by Terry Spear
Dragon
Fae
TERRY SPEAR
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Discover more about Terry Spear at:
http://www.terryspear.com/
Copyright © 2012 Terry Spear
All rights reserved.
Dedication
To Caryn Block, who was not a YA reader, but who fell in love with the fae world I created, thanks so much! And thanks to readers for loving the series, like Debra Rodriguez, asking me to make Alicia and Deveron’s dream come true!
Chapter 1
Princess Alicia of the dragon fae hated having to break Cassie’s heart and knew it would destroy their friendship, but she had to take drastic measures if her best friend was to be saved from her own folly.
Alicia was still furious with Deveron, the crown prince of the dark fae. He should have made his cousin, Micala, stay away from her human friend. She feared that Micala would attempt to use fairy magic on Cassie and take her to the fae world, and then she would be a human stuck there. It wasn’t right. Cassie would never fully be accepted as one of the fae.
Forced to attend mandatory meetings, schooling, and parties, due to her social status as the princess of the dragon fae, Alicia had not been able to leave Crislis Castle located in the heart of the Morcalon territory, until today. She had two days’ break before she had to return to her studies.
She fully intended to take this matter with Cassie into her own hands, although she was supposed to sneak off to see Deveron as soon as her studies were done. The fault was all his that she would have to take drastic measures such as these and save her friend instead. Maybe he would learn how important this was to her if she cut her time with him short.
Before anybody could stop her—because even though she had a break from her schooling, it didn’t mean she could avoid other social obligations that could pop up at any time—she willed herself to fae travel to the high school where Cassie was attending one of her classes.
As soon as Alicia transported to the high school, she felt her stomach revolt. She hated this part of fae travel and didn’t think she’d ever get over feeling in this way. Hand clutching her waist and swallowing involuntarily to keep the bile down, she tried to will the nausea away. At least she was invisible to the humans so no one could see her bent over in pain.
She had appeared in one of the school’s hallways—empty while everyone was in class. The English classes were held down this hall. She remembered them well when she had gone to school here. She had not wanted to ever return to the high school and would have preferred seeing Cassie after class, but her own schedule and worry she’d get sidetracked if she hadn’t left the castle at once, meant she didn’t have the luxury to go there as she pleased.
Alicia wasn’t enrolled in the school any longer, not since she’d had to “move” away. Who knew that meant to become a princess in a faraway land?
She had no idea which class Cassie was in at this time of day, having given up on trying to keep up with Cassie’s schedule when Alicia could barely find the time to visit her except on school breaks when she wasn’t seeing Deveron. Which meant she saw Cassie when she was being more closely supervised because she wasn’t supposed to be spending time with Deveron at all, by order of the king, her grandfather.
She hurried into the girls’ restroom, so that she could appear in her human form there without anyone seeing her, and caught sight of herself in one of the big mirrors. She stared at her fae clothes.
Great. She’d been in such a rush, she was still dressed in a forest green hunting gown she loved to wear when practicing her archery skills. The dark green velvet was perfect for the chillier outdoor temperatures, perfect for blending into the woods, and perfect for moving about freely—in a fae world. In the human’s? She looked like she was being cast as a princess in a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves movie. Except she was blond and not a raven-haired beauty. Her eyes were blue though. All she needed were the seven dwarves. The handsome prince, Deveron, was currently on her list. Not in a good way.
So she didn’t need him on this venture either. He would have said he’d take care of the situation with Micala, again. And nothing would have come of it. She’d learned that though Deveron was a dark fae and had a dark temper to match, he also had a good-hearted side. She believed that’s why he couldn’t force Micala to do his bidding where Cassie was concerned. That meant Alicia had to take charge of the problem and tackle this from the human’s side of the equation. Which since she’d been one, only she knew how to do.
She considered her gown again, so used to wearing them in the fae world they were second nature to her now. When she first started wearing them, she kept feeling like she was dressing up for Halloween, and she had desperately wanted her jeans and T-shirts and sneakers back. She was allowed to wear them only when she visited the human’s world. By order of the king. Others in the dragon fae kingdom could get away with what they wished to wear. Not her.
She could have returned to her bedchamber, risked getting stopped, or…suck it up and look for Cassie, ignoring all the kids’ stares and comments.
Her blond hair was bound in curls on top of her head held in place by emerald decorated gold pins. She considered letting her hair down and tucking the pins into the leather pouch hanging on the gold belt slung low on her waist. She’d look a little more…normal.
She snorted. If she was going to play the part of a princess, she’d go as she was. She stalked off in her brown suede knee-high boots. The skirt was split up the sides for easy movement, which was one of the reasons she really loved this dress. She looked like she was wearing an outfit that Renaissance fairgoers would pay a hefty price for—if she was at a Renaissance fair.
As soon as she walked into the hall, the bell buzzed for the end of the period. Students poured out of doorways like an army of ants rushing to the next meal, except they were confused and going in all different directions. Every eye that caught sight of her, lingered on her hair, her dress, her boots.
