Broken Wishes: Three Wishes Historical Fantasy, #2

By Marcy Kennedy

In the riveting sequel to Cursed Wishes, award-winning author Marcy Kennedy returns to the isles of medieval Scotland in a fast-paced fantasy where evil creatures roam the earth and danger is hidden in every lie you tell yourself.

 

NOTHING WITH THE FAE IS EVER FREE, ESPECIALLY NOT VICTORY…

 

Ceana Campbell wakes up in Duntulm Castle after surviving the battle with the nuckalevee, believing that it's only a matter of days until her curse is lifted. Gavran will return for her as soon as he heals from the wound the nuckalevee gave him, and Lady MacDonald will take them to her fae contact.

 

At least, that's how it was supposed to go, but magical wounds aren't like natural ones.

 

The nuckalevee infected Gavran with a poisonous venom when it struck him down. Within a fortnight, he'll die a painful death unless they can find an equally magical cure.

 

THE MOST DANGEROUS MONSTER IS SOMETIMES THE ONE WITHIN…

 

Gavran Anderson's mind is no longer his own. Whatever the nuckalevee venom has done to him, the physical effects are the least of his worries. He's not even as terrified as he should be that the only way to cure him involves facing another fae who'd rather see them suffer.

What scares him the most are the voices in his head. The ones telling him that the people he thought were his friends want him dead. That he'll feel better if they're gone.

 

Can Ceana find a way to outwit an opponent more cruel and cunning than she ever imagined possible before time runs out?

 

Or before Gavran kills her first?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stronghold Books
• Release date: May 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9780992037246

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I need to see its eye. Lady Salome MacDonald smoothed the edge of the blanket that tucked Ceana Campell into the bed. I can’t risk that the nuckalevee isn’t dead. Too much is at stake.

The words hit Ceana like frigid winter wind rushing into a cozy room. They stole the warmth building in her heart at Salome’s motherly touch. After all they’d been through, did Salome still not trust her? Aye. For me as well. For me more.

Salome rung out the damp cloth she’d been using to dab Ceana’s forehead. I would say the stakes are high for us both.

The serenity of her expression didn’t so much as flicker, but a new layer of something undergirded her words. Reproach? Not quite enough edge for that. More like Ceana had noticed a bruise and intentionally pressed on it.

Salome folded the cloth and set it next to the bowl of water. If our roles were swapped, would you take my word, or would you wish for proof?

Fair enough true. Fulfilling the deal Ceana and Gavran had made with the MacDonalds to kill the nuckalevee was Ceana’s only hope of removing the fae curse that doomed her to fail at everything she tried. If she and Gavran hadn’t managed to kill the nuckalevee, she might have lied to Salome about it. Lying would have seemed like a small risk that could have resulted in getting what she most needed.

She licked her cracked lips. Dried blood broke off, leaving a taste like rancid meat on her tongue. I have it.

She pulled the purse containing the nuckalevee’s eye from under the covers. A shudder ran through her. She wouldn’t touch it again. Cutting it from the creature’s skull had been bad enough. She held the purse out to Salome.

Salome accepted it, opened the drawstrings, and poured the eye out into her hand. It landed with a broken squish, flattened from Ceana falling on it, but still recognizable.

The golden iris seemed to stare into Ceana’s soul. Her legs went numb, and she couldn’t look away.

She saw the nuckalevee again, more real than Salome in front of her. A beast twice the size of a normal horse, black blood flowing through iron-hard veins and arteries exposed to the air, golden eyes. Craving pain the way a drunkard craved mead.

Salome didn’t even flinch. She held the eye as if it were nothing more disgusting than an overripe apple. She rolled it back into the purse, wiped her hand on the edge of the blanket, and tossed the purse containing the nuckalevee’s eye into the fire. The bag burst into flames with a pop, and sparks splintered off from it.

Salome crossed herself. I’ll have my lord husband send men back for Gavran’s body. I deeply regret what this has cost.

Her voice carried a tone of awkward sincerity, like someone whose heart felt more than they were comfortable putting into words.

