Page 3 of Fae Unleashed
The gray stone walls of the Seelie castle were covered in a layer of vines with crimson-tipped leaves. All the plants here now had a touch of red to them, like my blood stained everything. It would continue to stain more and more of the castle if I kept fighting for it.
Though, that wasn’t on my mind as I walked through the halls. Memories were trying to break free of the locked doors deep within me. The feeling of the stone under my fingertips reminded me of how I used to run through these halls. The smell of fragrant florals on the air beckoned me to go outside and race through the hedge maze that used to be fun and not a cage for the people of my court.
Being back here seemed wrong. How had I entered? I didn’t remember stepping through the portal. Had Beryl dragged me through? Was she here?
I spun, heart pounding in my throat. The hall behind me was empty, though. A slice of bright light cut through the nearest window and painted the wall with a glorious glow.
Everything seemed…safe, so I kept exploring. The feeling slowly came apart at the seams. I found rooms with sleeping fae bound by thick red vines. These were my people. They were trapped here under a cursed sleep. Beryl’s magic had kept them in nightmares for over twenty years. When I spun and ran, I crashed into another room filled with sleeping fae.
I shook them by their shoulders and screamed for help, but nothing happened. There was no breaking this curse by any obvious means. I couldn’t just startle them awake. When I touched the red vines, the magic responded to the blight on my arcana.
If I leaned into Beryl’s unseelie blight, I might be able to free them all. How many were there? The first room had been full, as if Beryl had cursed them in the middle of a party. This room wasn’t quite as packed. There were five fae here, one with delicate wings on her back that had been crushed by Beryl’s vines.
These were the people that my biological parents expected me to save. They’d been waiting for me this whole time. Guilt for my own selfish desires unfurled and made my head heavy until I let it fall forward.
Head hung in shame, I grasped the vines and squeezed. Their thorns pierced my hands, but I didn’t care. A little blood was worth it. If I could use it to take power back here and set everyone free, then I didn’t care how much it would take.
I closed my eyes and reached for the seed of power that I’d left behind here. It beat a steady rhythm…in the far-flung distance. My eyes snapped open. As I cocked my head, the stone floor pressing into my knees dissolved, and the dream fell apart.
Waking with a jolt, I bounced as if I’d been falling. I jerked upright with a gasp on my lips. It took a moment for the real world to rush back in, but when it did, I groaned and buried my head in my hands.
The Seelie Court wanted me to come back and save my people. It had managed to reach out to me and invade my dreams to show me what was at stake. No matter how I strayed, the Court would remind me.
My lips curled in frustration. I kicked aside my blanket and padded out into the living room. Delphine wasn’t on the couch. I wondered, almost absentmindedly, if she was nocturnal. I didn’t mind. It was nice to have my apartment to myself again.
The massive windows looking out over the city had been repaired, and they’d put a dent in my wallet since I’d already used my security deposit to fix them once. The building manager kept giving me dubious looks every time I went down to the office to talk to her. Someday, she would take one look at me and throw me out.
Until then, I savored the view that I didn’t have to hide from anymore. Delphine wasn’t out there with her poisoned crossbow trained on me. Rhoan never quite explained how he’d gotten her on our side, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear the story. I was sure that it involved some sort of old affair between them.
Rhoan made a vow of celibacy when he knelt to become a knight, you dork. He’s not banging the elven assassin.
That didn’t mean the two weren’t head-over-heels for each other. I saw the way he stole glances in her direction. The two were always making eye contact. He paid more attention to Del than he did to me.
As badly as I wanted to hate Rhoan, I couldn’t. His dejection didn’t even make me angry. My heart sunk, heavy, but I wanted him to be happy. I had a better idea of what he’d been through now and how the years since then had weighed on him.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Rhoan said, appearing beside me to run his thumb over the furrow between my brows.
My heart stuttered excitedly. Lips parted, I stared up in shock at the fae warrior. The glow from the streetlights beyond my windows illuminated the dark rainbow of color that washed over his long, black hair. His pale violet eyes seemed to smolder in the dark. Or was that just the result of the curve at the corner of his cupid’s bow lips?
He had rough fingers from years of fighting. When he pulled his hand away, my gaze roved over the tattoos that circled his muscle-bound arms. On the right, there was an inky black sword on the inside of his forearm. On the left, flames ran from elbow to palm. I’d seen him use both to summon magical weapons.
I reached out and touched the edge of the sword on his forearm. “Were you born with these?”
He laughed. Though the sound was gentle, it betrayed a bit of condescension that I would get him back for later. “No, our people aren’t born with tattoos like these. I had them done right after I was knighted. The arcana in the ink makes it so that I’m always prepared for a fight. That way, I can better serve my Queen.”
My Queen.
The way he said it made me shiver in greedy anticipation. I wanted him to pull me close and whisper it in my ear while he asked how he could serve me better. It would be even better if he put his hand between my legs.
I took a sudden step back as my skin heated. I gave him a tight smile and looked away so I could buy time to gather my thoughts. My damned hormones had gotten the best of me again.
“Why are you up so early?” he asked.
A glance at the clock told me that it was five in the morning. I sighed and rolled my shoulders. There was no way that I was getting back to sleep now. My body was used to these hours from working at a coffee shop for five years.
If I wasn’t going to get more sleep, I might as well get some coffee. I asked Rhoan if he wanted any, and I promised him that I had all the fancy gadgets and syrups to make café quality drinks. He seemed skeptical, but I made him a lavender latte, nonetheless.
It seemed like a very fae drink, even if it wasn’t the most masculine. He sipped it with forced enthusiasm until I pulled out the milk I’d steeped with cinnamon breakfast cereal and made him a sillier latte.
