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***
The curse rang in Aidan's ears. The force of its magic hit him like a sucker punch. He'd been head-butted by a troll once. This was worse. Way worse.
Please a woman less than perfect.
And let her see you true.
Only then will the portals of Fairy open to you,
Aidan Fyrebard.
The power in the Fairy Queen's words sparked in the air, sizzling like small fireworks. Aidan winced as her power snapped against his skin, first poking him sharp as thorns and then smoldering with the heat of her fury.
He'd really screwed up this time.
The queen had been so angry, he'd thought she might strike him down or dump him in the Wastelands for the Eros Fay to have their way with him. By some miracle, she'd merely shrieked for him to be taken out to the garden. Her guard, his peers, had swarmed him before he'd even had a chance to try and make things right.
He'd been dragged out of the palace like garbage.
They all stood now on a patio made of polished diamonds, each stone as big as his head. Roses circled them on all sides, delicate petals hiding the sharp edges of their beauty; much like the queen herself. When the sun shone, the diamonds reflected the green, red and purple hues of the roses, but just then the sky was dark, matching his Queen's mood. The nobles of the Seelie Court hovered just past the guard that always watched their Queen's back, curious and delighted at the spectacle.
Aidan narrowed his eyes and took note of those who found his predicament amusing. He'd counted some of them as friends, but now saw they didn't feel the same. When he returned to Court, he vowed to remember every smirk and laugh at his expense.
The queen swept her hands up to the sky as she finished the curse. She cut a striking figure in her blue silk gown. Its plunging neckline showed the alabaster gleam of her breasts and her raven hair tumbled to her waist in a gossamer wave. "By the power of Fairy, so mote it be." A boom sounded in the distance as the curse sealed itself around him, an invisible second skin he wouldn't be able to shake until he satisfied its terms.
With a snap of her fingers, a blue portal flashed into existence. It threw tentacles of blue light toward Aidan, as if it knew who it had been summoned to take.
The queen jabbed a finger in the direction of the portal and the two men holding Aidan, dragged him forward. Just as they were about to heave him into the bright blue light, she held up her hand.
"Wait."
The queen moved to stand in front of him, her violet eyes searching his face. He kept his expression neutral and gritted his teeth so he wouldn't be tempted to speak. Things were already bad enough without angering her further. His mouth had gotten him into this mess, he didn't dare let it loose again.
"I will allow you one boon, my guard." She cupped his cheek in her hand. "You may chose where you will go in the human realm.
Aidan's mind raced as he considered the possibilities. The portals opened in many places and he'd traveled to most of them. What location offered him the most advantage? He needed someplace where he could break the curse as fast as possible. The sooner he proved his loyalty to his Queen, the better.
"Where shall it be, Aidan? London? Paris? The Congo? The Amazon? Where will you go to pay the price you owe me? Where is the woman you need?" Her voice became sharp and her fingers pressed into his cheek until her nails bit into his skin. "Answer me quickly. I tire of this."
Aidan swallowed. "Las Vegas, my lady."
The nobles tittered and nudged each other with their elbows.
Even his Queen laughed. "That is where fortunes are lost. We designed it that way. Are you sure?"
He licked his lips and nodded.
"Lady Luck is unreliable. She'll turn on you, Aidan. Don't say I didn't warn you, my love."
"Surely, Lady Luck cannot compare to you, my Queen."
Several nobles gasped and everyone went still as his words hit the queen. She recoiled, her hand dropping from his face, her eyes wide.
Panic made his stomach drop. "I meant—"
A sharp slap across his cheek cut him off.
"Silence." Her voice thundered in the air and stirred the wind.
Aidan snapped his mouth shut and his gut churned. He'd done it again. Offended the woman he only wanted to please.
His Queen took several deep breaths. "Do you serve me, Aidan Fyrebard? Is your heart true?"
He nodded.
She slapped his other cheek. "Say it!"
His gaze locked with hers, he said, "Yes, my lady. I serve you with my heart and soul." He hoped she could feel how he meant every word.
She gripped his mouth in her hand, squeezing until his lips puckered. "Your heart and soul don't appear to be connected to your lips." She gave him a little shake and then let him go.
Aidan dropped to his knees, forcing the men holding him to bend over if they wanted to retain their grip. "My lady, I am sorry." Despair filled him, heavy as an anchor.
