But what Deveron and Ritasia concentrated on most was the faery dust trails left behind in certain areas. The glimmering dust collected more where the fae had stayed longer—at a tavern that served ale. And at the jousting grounds inside the fencing, and in the building where the knights stayed before they entered the ring. Alicia still couldn’t discern much about fae trails, having lived so long with the humans.
“One of the knights is a dragon fae,” Ritasia warned, although she quickly cast an apologetic look Alicia’s way.
“Aye. And the others that frequented the tavern were also dragon fae. The fair seems to be one of their claimed territories,” Deveron said.
They both looked at Alicia as if questioning her as to the identity of the fae.
She shrugged and folded her arms. “Don’t look at me. I’m not a tracker, and I wouldn’t know pixie dust from fae dust, let alone one fae trail from another.”
Deveron cleared his throat. Pixie dust and fae dust didn’t look anything the same.
“And certainly,” Alicia said, noting Deveron’s disapproval and giving him an annoyed look back, “I haven’t any idea which trail belongs to which dragon fae.”
“Hmm, so why would a princess of the Mabara come here?” Ritasia asked.
“To meet with a dragon fae on the sly?” Deveron ventured.
“Wouldn’t her mother be upset with that? You said that your mother made arrangements with her mother to marry her off to Micala.” Alicia made a face. “Even though my girlfriend, Cassie, still thinks he might come back and see her.”
Cassie was human and Niall knew better than to have more than a passing acquaintance. Deveron frowned. “He was supposed to have wiped his visiting her from her thoughts.”
Alicia scowled at Deveron. “Well…he…didn’t.”
Ritasia waved her hand, dismissing the two of them. “If you’re going to both argue again, I’ll have to do this alone.” She went back to tracing the knight’s trail as she walked across a footbridge situated high above a creek, trees towering all around them.
“I told you that Micala better not hurt Cassie’s feelings or he’d pay for it,” Alicia said to Deveron as they followed Ritasia.
“I’ll speak with him again,” Deveron assured her. “I did command him to clear her memories of having anything to do with him, Alicia.” He frowned as he thought about Micala’s pretending to really enjoy Cassie’s company. Had his cousin not been pretending after all?
He’d better not be thinking of stealing her from the human world. Not when he had a contract to marry the Mabara princess. Queen Irenis frowned on the fae bringing any humans into her kingdom for all the trouble they could cause.
“Where is he now?” Alicia asked, her tone sharp and accusing.
Deveron glanced at her, furrowing his brow in his best dark fae scowl. “How would I know? I’m not my cousin’s keeper!”
“First, I had to keep you away from her! So that you wouldn’t break her heart. Now I have to stop Micala!”
Deveron shook his head and started to walk after Ritasia again. “Sure, I targeted Cassie first because she was sunbathing on the beach and looked like easy game. You, on the other hand, were not even there as you were up the beach buying a couple of sodas.”
Even now thinking back on that scenario when Alicia had thrown one of the ice cold drinks at him, he’d barely reigned in his lion fae tendencies, then had darkly smiled, and vowed to get even, and still hadn’t done so.
“But speaking with Micala isn’t your job.” He let out his breath in a dark sigh and turned to reassure her he’d take care of his cousin, but Alicia was gone. His mouth gaped as he stared at where she’d been, the leaves of the trees fluttering in the night breeze as if her sudden disappearance had ruffled them.
“I’ve got to leave, Ritasia. Go home. We’ll come back tomorrow when the knight is here,” he said hurriedly, ready to chase Alicia down, wherever she’d slipped off to this time. He preferred the time when she didn’t have any way to fae travel, and he was in charge of where she went. She was too unpredictable now.
Ritasia glowered at him. “If I return home, you have to go. Mother will be waiting to hear what you have learned about the princess and Niall.”
“I know naught, except that they had been in the Mabara realm.”
“And here,” Ritasia said, waving her hand at the jousting ground.
