A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1)

by Candace Osmond

I chewed at the inside of my cheek. “When we were growing up, you’d come in here every chance you got. Why? If the creatures you saw here were so terrifying….” I thought of the nightclub I’d broken into last night. It felt like years ago. “Why come back here?”

  “I was searching for others like me.”

  It hadn’t dawned on me that there’d be others. Ones like Julie. “And… did you find them?”

  A sense of pride animated her face. “I did. And more.”

  I leaned back and crossed my arms, contemplating what to ask next.

  “Look,” Julie said and shifted to the edge of the chair. “I know you’re freaked–”

  “Shouldn’t I be?” I snapped stonily. “Has our whole friendship been a lie?”

  “No, I swear, Av’,” she quickly assured me. “I’m still me. I’m still Julie. Every moment of our friendship has been true and real. The only difference was that… I was never the human girl you thought I was.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” The words came out with a squeak.

  “I wanted to,” she said. “So bad. You have no idea. But… it was decided that it’d be a bad idea.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Decided by whom?”

  The corner of Julie’s mouth turned up with a knowing grin. “One thing at a time.”

  I grimaced and narrowed my eyes at her, but she just laughed.

  “Av’, it took you months to get over the fact that they changed the actor who played that guy on Game of Thrones.”

  I threw my arm up in protest. “Why would they change him? They didn’t even try to find someone who even looked similar!” Julie just stared at me with a look that said, see my point? I let my hands fall to the arms of the chair in defeat. “Fine. Fair enough.”

  “Look, the point is that now you finally know,” she said and relaxed with a long, pointed exhale. As if she’d been holding in that breath her whole life. “I swear, I’m still me,” she added and placed her hand over her heart. “So, the ball’s in your court now.”

  A long pause hung silently in the air. I could hear only the sounds of the bustling downtown seeping through the windows. Julie rose from her seat and headed to the kitchen, where she began making tea, leaving me to sit by myself and sort through my thoughts in peace.

  Julie wasn’t human.

  I still had so many questions, but only one for myself. Did it change anything? As I watched her carefully come back to the living room with a tray of cups and a teapot balanced on top, the answer blared across the forefront of my mind. No, it changed nothing. Not about our friendship, anyway.

  Julie resumed her spot across from me and sat with her hands between her bouncing knees. Although she wore a human glamor, I could see it now. The…otherworldliness holding still beneath her skin. If I strained, I could see through it. Could see her Fae appearance. With time to process, to hear her story, I could finally sit and admire what she truly was. Beautiful. Ethereal. Like a living snowflake.

  I cleared my throat. “So…” Her head snapped up at the sound of my voice. As if she’d been afraid that I wouldn’t speak to her ever again. “Do you have, like, magic powers or anything?”

  She visibly relaxed for a moment, then her ocean eyes lit up with a grin. She flicked her wrist, and the teapot hovered over the two mugs. I watched with awe as Julie filled both perfectly. Then did the same with the honey. Two little spoons stirred the tea and set themselves on the table. All without a single touch from Julie. I looked at her. Her face was expectant, her chest slightly heaving.

  I just smiled and said, “Cool.”

  Julie shrunk with a sigh. “Okay. My turn.” She sat upright and leaned forward to look at the scrapbook I’d laid out. “Where did you get this?”

  I swallowed dryly. “I made it. I’m… in the process of making it.”

  She shook her head, her face blank. “How?”

  “I… I’ve been harboring a tiny blue fairy in my bedroom. Her name is Lattie.” I couldn’t stop spewing words. “I accidentally bound her to me, and I can’t break it. I was terrified of her at first, but–” I shrugged. “She’s kind of cool, I guess. In a non-threatening but murderous way.”

  Julie mulled it over. “Sounds like a Pixie. Annoying things.”

  My heartbeat quickened. “But it’s not just her. I’ve been… seeing things.”

  Her eyes widened. “I knew it!”

  “Knew what?”

