Page 4 of The Forbidden Fae King

Diarmuid nods to Caitlin and winks at me, a half-smile playing across his lips, but he follows his greying mentors as they lift their robes and walk through the stream.

I cringe at the sight of a few walking barefoot through that icy water and over the pebble bank. A lifetime of living as one with nature has probably hardened the soles of their feet.

The druids congregate around the Twisted One, muttering between each other. One dons the thick leather gloves of a blacksmith as she examines the beast, turning it over and lifting its legs. Another scrapes at the decay, securing samples in glass jars. Mushrooms, rotting leaves, black fur, they all are all plucked from the Cú Sídhe.

I watch with rapt fascination. The customs of the highly secretive druids are fascinating. They form a circle and start chanting in soft murmurs, the tone low in pitch and slowly rising. Their language is foreign and their many voices overlap with different notes.

At the crescendo, a near shout, they raise their hands high above their heads, then drop them sharply. Air rushes around them, blowing leaf litter in spirals, circling in closer and closer to the fae.

The chant repeats until a bubble of moving air constricts around the Twisted One. Their strange magic lifts the creature off the ground in a storm like torrent that has the hems of their robes drifting in toward that containment of magic.

The druid masters suddenly cut off their chanting and disappear into the forest with their quarry, immediately melting into their surroundings. They leave behind their apprentice, my brother.

Diarmuid strides to the three Protector Guards, who have their heads bowed in respect. I should have looked away during their ceremony, but I couldn’t help myself.

My brother pulls a coin purse from deep within his robe and places a few gold coins in each man’s hands, purchasing the beast from its hunters. The druids will examine it, then turn it into potions.

Liam looks as though he will cry at the amount, enough to match his fiancé’s dowry and pay for their wedding, while Aidin actually laughs. Brandon wipes a tear from his cheek.

I give Caitlin a sidelong glance, noting the tension coiled in her shoulders and the foot she taps. She will be the custodian of these lands and people after our father. If this disease among the fae gets worse, if it spreads to our realm, it will be her problem to solve.

The boundaries between realms are thinnest here in the North. If there is a natural disaster brewing in the fae world, it will bleed through to us first.

“It’s getting worse,” Diarmuid calls out as he passes over pebbles that tumble and slide beneath his footfall. He wears good, stout boots, and his robes are of better cut and fabric than his masters’. There’s no taking the nobility out of Diarmuid, despite his years training with the druids. “There is something plaguing the lower fae in the Otherworld. My mentor doesn’t believe it will spread on the inhabitants of our world but?—”

I don’t let him finish before I barrel into him with a hug, wrappingmy arms around his bony body. He gives me a lopsided smile and squeezes me with one arm.

“I rarely see you anymore and this is how you say hello?” I laugh.

Caitlin gives him a quick embrace. “When do you become a full druid, Diarmuid? You are twenty-six and as smart as any of them.”

“You know the training takes decades, Caitlin,” Diarmuid replies.

“Perhapsyoudon’t need decades. You were well-schooled before you were initiated.”

“Perhaps the order is the one thing in these lands that neither you or father get a say in.” Diarmuid’s smile grows wider as Caitlin huffs, but the corners of her mouth also lift.

My eyes dart between them. “How many fae crossed into our realm today?”

“Two packs.” Diarmuid frowns. “Five healthy Cú Sídhe, and three Twisted Ones in total.”

“A pack of five? Taken down by Gwyneth’s hunting band?” Caitlin asks. “The damn woman will never let me live that down!”

“There will be more hunts between now and Beltane,” I chime in happily.

“More hunts and more feasts. I could drink to that!” Caitlin places an arm around Diarmuid’s shoulders and leads him away from the clearing. “And you said this plague won’t infect our realm? Our people and animals are safe from it?”

“Potentially. We believe it might be a matter of breeding that causes it.” Diarmuid’s voice is almost lost to me over the gurgling of the shallow stream as we cross it.

The tension drops from Caitlin’s shoulders and she talks excitedly about the feasts and hunts to come. A lump that forms in my throat.

My sister won’t be here for all those events.

When the realms reach full alignment this spring equinox, the portals will open and humans will cross into the fae realm. It happens every seven years. We do not send armies or male warriors. Only our women step through the portals into the vicious fae lands, alone and almost completely unarmed, to bring fae magic back to our kingdom.

This year, Caitlin will make the pilgrimage into the fae realm.

Chapter 2

---