Beauty

Chapter Six

Shim felt her panic. It started like a hundred ghostly fingers brushing across his flesh, making bumps appear in their wake. He sat straight up in the chair he’d been occupying while drinking some of the tea Paige Harper had poured with a practiced hand. The young sidhe looked very much like her mother with strawberry-blonde hair and a wide smile. She appeared to be between fourteen and sixteen years of age, but she proved her maturity as Shim began to shake.

“Something is wrong.” Her hands moved as though she could feel the air around her. “It’s coming from the outside, but it’s focused on you, Your Highness.”

Someone had said the girl had a way with witchcraft, and it seemed that she was, at the very least, sensitive to psychic episodes. But Shim didn’t have time to think about it. He could feel Bron’s heartbeat as though it was his own. He was suddenly out of breath like someone had punched the air out of his lungs.

He heard Paige calling for her parents, felt Duffy’s arm on his own, but Shim couldn’t see him anymore. His vision was clouded, miles and miles away. He saw a small brownie on the ground, dirt swirling the earth beside her. A large leather boot reared back in a kicking motion.

“Damn it, Shim. Don’t!” Duffy shouted, his hand coming off Shim’s arm.

Shim tried to hold on, but Bron’s pull was so great. She called to him, demanding his fire, his protection. Shim felt his power shimmer, skimming along his skin from someplace deep inside him.

Now his own panic began to take over. He remembered the last time he’d lost control. Lach had nearly died. His brother had been marred for the rest of his life. If he lost control here, in such a small setting, he wouldn’t be able to save the men in the house. Much less the children. Gods, the Harper children were here.

He stumbled up, not quite able to see the world in front of him. He tried to concentrate. Tried to force his brain back to this reality. It was so hard because he could feel Bron’s emotion. She moved from pure terror to a rage that threatened to completely overtake him. He had mere seconds before the fire would no longer be containable. He could already sense it building. It would be a blast that flowed between him and Bronwyn, the flames shooting into both places. The Harper’s nicely kept house would become their children’s tomb.

And then he felt a calming presence. Paige. She put a hand on his elbow, whimpering a bit because she surely felt the heat in his skin. She was like a wash of cold water, quenching him briefly.

“Tell me what to do.”

Duffy’s hand was suddenly in his. “Damn me, Shim, you’re blazing hot. Come on, we need to get him outside before he blows.”

“Blows?”

He heard Paige’s shout through the chaotic mess of his brain. His world? Bron’s world? It was hard to tell what he was seeing. He held on tightly to the power, but it was growing. Bron’s need was overcoming his will. She was so strong, and she didn’t know what she was doing.

He stumbled, forcing his eyes to focus on his feet.

“What’s happening?”

It was his brother’s voice. Shim could hear feet pounding and voices calling out, but he wasn’t sure where they were coming from.

Bron was so angry. Her rage filled him. Years of impotent anger had been bottled up, and now it would not go away. His anger. Her anger. Their power.

“Damn it all.” He felt his brother’s hands on his shoulders. “Get away! Get away now!”

But his brother was still here. Lach had lost too much. Lach could die if he got caught in the fire, and it would be a big one. Grabbing on to the final vestige of his will, he pushed his brother away and ran.

He knew he was outside now, could feel the air on his skin as his clothes began to burn off.

He stopped, his vision utterly taken over by Bronwyn.

He saw a guard standing in the middle of a large crowd, a brownie child at his feet and his mercy. The guard had none. Bron’s memories assaulted him. It was so much stronger than ever before. Being on the same plane with nothing between them but miles, he could feel her power. She transmitted so strongly, but not only could she transmit, she pulled power from him.

The fire built and Shim gave in to his instincts. He forced the fire into his hands, Bron’s hands, and directed it in a thin line, trying to keep it away from the crowds. Once he let it flow, it immediately became easier to control. Flames shot from his fingertips. His skin was on fire, every inch of his body engulfed in flames, but he could control them.

The guard screamed, but the brownie Bron had been trying to save skittered away. A long breath came out of her body and then he heard a single word.

“Witch.”

Shim fell to the ground, like a puppet that had its strings cut. The flames went out, and Shim was aware that he was alone again.

