Tabitha - Royal Rebel, Kiana Dreamfairy [best adventure books to read .TXT] 📗

significant impact on her appearance. The long fall of her jet-black hair turned into a close, shaggy crop of electric blue, moussed on its ends and tipped in shocks of bright fuchsia. Her pale, cream white skin took on a golden cast from a liberal sprinkling of freckles on every inch of visible skin, and her new outfit left a lot of skin visible. In place of the gown she had been wearing were a couple of casually layered and strategically torn tank tops in black and blue. Below them, she wore a pleated plaid skirt in a tartan Scotland had never intended and a length that was guaranteed to make any man she met take a much closer look. Her legs were covered in lacy black thigh-high stockings that ended just about where her hem began and disappeared at the other end into heavy black boots that laced halfway up her calves.

She let the twigs snap under her feet as she practically skipped down the path in anticipation of the amusement awaiting her. Once she got to the park’s entrance, she could hop a subway to 9th Street and see what she could see. Maybe CBGB would have a good show. Or there were always Manitoba’s as an alternative, or Mona’s if she changed her mind and decided to go for Guinness and songs that reminded her more of home. Somehow she didn’t think that would be happening.

Ooh! And maybe she’d try that little noodle house she’d spotted near Washington Square last time, just to see if they still made that pad mi ga ti dish…

Nearly tasting the coconut milk and hot chilies, Tabitha sent a pebble skittering down the path. She watched as it bounced off the cloven hoof of a very large, very black, very fiery-eyed, and very not-nice-looking creature with curling horns and waves of heat rolling off its hulking frame.


Chapter V

That was about when she screamed.
Right after that was about when she ran.
Her heart leaped into her throat and her stomach sank into her boots as shock and fear and confusion took over, sending her sprinting for safety.
Sweet stars above, that’s a demon!
Her mind raced along with her feet across the forest floor. She veered off the path and darted around trees, cursing as she heard the muffled thunder of the creature’s footfalls echoing close behind hers. Not only was that a demon, but it was now chasing her over the uneven terrain.

She knew it was a demon even though she’d never seen one before. In fact, she couldn’t think of a single soul who had. The creatures had been banished from the human world and then from Faerie ages ago at the end of the Fae-Demon Wars. They were supposed to be bound to their own world, the Below, not lurking in the middle of Manhattan to prey on any Fae who happened to travel by.

Apparently, no one had bothered to mention that to this fellow.

She could feel its hot, fetid breath at her back and poured on a fresh burst of speed. She had no idea what could be going on or where the beast could have come from, but she didn’t intend to slow down long enough to ask. She didn’t intend to slow down at all. She may not have met a demon before, but she knew enough to realize she didn’t want to meet this one. Everything she knew came from the stories of her people, and her people weren’t exactly the biggest fans of those who walked Below. A few centuries of violent conflict could do that to a relationship.

Casting a frantic glance around, Tabitha looked for an escape route or a hiding place or a weapon or a miracle. She wasn’t picky, so long as it kept her alive past the next five minutes. If she could just get back to the gate, she might be able to dart back through and lose her pursuer. The meager store of magic she’d brought with her from home would never be enough to cast any sort of effective defensive spell and she obviously couldn’t gather up any mortal magic, but in Faerie she’d be able to tap into the magic of the land if the demon managed to break through the wards and follow her there. Considering her current options seemed to boil down to that or getting her heart ripped out of her chest, it might be worth a try.

Tucking her head down, she lengthened her stride to its limit and called up her last reserves of speed. Praying her luck and her ankles would hold, Tabitha ran flat-out straight for the trunk of a huge old pine tree and darted suddenly to the side, digging in her heels, spinning on a dime, and heading on an angled path back the way she’d come. The demon snarled something that she was glad not to understand. Just the sounds struck her as foul and corrupted, and she shuddered even as she ran.

She heard a horrible roar and a rending and glanced back over her shoulder just long enough to see the creature grab onto the same pine she’d spun around seconds before to stop its forward momentum. It worked, but the tree didn’t survive. Its roots tore free with a painful snap, and the demon tossed it aside like a stick of kindling to crash to the forest floor.

Tabitha did not take this as a good sign.

Hauling in a ragged breath, she decided the small reserve of magic she’d brought with her might just have to do. If the demon got much closer, she wouldn’t have any choice but to throw whatever power she had into a spell and hope it would be enough. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that, because a spell that strong might drain too much power from her and leave her completely and totally vulnerable.

She gathered her legs beneath her to leap after the first of several boulders gathered together in a wide out cropping at the edge of a small clearing in the trees. She needed to get to safer ground, and failing that, she needed to get to ground the demon wasn’t on.

Behind her, she heard it roar as it reached out with one grotesquely elongated arm, its claws catching around her ankle and stabbing through the heavy leather of her boots to scratch the delicate skin beneath. She cried out reflexively and grabbed onto the stone with both hands. The cruel grip on her leg made her teeth clench against the urge to whimper. She felt the first real welling of fear when the demon began to pull, reeling her in with the slow deliberation of a fisherman with a bite on his line. Her grip on the rock began to slip, and the tips of her fingers scraped raw as her body slid backward over the rough surface. Wriggling desperately, she twisted her hips to get a better angle with her free leg and sent her booted foot slamming into the beast’s skull just between its malevolently glowing eyes.

The demon roared again and stumbled back a handful of steps, but its grip never wavered. It dragged her with it, shaking its great horned head to clear it. Tabitha found herself dangling upside down above a carpet of stone and pine needles, gazing directly at the monster’s oddly misshapen legs. It took her a minute to realize that they weren’t misshapen, just jointed backward like a goat’s. She almost expected them to be covered in fur, but instead the skin looked like tightly woven plates of matte black scales. Instead of feet, it had cloven hooves and Tabitha found herself idly wondering if it had a tattoo of a Baphomet pentacle on the back of its skull.

Her arms waved in a search for purchase and balance, grabbing desperately. Her hands felt only air, and her heart nearly stopped when something slammed into the demon from behind. The great beast reeled, thrown off balance in a way her single forceful kick hadn’t managed. The creature launched her hard toward the tree line, wobbling on its feet as Tabitha felt her spine slam against the base of a stately elm.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Chapter VI

Blinking, she pushed herself up on her elbows and peered through her momentary double vision to see where the demon had moved to. It wasn’t like she could get up and run at the moment, but it never hurt to know which direction the death blow would be coming from. She hated to be caught unprepared. Instead of getting a clear view of the demon that had attacked her, Tatitha found herself staring at the back of a very unfamiliar figure. This one might not have looked all that big in comparison to the demon, but even the half-dazed Fae could tell he was enormous. Standing close to seven and a half feet tall, he put himself directly between Tabitha and the beast and set off a low warning growl that made something finally click in her mind.

The newcomer was Lupine. A werewolf.

He stood in his were form—half man, half wolf—huge and hulking with muscle but somehow still sleek compared to the demon. That monster had the thick, bulging musculature of a troll and the long, skeletal skull of a bull, topped off with two curling horns that grew backward from just above its sunken, banked-ember eyes. In contrast, the werewolf looked lithe and graceful. His muscular form rippled with power, but on him it looked right and natural under a thick, healthy pelt of silver-gray fur.

She couldn’t see the werewolf’s face, but she finally got a clear look at the demon, and the clearing was small enough that she could smell the filth of it, like coal and decay and the choking stench of burnt flesh. It crouched facing her and the Lupine, its too-long arms brushing the ground, dark shining nails combining through the forest debris.


The two powerful figures eyed each other for several