She heard comments of “Omigod.” “For real?” “Drama class is on the other side of the school.” “Freak.” “Love your dress.” And so forth.
Then she saw a couple of girls she recognized. Not friends. Just former classmates.
“Hey,” Lisa, the blonde, said, “Cassie said you moved away. I didn’t realize it was to some fantasy land.”
Alicia gave her a wry smile. She would keep her cool, thinking that if they had spoken to Cassie, maybe they knew where she was now. “Do you know where Cassie is going next period?”
The other girl, Dana, shook her head, her red gold curls tossing about her shoulders. “But we’re getting together for lunch at the chicken wings place across the street if you want to join us the period after next.”
“Thanks, I will.” This time she gave them a grateful smile. They looked like they were up to something. She knew that look. Like Deveron would give his sister when he was about to play a joke on her. Or like when his sister gave him the same evil look.
What to do in the meantime. What she’d love to do was just…vanish. Give the girls something to think about if they thought to pull anything mean on her.
She headed for the school office. Maybe she could still locate Cassie before the lunch period.
She tried to ignore all the comments about her dress, about being out of place, about being a weirdo, or gorgeous, the wolf whistles from a couple of guys, and tons of flat-out stares. What caught her attention were three cool-looking guys that appeared like they could be
playing on the football team, cute, but not interested in her like she was date-material. All had on jeans and sneakers, one wearing a T-shirt with a Celtic cross, one with a skull, and the other, just a plain navy blue shirt—no fashion statement at all.
They reminded her of a pack of wolves as they tensed, muscles bunching, a feral look crossing their facial features. The warning couldn’t be ignored. They were human so she didn’t know what the trouble was, though she’d been afraid at first they might have been some of the unseelie. She’d learned from Deveron’s sister, Ritasia, how she’d run into some and the trouble she’d had. But these guys weren’t fae. They would have had a shimmering aura around their human form, and when angered, rings around their eyes would glow—gold for seelie, silver for unseelie.
Yet they considered her with a condemning look that made her skin prickle with unease.
She tilted her chin up, challenging them to do anything that she would take as aggression on their part. But they stayed where they were, watching her, as if letting her know she couldn’t get away with anything while they had her in their sights.
She slipped into the school office and closed the door behind her. A secretary sat at a desk, two students waiting for parents to bring them proper clothes as one boy’s seat of his pants hung down past the crack in his butt and his sweatshirt barely reached past his naval. The girl wore a shirt that was way too see-through, the semi-sheer white fabric clearly showing off a black lace bra.
The secretary looked up from her computer and stared at Alicia’s costume. It was busty, but it was supposed to be for the…uhm, period look. If the woman decided Alicia had to stay and wait for her mother to come bring her a change of clothes, she’d be in real trouble. First, Alicia didn’t attend the school. Second, her mother was back at the dragon fae castle, wearing a retaining collar, courtesy of Alicia’s grandfather, who wouldn’t let her mother leave the castle grounds. And third, there was no way to get hold of anyone else who could bring her a change of clothes, unless they were of the fae. Making a phone call to them? Wouldn’t work.
“Nice costume,” the lady said.
Alicia took a steadying breath and smiled. “Thank you. I need to get hold of Cassie Wimberley. We were supposed to get together because her mom’s taking me home with them after school, but I can’t remember where she is next period.”
The secretary looked down at the monitor, typed in Cassie’s name, and said, “English lit. But you’ll be late for your own class. She’s in Mrs. Jenkins’s class, room 134.”
“I’ll meet her at the end of class period. Thank you,” Alicia said brightly and hurried out of the office before the secretary asked her anything that she couldn’t answer honestly.
She had no intention of waiting until lunch time to see if she could meet up with Cassie. What if the two girls who had told her about the chicken wing place had set her up?
She didn’t want to just walk into class and explain she was a new student or anything either, certain Cassie would be so excited, she’d be upset with her when Alicia told her it wasn’t true. So she’d go as a fae, invisible to everyone.
Walking into the nearest girls’ restroom, she found three girls redoing their lipstick or washing their hands, and Alicia ducked into a stall.
The girls laughed, and she assumed it had to do with her costume. She didn’t hear them leave the bathroom, but she wasn’t waiting around for them to exit the room. She walked through the bathroom door, invisible to the girls who were whispering to each other and staring at the stall Alicia had been in. She desperately wanted to walk up to them and speak, maybe ask them what they were whispering about. And see their reaction.
She sighed. If she had been raised by the fae, she probably would have. The fae were known to be tricksters, playing games on the humans, doing anything in their power to take advantage of the humans for their own amusement. Since she had been raised as a human, she didn’t like the notion at all. She wondered then if someone’s environment did greatly influence the person. Or if her personality was such, she just wasn’t into playing tricks on others.
She walked past them and through the door to the hall. It was clear now, and she hurried back to the English class where Cassie would be taking studious notes. Finding the right class, Alicia walked through the door and saw Cassie sitting on the far side of the room…taking studious notes. She smiled. She liked it when some things in life were always predictable.
