Licked by the Flame

by Serena Gilley

  “Please, Raea,” he said, laying his hand over hers. “Don’t make me drag you into more danger. Let me keep you safe. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you. I need you to be safe.”

  “You think I’d feel the least bit safe if you went off and left me here alone?”

  “I’d rather have you alone than dead,” he declared.

  The words rattled inside her. Did he really think things were quite that serious? Of course certain members of the council had been behaving mysteriously, and those two fairies they’d seen in the forest several days ago had clearly been up to no good…but was this truly a matter of life and death?

  “You think it might come to that?” she asked softly, stroking his cheek and letting the warmth of his skin seep into her fingertips.

  “I won’t take any chances, Raea. I have to go look into this alone. I just couldn’t live if I let something happen to you.”

  “Then you know exactly how I feel. I can’t let you go, Kyne, not now. Whatever you do, I’m doing it with you.”

  “I can see we’re going to have an argument over this,” he said, clutching her hand to his lips and kissing it gently.

  “I’ll win it, of course. You know I have my ways.”

  “Don’t be so sure of yourself. I’ve got a few persuasive tricks of my own.”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to be especially convincing, won’t I?”

  “I’m not going down without a fight,” he said with a crooked little smile that assured her they weren’t talking about investigating the council right now.

  “You’re not going down?” she asked, flashing him her own wicked grin and letting the glittery aura emanating from her speak for itself. “Then you know I will.”

  She fluttered up off the railing and hovered before him, raking her fingertips over his solid form and slowly sinking lower, lower until her lips were perfectly positioned. Oh yes, he was going down, all right. And she was going to take him there.

  Their argument might be on hold for right now, but one thing was certain. They were going to need more Sizing Dust again very soon.

  * * *

  Fairy Dust glittered in the air around them, and Kyne ran his hand over the soft, silky strands of Raea’s tousled hair. Her pink aura glowed with satisfaction and a contented smile touched the corners of her lips. He touched those lips, tracing their contour and feeling the heat of reaction course through his veins. He wanted her again, already.

  They’d spent the morning making love, as they’d done every day since they’d left their lives behind and come to hide here, safe in this strange, enchanted cottage on the top of a forested hill with the Great Lake barely visible to them off in the distance. The special magic here kept them protected from detection by the Fairy Council, as well as anyone else in the Forbidden Realm who might have reason to hunt them. And indeed, they had reason.

  Initially he’d assumed the Fairy Council dragged him in for questioning because they’d become suspicious about his overly human behaviors. Passion was forbidden, after all, and he’d certainly given free rein to his. Worse, he’d drawn Raea into his shameful inclinations. He’d tempted her and she’d given in to the illicit thrill, despite the fact that it meant she faced the same censure and ruin that he did.

  But it appeared that wasn’t the only reason he’d been marked by the council. They’d not asked anything about his interaction with Raea, and in fact it seemed the council was not interested in her at all. She could have been free from the indictment that Kyne faced. But she’d shown up and used forbidden magic to help him escape. She was in just as deep as he was now, and he wished he was noble enough to regret that.

  He couldn’t, though. Raea was here, with him, and he loved her for it. They were fugitives now, but they were together. They’d discarded the rules, reveled in passion, and witnessed things no one had intended them to see.

  But could he keep her safe? He was coming to realize the stakes were much higher than they’d ever imagined. These carnal infractions he and Raea engaged in paled in comparison to the things he’d learned his own kind were up to.

  Fairies had conspired with humans to make a machine used in the collection and suppression of magic. Its ultimate purpose was still a mystery, but Kyne knew for a fact it did strange, horrible things when Veiled creatures were near it. He and Raea had learned that the hard way.

  When they’d first encountered it, a machine had reduced Raea and Kyne to weak, helpless creatures controlled totally by their basest instinct. They’d become slaves to their passions. Sensors near the machine had somehow notified the council of their presence, too. They’d almost been captured.

  For all the years Kyne had trained himself to deny his desires, being in the presence of that machine had sent his senses over the edge, pushed him beyond his ability to hold back. By the Skies, he and Raea had been so lost in each other that they nearly loved themselves into unconsciousness. Or worse.

  The council came remarkably close to ridding themselves of two wanted fugitives that day. It had been mere luck that the side effect of Kyne and Raea’s passion was an overload of the machine. When they reached their climax, the machinery reached its own climax and became disabled. Still, they had needed help to escape.

  Baylor came along. Kyne’s father. It had not been a happy reunion.

  Baylor told them the machine was called a Regulator. It had been created by fairies and humans secretly working together to strengthen the Veil, and the machine required both magic and passion to work. He hadn’t given much explanation beyond that, and Kyne wouldn’t have trusted it if he did. Baylor was a human. Kyne had spent his life hating the man for siring him, making him a half-breed who didn’t belong in either realm. Why should Kyne trust this man any more than he could trust the Fairy Council?

  For Raea’s sake, he needed to find out what was truly going on. They’d both been drawn into this confusing web and it was his fault. He was the one who introduced her to passion. He was the reason she couldn’t dare show herself among their people again. She was innocent and shouldn’t have to pay the price for his flaws, for his weaknesses.

