Fae Magic trilogy : (Alexandra Everest series)

by Jen Pretty

  It took no time at all to get back and no other dragons harassed us. At the portal, Daisy set down on the ground and dropped to his belly. As soon as I was off, he changed back into a duck and waddled towards the door. I grabbed my sweater and followed right behind him.

  Time to save the love of my life.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Armond pulled me up into a bear hug as I came back through the portal. I laughed as he set me back on my feet. The hunters had made their way here and set up a tidy camp. Some of the unicorns, werewolves and elves were also waiting.

  “I told you that duck would bring her back,” Puck said. He sounded smug, but they both looked a bit ragged. Armond’s hair had grown long enough that it stuck out at the sides like he had been pulling at it and Puck's clothes were all rumpled, his shirt buttons not even done up right.

  I looked down at Daisy who was happily chowing down on some bread the guys left sitting on a plate by the fire. They had set up a decent camp here. I hadn’t eaten in two days and was starving, but first I had to see Roman.

  When the smile fell off my face, and I looked up at Armond, he just pointed to one of the tents.

  I slid inside and moved up towards the top of the tent. Pulling back the blanket, I was shocked by what I saw. Roman’s once-vibrant red eyes hung open and were clouded over. His face had lost all its shape, and his skin draped limply over the bones. I prayed I wasn’t too late. I set my hands on his cold chest.

  “Lex, you should eat something before you try and use all that magic,” Armond called from outside.

  I was done waiting. I closed my eyes and focused on Roman, letting memories wash over me. Meeting him for the first time, him saving my life and our first kiss. I thought of the nights I was intoxicated and he dragged me back to the castle. I thought of him holding me and willing me to keep trying. I imagined the smell of his skin and the silly lopsided smile. I remembered the feel of the wind as he raced across the worlds with me in his arms, the safety and joy I felt. I remembered the look of sadness on his face when he told me he was dead.

  A single tear dropped from my cheek to his, I felt the magic uncurl and flow towards Roman. I held my breath and waited.

  Nothing happened.

  What the fuck?

  “Roman.” I shook him. I didn’t go through all this to lose him anyway.

  The magic flared, showing me an image of my clearing in the woods in homeland. The tops of the great trees lining the clearing cut a shadow across half the open space. The flowers on the sunny side were in full bloom and rocked gently in the breeze as though they were a moving carpet, but in the shade, the flowers were closed. It was dull and lifeless, and no breeze touched them. Like they were waiting for the sun.

  I came back to the present with a sense of urgency. I had to get back to homeland. The sunlight, the gentle breeze, the flowers – that was what would save Roman. Right now, he was in the shade.

  “We have to go!” I yelled as I flew out of the tent.

  Puck shifted into a raging unicorn and screamed, then shifted back and gave me a dirty look.

  “God, woman get a grip, you made me spill my beer. Where are we going?” Puck asked, angrily wiping his pants with his hand. The whole front of them was stained.

  “We have to go to homeland. I can’t bring him back here.”

  “How do you know, Lex?” Armond asked, standing up and kicking dirt on the fire to put it out.

  “I had a vision. It’s the clearing. I have to take him there. I don’t know, I can’t explain.”

  “Alright, let's get packed up and head home. You sit and eat something first.” Armond commanded. He thrust a bowl of stew and a can of beer into my hand.

  “Where did this come from?” I asked.

  “One of the elves from home came through the portal to get news and brought a six pack.”

  “That’s so weird,” I replied and popped the top. It was early morning, but it was probably evening somewhere. After what we had been through, beer was the breakfast of champions.

  The hunters packed up with their usual efficiency and we walked the short distance to the doorway back to earth. Puck carried Roman who was wrapped up like a mummy. He was so fragile now that his skin felt like tissue paper. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he disintegrated. Daisy discovered my backpack wasn’t very full anymore and waddled into it before I got it zipped up. I ended up leaving it open, and he napped in there like a small dog in a handbag. At the door, half the hunters went out before us, but as I emerged on the other side, I could hardly believe my eyes.

  The usually vacant, rocky landscape was dotted with tents.

