Faetal: A New Adult Fantasy Dark Prince Romance

by Deiri Di

  Chase took her by the shoulders and turned her.

  "Walk that way until you find a wall and follow it to the right to the front door," he said. "Just go inside. She is waiting for us." He began to walk in a different direction without further word, leading both horses away from her.

  Mari gritted her teeth and began stomping through the snow. He was acting strange, but he wouldn't be lying to her. If he was going to spend time in a barn taking care of the horses, she wanted to be warm and inside wherever they were.

  Mari stretched her hands out in front of her, feeling nothing but freezing air as she moved. They hurt, and she could barely move her fingers.

  He wouldn't just leave her out in the snow to die.

  Mari gritted her teeth and forced her shivering body to move forward.

  Her hands touched the stone. Mari nearly cried out in relief as she followed the wall to the right. Before long, her hands touched wood. She scrambled for the handle, her hands numb and useless.

  When she got the door open, a rush of warm air hit her. Mari stumbled into the heat, dragging snow in with her. She turned, forcing the door shut on the freezing weather outside before looking around.

  She was in a cozy little cabin. Wood logs made up the building's structure while animal skins hung down like tapestries to trap in the heat. A stone fireplace was against one corner of the room, a teapot hanging on a metal bar over the flames. A grate stood on metal legs, holding a big metal pot over the burning logs, making the fireplace's dual-purpose a stove. The smell of stew wafted from the pot, making Mari's stomach rumble. The room had handmade wooden furniture, table, chairs, and cabinets. An archway led into another room, a bearskin hanging down to obscure the entrance.

  "Hello?" Mari called out, stomping her feet to shake some of the snow loose. She moved closer to the heat, stretching her immobile hands out to it. Her skin burned as her body warmed, and her blood began to move back into her extremities.

  A pale hand pushed the bearskin back.

  A delicate woman glided into the room. Her skin was an unnatural white, the color of the snow outside. Her skin's stunning color was accentuated by jet black hair that framed her face and red lips. She was wearing a kimono, white cranes circling on a dark blue background. Her ears were rounded, not pointed like the elves, and if Mari had seen her in LA, she would have assumed she was doing cosplay, dressing like the character of some anime or game with clown makeup to bleach her skin out.

  "You tracked snow into the house," the woman said, her lips curling upwards into what would only be mistaken as a smile. A real smile would touch her eyes.

  "There's a snowstorm..." Mari said, confused. Who was this woman, and how did she know they were coming? Also, how on earth did Chase find this place through the storm? "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

  "Who am I? Who are you?" the woman asked. She pulled a mug out of a cupboard and set it on the table. "I called only Chase."

  "I'm Mari," Mari said, rubbing her hands together for both warmth and to appease her nervousness. Perhaps she should have stayed with Chase. "Chase is taking care of the horses."

  "Well, Mari," the woman said as she pulled a packet out of the cupboard. She yanked a few leaves out of the packet, crumbled them up, and dropped them in the mug. "Perhaps you should leave."

  She turned her back to Mari and picked up the mug.

  There was a sharp tingle in Mari's spine.

  Great, the woman was trying to cast magic on her!

  "No!" Mari said. Chase dragged her through a snowstorm to get to this woman, and now she wanted Mari to leave? "I have no intention of dying in the snow thank you very much!"

  "You don't?" the woman asked, her black eyebrows darting together in confusion and surprise. Did the woman try to cast a spell on her to make her leave?

  The door banged open, and the freezing wind howled into the room.

  Chase turned, struggling to close the door against the storm outside.

  The woman glided towards the fireplace, and Mari took a couple of steps back, not wanting to be too close to her. The woman grabbed a long metal pole next to the fireplace, a curved hook on the end. She slid the hook under the handle of the teapot, pulling it off of the bar above the fire. She wrapped a cloth around the handle and poured the hot water into the mug.

  "Here you go," the woman said, gliding towards Chase with the mug. "This should warm you up right away."

  "Thank you, Deidre," Chase said, a genuine smile on his face as he took the hot mug from her. "You have quite the blizzard going outside."

