The Autumn Fairy of Ages
The Autumn Fairy Trilogy, Book #2
Brittany Fichter
BrittanyFichterFiction.com
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Details at the end of this book.
To my sweet sister, Nikki. Your smile is ridiculously sweet, and you have one of the softest, most sensitive hearts I’ve ever met. Your desire to make others happy is like a beam of sunlight in this dark world.
Also, your red hair is flippin’ beautiful.
I’m so thankful to call you my sister, and I hope God moves our homes closer together soon.
Contents
1. I Think You Know Why…
2. You’re Going to Like This
3. Threats and Promises
4. A Token of Goodwill
5. Interesting Indeed
6. A Mistake
7. Dangerous Whispers
8. Worthy
9. Everything I Wanted
10. Questions
11. Winter’s Bite
12. Only Because
13. Answers
14. A Harder Wood
15. I’m Glad
16. More than a Mark
17. Confessions
18. He Will Hate You
19. Fly
20. More
21. This Changes Nothing
22. Potential
23. A Remnant
24. Take It Back
25. No
26. An Unfortunate One
27. Monster
28. Ages
29. Never Doubt
30. Far Too Many
31. No Choice
32. Help
33. Grasping at Smoke
34. The Wrong Firin
35. And We have Chosen You
36. My Gift
37. The Chronicles Say
38. Into the Valley
39. You’d Better
40. Love Never Ends
41. Tandem
42. Time for Goodbyes
43. Trail to the Heart
44. Peter’s Revenge
45. Until We Try
46. Epilogue
The Last Autumn Fairy
Also by Brittany Fichter
About the Author
1
I Think You Know Why…
The ship rocked as Katy attempted to navigate the last two steps leading up to the deck, but her stomach lurched, and for the hundredth time she considered returning to her cabin and letting Peter take care of himself. He’d been a thundercloud lately and probably wouldn’t listen to her anyway. Still, that voice from deep down—very deep down, that wasn’t related to her seasickness—told her to keep going. Two more steps and she would be out in the fresh air at least.
“Well, look who’s emerged!” Sir Tomas grinned at Katy. “Our lovely fairy, on her way to conquer the King’s Isle. And she never looked more prepared for battle.”
Katy grimaced at him and gripped the railing as the boat rocked again. With her other hand, she held her stomach.
“We’ve been out on the water two days and you still haven’t got your sea legs, have you?” He came closer as the boat hit a swell and Katy’s knees buckled beneath her.
“I never liked the ocean.” Katy groaned and tried to pull herself upright. “Not when I lived on the coast, and not now.”
“It’s not that bad, now, is it?” Tomas jerked his chin up at the sails. “We’ve got a good breeze, the skies are as blue as they get, and…” He inhaled deeply. “The air is cleaner than I’ve ever smelled it.”
“Then maybe Atharo should have made you a fish instead of a knight.” Katy surveyed the ship’s deck warily as Tomas threw his head back and laughed. “Where’s Peter?”
“Over there, behind the crates, mulling angrily as usual.” His eyes gleamed. “You two make such a joyful couple, you know that? I always pictured my princess with a green complexion and my prince with a constant scowl.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll start imagining something else somewhere else soon.”
“Then I shall go have a conversation with the gull that’s just landed on the crow’s nest. At least I shan’t have to worry about him having my head chopped off.”
Katy was forced to smile as Tomas walked off with a chuckle. Then she focused all her energy on shuffling past sailors and rigging and crates and all sorts of other ship things to Peter, where he sat staring out at the waves on a set of crates.
“Alright, Peter. Out with it,” she said, lowering herself onto a set of stacked crates beside his with a sigh of relief. As soon as she was sitting, her stomach stopped rolling as if it was part of the sea.
“Out with what?” He refused to meet her gaze.
So he was going to be in one of those moods.
“You’ve been ill-tempered since we left.” Katy wrapped her arm around his and leaned her head against it. “Surely you have a reason.”
“I have not.”
“Oh really?” Katy let go of him to count on her fingers. “This morning at breakfast, you complained that your fish was cooked wrong.”
“It was.”
“But we weren’t eating fish.”
“What were we eating then?”
“Chicken.”
Peter just grunted.
“I would listen to her,” Tomas called lazily from a few feet away, where he was munching on an apple.
“Don’t you have work to do?” Peter scowled at his knight.
Tomas grinned. “I came as your personal guard, Your Highness. And as such, I’ve found that the safest course of action when your woman wants to talk is to do as she says.” His eyes glinted wickedly as he glanced at Katy. “And your woman is one I would not wish to aggravate.”
