Guardian

Guardian

Fey Court Trilogy



Companion

to Deception

(Added scene from Pike)



by Cyndi Goodgame

Also by Cyndi Goodgame

(Fey Court Trilogy)

Deception

Tainted

Betrayal

Guardian (Companion to Deception)

(Marked Like Me Series)

Orion

Son of Ra

Scorpion

Daughter of Anat

Shadow Queen

Protector (Companion Novella to Marked Like Me)

(Goblin’s Kiss Series)

Denial

Yield

(Under Cover Chronicles)

Under Cover

Over Darkness

(Siphon Chronicles)

Siphon

***

Mary Never Had a Lamb, She Was the Lamb

(Twisted Nursery Rhymes for the Paranormal)

Hyde Chronicles-Gargoyle

© 2013 Cyndi Goodgame

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher.  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.  This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people.  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.  Acknowledgements go to the various authors of classic fiction who wrote so eloquently that their words have become easy to quote in today’s written word.

              ISBN: 978-1480087644

              [1. Supernatural-Fiction. 2. Fey, Faeries-Fiction. 3. Wilderness. 4. Prophecies. 5. Arkansas-Fiction]

Email Cyndi at
[email protected]

You can reach Cyndi on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/scgoodgame

You can reach Cyndi at her website/blog at 
http://goodgamebooks.wordpress.com

Follow Cyndi on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cyndigoodgameauthor

Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/scgoodgame
/

Reviews of
Deception
:

“Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!  I choose this one.  What’s not to love about a girl with three guys who aren’t hard to look at?  Who will it be?”  -Reading Junky

“...I love the blend of romance and paranormal in the story.  The book starts out very normal and then gets stranger and stranger until the real story begins.” –YA Author, Andrea H.

Reviews of
Tainted
:

“Gah!  I’m in love with this series. :)  The guys are yummy and the storyline is complex.  The book is intense and full of plot twists.  I hope she writes fast, because I am dying to get my hands on book three.” – YA Author, Andrea H.

“...really good book.  I only wish they would release the third book!” – Hilary S.

“As far as Fey books go, these are near the top of my list.” – Scarlett J.

Reviews of
Betrayal.

“This series just rocks.  I LOVE this series.  Hands down one of my all time favorites.  The characters were so well developed and I really felt compassion for each and every one of them.  There were some sad moments in this book, but the overall story was well worth the heartache.  The prophecy’s all came to light and finally make sense.  Grace really grew as a person and turned into someone beautiful.  I wouldn’t trade this book for any other.  I want to read it again and again.  It’s a treasure amongst most books.  Don’t miss this series.  –YA Author, Andrea H.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Run-in

Chapter Two

Ward

Chapter Three

Reminded

Chapter Four

Audience

Chapter Five

Guarded

Chapter Six

Stand-off

Chapter Seven

Fear

Chapter Eight

Freak

Chapter Nine

Revealed

Chapter Ten

Reality

Chapter Eleven

Pathway

Chapter Twelve

Closer

Chapter Thirteen

Stunned

Chapter Fourteen

Overstepped

Chapter Fifteen

Dictator

Chapter Sixteen

Closer...still

Chapter Seventeen

Prophecy

Chapter Eighteen

Hunger

Chapter Nineteen

Pike

Chapter Twenty

Spellbound

Chapter Twenty One

Cove

Chapter Twenty Two

Declaration

Chapter Twenty Three

Drunk

Chapter Twenty Four

Exploration

Chapter Twenty Five

Skills

Chapter Twenty Six

Hypnotized

Chapter Twenty Seven

Anticipation

Chapter Twenty Eight

Restraint

Chapter Twenty Nine

Acceptance

Chapter Thirty

Protection

Chapter Thirty One

Deal

Chapter Thirty Two

Memory

Chapter Thirty Three

Bind

Chapter Thirty Four

Inevitable

Chapter Thirty Five

Defenseless

Chapter Thirty Six

Linger

Chapter Thirty Seven

Revelations

Chapter Thirty Eight

Distraction

Pike

After Grace

The Day My Eyes Caught up to the Prophecy…Too Late

Siphon

DAN
E
Same Old, Same Old

“I’m leaving you man,” I told Pike.  He didn’t mind taking his sweet time.  I left anyway.  He’d catch up.