  The woman lifted the sleeve of her kimono to hide her mouth, letting loose a soft giggle behind it. "I didn't want your visit to be disturbed," she said, her eyes sliding over to glance at Mari.

  "Oh!" Chase said, taking a sip out of the mug. "This is Mari. Mari, Deidre."

  "Charmed," Deidre said, delivering another pretense of a smile.

  Mari shivered, her damp clothing stealing her heat just as quickly as the fire restored it.

  Deidre put a pale hand on Chase's chest, lifting his wet clothing off of his skin.

  "We need to get you out of these things and get you warmed up," she said, glancing up through her thick black lashes at Chase, her voice low and dark. Mari's stomach turned, and she folded her arms across her belly. Deidre whirled, vanishing behind the bearskin that separated the room from the rest of her home.

  "Are the horses okay?" Mari asked, keeping her arms crossed. She didn't want to talk about their hostess.

  "Deidre's stable is dry," he said. "I rubbed them down best I could, and they're protected from the wind and snow. Deidre will bring them some hot mash like she always does, and they'll be ready to go tomorrow."

  "Here we go!" Deidre said, whisking through the bearskin covering, her arms holding a large fur wrap. "We can keep you warm with this until your clothes dry."

  Chase took the wrap from her and shook it out. It was a one-piece blanket made out of a large white creature that didn't exist in Mari's world. He wadded it up and, without any warning, tossed it at Mari.

  It hit her in the face, shocking a muffled yelp out of her. She scrambled to catch it before it fell to the floor.

  "Take your clothes off," Chase said.

  "Oh, I'm not sure..." Deidre began to protest before Mari could manage to react.

  Chase took his cloak off, dropping it to the floor. With a few more quick movements, he had his vest off and started to pull his shirt over his head, exposing a stomach Mari had glimpsed only briefly before.

  "I'll get you your fur," Deidre said, her skin alabaster and untouched by any reaction to the sight. "No need to share hers." She rushed out of the room.

  Mari stared at Chase, clutching the oversized fur to her chest.

  He glanced over and frowned.

  "What are you doing?" he growled, scowling at her. "Take your clothes off so you can stop shivering!"

  Mari remained frozen. She didn't notice the pinkness of his ears or the fact that he turned, putting his back to her. She stood there staring at him until he unlatched his belt and hooked his thumbs through the top of his pants, peeling them down to expose hip bones and...

  Mari practically threw the fur into the air as she scrambled to unwrap it. Within seconds she had it spread out over her. It hid her from the rest of the room like a tent, her own personal, private room where images of Vladmir's face danced in front of her eyes, forcibly distracting her from the thoughts she had been having moments before.

  She wriggled out of her clothes under the fur, taking twice as long as if she had done it without trying to hide under a fort. When she peeled the last of the damp fabric from her skin, she very carefully began pulling her tent around her, making sure she had the entire thing under control and covering her before she slipped her head out of it.

  Chase was sitting next to the fire, close to Mari, a black fur wrapped around him, one bare foot peeking out an edge.

  Deidre stood the pot that had been over the flames now sitting in fro
nt of her on the stones that jutted out from the fireplace to provide a surface. She ladled stew into a wooden bowl.

  Chase held out his hands, the fur falling open to expose some bare chest. Deidre's hands lingered on his as she passed the bowl to him.

  He smiled at Deidre, and Mari's thoughts were dragged away to Vladmir-land.

  "Could you get some stew for Mari?" he asked. "She's a fragile thing. You nearly froze her to an icicle just getting here."

  "I should have tried harder," Deidre murmured, stringing a line across the room and clipping the wet clothes to it.

  Chase laughed and began eating his stew.

  When she was done with the clothes, Deidre got another bowl out and filled it. She shoved a bowl at Mari, spilling the hot stew on to Mari's fingers as she struggled to take it and manage the unwieldy fur.

  "Where did you pick up this creature?" Deidre said, perching on the edge of a chair, her kimono arranged to accentuate the shape of her legs. The words that were coming out of her mouth sounded different before. The sounds were different, warped, but somehow they formed familiar words. "She stinks."

