Defy Me Read online

  "We have waited long enough. You can go in search of something none of us even know exists or not. I will take the girl. Her body alone will break the curse for at least a dozen more demon dragon. Maybe more. We will have to see how much of her blood each needs. I held her heart in my hands. Hopefully that was more than enough."

  "Do. Not. Touch. Her."

  The demon dragon man didn't listen. Nope. He shifted into a big black dragon that filled the entire tiny fish and chips shop with its giant butt.

  Jett also shifted and his body broke the wall behind him. They were going to be in so much trouble. Yvaine could already hear the neener-neener of sirens headed their way.

  "Jett, sit on me."

  Run, love. Run to the abbey. Find the unicorn.

  "Sit on me right now. I'll be trapped and we'll zap out of here. Then you don't have to fight your brother."

  You're not going anywhere, little beast. The other dragon swiped at her with its claws and she avoided him by taking a dive toward the wall. She clocked her head on the broken bricks and little birdies and stars floated around her head.

  That made Jett fricking explode. Or maybe that was all in her head because she suddenly couldn't see him or the other dragon anymore. The bricks and tables and chairs disappeared and instead of sitting on the tile floor of the shop, she found herself in the grass outside some sort of castle mansion looking building.

  Aw, fudge. She'd Houdini'd without Jett.

  She pushed herself off the ground and tried to see if she could hear him in her head. Jett?

  Nothing but the insects chirping. Fine. She'd just had to figure out where she was and get back to the beach. They hadn't gone more than a couple of miles the last time she'd done this, so she was hoping the same would be true again. She pulled the map out of the pocket of her pants and scanned for a castle. Aha. There was one. Palace of Holyroodhouse.

  Oh. A shiver raised the hair on the back of her neck and skated down her arms. The Holyrood Abbey was just on the other side of the palace. That was where Mr. Bohacek had indicated on the map that she should go to find the unicorn. She was no more than two minutes away from finding it. She could go, ask it nicely for a couple drips of blood, and know who she was, what she was.

  Would she remember who her family was too? What had happened to her or them or both that had landed her in an orphanage? Maybe the unicorn would know. Did unicorn's talk? Dragons did, so possibly.

  But what if this was a once in a lifetime kind of a deal. She should go back and get Jett so they could also ask for some blood to break the curse on his brothers. Jett hadn't told her much, only that he planned to save them. But from what the angry demon dragon dude had said, cursed life was literally hell.

  Finding the unicorn now on her own was selfish. She'd wanted to know her whole life why no one was there for her, and deep down, why no one had loved her. That wasn't the same level of horribleness as being enslaved to a witch and a king of hell dragon. She could wait. The beach was only maybe an hour walk away. Probably ten minutes if she could find a cab. She would go back and find Jett, tell his brother she knew where the unicorn was and come back.

  Maybe just a quick peek at the abbey first to make sure she knew what she was talking about. No going in and definitely no looking for unicorns. She jogged through the grass of the small park that surrounded the palace and got the strangest sense of deja vu. She was sure that she'd recognize what lay beyond the next corner. She'd run through this park before. Growing up.

  Yes, the grass, the trees, the flowers. They were all familiar. This was the park outside of her orphanage. There wouldn't be an abbey around the corner, it was an old church that had been converted by the nuns into an orphanage. She'd grown up in that church building. But how could it be here? She didn't remember anything about the city of Edinburg, or even having ever been to Scotland before, much less having grown up here.

  Yvaine pushed the muscles in her legs to take her faster, to cross the park and see the church for herself. She sprinted through a copse of trees and down a sand and gravel path. The edge of the palace wall took a sharp turn and so did she. There, there was the church. It's arched windows and stone facade glowed in the moonlight. But there was something wrong. The outbuildings were gone, only stone outlines in their places. The chapel had no roof. Everything she'd known was in ruins.

  She went toward the front where the big wooden doors should be, the feeling of rocks in her stomach grew with each step. She stopped a few feet in front of the church. A blue box stood to the left of the main entryway displaying some sort of tourist information. How could this be? She'd been here only a few months ago. She was sure of it.

