No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

“Aeric,” Eloden repeated, then took a few steps to scoop me up. “It feels different when you are unglamoured. I’ll shield you. We have to get out of here.”

  “Why the rush now?” I said after Eloden quickly mumbled some Fae and his cool magic took the fire out of my skin.

  “Your glamour doesn’t only protect you from feeling other magic as strongly, it prevents others from feeling yours in return,” Eloden answered. “If Falin had been more forthcoming, I would have taken precautions before removing your glamour.”

  “He didn’t want Kheelan or Dain to know. Maybe that’s why he kept it secret?”

  Eloden shifted my body to hang over his shoulder. “You’re mine,” he said, surprising me.

  I didn’t really know how to respond to the sudden declaration. Did he mean in a magical way, as in the Mark he placed on my neck? Loren had said magic would decide if given an opportunity. Falin had Marked me against my will but it took.

  “About that,” I said, figuring now was a terrible time as any to reveal this nugget about nipping Loren. “I have a question about Marks and, uh, biting.”

  Everything suddenly went dark.

  “Eloden, what-”

  “Dain,” he said, dropping to his knees with me still over his shoulder.

  That terrible pressure I felt in the kitchen when Dain first claimed to show me his wings was magnified. Fear squeezed my heart, proving it wasn’t made of ice, after all. I panted against Eloden’s back, not ready to clamber down and face the demon that had tracked us.

  “Show yourself,” Dain thundered.

  I wanted to squeak out ‘I didn’t do it,’ but speech was beyond me. Really, anything more than breathing as quietly as possible was more than I could handle. I didn’t know how Eloden managed to hold me instead of completely collapsing against the pressure of Dain’s heavy magic.

  “Eve needs to get to her brothers and Orin,” Eloden said.

  He sounded calm. I tried to relax my death grip on his back. I couldn’t talk to Dain like this.

  “Hurts, Dain,” I whined. I spoke so quietly, even Eloden may not have heard me.

  Dain prowled over to our direction, although I could still feel Eloden’s glamour coating my skin. The pressure eased marginally.

  “I’m going to add a fox pelt to my blankets if you don’t show her to me now,” Dain warned, reaching out and grabbing a handful of my hair.

  I wrapped my hands around Dain’s armoured wrist. He had gauntlets on, leather and iron by Eloden’s pained groan as Dain’s arm brushed against him. My hair was hopelessly tangled in Dain’s grip already.

  “Should I refreeze the snowflake?” I asked Eloden.

  “Too late,” Eloden answered, then he spoke the Fae words to pull his magic off me. The heat between our bodies was immediate.

  Golden eyes met my startled ones.

  “Hello Eve,” Dain whispered.

  I see you, see you, my mind shouted.

  Dain wasn’t glamoured that I could tell. His black, feathered wings blended into the night, only visible against the starry sky as curved, unrelenting darkness that he extended, blocking out the moon. He loomed over us and became my night, an encompassing presence that wrapped around me until he was all I could see and hear.

  My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. Heart stuttering and pounding in my chest, I closed my eyes and searched for that snowflake. I needed my body back to deal with this. I started whispering my rhyme the moment I felt the first touch of frost.

  “No, don’t hide,” Dain told me, tugging my head up with his grip on my hair.

  My eyes popped back open. He hadn’t been gentle, shocking me when he then dropped to his knees beside us and brought his fistful of my hair to his face and buried his nose in it. At least he wasn’t going to scalp me, the tugging stopping as he closed the distance between us.

  “Go to him,” Eloden said, easing me off his shoulder.

  Golden eyes watched me with animal awareness as I followed the leash of my hair to kneel in front of him. This close I could feel the heat radiating off his body, burning with magic. I tried to loosen my tongue, swallowing and moving it around to find any moisture left in my mouth.

  “Hello Dain,” I croaked back.

  He smiled and it was beautiful, not scary or arrogant. I felt myself soften. “Do you know what you are, little Halfling?” he asked me.

  “Light Fae,” I answered, voice cracking on the word light.

  He shook his head slowly. “No, minx. I would not have been called down from the sky for such, even if she was under my Mark.”

