Cursed Rebel, page 10
Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I stood up and looked around, but there was no sign of Fin. I chewed my lip, growing anxious and, once again, angry. If that bastard stole me away from my only friend in this place, and then ditched me alone to be eaten by rainbow-coloured squirrels…
Before I could decide on a fitting punishment for him, I heard splashing nearby, and silenced my mental tirade. I cocked my head, listening, my heart pounding half in hope that it was Fin and half in fear that it was some evil, man-eating water monster. I debated for a moment whether to run away or go and investigate. This would be the perfect chance to escape, to find my way back to Ryan and convince him to take me home….but…
In the end, curiosity won out, and I slid quietly toward the sound of the splashing and hid behind a tree when I glimpsed movement. I held my breath a moment, hoping I hadn’t been spotted, but when nothing came roaring out of the water to eat me, I snuck a peek around the branches—and gasped.
Fin was standing in a small lake of water—really a glittering pool of pale-blue water created by the miniature waterfall spilling down the ridges of the cliff behind him—and he was completely naked. At least, I assumed he was. He was facing away from me, and the pool was deep enough that the water reached to his waist, but what was above the waterline was all bare, hard muscle. He was fit. I mean, seriously fit. The sculpted muscles in his back shifted as he raised his hands to run them through his wet, red hair. Broad shoulders dipped into narrow hips, every ridge and curve dripping water.
I might have been drooling. Just a little.
Then he turned around. I ducked back behind my tree, not wanting to be caught ogling him like a stalker, but I couldn’t resist. I peeked back out, and my eyes snagged on his taut abs, up to well-defined pectoral muscles, up his smooth throat to his sharply beautiful face, all cheekbones and bright green eyes and wild, dripping red hair. He tipped his head back, closing his eyes for a moment. I bit my lip, leaning forward, my eyes drinking him in greedily—he might’ve been an asshole, but damn, the boy had a body to die for. A branch cracked under my foot, and I caught my breath as Fin’s head snapped down.
“Hello?” he called out.
I plastered myself to the tree, squeezing my eyes shut and not daring to move. My heart was pounding so loudly, I was sure he could hear it, but then I heard him sigh, and I relaxed. There was more splashing, and I stole a cautious glance around the trunk.
Fin was out of the water, standing on the grassy bank of the lake, and oh boy, he was completely naked. I could see everything, and holy hell, I think my heart stopped beating. As he bent to retrieve his clothes, I got a good look at his backside, and felt heat crawl outward from my belly.
Jesus Christ, I thought. I remembered his comment from before, about how he had dozens of human girls who’d be delighted if he showed up in their shower. I could understand why. If I hadn’t known what he was, and if he hadn’t kidnapped me, well…
“Are you quite done ogling me, or should I stand here a bit longer?” Fin called out, suddenly looking in my direction.
My face flamed. Shit. I could see his glittering smile from there, and I realised he’d known I was watching him the whole time. Cocky bastard.
I didn’t move, hoping the ground would swallow me up. Fin cocked his head. “Well? Come on, Snowdrop, I know you’re there. Might as well come out.”
Mentally screaming, blushing fiery hot, I stepped out from behind the tree as Fin buttoned his jeans. I tried to act casual, but I guess my flaming face gave me away because Fin split into a shit-eating grin the second he saw me.
“Well. Hello there. Who’d have guessed?”
“Guessed what?” I spat through gritted teeth, struggling to maintain my composure as I crossed the grass toward him, stopping a safe distance away.
His green eyes twinkled, his damp hair curling into his lashes. “That you’d be such a little pervert. Did you like what you saw?”
I clamped my jaw so tightly, I expected to break a tooth. It only seemed to make Fin cockier.
He nodded. “No need to answer. I know you did,” he purred.
His lashes lowered as his emerald eyes slid over my body. I could almost feel his gaze, like a tangible touch that caressed my skin, somehow bypassing my clothing altogether.
