by Lexi C. Foss
“Fae Realm,” she repeated on a breath, her shoulders beginning to shake. “It’s all real.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Exos said, his fingers combing through his ash-blond hair.
The pixie of a woman took a step backward, her gaze snapping to his, then to mine, then to his again. “I-I didn’t mean to… to…”
“Blow me into a wall? Again?” he asked.
Tears gathered in her eyes, her lower lip trembling. “This can’t… I don’t…”
“How did you blow him into a wall?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Can you do it again? Maybe into a tree?”
“Wh-what?” she asked, her big blue eyes refocusing on me.
“Sorry, it just sounds amusing as hell. Can you do it again?” I didn’t really want her to, but I did want to distract her. “Not many fae can take on someone as famous as Exos, so you’ve intrigued me.”
“Exos?” she repeated, her brow furrowing.
“Dude, you didn’t even tell her your name?” I asked, shocked and dismayed. “No wonder she kicked your ass.”
“I brought you here to help, kid. Not to be a pain in my ass.”
“Kid?” I repeated, raising my brows. “I’m twenty-two, Your Highness.”
He gave me a look that said he couldn’t care less. “Fine. Man.”
“Better,” I agreed, shifting my attention back to the girl who was observing us with a furrowed brow. Much better than the terrified-little-mouse expression. “Seriously, can you blow him into a tree for me? All I can do is light him on fire, and he’ll just extinguish the flames.” Not exactly true. I could burn him if I tried hard enough.
“Fire,” she whispered, her expression pained.
“Yes,” I said slowly, confused. “I’m a Fire Fae.”
“She’s thinking about the bar.” Exos folded his arms. “Which I already told her wasn’t her fault.”
She crumpled to the ground, her knees giving out beneath her, tears tracking down her face. “A bar?” I asked, inching toward her. “What about it?”
“R-rick,” she breathed, her palm covering her heart.
“Her friend,” Exos translated. “He… He didn’t make it.”
The woman let loose an agonized scream, flames singeing the air and igniting my soul. I caught the embers before they could cause any damage, blanketing her in my essence and forcing her fiery abilities to behave as she broke down before my eyes.
“What the hell?” River asked, taking the words right out of my mouth. “What friend? What bar?”
Exos blew out a breath. “Short version: Her powers exploded in the Human Realm. She burned down a building—with her friend inside.”
And he couldn’t have told us that before we found her?
“Fuck,” I breathed, rubbing my hand down my face. “Fuck.”
Claire
I couldn’t see.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Rick’s dark eyes flashed before me, his sexy-as-sin grin, his ridiculously spiky hair. I cradled my chest, the burn radiating throughout my body intense. I wanted to scream. To cry. To run. But my limbs refused to move, some invisible weight holding me captive in my cocoon of flowers.
Oh God, I’m covered in… in pollen!
None of this made any sense. The surroundings. The colors. The endless forest. The too-orange sun illuminating the field. The male crouching a few feet away…
His dark green eyes reminded me of the trees framing his muscular form.
I shuddered, curling in on myself, wishing that this would all just go away. That my world would return to normal. That this was all just a drunken nightmare.
Maybe I died in the fire?
I startled at the thought. Was this heaven? That would explain the magic, the odd scents, my bizarre connection to the elements.
“Claire,” the one closest to me murmured, his voice deep and soothing and sending a shiver down my spine.
Titus, he’d called himself.
What kind of name is Titus?
“Everyone will tell you it wasn’t your fault,” he murmured, lying down on his side and bringing our heads to the same level, about five feet of flowers separating us. “But I know those words don’t help. I used to hear them all the time. It made me so angry because no one understood. The guilt is suffocating. The agony of loss soul-destroying. And you feel so lonely, so incredibly alone.”
Sadness tinged his handsome features, pulling down his brow and his full lips. Dark memories tainted his green gaze, his history etched into the rigid lines of his long, lean body. His elbow drew up to pillow his head of thick, auburn locks, his presence somehow soothing rather than terrifying.
I didn’t know him at all.
Yet I felt that strange draw to him, just like I had with the other one. An inkling to trust, to fold myself against him, to escape in the heat of his skin.
“I’m losing my mind,” I whispered. “Completely losing my fucking mind.”
Titus chuckled. “Yeah? Me, too, sweetheart. Me, too.”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. Here this man was, an utter stranger, lying on the ground with me, commiserating over our fall into the land of insanity.
“That’s a lovely sound,” he murmured. “If a little broken.”
“This is crazy.” I shook my head, rolling to my back to stare blankly up at the cloudless sky. “I… I don’t…” No other words came to me, my mind completely shutting down. I had nothing. No comeback. No comment. Probably about a million questions I had no energy to voice. Just… nothing.
“I can’t even begin to imagine how alarming this must be for you, to have no idea you’re part fae while growing up in the Human Realm. Honestly, I don’t know much about it, having spent my whole life ingrained in fae society. I mean, I didn’t even want to attend the Academy. The Council forced me, which, it seems, they’re going to do to you, too. So, I guess I understand a little bit, but to be raised as a human and stolen to this land, I don’t blame you at all for thinking it’s crazy.”
