Fae Frost

by Michelle R. Reid

At the same time, fire erupted at my feet and formed a circle around me, eight feet high.

  I gasped, sweating at the instant heat. I coughed and covered my mouth as the hot air dried out my mouth.

  As fast as the fire started, it stopped, without singeing the ground or me. In its place, standing in front of me, was Helios. Tall and proud, he faced the Frost Queen and her men with squared shoulders, left hand outstretched in warning, right hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Even feet away, I could still feel the heat radiating from his wings as they stayed spread, like a shield in front of me.

  “Helios,” I whispered, smiling despite the situation. I lifted a hand, wanting to soothe away any negative emotions Helios had, but stopped inches from him. What if I distracted and endangered him?

  “Queen Aysla, please cease your actions.” His voice was low and strong. His chin lowered as he continued to face her. “I overlooked this morning out of curtesy. I won’t do it again.”

  Her magic disappeared and she stood still like a sculpture. Her pale eyes were wide, showing a new emotion. She was shocked. And hurt. Her pale skin seemed to go even whiter.

  I looked between the two of them. They looked more like enemies, ready to attack each other, than fiancés about to be married for their long Fae lives. Was this really what Helios was going to be stuck with? This contention? Or was it simply because of me?

  A deep blue hue tinted her cheeks and neck as she let out a hissing breath. “So, this is your choice,” Queen Aysla demanded, tone turning from hurt to anger. Insult. “You would choose this human over me? Over your own people?” She flung the words at him.

  My breath caught in my throat, and I watched Helios from behind, waiting.

  He hissed, shaking his head. “I am a king. I know my duty to my people,” his voice was rough with anger.

  Slowly, my hand lowered back to my side. Color seemed to drain from the world around me, leaving the once magical forest dull. An empty chill doused the fire that had swept my feet here, leaving my chest a gaping black pit.

  “Then why are you—” Queen Aysla went on, ignorant that her words had caused Helios to tear out my heart. Ignorant that she won.

  “This girl and her family are under the Sun Kingdom’s protection. I will ensure their safety. Whether it be from a gnome, a Sun Fae, or even a queen!” Helios yelled over her, fire erupting over his hands.

  She flinched in surprise, wings fluttering like diamonds behind her. Even her guards startled and shuffled back. After a second, she scoffed and turned away. Without another word, she flew off, guards following her.

  The fire died from Helios’s hands as his shoulders sagged. It was the first time I’d seen his shoulders anything but squared. Even when he was in slave chains, he was never anything but proud. Now, his shoulders drooped and his chin drifted down to the ground as he stood silently with his back to me.

  All I could do was stare at him, not sure I could talk without crying. My throat felt like it was on fire, a thick hungry flame that threatened to steal my breath and leave my heart in cinders.

  Finally, Helios took a breath and turned to me, fixing his posture. His features were smooth, as expressionless as when we first met. But now I knew him well enough to see the sad glimmer hiding in his bright eyes. “Hello, Maira.”

  So, it was Maira now. Not Fae Eyes.

  I grimaced at the bitter sound of my own name. No, I should smile. If this was the last time I saw Helios, I wanted him to remember me with a smile. I tried to swallow the lump of emotions back down my throat and managed to clear it enough to at least say something. “Hello, Helios.”

  “Are you all right?” he asked and took a step closer. “I heard about this morning from Aine. I knew that your magic was used,” he motioned to the golden sun hanging from my wrist, “but I didn’t realize why until Aine was able to get to me.”

  Sunlight winked off the angles of the sun as I lifted it closer to my face. “Is that why it glowed? To let you know?”

  He nodded.

  “I thought it was your magic that protected me,” I muttered and looked up at him. He looked so sad, so frustrated, it broke my heart even more. “If Aine told you about this morning, then you knew I was fine.” I bit my lips. “I’m not a weak little girl anymore, you know.”

  He smiled softly, eyes still sad. “You never were.”

  I shouldn’t have, but I reached out and traced my fingers along his brow, soothing the wrinkle that plagued his beauty.

