Golden Fae
The World of Fae, Book 8
Terry Spear
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Terry Spear:
Golden Fae
The World of Fae, Book 8
Terry Spear
PUBLISHED BY:
Terry Spear
Golden Fae
Copyright © 2016 by Terry Spear
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Discover more about Terry Spear at:
http://www.terryspear.com/
ISBN-10: 1-63311-013-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-63311-013-7
Foreword
About the Book
How does the golden fae get into big time trouble with one fiery dragon? When playing with fire…
All the golden fae wanted to do was to pick mushrooms for her mother—in the forbidden dragon fae territory, but Kayla sees dragons practicing for their games, and she gets caught at it. She loses her locket that she needs to have when she comes of age in just a couple of weeks so she can keep her magic as a lavender grower for the golden fae. Only now, one highly annoying dragon shifter fae has got it, and she will do anything to get it back.
Alton can’t believe it when the golden fae arrives at his friend’s castle wearing the dragon fae aura now! But he has a mission to go on, save a human and a dragon fae in the human world, and Kayla ends up there offering to help—anything to get him to give her locket back to her. Only a fae seer shoots him with an iron bolt, and Kayla risks everything, trying to get him and the captured maid safely back home again.
Now he will do almost anything to learn the mysterious golden fae’s secrets, and protect her from his own kind at all costs.
DEDICATION
To Cat Belkovsky for loving my fae world! May you always have good fortune and enjoy their antics even if the fae visit you to play tricks on you.
Prologue
Unable to resist watching them despite how dangerous the notion was, Kayla saw two dragons practicing for the dragon games, one brown and the other a blue as brilliant as the sky until he disappeared against the blueness like a chameleon. The two dragons shot flames at each other as if in a swordfight. Despite knowing better, she raced through the woods, when she shouldn’t have even been there, but the dragon fae woods next to the river dividing their territory from the golden fae’s had the best mushrooms she’d ever found, right on this side. She couldn’t resist them either. And no one ever came here to this side of the river. So why should they go to waste? Her mother, Tasha, loved them. And as much as her mother was always doing for her, she loved to prepare them for her in lots of different dishes.
Not that Kayla ever admitted that’s where she’d gotten them from. Her mother would have been horrified.
All Kayla had to do was fae transport over to the riverbank, dash into the cover of the woods, search for the mushrooms, then transport right back home. No problem. She never got caught, never had seen any dragon fae in the area, so she wasn’t worried about it. Only this time, she saw the dragons practicing for the dragon games, something she’d never seen and never would be able to observe, not as a golden fae when her kind and the dragon fae shifters were arch competitors for gold in any form.
Curiosity got the best of her and she dropped her sack of mushrooms in the dark piney woods and headed for the clearing just ahead where she could get a better glimpse of the dragons. She saw them then diving around each other, flying together, splitting off, and circling. She wondered if it was a kind of dance.
Her eyes widened. A mating dance? Ohmigoddess, how cool!
She was hidden in the understory of the pine trees, bright green ferns as tall as a man giving her sufficient cover, but then she couldn’t see the dragons as they headed for the sun. Only the brown one was visible as a pinprick in the sky. She moved closer to the edge of the bracken, squinting against the glare of the sun, hand over her brow, shading her eyes.
First, she saw nothing. Not even the pinprick of brown in the sky any longer. Disappointed that they’d left the area, she still remained there, hoping to catch another glimpse of them. That’s when she saw a spot in the sky morph into the form of a dragon—the blue dragon. He was still mostly camouflaged by the sky, but he was growing closer, more vivid blue, and he was…
He was headed her way! Her heartbeat tripped.
All the gold she was wearing must have caught a bit of sunlight and broadcasted that a golden fae was standing next to the understory of the piney woods. No longer hidden by them. But standing there for the whole dragon fae world to see.
Her heart pounding erratically, she thought she could just transport from there, but when she tried, she didn’t go anywhere at all. That had to mean iron ore was in the soil here. She started pulling off her gold earrings and necklaces, her headdress and throwing them in the ferns behind her. Like the golden fae, the dragon shifters could smell gold. He’d go for that before he came for her.
At least she hoped.
But when she tossed one of her necklaces, the chain of the locket she always wore tangled with it and both fell behind her. She turned to go back for it, but she heard the dragon’s wings flapping up and down, drawing way too close. He roared and she dashed off, hoping that he wouldn’t find that necklace as it had fallen between the fronds and was somewhere on the muddy ground. Her boots squished in the mud, leaving footprints, but she was also leaving a fae dust trail behind.
