Dark Fae (Skeleton Key)

by Lillian Cartier

  “You bitch!” Ryder roars, as he crosses the room toward her. “She was my mate. Mine! You took her away from me.”

  “Yes, I did,” Rebekah tells him, as he grabs her arms and forces the metal further into her arms. Her flowing blue dress strains against her chest as she pants and looks into his eyes. “She was ruining my life!”

  “You ruined mine. I loved her.” Ryder’s voice breaks as his face falls forward, and she moves her face closer to his. “I loved her.”

  “I’ll take her place. I’ll make you feel good,” Rebekah tells him softly, as she kisses his lips softly. Ryder takes a ragged breath as he remains in place and my eyes widen in horror.

  “Ryder, stop it. Remember why we’re here,” Nyx calls to him as he steps forward. I know him, and I can sense that he doesn’t want to be the one to finish her off.

  Even I can smell the sweet scent that is coming from Rebekah, and I wonder what kind of hold she has on Ryder. Ryder is hardly moving, and suddenly he drops Rebekah’s arms, as he seems to deepen the kiss. I know that he is broken and sad, and that is probably why he is doing this. He just needs something in this emotional state.

  “Ryder,” Nyx says softly while running his fingers through his hair. He turns his back to them as Rebekah moans softly and Ryder pulls her closer. “Don’t do this.”

  Nyx starts toward the stairs, and my heart freezes in my chest as I realize that he will see me here. Why is he leaving them alone?

  Nyx starts the climb toward the house, and his eyes rest on me when he looks forward. “Tessa.” His voice is laced with disappointment as he stares at me.

  “I couldn’t help myself,” I whisper, as tears slide down my cheeks. “What is he doing? What if she gets out of the chains?”

  “She won’t. Only I can free her,” Nyx replies as he comes to stand before me. “She’s the kind of fairy that feeds on emotions. He’s not doing well, and she is fooling him into thinking that she can fix him.” He stares down at the stairs for a long moment. “She tried that with me, so many times. I was so lonely sometimes, as I thought I would never find my mate, and that’s when she found me.” My eyes darken as I glance at Ryder and Rebekah, as he pulls her body closer to his.

  The idea of Nyx and Rebekah like that kills me, and he drops to the stairs in front of me. “I never touched her. I told you that I couldn’t.” His lips are close to mine. “I was never that broken because I had never suffered loss like Ryder did.”

  We are moving closer together when we hear a shriek come from below us. I gasp, and Nyx holds me as we both look down to see Ryder standing back, as Rebekah slips to the ground in a bloody mess. “What the fuck?” Nyx asks as he stands and takes my hand.

  “I killed her. I couldn’t stop myself,” Ryder tells us in a hollow voice. “I had the knife on me…the kind that would gut her and kill her. When she kissed me, I knew that I could weaken her defenses.” He lifts his eyes to look at us, and they softened as they see me. “I’m sorry that you had to see this, Tessa.”

  “It’s fine. I wanted to do that myself,” I admit as both men stare at me. “This is over now, right? We can all move on?”

  Nyx shakes his head as he stares at the corpse in the basement. “Yes. I won’t do anything but bury her, Ryder. Rebekah deserves this, and you will not be punished. Just try to move on.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Ryder confesses, as we stand there for several moments and take in the events of the day.

  We spent time in between the palace and Lauren’s house after that day. Nyx lovingly helped me go through Lauren’s things, and I found so many memories in those boxes.

  There are family pictures that help me to see where I came from. I saw my grandparents and my mother before she left home. I resemble all of them quite a bit. Nyx held me while I cried myself to sleep on that particular night. They all looked loving, and I felt bad for Lauren, as she had outlived their parents by far with her Fae lineage. Her mother was Fae but she was exposed to a disease from the human world and her life was taken just before her father had passed away from old age. I discovered that Faes live a long life, and while I wasn’t full Fae, being connected with Nyx practically made me a full Fae with his royal blood, minus the wings.

  I learn the little details from Ryder, who has become a family member to me. We stay up late talking many nights, as Nyx listens carefully and guards me, or so I suspect. He’s a prince, and he likes to act like the alpha male that he thinks he is around other men. I mean, he is certainly a respected male in the Fae world, but he is something of a softie around me when we are alone together.

  Well, maybe not completely. He does have that bossy way when we are in bed, which I love.

  I slowly piece together the family I will never meet. I find out what I can about my mother and learn that she didn’t like the Fae world. She was a free spirit and ran when she was so young. It broke my heart that she abandoned her family like that and didn’t call them when she had me at the age of twenty. Instead, she decided just to leave me to die it seems.

  That was another night that I cried myself to sleep. I hate that she didn’t just give me over to Lauren, who would have raised me here and guided me in my experience being part Fae. I wish that I could have seen her and Ryder together in life, instead of seeing him so saddened on his own.

  I know that Fae don’t age like humans do, and Ryder is not as young as he looks, but I believe that he deserves another chance at life and love. I’m so grateful for mine and spend a lot of time telling Nyx this and thanking my aunt in my mind as I fall to sleep in his arms.

  “I love you, Nyx. I love you so much.” I start to cry as he holds me tightly in his arms. Eventually, he convinces me to come inside, and let him make me some breakfast, as I sit at the counter with my red puffy eyes.

  Nyx admitted to having staff before he met me. They catered to his every whim, but he always preferred to do his cooking. I love watching him in the kitchen as he works, particularly when he has less clothing on. Even today, I can’t help but look at him hungrily, and I curse this attraction in my head as I take a sip of the juice that he pours for me.