  Helios closed his eyes, letting me. After a moment, he gently took my hand and held it to his cheek. “I talked to the council,” he whispered. “I proposed the idea of taking you as my wife.”

  My eyes widened and I couldn’t seem to breathe. So Aine was right. Helios really did ask. For me. He wanted me as his wife. The idea was outlandish. Impossible, even. I was a human. He was a Fae King. Even so, I wanted to be with him. To be together for the rest of our lives.

  Helios opened his eyes and trapped mine in his bright depths. “They would accept you only as—my second wife, the queen consort. But not as the first.”

  Second.

  I stood there, stunned. A second wife to Helios? Me?

  I wanted to be with Helios so badly, it hurt. The thought of never seeing him again dimmed the world around me to a dull gray. But if I could have Helios, I didn’t want to share him. Especially with a horrible woman like that.

  My mouth opened to say, ‘Okay.’ To calmly accept this. But that’s not what spilled out. “I…can’t do that.”

  “I can’t either,” he whispered, voice cracking with raw emotions.

  Hot tears pooled at my cheeks, threatening to humiliate me. “Why can’t it be just you and me? Please?”

  Helios’s expression cracked. What was underneath was pure heartache. The same that tore at me. His brows pulled together as the saddest frown I’ve ever seen on him marred his handsome face. He looked so lost, so hurt.

  Desperate to soothe that horrible mask away, I reached for him. I didn’t even know what I was going to do, but I had to make him happy again.

  Helios caught my other hand and clutched my fingers in his, away from his chest. For the first time, his hands weren’t hot against mine. If anything, they were cooler than my own skin. He shook his head, collecting himself in the process. “I can’t endanger you and your family like that. There’s no saying what the Frost Fae will do if I snub them. I can’t hurt you like that.”

  I shook my head, not wanting to hear his words, but he kept talking anyway.

  “I need to produce an heir. It doesn’t matter if it’s with Aysla or another Fae woman. It won’t change the fact that I couldn’t do it, knowing how much you would hurt as I went to another woman’s bed. I don’t even know if I’d be able to look at you after, never mind myself in the mirror.” His eyes held mine as he spoke the truth.

  There was no denying that fact. Every time he left me for her, I’d hurt. It would be a constant reminder that I could never be enough. Because I was human. It would never change. That was something I couldn’t live with.

  His hands tightened around mine and then let go, returning to his side. “I just couldn’t—figure out a way to tell you,” he whispered.

  My hand tightened to a fist around my bracelet and I hugged it to my pained chest, feeling every new crack with each beat of my heart. My chin dipped until I stared at his silk covered chest, shocked to my very core at his rejection.

  It was ironic. This whole time, I kept putting off my decision on whether I should marry Seamus or not because there was always a small hope in my heart that I didn’t have to leave Helios. But really, I never had that option. From the start, there was no changing that.

  It wasn’t his fault that I deluded myself, thinking that maybe he’d pick me over his people. I always knew the answer, I just convinced myself otherwise.

  When I made the decision to choose Helios, I knew I was going to a life that would be painful. There would be disdain towards me, a human in a Fae world.
It didn’t matter, as long as I was with him. But could I really stay happy, knowing that I was hurting him just by being in the same room as him? Knowing how much guilt I was inflicting on him, with one look?

  Really, there was only one option left for me. It had been that way from the very beginning. Because I was human. It was time to stop wishing otherwise.

  The realization cleared away some of the pain enough to breathe. I forced a smile and looked up at him. Even though my eyes were full of tears still, I was going to keep this smile on my face. “I guess, this is goodbye, then.”

  His brows pulled together as if the formality in my voice pricked him, but he simply nodded.

  The corners of the sun charm dug into my wrists as my fingers tightened more around my arm. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed to let go and flip the latch. Slowly, I slid the silk braid off and present the bracelet to him. “I should give this back.”

  Sunlight gleamed off the sun charm, shining like the beacon of hope that I always thought it was. Now I saw that that hope was as empty as my wrist felt.

  Helios’s eyes widened and he waved his hand. “No, that belongs to you. In case you ever need me…” He trailed off when I shook my head.

