No Faerie Tale Love (Faerie Series Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

“You Marked him.”

  Fae riddles. Now I knew what my brothers meant about how tricky it was dealing with the Fae.

  “Why is my Mark on Kheelan different?”

  “It provides your protection.”

  I wanted to tear my hair out. How much time was left?

  “How is Kheelan’s Mark different than Aeric’s Mark?”

  “They are the same,” Orin answered.

  No, they really weren’t but I needed the right question. Dain’s Mark had been a Claim, which had to be different.

  “How is the Claim Dain gave me different from the other Marks?”

  “The Claim will bind all your Marks to provide protection together but a single Mark only provides the protection of that one Fae.”

  I think I saw a crucial difference. They had to work together, so the protection must extend. “Can the Marks harm one another under the Claim?”

  “Yes,” Orin answered, leaving me flummoxed.

  “But...”

  “Let me finish,” Orin said, sounding strained. “The only Mark that cannot hurt the others is the Fae that makes the Claim as he is the one binding them. His magic is tied irrecoverably to the Marks he bound so it would be like fighting himself if the other Marks turned his magic back onto him.”

  This I didn’t fully understand. There would be time later to puzzle it out. All I knew was the Claim had hurt Dain in a way the Marks hadn’t caused any pain to the others and he paid that cost willingly. I wouldn’t feel guilty.

  “Why isn’t Kheelan protected by the Claim magic if he is a Mark?”

  “Your Mark on him pulls him from the Claim’s protection in exchange for yours.”

  This was still so confusing and I was running out of time. There was only one thing I really wanted to know.

  “How do I protect Kheelan?”

  “Activate Dain’s Claim and Kheelan’s prior Mark on you under the Claim will supersede your latter Mark on him.”

  “Only one Mark can provide protection at a time between two,” I said, tacking on, “Right?” to make it a question.

  “Yes.”

  I solved the riddle. This time I did the fist-pump. I thought I had already accepted Dain’s Claim, but this activation had to be something different, a way the magic closed the loop on our little circle of bound Fae.

  “How do I activate Dain’s Claim?”

  “Have sex with one of your Marks.”

  Fuck me, like literally.

  —Sparkles, I plan on it.—

  There was one more thing I wanted to know, after all.

  “How can I force you out of my head?”

  “You can’t.”

  I’m sure I only had seconds left. There were many questions I had but one jumped off my lips, even though it was ludicrous. Dain had Claimed me to provide his protection.

  “What keeps me safe from Dain?”

  “Nothing.”

  I pictured the clearing and Dain flying down from the sky like an angel of death that Eloden was trying to hide me from at risk to his own life. I shook, the ice in my heart spreading to the rest of my body. Somehow, I knew that sense of foreboding in the clearing had been my instincts warning me. Dain had told me to trust them, but he had misled me about a lot of things.

  Not this.

  “Was Dain going to kill me or rescue me today?”

  Daybreak sapped the magic out of Orin like a puppet with its strings cut. My answers were gone with the change in light.

  It was okay. I already knew the answer to the last question, even if I hated it.

  Chapter 22:

  ORIN HAD COLLAPSED on top of me. He was clammy, although how I noticed with the ice encasing me was a testament to his corpse-like cold and stillness. I don’t think he was breathing.

  I wouldn’t be breathing if he didn’t get off.

  The sunrise bathed the golden sparkles on his skin. I wiggled, already having figured that question period had run out. I wasn’t going to be able to ask Orin how to get out of this one. It was just like a man to pump you for what they wanted and then fall asleep.

  Orin didn’t give a twitch of a response to my snarky thoughts.

  The mud helped me in the end. I still wasn’t thankful for it, unable to get rid of the image of Orin mud wrestling me naked, which made everything take longer as I was reluctant to grip his steely buns with my mud-slicked hands to flip us.

  What I was grateful for was that Orin had the slimmest profile of all my Marks, although highly toned in a way that gave more weight than my higher fat-percentage frame, but with a lot of cursing and judicious mud application, I got him under me.