She spoke as if Gavran had died. Ceana fished backward in her memory, but she couldn’t grasp exactly what she’d said when Salome asked her where Gavran was. Her body had been so heavy that sleep had dragged her under as soon as she knew she was safe. Maybe she hadn’t answered at all, and Salome assumed from Gavran’s absence that he’d perished. He’d never have willingly left her for any other reason.

Gavran’s alive. Speaking took all the breath from her, reminding her that she’d pushed her body to breaking not long ago. He took a wound in the battle with the nuckalevee. I called for help, and his dadaidh and Tavish found the grove. I hid so they’d take him safe away. They burned the nuckalevee, thinking it was me. That’s how the grove caught fire.

And how the two men had found Ceana on the edge of it, flames licking up everything behind her, and blamed her for starting the blaze. But Salome knew that part. The only reason Ceana had been able to make it back to Duntulm castle was because those men wanted her punished for setting the fire. Letting Gavran go had been a risk, but it’d been the only way.

Her throat was tight, as if even the memory of the smoke could draw all the moisture from it again. His wounds would have killed him, but they won’t now. Now that he’s far enough away that my curse and his blessing stop canceling each other out, he’ll mend. The blessing will heal him. When he returns, we can go to your contact as you promised.

Salome’s shoulders jerked back, but she didn’t turn from the fire. Wounds the nuckalevee gave him?

What other wounds would he have had? Ceana fisted her hands in the blanket. They’d fulfilled their part of the bargain. She and Gavran had killed the nuckalevee so it couldn’t spread the Black Death and destroy the crops of the MacDonalds’ people. Now she wanted what was owed in return. I intend to hold you at your word.

Salome slowly swiveled to face her. Her lips compressed into a thin line, and strain tightened her eyes. I thought we’d moved beyond battling each other. Please answer my question.

Heat flared in Ceana’s cheeks. Aye, they had moved past fighting each other. They were supposed to be allies now. Friends. But it seemed that, even with all she’d learned, old habits were no more eager to die than she was. They were from the nuckalevee.

Salome steepled her fingers over her nose.

The flush in Ceana’s face drained out with a shiver. Why does it matter where the wounds came from?

Wounds inflicted by the nuckalevee are unnatural. Salome shook her head slowly. The blessing your wishes placed on Gavran won’t heal him.

You’re mistaken. Salome knew vastly more than Ceana did about unseelie fae, including the nuckalevee, but she didn’t know the wishes in the same way. She hadn’t breathed and battled them for the past year. The wishes will heal him. That’s how it works.

I’m not mistaken. Salome’s voice was tight. Not in a defensive way, but more like someone who had to bear the news to a wife that her husband had passed and had thus steeled themselves for the onslaught of grief. She said I’m not mistaken in the same way that someone else might have said I saw his body.

Ceana swung her legs off the bed and forced herself to her feet. The damage to her lungs from the nuckalevee’s breath, the running, and the smoke, the scrapes and bruises from being tossed about and falling from a horse, all the wounds of the past week burst back to life.

She let out a low groan. The ache running from her toes to the top of her head and back again begged her lie down, but Salome wasn’t listening the way she needed to while Ceana lay abed like an invalid. I’ve told you what the wishes could do. They kept me from experiencing any happiness, any success. They kept me alive when I wanted to die. They can heal a wound, no matter how deep.

Not a nuckalevee wound. Salome cupped a hand around her belly as if she wanted to shield her unborn child from an ugly truth. It implants venom in its victim, much like a poisonous snake, but without a cure and without any hope of survival.

Shaking started in Ceana’s legs and worked its way up until it felt like an earthquake racked her body. The room swayed, and she placed a hand on the wall for support. If the wishes allowed Gavran to kill the nuckalevee, why wouldn’t they heal him from his wounds?

Salome blinked twice, rapidly. What do you mean the wishes killed the nuckalevee?

We couldn’t defeat it. It was too strong. Too fast. Gavran had me go as far away as I could so that he’d be able to use the blessing of the wishes to succeed against the nuckalevee. That’s how he managed to kill it.

