Fae Frost

by Michelle R. Reid

  Fae Frost

  By

  Michelle R Reid

  Fae Frost

  By Michelle R Reid

  Published by Heart Dreams Press

  Copyright © 2019 Michelle R Reid

  Cover Designer: by German Creative

  All rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any format of in any medium without written permission. Michellereidauthor@gmail.com

  The views expressed within this work are the sole responsibility of the author and do not represent Heart Dreams Press or any of its affiliates.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are product of the author’s imagination. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments or events are purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 1-942000-35-9

  ISBN: 978-1-942000-35-8

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  A Note to You

  Chapter 1

  Fire appeared at the edge of forest, a warm glow flickering between the trees like a beacon. As much as I wanted to run to it, I had a duty to finish. Even from my position in the wagon, the scent of the freshly tilled dirt was strong in the rising spring heat. Luckily, the seeding was done before the sun was too high in the sky. All that was left was to put away the horses, unhook the plow and put the wagon back in the equipment barn.

  I glanced up at Papa, sitting next to me on the wagon. His big, calloused hands held the reins steady with such confidence, the horses couldn’t second-guess his lead on the uneven freshly plowed dirt. He’d also seen the light, by the extra creases on his weathered face. His mouth was a hard slant as he met my pleading look.

  But he held his tongue. As much as he hated it, that fire was the reason I was alive today.

  He jerked his chin to the forest. “I can clean up myself.”

  I smiled and threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

  He sighed and patted my head. He’d never been one to give large displays of emotion, but he held me a little longer than usual right then. It wasn’t until I looked up in confusion that he let go. “Be sure to listen for the bell, Maira. I’ll not have you late again.”

  “Yes, Papa.” I climbed off the wagon and patted the horses as I hurried past. Despite my best efforts, my steps were more uneven than usual as I crossed the field to the edge of the forest.

  It was still a little odd to me that, after spending sixteen years avoiding the forest and the danger inside, I would so readily run into it now, just a year later. But Helios was waiting for me and as long as he was there, I’d never hurt again.

  Helios sat on a rock, just a few feet from the edge of the freshly sowed soil, toying with a white bloom in his fingers. His lean limbs were clad in the finest cream Fae silk. A dark red cape cascaded over his shoulders, just long enough to cover his lovely, iridescent wings. His rich orange hair seemed to glow like fire in the light streaming through the treetops. His sharp Fae features softened as he smiled—a striking contrast to the first time we met. A year ago, he’d been a slave and I was desperate to save my family’s farm. Who would have thought the scary warrior Fae I accidently bought then freed would now be my best friend?

  “Hello, Fae Eyes.”

  I loved hearing that name from him. The way his voice softened, like the warmth of a candle in the night. He stood up as I ran to him.

  “Helios!” I threw my arms around his waist. The warm smoothness of his wings rested against the back of my knuckles as I leaned into his chest and listened to his strong heartbeat.

  He hugged me back and ran a hand down my hair, gently.

  I leaned back and smile up at him, feeling like my heart was going to burst.

  His golden eyes softened. He lifted his hand, showing me the large white flower. “Aine sends this and says the tonic is ready for the next stage.”

  My eyes widened as another wave of excitement bubble in my stomach. “It is?” I glanced over his shoulder, half expecting my friend to be standing behind him.

  Helios slipped the flower into my hair behind my ear and twisted my hair around it in a Fae knot like most of the women in Lasair wore. He curled a lock around his fingers, sliding the strands around his skin like it was the finest Fae silk.

  My eyes, caught by his, widened, and my heart pounded in my burning ears. It wasn’t just my ears that were red, my whole face was in flames. It was like time stopped for a second. It was just him and me. There was nothing in the world but the feeling of his gentle tug on my hair and the sound of my heart thumping loudly in my ears.

  Helios opened his mouth, paused, then smiled softly. “Shall we?”

  I blinked and swallowed hard. “Yes.” My voice was a little breathy.

  Helios leaned down and scooped me into his arms. I looped my arms around his neck and looked over his shoulder as his wings lifted through the gaps in his cloak. Helios bent slightly then jumped high in the air, seemingly unfazed by my weight.

  I closed my eyes as the weightless feeling twisted my stomach. No matter how many times we did this, I still couldn’t learn to enjoy this feeling. Helios’s wings beat at the air, lifting us higher and taking away my queasiness. Leaves brushed at my face and arms, and when the warm sun touched my face, I opened my eyes and looked down at the tree canopy below. The world spread out before us.

  The forest stretched out, hiding all the Fae secrets that humans could scarcely understand. Thousands of Fae lived under these green leaves, all under Helios’s rule. Not just Sun Fae—every type of Fae here bowed to him. I’d only met a small part of them. Maybe someday soon, I’d be able to meet them all.

  I glanced out over to where the forests stopped. To the human world. Farms and ranches spread out, sectioned off by lines of fences. The grounds tilled and controlled, wild trees were few and far between.

  “You weren’t home yesterday,” Helios said, his mouth next to my ear so I could hear him over the wind.

