Serving the Fae (Daughter of Light Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  His back arched as we both peaked. “Never…again,” he promised, and we rode the wave of bliss together.

  That promise played in my head long after our lovemaking.

  I slept lightly, waking in the middle of the night wrapped in Liam’s arms. It was the most secure and amazing feeling I’d had in a long time. Elle had left three healing stones for Liam’s wing on the kitchen table. I’d already treated him with one and would do another in the morning.

  Rolling to my side, I slipped out of his arms and padded to the bathroom to go pee before creeping back to the bed. As I was about to slide in, I noticed that my messenger bag had been thrown carelessly on the ground, and the book I’d gotten from the Elder library lay sprawled out. The one on illusions.

  Picking it up, I started to flip through, reading the chapter headings.

  Temporary Illusions.

  Grand Illusions.

  Multiple-Person Illusions.

  Illusions Only Affecting Normies.

  Dark Magic Illusions….

  I stilled on that page and started to read.

  Dark magic illusions are very powerful and can only be broken with dark magic. Illusions of invisibility are the most common dark illusion and take a blood offering to activate and break.

  Liam was right…my mom had used dark magic. That meant that whatever was in her journal was important enough for her to have broken her own moral code and use dark magic to hide it.

  I wasn’t ready to know yet. Everything was finally going well with Liam. We had a plan to defeat his dad and bring the crystals back to Faerie. I just…didn’t want another bomb dropped on me.

  Sometimes, ignorance was bliss, and I wanted to be ignorant just a little while longer. Stuffing the book back in the bag, I slipped into Liam’s embrace and tried to push the journal from my mind.

  Once I woke up to whatever was in that journal, I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, no matter how much I might want to. It would awaken me to something I wasn’t yet ready to deal with…something so horrible that my mother had used dark magic to conceal it.

  The next morning after Cam, Elle, Liam, and I had breakfast, I looked at Liam. “Let’s get the healing water.”

  He froze. “But I thought you wanted to get the crystals first.”

  “But that’s clearly going to take more time than we thought, and your mom doesn’t have time.” I shrugged. “I can convince the Elders that I need to get the water to change the dark crystals back.”

  He was silent for a moment, simply staring at his cereal. Then, he reached out for my hand and squeezed. “Thank you.”

  Cam rolled his neck. “I’m game.”

  “I’ll go, too.” Elle popped a blueberry into her mouth. “Obviously.”

  Cam looked down at his plate of fresh fruit and yogurt and three waffles stacked high. “This is amazing and all, but where’s the meat?”

  Elle and I shared a look.

  “So, most fae are vegetarians. We don’t seek to harm the animals we live with. It’s hard to get meat here, so Elle and I only eat it when on Earth, and only a few times a year.” I felt stupid saying it out loud and worried it might make the divide between Liam and me greater.

  Cam looked at Liam with wide eyes. “Vegetarians.”

  Liam shrugged. “I heard.”

  “Well, you said most fae, so if I come live here, I’m going to start raising pigs and selling bacon,” Cam joked.

  Elle huffed. “If you want to be a complete asshole, you will!”

  His lips quirked up. “You’re sexy when you’re mad.”

  “Oh, stop it,” she snapped, but we all had a hard time suppressing our grins.

  We ate the rest of our food in silence, and I packed a small backpack with empty jars for the healing water. I also threw in some food and a few knives, just in case.

  I sent word for Indra and the Elders to meet me at the water’s edge. I had to play this right, lest I wind up in cuffs like Mara. I needed to openly ask her permission to have Liam and Cam get the healing water with me, and then I needed to somehow get her to agree to let Liam and his men live with us after. He had the final crystal, and his brothers—and seventy warriors—needed to be allowed into Faerie.

  No big deal.

  We were about to go meet the Elders when Elle pulled me aside. “Hey, can we talk for a second?”

  I nodded, walking back with her into my kitchen.

  Elle pointed to my hands. “I know it’s been crazy, but are you going to tell me about the light magic?”

