Casually Cursed (16 page)

I SHIELDED MY
eyes and turned my head toward the voice. He looked like a column of sunshine. He came slowly into focus.

Oh, my gosh!

His skin was lightly tanned to a tawny golden brown that was just the color my own turned. And his eyes . . . I’d gotten his eyes, both the shape and the color.

He cocked his head. “Your hair . . . this is the darkest red it’s ever turned.”

I stared at his face, which was really handsome and very young. He looked my own age.

“Your eyes are changed.” He pushed his hair back from his forehead as if to see me better. Then he tucked a longer strand behind his ear. That was familiar, too. It was a gesture I made a lot.

He lowered his voice, glancing around as if the trees might be listening. Maybe they were. “Are you my human daughter?”

I smiled.
This is him. Caedrin!

He smiled back and put a hand out. He had long fingers. Kismet had gotten his hands. I had gotten human hands from Momma. His fingers brushed the hair back from my face. “I have wanted to meet you for such a long time. You got Marlee’s hair. Very dark red. If you stayed here for long, it would fade. Your fae sister’s hair darkens when she’s humanside for weeks. Where is she? I can’t believe she allowed you to come alone. Or at all.” He looked up and around.

“I had to come,” I said, sitting up.

“No, you didn’t. It’s fortunate I’m the one who found you. I’ve been monitoring the gate she likes to use. I hoped to talk with her. You’ll go back the way you came before you’re seen.”

“How can I go? Crux said if I didn’t come, they’d execute Momma.”

“Crux said that?” He scowled. “He overstepped. Badly.” He looked at Zach and Bryn, then back at me. “Where is Crux? Still pursuing Kismet?”

“No. Well, I don’t know. Maybe. We sort of trapped him to give ourselves a head start. She was going to come back. On her own terms. But she got angry.”

“As she often does.” The fingers of his outstretched hand moved, beckoning me. I set my hand in his, and he closed his around it. “You managed to trap Crux? Would that I had been there to see that,” he said with a smirk.

“Is Momma in trouble?”

His smile faded. “I know her mind well on certain subjects. And one is that she would not want you here under any circumstances.”

“But Crux said the queen expects me to come, or she’ll retaliate. He said you and Momma are in trouble for helping Kismet leave the Never, and that Ghislaine will hurt Momma.”

“He overstated things. The queen knows nothing of you, and I endeavor to keep it that way. Come,” he said, waving Bryn and Zach along with us as he led me toward the branches that had crisscrossed again to block the exit. “I won’t say I’m sorry you came, because I’ve wished to meet you for a long time. For the whole of your life, truth be told. But this is no place for you. Especially now.”

We stood in front of the wall of trees. He raised my hand and touched it to his jaw, then released it.

“I wish you wind at your back, and the speed of sunlight.”

I smiled. “It was really nice to meet you. And you’re sure you guys will be okay if I go? You and Momma?”

“If you stayed, it would provide no advantage to us. It would only create more risk.”

“What about Kismet? Do you need her to come back?”

He took a deep breath and then exhaled. “Don’t concern yourself. Live happily.”

“I won’t be able to be happy if I’m worried about you guys or her.”

“Wind at your back,” he said with a gesture to the branch gate.

I glanced at it. “We’ll go for now. Where’s the lock?” I asked.

He shoved a hand through his hair, tucking some of it back. “I can’t see the lock. Full fae won’t see it. We can’t get out easily because of the magic on the other side of the gate. But you should be able to see the latch, whatever it is. Sometimes it’s a lock and key. Sometimes it’s a bolt or lever. The look of the magical latch changes. But if you search for it, you’ll see it. You’ve the special skill because of your mixed blood.”

I turned and looked at the gate. “On the outside, I saw the lock to get in. But there’s no lock here.”

“Look carefully,” he said.

I walked along the branches, running my fingers over them. “Hey, there, trees. I’d like to leave. Need me to sing?”

The trees didn’t answer. I listened hard. With concentration I could hear the wildflowers sway in the breeze, and voices and laughter in the distance, and ringing bells.

I narrowed my eyes, following the patterns of the interwoven limbs. I shook my head. “There’s no latch.”

Caedrin put his palms on a tree trunk and whispered. He paused and then cocked his head. “Come with me now,” he said, turning and striding away from the trees. “She’s had them block Kismet’s exit after entry. Our lady Highness didn’t want Kis to be able to turn and bolt out. She’d assumed that Crux would be dragging her through the gate. The exit will reappear, but I don’t know when. Colis has silenced the trees so we can’t ask.”

