Betrayals of Spring (Forever Fae #2)(45)
I am dressed and ready to go in my lovely bonding dress along with my bow and arrows and my cloak. Bonding or not, I will always carry around my bow. Ashur is waiting for me by the door and Aki is following behind me.
“Are you ready, Princess?” Ashur asks, smiling.
I take a deep breath.
“Yes, I’m ready.” Ashur opens the door and we step out into the cold, wintry night. We walk up the path to Kalen’s cabin and my teeth are chattering along the way. I can’t decipher if it’s from the coldness of the night or from being nervous. I stand frozen on the porch while trying to calm my rapidly beating heart by taking in some deep breaths.
“It’s OK to feel nervous, Princess.”
“I have had sex before, Ashur. I am not nervous about that.”
“I know, and that’s not what I am talking about.” I look over at him and furrow my brows. What is he talking about then? I do not want to be viewed as weak by being nervous.
“You are about to be the queen of your own court. There is a lot of responsibility involved in that, and it’s normal to feel nervous. You are not weak, Meliantha. You never were.”
I narrow my eyes at him, but in a playful way. He’s the only man that will ever know my deepest and darkest secrets. I kiss his cheek and bid him farewell.
“I will see you in the morning,” I say aloud.
He starts to walk away and hollers over his shoulder, “Have fun tonight!” I laugh at his candor and watch him walk away.
Aki is staring up at me so I take one last deep breath before opening the door. “Wish me luck,” I say to Aki.
As soon as I open the door, the hair on the back of my neck stands straight up. My mind is telling me to run quick and fast away from here. Aki is outside growling and scratching on the door to get in, but I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to him so I leave him outside. I walk up the steps cautiously, and the evil is growing thicker the closer I get to the top. I can see a flicker of candlelight emanating from the room the evil is coming from. I approach it slowly and guarded.
“Kalen!” I call out.
There is no response other than the giggling sound of a female coming from the inside of the room. What the hell is this? Anger envelops my body and I rear back giving the door a powerful kick. It explodes off its hinges and flies across the room. The smell of black magic engulfs me, but I fight through it and storm into the room.
I look toward the bed and Breena is lying there naked with a smug smile on her face while Kalen is next to her running his hands all over her body. It only takes one good look at him to know he is not my Kalen. I still feel a twinge in my gut at watching him all over Breena, but I keep repeating to myself that it’s not really him. I can’t believe I was off taking my time getting ready while Kalen was here facing off with the dark sorcerer by himself. He needed me and I wasn’t here. My throat tightens up at the thought that Kalen might be gone from me forever. Whatever I do, I can’t show weakness. I hesitantly look around the room for ashes and thankfully I see none.
“I am so glad you came to join us,” the dark sorcerer says. The voice is the same as Kalen’s, but this one is full of evil and malice. I recognize the same tone from five years ago.
“Go to hell,” I spit. “Where is Kalen?”
I wonder how long it would take Ashur to get help if I called out to him. I have my bow and arrow but they are strapped underneath my cloak. There is no way I could get to them in time. Next time, I need to make sure they are out in the open and ready to fire, but for now I have to suck it up and deal with this myself. He gets off the bed and stalks towards me. He’s wearing the same warrior gear that Kalen was wearing earlier. He looks exactly like Kalen, but the eyes give him away.
He motions down his body and answers, “Your prince is right here, Princess, and I’ll kill him right where we stand if you even think about calling out to your guardian to come rescue you.”
“I don’t understand. How can you take over a royal’s body? You’ve never been able to do so before,” I state.
He steps closer and I take a step back. This bastard has touched me way too many times, and I am not going to let it happen again.
“Oh Meliantha, so many things have changed over the years. There are lots of things I can do now that I couldn’t do before.” I look over Kalen’s body and I notice a silver cuff wrapped around his forearm. It looks exactly like Finn’s did, except his was gold. The dark sorcerer looks at his borrowed arm and then back to me. “Smart girl,” he says. “Kalen spouted off how smart you were right before I took him. I also let him know how much I enjoyed you during those nights I f*cked you. He didn’t seem to like that at all.” I flinch at his candor and he laughs at my response.
“What do you want, sorcerer?” I demand.
He looks my body up and down and licks his lips. Seeing him in Kalen’s body looking at me like that is odd and wrong in so many ways.
“First, I want you to call me Alasdair. I think we are close enough now to be on a first name basis.”
“You make me sick, you twisted bastard,” I storm.
I know he wants my power, but I have to find a way to get him out of Kalen’s body. The only ways to do that is if the sorcerer leaves his body or if Kalen dies, but the latter is not an option. He moves forward and I continue to step back. The wall is closing in behind me and he smirks because he knows that I have nowhere else to go. He reaches out his hand and I smack it away.