Embrace the Power: A Paranormal Romance (The Blood Rose Series Book 9) (6 page)

“I was remembering something, but it doesn’t matter.”

He caught her chin. “It always matters. Have I hurt you?”

The warm compassion on his face made her chest ache all over again. “You couldn’t hurt me, Stone. You always act from a place of truth and honesty, from your devotion to Tannisford. There’s nothing you could do that could harm me in any way.”

He tilted his head slightly, mossy-green eyes narrowed. “That’s the way you see me?”

“It is.” But as the words left her mouth, a new frequency hit her, striking deep in her brain, one that felt horribly familiar.

Margetta.

“Stone, we’ve got to get out of here. The Ancient Fae is coming toward the mine. Sweet Goddess, how fast can you fly?”

He gripped her arms, staring into her eyes. “You should leave. Teleport now. I’ll escape somehow.”

“I’m not leaving you. No. Way. Stone, she’s gunning for you. I can feel it.”

“Okay, then.” He didn’t ask permission or give her the smallest warning. Instead, he caught her up in his arms, levitated, then flew straight out of the mouth of the mine and headed into the air.

But a terrible gold wind already filled the dark, starry sky. Margetta’s signature.

Rosamunde had seen it once before, the night her mother had died.

Her first instinct was to teleport, but she couldn’t leave Stone. Though she’d learned a lot over the past few weeks while serving beside him, she didn’t know what to do or even what she could do.

Stone spun them in a circle. “She’s surrounded us.”

Margetta’s gold wind tossed them in the air. If she caught them, Rosamunde knew she would die. But she knew something else as well: Margetta didn’t want Stone dead, she wanted him for herself. But why?

Rosamunde had to act quickly. She had only seconds to get herself and Stone away from Margetta.

The Ancient Fae appeared, beautiful in a long purple velvet gown and blond ringlets dangling past her shoulders. She had a softly-pointed fae chin, arched brows and looked like a princess.

“Mastyr Stone, what do we have here? A wolf?”

“What do you want?” Stone’s voice reverberated through the air.

“Why, you of course, but I must say you could do better than a wolf.” She snorted and wrinkled up her nose.

Rosamunde closed her eyes and focused on the elf-lord power. She wasn’t in Ferrenden Peace, but she remembered that her mother had accessed the power outside of the kingdom’s boundaries. Maybe she could as well.

Just like that, the elf-lord power began to stream into her, causing the muscles of her legs to seize.

“What’s this?” Margetta shouted.

“What’s happening?” Stone asked.

Aralynn switched to telepathy.
Hold onto me, Stone. You’re feeling the power of Ferrenden Peace. I might be able to get us away from Margetta.

Margetta clucked her tongue. “Sorry, Stone, but I can’t let you keep your wolf. But don’t worry, after you’re mine you won’t care one whit for the wench.”

She raised her hands and black-and-gold power began to swirl around them. Her large violet eyes glittered with what Rosamunde knew was a sense of victory.

“Get behind me!” Stone shouted. He even turned and pulled her in that direction just as Margetta released her battle power.

“Stone, no!” Rosamunde shouted, but it was too late.

Stone’s body arched hard in the air as Margetta’s red battle energy struck him. Rosamunde tried to reach for him, but he began to fall and there was nothing she could do about it. Yet, if he hit the earth from such a height, he would die.

And Stone couldn’t die.

Something happened to Rosamunde in that moment, something inexplicable and profound. She dove after him and caught him easily, not with her arms, but with the elf-lord energy that surrounded her. At the same time, she created a wind similar to Margetta’s but which was violet in color and provided a protective shield as well. She headed swiftly in the direction of her kingdom.

She felt Margetta in pursuit. She could hear her shouting in distant streams of unintelligible words. She experienced a buffeting against her shield and knew Margetta was firing at her. Yet, her protection remained intact.

As Rosamunde flew toward Ferrenden Peace, she knew Stone was mortally wounded and needed a powerful healer badly. She had some ability, but not enough to bring him back from the edge of death.

There was one man in Ferrenden Peace who had that power, a warrior elf named Kaden. He was a friend of Joseph’s and Davido’s. If she could get Stone to Joseph’s lair, she felt certain Joseph could contact Kaden and maybe then she’d be able to save Stone.