  Everything was wrong.

  "Hello, Yvaine." A woman in long black robes and her head covered stood just inside the crumbling archway.

  "Mother Superior?" The woman who Yvaine was sure had hated her as a child simply could not be standing here. She must have hit her head a lot harder than she thought. None of this could be real.

  "Open your eyes, child. I think you can see me better than that now."

  Yvaine blinked, but still the nun stood there. "I don't understand."

  She waved Yvaine toward her. "You should have stayed with us. Then you would still be innocent and wouldn't have to try to understand any of this. You could be safe in our care, just as you mother wanted you to be."

  "My mother?" Not once in all the years she'd spent in the orphanage, the countless times she'd been chastised and disciplined by the Mother Superior, the countless nights she'd cried herself to sleep wondering if there was anyone in this entire world who had ever cared about her had anyone ever said anything about her mother. She'd wondered for a long time if it was possible she didn't even have one.

  "Come, Yvaine." She sounded a little impatient. "I didn't think we'd see you again. This will give me a chance to explain and let you decide your own fate. If that's even possible anymore."

  Choose her own fate. She wished Jett were here now. She would choose him. The unicorn hadn't mysteriously appeared, there was till time to go back to the beach and look for him. She wanted his strength, his love to help her figure out what to do. Without knowing who and what she was she'd be going to him as only a part of herself.

  He'd given everything to her. She owed him the same. Yvaine stepped toward the Mother Superior and just as she crossed the threshold of church she heard Jett call her name.

  Yvai--

  The sound of his voice was cut off and the world around her shifted, changed into something from a dream. Night changed back into day, darkness into a soft light. The ruins of the church were restored, not to stone but to the branches of great big trees that formed a domed canopy. The tinkling sound of children singing somewhere in the forrest echoed off the leaves. A cool breeze drifted through her hair where the air should be still and the babbling of a clear brook called to her to take a long quenching drink.

  She lowered her head to sip from the water and caught her reflection in a puddle near the grassy bank. Except that could be her. She skittered back and almost fell over her own feet.

  Hooves.

  She opened her mouth to ask what in the world was going on but the words came out as a soft whinny.

  "Shh, shh, shh. Calm yourself, Yvaine. Your body already remembers who you are, your mind will catch up in a moment. Use your mind to speak, I'll hear you just fine." The voice was that of Mother Superior, but the face and form were not.

  Who are you and what is this place? Whoa. Was that her voice?

  The woman, fairy, person, thing smiled at her as if to say good job on remembering how to talk. "This is Sìthean, the otherworld, your home. I am Cait of the Sìth."

  This isn't my home. Although, she did have to admit if felt familiar, comfortable even.

  "Ahh, you're right. It was your home. Fate has taken you to a new realm and I fear you're going to stay there with your brollachan, aren't you?"

  My who? Do you mean Jett? Can you please explain what is g
oing on here?

  "Always so impatient. Fine, yes. Maybe if you'd known all along, you wouldn't have been tempted into leaving by that sneaky goddess."

  I don't remember any goddess. I don't have a freaking clue what you're on about. Just start at the beginning and when you get to the end, stop.

  "A long time ago, in a--"

  Wait, skip ahead to the bit about me.

  "You're too sassy for your own good, Yvaine. Blah, blah, blah, your mother was dying and asked the Sìth to hide you in the otherworld. She didn't want you to suffer the same fate as she."

  Wait, back up a smidge. What was my mother's name and why was she dying?

  "Your mother very special. The only one of her kind. In the human world she went by the name Margaret de Hythus, but in ours we called her aon-adharcach. She had quite the torrid affair with William the Lion, King of Scots. There's been many a tale told of them, but most get it wrong. I am rather fond of the one by that Lewis Carrol fellow. Except your parents weren't fighting over the crown, they were fighting for the Scots to keep it."

  But Scotland doesn't have a king.