There was a long silence, where no one spoke or moved. Finally, the queen sank to kneel before him and used her finger under his chin to force him to look at her.
His heart clenched into a tight knot as her violet gaze captured his. Regret filled him. He should have never come to Court, let alone joined the Queen's Guard. She still believed in him, though. He could see it in her eyes. The problem was, he didn't understand why. All he'd done was make mistakes. There was something wrong with him and he wasn't sure it could be fixed.
"This curse is your last chance. You must learn discretion. And diplomacy." She rolled back on her heels and stood up. "If you do not, I will cut out your tongue. Do you understand?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Then prove your worth, Aidan Fyrebard. Break the curse and come back to me the guard you were meant to be." She nodded to the men who then lifted Aidan up.
With one big swing they threw him into the portal. Aidan closed his eyes against the searing blue light swallowing him whole. Time and space slipped away as he tumbled, like dice cast on one last, desperate gamble, into the nothingness that made up the portals.
***
The portal spit him out at the Avalon, the casino the queen operated in the strip of Las Vegas. Aidan had only heard about it as she'd never brought him with her on any royal visits. The gossip had said it was because he was bad enough luck in Fairy. The last thing she wanted was to bring the black cloud that haunted him with her to Vegas.
He'd gotten into a fist fight when one of the nobles had been brave enough to say that to his face.
The noble had turned out to be the queen's Godfather and she was not amused to find Aidan had rearranged the venerated elder's nose. It took two healers to set things right and for his transgression, the queen had assigned Aidan to guard the kennel where she kept her hounds, one of the most back-breaking tasks of her guard. Not to mention dangerous. The hounds never stopped looking for a chance to pounce and were experienced escape artists. Aidan had taken to locking himself into an empty cage at night, just to be on the safe side.
A trill of laughter brought Aidan's attention back to his present surroundings. A young elf couple had just stepped across the portal's threshold, and the woman was giddy with excitement. "Oh, Geoff. Look!" She waved to a wall featuring a display of different flowers from Fairy. The rainbow of blooms crept up to the ceiling, the petals furling and unfurling in a steady rhythm.
Geoff, in a chivalrous gesture, plucked one of the flowers and tucked it behind her ear. "There you are, Mila."
"Sir!" A round faced troll called to the couple from behind a desk made of quartz that had been smoothed until it was slick as glass. The queen's coat of arms—a unicorn with a floral garland—was etched into the front. "Please don't touch the flowers. Some of them are dangerous."
"Don't be silly," Geoff protested, capturing Mila's hand in his as she moved to take out her flower. "There's nothing here that could hurt anyone."
"Not one of us, no, but our human guests are particularly susceptible to the pollen of that flower." She pointed to Mila."I'm sorry, but you'll have to remove it. I can't allow you to take it out of our arrival zone."
With a grimace, Geoff snatched the flower out of Mila's hair and tossed it onto the quartz desk. "There? Happy?"
The troll gave a bright smile that lit up her eyes, making her round, green face—with a slimy sheen—almost pretty. Almost. "Thank you for your cooperation. Your room is ready. If you'll come this way, I'll have one of our staff escort you up." Mila, Geoff and the troll walked away, disappearing behind a set of double doors to the side of the desk.
A second later, the same doors squeaked open and a dwarf with a wide face and tiny little spectacles trotted out, a clipboard tucked in the crook of one arm. He wore an elegant black suit with a name tag in Avalon's trademark blue.
"Mr. Fyrebard, I presume?" The dwarf peered up at him through thick spectacles.
Aidan nodded. "Yes?" He leaned forward and read the name tag. "Hahm? Did I say that right?"
"Yes. We've been expecting you." The dwarf gave him a knowing look. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you to your room and explain your duties."
"Duties?"
The dwarf arched a fuzzy brow. "Surely you don't expect our fair lady to pay for your room and board after she curses you? That would add insult to injury, no? I'm afraid you'll have to earn your keep while you're here."
"Show me my room then," Aidan said with as much authority as he could muster. Great. The curse came with a job. Just what he needed.
"This way, please." Hahm spun on his heel and headed for the doors.
Before he could follow, a feminine voice filled the air behind him and she knew his name. "Aidan Fyrebard. Is that you? What a surprise."
Aidan froze as the woman's voice played up and down his spine in a shiver. His eyes widened as he realized he recognized her.
