Chapter Nineteen

 

Lach felt the moment the eddy wind covered the air above him. He had a split second before there were soldiers on the ground.

And his sword was back at camp. He’d walked off without his sword.

Immediately Lach reached out to try to find the dead and call them to aid, but his power was so much weaker now.

Why couldn’t he call it?

“Lach?” Bron’s voice called through the trees just as the soldiers surrounded him.

How many? Too many. And he wasn’t sure where Bron was. He struck out, his fists his only weapon. There were dead around, but only animals and small ones at that. He was in a forest, far from the cemeteries and crypts that would have brought him an army.

He felt a burning sensation at his side.

He threw his elbow behind him and caught a soldier in the face. Where was Bron?

And then a shout came up and the sound of metal on metal. There was a clanging and a roar.

Duffy wielded his axe, cutting soldiers off at the legs. They fell to their knees, large hacking wounds making it impossible for them to walk. A soldier brought his sword down on Duffy’s head, but Duffy simply kept fighting.

“Get Bronwyn!” Duffy shouted. “Get her and my Gilly out of here. This is my job, brother. This is my fight.”

Lach looked down at his little brother, so much pain in his heart, but Duffy was right.

Lach fought his way out of the throng as the first sonic boom hit. Roan had found his way to them and he and his vampires were fighting. So were the men from Aoibhneas. Nate and Zane were fighting, knives in their hands.

Bron. He had to find Bron.

And then he saw her. She stood at the clearing, facing the river. She was dressed in nothing but Shim’s battered shirt, her sweetly curved legs bare and her naked feet in the grass. She looked so young and fragile.

And the hag held her by the neck.

The hag, with her midnight-black hair and even darker eyes, smiled and held up her hand and in a wink of an eye was gone, her body pulled up by the eddy wind she’d ridden. His sweet Bron vanished.

Shim came running, but the battle was done. He looked up into the air, lifting his hands. Lach could sense what he was going to do and ran to tackle him. He hit Shim full force and held his hands down.

“You can’t use your power. You don’t know what that will do.”

“My power can’t hurt Bron,” Shim insisted. “Fire can’t hurt her. She was in the middle of that fire for minutes when we found her the first time. It knows who its master is.”

“And air? How about that, Shim? If you burn away the eddy cloud and she falls a hundred or two hundred feet, how will you save her this time?” Lach felt sick.

And then he felt her. A calm presence. Bronwyn.

Bring the war to me. Bring them all to me. She won’t kill me. You have time and I have power. I love you. I love you both. Trust in me. Believe in me.

Lach sat back, her words hitting him like a hammer. He knew what she intended to do.

“We have to go after her,” Shim said, standing up. “They’ll take her to the palace.”

It would be the sensible thing to do. He could rally whatever troops were left and he could search for her. He could save her and carry her away and give the fight back to her brothers. He could still have what he wanted.

But it wasn’t what Bron wanted. What Bron wanted was a chance to end the war. She didn’t want the crown and she no longer wanted revenge. He’d felt that deep in her soul. She wanted to end the war to bring back the kingdom of her youth and to give her people their freedom.

His wife was a hero and he’d been a coward.

He shook his head. “No. We go to Aoibhneas. We gather her brothers and whatever troops we have and we march.”

Shim stared at him for a moment. “But that leaves her in danger.”

“It leaves her in a place where she can turn the tide.” He didn’t want it. Every cell of his body revolted at the thought, but Bronwyn mattered more.

“And if she dies?” Shim asked.

His heart would be a gaping hole. His life would be over. “Then we’ll find her through that door Duffy talked about. We found her once. We’ll find her again. But if we don’t let her try this, she won’t be the same woman we love.”

Shim took a long breath and held his hand out, gripping Lach’s. “Then we are in agreement. And Lach, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Alive or dead, I am your brother and I love you. I am grateful to be walking and loving our wife.”

Lach stood. The forest around them was quiet now, the soldiers disappearing with their hag. They had found their prize and once it was in hand, none of the rest of them mattered.

