The Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow Box Set
Page 85
“Then you’re mine second,” Oszin said.
“Well, Seron and I can have you together for the sake of time,” Aurek said.
I flushed, getting more than ready for Ezeru. “Oh my. What brought this on?”
“Well, we don’t have any meetings or anything tomorrow morning,” Seron said. “For once.”
“And we have been so busy with the wedding,” Aurek said. “There hasn’t been nearly enough time to pleasure our queen.”
“Do you need kulum mist?” Ezeru asked.
“No,” I said, vaguely insulted.
“Always such a hungry little queen under that demure demeanor,” Aurek said.
“If I am it’s because I have such tasty dishes put before me every day,” I said mischievously.
“But some day we will be old,” Seron said. “And time goes by so fast.”
Aurek groaned. “You never get any better at bedroom talk.”
“Well…it’s the wedding’s fault.”
“Someday we’ll be old, but definitely not today,” Ezeru said. “Or tomorrow, which is how long it might take me to tire.”
I was still blushing deeply and he moved right into to kiss me. In another moment, Oszin and Seron joined him, pulling me to bed, hands caressing me and spreading me and teasing me. I was so ready for more.
“Ohh…I am such a lucky woman,” I said. “If that prophecy had mentioned I’d be the happiest queen in the world I would never have complained.”
“The best fates are the ones you make for yourself,” Aurek said, and how true it was, as I succumbed to their touch.
Oh my. That was a saga. It’s going to take me some time to recover from saying goodbye to these characters. It could just go on and on. It probably wouldn’t make me much money to write more but I did leave a few questions open. Just in case. If I never write more, feel free to imagine for yourselves what happens to these kids. Make sure to join my Facebook group or my mailing list so you don’t miss release dates and bonus stories!
Want a free book? Join my mailing list and get a FREE copy of The Goblin Cinderella! This romantic tale is a fan favorite in my Fairy Tale Heat series.
Thank you SO much for being with me for this story. It has been a dream to write a longer fantasy like this.
For a peek at my reverse harem paranormal series, A Witch Among Warlocks book 1, The Fairer Hex, keep reading!
48
“The Fairer Hex”
So apparently my mom was a witch. And not just a witch, but a witch who turned bad. My poor, sweet, normal dad wanted me to have a good college experience. Instead I get a magical offer I literally can’t refuse, from the world’s most elite school for warlocks.
WARLOCKS. As in GUY WITCHES.
Even though I definitely have lady parts, somehow I ended up at a warlock school to learn the gentlemanly arts (which are a lot more badass than, ahem, lady magic). Did I mention the witch world is stuck in the 19th century? Unmarried witches and warlocks barely see each other outside of society balls, which are still a thing.
No one knows how I ended up here. I’m thrown into a whole new world where I am outcast and friendless, except for:
—Firian, the enigmatic fox shifter who has been watching over me since I was born.
—Alec, my new roommate, a sexy-as-sin incubus enchanted not to lay a hand on me. For safety. Or cruel and unusual punishment.
—Montague, the black sheep of the school since he got turned into a vampire on spring break.
—Harris, an arrogant ass from the most elite of all magical families. Okay, he’s not my friend but he’s Montague’s. I’ll work on him.
My existence here breaks all the rules. Am I here for the right reasons? Or am I the pawn meant to destroy the very world I’m starting to love? When my magic proves stronger than anyone expects, and the school is attacked by a demon, I’ll need help from the four gorgeous magical men who are willing to break a few rules with me. They’re each forbidden to me in their own way, and the greatest danger of all might not be demons, but falling for them. All of them.
“Charlotte!” Dad screamed my name from downstairs, interrupting a pretty important fight with a dragon in my favorite MMORPG.
“Just a sec!” I screamed back.
“Charlotte! I need an explanation right now!” He was getting that high-pitched voice he gets when the raccoons are in our trash.
I had absolutely no clue what he could need an explanation about, seeing as I had no life and had not done anything out of the ordinary, but it sounded important.
“Charlotte!”
omg, I hastily wrote. i have to go. i’m so sorry. emergency unfolding in-house. brb.
The rest of my fellow adventures freaked out on me, but my sexy elf warrior girlfriend/boyfriend Firia said, You’d better talk to him. The rest of us can handle it.
uhh…how did you know it was ‘him’?
I just assumed it was your dad.
oh yeah well you’re right. thx.
It was a weird moment because I was pretty sure I’d never told Firia that my Mom was gone, but I didn’t have time to fully ponder it. I had to check on Dad. Anyway, Firia was awesome for not getting upset at me for ditching on the dragon fight, seeing as my brooding mage character had the pivotal dark spells for defeating said dragon. Firia was also the closest thing I had to a boyfriend. We’d been playing this game for years. I met him/her early on in my adventures in the game, and we’d stuck together through a lot of fights. Before long, we were flirting. A couple months in we figured out that we had each chosen avatars of the opposite gender, but we were having fun anyway, so I called him “my girlfriend” in the game.
