Oathbound
The Shimmer Trilogy, #3
by Kimberly Spencer
Smashwords Edition
http://www.ibreathefiction.blogspot.com/
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without written permission of the author.
Cover Art by Kimberly Spencer
Chapter One
A hand. Five fingers, that was all. Yet, Luca recoiled from them, flattening himself against the stone slab as if those fingers clutched a blade. Or a sharp pendant of ice. Or whatever else was like kryptonite for dragons.
An understandable reaction really. After all, Jensen had singlehandedly tossed the zonked out dragon-boy across the cavern with just the flick of her wrist. Well, that and about a room full of water if she was into the whole full disclosure thing. Which of course, she wasn’t.
Now she was reaching out to him again. Only this time, she was doing it out of concern for his well-being rather than the desire to protect Liam.
And in return, Luca was flat out rejecting her, fear swelling in his big lavender eyes as he fought for distance, even though some part of him had to know the cave wall behind him would not budge no matter how hard he pushed or how badly he wanted to escape.
Undeterred by his distrust, she stretched her hand a little further, wiggling her fingers for the last few inches. But Liam wrapped his arm around her waist, yanking her back before she could actually reach him. Hard. “Don’t touch him,” he said, his voice so cold, chill bumps broke out everywhere he touched.
“What happened?” Eiden asked.
When did he get here?
Liam stiffened in response, his hands falling away from her as he took a step back, wrenching his body away from hers.
And then there was nothing. Complete and utter silence. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. While everyone in the cavern seemed to have lost the ability to string letters together to form even the simplest of words, the stone slab was locked in full-out banshee mode, screaming out from beneath the wounded dragon-boy as if it shared his pain. And maybe, just maybe it did.
Jensen twisted around, finding Eiden staring right at her, his pale blue eyes narrowed beneath springy white-blonde curls streaked with soot. One of his sleeves hung by a few overworked threads and bronzy-gold blisters swelled within the exposed space. But other than that, he looked okay.
“Liam, the Beltane Coven is seeing to Shelby,” he said, his eyes never straying from hers.
“Then there’s no reason for us to remain,” Liam replied simply, though the stiffness of his body belied his composure.
Eiden shook his head, his eyes now drifting over the scene in front of him. Searching. For what, Jensen wasn’t quite sure.
“Shouldn’t we make sure the threat has truly passed?” he asked. “It would be unwise for us to assume that this is the only faction.”
“Yeah, and I was kind of hoping we could talk,” Jensen added, laying her hand on Liam’s arm.
Liam popped his jaw and the irritated sound echoed around the rocky room. “That’s not the concern of the Sidhe Guard,” he replied coldly, then lifted and dropped his shoulder, causing her hand to fall away.
Jensen’s heart stuttered in her chest, her displaced hand racing to clutch the spot above the aching organ.
Broadsided by Liam’s behavior, she almost missed the brief hiccup in the stone’s screaming when Luca jerked upright, froggy-jumping backward, before landing in a crouch on top of the stone.
“What are you?” he asked, his tone both shocked and … reverent? Weird.
And as Jensen stood there too numb and too hurt to move or ask him what he meant, Luca yanked Liam’s blade from his shoulder, opened his mouth once more, and sucked in a deep breath.
A gasp escaped her lips, the only sound her traitorous throat would allow. And then she was tumbling to the ground as Liam blanketed her body with his own.
Pain exploded throughout her arms and knees on impact.
But no flames ever came their way. Nor did piercing claws rake across their bodies, rending their flesh into strips.
Because Luca had leapt right over them, his copper-red wings swatting Eiden into the far wall and sending the lightning blade he’d been holding, skittering across the cave floor.
Then before any of them could get their bearings enough to get up and stop him, the dragon-king was gone.
“Shit.” Eiden snatched up his dagger from the ground, then flew out the chamber behind him. A pointless endeavor really, since Luca knew a hell of a lot more about the ins and outs of the cave system than the rest of them could ever hope to learn.
“Get up,” Liam said, yanking Jensen from the ground.
After rushing up a narrow flight of man-made stairs and following a rounded path into another corridor, they eased through a jagged opening in the cave wall, stumbling right into what looked like a weird sorority initiation. One that required having a chamber full of dead dragons on hand.
Women of all ages filled the room. Some huddled together in corners, while others strolled around the chamber, their obvious distrust of the non-wiccans and the supposedly dead dragons written in the stiffness of their bodies and their constant scanning of each exit. Jensen imagined they were probably already prepping defensive spells, the words waiting on the tips of their tongues. Just in case someone was crazy enough to test their patience.
