Page 43 of The Forbidden Fae King

“You never even asked my name,” I call out.

“It’s Keira.” He glances over his shoulder with an ironic half-smile on his face. “Your sister Caitlin called it out.”

I stare at him with nothing left to say.

“Klara will take you to the healing waters to bath your wounds, since you seem more comfortable with her.” Aldrin walks out the door.

I let out a long breath and slide down the wall, falling into a heap on the ground. My chest constricts and sobs threaten to bubble to the surface, but I push them down.

I don’t understand Aldrin or what he wants from me, but I am a jittery mess from hypervigilance. From trying to anticipate each threat, his every move and coming up wrong each time.

Disembodied voices drift to me, most likely from the staircase below.

“Why don’t you take her there yourself?” Klara retorts.

“Because she's terrified of me,” Aldrin replies.

“You’ve wanted to meet and understand humans and their realm for years, and now you're keeping your distance from one? Try looking like less of a brute.” She laughs. “It doesn’t help that you’re always dressed in armor, have a thousand blades strapped to you AND constantly frown. Try smiling.” Her laughter amplifies and the sound is jarring to my ears. “Not like that. You definitely need more practice.”

His reply is an unintelligible rumble. He must be walking away.

A chill claws through my body. Aldrin is looking for a human pet, and intel into our world. Anything a fae lord would be planning for us must be horrendous.

Footsteps creak on the stairs and then the leafy curtain pulls away and another fae invades my space.

“Come on, I’m taking you to The Living Waters Lagoon.” Klara's tone is brisk. “Trust me, you’ll like it. The waters are enchanted. They close up wounds, remove knots in muscles and rejuvenate the mind. We go there even when we haven’t just fought a battle. You’ve had a bloody intense couple of days, mind the pun.”

I can’t help the interest that peaks within me. “Is there a Lake Maiden or water nymph there?”

How I would love to meet one. Perhaps a lower fae could help whisk me away from these people.

“The waters once belonged to an extremely powerful Lake Maiden, but the magic faltered there a long time ago and she disintegrated. Her essence still lives in the waters, fragmented into a million pieces. This entire area has been abandoned for too long.” There is such emotion in her at the loss, I don’t dare ask questions.

Klara looks me up and down. “You’ll need to wash your clothes as well.”

I glance down at myself, noticing for the first time the speckles of blood and dirt that mark my clothes, with bits of leaves clinging to thefabric. There is a long gash in a sleeve and another in the bodice that I need to sew. Embarrassment fills me at sleeping in this. In someone else’s bed.

Klara leads me out through the ward again, its mirrored surface bubbling and the sounds of the camp abruptly cutting off. Ancient, broad trees and mossy open spaces immediately give way to dense woods. We follow a path that is a narrow, earthy furrow that could be a dried-up river bed. It cuts between natural stone walls and ends at a winding series of steps chiseled into slate.

A deep cavern opens up before us, with an immense pool encircled by stone walls that extends high above us, open to the sky. Great ropes of leafy vines hang down those walls, covering them in green curtains that almost reach the water below.

I stare at the colors of the lagoon. Great regions of blue, green and purple slowly intermingle and expand across its surface, as though coated in oil, but the depths are completely visible through it. The shades are vibrant where the sun hits the water, and it sparkles like liquid diamonds.

The stairs lead me to a rocky shore within the sinkhole. Ferns colonize much of the surface and I glance around for the ideal spot to take off my clothes.

“Are you getting in the water or not?” Klara asks in a flat tone. She probably has other places to be and doesn’t want to play nursemaid to a human.

I quickly undress, scrub my clothes in the water in such a fluster I hardly watch what I am doing, then lay them out on rocks to bake under the sun.

I approach one of many caverns pocketing the stone wall of the main pool. The entrance is almost completely obscured by curtains of foliage, but it shares the same water as the rest of the lagoon. I consider that is right next to the bank.

“Why don’t you swim in the main lagoon? It is nice under the sun.” Klara folds her arms over her chest.

“Are the other fae going to swim in these transparent waters while I am here? I would prefer my privacy, without a bathing suit and all.” Iam already far too vulnerable to these people. No need to tempt them.

Klara glances at me, clearly suppressing her amusement. “I forgot how you humans value your modesty.”

“Have you - are you old enough to have—” I stumble over my words. “Did you visit our realm before the separation?”

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