  I laughed nervously. “I think it’s a side effect of falling in the healing pool.”

  “Okay…” Elle frowned. “But maybe we should ask Trissa or—”

  “No. Let’s just focus on healing Liam’s mom and getting the crystals for now.”

  Elle chewed her lip. “Okay, but if you feel pain or anything…we tell Trissa.”

  “Deal.” My powers weren’t hurting me, and I felt in control of them, so I didn’t think it would make a difference to wait on telling anyone.

  Elle and I met the boys, and we ventured out into the town. Faerie was bustling; people flitted around, going about their daily tasks as we headed left to the riverbank. As we passed people, they stared at Liam and Cam, but when I smiled or waved, they did so back. I thought revealing the truth about the crystals and what my job was had given them a greater respect for me—a respect I would not take for granted.

  When we turned the corner and came out of the alley that led from the village to the riverbed, my gaze fell on Indra and the Elders. Trissa stood beside them, and they were all armed with swords at their sides.

  As we approached, Indra’s nostrils flared, her gaze running over Cam. “I don’t recall approving him to be here.”

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “Cam is my guest and has been helping us track the crystals. We found three last night, and I need to get more healing water because they’ve all turned dark.” Technically, I hadn’t seen the crystals, but I was going to assume they had turned.

  Indra’s eyes seemed almost hungry for a moment, but she quickly schooled her expression. “You found three?” She looked to Liam. “And you took the fourth before you left?” Her words could cut glass—it was an accusation.

  I cleared my throat. “Yes, and once I bring all the crystals back and we restore Faerie, Liam, five of his brothers, and seventy of his men will come live among us in peace.”

  There—I’d said it. I hadn’t asked, I’d just said it.

  Indra’s gaze darkened, and the other Elders shifted nervously. Trissa looked worried for me, but I no longer cared. I wouldn’t live in fear and allow injustice to continue.

  “Well, dear,” Indra said, “when you bring all the crystals back and Faerie is restored, we can talk about it then.”

  I was about to retort when Liam stepped forward. “No. We talk about it now.”

  I froze, feeling my hands heat up with power.

  Indra glared at Liam, her sharp gaze running over his black wings. “Excuse me?”

  He chuckled condescendingly. “I’m risking my life touching the dark crystals. I’m the only Seeker who can bring them here. I want you to vow, right here and now, that you will allow my friends and family to live here permanently if I deliver the four crystals. Or you can go fuck yourself.”

  We all froze. Indra’s back straightened, her gaze sharpening. I’d never been more attracted to Liam than in this moment. Something about a guy sticking up for himself and his friends, knowing his worth. It was hot.

  “You don’t talk to me like that,” Indra snarled. “Who made you king?”

  Liam stepped closer to her, and the Elders pulled their blades. “That’s prince to you. Prince of Winter.”

  It hadn’t really dawned on me until that moment that Liam was an actual fucking prince. He was the eldest son of the Winter King…and I knew that Indra probably didn’t know his lineage, so this was going to be a shock for her.

  She looked shaken.
“No. You can’t be. You’re a Halfling. Even if the Winter King were your father, the human blood in you would leave you without any real power.” She seemed to be trying to convince herself.

  Liam held out his palms, and ice started to form, causing everyone to back up—everyone but Indra. She watched his power with a greedy fascination that gave me chills. Frost poured from his hands, creating a ring of ice around our entire group—the top was open, but the sides were closed. The Elders and Trissa watched in wonder as he created this structure.

  “You sure about that?” Liam cocked his head to the side. “You sure my human half makes me weak?” He looked ready to decapitate Indra, and I was ready to jump in at any moment if need be.

  But Indra held her head high. “All right. Bring me the final four crystals, and I’ll find land for you and your people.”

  Liam snapped his fingers, and the ice crashed around us. Trissa and the Elders looked fearful at his power, but Indra looked unimpressed, and that scared me a little.

  “Your word holds no weight with me. Vow it,” Liam demanded. “With blood.”