At least a dozen witches surrounded a crying Shelby, lifting her up within the basket of their linked arms. Her right pants leg, or rather, what was left of it, had been torn away and something dark pink and misshapen had been pressed against her burn.
Beside them, Dermott stood talking to a witch who looked to be around his age with hazel eyes and short spikes of chocolate brown hair. “Are you sure there’s nothing more that I can do? At least let me help you transport her,” he said.
She grabbed his hands, squeezing them gently. “You’ve already done more than enough, Dermott. We can take it from here. Besides, healing is Beltane territory.”
“You ok?” Fee whispered, ambling up beside Jensen.
Jensen shrugged mechanically, her eyes trained on Liam’s back as he disappeared around the corner. Not in the mood to talk about it, she did the next best thing. She changed the subject, nodding her head toward Shelby. “What’s that on her leg?”
“Dragon’s tongue. Apparently, it’s supposed to have rejuvenating properties.” Fee scrunched her nose, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “Mortals and their magicks.”
Jensen gulped. Okay, definitely not at all what I was expecting.
Spotting a big puff of scarlet curls sticking out from behind a witch with an uncanny resemblance to Dora the Explorer, bowl hair cut and all, Jensen mumbled to Fee, “I’ll be right back.”
But when the Dora look-alike noticed Jensen heading her way, she turned up her nose and beat-feet, nearly falling over one of the dragons in her rush to get away.
Scarlet brows bunched in confusion, Zoe glanced around and frowned. “What the hell happened to you?”
Jensen ran her fingers across her newest bruise, flinching when pain rocketed up her jaw. “Luca. He kind of lost it back there.”
“Oh, well I’m glad you’re okay.” The witches began to move with Shelby and Zoe threw back her thumb like a hitchhiker. “I have to go.”
“Okay, well I guess I’ll just call you later.”
“Actually, maybe you shouldn’t.” Zoe closed her eyes, running two fingers across her scarlet brows. “I need to take care of Shelby right now. I can’t concentrate on anything else.”
Meaning you can’t concentrate on your friendship with me. Jensen swallowed hard against the growing lump in her throat. “Why do I get the feeling I’m being dumped?”
Zoe shook her head. “When things calm down a little more, I’ll call you, okay? I just … I can’t right now.”
Jensen nodded, hugging her arms around herself while a painful chill settled inside her chest. Around her heart. Inside her heart.
“Seriously Zo,” Shelby whined as the women carried her away, “can’t you at least pretend to show some loyalty for once?”
Zoe started forward, then stopped, spinning on her heel. “Jensen, can I give you some advice?”
Jensen shrugged. “Sure.”
“If some part of you is thinking about making up with Liam, do yourself a favor. Don’t! He’s so not worth it.” Then she dropped her head, jogging to catch up with the others.
And as Jensen stood there watching as her best friend turned her back on her, each breath became a war to hold herself together, a battle to stave off tears. Because the answer to Fee’s question had become abundantly clear. No, she wasn’t okay. How the hell could she possibly be okay when the whole world was steadily collapsing around her and the two people she thought she could depend on no longer wanted to be near her? And with that sudden devastating realization, she doubted her life would ever be the same.
Chapter Two
Jensen would never forget the strangeness of the sky when she left the cave. The unsettling slivers of silver and indigo squaring off between puffy clouds of charcoal down. Moody, foreboding, and not quite the calm she had been hoping for.
Thunder grumbled in the distance, echoing to the beat of the vein thumping on the side of Dermott’s neck. A coming rain heavily scented the air and Jensen couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before the sky fell. Or before Dermott finally snapped, whichever came first.
She ran her teeth across her bottom lip, examining his jaw-line for the hint of a change. Still harsh, meaning still pissed. “Are you sure Shelby’s gonna be okay?” she ventured, peering up at him through the fringe of her thick violet bangs.
Dermott’s right eye ticked at the question, but he offered no response. No surprise there.
He hadn’t said one word to her since they left the cave, hadn’t even looked her way. Instead, he just kept facing forward, as if by the sheer force of some invisible string. A string that refused to break even though almost ten minutes had passed since his silent treatment began.
The weird thing was that she actually wanted to talk to him. Anything was better than just sitting there, not knowing where his head was at, feeling awkward and tense and having far too much quiet time for her liking. Hell, even a “shut up, Jensen” would’ve been welcome at that point.