His hands shook as he sat up. Something was very wrong. The connection had been brutally severed. Bron was in trouble.

Shim struggled to his feet. His naked damn feet. As his power grew, he’d found his skin could handle the flames that engulfed him, though his clothes never survived.

“Holy crap balls,” Dellacourt said, staring at the ground surrounding Shim. A perfect circle of burned grass had formed when he’d finally let his power go. “You’ve already come into your power.”

Shim’s voice was a little shaky. “I think we mentioned that.”

Dante pointed toward the woods where Shim could clearly see the line of fire he’d made when Bron had seized his power.

“It could have been worse,” Lach said, handing him a blanket. “What the hell happened? I felt something. My power surged.” Lach looked back at the porch where the Harpers stood staring. “I am so sorry. Do you have a lot of bodies buried close by?”

“What?” Rye asked. Then he took a startled step back, pulling his wife toward him.

A partially decomposed dog was trotting out of the woods, a large black dog running beside it.

“Quigley!” Rachel started trying to run toward the black dog. “Get away from that thing!”

One of the younger Harper children, a boy Shim remembered was named Patrick, stepped forward. He couldn’t be more than seven, but he looked at his fathers with outrage. “That’s Queenie! You told us Queenie went to the city.”

His brother rolled his eyes. “Dummy, don’t you know that’s what Da says when one of the animals dies? He’s too chicken to tell you so he pretends he took it to the city. Queenie got into a bad patch of berries and got herself poisoned. Da buried her in the woods.”

“Well, it looks like Da was wrong.” Patrick started to go out, but Rye held him back.

Shim wrapped the blanket around his body, his mind only half working. He looked at his brother. Lach had gone a pasty white. The dog wasn’t the only thing crawling back from wherever it had been buried. There was a horse skeleton prancing and whinnying.

“Buttercup?” Max said, with a smile on his face. “Damn, but I would know that gait anywhere. Look at you girl! You can still run. What the hell is happening?”

“Shim is a fire adept. It’s his special power.” Roan stepped up, examining the ground beneath Shim’s feet. “Lachlan is a necromancer. They came into their powers in a unique fashion. They bonded, but from a distance.”

Dante nodded. “They should have more control once a full bond is completed. But I don’t understand how it goes crazy like that. Did Shim mean to blow a path through the woods?”

“No. It was Bron. She was afraid, and then she was mad. She pulled the power out of me.”

Lach took a deep breath. “And mine always flares when Shim’s goes crazy. I’m sorry. You’ll be reburying corpses for days.”

Shim’s head was starting to clear. He was still shaky, but his ability to think and feel were coming back, and he didn’t like what was left. Lach helped him back on to the porch. “Something’s wrong with Bron.”

His brother leaned over. “I know. I could feel a bit of it, but we have to get you calm and strong again before we rush off. Tell me what happened. I could feel it. I couldn’t see it. I never see it.”

Shim knew his brother felt cut off, but he didn’t have time to deal with that now. “It’s a jumble. I know she was trying to protect a brownie. A youngling, I think. Why was a guard trying to hurt a little brownie?”

Max Harper started to walk out toward the corpse formerly known as Buttercup.

“Damn, Max.” Rye looked a little green.

Lach shook his head. “The horse won’t hurt him. It doesn’t know it’s dead. Same with the dog.”

Rachel nodded, and the kids, with the exception of Paige, ran out to greet Queenie.

Rachel frowned, her eyes on her children. “You were told that Torin is systematically killing non-sidhe.”

Shim leaned against the porch railing. “I guess I really thought you were talking about goblins and ogres. You know, the rougher creatures. Brownies are helpful. Gnomes keep the gardens growing. How does Torin think he’ll feed everyone?”

“He doesn’t care,” Rye replied. “I have no doubt he’ll enslave a few, but he’ll think that a little starvation will keep the lower classes in line. We can’t rebel if we don’t have the energy to fight.”

“I don’t understand what he’s thinking.” Shim couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. Why would anyone want to upset the balance? It was one thing to kill an ogre who threatened hundreds of villagers, quite another to systematically wipe them out. Ogres played a part, too. The same with pixies and even sluagh. They all served a purpose. The flowers would die without the pixies. The crops would struggle without the gnomes. Ogres were predators who culled herds. And they were living, thinking beings.

