“I’m sorry if I seem unfriendly,” she said, eager to get away from the boat and what was developing inside. “I’m just not used to the council sending lackeys to keep track of me.”
“Who said the council sent me out here?”
“I don’t see any flowers that need pollinating or dancing sunbeams you need to direct. Why else would a Summer Fairy be out here at night? Besides, I saw you going into the Council Hall again this evening. I know you’re working with them.”
“And you have some reason to dislike the Fairy Council?” he asked in his unfairylike deep voice.
She didn’t bother to answer him. Why should she? It would just encourage him to launch an interrogation about the various wishes she granted. She really did not need that. What she needed was to leave this place, put these humans far away from them before things got…awkward.
“I simply think the Fairy Council needs to back off and give us more freedom.”
“More freedom?” he asked, occupying what would be her flight path. “Is that what you really believe?”
Had that been the wrong answer? She made a halfhearted attempt to push him out of the way, but he didn’t budge. Those bright, vapor-thin wings of his were stronger than they appeared. He hovered securely in place, blocking her. If she wanted to escape, she’d have to swoop down past the window on the boat—fully in view of the humans inside.
True, she was still in her usual stealth form, no bigger than the palm of one of those human’s hands and fluttering in frequency unlikely to be detected by them, but an unsanctioned sighting was the last thing she needed on her record. The paperwork alone would take her forever.
“I need to get back to work now,” she insisted.
“What do you mean about freedom? What would you do with more freedom?”
“I would do my job without need of you looking over my shoulder.”
“Then you’d be free to find more horny humans so you can watch them go at it.”
“I grant wishes that keep humans content,” she declared, as if he needed a primer on what Wish Fairies did and why. “I can’t help it that they’re such raging animals and sex is what they all wish for.”
“Only because you make it so easy for them to get it.”
“That’s what I do! I make sure they get what they wish for so everything stays neatly in balance, the Veil kept strong and secure.”
“There must be hundreds of other wishes that could keep the humans safely in their place. Why are you so fixated on granting wishes like these? What these humans do with each other is vulgar and foul. Any true fairy should find it distasteful.”
To punctuate his point the couple on the boat chose that very moment to break into the hoarse cries, gasping groans, and loud exclamations of pleasure she’d been afraid of. Raea cringed. Kyne’s wings flapped more forcefully and he peered past her to see in through the boat window.
“No wonder you like to watch. By fate, they certainly do go at it. Beasts.”
“If it bothers you so much, leave,” she said. “Unless maybe it doesn’t bother you.”
“It bothers me. A lot.”
“Fine. Then let’s get out of here. Sometimes after they couple like that they’re a little more open to seeing us, you know. I don’t want to have to write up a Viewing Report tonight. My shift’s almost done.”
She shoved past him and took off. So what if her wings smacked him in the face? Maybe the other fairies thought Kyne and his light amber eyes, deep, dusky voice, and annoying little smirk were good company, but she didn’t. Not right now.
He ought to be back over land changing a caterpillar into a butterfly, nurturing bees, or whatever it was those Season Fairies did. He had no business out here interrupting her while she was working.
Instead he was following her. She stopped and whirled to face him. An angry poof of Fairy Dust escaped her and glittered in the air around them. Fortunately, the boat was a distance away now, so she wasn’t overly worried about being spotted. Her wings turned the dust into a sparkling whirl.
“Leave me alone, Kyne. I can’t…I can’t think straight with you here.”
“I’m just flying in the same direction. What is it you plan to do out here that my presence makes you so nervous?”
“Nothing. I mean, I plan to do my job. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You want me to leave you alone, to let you be free to go about your business?”
“Exactly,” she said, relieved that he finally got it. “I’d like a little freedom.”
A slow smile moved over his lips. The breeze turned warm and for just a moment Raea felt as if she couldn’t quite catch her breath. Kyne’s eyes held on to her in a manner she’d not known before, and she couldn’t move away.
“What would you do, Raea, if you really were free? If you didn’t have to dance to the whims of these humans, if you didn’t have to worry about so-called babysitters from the council? How would you be free tonight?”
His question rolled over and over in her mind. What was he asking her? His words made no sense, yet something about them touched a place deep inside her. Freedom. What did it mean? She could hardly imagine a life where she didn’t have to grant wishes, to be at the beck and call of frustrated humans, or under the watchful eye of the council.
What would she do if life wasn’t that way? What would she do right now, right here, if she really were free?
The heat and the glow coming off Kyne felt like sunlight on her skin, familiar and enticing, as if she could let down her guard and let go of duty and responsibility. For a moment she almost thought about giving in to the feeling, finding out just what it was she did feel inside. A fish splashing below brought her back to reality, though, and she was glad for it.
If what Kyne was making her yearn for was freedom, then freedom was terrifying.
“Fairies are free,” she said sharply. “We’ve managed the humans this way for centuries. Who are we to say things ought to be changed?”
