Fae Lord Bewitched
Real Fae of Othercross 4
Marina Maddix
Contents
About This Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About the Author
About This Book
A centuries-old curse threatens his entire future...
If there's one thing Rad Oberon loves, it's a good puzzle. Mainly because—aside from his family and clan—he's alone. Of course, his status as the last remaining Oberon lord to not find his mate in Othercross doesn’t bother him. He's more than happy to spend the rest of his life single, if only he can solve the mystery of his family's scandalous past. And the best place to do that is, naturally, the library.
While hunting down an obscure reference, Rad meets the most beautiful witch. Despite her antique costume, Araminta Harrington is the loveliest creature he's ever laid eyes on. But just when he thinks she might be interested in him too, she disappears. No bother—she already admitted that she practically lives at the library. But the next day, the same thing happens. It doesn't take long for Rad to realize there's far more—and a whole lot less—to Araminta than meets the eye.
Just as he solves one puzzle, a far more life-changing one falls in his lap. Only, he doesn't know how to solve it—and he must, if he wants to claim his fated mate.
Fae Lord Bewitched is the fourth book in a series of fae romances set in the Real Men of Othercross world. If you like fated mates, second chance romance, and ghost romances, you'll love this quick, steamy read!
Don't miss the other books in the series
REAL MEN OF OTHERCROSS
Vampire Seduction
Vampire Claim
Vampire Temptation
Vampire Reunion
Vampire Enchanted
Fae Lord Avenged
Fae Lord Seduced
Fae Lord Redeemed
Fae Lord Bewitched
Chapter One
“You sure about this, Rad?” Dain Oberon asked his cousin.
“I’m sure,” Radagast replied, hands in his pocket as the quickly expanding Oberon family gathered outside their inn to bid each other goodbye.
All of the Oberon clan leaders—aside from Lord Radagast Oberon of the Stormgulf Clan—had somehow found their fated mates in Othercross, and the women were now returning with them to their respective clans.
“Remember when you guys used to say I was obsessed with this Oberon-Murphy feud?” Leaning back on his seat, Dain grinned at Rad. Of course, he had to be the one bringing this up. “Now who’s obsessed?”
“Let the man be,” Eldan cut in. “It’s not like Rad wants to stay behind because he wants revenge.” As if needing to make sure, Eldan turned toward Radagast and arched one eyebrow. “Right?”
“Right,” Radagast replied. “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to stay long. I just want a few more days here. The Othercross University Library has an impressive historical archive, and I’d like to dig into it. There has to be something about our ancestors there, something that might help clear things up. There’s more to the story than what we’ve been told over the years, and I really want a chance to solve the mystery.”
Of course, finding a clear-cut explanation to a scandal that had occurred generations ago was a long shot, but he wanted to try. Nobody really knew what had happened to their ancestor, Libby Oberon, although that didn’t stop both sides of the feud from coming up with their own versions. The two families had come to an agreement to move on from the controversy, thanks to Dain and Galwyn’s union, but the unsolved puzzle remained—and that drove Rad a little crazy.
In a way, his renewed interest in the scandal surprised him. He had always been happy to ignore the secrets held by their ancestors, but Dain’s obsession with the family feud had piqued Rad’s curiosity. And, whenever Radagast got curious about something, he didn’t stop until he solved the riddle.
“Just remember to keep your eyes peeled, cousin.” Kellen draped one arm around Evie’s shoulders—the young witch who had become his mate—and offered Rad a wink. “There’s more than just books in Othercross.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Radagast replied, resisting the urge to give Kellen the finger.
Despite the fact his cousins had found their mates here, he wasn’t expecting to come out of Othercross carrying a woman in his arms. No one could predict when they’d cross paths with their fated mate, but Radagast believed there was a limit to fate’s influence. After Dain, Kellen, and Eldan had found their mates here… Well, he was pretty damn sure that fate had already exhausted its magical reserves. And he was okay with that.
“Safe travels,” he said, turning to leave them to their final preparations. He stopped a few feet away and gave his cousins and their mates a nod. “Ladies, remember to keep these guys on a tight leash.”
“Ooh, bondage,” Damisa, the sassy leopard shifter who had ensnared Eldan’s heart, said with a naughty chuckle and a wink. “Seriously, though, now that they have us around, these three aren’t going to get into trouble—unless we want them to.”
“Close enough,” Rad said, returning her wink before continuing down the street toward the library.
Now that he was finally alone—which meant he didn’t need to worry about what his cousins were up to—he let out a sigh of relief. He loved those guys more than anything, but even he had to admit things always went pear-shaped whenever the four of them were together. Now, though, he was free to devote his attention to the mystery which had taken over his mind.
