Midnight Enchantment (5 page)

“Elizabeth,” he called, turning around in a slow circle. “I don’t want to hurt you. Just give me the pieces and I’ll leave you alone. You can go back to hiding in the trees or whatever it is you do. You can keep doing that once the walls are down for that matter. What the rest of the Piefferburg fae want has nothing to do with you. You shouldn’t care if the walls stand or not.”

Her jaw clenched. He knew nothing about her, but she supposed that was probably a good thing. It kept her loved ones safe.

“It’s pretty selfish of you, isn’t it?” he called. “Keeping those pieces from your people. Who do you think you are, anyway?”

A daughter protecting her mother from premature death, but, of course, she couldn’t tell him that.

He’d walked over to stand near her. If she reached out she’d be able to feel the rough texture of his jeans against her fingertips.

“Do the right thing, Elizabeth. You’re a good person. I know you must comprehend that hiding the pieces is wrong.”

She eased out of the bush without a sound and crossed the path in front of him. She probably looked like a silvery shadow to Niall. He called her name and bolted after her, but she was already gone—a safe distance away from him.

“Maybe what
you’re
doing is wrong. Have you ever considered that?” she called. “Have you considered what will happen to the fae if the walls break? There will be chaos and violence when we’re released into a world of people who hate and fear us.”

“Not all of them hate and fear us. The humans seem fascinated and confused by us, but the majority doesn’t seem to hate us. As a people, they seem to regret imprisoning us, even.”

He’d gotten too close. Damn, the man moved fast.

She shot away from the sound of his voice, circling back toward her garden. “Bullshit,” she called over her shoulder. “Have you seen
Faemous’s
coverage of the armies massing at our gates? They’re all carrying weapons. Niall, maybe we’re better off in here. We have our own society, our cultures are intact. We’re safe here.”

“We’re trapped. Enslaved. And we’re not safe, Elizabeth. If the Phaendir can find a way to exterminate us without pissing off the government, they will. Especially now that Gideon Amberdoyal is archdirector. Have you been that sheltered out here that you don’t know this?”

His voice possessed a withering, condescending quality that made her snarl at him. “I may be a reclusive wildling, but I’m not stupid. I know the risks we face.”

“Good. Then give us the pieces.”

He was following the sound of her voice. She passed through her garden and out the other side. He still had no chance in hell of catching her, poor guy. “I wish I could, but I can’t. You don’t understand, and I wish I could make you see. If I could, you would understand that you’re the selfish one, not me.”

“Elizabeth—” The word cut off abruptly and his voice faded into surprise. “This is your garden? Is this why you’re here so often?” He sounded like he was standing somewhere near where she’d left her basket, over by the potato patch.

She snorted. “As if I’d answer any questions about myself,” she called. “How do you know where to find me every night, by the—” She turned and Niall was standing right in front of her, close enough to kiss. Her eyes widened and her lips parted. Maybe he was more formidable an opponent than she’d assumed.

He wore a cocky little smile of triumph on his handsome face. The rope he held loosely in his hands looped over her head and pulled tight around her waist and arms. “The same way I can throw my voice. Magick.”

Her gaze met his and held. Her breath rushed out of her in a little surprised puff. “Tricky.”

She could feel the charmed iron in the rope length vaguely sapping the strength from her body, but as long as it wasn’t touching her bare skin, she was all right. Thank Danu she’d worn jeans and a heavy sweater tonight against the chill in the air.

His gaze swept down her body. “Wearing clothes for a change, I see.” His full lips twisted. “Pity.”

He’d probably expected her to be naked due to her mode of travel, but she’d used her ATV tonight. It was the perfect vehicle for the Boundary Lands and allowed her to stay clothed.

She was able to travel by kelpie, too. She was one of the few fae able to ride them and survive. Usually the massive black horses drowned all those who accepted their offers of a ride, but her nature was kin to theirs—of water.

She tipped her head to the side and gave him a little smile. “This won’t work, you know.”

He grinned, showing dimples and a devilish glint in his eyes. “Looks like it’s working just fine to me.”

