Casually Cursed (4 page)

BRYN ARRIVED WEARING
trousers as black as his hair and a red shirt that made the blue of his eyes even more vibrant. For a moment I just stared at him, because he has the ability to stun a person with his good looks. Then I remembered that I was going to marry him and really needed to get over those looks, or who would keep him in line? Not that Bryn’s the kind of guy who takes orders. But sometimes, when he gets ruthless with his enemies, he needs me to remind him not to go overboard. Just because someone tries to kill us doesn’t mean they’re all bad. And the good guys, which we are, can’t go hog wild with revenge if they want to hold on to their white hats.

I glanced over my shoulder. Aunt Mel stood in the foyer, waiting to greet Bryn. Behind her, Edie opened drawers in the foyer chest, searching it.

“What are you looking for?” I asked Edie as Aunt Melanie stepped forward.

“Hi, Bryn. Merry Christmas,” Aunt Mel said. She and Bryn exchanged a hug. “I’m surprised about the engagement. And worried. I hope you guys won’t rush the wedding. . . .”

He remained silent.

“Getting married or even falling in love with you could be putting our girl at major risk. You know that, right?”

Being a good lawyer, Bryn never changed his expression. He wouldn’t let her bait him into agreeing to a long engagement.

“You love each other so much there’s nothing to do except get married?” Mel asked, raising her brows in question. “You’re sure?”

“Absolutely sure,” Bryn said.

Melanie sighed and shrugged. “All right. Then I’m behind you.”

Edie glanced up. “I’m behind you, too, Lyons. With a club and bad intentions. Watch your back,” she said in a saccharine whisper. Returning to her search of the chest, she added, “I’m looking for the extra bottles Marlee used to keep in here. Is there really not a single drop of brandy or cognac left in this house? For pity’s sake, Melanie.”

“I used up the brandy in the brandy Alexanders,” I said.

“Well, what am I supposed to do for a sidecar then? Go to the Paris Ritz, where it was invented? We’ve got to keep this house better stocked. It’s beyond the pale.”

“Why do you need brandy?” I scoffed. “You’re drinking gin and tonics.”

“We’re out of gin. There was only a splash left.”

“There was more than a splash.”

“Well, it went down like a splash,” Edie said. “And I haven’t had a sidecar since the week before I died. Don’t you think ninety years is long enough to wait?”

“Ninety years isn’t very long,” Crux said, appearing at the end of the hall.

“Fae,” Bryn said, narrowing his cobalt eyes. “Crux, I presume.”

Crux inclined his head, saying, “Wizard.” Crux stretched. “You’re not wanted here. You should retrieve your rings and go.”

I glanced at the canary-yellow diamond solitaire that sat big as an egg on my left ring finger. And the magical band on my right middle finger. Both were from Bryn, symbols of our romantic and magical connections.

Bryn’s gaze assessed Crux for several long moments. Crux leaned against the wall.

“Don’t tax your brain, wizard. Even full of sweetened spirits, I could kill you with a motion so fast and smooth that the curtains would barely sway.”

I glanced at the sheers hanging over the window next to Crux.

Crux added a couple words I didn’t know. It sounded like Gaelic, and Bryn who speaks lots of languages, flicked his gaze past Crux.

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said, ‘Come out, deadly lovely.’ I presume he wasn’t talking to me.”

I saw the fingertips then. It was all that showed of Kismet, and they twitched, beckoning me. I took Bryn’s hand so that our rings connected. He wore a band on his left middle finger that reacted to the one on my right hand. Magic, which already flowed between us, spiked.

Kismet’s face appeared then, her expression curious. She stared at Bryn for several long moments and he stared back.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Bryn. Tamara’s fiancé.”

Kismet’s gaze flicked to my face. She whispered something, also in that foreign language.

“Yes,” Bryn said, pleased. “I’m the love of her life. And she’s mine.”

Kismet’s eyes never left mine. “You won’t want to go without him. So wherever we go, he can come.”

“I tire of this,” Crux said. “The queen extended no invitation to this wizard, and there is nothing of his in the Never. He’s not welcome.”

“I’m—” I began, but Crux cut me off.

“No,” he said with finality. “A man can’t claim from the human world that which did not belong to it. You’re fae.”

Bryn was part fae himself, but we sure weren’t going to admit that to Crux.

“If it will complicate things, I won’t travel into the Never with her,” Bryn said, lying to Crux so smoothly that for a second I was shocked that he’d changed his mind about letting me go alone. Lawyers! They’re trickier than faeries sometimes.

“But Tamara’s safety is important to me,” Bryn said. “She told me her sister’s not convinced they should go. Let me listen to Kismet’s reservations. Because if Tamara is traveling underhill without me, I want her sister with her.”

