The Toll (68 page)

“
Dubhglass, what’s happened
to you?” Niniane murmured, making to rush towards him, but he
sneered at her concern, waving her off.

“
None ‘o’ yer business,
woman, best ye mind it.”

Flinching at the rebuke, she hastily
stepped back, head dropping, long blonde hair hiding her expression
as she stared down at her toes, peeking up from the hem of her
dress as she wriggled them self-consciously.

“
Och, dinna go playin’ the
wounded mum now, eh.” Ketik clucked his teeth with his tongue,
giving her a tsk. “No one’s buyin’ it no more, so ye can cut that
crap right outta there.”

Our bearer did love to play the
innocent, and yet she willingly bedded one man, and then another,
then another, in a fruitless pursuit, trying to break the blasted
curse, her curse, bearing babe after Ornthren babe and crying over
it.

Not because she’d doomed another poor
sod to a life of living in the shadows, seeking out baubles to keep
our magic and the protection our runes offer us going strong, but
because, once again, she’d yet to break a curse you simply
couldn’t.

All for what? A normal
babe? One that won’t hate her later? To fix her broken sons?
Pfft. Selfish, is what she is. If she’d been
smart, she’d have stopped trying decades ago.
At least, that’s how I saw fit to see it.

Ornthren used to roam Under
in the hundreds.
Hundreds.
Their roars once echoing throughout these caves.
Now, after years of beings tricked and hunted down, slaughtered by
Fae and humans alike for whatever purposes they sought, as far as
we’re aware, we’re all that remains. It was a life grim with
reality, watching your brethren picked off—your kin—for one bloody
reason or another. Or watching as they’d rather die, succumbing to
the mate-bond-madness, locked away in a magicked cell, than play
puppet to some sick Caster’s fancy.

Hadn’t Niniane had enough?
Buried enough of her own flesh and blood? When would it
end?

All this weighing on me for so long,
dragging me down, I’d judged Nugget unfairly. My bias had blinded
me to it.

Not anymore. I had a lot to atone for,
though I knew it would never be enough.

And she’d saved me. My
chest ached until I thought I might keel over right there,
swallowing down the lump of emotions clogging my throat.
She saved me.

I dinna deserve her, but
she’d saved me.

Zeme, waiting impatiently, foot
tapping the ground steadily, let it fall a smidgeon too hard,
clapping her hands together when everyone present jumped at the
small tremor that rocked the floor.

“
Now,” she called, smiling
just enough to look convincingly happy about it, “since I have your
attention, I’d like you to all shut your traps and listen
up.”

As several sets of eyes set their
sights on her, narrowing balefully, her face remained impassive,
unaffected, demure smile in place, as if nothing was amiss, while
she leaned forward. Tapping the hooded figure sharply on the
shoulder, we all waited.

When nothing happened but a throat
clearing from deep within the recesses of the material’s cowl, she
gave the cloaked figure a nudge.

Leaning her own towering frame down,
she whispered through the side of her smiling lips, “This is the
part where you talk.”

Nodding slightly, hands lifted to fall
from the wide, overlong sleeves masking the secret guest’s
identity. Deeply tanned fingers, long and slender like a woman’s,
but big enough to be a man’s, appeared.

“
Oh, right, sorry.”
Fidgeting with the material, tugging at the neck, a series of small
grunts escaped the figure well cloaked, the tone female and
light.

Done with this shit, I marched over,
ripped the ties, and tugged her hood off.

Bright green eyes, startling in their
intensity, the same, if not more than Zeme’s, widened, a thick mass
of spiraling wild white hair peeking out, framing a dark, olive
toned, gently rounded face. To finish off her look, two very human
looking ears peeked out, except, upon quick, closer inspection, I
could tell someone had reshaped the top halves, where she most
certainly, at some point in her short life, must have had pointed
tips.

She was nothing compared to Nugget in
my mind, though some other fool might disagree. Tall and well
built, where my bonded was smaller, more fragile, and softly
rounded in all the places, this female most assuredly was not. No,
beautiful to others, perhaps, but my Nugget she was not.