  I laid my sweaty, muddy cheek on his chest and appreciated being able to breathe fully.

  His heart ticked and chest moved, although he was still deeply asleep and ice-cold. Was this what vampires felt like, or did they not have a heartbeat? He sparkled like one.

  I didn’t even know why he sparkled. Magic, he had told me. All of their explanations were tricky, side-stepped distractions from the real truth. Orin had shown me I had to ask the right questions, not why did he sparkle but what were the sparkles.

  The Fae didn’t need to lie because I had been too complacent with the simplified explanations they gave me with a pat on the head and a hushed later. I didn’t know if anything they had told me was really true. All I had was one crazy, magic-driven conversation to fact check my every interaction with the Fae that had left their Marks on me.

  The known facts were scant. I was a Dark Fae, specifically, a Dark Elf, and that seemed to be something important for reasons I had yet to uncover, but it had been deemed worth keeping secret from Dain and Kheelan. Aeric was a Light Fae and a prince and Kheelan was his half-brother and a self-elected protector. Their dad made King George’s madness look positively sane. Dain was a Halfling, like me. He also held the role of one of the strongest Fae, heir to the Winter Kingdom, and ruler over the monsters like me.

  I didn’t know why they had approached me. Saving Faerie through making babies was looking doubtful now, especially if Dark Fae and Light Fae were enemies of a sort. Even more confusing, why they would all Mark me and Dain Claim me? Why bind me at all if Dain could so easily change his mind and contemplate killing me?

  I never feared Dain more than now, knowing that I had been fooled into trusting him. I had let him stay with me in my apartment, share my first kiss and get close enough to care when I cried my heart out over my mother’s precipitous fall and ask what troubled me. I would rather Dain had remained a stranger that attacked me forwardly than stab me in the back. My defences weren’t meant to keep out those I trusted.

  I supposed that our new relationship didn’t outweigh the many years Dain had been enemies with the Light Fae. It was my bad luck to be stuck in the middle of their royal trickery. Orin may very well have saved my life by forcing me to question their motivations in the one way I was guaranteed answers.

  I still resented him for it, all of them.

  If I was smart I would escape now. Facing Dain again with the lovely threat of possibly being killed over my head was as bad as sticking my own neck under a guillotine to see if it was sharp. Better to regroup, run far away with my brothers. No need to tempt Dain to take vengeance for Kheelan’s betrayal, even if it wasn’t my fault.

  It would be signing Kheelan’s death warrant, too, if I left without doing the one thing Orin had told me could spare him. It was something only I could do, a way to keep my Marks from tearing themselves apart when I left. I hadn’t been prodded into wasting my favour. Orin had gifted me with knowledge and a choice.

  Did I want to spare a life if it was in my power?

  The sun felt warm. In any other circumstances, I could sleep on top of Orin and waste the day pondering life’s big questions, but I had a fairytale to save and the light was burning. How to wake up my Fae partner in crime?

  I needed Orin to help me because I was foolishly going to save Kheelan.

  Orin had fallen into a sudden sleep while
I used magic on him, so perhaps it was a charmed rest. Feeling stupid, I snaked my way up Orin’s chiselled chest and plopped a muddy kiss on his lips.

  He snored.

  Well, he wasn’t a prince, or a frog despite our muddy impression.

  I slapped him. It was satisfying but pointless.

  I gave him two wet willies and I didn’t even have to suck my fingers first.

  I pinched both his nipples hard because I’m evil now so I can excuse all bad behaviour. Sorry, I’m a monstrous Dark Elf.

  I begged him to wake up.

  I told him I had always wanted to see a unicorn and I had called my pony at riding lessons Lady Amalthea after The Last Unicorn even though the training pony was male and piebald.

  I put my hands over his heart and closed my eyes and felt for my snowflake, trying to imagine it melting and warming Orin’s skin, mouthing the lines to Humpty Dumpty.

  “I’m not broken, Sparkles.”

  My eyes popped open.

  Deep indigo greeted me with a smirk.

  “Did you cry over me?”

