The Winged Fae (The World of Fae) (6 page)

“Aye, as I have told him.”

“Go,” she said in way of releasing him from his meeting with her. “Find them before her mother learns what has become of her.”

He stalked toward the door, paused, turned, and asked, “Did the princess know what her mother had intended with regard to Serena marrying Micala?”

“Of course.”

“Was she pleased?”

“Of course not. Such is the task we mothers have to face. Ungrateful children who do not know enough about the politics of running kingdoms and the importance of alliances.” She gave Deveron a pointed look, assuring him she included him in that category.

He didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to marry someone other than Alicia.

“Serena will grow to care for Micala. Now go, before her mother learns she is off with Niall, goddess knows where and what doing.”

Had Serena written something discouraging about the Denkar because of the impending marriage arrangement between her and his cousin?

Great.
Deveron left the throne room, motioned for three servants, and said, “Go at once to South Padre Island dressed as human painters. Under Queen Irenis’s orders, paint the wall that the winged fae illustrated with her artwork. Tell the scholars who are trying to decipher it that there’s no need to learn what the message had said.”

“Aye, my lord.”

The three men hurried off while Deveron returned to the two trackers. “I’m going with you. More is at stake than I ever thought possible.”

He’d kill Niall himself if he strangled the girl before he knew who she was and ultimately caused a war between their kingdoms.

Chapter 5

While the music from the Renaissance fair continued to serenade them, and tons of humans in their strange costumes passed them by, Sir Reginald glowered at Serena, then at Niall. “You lie. She would never have kissed the likes of you. She abhors the idea of marrying a lion fae.”

Niall glanced at Serena, who looked horrified that he’d even mentioned she had kissed him, which made him smile. If her concern was because he had told on her, it served her right for kissing Niall without his being able to respond. But he also wondered about the knight’s remark that Serena hated the idea of marrying one of his kind. Why would that even be an issue that she would consider?

“I challenge you to a joust,” Sir Reginald told Niall.

“No! You can’t!” Serena said angrily. “He’s still under the influence of my sleeping potion. You have no reason to challenge him anyway.”

The knight stiffened. “Why had you put him to sleep? You wouldn’t have done so
unless
he’d threatened you.”

“He startled me when I was writing the message. I didn’t mean to put him to sleep,” she said, irritated.

The knight would not allow her to dismiss his concerns. “He would have arrested you. You said yourself you were in the lion fae dungeon.”

She folded her arms and scowled at him. “You knew that might happen if one of the royal fae and not one of their underlings caught me writing the message. We agreed it was a risk I had to take.”

A risk she had to take?
For what? For this pompous aristocrat? Why didn’t the knight paint the graffiti on the wall if both had agreed to do it? Why didn’t
he
take the risk and not the lady?
Coward!

Niall glowered at the man, who stood his same six–foot height and who didn’t intimidate him in the least. Although the sleeping potion put Niall at a decided disadvantage. The dragon fae and the lion fae had never gotten along. And he would not let the challenge go.

“I accept,” Niall said, ready to knock him off his mount at once—if he had a mount right now—just to prove to the dragon fae he had met his match. “Any man who sends a woman to do his dirty work deserves to be trounced on the playing field.”

The gold rings around the knight’s eyes expanded.

“No!” Serena said vehemently to Niall. “You cannot. Not when you’re still feeling the effects of the drug.”

“When is the joust to be held?” Niall asked the knight, not taking his eyes off Sir Reginald, ignoring Serena’s words.

“We will joust at four in between the regularly scheduled human shows,” Reginald said. “’Tis a shame we cannot play for real.”

Niall knew what the knight referred to. In front of the humans, they couldn’t fight to the death. But after Niall stomped the knight’s honor into the dirt—worse, that he did so in front of the woman he was pursuing—he knew Reginald would want satisfaction in a permanent, deadly way.

Niall didn’t hesitate to respond. “Aye. I’ll be there.”