“You know, I think it’s only fair to return the favour…”
My hand twitched. I wanted to slap him, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good—it would likely only amuse him more. So I bit my tongue, saying nothing, and shoved my hands into my pockets. Fin looked at me for a long moment, so long that I wanted to squirm under his gaze, but I froze my muscles, refusing to give him the pleasure.
Finally, he sighed. “You’re no fun.”
“Well, I wonder why that is,” I snapped. I couldn’t help it. “Could it have something to do with the fact that you—”
As he grabbed his shirt off the ground, he groaned. “Can we not go over this again, please? Yes, I kidnapped you. Yes, I dragged you here against your will. No matter how many times you say it, it’s not going to make me feel guilty about it. I had no choice in it, no more than you did. So we might as well make the best of it…” He cut his eyes to me once more, a wicked smirk curving his lips, and added, “I can think of a few ways to do just that.”
I threw up my hands in rage. I almost stomped my foot like a child having a tantrum—almost. I wanted to throttle him. “Do you take nothing seriously?” I yelled, expecting him to laugh it off or make another joke.
Instead, his smile folding in on itself, and he stared at me as if the question confused him. His brow creased, and he tilted his head slightly, frowning. Then he said, in an even voice, “You. I take you seriously.”
I blinked, caught off-guard by his sincere response. Then I shook my head. “You never take me seriously. You’re always laughing at me and—”
Suddenly, he stepped closer to me, so close, I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. His expression confused me. It was serious and a little bit lost too.
“I laugh because you make me laugh. It’s been a long time since anyone besides Pan could make me laugh. But you…”
He lifted a hand, his fingertips skimming my cheek, and my breath hitched in my throat as colour swam into my face.
“You’re different, Lucy,” he murmured. “I don’t know what it is, but…”
My heart was in my throat, and my stomach was full of fluttering butterflies. From the way he was looking at me, I thought, for a moment, that he might kiss me. I tried to tell myself that the pang I felt at the idea was fear, or disgust, nothing more. But after having just seen him naked, and with his green eyes burning into mine, the images that came to my mind had nothing to do with disgust. Yes, I was still scared of him, of what he was leading me toward, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny I was majorly attracted to him. I couldn’t deny that a good deal of the tension between us was probably due to that.
His fingers were still on my cheek, and Fin started to bend his head, and my heart sped up. This is it, I thought, frozen with indecision. Should I let him kiss me? Should I move, should I hit him? But as my eyelids fluttered closed and my chin tilted up, I knew I wanted him to kiss me. Hell, I really wanted it.
Then I heard a crack, like a branch snapping, and my eyes flew open. Fin was no longer in front of me—he was standing by the tree I’d hid behind earlier, looking impatient.
“Are you coming, or do I have to carry you again?”
I stared at him for a second, wondering if I’d imagined what had just happened—or almost happened.
Then he snapped, “Well?”
I scowled. Muttering under my breath about mercurial, annoying faeries, I stalked after him.
Chapter Fifteen
** Lucy **
We stopped further along the river when the blazing blue sky turned to liquid lilac and viscous violet above us, the sun sinking low behind the trees. Fin dumped his backpack on the ground and turned to me. “We’ll camp here for the night.”
I sat down, sighing in relief. Neither of us had spoken much since that awkward moment by the waterfall, and I’d begun wishing Pan would return just to break the silence. While Fin puttered about setting up a tent via magic, I closed my eyes and thought about my Grandmother.
She had always taught me to fear the fae, but what if she’d been wrong? What if there were some fae who weren’t totally evil? And how had she known that one of them would come for me? What was so special about me that the King himself would ask for me? I was just…me. Pretty enough, yes, and smart enough, but I wasn’t stunning, a genius or particularly talented. So why did the King want me so much that he’d send Fin to collect me? Why did the Queen want me badly enough to have Ryan spy on me for years?
My Grandmother must have known. She must have known something I didn’t, something she hadn’t gotten the chance to tell me.