  “You have The Sight,” Julie explained. “I always had a hunch you did. From the moment we met as kids, I knew there was something about you. I could sense it. And then your art.” She shrugged. “All whimsical and magical. It was too similar to my actual world to be a coincidence.” Julie took a moment and shook her head. “I tried so hard for years to get you to see through my glamor. But you never could. And I never dared drop it in front of you, in case I was wrong.”

  My cheeks flushed hot. “I’m sorry. For running.”

  She waved it off. “It’s all good. We’ve both been keeping secrets, it seems.”

  I glanced at my scrapbook and closed it.

  “I wonder what the trigger was,” Julie mused.

  “What?”

  “Something must have triggered your Sight to see through my glamor,” she replied. “It’s a pretty strong one.”

  I thought of last night. The weird drink I had to consume before being allowed in the nightclub. All those fairies I helped escape. I stared blankly at the space behind her. “The drink.”

  “The wine?” Julie quipped. “I’d been practicing brewing it for months. I finally got it right, and I’d hoped it would reveal your Sight. Did you drink some more?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t your wine. And it… it’s not just you who I saw.”

  “What other kind of stuff have you been seeing?”

  I struggled to think. “Shadows, flashes of light.” A shudder ran down my spine. “And last night…”

  She tilted her head. “You mentioned that before. About last night. What happened?”

  I rubbed my hands over the fuzzy fleece of my red pajama pants. “Well, Lattie hadn’t come back for a while, and I was restless, so I went looking for her.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I remembered that night you and I went out when I was standing outside that alley….” I blinked through the images that flashed through my mind. The guy I’d bumped into was the same one–the same Fae that blinded me in the nightclub with that light. Knocked himself out, as well as the goon who was with him. I shuddered. “I, uh, saw a sliver of weird light, so I went back to it, hoping to maybe find a clue to where Lattie was. But I found this… nightclub. Only it was full of these horrible creatures, and the bouncer made me drink this weird purple vial. Afterward, I began to see things. Inside the club.” The creepy woman, surrounded by darkness, how the crowd parted for her like the sea, giving her a direct line to me. I fought back the wave of nausea that swarmed over me.

  “Do you think you could find it again?” Julie asked. Her focus seemed to have shifted to something else as her face lit up with anticipation.

  “What? No. Haven’t you been listening? That’s a party I never want to go back to.”

  Julie grinned. “That wasn’t a party. I’ll take you to a real Fae party.”

  “Oh, I don’t know–”

  “Just trust me,” she said and rose from the chair to stand next to me. She peered down at me; her hand extended in silent invitation. “Don’t you want to see more of my world?”

  Chapter Eleven

  A full moon shone down over the never-ending flora of the Public Gardens, a gorgeous, gated park downtown. So beautiful, they often used it for wedding photos, first dates, and an escape for those looking for a peaceful stroll through flowers and ferns. But we apparently searched for something else entirely. Through the violet shadows of the quiet park, we searched for a place. A fairy party.

  Julie led the way as I nervously looked for park patrol. The Public Gardens were only open during certain hours of the
day and always closed at night. But as she’d scaled the black iron gate, I’d found myself following her. Desperate to see. Julie had sworn that the creepy nightclub I stumbled upon wasn’t what all fairies were like. They were most definitely from the Territory of Nightmares. The gathering she now led me toward promised to be the total opposite, and I blindly followed her in hopes she was right.

  We snuck through the twisted trees and gardens, lined with quaint benches and ornate lamplights. A man-made pond sat still as glass near the back, and we headed for it. When we approached the water’s edge, Julie gave me one last look before she bent to swish her fingers through the water. At her very touch, the water turned… shiny. I had no other word for it.

  Silvery dust seemed to spill from her fingertips, and I watched in unblinking awe as the substance spread like liquid glitter. Rippling outward until it seemed to reach an invisible wall and then moved up and around us, peeling away the thin veil of glamor that covered us like a massive dome. My eyes burned at the sight. The beauty that revealed itself.

  Slowly, the veil crumbled away, falling to the grass like a gentle, stardusted snow. The dull, grayed landscape of Ironworld melted away, and in its place… colors like I’d never seen before. And yet… familiar. Golds flecked with sunlight, green that shimmered to purple. An image flicked across the forefront of my mind.

