by Candace Sams
“Will she be all right?” Eartha asked as she stared at Sky’s slumbering form.
Rowan nodded. “Yes, though I wasn’t sure for a few minutes after the attack was over. All I could think about was holding her. But I dared not take my attention from Glacia until it was safe to do so.”
Windy stepped forward and gazed at his face. “Y-you’re so pale.”
He glanced at the two women standing on the other side of Sky’s bed and sighed. “I had to draw a lot of energy from Glacia, to save Sky. It still wasn’t enough, so I used some of my own.” He paused, then told them the rest. “Taking another being’s energy is a horrifying thing to do, but Glacia would never have left us alone. Sky would have always been in danger. I-I had to sap all of Glacia’s life force.”
The two older women nodded.
He ran a weary hand across his jaw.
“There, there, dear. It’s over,” Windy comforted and patted his shoulder.
“Why don’t you climb into bed, and let us take care of the both of you?” Eartha softly suggested. “I’m sure Sky wouldn’t mind you being with her.”
Having explained most of the situation to Eartha and Windy, he still didn’t know if they really understood what he’d done to Glacia. He opened his mouth to tell them the Pixie was dead, not just banished to some other reality. But Sky took that moment to draw a deep breath and open her eyes.
“Rowan?” she weakly muttered.
“I’m here, my love. Right here,” he said as he leaned over her until his lips were only a fraction away from hers.
“W-what happened?”
“Glacia cheated, just as I thought she might.”
Sky tried to sit up, but Rowan carefully held her down where she could continue resting against the soft pillows. “She won’t be a problem any longer.”
“What does that mean?”
Eartha placed a hand on Windy’s shoulder and motioned toward the door of the room. “Perhaps they’d like to be alone,” she quietly suggested.
“Yes,” Windy readily agreed, then raised her voice a little to address Rowan. “We’ll be down the hallway, if you need anything.”
He was barely aware of their leaving, but glad to have a few moments alone with Sky.
“You’re in Faun form and don’t l-look so well. There are dark circles under your eyes,” Sky said as she gazed up into his face.
“Glacia and I are creatures of the elements. She drew powers from the earth and air to summon energy to use in the fight. I used those same elements to draw energy from her and give it back to you. I held you while you recovered, but I don’t guess you remember,” he explained. “Eventually, most of your life force was restored. At first, I thought you were dead. Even I can’t restore life to the dead. No entity can.”
She smiled. “Obviously, I’m nowhere near dead. I feel fine. Just a little tired.”
He kissed her. After the kiss was done, he kept his lips close to hers. “It’ll take some days, but you’ll recover. I, on the other hand, need to seek rest in the Fairy Realm, and pull energy from those of my kind who will bestow it. There’s no one in your world who can tap enough of the elemental powers to aid me. I’ll continue to weaken otherwise.”
For a very long moment she stared into his eyes. “You’re really going back?”
He nodded. “I have to, but just for a time.”
She raised her hands, and looped them around her neck. “Will you be back later tonight or tomorrow?”
He slowly shook his head. “No, Sky. I don’t know when I’ll be able to return.”
She blinked, then slowly nodded. “I…I understand. What happened to Glacia? After you drained her of her powers, I mean.”
“She’s gone.”
“You mean…she’s dead!”
“I have to go back to my grandmother and explain what happened, though I’m sure she knows it all by now. She can see into this world, just as I have been able to. Still, I must tell our side of the story, in person. So that the Pixies’ word isn’t the only version of what occurred.”
“Rowan…”
“Listen, there’s not much time. Minions of the queen are awaiting me in the woods. I feel them near. I must take Glacia’s remains back to the Fairy Realm and state our case. But I will return, Sky. You promised to have my child, and that’s a bargain I mean to keep.”
“What if your grandmother decides this was all a terrible mistake, and she won’t let you return? Then what?”
Rowan stroked her hair back, kissed each cheek. When he broke that contact, he confirmed his promise. “I’ll come back to you. Look for me to come from the woods at sunset. Go on with your plans to build a business from your home. When I return, all will be well. I promise!”
“When!” she persistently blurted.
“As soon as I can make this right with the queen and the Pixies. Most of them are ashamed of Glacia’s behavior, and wouldn’t help her hurt you. Not after she lied and used her powers. As to any other impediments…I’ll deal with them.”
Sky held onto him, but he eventually pulled away from her embrace with a final farewell.
A deep dread filled him as he turned at her bedroom door and sadly smiled one final time.
Chapter Six
It took days for Sky to feel like her old self again. No pain from any injury could compare with the emptiness of Rowan’s absence. She kept wishing he could see the incredible amount of work being done on the house and grounds surrounding it. She and her aunts had thrown themselves into the work with a vengeance after Rowan left, determined to have a viable working business before his return.
As the days stretched into weeks, then months, Sky resolutely forced herself to face the fact that Rowan had probably been detained for some reason having to do with his grandmother’s edicts. As she initially feared, it appeared he was never going to be allowed entrance into her world again.
