by Spear, Terry
Until she heard Alton’s advisor clear his throat.
Chapter 6
“What are you doing?” Ena shoved Alton away, but only after she had enjoyed the kiss! But she didn’t want Alton’s staff to spread the word that she’d been kissing him in his gardens. The other dragon shifters who might be interested in her wouldn’t like it.
“Kissing you,” he growled. “You know you wanted it as much as I wanted it.”
“Not that!” She couldn’t bring herself to say he was right. That she loved the way he had kissed her so tenderly like he really cared for her. But she also knew he had taken her away from her keep and away from the human because—dare she say it?—he was jealous? Would he have kissed her otherwise?
He clenched his hands at his sides, his eyes narrowed. “He is a human!”
Of that she was well aware!
“Yes! And my prisoner. Nothing more.”
“The others will talk.”
He was worried about gossip? “Let them.” People were always talking about her. What did she care?
“I will kill them!”
She couldn’t help herself. She smiled. She didn’t think Alton’s scowl could grow any deeper. But it did.
She took a deep breath. “I can’t explain.”
“You want a love slave!”
She stared at Alton, unable to believe he was serious. As fiercely as he studied her, she realized he did believe she wanted the human for that reason.
“You can’t be serious. Brett…”
“He is your prisoner!”
The inference was she shouldn’t be referring to him by name, which sounded too much like she thought of him in more intimate terms.
“Next, you will put him in a chamber of his own. And then he will work his way into your chamber! He is even eating your food at the dining table. Not at the servants’ table! And sitting beside you! He should be manacled in the dungeon for his crimes.”
Alton wouldn’t understand.
“All right. There’s no explaining this to you.”
She was about to return to the keep and her now cold meal when Alton took hold of her arm in a controlling, but as gentle a manner as he could manage, considering he was still angry with her over the human. “Wait. We’ll return together. I can’t say that I will like this arrangement of yours ever.”
She nodded. “Princess Alicia wanted his life spared, and I like her. I will keep him until I choose otherwise.”
“Princess Alicia,” he said warily, as if it was finally dawning on him that Ena had not taken the human in strictly because she had wanted him.
She hadn’t even considered that her brother or Alton would have thought that.
Many were unsure of the princess’s claim to the throne should her grandfather step down. Many didn’t like the interest Princess Alicia had shown in the human girl, Cassie. Alicia was not human, and they didn’t believe she should continue to associate with even one of them. They felt her loyalty suspect. And she wasn’t fully dragon fae either, which had a few declaring—again—that her loyalty to their people might not be as clear as it might have been. On top of that, the fact she’d been raised among humans—well, she was just a mystery and most didn’t care for the idea.
“Yes. She believes he might be fae like she was. So I will carry out her wishes and see for myself if he is fae or not,” Ena said.
“And if he is, then what?”
“I’ll decide when the time comes.” She didn’t know what she’d do. Turn him over to whichever fae he belonged to? Would they eliminate him for being a fae killer?
***
Micala had only one thing in mind when he saw Cassie struggling with the guy in the front seat of his black pickup truck. To rescue her.
Micala seized Cassie’s arm before the runt of the teen hiding in the back seat behind her could come around the back passenger door and clamp an iron manacle on him. Another kid had been sitting on the other side of the truck in the back seat, hidden, but he’d never reach Micala in time. The driver had remained in place, holding onto Cassie’s other arm.
Without another thought other than breaking the grip of the one boy’s hand on Cassie’s arm and getting her out of there, Micala transported her to South Padre Island in south Texas, playground of the dark fae. He had been reluctant to take her to his world—and face the repercussions they both would have to as soon as his people caught them together. His aunt, Queen Irenis, had said that none of her people—which doubly meant none of her close family—would ever take a human for a mate.
Cassie would be safe enough here, except for one problem—how to explain how some invisible force moved her from her home to South Padre Island through a tunnel of darkness in the fae way? And that he was one of the members of the royal house of the Denkar? The lion fae, aka the dark fae.
He’d taken her to one of the more remote beaches so that she could appear on the white sand out of thin air without anyone seeing her, and he could materialize before her in the same way. Then he would stop her screaming. Though when he reconsidered that notion he thought she might scream even harder as soon as he appeared. So he moved behind her first.
***
Cassie was not a screamer! She didn’t scream at football games or on rollercoaster rides or at scary horror movies. Not that rollercoaster rides and scary movies didn’t make her want to. But she just controlled the urge. Always. So she didn’t even realize that was her screaming at the top of her lungs for a second or two. First, she had been furious with Wayne Reynolds because she had thanked him for dropping her off at her house in his brand new black pickup truck, but then he grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let go of her. She didn’t know what his problem had been.
He kept ranting about how she was in danger from the faery folk, that one was sitting on her front porch swing—when there wasn’t a soul there—and she wondered if he’d been high on something. Though she didn’t think he was using anything.
After that, he began yelling as if he was going into hysterics that the fae was coming for her.
She nearly had a heart attack when her door was yanked open, and there was nobody there! Jimmie Dougan had thrown open the back door, and she hadn’t even known he was in the truck—hiding! And she hadn’t realized that Max Callahan was hiding in the back seat on the other side!
