by Nadine Mutas
Maeve fidgeted with her loose, comfortable sweater for a moment, her eyes downcast. Then, in a move that surprised the hell out of him, she stepped forward, into his personal space, and hugged him.
His heartbeat faltered. Not because the gesture sparked anything like the desire he once felt for her, but because he knew how much this simple touch meant for her—for her recovery. In all the months since her rescue, she’d never let any male this close to her, had avoided touch unless she was with Merle, Lily, and Hazel. For her to take this step, to initiate an embrace with a man…
He blinked rapidly, clearing his eyes. Leaning down, he kissed the top of her head. When she broke the hug, she wiped at her eyes quickly.
“Come back, yes?”
He swallowed hard. “That’s the plan.”
Chapter 5
Basil closed and locked his car before trudging down a dirt path leading farther into the dark woods. He’d taken Highway 26 east from Portland to Mount Hood Village, and followed the country roads south from there as far as possible, closer and closer to the pull he first began to feel in Mount Hood Village. Faerie’s border called to him.
He’d already known that Faerie lay somewhere between Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, and from the parts of the discussion he overheard before he left Hazel and Lily behind, he learned that the closest entrance reachable by car was located south of Mount Hood Village. The country road came to a halt at this dirt path, which must be the one leading into Faerie.
Now he needed to hike the rest of the way.
Apparently, this sanctuary of the fae was one of many across the world, and, unlike what old human folklore depicted, it wasn’t actually a pocket of alternate reality. Faerie wasn’t so much a different plane of existence that happened to overlay the human world—with the non-fae reality existing at the same time in the same place—but more of a…reservation, for lack of a better word. An area of the state of Oregon that was fae territory, and didn’t allow any non-fae inside.
Not that humans knew it was there. They had no clue, and were repelled from the area by the fae magic worked into the borders. No human settlements existed within Faerie’s territory, and on human maps, it was simply marked as a huge swath of nature reserve.
According to the bit of history Hazel taught Basil and Lily while they were growing up, fae had once lived among humans the way most otherworld creatures and witches still did. As the human population grew, however, spreading across the lands with their iron and their penchant for destroying what they didn’t understand, the fae feared they would one day be overrun, and so chose to establish safe harbors for their kind, and to retreat behind their magical borders.
To most otherworld creatures, fae were considered isolationist, suspicious of outsiders, and content to keep to themselves in the fae sanctuaries around the world, known as Faeries.
Basil sighed. Naturally, his secret heritage turned out to be that of a paranoid people who didn’t play well with others.
The pull he felt deep in his bones became stronger and stronger with every step he took on the path. Any human would have been compelled to turn around by now, courtesy of the repellent aspect of the border magic. His pulse sped up, his mood lifted. This was real. He was fae, was more than human. How often had he wished for this? Had dreamed of some shocking revelation that would give him the kind of powers he craved? After Maeve’s abduction uncovered the truth behind her apparent lack of magic—that her powers were actually bound inside her, a tightly kept family secret that not even Merle had known—Basil’s hope that he, too, was somehow more than the weak, powerless male descendant of a witch line had been infused with new strength.
Excitement pounded through his veins. Magic crackled in the air. He was getting closer.
One more step—and he felt it. He passed through an invisible wall, its energy sizzling over his skin, raising the hairs all over his body. He stopped right beyond the border and took a deep breath of the chilly, humid night air.
A fairy flitted past him, leaving trails of sparkling magic behind her. The tiny, winged fae creatures were more common outside of Faerie than their larger, wingless counterparts. Culturally, they seemed to be closer to pixies and brownies, and thus often lived close to those colonies in the human world.
The fairy flew to a tree a couple yards away—which was illuminated by garlands of gently glowing light bubbles, highlighting tiny platforms, walkways, and entrances to what appeared to be a fairy tree house.
Basil grinned, breathless with joy. This was amazing. The tree and its illumination hadn’t been visible from outside the border, a testament to Faerie’s glamour skills. The dirt path he’d been following was now neatly paved with cobblestones, and much broader.
He started down the road with a spring in his step.
Five minutes into his journey into Faerie, a muffled scream sounded from somewhere to the left of the road. He tensed, paused, listened into the dark. Beyond the sounds of a nightly forest, there was the distinct noise of a struggle.
He only hesitated a second, then veered off the path and into the underbrush, toward the sound. Taking care to remain as quiet as possible, he moved quickly over the moss-covered ground, and, almost as an afterthought, noticing his night vision was far better than it used to be. He could discern twigs and stones and holes in the ground when before it would all have been steeped in shadows. Courtesy of his new fae powers?
Thanks to his apparently heightened senses, he managed to approach the sounds of struggle while staying inhumanly quiet, moving through the woods as silently as a nighttime predator. Close to the source of the noise, he drew one of the arrows from his quiver, nocked it on his bow.
There.
On the ground a few feet away, two shapes seemed fused in a fight. He could make out the form of a person, pinned to the forest floor by…a mountain lion? Holy crap.
Basil blinked, and stealthily moved closer. The person uttered another muffled cry, convulsed in obvious pain. The mountain lion had its claws sunk into the torso of its prey, its jaw clamped over the person’s neck in a feline predator killing bite.
