Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga) (49 page)

A tear spilled down Ivyanne’s cheek. ‘I’ve always loved you,’ she said quietly, reaching down and intertwining her fingers through his. ‘I always believed the best in you....’

‘I know,’ Ardhi said, smiling. Just behind Ivyanne, he saw Vana turn away from the conversation she was having with Simone Loveridge (who had been staring daggers at Ardhi all night and not surprisingly so) and stare at the back of Ivyanne’s head, biting her lower lip in consternation, the crown on her head catching the flickering candlelight. That small gesture of concern was enough to make Ardhi want to kiss Ivyanne right there and then in front of everyone-that bitch had done
nothing
but thrown hurdles between him and her daughter since Nigara had died. Like Ardhi wasn’t good enough. Like Ardhi wasn’t strong enough-like his family were black sheep in a sea of golden fleeces. Instead, he smiled smugly. ‘That’s why I love you. You made me feel special in a way no one else ever did.’

‘Not even Lux?’

‘Not even Lux?’

‘Then how could you do this to me?’

Ardhi froze, breaking the eye contact with the queen to stare down at the girl in his arms. Her tone had frosted over significantly. ‘Do
what
?’

Ivyanne’s entire face hardened. In one split second, her eyes went from molten emerald to the calculating, condescending and terrifying eyes of a black cat under a full moon. ‘Make me
loathe
you,’ she finished. ‘
That’s
what you’ve done.’

Ardhi’s mouth fell open in surprise and at that exact second, Ivyanne tensed her arm and bent his wrist up and behind his back, causing him to cry out in pain and spin around. Before he knew it, he landed on the hard slate floor on his knees, blinding white pain obscuring his vision momentarily.

‘What are you
doing
?!’ he hollered.

Her hair swung by his face like an aurulent curtain. ‘Letting you know where you stand...or should I say...
kneel
.’ She hissed, sounding nothing like the Ivyanne he knew. The background noise had gone from laughter and conversation to gasps and screams. ‘At my feet-where you
belong
.’

Ardhi didn’t understand any of it. And before he could begin to, Vana’s shin’s came into vision as she rushed forward, hitched her long lavender skirt and kicked him squarely between the eyes with the underside of her high heel.

⁓

‘Bane! Ash! Do we have anything to tie him with?’ Vana asked the first men to rush forward.

‘Not on me,’ Bane said. ‘But I’ve sent Marcus down to the boats looking for some rope. Ivyanne, do you have a good enough grip on him for now? Is he out?’

Ivyanne nodded, her teeth clenched together. ‘I think so. He’s gotten bloody
heavy...but I can handle it.’

‘Aubrielle has gone down to the spa to get a few doses of that sleeping stuff she’s concocted. She said she had enough to restrain him for at least a week.’ Vana crouched down in front of Ardhi and saw that while his eyes were rolling around, he wasn’t unconscious. ‘Do you hear me kiddo?’ she demanded. ‘You’re trouble- making days are
through
.’

Ardhi grunted and spat out a mouthful of blood.

‘What’s going on?!’ Pintang exclaimed, rushing to Vana’s side, her voice pitchy.

‘Lux is dead.’ Vana said sadly, her voice audible now that a profound silence had fallen upon the guests. ‘After fighting with Ardhi. Bane and I found her body this afternoon-buried on Bracken.’

‘What?!’ Pintang’s shocked cry carried above the others.

Ivyanne’s head jerked up. ‘She is? You
found
her?’

Vana nodded, indicating to Bane. ‘He found where she fell, and we followed the blood to the forest.’ Her voice caught. ‘I’m so sorry darling. She’d been dead for days.’

Ivyanne’s face crumpled and she bowed it, a sob shaking her shoulders.

‘No! Ardhi wouldn’t-’

Vana glanced to her left to see that her husband was already wrestling back Joakim, while the newcomer-the blonde in the gold dress someone had pointed out as being Lincoln’s Adele-struggled to hold onto Ardhi’s wailing mother. And as old as Eka was, restraining her wouldn’t have been possible for a young human girl. Vana wondered if that was what Bane had been coming over to tell her when Ivyanne’s antics had stilled the room-that Ardhi had turned Adele. But if so, where had she been all of this time?