  The collective gasp was audible. An Elder would never, ever do blood magic.

  Indra glared at Liam. “Your father clearly raised you. I will do nothing of the sort.”

  He shrugged, crossing his arms. “Then I won’t help you. I have seventy trained men who would be willing to fight for Faerie if they were offered a home here. But good luck fighting my father and his men off when they try to take the crystals back. And trust me, they will.”

  Maple stepped forward, her voice soft. “He has an army…an army we need,” she told the Summer Elder.

  “He’s a Halfling!” Indra roared.

  “A powerful Halfling with the magic of the Winter King!” Aubin returned.

  Indra spun on her fellow councilman. “Are you seriously suggesting I take a blood oath with this…creature?”

  Liam lunged at her, but I was ready for it. Reaching out, I yanked him hard backward and held him by the upper arms. When Indra spun at the noise, he was in my grasp.

  Trissa watched all of this with wide eyes, and I wished I’d had time to tell her everything I suspected about Indra.

  The wind picked up, and Indra’s hair whipped around her face. I’d never seen her look so…demonic. Her eyes glowed, and she held her hands out like claws. “Do you think you are the only one here with power, boy?”

  Liam shrugged me off and stood firm. “Take the vow, or I don’t help you.”

  Rose, the Elder of Spring, was the final voice of reason. “Indra, when Faerie is restored, there will be plenty of land to send the Halflings out into. They don’t need to live near us.”

  That seemed to resonate with the lead Elder, although I didn’t like the sound of it.

  The wind ceased immediately, and Indra straightened her hair over one shoulder and faced Liam, holding her blade across her palm. “Fine. If you return all four remaining crystals to the Tree of Life, I vow to let you and your men stay in Faerie, living on a patch of land that will be of my choosing.”

  She sliced her palm, and Liam produced a dagger from his belt to do the same. “I accept your vow.”

  I’d never seen anyone make a blood vow, so I didn’t know what to expect. When they clasped bloody palms, a gust of wind blasted outward, knocking us all back a little. My wings snapped out to steady me as Indra and Liam broke the handshake. The wind was gone.

  Everyone looked startled at the magical display. Everyone but Liam and Indra. They both must have done something like this before.

  “Get the water, get the crystals, and then come right back,” Indra said, then spun on her heel and left. Rose, Maple, and Aubin trailed after her.

  Trissa stayed back, eyeing the boys warily as I approached her. My mother had told me once that sometimes, when you didn’t have all the facts, you just needed to trust your gut. My gut said that Trissa was family—she could be trusted.

  Pulling her aside, I looked her deep in the eye. “Triss. I need you to do me a favor.”

  She gripped the hilt of her sword. “I will retrieve the water and the crystals with you. Anything you need.”

  I shook my head. “We can do that. We have Liam’s army now. What I need is for you to protect the queen.”

  “Protect her?” She bristled. “From whom?”

  I swallowed hard. “Indra. Maybe Aubin. Anyone who goes in that room who isn’t Kira.”

  Trissa’s gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”

  I told her quickly of the snoozeberry juice and what the last healer had said to Kira, about throwing my mom in the cages and everything.

  Trissa’s cheeks reddened. “Well, yes, she did throw your mother in the cages once, but that was a complicated—”

  “Triss, I know they are like gods to us, but something is wrong. I’m telling you. I need you to trust me and say you will protect the queen.”

  She stood straighter, bowing slightly to me. “With my last breath. It would be my honor.” Then her face faltered a little. “What do I tell the Elders I’m doing?”

  The fucking Elders. It was so clear to me now how afraid we all were of them and how that fear messed with our decision-making. “Tell them that I have asked you to guard my aunt. As her next of kin, it is my right to request such a thing.”

  She relaxed a little. “True. Yes. Okay.”

  It was going to take some work to pull the blinders off her, but I thought if she spent more time around Indra, she would see her darkness.

  I reached out and hugged her. “I love you.”

  She squeezed me back. “I love you, too, kiddo.”