  “Eloden called me an Elf,” I said, confused. I turned to look for him.

  Dain wrapped my length of hair he had fisted tighter, looping more hair to pull me closer. I was forced to look back at him.

  “Falin let me Claim you knowing you were a Dark Elf,” he said, soft but oh, so deadly. Sharp, golden eyes lasered down on mine. “Did you spell his silence?”

  His grip wouldn’t let me move away as his face came within inches of mine, searching for my answer. I struggled anyway, like a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web for my very life.

  “No,” I whispered.

  The grip tightened. Pressure sank into my lungs, squeezing the full answer from me.

  “Aeric and Falin didn’t think we should tell you or Kheelan after they saw my unglamoured form.” My voice had trembled to answer as his eyes pierced me.

  “You really are an innocent for a monster,” he whispered against my lips.

  I sucked in a painful breath as the pressure eased. “You really are a demon.”

  He kissed the insult right off my lips. His previous kisses had been softer, gentled for my inexperience, but this one was as hard as any Falin had pressed on me. He skipped the licking and tasting my lips, plunging right into my mouth, reckless around my fangs. I tasted a little blood and realized I must have nicked him.

  He wouldn’t let me pull back, growling right into my mouth and tangling his tongue with mine. It was a raw mating, frenzied hands from both of us tugging at our clothes with urgency, my hands forming claws to dig with frustration at his thick leather that had survived more determined weapons than mine. I scratched my hands down his chest and pulled back to find a belt or buckle somewhere to free him.

  “Get rid of the voyeurs,” Dain grumbled to Eloden before he grabbed my hands on his chest and bound them with one of his own.

  The sound of steel being drawn drew my eyes over to see Eloden walk into the woods, two short swords at his sides that were licked by flame. A sharp tug on my hair got my attention.

  “We aren’t done yet,” Dain told me.

  If I was smart, I would run after Eloden. This crazy hate-fuck between Dain and me had blown up over one kiss. If we were in my apartment, we would have never even got to the bedroom, probably popping my cherry right on the kitchen table where Dain had first shown me his dark side.

  “I’m done,” I retorted. “Temporary insanity,” I pleaded with a growl as Dain pulled me up hard against him by my bound hands. There wasn’t an inch of space between us, forcing my head way back if I wanted to look him in the face. Dain wasn’t the kind of guy I could afford to take my eyes off of for a second.

  “What makes you think I won’t fuck you into the ground?” Dain crudely threatened.

  “You’ll regret it,” I told him, ardour cooling down with his lips off mine. The gentle lover that had nibbled my fingers from my back to Claim me never would force himself on me.

  “If you knew better, you’d be begging me to solidify the Claim by bedding you hard enough to leave grass stains and another Mark to reinforce your protection. Falin has only bought you a little time with his games. Are you not eager to save your fairy prince?”

  “Get over yourself,” I told him, curling my lip up. Kheelan had nothing on Dain’s arrogance. “This isn’t some fairytale. I was tricked by Kheelan as much as the rest of you.”

  Dain opened his wings, feathers curling around me and locking me i
n the dark with him. The ground shook with another explosion a moment later but I didn’t feel the cold rush of Aeric’s power, protected in Dain’s embrace.

  He kissed me again, softer so I had to stretch up to keep our lips touching, and gods, did I want to keep kissing Dain. His magic released my bound hands I gripped his shoulders, pulling myself up his body. I knew it was contrary to spout hatred at him while clawing for his touch. I didn’t like him. I didn’t want him. I desperately needed him.

  “Did you use magic on me?” I asked as our lips parted. It was the only explanation. Not only Dain but all of them, my body wanting each and every one of them when they touched me.

  Dain’s short, sharp laugh told me what he thought of that question.

  “I don’t believe in love at first sight,” I said, fisting his shirt as another explosion sounded.

  “Hardly first sight,” Dain reminded me.

  “I don’t believe in soulmates or fate or happily ever after.”

  Dain unwound his wings, letting the cool night air bathe my heated skin. He tugged my hands off his shirt and I fisted them at my sides, embarrassed but also so I wouldn’t grab him back to me again.

