Page 29 of A Dance with the Fae (Mistress of Magic #1)

Finn spread his palms open in a gesture that implied he was being honest; Faye doubted that he was. However, the use of his full name seemed still to be working.

‘I do not know. Suffice to say that whatever she offered my sister must have been significant, for her to be allowed to be here in spirit. And…’

‘And what?’

‘Murias is the realm of water, but we also have a long tradition of magic here. Modron Morgan was a witch in life, though she never fully realised her powers, in the same way as you have not so far. She wanted the power of Murias. She learned it here.’ Finn sighed.

‘What is the power of Murias?’ Faye demanded, feeling her heart lift. If Moddie learned it, then so can I.

‘It is secret. Not for humans.’

‘I am not fully human,’ she replied crisply. ‘And, you taught Moddie.’

‘I did not teach her. The faerie queens are the keepers of the magic.’ Finn turned away from her, his voice peevish.

‘Levantiana?’ Faye continued to push him.

‘In Murias, yes. She is the Mistress of the Cup.’ Finn was evasive.

‘Will she teach me? I am half fae,’ Faye repeated.

To have the faerie magic would give her the power she lacked in Murias.

With it, perhaps Finn wouldn’t be able to take advantage of her human weaknesses.

And if she met Levantiana, maybe she would be able to find out what the bargain was that Moddie had struck with her – and find her mother.

‘No!’ Finn shouted, turning to her. There was an uncomfortable silence.

‘No, sidhe-leth ,’ he repeated. ‘Your mother was a special case. And she had passed from your realm already; she learned the magics once she had died in the human world. We cannot teach the faerie magic to anyone who resides there alive. It is forbidden.’

‘Well, then, will I see her again?’ Faye’s heart sank; she had made her peace with Moddie’s death.

When we pass over, we are busy elsewhere , Grandmother had taught her, though she had never specified where.

We can teach others on the inner planes; we can come into another body for another life; we can heal, we can spend time with our loved ones.

All is possible once we have passed, but that person as you knew them, when they are gone from this world, they’re gone for good.

But seeing Moddie again had thrown Faye completely – all those years of grief were unpicked, like wool being wound back from a blanket. Now, she longed for her mother, and it hurt.

‘Murias is wide and far-reaching, Faye. Do not expect to see her again.’ Finn’s voice was soft, but she sensed the firmness of his resolve.

‘Why not?’

‘She should not have appeared to you. There are rules,’ Finn replied grimly.

Faye felt exhaustion take her over, and she crumpled onto the bed.

‘I want to go home,’ she whispered. ‘I’m so tired.’ It was a physical tiredness, but the revived grief for Moddie filled her with a heaviness she remembered all too well.

‘Try to leave, then, since you think that you can. But you have eaten and drunk here. When you return to your world, you will be weaker. Less immune to the perils of the human world.’ He stood over her, toweringly tall.

‘You said earlier that wouldn’t apply to me, because I am half fae,’ she argued. ‘Were you lying?’

‘No. You will still be affected; less so, because you are part fae. The fae stock protects you, otherwise it would be worse,’ he replied.

‘I’ll take my chances,’ she muttered grimly. She was so tired; she longed to sleep again on Finn’s soft, palatial bed. But she had to go. She knew that she had already stayed far too long. She hauled herself up.

‘Fine. Go. But…you must promise to love only me from now on, sidhe-leth . Otherwise, the magic between us will decline. I will treat you as a queen if you honour me as your king. You can gain great power, just by eating our food and drinking our wine and water, sweet one. I need you by my side.’ He reached for her wrist and wrapped his hand around it.

Faye detected a sense of desperation in him.

‘But if my lover loves another, then I will punish him. And you, too.’ The threat against Rav was clear.

Faye pulled her arm away from Finn’s grasp. ‘I can promise no such thing until you treat me as queens should be treated.’ She turned to face him. ‘Queens rule. They pass judgement. Queens understand the realm they command. How can I be your queen if I’ve done none of these things?’

His smile vanished and his fine-featured face took on a watchful look.

‘I mean that I will treat you as a queen should be treated . I will adore you. With my lips, my hands, everything of myself.’ He ran his finger up her arm, and she shivered at the electricity that flashed through her body at his touch.

