Beauty Read online

  Bron looked down at the clothes Gillian had laid out for her. They were very much like Gillian’s, though she didn’t have Gillian’s womanly form. No one would question she was a peasant boy once her hair was dealt with. She dressed quickly, her hand skimming over her now perfectly smooth stomach.

  They were quiet as they stole from the palace. They reached a hill, hiding themselves among the fleeing peasants, but Bron turned to look at the White Palace one more time. In the moonlight it looked like a ruin, a place that once had stood but now crumbled, leaving only memories of the world it once represented.

  “I can’t go back.” She wouldn’t go home again. She wouldn’t run through the palace or swim in the river. She would never again sneak into her mother’s bed when the thunder frightened her. She wouldn’t play with her friends. She had no home.

  Gillian took her by the shoulders, spinning her around. “Don’t you talk like that. You will go back.” She pressed an object into Bron’s hand. It was small and cold. “That’s yours. I found it next to your body. It’s the weapon that they tried to kill you with. Never let it go. When the time comes for vengeance, this knife will be in your hand. The world has changed, Bronwyn. That does not mean your life is at an end. Dark times are only the end when true leaders refuse to fight. Your brothers are fighting now, and your time will come. Decide, Your Highness. What kind of a princess will you be? A Seelie princess who weeps and hopes someone will save her, or will you choose to avenge your people? This is not just about you. This is about your people and all who will fall to Torin’s sword. If you cannot find the strength to be more than a pretty face, then I have no use for you.”

  Bron turned and looked again with new eyes. She saw what had been taken from her. And she would one day take it back.

  When Gillian moved, Bron followed. She’d been born in the White Palace, and she’d died there. She was more than she’d been before, stronger, older, harder. And alone.

  When the darkness had come, she’d been alone. Her Dark Ones had not come for her.

  She walked away from her home with only vengeance in her heart.

  Chapter One

  The dead things of the world loved Lachlan McIver. It was the shame of his life that he couldn’t return the affection.

  One half of the heir to the Unseelie throne looked down at the small dog barking and jumping at his feet. He took a deep breath of the forest air and prayed to the gods for patience. He’d walked into the woods behind the palace because he’d looked in all of Shim’s other haunts. His brother wasn’t at the tavern in the village. He wasn’t in the kitchens. He wasn’t sitting in their room staring out the window toward the west, the direction of the door to the Seelie plane. It was where he often found Shim these days, a vacant look in his dark eyes.

  He needed to talk to his brother about the morning’s news, but he found himself alone with a dead dog. He wasn’t sure where Shim had gotten off to, but he would more than likely laugh and pet the damn thing. Shim wouldn’t even notice that something had taken half the yipping dog’s side out. Likely it had been a bear or maybe a troll who had been lucky enough to catch it, but not lucky enough to finish its meal.

  “Go away.” Lachlan tried to put some distance between him and the now-reanimated corpse of the former terrier. It simply yipped and followed him.

  Lach attempted to ignore the creature. It wasn’t the first dead thing to imprint on him. He was coming into his power, and without his bondmate, it tended to go a bit wild.

  Bondmate. He closed his eyes as the thought of her coated his senses. He didn’t need to be near her to feel her. Gods, he’d never been close to her, but she was in his heart. He felt her every minute of every day. But what would he do if he had to stand in front of her? When he and Shim invaded her dreams at night, he was whole, his face as perfect as his brother’s. Would she turn away from him when she saw the real Lachlan McIver? He rather thought she would. She was a beauty, a pure Seelie princess, who would probably run from her beast of an Unseelie prince.

  It was, perhaps, better to see her only in dreams, but like many things in his life, he had no choice. He had to find her. His powers were flaring, going wild.

  And Shim...

  Lach growled a little as he realized where his brother was. He turned and jogged toward the beach, praying his idiot brother hadn’t fallen asleep where selkies would take him.

  He jogged across the grounds, reaching the highest point. From here he could turn back and see the Dark Palace shining like a jewel. To the east he could see the road. A small party was approaching. His father’s advance guard had already confirmed that it was his cousin Julian leading the rebel Seelie Kings.

