By the Magic of Starlight (The Forbidden Realm)

by Serena Gilley

  As if anything ever would. Kyne was her world now. She needed him to exist. If he ever ceased being, she would, as well.

  Her head was still spinning when he shifted off her and pulled her against him, cradling her and stroking her hair. She had no energy to speak, to tell him what he had done or how much he meant to her. She could only lay there and sigh, drawing warmth from his body and feeling peace in every corner of her being.

  “I love you, Raea,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head as she snuggled against him.

  They were the words of a human. She knew that. There was nothing magical in him now. His wings were limp, his body spent, and even the magic of the room did not cling to him as it had moments ago. He was a man, nothing more in this moment. Only the vilest, most tainted fairy could ever love that.

  But she did. With the entirety of her soul.

  “I love you, too, Kyne,” she murmured and gave herself over to exhaustion.

  * * *

  The sun was just coming up. Through the thick canopy of oaks, Kyne could see pink fingers of wispy clouds glowing in the east, radiating like beams up into the still-dark sky above. He had left Raea sleeping in the bed inside. She was back down to her normal size, curled up next to one of the down-filled pillows, her pink wings wrapped around herself and a satisfied smile on her face.

  Kyne remained in his human size, the warm glow of their passion flooding his veins and his body still humming with the energy of it. He could take her again and again and never tire of this feeling. Apparently this special magic, the unusual recipe supplied to them by his father, had a more draining effect on him than on her. Perhaps it was because of his half-human nature, or perhaps it was because of the depth of his passion for Raea.

  He stood on the wide wooden porch surrounding the little house and breathed in the fresh, damp air. Dew prickled against his warm skin. A pair of birds squabbled in the trees nearby, then darted off when they noticed him. Nothing but solitude and peace surrounded them on all sides. The house truly was at the top of the mountain, sitting quite securely on the crest of a rocky ridge while the earth dropped off sharply in all directions. The hidden pathway they had taken to approach the house was the only easily accessible entrance to the area. The site felt as if it were its own little island in a sea of forest.

  He knew he should be planning for venturing back into the world to track down the mystery of the so-called network of machinery and whatever strange scheme was attached to it, but it was more than a little difficult to imagine leaving this place. It was the first place that he’d ever truly felt comfortable. It was as if he really belonged here, and that was a feeling he’d spent his life craving.

  He was going to spend his life craving Raea, too, apparently. He let himself back into the house and moved silently into the bedroom. She looked remarkably peaceful. Would she let him wake her? Perhaps he should wait until he’d regained his usual, smaller appearance. They could play at love for a while before having to resize with the dust again. Would she be receptive to that?

  He hunted around in the dimly lit room, trying to remember where he’d left the pouch with its precious dust. Ah, in the drawer of that small cabinet beside the bed. He’d tucked it there for safekeeping.

  Quietly, he pulled the drawer open. Yes, there was the pouch. It felt tiny between his fingers and he was careful not to crush it and cause any of its contents to spill out, wasted for no good reason. As he was about to slide the drawer shut, his eyes caught on something. A box? No, it was too thin for that. He took it with his free hand and held it up closely to see it.

  A photograph in a frame. He knew humans were very attached to these, keeping them as icons of loved ones. So who had kept this one here, and why had they not removed it when this building was abandoned as his father had claimed that it was?

  There was just enough of the early morning sunlight creeping in for him to get a good look at the image. Recognition jarred him. His knees bent involuntarily and he sank down to sit on the bed, his eyes fixed on the picture and understanding just out of his reach. How could this possibly be? It simply couldn’t.

  But it was, and he was staring right at it. His hand suddenly went weak and the frame began to slip through his fingers. He was returning to his fairy form; the heavy frame was too much for him to hold. He dropped it onto the bed beside him as he withered, becoming small and out of proportion to the furnishings around him. He was left sitting on the huge bed in his diminutive fairy form, gazing at the photo, at the faces recorded there in less than professional fashion. It was printed on cheap paper and slightly crooked within the frame.

  “What is it?” Raea asked, stirring from her spot.

  “A photo. I found it in the drawer here.”

  He felt the slight movement as she made her way to him.

  “What’s it a photo of?”

  “Lovers, I suppose.”

  She slid up beside him, peering at the photo as it lay there on the bed. A smiling couple posed in the picture, clearly taken at close range by one of them. They took up much of the frame, obscuring much of the background. Just enough of the familiar wallpaper pattern from the front room of this cottage was visible around them, and of course Raea would recognize the face of the man.

  “It’s Baylor,” she noted. “This image appears to have been taken here, in this very house.”

  “Yes, it does, doesn’t it?”

  “But who is he with?” She leaned in for a closer view.

  The glimpse of a glittering fairy wing appeared in the photo and Kyne could sense the very moment Raea noticed that, too.

  “Is that… She’s a fairy!” she exclaimed. “By the Skies, Baylor was here, in this house, with a human-sized fairy!”

  “It looks that way.”