Tearing her eyes away, she ran her fingers down the gray fraying seatbelt of the old Cadillac, wishing she could rip the irritating thing off. But Dermott would only fasten it again like he had done when they first settled inside the iron monster.
She sighed, and rubbed her thumb across her emerald ring, thankful she still wore it. With it, she didn’t have to worry about the iron poisoning her or her inability to maintain her glamour. She couldn’t help but wonder how Lauren dealt with it all of these years.
Dermott whipped the car into the driveway, pulled the key from the ignition, and then stepped outside, allowing a light drizzle to sprinkle Jensen’s arm through the open doorway.
She reached for the handle of her door, but Dermott somehow made it to it first, yanking the door open as if he couldn’t trust her to get out on her own. Then he stepped aside, forcing her to walk ahead of him.
Once inside their condo, he locked the front door, then marched down the hallway right into her bedroom.
What the hell? Jensen thought, running behind him.
He snatched her crumpled bath towel from the center of her bed, dropping it on the floor beside a pair of faded denim shorts she’d chopped up earlier in the day.
Beyond mortified, Jensen watched from the doorway as he made up her bed, tucking in the wrinkled sheets that she’d kicked loose during her slumber. Then without saying one word to her, he picked up one corner of her cherry blossom blanket and waited.
Feeling her face flush, she stomped over to the bed and laid down, frowning when Dermott began tucking her in. Snuggly.
And once he’d finished, he turned around and headed toward the door.
“So I guess you hate me now,” she said, needing to say the words, though she doubted she would get a response from him.
Dermott stilled, his left hand raised above the doorknob. “Of course not.”
“But you won’t talk to me. And you’re mad, madder than you’ve ever been.”
He sighed, laying his hand on the white door frame. “I’m upset, yes. But I don’t hate you. I could never hate you, Button. I’m just …” He paused, tilting his head toward the ceiling. “I’m scared, that’s all.”
She frowned. “Of what?”
He shook his head as if the answer was obvious and shiny black waves fell forward, skimming the crease of his eyelids. That was the moment she realized that he hadn’t been taking care of himself. He looked scruffy and tired. Bone-tired.
“Of the fact that I don’t know how to keep you safe when you won’t let me.” He walked back to the bed and sat down on the edge, staring unseeingly through the sheer white window curtains. “I don’t know what you’re going to do next. And I don’t know how to tell Lore that I’m failing.”
“You’re not failing,” Jensen mumbled, rolling the edge of the blanket between her fingers.
Dermott laughed, a bitter sound that made her chest tighten painfully. “I can’t predict your next move. You say one thing, convincingly I might add, yet you always do another. Which means I can’t trust you either.”
She focused on the remote control, tracing the buttons with her finger to avoid having to look into his eyes. “Well, it’s not like I know everything you’re doing either.”
“You should have come to me.”
“I did.” Her voice was small, soft and quavering like that of a child who had just been caught crossing the street by herself. She instantly despised the sound.
“You did no such thing.”
“You were on the phone with Lauren. You were busy.”
He closed his eyes, rubbing them with the heel of his hand. “Why didn’t you interrupt? You could have said something.”
Jensen’s eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you tell me you two had talked?”
“Because your mother asked me not to and I happened to agree that it was for the best.”
After everything that had happened, they were still trying to keep her in the dark. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me,” she said through gritted teeth.
Dermott nodded. “It seems you’re right about that.”
She closed her eyes, allowing her teeth to unclench and her breaths to slow. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just saying, don’t keep things from me just because you don’t feel like explaining it. Or because you’re not sure how I’m gonna take it. I’m not a kid anymore.”
Dermott arched an eyebrow. “Then stop acting like one.”
“Fine and I need for you to stop hiding things from me,” she replied, refusing to budge on the issue. He and Lauren needed to know that keeping secrets was not okay, especially when her life was on the line.
He searched her eyes for a moment as if trying to determine just how serious she was, then nodded.
“So what happens now?”
Dermott’s aquamarine eyes darkened, becoming a whirlpool of deep blue and seafoam green. “Now we figure out how to hide you from all of Faery.”
Chapter Three
Jensen blinked up at him. “And why would we need to do that?”
Dermott sighed. “You had to know what you were doing when you used your powers. And now Auberon will expect you to fulfill your duty as emissary of the Seelie Court.”
Jensen pushed herself up, shaking her head. “But I didn’t use Shimmerspell. Honest, only normal nixie stuff.”