  Her brothers.

  Gods, he was going to meet Bron’s brothers, and he hadn’t figured out if he planned to tell them a damn thing. They would scoff and tell him he was bloody insane. His father would shake his head. Only Gillian and Duffy in all the plane believed their secret—that they had already bonded to the Seelie princess. Without permission or even her real knowledge. It had been instinctive, a cry that had crossed two planes, saved her life, and inadvertently ruined Lach’s face.

  He shook off thoughts of that terrible day and turned back to the sea. He couldn’t see his brother, but there was a small figure awkwardly moving on the rocks that made up the beach.

  Little gnome. Big axe. That was Duffy. And where Duffy was, his brother couldn’t be far behind. The little gnome hefted the axe Shim had given him months before on the date they had mutually decided on for the celebration of Duffy’s birthday. Duffy had wanted an axe. The damn thing was nearly bigger than the gnome, and more than once he’d fallen on his ass from trying to swing it. The year before, Lach and Shim had bought their lifelong friend a set of custom-made armor. The blacksmith had laughed the whole time he’d made it.

  It wasn’t that no one had told Duffy that gnomes weren’t warriors. It was that Duffy was terribly hard of hearing when he wanted to be.

  The dog at Lach’s feet yipped and panted as though just waiting for the fun to begin.

  “Go away.” Lach started down the trail that led to the beach, the little dog at his heels. He tried to give the dog the command to stay, but it wasn’t a well-trained thing. More than likely his lack of discipline was what had led to his untimely death. “Duff!”

  Lach yelled at the gnome the minute he hit the beach. Now he could see Shim, lounging with his back against a boulder, one hand over his heart. His legs and feet had sunken in the pebbles beneath, telling Lach that he’d been there for a while. No sandy beaches here in the Unseelie plane. Everything here was hard and deadly. He’d been to the Vampire plane with its tropical beaches. He’d stood looking over the peaceful sea in someplace his cousin had called Hawaii, and he’d wanted to bring Bronwyn there. He’d imagined sinking into the soft sand and reveling in her body. Bonding time, the vampires called it. First bite. Oh, that first bite would be amazing. First blood.

  His fangs descended. The damn things did it at the worst times, but he’d gotten used to it. And he’d gotten used to ignoring the hunger. When he wanted real blood in his mouth, he would go hunting and gorge himself on predatory creatures. The hunt fed him as much as the blood did.

  His brother had another coping mechanism.

  Shim lay with his eyes on the ocean, but Lach knew damn well that wasn’t what his brother was seeing.

  The dead dog barked, warning Duffy of their approach. The gnome shrieked a little, and his axe came down on the pebbled sand just barely missing his feet.

  “Lachlan. You scared ten years off me life.” Duffy leaned over, resting his hands on his knees and dragging cool air into his lungs.

  Lach narrowed his eyes, standing over the gnome. At six feet five inches, Lach knew he was intimidating to the four-foot gnome. “And what do you think you’re doing to me, Duff?”

  Wide blue eyes looked back up. “Ain’t doing nothing but protecting Shim, Lach.”

  Lachlan pointed out at the sea. Not f
orty feet off the shore was a telltale froth of water. That white churning proved how reckless his brother had become.

  “Were you going to use that axe on the mermaids?”

  Duffy turned quickly, his hat falling off his head. “Mermaids? Bloody hell.”

  “Yes, bloody is the key point. It’s going to be your blood and then Shim’s that’s going to be all over this beach and all because my brother here can’t deal with reality.” Lach nearly growled when he turned back to his brother and rolled his eyes. Shim had a smile on his face, his eyes blank. He didn’t even notice that half a damn dog was licking at his chin.

  “What the bloody hell is that?” Duffy asked, staring at the dog.

  “A damn straggler.” Lach wasn’t sure what Duffy was so squeamish about. It wasn’t the first time some dead thing had followed him around. “Try to wake his ass up. We have trouble coming.” He walked to the edge of the water. The icy tide lapped at his feet. “I don’t need this shit!”

