November was creeping toward December, evident in the cold morning air. Rose rubbed her hands together as she hurried across the bridge outside the castle walls and headed into the woods. Hoping she knew what she was doing, Rose used her magic to blow away the soggy leaves on the ground, grateful that her suspicions about a path underneath were true. The path led her to the fallen tree Fionn had helped her over and about ten minutes from there, it forked.
One fork pointed toward where Fionn had led her west to the faerie pools; the other continued north through the woods. Going with her gut, Rose moved north, picking up speed.
What should have been a thirty-minute walk, she completed in five minutes. The trees rustled lightly in the morning wind, waving her off as she stepped out into a field. A steep incline led to a low, old-fashioned stone wall, and beyond that rolling hills that eventually met the sky.
As soon as Rose climbed over the wall, she felt a shivery tingle of magic. The sensation disappeared completely as she lifted her hand off it.
The boundary wall of the spell was an actual wall.
Her lips parted as she looked back and faced a view of the ocean instead of the forest. From this side of the wall, it appeared as if it acted as a cliff-top barrier, the land falling away to the ocean below.
That was so Fionn.
She blamed her lovesick distraction and the boundary spell on the fact that she felt the warning signs too late.
That prickle down her neck.
The racing heart.
The dread in the gut.
Rose whipped around, ready to face danger, and stumbled back at the mammoth male who bared his canines at her.
His harsh-hewn face was the last thing she saw before he grabbed hold of her neck and gave it a brutal twist.
Pain, excruciating, debilitating pain woke Rose out of unconsciousness almost immediately. Her eyes flew open as fire burned down her arms. She watched as the two witches and the warlock she’d encountered in Barcelona retreated to study her impassively.
A scream tried to burrow out of her throat but she stubbornly choked it down, tears of agony scoring her cheeks as she gazed up at her arms, suspended above her with thick chains attached to the ceiling, manacles clamped tightly around her wrists.
Manacles made of pure iron.
Her knees gave way, her wrists tugging excruciatingly against the manacles, and the scream burst out of her before she could stop it.
“You bastards!” a female voice yelled from somewhere in the room as Rose sagged and shuddered against the fire tearing at her limbs. “Is that necessary?”
The growl in the words, plus the American accent, brought Rose’s head up. She took in her surroundings.
She was in a warehouse, or maybe a basement. No windows. Concrete floors.
And other than the Blackwoods, there was a woman manacled to the corner of the room. Rose tried to focus, her vision clearing. Her eyes connected with the stranger and the woman’s brows puckered with worry and strain. That’s when Rose scented the blood.
The stranger was wounded.
“Rose.” Layton Blackwood, the sleazy warlock Fionn hated, lowered himself in front of her. “We’ll release you as soon as you tell us where the dagger is. Does Fionn have it?”
Fionn.
She shook her head.
“Do you?”
Rose nodded.
“Good. Now all you have to do is tell us where it is, and we’ll let you go.”
Oh yeah, sure. It wasn’t like they thought they needed both her and the dagger to complete the ritual to open the gate.
Not caring it would hurt even worse, Rose pulled against the shackles and used the chains to swing her closer to Layton. She snapped at his throat like an animal; he fell back on his ass.
Despite the pain, it was so fucking worth it.
The stranger laughed from the corner.
“Bitch,” Layton huffed, getting to his feet. “I ought to teach you a lesson.”
Rose let her head loll back. “Yeah? I wonder if you’d say that to me if I wasn’t chained up right now.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
She pictured herself wrapping the chain of her manacles around his neck and snapping it. “I’d be afraid of me if I were you.”
“Yeah, it takes a big man to shoot off his mouth around a trapped fae,” the stranger said dryly.