A tendril of peace unfurled in Ceana’s chest. She had to be correct. It made sense. The blessing side of the wishes should defeat the nuckalevee’s venom in the same way that it took its life.

Lines formed between Salome’s eyes. That’s not possible. She waved Ceana closer, picked up a cup from the table, and held it out to her. Drink this.

What is it?

Tea. I want to see if you can still accept it from me and drink. Who I am should still cancel out the effect of your curse on me.

She took the cup of tea and drank. She didn’t choke. Didn’t burn her lips. Didn’t vomit it back up at Salome’s feet. She drank it to the dregs and handed it back. The protection Salome carried from her time as a selkie still seemed to make her immune to the curse side of the wishes.

Salome returned the cup to the table. It rattled when she set it down, and for the first time, Ceana noticed that Salome’s hands shook as much as her own. Dread built in her stomach, grabbed hold of the tiny thread of peace, and swallowed it whole.

Salome pressed a finger to the middle of her bottom lip. The nuckalevee is unseelie fae. The wishes you were inflicted with shouldn’t affect it either negatively or positively. Unseelie powers cannot affect the seelie or other unseelie, only humans. You can see they still have no influence on me.

Ceana rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. Could she have been wrong about how they’d defeated the nuckalevee? She hadn’t been there and hadn’t been able to speak to Gavran after. He’d been unconscious when she returned to the clearing. But before she left, the nuckalevee was besting them easily. Both of them. Gavran alone shouldn’t have been able to defeat it without supernatural aid.

She turned her gaze back to Salome and opened her mouth to tell her so.

Salome pleated and unpleated the hem of her sleeve. She looked fragile.

Ceana couldn’t catch a full breath. Nothing they’d encountered to this point had rattled Salome. Not telling them that the nuckalevee could only be lured by fresh human flesh. Not offering to help Ceana kill herself. Not holding the nuckalevee’s dismembered eye in her hand.

But the thought that the wishes had somehow stopped the nuckalevee turned her into a woman who looked more like a child in her first thunderstorm than the cool, confident lady of Duntulm Castle and former fae.

Shivers ran down Ceana’s legs, and she pulled the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around herself. Do you have a possible explanation for it?

Salome refocused on her face. It shouldn’t have happened unless the wishes were placed on you by a seelie fae.

I thought the unseelie were evil and the seelie were good? Or, at least, not intentionally harmful. The fairy who forced me to make three wishes where Gavran would receive the opposite of whatever I wished for myself wasn’t good or kind. She hurt us intentionally. For no reason we’ve been able to figure.

Salome nodded. No seelie fae should have laid the wishes upon you. I don’t understand how this is possible.

Ceana’s lungs expanded, and she sucked in a deep breath. Who cared how it was possible? If it were possible, it meant they still had hope. Then the wishes should heal Gavran after all.

The only way to know for sure would be to check on him.

Ceana pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. If Allan and Tavish had followed through on their plan, Gavran was only as far away as the town of Duntulm. But she couldn’t go to him. The men believed she was a witch—or fae—who’d brainwashed Gavran into leaving them. Into abandoning his betrothed to run away with her. They’d assumed when they found the nuckalevee’s body that it was her, in her true form. If she reappeared now, they’d kill her on sight.

Yet if Gavran’s life was still at risk, she had to go to him. In allowing him to be taken by his dadaidh, she’d made the decision that she’d trade her life for his as many times as was necessary. That’s what love meant.

Is there anything we can do for him if the nuckalevee’s venom isn’t stopped by the wishes?

"There’s nothing I can do. Salome shook her head again as if she still couldn’t translate what was happening into words that made sense. Our best hope is to take him to my contact. He can petition the seelie court to heal Gavran at the same time as he asks them to erase the wishes."

How long does he have before…? She couldn’t bring herself to say before he dies. How long do we have?

A fortnight at best.

CHAPTER 2

Two weeks. Fourteen days.

For some reason, saving Gavran’s life in that length of time felt like a greater challenge than saving him when he’d been lying in her arms, unconscious and bleeding. But perhaps that was because she’d had some scrap of naiveté left then about what they faced when they decided to fight a fae.