What felt like a man’s hand had grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the truck so fast, she hadn’t had time to even see who it was. She’d fallen into a black void—although something had wrapped around her in a comforting embrace—which considering she hadn’t known what was happening, she hadn’t felt comforted in the least.
That’s when she heard the screaming.
And realized the screaming was coming from her.
Now she was standing on a beach at five in the evening, the salty air and wind whipping about her, white sand sweeping over her sandaled feet, her hair blowing across her face in a massive brown silky screen, seagulls singing out high above, and the water rushing up across the beach in a perpetual whoosh. It looked like South Padre Island where she used to go with Alicia, and still managed to sneak off to spend time here with Micala when she could.
She was alone on the beach, not a soul in sight. How in the world had she gotten here?
Then she heard a deep male voice behind her, startling her. She let out a squeak.
“Cassie, it’s okay. You’re okay. You’re with me.”
Micala? Whipping around, she stared at Micala, his dark brown eyes on hers, concerned, but loving, too.
Her head began to swim, and she knew she was about to collapse—when she was not prone to fainting, either! Micala’s arms were suddenly around her, and he was kissing her, his mouth firm and warm and real.
She had to be caught up in a dream. First, it had been a nightmare. Now it was the good part of the dream.
She kissed him back, hugging him tightly.
He finally broke free from the kiss. “I’m sorry, Cassie.” He looked down at her with
such a woeful expression, she wanted to silence his words with another kiss. And tried to, but he shook his head. “We have to talk.”
She didn’t like this part of the dream. He was going to tell her something bad. He was going to say he was seeing someone else, that he no longer wished to see her. But it was her dream, and she wouldn’t let him turn it back into a nightmare.
She tried to kiss him again, but this time he smiled at her. She paused. He didn’t look like he wanted to end things with her.
“Cassie,” he said, turning serious again, still holding her close, “I’ve…I’ve put you in danger. I shouldn’t have. I don’t know what to do. Whatever I do will cause us problems.”
Us. As if they were still together, and he had no intention of letting her go. She stared at him, then glanced around the beach. This was real. All too real. Her gaze met his.
“That idiot who had hold of you and wouldn’t let you go in the truck?” he asked.
Her mouth dropped. Ohmigod, how could Micala know about that? He was here on the beach when she just…appeared.
But it was just a dream. Wasn’t it?
“Wayne,” she whispered, remembering how much he’d bruised her arm when he wouldn’t let her go.
“He said one of the faery folk was coming to get you.”
Her heart was pumping way too fast.
“I’m one of the Denkar fae.”
She just stared up at Micala. She didn’t believe in any of this. It was the dream. Dreams didn’t make any sense. “So when I see you the next time, I’ll mention how you told me in a dream that you were one of the fae, and you’ll laugh. Right?”
He continued on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Brett, Bryan, and Mark took Alicia hostage, Cassie. They meant to kill her.”
Cassie thought back to Alicia’s saying to her friends that she’d join them for lunch, then never arrived. Then her cousin came to the school looking for her. Which was why Cassie was rehashing all of this in a dream, coming up with the reason she hadn’t seen Alicia.
Bryan hadn’t been in class today. But she didn’t know anyone by the name of Mark or Brett. At least Bryan’s absence added to the dream nicely. Well, nightmare again now.
“Is Alicia all right?” she asked, because she wanted to hear something good.
Micala was studying her, reading her, as if trying to figure her out.
“She’s all right, right?” Cassie insisted. Her friend had to be. Even in a dream, she wanted her to be.
“She’s safe with Deveron. But you’re not safe. They—the fae seers—wanted to use you as bait to catch me. Maybe Alicia, too, if she came back to see you.”
“She’s one of the fae?” Cassie smiled at that. She’d known her since they were little. No way was Alicia a faery.
“She’s of the dragon fae, princess, to be queen someday.”
Cassie grinned even broader. “Hey, if your best friend turns out to be a faery, might as well be an important one. My friends said she was wearing a beautiful green velvet gown, nothing like they come up with in drama class. Something that looked like it was made of the most exquisite of materials and gems and cost a fortune. So, that’s part of her princess wardrobe?”
Micala said nothing.
“But she’s safe. Right?”
She still remembered Ena’s words. She was looking for her. She said she’d had the wrong day, but Cassie didn’t believe her. Ena had been worried about her.
Cassie tried to shove the concern from her thoughts. Just like when she was having a disagreeable dream and half asleep and half awake. She could change the dream somewhat then. “If Alicia is a fae, then what is Deveron?” She couldn’t help smiling.
Micala looked worried still, like he realized he wasn’t making a believer out of her. He had that right.
He was different. More mature than the guys she’d known. More…well, otherworldly. Like he’d visited other places, traveled a lot, and shared his trip experiences with her. She’d been fascinated, wishing she could go with him in the future.
Most of all, he’d always treated her as if he treasured her—her company, what she had to say, just being with her, not saying anything, just enjoying a sunset together, or watching the sun rise. Seeing a full moon on a pitch black night, or an orange crescent moon on another that hung so low it nearly touched the earth. Or making a mess of themselves as they played in the surf and created castles in the sand.
