The Goblin King (28 page)

“He must wear it.” Roan took her hand and kissed the ring he had placed there, claiming her as his for eternity. With Eliza waiting for him in Fixed Realm, he couldn’t fail. “I was thinking diamond-and-steel handcuffs.”

Chapter 16

Eliza lay on the bed in the guest room of her house. Night darkened the windows. Was it the same night she’d left? How long had she spent in the Shadowlands this time? She rolled onto her side to face the watching shadow. The goblin stood, sword in hand, waiting for her to sleep. It would have been easier to sleep if he hadn’t been watching.

Dai rolled his yellow eyes. “Go to sleep so we can get this done.”

Eliza propped herself up. She wasn’t sure she trusted Dai. While he wasn’t drinking this time, his eyes were glazed in goblin yellow, and his skin that had lacked the delicate shades of goblin-gray in the Shadowlands was now mottled. He may not be goblin, but he currently looked like a goblin. A very well armed goblin and his presence wasn’t conducive to sleep.

“I’m trying.
You’re
putting me off.”

He snorted. “If Roan were here, there wouldn’t be much sleep happening.”

Eliza bit her tongue to keep from snapping back. Dai had kept his distance in the caves, but she could feel spines of jealousy breaking through his skin each time he saw Roan and her together. He might be a condemned goblin, but Dai was a man underneath, wanting what all men wanted.

She lay back down. “Can you please put the sword away? You’re here to guard me, not kill me.”

The metal slid home with a whisper that glided over her skin and drew a shiver. Eliza pulled the blanket closer. Sleep groped around the edge of her conscious. Roan waited for her to call him to the Summerland. But she wasn’t ready to see him. If she failed, the fight was over. Their chance was gone.

“What do you think about before battle?”

Dai glared at her, never blinking. “Death.”

Her fingers tightened on the edge of the blanket. She peered into the dark. “Seriously?”

“The waste of lives.” The shadow slid along the wall. “I’ve seen too many people cut down on a fevered fancy. Blood shed over a disagreement that could have been solved by words, not weapons.”

“But if there is no other way, is that okay?” Eliza watched the shadow shrink into the chair.

Dai laughed, high, almost manic. “Don’t ask a goblin to differentiate right from wrong. The answer will never be true.”

“I’m helping Roan kill.”

“Elryion deserves to die.” Dai’s voice was like a sack full of broken glass being dragged over concrete. Bitterness made sharp edges out of his words.

“His life for yours?” She wanted to believe it was a fair trade. But she didn’t want to wake up and look at Roan with the constant memory that she had killed a man to keep her lover.

“Elryion made that deal when he set the curse. Curses require care and commitment. They must be tended. To curse someone is to bind your life to theirs until the curse is complete or broken.”

“You’ve studied magic.” Her eyelids bounced as she tried to stay awake.

“I’ve studied many things.”

Eliza nodded and yawned. Dai had had many lifetimes to learn, and then forget, anything he wanted. She forced her eyes open. Roan had kept her awake in the Shadowlands. The one short nap in his bed wasn’t enough. The lack of sleep was catching up. She would trade a month of sleep for one more hour of certainty.

“Will this work?”

The goblin shrugged. “If it does, we are fools for not trying sooner. If it fails, then we have lived for as long as we can.”

“Roan thinks he will get stuck in the Shadowlands.” It was why he’d insisted she leave and have Dai at her side as a precaution. When she’d argued, he told her she would be a distraction. Distraction brought death. They all had their role to play. The stage was set.

Dai had found the diamonds. Roan had spent all but his last fragment of soul on making the handcuffs for the druid. She had to lure the druid close enough to put them on. It all seemed so easy, except she had never done anything so dangerous in her life.

“We don’t know what will happen. Nineteen centuries is a long time to be alive and not quite human.”

“You aren’t worried for your brother?”

Dai sighed. “Of course I am. He is the only family I have.”

