THE END
I hope you enjoyed Find Me, Book 1 in the Faeries Lost Trilogy. Please read Whisper Me, Book 2 to read Lilja and Grey's story, and Hear Me, Book 3, Kirklas' and Sara's story. Please take a moment and return to where you bought this book and leave a review, which helps the author and other readers.
Thank you!
Whisper Me Book 2 available
Lilja watched as Greyson Maddox walked in nature, in the lands wedged between the river and the hills. His dark hair was sprinkled with flecks of snow, a man dressed for the bitter cold of the snowy day. Curiously, she observed his expression as he stared up at the sky. She sensed his aloneness, and saw clearly the fracture of his soul. It touched her, and she reached her hand through the portal, a whisper soft stroke upon his temple, intent on comforting the man she had known since he was a child.
"Lilja!" Her best friend Peripaus quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the portal. "What are you thinking? Are you bewitched?"
Lilja indicated the man. "Peri, look at how sad --"
"You know it is frowned upon, interacting with the humans."
"Faeries have been mixing with humans for years."
"You know the council discourages those interactions. Our worlds are too divided."
"So they say," Lilja came back. "But truthfully, I have never seen such division."
"Hush," Peri said, quickly looking around. "Would you question the wisdom of the elders?"
Lilja smiled at her friend, admiring the soft gold braid of her hair as it lay upon one shoulder. "Oh dear Peri, do not look worried. There are no elders hiding in the ferns."
Peri looked even more alarmed, her deep purple eyes darting this way and that, peeking down beneath the ferns as if to make sure indeed there were no elders in hiding. Then her gaze lifted and seeing the mischief in Lilja, together they began to laugh.
Lilja sat on the ground and held out her hand. "Peri, you are so very serious. Come and sit next to me."
Together they settled back against the soft, feathery ferns, facing the brilliant blue sky above them. Lilja stretched her arms up to the warmth of the sun. Peace, comfort and joy pervaded even the most miniscule drops of lingering morning dew on gently growing blades of grass. Lilja knew the beauty and grandeur of Aisywel was a faerie realm unlike any other and yet...she sighed. "I find it strange that the humans choose not to see us."
"Some do, you know," said Peri. "The ones with The Sight."
Lilja gave a gurgle of laughter. "Peri, they call them psychics now. The Sight is old school."
Peri frowned at her and slapped her lightly on the arm. "Well, you know I cling to the old ways. I shall probably never change."
Lilja smiled at her friend gently, fondly. "And for that I am glad." She gave Peri a playful grin. "Just as I shall not change."
"Well, that is no doubt true. But do be careful in your enthusiasm and fascination with the humans."
Lilja grew a bit pensive. "Don't you find it curious that a race so gifted by life, many times seems at a loss what to do with their emotions? They cause each other distress, give in to excesses and appear to lose sight of how precious life is."
"You spend too much time watching them," Peri said. "I never understood why."
"Perhaps because I have visited them for many years and I've become comfortable with their ways. I have seen you watching them a time or two," Lilja added teasingly as she rose to her feet.
Peri grimaced in her serious way. "Just so that I might understand your interest!" she retorted. She shivered. "I would never want to live with the humans. They are loud, can't control their anger and they -- they smell."
Lilja laughed heartily. "And why would you say they smell?" she asked.
Peri was silent a moment, and Lilja lifted a brow. "Come, tell me and I will share a secret or two with you."
Peri said hesitantly. "That time I visited the earth plane with Herrikus."
Lilja nodded. Peri's previous love interest. Herrikus, delicate and extremely pale-skinned, she had not understood Peri's fascination with the boy. He had broken Peri's heart when he ran off with a faerie from a lower vibration.
"We only popped in for a quick look. There was a terrible fight between two men. One of them fell against me." She grimaced and shook her head.
"Well, you can't base all humans on that one experience. Remember that summer you came with me on one of my visits? All those lovely horses and you were intent on painting each and every one --"
"You have to admit the horses were magnificent, more enchanting than any here on Aisywel. So many shades of perfection to capture."
Lilja chuckled. "Shush, now -- you will be making our mystical beasts jealous."
Peri's eyes grew a bit dreamy. "There is just something spectacular about them, even if they are in another realm."
"And what of the humans who work with them?" Lilja asked curiously.
Peri's face grew a bit red and she admitted, "I'm always curious about new subjects to paint." Her friend shook her head. "What secrets do you have to tell?""
"I love to study them," Lilja said dreamily, smiling. "If it were entirely of my choosing, I would paint a beautiful color over their pain and take it away so they never felt it."
"Lilja!"
Lilja shrugged. "Men and women take unimaginable risks when under the influence of their emotions. I find that a curious thing."
Lilja moved closer to the portal so that she might see the man again. "Speaking of human scent." She nodded at the man. "He is redolent of hay and the outdoors. Such a sweet scent on a man." She gurgled with laughter. "Even if he is a human."
"Why always this man?" Peri asked quietly. She frowned, tilting her head as she studied him. "He is rather handsome," she admitted grudgingly.