“I bet you’d change things if you didn’t enjoy granting these kinds of wishes so much,” he said with a warm, smoky laugh.
Infuriating.
“Leave me alone, Kyne. You’ve sprouted too many daffodils, or something.”
“I don’t do daffodils. I do summer flowers. If you weren’t so busy helping humans copulate you might notice the difference.”
“I grant wishes. It hardly matters to me whether they’re for an hour of sweating and strange noises or for a new pair of shoes.”
“I’ve never seen you peeking through windows to watch shoes, though.”
She glared at him, wondering how he could be so beautiful and so annoying all at the same time.
“I grant the wishes they want, Kyne. I follow the Great Code; I keep our laws and protect the Veil. You can go back to the Fairy Council and tell them that. The Forbidden Realm is safe because I keep the humans distracted and content.”
“And sex is the only thing that will do that for them? Surely they must have some higher qualities.”
She shrugged. “Not that I’ve noticed. The males seem especially single-minded.”
“You sound just like the council,” he said, nearly hissing his words. “Humans are base, brutish creatures, they say, and we must dedicate our lives to managing them. Well, I say there’s another way. There’s got to be some other way.”
“They’re earth creatures, Kyne,” she said gently, hoping to soothe the new fury that radiated off him. “They’re not of the air, like us. Since their animal lust doesn’t affect us, what does it matter what wishes we grant?”
“Are you sure their lust doesn’t affect you?” he asked.
“Of course it doesn’t.”
He stroked the air for a moment, then pinned her with his eyes.
“Well then, I propose a bet. I say you have exaggerated the importance of this human need for passion. I say you grant the wishes you wish to grant. Humans are more sensible than you give them credit for being. When not distracted b
y moonlight and Fairy Dust and your sordid curiosity, they would make a more rational wish.”
“What? All right, Kyne, I’ll take your bet. Now how shall I prove that you don’t know the first thing about human sexuality?”
“A virgin.”
“A what?”
“A virgin,” he repeated, still smiling. “I take it you don’t see too many of those.”
“I most certainly do.” She smiled back. “They are some of my most ardent wishers!”
“Then this should be a fair test.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. All it will prove is what I’ve been saying all along.”
“Maybe, and maybe not. As long as you follow the rules. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Tell me your terms.”
“It’s simple,” he said. “If you can find one of these virgins wishing for a partner, offer her this option: you’ll grant any three wishes in the world—money, good health, popularity, whatever—or you’ll grant her one night of physical coupling with the partner of her choice.”
“You want me to be seen by a human? But that’s…forbidden!”
“Is that your excuse for backing out?”
“You’re just trying to catch me breaking the rules so you can go running to the council.”
“Maybe I ought to do that now, since you obviously can’t defend your claim that all these disgusting wishes are necessary…”
“They are! It keeps humans out of our Realm. Very well, I’ll play your games. I’ll give the virgin your option. I suppose you won’t turn me in if I use some Forgetful Dust on her afterward? I won’t put the Veil in danger of detection just for your stupid bet, Kyne.”
“Agreed. Once the experiment is completed, your virgin can’t have any memories of magic.”
“It’s a stupid bet, Kyne. You’ll lose for sure.”
“No, I wasn’t finished with my terms. There’s a stipulation. If your virgin takes the other wishes, she gets them free and clear. If she takes the animal passion, all she gets is twenty-four hours. After that, she is wiped from her partner’s mind and she goes back to her normal, clueless life, dull and passionless as it was before.”
“But…”
He gave a fiery grin and hovered over her.
“No buts, Raea. This is my wager, and I’ll give you a whole week to accomplish it. Do you still say you’ve been granting the right wishes all along? Or are you ready to admit your motives are less than pure?”
“I’ll take your stupid wager, Kyne. So what do I win when you lose?”
He thought for a moment, smiling that lopsided, sizzling grin that was really starting to bug her. His golden eyes studied her carefully and his skin was taking on a bronze shimmer under the starry sky. Was the night air getting chilly? It must be, although Raea could never remember being affected by weather temperatures before. But something was making her skin prickle.
“If you win, I’ll give the Fairy Council a glowing report about you,” he said.
“You ought to do that anyway.”
“You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
“I can afford to be,” she said, giving him a heated grin of her own.
“And you’re not the least bit worried what I’ll expect on the off chance I might win?”
“All right, tell me. What would you expect me to do if—by some miracle—you win?”
“Grant a wish, of course.”
By the Skies, what was he up to, asking for wishes? Not that it mattered, of course. She was going to win this without half trying. Kyne and his stupid wager were doomed.
She nodded and held up her hand. “All right, the bet’s on, Kyne.”
He smiled and laced his fingers through hers in the familiar Fairy Covenant. It didn’t feel like the usual covenant grip, though. She wasn’t sure what it was, but darned if more strange prickly sensations didn’t start out in her fingers and travel through her arm. To her surprise, in seconds her whole body was tingling and warm.