  I wiped mud on my face making sure there weren’t actual tears on my cheeks to betray me. How embarrassing.

  “It’s allergies,” I lied. “I sneezed snot all over you because you’re covered with more glitter than a Mardi Gras float.”

  “Let’s get you cleaned up,” Orin said, making getting up on the muddy ground look easy.

  He lifted me into his arms and waded back into the pond.

  “What about my brothers?” I asked as Orin set my feet on the sandy bottom.

  The water was up to my neck, but he was taller, so he had to squat to bring himself level with me. The first thing he did was strip me of my bow and quiver, then slender fingers started pulling my shirt up.

  “I put your brothers to sleep while I was floating. The charms are for sleeping.”

  My shirt went over my head.

  He put my brothers to sleep without needing his hypnotic voice or touch. His power seemed so simple, but mind control wasn’t a trifling thing.

  —I don’t control your mind. I comfort it. The sleeping is spell cast. You could probably do it yourself with practice.—

  “What about bears?”

  “You don’t spend much time out in the woods, Sparkles,” Orin commented. He tossed my shirt onto a rock on the other side of the pond. His throwing arm was better than mine. My bow and quiver he handed back to me and I used them ineffectively to hold against my half-naked chest and hide. “Your brothers are fine. Eloden and your new friend are already watching over them.”

  “How do you know?”

  —In everybody’s head.—

  He unbuttoned and unzipped my jeans, diving to pull the stubborn material down my legs. He nipped my bare thigh, chin brushing against my bare labia before I remembered my panties were in Eloden’s pocket.

  I squealed and tried to skewer him with the bow. The undignified sound was cut short and my aim messed up as Orin pulled me underwater by my legs, quickly scrubbing my head with handfuls of my own hair before he let me resurface.

  “All clean,” Orin pronounced, standing up.

  I watched the rivulets of water track down towards washboard abs, pecs flexing as Orin stretched his arms, hands locking behind his head in a classic move known to all guys. I looked even though I should have known better.

  Had I said he was androgynous? Under the runway clothes was a smoking hot and very masculine body.

  “All we need is some scented oil and a tiny white towel,” I remarked.

  Orin lowered his arms. “Why waste time with a towel when you are so deliciously wet?”

  “Hold on. I need time to think,” I told him, holding my bow out to ward him off.

  Orin pushed my bow to the side and picked me up, ignoring my verbal protest as his hands cupped my naked bottom.

  “It would hardly be fair to throw you on the nearest boulder and plunder you, Sparkles. We should save the conquering games for when you’re ready to sheath me without much warning. We can work up to it.”

  Was getting fucked like lifting weights, moving up to a bigger size as you got more pumped?

  He laughed out loud, in my head as he told me.

  “Just like that, little Houri,” he growled into my ear.

  I shivered. Holy smokes. When his voice deepened with lust it got dark and rough, making sex god more believable.

  He lowered me on something fluffy behind my back as he lay me down, letting my wet jeans he had carried slap down beside my shirt, a few drops of cold water spraying up on my chest. He grabbed my bow and quiver to rest beside my clothes. I looked over to avoid his eyes and noticed we were lying on top of a rock. My eyes snapped back.

  “This is a boulder,” I accused.

  “I glamoured a feather blanket for you. It’s a bed,” he said. His legs were still in the pond, height letting him be mere inches from my lips as I propped up on my hands, sprawled out on my rock bed.

  “If you can glamour a blanket then why didn’t you glamour my underwear?” I complained, feeling the silky soft blanket under my hands.

  “Did you want me to rip them off you?”

  “No,” I denied. I already had them burned off me once.

  “Then you don’t need underwear.”

  “We should be talking about how to stop Dain and Kheelan, not playing around,” I said, desperate to put some brakes on.

  I knew we had to get it on so I could start escaping, but there was a battle going on. We had a few minutes at least before I parted ways with my virginity. I needed time to prepare. Possibly, I was completely freaking out inside. This was the exposure therapy equivalent of diving headfirst into your greatest fear. I wasn’t going to just have sex for the first time, I was fucking a Fae sex god.

