Page 49 of The Forbidden Fae King

We are dancing in the grey space between captive and companion.

Chapter 14

Aldrin

Horror runs through me as I stare at the brave and strong woman before me. Keira fought every step of the way like a creature of the shadows, and now I know why.

This whole time, she thought she was a slave captured by an enemy force. That I was going to force her to - the thought is too confronting.

How many warriors would have been crushed under the weight of those circumstances? And here she is, still battling for her freedom. This is a woman I could respect.

A deep sadness fills me at what the humans clearly think of us. What she thought ofme.

I am at a loss on how to gain her trust, until a terrible idea comes to me. Completely foolish, really.

“I will pledge a blood oath to you, Keira,” I say with as much grandiose as I can muster. She raises mocking eyebrows at me. “I will never hold you against your will, enslave you, make you a prisoner or a forced consort. This oath will stand as long as I live.”

I pull a knife from its sheath at my waist and slice it across my palm.

Glittering spheres of white lights gently float up from myoutstretched hand, hovering above our heads, then shattering into hundreds of fragments and raining down on both of us. A tinkling sound fills the air like the ringing of a hundred tiny bells.

Keria places out a hand and catches the sparkles on her palm. They absorb into her skin, lighting up the flesh for a single moment.

The roots that bind her at my command slacken completely, falling to drape across her hips and legs. I can never restrict her like this again.

Not unless she wants to be tied up beneath me.

The image flashes in my mind. Her arms tied to the posts of my bed and her stunning eyes hooded with hunger as they stare into mine. A light flush over her freckled cheeks and lips parted as rough breaths escape them, as I hover over her.

I blink hard to return to the present.

“Yet, here I am, bound up by your power for a second time. I’m starting to think you enjoy tying up vulnerable women.” The smirk that forms on her lips is absolutely wicked.

I am a fool for not taking an oath to her earlier. For not proving to her she is safe with me. If only she knew what I have endured because of my respect for humans.

I grin stupidly and lazily retract the roots.

“Wait. Let me try.” Keira’s brow furrows and sparks of light flow through her hair, lighting up the red, orange, and gold strands. Interesting. There is a lot this little human is not telling me. The tree’s roots are whole one moment, and turn to dust the next, the particles holding the original shape for a heartbeat, then floating away into moats.

Keira sighs. “My magic is different here. Stronger. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

It is autumn magic. The command over elemental wind, fire, and earth magic to destroy and sow back into the ground. It is the opposite of my earth magic of spring, creation, and growth.

I hold out a hand to guide her over the broken ground and she takes it.

Actually allows me to touch her this time.

The skin of her fingers are soft and pale, and her nails are well-shaped and clean. These are not the hands of a laborer. I try to ignore the weary, measured look she gives me and the fact that she pulls away from me the moment her feet are on level ground.

I analyze her from the corner of my eye. The regal straightness of her back, the fact she holds my eye when she argues with me, rather than showing the subservience of a peasant. She has a light scattering of freckles on her face that would intensify if she worked under the sun.

And she is incredibly well articulated.

Keira is no commoner who accidentally crossed into my realm while foraging for berries.

Nor is she a druid, the only humans who seem to cross between worlds with regularity anymore. Not with her level of ignorance.

I have to find out her story, and I know I will not like it.

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