  “Hmm, I don’t recognize her. She must not be from our region.”

  “No, she isn’t.”

  “Do you know her?” she asked.

  He nodded, and waited a moment before answering.

  “She’s my mother.”

  Raea’s surprise was nearly as great as his own. She wrinkled her brow, staring at the photo as if she couldn’t believe what she saw there.

  “But… how would there be a picture of her here?” she questioned. “And she looks so… she looks pleased to be with him. I thought her relationship with Baylor was less than amicable.”

  “Apparently it’s more amicable than I thought. This is a recent photo.”

  “Recent? But I thought you said he used her and abandoned her even before you were born?”

  “I thought that he had, but this seems to suggest otherwise. This photo shows my mother as she appears today. And look at the image of Baylor. He would have been a much younger man if this had been taken before I was born.”

  “You’re right. But this means…”

  “It means my mother is still in contact with my father, and they’ve been here together. Recently.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, laying her hand on his shoulder.

  He didn’t, either. There was nothing really to say, after all. Nothing made sense all of a sudden. Had his mother lied to him? Was there more to his parents’ relationship than the horror story Kyne had believed all his life? What he knew he’d had to piece together from hints and innuendo, the rumors he’d heard whispered around him. He’d asked his mother over the years, of course, and she’d confirmed that his father was indeed human, but she’d never been willing to discuss anything further. Naturally it made sense that she’d not want to relive whatever trauma or heartbreak had surrounded the matter and he’d never pressed her. It had been enough to know that she’d been victimized by a human, seduced and misused.

  But now that explanation wasn’t enough. Clearly there was more. Somehow, in some way, Kyne’s mother was still involved with his father. Could it be she was even in on his scheme?

  “They do look happy,” Raea said at last.

  They did, but he refused to admit it. He’d spent a life
time trusting his mother and hating his father. Now this?

  “It doesn’t make sense. How did he lure her here? What is he up to?”

  “Maybe he isn’t as terrible as you think he is, Kyne.”

  Her voice had been soft, her words spoken carefully, but he didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to find out why his mother had lied to him, let him hate his own father and despise his own genetics all of these years.

  “I have to find out, Raea,” he said. “I have to know what this is about.”

  “Of course you do, and I’ll help you.”

  The thought of her getting even more involved in whatever this sordid scheme was tore at his conscience. He couldn’t let her do that, endanger herself any further. Things had already gone too far and he was way out of his element.

  “No, Raea. I need to look into this alone.”

  “Alone?”

  “I need to go confront them about this, both of them. You stay here, Raea, where it’s safe.”

  “You’re leaving me?”

  “I’ve got to find out what game they are playing.”

  “Of course you do, but I’m going with you.”

  “No! You need to be safe.”

  “I am safe when I’m with you. And you’re safe when you’re with me. I rescued you from the Council Hall, didn’t I?”

  “And I appreciate it, but I can’t ask you to—”

  “I don’t care whether you ask me or not. Our fate is decided, Kyne. That first moment we gave in to our passions our lives became wrapped in each other. Don’t you see? We need each other.”

  “I never wanted to need you, Raea.”

  “I know. Neither of us planned for this, but I don’t regret it. Do you?”

  “No. Never.”

  “Good. Then let’s just admit the obvious: we are a team. We work together, we love together, and together we’ll figure this out.”

  Her eyes were so bright, so full of devotion and assurance. How could he doubt her? She spoke the truth; they were a team now. For the first time in his life, he’d found one place he belonged, and that was with Raea.

  “Together,” he said, reaching to touch her pink skin. “We’ll get to the bottom of things.”

  “I like the sound of that,” she said, catching his eyes with her own and giving him a sly smile. “Getting to the bottom of things is fine, although… sometimes I like to be on top.”

  He’d been planning to leave this haven, to head out to confront his parents and investigate the network of human and magic machinery. Now, however, the glint in Raea’s lavender eyes and her playful smile sent his mind racing after other pursuits. By the Clouds, she was beautiful. And she was his now; his very own.

  “I think we can wait just a while longer before starting off on our journey,” he said.

  “At least as long as the Sizing Dust holds out,” she added.

  He pulled her to him. Instead of passively lounging in his lap, though, she twisted so she was straddling him. He pretended to defend himself as she teasingly ran her hands over his naked body and shoved him, trying to knock him down. He easily gave in, dropping onto his back and letting her pin him into submission.

  “Thank the Skies that bag was full to capacity,” he said.

  She shifted her position atop him and grinned. “Thank the Skies, so am I.”

  He chuckled at her, until she wiggled a bit more and he was reduced to groaning in pleasure. She had taken him fully into her warm depths again and he’d never felt so completely at home. They fit together more perfectly than he could ever have dreamed.

  He supposed the sensible thing to do right now, though, would be to focus on all the unanswered questions they still had—why would fairies conspire with humans like Baylor? Who had orchestrated the trumped-up charges against Kyne? And how could forbidden passions play such a role in disturbing the strange energy of the hybrid machine? For now, though, all he could concentrate on was what he was sure of.