‘Why would he do that?!’ Eka screamed. ‘He loved her!’

‘Until she worked it all out,’ Ivyanne said., glancing up at the blonde. ‘Thanks to Adele.’

Adele glanced over her shoulder and smiled with genuine surprise and delight. ‘My note?’

‘Your note.’ Ivyanne glanced up at the room. ‘Ardhi has been lying to us! He didn’t just wash up here the other day, he came to the area at least a week beforehand and was watching us all!’

‘And that deserves a
beating
?!’ Eka screamed.

‘That’s the
least
of what he deserves!’ Ivyanne said. She didn’t scream it, and yet her firm tone made the room fall silent. ‘He’s done nothing but scheme and plot against us since the night he disappeared. He-’

‘What are you on about?’ Ardhi spluttered through his bloody mouth. ‘First you tell me you
want
me and now you’re-
argh
!’ His scream of pain ripped through the room as Ivyanne grabbed his other arm and yanked it violently up behind him. She was now holding both wrists and staring down at him with more hate than Vana had ever imagined her daughter capable of.

‘Shut up!’ Ivyanne hollered. ‘Do you hear me Ardhi? Shut up! I’m sick of your lies. I’m sick of you!’ There was a soft clattering sound on the floor next to Ardhi. Vana glimpsed a carved shell ring lying on the floor before Ardhi seconds before Ivyanne’s foot came down hard on it. Ardhi winced.

‘And when I think of what you did to Lux, and Tristan and all of those innocent humans...I’m sick to my
stomach
and I want you to be dust!’

Vana caught her breath when she saw the obvious shudder go through the prisoner. ‘
Tristan
?’ She stepped forward again, staring at her daughter in disbelief. ‘What did.....?’ Her hand went to her mouth and she shook her head. She’d never thought anything inside her could feel so....empty.

‘
No
!’ Bane breathed, circling Ardhi and coming to Vana’s side. ‘Where did this come from Ivyanne? I thought you’d told me everything! Don’t say that Ardhi-
Kanapapaki
!’

‘Ardhi brought down the plane,’ the words dripped from Ivyanne’s voice like acid. ‘It was cold blooded
murder
.’

Pintang screamed and collapsed to her knees, dragging Lincoln down with her, the fight going out of both of them. Vana heard an inhuman wail and turned to see Isabelle take a halting step forward and into her Bane’s arms. That sound echoed the pain in Vana’s own heart-in fact, it itself was echoed throughout the room like a crescendo of misery as everyone realized what had just been said.

‘You’re insane!’ Ardhi bellowed, trying to look over his shoulder frantically. ‘You’ve lost your mind Ivyanne! How on earth could you prove that?’

‘I have a fair idea
how
,’ a silken voice said blithely. The blonde shimmered into view, jostling Eka in her hands, pushing her forward. ‘I can show everyone everything-the receipts from the flights you booked for him, the hire boat you made me hire in case we needed to dispose of his body...the phony passports you got to fly back from Los Angeles....’

Ardhi growled and struggled in Ivyanne’s arms, turning to sneer at Adele. ‘I’m going to kill you, you hear me?! You helped me every step of the way! If I’m going down for this-which I
won’t
-I’m taking you too!’

But Adele merely smiled. ‘Hey Ardhi...
I
have
your
mother. How do you like the shoe being on the other foot now, mate?’

‘No, no, no, no, no..!’ Pintang blathered, pressing her hands against her ears. ‘I’m not hearing this!’

Vana felt light-headed as Ardhi’s blatant admission rattled her very being and confirmed her suspicions. She stared at Lincoln’s ex, fascinated. Another new mermaid? Ardhi’s doing, but
not
his ally?

‘Anyway Adele didn’t tell me squat,’ Ivyanne said smugly. ‘I figured it all out on my lonesome. Though I must admit-I didn’t tie her or Sherri into this until
tonight.
’

‘Sherri?’ It was Lincoln’s turn to scramble forward. His brown eyes were wide. ‘What has
Sherri
got to do with this?’

