meets us just outside the small hangar that had housed his aircraft. They speak rapidly to one another, and as I look around, I note that the Gancanagh have been here already. They disabled all of the aircraft that were out in the open by puncturing the tires on the landing gear and the large hangar is smoldering as flames lick the sides of it. The hangar Zephyr’s jet was in is well on its way to becoming an inferno, too, but Zee had managed to pull the plane out before it had been too late to do anything about it.

Boarding the plane immediately, Zephyr disappears into the cockpit along with Reed. Buns bounces off her seat in a fraction of a second, hurling herself at me.

“I’m sorry I left you there,” she says in a frantic tone. “I was afraid they would touch me and I would do whatever they told me to do. I went for help and I ran into Reed and Zee on their way to your room, but—” she says so fast I can hardly understand her, “they think you’re their queen!” she says in shock, pulling back from me to scan my face.

“Yeah,” I agree, and then I have to make a grab for the chair near me when we lurch forward as the plane moves precipitously.

I sit down in the seat facing the one Buns has fallen into. We both claw at the seatbelts that dangle loose from the seats, pulling them onto our laps as we speed along the ground like a massive cyclone. The jet bounces along the runway, picking up speed rapidly for the ascent into the air. Shooting into the sky, things crash in the kitchen as they slam into each other behind the closed cabinet doors because of the almost vertical ascent we are making.