  The paints Julie had given me for my birthday.

  I looked at her as the last of the veil fell, to say… something. Anything. But as my mouth gaped with empty words, the glamor around her also dissipated, and she stood before me as she did earlier that day. White as the driven snow, every single inch of her. And here, amongst the magic of her kind, she glistened like crushed diamonds in the moonlight. Her crystal blue eyes were the only reprieve from her starkness.

  The last of the veil touched the ground just as a set of ethereal wings stretched out behind her. And a snap of sound clamored in my ears, like suddenly blasting the volume on the TV. Fiddles and flutes and harps played festive music as Fae of all sorts danced about the water’s edge. Some perched on rocks and stumps and little handmade stools as they sipped from miss-matched mugs.

  They hardly seemed to notice as Julie and I appeared out of nowhere. A few quick, uninterested glances slipped our way, but they just nodded happily at the obviously familiar sight of Julie and went back to enjoying the party.

  Everything was brighter here. The grass was greener, the air sweeter, the moon and stars like a canopy of twinkle lights. Julie just stood patiently, watching me with admiration and pride in her blue eyes.

  I glanced around, taking in all the unfamiliar faces, unique shapes, and colors of creatures. A group of young, humanoid Fae waved to us from a picnic table and recognized them. Not in this form, but small things like their eyes, their smiles. They were Julie’s friends from her class. Dom, Nathan, Chan, Margo, Shana, and Marty.

  When I finally spoke, the words came out like a dry whisper. “What is this place?”

  Julie motioned around with a hand. “This is The Sanctuary.” She took a slow, deep breath. “This… is what I found when I came looking.”

  “And they’re all Solitary, like you?”

  She nodded and glanced around. “Changelings that have never even seen the glory of our homeland. Displaced Fae that have been driven from their homes and forced into Ironworld. We all gather here in the Sanctuary’s safety whenever we can. To let our exhausting glamors drop, to revel in the moonlight.” She shrugged with one shoulder. “And in the sunlight sometimes. But daytime’s trickier, with the Gardens open to the mundane world.”

  She began circling the party, and I followed. “So, how do you all stay hidden?” I asked. “I mean, here and in Ironworld? Just the glamors?”

  Julie plucked two glasses from a long buffet table and poured wine from a pitcher. “Glamors, wards, other bits and pieces of magic,” she replied and handed me a glass. “Some never leave the sanctuary.”

  I followed her line of sight to the rim of shadows around the gathering, the places where the light did not reach. A cluster of canvas tents sat huddled together, propped up with sticks, logs, and rope. Above them, in the swaying treetops, tiny houses made up a strange little village.

  I shook my head in awe and slowly turned around as I beheld the array of fairies before me. “How…” I stared into Julie’s eyes. She knew what I meant. “How?”

  “The Sanctuary sits in a pocket of reality,” someone replied. Someone, not Julie.

  We both turned to find a woman–a fairy–standing there. At first glance, she appeared human, but it only took a split second to see she was otherworldly. Delicate, pointed ears peeked out from the mass of cotton candy pink waves that flowed to her waist. Creamy skin that shimmered ever so slightly from a pearly green to gold to a lovely red. As if a dusting of powdered gasoline covered her. But it was her deep-sea blue eyes that truly captivated me. Large and deep in their shadowed sockets, they gleamed with age behind the beauty. Wisdom. She was ancient.

  Julie motioned to the fairy. “Av’, this is Moya. And Moya…”

  The pink-haired fairy goddess smiled and sized me up and down as if she could smell the naivete on me. “This must be Avery, then.” She pinched the side of her olive-green slip dress and wiggled it back and forth. Half a dozen gold bangles clanged against her long, bare arms. She extended a hand to me. “Julie’s told me all about you.”

  Julie sucked in a breath. “I’ve been close friends with Moya for over two years now. We… help find displaced Fae first coming to Ironworld. To help them adjust, settle, find homes.”

  My eyes widened. “That’s what you’ve really been doing in the city?”

