Forever Fae (20 page)

I dismiss the fae and close the scrying bowl.  They will all bow down to me, not anyone else.  I can let them all believe that for now, but when I get the power there will be no mistaking who the powerful one is then. 
My plans are finally coming together. 
I can’t believe the
p
rincess
will
actually
be here this evening.  She will be staying in my dwelling
,
away from the army.  I don’t want anyone able to touch her other than me.

Chapter 16

Calista

We reach the field and set up the targets for dagger practice.  I am excellent at dagger throwing.  It’s my favorite thing to do.  I have won a lot of treasures by challenging the other warriors to contests.  Most of them thought it would be easy to beat me since they believed I had no real practice.  I showed them though, and I won their respect as a fighter and there was no better feeling than that.

Merrick and I both stretch to get our bodies ready.  I promised him an ass kicking, and that is exactly what he’s going to get. 

“Alright, Princess, it’s time for the dagger throw.” He sits back and watches me.  He watches me a little too intensely and it makes me nervous.  I stop stretching and bend down to grab two daggers.

While bending down, I silently send Merrick a warning
.

“You better not be staring at my ass.  I have two daggers here and I am not afraid to use them.  I’m sure your body could make do with one less appendage.”

Merrick laughs
.

“
To get to that appendage I would have to drop my pants.  Is that what you wish?  I would be more than happy to oblige.”

He grab
s
the waist of his shorts and pulls.  I point one of my daggers at him and yell for him to stop
.

“
N
o
, I was kidding.  Don’t you dare drop those
shorts
.
If
you do, I will use this blade and I don’t think you’ll be laughing then.”

  He backs
away and keeps his shorts on, s
mart man.  I turn to look at the targets and with two daggers in
my
hand,
I throw them at the same time
.
I hit both targets straight in the middle. Damn, I’m good.  The targets were placed fifty feet down the field and I nailed them. 

“Now, this time do it with your eyes closed
,
”
Merrick says.

I grab two more daggers and walk over to the other two targets
.  I close my eyes and concentrate on
everything going on around me.  I can picture the targets in my
mind.  I lift both hands with the daggers and release a slow breath.  I count to three
.
O
ne
…
two…three…and throw.  I open my eyes to look at the targets
.
What
do you know
?
B
ulls
eye
,
both times.

“Damn, P
rincess, you are just amazing at that,” he says.  Silently he adds,
“You are amazing at everything.”

I speak out loud, “I know I am.” 
I feign a mock arrogance and brush my
hair
off my shoulders. 
To change the
subject
,
I pick up my long sword and point it at him.

“Pick up your sword
,
g
uardian
,
and let’s see what you got,” I yell.

  He picks his sword up and circles around me.  We contin
ue like this for about a minute and I know h
e will nev
er attack first so I give him an
evil grin and charge.  He dodges my attack and we continue this dance for a while.  I decide
to bring my magic into the mix so when h
e runs towa
rd me, I run toward him and a
t the last minute I use the wind to help me jump in the air and over him.  I land behind him and kick his feet out from under him.  It
is
so funny to see him land on his face.

Merrick jumps up and gives
me a scowl.  I shrug and brush my shoulders to aggravate hi
m more.  I turn around and laugh
out loud when all of a sudden a fire ball hits me right in the
back.  I stand
perfectly still because I’m shocked into place.
  Did he just do what I think he did?  I turn around slowly and give him a surprised look.  My surpris
ed look turns into my menacing one
and his eyes widen at knowing what’s coming next.
If he wants a fireball match
,
I’ll give him one. 

I throw more fireballs at him and he dodges and hides while throwing some back at me.  With an affinity to fire, the wielder of it can determine how lethal they want their fire to be.  Merrick and I just use a slight amount of heat w
ith ours so n
othing in our fire balls
can
hurt the other. 

Merrick puts his hands up in defeat and yells, “I forfeit!”

I meet him b
ack in the middle of the field and say,
“I knew you would give up, but you started it in the first place.”

“I know, I know, and it was my mistake.  I can’t believe you made me land on my face like that.  It almost
broke
my nose.”

I narrow my eyes and make a point to stare at his nose. 

“Breaking it probably would have helped
it.  It looks kind of crooked,” I tease and
laugh so hard I can’t see straight.

He shifts his feet
quickly
and gets into his fighting stance.

There’s a gleam in his eye when he says,
“Very funny, princess, let’s see how you do with hand
-
to
-
hand combat today.  I am not holding anything back on you
,
either.”