“Aye, and here at the fair, but I’m not telling Mother that. We need to learn what else is going on before we can give her an accurate report. You know how angry she gets when we give her reports that turn out to be false.”
“Deveron, don’t you dare leave me while you chase after Alicia! I’m not going home to face Mother alone.”
Deveron gave her a wicked smile. “Believe me, it’s no worse than my dealing with Alicia right now.”
Then he disappeared, and Ritasia scowled. She knew just how they’d make up, and it wasn’t anything like what Ritasia would have to face when she returned to the castle and the queen summoned her to learn what had happened to Deveron, the Mabara princess, and Niall.
Fine. If no one else was returning home, neither would she. Ritasia headed back to the shop where she saw the most comfortable looking hammocks hanging under a sheltered porch. If they truly were cozy enough, she’d sleep in one. Come morning, she’d be right where she needed to be to see who these dragon fae were and if any had designs on the Mabara princess.
And then she had a wickedly brilliant notion. If her cousin Micala was going to have to fight a dragon fae to ensure the princess’s marriage to him came to pass in the event she was indeed seeing one of the Morcalon fae, what if…
Ritasia grinned. Yes, she had it. She knew just how to upset the proverbial apple cart.
***
At the stone croft in the flower meadow of Mabara at the edge of a fir forest, Niall finished the tea Magdana had made for him, but he wouldn’t tell the old woman how he had met Serena. How could he? What if word got back to her mother? He was certain her mother would not like that Serena had painted the message on the South Padre Island building, nor that she planned to avoid marrying Micala by marrying some dragon fae knight.
“You don’t wish to say?” Magdana smiled at him. “You are kinder to her than she deserves, I suspect. Especially since she must have done this to you.” She motioned to him. “I know she must have regretted doing so, or she wouldn’t have offered an antidote. Which means you were not at fault for her carelessness.”
“I startled her,” he explained, not wanting Serena to be blamed for all of it.
“Ah, I see. So where has she been all this time? She had been missing far too long.” When Niall wouldn’t say, Magdana reached out her wrinkled hand and patted his hand as it rested on the table. “Has she been seeing you without her mother’s permission?”
“Nay,” Niall quickly said. “I had never met Serena before that…that day. And then I only knew she was of the royal Mabara house because of her wings, not who she truly was.”
“Hmm.” The woman leaned back in her chair. “You have met the one she is seeing behind her mother’s back, eh?”
Again, he couldn’t say. But he was surprised that her mother would know of her transgressions and had not stopped Serena.
As if Magdana knew just what he was thinking, she said, “Oh, her mother knows she slips off into the human world from time to time. It’s our nature to do what we shouldn’t. Ever since Serena was thirteen, she’s been sneaking off to the human plane of existence to trick–or–treat during All Hallow’s Eve. She’s always needed confirmation that being different—having wings whether in the human world or in our own—is all right. That she is accepted just as she is since there are so few of us in the fae world. But this,” Magdana said, waving at the door, “this business she has of stealing away during the past few months…this is something altogether different.”
Magdana sighed. “Her mother has been reluctant to put a leash on her, so to speak. Serena is much too fr
ee a spirit.”
Niall admired Serena for it to a degree, but at the same time had reservations about her safety as she roamed about the world on her own.
“Do you know that she does not want to marry Micala?” Magdana asked.
“Aye,” he admitted.
“But?”
Niall shifted in his chair. “We do what we must, as our rulers…” He hesitated, nearly saying “dictate,” but then amended the word and said instead, “rule. For something of this gravity, we must abide our leaders’ wishes.”
Although if his aunt said he had to marry that Venician Princess Lorelei who she had wanted Deveron to marry, he’d say no, and he knew he would have a fight on his hands. But the girl was sixteen and spoiled to the gills, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with her.
Which again made him wonder if Queen Irenis was considering marrying him off also, like she had arranged with both Deveron and Micala without their input. Rumors were circulating that she was targeting Ritasia next, but who had Queen Irenis in mind for Niall?
