Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

He’d been wrong. He loved his brothers. Loved his father and mother. Loved his

sister.

Gods, he loved Bronwyn Finn and there was nothing dark about it. She was his light, not Shim. However their soul had split, it was in him to love. His heart wasn’t a cold, dead thing. It was huge and it could only get larger. He loved Bronwyn and that meant loving every piece of her, including the piece that demanded she fight.

He’d adored the girl who ran through his dreams. He’d lusted after the lover, but he worshipped the woman she’d become. Not simply a princess, but a queen. A woman was always a queen. She was the queen of her home and her family. Bron’s was just bigger than most and like every woman with a family, she would sacrifice. She would make the world right for them, giving her body and soul to those she nurtured and loved.

He would be strong. His woman had just taught him what his father never had—how to truly be a king.

He looked at his sister and whispered. “He’s loved you for always. Give him something.”

She nodded and sank to her knees, tears falling like raindrops. She leaned over and kissed him. “You are my hero, Duffy.”

A brilliant smile lit Duffy’s face. “That’s all I ever wanted to be.” He gripped her hand, his small compared to hers. He looked up at Lach. “You have to let me go now, brother.”

Lach knew the moment had been coming from the instant he’d reached out and pulled Duffy from death. He’d felt Duffy die in that black cloud that had been meant for him and he’d reacted. He’d called on his power and brought him back. “I didn’t want to let you go. Not alone, Duffy. I don’t know what’s out there. I didn’t want you to die.”

Duffy smiled up at him. “Dying ain’t nothing to be afraid of, brother. Be afraid of not living. I got me battle. I got what I always wanted. I got to be a hero. Now, it’s time for me to find another adventure. There’s a door, Lach. It was right there and it was calling to me. And I weren’t alone. I saw me mothers. Both of them. The one what raised me and the one what gave me birth. Lach, death is a doorway. I want to know where it leads. I want the adventure that waits for me and whatever happens, I’ll see you again. I’ll conquer whatever is out there and make a place for us.”

His tears fell now. For Duffy, for Bron, for himself, for Shim.

“I love you, brother.” Shim got to his knees and put a hand on Lach and reached for Duffy.

“Love you, too. You were the best brothers I could have hoped for.”

Lach reached out and completed the circle. He and Duffy and Shim. His childhood in a circle of hands grasping. “I love you both. My brothers. I will keep you in my heart, Duffy.”

“That is a good place to be.”

Lach released his hold.

Duffy smiled, closed his eyes, and walked into eternity.

Lach rose to his feet a completely different man. He looked to Roan. “Gather what we need. We make for Aoibhneas tonight after I bury my brother.”

He expected an argument but Roan bowed deeply. “Yes, Your Highness. I am at your service.”

“As am I.” The phooka leapt from the trees and, in an instant, switched to his horse form. “I will get us to Aoibhneas. I know a secret way in.”

“Dad, isn’t that Uncle Max’s horse?” Charlie asked.

Zane shook his head. “We’re just going to go with it, son. And I know exactly what you’re talking about. The mayor has a series of caves he keeps hidden. We know how to get home.”

“Then we leave in an hour.”

Shim picked up Duffy, holding his small body close. “Lach, I…”

Lach shook his head. “I love you. No more fighting. All that matters is winning this war and getting our wife back.”

Shim nodded and followed. Lach prayed the morning would find him closer to his goal—getting Bronwyn back in his arms.

* * * *

Bronwyn awakened to the smell of home. She could smell the bread the bakers in the White Palace made for each and every meal. It was a smell that had haunted her dreams since she’d fled. She’d tried to re-create the bread, snowy white and buttery soft with the smallest hint of honeyed sweetness, but never got it right.

She opened her eyes because no matter how lovely the smell was, this place was no longer home. She groaned a little. How long had she been here? A day at least, though it already seemed like a lifetime. A day away from them. Would she ever see them again?

“The hags certainly worked you over.”