Lilja gave a small smile. "Perhaps it is because I sense his strong connection to the earth and his animals. I have known him a long time."
"Truly?" Peri sounded intrigued.
"It's hard to explain my fascination. Sometimes it even puzzles me."
Peri stared at the land around the man. "His dwelling is made from the trees of the earth. It blends in with the forest."
As the man Grey worked about his snow dusted dwelling Lilja saw the new groove beside his lean cheek, the vast sorrow in his eyes...eyes that were far seeing and that used to crinkle with laughter. She shook her head. There were not many days he gave in to laughter any more.
She sensed he looked back to a time of his past. A happier time in his life, and then he turned from her and the wistful moment was gone.
"Lilja, did you hear me?" Peri asked, shaking her arm in gentle exasperation. "Come with me down to the faerie pool -- let's go sit in the sun. Dear one, you stand here with me but you are not here."
Lilja patted her friend's hand. "Peri, you always worry." Hesitantly, she admitted, "Sometimes I go out there and wonder what would happen if I never returned."
Peri sucked in a breath. "Forever?"
"Yes."
"No Lilja. You would be lost to our world. What if they capture you and won't let you return?"
"I go for short visits to the animals that are in need of healing."
"They have their humans," her friend said. "Please do not go. I would have to come and find you."
Lilja laughed softly. "Dear Peri, you would step into their world again for me?"
Peri shivered, but said, "For you, I would."
"Perhaps you should come with me another time," Lilja said thoughtfully. "I am certain the humans would appreciate your wondrous gift of life drawing and it may take away some of your reservations about them."
"Surely you don't think I would welcome their attention," Peri said, turning a shoulder.
"No worries, if you were in the human world I would be very concerned. Go along now, in time I will meet you at the faerie pool."
"I will go, but I do worry about preoccupation and restlessness." Peri's face wore a worried expression as she disappeared in a faint twist of blue sparkle.
> Lilja pondered how human lives were merely a speck in the enormous scheme of life. Ever curious, she turned her attention back to the man. She was acquainted with the human expressions for joy, fear, frustration and pain, but it was beyond her scope to actually understand how those emotions felt.
With his face in her memory, Lilja sat on a small chair carved out of a log outside her cottage. She closed her eyes and began to sing. The healing song was a ballad she knew from the time she was young. Raised with other children by the elders of the realm, she'd listened avidly to the stories told, stories of times long past. The world was shifting even as she sat here now, and there was a collective consciousness that the time for the two worlds to merge was drawing nearer. For some in the faerie realm it presented a frightening prospect and the elders tried to keep all calm, but she knew. She felt the time would come where there would be no division between the two realms. For Lilja, it was merely a curious possibility. But then, she'd always been fascinated by humans from a very young age.
When she visited the animal creatures on the human plane, they became invigorated and grew well again. Singing was her most treasured skill in the fey world. When she gave her voice to song the day did not dare to hide the sun.
She looked in on the horse at Grey's barn. Even though she had woven her healing song around the once spritely mare, the soul now barely flickered. It caused a deep ache in her chest. Sometimes this did happen, and then that soul was lost to the life it knew. Looking at the man's solemn face, she sang to him as he looked up into the snowy winter sky. Gradually, Lilja backed away from the portal and it faded into tiny faerie dust. Her dear friend Peri awaited her down by the faerie pool. There would be time for more healing later. After all, Aisywel was a timeless place.
Hear Me, Book 3
In the dank twilight Kirklas stuffed his sling shot into his makeshift belt and stared at the petite faerie with her shock of pink hair. His mouth twisted. An Aisywel faerie. More and more of them arrived each day. He shuttled them back as quickly as they arrived, but sometimes it was just too late. Random images of Aisywel rose to his mind's eye. He had been in this dark place so long, some days it was difficult to summon memories from his life before.
"Who are you?" she asked now, the lilt of her voice compassionate.
"There is no time for conversation." Determined to send her quickly back to Aisywel, he said, "It doesn't matter."
"It does to me."
Kirklas narrowed his eyes, seeing her face in the twilight, his eyes long ago having adjusted to almost continual darkness. Grimly, he said, "Here in this place I am merely a survivor. Now hold on to me." He gripped her strongly around the waist and they swung across the chasm below. He kept his soul gift turned off. He didn't want to hear the terror in her mind or heart or even the story of why she'd been sent here. The death grip she had on him spoke of her fear.
"Put your feet down when I say so," he instructed. "Now!"
As they reached the portal mound, he kept her steady as the faint green mist rose from the ground. "Don't be afraid," he said. "This is a portal and the mist will guide you home."
She turned to him, holding out a hand. "Come home with me," she urged. "You don't belong here."
Kirklas stared at her slim hand. It was not the first time he'd been offered such. "I'm cursed to live here," he said harshly. "You must leave now before you're tainted and your fate becomes the same. Envision where you wish to go."
But still she hesitated. "Tell me the name of the faerie who saved me!"