What was happening with Bron?

“He called her a witch.”

Lach’s eyes went wide. “What?”

Rachel Harper took a long breath. “What do you mean? You can really see her? Hear what’s happening to her?”

Shim nodded. “It can be confusing, but I know what I heard. There was a man there. He was dressed in rich clothes. He was older. Bron didn’t like him. She was a little disgusted by him. He called her a witch, and then the connection was gone. I think she was unconscious.”

He didn’t like the thought of how that had happened. He’d felt her one minute, and she’d been gone the next.

Paige Harper had paled a bit. “Witches are considered bad here. At least for the last few years. Anyone with psychic ability is labeled a witch, and Torin deals with them the same way he does non-sidhe.”

Rachel put an arm around her daughter, obviously lending her strength. “He’s taken bondmates, especially the strong ones, and they disappear. We don’t know if they’re dead or if he’s got them held somewhere. We’ve been safe here because we’re so isolated, but we’ve lost a few when we leave the village.”

Dellacourt spoke up. “According to the sluagh, he’s trained a number of consorts to turn on their masters. He’s turning over a hundred consorts to the vampire ambassadors. They’re set to go off somewhere down the line, like a number of bombs he’s planted.”

Paige put a hand to her mouth, stifling a sob. She turned and ran back into the house. Rachel sent Shim an apologetic glance and then ran after her daughter.

Rye sighed. “Paige’s best friend is a boy named Charlie. He’s the sheriff’s son. Well, Nathan was the sheriff until Torin took over. He sent another sheriff in. We killed that asshole, but Torin doesn’t know it. Two years ago, Charlie disappeared. Nathan and his partner Zane and their wife Calliope have been searching for their son ever since. He could bond. He was very strong. They tracked him to the palace, but they haven’t been able to get close.”

Shim didn’t know what to say. He knew what Torin would have to do to make the bondmates into his own personal timebombs. He would have tortured them. He would have warped them.

They couldn’t get Bronwyn out of here fast enough.

“Do you think they’ll kill her?” Lach asked, his eyes tightening.

“She’s not dead.” Shim would feel it.

Rye leaned forward, his weight on the porch railing. He watched his children play with a dead dog. “Did she take your power? I’ve heard it can happen with very strong transmitters. Paige is a receiver. She’s the one who sent Charlie’s parents to the palace. She can still hear him every day. It sounds as though your Bron is a transmitter. If she took your power and turned it on someone, then they could think she’s a witch. There will be a trial, if she’s lucky. If not, they will hold a public execution at sunset tomorrow.”

Shim closed his eyes, searching for the connection to Bron.

“Can you feel her?” Lach asked, his voice a little desperate.

Shim shook his head. “No. She’s gone. She’s not conscious, and she’s not naturally asleep.”

Simon Roan spoke up. “Most likely we can make it to her province by afternoon. If she’s being held in the town center, then at least we’ll know where she is.”

Lach shook his head. “We need to go now.”

Roan sighed. “No, Your Highness. We still have to wait until dark. It’s far too dangerous.”

Shim looked to his brother. This was a game they had played a hundred times before. Despite being princes of the realm, they’d had to deal with the fact that everyone thought they were damaged goods. This wasn’t the first time they’d been overruled by a well-meaning protector. The truth was a prince’s life was rigid, and there wasn’t much freedom to it all. What freedom they’d had, they’d taken.

Lach nodded, obviously reading his brother’s mind.

Shim turned to Roan. “I understand. Just try to make it soon.”

Lach played the part they had designated for him long ago. “What are you talking about, Shim? We need to go now. She’s in danger.”

Roan watched them, his dark eyes taking in their argument. “Prince Lachlan, your brother is being reasonable.”

Dante got in on the action. “We can’t risk the two of you by running around in broad daylight. We all agreed to this plan.”

He meant their father had agreed to this plan, and the Unseelie portion of this particular revolution depended on Lach and Shim’s survival. If they had to, Shim was pretty sure Roan was ready to lock him and Lachlan up and they would go after Bronwyn without them. It would all be for their own good, but he wasn’t having it. He wouldn’t trust anyone else with his mate.

