“That’s all the food I have,” the woman cried. “How will I feed my children?”
“That’s not our problem, ma’am,” the lead guard said. “The guard has to eat first.”
Colin started for the house, but Darby grabbed his arm. “Leave it be,” she said. “You aren’t the prince right now.”
He looked down at his clothes, then over at the guards, and reluctantly followed her. As much as he didn’t want to admit that Darby was right, it was time for him to go home. One thing his time away from the castle had taught him was that things in Ballentine were not as wonderful as his parents thought; the town was full of corruption and evil.
When they came out on Main Street, he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t see Darby when she stopped, and they both nearly toppled to the ground. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” he said.
Darby was staring off into the harbor, a look of horror on her face. “It’s all gone,” she said. “All of it.”
“But look,” he said. “Main Street is fine. Why don’t you show me your store?”
Darby smiled up at him. “Okay, I’d like you to see it.”
As they walked along the deserted street, Colin took Darby’s hand in his and squeezed, enjoying the moment since it would be one of the last. When they reached the front door of her shop, she stopped and dug around for the key in her pocket, then threw open the door. He stepped inside and took a deep breath, then looked around, charmed by what he saw.
“It smells good in here,” he said. “It smells just like you.”
Darby blushed, and desire raced through him, so he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She melted in his arms, and soon the world around them faded into nothingness, and all that mattered was the two of them.
***Darby***
Darby would have ended up doing something in the back of her store she never thought she’d do if Fiona hadn’t come in just a few minutes later. She stumbled on them in the back room, Darby sitting on her desk with her legs locked around Colin, but luckily, they were still dressed. The little scream she let out when she saw them made Colin jump and step away from Darby, who turned bright red and quickly jumped down from the desk.
Fiona took one look at Colin, grabbed Darby’s arm, and pulled her into the front of the store. “Who is that? And what were you doing with him?” she demanded when they were by the front door.
“That’s Colin, and well...things just got out of control. We wouldn’t have...” her words trailed off because she knew they would have.
Fiona’s eyes got big. “You were too,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’ve been hiding him from me.”
“No, I haven’t,” Darby protested. “I’ve only known him for three days.”
“That’s why you stayed home from work,” Fiona said. “Darby, who is this guy? Where did you meet him? This isn’t like you.”
She sighed. “I know, and I promise I’ll explain later, but he has to go home today, and we only have a few more hours together.”
Fiona’s eyes softened. “Okay, but I want to hear all about it when he’s gone,” she said, kissed Darby on the cheek and slipped out the door.
When she got back to the stockroom, Colin was still grinning. “That must have been Fiona,” he said.
Darby nodded. “She’s gone.”
“I don’t suppose you want to continue from where we were so rudely interrupted,” he said, a silly grin on his face.
“Let’s go for a walk. I want to see the harbor,” she said, the passion of the moment gone.
As they walked down the street, it struck her just how different the harbor looked without the pier and shops. “It looks so sad and deserted,” she said, shivering.
They walked as far as they could down the dock, then stopped and looked at the damage the storm had done, and she shivered again. He looked down at her. “Are you cold?”
She shook her head, but then goosebumps broke out on her skin, and she shivered several more times, feeling something heavy beginning to descend on her. Grabbing on to Colin’s arm to steady herself as a blanket of evil covered her, she let out a cry of despair and would have fallen to her knees if he hadn’t held her up.
He swept her up in his arms, and the evil was gone, leaving her stunned and breathless. When they reached a bench tucked up into the side of a cliff back in the trees, he set her down gently, then took her hands in his and began to rub them. She looked up at him, then began to shake uncontrollably, so he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.
When she could finally talk, she looked up at him and said, “Colin, that storm wasn’t natural; it was a demon or something.”
“What do you mean? What did you see?” he asked, pulling her up against him again.
“I felt an overwhelming sense of evil,” she said, a shiver racking her body again. “Someone sent a storm demon to destroy Ballentine.”
“But that’s not possible,” Colin said. “There are rules and stuff in place to keep that from happening.”
She looked up at him. “I know what I felt, Colin, and it’s going to come back again and again until there’s nothing left.”
He jumped up. “We have to tell my parents,” he said.
She pulled him back down on the bench. “We can’t do that, Colin. They won’t believe me, and if they do, then what? They’ll think I’m a witch.”
“But you’re not a bad witch; you’re a good witch,” he said. “They’ll listen to you. I know they will.”
“We need proof,” Darby said. “We need to find out who’s behind this and why.”
Colin leaned back against the bench, then looked over at her and grinned. “I guess this means I don’t have to go home today after all.”
Darby slapped him, but her heart was soaring; broken heart or not, she had one more night with him. When he gathered her in his arms, she knew what was coming and leaned up into the kiss, letting the passion between them spark to life. But it was only a few minutes before they were interrupted by the sound of voices.
“I think we should go home,” she said, but Colin put a finger to her lips.
“I think I recognize one of those voices,” he whispered, pulling her back against the bench.
It wasn’t long before two men came into view. Colin tensed up next to her, and pointed to the one on the left. “That’s my father's chief advisor, Samuel, but I don’t know who the other man is,” he whispered.
“It looks like the first strike did as much damage as you promised. I’m pleased,” Samuel said, rubbing his hands together as he looked over the harbor.
“I told you the demon would be worth the price,” the other man said. “When you’re ready for the next strike just let me know; the price hasn’t changed.”
“I think we’ll give the town a little while to recover and then hit them again,” Samuel said. “It will be perfect; just as they begin to think things are getting better, boom, another freak storm. Then we’ll raid their food supplies again, that should weaken them to the point that they’ll be happy to see the Unseelie when they arrive.”