  She would argue with him, of course, but he knew what he had to do. He had to leave her. He just hoped that when it was time for him to go, he’d be strong enough to do the right thing.

  The thought of it tore at his soul, and he instinctively slid his arm over her and pulled her tighter against himself. The Sizing Dust would be wearing off soon for her, so he’d just let her rest. As usual, she’d given herself fully; she’d loved him with all of her heart, every ounce of her passion. He soaked it up with abandon, leaving them both drained and exhausted. He would hold on to this moment as long as he could until—

  A sound outside their bedroom jolted him. He jerked up, and his wings spread quickly to cover Raea and protect her as she slept. Someone was here! He could feel the presence, hear the light footsteps as they moved about the cabin. His senses went on high alert and he pushed back the covers, sliding into the pair of human shorts that he’d found in the closet and had been using during their stay here.

  Raea stirred. “What is it?” she asked.

  “Someone’s here.”

  She was clearly startled, so he tried to be as calm as possible.

  “It’s okay. I’ll take care of it,” he assured her, moving toward the door. “Wait here.”

  She nodded, and he could see her body begin to shrink as fear canceled the effects of the Sizing Dust and she returned to her normal size. In a few moments she’d be small enough to fit in a man’s hand, tiny and vulnerable to danger. Kyne would keep her safe no matter what. Whoever was out there, he sure as hell wouldn’t let them anywhere near Raea.

  He pulled the door open and peered into the main living area. He could clearly make out a figure—a man. Who was he and how had he found them inside their magical refuge? Obviously he was not trying to be stealthy, standing there in the open, his large, human form silhouetted before the window. Kyne’s eyes
adjusted to the bright sunlight streaming in and recognition swept over him before the man even spoke.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting.”

  “What the hell are you doing here, Baylor?” Kyne demanded, pulling the door shut behind him as he stalked toward his father.

  “I came to check on you. Obviously you took my advice to lie low for a while.”

  Baylor had been the one to direct them here, but Kyne wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a thank-you. The fact that Baylor had saved him from capture on this one single occasion did not even come close to making up for all the years Kyne had been abandoned and left to fend for himself and his heartbroken mother, struggling to hide his heritage and the shameful truth of his half-fairy, half-human existence. He owed Baylor no thank-yous, that was for certain.

  On the other hand, the human owed him some answers.

  “What is this place? How did you know about it?” Kyne questioned.

  “I built it, of course,” Baylor replied. “I didn’t realize when I sent you here that you’d be making such excellent use of it, though. Who’s the girl?”

  “I’m alone here.”

  “No, you’re not. You wouldn’t still be here if you were alone. Is she a fairy? She must be. She was hiding with you in the forest, wasn’t she? That’s why you didn’t stick around to beat the hell out of me the way you obviously want to. The council is after her, too.”

  “The council knows nothing of her yet, and neither do you. I didn’t beat the hell out of you because, frankly, you’re just not worth the effort. You are going to give me some answers, though. What have you gotten us involved in? Hybrid equipment? When did the Fairy Council start working with humans?”

  “There’s much more here than you know about, Kyne.”

  “And that’s why you’re going to tell me. Start by explaining this cabin.”

  “It’s a cabin, protected by magic that only a certain formulation of Fairy Dust and a couple key human ingredients can penetrate.”

  More human and magical hybridization. Kyne didn’t like that one bit. “Why?”

  “We needed a safe place, somewhere beyond magic or human detection.”

  “We? You mean my mother. She lied to me, you know. All these years, she told me she had no idea where you were. But I found the photo; I know she’s been here with you. Recently.”

  “She lied to protect you, Kyne. Like I said, there’s a lot going on that you don’t know about.”

  “Well, the Fairy Council seems to think I know all about it. They’ve been watching my every move for as long as I can remember. Just what do they think I know, Baylor? Just what were all these lies supposed to protect me from?”

  “We were hoping they would keep you safe behind the Veil.”

  “By the Skies, Baylor. What is that supposed to mean? Of course I’m safe behind the Veil. That’s what the Veil is for—protecting magical beings.”

  “Yes, but you’re only half-magical, Kyne. There’s a reason the council has watched you. Your human nature is strong, isn’t it?”

  Kyne refused to reply. The fact that he had any human nature at all was Baylor’s damn fault. The fact that he’d battled that nature every moment of his life, only to finally fail magnificently and drag Raea into his human carnality, was proof just how strong it truly was. Hell, he was standing here six feet tall, eye to eye with Baylor right now, wasn’t he? He’d not give him the pleasure of taking any credit for it, though.

  “I’m a fairy,” he announced. “There’s nothing wrong with my magic.”

  “I never said that there was. But you’re human, too. That part of your nature is what concerns the council. It might be stronger than the Veil, Kyne. Especially since they’ve found…”

  “They’ve found what?”

  Baylor glanced around the cabin, and Kyne watched him clench and unclench his fists. Whatever he’d been about to say, he’d caught himself and was wrestling now with whether to divulge his information or not. Kyne wasn’t about to let not be an option for the man.