His tenor, soft and calming, lulled me into a strange sense of comfort. I looked at him again. Really looked at him.
He resembled a model sprawled out for a photo shoot, apart from the slight downward curve of his mouth. But he truly resembled perfection in an almost inhuman way. There was a powerful air around him, a humming energy that seemed to sizzle between us as I held his darkening gaze.
Then I noticed his ears.
Not round like mine, but slightly pointed.
My brow furrowed. “Why do you look like an elf?”
His eyes widened. “An elf?” A laugh bubbled out of him, deep and humorous and beautiful. Hmm, yes, I did like the way he sounded, both his voice and his chuckles. “I’m a fae, sweetheart. Not an elf.”
“Do you all have pointy ears?”
“We do.”
“I don’t.”
“Because you’re a Halfling,” he said, smiling. “Your mum was a fae. Your da a human.”
The way he said mum and da had my lips twitching again. Now he sort of sounds like a leprechaun. But he was missing the trademark red beard.
“What’s funny?” he asked, a smile in his voice.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” I couldn’t call him a leprechaun. He’d just find me even more nuts. Which, of course, I was, considering my surroundings and the fact that I was starting to believe all this nonsense.
Ugh. What choice did I have? Clearly, I wasn’t going to wake up. And I couldn’t deny the strange sensations coursing through my veins or the slight memory of the bar flickering in my thoughts.
I burned it down.
I killed Rick.
My gaze fell, my shoulders rounding as another spike of pain splintered my chest.
“Hey,” Titus said softly. “Stay with me, sweetheart. We’ll get through this.”
That sensation to laugh again hit me in the gut, my eyes filling with tears. “I don’t even know you. You don’t know me. I don’t kno
w anything or anyone or what the hell is…” I trailed off, tired of repeating the same words over and over. They did nothing to improve my situation, just leaving me to wallow in the same endless cycle of pity and despair.
“I think you’ll find you know me quite well,” Titus murmured. “Perhaps not about me, or who I am, but your Fire recognizes mine.”
“What?” That didn’t make any sense. “What Fire?”
“Your inner flame, Claire.” He held out his hand, a flicker of light dancing over the tips. “You’re strong. Much stronger than you should be.”
“I don’t understand.”
His smile was sad. “I know, sweetheart. But you will.” The flames flickered out, his hand falling to the ground. “We want to help you. To teach you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re fae. We take care of our own.”
“But I burned down the bar…”
“Which wouldn’t have happened if you’d been properly trained,” he whispered. “I know what it’s like to come into your power too early, to not be prepared. It’s terrifying. It’s consuming. It kills.”
“Yes,” I agreed, my voice equally quiet.
“I can help you.” He reached for me again, his hand so close but not near enough to touch. “Let me show you.”
“How?”
“Lift your hand toward mine,” he encouraged me. “You’ll see.”
Somehow I doubted that but found my arm lifting of its own accord, my sense of curiosity piqued. What did he intend to do? Grab me? He could have done that already. It was three against one. I stood no chance here, even with my bizarre… gifts.
“Here.” He wiggled his fingers, the tips brushing mine as I rolled closer to him. They were warm. Welcoming. Oddly familiar.
Electricity sizzled between us, sending a zap up my arm that had me pulling back.
“Come on, Claire,” he urged, amusement flirting with his mouth. “Let me show you.”
“That wasn’t it?”
He chuckled. “No. That was mutual attraction, not fire.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What?” He couldn’t mean that we found each other attractive, right? We didn’t know each other. I mean, sure, he was good-looking. Actually, no, he was hot. But… No. I was not attracted to anything or anyone right now, least of all a pointy-eared man with a too-sexy grin.
“It’s a fae thing,” he said, a pair of adorable dimples flashing. “Our elements sing to each other when we find a potential mate. That’s what you felt. Now come on, don’t hide.” He held out his hand again, but I was too busy gaping at him to move.
Potential mate? What in the fuck? No. Hell no. “Mate?”
“Elements bond for power,” he explained. “No more stalling, sweetheart. Let me show you what I really mean.”
“You want to be my… mate?”
He sighed. “No. I don’t want to be anyone’s mate. It’s just a part of society. You’ll feel it with others, especially since you’re multi-elemental. It’s about matching power to power. And right now, all I want to do is show you how our essences are linked to one another. Please?”
The way he said that final word, the slight dip in his tone, had me feeling warm all over. None of this made any sense, but somehow, for some peculiar reason, I wanted to trust him. To let him show me whatever it was he desired to show me.
Because I found him likable.
Not in a mate kind of way—that sounded too permanent and weird and not at all appropriate for a girl my age.
But in a potential date kind of way. Well, apart from the whole Fae Realm, stolen from my home and life, nonsense.
Okay, so maybe not a date.
Just stop thinking, I told myself, exhausted. See what he wants to do.
What could it hurt?
Nibbling my lip, I extended my arm, laying my hand palm up in the flower bed. His smile reached his gorgeous eyes as he shifted a little closer to link his fingers over mine. More of that electric energy sizzled up my arm, shocking my system and sending a bolt of heat directly to my lower abdomen.
