Bron stepped forward, not seeming to care that there was still a powerful hag who had been sent to ensure her death. “Did my uncle send you?”
The hag smiled showing perfectly even teeth that seemed a bit too sharp for her face. “The king sends his greetings, Princess Bronwyn, and promises a glorious family reunion.”
“I don’t think I’ll take him up on that just yet.” Bron stood, her shoulders back. “You aren’t welcome in my village, hag.”
The hag sighed, her elegant gown moving with the sound. “I know when to take my toys and go home. By the way, dear, I spent some time in that one’s head. A dark thing he is. Be careful that he doesn’t eat you up with his ambition. He wants the crown. He’ll say he loves you to get it, but you don’t think the Unseelie will really accept a Seelie queen now, do you? Good luck, dear. Even if you get a crown, it won’t mean much when your head is separated from your body. And, Death Lord, I have a parting gift for you.”
The air around the hag shimmered, and then her hands flew out, a visible cloud racing his way.
Just before it engulfed him, Duffy leapt, tossing his body into the cloud. Darkness covered the gnome, enveloping his body until there was nothing of him that wasn’t black smoke.
Duffy screamed. Lach started to reach for him, but Roan and Dellacourt pulled him back.
“Don’t you dare. You can’t help him now,” Roan said, pushing him back.
Shim tried to get to Duffy, too, but Bronwyn got in his way. “Please.”
The eddy cloud shifted as the hag disappeared once more into its depths. The sky cleared and brilliant sunlight rained down.
Shim dropped to his knees, covering his eyes. Lach squinted, trying to see his little brother, the truly fierce one of their clan.
The cl
oud was gone and Duffy remained. His body was still, so still. Lach pushed past the vampires whose implants were safely guarding them from the sun’s bright rays. Lach struggled himself, but Gillian and Bronwyn had covered Shim. They struggled to get him under the cover of the buildings.
Lach put a hand on Duffy’s chest, praying for the beat of his heart.
One eye opened. “Damn me, Lach, but that was something.” Duffy sat, flexing his muscles. “I don’t think I like that hag. I’d rather just fight soldiers. A sword has got to hurt less than that damn cloud.”
“Come along, Your Highness. You must both be fitted with the proper devices to protect you from the sun. It won’t take long. One little pinch and it’s over. Well, one really long, horrifyingly painful pinch and it’s over, but we won’t have to worry about ultraviolet light again.” Roan helped him stand. “Hurry. She’ll be back. We have to move and quickly. We need to make the forest by dark or they’ll find us for sure.”
Lach stumbled toward the shade where Bron sat with Shim. Her chin came up, a stubborn look on her pretty face.
She’d run. She hadn’t stayed and discussed the situation with them. If she had, they could have run the minute the eddy cloud had shown up.
He and his bride were due for a very long talk. And perhaps it was time he put the relationship on the proper footing, starting with the wayward princess feeling her husband’s hand on her ass.
In the background, he could hear Dellacourt yelling at his wife and threatening all manner of punishment.
Yes, it was time his bride learned the meaning of discipline.
Chapter Fifteen
“Stay close to me, Duffy,” her husband said to the gnome. “But not too close.”
Duffy sat on a rock near the river, his face turned up toward the moon. The gnome had been quiet all afternoon. He’d simply shuffled along behind them as they had fled the village. The villagers had all agreed that the hag would be back with reinforcements. They had decided to scatter, forming three large parties moving to the south, west, and north. And their small group was moving toward the east, to the mountains.
But they had to move carefully and not in a straight line. And that, she’d been told over and over again, was all her fault. Despite her brilliant plan to save them, apparently the fact that they had needed to be saved at all was, again, her fault.
“I’m going to set up our bed for the night. We’ve got a big bed, but we’re away from the rest.” Lach’s voice was deep and dark and she practically shivered listening to it.
“You and Shim can sleep wherever you like.” She knew she was being stubborn, but he’d acted like an ass the whole long walk here. And her feet hurt. And she wasn’t about to apologize to him.
Lach’s handsome face was half hidden by moonlight. “I’ll tie you up if I have to, wife.”
“Don’t call me that.” Again, she knew she was being stubborn. Even she was thinking of him as her husband.
“It’s true and your moping isn’t going to change the fact.” Lach stared down at her like an impossibly gorgeous, intensely difficult hunk of granite. He was so big. She knew Shim was just as big as Lach, but there was something about Lach’s presence that just overwhelmed her. “Would you like to know why we’re not staying close to the others?”