We had to jog to keep up with him. He ducked into a field of sunflowers. We threaded through it. Music and voices became louder as we progressed.

“This way,” he said, cutting away from the sounds of celebration. “Wait—” Caedrin held out a hand and made a motion for us to crouch. Zach and I dropped down with Caedrin, but Bryn remained standing.

I grabbed his arm and pulled. He hesitated, and time slowed even though my heart raced. The sun gleamed off his hair. He seemed even taller and stronger than usual. And yet I felt the urge to protect him since we were underhill and he’d come because of me. Actually, if I were being honest, it went farther back than our arrival in the Never. He’d saved my life often enough, and I’d saved his. But of the two of us, I healed more quickly. And that knowledge, plus the fact that I loved him, made me want to get between him and danger.

My grip on his arm tightened until I knew I might leave a mark. Then I jerked. He bent down near me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He put his mouth near my ear and whispered, “The sea is calling me.”

My brows rose. We’d believed for a long time that Bryn was part fae, one quarter selkie, but there had never been proof. Excitement made my heart race faster. Despite the fact that I didn’t want him recklessly ignoring a warning from Caedrin, I was thrilled that the evidence of his fae nature might show itself.

“Do you hear the water?” Bryn asked, his eyes sparkling like the blue Caribbean Sea that I’d only ever seen in pictures. Bryn’s eyes were usually cobalt or sapphire blue, but now they were blue-green. His gaze wasn’t on me, but was turned to stare out into a distance beyond what I could see.

“What does the sea sound like?” I asked. “And what’s it saying to you?”

Caedrin put his palm over his mouth to signal us to be quiet. I covered my mouth with one hand and Bryn’s lips with the other.

Caedrin turned and moved back the way we’d come.

I’d have thought that a crawling man would look weakened, brought to his knees, but not so in the case of a golden faery knight. It might have been the long reach of Caedrin’s arms and the way his broad shoulders dipped. He didn’t move like a man. He moved like a lion, as though made to stalk and hunt through tall grass. He paused and then sprang forward.

There was a yelp and a thud that happened almost simultaneously. Grass swayed as someone thrashed.

“Do you think it’s wise to mirror my steps? Am I prey?” Caedrin’s voice demanded.

“Dude!” a young voice said. “Get off me. Is she here? I heard she’s here.”

I crawled, though not with the feline elegance of my dad. Or sister. Or an ocelot. I peeked through the tall grass.

Caedrin’s forearm pressed against the throat of a young man with strands of blond dreadlocks with actual gold dusted on them. There were vine tattoos on his neck, and he wore a vintage Rolling Stones T-shirt.

“Listen, dude, I didn’t know it was you! Colis asked me to watch the wall. The trees said someone came in from outside. I thought it was our fleet-footed traitor. I wanted to talk to her.”

“Who says she’s a traitor? That’s not been proven.”

“She left without an order. She snuck out.”

The pressure of Caedrin’s arm increased, making the young man’s face redden.

“Dude, it’s what we heard,” he rasped.

“Stop calling me
dude
. You’ve never been humanside. Last I was out there, I didn’t hear a single person call another dude. Be on your way,” Caedrin said, giving the guy a shove.

The faery rubbed his throat. Caedrin reached out and grabbed the guy’s skin and pulled. The tattoo—or what I’d thought was a tattoo—peeled away like plastic, leaving a pinkish mark, which quickly faded.

“Hey!” the guy cried. “I paid a hundred seeds for that.”

“Go,” Caedrin said with an impatient jerk of his head. “Don’t follow me again.”

The dreadlocked stranger rose. He was taller than I’d thought, perhaps six feet.

“I didn’t know I was following you. I thought it was her.”

“More foolish that,” Caedrin said. “Who has a more impulsive temper? She or I?”

“Her for sure, but she and I aren’t enemies. She brings me shirts,” he said, flicking a finger against his T-shirt. “And I give her Oz art to sell and trade out there. This time she’s paying me for a special order and—”

“I’m not interested. But I warn you to be careful if you do see her,” Caedrin said. He was a couple inches taller than the guy, and broader across the shoulders. “If she thought herself labeled a traitor, and someone tried to corner her so that she might be captured and punished, then she might kill. Humanside, they try to take her every time she goes out. Escape is instinct, like taking a breath. Don’t doubt it.”

“I wouldn’t be fool enough to try to restrain her,” the young man said before he bolted through the grass.