  “I can’t keep this. It won’t be fair for my future husband. Or me.” Every time I’d look at it, I’d have to feel this rejection again and again, until my grief drove me insane.

  Helios’s mouth tightened. Slowly, he reached out and took it from my palm.

  As soon as it was gone, my fingers tightened painfully until my knuckles were white, desperately wanting to feel the warm metal there still. Instead, I dropped my hand to my side.

  Helios looked at it in his fingers. Suddenly, his hand erupted into fire.

  I yelped and stepped back, shocked. “What are you doing?” I gasped, watching as the fire ate at the precious metal and silk.

  Slowly, the perfectly shaped sun began to warp.

  “There’s no reason for it to exist if it’s not with you. No one else will ever have one like it.” Helios’s voice was low and steady as he watched the symbol of us melt in his hand.

  Every fiber of my being screamed to save the bracelet. To make him fix it, that clear connection between Helios and me. Instead, I stood there and watched as the silk evaporated and the metal pooled in his palm and dripped to the ground between his fingers.

  Helios tipped his hand and spilled the remains of us onto the ground. The liquid metal landed on the dirt with a hiss. Carefully, Helios wiped the residue off his hands and left it there, on the ground.

  He looked back at me, a perfectly cordial smile on his face. “Goodbye, Maira. It meant the world to me to know you.”

  I had to lick my lips a couple time before I could talk. “Yes. Goodbye, Helios.”

  He just stood there, staring at me with my tear-filled eyes, flushed cheeks, and forced smile. His gaze roamed my face, as if he was desperately trying to memorize everything. As if his sanity depended on it.

  Finally, he turned away. His wings lifted, making ready to fly.

  He was leaving! He was actually leaving me. Forever. He’d never come back to the edge of the forest to talk with me. I’d never go to Lasair and visit him and Aine again. He’d never toss rocks at my window at night or bless me with his tender smiles and touches.

  My mouth opened and I gasped, needing to say something but not knowing what.

  “I love you!” I yelled the words. I couldn’t seem to stop them. Or the tears that flooded over my lashes and down my cheeks.

  He whipped around, eyes wide and dilated, completely unguarded.

  I might have entered this forest with the intention of telling him, but since the Frost Fae showed up, that hope had disappeared. I meant to leave him without the burden of hearing those words.

  Humiliated, I covered my face with my hands. “I love you, Helios,” I sobbed. “I think I always have.”

  Suddenly, my hands were lifted away from my face. My eyes widened to find Helios’s face right in front of mine, as he gently held my hands in his. Without a word, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. At first, the warmth of his lips on mine was soft and sweet. Then he closed his eyes and leaned fully into the kiss. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and opened fully to him. He tasted like salty tears and honey, so wonderful and sad at the same time. His hand let go of mine and smoothed down my hair, as if savoring the feeling.

  All too soon, he pulled back. “And I, you,” he whispered.

  And, in a flutter of wings, he was gone.

  Chapter 12

  I don’t remember leaving the forest. It was all a blur of pale browns and greens that I wandered through. I couldn’t hear the sounds of the forest over the broken pounding of my heart in my ears. All too soon I stumbled into the sun beating down on the road that ran along the forest south of my farm. I glanced towards my home. I should have been shocked that I came out at the wrong place. I never did that. But I just couldn’t seem to care. It didn’t matter right now.

  A horse squealed behind me, and a man yelled. Skidding and grinding thundered and shook the ground. I turned to see a horse rearing up over me. I gasped and stumbled away as its heavy hooves slammed to the ground where I had been.

  “What’cha doing, you daft lass?” The man hollered from the seat of a wagon as he straightened up. “Walking onto a road without looking! You’ll get yourself killed, and don’t blame me.”

  I stared at him. I should apologize or get mad, but my mouth stayed shut.

  “And you!” The man turned to a person that I hadn’t noticed before. A Dryad, fully grown but still the size of a human child, sat on the seat, holding the reins in her hand. “Keep your damned eyes on the road!” He backhanded her across the chest.