“I’ll wear your favor, princess,” Sir Reginald said, taking her hand in his and kissing it. He didn’t say it as if he genuinely wanted to wear her favor, but more that he wanted to ensure she knew he would and that she better not think of giving her favor to Niall to wear. He gave Niall one last scowl, although a shimmer of amusement glimmered in his eyes.

Niall assumed Reginald was certain he could best him, most likely because of Niall’s drugged state. Which given that, the man could be right. But he would not shirk from his duty as a lion fae.

Sir Reginald whipped around and stalked off.

“You can’t fight him in the condition you’re in. Can you even joust?” she asked, her voice threaded with disbelief and worry.

“I wouldn’t have agreed to fight him if I didn’t know how,” Niall said cross with her. He was one of the Denkar! He had trained in every form of weaponry. The only form he didn’t excel at was with the bow, and there, the dragon fae nearly always had the advantage. Most seemed to be born with an uncanny ability to use the bow, although with any ability like that, training improved the skill. If they spent little practice at it, they would be no better than any other fae who trained hard at it.

But ultimately, a lion fae never backed down from a dragon fae. It just wasn’t done.

Conceding that he would not let this go, Serena shook her head. “I have to get you the antidote before you fight him.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Niall!” Deveron shouted somewhere behind them in the crowd of humans. His tone of voice sounded more worried than angry. Well, maybe a little incensed.

Niall couldn’t see the prince, but he suspected Deveron was with trackers who were following their confusingly scattered fae dust trail as Serena had swept it into the woods.

“She is—,” Deveron hollered.

Before he could shout anything more, Serena whisked Niall away to a field of tall wavering flowers that smelled like roses and jasmine and honeysuckle all combined.

“I don’t want you fighting Sir Reginald,” Serena said again, as they arrived goddess knew where.

She pulled him through the meadow filled with purple daisies, lilacs, towering hollyhocks, and broad golden sunflowers that gently swayed in the breeze. Honeysuckle covered some areas while a ground cover of fragrant jasmine clustered in others. Forests edged the meadow, and he could hear water sluicing over rocks as it made its way downriver somewhere close by. “There’s no reason to do so. I’ll make you well, and you can go home.”

He focused on what he’d wanted to know all along. “What was the message you meant to write on the wall?”

She sighed. “The Mabara will ally with the dragon fae, not the dark fae!”

“Were you trying to start a war?” he asked incredulously, his whole body weary as he trudged along with her, hand–in–hand.

“Of course not. I intended a non–royal lion fae to see the message and take it back to your queen. I didn’t expect to see you there. I only wanted to stop a marriage.”

Niall pulled her to a halt. He had a sickening feeling about this. She wanted to marry the Black Knight, a dragon fae, but Queen Irenis had made other arrangements? She must have come to some agreement with the lady’s mother. “Who were you to marry?”

“Micala.”

Niall stared at her in disbelief. First, Micala wasn’t ready to settle down. Second, his cousin would have told him about an impending marriage to any fae, but especially to one who was this unusual. Third, Queen Irenis, his aunt, would not have arranged for Micala to be married to just any fae. Which set him to worrying. Had she intended to do the same for Niall without his knowledge?

So who was Serena really?

“Who is your mother?”

She tugged her hand free, folded her arms, and gave him one of her more impudent looks. “The queen of the Mabara, Verbania.”

***

Serena knew eventually she’d have to tell Niall who she truly was, and she expected just the reaction she was getting now. Disbelief, irritation, and most likely a set determination to take her back to the dark fae kingdom to ensure she did what Queen Irenis and her mother wanted. After all, Queen Irenis was Niall’s queen.

But Serena wasn’t going to be forced into a marriage with a lion fae.
Period.

Niall reached for Serena, and she stepped back, waving her arms in a manner that stated he better not touch her. “No, you won’t return me to your castle. I need to give you the cure first. You’ll never be able to stand a chance against the Black Knight otherwise. Isn’t it your place to challenge Reginald for his trying to break up the marriage contract?”

“No, it isn’t my place but rather it is Micala’s to challenge the knight. But since I’m certain that my cousin doesn’t know about it in the first place, and you kissed me and not him, which seemed to be what made Sir Reginald so angry…”

Her face heated and she knew it had to have blossomed in color. Seeing her reaction, he smiled.

