Page 45 of A Kiss from the Fae (Mistress of Magic #2)

Faye dropped the cup onto the dirt floor; the liquid spilled out into a puddle, and the cup rolled away. The steam was pungent and it had awoken her from her daze.

‘I don’t want it.’ Faye shook herself, horrified that she’d almost drunk it without really wanting to. ‘It’s not for me.’

‘Then you are a fool,’ Moronoe retorted. ‘If you have that child, Levantiana will take it from you. Better that you end it now and save your grief, and the fate of the child.’

‘There will be another way. There must be!’ Faye cried. ‘Surely Lyr wouldn’t stand by and?—’

But Moronoe laughed cruelly, interrupting her.

‘Lyr is the father of countless bastards that he has no interest in protecting. Don’t expect him to help you.’

‘But…there must be something I can do. Please, my queen. Help me.’

The faerie queen stared at Faye with a grim expression.

‘Drink the tea,’ she repeated.

Faye thought furiously. ‘What if I go home, back to Abercolme? I won’t tell anyone about the baby.’

The faerie queen kept an unbroken eye contact with Faye, frowning.

‘Finn and Levantiana will know where you are, regardless. You cannot hide from them.’ She shook her head. ‘Better you end it now.’

‘I won’t do that.’ Faye met Moronoe’s gaze levelly.

‘I can’t avoid them knowing where I am, and I can’t stop them knowing that I’m pregnant.

But if Levantiana wants the baby, then she knows I have to carry it to term.

That I have to be healthy, and I have to stay in the ordinary world to be well, right?

It would be too risky to transport me into Murias, wouldn’t it? At least for long periods of time?’

Moronoe nodded. ‘Your human body needs human food, water, the nourishment of the human world. She knows this as well as I.’

‘All right. So, she’ll watch me, but she’ll think I’m honouring the bargain.’

‘And then what? When it’s born?’ Moronoe demanded. ‘She will not change her mind. She will take the child. Are you willing to give it up?’

‘No.’ Faye shook her head. ‘But you can help me. Hide us here. Levantiana can’t come here, can she?’

The faerie queen gave Faye a calculating look.

‘No, you would be safe here. But you would have to re-enter the human world at some point. You are only half faerie, and your human body needs to be in its element.’

‘What about the baby?’ Faye was desperate, but she had to find a way to protect it.

She’d no more drink the moon tea than cut her own throat.

She could see that it would be a logical option, but Faye just couldn’t do it.

‘Could you keep it here? Until it was…I don’t know.

Old enough to not be of interest to Levantiana any more?

I mean, how old would that even be? When will she stop being interested in the child? ’

‘You could bear the child with the help of the fae midwives,’ Moronoe mused. ‘You would not suffer, for they are skilled in the childbearing arts. And when the child is born, I could keep him here. He would be protected in my realm.’

Faye looked around her at the rough walls of dirt and roots.

‘But for how long?’ She hated the thought of trusting Moronoe, but it was the only solution she could think of. At least here, the baby would be protected.

‘It is possible that I could teach him magic when he is old enough,’ Moronoe suggested. ‘It might be enough to deter her. Or, she may only want a baby. A child may not suit her purposes, in which case, we need only keep him here until he is four or five of your human years.’

‘But don’t you know for sure?’ Faye demanded. ‘This is my child we’re talking about! Why should I let you keep him in your realm? That would be the same as letting Levantiana have him.’

Moronoe glared at her.

‘No, it would not. With me, he would be safe. With me, you could have him back when it was safe for you to do so. I am offering you help. I advise you to take it,’ the faerie queen thundered.

‘Let us not forget that it is you that is asking me for a favour here, niece. Perhaps a little more gratitude might be in order.’

Faye took in a deep breath.

‘I am grateful for your help. But you have to understand that I’m trying to find some kind of workable solution to…’ She shook her head. ‘To an unthinkable problem.’

But what does Moronoe really get out of helping me?

Faye watched the faerie queen with a critical eye.

Was she really so committed to protecting Faye?

There was no reason why she should be. Granted, she’d indicated that she liked the idea that the baby might drive a wedge between Finn and Levantiana.

However, Faye imagined Moronoe had other ways of doing that if she wanted to.

‘Humans are so emotional.’ Moronoe rolled her eyes.

‘If the baby’s human, then it can’t stay here. It will kill him. Or her.’ The surreal nature of what she was talking about with Moronoe struck Faye. Surely she couldn’t be considering leaving her child in the faerie realm?