None had asked his name in time longer than he recalled. "Kirklas." Urgently, he pushed her to the mist.
"I am Lilja ..." her voice floated back to him and then she was gone.
Kirklas stood still, stunned.
Lilja!
It had been almost an eternity since he'd heard that name. He thought of his infant sister, two days old. Bluish green eyes, perfect cupid lips, long dark lashes, swaddled in a blessed faerie blanket, nestled in his stepmother Clare's arms after she'd given birth. They had all gathered around; his father Declan, his little sister Pandimora and himself. His father stood beside Clare with a smile full of pride and love, his glance encompassing each of them as they marveled at the new life. With an agonized groan, Kirklas shoved the memories to a dark spot. He couldn't go back to that innocent time even if he wished it. His privileged life had been wiped out not long after that warm gathering.
But ... was there a possibility Lilja was his baby sister all grown up? He clenched his jaw in a fire of renewed anger. He'd given up on the anger or at the least had buried it deeply, so that he could exist from moment to moment. If he kept it buried deep enough, he could function, survive and perhaps save the next faerie that showed up. But now it began to burn with fresh energy.
They all came from Aisywel and each one had done something to get on the wrong side of the elder, Lukais.
Kirklas closed down his thoughts about the elder. There were parts of himself he kept hidden, even from his own memory.
He sat abruptly on the rocky ground, pressing his fingers to his forehead. Pain lanced him, cutting across the front of his head and down the back of his neck. He pressed his fingers to his temples now, trying to stop the pain, but it never stopped. The ache in his head intensified with time. Maybe it was his own fault, but he just wanted to suppress the memories from that time, forget about the curse that was his gift. A soul gift.
If he denied his gift, kept it turned off, he couldn't be tormented by other's thoughts or the longing in their hearts.
An attack of this strength had not occurred in a long time. He'd learned to inure himself to the arrival of the faeries, but something about Lilja had set off a fresh wave of memory, and with it came the debilitating pain.
Kirklas closed his eyes tightly, clenching his fists, hoping to stop the attack before it got worse.
The memories came nonetheless.
Echoes from the Past
A woman, a man and a child determined to go it alone, until they realize all they really need is each other. Christie is on the run, from her past, from loss, and a sense of failure. She runs to Kentucky to find the sister she never knew and instead finds her sister's husband and little girl. Three wounded souls determined to go it alone, until they realize all they need is each other to heal.
Once and Always
Leading a reclusive life after the fire that subsequently scarred her face and robbed her of a promising rodeo career, Anna is on the verge of bankruptcy. When the man she once loved shows up on her doorstep, buried anger and betrayal surface for both she and Tyler.
Can they go back to the love they once knew....do they even want to go back?
Heartstealer
Jacie is afraid she's lost her edge. Following an aerial stunt gone wrong and then her fiancé running out on her, she's determined to restore her pride and her life.
Needing time away from well-meaning family, she accepts a skydiving job at Timber Falls. When she meets resort owner Sloan, the sparks fly. He is a man who will tempt her and possibly change her forever.
Wishing on a Rodeo Moon
Tye is a risk taking, partying cowgirl, a bull rider at the top of her game, until the night a bull drops dead and pins her beneath him. Embittered over the loss of her leg below the knee, she needs to redefine who she is without rodeo.
Her lifestyle and stubborn nature had lost her the man she loved. When solid, dependable Jake offers her a lending hand, Tye wonders if they can ever recapture the love they once shared ~ but Jake wants no part of her returning to rodeo and bull riding.
Once Upon a Remembrance: Book 1
Photographer Isabeau Remington travels to 1894 and falls in love with a man she must ultimately leave behind when she returns to her own time...but things are not always as they seem. Hawk Morgan is a in danger, a man without memories to protect himself from the threat that wants to see him dead.
Soulmates Through Time: Book 2
Thrust from her own time, 18
22, Elise Remington has been separated from the man she loves for more than 20 years. Can she find the way back, and will Darien still love her after all this time? Will she love today the man she knew back then?
Treasure So Rare
Book 3: Captain Erik Remington has been haunted by a black haired sea witch. They spent seven glorious days and nights before she vanished as mysteriously as she appeared.
In 1847, when his ship is pulled into a strange vortex, he and his crew are sucked into middle ages England. Forced to assume another identity by the sorcerer Mandrak, he travels to the home of the Lady Iliana. This world is nothing like the England of history books. Danger lurks everywhere; history is twisted and in the skies are dragons. When Erik meets the Lady Iliana he instantly recognizes her as the woman he's searched for, however she wants nothing to do with a man who threatens not only her mission but the very people she is trying to save.
Iliana's unwavering quest is to find the perfect green emerald and restore its power so the land and people will once more flourish. The sorcerer Mandrak wants the gem for himself, and his manipulations risk the safety of everyone she holds dear, including her infant son.
Romantic Shorts, Deception and Two Babies, a Cowboy and Sara
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Find Me: Faeries Lost Page 32