Page 33 of The Forbidden Fae King

I finally reach Finan and crumble into his arms. He holds me so tight, kissing my cheek, then my hair, and I almost don’t want to leave. In this moment of fear and vulnerability, I nearly forgive him and want to stay in his safe arms instead of crossing into the unknown.

He pulls back. “There is no convincing you to stay?” Tears form at the corners of his eyes as I shake my head. “The temptation to hold you here and never let you go is incredibly strong, but your father will throttle me. I won’t leave Appleshield until you return. I don’t care how long it takes.”

I nod, then peel his hands from me. Caitlin’s grip finds mine and tugs me along those crucial steps toward our portal. She scrubs tears from her face with a single, angry swipe of her sleeve.

The moonstone gate vibrates with magic. It is a sweet song that beckons us to the Otherworld, daring us to take the leap. I become entranced by its beauty and there is no doubt in my mind of what I need to do.

Mists curl from its depths, obscuring what lays beyond the veil.

Caitlin’s hand wrapped around mine is an anchoring point, as we step through the portal. Brilliant white light burns my eyes and the high-pitched melody of magic overrides all other sounds. The mist curls in thick tendrils around us, blocking my sight of my own feet, moving sluggishly across our path as I breathe it in, damp, heavy, and scented with flowers.

We take one sturdy step after another, on an even ground that doesn’t feel completely solid. An ethereal calm settles over me. Ourslow march seems to last a lifetime as we cross realms and universes, stretching on and on, but is also over within no time at all.

The mist thins, swirling quickly and parting to reveal a circle of light at the end of the tunnel, one that grows to show the trees beyond. The music dims until Caitin’s panting breaths are audible again…and other sounds from the Otherworld beyond.

I strain to understand what my senses are detecting. Shouts, the winnowing of horses and the grunts of beasts. A high-pitched snickering. The scent of trampled earth hits me, with the iron tang of blood. Sporadic clangs of metal hitting metal scream out and I grab Caitlin’s arm as panic flashes through me.

I know those sounds. They are not dissimilar to the thick of a fight on a hunt.

We are walking into a battle.

I try to scurry backward in the portal, but the ground gives no purchase. It only continues to push us forward. The wall of mist continues to clear.

At the center of that parting, a man stands on top of a massive, crumbling tree stump. The long sword gripped in his hand drips with black blood as he surveys his surroundings.

Dark brown hair flows down to his shoulders, framing a severe face that is all sharp angles. Thick bands of black war paint accentuate the hard planes of his high cheekbones, sharp jaw and straight nose. His intense gaze is mostly hidden in shadows. Narrow, branching horns adorn either side of his head, like a crown of twigs.

I forget to breathe. Every single rational thought escapes me. He is the most beautiful man I have ever seen. I cannot drag my gaze away, soaking up every inch of him.

It doesn’t matter that he wears battle armor of brown leather and bronzed metal plate, that each segment of the shoulder guards end in spikes and adorned with fae runes. My scrutiny dips down to where the leather is unlaced over his deeply tanned chest, revealing rippling muscles beneath. The blood splattered across him doesn't even register.

I want to reach out and touch him.

Caitlin tugs me to the side and I stumble, but I can’t drag my gaze away. I am completely transfixed.

His amber eyes flick up to me and narrow, holding my gaze with simmering intensity, as broad eyebrows crease over them. His stare does not lift from me, even as his sword slices through the air and cleaves a treelike beast in front of him, spraying more black blood. A spriggan. Those beasts are spriggans.

I know without a doubt this brutal, beautiful man ishigh fae.

And we are to avoid high fae at all costs.

Our misty shroud disappears completely, and we step into a high fae battle almost completely unarmed.

Chapter 10

Aldrin

Ipull my blade from the dead spriggan and face another. Black rot drips down the woody branches of its body. This one walks on four legs like a beast, each limb a different shape, with the joints set at sharp angles. Short, leafy branches jut out all over it and the thing’s head hangs low on its body, with red eyes glowing back at me with fire. Sickly sap jewels its flesh.

With a sweep of my sword, its head falls to the ground and thick, black blood spurts out. The thing’s body lumbers and lands on its side, its shoulder splatting open from the slow impact, revealing the depth of the rot.

The stink of decay fills my nostrils as its flesh dissipates to ash floating away on the wind.

The sight boils my anger. It breaks my fucking heart.

These are peaceful lower fae, and I have to put them down like pox-infected goblins.

“Aldrin!”

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