“Where is Her Highness?” Roan asked.

“Gone.” The word sounded hollow.

Dante’s clothes were torn, covered in blood though he bore no mark of his own. It was easy to see how he’d healed so quickly. Kaja bore two holes in her neck. She’d obviously forced her husband to feed and heal after the battle. She looked up with tears in her eyes.

“Gone? How?” Kaja asked.

Shim came to his side. “The hag took her, but Bron wanted to go.”

Dellacourt snarled their direction. “She wanted to be taken? She wanted a hag to cart her back to the very man who had her killed in the first place?”

Charlie, the boy from Aoibhneas, walked with an arm around each of his fathers. “I can hear her.”

Shim stepped forward. “What do you mean?”

Nate looked down at his son. “He’s stronger now, but maybe his time there is still affecting him.”

Lach wasn’t about to put up with that. He’d been marginalized for far too long. “No. Listen to him. Let him speak. If he says he hears Bronwyn, then I want to know what she’s saying.”

Charlie looked him in the eye. “She’s not really saying anything, but she’s feeling. She’s feeling strong and she wants the rest of us to feel strong, too. She’s ready.” Charlie stood up, pushed his fathers away a bit. “I’m ready. We’re all going to be ready.”

Lach nodded, his mission clear. To bring the battle to Bronwyn. Like it or not, he was her soldier now.

“Lach, you have to come quick.” Gillian was suddenly at his side. Tears streaked down her face. Harry stood behind her, a deep frown creasing his brow.

Gillian grasped his hand. He allowed himself to be pulled as he looked back at Roan.

“Prepare to move. We’re heading into Aoibhneas. Someone find that damn phooka. He’ll know a way. He’s herded us to this point. The least he can do is get us where we need to be.” He followed after Gillian and then his heart nearly broke.

Duffy.

“He saved me. He fought so hard, but they kept attacking him. Lach, do something. I should be able to heal that wound. I’ve laid hands on him. I’ve sent him everything I have. Why won’t he heal?”

Tears welled in Lach’s eyes. “Because the dead don’t heal.”

Shim gasped behind him. “Oh, gods. He died days ago. That’s how you knew I was alive. Because you’ve kept Duffy with us.”

Duffy’s eyes came open.

“I’m so sorry, brother.” Lach looked down at the wee gnome who had been his heart friend for as long as he’d known what a heart was. Duffy had been their companion, their playmate.

“I knew it. I always knew it, brother.” Duffy sat up, looking down at the wound on his chest. It wasn’t bleeding. “I was mad at first, but now I know why I got to stay. I did it, Lach. I fought and I won. I got me battle and I saved me girl. Even though she never was me girl. It don’t matter. I get that now. It don’t matter that she couldn’t love me back. It just matters that I loved her and I got to be a better man because I loved her.”

Gillian. All those long years, Duffy had still loved Gillian, his childhood crush on her forming the core of his being. Lach had known Duffy had a thing for Gillian. Even from a young age he’d refused to call her sister. He’d loved her from afar and now he’d sacrificed for her.

Bronwyn loved them back. She didn’t deserve any less. Love was something Lach had worried all of his life. He’d called what he felt for Bronwyn love, but he’d always worried it was more about possession and obsession, that his dark heart couldn’t hold a softer emotion.

He’d been wrong. He loved his brothers. Loved his father and mother. Loved his sister.

Gods, he loved Bronwyn Finn and there was nothing dark about it. She was his light, not Shim. However their soul had split, it was in him to love. His heart wasn’t a cold, dead thing. It was huge and it could only get larger. He loved Bronwyn and that meant loving every piece of her, including the piece that demanded she fight.

He’d adored the girl who ran through his dreams. He’d lusted after the lover, but he worshipped the woman she’d become. Not simply a princess, but a queen. A woman was always a queen. She was the queen of her home and her family. Bron’s was just bigger than most and like every woman with a family, she would sacrifice. She would make the world right for them, giving her body and soul to those she nurtured and loved.