Shim let his face fall into the perfectly amenable expression he wore every day. “They’re right, Lach. We would just put Bron in more danger.”

Lach shook his head. “You’re such a pussy, Shim. When she dies, when we end up holding her corpse instead of her warm, living body, it’s going to be on you.”

Lach stormed out, his boots ringing across the wood floor of the porch. He stalked toward the barn.

Dellacourt started to go after him. Shim put a hand out. “Don’t. I know my brother. He needs to be alone for a bit. Don’t worry. He’ll come around. He doesn’t have a choice.”

He watched as Lach disappeared. As they’d done since childhood, Lach would make the preparations needed to circumvent the people who would hold them back. Lach’s bad reputation served their purpose. And Shim’s served it as well. No one walked after Lach, preferring to praise Shim for his reasonableness.

Roan looked out over the yard where Max Harper stood talking to a desiccated horse, his face a mixture of horror and an odd sense of wonder.

“That horse.” Roan nodded toward it. “How long has it been dead?”

For a long time as far as Shim could see. There wasn’t a lot of flesh left, just sinew connecting bones.

“A year or so. Max loved that filly.” Rye smiled a little.

Roan let loose a long whistle. “It should be delicate. It shouldn’t be able to move like that. The bones should be brittle and break almost on contact. Yet that corpse is moving with ease, almost as it did when it was alive. Is that always what happens around your brother?”

Shim stared at the dead thing. He was beginning to follow Roan’s line of thinking. “They weren’t at first. The first creatures he brought back were very weak. They mostly were things like rats and vermin that lay where they died. But you buried the dog and the horse.”

Rye Harper’s eyes flared. “We buried that horse deep. Max didn’t want the bears or the mountain trolls to get her. He dug for a day and a half. Our neighbors, Rafael and Cameron, helped us dig.”

Roan whistled again. “That horse climbed from its grave when Lachlan’s power called. It makes me wonder what he could do if he focused that power. Gives me something to think about.” He started to walk into the house, but put a hand on Shim’s shoulder. “Thank you, Your Highness, for being so reasonable.”

Reason had nothing to do with it. Shim gave the vampire a placid smile. He wouldn’t be thanking him in an hour when he realized they were gone.

We’re coming, Bron.

Nothing was more important than Bronwyn. Nothing.

* * * *

Torin walked into the room. Deep underground, he could feel the cold chill in his bones. The place of hags and their black magic.

“Why do you need me here, Your Majesty?” Maris asked, her blonde head held regally despite the cesspit they were walking into.

“I told you. I want my queen by my side.” The hags had insisted that both royals be in attendance as they worked this spell. The spell that would lead him to Bronwyn Finn.

“She isn’t alive. I identified the body myself.” Maris had dressed for the occasion in all white, making her sure to stand out in the gloom. His bride had always preferred white and sunny shades, saying they were Seelie colors. Torin rather thought it a clever disguise to mask her dark, brittle heart. Maris was a vision of loveliness amid the gloom. Her very tranquility was what had made her such an effective partner in betrayal.

“Your Majesties.” Una greeted them in true form. They could be nothing less in this space. Her bland attractiveness had fallen away, and her truth made Maris stop and shudder delicately.

Glannis joined her sister. The hag’s nose had grown by three inches, and her flesh sagged everywhere. Una was thin to the point of gauntness, her cheeks hollow and lips sunken in. When she smiled, he wasn’t sure he would call it a smile, Torin noticed the hag had no teeth.

He had rarely seen them in their true forms, not since that fateful day they had saved him from the ogres and set him on his path to purity.

Of course, what they didn’t know was that once he’d won the day, he intended to get rid of them as well. But not until he had no further need of them. Until that glorious day, he hid his distaste.

“You’ve had hours and hours. What have you discovered?” Torin asked, wanting nothing more than to get this over with.

Glannis frowned, her skin sagging until he wasn’t sure how she could see. “Bronwyn Finn is alive.”

Maris gasped. “Impossible. I saw her body.”

“This body, Your Majesty?” Una asked, gesturing toward the back of the cave.