Caedrin waited for several long moments, watching the other faery disappear.

“They know you’re here, but think it’s Kismet. They’ll be careful about whom they send to find her, but Our lady Highness won’t hesitate to send a force. We must get you out quickly.”

Zach stood and so did Bryn, but I didn’t move. I stayed kneeling, looking down at the shoots of grass rising from the ground. Kismet had been willing at first to come back into the Never. Had she known they were calling her a traitor? What did the queen really have in mind for Kis when she returned? If Crux had lied about the queen wanting me to come to the Never, what else had he lied about? Had he lied about the queen’s promise not to punish Kis when she returned?

For the first time since Kismet had left, I was glad she had.

“Come,” Caedrin said.

Mercutio pressed his head against the side of my leg. I didn’t know what he thought of the Never, but he clearly wanted me to get a move on. I got to my feet and we all marched through the grass.

WE EACH WANTED
something different. My stomach had begun to growl, and I started to mention being hungry every few minutes. Bryn asked several times how far it was to the ocean and whether we could pass by it on the way to the next exit. Zach was interested in the queen’s castle. We’d seen it in the distance. It was covered in rose gold and trimmed in pale yellow and salmon pink, and studded with pink quartz and pearls. Zach tried to steer us that way, asking about exits near it and suggesting that no one would expect Kismet to head toward it. Mercutio wanted to wander, and twice Caedrin retrieved him and told me to hook a leash to his collar.

“Um, that collar’s for decoration only. It’s like a necklace.”

“Or it could be a collar that functions as a collar,” Caedrin said impatiently. “You put it on him.”

“No, I didn’t. He had it on when I met him.”

“When you found him and took him as a pet,” Caedrin said.

“When I met him and became his friend,” I corrected. “He’s never acted like he wants the collar off, but if he did, I’d take it off him.”

“You’d take it off him because he can’t take it off himself. Because he’s an animal. He can be a pet or livestock or an exhibit in a menagerie—”

“If someone put me in handcuffs, I might not be able to get them off myself. That wouldn’t make me anybody’s pet.”

Bryn smirked. “That cat’s as smart as a person. Smarter than some.”

“Yep,” I said.

Caedrin glanced at Mercutio, who didn’t seem to take offense at the conversation. I was never sure how much Merc understood of human conversation, but I was convinced he understood some. In fact, he understood phrases in both English and Spanish, which was one more language than I was fluent in.

“There are no cats like him in the Never. We had a zebra-tiger once—” Caedrin said.

“Zebra-tiger?” I asked.

“Zebra colored,” he said.

“A white tiger with black stripes?” Bryn asked.

“Yes, like the exotic horses that are black and white. They’re called zebras and they—”

“We know what zebras are,” Bryn said.

“What happened to the tiger?” I asked.

“It broke free of its cage and killed a hundred livestock. We have no more bison. It’s hard to bring animals in. So cats are banned, because they are always predators.”

“No cats at all in the Never? Not even a few tabby cats?”

“Not now. Not for years.”

My stomach rumbled. “I’m really hungry. Mercutio probably is by now, too. If it’s not safe for him to hunt, then we’d better get him some meat to eat soon.”

“There’s no meat where I’m taking you. He’ll have to wait until he’s humanside to eat.”

I frowned. “Well, let’s hurry then.”

*   *   *

THE SECOND EXIT
was closed, too. Caedrin had been worried about the trees talking to the tree keeper about us, so he’d taken us to a gate of iron. It made my skin break out when I got close, but I saw the key, and Zach had no trouble with iron, so he climbed up the rock wall to fetch the key from the hook it hung from. When he climbed to the lock, however, he shook his head.

“What?” I demanded. “It’s a lock. I can see that even from here.”

“Yeah, but there’s a problem you obviously can’t see,” Zach said. He turned it one way and then the other. “There’s no keyhole.”

“That’s not possible!” Caedrin yelled. “None could get close enough to damage the lock. How—”

“It looks like someone poured molten metal into the lock, and it cooled and hardened.”

Caedrin put a hand to his forehead, which made him look entirely human for a moment. “Someone used an endless flame to make the tip of an arrow turn molten. When the wood finally burned away, the shaft would drop and be extinguished. Clever.”

Zach swung down so he dangled, then dropped to the ground. He walked along the gate and then crouched, touching a bald spot on the earth where there was no grass. “Sounds about right. There’s a charred spot here and some ash and dots of metal.”

“I’m so hungry,” I said, chewing on the inside of my cheek. Merc paced, too, in circles.