  A shimmering presence rose from the foam. Gorgeous and deadly, the mermaid smiled, shrugged, and then dove back down to the depths.

  Everything, it seemed, was coming after them. There wasn’t a creature on the plane who couldn’t sense their weakness, and every single one of them was ready and waiting to pounce.

  He turned back and saw his main problem. They were weak because Shim had stopped fighting.

  “Where is he?” Lach asked, staring at his brother, the other half of his soul.

  “He was mumbling something about fields and wheat.” Duffy came to Lach’s side, his mouth turned down in a flat line. “I think he feels her more clearly here.”

  Shim chuckled a little, but Lach knew damn well he wasn’t laughing at anything he heard on this plane. He got to his knees and put both hands on his brother’s shirt, hauling him up.

  “Wake the fuck up, Shim.”

  Dark hair covered half of Shim’s face as he shook his head. “No. Don’t want to.”

  Lach groaned. It had been so much worse in the last year. Shim had started to sink into a world where he could see her, feel her emotions. Lach could only do that in his dreams, when an invisible thread tethered him to his bondmate. Sometimes he envied his brother the deeper connection, but this wasn’t one of those times. Shim had begun to seek the connection to her instead of living his damn life. Their life. His brother was slipping away, and Lach couldn’t allow it.

  He wasn’t ready to give up yet. He wanted a real life with her, not some half life where he only held her in dreams. She was his, damn it. He would prove it to her when he found her. Ruined face or no.

  “Do I have to punch you again?” Lach asked.

  Shim’s eyes focused. “Bloody hell, no. Why would you do such a thing?”

  Finally, a wee bit of sense. “Because you’re acting like a drunk. I can’t wake you anymore. It’s harder and harder when you give in during the day. Hell, it can be hard enough to wake you at night. You can’t go looking for her in the day.”

  A little smile crossed Shim’s face. He’d seen that smile on the face of many a man who had too much whiskey. “She’s here, Lach.”

  “No, she’s not.” That was the problem. She wasn’t here, and they hadn’t been able to find her. “But her brothers are.”

  Shim sat up on his own. “What are you talking about?”

  Duffy leaned in. “Is it true, Lach? Are the Seelies coming?”

  Lach nodded. “Julian’s bringing them in. The Vampire plane has declared for Torin. Beckett and Cian Finn are on the run.”

  “A sad day when the Seelie kings come looking for a place to hide here,” Duffy said with a frown.

  Lach lightly smacked the side of his head. “Don’t be talking like that. It’s talk like that got us in trouble in the first place.”

  Duffy rubbed his head. “Well, it seems weird to me, Lach. They hate us.”

  “Not more than we seem to hate them,” Lach shot back.

  “I don’t hate them,” Shim said. He seemed to be coming out of his fog. “I don’t hate anyone.”

  Duffy leaned in. “Gods, Shim, don’t let your da hear you saying crazy shit like that. He’ll beat you for sure.”

  Lach rolled his eyes. Despite his father’s rather intimidating presence, he’d never once beaten them. Not that they didn’t know how to take or give a sound thrashing, but it had been part of their training, not at their da’s hand. King Fergus of the Unseelie was a ruthless bastard. He wouldn’t have remained king if he wasn’t, but he cared for his sons.

  “Da was the one who sent Gilly in there in the first place, Duff. He wanted a treaty with the Seelie. And given what we’ve seen is going on there, it’s no surprise he’ll back Beck and Cian Finn.” It went unsaid that, after all, they were family. Beck and Ci Finn didn’t know it, but the future Queen of the Unseelie was still on the Seelie plane, trapped and in constant danger. Only her death had saved her from, well, death.

  “Do you think they know, Lach?” Shim asked, struggling to his feet.

  “No,” Lach replied. He straightened his tunic. He should change, but there wasn’t time. “Julian would have told us.” He put a hand out to steady his brother. “Even if someone told them, our father would let it be known that we’re crazy. They won’t believe us. They won’t believe until the full and true bond is in place, and we can’t do that until we’re in her presence.”