  Mari glared at her, but Deidre wasn't looking. Her eyes were latched onto Chase like a cat watching a piece of trash flutter in the wind.

  "She's human," Chase said in between bites of stew. His words sounded strange as well, strange in the same way. "Vladmir's."

  Mari lifted a spoonful of stew to her mouth and touched her tongue to it. It burned! She put the spoon down and waited for it to cool.

  "The competition has gotten that far?" Deidre asked. Her long black hair draped over her shoulder, and she began stroking it, running her fingers through as she brushed it without any brush. "Which one is losing so horribly that they're already there?"

  "Vladmir is," Chase said, a grin spreading across his face. "And the best part is that Silvia has already finished with her human. If he fails, he can't hope she'll fail too and leave it at a draw. If he can't do it, the game is over."

  Mari glanced between the two of them. What was he saying? Vladmir and Silvia were in some sort of competition? She was human; did that mean she was a playing piece in their little game? Her heart started to beat faster as panic stirred deep inside of her. Thoughts of Vladmir's beauty and kindness started to interfere, and she struggled to push them to the side, to focus on the conversation in front of her.

  Chase smiled at Mari and lifted another spoonful of stew.

  "Did Lady Silvia kidnap me because of this competition?" Mari asked. Her own words sounded odd. They didn't come out of her mouth the way they were supposed to. They slipped out, the shapes strange and unfamiliar, matching the shape of the language Chase and Silvia had been using. There was a dull roar in her head as her mind shouted at her, listing Vladmir's admirable qualities.

  Chase paused, the spoon halfway to his open mouth. He stared at her. Deidre started to giggle, covering her mouth with the sleeve of her kimono.

  "You understand what I'm saying right now?" he asked, lowering the spoon back down to the bowl, his voice strained.

  Mari frowned at him. The pressure was building in her head. "Of course, I can. Answer my question."

  Chase sighed heavily and covered his eyes with his hand, his elbow on his knee as he supported his head.

  "Your lazy brother gave her all the languages instead of singling out just one!" Deidre said in between her giggles.

  The pressure pounded against Mari's skull, and she wanted to throw the bowl of hot stew at Deidre just to stop the irritating sound.

  "I was saying horrible things about Vladmir," Chase said, his hand still shading his face. "That weren't true. You shouldn't believe them if you love him."

  Mari's head was aching.

  That wasn't right.

  That didn't sound right at all.

  Mari's hand reached up of its own volition and grabbed the necklace Vladmir gave her, clutching the circle of a mother of pearl-like material against her palm.

  The pressure faded.

  "Badmouthing your brother!" Mari said outraged. "Shame on you, Chase!"

  Mari was angry but not as angry as she knew she should be. She understood. He must have done it to make himself feel better. Standing in the shadow of a prince as wonderful as Vladmir would be hard for anyone, even for a guy who would exhaust himself to rescue her.

  Deidre stopped giggling.

  "Oh my," she said. "He's cheating. That won't work. He'll lose if that's all he's doing."

  The words slid away from Mari's understanding like raindrops on plastic.

  Chase nodded and turned, still hiding his face until his back was to Mari. He sat that way and began eating his stew again.

  Mari peeled her fingers away from her necklace and started in on her meal, her urgently blissful thoughts of Vladmir fading to the background.

  Deidre watched them in silence, her black eyes glittering in the firelight. She tilted her head to the side when Chase set his bowl down and then rose to her feet. She glided over to him and crouched down, knees together in a delicate movement that was more like a dance move than an everyday motion. She reached out with a pale hand and stroked Chase's cheek.

  Mari stared at her bowl and began devouring her food. If anyone had been looking at her, it would have looked like she was on the verge of starving to death.

  "Why don't you come to bed," Deidre murmured. "I'll get your brother's human some furs so she can sleep by the fire."

  Mari glared at her food and tried not to think of anything at all.

  Mari heard Chase rise to his feet and shuffle off towards the other room. She took two huge spoonfuls, stuffing her face with more food than she could handle.