She reached her bag of mushrooms, grabbed it, not wanting the dragon to know why she’d been over here or she’d never be able to return, and told herself to transport. And nothing happened. She tried again, thinking that she was so scared she’d messed it up somehow, which was impossible. But she just stood there, not going anywhere when she’d transported to the riverbank multiple times before, with no trouble at all. She dove beneath a ledge of speckled granite rock and prayed to every god and goddess there was that the dragon wouldn’t find her before she could swim across the river.
No, not swim across just yet. As soon as she was certain he was gone, she’d return for the locket, hoping beyond hope it was still there.
Alton hadn’t believed anything could steal his concentration while he’d practiced with Olaf as they did their maneuvers, flying around each other, trying to take the advantage, trying to best each other as they knew they would have to do in the dragon games. They had nearly finished their practice because Olaf had a job to do, though as competitive as Alton was, as soon as Olaf took off, he’d had every intention on practicing further on his own. Until he caught sight of the glint of gold in the bracken, and a girl wearing it. As soon as she realized he was coming for her, she dashed into the shelter of the bracken, but he tore after her, intent on seeing who she was, his dragon practice all but forgotten.
He couldn’t believe it when he found a trail of jewelry left behind as if telling him the way to go. But he knew she thought to stop him in his tracks while he gathered up all the gold. He could have come back for it, but the
n he would have reached her too quickly, and he didn’t want to end the hunt too soon.
Who was he kidding? Dragons lived for treasure, and he couldn’t ignore any ring, necklace, or bracelet she had tossed away in her haste. She knew his kind too well.
He finally reached a stone ledge and looked out across the churning river, her fae dust ending right here. She had to have swum across at this point. Disappointed now that he hadn’t caught up to her, he considered his next move. He’d set all the jewelry down in the middle of the open field on a big stone and see if she came for it while he practiced more of his maneuvers up above.
If she was a golden fae, maybe she’d risk coming back for it, but this time he wouldn’t collect just her gold. He smiled darkly at the thought.
Kayla returned to the fronds at the edge of the clearing, careful not to allow anyone to catch sight of her and saw a dragon circling high up above, only this one was purple scaled. But what caught her eye next was her jewelry piled up on a slab of stone as if saying, “Come and get me if you can.”
Where was the blue dragon? She glanced quickly around, worried he was hiding in the trees while the other kept guard over her jewelry. Knowing waiting for the dragon to leave was futile, she had to look again through the fronds, found the imprint of her locket in the mud, but the locket was gone.
Alton circled for the longest time, got tired of waiting for the girl to show up, and dove down to grab up the jewelry. As soon as he did, a falcon fae dove toward him, trying to chase him off like he’d seen a tenacious smaller bird try to chase off a larger bird of prey. But he was a dragon! Not a bird of prey, and she was a falcon fae, a girl equipped with falcon wings that enabled her to fly. He seized the gold jewelry and was intent on returning to his castle when the falcon fae attacked him again. With one burst of flame, he could incinerate her for attempting to steal his gold!
She had to be deranged. With his teeth, he managed to grab hold of her locket, and tore it from her neck. Served her right to fight him for the gold the fae had left behind for him.
She screeched at him, and he flew home, his powerful wings carrying him farther away from where she was. Then he transported to his castle gate and entered, shutting it behind him.
As a dragon, he didn’t leave a fae trail dust, so she wouldn’t have any idea where he’d gone. Served her right. He smiled and would add the treasure to his as soon as he had a moment to do so. Who would ever have thought a day practicing for the games could lead to a treasure hunt too?
1
“I have a week to find the golden locket,” Kayla said, as she and her friend, Tanya, headed for the river that divided the land of the dragon fae kingdom of Morcalon and a small corner of the golden fae territory. “Or my life is forfeit.”
Tanya was a dream-weaver fae, her red-blond hair often worn in curls on top of her head, pink flowers in half a circle around her hair this time, green eyes that hinted at a world of secrets. She and her parents were the only ones of their kind living in the golden fae kingdom. She and Tanya got along great, loved to hang out in the human world when they could both get away, loved to go to the movies and the beaches there. Unlike Kayla, Tanya cared nothing for jewelry or any kind of metal ornamentation. She was strictly a flower girl, and she often wore silky, dreamy-looking gowns, which suited her dream-weaver fae persona.
Kayla focused on her problem though. She was still furious with herself for getting into the predicament she had when she’d left the locket behind and a dragon fae shifter had taken it. She didn’t have a clue as to which one. A blue one. Sure. But there were probably tons of blue dragons in the dragon fae kingdom. When she’d returned to the place where she had lost the locket, all she’d found were his huge dragon footprints, and she’d followed them to the edge of the woods. She’d heard a dragon’s wings flapping and expected to see him flying off. Except the dragon was the prettiest shade of violet. She hadn’t heard of a dragon changing colors, but the one who had come after her had definitely been blue. So had another come to see what was going on? She’d never heard of a dragon that color before though.
