“A moment ago,” Edmund said softly, as he placed a hand on Blissa’s knee, “you started to say what you didn’t want. But, you haven’t said what you want, Blissa. What is it that you want? Because I know what I want. Who I want. And that’s you, no matter who your father is, or who mine was.”
She closed her eyes as his words sunk in. “I want you,” she said, finally and leaned forward to kiss him. It was soft and sweet and perfect. She smiled as she pulled away. A briar rose sat on the ground near them. It was the one he’d picked for her. She took it into her hands, and said, “I love you, too. I have for longer than I’ve wanted to admit to myself. I accept the lovely rose you’ve picked for me, Edmund.”
His eyes lit up bright and merry and she felt a warm glow inside. He hooked an arm around her and pulled her closer to him. “Not yet,” she whispered. “Let me talk to my father, first. But I know what I want, and I’ll explain to him the justness of it.”
Chapter 7
Blissa found her father in one of the lower gardens perusing the petunias. He wasn’t alone. Maurelle was with him, and they were talking quietly. When Roldan spotted Blissa, he turned to her and smiled. “Join us,” he said, waving her over.
Maurelle’s mouth was a short line. She looked unhappy, and Blissa could feel her troubled spirit. Part of her wished to ask what was the matter, but she wondered if it were a private matter that Maurelle would not want her to intrude upon.
“That’s a marvelous flower,” her father said, looking at the yellow bloom in Blissa’s hand. “I haven’t seen one of them in years. They only grow in the kingdom of Errol, if I recall correctly.”
Maurelle blanched at that name, and looked at Blissa with concern. “It must grow somewhere else, too, Uncle,” Maurelle said. “For Blissa wouldn’t go to such a dangerous place.”
Blissa smiled. “Actually, father, it is from there,” she said. “A man wandered into the Crystal Pond from that kingdom, and I sent him back on his way, but I did stay and explore a bit. Since we had our visitors from the Southern Realm, and you were considering rescinding your prohibition on mating, I thought I’d find out more about the human kingdom.”
Roldan stared at his daughter and placed a hand to his chin. “That is certainly a reasonable thing to do,” he decided. “Each leader should make their own decisions based on their own observations, and not blindly follow a course because it is tradition.”
Blissa smiled.
Maurelle did not. “But, sometimes it is best to defer to the wisdom of our elders,” Maurelle said. “Humans are power hungry and troubled.”
Blissa’s father patted Maurelle’s shoulder, and then chuckled. “It seems you and your cousin are at odds about how to interact with the human kingdom. Our visitors seemed to think it a poor law, especially when many of our fairies must regularly attend to the human kingdom. Yet your cousin is adamant that the law is for the best. She was quite concerned that I am giving serious consideration to rescinding it.”
Blissa smiled wide, having a hard time believing her luck. “Really, father?”
He nodded, but scrutinized her reaction, as if it were a bit too happy for his taste. “This pleases you, I see.”
Blissa tried to temper her joy. “It does, father. I have watched the people in the human kingdom, and they don’t all seem bad. I don’t think people should judge all fairies based on the acts of just one, so why should we judge men based on the act of one vile one?”
Maurelle sighed. “Perhaps because it is in their nature to be cruel. You should hear the things the birds say of men. They see them often, the way they destroy so many of nature’s creatures. And they’re always at war.”
“Not Eldred’s father,” Blissa said, her eyes turned directly on her cousin. “He was kind. He died when we were but children, not long after ...” the attack of King Errol, she started to say, but then thought better of it. “Not long after your mother died. But I still remember him. He was kind, always a pleasant word to everyone, even us children. Eldred has a similar demeanor, if you ask me.”
“Eldred’s mother is a fairy,” Maurelle said.
“And his father was human,” the king said. “And both have their merits.” He turned to Maurelle now. “I know that the events surrounding your mother’s death still pain you. Errol is responsible for her death, but you cannot pour his sins onto an entire nation. I have done so for too long. There’s a bitterness in doing that. A bitterness I held onto for too long. But I realize it wasn’t good for me, or for the kingdom.”
Resignation crossed Maurelle’s face. “I cannot blame all men for her death, I suppose,” she said. “I shall go and think more on it, Uncle.”
With that, she nodded to Roldan and Blissa and then walked away. Blissa could feel the turmoil within her cousin and felt a pang of sadness.
Once Maurelle was out of sight, Blissa saw her father walk over to a stone bench and sit. He motioned for him to join her. She did.
“So,” he said. “Am I to understand it that you’ve met a man?”
Blissa stared at her father, wondering if he meant what she thought he did. He was hard to read. Even for emotion fairies, monarchs were hard to read entirely. Especially if they wished to be guarded. “What do you mean?”
He gave her a hard stare.
“Yes, I met a man who is kind and he intrigued me, and so we’ve chatted a few times,” Blissa admitted, trying to keep thing light and noncommittal. It seemed too much to launch into the specifics of who Edmund’s parents were.
“He’s very smitten to give you a briar rose,” her father said. “Your aunt once told me it was the custom of the men in the kingdom to give a lady such a rose if they intended to court her.”