I wondered what she’d say if she knew I was attracted to a faery. A faery Lord none the less, and the very one who’d stolen me away from my home and life. She’d probably tell me to be careful, that their beauty was part of their evil, and how they seduced young girls into becoming their playthings.
But how was that any different from the pretty boys in the human world? They did the same thing, tricked girls into believing they loved them, conned them into their beds, and then broke their hearts. I’d seen it happen to a friend of mine. So what made the fae so much worse than humans?
I couldn’t even believe I was thinking this, trying to defend Fin…from what? From my dead Grandmother’s judgement? Or was I just trying to convince myself it was okay to be attracted to him, because he wasn’t that much different from a human guy?
I shook my head, sighing. The place was making me crazy, or, maybe, that was just Fin.
“There. All done,” Fin said, stepping back from the tent. It was small, a patchwork of leaves and twigs, barely tall enough to sit up in. But I didn’t doubt it was woven with some of that magic that made it look smaller than it really was. Inside, it was probably a massive three-bedroom construction with running water and a buffet table.
Brushing his hands off on his jeans—why he was still wearing human clothing, I wasn’t sure—Fin looked at me, the twilight turning his eyes to a deep purple-red and casting dark shadows into the sharp hollows of his cheeks and jaw. For a moment, despite his casual clothes, he looked utterly inhuman and slightly terrifying.
I took a reflexive step back, and hissed in pain as a thorn on the bush behind me snagged my finger. I tried to pull away, but it was as if the thin vine came alive and wrapped itself around my hand like a snake, thorns like fangs biting into my skin. I cried out, tears burning hot in my eyes, and blood running slick down my fingers.
“Fin! Help me!”
He lifted his hand toward me, light glowing around his fingers, and a blast of energy shot over my shoulder, so close I felt the heat of it against my skin. The orb of power crashed into the thorny bush, and the plant shrieked like a dying animal as its vines dropped away from my hand and recoiled. Fin lurched forward, grabbing my other hand and pulling me to safety. My heart was thudding with fear and adrenaline, and I buried my face in his chest, breathing hard.
Fin touched my hair gently, his other arm coming around my waist to hold me against him. “Shh. It’s okay, Snowdrop. You’re safe. You’re safe now.”
I was shaking. “Safe?” I mumbled without looking up. “I was just nearly eaten by a bloody bush! Nothing about this place is safe!”
He was silent a moment, stroking my hair soothingly. His arm tightened around my waist, and I felt his breath against my ear as he whispered, “True. The Otherworld is dangerous. But I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll keep you safe.”
Slowly, I lifted my head to look at him, surprised by the sincerity in his voice. “Do you mean that?”
He nodded, frowning. “I have Sithe blood. I can’t lie.”
“Oh.”
He looked as if he was about to say something else, but then he shook his head and stepped back, releasing me. I suddenly felt cold without his body heat, and I blushed.
He held out his hand. “Let me see your hand. Those thorns are pretty nasty.”
I lifted my injured hand reluctantly, and saw the mess of blood and scratches that had become of my fingers and palm. Sticky blood dripped off my fingertips into the grass, and Fin stepped forward, reaching for my hand to check the damage. But he paused, looking down at the drops of my blood on the blades of grass. For a moment, I didn’t understand why, and then I saw it. A faint shimmering light emanated from the blood on the ground. Then, from the drops, flowers erupted. Tiny, blood red flowers sprang up from the dirt and folded open into star-shapes.
I blinked, awed by the beauty of it, but Fin hissed and jumped back, startling me. He stared at the flowers, and then at me, shock on his face. Slowly, the shock gave way to comprehension, and his eyes narrowed.
“So that’s why the King wants you…” he said quietly.
So quietly I’m sure I wasn’t meant to hear, but I did. “What do you mean? Why does the King want me? Because I bleed? All humans bleed,” I stammered, unnerved by the way he was looking at me—as if I was something deadly. Like a venomous snake or a crocodile.
Fin just shook his head, running a hand through his hair.
A knot of panic grew in my chest. “Fin, tell me!” I shrieked.