I glanced at Kis, who was eyeing Bryn suspiciously. Exactly, I thought. What was Bryn up to?

I gave Kis a reassuring smile and nod, knowing that whatever Bryn did, it would be in the interest of trying to protect us.

Maybe he wanted to avoid a conflict with Crux so that he could get close enough to see his weaknesses? If so, that was a good idea. Except I wasn’t sure that Crux had a lot of weaknesses. Even if Bryn had an iron weapon, Bryn couldn’t take Crux in a hand-to-hand fight. Faeries can move like lightning. At their fastest, you can’t catch them unless they want you to. But I presumed Bryn knew this. He wouldn’t try any straightforward attack. Bryn was strategy . . . and magic. Bryn could wield power like a weapon. Would witch magic be strong enough to stop a faery knight’s arrow? If the answer was no, I didn’t want to find out.

Crux said nothing. He watched Bryn, and I wondered whether he was wondering the same things I was. Then Crux shrugged.

“By sunrise we’ll be under way, or I’ll send word that you’re stalling. Your resistance is an insult to the queen’s offered hospitality, and I’ll suggest that your mother should pay the price for your insolence.”

“He’s lying,” Kismet said.

Crux narrowed his eyes. “Test me. I’ll let you hear the message I give to the nymph.”

Kismet frowned.

“I’m in earnest. You’ll both come, or there will be blood in payment.”

All Crux’s earlier cheer was gone. In his darkened mood, even his golden glow seemed burnished to bronze. I recognized this side of him. He’d used a rose stem as a switch on my back for defying him. The wounds had healed quickly, but not the nastiness of the attack.

“Let’s sit and talk,” I said. “One of us is better than none. If Momma’s in trouble, I’ll go with you. The queen doesn’t know yet that you found Kismet, does she? You can take me and then say you still have more looking to do.”

“No!” Kismet said. “She could keep you prisoner. Don’t you see? You can’t go in alone. You won’t know how to manage in there.”

“But it’s the best we can do.”

“I won’t let you go alone,” Kismet said, her expression fierce. I didn’t know if that meant that she was promising to go with me or promising to stop me from going.

“Kismet, if the queen makes a promise that she won’t punish you for leaving, would you return home willingly?” Crux asked.

“She won’t make that promise,” Kismet said. “No defiance goes unpunished.”

“If she promises, would you come?”

The silence seemed to stretch to oblivion. Then Kismet said, “Aye. If she makes that promise, I’ll come.”

Crux nodded. “Consider that her promise has been given.”

Kismet narrowed her eyes.

“Don’t think we’ll fall for that!” I exclaimed.

“Before I left the Never, she said that if such a promise would shorten the hunt and I could return more quickly with my quarry, I could give the promise in her name.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” I snapped.

“He knows she won’t be happy. She’d rather he brought me back without it.” Kismet laughed. “You must have been angry when she told you that you could make that promise. You know what it means.”

I glanced between them, my brows rising in question.

“The queen didn’t believe he could bring her back against her will,” Bryn murmured.

“It means that the queen believes this Halfling to be stubborn unto death,” Crux said coldly. His gaze turned to Kismet. “She thought you might fight to the death rather than be brought back alive, which is exactly what you threatened tonight. You see how we anticipate your actions? We know you.”

“Yes,” she said. “When I fight, it is usually to the death. You know that because you taught me that.”

We all studied Kismet. Her expression was so bland, she might have been talking about eating cake rather than the end of her life.

She is so like Mercutio
, I thought again.

“Nobody wants to die. And no one wants to get punished. I’m glad we got that stuff settled. Come to the kitchen. Edie, you’re looking a little tipsy,” I said as she swayed while walking toward the living room couch. “How about some ham and mashed potatoes and gravy? Or some cocoa pecan cream cake. What are you in the mood for?”

“Not food, but thank you. I’ll have a gasper.” Edie pulled out a cigarette and lit it. “You go on negotiating. Lyons should at least be good in that capacity. He’s proven he knows how to get what he doesn’t deserve. Let’s see him put that skill to some use.”

“I may get what I don’t deserve, but I’ve never stolen anyone else’s body. Or life. That’s the ultimate theft,” Bryn said.

Edie chuckled. “It was accidental. I won’t feel guilty about it. Besides, I’ve spoken to Vangie. She’s happy as a clam. Much happier than I ever was as a ghost. And I’ll be much happier alive than she ever was. Trust me—the girl was a tortured soul when she lived in this body.”

Crux coughed at the smoke that wafted toward us from Edie. “Make more biscuits so she’ll stop smoking. No one can resist biscuits.”

“He’s right, so it would seem. Irish wizards. Seelie queens. They all want a bite out of our little biscuit,” Edie said before she sucked in another breath through her cigarette.

