Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) (14 page)

‘Orion? Not Isla?’

He shook his head. ‘The Faery Throne is passed down through the male line, unless there is no male. Then a female can ascend the throne.’

‘That doesn’t seem very fair. What does Isla think of that?’

He stopped walking and turned to face me. ‘I must admit I’d never considered it.’ He looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged a shoulder. ‘It’s the way it has always been.’

We were silent for a while as we continued to walk. ‘What’s Orion like,’ I finally asked.

Aethan sighed. ‘He’s so serious. I worry about him.’

‘All work and no play?’

‘Something like that. He puts his position in front of everything, including his own happiness.’

‘Isn’t that the way of a monarch?’

Aethan bent and pulled a weed out of the footpath. He peeled one of the leaves off and threw it to the side. ‘I guess so. It would be nice to think he could do his duty
and
be happy.’

‘What about Isla? Is she happy?’

‘Who knows what Isla is thinking. I like to believe she is not as shallow as she seems.’

I looked over at him, watching as he pulled the weed into pieces. ‘Feel better?’ I asked when he had finished.

‘A little.’ He grinned at me and I felt myself smiling back in response. ‘Want to learn how to part the veils?’ His question took me totally off guard.

‘Part the veils?’

‘What we do when we travel to and from Isilvitania.’

‘Oh, yes, of course.’ I hadn’t realised how far we had walked. We were standing in front of the Eynsford Castle ruins.

‘You can do it from anywhere,’ he said, ‘but this is near the heart of our land so it will be easier for your first time.’

I liked the way he said ‘our’ land a little too much. ‘Will I be able to do it? I mean I am only half Fae.’

‘I have no doubt you will. Your faery blood runs strong.’ He pushed my hair behind my ears and stroked the top of one with a finger. A shiver ran down my spine. ‘Although your ears aren’t peaked. Come.’ He led me off the path and down into the ruins. ‘Now close your eyes and tell me what you can feel.’

He put his hands on my shoulders to steady me as I closed my eyes. His fingers burned through the thin cotton of my shirt as I craved his touch on my bare skin.

‘What can you feel?’ he asked.

I was
so
not telling him the truth. I shook my head and forced myself to concentrate. ‘Ummm. Nothing.’ I opened my eyes and looked at him. ‘Perhaps I can’t do it.’

He shook his head. ‘You’ve only just begun trying. Close your eyes again.’

This time I reached out with all my senses except my sight. I could hear birds chirping and feel the breeze on my skin. The scent of fresh-cut grass made my nostrils tingle. As I relaxed my mind to my senses, a heaviness descended over me.

‘I feel…,’ How best to describe it? ‘like someone put a blanket over me, but I can’t
feel
the blanket, just the weight of it.’

Aethan squeezed my shoulders. ‘Very good. That’s the veil.’

I opened my eyes and the sensation dissipated. ‘Really?’ It lingered in the background and I realised it had always been there.

‘Now to part it, you need to grasp it with your mind and then push it apart.’ He reached out in front of him and moved his hands apart. For a second I could see the regal trees of Isilvitania. ‘Now
you
do it.’

I closed my eyes again and let the weight settle over me, then I reached out with my hands and pushed. Nothing happened.

‘You need to part it with your mind as well as your hands.’

I tried again. I could feel the thick fabric of the fog as it moulded itself to me. I reached out with my hands as I tore a hole with my mind, then I grabbed the edges and pushed them apart. I opened my eyes and there it was, Isilvitania.

‘I did it.’ I let go of the veil and flung my arms around Aethan a second before I realised what I was doing.

His body felt warm and hard as he wrapped his arms around me. It felt too nice by far, and I found myself wanting to stay like that forever. Instead I pulled back and looked up into his eyes. I hoped he wasn’t annoyed.

He didn’t look annoyed as he stared back at me. ‘Well done.’ His voice was low and husky.

Our faces were only a few inches apart and, glad I’d managed to scrub off my moustache, I dropped my gaze to his full lips. It seemed a shame to be so close to them and not taste them.

I ached to feel his mouth on mine, to share his breath and feel his soul.

Kiss me.
Oh please, kiss me.

‘There you are.’

We jumped apart and turned to face Wilfred.

‘Sorry,’ he said, looking from Aethan to me, ‘did I disturb something?’ The amused look on his face told me he knew
exactly
what he’d disturbed.