Of course, I was fully aware Firia could be lying and was not really a nineteen year old guy but was actually like…a fifty year old guy, or whatever. We’d never taken it off the game.
I padded down the stairs. Dad was standing at the dining room table, staring at an envelope that sat in the middle of the wooden surface, looking at it like it was poisoned.
“Dad? What’s wrong?” I stood on the first step, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Something came in the mail?”
“Is there something you aren’t telling me about?” he cried.
“Um…no? I don’t think so. I’m eighteen. I guess there might be something.” I laughed, but then I realized this was going beyond my dad’s usual level of overreaction. “Hey, what’s up? Just tell me.”
My dad and I had a thing going. I was the chill one, and he was the one who made fun stuff happen. He also had a tendency to overreact. We were opposite in a lot of ways. He liked loud rock music, barbecuing, tattoos. I liked wearing pajamas, baking bread, and camping. He freaked out and I was unflappable. I went to look at the letter. Maybe the bill from our flu shots was more than he expected or something.
“I don’t know how to explain all of this,” he said. “Shit. I wish—”
I shot him a look. It seemed like, for all the world, he was going to say that he wished my mom was here. I could hear the ghost of the “your” when he cut himself off.
I saw the return address on the envelope.
Merlin College
P. O. Box 332
Small Hollow, NC
“You’re freaking out about ‘Merlin College’? What is that? Sounds like spam.” I started opening it.
He grabbed it from my hand and slammed it on the table. “No. It’s not spam. It’s a reckoning, that’s what it is. I thought you were safe from all this. I thought your mom—like—sealed that stuff up before she left. Were you talking to your elf friend online?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Maybe I should make him explain it. Nah, you’re my daughter.”
“Dad, I abandoned a dragon for this. Just tell me! What does Firia have to do with it?”
He took a deep breath. “Your mother had magical blood. I believe this letter is from a witch’s college. That’s why it’s so nondescript.”
“Well, I’m already going to college, so�
��” I’m not sure why I said that first. “Magical blood? What do you mean?”
“Her mother was an Ethereal witch from a very old witch family. Her father was a Sinistral demon who could turn into a wolf; a werewolf, basically. I mean—let me back up. Magic is real.”
“Did the neighbors sell you drugs or something?”
“I wish. Your mother was supposed to protect you from this shit!” He grabbed a stuffed cat that I had seated at the dining room table because I was a dork, and threw it on the floor.
My heart was beating pretty fast, by my standards. “Be nice to Momo! Calm down!” I grabbed the letter and ripped it open.
Dear Mr. Char Byrne,
Your application has been accepted. You will attend Merlin College, the elite school for warlocks, with a starting date of September 12th. We were stunned by your test results and are thrilled to have you with us. Please be packed and prepared on that day, as we will send a vehicle for you. Please refer to the attached list of items that are not acceptable at Arthur College and familiarize yourself with the rules of conduct.
We look forward to meeting you,
Ignatius Blair
Dean of Merlin College
“God, the list of stuff I can’t take to Merlin College is ten times longer than the acceptance letter. What the hell? Warlocks? Why do they think I’m a boy? They think my name is ‘Char Byrne’.” I laughed. “I mean, whatever, I just won’t go.”
“Warlocks?” He looked at the letter. “Oh—okay. This must be a mistake. They got you mixed up with someone else. We’ll write and tell them you’re a girl and that you’re not going to any magic schools.”
“Wait. I mean, you have a lot to tell me. Let’s start with, why did you not tell me this sooner and why am I not going to magic school? Magic school sounds awesome.”
“It isn’t. At least, that’s what they tell me. But I don’t want you having anything to do with that. It can get you killed. There are all these other planes, and magical creatures in conflict with each other, and…it’s bad news. It didn’t do my relationship with your mom any favors, that’s for sure. When we were growing up, she was never interested in magic. But then…when you were a baby…she got sucked in. Like a cult. Power is addictive and she’d never known what it was like. That was what we fought over. But she bound your magic, so you wouldn’t suffer the same fate.”
“She bound my magic so I wouldn’t be powerful?”
“So you would be a normal girl,” he said. “Who doesn’t get killed by some demon or something.”
“And you just figured you’d lie to me about all of this?”
“Yeah—see—she could explain it better.”
“I don’t know about that. This is ridiculous.”
“It’s not ridiculous. It’s to protect you. The magical life is bad fucking news, Charlotte. Remember how you used to be afraid there was a shadow monster in the closet? And you’d scream in the middle of the night? ‘Daddy! Check the closet!’ I spent hours telling you there was no monster. But if I let you become a witch, there might really be a monster in there. And I wouldn’t be able to protect you. Witches and warlocks and all the other magical creatures in this world are battling for power, and you do not need to be in the middle of that. I want you to sleep soundly at night.”