Arriving at the clearing near the old abandoned warehouse from thirty years ago that the humans had left decaying and covered now in poison ivy was a waste of time.  The dead oak tree beside it would deter any wayward humans in the other direction. Kinsler had long glammed the face of it to keep anyone from anointing our dungeon of play.  The earth always had an easy invitation or a deterrence of death.  With me, it was to live, see life in the earth and the surroundings.  With the winter court’s descendent, it was all about the decaying and dying.  The earth never dies really.  Just masked by winter until one of our kind bring it back.

I aimed for the nearest bird of choice.  Aiming my bow for the fun of it, I nailed the sucker dead shot to the neck.  I didn’t usually make it a sport to kill the animals of the forest, but after nearly a hundred years of boredom, a few birds would not be missed.  It was against my own code, but lately, I’ve found my life worthless anyway, without purpose.

Alone.  I was tired of being alone.  That’s what brought three enemies together enough to agree to disagree and “hang out” as the humans say. I’d watched plenty of humans in my time.  They were arrogant, foolhardy idiots who lived among a hidden, fantasy world that they assumed didn’t exist and wasn’t nearly as glorious as they thought it to be from the stories they liked to tell.

“You missed,” the drummed out voice sounded behind my back.  I ignored his attempt at sarcasm knowing I
never
missed. 

“Pike coming?” Kinsler asked sizing up my kill.

“Yeah, late,” I returned.  We never spoke in large sentences.  I favored reading, but long since gave it up for no one gave any conversation to it.   

“Here!” Pike’s voice rose above the trees.  We looked up to see his arrogant ass looking down the shaft of his arrow aimed at us.

“Dead!”

We both glanced at each other and shrugged.  We were all lethal to each other anyway you look at it.  We all had equal status.  Well, except Pike.  When his mother, the previous queen of the Seelie Fey court disappeared, her assumed death left a new queen, my mother.  He has since resented me.  In MORE ways than just that.

However, since the three of us have nothing in common but weapons in our hands that were meant to defend us against each other, we gave in to a truce to have
something to do
. I heard a human once call it “frenemies”.  We most definitely were not friends.  More like “agreeable enemies”.

“The old place could be a perfect trap.  We have yet to put it to use.”  Kinsler always saw the possibilities.

“Or love nest.”  Pike was always focused on one thing.  Anything female and what it could gain him for pleasure alone.  His self-respect was non-existent.

Ignoring the promises made by their twisted minds, I walked around the building contemplating my own.  It could be anything.  Snaked between the two courts, it was a great meeting place for the three of us.

“My father knows about it, but doesn’t seem very interested in its possibilities,” Kinsler offered.

That sparked my interest.  I aimed my glare at him unable to always hide the ill-tempered feelings towards him.  “What will he do about it?”  Meaning... any evil plotted plans.

He shrugged one shoulder and leaned on the oak, “Don’t know. He might have mentioned housing slaves.”

              Pike jumped from the tree now.  “Like what slaves?” He folded his arms and stood aside me as if the two of us could really take him.  Like I said, the friendship wasn’t fisted on too tight.

“Don’t know.  He always likes to make a wave and screwing with your court that way is just his thing.  You know this.  I’m just giving you a heads up.”

With Kinsler, everything was called a “heads up” when it pertained to the father of evil.

***

“Don’t bring her!” I told Pike.  He had one of his many females on his arm. 

“Oh, come on.  She wants to see the love nest,” he cooed in her direction.  Female in question giggled back at him.  I knew her.  That made me angrier.

He could be disgusting sometimes.  Hell, I loved a good time with a girl alright, but there was a line to cross about taking a girl in the woods and just
hanging out
.  Making out was one thing, but Pike had no morals at all.

That’s the problem.   Many of the Fey had no morals.  Tinia was cute.   Fun!  But only wanted the name.  She didn’t care about me.  Jem was the same.  They all were. 

Any girl I even remotely found interest in wanted to know what it would be like to be king and started mentioning betrothals and marriage days into any type of relationship.  That’s just it, they never developed into anything that could be called a “relationship”.

My disgusted look did nothing to change Pike’s mind, but my anger won out when he couldn’t deny that Kinsler would use it for something later as a challenge between the courts.  The girl would technically be property of both courts hence she was on neutral ground.  Kinsler could twist things that way.

He saw my reasoning and relented, sending her back to the court. 

Pike never thought with anything but his pants.

We met Kinsler at our usual, killed some of the wild, yakked about nothing, and went our separate ways.

Almost every day.

I entered the court boundary where I always did on a cool afternoon on the edge of winter.  Altheon, the court seer, greeted me at the camp side fire pit blazing and too warm. That never happened before.  My mother was there also.