She shook her head. “No, sorry. I’m letting you hold me right now.”

His smile grew a little cockier. He raised an eyebrow. “And why would you do that?”

“You fascinate me.”

“Ah. Yes, well, I fascinate many women.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

His smile faded and his grip tightened on the rope. “In what way did you mean?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You really know nothing about me, do you, Niall?”

He yanked her toward him and dropped his head a degree. His mouth lingered a heartbeat away from hers, so close she could feel his breath warming her lips. “Maybe you can educate me.”

She paused, enjoying the press of his body against her a little more than she should. He had a strong chest and arms, muscular and warm. For a moment she hoped he’d drop his mouth to hers and kiss her. She’d never been kissed before.

Reality jerked her back from the danger she was flirting with. She couldn’t play around like this, no matter how tempting and intriguing this man was.

She smiled sweetly. “Good-bye, Niall.”

“No. Eliz—”

But she was already dissolving into the world of liquid, giving herself over to the rain, the rivers, and the streams, becoming one with all the moisture in the earth…surrendering.

NIALL hunched over a dusty tome in one of the small, dank rooms of the Black Tower, swearing at the top of his lungs. “Asrai, asrai. Fucking asrai,” he chanted, paging through the fading book. “Why is there nothing in here about the asrai?”

You really know nothing about me, do you, Niall?

That sentence still rang through his mind. No, he didn’t. He was working on precious little information about her, in fact, and it drove him crazy he couldn’t find more.

The door whined open, and Bella Quinn, his sister-in-law, entered with a new stack of books. “How’s it going?”

He snarled inarticulately at her.

“That good, huh? Maybe I better call in some help to do research.” She surveyed the piles of books he still had to go through.

“I’d rather be out hunting her than stuck in here reading.” He turned a page and ran his finger down it. Yet he needed inspiration to strike—something to give him an idea of how to catch her.

She nodded. “The queen will order hundreds of people to do research if it will help you. You know she will if you ask.”

Niall was aware of that, but he didn’t trust anyone but himself to do this job. Call him a control freak, but he might come
across a tidbit about the asrai that sparked an idea in his mind, while another would just pass over it.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at her. She had dust caught in her dark hair. “I have a couple more tricks up my sleeve. I just want to make sure they’ll fucking work this time.”

“Do you know what her motivation is yet? If you can find that out, maybe you can use it against her.”

He scowled. “No, and it’s pissing me off. The way she talks, it’s almost like she thinks the walls falling would hurt those she loves. She sounds like she might be protecting someone.”

“Protecting someone from the walls falling? That doesn’t make sense. No fae is safe with those walls up.”

Niall considered her words for a moment before standing. “Look into it. See if there are any fae who will be directly harmed by the walls coming down. Maybe my key to cracking Elizabeth lies there. In the meantime, I’ve got one radical move to make. I hope it works.”

“Me, too.”

He surveyed the mess of books, scowling. It was anyone’s guess since the damn books weren’t cooperating enough to tell him what his chances were. “Go ahead and get some people to research for me. It’s clear I can’t do this on my own.”

“I will,” answered Bella, looking up from a tome. “You finally met your match, huh?”

He grunted at her. “If you find anything interesting, I’ll be in the Boundary Lands. I can’t tell you how fucking sick I am of trees.” He moved toward the door.

“Niall?”

He turned back around.

“What’s she like?”

He shrugged. “Clever. Witty. Too fucking pretty by half. I think you’d like her.”

“It sounds like
you
like her.”

He glowered at her. “How could I like anyone who’s keeping the final two pieces of the
bosca fadbh
from us?”

NIALL slammed his map down on the hood of his SUV and surveyed it. He’d been tracking Elizabeth’s moves for the last three nights. She probably knew he’d been following her, but he
hadn’t engaged her at all. Hadn’t so much as uttered a word since the night he’d had her in his rope. Instead he’d been charting her movements. Where she spent her time and for how long.

Mostly her travels involved checking on the gardens she kept throughout the woods. She harvested the food and delivered it to homes throughout the Boundary Lands, mostly to the elderly or the bed-ridden.