  “What do you believe in?” he asked, staring deeply into my eyes. Power squeezed my chest.

  “Hope,” I answered, feeling heat rise in my cheeks at the mawkish sentiment so unlike me, but the raw honesty was pulled from my chest by his magic. “It’s too fragile a dream to survive reality,” I added, more like myself as his magic let go.

  “I told you to dream of me,” Dain whispered.

  Chapter 20:

  THE PROBLEM WITH DREAMS was you always woke up before the good ones finished.

  With a sudden flap, Dain stood and then another flap lifted him off the ground. A single feather fell towards my face and I closed my eyes, letting it gently touch my cheek on its way to the ground. I shivered as the cold night air settled around me, and when I opened my eyes, he was gone from sight.

  Had that been a dream or a nightmare?

  I bent down and grabbed the feather off the ground, stuffing it in my pocket like a shell on the beach, and I told myself that’s all it was, a childish memento. This feather didn’t represent the possibility of something more, a promise. Dain probably shed them like he discarded Marks once the heat of the moment was over.

  It was this stupid Fae body that had drawn him back to me. He had even admitted that he wouldn’t have flown down for the mere Light Halfling he had thought me before Eloden helped me strip my glamour.

  Then why was Dain here?

  I stubbed my foot into the dirt, feeling abandoned even though I was very aware there was a ferocious battle being waged and I had already been rescued. It wasn’t even about me. Kheelan had made it clear that it was all about his purebred brother. I was not changing Aeric’s nickname from Brat even if his magic made me want to kneel and beg for mercy as much as Dain’s darkness.

  A stick snapped.

  I reached back and plucked my bow and an arrow from the quiver on my back like I was born doing it, which darkness aside, I had been, just like Aeric and Kheelan. I supposed Orin must know how to handle a bow as well, although he never mentioned it. I nocked the arrow, but I didn’t draw it, creeping forward towards the noise. I needed practice if I was going to be spending time in Faerie.

  Loren knew how to use a bow by his skilled fingers. He might be an even better teacher than Aeric, a little less stick up his ass, though I might not be able to afford what Loren would ask in payment for lessons.

  I could do this on my own. My vision was sharper in this form. I still felt a bit wobbly and shrugged my feet out of my runners, instantly better. The shoes had been pinching without me realizing it. I think my feet were bigger. My clothes felt tighter as well and there were a few inches of bare skin at my wrists and ankles.

  I should be more scared, but I wasn’t, and I could only assume it was because I knew Eloden was out there making voyeurism a crime punishable by fire swords. He was experienced with saving my ass from criminals.

  When had crime fighting become a normal part of my life?

  My soaker bathtub at my parents’ house and I had a date when I got out of Faerie to really think things through, and then I was going to cuddle with both the twins and sleep on my giant bed without worrying about which Fae was going to accompany me to the washroom when I woke up. I would inform Dain of my plans after my vacation.

  I heard another stick break and a bunch of what I assumed were normal forest nighttime noises. It wasn’t like I had ever wandered into a dark wood at night, especially in Faerie where there were real monsters, like me.

  Dain could be a real bastard.

  Now that he was gone, I felt a strange sort of relief. It was as if I had missed stepping into a trap, wandering around in the dark while a predator eyed and dismissed me for tastier prey. Dain hadn’t mentioned anything about a rescue. He had been dressed to hunt and hurt and kill. It would be madness to step back into the dark with him to risk his hungry perusal a second time.

  I found I was in a bit of a clearing as I looked around, too open for my liking with my instincts screaming to hide. I wanted my hoodie back, which I had shed in my escape run and Lord asshole had probably kept as a trophy.

  He seemed the type to skin his kills personally. Antlers on his wall must have replaced all the toys in Aeric’s childhood. It explained why Aeric was too serious for his age. I ought to share some of my childhood treasures with him.

  I pictured Aeric holding me between his legs as he hugged me from behind like Jackson and we sat on my bed watching The Princess Bride on my laptop.

  Another stick broke behind me.