  "It did in the 12th century when you were born and England was trying to conquer the world. Where do you think the Lion got the idea for the royal crest? His love for your mother became part of the national identity of the Scots. You practically tripped over a statue of her at their silly palace out there."

  Huh. Yvaine was pretty much out of shock and surprise. She had about a million and one questions but wanted to get back to the real world and Jett to tell him all that she'd discovered. Okay. So I'm also princess. Great, I'll pop right out the shops and get a tiara. Let's skip ahead a few hundred years. Like about nine-hundred should do it.

  "As you wish." The sìththought for a minute. "Then the goddess showed up, and even though we told her she didn't belong in our realm, she insisted on asking if you wouldn't like to go on an adventure. Something about needing a match for the brollachanbastard. None of us could talk you out of it. She planted a story in your head about growing up in an orphanage and plopped you right into the middle of the war between her children, the dragon warriors and the slaugh."

  I can help turn the tide of their war, can't I?

  "Yes, so like your mother. Are you prepared for cost?"

  It didn't matter. If she could save Jett's brothers and end his suffering over their fates, she would sacrifice almost anything. I have to get back. How do I return? Oh, geez. Now that I know what I am, will I still look like this? Jett won't recognize me."

  "No, in their world, you will always appear as the maiden. Only here in Sìthean do you take your true form. Inside you are one in the same. There are so many who spend their entire lives hunting you. But your abilities are for your own survival and can't be used for the gain of others. No one, man, beast, or otherwise will benefit from you gifts unless they are freely given by you."

  That was an interesting insight that nobody had thought to mention. Maybe they didn't know. Yvaine understood exactly what she had to do. What she freely wanted to do. She trotted back toward the front of the forrest chapel. Hopefully Jett would still be there waiting for her.

  "Yvaine, be careful. Like your mother before you, you are the only one of your kind and will be until you have a daughter of your own. She will become as you are when you die. There can only be one. But if you die without any progeny, your line, your magic, will be lost to their world and ours forever."

  Gosh. She and Jett needed to get busy having babies. A real hardship that would be. Thank you, for everything. I'm sorry I thought you were a mean old nun.

  Cait laughed and the ground shook. No. Cait wasn't laughing any more. The soft light of the otherworld fritzed like a bad TV and leaves fell from the trees. "Oh no. They've brought their war here. That stupid slaugh. They'll destroy our world yet. I'll close the veil between the two. We've survived their war before, we'll do it again. You could stay here and be safe."

  Thanks but you know I can't.

  Cait bowed her head and the doorway between the otherworld and Scotland opened. Yvaine slipped through and into the battle. A burst of flame lit up the sky on the hill just the other side of the trees. The battle seemed to be concentrated there and she had a feeling that was where she would find Jett and a whole lot of trouble. She reached inside of herself, found the magic that she'd used to pass through the veil, what she'd thought was her invisibility power, and slipped through the tiniest crack between the two world. This time she could see where she was and where she was going. The Sìthean coexisted alongside the human world. A few steps went a whole lot farther in Sìthean though. In a second she stood on the hillside a half a mile away.

  Jett's brother, the black dragon formerly known as Batstrich Boy was hunkered down, blowing a steady rapid steam of fire bombs. She followed their airborne path toward the enemy and found that stupid big Black Dragon batting them away with ease. The brother's scaly hide was torn and bleeding and he looked ready to collapse, but pushed himself to defend something or someone behind him.

  The Black Dragon whipped its tail, which was on fire at one end, around, catching the brother on the jaw and knocking him backward a good twenty feet. Yvaine finally caught a glimpse at what brother black dragon was defending.

  On the ground in a pile of pain and suffering lay Jett, bleeding on the ground and directly in the path of the Black Dragon's next fire tail attack.

  Sacrifice

  His Yvaine was alive and he was dying.

  If he didn't get his sorry ass up and fend off his father's attack, she would be dying along with him.

  Come on. This was the pivotal moment in his entire existence, the battle he'd been waiting for, and he couldn't get his worthless body to obey his commands. He was injured yes, but not so much that he couldn't fight. There was something else wrong. It was as if he were under Erishkigal's curse again.

