Beguiled (33 page)

“Oh, I will go, Maggie,” he said quietly, and grabbed her again, pulling her tight against him. “But not before I leave you with one more thing to remember me by.”

He kissed her.

Hard and long and deep. He kissed her until she forgot how to breathe and didn’t care. He kissed her until every cell in her body was screaming for more.

Then he shifted.

And was gone.

Chapter Sixteen

“I have done nothing wrong, Father.” Devon stood tall and proud before Culhane, his chin held high, his shoulders squared.

“You should not be
sneaking
,” Culhane said, using Maggie’s word deliberately, “into the human world. You should not be seeing the Queen’s niece in secret.”

He was still angry after his earlier confrontation with Maggie, and he feared his anger was finding an easy target in his son.

For just an instant, Devon frowned; then his expression once again represented a stoic warrior in training. “I do not ‘sneak,’ Father. I am a warrior. Son of the Chieftain. I go to the mortal world to see her because Eileen is mine.”

Culhane sighed. It was as he had thought. His son was laying claim to Eileen Donovan much as Culhane had with Maggie. Though he knew his Queen and Eileen’s mother would not be pleased by this news, his son was honorable and would never harm the girl. And yet, he felt he had to say, “She is but a child, Devon. Unused to our ways. Too young for the claiming.”

Devon looked horrified and his stiff posture slipped a bit. “Father, I would not. I wish only to be with her. To protect her as is my right.”

Culhane understood that feeling all too well. Hadn’t he himself been keeping watch over Maggie all her life? Yet, he could also understand Maggie’s concerns. It was a thin line he was now forced to maneuver. Standing up, Culhane walked toward his son, laid one hand on his shoulder and asked, “How did you come to find her?”

Sheepishly, Devon admitted, “I followed you into the mortal world one day. You went to see our Queen at her home. I, too, wanted to see the future Queen. Then I saw Eileen there.” He smiled and shrugged. “I knew her for mine instantly.”

As had Culhane at first sight of Maggie. Some things were fated and could not be avoided. His son would one day lay claim to Eileen Donovan, he knew. But that day was far in the future.

“You took her to Inia, did you not?”

“I did,” Devon admitted, lifting his chin even higher. “Only to show Eileen the beauty of Otherworld. Our Queen found us there. She was not pleased.”

“I can imagine,” Culhane muttered, knowing that Maggie’s fury would have been a sight to see.

“You must not go to Eileen again,” Culhane told him.

“Father—”

Culhane knew all the arguments he would face if he gave his son a chance to speak. So he didn’t let him. “This is as your Queen and your Chieftain wish it. You will stay away from Eileen Donovan. Do you understand?”

Devon’s eyes looked tortured and his mouth twisted as if he were biting back words of argument. But centuries of training in the Conclave stood him in good stead. He nodded once. “I understand, Chieftain.”

Culhane sighed again. He understood why his son was furious. Being kept from the one woman destiny has chosen for you was a painful thing. But there was nothing to be done about it. Until Maggie and her family had fully accepted the Fae way of life, they would not understand Devon’s need to be with Eileen.

“Good,” Culhane told his son, and gave him an approving smile. “Return to your rooms and rest. I will see you at training tomorrow.”

“As you wish it.” Devon nodded again; then he shifted out of the room.

The next morning, Culhane swung the heavy sword in his hand like a Fae possessed. He couldn’t seem to burn off the fury riding inside him no matter how long and hard he trained.

Quinn was his target, as he had been the last few hours. His fellow warrior was just as indefatigable as he, and the clash and clang of their swords coming together rang out like a cacophony of violence. The other warriors around them on the Conclave’s training field gave them a wide berth, as if they were all tuned to the Chieftain’s state of mind and had no wish to get too close to him at the moment.

A wise choice, Culhane thought, again swinging his sword in a wide arc toward Quinn. His arms vibrated all the way up to his shoulders with the power of that blow and even Quinn staggered backward. The warrior lifted his blade, though, and parried the next blow, dodging to one side and coming up behind Culhane.

But Culhane was too tense, too tightly strung to be slow that morning. He whipped around, sweeping the sword out and following it with a hard punch to Quinn’s jaw from his left fist. Pain jolted up through his hand and it felt good. Tangible.

The twin suns shone down from a cloudless blue sky. A soft wind streamed across the battleground and from the surrounding trees came the catcalling and cheers from their always-present pixie audience.

All was as it should be. Except, Culhane thought, for the rage bubbling just beneath his skin. His mind raced as his body slipped into the training it was so familiar with. Once more, he was thinking about the row he and Maggie had had the night before. The one where angry words had flown and he and his Queen had circled round and round and none of it had amounted to anything beyond another fruitless battle.
Why
was the woman so determined to be as un-Fae as possible?

She’d accepted her role as the destined Queen, he told himself. Uprooted her family to Otherworld. Vowed to make her stand and defend both those closest to her heart and the Fae world she hardly knew.

Yet she still managed to cling to her human values, to thoughts of happily ever after, of two people linked together through all time.

He grunted and brought the blade down again. “Through time. She has no idea of the reality of time. Let her be immortal. See the centuries fly past and then I will listen to her thoughts on the passage of time.”