The sting poked a hole in the fine fabric of sleep. She’d been so busy thinking about her possible loss that she’d not seen Dai was facing the loss of what was left of his family. She’d been there and survived. They would survive together and find a way to get Roan back. She lifted her head. No yellow eyes glowed in the corner. He’d closed them. Sometimes it was easier to be blind to reality.

Eliza whispered, “If the curse breaks and he gets stuck, you can stay here.”

There was silence from the shadow lurking in the corner. She’d offended him. He didn’t like her, so he certainly wouldn’t want her help.

Then he spoke and his words sounded more like the rustling of leaves still on the tree, soft and full of longing as they reached for the sun. “Thank you. I’ve spent so long as a goblin, I’m not sure I can live in this world.”

“Neither am I.” She yawned. A world without magic, love, and Roan would be as colorless as the Shadowlands.

Eliza blinked. She lifted her hand against the sunlight washing the meadow with gentle heat. She’d fallen asleep. She didn’t need to speak his name. Thought alone was enough for Roan to appear.

He smiled, but it was tight. He watched the sky for clouds and birds. “I can’t stay.”

As he spoke, the grass at his feet turned brown. The Summerland dying from his touch. Deer grazed near the trees. They lifted their heads at the sound of his voice as if sensing the coming danger. Roan handed her the handcuffs, his hand clasping hers. The diamonds revealed their true fire as they caught the sun and held the heat in their heart. But they were still cool to touch, and the steel was heavy in her hand.

She lifted her gaze from the handcuffs. Roan’s blue eyes challenged the sky of the Summerland in brilliance. Her dreams were tied up with him. Without his touch she would die. She reached up for a quick kiss, yet he dragged her close and she couldn’t hold back. Her hands disappeared in his hair. Lips went from gentle to crushing. She needed Roan more than air. His armor was hard against her skin. The thin fabric of her pajamas offered no protection, but there was too much between them and they were out of time.

Roan loosened his hold and ran the back of his hand over her cheek. “I’ll see you in the Fixed Realm.”

Her lips burned and her eyes stung, but she forced a smile. Then he was gone. Where he had been standing, the grass grew back, breaking through the ground and uncurling in a few heartbeats as if he had never stood there. Among the green blades were tiny pink flowers. They grew only where Roan had touched.

Eliza picked one. The pink flower was no bigger than her thumbnail. She tucked it behind her ear and sat down to wait with the handcuffs tucked under her leg. As her fingers traced the curved edge, she realized Roan had never given her the key. The sun lost its warmth as she realized why—the druid would die with them on. She removed her hand from the cuff and tried to enjoy her surroundings. She was one of the few people who got to enjoy the beauty of the Summerland.

It was the same as it had always been. The same as the day Roan had brought her here to give her the bead when she was sixteen. She understood why now. He hadn’t wanted her to see him as a goblin. So instead she’d seen him dressed in his usual black, armed like a warrior. No living man could ever match up with the memory he’d left her with. No man would ever be able to live up to the reality. She wouldn’t be able to come back here if she knew he wasn’t waiting. Would she ever be able to dream again without him?

No, this had to work. All curses could be broken no matter what Roan said. But a kiss hadn’t worked, and her offering to be queen and lying with him hadn’t worked. The Summerland offered no hints.

Around her, deer grazed. Butterflies dressed in impossibly bright hues danced over the meadow. The sky remained cloudless. It was like a kiddie cartoon. And she was bored…well, not bored exactly, but waiting was dragging out the inevitable. Did the druid know of the plan?

She swallowed and checked her watch. The hands spun with no regard for the passing of time. Was she really waiting when nothing in the Summerland changed?

Eliza plucked half a dozen of Roan’s pink flowers. She could make her own measure of time. With her nail she split the emerald green stem then threaded another flower through it. The wait would be measured by the length of the pink flower chain.

A crown rested on her hair and a bracelet hung off each wrist before she was out of flowers. She ran her hand over the place where Roan had stood, but no trace of him remained. The grass darkened as if thrown into shadow. Eliza looked up. She didn’t need to shield her eyes—the sun was a pale disk smothered by gray clouds. The Shadowlands was coming for her.