Peter snorted, but Katy gently turned him back to face her.
“Peter.”
Peter finally grudgingly made eye contact with her.
“So, do you want to tell me what it is that’s bothering you? Everything seems to be on track so far.”
Peter turned and looked back in the direction they had come from.
Well, the voyage itself was going well. Actually setting sailing in the ship had been a somewhat turbulent affair. As soon as Peter had accepted the invitation to the King’s Isle, word had been sent to prepare their best vessel for travel. But as no ships had sailed beyond the Third Isle’s immediate fishing waters for four centuries, it was soon discovered—after several leaks and some rather loud groaning from the boat—that the Third Isle’s modern shipbuilders’ skills left much to be desired. It had taken half a day to get the ship out into the open sea, and only after a serious discussion with the captain about the availability of rowboats did Peter let them actually launch.
All of this, of course, had only served to darken his mood.
“I don’t like leaving.” He shook his head as he stared at the retreating dock. “We’re in a leaky bucket floating around in the middle of the ocean when the isle doesn’t even have a king. And we’ll be gone for another month at that! Ow!”
Peter had been squeezing the size of the crate, and now he looked down at what appeared to Katy to be a handful of splinters.
“Antony will take good care of the isle while we’re gone.” She took his hand and pulled a small needle from her reticule and began to remove the splinters. She spoke as she worked, enjoying the feel of his large calloused hand in hers.
“You two have certainly become friendly since he tried to kill you.” Peter studied her warily, at which Katy had to laugh.
“I told you, our priorities align.” She reached up to rub his short hair. “You look quite handsome, you know.” Katy put away her needle and straightened his cloak over his broad shoulders. They had been betrothed for several months, and Katy still felt a chilly thrill ripple through her stomach whenever he was near. From his short dark hair to his storm blue eyes, his muscled arms and legs to his oversized feet, which Katy had always found a bit funny, every inch of him was hers. Or would be after the wedding, anyway.
“Well, now you’re just trying to buy my good humor.” He stood and pulled her up and into his chest.
She grinned up at him. “Is it working?”
“Possibly.” He quirked a brow. “Surely there might be something you want to change about me.” When she gave him a look, he shrugged. “No woman would admit that her man is perfect. Even if he was.”
“Oh, so you think you’re perfect, do you?” Katy put her hands on her hips. His mouth was straight, but his eyes were dancing. “Well, since we can’t have you thinking you’re perfect, I wish you would get rid of this.” She reached up and ran her hand down the side of his stubbled jaw. “I feel like you’re hiding behind it.”
“Actually,” his voice dropped as a sailor walked by, “that was rather the point.”
Katy sighed. She should have known better. “Are you embarrassed of it?”
“No,” he said, glancing down at the mark on her own forehead. “No, not embarrassed. Just….”
“Out with it, Peter.”
“They’re afraid of me, you know.” His hand went to his jaw as it always did now whenever he was nervous. Katy watched ruefully as he rubbed the mark that was now permanent. Its swirling green vines matched the ones on her forehead and arms, but unlike hers, his was nearly invisible beneath his thin beard. “I could see it on even the fairies’ faces when they came to visit the first time.”
Yes, Katy had seen that as well, but she’d known better than to mention it. She was all too familiar with the feelings of the unknown. Of being the unknown.
“And not just the fairies. I can see it in the eyes of our own people. My own servants look twice now when they’re alone with me. Tell me, how did you do it all these years?” he asked, looking down at her with sad eyes. “Knowing that every move you made was subject to misinterpretation. That in any moment, someone believed you were a monster.
Katy squeezed his hand and gave him a small smile. “I had you.” If he hadn’t been there, she shuddered to imagine what kind of creature she would have turned out to be, shunning and hating the world that spurned her.
She would have become like Tearlach. Katy shivered.
“My hope,” Peter continued, “was to get to know people first…to make a few allies before letting everyone know at first glance…” He frowned and shook his head, glaring out at the foamy waters. “I don’t even know what I am. They have every right to be afraid.” He glanced around at the sailors, servants, and everyone else who had joined them on the journey. “They all do.”
Katy took his face gently in her hands and turned him to look back at her. He let her but didn’t look happy.
“You,” she said softly, “are my Peter. You’re my best friend and my protector, and Atharo spared our lives so that you could continue to be such. I don’t care a whit what others think.”
“Well, now you’re just talking nonsense.”
“Believe me,” Katy gave a wry chuckle and tucked her hands under her skirt. “I know what it’s like to want to find others like you. To not be so different.” She felt him slip an arm around her waist and pull her closer.
