Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

What did it mean to have this power inside him if he never used it? What kind of king was he if he kept walking away from people like Reymon and the Harpers because he was waiting for the right fight?

“Your Highness,” Roan began.

Reymon ran for his daughter. Lach could see plainly what would happen. Two soldiers moved to intercept the shopkeeper. It wouldn’t matter that he was trying to protect his child or that he was woefully unarmed. They were smiling and hauling swords over their heads.

The right fight was the one in front of him.

“Go on then, Roan. Protect my sister.” Lach broke from the group.

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Roan growled in his ear. “And let you have all the fun? Not on your life, you bastard.”

Lach heard the sonic boom blast past him. It sent the soldiers scattering.

Chaos ruled around him as everyone started to run.

Lach hoisted his sword and a fierce joy took hold as he finally gave in to his instincts and began the good fight.

* * * *

“Princess, what are you doing?” Niall jogged beside her, churning up dust as they ran. “We need to go the other way. Is there something you need from town? I don’t think we should go back there.”

Damn straight they shouldn’t go back there, but she couldn’t run. Not this time. The village was under attack, and it had something to do with her.

And she wasn’t about to let the village go down in flames without her there to defend it.

“You don’t have to come with me, Niall. Just give me my knife and we can part ways. My father should have told you. I’m rather stubborn when I want to be.”

Niall reached out and grabbed her elbow, hauling her around. His eyes were fixed on hers. “I can be stubborn, too, princess. I say we’re leaving. I cannot allow your soft heart to put everything in jeopardy.”

He started to pull her close, most likely to haul her over his shoulder, but there was a low growl from her right. Kaja stood at her side, staring up a Niall. The brown fur on her back stood straight up, her perfectly white teeth on display.

Niall gasped as he looked down at the wolf.

Bron rather liked having a wolf for a cousin. “I would back away. Kaja has been looking for someone to eat, and you don’t want to be on her menu.”

Bron tried pulling herself free, but Niall held fast. His face, previously worried, settled back into the stubborn mask of one who wasn’t going to allow himself to be swayed by anything.

“I think I’ll take my chances. I’m quite a hunter myself. There’s no dumb animal alive who can take me down. Call off your dog. I really don’t want to hurt her. But I have a mission to complete, and I intend to do so.”

She heard a shrill cry and then the unmistakable sound of a sonic weapon being fired in the distance. Vampire tech. Her cousin really was in that village. “You would sacrifice a whole village to complete your mission? You’ve been living here for months. Those are your neighbors, Niall. They’re dying.”

If her words moved him, he didn’t show it. “And more will die if Torin isn’t stopped. This is a small village, princess. People are dying all over the country. So yes, I will sacrifice whoever I must in order to see you safely to Sir Giles and the army he will be able to build around you. You will be a figurehead. That is your true value, not as some crazed woman wielding a sword in the defense of peasants. The nobles will back you. You will be the rallying point. You’re far too important to risk.”

There would be no reasoning with him. He was a true believer, an absolutist, and he didn’t really care about her beyond the fact that she could further his mission. “Then take the damn knife. Find another girl to play my part. You were going to do it earlier. I don’t need the knife anymore. My brothers will know who I am.”

Niall’s eyes widened. He finally dropped her arms. “Beckett and Cian? The kings are still alive? They must have gone mad by now. They’re years past the time to bond.”

That was exactly what Torin wanted everyone to think. It was one more reason he’d closed off Tir na nÓg. “No, they are alive and well. They’ve bonded and ascended. So I’m turning this whole figurehead thing over to them, and I’m going to go and do something right for a change. I’m going to fight for the people around me. Let me go.”

He shook his head, grabbing her arm once more. “I can’t let you go. You’re our best bet. And you could be lying about the kings.”

“She is not lying and I am no dumb animal.” Kaja had taken her human form. She also proved she could fight on two feet. She reared her fist back and slammed it into Niall’s nose, blood splattering in an arc. Niall’s head snapped back, and he dropped to the ground with a thud, unconscious. Kaja stood over him. “He is not a smart man.”

But he was an armed man. Bron took the knife on his belt. A small guilt assailed her, but it wasn’t like she was leaving him unarmed. He seemed to have a blade strapped to every inch of his body. She thought about taking the sword, but she was better with a knife, and the sword was heavy. She held out the sword to Kaja who stared at it like it was a bug.

“You don’t use weapons, do you?”