Soul Mates: Magic (Soul Mates Series) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty

The celebration for Elvin lasted most of the night, with singing and dancing and remembra
nces of Elvin. It was past one A.M. when I finally took myself off to bed. I entered my room with a smile on my lips.

“Princess, may I get you anything?”

I glanced at the door I’d left open. “No Aurora, thank you,” I said.

“Good night then, sweet dreams.”

“Mmm, thanks,” I murmured as I shut the door. The party had been the first I’d attended as a grown up. I half wished it hadn’t been brought on by the passing of a friend, but it had been a lovely party. I was afraid the next I attended, my debut ball, would not be as much fun.

I slipped out of the dress, hung it in my wardrobe, and pulled on a pair of my favorite shorts and a tee shirt, then climbed into bed. I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of dancing floating through my mind.

I woke the next morning with feelings of dread. I would have to face Póg Tocsaineach and give her the Dark Stone. I prayed to the gods and goddesses that she would not realize the stone had been tampered with.

I dressed quickly, not caring what I put on, and headed to the dining hall. “Where is everyone?” I asked Aurora when I entered.

“Still abed I believe Princess. They were up most of the night.”

I nodded and went back down the hall to Daire’s room. I was just about to knock when he o
pened the door. “Good morning, love.”

I smiled. “Will you wake the others? We have a meeting to get to.”

“They will be ready,” Daire said with a smile, escorting me back to the dining hall. “See, they arrive already.”

I breathed a bit easier seeing them all gathering in the room to eat. “I’m just nervous I think.”

“Don’t be,” Daire said kissing my temple and pulling a chair out for me.

“I don’t think I can eat,” I said sitting down.

“Eat,” Daire said handing me a plate with a stack of pancakes on it.

I took a few bites, but I barely tasted it. The pancakes felt like stones sitting in my stomach. I pushed my plate away and waited for the others to finish.

When the warriors had eaten their fill, we flashed to the school, unsure of where we would need to be to meet up with Póg Tocsaineach. I spotted her in the hallway, coming on to another football player, this time it was Jeremy Fuller, our halfback. Póg Tocsaineach had her lips whisper close to his as she stared at us from the corner of her pretty, big blue, human eyes. “Princess, did you bring the Dark Stone?” she asked, not moving her lips from their closeness to Jeremy’s.

I swallowed hard as Jeremy leaned in as if to kiss her, but she pulled back just enough to see that I’d pulled the Dark Stone from my pocket. “It’s here, let him go.”

Póg let go of Jeremy’s shirt, releasing him from her hypnotic trance and he fell back against the lockers unharmed. She cautiously moved toward me and the stone. Her eyes never leaving my face. I set my jaw and closed my fingers around the stone and she narrowed her eyes. “You will give me the Dark Stone.”

“On one condition,” I replied, my voice hard as ice.

“Go on, though I really don’t think you are in a position to bargain.”

“I will give you the Dark Stone, but you give me the ring and you never, ever, return to this school or hurt any humans from here.”

Póg Tocsaineach laughed. “Is that all? You aren’t going to ask that we leave your precious warrior Daire alone? Or leave you alone as well?”

“No. That would be foolish.
I know you would never agree to either of those things.”

“Well, you certainly aren’t stupid,” Póg replied taking off the ring, not caring that there were humans around.

“I’ve got it,” Daire whispered, letting me know he was taking care of glamouring the school.

“Fine, here is the
ring. I hated my human appearance anyway.”

“And the other?”

Póg smirked. “Sure, I’ll leave your precious humans alone, but don’t expect Mother to agree. This will be the first place she sends her beloved creatures when she gets that Stone back.”

“So long as you hold to your oath,” I said.

“Very well, you have my oath. I will not personally harm any humans from this town or this school ever. The Stone?”

I handed her the Dark Stone reluctantly and stepped back. “You have what you want, you can leave.”

Póg smirked again. “You may not have to deal with me, but Mother will be along shortly. She wants your head for what you dared. I’d run little Princess, if I were you,” she said just before she vanished.

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and sank into Daire’s arms as they came around me from behind. I leaned into him and felt safe.

“That went well,” Daire said. I heard the grin in his words and I laughed. “I didn’t think you would get her to agree to anything, you’re better than even I expected, my love.”

“Thanks,” I said smiling up at him. “We should probably go to class. I’m so far behind as it is. I’m going to be doing homework for the next century.”

Daire kissed my forehead and walked me to class. We ran into Meagan on the way and I frowned. Had Daire actually broken up with her before we got together? I really didn’t want to deal with an ex-girlfriend. I glanced up at Daire who grinned.

“Daire, the girls and I were wondering if you would be back,” Meagan cooed, completely ignoring me.

Daire slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Yeah, I’m back, I couldn’t stay away from my girl for too long,” he said leaning down and kissing the corner of my lips.

“You,” Meagan said with a frown, “and her?”

“Come on Meagan, you can drop the act now, she knows I was only dating you to make her jealous,” Daire said laughing.

I raised my eyebrow and pasted a smile on my face. He’d glamoured her into believing they’d never really dated.

Meagan smiled then as if she had just remembered. “Oh, I’m glad she finally came around. Will we see you two at Michael’s party Friday?”

“Maybe, we may have other plans,” Daire replied with a smile.

“Okay, see you later then,” Meagan said brightly and then went back to her friends.

“That was so wrong,” I said softly.

“Would you rather she played the jealous ex-girlfriend?”

“No, but do I have to worry about any others showing up? Nicole for instance?”

Daire gave me his wicked grin, the one that told me he’d done something he probably shouldn’t have.

“What did you do?” I asked raising another eyebrow and frowning at him.