He’d seen enough.
Exhaling, he released the arrow. With a lethal swoosh, it shot toward the puma, and it pierced its head with a thunk. The big cat twitched, its slackening muscles loosening its grip on the prey, and collapsed.
He rushed over to the injured person. A female fae, dark skin, pointed ears, black hair pulled into a braid. She was still convulsing, as if caught in an epileptic seizure. Her armor seemed to have partly saved her from the cougar attack—through the holes in the leather and fabric of her tunic-style clothing ripped by the puma’s claws, some sort of metal shimmered, like a chainmail. Her neck, which should have been mauled by the lion, only showed minimal injuries from the puma’s fangs. Apparently, the cat had only just positioned its jaws for the killing bite when Basil interrupted.
Carefully, he turned the fae on her side so she wouldn’t choke, then made sure no sharp objects were close to her. From what he learned in first aid, there wasn’t anything more one could do to help someone having a seizure except wait it out.
But damn if it didn’t make his blood boil to see someone in pain like that and be unable to give them relief.
He crouched down next to her, balled his hands to fists. After about another minute, the convulsions subsided. The fae calmed, except for her heavy breathing. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, but her face lost its expression of agony, and her features softened, revealing a stunning beauty.
It struck Basil like an electric zing to his heart. The lines of her face—elegant, quintessentially feminine—would have inspired artists of all eras to immortalize her in stone and canvas and song. When she opened her eyes, luminous gray met his gaze, aglow in the dark of the night.
He forgot to breathe for a heartbeat, for an eternity.
She asked something in a language he didn’t understand. Dammit, of course. He’d forgotten the fact that fae would have their own language
—which he didn’t speak. Having a fae guide to interpret definitely would have been smart.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t understand you. I just… Are you okay? That bite wound may need stitches. I have a first aid kit in here…” Stop babbling, idiot.
The fae frowned, sat up and touched her neck. “Bite?” she asked in English.
“The mountain lion. It got ahold of your neck, was going to crush your trachea.”
The fae cringed and turned to where he pointed, and when she saw the dead cat, her shoulders hunched, and her mouth turned down. “You didn’t have to kill her.”
“Um, she was going to kill you.”
Laying a hand on the puma’s head, behind the arrow protruding from between its eyes, the fae muttered something in her language. “You could have shot at her in warning,” she said in English. “She would have fled.”
“I…” Great, now he felt miserable for killing the cat. “Sorry, I guess. Well, at least I saved your life.”
The fae flinched as if he’d slapped her. She whipped her head around, fixed him to the spot with a glare that could have shredded his guts. She cursed violently in her language, shot to her feet, and then cursed some more.
Inappropriate as it was, hearing her swear in that husky voice of hers, her face alight with passionate anger, made his body react with a wholly different form of passion. Quit it. Not the right time to be having lurid, explicit fae fantasies.
“Uh, you’re not suicidal, are you?” he asked. “I didn’t thwart any plans of yours for death by cougar, did I?”
She rounded on him, her slate-gray eyes throwing sparks. “No.” Grudgingly, as if it cost her, she added, “Your assistance is appreciated.”
“O…kay.” Then why was she so angry?
She closed her eyes, tightened her mouth, and bowed a little. “I owe you a life debt.”
Aha. “And…you’d rather you didn’t.”
“I don’t have time for this.” She bent to pick up something—a bow, and a quiver full of arrows.
Huh. She was an archer, too.
Well, it made sense, considering that otherworld creatures, including witches, couldn’t use firearms. The magic running through their veins somehow interfered with the technology of modern guns, so they had to resort to weapons of simple mechanics, like a bow and arrow or swords.
The fae strapped the quiver to her back, her movements jerky and impatient.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?” He rose to his feet as well.
She sighed. “Yes. I have to find someone, and I don’t have the time to be following you around.”
“So don’t.” He sure wouldn’t mind her company and getting to know her better, plus she could act as his interpreter, but if she had to run an urgent errand, he wouldn’t keep her.
She shot him a look that was halfway between incredulous and annoyed, and full-on adorable. “You’re funny.”
“What?”
She frowned. “I’m bound to you now. I have to save your life in return, or else I’ll be struck down by magic.” She shook her head. “Why do I even have to explain this to you? You’re fae, aren’t you?”
“Umm…yes. Yes, I am. But it’s…complicated.”
She narrowed her gorgeous eyes, tilted her head as she regarded his head. “Your ears… Where did you say you come from?”
“I didn’t.” He hesitated, considered it for a few seconds, decided that if she was bound to protect him, she might come in handy on his quest to find Rose. He could use an ally, an insider with knowledge of Faerie—and how to use fae powers. “I’m from the human world. Portland, to be precise. I’m fae, but I was raised by witches. I’m here to find the baby who was taken into Faerie when I was exchanged. My name is Basil Murray.”
Even in the dark of the forest, he clearly saw all color leave her face. Eyes wide, mouth agape, she stumbled back. Her bow thudded on the ground. Her knees gave out. He rushed forward just in time to catch her as she lost consciousness, sagged in his arms.
