by Terry Spear
The fae were known for being tricksters, for teasing, for telling untruths, but Micala was an oddity in that way. He really didn’t want to have to lie about Cassie. He wanted badly to tell the queen he loved Cassie and wanted her to be his…forever. He also knew that his aunt would be furious and could very well take her rage out on the human girl.
So he said simply, “I went to see Ena and spoke with her human prisoner.”
The queen raised her dark brows. Since he had told his aunt the truth, in part, he had no difficulty putting on that air. Still, she seemed surprised enough that she continued to study him, which meant she was silently waiting for him to tell her more. She wasn’t totally convinced that he spoke the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
He noted that the noisy courtiers had grown deathly quiet. Every ear was straining to hear what was being said between the queen and him. The queen would not normally have an audience with him when the meal was being served unless he was in a bind. Everyone wanted to know when anyone was in trouble with the queen, especially when it was someone else’s neck on the line.
Deveron would be all ears, worrying that Micala was causing discontent where Cassie was concerned…again. Alicia would be just as concerned about her friend.
For now, he had his back to them and for that he was grateful. Because even though he swore the queen could read his every intent, Deveron could do so tenfold. That was the problem with Micala being Deveron’s close cousin.
“I…hit him,” Micala said. He didn’t mention the human had pinched Cassie and angered him to such an extent if Ena hadn’t owned the prisoner and Micala hadn’t needed a hideaway for Cassie, Micala would have killed the human.
Queen Irenis’s eyes widened.
He extended his bruised fist as evidence. The fae healed fast so it would be gone by tomorrow, but for now the skin was tinged with red, black, and blue discoloring, and a slight swelling proving what he said was true.
Still, she did not saying anything and though he tried not to sweat, he felt tiny droplets forming on his skin, most noticeably on his forehead. “He would have killed Alicia.” Which was true. “And he was not even punished!” Which again was true. “He didn’t have a mark on him!” True!
Again her eyes narrowed. “Surely he had some bruises,” the queen said. “Maybe underneath his clothes.”
“He wasn’t wearing any.” It was cool in the room, but Micala swore the temperature rose fifty degrees he felt so hot. “He…was wearing a towel,” he quickly amended. “Ena had her butler bring him to me, and the prisoner was sopping wet, only wearing the towel. I guess he’d just taken a shower.”
He’d rarely seen his aunt blush. Turn red when she was angered, but not blush with embarrassment. Since she didn’t appear angry, he had to assume she was embarrassed, just a bit.
“I would have hit him again, but Ena had her butler take him away.”
Queen Irenis nodded as if in agreement and then with a cat-ate-the-mouse smile, she asked, “Where is the human girl, Micala? At Ena’s castle?”
***
Alicia couldn’t believe it! As soon as Deveron’s mother asked Micala where he had taken Cassie—and she couldn’t be talking about anyone else—Alicia couldn’t believe it. The only thing keeping her in her seat beside Deveron, was his hand gripping her arm. Okay, so this was Queen Irenis’s castle. Micala was her nephew. But Cassie was Alicia’s best friend! And she wasn’t going to let the queen hurt her.
“Sit,” Deveron whispered in her ear.
“I’m not a dog,” she whispered back, growling as if she was a dog.
He cast her a ghost of a smile.
“You will bring her here, Micala,” the queen said in her dictatorial way.
“No!” Alicia said, yanking free of Deveron, who looked horrified as she rose and glowered at the queen.
Gasps were heard throughout the great hall. No one, not even the crown prince of the Denkar, said no to the queen. Not publicly. And certainly not in the way Alicia had done, raising her voice in a sharp, aggressive manner.
“She will go with me to see my grandfather,” Alicia quickly said, although she was still dictating in her tone, not attempting even to appeal to the queen in a way that would indicate she would soon be her daughter-in-law.
“She will come here as I wish it,” the queen said with finality, her voice low and threatening.