Cassie’s gorgeous fall of brown hair curled about her shoulders, her dark brown eyes reading the whiteboard where the teacher was busy scribbling notes.
Some of the students were reading books other than their textbooks. One was doodling on a piece of paper in his notebook. Another was sleeping. Or at least he had his eyes closed and appeared to be sleeping.
One of the boys she’d seen standing with the other two in the hall who had been watching her as she went to the school office—one of the ones she’d thought of as a wolf who was wearing the shirt with the skull—was now observing her, his blue eyes wide with shock.
Her mouth gaped. Oh…my…God. He could see her. As the fae. Just like the time she saw Deveron’s friends as the fae that they were. And just like she knew Deveron was one of them. The dark fae. Dangerous to anyone who was a fae seer.
She froze in place, having intended to take an empty seat on this side of the classroom where there was a vacant seat near the door.
He quickly looked away, his blond locks hiding his expression. So he wasn’t such a wolf after all. Not when he knew she knew he could see her. When no one in the room should have been able to.
And not now that he didn’t have his wolf mates to back him up.
He was texting, warning his friends that the fae had come after him, she suspected. In her history books, she had read about a number of cases where the fae had killed people like him because they could see them. She couldn’t imagine anything so horrible. The humans who were fae seers couldn’t do anything to the fae. So why did her people need to eliminate them?
Yet a cold shiver ran up her spine with the notion he could not only see her but knew just what she was when no one should have known. No one human. She realized that she was feeling as though she was something alien, something that needed to be eliminated in their world.
Why could he see her? Was he partly fae? And the other two boys? Were they also?
This was so not good.
She decided to do what she knew she shouldn’t, what she wouldn’t do at any other time, but she was the fae. She might as well get used to the idea.
Heading for the boy with the phone, who was not supposed to be texting in the class anyway, she walked straight through the kids and their desks.
She’d barely reached him when he caught sight of her standing beside him, just before she yanked the phone out of his hand.
He gasped, nearly fell from his seat, staring up at her, his eyes darkening and widening at the same time as if he was looking into the eyes of a ghost. Or something worse. A fae who could kill him.
Trying for sweet and innocent and friendly, she smiled down at him and mouthed the words, “Thank you.”
He still stared back at her with wide-eyed shock. With his phone clutched tightly in her hand, she turned and headed straight through the kids, the closest shot to the door, holding the phone above their heads. The tricky part was that she had no idea what to do about his phone. It was visible when she was not. The only way to make it invisible was for her to appear human, and then return to her invisible state to make the object in her hand invisible also. She couldn’t appear human in class suddenly, or she might cause a wild panic.
Instead, the cell floated over the kids’ heads. Most were too wrapped up in reading their books or other activities that were keeping them occupied that they didn’t see the phone. A couple of girls’ mouths gaped as they watched the phone float toward the door. She couldn’t help that.
When Alicia reached the door, she realized she couldn’t take the phone thro
ugh the door like this. She opened the door, walked out of the class with the phone in hand, and closed the door.
And screamed as hands quickly encircled her wrists with iron manacles.
Chapter 2
Ena hated being summoned to court at Crislis Castle, home of the dragon fae. She hated the pompous courtiers—the women dressed in all their elegant silky fae gowns and the men in their gilt-laden tunics. She had no need of the ostentatious banquets or the gossiping and intrigue. Preferring the mountains and forests, the caves, her own small keep, and her kind to all this, she bit her tongue, held her head high, and stalked straight for the main doors of the castle where the dragon fae ruled. The dragon fae.
She snorted. They were shadows of themselves of a time gone by when they were truly the dragon fae. Like she still was.
Two men dressed in royal tunics identifying them as part of the servant staff, hurried to open the doors for her.
Women gathered in annoying little clusters twittering among themselves in the marble hall stopped speaking to one another when one of them pointed her out. Yes. She was dragon fae. But not one of them.
And she was dangerous. She glanced in their direction, studied each of them in turn, made them visibly pale, and she smiled. An evil, calculating smile. What she wouldn’t give to show them what she was truly capable of. They hated her. Every last one of them. Because she was different.
She hadn’t met the king’s granddaughter yet. Had Princess Alicia already learned about her? Most likely. And would shun her just the same. Which wouldn’t have mattered except she would one day rule. Then Ena would have to bow down to the princess, who would be queen, instead of her grandfather, who now ruled as king. Ena hated to bow down to anyone. Not when she felt these fae were beneath her.
She glanced in a gold gilded mirror, her pale green eyes sharp with annoyance, her mouth thinned into a grim pale line, her hands held loosely at her sides. She flexed her fingers, her nails long, black, and wicked-looking. Heavy smoky gray eye shadow and thick black eyeliner and short fringy jet black hair gave her the appearance of a human Goth. But she wasn’t human. And she looked perfectly lethal.