“You shelter Serena from her mother when she needs protection from the one who leads her astray, no?” Magdana asked, breaking into his dark thoughts.
“I won’t allow the knight to ruin her life,” he said adamantly. He’d already made up his mind he would stop the dragon fae, knowing the knight only wanted Serena for the power it would afford him. Niall wouldn’t let him get away with it.
He was certain Serena didn’t feel anything but some misplaced admiration for the man. No great loss there.
“A knight? Really. How very interesting.” The woman’s eyes brightened with a calculating gleam. “Why would you do this? For the dark fae’s honor? For your cousin’s honor? Why not allow your cousin to do his own battle? He will win the prize after all.”
Niall frowned at her. “That’s exactly the problem. The knight sees her as a prize. A means to obtain power that he doesn’t already have. A way to earn favor from his king within his own kingdom.”
“Which kingdom, pray tell?”
Niall smiled at the woman’s craftiness, but wouldn’t say.
“You are most honorable, Count. You would fight this man so that your cousin could have Serena for his wife without lifting a finger on his own behalf.”
“No.”
“No?” She tilted her head to the side, looking mystified.
“What I mean is that I do this for Serena. Not my cousin. When she gets to know him, I’m sure they will be well suited. But I won’t allow the knight to ruin it for her.”
“You do this for Serena,” the old lady said, as if saying so reinforced the words.
“Aye. She deserves better.”
“And you do it for your cousin,” the woman insisted.
He didn’t agree or disagree. He couldn’t deny that he did indeed fight for the dark fae’s honor and for his cousin’s. But it was more than that. He didn’t want to see Serena married to such a calculating fae.
“He’s from one of the major kingdoms?”
“Aye,” Niall said.
“But not your own.”
He shook his head.
Magdana leaned back in her chair and looked solemnly at him, as if measuring him for the job. “So when you rescue her from the tower, then what? She will cure you and…?” She paused, but when he didn’t respond, she added, “You cannot hide her from her mother.”
“I have agreed to fight the knight. I must prove to Serena that he is not as honorable as he appears. I’m sure as soon as we joust, she will see him as he truly is.”
“Ahh. And then you will return her to her mother?”
Niall bowed his head.
“Where will the fight take place?”
“I cannot say.”
Magdana considered him for a long time before she said, “I see.”
“Her mother would undoubtedly not want her there,” Niall explained. “So it must remain a secret. I must prove to Serena that the man is truly not suited to her, or she may very well always believe she has lost the one she truly loved, if her mother puts a stop to her marrying him.”
“Hmm. I see. Will you wear Serena’s favor?”
“The knight has already insisted she give it to him.”
“Insisted? So he was afraid if he did not insist, she would give you hers instead.” Magdana smiled again as if this greatly pleased her. And then she said, “You will wear her favor.”
Niall shook his head. “She wishes to wed the knight.”
“Have you heard the story about the sun and the wind and their argument about who was stronger?”
“Aye. The wind blew at the man, who pulled his coat tighter to keep the chill out.”
“And the sun bore down on the man with such brilliance and bone—warming heat, the man soon removed his coat. The knight is like the blustering wind, trying to force the situation. You are like the sun, persuasive in a gentler manner. Free the princess from the tower and from the knight’s clutches, and you will be rewarded as the honorable man that you are.”
Niall did not think Queen Irenis nor Deveron believed he was an honorable man. Not after he stole the princess from their dungeon, then avoided them while they tried to track them down.
“I wish no reward other than ensuring the princess isn’t matched with the knight.”
“Good. Then you must away at once and rescue the princess. But you must also wear my favor at the joust, Count Niall.” She opened a wardrobe, rummaged through it, then pulled out a shimmering gold veil. The fabric looked too rich and elegant to be the old woman’s.
