Page 1075 of One More Kiss

Chapter18

“No!”I threw myself forward, putting myself in between Jett and the Midnight Prince. It’s funny how a death threat puts everything into perspective. I loved Jett. I was in love with him. He was my One. “You can’t kill him! I won’t let you!”

“Explain.” The Prince snapped the word at Jett, ignoring me completely.

Jett gently moved me to one side. “When your First comes to my world with la cerbatana and shoots at me and my associates I start asking questions. When it turns out that the person he’s targeting,” he threw a quick glance towards me, “is my One, and she then disappears, I come looking.”

“It’s okay, he’s letting me leave. It was all a big misunderstanding.”

They both continued to ignore me.

“You used la Gema entrusted to you to open the Midnight gate for your own personal purposes. As the liaison between our worlds, you know better. It is a betrayal of the highest order.”

“Do what you want to me, but I’m not letting you kidnap the woman I love and keep her here against her will.“

He loved me? My heart pounded in my chest as I realized what that meant. I’d get my happy ever after if we could escape from Faerie Land with our lives.

The Prince held up a hand. “My First acted without my authority.” He pinned Fin with a penetrating look. “Fin, explain yourself.”

Fin wilted under the scrutiny. He cast a quick glance at Alyssia and then focussed on his feet.

“He did it for me, Father.” Alyssia stepped up beside Fin. “I only wanted to meet my sister.”

“Many rules have been broken. We do not kidnap humans.”

“Wait just a minute.” I stepped forward. “What about when you took Alyssia when we were six? Doesn’t that count?”

The Prince held out his hand to me, ignoring my outburst. “Come. Let us all sit. We will have tea while I think on this.”

I ignored his hand, taking Jett’s instead and pulling him over to the couch. I figured that sitting around drinking tea was a step up from being put to death.

“So how serious is this death penalty? I mean, it clearly wasn’t Jett’s fault. He only came here for me. And I’m here because Fin brought me, but that was because I asked him to.

“I know.” I shrugged. “He was going to kidnap me before that, but only because Alyssia asked him to bring me here. And you can’t put her to death. Can you?” I picked up the cup I’d had earlier so that I had something to do with my hands. The cup shook so I put it back down and grabbed hold of Jett’s hand instead. I hoped I hadn’t just dumped Alyssia under the bus.

“And why did you come here, daughter?” The Prince seated himself across from me and Jett. Alyssia and Fin hadn’t moved. Guess they were keeping a low profile. “Explain.” He fixed that penetrating gaze onto me.

“I came to rescue my sister. You took her from her bed, away from Mom and I, and brought her here. And I’ve spent my whole life wondering when you’d come for me.”

“Faery children belong in Faerie Land. Even mediana, halflings. If I’d known about you I would have brought you here along with Alyssia. You would have had the upbringing you deserved.”

“How could you not know about me? I hid, using my shadow magic. But Fin doesn’t have any problem seeing through it and I’m sure that you’re more powerful than he is.”

“Fin is not seeing through your magic. He is sensing you feeding off his magic.” The Prince smiled sadly. “I did not sense you the night I claimed Alyssia, because your magic had not yet been depleted. You had no need to replenish from me, so I did not know you were there.”

“Oh.” That actually made sense. “Well it still doesn’t change the fact that you kidnapped my sister.”

“It is not kidnapping to reunite a child with her kin.”

“Aha.” Alyssia stepped closer to us. “So Fin technically wasn’t kidnapping Liandra. I mean, she wanted to come so it wasn’t kidnapping anyway, but even if it was, it wasn’t. Because she’s family.” She smiled and turned back to Fin. “You’re off the hook.”

“And what about Jett?” I clutched Jett’s hand tighter. “If we’re going off technicalities then he didn’t do anything wrong either. He was acting to prevent what he thought was a kidnapping. Surely that’s the sort of thing a liaison is meant to do?”

The Prince nodded to Jett. “Your reasons were pure, old friend. You were righting a wrong. This I can forgive.”

Jett squeezed my hand. If he was breathing out a sigh of relief it was on the inside, because he didn’t show it.

“What about Alyssia? What about the rest of her family - Mom and me? What about the wrong done to us? Or don’t we count?” Because I couldn’t let go of the fact that he thought he was in the right when he took Alyssia. Of the years I’d spent looking over my shoulder. The way I’d trained so I could protect myself, and the stress Mom had been through.

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