Gone were any doubts over her love. If they’d only had days together, it was more than some people got in an entire lifetime. He was kind, gentle, good, and prepared to defend those he loved. What more could anyone want in a partner.
She spent her nights yearning for his touch. As he promised, she felt great physical need for him, but sensed that yearning would diminish in time, the longer he was gone.
Time went by. As it did, Sky forbid her aunts to even mention his name or conjure anything without her express permission and presence. If Rowan loved her enough, he would return. If not, life would go on without him. She, however, would make no room in her life for another lover. There was no one who could take his place. His kind, patience and understanding would never be matched by another man.
Rowan paced in the great hall while his grandmother entertained yet another royal visitor from across the great mountains. No one knew where his parents were. If they did, they weren’t saying anything. Searches for them proved fruitless. Their disappearance, he knew, was by Grandmother’s command.
He’d been promised an audience when his full recuperation had been pronounced by the physicians. Each time he’d made an appointment, however, the meeting had been canceled. His grandmother refused to see him if the subject was about his little human. And the subject, as far as he was concerned, was always about Sky.
All the while, he felt Sky’s need and matched it with his own, sending back his own thoughts about their being together. He wasn’t sure whether his thoughts got through the division between the realities, but when she felt his physical frustration, he felt hers.
All he could think about was the child that might have been on the way by now, and how he and Sky would have created a success of the business she planned. Glacia’s terrible death weighed on him, but he’d had no choice. Even the Pixies eventually admitted that Glacia had cheated, and there was no obstacle left to his joining Sky except grandmother’s belligerence. This time, however, he wasn’t going to be put off. This time, her guards were not going to forcibly escort him away from grandmother’s great chamber.
&nbs
p; When the doors to the great, white and pink marble throne room opened, he didn’t even wait for his grandmother’s guests to leave before barging past the guards, and into the middle of the cavernous space. He was taking a very great chance, but everything he ever wanted depended on his doing so. Grandmother would scarcely care to argue with him in front of her entourage. Coming here now might induce her wrath. Still, he was determined.
“Grandmother, tell your guards to stand down!” he demanded as he motioned toward the big men moving toward him. “I must go back to Sky! I will not leave your presence until I am heard!”
The guards slowly stepped toward him.
“If your protectors move any closer, they will suffer! I have not harmed one of them…yet. My patience, however, is at an end!”
When he stalked into the room, the queen—his grandmother—had been in the middle of reseating herself on her golden and crystal throne. Guests who had almost left the room, now stood in the background. Their eyes were wide as saucers.
His chest heaved with emotion.
Slowly lowering her tall frame on her throne, the black-haired queen of the Fairy Realm gazed down at him from her royal dais. Her dark, jewel-covered brown gown and cape seemed to match her somber mood. Her green eyes, so like his own, were fierce and penetrating.
“Is this how you approach your monarch and your grandmother? With threats?” she regally admonished.
Rowan briefly bowed, then stood. He noted how the guards were still very near.
“I’ve asked over and over for you to let me plead my case, and consider the matter of allowing Sky and me to be together. Your guards make sure I cannot even see more than a glimpse of you. I’ve sent messages, and counselors who would plead my case. They’ve been ignored. Now…I will wait no longer,” he replied. “Let me go to Sky. Were it not for Glacia’s interference, we would be happily getting on with our lives, even now. You would have no cause to regret the union.”
“Are you not at all repentant about what you did to the Pixie princess?”
Rowan sighed and briefly dipped his head. “Of course! But she did break the law, and it was a Fairy Realm law she forced on an outsider. She would have killed Sky…why am I explaining what you already know?” He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “I need to be with her.”
“I sense your desire. But such sexual connections hardly make for good marriages, Rowan. You know this.”
“Sky and I have more in common than sex.” He watched his grandmother lift her aged chin, pat her carefully coifed silver hair, and arrange her gossamer robes before continuing. He noted how her sharp gray eyes looked him over in the brown tunic, pants and tall boots he’d donned, to cover his normal nude state before her court.
Now that he had the queen’s attention at last, he couldn’t miss this opportunity to explain his emotional and spiritual need. This was his one chance. Another wouldn’t be allowed. If his grandmother realized how much he wanted Sky on every level, she might consider allowing him to return to the human world.
“Grandmother, please… I love her. She loves me.”
“You were together but a few days at most—”
“You, of all those in my life, should understand. You and Grandfather met only two days before you bedded him, and you wedded him by the next week,” he defended. “Sometimes it happens that fast, even when one of those in the relationship is not of this realm. That’s the way it was between Sky and me.” He stepped closer. “Sometimes…it takes men and women a lifetime of being together before realizing they never knew each other at all. But Sky and I are one. She’s kind and won’t use her magic to harm others. She never intended to harm Glacia. The Pixie princess’s death was my doing. You already know this,” he said, trying to tamp down his vexation.
“But you still haven’t told me exactly why you love this woman so much, Rowan. I had very clear reasons for my love of your grandfather. Those reasons were so deeply profound that I will not justify them to anyone. As queen, I need not ever do so. However, I will put the question to you again. What is it about her particularly that warrants such passion on your part?”