It didn’t matter that Alicia intended to wed her son. This was the queen’s domain, yet Alicia couldn’t help defending her friend.
“She is my best friend.”
“And my nephew wants her,” the queen growled. Her eyes were glowing gold. Not good.
Deveron stayed out of it, thankfully. Alicia was pretty certain he would take her side in this and not his mother’s, though she could never be one-hundred-percent sure.
“Deveron,” the queen said, as if he should take his bride-to-be in hand and do something with her. Like shut her up.
Alicia smiled, turned, kissed Deveron on the mouth with a quick brush of her lips, and before he could react, she vanished.
She was still wearing the green velvet gown she’d worn when she’d gone to see Cassie two days ago. When she arrived at Ena’s castle, she wished she had a change of clothes. Despite regretting it, she’d have to rectify that later. In a hurry, before Deveron and Micala caught up with her, she used the knocker to bang on the door. She bet Deveron was cursing her that she could now fae travel without him, and probably arguing with his mother right about now. Which was the only reason he wasn’t already here.
Standing outside in the dark misty night on the stone patio in front of Ena’s keep, she realized that was the problem with not having access to places where she couldn’t just enter at will. She knew Deveron would be here momentarily. And the queen might even send her guards. Not to take Alicia prisoner. But to take Cassie back to the Denkar castle. Then again, this was dragon fae territory, so maybe not.
She wasn’t sure if Micala would show up or not. He might, if he could get away with it before the queen locked him up in the castle.
Alicia knocked on the door again. Hurry up!
The butler hollered, “I’m coming! I’m coming! The whole world has visited here tonight!”
The older man opened the door, and she hurried inside. “Close it and lock it,” she demanded.
He quickly did so, bowed, and said in greeting, “My lady, Princess Alicia, welcome.”
She waved him away. “Let me see Ena and Cassie at once.”
“What about the prisoner?”
“Brett?” She blushed, thinking of him wearing only a towel when Micala had struck him. What if Ryker brought him to her, wearing not even that? “No, no, just Ena and Cassie.”
“Come this way, my lady. I’ll leave you in the study and get them at once.”
“Don’t open the door—any door—to the dark fae guards.”
The butler frowned at her.
“If they come. Don’t open the door to them.”
“Aye, princess.”
“Deveron and Micala can come in, only.”
“Aye. But if the dark fae guards are with them?”
“Then you do not open the door.”
“Aye, my lady.” He started chuckling.
She cast an annoyed glance in his direction. “It is not funny.”
“I know.” He started chuckling again.
She shook her head as he led her into a study filled with book shelves and floor-to-ceiling windows. Paintings of caves featured in the mountains adorned the walls, which she thought was odd until she recalled that Ena was a dragon shifter.
“My lady, please have a seat. I’ll be right back.” He vanished.
She thought she heard the sound of a knocker knocking against brass on the front door, but the butler wouldn’t answer it right away. He’d ask Ena and Cassie to see her first, then he would attend to whoever was at the door.
Alicia was dying to know who had arrived. If it was Deveron, she hoped he wo
uld not be too upset with her, but she had to protect her friend. Micala wasn’t in a position to do so, and he would be the only other person truly dedicated to protecting Cassie in the fae world.
The pounding started up again. Alicia couldn’t sit still. She paced across the stone floor.
What if the queen herself showed up? Alicia groaned.
Then again, she didn’t think the queen would. This was dragon fae territory, after all. And not the queen’s domain.
Alicia paced some more.
The butler reappeared. “My lady, uhm, Mistress Ena is with the girl in a guest chamber. She asked that I take you there.”
“Is there something wrong?” Alicia asked, hurrying with the butler to see to her friend.
“She’s rather upset. The human girl, that is. My mistress thought it best that you come to the guest chamber rather than Mistress Ena attempting to move her here.”