“Here, you must take this.” She handed it to him with a faint smile on her lips.
He took the veil and tucked it into his leather pouch. As he would do with his grandmother when he took his leave, he grasped Magdana’s hands and kissed her cheek in farewell.
He swore the woman’s gray eyes misted when he hadn’t meant to upset her, just show her the deepest respect.
“You will do,” she said softly, “very nicely.” And then her smile reappeared.
“We will bring Serena here once I have freed her from the tower,” Niall promised, feeling as though he owed Magdana for helping him, wanting to reassure her he had only Serena’s best interests at heart.
“No, you must not say we have met. Wear my veil when you joust, but do not show it to her beforehand or she may warn you away from me. I’m a witch, you know.”
He tried to hide a smile, not believing for one moment that she was anything but good of heart. “As you wish, Magdana.”
Then he took off on the path through the meadow to the woods that she pointed out and hoped he would have the strength to rescue Serena without delay before he fell asleep again, or was incarcerated in the Mabara dungeon instead.
Chapter 8
Despite Alicia’s grandfather, King Tibero, denying Deveron safe passage into the dragon fae kingdom, adamant that Deveron wait until she was eighteen before he court her, he couldn’t wait to see her. Deveron had to meet up with Alicia and ensure she understood it was his business to set his cousin Micala straight, concerning her human girlfriend Cassie. He knew Alicia’s short temper could get her in trouble with the Denkar if he didn’t stop her.
Black angry clouds hovered over the pitch sky and even darker woods as he made his way to Crislis Castle where Tibero ruled. Winds whipped through the forest, scattering leaves, and Deveron felt as though a million eyes watched him from the woods. The dragon fae were known as the best archers of any of the kingdoms, and though some of them now knew who he was, several still didn’t like it. Most wanted Alicia to wed with one of their own kind since she had so recently returned to the fold.
That’s when Prince Grotto, Alicia’s cousin once–removed, appeared out of the darkness, an arrow knocked as several other men appeared, bows in hand, but not moving to ready their weapons. Prince Grotto looked like he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Deveron if he didn’t leave at once.
The sandy–haired fae stared Deveron down, his
stormy green eyes challenging Deveron. “King Tibero said you would not see my cousin, until she was of marriageable age. What part of that ruling do you not understand, Prince Deveron?”
Deveron wanted to knock the dragon fae prince on his butt, sighing instead and decided this was not a fight he wanted to have. Only because he feared Alicia’s grandfather would change his mind about allowing them to wed in the future. Not that Deveron would agree to it, but she was set to rule the kingdom after the king died. Deveron didn’t want the haughty Prince Grotto to take over should Alicia be excommunicated from the kingdom for marrying the Denkar crown prince against her grandfather’s wishes.
Not to say it didn’t irk Deveron something fierce to have to put up with this pompous prince. Prince Deveron gave an exaggerated bow, then vanished.
Exasperated, he returned to the castle to speak with Micala about the impending marriage between him and Serena and to ensure Micala wiped Cassie’s thoughts of anything to do with him. Micala and Serena certainly didn’t need that potential problem between them.
Deveron quickly made his way to Micala’s chambers. After knocking and not getting a response, Deveron opened the door and made his way to the curtained bed. Yanking the curtain aside, he found the bed unoccupied. Furious he couldn’t resolve this matter at once, he began searching for Micala anywhere else that he could think of. After questioning the staff that were still awake and the guards on duty and learning that no one had seen Micala since early that morn, he began to get a bad feeling about this. Intending to speak with Ritasia about where their cousin could be, he knocked on her chamber door.
A maid answered, her eyes widening to see Deveron, quickly curtseyed, lowered her eyes and whispered, “She is not here, my lord.”
Now Ritasia was also missing?
Not willing to deal with that yet, he stalked toward his mother’s chambers, ready to tell her the bad news about Niall, although there was no way he was talking to her about Micala and Ritasia’s wanderings, yet.