  I made a vow to myself then: when we got back with the water and healed Liam’s mom, I would use the blood spell to reveal my mother’s journal. Something wasn’t right here, and I was going to find out just what the hell it was.

  As I watched Trissa walk away, I took a cleansing breath and started to wade into the river. The water was warm, and for that, I was grateful. “We have to swim through,” I told my companions. “The river and forest are trapped under a canopy of trees. If we try to fly, we might get stuck.”

  They followed me deep into the river. When we reached the protective dome, I lay my palms flat against it and used my Seeker power to thin the barrier, allowing Liam, Cam, and Elle to float through. The black water that seeped in reminded me of the dark creatures that awaited on the other side, and I shivered.

  Gods, give me strength.

  “Okay, fair warning—this forest is full of dark and scary monsters,” I told the boys.

  They shrugged as if that didn’t bother them.

  Plunging fully into the water, I floated through the opening and into the dark side of Faerie. Watching the dome close shut, I spun and kicked hard in the rapids to exit as quickly as possible. I wanted to avoid another psychotic flesh-eating fish incident if I could.

  When Liam pulled me up out of the water and onto the shore, he was looking at me oddly. “You can just open the protection dome?”

  I nodded. “It’s a Seeker thing. You could, too.”

  “Wow, this place is creepier than I thought,” Cam said, taking in the desolate and depressing land.

  Liam nodded, looking at a nearby bubbling pit of lava. The dozen or so green footprints I’d made last time were still there. “My father said it used to be magnificent.”

  “Before he broke it,” Elle said matter-of-factly.

  Liam bobbed his head. “Before he broke it. But after your queen allowed the murder of hundreds of innocent Halfling babies.”

  They glared at each other, and I was about to step in when a branch snapped to our right.

  It was that creepy half-deer, half-man creature again, standing about thirty feet away. His two racks of horns dripped blood as he watched us with all six of his horrifying eyes.

  “What. The. Fuck. Is that?” Liam asked, and pulled his swords just as the creature started to run at us.

  Elle drew her swords as well. “Who cares
what it is? Kill it!”

  Crap.

  Part of me wondered if we should run into the river and swim back to Faerie. The other part wondered if we should try to make a run for the healing pool. But there was no way for us to do either at the moment because the deer guy was right on top of us.

  We stood our ground. Four of us against one demon wasn’t too bad, right?

  “Take his head off, and he’ll die!” Liam shouted as a cold wind built around him. He was pulling on his winter power.

  “How do you know?” I felt my palms heating up as I planted my feet.

  “I’m guessing!”

  The creature was ten feet from us now, his creepy deer hind legs giving him a weird, loping gait.

  Liam thrust his hands out, shooting six shards of ice right into the creature. They punctured his chest but didn’t slow him at all, which was beyond horrifying. Elle was next with her throwing knives, hitting him in the neck—but again, he charged on.

  At this rate, he was going to be eating Elle’s face in three seconds if we didn’t stop him.

  Panic seized me.

  I stepped forward, shoving Liam to the side a little, and thrust my burning palms outward. Sunlight exploded from them in a thin laser-like beam, and I swiped my hand to the left, cutting the light across the creature’s neck. A garbled shriek tore from his throat before his head slid from his neck and fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

  Oh, gods.

  His headless body halted, standing there as if confused, arms reaching out in front and grasping for Elle.

  “Burn it!” Cam cried out, looking at Liam.

  Liam’s wings smoked black, and the tips ignited.

  What the…? I stepped back. Was he going to? I’d never seen him use—

  Before I could even process it, Liam held out his palms. Fire shot out in a ten-foot beam like a blowtorch, engulfing the creature’s headless body in flames.

  The head on the ground screamed as the body fell to the floor, and we all stumbled backward. Liam fell to his knees, panting and clutching his chest.

  I ran to him. “What’s wrong?”

  Cam intercepted me. “Don’t touch him. He’s okay. His ice magic is natural and easy for him, but the fire…it’s painful to use it and depletes his energy. He can only use it sparingly.”