  Orin looked disappointed with me. “I guess you wasted your minutes, after all.”

  “Hardly, although a bargain that lets you lie about there being no way to force you out of my head was doomed to failure anyway. How do I know anything you said was the truth?” I said, skepticism taking place of my usual snark.

  “You can ask me to leave your mind, Sparkles. I normally don’t go where I’m not invited, which is partly why we’re all in this mess.”

  “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”

  “What was your question earlier?”

  “I asked how to force you out -don’t you remember?”

  Orin shook his head.

  “My remembrance wasn’t part of your bargain terms. Cutting the bargain so close to sunrise must have resulted in my loss of consciousness when it broke at the light change. I only remember your terms and waking up. Sunrise is a time Fae magic is at its weakest.”

  “Well, why don’t we refresh your memory and I'll ask-”

  “No. I completed the bargain with you. Do not test the magic by asking more than your allotted time. I do not know what would happen.”

  “Can we talk about what you already told me?”

  “No. The burden of that knowledge is yours.”

  So, we were playing hardball. “Did you bring me out here to fuck me?”

  “Yes.”

  I gasped as he pulled me by the hips down the boulder so I could feel the evidence of his readiness to do exactly that, and it felt bigger than it looked. I couldn’t do this! I squirmed against him, trying to scramble back up the rock.

  “Weren’t you planning to ask for my permission?” I complained.

  Orin loomed over me, letting me have a few inches of space below the belt, but cutting off further escape with a hand tangled in my wet hair and a firm grip on my hip on the other side. He stared at my doe eyes with the confidence of a hunter that knew I was trapped in his sights, leaning closer to brush a sweet kiss on the tip of my nose.

  “I don’t ask permission, Sparkles. Females throw themselves at me. Fae males beg for me to bless their unions,” Orin bragged.

  “You are so arrogant,” I huffed, not that surprised now that I was getting to
know more about the Fae. Of course, a guy that thought he was a sex god wouldn’t need to ask for sex. Didn’t mean I was going to fall onto my back and spread my legs. I blushed as I realized my position. “Get off,” I ordered.

  Orin rolled right over and laid on his side beside me, keeping a hand tangled in my hair so I had to turn a bit to face him as well.

  “I’m seducing you,” he told me. “There’s no need to ask permission if I make you beg for my cock,” he crudely explained. I felt my nipples hardening in my wet bra, imagining him entering my body as I entreated, writhing under him. “You’re ripe for seduction,” he claimed, fingers of his free hand brushing over my bra where my nipples pebbled. I gasped. “I’m in your head,” he reminded me with a dark chuckle. “You’ve already made up your mind and not because of my body or even me, which is practically sacrilege, but I’ll allow it this once while I show you the errors of your misguided beliefs about why we’re fucking.”

  In other words, Orin wasn’t going to let me roll over and lie back while thinking of England.

  “I don’t see how you’re benefiting from it,” I said, still trying to delay the inevitable.

  He was right, I had made up my mind to lose my virginity in this romantic lagoon for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully, they added up to the right one. Kheelan would be safe. Our Claim would be complete. I would go my merry way with my brothers and forget I had ever met any of them. Orin got nothing for sticking his neck out.

  “Why don’t I show you what I get?” Orin suggested, trailing his fingers from my knee and right up to my labia, sinking them into my wetness.

  I squeezed my thighs closed, shocked by his bold touch. He still corkscrewed one long finger into the entrance of my pussy and fluttered it there. I grabbed his other arm and pulled his hand out of my hair, squeezing his biceps as I was introduced to Orin’s idea of seduction. Shouldn’t we start out above the belt? Were we in a hurry?

  “Close your eyes and try to think of England,” he advised me, proving he was hearing all my tumbled thoughts. I couldn’t even get my tropes right.

  “Are you going to plunder me now?” I whispered, closing my eyes. I breathed in and out, trying to adjust myself to his touch, but it was meant to arouse, not soothe.