Betrayals of Spring (16 page)

I have never taken over a woman’s body
and being in one is awkward and uncomfortable. How can they wear this shit? The
dress is tight as hell and I can barely breathe. I find the Winter fae I am to
pursue and I sashay as best I can in these worthless contraptions women call
shoes.

“Would you like to dance?” I ask him. I
cringe at the sound of a female’s voice coming from my throat. It is awkward,
but I have to do what is necessary to get what I want.

He looks this body up and down and bites
his lip. The look he gives my host is pure animalistic. I groan in silence.
This is going to be harder than I thought. He bows his head and holds out his
hand.

“I would love to dance with a Summer
beauty.” Not for long, I think to myself.

I grab his hand firmly and I pull him to
the dance floor. He seems to like how I take control. He’s delighted, so I
plaster on a seductive smile and continue. How pathetic can someone be? I can
sense his power is stronger than the servants, but it in no way matches one of
the royals. Calista’s power was unimaginable when I took it, and when I take
Meliantha’s it will be just as strong and enticing. Time is wasting, so I
decide to move along.

With a faux politeness I ask, “May I
have the pleasure of your name?”

He responds snobbishly, “My name is
Darius. My father is on the Winter Court Council and highly respected among the
Winter Court fae.” I was right. He is a noble and too arrogant for his own
good. I wouldn’t tolerate people like this in my army. They all know their
place and to act in this manner would mean death.

I’ll be detected if I linger much
longer.

To speed things up I say, “After the
dance, how about we take a walk and get to know each other better?”

He raises his eyebrows with a glint in
his eye.

“That sounds like a perfect idea,” he
answers with a malicious grin. Yeah, I bet it does. I look around the ballroom
and I see Calista and Meliantha dancing on the floor with their escorts. They
give no notice of me, so I’m safe for now. However, Meliantha’s guardian is
looking at me with suspicion. I need to make sure my departure goes unnoticed
by his prying eyes.

The song ends and I quickly drag the
Winter fae out of the ballroom and into the bitter frost of the night. I’m glad
I planned ahead and hid my iron dagger in the snow on the west side of the
palace. I spelled it so no one could see it or detect it. Darius grabs the hand
of the body I have overtaken and loops my arm through his. Being this close to
him makes me want to kill him at once, but I try to keep in mind that this
isn’t my body and that I am pretending to be a helpless Summer fae maiden. One
thing is certain…never again will I take over a female’s body.

I pull him in the westward direction and
we set off in a brisk pace away from the palace. He must be eager to get a
taste of this Summer apple, but I’m afraid he is going to be sorely
disappointed. We are nearing the western courtyard where I have hidden the
dagger. It is nestled under a canopy of snow by the base of the giant birch
tree.

“How do you like the Winter Court
palace, my lady?” he asks.

I shrug my shoulders, “I don’t like the
cold, but I like that it’s dark.”

He’s still smiling, but he looks
confused when he asks, “But you’re a Summer fae. I thought the Summer maidens
usually danced in the sunlight naked, and enjoyed the light…or at least that’s
what I have dreamed.” I should have ripped his tongue out earlier. He deserves
to die because of the ridiculous shit he’s babbling off.

I give him a malevolent grin and the
menacing tone in my voice has him panicked when I sneer, “Most of us like it
sunny, but not me. I like it dark and violent with the smell of death.”

His eyes go wide and he nervously takes
a step back.

“It’s getting late, maybe we should head
back.”

I bend down to the ground and I remove
the spell from the iron dagger. I reach down to grab it from its resting place.

I leer back at the quivering fae and
tease, “But I thought you wanted to have some fun?” I notice his body is
physically shaking, and I can tell his flight response is about to kick in. I
heave magic at his feet to keep him rooted in place.

“Tsk, tsk, Darius. That isn’t very
gentlemanly of you to leave a lady out here all by herself,” I taunt.

“Whatever you are, you are no lady.”

Underneath the skin of my borrowed body
is the talisman ready to be brought forth. I wear it around my neck inside of
my host’s body. To get it to the outside I have to will it. I make the talisman
appear around the host’s neck and I pull it off to place around the Winter fae.
We are far enough away that if he screams, I’ll be finished before anyone even
gets here. Once the talisman is securely placed, what do you know…he screams.