  "Jett, look out." Yvaine screamed and ran toward him. She pointed her finger at the Black Dragon and shouted at him. "You leave him alone you dead-beat dad, or you'll pay for everything you've ever done to him and his brothers. I swear it."

  Fuck, no. He tried to tell her to run away, to use her powers to hide, to get as far away from here as she could. His mind wouldn't work. With all of the strength he had remaining, he pushed himself up and into the path of the Black Dragon's fire whip. He would take the hit to save her, but what would happen after that?

  Brother, please. Protect Yvaine. He and his newly freed black dragon brother hadn't solved their differences. He was still angry that Jett had not come back to free them all. He felt they'd suffered long enough and Jett should have gotten any out that he could instead of trying to start a revolution. The cursed demon dragons didn't care if the his father was defeated, they only wanted their freedom. Jett had only forestalled his brother's attack by swearing that if they didn't find the unicorn, he would call in all of his favors with his new allies, the Wyverns to stop the fighting and killing of demon dragons and rescue them from hell instead.

  That was never going to happen. It was every dragon warriors duty in life to hunt and kill his brethren. They didn't understand or care that his kind were cursed and forced into slavery. But the promised lie gave him more time. He needed that damn unicorn.

  Now his time was running out. Take her to the Gold Wyvern, he will protect her.

  He's not taking her anywhere, boy. She restored your forsaken soul, now she will do the same for me. The Black Dragon pulled his whip back at the last second and lifted into the air. He dove for Yvaine reaching out for her with his claws. You're mine now, little savior.

  Was that what his father thought? That Yvaine had given him a soul? Could that be true? She had told him she would share her own with him. Jett hadn't thought that was possible. She had filled him up with her trust. When he'd claimed her he'd been given a new power, become stronger. When he'd allowed himself to admit that his feeling for her were more than lust, he'd found a new peace inside. Her love had done all of that.
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br />   If his father thought he could take any of that away from him and use if for himself, he didn't understand how the heart's true power. He couldn't take a soul, shard or the whole thing. It had to be given. Given in exchange for the same. Jett may not have had a piece of his soul to give to Yvaine, but he'd given her everything else of himself.

  There was no way he could let the Black Dragon ever touch her. Yvaine. Please, love. You have to get away.

  "Not without you." She slipped in and out of his vision, avoiding the Black Dragon's attempts to snatch her like a ninja. Gods she was amazing. Wherever she'd been, whatever she'd learned, took her to a level so far beyond his comprehension, it had to be the realization of her true self. "Where you go, I go."

  Her words infuriated the Black Dragon and he roared into the sky. His anger, and Yvaine's devotion restored some of Jett's strength. Her mere presence was breaking the new curse on his mind and body. He staggered to his feet and extended his wings. You'll never take her, Kur-Jara. She is mine.

  And he was hers.

  Don't worry. I will take very good care of your little whore. I will bury myself so deep inside of her she won't even remember your name. The Black Dragon blew a heavy stream of fire at him and his brother. They would both be fried to a crisp. Jett used his own power over the shadow to open a path under his brother, who fell through and disappeared almost immediately. It was the only way to save him.

  Holy shit. The shadow was the way to save Yvaine and himself too.

  He couldn't.

  The shadow was a fast track ticket to hell. If he took her with him into the darkness they he would be subjecting her to Erishkigal's domain. Her pure beautiful bright soul would be irreparably damaged by the taint of evil. If they even survived down there. The cursed demon dragons lurked in the shadows. He'd made them wait too long. They would make it nearly impossible to leave again, not without freeing his brethren too. Without the unicorn's blood, they would be stuck.

  But she would be alive. In Hell.

  It was the worst idea ever. He'd sworn she would never see the darkness of hell. There had to be another way to escape. She wouldn't use her own powers to leave without him. Unless he wasn't here for her to worry about. She would go if he was dead. Fuck. It would only take one shot. Let his father's fire strike the lethal blow. It would be easy enough to taunt the bastard into it.