  And that was Raea. He loved her. This was more than just passion. This was something that marked him deep in his soul. It marked her, too. He knew that above everything else. She loved him and nothing magical or mundane would ever change that.

  She was rocking against him, sweet sounds of wonder and bliss escaping her, and he was very nearly carried away by it all. Their bodies were joined every bit as much as their hearts, as their souls. He pulled her closer, crushing her to him for a kiss that contained more than a promise—it was a vow.

  Her lips responded eagerly, drawing from him and giving back. He arched up into her, retreating and then thrusting again. She held on to him tightly. It was as if they’d been lovers for centuries, yet every moment together was their first. The kiss swallowed their cries of completion as the world around them faded away. Once again nothing else mattered but passion, love, and Raea herself.

  About the Author

  Serena Gilley grew up reading fantasy and fairy tales, and believing there was a distinct possibility that both of them were real. Somewhere. Even all these years later, Serena’s belief in magic and mystery hasn’t diminished. In fact, she is living out her own happily-ever-after with a handsome prince in a beautiful castle, taming dragons and granting wishes every day. Okay, so the prince is a regular guy, the dragons are really just teenagers, and the wishes she grants are as spectacular as frozen pizza on Friday night, but it’s a fantasy world just the same.

  Learn more at:

  SerenaGilley.com

  Facebook.com/SerenaGilleyAuthor

  Please turn the page for a preview of the next book in Serena Gilley’s Forbidden Realm series

  Licked by the Flame

  Available February 2015

  Chapter One

  Nicolai Stefanya Vladik paced the length of the boardroom and wished in his very core there was a window in this damn place. It was not in his nature to be cooped up in these constructions, human boxes made of plastic and wood, substances that would wither and melt into a wisp of smoke at the very least hint of fire. It was a tenuous way to exist. No wonder humans were so short lived—they spent so much of their time in these fragile spaces.

  Not that Nicolai had been back in his own timeless lair anytime recently. He’d given that up to go on this quest. It was for the good of his kind, yet so many things in this new life still felt unnatural to him. Clothing, machines, shallow entertainments… all of them were so frail, so meaningless. This meeting today with a dozen so-called experts in their fields was a waste. None of these learned humans knew anything. Of course, he ought to be glad for that, but he was tired of the isolation and boredom this situation offered.

  He would never be a human despite the years and years his duty had kept him here, walking among them. There were times his nature burned to come out, to take him over once again and let him rid himself of this human foolishness. Today was one of those days. It was all he could do to maintain his appearance.

  But he had to maintain. For the sake of his mission, he would keep it together. He would act like a human, live like a human. He would be a human. For just a while longer, he could keep up this charade.

  He knew what he needed. It was always this way if he let himself go too long without. This human body must be given what it craved or Nic would lose control over it. He would have to do what must be done if he wanted to continue in his role.

  The question, of course, was how. Even as the meeting droned on, as the men around him talked about projects and statistics and governmental regulations, he could only wonder how he would tend to his needs. This site inspection, after all, was scheduled to go on for another two weeks. In the middle of nowhere. Nic didn’t dare leave at this critical time, but he also couldn’t figure how to manage his problem.

  He needed a woman. Badly. By the fires of below, he thought he could almost smell one, though he knew only men had been assigned to this remote project site. Pity his cravings didn’t lean that way; it would make things infinitely easier. But no. Nic liked women. Human women. And there was
a definite shortage of those around here.

  Still, his need was growing and his senses were overheating with awareness. Just beyond his carefully calm exterior, he could feel the very real presence of a woman. His nostrils flared. His skin tingled on alert. It was as if the air in the building crackled with the hot essence of woman. Damn, but his situation must be worse than he’d thought.

  If he didn’t sink himself into warm female flesh soon, he was likely to explode. And this was not just the wishful thinking of the usual frustrated human male. No, this was serious. If Nic thought he might be about to explode, everyone here had good reason to worry. He’d likely take this whole damn mountain with him. He wasn’t just any sex-crazed mortal man, after all.

  Nicolai Vladik was a full-fledged dragon.

  * * *

  She was a woman and there was no way to hide it. Lianne McGowan didn’t generally notice that she was often the only female on a given project, or in a department, or perhaps even the only one assigned to any particular building. She was oddly aware, however, that as of her arrival at this jobsite today, she was the only female for a good hundred miles. Or more, maybe.

  Iceland, as it turned out, was overflowing with volcanoes and geothermal hot spots. Not so much civilization, however. Not that this concerned her.

  She was used to making her way in a man’s world. It meant she had to get the point across right away that she was confident in her role here and wasn’t going to let any good ol’ boys—there were always a couple of those in the group—push her around. Also she wasn’t going to let any of them think she wasn’t just as tough and as determined as they were. Geo-Diagnostics had sent her here with one goal: the project had been lagging and she was supposed to get these guys back on the ball. The higher-ups needed to see some results if they were going to keep the investors happy.