“I don’t think you need anyone else. But if that’s what you want, then that’s what I hope you get.” He growled, sounding very much like the hound he’d had as a boy. “But remind me again why we aren’t married already.”
Katy plucked some fuzz off of his collar. “Because the chancels said they wished to bestow a blessing on us before our wedding, one of the ancient traditions they keep that our isle hasn’t been privy to.”
Peter nuzzled her ear. “That sounds like a terrible reason.
“They also,” Katy laughed, trying to shove his nose away, “said they would help us fix the isle’s famine if we did as they asked.”
Peter made a face. “Sometimes I wish you didn’t insist on being so very logical.”
“Sire? Sire, where are you?”
Peter closed his eyes and let his head fall back as one of the servants came running up.
“Would you like to wear the red trousers or the black trousers for tomorrow? My wife needs to iron them for you.”
Peter rolled his eyes, but Katy pinched him before he could say something rude. “He’s over here,” she called. He grimaced down at her as the little man ran up to where they were sitting.
“Red or black, Sire?” The man held up two pairs of trousers.
Peter sighed. “Black.”
“Yes, Sire.” The man skittered away.
“Who wears red trousers? Why do I even have those?” Peter grumbled, but Katy laughed.
“You know, one day, we’re going to have a son who’s just as ridiculous as you.
“I’m not being ridiculous.”
“No, I can see it now.” Katy raised an eyebrow. “He’ll be two heads taller than all the other babies. And when he turns two, he’ll insist on running around as bare as one of those awful hairless cats your cousin likes. And as you try to convince our son to wear apparel of some sort, you’ll realize that clothes are a necessary evil. Then you’re going to see how ridiculous you’re being.”
He scowled. “Maybe. Or maybe we’ll have a little girl, and she’ll talk so incessantly that even you will be forced to admit one can speak too many words.”
Katy tossed her hair. “All of my words were always necessary.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Either way, I hope she’s very ugly.”
Katy drew back with a gasp and slapped his arm. “Why in the isles would you say that?”
“Because,” Peter’s grip tightened around her waist, and he pulled her back toward him, “if she’s half as pretty as her mother, I’ll have to abdicate.”
“Why?”
“So I can spend all my time fending off the hordes of rotten boys who might dare ask for our daughter’s hand.” His lips brushed hers.
Katy’s stomach flipped when he said “our daughter,” but this time it was a rather pleasant flip. She sounded breathless when she spoke again. “All boys are rotten?”
“All of them.”
“Aren’t you a boy?”
“I never said I wasn’t rotten.” There was a smile in his words as he took her face gently in his hands and pressed his lips against hers. Katy closed her eyes in anticipation of his soft kiss.
“Ahem.”
Peter froze, and Katy tried to smother a smile as she looked at the ground.
A sharp looking little woman stood beside them, so close she could have reached out and touched them both. She might have, Katy thought, if they hadn’t been in public, where others would have seen her reprimanding the king-to-be. As it was, she held out a hand expectantly to Katy.
“Let me help you freshen up, milady,” she said in a voice that was slightly too loud. “You look taxed by the ocean air.”
Katy wasn’t taxed in the slightest, but she squeezed Peter’s arm and went to stand willingly beside her attendant.
“Gertrude.” Peter made a face.
“Your Highness.” Gertrude didn’t so much as blink.
“I still don’t know why my cousin sent you,” Peter grumbled, crossing his arms.
“Oh, I think you know very well, Your Highness.” Gertrude pushed her spectacles up her nose and led Katy toward the stairs.
Katy shrugged and sent him one last eye roll before Gertrude practically pushed her down the stairs.
“Shall we do your hair, milady?” she asked once they were in Katy’s quarters with the door locked.
“Very well.”
“A kiss is hardly worthy of—”
“There will be plenty of time for that after the wedding, milady. Now, would you like your white or silver comb this time?”
Katy just gave her a grim smile and turned obediently to look out at the ocean. But in her head, she imagined every lovely second of that almost kiss.
One month and she would be his. And Atharo help the person that tried to separate her from him then.
2
You’re Going to Like This
Peter could feel Katy peeking out from behind him at the ever-nearing mass of land, and he knew he should tell her to stand tall beside him, but he himself had run out of breath. For her sake and the sakes of the men and women surrounding them on the deck, however, he managed to keep his posture straight, his jaw tight, and his head held high. But just barely.
“You’ll do just fine, Peter,” Firin Reaghan said, coming to stand just behind his right shoulder. Peter wanted to assure him it would be otherwise, but that would involve talking. So he simply nodded once and worried silently to himself.
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