“Cease!” Quinn shouted, and Culhane instantly halted his charge. When two or three of the closest warriors turned to look at Quinn, surprised, he jerked his head at them. Silently telling them to walk away. Give him privacy to speak to the Chieftain who was so far out of control that morning.

Culhane didn’t even notice the others. He stabbed the point of his sword into the dirt and folded both hands atop the hilt. Leaning on it, he steadied his breathing and stared off into the distance. But he wasn’t seeing the trees, the cobalt sky, the pixies or the crystal spires of the city beyond. Instead, he saw, once again, the hurt and anger in Maggie’s eyes as she shouted at him. As she’d thrown him out of her room. She’d dismissed
Culhane
.

By the gods, had he ever known such a humiliating moment? No. Not in an eternity of life.

The woman was tearing him in two. Driving him to a state of desperate frustration he’d never experienced before. She’d even shattered his focus. Until Maggie had entered his life, he’d been a Fae with vision. Able to look at a situation and see several different outcomes. Weigh the advantages of one strategy against another. He’d led his warriors with a steely determination and fought for his people with a near-legendary concentration.

He knew the course Otherworld should take and had set about arranging matters to suit that course. He’d found the destined Queen, shown her the world that could be hers and slowly eased her into accepting what
had
to be. Now she was on the throne and his focus was gone. She’d shattered something elemental in him and Culhane didn’t have a clue as to how to restore things to their proper order.

And things were only getting worse.

“Are you ready to speak now of what’s pushing at you?”

Culhane turned his gaze to Quinn, his friend, fellow warrior, his brother. Gritting his teeth, Culhane shook his head no. There were some things a male didn’t speak of. Not even to another male as close as Quinn was to him.

But his old friend didn’t give up easily. “What did Maggie do?”

Culhane snorted. He should have known Quinn would insist on an answer. That he wouldn’t walk away from this. They’d known each other far too long. Fought side by side in too many battles.

Surrendering to the inevitable, Culhane blew out a breath. “She tossed me out of her bedroom.”

Quinn’s eyebrows went high on his forehead.“There’s a first time for everything, they say.”

“Human sayings now, Quinn?” Culhane asked bitterly. “Is that what we’ve come to? Our race has been here since before man crawled up out of the muck.” He paused, then waved one hand out as if to encompass all of Otherworld. When he spoke again, his anger fired every word. “We were an advanced civilization when they were learning to make fire. We live as gods, never age, never die. And now, because we have a once-human queen, we are to give that up? Become human like them? Accept human rules? Their way of life? Are we to be no more now than a cheap copy of humanity?”

Quinn’s eyebrows went even higher. “No one has suggested this, Culhane. We are who we are. That cannot change.”

“Can’t it?” Culhane swept his gaze past his friend, scanning the training grounds that had been his home for as far back as he could remember. This was what he knew. This was his life. His calling. His destiny, as ruling was Maggie’s. He could not change that even had he wished to.

“Even my own son has fallen under the spell of the Donovans,” he muttered, thinking back to his talk with Devon that morning. He’d told the boy to stay away from Eileen and as his Chieftain, he expected to be obeyed. And yet, if Devon were anything like his father, he would be hard-pressed to obey that order.

“Devon? With Eileen?” Quinn frowned. “She is a child.”

“Aye and so is he,” Culhane argued hotly. “Do you forget that?”

“No,” his friend said, still frowning, “but she is new to our ways and she is my daughter now, Culhane. I will protect her.”

This infuriated him beyond all measure.

“I tire of hearing my son insulted. You think you must stand guard over your daughter because
my
son would bring her to harm?”

Quinn’s scowl deepened. “No, but—”

Culhane waved a hand in disgust, silencing his warrior before he could anger him further. “This is more of the human way of thinking, Quinn. It poisons us just as slowly and surely as an iron knife wound would.”

Quinn grumbled something unrepeatable and Culhane almost smiled. At least his friend still cursed in the old tongue.

“This problem with you and Maggie?” he asked. “It is more than your usual fight, then?”

Culhane pulled his sword free of the earth, swung it high and tipped his head back to study the brilliant sunlight glinting off the edge of the blade. “Aye. It is.” Disgusted, he slid a sideways glance at his friend. “I told her we were married.”

“Good.”

“Not so very good, my friend,” Culhane said on a sigh. “Our Queen was not pleased. In truth, she was furious and used the fact of our joining as a needle to poke and jab at me. Told me she didn’t trust me.”

Quinn huffed out a breath. “She is female. They think with their hearts, not their minds. That is why they will not make good warriors.”

“Maybe,” he allowed, not sure of anything anymore.

“It’s trollshit and you know it, Culhane.”

Though he appreciated the support, Culhane wasn’t certain Quinn was right. Some of what Maggie had said still resonated all too clearly within him. He
had
used her to defeat Mab.
Had
planned to rule through her as soon as she was Queen.
Had
counted on her need of him to give him the leverage he required to set Otherworld on a course of equality for his fellow males.

So how could he be insulted when she threw those very accusations at his head? He wondered if what he was feeling was shame. He’d never known that emotion before, so how was he to tell? Did he regret what he had done, or was it only her discovery of his true intentions that was bothering him?

Now that she had discovered these truths, where did that leave him and Maggie?

She still needed him, but would she be less willing to accept his aid now? More cautious of coming to him with problems and questions?