The crow swooped through the sky, death and decay rolling behind him in a tide of unstoppable gray. The deer lifted their heads. As the wave of death reached them, their sleek, fat bodies thinned so bones pushed hard against their patchy pelt. These were the animals that roamed the Shadowlands, animals that spelled hunger and starvation at the end of a hard winter. These were the animals Roan and his men had hunted to survive.

The dying grass swept toward her and surrounded her. Eliza forced herself to remain sitting. There was no sense in running from the druid. The crow rushed past. Feathers hit her cheek.

She turned and yelled, “Kill me. I want to die. Set me free.”

The words sounded like lies to her ears, but the crow turned sharply. Eliza turned to face the waiting bird. She crossed her bare toes and hoped Roan was listening and really nearby in case the druid killed her before she could snap on the handcuffs.

“The Goblin King has trapped me. He seeks to keep me. Help me…please.” Out of her mouth came Roan’s words, carefully crafted to appeal to the druid’s vanity, his belief in his superior power and his hatred of Roan.

The bird landed. Feathers shook and a man appeared. He wore a white robe and plain boots. He’d never updated his look, or maybe he couldn’t since he hadn’t left the Shadowlands in nineteen hundred years. His curse had bound him to the Shadowlands, and unlike Roan, he wasn’t goblin so he couldn’t use people’s nightmares as a means to visit the Fixed Realm. She squashed the pang of pity that tried to gain hold on her heart. This man would kill her without thought if it meant he would be free.

“How do I break his hold? I don’t want to be a goblin queen.”

The druid approached. His face was blank, colder than the gray dust beneath her knees. He squatted in front of her and reached out with his bony hand to grasp her chin. Staring into his eyes was like peering through the empty socket of a skull. Only shadows lurked where once a man had been. Iced nails scraped down her spine, touching each nerve and drawing it tight.

“Only death can grant freedom. Your choice, his or yours.”

Eliza swallowed. Her fingers closed on the handcuffs. All she had to do was latch them over his wrist. They would close and lock. Her heart slowed, pumping strange, thick blood through her limbs. Her muscles obeyed but every action was delayed.

“Or maybe he should choose.” The druid turned her head as if studying her. “Shall we find out whose life he values more?” He leaned in close, his fingers caressing her cheek, and he whispered in her ear, “He’s goblin, so I think we both know the answer.”

Her body caught up with her mind. She slid the handcuffs from under her leg and wrapped the metal around the wrist of the hand gripping her face. The cuff snapped closed around the druid’s arm and shrunk until it cut into his skin.

The druid yanked his hand back. “What is this? What manner of trickery?” He clawed at the steel. His face twisted as he tried to comprehend what had happened.

Eliza scrambled away. Her feet hit something solid, and she glanced over her shoulder. Sword drawn, gun holstered. She knelt at the feet of her warrior. Roan touched her hair. His hand was gentle, but his fierce gaze remained on the druid. Then she fell until the dream became reality.

Her body jerked awake with the impact. The mattress was as hard as stone. She sat up, her breath burning her lungs. The shadows in her bedroom swelled, taking the shape of a goblin. A sword cut through the moonlight and stopped one inch from her neck.

A scream caught in her teeth. Her eyes were wider than the attacking goblin’s.

“What happened?” Dai lowered the sword.

Eliza swallowed. Her throat was rough like sandpaper. “He sent me back.”

“Did you cuff the bastard?”

She nodded.

Dai slammed his sword into his sheath. He held his hands out in the silvery light. They both watched, looking for a pinkening of skin that would mark the end of the curse. Seconds stretched out into years as the world held its breath, waiting for the return of the last Decangli king.

***

Roan swung his blade as he stalked toward Elryion. If he used magic, his soul would crumble into dust. One wrong step and he would be taken by the depthless abyss. If the diamond had failed to work, Elryion would have already flown away. But the diamond held him trapped. For the first time in too many years, Roan had the upper hand. The druid was his for the killing.