Okay, he’s not kidding about the mutual attraction thing. Because wow.
A totally inappropriate and inexplicable reaction.
Just like I had to that guy at the bar.
My gaze darted across the clearing to the leather-clad bad boy, the one Titus had called Exos. He observed us with no expression, his arms crossed as he leaned against a tree along the edge of the field. Another boy stood beside him, his gaze wide with curiosity.
“Why are they watching us?” I asked, my insides tingling with nerves.
“They’re watching you,” Titus whispered, his fingers lightly tracing mine. “Your power is a marvel, Claire. It’s considered a miracle that Spirit Fae—like Exos—can access two elements.”
“Okay.” I swallowed, refocusing on his alluring features. “I have fire and air?” A guess because I couldn’t remember everything Exos had told me, our time together an emotionally laden blur of moments.
“No.” Titus drew a line of fire across my skin, the heat causing me to flinch and gape at the same time.
“That… It doesn’t hurt.”
He chuckled. “Because your fire responds to mine.”
“But you just said I don’t have Fire.”
“Oh, you have Fire.” His irises lifted to mine. “An incredible amount of it, too.” He shifted even closer, leaving maybe a foot between our prone forms. He continued his path up my arm, the flame dancing upward, heating me in the most amazing way.
“I like that,” I admitted.
“I know.” He smiled, continuing his touch over my clothed shoulder to my neck, branding my pulse. “Do you feel the connection between us, Claire? The way my fire flirts with yours? Taunting it to the surface? Warming the air around us?”
I swallowed, my lungs feeling a bit tight. “Y-yes.”
“That’s your power.” His voice dropped to a husky tone that caused my heart to skip a beat.
“What about Air?” I asked.
“Hmm, I’m not an Air Fae.” He slid an ember across my jaw and upward into my hairline where he pulled the flower from behind my ear—the flower Exos had put there. “I’m not a Spirit Fae, either.” He brought the petals to his nose and inhaled. “But you’re both.”
“That’s three elements.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “You asked why they’re staring at you?”
I nodded, my heart thudding roughly in my chest.
“It’s because you don’t have access to just two elements, Claire.” He palmed my cheek, his gaze kind. “You have access to all five.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “All five?”
His lips twitched. “Trust me, I’m just as shocked as you are, but I can feel it in your essence. You manipulated this field, bringing all these flowers to life to provide you with a bed to rest upon. The air sings your name. My fire is drawn to your fire, just as Exos’s spirit is drawn to your spirit, and I can feel the layer of humidity—water—softening your skin. You’re very special, indeed.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know.” He drew his thumb across my cheekbone, his caress warm and far too welcome. “But I can help you. That’s all we want to do.”
“Help me how?”
“By teaching you.” His fingers slid into my hair, threading through my tangling blonde strands and drawing them down to my shoulder. “Control is the only way to live with all that power inside of you. I realize you have no reason to trust me, or any of us, but I’m speaking from experience. If you don’t allow anyone to train you, those gifts will consume you beyond reason.”
I’d always been one to listen to my instincts, and they told me now that he was speaking the truth. Still, something nagged at me. Not about him, or Exos, or even the other boy, but about this place. This realm.
It felt as if I didn’t belong. Which was likely related to having been brought here without my permission.
But it went beyond that.
Something about this place seemed dangerous.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, his tone genuine and curious. “What caused this frown to form?” He pressed his thumb to the edge of my mouth, his comfort with touching me a little unsettling even while feeling right.
We don’t know each other.
But I sort of want to know him.
I shook the thoughts from my head, confused by all the sensations and sounds and sparks. “This is all, uh, overwhelming.” Not a lie. I just left out the sense-of-danger part. How could I confide that in an essential stranger? In this strange land?
“How about dinner,” he suggested.
“Dinner?” I repeated, dubious.
“When’s the last time you ate?”
“Uh…” I blinked several times. “I… I don’t know.”
“Then I’d say dinner is a must.” His dimples appeared again, but rather than turn his features boyish, they only seemed to solidify his incredible beauty. “Then maybe we can tour campus together. It’ll be quiet, most of the students in their dorms. Maybe you’ll see that it isn’t too bad here and decide to stay.”
Campus? Dorms? Where am I? “Do I even have a choice?” I wondered out loud, referring to dinner and the aforementioned tour.
He chuckled. “Depends on your definition of the word. How about we reach that bridge when we’re ready to cross it and just take this one step at a time? Dinner first. And I’ll answer any and every question you throw at me.”
I nibbled my lower lip, considering his proposal. He was right about the choice. Did I truly have one when there were no other options?
“Can I, uh, change first?” I asked, noting my soiled state. A long shower sounded appealing. And then maybe some coffee followed by a decent meal.
“Exos can help us arrange that,” he said, smiling.
“Exos,” I repeated, glancing at the still-emotionless male across the clearing. “Uh, will he be going to dinner, too?”
The man cocked a brow at that, clearly having heard me even from a distance. Which meant he’d heard everything. “Would you prefer I not join you?” he asked, sounding slightly offended.