“Edie, don’t cause trouble,” I said.

She smiled. “You expect me to give that up? When it’s a true talent of mine?” Then she winked.

“I like her,” Kismet whispered. Then, to Edie, she said loudly, “I like you.”

“It’s mutual,” Edie announced, then took another puff.

I couldn’t decide whether to be pleased or terrified by this turn of events.

FOUR OF US
sat at the table. I was across from Bryn. Crux faced Kismet. Edie lay on the couch smoking, sipping a sour-apple martini, and occasionally taking a bite of food from the plate I’d fixed her.

Melanie leaned against the counter, hovering near, listening. Occasionally she came up behind my chair and whispered that I shouldn’t go with the fae into the Never. She swore that Caedrin and Momma could take care of themselves. She said they’d convinced her to leave for her own safety. And from the sounds of things, they’d helped Kismet escape. She said the last thing they would want was for another daughter they loved to come into the Never. I wasn’t sure she was wrong. But I couldn’t sit by and let them get tortured or killed because I wouldn’t go.

Kismet glanced frequently at Edie.

“You keep looking at my earrings. Do you like them?” Edie asked, tucking her hair behind her ears. I realized she was wearing Aunt Melanie’s magical Colombian emerald earrings.

“Yes. Green and gold are the best colors,” Kis said.

“Here,” Edie said, taking the earrings off. “A birthday present. We owe you twenty-two more. Don’t accept less.” Edie’s eyes twinkled. Kismet didn’t move. “Come take them. You’ve got our green eyes. They’ll be lovely on you.”

“I don’t have the holes for them,” Kismet said, touching her lobe.

“And they wouldn’t suit you,” Crux said. “Baubles are for human good-time girls. Not warriors.”

Kismet darted from her chair, taking a pin from the strap of her quiver. She poked the pin through her lobe, making me wince. She worked the pin back and forth and then took the earring and shoved it into her newly pierced ear.

We all stared at her in shocked silence. She made a matching hole in the other ear and put the second earring in.

“You’re marvelous,” Edie said, saluting Kismet with her glass. “Every bit my niece.”

Kismet shoved the bloody pin back into the strap of her bag and returned to her seat with a small smile.

“Um, do you need a little ice? Or some aspirin? That was kind of a rough way to pierce your ears,” I said.

She shook her head.

“The right earring is higher than the left. Sloppily done,” Crux said.

Kismet shrugged. “Maybe I’ll fix it. Or maybe I’ll like them that way. It’s no concern of yours.”

Melanie frowned, whispering things in Bryn’s ear. I assumed she was trying to convince him to use his influence over me to change my mind about joining these impulsive warring faeries on their journey.

Bryn mostly listened, not saying much, but he was very hospitable. He helped me bring hot food and then dessert to the table, made spiked hot-cocoa drinks, and cleared plates when Crux needed to draw a map. I wondered about Bryn’s movements, especially when I felt very faint threads of his magic brush my skin.

“We’ll take the trail to Quebec. Then across,” Crux insisted.

“No. That goes into the Scottish woods. I don’t go that way anymore,” Kismet said.

“Of course it goes to Scotch woods. It’s the easiest way to enter.”

“It’s easiest to enter, but the woods aren’t safe. I take the trail from here to the woods near the Great Lakes and then to Ireland. It’s a better way.”

“It isn’t,” Crux said. “She’s mostly witch,” he added, nodding at me. “She’s never been underhill. Witch magic is much thicker in Ireland, and forests are scarce. Harder for me to pass unnoticed.”

“Difficult for you, maybe, but the fact that Tammy Jo’s never been underhill makes no difference to getting her in. She’s my exact flesh and blood. She can pass into the Never wherever there’s a gate. Now, if you agree to go by way of Ireland, I’ll help you avoid witches’ traps.”

“What’s in Scotland that you don’t want us near?” Crux asked.

For a second, a guilty look passed over Kismet’s face before her expression went blank. “The trails in Scotland have become dangerous.”

“Who’s more dangerous than we two?” Crux demanded fiercely.

“Which of us walks the roads of men and wizards dozens of times in a human year? I’m telling you that I don’t go by way of Scotland. Ireland’s best,” Kismet said impatiently.

“There are barely any woods left in Ireland. It’s all cities and farms, I’m told.”

“I know the way to go, and I’ll show you.”

That settled things for me. Kismet hadn’t denied that Momma and Caedrin could be in trouble for helping her. She’d never tried to convince me Momma was fine, and Kismet and Crux knew better than Aunt Mel what the faery queen was capable of. Now Kismet was talking about re-entering the Never along with me. There was no doubt anymore. I was going underhill.