  The tents quickly emptied when someone yelled “She’s back!” and people began cheering and dropping to a knee. The area looked like a concert. Set up with barbeques and porta potties.

  “We have been awaiting your return, Highness,” an elf man said from his kneeling position. “We have cleared your way and thank you for bringing our people back together.”

  There was now a dirt road that led from the portal down the rocky mountain. The road had been scraped through the terrain, and there was a Humvee waiting to one side. Now that there were well-established relations with the shifters and Aldridge was back, we could maintain a beneficial relationship with them, and this would allow us to visit more often.

  I still wasn’t convinced that earth would offer anything positive to the shifters. Their way of life might have been simple, but it was a good life where people worked together and shared common goals; in tune with the natural world.

  We started to walk to the Humvee, but I stopped and turned back. I didn’t have time to fly back. Roman didn’t have time.

  “What’s the matter, Lex?” Puck asked, Roman still in his arms.

  “I need to get home now. I’m going to make a portal.” I walked a little further from the camp. I needed a quiet place. The urgency to get home was overwhelming. I wanted it more than anything.

  I focused on a bare patch of dirt beside a rock that looked like a good place. I wanted to go to the cottage in the woods. I could walk from there to the clearing. I didn’t want the portal to ruin my clearing. There was a magic in that clearing. I had felt it. It was my true home.

  I focused and let my magic slide out towards the small patch of dirt. It started to take shape from the ground up like it was growing from the earth itself. The stark white door formed in sharp contrast to the wilderness. It only took a moment to become a full portal, and when it was complete, I turned back to Puck.

  “Let’s go.”

  “You are getting pretty handy with those powers,” Puck said as he walked past me towards the door. As he turned to go through, he was thrown backwards, dropping Roman to the ground in a heap. Puck was laid out on the ground, not moving.

  “Oh, shit, Is he dead?” I asked as I moved toward where Roman was crumpled.

  “No, he’s still alive, Lex,” Armond called. “We are not smart people, Lex. Puck can’t go through a portal. Neither can Roman unless ... I hope you don’t have to throw him through as Evan did,” Armond said as Pucks eyes opened and he groaned.

  I wrapped Roman as best I could and tried to pick him up. He was heavy. I called my magic to help me and finally got him lifted. My magic was never intended for this kind of work, but it helped just enough to get him into my arms.

  “I’ve got him. I’m going,” I said as I walked through the portal with the love of my life in my arms.

  “Holy crap,” Marick said in her tiny innocent voice.

  “Watch your language,” Margot whispered. “Welcome back, Lex.”

  “Hey, guys. I’d love to chat, but I need to go to the clearing, and he is heavy.”

  “I’ll help you, Lex,” Marick said. Suddenly Roman weighed almost nothing.

  “Thanks,” I said as I turned and started walking down the path I knew like the back of my hand. I stepped over familiar roots and past the tree that Luke got stuck in. I stepped out into the clearing, and it was exactly
like my vision. The sun cut the space in half. I didn’t have instructions, and I wasn’t sure what to do now, so I stopped thinking so hard about it and stepped into the sunshine. I laid Roman down on the bed of flowers and unwrapped him from the blanket.

  I almost started crying when I saw his beautiful face. He must have fallen face first when he bounced off the portal. The skin had torn. There was no blood left in his body, so the skin looked like gossamer, fluttering over the bone of his cheek. His lips had shrivelled to the point they no longer covered his teeth, leaving the sharp points exposed.

  I reverently moved his arms to cross them over his chest; they were thin and boney with no muscle left. I laid his feet together, so he looked like he was sleeping if you squinted and didn’t think too hard about it. I pressed my hands to his chest and turned my thoughts inward. I needed all my will to bring him back. I needed Roman in my life. He was my true north and we were out of time. It was now or never.

  I focused my thoughts back to Roman, as I had in the tent. I remembered his smiling face and beautiful eyes. His vampire features made him more beautiful in my mind. Erasing the old memories that tried to keep me from loving him, I felt magic fill me until I thought I would burst and then it spilled out through my hands to completely engulf Roman in a silk mist. I had never seen my magic before, but this was so beautiful and pure, I knew it was magic. It moved like waves lapping at the shore, breathing life into Roman as I watched, face wet with the emotion of the moment.