  We quietly eat the eggs and bacon that he knows I love, as I stare out of the window at the rising sun. I am surprised that Nyx chose to redecorate the home that he grew up in, after his father chose to hand the village to him, instead of living in the castle that all of the kings get when they are crowned. Nyx could have had it no questions asked, but he prefers it here. His parents live on the other side of the forest, in a remote stretch of land, something that his father wanted after running things for so long.

  They are so warm, and I can see how happy they both are to see their son happy and in love. A few times a month we go to see them for dinner, and I realize, in them I have found the family I never had. Nobody will ever replace Lauren, but I appreciate the love that I have in my life.

  It concerns me a little bit that I’m not full Fae and Nyx is, but Ryder assures me that I will live forever, as he will. Being with a Fae prince helps me in that manner, and I am relieved since I can never picture Nyx being as sad as Ryder if I were to pass away. I want forever with him, and I will have it. Nothing ever seems to dim between us, and I fall more in love with him every day.

  I let Ryder have the cottage to live in, since it held so many memories for him at the end. I was there a lot and took things over to my home that we agreed on, but he was more than generous. He understands me needing a lot of reminders of an aunt that loved me around my house, and Nyx smiles every time I bring something else home. He always jokes that it’s a good thing our room has a huge closet, since I fall in love with so many of her clothes. They all provide space for her wings, and I now understand the clerk’s question about my clothes that day at the grocery store. There was no room for wings in a hoodie.

  My aunt had been a beloved part of the Fae world, as it turns out. She treated everybody the way she would have treated me, had I known her when she was still alive. It sounds like her life
had been all about helping others, and I wonder if it was because of what happened with my mother. Lauren couldn’t save her because she was never given the chance. She just saved everybody else.

  Nyx made me chuckle when she told him that he needed to have hope for his future, as he spent year after year alone, thinking that he would never find his mate. Lauren also really didn’t like Rebekah, and it turns out they had some nasty encounters over the years.

  One month later

  I look around the meadow as the Fae gather together with a soft smile. Everything is slowly settling after Rebekah mysteriously disappeared, and Nyx and I have finally planned something of a wedding. It is all a formality since we are going to be mates, regardless of vows or not, but Nyx wants to give me something from my human world.

  Everyone fills the seats, and I look over the collection of wings that fill the chairs. There are all kinds, but none that even comes close to the ones that belong to my Fae as he stands near the edge of the lake to wait for me. He is everything to me, and I have fully accepted everything that happened in my life that led me to him.

  I press my hands down the soft, shimmering material of the dress I found in Lauren’s closet, tucked in the back. It was for her ceremony with Ryder before she went to find me. I asked him if it was going to be too painful to see me wearing it, and he assured me that it was what Lauren would want. It is beautiful; it flows down my body and hugs my curves, ending in a long trail of soft material. I have my hair pulled up in chunks, with curls falling loosely over the thin straps of the dress and one of my grandmother’s necklaces around my neck.

  I feel beautiful, and as I lock gazes with Nyx, the emotion in his eyes only makes me feel it more. I never thought that someone would look at me the way he does, as if I am his or her world. I was always a bother to people when I was young and just there for the money that I brought in. Men looked at me as an object. The little happiness that I enjoyed in my human years was performing, and I do that here now. I sing for people at a stage that Nyx crafted for me, and it is so different than my former time in the spotlight.

  It is what I have always wanted.

  I start down the aisle covered in the rose petals the children sprinkled for me. They are in all of the gorgeous colors and match the flowers that are in my hair. Nyx watches me as his face fills with emotions that I’m feeling inside as well. I fight back the tears that are threatening to slide down my cheeks.

  We say our vows to each other before the entire village, and Nyx kisses me tenderly when we finish. I feel complete inside as I stare into his eyes and hear the harpist start a new song as we face the crowd.

  The party is in the same place, and I watch with awe as everyone helps in cleaning up the chairs and setting up the food that has been so lovingly cooked for us by the Fae in record time. I am dancing with Nyx under a circle of soft lights, when I see Ryder dancing with a woman that has the prettiest red hair and purple dress. “Who is she?” I ask Nyx with my lips close to his neck, as he holds me tighter and turns me around.

  “Kilana. She is an artist here and very kind. My mother loves her,” Nyx informs me as he smiles down at me.

  “I am so happy to see him with her. Ryder deserves a second chance,” I say softly before I press my deep pink lips to his.

  “He’ll get that. When your mate is taken as tragically, as Lauren was, the rules change. Particularly when it is at the hands of a fellow Fae,” he assures me, after we begin to move to the rhythm of the soft music behind played in the background.

  I close my eyes and listen to the music and the voices that fill the air. This is my home and my world. I am so happy as I wrap my arms tighter around his neck.

  Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Skeleton Key novella!

  All reviews are appreciated.

  If you would like to read more from the Skeleton Key series, please click on the link below:

  Skeleton Key Website

  About the Author

  Lillian Cartier started writing when a persistent vampire entered her mind and refused to leave. Sharing the crazy idea with her closest friends and, with the encouragement from them, a story not only started to form but she has gone into collaboration with a friend turned author, Michelle Dare.

  A wife, mom, and lover of books, that will be soon going on a vacation on a tropical island where she can finally get some much needed rest and relaxation with her family and friends.

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  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About the Author