“I’m pretty hungry myself,” Bryn said. “We could fish.”

“Yeah, we’ve gotta eat,” Zach said. “It’s something about this place, isn’t it? For the past half hour, food’s practically all I can think about.”

“It’s the smell of food from the festival,” Caedrin said. “The spices enlarge the appetite so the celebration feast will be grander and more satisfying.”

“Do they have meat there?” I said, bending to give Mercutio a hug when he looked like he might bolt away. “We have to give Mercutio something to eat or he’s going to go hunting for it himself.”

Caedrin rubbed his chin. “I’ll have to get it from the castle. It’s the only place I have access to meat that won’t be missed.”

“Great. Let’s go,” Zach said.

“You’re not coming. None of you can be seen.” He tucked a strand of gold hair behind his ear and nodded, mostly it seemed to agree with himself. “I’ll see what can be learned about where the open exits out of the Never are. There will be gossip. Some of it will be reliable.”

“Faeries gossip?” I asked.

“For many it’s a great talent,” he said with a rueful smile.

“This place will feel just like home,” I said, exchanging a look with Bryn and Zach.

We walked down a dirt trail that was three feet wide and shouldered on each side by wildflowers taller than me. A clearing popped up, and in its center was a small house.

I cocked my head and asked, “Is that . . . ?”

“Gingerbread?” Bryn said.

“It is. Our Highness likes the human faery stories. There are little tributes here and there created for her pleasure.”

Merc sprinted forward and licked a swirl of white trim that looked like icing.

“Is that frosting?” I asked, hurrying over for a closer look.

“Don’t eat the house,” Caedrin said when I pinched off a tiny piece to taste.

“Right, sweetheart. Don’t eat that. It’s been exposed to the elements.”

I rubbed my fingers together and dropped the crumbs, but bent my head and touched my finger to my tongue. Definitely gingerbread!

“What are the roof shingles made of?” Zach asked.

We all looked up. There were small rounded shingles in red or green.

“Apple skins. They used frosting to glue them in place.”

“So clever! And water-resistant! I love it,” I said. I opened the heavy door and walked inside. The floor was made of candy tiles. “Let’s not get the floor here wet or it’ll be as sticky as flypaper,” I said.

“The kitchen is operational, but I don’t know what supplies there are. This is more of a showplace, meant for brief visits and for the young to play in. But it’s one of the few houses not surrounded by woods. You have to avoid the trees, since the queen has had Colis convince them to report on activities at the entries and to block the exits.” He jerked his head to get the hair off his face. “I’ll be back as soon as I’m able.”

“Bring Momma,” I said. “I wanna see her. At least for a few minutes.”

“She won’t be near where I’m going.”

“I’d like to see her,” I repeated.

“Agreed,” Zach said. “We want to hear from her that she’s all right.” Zach’s expression was all business. He’d been a sheriff’s deputy for quite a while and was used to having his authority respected.

“You are free to want whatever you like. The same as every creature in the Never,” Caedrin said to Zach. “But being entitled to that which you want . . . not the same circumstance. Don’t mistake things. Your safety concerns me only in that it is tied to my daughter’s.” Caedrin gestured to me and then looked back at Zach. “Have a care whom you challenge. Words and actions carry different consequences here than humanside.” Caedrin looked at me, offered a half smile. “Don’t wander from here—for your safety. If possible, I will bring Marlee.”

He strode out without a look back.

“I don’t trust him,” Zach said.

“You don’t trust many people,” I said, my stomach rumbling loudly. “Who’s hungry?”

“I am,” Bryn said.

“I’m starvin’, darlin’. Cook like I’m still in college and comin’ home from football practice.”

Mercutio walked around the small living room and then followed me to the kitchen. The framed windows looked out at a lawn that was trimmed with lollipop lanterns. The flower borders looked like gumdrops. It was as cute as Candy Land.

Beyond the lawn there was a tall row of hedges, and behind them fields of enormous wildflowers.

I quickly took stock of the supplies. Most of the ingredients would be good for making sweet things, but there were also some herbs and spices, salted meats, and root vegetables. I found the pots and pans and went to work.

When I’d been cooking for a while, Bryn said, “Tamara?”

I looked over my shoulder at him. “I’ll have some things ready in a few minutes. Assuming the stoves here work the same as the stoves in Texas. But a few things—”

Bryn clenched and unclenched his fists and shifted his weight from foot to foot. He had plenty of energy normally, but he didn’t waste it fidgeting.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m going to see the water. I’ll avoid the woods.”