“
What do ye fuckin’ what,
g’pra dra?” I wasn’t stupid, I knew a damned hybrid when I saw
one.

What?
I’d say Caster, maybe Fae, from her scent alone. Mm. A mix of
the two and something else, something earthy and sharp, like the
wild creatures that roamed the black woods of the Hill we often
hunted, but I sensed no potential threat from her, powerful as her
lot could be, so I’d let it pass, for now. I’d hear what the little
g’pra dra—
lost one
, in the old language—had to say first, then I’d see if I let
her live.

Even a mixed breed like herself should
know better than to enter and Ornthren lair uninvited, magicks
within her be damned.

Eyes lifting boldly, brazenly to meet
mine, flashing silver and then back, tilted stubbornly to glare
into mine. When her gaze drifted towards my neck, she
blinked.

Shoving past me with much more
strength than a weak human, she marched right over to my bonded’s
body, checking her wrists and neck.

I was just about to pull her off when
she spoke.

“
Oh, bright eyes,” she
whispered, pressing her forehead gently to Nugget’s pale, sparsely
freckled one, murmuring something too low for even Ornthren ears to
pick up. “What did you do, you crazy lump?”

Pulling back, expression tight, she
practically ran at me, determination plain enough on her face. Arms
shooting up, I caught them, thinking she meant to wrap them around
my neck and strangle me, picking her up by her clasped wrists in my
palm, ready to toss her off.

“
Hey!” She fought,
writhing, arms flailing, legs kicking. “Release me, you fool! We
need to help her.” As she fought harder, her bare feet grazing my
shin, I simply held her out farther.

“
And you mean to...
strangle the ‘help’ out of him, or into him... my dear?” Bo
frowned, gesturing to the annoying female.

“
Yeah. What the fuck’s that
on about?” Ketik’s lips pulled up in disgust while Quaz let out a
warning growl.

“
Anyone care to explain
what’s going?” Bo waved his hand, vaguely gesturing at the cursing
she-devil currently spitting and hissing at me, barking mad, then
the rest of the group gathered.

From the look on Niniane’s face,
whether she was in the know or not, she wasn’t telling, a
speculative look on her face.

Phaestus was glaring down at his
fellow Elemental, probably wishing Water to a mortal, human body so
she could trip and fall flat on her face for once, just to see how
it felt.

“
You said the one Zeme
found could help,” Fire muttered, his tightly clenched fists
hardening as they started to hiss and smoke.

“
I did,” Niniane murmured
quietly, and that was it.

All eyes turned to Mother Nature and
she blinked. “Don’t look at me?” Finger lifting gracefully, she
pointed to her abundant chest delicately. “I brought her here,
didn’t I? As I’d been asked. My part here, as far as I’m aware, is
done.”

“
Why the fuck’s the rest of
ye here, then?” Ketik grumbled.

“
Oh, for the- Would you
just put me down!” Shrugging, I opened my hand, smirking when the
annoying, fair haired, wriggling wench yelped and flopped back on
her ass, tangling in her long cape as it tried to swallow her up
hole. “I can’t- Ugh! You- Argh! Arg!”

Yanking her to her feet, I ripped her
hood off, jerking her head back as she hissed like a wet
cat.

“
Now, lassie, can ye fix me
mate, or was ye just blowin’ smoke up Elemental asses, eh? Dinna
have time for this shit.”

Pushing her hair out of her eyes, gone
silver as she bared her little white human teeth in some semblance
of what was possibly, to some, a feral smile.

Unperturbed, I leaned down, growling
hard, getting into her face.

“
I don’t know what she ever
saw in you. You have the personality of a wet rag, and you’re
nothing but a bag of skin and bones!” She spat the words at me and
reached up, and with one swift, harsh wrench, ripped the leather
necklace encircling my neck right off.
“This.”
She waved the braided bit
around, still intact. “Should have been your first
clue.”

Our bond came rushing to the fore,
slamming me back with the force of it.

My breath left me and I gasped, back
scraping against the red cave wall as I stumbled along it, slapping
a hand to my chest.