“Oh nothing much,” Daire replied. “But you don’t have to worry about Nicole. She’s found a new mate. Greener pastures and all that…”

“Daire?”

He laughed. “So Nicole isn’t exactly human…”

“What?” I screeched.

“Yeah, Nicole is sort of a Sprite…”

“A Sprite? You dated a Sprite?”
I screeched.

“Well sort of…
she owed me a favor,” Daire said with a grin.

“Some favor!” I said miffed. “How did she manage to fool me?”

“You know Cole’s ring?”

“You gave her Cole’s ring?” I screeched again.

“Well it was the only way to get her into the school and to appear human enough to keep you at a distance.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You were keeping me at a distance?”

Daire suddenly got serious. “Abbey, you were twelve. I had no business thinking about you in the way I was thinking about you. I’ve loved you forever, but I couldn’t be with you. I didn’t think I’d ever get to be with you. Nicolette helped me set boundaries with you.”

I stared up into Daire’s beautiful blue eyes. “I loved you then too you know. I may have been twelve, but I knew, even then that you were the one I wanted. I didn’t realize it at the time of course, not like that. I just knew I wanted you close to me, an important part of my life.”

Daire stroked my cheek and smiled. “Come on, we’d better get to class, we’re already late.”

I looked around and realized that while we’d been having our little heart to heart the hallway had cleared of humans and the warriors had all backed off quite a distance to give us some semblance of privacy. I smiled. “I suppose we’d better,” I said and turned to Cole. “Thank you,” I said realizing he’d glamoured the hallway again so that we weren’t overheard by the humans at least.

“Anytime, Princess.”

Daire dropped me off at Mrs. Lancaster’s class with a kiss to the forehead. Cole glamoured the class so it looked as though I’d been there the whole time. The rest of the day was a blur of lectures and an overwhelming amount of homework.

“Are you sure it’s wise to go to Daire’s football practice?” Cole asked me as we walked down to the field.

“I’m not leaving
, Cole. Not until Daire comes with me,” I said taking a seat in the bleachers. “You’re welcome to stick around. I’d actually appreciate it if you would.”

Cole nodded. “Very well
, Princess.”

Practice didn’t last long, at least not for us. About fifteen minutes into practice, Nightmares started appearing all over the field. Apparently the Queen had decided to invade our space the minute she received the Stone.

“Cole…” I started to stand and draw my weapon.

“Sit Princess, remember Gaia’s promise. Let’s just wait and see what they attempt…”

Cole and I watched as each Nightmare came through the Dark Stone vortex and then after taking a step into the mortal world they crumpled and faded into nothing, becoming dust. I turned and grinned at Cole. “Oh she is gonna be sooo pissed off!”

Cole grinned back. “I think she will be quite irate when she realizes what is happening.”

Daire stopped in the middle of the field to stare at the creatures with a silly grin on his face and was tackled by the JV team.

“Oh! That looked like it hurt! Do you think he’s all right?”

Cole gave me a sardonic look. “He’s a warrior, Princess, he’s fine.”

I watched Daire stand back up, shake his head and run over to the coach who was yelling at him and pointing to the locker rooms. Apparently Daire was done for the day.

I decided to meet him at the edge of the field and climbed down out of the bleachers with Cole following behind at a slower pace. “Hey, finished already?”

“The coach decided I’m not finished being sick and need to go home and rest,” Daire said with a laugh.

“Sick hmmm? Guess I should take you home and put you to bed,” I said with a lascivious smile.

Daire raised an eyebrow at my teasing. “Maybe you should.”

I blushed at his look, leaned into him and he kissed my nose. “We should go anyway. Auberon is going to want to know what happened today.”

“Gaia certainly did a number on those creatures. The Queen must have lost at least three hundred of her forces with that move.”

“She’s going to come after us, and hard,” I replied.

Daire nodded, wrapped his arm around my waist and we flashed to the Mound. Thane was once again on the door and let us in quickly. We found Auberon in his throne room a few minutes later. It was his favorite place to sit and read. No one bothered him because he didn’t send for anyone, and no one usually chose to disturb him while he was reading. He slid his new copy of
Fairy Thief
by Johanna Frappier behind him, it was his latest indulgence. He loved seeing what kinds of things the mortals came up with in regards to himself and the Fae.

“Abbey! Daire! I’ve been waiting forever for your return. Did all go well?”

“Póg Tocsaineach retrieved the Dark Stone and Abbey got her to give her oath that she would leave the mortals at the school and from town alone,” Daire said with a smile.

“Surprising that she would agree. Well done
, Abbey dear.”

“And the Queen attempted to use the stone, Gaia cam
e through for us. The beasts disintegrated the moment they stepped on soil. She won’t be using it again.”

Auberon smiled. “I don’t suppose she will,” he said and then looked serious. “She’ll be determined to take you and Daire out now, you will have to watch your backs.”

“I know, she won’t give up easily.”

“Stay here a few more nights, just till things settle down. It may take her years to think up her revenge. Besides, Tatiana wants you fitted for your dress and mask. She expects your ball to be perfect. Daire you will also have to be fitted for your attire, you might as well see Jarlath for that.”

Daire nodded. “As you wish my King.”

“Have you heard from Max? Did the coming of age ceremony go well?”

Auberon sighed. “Yes, he’s been by to see that you were all right. He will return this evening I’m sure once the boys report to him.”

Hunter and Ronny were sure to fill his ears with my activities from the day. I thought with a frown. I really didn’t want to be lectured by Max for my handling of the situation, but couldn’t think of a way to avoid it. I decided to head out to the training ring before starting on my homework. I was really hoping that the training would clear my head.