“I don’t think you should go alone. Or before we’ve eaten. We’re all famished.”

His gaze moved to my lips, then my throat, then lower. He drew in a shaky breath. “I want a thousand things at once. To eat. To make love to you. To go to the festival and take in the sights and sounds. But roaring louder than anything is the call of the Irish ocean. I can’t be still. I can’t wait.”

My brows rose and I set down the dough I’d been rolling. I rubbed my hands on a hand towel embroidered with playing children. “Here, eat some bits of salted meat and dried fruit while we walk,” I said, smoothing the towel out and then dumping things onto it.

“No,” Bryn said, catching my hands and stilling them. “Sweetheart, I should go alone. The water’s going to be frigid, and I feel like I’ll be diving deep. Too deep for you to come with me.”

“But I can walk you to the water. And guard the area if you—”

“You should wait here. The fewer of us wandering around out there, the better. If I didn’t feel so bloody compelled, I’d stay myself.” A troubled expression crossed his face. “I just need to go.”

“It’s all right.” I stood for a moment, torn between the need for food and the desire to go with Bryn. I chewed on my lip and glanced at Mercutio. “What do you think, Merc?”

Mercutio hopped onto the table and began to eat the bits of meat and probably some of the dried fruit that got in the way.

“You also need to wait for Caedrin to get back. If we all leave, he won’t know where we’ve gone. And if he’s able to bring your mother, I want you to have as much time with her as possible,” Bryn said.

That made me settle back against the counter. I did want to see Momma. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I was worried that the trouble for Momma and Caedrin was worse than my father was letting on.

Maybe if I asked her, she’d want to leave the Never with me when I left. She’d come in to be with him, but sometimes anticipating going somewhere was better than actually being there. That was how my culinary school and apprenticeship in Dallas had been. I’d sure learned a lot, but I’d been so homesick and lonely I’d probably cried enough tears to fill a gallon container.

“How will you find your way back after you go for your swim?” I asked.

Bryn smiled. “That won’t be a problem. There’s no other magic to distract me. No witch magic. My connection to you burns brighter than anything.”

“So you feel my faery magic?”

“Yes.”

“Does it feel different than my witch magic did?” I asked in surprise. He’d always been able to feel my magic and I could feel his. But here I didn’t feel that wizard’s magic of his anymore. I felt the magic of the Never humming around us, but none of it was loud or distracting, not the way the siren song of the sea apparently was for him.

“It does feel different. The taste of honey and apples is stronger. The cocoa and ginger has faded. The silkiness has become crushed velvet. Still soft, but richer and earthier.”

“Hmmm. That sounds good.”

“It’s all good with you.” He put his hands on my cheeks and tilted my face up. But then he clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I can’t start something I’ll feel compelled to finish. I’ll kiss you when I return.”

I was tempted to send Mercutio with him, but I worried that the cat might get a big urge to go exploring and end up in the woods. None of us were used to the Never yet. It seemed to be pulling us in a bunch of directions at once. My toes twitched to walk barefoot in the grass, and my fingers ached to bury themselves back in the pie dough or to run through Bryn’s hair and pull him close for a kiss. A lightning bolt of lust made my belly tighten. I wanted to grab Bryn and drag him down to the floor on top of me, to wrap my legs—

I sucked in a startled breath and forced my feet to take a step back. “Yeah, go ahead.” I tucked my hair behind my ear, glancing at the doorway to the room where Zach was standing.

“What were you just thinking?” Bryn asked, the corners of his mouth inching up into a smirk.

“None of your business.”

“I beg to differ.”

I waved a hand, urging him away. “Go on now.”

His smile broadened. “You’re pretty when you blush.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And when you don’t.”

“All right, Casanova. Go on now.”

Bryn kissed his fingertips and blew on them to send the kiss to me. I swear I felt the heat of his breath against my skin. I shivered, retreating until the counter pressed against my lower back.

“See you soon,” he said.

I turned and leaned over the counter, exhaling and then taking another deep breath in. The Never was dangerous in ways I hadn’t realized. I pulled the bowl of dough to me and sank my hands into it. The soft lump swallowed my fingers, and I felt a rush of anticipation. I was still hungry for more than a blue-eyed selkie man.

I worked steadily with Mercutio weaving around me and through the legs of the table. I was too focused on my work to stop and try to figure out what was driving his endless circling, until he hopped onto a chair and leapt across to the top of the counter. He darted to a window and looked out.