Ivyanne turned to glance at her fiancé. She looked awkward, restraining Ardhi that way. ‘I’m sorry honey, but you didn’t turn Sherri-she came pre-packaged, just for
you
.’

Lincoln’s eyes bugged. ‘Are you serious?!’

Ivyanne yanked on Ardhi again. ‘He found her, turned her and then brought her here to split us apart.’ She leaned down over Ardhi. ‘So nice of you Ardhi, to try and make him cheat so you wouldn’t have to kill him as well!’ She addressed the crowd, turning her head slowly. ‘Ardhi created Sherri in New Zealand, to be his lure. My fiancé of course, being the prey. But not until he’d set the wheels in motion to take Tristan out first!’ Ivyanne kneed him in the side and her captive grunted. Then, she looked back at Lincoln. ‘If Ardhi here wasn’t deluded enough to think I wanted him back, you probably would have been in an
accident
too by now-given that you weren’t weak enough to sleep with
her
.’ Her incensed gaze fell back upon Ardhi. ‘You bet against the wrong man, Kayu-Api.’

The room erupted with nervous chatter and exclamations of outrage. Lincoln rubbed at his temples, looking as stricken as Vana felt.

‘Where is she?’ he asked weakly. ‘I’ll kill her
myself.
’

‘She’ll be out any minute now,’ Ivyanne chirped, her expression radiant. ‘Let’s
see Ardhi try and deny all of this when I have both witnesses out here trying to save their own asses. You hear that Ardhi? It’s
over
!’

‘I don’t give a shit!’ Ardhi rasped. ‘Thinking I had
you
only felt
half
as good as watching his plane plummet into the ocean anyway!’

Vana wanted to claw his eyes out herself. She lunged forward but felt her husband restrain her. She hadn’t even felt him come up to her.

‘Don’t,’ he whispered. ‘This is Ivyanne’s fight.’

‘You’re a monster!’ Pintang exclaimed. ‘How could you do such a thing Ardhi? You knew I loved him!’

‘Everybody loved him!’ Ardhi snarled. ‘But he only loved
himself
!’

‘Not true,’ a masculine voice said. A man strode forward, wearing a baseball hat and hauling along Sherri the bartender into the centre of the room. The blonde looked hysterical, and was struggling against her captive-at least until he tossed her onto the floor like a rag doll so she lay sprawled in front of Ardhi, wheezing and sobbing. The man’s back was to Vana, but there was something familiar about his deep voice.

‘I mean, if I hadn’t loved Ivyanne so, you would never have felt the need to do what you did.’

A collective gasp went through the room, but it wasn’t until Vana saw Ivyanne’s own face light up enigmatically and knowingly, that Vana realized that the impossible was happening before her very eyes.

‘Perfect timing,’ her daughter cooed. ‘Even if it is three weeks delayed.’

‘I like to make a grand entrance,’ the man responded, his tone merry.

Vana looked down at Ardhi before fully allowing herself to believe the miracle- and when she saw the absolute horror on Ardhi’s face as he gazed up at the man addressing him, she finally uttered the word: ‘Tristan.’

Tristan turned to grin at her, his face brighter than any sun had every been. ‘Good evening, your highness,’ he said, dipping in a slight bow. ‘Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?’

Vana stepped forward to embrace him but was practically bowled over as a stampede of screaming mers raced forward and enveloped the golden child before she could catch her breath. Still, Vana’s heart practically exploded from happiness when his hat was knocked free and his golden curls were revealed over the top of his sister’s head. She glanced over at her husband and saw that he was white with shock. He swiveled his head to meet her gaze and shook his head in astonishment, silently communicating to his wife that for once, Tristan Loveridge had impressed him. They turned in sync, eyes landing on Ardhi’s contracted form on the ground.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Ardhi muttered, hanging his head in defeat.

⁓

Lincoln waited until the crowd had backed off Tristan before he staggered forward, unable to comprehend everything that was going on. He looked from Ivyanne to Ardhi, to Sherri to Adele, and then finally to Tristan. It was like one crazy algebra equation that should never had added up and yet did so perfectly.