‘But I cannot wed you as you do in your world. Such a thing does not exist in Murias, or any of the faerie kingdoms. And you cannot ever be the real queen of this realm. Levantiana is High Queen of Murias, and there is no one else who could be.’

‘I don’t want to be your bride ,’ Faye snapped. ‘I don’t know if I ever want to come back at all.’

She also knew that if he touched her again, if his hands held her breasts, if his full, sulky lips found hers again, she might be submerged once more in the erotic lassitude that had kept her here this long. ‘I need to leave,’ she insisted.

Finn picked up a golden vase and threw it against the wall. The explosion of reeds and water lilies caught at her skin like a rebuke.

‘There is nothing to think about!’ he roared; his eyes bulged in sudden fury, and Faye stepped back, her arms over her head as he kicked one of the delicate bedside tables over; it was made of crystal, and shattered on the floor.

‘You have no idea! None! How fortunate you are, what I have done to bring you here! Do you think this is how every mortal woman is treated in Murias?’ He strode over to her and caught at her hands, but she pulled them away.

‘Don’t touch me.’ Faye was trying to keep her voice controlled, as if calming a wild horse.

She felt that if she shouted back, the situation would worsen.

She was terrified, but the only way out of this was to pacify the faerie king.

Moddie, Grandmother, give me strength, please help me , she prayed silently.

She tried to visualise the shop, her safe place, her ancestors reaching across time to be with her, like she had felt them before, but she couldn’t concentrate.

‘Time to think! You don’t know what you are thinking , Faye Morgan.

Few mortals are ever chosen to be the king’s consort, to come and go with freedom from his kingdom.

You are special, and I offered you more than anyone.

’ Finn’s eyes were flinty. As the anger rose in her belly – How dare he threaten me, how dare he intimidate me like this – some of the illusion that had kept her here fell away.

SShe saw him for what he was under the cold, powerful, desirous facade: spoilt, insecure, unable to control his emotions.

‘I didn’t ask for any of this!’ she screamed back at him. ‘You invaded my dreams. You kept me here as your lover. I want none of it!’

‘Then why did you conjure me in your little spell?’ he roared at her.

‘Yes. I know what you did. You made a poppet of me, and I appeared. Because it is fate that we be together, sidhe-leth . I have seen it. And you knew without ever meeting me. That was why you made an image of me and summoned me to you.’

‘I…I didn’t ask for a faerie king! I wanted a real lover. A man. To love me. A relationship,’ she protested, though she knew that it was true: Finn was exactly like the poppet she had made. How could anyone explain that? Was it fate, as Finn said?

‘Fine. Lie to yourself all you like, and deny your destiny. But I will not wait forever for you, and I know that we are meant to be together, as King and Consort, and that you are destined to rule the Crystal Castle with me alongside you. I suggest that you get used to the idea.’ Finn shrugged on his clothes and walked out, banging the door behind him.

Faye pulled on her clothes. She had to leave. Now.

He wouldn’t change. He couldn’t. He was of the oceans, and every ocean held monsters.

Finn’s realm of water held the deepest, darkest places, where humans could never venture, just as much as it held sunlit bays where warm, transparent seas stretched over white sands.

Finn Beatha was the King of Murias; he was Murias, and he was unable to be anything else.

The illusion he had thrown over her, like a glamour, like a net over a fish, had shifted, and she knew she couldn’t go back to him. She could follow the labyrinth back to the faerie road that ended on Black Sands Beach. She could go home.

However, she was worried for Rav. Even if she never kissed him again, even if nothing ever happened again between them, he was in danger. Finn knew about them, and he was jealous, and she had seen the shadow under his golden magic.

Heart heavy, Faye walked out of Finn’s bedroom, out of the castle, through the market and followed the labyrinth home.

The way was open – no one stopped her, nothing dallied her.

As she made her way back to Abercolme, the grief at losing Moddie for the second time weighed heavy on her, and part of her longed to run back to Murias to search for her mother.

Yet, she sensed that she was on a precipice; nothing could stay the same, now that she had been inside Murias and had become the lover of the faerie king.

She knew in her bones that everything was about to change, forever.