Well, so much for blaming it on the cold night air. Parts of her were positively burning. What was wrong with her tonight? She pulled her hand away quickly, throwing off her balance so that she tottered a bit.
“I need to get back to work,” she said, fluttering madly to regain equilibrium. “I’ll see you later. When I watch you deliver my glowing report to the council.”
“Or perhaps when you’re granting my wish,” he said, searing her with a smoldering leer.
“Enjoy the rest of your night, Kyne,” she said as she spun and headed off in whatever direction would take her away from him.
“I’ve enjoyed it so far,” he called back behind her.
She ignored him and shook her head, trying to be rid of the feel of his eyes on her. Was there something off with the moon phases, perhaps? She felt strange.
She waited until she was nearly to shore, then glanced backward to watch Kyne dart off, his form so much more solid and defined beneath his orange glow than she was accustomed to seeing. He was not like other fairies. Maybe that explained why she had such a hard time figuring him out. Kyne was somehow…different.
Not that she was prepared to speculate on what that difference might be. Her mind was just running away from her, that was all. She was not about to let herself wonder if maybe, just maybe, those rumors about him could possibly bear any truth. They were ridiculous, after all. No one could possibly take any of them seriously.
Kyne—it was said—was half human.
Chapter Three
Aliya gazed up through the dappling of the water. Nighttime made it dark, but her eyes were well suited to the lake. She could still make out the shape of the boat high above her, and she could see the pink and orange glow of the fairies as they fluttered off. She was alone now, unseen by anyone. The waves comforted her with their movement, like a breeze in slow motion. The water was soft and cool but her sheen of velvety scales protected her from any hint of chill.
Slowly, she snaked her way upward. Passion, emotion, yearning…they still transmitted to her from the boat, softer and calmer now than they had been. She ought to go, she knew that, but she just couldn’t make herself. Carefully, she scanned the starlit sky above, staying safely just below the surface. Not that she didn’t trust Raea, but there was always the risk that her friend might return. And that other fairy…Aliya did not know him and would rather not make his acquaintance here tonight. He had not seemed someone Raea was especially fond of.
What had they been arguing about? She hadn’t been able to hear their words as she waited deep beneath them, so she’d reached out her mind. Air, however, was a poor transmitter of mermaid telepathy, and she could learn nothing. Besides, every part of her being had been fully absorbed in what was being transmitted from the boat.
She moved toward the vessel, reaching out to it and hugging close enough to be buffeted by the ripples of water lapping at its sides. The boat pressed its wooden form into the water, and the water pressed back. Aliya imagined the humans doing much the same, dry in their human shelter above.
If she stayed very still and shut her eyes tight, she could actually feel them. They were moving again, the steady rhythm of their bodies speaking above her in the heat of the air and brushing her with their vibrations. They were chafing against each other in that odd human dance. It made her feel things foreign to her, things that she wanted to know better.
Instead, all she knew was the familiar embrace of water. The tiny, satiny scales of her lower torso prickled with anticipation as she strained to feel each tiny tremor that could be transmitted to her through the earthy hulk of the boat. She knew she would find it, just the right sequence of undulation in the water. And there it was. She pressed tighter against the wooden frame and her tail fin rolled contentedly as her senses latched onto it.
Ah, that’s what she was looking for. The constant drumming pulse that came from the humans’ fervent motion. She shut her mind off to everything but that, giving her body over to
float helplessly in the current of that gentle sway. And she thought of him.
He lived on the dry land and he breathed only dry air. He walked on two legs. She should not be so very aware of him. Vigilant in her capacity of Sentinel, yes, but not so very aware. She was supposed to monitor human activity on the lake, not grow to actually care about it. That was not a part of her job. She was not to be reveling in vibrations of human copulation like this.
Once again, however, here she was. Reveling. It was wrong. She should not let herself feel this, not give herself over to the movement. This was between the human man and the female he had brought out onto his boat tonight. A mermaid should avoid getting swept up in such things—it was one step closer to detection, to breaking the Veil that kept them all safe.
But how could she not be swept away by it? How could she not feel all of this in her body as the steady beat of human motion began to change? The vibrations became stronger, quicker, almost desperate in their cadence. Her watery environment caressed her, slick and soothing.
She responded so easily to the human’s passion. She was a creature of magic, though. Passion was unknown in her world. How could her body crave such a thing as if it were familiar? While her velvety scales tingled at her sensations, the milky skin of her torso, her arms, and her breasts pricked with anticipation. Her nipples puckered and a fire kindled deep down in her core.
She stroked her hands over her skin, over her breasts as they were buoyed by the water, the nipples taut between her fingers. The action made her weak. She pressed her body tight against the boat, its surface smooth from the human’s diligent care of it. This boat felt almost an extension of the man and she rubbed her fins over it, letting the water hold her as she cupped her own breasts and wondered at the heat welling up inside them.
Kissed by the Wave: A Forbidden Realm Novel Page 2