He would be strong. His woman had just taught him what his father never had—how to truly be a king.

He looked at his sister and whispered. “He’s loved you for always. Give him something.”

She nodded and sank to her knees, tears falling like raindrops. She leaned over and kissed him. “You are my hero, Duffy.”

A brilliant smile lit Duffy’s face. “That’s all I ever wanted to be.” He gripped her hand, his small compared to hers. He looked up at Lach. “You have to let me go now, brother.”

Lach knew the moment had been coming from the instant he’d reached out and pulled Duffy from death. He’d felt Duffy die in that black cloud that had been meant for him and he’d reacted. He’d called on his power and brought him back. “I didn’t want to let you go. Not alone, Duffy. I don’t know what’s out there. I didn’t want you to die.”

Duffy smiled up at him. “Dying ain’t nothing to be afraid of, brother. Be afraid of not living. I got me battle. I got what I always wanted. I got to be a hero. Now, it’s time for me to find another adventure. There’s a door, Lach. It was right there and it was calling to me. And I weren’t alone. I saw me mothers. Both of them. The one what raised me and the one what gave me birth. Lach, death is a doorway. I want to know where it leads. I want the adventure that waits for me and whatever happens, I’ll see you again. I’ll conquer whatever is out there and make a place for us.”

His tears fell now. For Duffy, for Bron, for himself, for Shim.

“I love you, brother.” Shim got to his knees and put a hand on Lach and reached for Duffy.

“Love you, too. You were the best brothers I could have hoped for.”

Lach reached out and completed the circle. He and Duffy and Shim. His childhood in a circle of hands grasping. “I love you both. My brothers. I will keep you in my heart, Duffy.”

“That is a good place to be.”

Lach released his hold.

Duffy smiled, closed his eyes, and walked into eternity.

Lach rose to his feet a completely different man. He looked to Roan. “Gather what we need. We make for Aoibhneas tonight after I bury my brother.”

He expected an argument but Roan bowed deeply. “Yes, Your Highness. I am at your service.”

“As am I.” The phooka leapt from the trees and, in an instant, switched to his horse form. “I will get us to Aoibhneas. I know a secret way in.”

“Dad, isn’t that Uncle Max’s horse?” Charlie asked.

Zane shook his head. “We’re just going to go with it, son. And I know exactly what you’re talking about. The mayor has a series of caves he keeps hidden. We know how to get home.”

“Then we leave in an hour.”

Shim picked up Duffy, holding his small body close. “Lach, I…”

Lach shook his head. “I love you. No more fighting. All that matters is winning this war and getting our wife back.”

Shim nodded and followed. Lach prayed the morning would find him closer to his goal—getting Bronwyn back in his arms.

 

* * * *

 

Bronwyn awakened to the smell of home. She could smell the bread the bakers in the White Palace made for each and every meal. It was a smell that had haunted her dreams since she’d fled. She’d tried to re-create the bread, snowy white and buttery soft with the smallest hint of honeyed sweetness, but never got it right.

She opened her eyes because no matter how lovely the smell was, this place was no longer home. She groaned a little. How long had she been here? A day at least, though it already seemed like a lifetime. A day away from them. Would she ever see them again?

“The hags certainly worked you over.”

Bron turned her head and then wished she hadn’t. Her every muscle ached. She was so, so weary. All through the long night the hags had tortured her with spell after strength-sucking spell. Pain had wracked her system and then a horrible weakness had overtaken her.

“They’re sleeping now. They don’t sleep often and no one knows where they go to do it, but it seems the only time they don’t listen in.”

A blonde woman came into view. She was regally perfect with her thin crown and slender figure. Cold blue eyes and a narrow chin completed the usurper queen’s appearance.

“Maris. To what do I owe this honor?” Bron wished she had the saliva in her mouth to spit at the bitch.

Maris chuckled a bit. “Goddess, you’re loud. I actually heard that.”

Bron’s whole heart sagged. She’d forgotten. Maris was a bondmate. It was exactly why she’d been engaged to Bron’s brothers. How could she pull this off if the queen herself knew what she was planning?