  His chest rose with the rasp of his breath for the first time, pulling the beautiful mist in through his open mouth. Sobs of relief wracked my body. Each inhale dragged more magic out of the air around him until his breaths came easily and settled into a quiet rhythm.

  I curled up beside him with my head on his chest as the heat returned to his skin. I let the tears stream down my face until I fell into a peaceful sleep. Roman was alive.

  “Lex, thank God! We have been worried sick about you!”

  I wasn’t sure if I was awake or asleep until I looked behind me and saw that the clearing wasn’t the same as when I closed my eyes. It was like spring had just begun here. The trees had been dead the last time my cousin dream-walked to me. Now the branches were covered in buds. The grass was starting to turn green like it had survived a harsh winter. Or maybe it had survived the dark, evil magic that I had brought to it. Either way, it was healing.

  I turned and tackled my cousin who squealed like a pig, making me laugh even harder.

  “I did it!” I said, wrapping my arms around him. “I brought him back!”

  He squeezed me tighter. “That’s amazing! I was so worried about you I had to dream walk with Armond while you were gone. I felt it when you were cut off from your magic. I felt sick and then you were just gone. I tried dream walking to you every night, but there was nothing. You weren’t there.”

  “I sucked up too much bad witch mojo and lost my magic for a while. I actually have a crazy story to tell you about that, but I want to wake up and talk to Roman, so kick me out or whatever.”

  He laughed, the sweet tinkle that made my heart sing. I couldn’t wait to get back to the city and start my new life with Roman and Luke and probably Puck and Daisy. My old condo might be too small.

  “Come home soon,” he whispered, and then I was back in the clearing with Roman.

  I sat up and noticed I had drooled a bit on his chest. I wiped it off and turned my head to smile at him, but his eyes weren’t open. I watched his chest rise and fall. His face looked better. Though he was still very pale and thin, the tear in his cheek was healed, and his lips had filled out, covering his teeth.

  “Roman,” I said, expecting him to open his eyes. He didn’t sleep. Vampires didn’t sleep. I shook him a bit, but he just lay there.

  Daisy quacked, startling me and breaking the silence of the meadow, before clumsily hopping up onto Roman’s chest. It took him two tries, but he made it.

  “How did you get here?” I asked, pulling the blanket up to make him a nest.

  I set my hand back on Romans chest and felt it rise and fall again. Roman was alive.

  I just kept repeating that.

  He was alive.

  I stood up and dusted off my pants before turning to find Puck, Armond and Evan in the clearing too.

  “So, what is the news on our blood-sucking friend?” Puck asked from where he sat on a fallen log.

  I shook my head. “He’s alive.” I walked over and plunked down on the stump beside Evan. “He’s asleep or something. I mean he’s breathing, he’s just not awake,” I finished.

  “Perhaps he needs more time to recover,” Evan offered. “He has been through a terrible ordeal. As have you, child.”

  Puck laughed. “He probably needs a good meal. Go cook him up a little something. I think he prefers it at 98.6 degrees.”

  I sat back and thought about that.

  Puck’s laughter was the only sound for a while. He kept giggling to himself. So fucking witty, that unicorn.

  He had a point though.

  It made me anxious. I knew I wasn’t going to pass the job off to someone else, but I had never fed him before and my recent descent into my least favourite nightmare had me even more nervous. In theory, I wasn’t afraid of vampires anymore, but fear was always nearby. I had stopped relating the red eyes to pain, but that didn’t mean I was ready to be food even if I was only doing it to save Roman’s life.

  I chewed my fingernails for a while as the birds sang their songs. Evan was snoring softly beside me, the sun on his face.

  Armond and Puck talked about the hunters and the private security business Roman was running for my father’s corporation. If Puck was staying on earth, a job might keep him out of trouble, but their conversation seemed too normal for the situation. It kept me grounded though. I couldn’t get a good panic going with everyone acting like it was a typical day.