“You are
so
pathetic. You’re
nothing but a worthless pussy,” I hiss. “This right here is why I’m glad I am
not one of you.”

The bloodstone of the talisman glows a
faint red color letting me know that it’s satisfied. I take it off quickly and
place it around my neck. It absorbs through the body to mine underneath,
perfectly hidden from fae eyes. The screaming stops and the Winter fae looks at
me with dead, empty eyes. The power I absorbed is flowing through my body and
it’s expanding through every cell of my being. I wish I could lay back and
enjoy the ride, but there is work that still needs to be done.

The Winter fae is swaying on his feet,
so I retrieve the dagger from the ground and hold it tightly in my borrowed
hands. The iron dagger is poisonous to the fae and as soon as I pick it up with
the fae’s hand it instantly starts to sizzle and burn. I can feel the poison
taking away the skin, so I move swiftly to make the killing blow. The dagger is
about twelve inches in length and sharper than any blade imaginable. I swipe
the blade across the Winter fae’s chest, gutting him where he stands. Blood
sprays all over this body and all over the ground making the scene look
horrific. It is a shame no one will see what I have done. When everyone gets
here they will see nothing but the ashes of the worthless fae I killed. I drop
the dagger to the ground and the sizzling stops immediately. The pain is
excruciating, but it will not be my pain much longer.

Movement up ahead catches my attention
and I see Meliantha’s guardian racing toward my host. He approaches cautiously
and looks down at the Winter fae slowly drifting away into ashes while I stand
there smiling.

“What the hell have you done?” he asks.

I shake my head and laugh, “I was just
having a little fun, Guardian. Give Meliantha my best and tell her I will see
her soon.”

I exit my host’s body, laughing the
whole way. I drift off into the shadows of the night and I stare down
humorously at the warrior cradling the host’s body in his arms. Once she wakes
up, she will be in the most agonizing pain and not to mention she won’t
remember a single thing about killing the Winter fae.

I wonder if Meliantha will realize how I
was able to take over the Summer fae’s body. All I know is that she’s going to
have a hell of a time getting her friend out of this one, and it’s going to be
a pleasure to watch
.

The moment the vision stopped I gasped
for air. Meliantha is breathing hard and gripping onto my arms with a strength
I didn’t know her body could possess. What really caught my eye are the changes
in her body. The transformation has already begun to happen, just like it did
with Calista and Ryder. I knew it would happen, so it’s not that much of a
shock, but I guess I didn’t expect it so soon. Meliantha’s eyes go wide at the
sight of me as well, and a huge grin takes over her face.

The vision was so intense and so real
that I could take her right here and now with how turned on I am. I know she
can feel me pressing up against her stomach and it appears as if she doesn’t
mind because she’s rubbing her body against me.

Breathless, she whispers, “That had to
be the most amazing vision ever. It felt so real, and I say that literally.”

I groan loudly. Why did she have to say
that? I push my groin into her stomach harder and tease, “Well, I’m sure you
can feel what the vision did to me.” She laughs and I laugh along with her. It
feels so good to be able to be like this with her. I look around the fountain
and I almost forget to compliment her on the flowers. Between the confrontation
with Finn and the vision, I haven’t had time to tell her how amazing they are.

“The flowers are beautiful, Meliantha,
but I don’t think they will last very long here.”

I send my magic to the frozen water of
the fountain and I make it flow again. She walks over to it and splashes her
hands back and forth through the spouting water.

Her voice is wistful when she speaks.

“They may not last here, but they will
in
our
court.”

I grab her arm to pull her into a tight
embrace and I kiss her fiercely one more time. Her lips are smooth and taste
like the sweetness of a summer apple. Oh, how I have longed to hold her in my
arms.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” I
tease.

I can feel her nodding her head
underneath my chin and she laughs.

“Yes...you’re going to have to learn to
live with warmth and flowers.”

I shake my head and sigh, “No…it means I
get to keep you forever.” I lean in to give her another kiss when out of
nowhere she pulls back abruptly with a look of horror on her face. She looks
like she’s concentrating on something and I can only assume she is talking to
her guardian.