Regardless, she wasn’t about to stop fighting now. She gave a brisk nod. And how long was I asleep?

Over a full day. The men from Duntulm brought you here yester morn. It’s near midday now.

That left them thirteen days, then. Duntulm was a short ride on horseback. And she had to assume that Salome’s contact was within a day’s ride as well. But who knew how long the seelie court would take to render a decision? I’m fit to leave now.

Salome’s hands stilled, and the lines in her face softened. You’re rested but far from fit. I’ll take you to the kitchen and give you something to eat. So long as I give it to you and you don’t move from the spot I place you, it shouldn’t matter if I then leave you to gather fresh clothes⁠—

I don’t need either. She wouldn’t risk missing the two-week window by an hour because she stopped for a bite and bath. I’d rather leave now.

Salome directed a pointed stare at her dress.

Ceana glanced down. The skirt and one sleeve were torn open, her hem and the edges of her sleeves were in tatters, and mud and dark stains that could only be Gavran’s blood smeared the front. "Perhaps it is best I change before trying to take Gavran from Allan and Tavish."

Salome’s lips quirked in an almost-smile, and she motioned for Ceana to follow her. They headed down the hall together.

Ceana’s body threatened to fall apart with every step. Even when she’d brought in the whole catch for sale at market or worked the fields in her dadaidh’s stead, she hadn’t ached this soundly.

Salome’s pace stayed brisk, seemingly oblivious to Ceana’s lagging steps. I’ll bring you a clean dress and let Ihon know what’s happened and where we’re headed. The bigger challenge is selecting which guards to bring.

There’s no secret if three know it, her mamaidh always used to say. They were already well past three who knew the secrets they sought to keep. It might be only a matter of time before they were all revealed. Hopefully not until after the seelie court lifted her curses and Salome had given Ihon an heir, though. After that, they could face what might come with fewer burdens on their shoulders.

They stepped out into the courtyard, and the sunlight blasted her eyes. She squinted against it. The sky above was cloudless, as if even the air was now free from the nuckalevee’s stain. She paused and soaked in the rays. Warmth filtered through her skin and into her soul. Even if she failed to remove the curses, she could take solace that her life had made a difference to these people. No matter that they didn’t know it.

That’s her. The shout echoed across the courtyard. That’s the one who set the fire.

Ceana jerked around toward the speaker. The two men who thought she’d set fire to the grove where she and Gavran fought the nuckalevee stood halfway across the courtyard with Ihon. And Hugh.

The curses that filled her head weren’t fit to even be thought in the presence of a lady. Hugh was like a blight on the land. They ought to have fed him to the nuckalevee instead of Gavran’s toe.

She glanced sidelong at Salome, waiting for her lead.

Salome glided towards the group. Ceana tried to imitate her confidence—joining them with anything less would surely hint at guilt—but the best she could manage was a fast limp.

Salome stopped next to Ihon. I’ve already heard of this matter. The young woman in question had nothing to do with the fire.

Salome turned her eerily calm gaze to Gap-Tooth and the tall man next to him and gave them a no-need-to-worry-further smile.

It swept over Ceana as well. Some of the ache deep in her muscles drained away, and she wanted to hide her face in Salome’s shoulder and cry until the broken parts inside her healed. It was the same feeling she’d had the first time they met. At the time, she’d had no explanation for it. Now, though, she knew the truth about Salome’s heritage. The ability she had to calm turbulent souls must be a vestige of whatever power she’d once claimed as a fae.

Gap-Tooth’s scowl faded, and the tall man’s shoulders slumped forward.

Hugh’s eyes narrowed slightly. These men bear witness to what she did, cousin. Are we to call them liars when they’ve come to their lord for justice?

The bubble of good feelings around Ceana popped, and she glared at Hugh. What had she ever done to him other than prevent him from tossing a girl out into the wilds? If the man had even half a soul…

Ihon crossed his arms and angled his gaze towards Gap-Tooth and the tall man. "Did you actually see