  My brows rose. He came yesterday? It wasn’t often that he came multiple days in a row. He had plenty to do running his kingdom, and it took an hour out of his day just to travel one way to my family’s farm.

  “My cousin got married, and I went to help with the wedding. She asked me to make her bouquet.” A flock of geese flew just over us, honking with the beat of their wings. I smiled, marveling at being able to see them so close.

  “Married?” Helios sounded surprised.

  I laughed. “Well, of course. Humans get married too, you know.” I paused then peeked at him. “That is, Fae do get married, right?” There was still a lot I didn’t know about his culture.

  “Yes,” he muttered, as if in thought.

  I wanted to ask what he was thinking about, but knew better by now. Helios wasn’t the most talkative man I’d ever met, but he’d tell me what when he was ready. That was one wonderful thing about our friendship. Since we lived in such different worlds, we could vent our daily life frustrations to an open, honest ear.

  I held a hand out and drifted my fingers over the tips of the leaves, loving their feather soft touch. “It was a lovely gathering. With all the spring blooms, I was able to decorate with tulips and anemones. And since the bride was nervous, I added some lavender to her bouquet. It was silly that she was so nervous. I mean, her wedding was only half arranged. At least she knew and loved her husband before they were engaged.”

  Helios looked down at me, his eyes intense. “And this cousin, she’s older than y
ou?”

  My smile twisted a little. “No, of course not. She’s a year younger. After all, almost everyone knows I’m ... damaged.” In fact, I was the oldest unwed girl in my family. The useless leftover. I would never be able to strengthen my family’s status and business relationships through marriage, like my cousins. I leaned into his shoulder, looking out to where the forest stopped. The clear border between the human and Fae world.

  Even if all the scars were now gone from my legs through the help of Helios’s Fae Nectar, it didn’t mean that the scars were gone from my reputation. Everyone around knew I was somehow connected to Fae, which was unnerving to most humans. Interacting with a Fae who possessed its free will was asking for trouble, according to most human minds. When offended, Fae banded together, and whole human settlements disappeared over night. Most humans believed that if it weren’t for the fact that humans outnumbered Fae fifty to one, the Fae would wipe out the humans entirely. They weren’t wrong, according to some Fae.

  Helios made an annoyed sound, and his wings flickered with fire. His arms tightened around me. “Fae Eyes.” He waited for me to look up before continuing. “Nothing about you is damaged.” His gold eyes bore into mine, trying to drive his point.

  This. This was the reason my tarnished reputation didn’t bother me anymore. As long as Helios believed in me, anyone—human or Fae—could say what they wanted. With him, I felt whole. I smiled and closed my eyes, enjoying the sounds of his heart beating. In moments like this, I could pretend that his heart beat only for me. And mine for him.

  *****

  Lasair bloomed out of the forest like a sun lily, beautiful and whimsical as a fairytale. The houses were so seamlessly integrated with the tall, white-barked aspen trees, it was hard to tell where they stopped and the trees began. Open roofed, with just the trees as cover for the main living areas and arched doorways, each dwelling was a piece of art. And in the middle of it all was Sun Palace. The building’s white-gold peaks rose out of the forest like a fire, gleaming proudly in the sun. Like the buildings around, every opening was arched, and most of the outer parts of the Palace lacked a ceiling. But as lovely as it was to look at, I knew from Helios that inner part of the palace was as strong as a fortress. Though only a fool would attack the strongest Fae in all the land.

  Helios flew right past the palace and landed in the colorful gardens that spanned out behind it. I took a deep breath of the heavenly scent, envy swelling in me as I looked around at the hundreds of herbs and flowers, planted in a seemingly fanciful pattern. This garden dwarfed my little plot at home—in fact, it was larger than my whole homestead. Even so, every plant behind my house was special to me. After all, most of them came from this very garden, like a bridge that linked my world with this one.

  The handful of Fae working in the gardens stood up as Helios landed. They bowed or curtsied to him, too used to seeing their king carrying a human now to be offended anymore.

  Helios waved a hand in acknowledgment.

  From several rows over, a young Fae woman jumped to her feet and darted forward, her luminescent wings, not quite as pure gold as Helios’s, fluttering so much that her feet barely touched the ground. She wore a simple, sleeveless green dress that dipped low on her back so that it didn’t interfere with her wings. Plain clothes for a Fae, but still finer than anything I owned.

  I smiled and waved at my friend. “Hello, Aine.”

  “Maira!” Her bright hazel eyes, more orange than brown, lit up like a flame. Her long, dark red hair swished around her shoulders as she stopped and clapped her hand together in delight. “You’re just in time. It’s ready for the finishing touches.” She paused and glanced at Helios as if just remembering he was there. Her mouth formed a startled ‘Oh,’ then she bobbed her head in a hasty curtsy. “Good evening, your majesty.”

  His eyes lit up in amusement. “Good evening, Aine.” Helios touched my back with a warm hand and looked down, brows pulled together as his smile turned regretful. “There are a few things I need to check on at the palace.”

  “Oh?” My heart sank a little. “You’re not going to watch with me?”