Mother
often told me to tend to one of her little tasks and today was no exception.  This one involved retrieving one of her many items from the human world.  A Fey boy who’d strayed to a lustful human who “couldn’t live without her”.  I was to remove the memories myself and bring the boy to her.  Why couldn’t our people just forget the humans existed altogether?

“Master Ian, I need to speak with you.” Altheon said after mother excused herself to “freshen up” as she purred like a python waiting to strike.  Anyone intelligent always kept one eye open when she spoke. “Freshen up” might mean “kill you in your sleep” or “run a hot iron over your eyeballs”.

I ran through a string of worst case scenarios.  I’d just left Kinsler and nothing was said that could lead me to any sudden conclusions, but that didn’t mean anything.

“I have a rather urgent errand and then we need to talk,” the old man said to me straight faced without emotion.

I followed him to sit registering in my mind that we had privacy. 

“I need you to go with Pike to the winter court boundary, escort the Firebearer Ginera and her companion to our court, seal their identity with a shield from the summer court, and replace them in the human world before dark tonight.”

Not unheard of.  “Why?”

The seer sighed, “It cannot be revealed until the deed is completed.  If she survives, our world will change as we know it.”

Our world?  What kind of talk is that?  Prophecy talk is what it is.  “And this is detrimental to what cause?”

He offered one small hardly insignificant detail.  “Your future.”

Okay!  “Done!”

“High clearance, only you and Pike.  Ginera cannot be harmed.”

“The companion?”

“Is to remain anonymous at all costs.  If you divulge who it is you are replacing elsewhere, Sane will have them both killed before dawn.”

Understood.  This has happened before.  Who
is
this secret companion?

He patted my knee signaling dismissal.  He’d never done that.  I found Pike and headed out with a full arsenal.

We found Ginera and a man at the edge of the woods huddled in two balls as if asleep.  At our approach, she moved into fighting mode.  As humorous as this sounds, this hundred and twenty pound woman could actually hurt someone if she needed to, but defend herself against two Seelie court princes who were very well skilled in every weapon and happen to know her weaknesses, I think not.

She gathered quickly that it was me and eased back. “Master Ian.  Master Pike.  I am most gracious.  If you are here to wipe my memory, so be it.  Just, don’t let them take him away again.  They’ve hurt him enough.”

I looked down at the companion who still had his head hidden.  His dark shaggy hair was falling across his face.  When he shifted his weight to stand up, he jumped back at seeing us as if he’d not known we were there for over a minute already.

I’d like to say I was not ready for the greatest shock of my life, but here stood the previous king of the Unseelie court, Lord Evan.  All assumed him to be dead, but here he was.

“What joke is this?” My anger rose.

“Oh Master Ian, it is no joke.  I haven’t the time to tell, but Evan, now Mr. Starmen to the human world, hasn’t the memory of who he was.  He has once again been wiped of any memory of myself and who he has been for the last twenty years.  He was enslaved in the winter court until yesterday.”  The tears rose in her eyes creating a bubbled effect.

I didn’t want to believe her, but truth was in her eyes.  “We leave now.  We will go straight to court.  The seer has your replacement assignment ready and you will be in the human world by nightfall.  You will do best to act as you are unaware of who you are, for you will be wiped as well if not.”  How she could guard her thoughts completely was beyond me.  But I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t let her try though.  “Let’s hurry.”

I took her arm to stand and Pike, who’d remained silent this whole time, took the king’s arm tracing her body with his eyes and resting on her enlarged belly.  I felt the alarm button in his mind rise before either of them could resolve my level of piqued distress.

“I fear I cannot keep up with you.”

“You have too,” I insisted.  Time was short.

“I am with child,” she managed a smile.

***

Altheon had Ginera safe and in the new world she would spend her unnaturally long life in with her new husband, the previous enslaved king of the Unseelie winter court.  How ironic that she was carrying his child, the heir to the winter court throne.  To the future king of the summer court, it was full of irony and fear.  The current king of the winter court either knew of this treachery, caused it, or is hiding it.  Either way, Kinsler and his father should be thrown out on their asses and flogged.  They didn’t even have any kinship to the king who should be on the throne. 

Kinsler, the current son of the winter court’s king, was next in line.  Though there was absolutely no relation to the child to come and Kinsler, they had more in common than I did to my own mother. A connection to the winter court could be a warm ally one day. 

For now, we wait.  I myself had given up hope of ever having the chance to love or be loved.  And talking to Pike or Kinsler about it was just not going to happen.  No chance at happiness...for any of us. 

