Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

Duffy rolled, balling up his small body and narrowly missing the sword that descended toward his neck. He somersaulted his way to Shim and kicked out, catching the guard nearest him in the knees.

But now they were surrounded, and Shim couldn’t feel his left hand. His right sparked, a little blast of fire, but his control was shot and his eyes were still affected by the sunlight. It peeked through the eddy cloud, causing little pockets of blindness.

He could see vague shadows circling them.

“That fucker is using magic. Didn’t you know we kill witches here, son?” a hoarse voice asked.

“He burned me. Don’t touch him. He has some sort of spell on him.”

“Aim for his heart. He might have a spell, but he ain’t got no armor.”

Shim could feel Duffy at his side, but the gnome had lost his axe. The sun passed again, and Shim’s sight came back. He rather wished it hadn’t, since now he could see the men who would kill him. Even the ones he’d managed to burn were back on their feet.

“Let’s have some fun with them, boys, what do you say?” the biggest of the guards said.

“Now would be the time for you to start up with the fireballs, Shim,” Duffy said. “I think a little flame-roasted guard would do us some good.”

Shim held out his only usable arm, and the shot went wild sending an arc of flame straight to the house across from him. The roof went up like tinder, scorching across the straw and catching both houses beside it.

Fuck all. There were Fae in those houses. He could hear a faint screaming and wondered how many innocents he’d hurt.

The guards looked up and then turned back, settling on their target. Shim.

And then there was a low growl and a wolf pounced. Delicate and graceful and ruthless. The wolf leapt on the guard who had been about to charge and had her teeth around his sword arm. Hoarse shouts filled the air. Shim grabbed Duffy, prepared to run when the guard next to him suddenly groaned and looked down at the long knife in his chest. Whoever had thrown that fucker didn’t have Duffy’s strength problems.

“Get down!” A feminine voice shouted.

Shim sank to the ground, covering his brother as two arrows sped over him.

When Shim looked up, all four guards were dead and he’d been saved by a bunch of women.

Bronwyn walked through the smoke, her face a mask of willpower. She was a fucking gorgeous warrior goddess, and despite the pain in his arm and the panic in his gut, his cock got hard at the very sight of her.

“Put those fires out, Shim.” Gillian walked from the doorstep, bow in hand.

Bronwyn pulled her knife free of the guard’s armor, wiping the blood off on her pants. She looked down at Shim, her eyes softening a bit. “Please, Shim. If you can put that fire out, I would be grateful.”

The fire winked out as though she had more control over his power than he did.

Bronwyn held out a hand. “Now let’s go use that power of yours on someone who deserves it. What do you say, Shim? Do you want to help me kill a hag?”

Gillian was at his side, her hand on his arm. “I don’t know if he’s going to be doing much of anything for a while. That arm is bad. He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“I’ll be fine.” Shim struggled to get up. His brother was starting to get into trouble. Shim could feel it. He couldn’t let Lach down or Bron. She’d come back when it would have made more sense for her to run. Perhaps she’d only come back to save her village, but it didn’t matter. She was here, and Shim wasn’t about to let a little thing like massive blood loss stop him from helping her. He tried to get to his feet.

Kaja shifted, her body forming into her two-legged state. Gillian took a step back.

“She’s fine, Gilly,” Bron said in a stiff-sounding voice. “She’s Dante’s consort.”

“Damn me, she’s naked.” Duffy just stared. His brother wasn’t one to let near death interrupt his deep appreciation of the female form.

Kaja looked down at his arm. “I am Dante’s consort so I happen to know that anytime Dante is injured, he feeds. Consort blood heals. Cousin Bronwyn, if you want your husband in this fight, you’ll have to sacrifice a little blood.”

Bron sighed, but she rolled up her sleeve. “Fine, but don’t do that thing where I end up a heap of boneless flesh at the end. I need to fight, too.”

Shim knew Lach would argue. Lach would tell him it was the perfect solution. Shim would get his strength back and the very act of pulling Bronwyn in would rob her of hers.

And she wouldn’t trust him again. She’d saved him. She’d returned when she could have run. Perhaps it was time to start trusting his bondmate.