  He shook his head. “There’s an important visitor coming today, and I need to make sure preparations are on schedule.”

  Yet he took so much time out of his schedule to get me. There were a number of people he could have sent, or I could have ridden out myself. Maybe I should feel guilty, but my heart squeezed tight with pleasure instead.

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  He nodded farewell to the Fae around us, then walked briskly out of the gardens into the palace courtyard on the other side of a smooth, brick wall.

  Aine grabbed my hand and tugged me to the side. “Come on.” She glanced up at the sky, where the milky daytime moon hung in the sky. “We’re almost out of time.”

  Excitement bubbled in me. “Let’s go.” I followed her through the garden, skirting around plants and Fae alike in our haste.

  On the other side of the garden was a long building stretched between several trees. Unlike most of the houses in Lasair, this building had glass in the windows instead of simple wooden crosses and a solid door on the front. Aine pushed the door open and led me to the half of the building without a ceiling.

  A Fae woman stood in the center of the room at a table with several small bottles before her. She looked up, her eyes the same golden brown as Aine’s. She bobbed her head to me with an almost-smile on her lips, which was as good as I ever got from Aine’s mother. Or any other Sun Fae, for that matter. To the proud Sun Fae, open affection just wasn’t common—with the exception of Aine.

  Hundreds of bundled herbs hung on the wall, while others sat in jars on shelves, aging to the dryness needed to be useful. Large colorful jars filled with water and leaves lined the wall.

  “Welcome.” Aine’s mother motioned to the other side of the table. We hurried over and stood where she’d indicated.

  My hands fisted in my skirt to keep from touching the small bottles before me. Five of the bottles were a deep purple color, while the other five were green. They were a representation of the hard work that Aine and I had done over the last month, harvesting herbs at just the right time and dressing them as needed. Some were dried, some were boiled, but each was handled painstakingly under the watchful eyes of Aine and her mother. Now, after three weeks of resting in the dark, they were ready to be mixed.

  Aine looked up at the sky again. “They’re ready, Maira. With the day moon high in the sky, directly overhead, it’s time to combine them.” Aine and her mother each took a purple bottle in one hand and a green in the other.

  I reached out and followed suit. For a moment I paused, feeling the smooth, cool glass in my hands, and marveled that I was privileged enough to be allowed to learn such a special art. No other human had ever seen how Fae made their tonics. No other human had ever set in foot in Lasair for that matter. To be able to learn and even begin to grow my garden to duplicate the process—it was awe inspiring.

  Slowly, I tipped the purple concoction into the green one. My brows pulled low over my eyes as I concentrated on making sure I didn’t spill one drop of the precious liquid. The purple liquid slid down the neck of the bottle, faster than honey but not as quick as oil. My hands threatened to tremble, but I didn’t lose any. The two concoctions swirled around each other like green water and purple oil.

  Aine’s mother held out a cork. “Put this in, then shake the bottle.”

  I took it, pushed it in, double-checked to make sure it was all the way in, then took a deep breath and shook the bottle. With a flash of golden light, the two liquids mixed into one. I gasped and blinked rapidly, trying to blink away the dots in my vision. Then I gaped down at the tonic in my hand. It looked like liquid copper, swirling and turning in the glass bottle.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered, almost afraid my voice would ruin the effect.

  Aine smiled and poured her bottles together with the smooth movements of an expert. “This will cur
e infections and help speed up the healing process.” She put the cork in the bottle then paused. “At least, it does with the animals around us. But it should work on humans to.”

  I cradled the precious tonic in my hands. If I could make more of this and spread it around to humans, maybe they would stop stealing Fae Nectar. The healing abilities of nectar were absolute—and also the reason why I was able to walk without pain today. But it was essential to the Fae, since it was the only food source they had. Without it, a Fae would lose its power and wither away to a husk of a being, alive still but barely so. Like many of the Fae slaves, trapped in the human world. Fae nectar was so rare, even Helios didn’t talk to me about where the Sun Fae’s spring was or how it was made.

  All the more reason why it was so expensive for humans to buy. But if they could use my tonics instead, made out of the plants Aine had given me over the last year, maybe the relationship between the two races would get better. Maybe it was naïve to think that. As long as there were slaves in the world, Fae and human would never get along. But I was living proof, standing in the middle of Lasair, that it could happen. Fae and humans could be friends…or more?

  I bit my lips and focused on the tonic, chasing the idea from my head. Now was not the time for such thoughts.

  I smiled at Aine. “The tonic for illnesses worked well on humans. My brother was sick in bed a high fever, but just two days later he was back in the fields as if he’d never been ill. They are truly a wonder. I can’t express how grateful I am to you two.” That was five tonics now that they’d taught me to make. I hugged the bottle to my chest. “I just wish I had something of value that I could give to you.”

  Aine adjusted the flower in my hair. “I’m sure you’ll think of something someday. But until then, your friendship is all I need.”

  Aine’s mom picked up another pair of bottles, her eyes kind. “No thanks are needed, truly. I’m happy to do anything the king asks. Assisting a friend of my daughter makes it all the sweeter.” She combined the concoctions and bathed the room in light.