Within the hour, Rad was settled at the library, tall stacks of heavy ancient tomes littering the equally ancient desk he was using as a makeshift workstation. Towering shelves packed with historical books, old genealogical records, and god knew what else surrounded him. Ever since Eldan had shown him the OCU Library, Rad had felt its pull. The place was a treasure trove of information, and he knew he would’ve been an idiot had he left this place without exploring it.
To be honest, though, there was more than the library at play here. Despite how curious Radagast felt about his family history, something else drew him toward the library. Whether it was the comfortable silence that stretched between the endless rows of shelves or the intricate and ancient stone patterns covering the walls and floors, something about the library called to him.
The hours slipped past Radagast easily. By the time he lifted his nose from the book he was reading, he was surprised to see that the sun had already started to set. Its orange glow filtered through the windows of stained glass, multicolored shadows dancing against the heavy mahogany of the shelves. The library’s silence only added to the solemnity of it all. In fact, the silence that blanketed the building had also become deeper, so much so, Radagast could almost hear his heartbeat.
He was alone.
“Shit,” Radagast muttered, eyeing the large pendulum clock next to the librarian’s desk.
Only ten minutes before closing time, which meant he had to hurry. He reread the bibliographical note he’d jotted down in his notebook, then rose to his feet. He navigated the long aisles, reading the titles printed on the books’ spines as he went, but it seemed like finding what he was looking for wouldn’t be an easy task.
He was so focused on what he
was doing that he wound up in a far corner of the library, his nose just a few inches away from the dusty hardcovers. He only noticed the young woman standing next to him a moment before it was too late.
“Oh!” he exclaimed as he very nearly walked right into her.
They both almost jumped out of their skin. Rad turned to apologize, but the moment he laid eyes on her, he lost the ability to speak.
The beautiful young woman had fair skin and long, flowing blonde hair that only accentuated the porcelain tinge of her flesh. Deep blue eyes, even deeper than his own, reminded Rad of ancient rivers that cut through an icy wilderness. She stood almost as tall as him, which only added to her ethereal elegance when she moved. If he was being completely honest, she almost seemed like a dream.
“I didn’t see you,” Rad finally managed to sputter, surprised at how hard it was for him to form a coherent sentence. “I’m so sorry.”
The woman stared at him with surprised eyes, her lips slightly parted, and then looked behind her, as though he were speaking to someone else. When she found no one, her gaze dropped to her feet, a pale pink coloring her cheeks. Finally, a hesitant smile spread across her lips.
“It’s okay,” she said so softly the words came out as a whisper.
Her voice was honeyed and sweet, and to Rad it sounded like a hundred harp strings being plucked at once.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, having no idea why he was feeling so damn awkward around her.
She seemed to think about this for a long time before finally answering with a small shake of her head.
“I was just distracted,” he explained awkwardly. “I’ve been trying to find Genealogical Annotations on the Oberon, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
He suddenly felt like an idiot. Why the hell was he telling her all this? The poor woman looked flustered, and the last thing she probably wanted was for him to walk her through his pointless research.
“Oh, I might know where to find it,” she said in that low tone.
Without looking back at him, she turned and walked down the aisle. Rad stood frozen in place, not only surprised that anyone in the world would know where to find such an obscure tome, but also a little hypnotized by her white dress. The hem seemed to float around her feet, almost as though it had been sewn with magic. He was so fascinated by it that it took him a few moments to notice the dress itself appeared to be far out of fashion—not that he really kept up with such things. Still, the patterns covering the snow-white fabric were as elegant as they were antiquated.
The woman paused before she turned a corner and peered at him over one shoulder. Rad held his breath as he took in every line of her delicate features. She had to be the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.
“Are you coming?”
“Of course, yes,” he muttered, hurrying after her.
She led the way into another section of the library and stopped in front of a shelf with books which seemed old enough to have witnessed the library itself being built. Tall glass doors encased a small section of the bookshelf, and that’s where the woman nodded.
“I think I’ve seen the book you’re looking for there,” she said, and only then did she look at Radagast full in the face. The vibrant blue of her gaze drew him in, making him feel as though he’d dived straight into the wild river of her eyes. “It should be in a different section, but I believe someone misplaced it here. That’s why you couldn’t find it.”
“What’s your name?” he asked, no longer caring about the book. The woman in front of him demanded every sliver of his attention, and he was more than happy to offer it all. “Sorry, I should’ve introduced myself before asking that. I’m Radagast Oberon.”
“Oberon?” she repeated, the gentle arch of her eyebrows betraying the fact that she recognized his name from the book. “Araminta. Araminta Harrington.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” he practically cooed before he could filter his own words. Normally he preferred to weigh his words carefully before opening his mouth, but something about Araminta made him feel…carefree. “Do you work here?”
“Oh, no,” she said, a pale smile playing on her lips. “But I’m here all the time.”