  She cried out, knocked clean from the wagon. She landed on the ground, whimpering, her cord-like, bark-colored hair in her small face. “S-Sorry, mas-ster,” she gasped, holding her stomach.

  The man couldn’t have possibly heard her tiny voice. He was too busy howling and shaking his hand, the one he used to hit her, in the air. A shabby looking bandage hung around his wrist, the ends coming untied with every movement he made. “I’ll kill you,” he seethed, staring at the slave on the ground. “What good is a useless slave like you? You’re nothin’ but trouble. Can’t steer a wagon, injuring me, useless!” He raged, apparently forgetting that I was even there.

  With a heave, he dropped to the ground next to the Dryad.

  She moaned like a pitiful animal and pushed herself back across the rough ground.

  “I’ll buy her.” The words came from my mouth, without a thought. Without emotion. I should be more upset, should be more forceful, but all I felt was numb. Yet, I couldn’t stand seeing that poor Dryad like this. She didn’t have wings nor was she defiant to her owner, but the gray color of her slave clothes against the ground reminded me of the first time I met Helios. It would have broken my heart, if it wasn’t already in pieces.

  “What?” the man spat and whipped around, shocked that I was still there.

  I tore my eyes from the Fae on the ground and looked into the man’s mean brown eyes. “I’ll buy her.”

  He snorted and looked me up and down, rudely. “You don’t look like you have any money on you. A Fae like this is prime stock.” He motioned his hand, the one still injured, then paused and hissed out a breath.

  Why did he keep using an injured hand? And if he thought the Dryad was ‘prime stock,’ why did he want to kill her? Regardless, there was something that he was right about. I didn’t have any money on me. My fingers lifted and bushed at my bare wrist. I didn’t even have a bracelet to trade. Still, I couldn’t leave that Fae with him.

  My hands smoothed over my apron, hoping that I perhaps had a forgotten coin in my pockets. My fingers slid over the bump in my pocket. I paused and pulled out the vial of tonic. I stared at the copper liquid, remembering the Fae nectar that Helios had given.

  It was the last connection I had to Helios and th
e Sun Fae.

  Slowly, my fingers open and I revealed the bottle to the man. “I have this.”

  The Dryad on the ground looked up and gasped, huge green eyes getting even wider.

  “What is that?” the man demanded, scowling from me to the Fae on the ground.

  “It’s a healing tonic, made from a Fae recipe. It will cure your wrist.” I motioned to the dilapidated bandage. “I’ll trade you this tonic for the Dryad.” That was a fair trade, right? My memories of Helios, for a life? I’d made this tonic, hoping that I could use it for good one day. Now was that chance, but I never thought this would be how.

  His face wrinkled in distain. “A tonic,” he leered. “You think I’m stupid?” He turned to the Dryad and sent out a quick kick. Over her squeal of pain, he demanded, “Is that a healing tonic? Tell me the truth!”

  Her lips trembled as tears formed in her large eyes. “Yes. It’s a healing tonic.” She couldn’t lie, even if she wanted to.

  His eyes widened and turned greedy. “Deal.” He snatched the bottle from my hand. Grinning, he pulled a leather cord with a small brown Fae Pearl dangling from it out of his coat pocket—the Dryad’s will. He tossed the Pearl on the ground at my feet, hopped back on the wagon, and drove away, barely missing me and the Dryad in his haste.

  I watched him leave, then leaned down and picked up the Pearl. Slowly, I walked over and knelt next to the Dryad. She looked up at me with big, fearful eyes. I carefully reached out and took her hand. She flinched away at first, her dusty skin rubbing like bark on mine. But when I didn’t hurt her, she paused and waited to see what I would do.

  I turned her hand over and dropped the Pearl in her palm. The instant the pearl touched her skin, it began glowing. Like a raindrop on a pond, it melted into her skin and vanished. The dull look in her eyes brightened to a vibrant green, the color of grass in the sun.

  She gasped, shocked. “What?”

  I smiled at her, even though I didn’t feel it in my heart. “I hope you have a good life.” With that, I stood up and started to walk towards my farm.