“But you controlled the water in the cave in a way that could only be heightened by Shimmerspell. What you fail to realize is the fact that the only nixie who has ever done that is Vivian. No one is going to assume that’s just normal nixie stuff because everyone knows better. And Liam was there to witness it.”
“Liam won’t tell anyone.”
Dermott arched his eyebrow, the picture of skepticism. “Is that why he was in such a rush to leave?”
“Something must have come up,” she mumbled, glancing away.
“Don’t be so naïve,” Dermott said, shaking his head.
“I’m not being naïve.” Jensen swallowed hard. “He cares about me. It’s just … he has a lot going on right now, that’s all.
“That maybe true,” Dermott conceded, “but he belongs to the Sidhe Guard. And he does not strike me as someone who would skirt his duty. Do you really expect him to choose you over his King?”
Jensen closed her eyes and massaged her temples with the pads of her fingers, not wanting to think about it. “Where will we go?”
“I haven’t quite figured that part out yet. My first instinct would be to seek shelter from the Order.”
This can’t be happening, Jensen thought. Not once had she considered the consequences of using her powers. To be honest, she never really had much of a choice in the matter. It was either save Liam or stand there and watch while Luca fried him. And because of that, she would never regret revealing herself as the Lady.
But what did this mean for her and Liam? They hadn’t even gotten around to talking things over yet. And with the way he was acting lately, she strongly doubted he’d even want to talk to her. Hell, he didn’t even want to be in the same room as her. Groaning, she fell back on the bed and tugged her blanket over her head, wishing she could just disappear.
Dermott let out a sigh, peeled back the thin blanket, and planted a kiss within the mess of her frizzy bangs. “I’m gonna go make preparations. Try to get some rest, okay?”
Lost in thought, she could only nod as he closed the door behind him. How could he expect her to sleep, knowing her life as she knew it was pretty much over now?
After taking a quick shower and inhaling half a box of Pecan Twirls, she pulled out her cell phone and scrolled through her contact list for Liam’s number. But while she sat there going over all the reasons she shouldn’t hit the send button, something rapped against her window, startling her so much that she dropped the phone to clutch her throat.
Wide-eyed, she glanced over at the window and frowned once she finally made out the elf floating outside. Eiden.
She hopped up from the bed, rushing over to let him in. “What are you doing here?” she asked, locking the window panel in place.
He ducked inside quickly, his eyes searching the room. “We need to talk.”
“Well you could’ve just knocked at the front door like a normal person.”
“That would imply that I’m a person, which I am not.”
Jensen crossed her arms, rubbing the spot above her elbows. “Okay, so talk.”
Eiden wet his lips, his pale blue eyes boring into hers. “Tell me where the dragon is.”
Luca? She shrugged. “How the hell would I know?”
“He’s the Dragon-King … Arthur’s successor.”
No shit, Einstein, she thought, twisting her ring around and around on her finger. “But I always thought Arthur and Guinevere never had any kids.”
“They didn’t. The betrayer hexed them with barrenness, so we can only assume the line of this progeny had been sown long before their union.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” she nodded, not liking that the we he referred to probably included Nimue.
He cocked his head to the side, squinting at her. “You don’t seem too surprised by that.”
She shrugged, warning bells starting to go off in her head. “With all the craziness going on lately, I doubt anything could surprise me anymore,” she lied.
“Maybe,” he nodded, pursing his lips. “Or it could be that you already knew.”
Jensen shook her head, saliva filling her mouth. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you recognized him as the new King back at the cave,” he said, taking a step forward.
Jensen backed up, her heart now racing. Why the hell did I let him in? “You know, Dermott will probably be back to check on me any second now.”
“I wouldn’t doubt that he checks on you often. The wizard is very protective of you,” he said, nodding his head. “But are you sure you don’t know where the dragon is?”
“I’m positive.”
“Would you tell me if you did?”
So you can hurt him for swatting you like a big ass fly? “Probably not.”
“Fair enough. We all have our oaths to adhere to.” Eiden twisted around as if to leave, then glanced back at her over his shoulder. “Before I leave, aren’t you gonna ask me how I know you knew who the dragon was?”
“I already told you I didn’t,” she said, shaking her head.
He squinted his eyes. “Humor me.”
“Fine.” She wet her lips, gulping hard. “Why is it that you think I knew?”
That was the moment he sprung at her, clutching her throat with one hand and covering her mouth with the other before she could even think to scream. “You’re his guardian,” he whispered against her ear. “The Lady of the Lake.”