She flew faster than ever, the wind propelling her and sustaining Stone. She stayed near him, her arm around his waist for balance, though she could tell she didn’t even need to touch him to keep him safe. As she neared her kingdom, the gold wind disappeared entirely and she knew she’d outstripped her aunt.

Margetta was gone.

As Ferrenden Peace’s veil of mist appeared, Rosamunde moved through it easily and felt it seal up behind her.

They were safe now from the Ancient Fae.

But Stone was near death.

Joseph’s home was hidden deep in the woods, a good mile from ‘Aralynn’s’ cottage, and protected behind a dozen shielding layers.

Rosamunde had never quite known where Joseph, a mere gremlin, had gotten so much power. Though she’d long suspected he’d purchased the illegal security system on the black market from a powerful fae. Right now, however, she didn’t care.

Joseph would be able to help Stone.

As she drew near, she could hear Joseph shrieking through his shields. He must have sensed her, which meant the gremlin had more power than she could have ever supposed.

She pounded on the low, arched wooden door. “Joseph, let me in right now and none of your shenanigans. I have Mastyr Stone of Tannisford here in dire need of healing. I need you to contact Kaden.”

“I’m not at home.” The gremlin’s voice carried a rough edge as though he gargled with sawdust.

“Let me speak with Davido then, right now!”

“He’s on a walk, surveying the mist. He’ll be back in an hour.”

Oh, sweet Goddess. She’d been counting on Davido being able to knock some sense into Joseph. She opened up her telepathy and contacted Vojalie.

The powerful fae returned quickly.
I’m here.

Vojalie, I need a healer for Mastyr Stone. Now. I need Kaden but Davido isn’t at Joseph’s and I have no idea how to reach the elf. And the gremlin, as usual, is being difficult.
Her telepathic voice broke.
Stone will die if I don’t have a healer here in the next few minutes.

I’ll contact Davido. Someone will be there. Just get him inside Joseph’s home.

Rosamunde grabbed a deep breath and shouted. “Joseph, I just spoke with Vojalie. She wants Stone in your house now.”

When she heard the sound of locks turning, hope rose.

A moment later, the door opened a crack, then wider so Joseph could see both her and Stone.

With his forehead wrinkled like an old man, the gremlin wore a severe expression. The color of his skin was paper white except for a few yellowing spots. He had a long narrow nose and stood a foot-and-a-half tall. Even so, he wore hip boots to fit his diminutive size, leather pants, and a woven shirt in the Guardsman style. His hair stuck out in long reddish-brown tufts. His fingers were his best feature, however, long and shapely. They moved constantly. Gremlin’s loved to work with their hands.

Mostly, they pilfered.

Stole.

Burgled.

Schemed.

And were a wretchedly secretive bunch.

Joseph lowered his gaze to Stone. Rosamunde followed his widening eyes, and for the first time she saw the wound Margetta had inflicted.

Her stomach turned.

Blood seeped from a messy through-wound in his abdomen where Margetta’s battle energy had blown straight through Stone.

Joseph made a disgusted snorting sound, rolled his eyes and threw the door wide.

With her wind still swirling behind her, she tried to levitate Stone straight in, but nothing happened.

“This area out here is a magical dead-zone, stupid fae-wolf. I’ll have to get my sling.” He flung a hand toward the ceiling. She saw an overhead track running from the doorframe that held a series of pulleys and hooks.

She didn’t understand how a simple forest gremlin could be in possession of so much power that he could block some of her abilities. Had to be a black market spell of some kind.

He came back with a wheelbarrow piled high with canvas. She levitated Stone forward to the point where the magic stopped her. Joseph intervened and used his own considerable kinetic levitating abilities to unfurl the canvas beneath Stone.

With Joseph’s directions, Stone was soon secure in the sling. Tears were in her eyes with this terrible, useless delay in getting him safely inside.

But the moment Joseph moved the sling, the wheels on the rails whipped forward like lightning. The well-oiled apparatus shot into the house and Rosamunde had to fly quickly to keep up.

The house was entirely underground with dozens, maybe hundreds of small rooms jutting off either side of the main hallway. Each room was well-lit and full of so much polished junk, it looked like a hoarder’s paradise. If there’d been any doubt about Joseph’s essential nature, the gaudy showrooms confirmed him as a gremlin thief.