  Mari struggled to swallow or even chew and considered spitting the stew back into the bowl when she heard the noise of the bearskin lifting and looked up.

  Chase walked in from the other room, his arms juggling a large pile of furs and holding another wrapped around him.

  His eyes bugged as he looked at Mari, his mouth half-open in between the gaping shape of shock and the curving lines of a smile.

  "What are you doing?" he asked, barely holding back a laugh.

  Mari stared at him, her cheeks full and bulging to the side like a chipmunk.

  He walked over and dropped the bundle down next to her before breaking into laughter.

  Mari choked on the food as she started to laugh too and ended up expelling it back into her bowl.

  "I don't even want to know," he said, smiling at her before he vanished behind the bearskin again.

  Mari's smile faded as she watched him leave. She finished her stew at a more leisurely pace and sat staring at the empty bowl in her hands. She sighed and tried to think of nothing. Thoughts of Vladmir menaced at the corners of her mind, waiting for her to think about why she was sitting around moping instead of turning the piles of fur into a comfortable place to sleep.

  Chase walked back into the room, one hand holding the skin closed around him, the other wrapped around another bundle of furs.

  She watched as he began turning the bundles into two different sleeping pallets next to the fire.

  "You're sleeping in here?" she asked.

  Vladmir was very attractive. Stunning.

  Mari frowned, her annoyance growing at her thoughts.

  Chase settled down on one pallet, leaving the other one free. He wrapped the furs around him and maneuvered so that his back was to her. His sword lay on the floor next to him.

  "Yes," he grunted.

  "What about your friend?" she asked, pushing. "Won't she be upset with you?"

  "That's none of your business," he said, his tone cold. "Shouldn't you be missing Vladmir right now or something?"

  Mari wiggled her way into the carefully arranged pile of furs that Chase had set out for her. There were so many of them she started to worry she might overheat!

  When she was settled, she thought for a few moments and answered Chase's question with care.

  "He won't leave my thoughts al
one," she said, wondering about the phenomenon. Was that really how love felt? Like a plastic bag suffocating thoughts?

  Chase didn't respond.

  Mari listened to the fire crackling as it devoured the wood. Soon, her exhaustion overcame her desire to understand her thoughts, and she fell asleep.

  #

  Mari woke up.

  It was pitch black in the room. She was groggy, disoriented. When she started shivering, she realized what the problem was.

  It was cold.

  She rubbed her bare arms under the furs, goosebumps making her flesh alien.

  There was a scraping sound of wood on stone next to her, coming from the fireplace.

  In the dark, she looked over and saw the outline of someone lifting the wood from the pile in the corner and putting it into the fireplace. It couldn't be Chase. The form wasn't outlined by a bulky blob of animal fur wrapped around it.

  She heard a voice whisper in the dark, and a soft tingle ran down her spine. A spell was being cast, but it wasn't directed on her.

  What if it was Chase?

  Mari ducked her head under the covers, closing her eyes.

  The fire flared, catching hold of the logs with magical urgency.

  She heard bare feet padding back, ending at Chase's pallet.

  She shivered violently. The heat would take time to work its way through several heavy layers of cold furs before reaching her. Her teeth chattered, and she huddled, tucking her knees up against her chest, facing away from Chase and towards the fire.

  She heard a dragging sound of furs over the wooden floor.

  The top layer of her bedding was pulled off of her, and she kept her eyes shut. She froze in place as more layers lifted, not moving a single muscle, her diaphragm clenching, and her breaths shallow.

  Mari peaked out the corner of one eye, opening it for a millisecond before closing it again. Chase was leaning over her, bare chest and shoulders in her sight. He was doing something, and she didn't know what.

  Mari clutched the fur that lay directly against her skin, holding on to it for dear life. If he touched that, she was going to stop pretending to be asleep and smack him.

  He pulled off all of the furs, except for that one, and began gingerly tucking the edges of it on one side under her. He wasn't pulling it off, so she didn't react and let him go about whatever he was doing.