Chapter 6
Whispers in the darkness…voices drifting in and out…
…curse you, Isa of Stone, for death to find you through slow-crawling pain…
…could not break your curse…stall it, for some years, at most…
…if the one who cast it does not rescind the curse, it can only be broken by killing the curser…or the last of her line…
Isa came to with a start and a gasp. Sights and sounds of the nightmare still lingered.
No, wait. Not a nightmare. Memories.
She opened her eyes, focusing on the shape of the young male hovering over her, his golden blond hair a spark in the dark of the night. Changeling…
Reality rushed back, slapped Isa in the face with all the harshness of an icy winter draft. She’d found the changeling, all right. Roana’s child, the last of her line, the key to breaking her curse. The person she needed to kill—and the one person to whom she was now bound with a life debt.
Could the Fates truly be this cruel? Could her lot in life be any more miserable? As impossible as it was, Isa had to protect Basil Murray, and save his life to repay her debt to him—only so she could then turn around and kill him. Because as long as she owed him this debt, she couldn’t take his life. Fae magic was merciless, bound by strict rules, and she’d risk her immediate death if she violated her obligation to protect him by harming him herself.
“Are you all right?” Basil asked, his brown eyes—glowing gently in the darkness—full of concern.
“Yes, I’m fine.” Isa sat up, and her head immediately punished her for it. She flinched.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Something like that.” Ghosts of the past, for sure. A past that came back to bite her in the butt.
“You know,” Basil said with a sheepish grin, “this is the first time a woman has swooned for me. I gotta tell you, it’s not as glamorous as they say it is.”
That spark of humor in his eyes was infectious. She absolutely wasn’t in the mood to laugh, or even smile. And yet, despite herself, a small grin sneaked its way onto her face.
“I don’t mean to pry or anything, but do you have a medical condition I should know about? Since you’re responsible for my safety and all.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” Basil said, gesturing at the ground where he’d found her, “it looked like you had a seizure earlier.”
“Oh. That.” She shrugged, rose to her feet. Dusting herself off, she avoided facing him. “It’s nothing serious.”
“Looked pretty serious to me.”
Isa sighed. “You don’t need to concern yourself with that. It just…happens sometimes. I can handle it.”
She wasn’t going to tell him about the curse. To do so would be tantamount to suicide. She had to walk a fine line between acting friendly enough for him to trust her, to let her come along and protect him, and not letting herself open up to him too much. Something about him drew her in, something irresistibly likable, and yet she couldn't afford to like him. Considering what her plans for him entailed.
“What’s your name?”
She jerked around to look at him. Right. She hadn’t introduced herself yet. “Isa,” she said before her brain caught up and she realized it might have been smarter to give him a false name. Blast.
He gave her a dazzling smile, triggering unwelcome fairy flutters in her stomach.
“All right,” she said, and turned away from the sunshine of that smile. “Tell me about your changeling history. Since I am now stuck with protecting you for the time being, I may as well know how you came here and what you seek. I could help you find it while I’m waiting for the opportunity to save your life.” And then end it. She gritted her teeth.
“Okay. The short version is that, apparently, I was born in Faerie, but smuggled out to Portland by a fae female who exchanged me for a witch baby in order to protect me. I don’t know what I needed protection from, because the
fae who exchanged me never actually told my mom—well, I guess I should say adoptive mother—about her real reasons for smuggling me out of Faerie. The fae who exchanged me put a glamour spell on me to hide my fae appearance and powers, and she also put a silence spell on my adoptive mother.” He shrugged, one corner of his mouth tugging up in a half-smile. “Basically I grew up thinking I was nothing more than a powerless male born to a witch line, an anomaly without an explanation.”
The hint of bitterness in his tone let her know a whole host of things he wasn’t saying.
“My adoptive mother, Hazel Murray, actually had two babies the night I was exchanged. The fae who swapped me took one of Hazel’s twin girls back with her into Faerie as a hostage, to ensure Hazel would protect me and raise me as her own. And I only learned about this a couple of hours ago. For some reason, the glamour on me and the silence spell on Hazel were lifted, and we think the most logical reason for the spells’ disappearance is the fae who exchanged me and worked the magic is dead. And since fae are nearly immortal, it’s very likely the one who smuggled me out was murdered. Which in turn means the daughter who was taken into Faerie—her name is Rose—may be in danger."
“Because she will be without protection,” Isa muttered.
Basil nodded. “Exactly. We have to assume Rose has had a protector since the day she was brought into Faerie. That she has been taken care of all this time, but now the fae who brought her here has died, we can’t be sure she’s still being taken care of. That’s why I’m here, in a nutshell. I need to find Rose. And I need to bring her back to Portland, to Hazel.”
Isa frowned. “Why have you come alone? Where is your adoptive mother?”
At her question, Basil’s face hardened almost invisibly. “It would have taken her too long to find another fae to take her into Faerie. I was able to go right away. I’m sure once she finds a fae to take her across the border, Hazel will follow, probably with more backup. But it can’t hurt for me to go first and try to find Rose as soon as possible.”