Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

Roan growled a little. “Meal pills are nothing once you’ve had real blood.”

“I’ll wait for my wife, thank you.”

Roan shook it off. “Sorry. Being near Rachel always gets my blood high. She’s quite the consort.”

Lach understood what he was saying. Rachel glowed, a faint outline around her body that let a vampire know her blood would strengthen him, elongate his life. A sidhe in need of a bondmate would have to get intimate to know if a woman could bond, but Lach had his vampire heritage to fall back on. Rachel Harper had a gorgeous glow about her.

“Don’t tell Max,” Roan said, his eyes searching the horizon. “Rye would laugh it off, but Max takes things far too seriously.”

“How did you find them?” Lach was curious. Roan had a whole setup. He’d made a business out of stealing into Tir na nÓg.

Roan smiled. “I found the crack, and when I managed to get through it, Rye was staring down at me. He found out what I was doing, and I discovered that he and his brother and wife were rebels looking for a way to fuck with the pretender. Rachel had a sister who disappeared with Torin’s guards. This whole little village the Harpers live in is a wee bit radical. They’re protected by the mountains and they have an intensely smart mayor. They’ve managed to survive relatively unscathed, but they intend to give Torin the fight of his life. We have weapons stashed all over Aoibhneas.”

Aoibhneas. Lach knew the word well. Bliss. “Have you told them about the rebellion?”

Roan turned, and Lach saw Rye Harper walking up, his arm around his wife’s waist. Max Harper followed behind them leading a ridiculously large horse with deeply yellow eyes. He seemed to be muttering to the horse under his breath. Rye Harper had his eyes on Lach. The previously friendly cowboy had a serious look on his face.

“We’re ready,” Rye said. “We’ve been ready for thirteen years.”

Rachel leaned into her husband. “Are they really alive?”

It was hard to believe how isolated Tir na nÓg had become. “Beck and Cian Finn are alive and well, and they have formed their true triad. Beck has mastered storms and Cian is a Green Man. Your kings will be back soon.”

Rachel hugged her husband and cried into his shoulder, clutching him. Rye Harper nodded toward Lach. “We’ll be ready. Tell me something, are you really the Unseelie prince?”

Lach nodded. “I am.”

“He is the Unseelie prince, but only half of him. You two should be happy you only share a face and not a soul.”

Lach stopped and sighed because it had been the damn horse that spoke. The yellow eyes should have been a dead giveaway. A phooka. A potentially dangerous creature, but very powerful. They could often be chaotic, but the phooka had been known to band together with other creatures during times of hardship.

Rye laughed. “You have no idea how much I praise the day we weren’t born symbiotic. I can’t imagine having to be in his head all the time.”

“You wish you had my brain, brother,” Max shot back. He looked at the horse, narrowing his eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be undercover? Doesn’t that mean not doing the whole talking thing? It tends to give you away, dummy.”

The phooka gave a regal whinny. “I wouldn’t walk around talking about someone else’s intelligence, Harper. And the other horses hate you.”

Max rolled his cool blue eyes. “I doubt that. Those horses love me. And you better love me, too. I could call the guards down on your nasty ass.”

The phooka tossed his head. “I do not fear this, sidhe. I know far too much. Besides, you can grumble all you like, but you would not turn on an ally.”

Max leaned in. “No, I wouldn’t, but I could move your stall away from that pretty little mare you have those nasty eyes on.”

The phooka turned on him. “Don’t you dare. Do you know how long it’s taken me to convince her to let me close? I’m so close, Max. Have you seen her ass? It’s the hottest filly ass in the whole province.”

“Remember that.” Max turned back to Lach. “You want to explain why we should trust you?”

Lach shrugged. “I don’t care if you trust me or not.”

Max huffed a little, his face betraying a bitterness. “Well, that’s pretty much what I would expect from an Unseelie prince.”

The sidhe walked off, after nodding to his brother and wife.

Rye gripped his wife’s hand. “But you’re going to help, right? I thought Roan said the Unseelie are going to back the true kings.”

“My father is sending a force in. I am merely here to get my bondmate and get out. She is too important to risk.” He looked pointedly at Rachel Harper. “I would certainly assume that you’re not going to risk your bondmate.”

Rye’s face got red, his jaw tense, but the words that came out of his mouth were controlled. “My bondmate, my brother, my children, my town have all been at risk for thirteen years. I’ve been forced to raise my children under the tyrant’s reign, wondering every bloody day if Torin isn’t going to come for one of them. My oldest daughter, Paige, has great skill with magic, and I can’t risk anyone outside of this community knowing it because Torin would take her and, if he couldn’t warp her, he would hang her from the palace walls. So don’t pretend that you know what it has been like for me. I’m sorry, Rachel, I thought I could do this. I’ll be back.”