  “What did they find, Baylor? You owe me the truth.”

  “All right, I’ll tell you. The council has discovered some problems with the Veil.”

  Obviously Kyne was going to need more information than that. He glared until the older man continued.

  “Holes. The Veil is developing holes, Kyne, though of course it’s not public knowledge. There are areas where the Veil’s power is weakening.”

  “I haven’t heard anything about it.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have. The council is keeping it quiet, but they’ve been monitoring weak spots for years now. In fact…well, that’s how they found out about your mother and me.”

  “I can’t believe I’m going to ask, but how’d they do that?”

  “Think of passion and magic as balances on a scale. When they’re equal, the barrier between worlds is strong; but when they’re not, when passion invades the Forbidden Realm or magic gets into the mundane, the lack of balance weakens the Veil. The council claims your mother and I helped upset this balance, so they’ve forced us to either work with them or suffer punishment.”

  “You’ve been working with the council all this time?”

  “Yes. They found out I have some skills they can exploit and they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. In exchange for giving you up and helping the council create the Regulators, they agreed not to punish your mother for our relationship.”

  “But you didn’t give up my mother. Only me.”

  “It was years before I ever saw her again, Kyne. I swear to you, I tried to stay away, to keep my bargain with the council, but…”

  “But you’re only human, right?”

  “I thought maybe you’d understand, but I guess not. Apparently that fairy in the other room there doesn’t mean as much to you as I thought she might.”

  “Don’t you dare bring her into this. Raea means more to me than my own life!”

  Baylor smiled and Kyne felt just a bit foolish. The old man had been looking for a response and was obviously pleased with himself for getting one. Kyne promised himself never to let that happen again.

  “Raea,” Baylor mused. “It’s a lovely name and I’m happy to make her acquaintance.”

  “You will not be doing that. I have no intentions of even letting you lay eyes on her.”

  “Too late,” Baylor said with another damn smile. “She’s standing right behind you.”

  Kyne whirled to find his father was correct. Raea had opened the bedroom door and stood there wrapped in a bedsheet, her wide lavender eyes blinking with a great number of questions. She’d obviously used Sizing Dust, choosing to show herself in human proportions, but every bit of her was pure fairy. Kyne wanted to shield her from whatever evil his father represented, but she stepped up to his side and faced Baylor unflinchingly.

  “You are Kyne’s father,” she said.

  “I am.”

  “Why are you here?” she asked. “You must have come for some purpose.”

  “I did. I came to see how you were doing.”

  Raea’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “No, there’s more. Why did you really come here?”

  Kyne watched guilt flash over his father’s face. Raea’s instincts were right. Clearly Baylor had come for something more than just checking on the son he hadn’t ever bothered to check on before. Whatever truly brought the man here today, Kyne knew he wasn’t going to like it.

  “I came to ask a favor,” Baylor announced.

  Well, that figured. “I’m not really in a favor-granting mood.”

  But Raea was at least curious. She hugged her sheet closely around herself, and her glossy wings fluttered nervously. “What do you need from us?”

  Baylor’s expression darkened. “There’s something happening—something bad, and I think it involves my machinery. Someone may be tampering with it, misdirecting it, and using it for purposes we never intended.”

  “And what are we supposed to do about it?”
Kyne questioned.

  “I don’t know, maybe there’s nothing we can do. I need to know what is happening, and why. That’s where you come in.”

  Kyne sneered at him. “You think we know what’s going on? By the Skies, I barely know my own name right now.”

  “Of course you don’t know what’s going on, but you can find out.”

  “Why don’t you find out? You’re such close friends with the Fairy Council and all.”

  Baylor shook his head. “This doesn’t involve the Fairy Council. At least, I don’t believe it does.”

  “Really? So who does it involve?”

  “Someone in Iceland.”

  Iceland? Kyne wasn’t an expert at human geography—the Forbidden Realm did not rely on those imaginary lines of political boundaries that humans set for themselves—but he knew enough to understand Baylor was talking about a place half a world away. What on earth could be happening in Iceland that had Baylor so concerned? And how could it possibly have anything to do with his stupid hybrid equipment?

  “The coalition that I’m working with is trying to preserve the Veil,” Baylor explained. “We’ve kept our efforts secret so as not to upset the balance within the Forbidden Realm, but everything we do is to keep the Veil in place. Recently, though, some of our equipment has come up missing.”

  “You’re telling us that some other secret organization is stealing from your secret organization. Why? What do they want the machinery for?” Kyne asked, hoping that the sarcasm was obvious in his tone.

  “We don’t know,” Baylor replied. “But I found evidence that it’s been shipped out to Iceland. To discover what they’re doing with it, someone will have to go there.”

  “You’d better take a coat,” Kyne suggested. He knew what the man was getting at. “I hear it’s cold up there.”

  Baylor scowled at his tone. “I can’t go, of course. They watch me almost constantly. I don’t even want to think of what they might do to your mother if I run off to Iceland. No, it has to be someone they’d never suspect; someone they don’t currently have eyes on.”

  “Then it has to be us,” Raea announced boldly. “We’ll go there and find out.”