Crackling music filled the rooms, and we all looked into the living room. Edie had brought out the old record player and albums. We hadn’t played them in years.

She started to dance the Charleston, kicking up her heels. She managed to look cool, despite the fast steps.

“Tammy Jo knows this one.” To me, Edie said, “Do you remember?”

I put my hands out and moved them in time, kicking my heels up a few inches from the floor, but keeping my butt firmly on the seat of my chair. Bryn watched me with a smile.

“We used to dance five or ten times a day when I was little,” I said. “I had a record player in my room. They’d bought it at a flea market.”

Crux and Kismet had not looked at anyone but Edie since she’d started dancing.

“I don’t know that one. I must learn it,” Kismet said.

“Let’s settle this first. Then Edie and Tamara can give us all a lesson,” Bryn said, surprising me.

“I’m going into the Never,” I said firmly. “I have to check on Momma and help her if she’s in trouble.”

“The route is settled as well,” Kismet said. “I won’t go through Scotland. Besides, I left my horse in Michigan. I have to go by way of the Great Lakes trail.” She rose without a look at them. Crux pushed his chair back.

“Crux, may I have a word?” Bryn asked. “Tamara, go show your sister how to do that dance.”

“I’m still healing. Edie will teach her.”

“Go talk to Melanie then. She’s worried. Feed her cake. There’s very little in life that doesn’t get better with a mouthful of something you’ve baked.”

I flashed him a smile at the compliment, silently wondering what he wanted to talk to Crux about alone. I went over to Aunt Mel.

A moment later I heard Bryn say, “Let me show you this.” His chair scraped and then there was the soft ping of something small and hard hitting the floor. I turned as I felt the magic rise like a hot wave.

Crux jerked to his feet, sending the chair flying back, but even Crux wasn’t fast enough. The wall of magic closed around the table.

“Wizard!” Crux roared.

I saw for the first time the five stones that Bryn had obviously put in position on the floor when he’d delivered and removed plates from the table. Except for the last one, they hadn’t made a sound when they’d dropped. Apparently they’d floated down on woven magic meant to conceal them.

He’s so clever and talented
, I thought.
And a little bit diabolical.

Edie had stopped dancing. She and Kismet stared at us.

Bryn licked the tip of his thumb where he’d cut it to use his blood to close the circle.

“Lift the spell now, or I will kill you,” Crux said.

“No, I don’t trust you enough to travel with you.” Bryn turned to me. “If it’s possible, we should try to get into the Never and out again with as few fae knowing as possible,” he said.

“That’s a wise idea,” Kismet agreed. As she approached, Bryn held out a hand.

“Be careful. I’ve closed the circle so that more than one witch’s magic can open it.”

“Kismet, break the circle. Do it now,” Crux said.

“Kismet, you can go wherever you want. You’ll have a head start. When he’s eventually freed, he’ll have to choose whether to come after us or after you,” Bryn said.

“Since you’ve trapped him, you’ll need me to show you the way underhill,” Kismet said.

“We’ll find our way in,” Bryn said. “The faery trails in Ireland are well-known, and Tamara has felt the one here in Duvall. She’ll lead us to the entrance.”

“She’ll find her way in, but you’re human. You’ll need the right gateway.”

“I’m an Association wizard. I know how to weaken the magic that seals the gates. We’ll manage.”

She grinned. “Go straight into the belly of the beast for her, wouldn’t you? Well-done.” Her lilt was irresistibly charming, especially when she smiled. She walked to me and leaned close, taking my hands. “I’ll meet you in Dublin and take you the rest of the way. Don’t go in without me. He’s brave, but you’ll need more than bravery in there. To get you out again, you’ll need me. Don’t go in without me,” she repeated.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Are you sure you don’t want to leave your wizard here, where it’s safe? We can go along the trails faster than sound travels. With him you’d have to go by plane, because he can’t pass the trails like we could alone.”

“No, he’d never forgive me. If the worst happens and I can’t get out, he’d rather us be trapped together than for him to be safe here alone.”

“All right, but you’re my other half. We’ll do things together no one expects. Don’t go in without me. Swear it.”

“Do you swear to come?”

“Yes. Go on the literary pub crawl in Dublin. I’ll find you there. I have to go by the college anyway. If I’m going back I’ll need to steal a book to give her as a gift. She likes when I do that.”

“Steal a book? What college? What are you talking about?”

“Never mind. Just be sure to go on the pub crawl.”

“How will I find it?” I asked.

“You’ll find it. See you on the Seelie side of the ocean,” she whispered, and kissed me on the cheek. Then she turned and lunged to grab her bow from the counter. She was out the back door before I even had a chance to say good-bye.

“She moves like a faery,” Bryn said.

“That’s because she is one,” Crux growled.