Eyes wide, I felt her, as if she’d
crawled right up inside of me, breathing life into my empty soul.
That warm, all-encompassing feeling she brings out in me, soothing
me down to my bones, had me shuddering and then shivering as it
flashed through me.

My eyes immediately raked over my
bonded and I ran to the bed. Would it work? Will she
wake?

“
Nugget? Nugget, luv, will
ye wake for me now, eh?”

When she didn’t, I almost lost it. If
not for the soothing reassurance of our connection, I might
have.

Scooping her up in my arms, careful of
the sealed flesh by her neck, high on her shoulder, I nuzzled her
cheek with mine, humming low in my throat, ignoring the catches in
it every so often as my eyes started burning.

Squeezing my orange eyes shut tight, I
murmured to her softly, uncaring, at this point, of our audience.
“Come back to me, love. Come back to me, eh?” I kept it up, tense,
hands rasping over her hair as I crooned to her softly. Swallowing
past the thickness in my throat, I grumbled at the stranger
watching us steadily, shifting just enough to glare at her, “I
thought ye said it would work?”

“
It is.” Nibbling the top
of her thin lip with her bottom teeth, she admitted quietly, “Erm,
it’s supposed to.” The glimmer in her eyes, a light sheen of
moisture rimming along the tip, had me growling.

“
Quit growling, Troll,” a
sweet, tired voice murmured groggily, batting weakly at my wrist as
she let out a loud, jaw cracking yawn. “You’ll wake the
baby.”

“
Hah!” Shouting, curling
around her, I took her lips rougher than I’d intended, only pulling
back when she demanded to be let up for air.

Gasping when I finally let off, warm
blue eyes, deeper than the ocean and brighter than any sapphire I’d
yet to see, smiled up at me.

“
You’re back,” she
whispered, awe and no small amount of pleasure tipping those full,
pink lips, fingers reaching up weakly to trace the shell of my
ear.

Nuzzling into her hand, my lips
stretched so wide I thought my face might split. All those things I
wanted to say to her, swore I would, came rushing back with a
vengeance.

Leaning down, meshing her
soft lips with mine, I murmured against them quietly, “Dinna think
ye’d be rid of me stubborn arse so quickly now, did ye? I’m like a
boil on yer dimpled ass, Nugget, deep and set in good. Stuck wit’
me, ye are, woman.
Stuck.”

Snorting, her fingers fell away and
she rolled her eyes.

At the twinkle in my eyes, she
muttered, “Oh, please, troll-lover, tell me more.”

Grinning, I leaned down, growling into
her throat, “Ye’re mine, wench, for forever.” Ignoring the soft
feminine sighs, and a few unimpressed snorts, I didn’t care. My
bonded saved me, in more ways than one, and I’d spend the rest of
my life making it up to her, the only way I know.

“
Well, at least you brushed
your teeth, right?” The little chuckle, while small and innocent,
teasing, was full bodied and rich, warming me down to my oversized
toes.

Grunting, a little growl rumbled my
chest. “Nugget?”

“
Hmmm?”

Hmm. Was my woman
purrin’?
“Keep it up an’ I’ll blister yer
arse black an’ blue.”

Sighing heavily, her eyes slowly
shutting closed, small smile still tipping her lips, she whispered,
“And there’s my grumpy bonded. Tsk-tsk, husband-mate, there are
others around. Someone might think you actually care.”

A single, grey, hairless brow arched.
“An’ ye think a room full of arseholes will stop me? Love yer
naggin arse an’ frizzy orange hair, ye dafty. Dinna ye
know?”

“
Arseholes?
Hey!” Wind took the lead in affront, but it was
Ketik who won most genuinely displeased, muttering a very
heartfelt, “Blighter.”

Rolling eyes more vibrant than the
green grass rolling the hills after the rain, Earth wasn’t one to
take offense from petty taunts. “Hardly,” she muttered dryly,
brushing her thick mane of golden brown locks, colorful leaves of
soft brown, deep red, and sun bright yellow, mixed among various
twigs and small vines, peeking throughout, off one softly rounded
shoulder.