Joseph stopped the sling abruptly near a long slab of beautiful gray marble. He guided the sling directly overhead, then lowered Stone until he lay flat.

“He’s bleeding.” Joseph made another raspberry-like sound from the side of his mouth.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” She resisted the urge to scream her frustration.

She thought Joseph would either begin the healing process himself or summon Kaden. Instead, his gaze roved the metal clasp at the shoulder of Stone’s Guard uniform, then down to the dozen antique silver studs lining the outer seams of both boots.

“Would you stop weighing the value of Mastyr Stone’s silver embellishments and start healing him?” Her voice had moved into a screech that sounded more owl-like than wolf. But she was desperate.

Joseph, levitating across the slab from Rosamunde, made another disgusted snorting sound with the usual accompanying eye-roll. “I don’t have the power to manage a battle wound like this one. Besides,” he sniffed the air, “it carries Margetta’s taint which means a poison is working in him. This man is dead.”

Rosamunde lifted both hands in the air. “But I thought you could do something.”

“You thought wrongly. Goddess save me from idiots.”

Rosamunde had never known such distress as in this moment. Tears rolled down her face. “Dear Goddess, what have I done? What I have done?”

Joseph held one well-groomed hand out for inspection. “I would be willing to summon Kaden for you … for a price, that is.” He met her gaze, his tiny cat-like, almond-shaped eyes boring into hers. “Kaden, as you know, is very gifted and would no doubt have Stone fixed up in the twitch of a mustache.”

She stared at him for a quick moment as the fine hairs all down her spine rose in protest. She thought for a moment she might actually shift into her wolf and tear his throat out. “You’re asking for payment when a man’s life hangs by the width of one of your cheap-ass nose hairs?” Though still in her Aralynn form with no fur showing, she leaped at him like a wolf, straight across the table and levitating just enough to make sure she cleared Stone’s massive body.

She extended her hands reaching for Joseph’s throat when suddenly she was grabbed around her waist and held suspended in the air.

Kaden had arrived.

He’d caught her midair and with a smooth motion set her on her feet. With his other hand, he grabbed Joseph by his suspenders and held him at face level. Their noses were separated by maybe two full inches.

“How many times have we discussed the importance of compassion over avarice, my friend? Will you never learn?”

Aralynn slowly backed away from the beautiful elf with long flowing brown hair, a face like a god, and eyes the color of the daytime sky.

“Hello, Kaden. We’re in trouble here.”

“Vojalie summoned me a few minutes earlier. She’d had one of her visions. And … apologies for Joseph’s extortion efforts.”

Rosamunde felt something from Kaden that she couldn’t comprehend. A pair of hyphenated words kept forming in her head – elf-lord – but it was far too absurd. Kaden couldn’t be an elf-lord. They were all extinct. They’d been hunted down and destroyed millennia ago. Yet the power that still hummed in her because of the violet wind she’d so recently made, prompted her again:
Elf-lord
.

As Kaden moved to the head of the marble slab, she felt his power like a warm flow of water moving through the tunnel.

Joseph drew close to Kaden then climbed monkey-like to sit on his shoulder apparently intent on observing the healing process. Joseph had known Kaden a long time.

Kaden glanced at her, and as he did a large pair of scissors appeared in his hands. “I need you to get these clothes off Mastyr Stone. All of them. They’ll cause him pain because of the poison Margetta has used.”

Poison? Oh, no.

She moved close and took the scissors. As she began quickly cutting Stone’s Guard coat away, the shimmering light of Kaden moved like a thin mist around him as he put his hands on Stone’s abdomen. Stone’s body arched once then fell immobile as it had been before.

She could feel the healing flow and the breath she drew shuddered with a few suppressed sobs.

She got his boots off without cutting them, but couldn’t help but notice that the muscles of his thighs had seized. Had to be the poison. She would have asked Kaden, but she didn’t want to disturb him.

She worked quickly to get his leathers off.

Kaden spoke quietly to Joseph, who in turn left his perch, then returned with a towel which he handed to Rosamunde. He resumed his post on Kaden’s shoulder.

Rosamunde placed the towel over Stone’s groin. His abdomen had started cramping as well, the defined muscles rising and falling in what would have been painful waves if he’d been conscious.