He opened his mouth, and his face crumpled as though he was in pain. “I can’t,” he croaked.
I balled my hands into fists. “Fin, tell me right now! I need to know! I have a right—”
“No, Lucy, I literally can’t tell you! I swore an oath never to speak of it without the King’s express permission. I want to tell you, I do, but I simply can’t. It’s impossible.”
My anger deflated, and my shoulders slumped. “So…you know something about me, something about why the King wants me, and you can’t tell me?” I sank to the ground and was about to put my head in my hands when I remembered the blood still coating my left hand. I stared at it for a moment, suddenly repulsed by the sight of it. I knelt by the stream and thrust my hand in the water, which was still slightly warm from the heat of the sun.
“I’m sorry, Lucy. Truly I am,” Fin said softly.
I glanced up at him. “Why are you sorry? It’s not really your fault.”
He shrugged. “Why do humans say they’re sorry for other people’s pain?”
Irritated, I pulled my hand out of the water—now clean of blood—and tilted my head back to glare at him. “Why do you always answer a question with another question? Why can’t you give me straight answer?”
A faint smirk curled his lips. “Why do you ask so many questions?”
“There. You just did it again.”
His smirk faded, and he looked at me for a long moment. Then he sighed and folded himself on the grass next to me, plucking one of the little red flowers that had sprung from my blood. “Words are powerful to my kind. Those with Sithe blood, like me, cannot speak a lie. So some of us learn how to avoid the truth without telling a lie. It’s a special skill of mine in particular.”
I thought about that for a second. “So basically...you don’t want to answer my questions, so you deflect. Just like any guy in the mortal world. Good to know that it doesn’t matter what species they are, all guys are morons.”
Fin laughed, his teeth flashing white in the growing darkness, and the sound was infectious. Maybe it was because I was exhausted, maybe it was the adrenaline kick from nearly being eaten by a bush, or maybe it had to do with our almost-kiss. Whatever the reason, I found myself laughing too. And once I started, I couldn’t stop.
For some reason, my laughter made Fin laugh harder, until we were both breathless. We collapsed on our backs in the grass and stared up at the stars in the navy sky. Stars that were in different patterns from the human world and much brighter. As if someone had taken a dark veil off the sky and revealed its true beauty.
Finally, when we were both silent again, I sighed and turned my head to where Fin was sprawled in the grass nearby, his hands folded behind his head as he gazed at the sky. The stars were caught in the swirls of his eyes.
“Fin?”
“Hmm?” he murmured without looking at me.
“Thank you.”
That got his attention. He rolled onto his side, frowning at me. “For what?”
I shrugged. “Saving me from the man-eating bush, I guess. I know you probably just did it because you need to take me to the King, but…I appreciate it anyway.”
Fin’s frown deepened. “I know you’ve been brought up to think the fae are monsters, but not everything we do is heartless, Lucy.”
I blinked, surprised by the anger in his voice. “What? I don’t—”
He pushed himself into a sitting position, scowling. “I didn’t just save you because I’m taking you to the King. I saved you because I’m not an evil bastard who’d just let you get hurt. You might be mad at me for taking you here, but I’ve told you, I have no choice. The King compels me using my Real Name. I can’t fight that. And I haven’t hurt you, have I? If it had been any of the Court knights who’d been sent to get you, you’d have been in a lot worse shape by now. They are the real monsters. I’m just a pawn, the same as you.”
Scrambling upright, I reached for Fin’s arm. I hadn’t meant to upset him. I’d just wanted to thank him! “Fin, that’s not what I—”
He turned away, throwing up a hand to ward off my words, and they stuck in my throat. He started to stand, but I wasn’t letting him away that easily. I leaned forward and grabbed his hand.
“That wasn’t what I meant! I just meant…I thought I was just a burden to you. I mean, that’s like the third time you’ve had to rescue me. And for the record, I’m glad it’s you who was sent for me, not one of the other fae. You’re not half bad…for a faery.” I smiled wryly, hoping to ease the tension in his shoulders, and it worked.