He chose his words carefully, then knelt on the bottom step of the dais before replying. “Her goodness captures me. She has the courage to make her way in the world while supporting her family, and she never considers leaving them behind to make her own life easier. It says a lot about a person when they give up their pleasure for those they love, and Sky has done everything to make her aunts safe and secure. She finds joy in small things, and gives great happiness in return. I’ve seen her smile at the gift of seeing a small fawn in the woods, and cry because she fears losing her home. I’ve seen how her aunts feel about her, and know that their love has been well deserved. I have connected with her. Deep inside.” He covered his chest with one hand. “I want her to be the mother of my child, your next grandchild. Even now, I know she waits for me, and always will. She’ll live a life knowing no other man but me. I’m that certain of her loyalty. And I’ll have no other but her. How can I explain that she’s as important as the beating of my heart? How can I find words to tell you what is in her eyes when I gaze at her?”
He watched his grandmother frown, arch one brow, and clench her hands in her lap. “I suppose the fact that she’s as lovely as any Fairy in our realm makes no difference, does it?”
“Were she less attractive, her spirit would still have captured my soul. We will grow old together. Our physical attributes will fade. What we feel in our hearts won’t. That’s what I want…a woman who will stand by me regardless of how I look, but love me for the wonders of life we can share.”
“I’ve never seen you so obsessed with anything, Rowan.”
“I’ve chosen her as my life mate. She and the child we want will always come first, my queen. My obsession goes that far,” he adamantly admitted.
“You’ve say such a thing to me knowing I could deny your request to go to her, or even enter her world again? You’re actually admitting that she’s more important to you than we are?”
“She’s everything!”
As if someone had chased a cloud away, Rowan saw his grandmother flash a brilliant smile.
“I put off hearing your pleas because I wanted to give you plenty of time to consider what you’re about to do, Rowan. Your mating will be for life and can’t be undone. I wanted to be sure you’d understand that your royal ties should never come between you and those you must care for and protect. I want my grandchild safely guarded while in your world.”
“I take it that means…”
“Gather your belongings. I’ll escort you to the nearest portal leading to the human world. But I’ll expect visits from you and this woman you have chosen, or I shall make a habit of entering your world, unannounced, through the forest she has dedicated to me. If you value your privacy, I suggest you keep your word and come home regularly. Moreover, I will have a few other promises.”
He placed his hand over his heart and smiled. “Anything, Grandmother!”
Sky gazed into the distance, her heart as heavy as any stone she’d cleared from the garden. Loneliness engulfed her, and it seemed there was no reason to smile any longer. All she wanted was Rowan. She blamed herself for Glacia’s death. Had she not fought the Pixie, perhaps Rowan could have taken the fiery woman back to his Fairy Realm and convinced her to leave them alone. Though she doubted any woman so headstrong and jealous would have respected their love, that different scenario would still have been better than forcing Rowan to kill the Pixie. For that, she might well spend the rest of her life alone. But she still had a small reserve of hope.
As she had every night since he left, she went to the woods’ edge at sunset. Now, there was a bench facing the trees where she waited. When darkness finally came, she’d go into the cottage, eat her dinner, go upstairs, and get into bed. There, she imagined herself in Rowan’s strong arms, but imagination wasn’t nearly good enough these days. Only the real thing would do. It was torturou
s to feel sexual urges, and simultaneously know that when they ended, there was still no man to love.
As the twilight fell and nothing happened to make her suspect the evening would be any different from the others, she stood and turned toward the cottage.
“Your expression is far too sad, little witch. Would some company cheer you?”
She turned toward the sound of that low voice and gazed into the darkness. “Rowan! Where a-are you?” she shouted. He walked forward wearing only a loincloth he’d donned, likely in the event that anyone but she was present.
“Hello, my love,” he happily greeted.
She launched herself at him. He caught her and spun her around several times while she cried out his name over and over.
“If you only knew how I missed you,” he murmured against her face as he planted kisses across her forehead and cheeks.
She firmly placed both her hands on either side of his head, and slanted her mouth across his in a kiss that was hotter and deeper than any they’d ever shared. Finally, when the ardor of the moment wasn’t quite so overpowering, she spoke. “Please, tell me you won’t ever leave again!”
He placed her feet back down on the ground, looked her over and caressed her back as if he was making sure she was real and that he wasn’t dreaming.
“Just as I was leaving my realm, the queen bid me come to you with two questions. She stands at the same portal where I entered your world, and will hear your answers. Your response to those questions will be the deciding factor about my staying. I’m not to prompt your answers, in any way.”
The sincerity in his voice froze her. “Ask me anything,” she urged.
“First…will you love our child, no matter what powers it might possess, or what it might physically look like?”
“With all my heart,” she promised even as tears blurred her vision.
He grinned, knowing that would be her answer. “Second…do you have any objection to the queen’s presence in your woods, or to eventually sending our child to her for tutoring in our ways?”
