[Kingdom 01.0 - 03.0] Kingdom Series Collection Read online

  Another fairy hovered beside Danika when the light finally faded. Her shoulders were rigid, and though her skin still held the firmness of youth, there was an ancientness to her presence that Betty felt in every nerve of her body.

  The fairy could only be Galeta the Blue, and it was obvious from one glance why she’d been named that. Her eyes were the blue of an arctic ice tunnel, clear and mesmerizing. The dress she wore sparkled like ice refracted in sunlight, and on her head was a large golden crown dripping with sapphires. But it was the blue ringlets of hair framing her head in a wild halo that really drew Betty’s eye.

  “Gerard,” Galeta intoned, his name rolled from her tongue with the steely reverberations of a bottomless echo. “I’ve come to pass judgment.”

  Beside her Danika trembled, and Betty would bet anything it wasn’t with fear. The tiny woman literally had steam rolling from her ears.

  For a fact, Betty had never seen anything more bizarre in her life. A whole new world of weird was opening up before her eyes and all she could do was stare like a mindless drone, hypnotized like one watching a car wreck unfold.

  “The tribunal convened,” that deeply feminine voice thundered, “and you’ve been found guilty.”

  Gerard, who’d been silent, now growled. “You know it’s not true. Glean my memory if you must, fairy,” he pleaded, but the tiny blue woman gave him a wicked smile, made all the more sinister coming from the china doll beauty.

  Betty swallowed when Gerard grabbed her hand, squeezing hard and making her wince.

  Her heart stuttered, what was going on here? Who was this demon fairy and what did they want with him?

  Then those glacial blue eyes turned to her, and the smirk became a full-fledged grin dripping with malice and spite. “Is this the mate you spoke of, Danika?”

  Mate?

  “Yes,” Danika squeaked.

  Betty jerked as if slapped. “What? Whoa.” She took a step back, holding up her free hand. “What’s going on here?”

  Galeta flew toward Betty, stopping inches from her face, forcing Betty to take another step back just so that she could see her without being forced to cross her eyes.

  “Ugly creature you are,” Galeta spat by her foot.

  “Hey!” Betty cried.

  Gerard squeezed her hand again, and stepped part ways in front of her. As if to shield her.

  “Galeta, the verdict, if you please,” Danika spoke up, her voice projecting a calm Betty most definitely did not feel.

  Right now Betty kept imagining plucking Galeta the freak’s massive electric blue butterfly wings off her back and permanently grounding her. Ugly! She’d give that fairy ugly.

  “Veritas, Gerard Caron, that is your sentence.”

  He stiffened, his entire body went so still Betty feared he’d had a heart attack. Danika closed her eyes.

  “Bound you will be for one month. Slave to her whims...” While Galeta spoke, she twirled her wand, a blue spray of light coalesced into a tight ball. Rolling like a wave on top of itself, faster and faster.

  Betty planted herself square in front of Gerard. A split second impulse she immediately regretted when Galeta’s hard glacial stare turned on her. Galeta’s smile revealed baby fangs, and Betty’s knees knocked so hard she thought she might pass out.

  “Indeed she must be your mate to throw herself in front of you like that,” Galeta sneered.

  “Not... no,” Betty gulped, unable to even finish the thought.

  The light faded, and a floating silver necklace with a black heart shaped pendant dangled before her eyes. Galeta snatched it, the pendant was twice the size of her head-- but the fairy hefted it as it weighed no more than a feather. She buzzed around Betty.

  Betty twisted as the fairy slammed the pendant against Gerard’s naked chest. He hadn’t moved. But his jaw flexed, and the muscle in his cheek ticked as his dark blue eyes burned holy fury.

  “Bound,” Galeta continued.

  As she spoke, the black pendant swirled with bands of thick crimson and swirls of liquid gold. A blue light pulsed from around Gerard’s chest where the pendant rested. His teeth clenched, the spasms of his muscles traveled through Betty’s palm. Beads of sweat popped out on his brows. But he didn’t mutter a sound of protest.

  Betty hugged his arm to her chest wanting to ease his obvious pain.