“Oh…”
“So, you’re right, we’ll just write them back and tell them they’ve got you confused with someone else. It just shook me up. Sometimes I get scared that they’re going to try to suck you in, like they did to your mom.” He grabbed an envelope and some stamps from the desk, and then a legal pad with a grocery list on it.
“Maybe you should use stationery?” I asked. “Just a thought?”
“Like I have stationery. Who writes letters anymore?”
“I have some! i’ve never used it! Wait right here.” I ran upstairs. My computer was still on but I’d been logged out of the game.
I wonder why Dad mentioned Miria? That was weird.
I logged back in while I dug around for some decorative paper I’d had since I was a kid. I was pretty sure it had like, a Sanrio dog on it or something, but that was still better than a legal pad.
When I logged back in, I was back in the town. I’d missed out on the whole dragon thing. It looked like Miria was still on.
I sent a private message.
hey, Miria, have you ever spoken to my dad?
There was a pause and then she/he said, So…did he reveal my secret identity or something?
Hard to say if he was joking or not. no…what is it?
Did he reveal all the secrets of the universe?
a few…do you believe that like, magic is real?
I’m coming over.
wait, what?
He didn’t say anything else. I dug out the stationery and then I heard the doorbell ring.
“Charlotte!” Dad yelled. “I thought you were just grabbing paper! You went and talked to him.”
“Who the hell is ‘him’? You’re not serious? My online gaming friend?”
“Just come downstairs. I guess it’s time you met.”
Sure enough…there was a guy at the door.
But I had never seen him before. Ever.
Well, I didn’t think I’d seen him anyway. Admittedly, I didn’t look at the neighbors much, so if he was wearing a hat, maybe I wouldn’t notice if one of them was attractive.
Stupid me.
“Well, well,” he said. “You finally get to lay eyes on me. What a day. Something must have happened.”
“Yes,” Dad said. “Come in. It was a letter from a magic school. I think it’s all a big mistake, though.”
This unfamiliar guy, whom my dad seemed to know suspiciously well, walked in and gave me a brief smile like he knew me. I was trying very hard not to stare.
He was tall, slender, and somewhat ethereal looking, with pale blonde hair faintly tinged with red. I guess that was what you call ‘strawberry blonde’ but that just didn’t sound right. His skin was pale, too, but not in a sickly way, or even a “too much time playing video games” way. It had an inner glow, like he had an intense and expensive skincare regimen imported from South Korea.
Pretty sure he didn’t, though. He was just naturally gorgeous.
He also had really good posture. So…like, no way was this the guy that spent hours playing MMORPGs with me.
His eyes and smile had sort of a sly twinkle. He exuded confidence, even wearing a rumpled t-shirt and sweatpants. It’s like when you see mega celebrities caught by the paparazzi like, being normal, but even then you’re like, nuh-uh, no one is that hot in real life.
“I’m Miria,” he said, offering a hand. “Or, properly, Firian. I am your familiar.”
“Muh wut?” I asked. I mean, that was how it came out. His beauty was distracting. “I mean…I thought you’d be more of a…”
“Female elf in armor?” he asked. “Well, then I wonder why you don’t have long white hair and an eyepatch.”
The Fairer Hex: Out now!
More Romantic Fantasy from Lidiya!
A Witch Among Warlocks
Prequel: The Wild-Eyed Boys
Book One: The Fairer Hex
Book Two: Boys Over Powers
Book Three: A Fine Necromance
Book Four: Battle of the Hexes
Guardians of Sky and Shadow
Book One: Priestess Awakened
Book Two: Priestess Bound
Book Three: Priestess Unleashed
Also available in audio!
Kingdoms of Sky and Shadow
Book One: The Glass Princess
Book Two: The Shadowed Crown
Book Three: The Crystal Queen
Brides of the Sinistral Realms
(Reverse harem paranormal romance)
Book One: Tempted by Demons
Book Two: Captured by Dragons
Book Three: Guarded by Wolves (Coming soon!)
Fairy Tale Heat
Every book is standalone and
can be read in any order, although some characters might pop up in later books!
Book One: Beauty and the Goblin King
Book Two: These Wicked Revels (A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Book Three: Rapunzel and the Dark Prince
Book Four: The Beggar Princess (A retelling of King Thrushbeard)
Book Five: The Goblin Cinderella
Book Six: The Mermaid Bride
Book Seven: Tasting Gretel
Book Eight: Taming Red Riding Hood
Queen of the Sun Palace (Darker romance set in the Fairy Tale Heat universe)
Book One: Prisoner of Silk
Book Two: Prisoner of Mirrors
Book Three: Prisoner of Dreams
About the Author
Lidiya Foxglove spends most of her time writing, drinking hot cocoa, messing around on the internet, and drinking tea, before reading about 15 pages of any manga with lots of pretty boys in it, and then falling asleep. Sometimes she also does yoga and gardens, but not as often as she claims.
lidiyafoxglove@lidiyafoxglove.com