Blissa swallowed, not expecting her father to know such things. “Really,” she said. “That’s interesting.”
He watched her intently. “I suspect you knew that already, though,” he said, and he sighed. Blissa turned and looked out at the flowers of the garden. She heard her father speak. “I was foolish to ban all fairies from mating with humans over the mistake of my sister. She had fallen in love with Errol, and ... well, that wasn’t her mistake. Hers was thinking he’d fallen in love with her. Radella paid a cruel price for her blunder, and in return, I made the folks of our realm pay a steeper price. That was my error. But I do believe I have learned something from it, and I intend to correct my mistake.”
Blissa turned to her father. “That’s good,” she said. “You’ve always said it best to correct a mistake sooner rather than later.”
“Indeed,” he admitted, looking out toward the orange glow of the setting sun. “I will correct my mistake without heed to the consequences, but know that you may suffer for the timing of your love.”
Blissa raised a brow inquisitorially.
“How do you think it would look to the people of the realm if I rescinded my declaration and then my only daughter and heir took up with a human?”
Blissa did not answer aloud, though she knew exactly what the answer was.
“We cannot, as rulers, rescind laws just because we did not wish to be arrested for breaking them.” Blissa opened her mouth to say that he wasn’t rescinding the law just for her. “We must not look like we are doing it for those reasons, either. I will rescind the law and give my reasons for it at our next royal session on law. However, my darling daughter, I will only rescind the law for the people. The monarchs will still be forbidden from mating with humans.”
“Father,” she said. “You can’t do that.”
“I must be fair,” he said.
“But that is the opposite of fair,” she said. “You are punishing me because I’m an heir to the throne.”
He shook his head. “I am helping you remain above reproach. During your rule, in ten or twenty yearsyou may loosen the rules. But I will not rescind this law and have our people believe we make and break rules simply to please our own whims. That is not what worthy rulers do.”
Blissa gritted her teeth and stood
. “And what is it that worthy fathers do?” she asked, but walked away before he could respond.
Chapter 8
Blissa hadn’t been sure what she’d planned to do, but she’d left the castle, ran straight to the Crystal Pond and out into the kingdom of men.
She wandered through the village and saw a caravan of what looked to be royal guardsmen making their way through town. They had regal crests on their clothing, and though Blissa hadn’t been in the human kingdom much, she had read of some of their traits in library books. Royal crests were common here, though her own family had none. Not the way these people did. Her father was a water fairy, so they had many streams and brooks around and many of the portraits painted in his honor contained gorgeous plumes of water, but no crest.
His sister and her aunt, Radella, had borne the mark of two gifts — fire and love. The two complemented each other on some level. Love was about nothing more than heat between two people, wasn’t it? At least in the beginning, there was supposed to be fire. That burning desire she felt for Edmund when he was near.
She followed the guards, and by the time she reached the castle on their heels, night had fallen. The moon was out, a harvest moon that was low and bright in the sky. Fairy lore said harvest moons brought good tidings. They were a perfect evening for fairies tasked with caring for humans to grant wishes.
She wasn’t tasked with humans, but she wanted desperately to find one human: Edmund.
She was standing in the glow of the moonlight when she heard her name called. She turned to see Edmund a few paces behind her, having come from one of the outer buildings near the castle. He smiled wide and she ran to him, wrapping her arms around him.
* * *
Edmund had brought her into the castle and took her back to his private chamber. It seemed opulent, with many of the furnishings a royal red and trimmed in gold. The shine was interesting to her, though not necessarily appealing. As he set her on a chaise and offered her a glass of cider, he asked her what was the matter.
“My father has said we can’t be together,” Blissa said, abruptly.
“Give him time,” Edmund said. “And he hasn’t met me. Perhaps I can change his mind.”
“It’s not that,” she said, taking his hand, as he kneeled before her. “He doesn’t know everything about you, but he does know that I am the princess and it wouldn’t be right to rescind a law just so I can be with someone. Nor is it right to rescind a law when it looks like that’s the reason you’re rescinding it.”
Edmund sighed and thought on it for a moment. “Your father may be right,” he said finally. “It would seem to his people that he did it for selfish reasons if you were to bring me home.”
He reached up and stroked her cheek. “Don’t fret,” he said. The hand on her cheek felt warm and feathery light. She leaned into his touch, relishing its warmth.
Edmund smiled and then reached up and kissed her lips, and she melted into him. She didn’t care about the law or the rules, she just wanted to be with Edmund. Her hands stroked his soft, silky hair, and he breathed into her clavicle. Her entire body trembled with that exhale of warm heat.
She looked into his eyes, and there was nothing but flame and desire in them. His was clear and persistent, but reflected in his eyes was her own desire, her own yearning to feel every piece of him. Blissa slid her hands under his shirt, and felt his thick strong abdomen. He moaned at her touch, a thick, primal sound that made Blissa’s insides moisten.
Edmund seemed to need no other indication than this, for he stood, then hoisted Blissa into his arms, the swift motion almost dizzying her, and carried her to the large bed in his room. He laid her before him, on the bed, and looked down on her with lust-filled eyes. She could hear his gentle breaths as he watched her, and then he climbed atop her, still full dressed, and leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“I want you Blissa, perhaps as no other man has wanted a woman,” he said, his breathing labored. “If you don’t want me, tell me now, for I can’t stop myself if I start.”