“Deveron is of the Denkar. The lion fae. He is the crown prince,” Micala said quietly, his hand stroking her back, tenderly, lovingly.
“Wow. All these years and Alicia never said anything to me about it.” Cassie should have played more into the whole dream thing, but she was too cynical for that. She loved reading romances—contemporary stuff. She wasn’t into fantasy. No fairytale princess and prince stories. No vampires. No werewolves. No immortal fae.
“She didn’t know that she was one of us, Cassie. I can’t take you to the fae kingdom, or I fear you’ll come to harm there.”
She frowned at him then, wanting him to talk about what they normally did. About his travels, about how he’d like to take her on them sometime. She didn’t want to talk about his nonsensical fairy stuff. “That’s because you can’t take me there. You’re not capable of it. Because it doesn’t exist.”
“It exists, but my aunt is queen of the Denkar, and Deveron’s mother. She doesn’t believe in allowing the fae to mix with the human kind. And we’re not allowed to transfer our abilities to a human.”
This was what she’d been worried about in the beginning. “Then…you’re saying it’s over between us?” If the dream was going to turn into a crummy nightmare again, she might as well get it over with and go back to sleep.
“No, it’s just that you can’t go home now. The fae seers will be waiting for you, and I worry they may try to hurt you, thinking they can get to us. Use you like bait like they did this time. I can’t take you to my world. I don’t know what to do. Deveron has already threatened to kill me because my involvement with you almost got Alicia killed. My aunt would be of the same mind. So would Alicia’s people.”
“Well, than that solves it. I’m not a faery, so I’ll just go back to sleep, and you won’t come to see me anymore.” It nearly killed her to say it even in a dream.
“I can’t let you go,” Micala said, shaking his head. “I can’t. And I won’t.”
That’s what she wanted to hear.
“The only thing I can come up with is to take you to see one of the dragon fae.”
Dragon fae. “Alicia?”
Micala shook his head. “Ena. She saved Alicia’s life and now has taken Brett to her castle. He’s one of the humans who had Alicia manacled in a basement.”
She didn’t believe Alicia had been taken prisoner. But she’d been missing. Cassie frowned, thinking back about the strange Goth girl, pretty, nice. Ena said she was looking for Alicia. “Ena is a princess, too? Oh sure, she would be. She said she was a cousin of Alicia’s.”
Micala raised his brows at that. “Dragon fae…maybe a really distant cousin. Ena might give us refuge for a while. Hopefully no one will learn you’re there. Then I can get word to Alicia. Maybe her people will not mind taking you in.”
“What about us?”
“I…I won’t give you up, Cassie. No matter what.”
She took a deep breath. “She lives at a different castle, I take it.”
“Alicia lives at the main royal castle, yes.” Micala kissed the top of Cassie’s head. “Do you agree to go with me? There’s no turning back.”
“Oh, sure,” Cassie said. “Take me to your faery world. I’ve always wanted to see Tinker Bell.” Not. She’d had to watch the movie when she was a kid because her parents had thought she should enjoy some fantasy stories in her early years. What sane kid wanted to be a child forever? Being older had lots more perks.
Ignoring her joke about Tinker Bell, Micala said, “Good.” He pulled her close and began kissing her again.
&
nbsp; This was the part of the dream she really enjoyed. The odd thing of it was that everything turned black again, and she no longer heard the ocean or wind or seagulls. She felt Micala’s mouth on hers, his tongue dancing with hers, his arms wrapped tightly around her.
Then she was surrounded by darkness illuminated by the soft lights on either side of a massive wooden door. She looked up and saw she was standing in front of a tall circular stone tower. Her head and stomach were reeling with dizziness and nausea while Micala supported her with one arm wrapped around her waist. He reached out and pulled a knocker on the solid door and hit it several times.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” a man shouted from within.
She reached out to touch the door. Her fingertips connected with the wood. It was solid, just like Micala felt real.
But she wasn’t buying it. She’d had real dreams before…so real the next day she thought they’d actually been true.
The door opened with a squeak and a black-haired man eyed Micala first, his eyes growing wide, then he looked at Cassie, and this time his mouth gaped. “What do you want here?” the man asked frowning.
“Is Princess Ena in?” Cassie asked, smiling, enjoying this way too much.
“She is not a princess. Does she know you?” the man asked.
“Yes. I’m a friend of her cousin, Alicia. Make that Princess Alicia.”
“Mistress Ena is not the princess’s cousin.” The man looked at Micala. “Is this true. That this human is a friend of the princess?”
Micala said, “Yes, and we must speak with Ena if she can spare us a moment.”
“I’ll let her know you’re here. But she has…guests.” He led them inside and asked over his shoulder, “Your names?”
“Micala, nephew to Queen Irenis. And this is Cassie, my betrothed.”
Cassie looked up, expecting Micala to be smiling, but he looked dead serious. She liked this dream.
The butler glanced back at them and shook his head. “I cannot imagine Queen Irenis is happy with the news.” He led them into a library. “I’ll let our mistress know you’re here.”
Then he stalked out of the room.