How fucking sweet. And out of character for a rat bastard of a fae who would steal and keep hidden the last pieces of the
bosca fadbh
. It didn’t make sense.

Nothing
about this woman made sense.

Other than growing and collecting fruit and vegetables and delivering them to the needy, Elizabeth took the occasional foray to a spring or a river to bathe. He’d tried to be a gentleman and not peek. Really, he’d tried.

Mostly, he’d failed.

He was a man, after all, right? A very healthy man with certain…needs…that weren’t getting met while he was out here communing with the Danu-forsaken trees every night.

Anyway, he was pretty sure she’d known he was there. She’d just been teasing him. And tease him, she had. The woman was lovely—pale skin that glowed in the moonlight, breasts that weren’t huge but weren’t tiny either, just big enough to cup in his hands.
Her ass.
He groaned, remembering. Perfect. Beautiful. His fingers itched to stroke it.

For the five millionth time he cursed the Summer Queen for picking a woman as gorgeous as Elizabeth Cely Saintjohn to do her dirty work.

Stabbing his finger down onto the map, he looked up into the sky. Twilight was falling fast. It was time to put the final touches on his plan. For the last three nights he’d been following Elizabeth, he’d had Aeric O’Malley and a crew of fae workers out in the woods constructing an elaborate trap.

In order to keep Elizabeth from noticing the activity, he’d cast a concealing spell over the area and had them work during the day, the time when an asrai was fast asleep.

Tonight was the night he’d catch her. He could feel it. No way could even an asrai slip
this
snare. Tonight he was going to play cowboy and herd this wild horse into a corral.

She’d be his by midnight.

This garden was the one where Elizabeth spent most of her time, so he could count on her showing up tonight. Once he did, his plan would be put into action. With the weight and resources of the entire Black Tower behind him, there was no way he wouldn’t eventually prevail against one little wildling fae, no matter how tricky her methods of evasion.

In the distance he heard the engine of an ATV cut off. Soon a presence behind him made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, and the sweet scent of Elizabeth wafted on the cool evening breeze to tease his nose. She was here. Excellent.

He wished he could’ve kept Aeric here to help him catch her, but Niall had worried that the presence of anyone other than him would make her dissolve before he could snare her. He was her enemy, but she was growing more and more accustomed to his presence. Hell, he knew she was laughing at him and all his failed attempts to trap her.

Tonight
he
would be the one laughing.

He circled the garden and caught sight of her kneeling in the center of a pea patch, the moonlight washing out the vibrant red of her hair. There were faint gold tones in that fall of beauty; he’d noticed last time he’d seen her up close.

“Hello, Niall,” she said without looking up from her plantings. “You’re not fooling anyone, you know. To my ears you make about as much noise as an elephant.”

“Glad to know my presence doesn’t alarm you.”

“
Annoy
would be a better word to use. You’ve been following me around relentlessly. Tracking my movements, are you? I never in all my days thought I’d have a stalker.”

He lowered his voice a degree. “I never in all my days believed a fellow fae would deny her people freedom.”

Her shoulders seemed to stiffen. “I guess we’re both full of surprises, then, aren’t we?”

“Let’s stop this silly dance, Elizabeth. Just talk to me. Tell me why you’re doing this.”

She shook her head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“No.” She stood. Her gaze met his across the garden. “You’ll never get those pieces from me while I’m alive, Niall. You seem like a nice guy even though you’re Unseelie. Are you prepared to kill me to get them?”

He steadied his gaze. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but, yes. The stakes are too high. I’ll kill you if I have to.” He paused. “I’ve been thinking that’s probably going to be the ending to this story.”

She glanced away from him, up at the waning moon. “Too bad you don’t know where they are, right? Then you could just murder me now and go get them.”

He didn’t blink. “Yes, a pity.”

They stood staring at each other for a long moment. The element of teasing that had been present in their former encounters seemed to be gone tonight. Niall worried that he’d pushed her too far. Maybe tonight, instead of leading him on a chase to arrogantly prove she could, she’d just dissolve and be gone.