Page 40 of A Kiss from the Fae (Mistress of Magic #2)

Faye closed her eyes as she felt all four elements swirl into the circle.

As the coven started to circle clockwise, she felt the four powers wrap her in a golden light, combined of earth, air, fire and water, as if she was being wound in a ribbon, over and over.

Her psychic body as well as her physical one drank up the earth, fire and air hungrily.

Slowly, her headache started to ebb away, and her focus started to return.

Gabriel. Gabriel. Please. Any powers that are listening.

Bring him back safely to us , she implored, sending her wishes into the centre of the cone of power they were building.

The magic circle was in itself an in-between place – a created space where beings from other worlds could be invited to tread.

The feeling of being bandaged, frozen, was strange.

Usually, magic was like slipping into a natural rhythm, as natural as breathing.

Tonight, she couldn’t relax and let it flow through her.

Her heart was that stone in the cold sea still: falling, untethered and full of fear.

The grief made her magic waver and fade.

‘Powers of the elements, gods of the old ways, spirit guardians. We request your help. One of our own is lost in the kingdom of Murias. We desire your strength to help us call him home,’ Sylvia called, standing at the centre of the circle now, holding the power between her hands in a ball of golden light.

She threw her head back, holding the ball of light up.

‘Powers, gods, guardians! Help us!’ she called, and Faye opened her eyes.

Lyr, Faerie King of the Realm of Falias appeared at the centre of the circle and bowed.

‘I am at your service, Priestess,’ he rumbled.

‘We ask respectfully for your assistance, King of Falias.’ Sylvia bowed her head. ‘And thank you for attending our rite.’

‘No!’ Faye cried out, but Lyr only smiled.

‘My help comes at a price, as my daughter knows. I am surprised you did not summon me yourself with the crystal wand.’ Lyr nodded courteously.

Faye refused to meet his eyes, but her hands clutched at the crystal.

Holding it made her more certain of her feet on the ground, and she felt the power of the earth flowing up through the mud and rock, through the trampled grass and into her feet, ankles, legs. No, no, no.

Find me a human woman to bear my child, and I will help you bring your friend home. Faye knew what Lyr’s bargain was: in return for a suitable woman to bear his half-faerie child, he’d return Gabriel to them. But the price was too high, like it always was. She had warned them.

‘We are willing to make offerings to you. Tell us what you require in return for your help in this matter,’ Sylvia continued, her voice strong and steady.

‘Don’t listen to him. He wants what they all want.

A human sacrifice! Can’t you see?’ Faye cried, appealing to them, turning around the circle to make them understand.

But the rest of the coven stared at Lyr raptly.

Faye guessed that he’d enchanted them already.

Perhaps they couldn’t hear or see her any more; perhaps Lyr was inside their minds, distracting them with their innermost desires.

Sylvia was the only one whose attention remained on Faye and Lyr.

Perhaps she was the only one strong enough to be able to resist his magic, or perhaps there was a reason that Lyr wanted her awake.

Lyr turned to Faye.

‘You know the bargain, daughter. It still stands.’ He was refusing to answer Sylvia.

‘What is the bargain?’ Sylvia demanded. ‘I’m in charge here. Your daughter is a part of the circle that brought you here. I’m the one you will bargain with.’

Lyr laughed softly. ‘I bear you no disrespect, Priestess, but I came here because of Faye and Faye only. We have an unfinished business, and she knows it. Think of it as a test of your loyalty to your fae family, daughter. You tried to do it without me. You failed.’ His smile was wolfish.

‘Never.’ Faye turned her head away.

‘Come now.’ Lyr stood behind her, his large hand on her shoulder. ‘What other reason is there for her to be here? You know who it is. And you have no love for her.’

Faye’s gaze darted across the circle at Mallory and then at the others; they were all frozen and unmoving.

‘What have you done to them?’ she demanded.

‘Nothing permanent. They are quite well.’ Lyr shook his head. ‘So. You tried your own way in Murias, and you failed,’ he repeated matter-of-factly. ‘Are you ready for another of your friends to die?’

‘No,’ she muttered. ‘But I refuse to let you take Mallory. She might not be my favourite person, but she’s not a whore for the taking.’

‘I am appalled that you should think I would want her as one. She will be cherished as the mother of my children,’ he rebuked.