  “It feels full and true to me.” Shim stretched and looked down at the dog at his feet. “Lach, why is that dog’s guts on his outside?”

  The dog sat and panted, his tail thumping.

  “Don’t worry about the dog. Worry about the kings. They’ve brought the queen along.”

  “Is it time then?” Shim asked, his voice getting serious.

  Every muscle in Lachlan’s body clenched. It was almost time. They would find their bondmate or they would die trying. And their plane would fall…“It’s time.”

  It had to be.

  Shim smiled, his whole face lighting up. “We’re going to find her. I just know it. I have all the clues we need. Surely the kings will know the place.”

  Shim slapped Duffy on the back and handed him his axe.

  “I bet the queen is going to be crying by now,” Duffy said, his little chest puffing out. “I can’t imagine a sweet little Seelie queen having to deal with us rough Unseelie. If she lasts the night, I’ll be shocked.”

  “We have to be on our best behavior, Duff,” Shim said seriously. “And we might want to clear the goblins out. They could scare the queen. And the trolls. You know, we might just want to clear the palace.”

  Duffy and Shim started up the road, talking about all the things that might frighten the gentle Seelie queen.

  Lach stopped. The dog was dead again, his body lay across the rocks, a symbol of all that was wrong with Lach’s life.

  He should be as thrilled as his brother, but what would their sweet Seelie wife think of him? What would happen when she saw his decimated face? What would she think when she learned of his power, the power she would make stronger by bonding the two parts of his soul together? Would she enjoy knowing her power would unleash a pure necromancer?

  Lach stared down at the dog who had briefly flared back to life. Shim could offer her life and fire and a perfect face. All Lach could offer was death.

  And still he turned and followed his brother. He knew it would be disastrous, but he couldn’t resist. After a lifetime of longing, he would see her.

  Perhaps then and only then he could be free.

  * * * *

  Shim stared at the sweet little Seelie queen and had to admit that he was slightly afraid of her.

  “Look, you little shit, I know you have coffee. I can smell it.” She was small, but she showed no fear of the goblin. Shim had heard the rumor that she was from some backwater plane called the Earth plane, but she looked sidhe to him. Short, though she was curved in all the right places.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Your Highness. I have no
idea what this thing called coffee is.” The goblin flashed a mouthful of sharp teeth before trying to hide a silvery flask behind his back.

  A girl dressed in simple but expensive clothes walked up behind the queen. She was pretty, a slender, innocent-looking thing. Then she started sniffing the air. There was something almost feral about her when she scented the world around her. “He is lying. He has the coffee.”

  Queen Meg threw her an affectionate look. “Yes, I believe so, Kaja, since he’s drinking it right in front of me.”

  She drank goblin whiskey? Most sidhe avoided it, but Shim rather liked the stuff. He preferred it the way the goblins prepared it. Hot and sweet. Someone, a gnome if he remembered correctly, had cooled the liquor, but Shim had thought it vile in that form.

  A Seelie queen who drank goblin liquor? And whose handmaiden appeared to be a bit feral? The slender woman was again scenting the air.

  “The food here smells good. And the small ones look easy to catch.”

  “Kaj, Dante told you not to eat the brownies.”

  Kaja wrinkled her nose. “Dante tells me not to eat anything. It’s sad. Don’t eat the brownies. Don’t eat the pixies. Don’t eat the trolls. He would not even allow me to eat our enemies.”

  Queen Meg shrugged. “Well, he was definitely right about the troll. It smelled bad. You would have had a tummy ache for days.” Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward. “What did Dante say about eating selfish little goblins who won’t even share a drop of their coffee?”

  The goblin took another drink. “I ain’t scared of no Seelie women. Seelie women are trophies, nothing more.”

  Kaja growled, a low, menacing sound that seemed to come from the back of her throat, and Shim could have sworn she suddenly had a mouth full of sharp teeth. “I am not Seelie.”

  Damn, he was going to lose a few goblins if he didn’t start to fix this.