A girl sat on a log, her youthful face illuminated by the firepit in the center of the cavern. She appeared to be fourteen or fifteen, a girl trapped forever in the first blush of her womanhood. She was dressed in a fine overdress of sheer, pale pink silk. Her hair was pinned up in elegant braids. She wore a sun-shaped pendant around her throat, the crest of the Finn line.

Maris stared at the girl, moving in closer. Torin had to give his bride credit. She matched her actions to her words. She wasn’t a shrinking violet. She’d slit a few throats in her own time. His queen walked up to the girl and put a hand under her chin. She looked delicate in the firelight, the dead girl. There was no question she was dead. Her pretty gown was blood stained, and there was a hole in her belly. Yet she sat there as calmly as she could, as though she waited to be called into the temple or the schoolroom.

Maris looked at the girl before turning back to the hags. “Yes. This is Bronwyn Finn. I knew the little brat. I was forced to spend time with her after my parents sold me to the king. She used to call me sister. You think I wasn’t sure? You think I didn’t know the very Fae I was forced to live with for a year?”

Una’s matchstick hand came out, a bony finger shaking. “No, Your Majesty. That’s why it worked so well. You saw what they wanted you to see.”

Torin stepped up. He wasn’t sure what Una was going on about. His little niece sat there, her blank face staring up at him. She was the only one he’d felt a bit of remorse about. Bronwyn had been a sweet child, seemingly harmless. She’d just wanted hugs and little presents from his travels. She’d been a bit starved for affection from a father who had been too busy raising a warrior king.

But he hadn’t hesitated when he’d heard the prophecy. He’d sent his soldiers to kill the one person in the world who could take his heart. And now she sat staring up at him with nonjudgmental eyes, and he wondered who the little brat would have become. She would have been married off, perhaps to the Unseelie princes if the rumors were true. She was better off dead.

“Speak plainly, hag. I tire of these riddles. We got rid of all the witches weeks before the coup. Maris sent the queen’s personal advisor away herself. There was no one with magic here in the palace. Surely you’re not saying that my queen was derelict in her duties.”

Maris frowned his way. “I did as I was asked. I identified the workers with magical abilities and either killed them or sent them from the palace on various errands and then had them butchered. I did my job, Your Majesty. I rather fear that perhaps the hags did not do theirs.”

Glannis shrugged, and there was a rolling motion of her flesh. “We were unaware that there would be guests in the palace until after the battle. We were not allowed into these sanctified walls until the charms and wards against black magic were taken down.”

“Yes,” Maris said, latching on to the idea. “They weren’t taken down until after the battle. So there was no magic in the palace until after Bronwyn was dead.”

Una shook her head. “No black magic, Your Majesty. But white magic was always permitted in the palace of light, encouraged even. The very marble of the palace reflects good intentions and strengthens spells. Spells of protection. Spells that could hide a true face.”

Glannis brought a knife to her arm. She stood over a pitcher that bubbled over with some foamy fog. The hag sliced into her own flesh, her expression never betraying the pain she must have felt, if a hag could feel anything at all. Torin watched as black blood oozed from her veins like some noxious oil and spilled into the pitcher. Glannis smiled, showing off blackened teeth.

“Fear not, Your Majesty.” Her laughter cackled, bouncing off the walls of the cave. “I feasted well for the last days. I am filled with much blood.”

Torin didn’t betray his disgust. He simply watched as she squeezed her wrist until she was satisfied. He understood what the hag had meant. The hags feasted on the blood of traitors. Unlike vampires, they didn’t take it directly from the bodies. They would slit throats and drain the creatures and drink down what came out. Glannis had had a bit too much. If brownie and ogre blood did that to a figure, someone should put the bitch on a diet.

Still, he watched as Una chanted over the pitcher. Witches, hags, priests. All the same with the bloody chanting. It bored Torin. He would outlaw chanting when the time came. It was all he could do not to roll his eyes as the hags called out to some dark goddess with an unpronounceable name. Religion. He would definitely get rid of that.