“Ha! I couldn’t believe you’d tell him about it!” she said.

“Neither of you satisfied my curiosity as to what the message was all about or why he was involved,” Niall said. “I thought if I brought it up, he might very well explain what it was all about.” After seeing the knight’s angry face, Niall probably assumed the man had never been that intimate with Serena, nor she with him. “Has he kissed you?”

“Certainly!” Which wasn’t a lie.

Niall smile broadened. “Only on the hand?”

“I’m the Mabara princess. He knows that I’d have to agree to such a thing, and so he’s abiding his—”

Niall didn’t even wait for her to finish what she had to say, but pulled her securely into his arms and kissed her, sweetly, tenderly, lovingly. She melted, her own senses reeling. She tentatively kissed him back, saw his eyes darkening, but he suddenly pulled away, their breaths raspy.

“Take me to where the cure is.” His gaze was still on hers, but he stepped away as if he’d done something he shouldn’t have. Which was true, so why was she wanting so much more?

She was still thinking about the kiss, the press of his lips on hers, the way he seemed so caring, so feeling, the way he’d enfolded her so fully in his arms. She couldn’t think.

“Serena,
princess
,” he said, gently, but urgently, “where have you hidden the antidote?”

“You kissed me,” she said softly, touching her lips with the tip of her finger, unable to think of anything else.

“Aye. You didn’t give me an opportunity to kiss you back the last time. You had me at a decided disadvantage. But it was time for me to take my turn.” He gave her the most disarmingly sweet smile.

So, it was just a way to get back at her? For having kissed him and left evidence on his lips the last time?

“He will kill you if he learns of it,” Serena growled, then stalked off toward a wooded area.

“The knight?” Niall humpfed.

“I don’t want you fighting him.”

“You said I would have to because he was trying to stop the marriage contract between you and my cousin.”

She didn’t say anything,

“You really think I can’t best him?”

“Of course you can’t. He’s been jousting at the fair for weeks. He loses at the very end only because that’s the role he gets paid to do. But it amuses him to be the Black Knight, to hear his side cheering for him. Him, a dragon fae.”

“Who is but a knight in the fae world.”

Serena glowered at Niall, who was falling behind. She slowed her pace, sorry again for having drugged him. “I don’t care about his rank. I’d take a knight over a count any day, if I loved him.”

“Do you love him?” Niall suddenly asked, as if such a thing would even matter to him.

He was like all the rest. Whatever the queens decided would be. And if Serena didn’t stop it, she’d be stuck with Micala, a count she’d never met and didn’t care to meet.

“Of course I do.”

But he noted her long hesitation in answering and shook his head.

“What? You don’t believe me?”

“I think you love the way he jousts. Maybe that he’s going against the ruling of your queen. Probably no one else in your kingdom would think of doing such a thing. Possibly, you like that he enjoys the fair as you do. But know this, Princess, you are a conquest for him. For the dragon fae. And the king of the dragon fae would reward Reginald if the knight could win your hand. Queen Irenis will not be appeased however. I doubt your mother will be happy either.”

“If I love him…”

Niall smiled.

She stalked off. “Why would you try to stop me from marrying Reginald? I don’t even know Micala. He might be an ogre!”

“He’s my cousin.”

She glanced back at Niall, noted his sour look, then remarked, “Well
you
don’t have to marry him.”

He smiled at that, then frowned. “Where are we going?”

“To gather some herbs. And you will not watch me.”

“Do not tell me you have to create the potion.”

She didn’t say anything.

He groaned. He was falling even farther behind. When she looked back, he’d disappeared. Her heart leapt with distress. Had he fae transported? Returned to the Denkar castle to report what she was up to? To relay the message she’d written on the wall?

She raced back to where she’d seen him last and saw a separation in the tall wavering hollyhocks and sunny sunflowers. And found him lying on the ground, his eyes shut, his arms folded across his chest.

“Are you asleep?” she whispered.

“Yes,” he said, not opening his eyes. “You can kiss me again, if you like while I dream about it.”