  “So mote it be.” When Galeta recited those words, Betty’s skin tingled and all the fine hairs on her body stood up.

  Gerard dropped her hand. Betty wanted to ask him what had just happened. She’d seen it, but she’d understood nothing. But he was like a live wire. Anger spit off him like exploding bits of hot shrapnel, and Betty winced, not wanting to draw his ire in her direction. His eyes were flat, hard, and almost black, burning into Galeta with murderous intentions.

  For her part, the fairy seemed completely oblivious. Or uncaring, which was more likely the case. She turned and held the necklace out to Betty. “It’s yours. Enjoy it.” As she made to pass it to Betty’s outstretched hand, she snapped her wand out and pointed directly at Gerard’s manhood. “Mortuus!” she boomed, and a bright burst of blue engulfed the lower half of his body like flames.

  “Gerard,” Betty cried when he fell to his knees with a loud grunt.

  “Galeta, by the goddess,” Danika screamed, “what have you done?”

  Gerard’s back bowed so hard Betty thought his spine might crack. His bellow of pain shook the frame of her house.

  Then the light died and Galeta smirked. “Vengeance is sweet.” She turned glowing eyes on Betty and tossed the pendant at her. Betty jumped out of the way, fearing the thing might burn her. Instead she wrapped her arms around Gerard’s back, he heaved, and like someone experiencing electroshock therapy, his every muscle twitched. Betty grabbed his face. A grayish pallor tinted the lines around his mouth.

  “Look at me,” she cooed, trying to get him to focus on something other than the pain, “ssh, that’s good. That’s good.” She petted him in a soothing up and down motion on his back. Finally lucidity stared back at her instead of pain.

  He gripped her wrist.

  “Pathetic,” Galeta whispered one final word of hate before vanishing in a puff of blue smoke.

  “I’m fine,” he said, jaw tight and working back and forth. “Fine.” He stood, leaning heavily on Betty’s shoulder, and Danika hovered in front of them.

  “What just happened?” Betty snapped her frustration. Danika winced.

  “The petite chienne neutered me,” he spat and then coughed.

  “What the hell? Neutered?” Betty looked at Danika, heart trapped like moth’s wings in her throat.

  Danika squeezed her eyes shut. “I feared she’d do something like this. I feared and yet she still took me by surprise.” She shook her head and looked hard at Betty.

  “What does that mean exactly?”

  “Means I’m done having sex,” Gerard growled. He stepped away from Betty and without looking back at either of them marched back down the hallway.

  Betty gazed at the empty door for a second before turning back to Danika.

  Danika gripped her finger. “Betty Hart, there is a way. There is a way to undo this curse, but you are the key. Hear me, girl, and hear me well. Galeta has sought to put Gerard down for ages. There’s a vendetta between them, old but deep. I don’t know what it is, but I feared when I discovered who’d head his hearing, she’d find a way to exact revenge.”

  Comprehension at this point was nil. Betty had zero idea what the fairy rambled on about, in fact she could barely understand what’d just happened. She shook the little fairy off. As far as she was concerned, this one could be just as bad as the nasty piece of work that’d just left. There wasn’t a single reason to believe a word of what Danika said.

  The necklace hung in the air as if suspended on wires, Betty eyed it like one would a snake ready to strike.

  “Oh, dear me,” Danika sighed, grabbing her chest, “what a fine mess. Oh, my dear, truly I’m so sorry.”r />
  Had any of that been real? And yet she only had to look at the glowing red pendant to see proof positive that she’d not totally lost her mind. Not to mention the bruise she was sure she’d have on her shoulder tomorrow morning, the muscle still throbbed where his fingers had dug in. And then of course there was the matter of fairy dressed in tree bark and covered in dew, yeah, all pretty convincing examples she’d not gone nutters.

  “Who are you, what is that, and who is he?” Betty turned, glaring at the tiny fairy whose smile wobbled.

  “Sit,” Danika gestured to the couch, “this might take a while.”

  After an hour, many questions, and lots of groans, Betty was beginning to understand the sheer magnitude of her situation.

  “Please tell me,” she eyed the necklace she had no intention of wearing, “that is not what I think it is.”