Alicia couldn’t even begin to know what was going on in Cassie’s mind. When Alicia had learned the truth about her roots, she had been stunned. But she had known something of the fae world before this from what her father had told her in a journal he’d left behind. Cassie wasn’t fae. And she’d never even been interested in fairy tales when she was growing up. Who wouldn’t love fairy tales?
But she didn’t believe in magic or faeries or any kinds of fantasy. This had to be a total shock to her.
“She thought it was all a dream,” the butler said as if knowing what was going through Alicia’s mind.
“Cassie?”
“Aye, my lady. And then the prisoner pinched her. He said that was a way to prove you weren’t dreaming. Humans have such strange ways.”
Alicia stared at the butler.
“Then Micala punched the prisoner.” The butler grinned. “I think Mistress Ena was as shocked as I was.”
Alicia’s lips parted, realization dawning why Micala had struck Brett. It wasn’t because the human had taken Alicia prisoner, it was that he had hurt Cassie. And for the first time, she realized just how much he truly cared for Cassie. She should have been aware of that the minute he brought her to the fae world. He risked all by doing so. Despite being annoyed with him for transporting Cassie here and changing her life forever, she could understand some of his drive to do so now. If she had never been able to see Deveron again, had she been only a human, she would have felt horribly lost without him.
As soon as the butler opened the door to the bedchamber, the pounding at the front door began again.
“Go and see to whoever is at the front door,” Alicia said, and entered the chamber.
Cassie was sitting on a black velvet bench, crying. Ena was pacing. Her pale green eyes glanced at Alicia, and she took a big breath, looking much relieved that Alicia was here now and would do something about the weeping human.
“Cassie,” Alicia said, hurrying to join her friend.
Hearing Alicia’s voice, Cassie looked up. In that instant, Alicia thought her friend looked so human—dressed in her jeans with the sparkles on the pockets, a pale blue T-shirt, and sneakers.
Cassie’s lips parted. “It can’t be true,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
“I’ll…leave the two of you alone,” Ena quickly said, and shut the door on her hasty exodus.
Alicia sat next to Cassie on the bench and wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “It’s true. I couldn’t tell you about any of this. You wouldn’t have believed me. Micala told his aunt, Queen Irenis, that he was here seeing Ena about her prisoner. But the queen guessed that he’d transported you here. She intended to have you taken to the Denkar fae’s castle. I don’t know what she wants to do with you. She’s forbidden members of her family to get mixed up with humans. I was afraid for your safety and came here at once to ensure the queen didn’t get hold of you.”
“Micala?” Cassie asked, her eyes filled with fresh tears.
Her friend was still concerned about Micala after all that had happened to her.
“I…don’t know. I didn’t wait around to see what would happen next. Someone’s pounding on the door. It might be Deveron, or the queen’s guard. I told the butler not to let anyone in unless it’s Deveron and/or Micala.”
“I have to go home—”
“You can’t,” Alicia said. “Did they tell you that Brett, and Bryan, the kid in your English class, and another boy were fae seers and planned to drown me? That they intended to do the same with Ena when she came to rescue me?”
Cassie nodded. “I…I couldn’t believe any of it was real. I still can’t.”
“I know. I’ve practically known about the fae all my life. I just didn’t realize I was one of them. And I’m still learning much about them. It was quite a shock to me, too, but you have to be reeling from the news.”
“But my parents. When I don’t return home they’ll call the police and—”
“The fae will take care of it.” Alicia imagined Queen Irenis would already have sent someone to visit Cassie’s parents to change their memories concerning their daughter.
Maybe tell the school she was staying abroad for the rest of the school year. Maybe inform her parents they never had a daughter. She didn’t know how the queen would want it handled. But Cassie might very well disappear from the human world never to be seen or heard of again. Which was just what Alicia had been afraid would happen if Micala had continued to see Cassie.
“You’re here to stay for now.” Alicia figured forever, but she wasn’t sure.