A little smile curled Maris’s thin lips. “You’ve been an annoying hum in my head for years.”

She’d been so stupid. So very dumb. She should have listened to her husbands. She wasn’t cut out for this. She was just a girl. She was still just a dumb girl.

“Stop scaring her, Maris,” a deep voice said.

The queen rolled her eyes. “It’s the only fun I have anymore, Niall.”

Niall stepped out, dressed in the livery of the Queen’s Guard. “Your Highness, I see you finally made it. Though I might point out that if we’d done this my way, you wouldn’t have been horribly tortured last night and most likely for a few nights to come.”

“A little torture never hurt a girl,” Maris said. “And she looks strong. If she’s anything like her brutish brother, then she should know a thing or two about torture.”

“You know he doesn’t like it when you talk about Beck like that. He explained that.”

Maris nodded and a bit of her bile seemed to flee. “I know. I hold on to it though because it’s what got us here in the first place. Where is he?”

“Making certain the hags aren’t around. And why are you here? If your husband catches you, he’ll find us all out.”

“Torin is scared of the girl. He was angry the hags brought her to the palace in the first place. I had to think fast on my feet or he would have had her throat slit and most likely by his own guard. We don’t own them, Niall. I should think he would be pleased with me.”

“Who are you talking about? Goddess, am I in some strange dream?” Bron asked. She was so deeply confused.

“Drink this.” Maris held a cup to her mouth and forced her head back. It was slipping down her throat before Bron could cough it back up. “Give it a minute.”

She stepped back and Bron tried to gag, but her arms were bound tight to the chair she sat in. The hags, she’d discovered there were two of them, had cackled as they’d cinched her in tight and began the ritual that would loosen her soul from her body. Now Maris had used her bindings to force some poison on her.

Maris grinned at Niall. “She thinks I killed her.”

Niall sighed and got to one knee. “Bron, Maris is on our side.”

Bron shook her head. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Maris was an evil bitch. “No. She is the one who let Torin in.”

Maris shrugged. “Can’t a girl make a few mistakes? Ooops. I made the wrong move and got your parents killed. Your father has forgiven me.”

“My father?” What Niall had said before came back to her. Her father had become a sluagh and chained himself to this place. At the time she’d barely believed it. Could it really be true? “My father is here?”

A cool wind seemed to pass through Bron and a phantom coalesced in front of her. Her father floated, an insubstantial but welcome presence. “Hello, my little pixie. It’s been a long while.”

A little sob threatened to escape her throat. “Father.”

He smiled down at her. A ghostly hand reached out to touch her face. “We have so little time. The hags are waking. You’ve figured out what you are? And what you can do?”

She nodded. “I’m a conduit. That’s what they called me.”

“Your mind works on a frequency that every bondmate can hear and you can access your blood’s powers.” His voice, not quite above a whisper, tightened. “If you’ve tapped into power, I have to assume your brothers are here. Beck and Cian have come into their powers, then? They’ve formed a true triad?”

Bron stared at her father. “No. I mean yes. They have bonded and have power, but they aren’t here yet.”

“Then whose power have you accessed? It should only work with a true triad.”

“My husbands. Lachlan and Shim McIver, princes of the Unseelie Fae. My Dark Ones.”

Her father’s image shimmered for a moment and then became a bit more solid. “They were real.”

So real. “Yes. And they’re here. They are going to Aoibhneas to gather the troops.”

Her father was silent for a moment. “So many things to have gotten wrong. It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is they will come. If they came for you each night in your dreams, they will come for you now. You have to be brave, my daughter. You have to be the princess I never taught you to be. I am so sorry to require this of you, but you can’t do what you need to do until the battlefield is set.”

Niall stepped in when her father became quiet. He pulled a knife from his belt. Her knife. “I didn’t do what I should have done. I didn’t find another to take your place. I came back here to wait for you. There is only one Princess Bronwyn, and I knew she would come here. This is for you when we win the day. We have to kill Torin and the hags, too. We get one shot at this. They’ve become very powerful.”