  Danika started swishing her wand, probably from a case of nerves, but Betty had seen how powerful that thing was, and didn’t want it swishing anywhere near her.

  “Please don’t.” She pointed to the wand and Danika blinked as if she hadn’t realized what she’d been doing.

  She tucked it into her pocket and threw her hands up with a dramatic sigh. “You must understand, it was the only way. I had to tell them you two were mated in order to spare his life. In Kingdom we’re not allowed to kill those who’ve truly bonded. Too cruel.”

  Betty laughed. “Oh and neutering a grown man like he was a dog, isn’t?”

  Danika wrinkled her nose. “That should never have happened.”

  “Then why didn’t you stop it?” Betty glared.

  Danika sucked in a sharp breath, her jaw trembled, and it was obvious the tiny thing was close to tears. Betty’s heart softened against her will, not that she really knew a thing about Gerard, but seeing him suffer like that… for some personal vendetta-- and she could only guess it had something to do with being jilted (no woman ever went that crazy unless it involved a matter of the heart)-- it was wrong. Danika was a fairy too, she should have stopped it.

  “Short answer is, I cannot.” Danika shook her head, sending her fat curls bouncing. “She is the Head Mistress of Fairy Inc. and we cannot raise a hand against her. But besides that, my power is no match for hers. I cannot undo what she has wrought.”

  “Then tell someone who can!” Betty shouted.

  Danika’s look was sad. “Would that I could, lass, truly. But that is not the way of it in fairy, Galeta wouldn’t let me close to anyone powerful enough to tell.” Her small frame shook. Danika took a moment to gather herself, and with a deep breath, gave Betty a calm smile. “But this is where you come in. You can fix this, Betty Hart.” Danika grabbed the necklace that still floated and traced the glass pendant with a soft sigh. “This is the pendant of Veritas.”

  “Truth.” Betty nodded, recognizing the Latin word immediately. “What truth?”

  “Yours.” Danika pressed her lips together. “In essence he’s bound to you for a month. The pendant is a recording, not of what happens in a physical sense, but rather a recording of the heart. At the end of the month he will stand trial one final time, the pendant will either glow for him or not.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” Betty bounced her leg up and down.

  “I told them you were his mate, but obviously they did not believe me.” She held up the locket. “However, if the pendant glows then he’ll be set free.”

  “Oh,” her eyebrows shot up, and then quickly turned into a frown. “Oh. And if he doesn’t pass the test,” she waved her hand, “he has another test or something?”

  “No, not exactly, dear.”

  “Then I don’t understand.”

  Danika’s wings fluttered a nervous rhythm. “If the necklace fails to glow, he’ll be killed. That was their verdict. To be freed you must fall in love with him, that is the condition.”

  She sucked in a breath. That was impossible. That big, virile man, in danger of losing his life if she didn’t fall in love with him. “That’s… that’s barbaric.”

  Danika shrugged. “All things considered, he’s lucky.”

  Betty chewed on her thumb. “And if I fall in love with him? Does that mean he stays?”

  “He’ll stay.” Danika glanced at the wall opposite her.

  Betty tilted her head. The way the fairy had said it, more like a question than a statement of fact bothered Betty, but it didn’t really matter because Betty had no intention of falling in love with him. Though she wouldn’t think about him dying either, there had to be a way around that. No way would she be responsible for sending someone to their death. No way. Betty was plenty smart, she’d figure this out. “What about the other thing? The thing Galeta did to him?”

  “Put this on.” Danika handed Betty the necklace.

  The thin chain felt as heavy as a five pound dumb bell on her finger. She could barely stand to look at it. “I’ll put it in my jewelry box. I don’t want this thing on me.”

  “Doesn’t work that way, dear.” Danika swished her wand and unclasped the ring. “Move your hair.”

  “Why? I really don’t want to wear this.”

  “Because if you want to save his life, you must wear it at all times.”

  Betty wanted to refuse. But she shoved her hair off her shoulders instead and tensed as the necklace wound around her neck as if by invisible fingers. The moment it settled against her chest, warmth flowed from the pendant through her skin. Her entire body throbbed with liquid heat, from the tips of her pinky fingers to her toes. It was hard to describe, but it almost felt like the gentle swell of an ocean tide lapping against her breast. Her eyes widened and her mouth parted in an ‘o’.