‘He will be partly fae, taking that from you. And if I have him from a newborn, he will adjust. That is why the fae like to take human babies. They can live in our realms more easily if they grow within it than if they arrive from another realm. Then, it is too much of a shock. If they are here from the beginning, they are reared on faerie milk, which gives them what they need to survive.’ Moronoe patted her large, rounded breast. ‘I will suckle him myself.’

‘Won’t Lyr protect me against Levantiana? Can’t he do anything? He is my father, after all.’ Faye was desperate for any ray of hope that meant she didn’t have to leave her baby in Falias to be brought up in Moronoe’s court.

‘Lyr.’ Moronoe spat on the ground. ‘My brother is no help to anyone. We are no longer speaking, so I cannot ask his help even if I wanted to, which I do not.’ She tossed her head proudly.

‘Why not?’ Lyr had mentioned he and his sister were estranged, but he hadn’t explained why.

‘Because I am a queen, and I do not need his rulership or approval; I am head of my own queendom. I need not submit to the kingdom of Falias to have power.’ She snorted.

‘I also disapprove of the way he uses human women like a harem. Faerie kings and queens have always had human lovers, for pleasure, but Lyr seems to be obsessed with fathering as many half-fae children as he can. There is no need for it.’

Faye was surprised.

‘I wouldn’t have…expected you to care so much. About the women,’ she replied carefully.

‘I have no sympathy for them individually. They choose to become enamoured of him.’ Moronoe shook her head angrily.

Faye thought it was prudent not to mention that the average woman would have no protection against the seductive power of a faerie king – she hadn’t, and she was half faerie.

‘But the principle angers me. I am the protectress of reproduction, of the seed of life in nature. It is a sacred process; a human woman is the creatrix of her world. There is a balance to these things that he ignores. In the old days, it was one human child a year given to the fae. Not a hundred, born because Lyr of Falias can’t control himself. ’

Moronoe’s tone was brisk now. ‘I also disapprove of this war, and my brother dislikes being disapproved of.’ The faerie queen smiled grimly. Faye shivered at the thought of being the object of Moronoe’s disapproval.

‘They battle over the control of the Crystal Castle.’ Moronoe looked to the roof in disdain. ‘I refuse to be involved. It is a war of stupid against stupider; no one can control the Crystal Castle except Morgana Le Fae.’

‘Lyr told me that.’

Moronoe picked up what looked like a sweet pastry from a plate on the table and tore half of it off with her sharp white teeth.

‘I have enough to do, governing the realm of earth, without playing at war. Morgana can take care of herself, and anyway’ – she chewed the pastry with a smile of contentment – ‘they have no doubt misinterpreted the prophecy. She knows that as well as I do.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know of the prophecy, I take it?’ Moronoe pushed the other half of the pastry into her mouth and licked her voluptuous lips with her tongue.

‘Finn told me I am destined to rule the Crystal Castle,’ Faye replied. ‘It seems…unlikely.’

‘Incorrect. The books say a half-fae woman will have the power over it . Not you, specifically. It could be any half-human, half-faerie creature,’ Moronoe replied. ‘It is very vague wording.’

‘Why does he think it’s me?’ Faye wanted to know.

‘He may have been influenced to think that way.’ Moronoe gave her a calculating stare. ‘I have told you that a faerie king is ruled by his lust. Levantiana knows she can control her brother. I think she seeks to gain power over him. Possibly over the entire faerie realm.’

‘How? Why?’ Faye frowned.

‘I know not. It may suit her purposes for her brother to believe that you are the one who will take power, to distract him from her true purpose. To take it herself. When you cast your little spell – of course, we all know of it – you appeared on Levantiana’s radar.

She saw your beauty. She realised that you have the look of my family, and she guessed that you might be half fae.

She set the trap and you walked straight into it. ’

Faye looked around her at the roots pushing through the earth walls and the glass and stone lamps flickering with strange coloured light. Would she really end up hiding her baby here from Finn and Levantiana? It seemed unthinkable.

Moronoe unhooked a jet-black necklace interspersed with citrine and amber crystals from her own neck and held it out to Faye. Each bead was a cube about an inch square; it was a heavy piece that weighed on her neck when she held it against her own throat.

‘Take this. Wear it all the time as protection. And when you need me, call out and I will hear you, wherever you are.’ Moronoe helped Faye with the clasp. Her touch was gentle. ‘Now, go home and think about what we have said.’

There’s another way. There must be , Faye thought as she closed her eyes and felt the strangeness of transitioning between the fae and the human realm overtake her senses.

But I will go home. She felt it, sure and right and clear in her gut.

Abercolme was where she needed to be, and that was where she’d go.

Perhaps when she was there, it would become clear as to what she’d do next. She hoped so.