“They control the guards for Torin,” Maris explained. “If you don’t kill the guards as well, even with the hags gone, they will continue to fight and continue with their mission to kill you and your brothers and everyone who is against them. Even now Torin is pulling them back from Aoibhneas since you’re here. They will guard the palace now and they will be in place when the kings arrive. Goddess, tell me they’re bringing an army with them.”

Bron hoped so, too. “I know the Unseelie are sending a force. And from what Lachlan told me the village will come.”

Maris groaned. “I hate that village. They’re all insane. Aoibhneas is where the crazies go. The mountains do something to their brains. And I heard some of them prefer to walk about naked. I pray they bring weapons.”

Bron wanted a few answers. “Why are you doing this?”

Maris’s cornflower-blue eyes turned down. “I was a foolish girl.”

“You hated my brothers.”

She shook her head. “I hated the fact that my father sold me to them. I was chattel and nothing more and Cian couldn’t stand the sight of me. And quite frankly Beckett Finn scared me. I’d heard rumors that he liked to hurt his partners.”

“I explained that, Maris.” Her father’s voice was a tortured groan.

“I know, but I didn’t understand at the time. I wanted a way out. I was in love, you see. I loved my maid. We grew up together and somewhere along the way, I realized she was everything to me. We kissed when we were sixteen. The day before I was sold to your brothers. I was scared I would lose her. I thought Torin would be easier. He would reward me for helping him and send me on my way and Anna and I could be happy.” She took a deep breath. “I did it all because I loved a girl. A girl who Torin killed because she wasn’t pure. Your father found me. He forgave me. I don’t know why.”

“Because death clarifies all things in life, Maris. And I know that forgiveness is the greatest gift we have to give and a thing we should pray to receive. Hating you wouldn’t have solved anything, but reaching out and offering absolution did. It brought us here. It will bring us victory. Do not misunderstand me, daughter. I have not given up the after with your mother because I want vengeance. I gave it up because I want my children to know peace.”

Maris frowned. “Well, I want the bastard dead, and I don’t care how it happens. I would have done it myself, but killing Torin doesn’t take care of the hags and they’re worse. Your father figured out what you are long ago and set Niall out to find you. I’ve done my duty and kept that bastard busy, but I’m ready to be done. I’m ready to face Beck and Cian and whoever they’ve married and accept their judgment.”

Maris wanted to die. She was ready.

Her father cocked a head sideways. “They’re coming. All of you out. Bron has to face this alone. Bronwyn, they won’t kill you. Stay strong. They think that by eating bondmates’ souls they can take the psychic power into themselves, but they can’t hear you. When they’re through, reach out and find strength in your brothers and sisters. They wait for you.”

Niall and Maris were already out the door and her father faded.

Bron reached out, but to a different mind. She reached out to Lach and Shim. She felt their love before the door opened and the hags filled her world.

She shut it down because her husbands didn’t need to know what was happening to her.

 

* * * *

 

Deep in the night, when the agony was done, Bron wondered how much more she could take. They’d bombarded her again and again with spells. Some took her strength, some her will. The worst was the one that robbed her of all her joy.

Call to them. Her father had told her to. Apparently she’d been calling all of her life so it made sense to do so again. She couldn’t call to Lach and Shim. They would be terrified. She had to find strength another way.

Hello.

A simple thing. A greeting, but it was all her mind could handle.

I am Erin. The voice was quiet, but she heard it all the same. And she felt a tiny spark of energy.

I am Quinn. Again, a voice and a bit of strength shared among prisoners.

I am Mina.

They came when she called. A hundred voices with sparks of strength that alone would have been nothing at all, but together, they bound her in will and power, re-forming her soul. They gave what they could and connected together through Bronwyn’s brain and heart.

I am Maris. That voice was quiet, tentative, but the energy she sent was not.

They continued through the night. By morning, Bron was smiling when the hags entered and she opened her mind to her loves.

Come for me. My time is now.