What had happened to the blue dragon then?
“You don’t know for sure which dragon took it, right? You can’t go asking them. You can’t go traipsing around their territory, nor are they allowed into yours. They hide their stacks of treasure and even if you did learn which one did it, you’d have to discover where it’s hidden. And then you’d have to get past his traps or guards or whatever keeps people from trying to abscond with it. If he or she caught you trying to steal it back, no matter that it was yours in the first place, you’d be toast.”
All valid points and Kayla hated to admit her friend was right. “It was mine. If I take it back, I’m only reclaiming my treasure.” More than that. It was a right of passage for her kind. Kayla had to hold it in her possession until she turned of age in two weeks! The magic in the locket would be bonded with her forever after that. Without it, she was lost. Her fields of lavender wouldn’t bloom and flourish in the spring, which was just two weeks away! And she’d be excommunicated from her homeland.
“They won’t see it that way. Maybe if you can bargain for it…”
“They won’t bargain. They hoard their gold, just like the golden fae do.” Kayla forged through the fronds behind her.
“Yeah, and if you were able to speak with one on neutral territory, he’d think that you were trying to steal from him.”
Kayla let out her breath in an annoyed huff. “Don’t you think I know that? It doesn’t really matter anyway. If I get caught trying to steal back my locket, I’m dead. If I don’t have it when my time is up, I’m dead. Lavender is like gold to our people. And the queen will have my head if I don’t have my locket at the celebration and the flowers never come back. No lavender for tea, breads, rice, chicken, for scenting our clothes, for the dye that—added to roses, a little mint, and some lemon juice—creates the beautiful, bright pink cloth that our queen loves for her gowns and curtains more than any other color in the world, and everything else she uses it for. If only my mother could grow the lavender, but she can’t.” Not to mention the medium violet colored flowers were Kayla’s heritage and she loved them and loved working with them. Who could say they toiled all day in fields of lavender and came out smelling like…lavender?
“How do you know it was a dragon shifter who stole it if you didn’t see him do it?”
“I found the imprint of the locket in the mud. And right next to it, big dragon footprints. Now, if I could match up the dragon footprints, I would have it made. Well, not that I could easily get my locket back, but at least I would know who took it.”
“Then the dragon came onto our lands when he wasn’t supposed to. You can appeal to the queen for restitution.”
Kayla didn’t respond. How could she tell her friend she had been picking mushrooms and then had seen some dragons practicing for their dragon competitions flying high above the treetops on their side of the river and fascinated, she headed into the pines to watch? She would never have had the opportunity to otherwise. But also, she should never have been over there in the first place, collecting mushrooms.
She was certain the gold had bought her time when she’d dumped all the jewelry she’d been wearing. The dragon couldn’t give up the opportunity to take home her beautiful gold treasures. If only the chain of her locket hadn’t tangled with her other necklaces, though valuable, they were replaceable.
Before she could run back and retrieve the locket from the mud where it had settled—courtesy of the rainstorm they’d had the night before—one of the dragons had nearly reached her. And in truth, as she’d hidden beneath the ledge, she’d heard his claws tapping on the top of the rock ledge as if telling her he knew she was hiding beneath it. Her skin had chilled at the sound. Had he smelled the gold she’d been wearing on her face, arms, and hands? Had he been making her sweat for having been on their lands?
But he didn’t do anything more than taunt her because he alrea
dy had her gold?
What could she do but return later and find the dragon had stepped on her locket, pressing it into the mud underneath one of the ferns. She’d seen an imprint of her family’s crest, a sword and flowers, and two large dragon clawed feet standing on either side of it where he’d placed his feet after stepping on the locket.
“You were on this side of the river, weren’t you?” Tanya’s green eyes were wide in disbelief, as if suddenly figuring out the truth.
“I might have been on the other side.”
“Kayla! You know it is forbidden. So if you dropped the locket over there, it’s finders keepers and you don’t have a prayer at claiming ownership. If you ever did. I can’t believe this. You can’t even go to the council and ask to have them send a missive to the dragon fae queen, stating a dragon fae shifter had come onto our lands illegally when you’d accidentally lost your locket and the dragon stole it. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For this very reason!” Then Kayla explained exactly what had happened.
Tanya just keep shaking her head with condemnation. “I can’t believe you’ve managed to live this long. Picking mushrooms over there? Don’t we have any over here?”
“Not like those.”
Tanya let out her breath. “What was it last winter that you risked your neck over while your garden was lying dormant? You traveled to Wolf Mountain to see if winged wolf shifters actually existed? What if they had and they’d killed you for invading their territory? Besides, you didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go.”
Kayla laughed. “Like you would have disobeyed your parents and gone with me.”