Before I
c
an
catch my breath from laughing so hard
,
he comes after me.  Before he gets to me
,
I crouch and swing my leg out to trip him.  He jumps over my leg and rolls across the ground.  He’s up in second and comes back at me.  I land a hard punch to his jaw and he reciprocates with a kick to my side.  The air
is
knocked out of me and I bend over to get a breath.  He was right ab
out not taking it easy on me.  Well, l
et’s see what else he can do.  I stand up, smile at him and
then
motion my hands for him to bring more.

We go back and forth dodging each other’s blows when finally Merrick takes me down to the ground
with a lightning fast move
.  The air is knocked out o
f me again by one of his
blows.  When I regain my breath, we are both breathing hard.  Training is always
strenuous and tiring.  He lands
on top of me with one hand on my waist and the other one holding my hands above my head.  I am in a vulnerable position and I don’t like the way he is looking at me now.  I look at him questioningly, hoping he
w
ill
understand that I
am
waiting for him to get up, but he makes no effort to move. 

“You can get up now, Merrick,”
I say.

“I know, but have you given any thought to what we talked about last night? 
You know
I love
you, Calista, and all I want is for you to please give me a chance.”

He hasn’t had a chance to notice my skin temperature until now.  He looks at my hands and narrows his eyes like he’s trying to figure out why I feel the way I do.  He uses his hand to pull down the part of my shirt at my wrist to feel more of my skin.  That’s
when he notices how pale my skin has gotten. 
I look him in the
eyes
.
The
hurt and confusion is written all over his face.

“A lot happen
ed last night after you left and s
ome things have changed.  You may not understand just yet, but please don’t be mad when you see.  I’ll explain everything.  I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

His eyes are searching my face for any kind of answer until all of a sudden the air changes and snow begins to fall.  The power circling around us is strong and suffocating. 
This is Ryder’s doing, but where is he?
That’s when I hear his voice.  The bittern
ess and the icy tone
send
a chill through my body
.
The
thought of him seeing me in this position with Merric
k on top of me
makes
my heart
ache
.  I know the way it’s going to look to him and
if
the snow falling isn’t a clear indicator then I don’t know what is.

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

Merrick turns his head to look at Ryder and then down at me. 
His confusion slowly dissipates and turns into anger.
He gets up and holds a hand out to me to help me
get to my feet
.

“I could ask you the same question, asshole
,
” Merrick says with venom in his voice looking at Ryder. 

I cut in quickly and say, “Ryder, this isn’t what it looks like.  We were just training and he took me down.  You have to trust me.”

He shakes his head and looks at the ground.  When he lifts his eyes I see the hurt he must be feeling at my supposed betraya
l. 
Th
e
look vanishes and quickly turns to one of betrayal.

“See, that’s the thing.  I’ve watched you both train for the past hour and that is not how I see things at all.  Then I find you both on the ground with him between your legs.”  He pauses to take a breath and let
s it out.

“Did last night not mean anything to you?”
he asks.

I start to speak but Merrick cuts in. 

“Last night?  What happened between you two last night that was supposed to mean something?” He looks back and forth from me to Ryder and then keeps his eyes on me.  “Why is he
talking about you as if you’re
more than a friend, like you two are together or something?
”  He stops to look at Ryd
er more closely and I believe it’s the first time he
notice
s
that Ryder has changed as well.

“I want to know why you
look different
but
both look
the same?  I want answers, NOW!”
Merrick yells.

“Yes, Calista, why don’t you tell Merrick what is going on,” Ryder
sp
its
.

Merrick yells, “Don’t you dare talk to her like that.  She doesn’t des
erve to be treated
that
way, especially
not
from an ice-cold dick like you.”

This is not good.  Ryder
’s spine stiffens
and
he
looks
Merrick straight in the eyes.
 

“Like she deserved the way you treat
ed her last night,” Ryder roars
back.
  The anger in his voice makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  He actually sounds very scary and I’m starting to worry how far things
will
escalate.

Merrick looks
at me with a hurt expression
.

“You told him what happened?”  He turns to look at Ryder
.

“It was a mistake and I didn’t mean for it to go that far.  I’m not going to kiss he
r again without her permission,” he says thoughtfully.

Ryder laughs sarcastically, “Well
,
aren’t you just the gentleman
?
”

This has gone far enough.  I go and push between them putting one hand on Ryder and the other on Merrick to keep them apart.  I
yell
to get their attention
.

“Guys, stop it!
Let
me explain.”

“I think the only explaining that’s going to happen
here
is me beating the shit out of lover boy over here,” Ryder says while pointing at Merrick.

Merrick
takes a few steps back, takes his shirt off and
flexes his tanned muscles.  He motions for Ryder to come to him.