CHAPTER 20?

Who knew that I would EVER get here? This is to be commemorated with great celebration and silliness!

... *throws confetti in air* ... Yep. That's all I got right now. Sorry. 8D

Well. READ ON.

I scoffed at Arion. "My protector?" I looked down at my gritty body and laughed. "Bang up job you're doing so far. I was doing better on my own, thanks. I'll be getting back to the city now." I stepped around the horse, and headed for my car.

"It won't work," he called to me, and I sighed irritably and rolled my eyes. Did he really think that I was dumb enough to believe that lie?

Jumping into my car, I turned the keys. Nothing. Nadda. Zip. Zilch. I glared at the keys, and tried yet again. Once again, the car greeted me with stony silence.

"Well, since we've now confirmed that fact," he spoke briskly, an I told you so tonality to his voice. Smug bastard. "I highly suggest you come with me." It was not a suggestion. Not the way he said it.

Growling angrily, I opened the door, and stepped out. I did not, however, move from that spot. He'd already gotten to see enough of my underwear. "Alright, smart guy. Explain to me why I should go with you, instead of finding myself a taxi."

Arion looked at me, and a wicked glint filled his eyes. "Well, for starters, I doubt that you want to stumble around showing off the cherries which are all over those lovely panties of yours." I wished I had the power to strangle him. Or toss him into a fiery pit. Or slowly torture him. Anything slow and painful really, as long as it resulted in his subsequent death.

"You…" I was at a complete loss for words. I swallowed, and then came to the realization that I'd rather flash my cherry covered bottom to the world than go with him. "Anything else?"

"Perhaps the fact that I'm one of the few who thinks keeping you out of Merriwind is a good idea?"

I blinked. Hell. That hadn't been the answer I was expecting. But my eyes narrowed in suspicion. This wasn't just for my benefit. "Why?" He looked at me as if shocked that I would ever suspect him. "Don't give me that look, Arion. There's something more to this that you're telling me. Why don't you want me to return?"

He sighed. "The kingdom is warring against itself. Adding you into the equation right now… it would make things more complicated." So that was it. He didn't want his possible kingdom falling apart because of me.

"Great. So I leave, go back to the city, and am out of your hair. Toodles." I looked in the back of my car, and thankfully a sweat shirt had been tossed back there. 'Thank goodness,' I thought, slipping it on hastily. It was overly large – as with most of my favorite sweat shirts – which was a godsend right now. At least I wasn't running around showing of my undergarments. "Now where can I get a taxi or a bus…" I muttered to myself.

"Grace." I knew he was behind me. I knew it. And somehow I knew exactly what he was going to say next. "It's not that simple."

I spun around, and glared at him. "Is it ever that simple?" I demanded. "When is it ever simple?" He remained resolute, and I shoved him out of my way. I needed to find myself a bus.

Arion seemed to have other thoughts, though, and grabbed my wrist. As he pulled me back to face him, I struck.

The slap was perfect, and I watched those eyes shift so quickly into their stormy anger. I braced myself for a world of hurt, but refused to let my eyes shift from his face. He would not win a battle of dominance. The anger was restrained, though, and I could tell it pained him to resist.

"Do you not care that I just saved you? Did you not notice that it was their full intent to bring you back into their world or kill you in while trying?" His voice was barely even, and his fury made it soft but urgent.

"I would have escaped." He laughed harshly, releasing me.

"Yes. Because you were doing so well before I came along." He paused. "Or did I miss something while you were being forcefully dragged into the surf?" I didn't appreciate the sarcasm – really, it was just pouring salt on the wound. But he was right. I knew too damned well that he was right. If he hadn't come when he had…

However much I loathed Arion, I knew he had a point. Crossing my arms, I jutted out my jaw. "Where are we going?" Each word made me hate myself just a little bit. I was not a graceful loser, especially when I put so much effort into an argument.

Especially when I had hoped to never see another faerie ever again.

A triumphant grin spread across his face. "Common sense at last."

"Wipe that smug look off your face," I said, my eyes narrowing at the prince. He merely retrieved his steed. Arrogance practically radiated off him.

Slowly the horse trotted back, and I grabbed my purse. If I had to, I'd at least have some money with which to get by. Even then I was plotting an escape. Maybe if he took us close enough to a city or town I would be able to slip away and get back to the city.

"Hop on, m'lady," he said, holding out a hand. I looked at the horse apprehensively. I was no great equestrian, and the idea of me try and failing to get upon a horse a, with so little actual clothing on, and b, in front of Arion, was not appealing in the least sense.

