Siege And Seduction

21

The man was enormously powerful. Dread for what I was about to face settled in my bones. When the man gazed down at me, eyes still glowing, my muscles coiled in preparation to fight for my life. I had been conditioned not to fight the Red Caps, but this enemy was new. My survival instincts made a resurgence. All I had experienced was brutality and hatred, so I had no reason to think this man was any different. He reached down his hand, and that’s when I bit him. “You bit Merlin?” I asked in stunned amazement. He paused from clearing a path and glanced back at me, humor dancing in his eyes. “Thank the gods, he doesn’t hold a grudge.” I coughed out a chuckle. “What I wouldn’t have given to bite Merlin a time or two in the past.” “I get that losing your mother was rough, but has life seriously been that bad?” Knight appraised me with questioning eyes. He lowered himself to sit with his back to a large tree, clearly deciding it was time for a break. I considered my answer as I sat down across from him. It wasn’t something I practiced putting into words. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d discussed my life with anyone. There was no one close to me to require a practiced explanation. “I don’t believe my life has been bad, although the early years got off to a rocky start.” “Then why so much hatred?” His head c****d to the side. Despite his assignment as my jailor, he seemed to have a genuine desire to understand my motivations. I would never explain myself fully to this stranger, but a part of me appreciated his interest and deemed him worthy of at least a partial explanation. “Regardless of what everyone may think, my every thought is not ruled by hatred. I am highly motivated, and there is something I want. I also happen to be one of the few people willing to take the difficult stance of acknowledging the evil in this world and fighting against it.” He picked up a fallen leaf and traced the edges between his thumb and finger all the way around one curved edge before slowly gliding back up the other. My s*x-deprived brain envisioned those long fingers skating across my skin in a similar fashion, and it made me light-headed. He lifted his piercing eyes to gaze at me through his thick lashes. “Some would say you are evil.” His words made my chest ache, which only made me angry. There was no room in my world for sentimental weakness. “Sometimes it takes evil to fight evil.” “And what evil is it that you fight? Guin?” I kept my eyes locked on his without an ounce of doubt or regret. “Yes.” “I’m going to need more than that, Morgan. Tell me why you think she’s evil.” I absently picked up a small stone and tossed it toward a nearby tree. “That right there is precisely what makes her so terrifying—the fact none of you see it. If everyone knew what she was capable of, maybe they wouldn’t follow her like mindless sheep,” I spat with frustration. “Like what? Tell me what she’s capable of doing.” Where did I begin? Should I even bother? She had them all so fooled, I doubted telling him anything would change his opinion of her. None of the others I told in the past believed me, so why would he be any different? He’d probably just add ‘liar’ to my list of shining commendations. Yet the words bubbled up inside me like a geyser. I gave up caring what anyone thought of me long ago, but for some godforsaken reason, I cared what Knight thought. I didn’t want him to see me as a monster. Most likely, I was setting myself up for disappointment, but I took in a deep breath and let the words flow from deep within me. “Back when I still lived in Avalon, I fell in love with a man.” No matter how softly I spoke the words, they boomed in my ears with a deafening force. It wasn’t the actual sounds themselves but the brutal effect they had on my heart as they took shape and became real. “When Guin discovered our relationship, she exiled the man to Earth. She had been intimate with him before our relationship, and although their time together ended many months before, she was a jealous woman. Their tryst had not ended well, and she didn’t want anyone else to capture the man’s heart. The exile was particularly harsh on the man because he had already been cast out of the Hunt for his relationship with Guin, so her sentence was doubly painful. Now, he could not live in Faery, nor was he a part of his brotherhood. He was sent off alone.” “Is that Lancelot you’re talking about?” My lips lifted with the hint of a smile. “I see I’m not the only one you’ve heard rumors about over the years.” He angled his head back to rest against the tree, keeping his golden eyes trained on me. “Yeah, I’ve heard all types of rumors. One of which was the story of you tricking Lancelot into sleeping with you to lure him away from Guin.” My shoulders curved in to ease the ache in my chest caused by the ugly accusation. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard it, and doubtless, it would not be the last. I wished his words had not affected me, but it had been too painful a memory not to trigger the emotions. Knowing how keenly observant Knight was, I had no doubt he had noticed my change in posture. “I’m familiar with that rumor as well,” I conceded, my eyes landing anywhere but on his. “It wasn’t true. I have no proof, so you’ll just have to decide whether you believe me.” “If you loved him, why didn’t you follow him to Earth?” “I didn’t learn about his sentence until weeks later. When I did, I confronted Guin. She exiled me to the Wilds. By the time I found a way onto Earth, it had been years. I used spells to help me locate him, and each time, the result was the same. He was dead.” I paused with the remembered pain of losing yet another piece of my heart. At the time, the grief had been immeasurable—it was still there in the form of a hollow pit in my stomach. So much loss in one lifetime. Some days, I wondered if it would ever stop haunting me. Others, I relished the pain because it was all I had left of them. “Anyway,” I said as I stood and wiped the dirt from my bottom and legs. “I know it’s just one small example, but there’s more to what she did to me than I can say. Plus, I know I’m not the sole victim of her cruelty. She has a habit of removing anyone who opposes her and destroying all evidence of her wrongdoings. Guin is wholly self-serving and without empathy. She is calculating, devious, and utterly heartless. She doesn’t deserve to live, let alone rule over the lives of others.” “I thought your goal was to get the cauldron. How does killing Guin play into that?”