‘The mother of a half-human sacrifice, you mean,’ Faye shouted suddenly, tears thick in her throat, furious at the way the fae treated her and other humans.

Grief for Aisha struck her bones; she ached with the loss.

‘We are people ! We have our own lives. We’re not here for your amusement or to be used as baby-making machines.

’ Instinctively, her hand went to her belly.

‘Then I wish you luck in extricating your friend from Levantiana’s clutches.

’ Lyr shrugged, and turned to walk out of the circle.

‘He is fully human. How long do you think he can withstand the force of her adoration?’ Lyr raised an eyebrow.

‘The faerie queens love far more savagely than the kings, so they say.’

The force of her adoration . Faye remembered the bloody whip lines that criss-crossed Gabriel’s slumped body, chained to the wall where she kept him; Levantiana’s long, sharp fingernails digging into Gabriel’s groin.

Yet, she also remembered the look in his eyes as Levantiana danced with him at the ball.

You’d die there, because dying would be so sweet , she remembered thinking when they had been at Fortune’s.

She wondered if it would have made any difference if she’d told Gabriel then what she’d seen before; if she’d told him about the human lover she’d first seen Levantiana with.

But she knew it wouldn’t. Gabriel, like any human man, was powerless against the erotic power of any faerie queen.

‘I will make the bargain.’ Sylvia’s voice was low. ‘He was…he is one of my coven. He is my responsibility.’

‘Sylvia! No!’ Faye stared, uncomprehending, at the High Priestess. She tried to move towards her, but a flick of Lyr’s hand rendered her immobile. She tried to speak, but he’d taken her words.

‘I see that one of you has common sense. Perhaps this is not Faye’s choice after all.’ Lyr smiled, pleasurable intrigue on his features, and turned to Sylvia. Bathed in the golden luminescence that surrounded him, the High Priestess looked as if she’d been set on fire.

Faye stared wildly at Mallory, frozen like the rest, and watched, powerless, as Sylvia trod noiselessly across the circle and came to stand in front of her. Lyr had enchanted her so easily, and Faye was powerless to stop it.

Mallory’s kohl-rimmed eyes were half closed; her long black coat billowed from her tiny frame like a flag portending death.

‘I’m in charge here,’ Sylvia repeated. ‘This is my responsibility. A High Priestess summons the powers; she does what is right for her coven.’

Faye tried to shout, to say anything, to warn Sylvia, but she was mute. No, please, don’t . She willed Sylvia to resist Lyr. But the faerie king’s power was too great.

‘And this one?’ Lyr ran his fingers through Mallory’s blonde fringe. ‘She is not also one of your charges?’

‘She is not…’ Faye could see that it pained Sylvia to say it, but she continued. ‘She is not an initiate. I have not sworn to protect her, and she has not sworn to be a full member of the coven.’

Faye’s heart sank. Could Sylvia be so heartless? But no. This wasn’t malice. It never was. The faerie kings and queens could manipulate humans into doing whatever they wanted. They had done it to Faye before she’d gained some power to resist them.

‘She will be perfectly safe.’ Lyr stood behind Sylvia, reaching out to trace his finger over Mallory’s cheek. ‘Such a pretty one. She will bear a son.’

‘How do you know?’ Sylvia spoke as if she was in a trance. Faye’s heart sank deeper.

‘I know,’ Lyr replied, smiling.

‘Is there no other way?’ Sylvia’s voice was eerily calm.

‘There is not,’ he said quietly.

‘Take her. But I want Gabriel back. Now!’ Sylvia cried out.

‘As you wish, Priestess.’ Lyr smiled and touched Mallory’s forehead. She unfroze, but her expression was still vacant. Lyr took her by the hand. As he did so, a black pathway appeared through the forest where there hadn’t been one before. Faye knew instinctively it was the road to Falias.

‘Daughter, if you seek the wisdom of plants to rid yourself of your affliction – seek out my sister, the faerie queen Moronoe,’ he said over his shoulder as he took Mallory’s hand in his and led her down the black path that glittered with crystal.

As Lyr and Mallory disappeared, Faye felt herself able to move and talk again. The rest of the coven unfroze and looked around them in expressions of confusion. Some of them stumbled and fell.

Faye knelt at the centre of the circle as branches, twigs and leaves rained down from above her and hugged the inert body of Gabriel Black, who lay unconscious in her arms.