‘Aethan’s teaching me to part the veils,’ I said, wishing I couldn’t feel my cheeks burning.

‘Is that what he calls it?’ Wilfred let out a chuckle.

Aethan punched him in the arm. ‘We’d better get back.’ He started to walk back to the road and I fought an urge to punch Wilfred as well. Talk about bad timing.

We walked back to the house in silence. I wasn’t sure what they were thinking about but I was thinking about the ‘almost’ kiss. Would it have felt as amazing as the other night?

‘Well, I’ll see you Saturday,’ I said when we got there.

‘Saturday? What’s on Saturday?’ Wilfred asked.

‘Oh, ahh, nothing,’ Aethan said.

‘I meant Monday,’ I said. ‘Don’t know where my head is at.’

‘Till Monday,’ Aethan said.

They waited till I had closed the front door before leaving. Grams was nowhere to be seen, which in itself was strange. Why wasn’t she there pumping me for information?

‘Where’d Grams go?’

Mum was sitting in the lounge reading a book. A feather duster flitted around the room, and a broom swept the floor. ‘Not sure. Perhaps she’s gone to look at something for the wedding.’

Of course – the wedding.
That’s why she’d acted so weird. She was pre-occupied with wedding plans.

I picked up the vase of wildflowers and carried them up to my room, placing them on the only patch of my table not covered in notes and textbooks. Then I spent the next couple of hours pretending to study while in reality I daydreamed about Aethan.

***

‘They’re coming.’ Sabina clapped her hands and turned from the window. She had arrived an hour ago to wait for the faeries to come.

‘Oh goody.’ As much as I tried, I couldn’t force as much enthusiasm into my voice as she had in hers.

There was a knock on the front door then Mum called out, ‘Isadora, you have company.’ As if I didn’t know.

I took a deep breath and shook my head. Why couldn’t Aethan and I just go to the movies like normal people?

Sabina followed me down to the lounge where Aethan was waiting. He was dressed in his combat gear of furs and leather.

Oh great.
In the green dress Sabina had picked out for me I looked ridiculously overdressed.

I heard Sabby catch her breath. ‘Oh my.’

He did look very ‘Oh my’, with his muscles standing out on his arms and chest and his thick, dark hair highlighting the stubble on his cheeks. He picked up my hand and formally bowed his head over it. But as he stood back up, he shot me a cheeky grin.

For all his manliness, that grin was the thing that made my heart flutter the most. When he grinned at me like that, it was as if all pretences were gone. I could see the real him. He was no longer a Prince, no longer my teacher, just a man who might be interested in me as much as I was in him.

I introduced Sabina (who blushed and curtsied) and then I let Aethan take my arm upon his and lead me down to the field where the faery entourage waited.

It felt ridiculous. A total charade. And I’m sure that my Fae part, no matter what her relationship was like with Aethan in Trillania, would have agreed.

‘How are you?’ Aethan murmured once we had seated ourselves on the silk cushions.

‘Better.’ I was surprised how many days it had taken before the fatigue caused by my healing had gone.

I watched in amusement as Phantom and Scruffy tried to ignore each other. Scruffy had made overtures of friendship to Phantom (tried to sniff his butt), but for some reason Phantom had taken great offence at this (hissing and snapping), and they had each been pretending the other didn’t exist since.

A familiar voice bellowed from the far side of the tent, ‘Sorry I’m late.’ Wilfred attempted to tiptoe through the piles of cushions and chattering Fae. I winced as he knocked over a goblet and tripped on the corner of a low table.

He plopped down onto a cushion next to Sabina. ‘Well hello there.’

I shook my head and turned to Aethan. ‘He found out?’

Aethan rolled his eyes and nodded.

‘You’re picturing me naked, aren’t you?’

Sabina giggled. ‘You are very hairy.’

‘My mother was an orc.’

Sabby gasped and stifled another giggle. ‘You’re pulling my leg.’

‘I’d like to. It’s a very fine leg.’

There was a clapping of hands and then Isla, looking exquisite in a flowing, white dress, stood. ‘If you remember last time we were here, Aethan promised us a poem.’

I resisted the urge to put my head in my hands. I had forgotten about the poem.

‘What poem?’ Sabby whispered.

