Chapter Nine
Analee parted the mist as she returned. Garlon knew she would not leave him long unattended. He watched her approach, raking her with eyes hooded with desire. He could not help himself. She had bewitched him. Torn between a passion she commanded and the last shreds of his humanity, he gritted his teeth and held his breath, waiting for her to speak.
“He will bother us no more,” she said, kneeling down beside him.
“I cannot say as I blame him much,” Garlon said.
“He will get over it.”
“Does he really mean to kill me if you keep me here?” It was a risk, but he needed her to know he’d overheard at least that much of her conversation with the centaur.
“You do not understand him as I do,” she said. “He will not harm you. Once the dawn has come and gone—”
Garlon looked up to the sky. “The moon has not yet moved, my lady.
“Forget him. He means nothing to us. This is the place I spoke of, where we wait for the dawn. Where I shall award you the last of my favors. Put Mòhr and his jealous nonsense out of your mind, and submit to me this one last time before we part.”
Her cool hand ran down his thigh. “You must keep up your strength. Did you have something to eat while I was gone?”
“My hunger is only for you,” Garlon said, his voice a seduction. Two could play at her dubious game.
“But it is such a pity to waste all this,” she said, pouting. She plucked a grape from the bunch she’d discarded earlier and slid it between her teeth. Bending over him, she lowered the fruit to his lips. “Take it from me,” she murmured. “Quench your thirst in the sweet juice of this fruit of the vine, and I will give you pleasures you cannot possibly imagine.”
Garlon turned his head aside. “I am not fond of grapes, my lady,” he hedged. He dared not let a single drop of the grape juice into his mouth, for to taste it would damn him.
The goddess sucked the grape between her teeth and bit down releasing its juice while she swallowed the rest, then lowered her dripping mouth to his. “Kiss me,” she whispered only inches from his lips.
“I told you,” he replied. “I do not like the taste of grapes.”
“A nut, then?” she coerced him, slipping one between her teeth.
“Thank you, no,” he said. “As I said, I have an appetite only for you.”
The goddess frowned. “Do you know how rude it is to refuse my hospitality, a goddess of the Otherworld?”
“I did not ask for such a feast, and you did not promise it. Such was not a part of our bargain.” Garlon said steadily.
“I must insist that you take the tiniest morsel out of respect for the many hands that have prepared it especially for you. We Fae are easily insulted. You would not wish to be the cause of any such umbrage, would you?”
There was no way out now. “My lady, any fool knows not to take food from the Fae,” he said. “And there is no use to try to trick me, for such tricks have no power. As tempting as the prospect is of lying in your arms for the rest of my days, I wouldn’t last long with your Mòhr stalking me. His arrow came a little too close just now.” He gestured toward the heavens. “Unbind the moon, and let dawn break. End this Yuletide spell.”
The goddess shrieked like a banshee. Surging to her feet, she kicked the bowls and trenchers, scattering the rest of the food in all directions.
A burst of deep masculine laughter erupted from the mist. Mòhr, no doubt, Garlon surmised. The triumphant sound only angered the goddess more. She made to smash a bunch of grapes into his face, but he caught her arms and held her way. His eyes fell upon the sigil ring on her middle finger.
“It seems years since I offered this to the goddess of the pool.” he said, flicking the metal with his thumb.
Analee seemed to clam. “Time, time, time! Enough of this thing that has no meaning here! Can you blame me for wanting to tame you to my will? Let me love you just once more before the dawn.”
But the moon hadn’t moved overhead. Again, he nodded toward it. “Once I see that you are in earnest,” he said, waiting.
Analee waved her hand, and the aura around the full Yule moon flared. “Done,” she said. “Watch, and you will see it move among the stars.”
The centaur’s laughter had ceased echoing from beyond the mist. Acutely aware of the danger of arrows, Garlon could only hope that the creature would also see the moon’s descent and leave his longbow unraised.
He looked toward the moon. Yes, she had kept her word. He breathed another sigh, this time in relief. All was as it should be. The moon was descending. Could he have misjudged her? Had she finally met her match and yielded to his will?
“Kiss me, Knight of the Realm. Really, kiss me. Kiss me and be mine…” She bit into another grape and lowered her mouth to his.
Garlon scrambled back from her and spat out the fruit, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Bitch!” he seethed. “You would attempt to trick me anyway?”
The mist had begun to thin. He saw the centaur before he heard its laughter, where he stood close by at the edge of the thicket. He had obviously been watching them.
“Well done, my fellow consort!” the creature called. “Well done, indeed!”
Garlon glanced toward the sky. The moon was still descending, but Analee was on her feet now. She let lose an ear-splitting shriek as she spun in a circle, uprooting flowers and plants around them. The dew-drenched blooms rained down over them as she slowly spun to a stop.
Then, waving her hand, she pointed, parting the mist to reveal a sight that all but stopped Garlon’s heart. A wailing sound so mournful and forlorn pierced the pre-dawn darkness. Garlon swayed as if he’d been struck. Before him stood a cage fitted with a large, heart shaped padlock. Trapped inside, was the little seal, her flipper reaching toward him through the bars.
The poor creature was begging him for her freedom. Her cries pierced his heart, and he ran to the cage. To his horror, he ran right through it. It wasn’t real, but a ghostly illusion. The Selkie had no corporeal substance. The image vanished into the mist. All that remained was the melancholy echo of the little seal’s mournful wail.
Garlon faced the goddess, whose laughter rose above the rest. “Where is she? What have you done with her?” he demanded.
“That is for you to find out, Knight of the Realm,” Analee triumphed. “A quest, if you like. Did you actually believe you could outwit me—me? Surrender to me, do as I will, and I will set my sister free. Deny me, and she will rot in that cage. She can live out of water—for a time. Still, she needs to return to the sea by dawn or she will surely die. That will happen even sooner if she sheds her skin and takes on human form.”
“She cannot die!” Garlon railed at her.
“She will be dead to you, Knight.” she purred. “Submit to me, I say! You cannot win. Surely, you see that now?”
Garlon glanced toward the sky again. The moon was sinking low. “Make it stop!” he thundered. “Release the Selkie. Do this and I will submit to you.”
“I think not,” the goddess drawled, sauntering nearer.
Garlon clenched his hands at his sides. How he longed to clamp them around her neck and squeeze.
“This game is by your design,” Analee smiled. “Your quest? You will have until first light to find my Selkie sister and free her from her cage yourself. Either way, I win, you see. You are mine already, you always were. I would have rather had you stay willingly. Instead...save the Selkie if you can. You have until the dawn.”
“Wait!” Garlon begged. “Give me a fair chance to find her!”
The goddess shrugged. “I kept my part of the bargain,” she said. “I promised you naught past the dawn, if you recall. It comes quickly now, Knight of the Realm. You were the one who begged me to make the moon descend a few of your precious mortal minutes ago. This should teach you to be careful what you beg for in the Otherworld, Garlon Trivelyan, else you might just get your wish…”
Garlon opened his mouth to speak, but the goddess had vanished before his very eyes. The centaur was gone, also. He stood alone in the mist that had suddenly thickened around him.