  She nodded with a tentative smile. “Yeah.”

  I thought for a moment, and the only question that seemed to form properly in my scattered mind was, “So, if you never came to Ironworld, what part of Faerie would you have been from?”

  Julie tipped her head back as I watched her remember, and we both gave a single nod. My scrapbook. My fairy grimoire. I knew more than Julie thought I did. But she suddenly sighed in relief. As if just realizing she didn’t have to hide anything from me anymore. I couldn’t imagine the weight of that secret. All those years.

  “I’m not sure,” she replied in a breath and switched glances with Moya as the maiden sipped from a flute of wine. Julie turned back to me. “I’ve never been to Faerie. That I recall, anyway. I was taken when I was a baby and left in the streets of Ironworld. But…” She slapped her pale white arms at her sides and tipped her head. “I’m told I’m a shoo-in for a Winter Fae.”

  I turned to Moya. “And you’re…”

  Her head tilted as she flashed those unearthly eyes at me and swooshed her glass delicately in front of herself. “Summer Fae.” She held up her hand and shrugged. “But also, not. It’s… a complicated story.”

  “Moya wasn’t born on land,” Julie attempted to explain, glancing at Moya to get a nod of approval to explain her story for me. “She’s from the sea.”

  My jaw fell open. “Wait. Do you mean…like…a mermaid?”

  Moya smiled and sipped more wine. Her gold bangles jangled together with every move. “Yes. I was birthed under the sea.” She sucked back the dregs of her glass and set it down on a table. “A very long time ago. But I grew… bored. Too many years, knowing there was a growing world up here.” She cast her glance to the sky and closed her eyes as she inhaled deeply with a sigh of admiration for the magical blanket of night above us. “So, I left and came on land. I found the Summer Territory first. Spent years there. I fell in love, even.” Moya looked me square in the eyes. “That’s why I pledged myself to the Summer Lord and declared myself Summer Fae. Denouncing my ties to the sea.”

  “Denouncing?” I asked, my throat dry. I glanced into the glass that Julie had handed me and sipped. It was so different from Julie’s homemade wine. It still burned like liquid sunshine, but with more hints of pear and apple.

  Moya leaned in. “My father is t
he king of the sea. Or part of it, anyway. Has been for–” She waggled her hand in the air. “A few thousand years.”

  I lowered my gaze and focused on the pebbles in the grass as I waited for everything to settle on me. But it only took a moment to consider. Lattie, Julie, Moya, this place… magic–I loved it. My heart burned in my chest.

  This was the best day of my life.

  I let out the most prolonged breath as if casting away the remnants of my hesitancy. A swarm of colorful pixie-looking fairies buzzed around in a cluster, moving from person to person. “What are those?”

  Julie and Moya both scowled with annoyance. Moya’s glass was suddenly–magically–full again. “Nixies,” she said and took a long sip. “Busybodies. They know just about everything going on in both Faerie and Ironworld because they’re always about. Like mosquitoes. Just say nothing around them you wouldn’t want others to know.”

  I recognized the shapes and features of some of them. “I’ve seen them before. And other small fairies. In the nightclub. They were being held in cages.”

  “You never mentioned that,” Julie said and blinked widely at me.

  I rolled my eyes. “Forgive me if this is all a little overwhelming. I’m processing things as fast as I can.” Julie shoved at my arm with a half grin that I returned. I looked at Moya. “I let them all out. Led them to the safety of the harbor because this red colored one named Vassia said they were all water fairies.”

  Moya laughed. “The sneaky devil. She wasn’t wrong. All of Faerie can be reached through the waters that connect our worlds. You see, Faerie is almost as vast as Earth. A replicate, of sorts, a mirrored existence on the other side of the water. Oceans, lakes, ponds.”

  I downed what was in my glass.

  Her forehead pinched in thought. “Those Fae won’t forget what you did.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my navy hoodie. “So… who caged those fairies? What were they doing?”

  “We’re not sure,” Moya replied. “But more and more Solitary Fae are going missing each day. We’ve been dealing with it for months now. This nightclub you mentioned. What else can you tell us about it?”