Oh no. Not her. The timing could not be worse. He cast his eyes upward and prayed the queen wasn't watching him.
Then, squaring his shoulders, he turned in the direction of the woman and found he'd been right. " Serena! What are you doing here?"
Serena put a hand to her hip and smiled, her lips full and pouty. "Well, I'm not here because I've been cursed by the Fairy Queen."
Aidan blinked. He hadn't expected the news to travel quite so fast on this side of the portals. "How did you know?"
She laughed, a scale of bright, sparkling sound. "What happened? The Aidan I knew," she paused to give him a sultry look, "was all romance in all the right ways. Remember?"
Serena sauntered over to where he stood, her hips swaying in a tight pencil skirt and her breasts jiggling in a black leather corset. Her skin sparkled as the light hit the thin, iridescent scales that covered her from head to toe. Aidan gulped and tried not to notice Serena's allure. The curse didn't give him leave to bed any woman he pleased. The queen would have his head if she found he'd been playing fast and loose the second he was out of her sight.
"That was a long time ago."
She shrugged. "Time is relative, no? Especially in Fairy." She grimaced. "They're so linear here on the human side. It's annoying. Sometimes a girl just wants to go back a few seconds and fix her make up, you know?"
"You're beautiful as ever. You're older but haven't changed."
Her eyes narrowed. "Older, huh? I see what they say about you is true. Well, I have more than aged, actually, but you would know all about that, right? I gave up my tail for you." Anger flashed in the sapphire depths of her eyes. More alarming, a sharp note in her voice threatened to cut him. Aidan shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, ready to run if it became necessary. There were two things he remembered about Serena, her amazing figure and a temper so short, it made the queen's hounds seem tame.
"And then ditched me for a giant troll," he countered. "But hey, who's counting?"
She relaxed a fraction. "Oh, that's right. I forgot about the troll. He really was enormous. I couldn't resist." She winked at him, her anger dissipating. "No harm, no foul, right?"
"We were young," Aidan said. "Too young to know what we wanted."
"I was never the girl for you, Fyrebard. You're a one note kind of guy and I want as many as I can get." She stepped closer, until there wasn't more than a few inches between them. "Still, I don't mind hitting one note, so long as it's the right note." Her hand wrapped around him and grabbed his ass. "Tell me, Aidan, do you still 'sing' like you used to?"
Aidan twisted out of her embrace. "Uh, it's great to see you Serena, but I'm cursed, remember?"
"What's a little hanky panky between old friends?" She inched closer to him.
"Thanks but I'm afraid I can't." He wondered if she had a death wish. The queen would just as soon come after Serena as him.
Disappointment clouded Serena's eyes. "Oh. Well." She stepped back. "If you change your mind, leave me a message at the front desk."
"You're here at the Avalon?"
"Where else would I be? At Dark Cirque with the blood suckers? Or with the furries at The Wilds?" She shook her head. "I'm headlining the show here."
"Really? I hadn't heard."
"Yeah. I sing the money right out of the humans. They gamble like crazy after my show."
"Mr. Fyrebard?" Hahm poked Aidan's arm with his pen. "If you don't mind? We have a schedule to keep. You're not here to party."
Aidan shot the dwarf a dark look. "Really? You think you own me just because I'm cursed?"
Hahm cleared his throat. "I have orders."
Aidan stooped down until they were nose-to-nose. He waited until Hahm gave a nervous gulp and then said, "You're not my queen."
"Ooo. Bravo, Aidan." Serena clapped her hands in approval.
He ignored her. "And you know what, Hahm?"
The dwarf blinked rapidly behind his glasses. "Wh-what?"
"I might be cursed, but when this is over I get to go back to Fairy. The queen wants me, Hahm. At her side. In her bed. Think about that while you're stuck here with all the humans.." He straightened. "I'll find my own room while I'm here."
"B-but—"
Aidan cut him off. "I can take care of myself." He nodded to Serena. "Nice seeing you."
She gave him a coy look. "Let me know if you want tickets to my show or...anything else. Unless, of course, you think I'm too old for you now."
Aidan just smiled and nodded, deciding it was safer to say nothing. Words always tripped him up and he didn't need another woman out for his blood. With long strides, he headed for the door that would lead to the main casino. He needed to get away before more trouble found him.