The Hunter's Prey (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 5) (11 page)

His eyes glowed brightly and the depths of his rage? There was no end to it. Swirls of dangerous blue magic moved around his body as he watched me. “Careful, witch.”

“Just like you use your hunters to do your dirty work, you will use me to bring back Lila to you, and when I do, you will try to eat her.” I emphasized the word try.

The Marid laughed. “Spirited, you are. And foolish. Both will serve you well on your dark journey.”

“And when I return victorious with my Lila, with that wonderful child, she and I will slay you.”

He scowled. “Or I could kill you now, with only the power in my smallest finger.”

“You could,” I said. “And you won’t.”

He stood, towering over me. His body lengthened and he was at least ten feet tall with his long white robes swirling around him. He raised both of his hands, palms out, and commanded me. He compelled me, with a strange form of magic that hit me, shocking and violent.

It threw me backward and slammed me against the wall. His command sang through me, urgent and bright, winding through my muscles and bones, my cells and mitochondria, and I knew it would not leave me one moment’s peace until I got Lila out of Hell. I lay on the ground in a crumpled lump and felt around the edges of that magic, testing it. It bound me well and good, though in truth? Its compulsion was not any heavier upon my soul than my own determination to get Lila back.

“Get up, witch, and do my bidding,” the Marid thundered.

I gingerly stood up and faced him. “You can open the Hell door?”

He nodded.

I closed my eyes. “Give me three days. There are a couple of spells more I must have before I go.”

“You have two.”

So be it.

I limped out of his palace, walked up the hill, and took the bus that led into the heart of downtown and back to my store.

15

The Best Part

The door to Morgan’s Ephemera stood halfway open. I paused in front of it, wondering what hunters I might find inside, or with luck, what wreckage would remain inside.

Before I stepped inside, a voice called out to me. “You have a lot to answer for, witch.”

A smile graced my face as I pushed it open and stepped inside. “And if the tables were turned, would you have brought me along, were I injured and you were being hounded by a horde of hunters?”

Merlin glared as he looked me up and down. His shirt was still torn where he had been hurt, and he wore a haunted look. I caught a glimpse of where his wound had been, and it looked well healed. He also wore a slight blue sheen around his body: his protective vitality that I had traded in my own freedom for. It looked well-made and strong.

“You have no idea the length of the hours and minutes since I saw you last. Sending me home. Do you have any idea how terrified Adam was to see me appear in the middle of our hotel room? That poor miserable boy,” he said and strode across the room in a couple of long steps. He kicked the door shut behind me and stood close.

“Adam hasn’t done anything stupid, right?” I said. “Because we can go now. To Hell. In a couple of days.” My voice sounded fluttery and out of breath.

“And then when I got here, there was a unicorn, a spider, and some foul-smelling wraith battling each other but you were nowhere to be seen.”

I nodded and looked past him at the rows of books thrown to the ground. At a pile of herbs smoldering in one corner. I smelled the stench of vapors and spider venom. The place was a ruin. And still I smiled as I returned my gaze to Merlin.

“The hunt is over, yes?” he asked and stepped closer to me. He pushed a lock of hair out of my face.

I nodded.

“And the victor?”

I swallowed. “I would not go as far to say that there was any victor of this hunt, though perhaps no loser as well,” I said, still admiring the sheen of the Marid’s protective magic around Merlin. It looked good on him. I took a deep breath, and told him everything, minus the vitality I had the Marid put on him.

“In two days then, the gates of Hell will open,” he said gravely.

I nodded.

He frowned and shook his head. “So not only will we be required to steal the most valuable creature of Hell away from the Queen and King, but when we bring her out, her terrible father will attempt to eat her.”

I nodded and breathed in the paper and leather smell of Merlin. “Yes. But Lila is mine to protect. Not yours. You don’t have to come. You can wash your hands of this and I will never, I promise you this, I will never think less of you.”

He sighed. “Why do you even say the words, lass? To pretend that I have any freedom when it comes to you. I’m coming, of course I am. For the dear girl, Lila. Who I love. And for you, my always love, my Morgan.”

I swallowed and took a step toward him. I let him wrap his arms around me. “The worst part of this life?” I whispered as I pressed my ear against his heart and heard the beautiful lub-dub of his steadfast heart. “Is how the ones you love, they tear you apart.” A great sob rose up in me, and with it, a torrent of words. “They all wear these delicate bodies that can be hurt. They live these short and brutal lives and today when you were hurt…. And the day Lila went to Hell…. They will haunt me forever and I try to make it all right. I try so hard to keep everyone safe but they aren’t. You aren’t and she isn’t and I fear how all of this will end, Merlin. I fear all the darkness will swallow us up, and I can’t imagine any of it ending well.” I began to weep with great wracking sobs.

Merlin placed one hand on my head and the other on the small of my back and pulled me closer in. He let me cry and cry. He was my desert, my ocean, vast and able to take it all in.

When my sobs finally subsided, he spoke. “Aye and that’s the truth of it, isn’t it, witch? All the glorious pain of love. Though I think it’s the best part of life, as well. And you and me? Our job is to go on battling the darkness, until we cannot. We don’t need to worry ourselves beyond that.”

I raised my head until our lips were almost touching, until all I could see of the world was Merlin. My Merlin.

“Then to Hell it is, dear wizard.”