I ignored her but Wilfred answered. ‘Aethan’s written Izzy a love poem.’

She let out a wistful sigh.

Isla continued mercilessly. ‘Well Aethan, have you managed to craft your admiration for Isadora into a poem?’ There was a silent challenge in the tone of her voice.

Aethan stood and pulled a piece of paper out of his vest pocket. ‘I certainly have sister. It’s not long, but I think you’ll agree it is not the length of a poem but the content that is important.’

Oh Great Dark Sky. I cringed back into my cushion.

‘Was up all night writing it,’ Wilfred stage-whispered in Sabby’s ear.

I had a moment to wish for a goblin attack before Aethan cleared his throat and began to read.

‘Although there are many eyes of blue,

Yours are the prettiest I ever knew.

With your skin as pale as snow,

Only you make my heart glow.

From the moment we first met

Into my heart you have crept.’

He gave me an apologetic look and then sat back down, to a spatter of polite applause. ‘I’m more of an action man than a poet.’

‘I can see that.’ I was torn between disappointment and relief that his poem hadn’t been more flowery.

‘That was rather poor Aethan.’ Isla’s face puckered into a frown. ‘Surely Isadora means more to you than that.’

‘How I feel about Isadora,’ he stretched my name out into individual syllables, ‘is my and her business.’

‘I thought it was well done.’ Wilfred’s voice quavered with his attempt not to laugh.

‘You joined the Border Guards didn’t you?’ Isla knelt beside me and cupped a hand around my cheek. ‘How does a beauty like you spend your nights in the barracks?’

I wasn’t sure what she was alluding to, and I didn’t appreciate her question. I opened my mouth, without even thinking about what I was going to say, and all of a sudden I was caught up in spasm. Pain lanced through me, shaking me from side-to-side.

‘Izzy.’ I heard Sabby’s cry of dismay, but couldn’t answer her.

Wilfred and Aethan lowered me to a cushion where I thrashed and jerked.

‘Close your mouth.’ Aethan’s voice was low but urgent.

I fixed my whole being on that single task, trying to regain control of my muscles. After a moment my lips closed together and the fit immediately stopped.

Scruffy whined and clambered onto my chest. ‘I’m okay boy.’ It hurt to talk and my voice rasped. He began to lick my face.

I had seen that. What I had just felt, I had seen it before.

Pieces of a puzzle clicked into place and suddenly I knew. I knew, and I felt my face burn with humiliation.

I had been right. This whole day was a sham.

When Queen Eloise had first accused Aethan of dating me he had tried to deny it. And he had had a fit. A fit just like the one I’d had.

So instead he had been forced into courting me.

That was why he hadn’t kissed me at Eynsford Castle. That was why he hadn’t wanted Wilfred to know about today. Embarrassment threatened to swallow me whole.

What I had just felt, what Aethan had felt that first day, was the Border Guard binding spell. He wasn’t in love with me. He didn’t want to spend more time with me. He just hadn’t been able to tell his mother the truth. And now he was trapped into making everyone think he cared.

I had to end it. I had to end it now.

I pushed myself away from the cushions. ‘Isla is correct.’ I turned to stare at Aethan. ‘I would have thought your
poem
would have been far more eloquent. Perhaps you need to rethink how you really feel about me.’

‘Isadora.’ I heard Mum’s gasp from the other side of the marquee.

‘Well I never,’ Queen Eloise spluttered.

Aethan’s face held the confusion he felt.

It went against every fibre of my being to be this rude. I had to do it for him. I had to do it for me.

‘Perhaps, next time you court a woman you will put in more effort. After all,’ I stood up and strode to the edge of the marquee, ‘it’s the little things that count.’

By the time I got back to my bedroom an ache had set up in my chest that rivalled my buffo burns.

He’d kissed me.

Sure it had been in the line of duty – but he’d
kissed
me. Like he’d meant it. Like he’d felt it. And for that brief moment my whole being had known him. Had known we were right for each other.

But it was all a lie.

It took them longer to turn up than I’d thought. Mum hovered in the doorway to my rooms while Sabby peeped over her shoulder.

‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ I blew my nose and threw the tissue across the room towards the bin. I missed.

‘I’m not quite sure what just happened,’ Mum said. It was nice of her not to jump straight down my throat.

What to tell her? And how to say it without evoking the binding spell again?