  I finally gathered all my courage and rose to face the demon--my biggest demon. My favourite demon.

  “Do you want me to come?” Puck asked. “I could stab him if he gets out of hand.” He flashed a grin, but it lacked the same humour he used to find at stabbing Roman. It felt empty, now. Maybe Roman’s sacrifice had put him a bit higher in Pucks esteem.

  “You just keep your horn to yourself,” I replied, breaking my thoughts. The satisfied smirk on Pucks face betrayed his dirty mind and I gave him the finger before turning my back on him and focusing on Romans form.

  Daisy was still curled up on Romans chest. I tucked in beside them and pet Daisy’s feathers. If I was going to do this, I wasn’t going to go halfway. It would be easier if he stayed sleeping, but I wasn’t going to delude myself. If this worked and he woke up, he might not know what was going on. I needed to be prepared for a vampire actively drinking my blood.

  “Daisy, I need to do this on my own,” I said, stroking his head again.

  He stood up, hopped off Roman’s chest then waddled his cute butt back towards the edge of the clearing to join the guys.

  “Don’t you kill me, vampire,” I whispered as I opened his mouth, making space between his razor-sharp teeth. I took a deep breath and set my wrist between them before closing his jaw until it pinched my wrist.

  I hissed at the sharp pain and felt the hot wet liquid flow out of my wrist and fill his mouth. Some of it ran out the side and slid down his face in a trail towards the ground before I saw his Adam's apple bob in a swallow and then another. His eyes flashed open. The two bright red orbs were startling against his pale skin.

  His steely hand shot up and locked around my forearm, stealing my ability to flee and controlling his meal. He pulled his teeth out of my skin only to bite down harder at a slightly different angle. I hissed again, but I was already feeling numb. The pain was a mere flash before it was gone.

  I felt paralyzed as his lips sealed around my arm and pulled great gulps of my lifeblood from my vein. My magic wanted to flare to protect me, but I pushed it down.

  This was my sa
crifice. I made this one willingly.

  “Roman,” I whispered, but he wasn’t there. His tongue played at the frayed edges of the skin on my wrist as he pulled more and more of my blood. I watched as his arms plumped up, muscle returning to cover his bones and the sharp angles of his face were softened as flesh grew beneath his skin. Lightheaded, I wanted to tell him to stop, but my words wouldn’t come out. I shifted forward, and his eyes locked on my face for a moment before his teeth flew out of my wrist, and he sat up abruptly, covering my injury with his hand. He finally spoke.

  “Foolish woman,” he smiled when he said it, removing the sting.

  I snickered. “I brought you back,” I said drunkenly while swaying like a willow in the wind.

  He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. Still holding pressure to the wrist he had chewed on, his other hand came up to cup my face as he leaned in and kissed me.

  He tasted bitter with my blood still lingering in his mouth, but I was sure my warm beer taste wasn’t much better. I melted into him and let him hold me for a while, feeling our connection flare back to life. The peace I had been missing filled me, and I felt the last of my tension release, making me liquid and boneless in his arms.

  There was one thing left to do. The one thing I had denied him when we were first thrown together in that crazy new world.

  I took out my blade and his eyes flashed brightly. I smiled at him and then flicked the edge over the tip of my finger on the hand he held by the wrist. We both watched as a drop of blood pooled there. I spoke the words I had said to Armond in this clearing months ago, the words that would bind us together for the rest of our lives, anchoring and strengthening us through shared magic.

  “I choose you, Roman, to be part of my life, now and forever,” I said in a hushed tone.

  Roman brought his finger to his mouth and sliced the tip on his razor-sharp canine before pressing it to mine, mixing our blood. I wasn’t sure we even needed to mix our blood after he drank so much of mine and I probably didn’t need to slice my finger with my wrist still ragged and oozing, but I wanted to do this right. I wanted him to know that I chose him forever. No matter how much magic I had, I chose to share my life with him, not because I needed a bond to stay stable. If I had magic, I wouldn’t need a bond, but I needed Roman. He was the pillar I clung to in the storms and the mirror that showed me how strong I was when I faltered. His faith was unending.