The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,62

Rhianne. “You are Fae. Say your prayers.”

She lunged at Rhianne in a swift and sudden attack.

Chapter Fifteen

Ben was in front of Rhianne like a lightning strike, the wind of his passing brushing Rhianne’s face.

He closed his hands on the woman. Instead of crying out like a feeble, elderly lady, she snarled. Her body thickened, the guise of the genteel tourist dissolving into a massive creature with a wizened face and giant hands.

Ben froze in shock. The woman-thing wrenched herself from his grip and struck Ben, who slammed backward into the desk. His face was wan, eyes wide.

The creature rushed at him again. Rhianne shoved her hand into the drawer and yanked out the strange weapon she’d seen there—double sticks attached at the top. The sticks flailed, and Rhianne immediately whacked herself on the arm, but she advanced, everything in her wanting to bash at the woman and defend Ben.

Ben raised both hands. He growled something in an unfamiliar language, and the woman-creature halted abruptly. The grotesque form melted back into the white-haired woman, her clothes still neat, her handbag intact. She pushed up her glasses and peered at Ben with narrowed eyes.

“How do you speak the language of my people?” she asked in English. “It is a lost tongue. Gone, forgotten.”

“Not by me.” Ben carefully took the weapon from Rhianne and held a rod in one hand, tucking the second rod under his arm. “I’ve been speaking it my whole life. Who the hell are you?”

“I am called Millie.” Her thin finger moved to Rhianne. “She is Fae. The hated enemy of my people.”

“She is Tuil Erdannan,” Ben said calmly.

Millie lowered her glasses and peered at Rhianne over them. Her eyes widened.

“Oh, my stars. Look at that. A Tuil Erdannan.” She resumed her glasses and her scrutiny. “Are you certain? She doesn’t seem quite right.”

“I understand English, and yes I am,” Rhianne broke in. “A Tuil Erdannan. Are you a goblin? Like Ben?”

“Ben.” Millie rolled the word around her tongue, then her gaze filled with rage. “Wait a minute. Do you mean you’re Gilbenarteoighiamh?”

“Yes …” Ben said cautiously.

Millie screamed and went for him, hands curved into claws. Rhianne rushed between them and caught her, startled by the woman’s strength. Rhianne began to summon the energy for a word of power, though she’d rather not use it in this closed space.

“Who is … whoever you said?” Rhianne demanded.

Millie abruptly ceased struggling and tried to push her hair from her eyes with a shaky hand. “Only the one who destroyed us. Who made the Fae kill us all.”

Ben’s face was gray. “I was framed.”

“What do you mean, Ben made the Fae kill you all?” Rhianne asked.

Millie sent Ben a furious stare through her thick glasses. “If you hadn’t been making the karmsyern for the dokk alfar, they never would have come after us.”

Ben tightened his grip on the weapon he held. “You know the goblins were making trouble for the Fae a long time before that. There was an uprising, remember? And so many battles, so many dead. When I said I would help the dokk alfar, the hoch alfar used it as an excuse to crush us. How could I anticipate they would massacre us and throw us out? I’ve spent a thousand years regretting my choice.” A muscle moved in his jaw. “But at the same time, I was only one goblin. I didn’t act alone.”

Rhianne’s heart beat rapidly as she listened. It hurt to imagine Ben watching while his people were slaughtered, knowing that he couldn’t stop it, that he might have caused it. And then finding himself in a world he didn’t understand.

Millie sagged in Rhianne’s grasp. “I know. But we had to have someone to blame. It was easier—it helped me survive.”

Ben wiped his eyes. “How did you survive? For centuries I searched for others and found no one. What happened to you?”

“I expect the same thing that happened to you.” Millie tried to resume her crisp tones as Rhianne cautiously released her. “I made sure to lie low. I look like this …” She waved to her neat blouse, leggings that ended below her knees, and sensible walking shoes. “So that humans don’t pay attention to me. They think I’m cute. Funny. Harmless.”

Ben nodded slowly. He’d said almost those exact words to Rhianne when she’d asked him why he’d taken the guise he wore.

“I worked as a nurse or governess for various families through the years,” Millie went on. “I knew how to take care of