  I whirled around, long hair getting in my face. I needed those Fae braids back. Just how many sticks did this stupid forest have lying around and waiting to be broken? Even if it wasn’t someone from Selvyth’s army, there could be wolves out there. What about bears? Were they nocturnal?

  My bow felt less reassuring in my hand than a moment ago. It wasn’t strong enough to take down a bear.

  I knew it was safest to stay in one spot and let Eloden come for me, common sense saying I would only get more lost if I wandered in the woods by myself.

  There had to be an exception for magical woods. Eloden would track me. I couldn’t stay still here a moment longer waiting to get eaten.

  I didn’t have the sound of breaking stick to warn me when my eyes caught a flicker of movement in the dark at the edge of my vision. My head swivelled to the motion like a cat tracking a bird and I brought my bow up. I could barely make out the outline of a Fae covered in dark leather, but his blonde hair stood out like a white flag.

  He didn’t say anything, but he froze and we stared at each other’s dark outlines.

  My bow arm ached. I carefully corrected my aim. The Fae had chased me down like foxes making a game of a bunny. They had all watched Kheelan’s torture. They had listened to Loren play with my body like his favourite bow, bending me to his desires.

  Never trust a Fae, Orin had told me.

  Dain had even looked like he would soon as kill me than kiss me. It was up to me to save myself. I had to harden my heart against all of them.

  I closed my eyes and felt for the magic Aeric had shown me to aim, smothering the embers of my humanity. This wasn’t a human I was targeting with my arrow. My arm shifted much wider, magic clearly showing me the error of my aim. The Fae’s body glowed an evil red in my mind’s eye and I knew it was his intent I was seeing.

  “What are you doing?” Eloden asked from behind me.

  I screamed and released the arrow. It missed the Fae by a mile, but he went down anyway, and my arrow flew into the woods. I turned around and whacked Eloden with my bow.

  “You messed up my aim,” I shouted. I whacked him again. “I could have been killed.”

  He grabbed my bow before I hit him again and threw it back at me. “By that boy?”

  “He snuck up on me. He’s one of Selvyth’s soldiers
.”

  “Selvyth raises Halflings in the barracks, Sweetheart. He can’t be more than a dozen summers.”

  “He’s armed.”

  “Of course, he’s armed. Faerie doesn’t let its children run around unprepared.”

  Eloden looked disgusted with me.

  “I can’t see well that far. You left me all alone in the woods and there were sticks breaking and I saw his evil, red intent with my magic,” I blurted out defensively. Giving Eloden an angry, shameful look, I pivoted and headed over to the boy. “I didn’t hit him. He has to be okay.”

  Eloden’s bigger strides quickly took him past me and he squatted down by the body.

  “He’s only fainted after having survived being in the sights of a Dark Elf. It will make a good campfire story for him later.”

  I squatted next to him and put my hand on the young Fae’s chest, feeling the rise and fall of his breathing. He was a child on the verge of manhood as Eloden guessed, although much taller than a normal pre-teen. He was already taller than me.

  I handed Eloden my bow. “Take it,” I said. I tried to loosen the chest buckles on my quiver with my cold fingers.

  Eloden slid the bow onto its slot on the outside of my quiver. “Leave it on.”

  “I can’t do this,” I said, giving a frustrated cry.

  Eloden grabbed my hands, warming them in his own. “You don’t have to do this alone,” he told me.

  “You left me alone with Dain,” I said and it was an accusation.

  “He is your Claimed Mark,” Eloden said. He smiled and chuckled softly at me. “Did you forget his promised protection already?”

  He made me sound foolish for worrying but he had been crushed by the same power I felt from Dain and the threat had been clear to me.

  “How do you think Dain would respond to someone that betrayed him?” I asked.

  “Kheelan doesn’t deserve your worry,” Eloden said, losing his smile. His face took on the same hardness that I had seen when he fought the gangster for me. This time, I didn’t think there would be any mercy.

  I hadn’t even been asking about Kheelan but Eloden had still answered my question. Dain wasn’t the forgiving sort. I really had escaped with my life from the clearing and I needed to leave before Dain returned.