I met Altheon at his request after the task was complete which included my mother and Pike.  We sat uncomfortably around the fire and waited watching my mother’s face more than the rest.  What did she know?   The ball was in the seer’s court.

The old man moved his legs achingly slow and eventually landed his eyes level with mine.  As if the coming news was like a simple talk about dinner choices or asking to go work out at the range the seer said so calmly, “A prophecy has been made.  It came in the wee hours of the morning when the Firebearer Leven died.  He was given the prophecy about a child.”

“And how does this pertain to me?” I asked, dubious.  I sat still figuring there was a reason for all the secrecy.  It made me uneasy, but it wouldn’t show.

“We will get there.  The prophecy is about how the child will be queen of our Fey court.”

Again, how am I involved?  I watched the crazy old man’s face.

“The prophecy was given to Leven for a reason.  He predicted his own granddaughter’s birth.”

He let this soak in with me.  Granddaughter?  I quickly put two and two together.  Ginera had said she was with child.  And with the king’s—

“Guard your mind son!” Altheon quipped.

I nodded to him at my stupidity.  I knew better than to let names run across my mind.  I continued on, “I know of who you speak.  But he had to have known he had a granddaughter on the way.  How do we know the prophecy is valid?”

Altheon paused looking at Queen Lazyra and then me.  I knew he was getting some kind of confirmation to tell me something.  He finally said after too long a silence, “Because he did not know she was pregnant before he died.”

Well, that seals it.  “And the prophecy involves me how?” I looked to Pike.  Why was he here?  I just remembered he’d been asked to come also.

“I think you need to read it first, son.”  My mother said rather sweetly and actually seemed concerned for me. 

I looked at Pike again.  “Why is he here?” I didn’t mean it to be rude, though if Pike could kill me with a look, he just had.  Again, no one answered me.

Altheon handed me the prophecy.

“We’ll come seek you on one hallowed eve

When grace upon you is in full bloom

A queen emerges among us all

To take us into a peaceful rule

A prince will name her to his own

Guard her well from friend or foe

Come seek us at the pass

Otherwise, you shall not last.

After I’d finished, I reread it three times.  The only reason they would show me this, have me here, was because they thought I was this prince in the prophecy.  Guard her?  She wasn’t even born yet.  And not last?  Would we all die and our whole world would be depending on me to protect this baby and then what?

“It seems your thoughts have led you in the right direction.  Let me fill in what gaps I can.”

I vowed to get down the guarding of my thoughts in stressful situations.  It was easy when one wasn’t hindered by obnoxious intrusions from old men.

Altheon grunted at my line of thought intended for him only.  I waited while an ill feeling swam in my gut starting to ride up into my throat.  I listened carefully to the next few words already forming on the seer’s mouth.

“You’re that guardian.  Or at least we think you are.  It only makes sense that the current prince would be the guardian of the queen to be.”  Altheon didn’t look at Pike, but I did.  Pike was too silent for his usual off-handed comments.  The seer continued, “If you are to keep her safe, then you will need to be with her until she reaches a ripened age.”

Ripened age? I pray they didn’t mean three hundred years or some ungodly answer.  And why did I have to get handed this punishment?  “Why can’t Pike take on this?  He is more than capable since he is the better hunter, protector, etc.”

“He is not the current prince.” 

No, duh!

“Then I will spend years in misery watching over some girl who will just waltz into our court and take over because some oracle-like something or another deemed it so?”  I let out a breath.  The child would be of both courts.  How would that span out in the end?

“Yes, son.  You will,” my mother had the famous authoritative tone.  “Pike will assist you in anything you need.  You will need to work together to keep her alive.  The winter court became aware of this just an hour ago.  Sane will have his son up to his neck in this.  We will need the upmost priority given to the situation.  When the child is born, Danella and Tren will arrive to birth her here at the court.  Then they will be returned and Danella will remain in her service until the day of her eighteenth birthday when she will be told the truth, by you, and returned to our court.”

“Unfortunately, there is one detail that will hinder us,” Altheon continued her thought as if he were right in sync with her.  “She will have the choice to walk away.”

“Walk away?  You tell me the child, whom I know to be of...never mind.”  I was miffed.  A child of royal blood couldn’t just walk away!

“She is half human,” Altheon finished.

I turned a quarter turn in his direction since I’d sectioned off from the rest of them in disgust.  “Not possible.  I saw—

“You saw who and what you saw.  Sane has ways of changing someone into something else.  Her father is human.  He has no magic.”

“Is he...
mortal
?” I asked in shock.