I looked at the hand and decided that I could at the very least make a fool of myself on my own. I climbed onto the back of the horse shakily. Embarrassingly enough, I had to cling to Arion for dear life in order to prevent myself from tipping off the other side. Feeling him shift to adjust to my clinging made me grumble inwardly. I hadn't taken the hand, but the grip I had on him was damaging enough to my ego.

The horse started to move, and I clutched Arion even tighter. If I never rode a horse ever again I would be perfectly content. Suddenly it struck me that he hadn't answered my question. "Where are we going? You never did say."

"Somewhere safe and far away," he replied.

I grimaced. "That was both vague and extremely unhelpful," I muttered, and he glanced back at me as I said it.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't mumble into my coat." I gave him a look, and he turned his attention back to the horse.

"I'll mumble if I want to," I replied somewhat sulkily.

This, however, was the moment that I noticed that the horse was starting to gallop down the highway.

"Are you insane?" I demanded. "How do you think people will react to seeing a nearly completely naked woman and some random man in outlandish clothing riding on a horse? This may be New York, but come on." The faster pace forced me to maintain a strong hold around his waist. We hadn't been moving that long, and I was already despising the fact that I had to act like a frantic princess who couldn't handle a horse. Even if the latter part of that fact that most certainly true.

Arion replied calmly. "They cannot see us." I shot him a look which read, Are you serious?

"Oh, and that makes it better." He turned and shrugged.

"They won't hit us, if that's what you're worried about. Honestly, Grace. Have some faith. I didn't come all this way to just have you crushed to bits by a pesky human vehicle." I shook my head in irritation.

"You can't honestly think that this is a good idea."

"How do you think I got here? Do you think I just appeared?" Yes, actually, I had. But his logic penetrated in my thick skull again.

"You're making sense," I muttered darkly, "Stop that." It was so much easier to be belligerent if there was a reason to do so.

We rode in silence for a while. Cars zoomed by, and they never once came even close to making us into a faerie/human/horse pancake. I wondered how he was doing it, because there was no way magic wasn't involved here.

I tried not to dwell on the thought of being crushed under a car because some joy rider was driving too fast. So I thought instead about what would drive Arion to actually keep me from Merriwind.

He'd said the kingdom was 'warring against itself'… Well, what did that mean? I had a ton of theories. There were just so many, and in the silence I was able to spin many a ridiculous possibility. Finally, curiosity and boredom drove me to ask.

"So what's really going on here?" He looked back at me.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't act so dense," I snapped. "What do you think I mean?" He continued to give me the I don't know what you're talking about stare. "The faerie kingdom. What's going on that is so bad that you don't want me there?"

I watched his jaw harden in anger, which was not directed at me for a first. Or, at least, I didn't believe it was. "When you disappeared, I decided to go out and find you. Warren said that he would follow a few days later – once he'd assembled the right equipment to do so."

'If only Warren had found me,' I thought. 'I probably could have convinced him to let me go.'

"After a few months," Arion continued, "I was attacked. By then I had tracked you down to New York – a very clever choice, Grace. If it weren't for the fact that I knew that sooner or later you would have to come out my task would have been quite painful." I smiled to myself. At least I'd given him a hell of a time. "Needless to say, my attackers were all Fae. They wanted to know any information about you. I assumed that after they had gotten me what they wanted, they would kill me."

"If you're trying to garner sympathy from me," I said, "It's not working. So I take it they didn't get what they wanted." It was a statement, not a question. I watched his golden hair bob in conformation.

"Indeed. I killed most of them, and left the leader. He was all too eager to talk." Arion smirked, and I shuddered. I could only imagine what dort of tactics he used to get the assassin to talk. "He told me that Tiernan had sent them." Why wasn't I shocked? I hadn't liked Tiernan when I had first met him, and with good cause. "Apparently, when I left he made a bid for power. My father had taken ill, and obviously he needed someone to run things in his stead. Tiernan probably thought that things would be easy enough – kill me, toss Warren into a dungeon where he would be completely useless, then kidnap you and he would have the throne."

I nodded slowly. "So you don't want to take me back for fear that Tiernan will pull a fast one, and stab you in the back just have an easy claim for me." He nodded, and inwardly I glowered. They acted as if I belonged to one of them.

"I believe there might be more to it, though." I looked at him. As if there could be more. It seemed pretty open and shut to me; Tiernan was a power hungry maniac who was taking an opportunity. "Something just doesn't seem right. It's too convenient." I frowned, and then realization dawned on me.

"Your father got sick right after you left, didn't he?"

"Mmmm. And there's more; the Fae are saying that the symptoms seem very similar to that of my mother's poisoning." I sighed.

"Why can't you faeries just keep things simple?" He laughed darkly in response, which just made me more uneasy. Things seemed to be unraveling, and they were unraveling around me.

To think that this mess had all started with me accepting a rose from a boy.