There was something odd about the way she said it, like an ocean of sorrow hid behind her words, but her beauty made it impossible for Rad to focus on that.
“What about you, Radagast Oberon? I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”
“I’m researching part of my family history,” he explained, feeling more at ease. “The downfall of the Oberon family started a long time ago, and I’m just trying to find out what really happened.”
“Is this about Libby Oberon and Ewan Murphy?”
Rad’s jaw nearly fell to the floor. Most high-society people might have been aware of the Oberon-Murphy feud and how it had started, but he didn’t expect a random stranger to know about it.
At his reaction, Araminta’s cheeks pinked again. “I’m sorry, it’s none of my business. I just know the story…”
Before Rad could say anything else, she pointed to a shelf beyond the glass door which encased the books. “I believe that’s what you’re looking for.”
“Thank you, really.”
He stepped close to her, his heart picking up the pace as he did it, and then reluctantly turned away to open the bookcase. Genealogical Annotations on the Oberons was exactly where she’d pointed, and he carefully plucked it out from the shelf so as not to damage the old binding. Turning to thank Araminta, he found she was already gone.
“What the…?”
He looked around, scanning the long and silent aisle as if expecting her to jump out from the shadows, but there was no sign of her. A tightness clenched his chest and his shoulders sagged as he walked through the maze of shelves, hoping to catch sight of her again. Not even the chime of the pendulum clock echoing through the library’s main hall, announcing closing time, stopped him. Only once he’d scoured every inch of the place did he slump into a chair, defeated.
“Araminta Harrington,” he murmured, her name tasting like cotton candy on his tongue. “Where the hell have you gone?”
Chapter Two
Araminta crouched, breathless, watching Radagast through the stacks. He was searching for her, there was no doubt about it. At first, in that way people do when they’re hoping to run into someone by accident. The feigned casual step, pretending to look at books when the eyes are searching for something else.
But then he began to look in earnest. When he dropped the pretense and started flat-out hunting, her heart thrilled at it. Araminta couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt anything like this. Maybe never.
Each time he came around one row of shelves, she ducked out of sight. Out of sight? That was a laugh. Part of her wanted to stand directly in front of him, just to find out if he could actually see her again.
There was no telling how many times she’d tried that trick—standing close enough to someone to almost feel their breath, but still being impossibly far away. In the beginning, it had been the source of profound, maddening sorrow. Now, after so many years she couldn’t even hope to remember, the edge had dulled to a slight pang.
At times, she wondered if she was actually capable of feeling anything anymore. The loneliness had settled over her like a mantle, making the entirety of the “real world” seem hazy. As if they were the remnants and she were looking at it all through glass.
“Araminta?”
That was bold! Thrillingly so. He actually called her name. Not too loud, because the librarian was not-so-patiently waiting for him to leave after all, but the transgression of it tickled up through her. She was sorely tempted to answer and wondered for a moment why it felt so wrong to do so.
As she watched, this handsome, raven-haired fae with an ornate crown tattooed on his forehead gave a disappointed sigh, then turned back. He wound through the stacks until he reached the mountain of books he had amassed. Unable to stop herself, Araminta trailed him a
ll the way to the front, careful to keep out of his line of sight, just in case.
Two or three times over the centuries, others had caught glimpses of her, but they would always shake away what they thought was a hallucination and pass her by, as everyone always did. Unseeing. To say there was something special about this man would have been a gross understatement.
He checked out his armload of books, keeping furtive, watchful eyes over his shoulder. Then, when he no longer had a viable excuse to stay, he gathered up his treasure and left the librarian to close up.
What was this feeling inside her? Was it sadness? It had to be, but that emotion had been such a close neighbor to her that it should have been more familiar.
No, not sadness. Longing. That was something else entirely. Longing came in the skin of sadness, but it was wrapped around a pearl that she hadn’t allowed herself in ages.
Hope.
As soon as Radagast Oberon was gone, the unreality of it came crashing down around her in a giddy cascade. He’d seen her! Nobody had seen her in years. Lots of years. So many she couldn’t even count them if she sat down to think about it. Everything had blended together into one interminable, monotonous line.
The handful of occasions when some magicals had spotted her left her feeling oddly elated. A brief flash of contact was better than none at all.
But this?
Not only had Radagast seen her, but he had actually talked to her. A real conversation. It blew her mind. As if she was just another browser, wandering among the shelves she could have recited in her sleep. Not that she slept, really, which may have contributed to her nebulous perception of time.
It had to have been two hundred years since she’d talked to a living creature—maybe even longer! Of course, it didn’t hurt that Radagast was breathtakingly handsome. What were the chances that someone who looked like that would bury themselves in a library? He had to be the sexiest bookworm on record.
Fae Lord Bewitched: Real Men of Othercross (Paranormal Fae Romance) (Real Fae of Othercross Book 4) Page 1