His words were a strangled plea, and she remembered the decree, the one she was breaking. He was human and had felt the heat of the fairy. He would take her, strong and fierce, and he was right that if he started, he wouldn’t stop. But she didn’t want him to stop. Not now, not ever. She met his lips and his kiss was hot and spicy.
His hands pawed at the thin fabric of her dress, which he tore from her body with little effort. His mouth traced her curvy body, his tongue gliding slowly down the delicate places, her neck, across her breast, down her abdomen. She shivered beneath him, her insides quaking for him. Only, he was fully clothed.
A flick of her wrist, and his clothes zoomed away, leaving him completely bare. He paused, pulling his face from Blissa and grinned. “You are amazing,” he said, a voice of awe.
She looked at his glorious naked body, all rippling muscles, and a long, hard length ready for action, and she whispered, “No, you are amazing.”
With that, he slipped his hand between her legs, his fingers caressing the inside of her thigh and then the slowly peeking into her wetness. He stroked her insides with a thick digit, lining her lower lips, and plucking her clit, making her squirm.
She wanted to feel deep inside her, and it was as if they had become emotionally in sync, for she felt a surge of uncontrollable passion issue forth from him and he pushed her legs wide apart, and inserted his rigid length into her. She gasped as she felt the massive wad of thick flesh emerge deep inside her.
“Oh, Edmund,” she breathed out, barely able to contain herself, and wishing he wouldn’t contain himself.
He began his motion, slow and steady but with subtle strength. He pushed deep inside her, and she grabbed his ass, those two pert cheeks and squeezed them tight as he thrust. Deeper, harder, faster. He leaned in and kissed her neck, and her body quaked. She closed her eyes just to enjoy the quavering sensation as he melted her insides.
His mouth left her neck and she heard him say, “Open your eyes.” She did, and he was mesmerizing as he looked down at her, his eyes unyielding, his mouth a line as he worked his human magic on her. “You are mine,” he said, and she knew it was true.
She was his and no one else’s. She wanted him and no one else. He quickened his pace, and he somehow felt more powerful, more in control. His eyes never left hers. “You are like heaven,” he said, a smile forming on his lips.
Blissa wrapped her legs around him, clenching him toward her as he offered monstrous thrusts that left her quaking, her entire body a trembling pool beneath him. He thrust once more, twice more and then gave a last push that sent waves of joy through her, then he leaned forward, and kissed her, one full of fire, and then lay down next to her.
Her breath was still labored, as she was fatigued from their romp, “Edmund,” she said. “You make me so happy,” she said, wrapping an arm around him.
He grinned back at her, lifting her hand and kissing it. “You make me happier, Blissa,” he said. “You have no idea how happy you make me.”
She frowned. “But it’s forbidden,” she said, then shook her head. “Only, it shouldn’t be. What we just did shouldn’t be forbidden.”
Edmund tipped his head back, closed his eyes. “You know, I feel so strong now. Part of me wants to simply tell you that you’re right, to storm into your realm and tell your father that I will have you or I will have his head.”
Blissa’s eyes widened, and she started to sit up.
Edmund opened his eyes and shook his head. “I said part of me, Blissa. I won’t do it. I recognize too well that this must be what my father felt. It must be part of your charm, but I don’t want war with anyone, and certainly not your father. What happened between us shouldn’t be the end,” he said. “If I can resist the urge to conquer now that I have conquered your heart, than I assure you, we can find a way to be together.”
Chapter 9
Blissa had stayed with Edmund, wrapped in his arms until the wee hours of the morning, until she
knew dawn would appear soon. She’d used mending magic to repair her clothes and set off to return home. She felt fortified to speak with her father, now. The king had been right. Edmund had seen it, but she’d been too hurt to see it last night. What she’d needed was time to spend with Edmund. It was funny how they said that fairies strengthened humans when they made love. It was she who felt strengthened today, reassured.
She would talk to her father again, come to a solution. He had always loved her, and had always tried to help her when she needed it. This time should be no different.
She returned to the castle just before the sun rose. It was quiet and peaceful, the way she preferred things. This was a wonderful time to think and reflect. People would be waking soon, and there would be more merriment and business, so she quietly wove through the castle, wanting to get to her room before fairies rose for the day.
She opened the door to her room, fully prepared to climb into bed and rest before determining the best way to approach her father.
Only, he was sitting there on the bed, looking stern and unhappy.
“Where have you been?” he asked. His tone was angry. Even though he generally shielded his emotions from her, she could feel the disappointment, even from this distance. She wasn’t sure if it was great disappointment or if he’d simply not shielded his emotions, making any display of them feel momentous.
She swallowed and walked toward him. “I’m sorry I worried you,” she said. “I didn’t realize you’d be looking for me.”
He didn’t respond. He simply waited.
“I was with Edmund, the man I met.”
“Did you violate the law of the realm?”
“I was not in the realm,” she said, measuring her words. “I’m not sure I can violate the law of a place where I was not.”
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