  Danika patted the pendant and sighed.

  A rush of dizzying euphoria took hold of her, drove Betty to her feet, and she paced back and forth with restless energy. “I don’t want this. I’ve been burned. I don’t want to deal with another egotistical jerk and what... Oh no, wait a second.” She stopped on a dime, as another thought become painfully obvious. “He’s gonna have to stay here with me, isn’t he?”

  “Well--” the fairy wheedled, eyes scrunching in her face.

  “Oh jeez. Just wonderful.” Betty shook her head.

  “Get to know him, lass. If anyone can bring out the best in that man, it’s you. It’s there, just hidden. Make him see you.”

  “Why? What if I don’t want to?” After James, Betty had zero desire to begin another romance. She was tired of dating, tired of men, and so far Gerard had done very little to make her feel in any way romantically inclined toward him. The man could kiss like nobody’s business, but that was just sex. Betty wanted all or nothing, and refused to ever settle again.

  “Because you are his perfect match. Only you can awaken the shriveled mess of his heart, only you can break the curse Galeta planted on him.”

  Betty shook her head. What did the fairy possibly see in her to even make her think that? She and Gerard were oil and water. They didn’t mix, barely even got along. There was nothing there, chemistry maybe. But anything of any substance-- not a bit.

  “I can’t keep him here,” she crossed her arms.

  “He’s got no place else to go. Betty, you are it. His last hope. Love, that is the most powerful magic of all.” As she said it, her body began to grow translucent. “Love, it can move mountains.”

  She was fading, and Betty was still confused, still full of questions. “But what Galeta did. How do I break that?” she yelled at the barely there shadow.

  “Love conquers all...” The last words quivered on the air like the silken strand of a spider’s web.

  Chapter 22

  A knock sounded on the bathroom door. Gerard didn’t move off the toilet seat. “What?” he growled.

  “Gerard, its Betty,” her soft voice made his heart clench.

  “Go away.” He glanced back down at the dragonfly rug on the floor, dizzy with the reality of what’d just happened.

  How could Galeta have neutered him? Being bou
nd to a woman was punishment enough, within the month they’d learn she did not love him and execute him posthaste. But now, now he’d never again know the pleasures of a woman’s body beneath his. Galeta might as well have killed him now.

  Galeta had warned him years ago, after he’d rebuffed her advances, that she’d make him pay. And she had. First with the twisted parody of ‘his’ story and now this. The muscles in his forearms locked with the strain of holding himself back from punching a hole through Betty’s wall.

  “Gerard, you need to come out. I think we should talk.”

  Women-- a pox on them all.

  He eyed the door and shot to his feet, slamming his open palm against the white paneled wood. “Come to gloat, to demand your due? What? What do you want from me?”

  His blood rushed hot in his ears. Gods the humiliation. Forced to do her bidding, knowing he could never feel another moment of pleasure again unless with her, and only if she fell in love with him. As if that could ever happen. She hated him already.

  Gerard pressed his forehead to the door. A sound, like the tapping of her fingers grated in his ears.

  “I’m sorry.”

  His fingers twitched. Why would she apologize?

  “Open the door, please.”

  He didn’t know what possessed him to open the door, but he flung it wide and her mouth parted on a wordless scream as she fell forward.

  Grabbing her under her arms, he righted her, and then glowered. “You asked me to open, you should have been prepared instead of tripping into me like a drunken whore!”

  Betty blustered, shoving strands of hair out of face. That’s when he noticed her spectacles. They were tipped at the corners, reminding him of cat eyes. Hideous things, but on her they looked adorable and he was shocked to note his pulse racing. That’s also when he realized he did not become hard, and the anger returned, sizzling hot through his gut. Growling, he walked out, forcing her to press up against the wall so as not to be run down.

  Gerard had no clue what to do. He felt lost and helpless, and those feelings so vexed him, he walked to front door intending to head out to the nearest bar and pound the first male face he saw.