Free Everlasting Enchantment by Kathryne Kennedy Page B

demesne,” said Gareth, striding forward and taking up her pale hand in his. “Surely you will show us the way, Selena?”
    She blinked. Her fingers trembled, and she swayed toward him. “Of course, love. Anything for you.”
    He smiled and gave her his deepest bow. Millicent snarled and Nell snorted. Gareth ignored them both as he followed Selena out of the prison chamber. He would save them despite their hostility toward the were-vampire bat. He hadn’t quite figured out what he’d do when Selena demanded the relic in payment, and discovered he hadn’t seduced the holder when it wouldn’t come off of Millicent’s wrist. Despite the habits of Selena’s nature, he rather liked her. And he could never physically harm a woman, especially one so obviously infatuated with him.
    Gareth offered to carry Nell, for he didn’t think she had the stamina to walk very far. But Millicent shifted to panther and the old woman climbed on her back as if she’d done it hundreds of times before. Again Selena led them through twisting tunnels until the walls began to drip with moisture, and a huge, thundering noise made speaking impossible. Not that he had any inclination to do so, for his mind spun in hopeless circles.
    How would he manage to seduce a woman who thought he was the worst thing that could have happened to her?
    Light shone ahead of them, and the walls dropped away until they were surrounded in a rush of falling water. The spray stung his face and wind from the fall twisted his hair about his head. Despite the chill that crept into him, he couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the shimmering blue-white curtain. It took a glorious half hour before they finally reached the end of the water tunnel and stepped into the comparative brightness of the enormous cavern that sheltered the duke’s castle.
    When the sound of the waterfall finally faded to a soft roar behind them, Selena turned and pointed to another path that branched off from the one they’d taken. “Keep to this trail and it will take you back to the city. If I were you, I’d get as far away from His Grace as I could, were-cat.”
    Millicent ignored her and batted a paw at a tiny winged shape that flitted down in front of her. Another one swept across Gareth’s shoulder and another appeared before Selena’s startled face. The small beings looked like messenger sprites, but not the sort that the aristocracy conjured. They sported black, jagged wings and spindly limbs. Their large, round eyes appeared almost colorless against their dirty blue skin, and when they laughed, they exposed too many pointed teeth for their small mouths.
    “The little spies,” hissed Selena as the sprites flew away as quickly as they’d come.
    Gareth spun. They stood on an incline at the wall of the cavern, the portcullis of the keep to their left. The iron grating had been raised and guards swarmed from beneath it. He turned back to Millicent. “Run.”
    She snarled, the skin behind her velvet nose wrinkling, exposing the length of her fangs and the points of her own sharp teeth.
    “Not before she gives me the relic,” said Selena. She grabbed Nell’s arm and yanked her off the panther’s back. Nell fell to the ground hard enough to make her cry out. “Shift, were-cat, and give it to me, or I swear I’ll drain the old woman dry.”
    Gareth took a step toward them when he heard the muffled sound of a shot, and then the dirt at his feet kicked up a small plume. Selena dropped Nell’s arm and turned to gaze from his boots to his face, a smolder of red appearing in the depths of her glossy black eyes. “The fools,” she hissed. “They could have hit you.”
    She shifted fully to her were-bat. Gareth blinked. Selena’s eyes stared back at him from a face that sprouted sharp, ridged ears and a snout he now thought resembled a swine’s. Two sharp, pointed teeth hung from the top of her mouth, and the charming cleft in her human lip had spread into a wide V. Her brown fur