They might be able to settle her in another part of the human’s world later, when she was older and could live on her own. Alicia just wasn’t sure what would happen to her friend in the long run. She had more of a problem, short-term, keeping her away from the dark fae queen.
“They tried to grab Micala,” Cassie said, sounding alarmed now. “When he took me from the pickup truck, they tried to grab him.”
“More fae seers,” Alicia whispered, alarmed. “How many were there?”
“There were…” Cassie paused, her dark brown eyes growing huge. “You’re not going to kill them, are you?”
“Not me, Cassie. I’m all for living peaceably with them, but I don’t know what the others will want to do. I thought I was one of them—a fae seer. These boys have killed the fae—my kind.”
Cassie began biting her lip. “I didn’t see Micala. I didn’t know what was happening. I was in the truck, then in…in Micala’s arms. I didn’t realize it until now. I remembered he was comforting to me in a way and yet I was afraid because I couldn’t see him or know what was happening. But I remember…his scent.”
“He fae traveled with you. You moved through a tunnel of blackness. And then you felt disoriented, nauseated, dizzy?”
“Yeah, I did. And I was screaming.”
Astonished, Alicia raised her brows. Cassie never screamed. All the times they’d ridden a rollercoaster, Cassie had gritted her teeth and hung on for dear life, looking pale and like she was going to die. But she never screamed.
Alicia was a different story. She felt better if she screamed. Scary movies? The same way. “He took you with him to our world. They couldn’t follow.”
Cassie’s eyes widened again. “Would they have killed him if they could have caught him?”
“Yes. I think they knew I was coming to see you and so they figured you somehow had a connection to the fae. They probably had seen him visiting you before, but were unprepared to do anything about it. That day at school when I came to see you, they were ready.”
“I can’t believe they intended to kill you. I…I don’t understand. You look just like me. How can anyone tell you aren’t human?”
“We have a fae aura, a faint outline of color that distinguishes us as fae. Humans who have some fae roots sometimes can see us for who we are whether we’re invisible or not.”
“Invisible,” Cassie said.
Alicia took hold of her hand and turned invisible. “I’m still here,” she said. Then she reappeared.
C
assie looked so pale, Alicia hugged her. “I’m so sorry, Cassie. I don’t know what to do to make you feel better.”
“I feel better with you here. Everything is so foreign, the people, that rude butler.”
Alicia chuckled. “He’s a bit eccentric.”
Cassie shook her head. “Ena told him to bring Brett to the room to see me, and he was wearing only a towel!”
Alicia would have smiled about it, but he was a prisoner and she figured her grandfather had wanted to terminate him at once for his having wanted to kill her, and so she just nodded. She didn’t know what would happen to him either, though she was grateful that Ena seemed to have gotten a concession from the king.
“Ena’s sweet, but she didn’t know how to make me feel any better,” Cassie said.
Cassie thought everyone was sweet. If she’d seen Ena turn Iverson into ashes, she might not have thought so.
“She’s fae through and through. I’m sure she doesn’t have much experience with humans.” Alicia listened for a moment, wondering what had happened at the front door. No one had returned to tell them who had arrived. No one was knocking on the door any longer. If Deveron had come for her, she would have suspected he would have stayed until he had gained access. Micala, the same way.
Which had her worried.
“What’s wrong, Alicia? You may be a fae now and not exactly human, but I still know you. You’re concerned something’s not right.”
“They, whoever they were, kept pounding at the door. Now it’s quiet. I thought someone would come to see us. To let us know what’s going on.”
“Maybe they’re talking in a room down below where we can’t hear them. The walls in this castle must be thick. Much thicker than the walls in our homes, which are paper thin. Plus there are how many floors between us and the bottom one?”
“True, any of that could be the case,” Alicia admitted. “I believe Ena put you on a top floor. So there are four floors below us.”
“But you’re worried something is still wrong.”
Alicia took a deep breath. “I could just transport downstairs and attempt to overhear anything.”