Finally, Una pronounced the spell done and brought it to the mute dead girl. She seemed so solid, but Torin knew it was an illusion. If he stared hard enough, he could see a thin sliver of bone. It sat on the rock under the girl. Her form shimmered briefly, and the bone was solid. The hags had insisted on keeping one small piece of each dead royal in an ornate box. They had saved one of Bronwyn’s fingers. They held a piece of the queen’s skull. Only Seamus had been spared. His body had burned in the fire that had raged.

Una nodded before carrying the pitcher to the dead girl. “Reveal yourself.”

She tipped the pitcher over. The ghostly fog spread like water falling. It engulfed the girl, and as the fog cleared, someone very different sat in her place.

This girl was thinner but of the same build. Her hair was shorter than Bronwyn’s and not done up in elaborate braids. Her much darker hair was pulled back in a single bun, and her face had gone a horrible blue. There were distinct hand prints around the girl’s throat. She was dressed in plain clothes, the type worn by those who served the queen and her children.

Maris kneeled, staring at the girl. “This is not the girl I saw. This girl is named Eionnette. She was one of the girls who kept Bronwyn’s clothes. This is not Bronwyn.”

Glannis held her wrist and nodded toward the queen. “Yes. We rather thought that when we used the bone to bring back her image. Worry not, Your Highness, we’ve already tested the queen’s skull. She’s very dead. And, of course, you killed Seamus yourself.”

“Seamus is very dead. I know that.” Torin felt weary. Seamus was, once again, standing in the same room, his ghostly eyes passing judgment, though this time there was a hint of fear there, too.

“But his daughter is alive.” Una passed a hand through the ghost girl, and it faded with the fog, leaving behind a single small bone. All that was left of the girl.

Seamus’s eyes flared, and Torin was pretty damn sure if his dead brother could kill, he would have his hands around the hag’s throat.

Torin made a decision. He could scream and wail and beat his chest, but it would give his brother a sense of satisfaction. Seamus had known his daughter was alive. He’d hidden it for years. He’d hoarded the knowledge like a treasure trove of gold that kept him alive.

Torin had thought his victory over his brother complete, but there was one last battle to win.

He kept his voice calm, his demeanor kingly. “So Bronwyn killed her servant and ran?”

Glannis laughed, the sound more like a nasty cough than actual joy. “No, Your Majesty. Bronwyn Finn never showed a single talent for magic. It tends to start early. She would have shown an aptitude, and her parents would have placed her with a mentor.”

Una tapped her nonexistent lips with a bony finger. “I’ve been thinking about the Unseelie princess, Your Majesty.”

He gritted his teeth. It made perfect sense. She was the one they couldn’t vet. She was the one Maris hadn’t been able to keep out. “Then Gillian McIver is still in Tir na nÓg, too.”

Glannis smiled. “Oh, yes, Your Majesty, and she’s the reason why we’re going to find them. The Unseelie have a particular magic about them, even when the magic is pure and white. It’s a signature of sorts.”

Maris looked up, her pale skin a rosy pink in the light of the fire. “You’ve found them?”

Una shrugged. “We’ve found a strong Unseelie signature in an agricultural district. We believe that the Princess Gillian saved Bronwyn and attempted to get her out of Tir na nÓg. If we’re right, she failed, and Bronwyn has been hiding here.”

She waved a hand across the back cave wall and a small map lit up, the provinces of Tir na nÓg flaring. There were two provinces glowing with color, one stronger than the other.

“That’s Tuathanas and Aoibhneas.” Tuathanas was a bright red, but Aoibhneas was a pink. “Are they in both places? Tell me it’s Aoibhneas. I hate those freaks. The mayor is an utterly insane man, but he turns out to be quite adept at both politics and defense. I would love a good reason to torch the whole town.”

Maris rolled her eyes. It was a point of contention between them. “And where would you get your horses? Where would the palace get the confections we’ve come to love? Aoibhneas produces many of our luxuries.”

“And many of our radicals.” The sooner he killed them all the better.

“It matters not, Your Majesty,” Una argued. “The princess is in Tuathanas. The color is much brighter there, and the Unseelie magic has been going on for much longer. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other was caused by some passerby. It’s strong but temporary. See, it’s already fading, but Tuathanas is going strong. This is where to send the troops.”

His brother’s ghost was gone again.

Torin took a long breath. One last little girl to kill.

“I’ll send the troops tonight.”