Page 88 of The Forbidden Fae King

Aldrin sits on a rocky outcrop beside me and passes a cup of tea. The warm damp steam rising from it caresses my face and fills my nose with the scent of peppermint and chamomile. I watch him wearily, as I would a wolf circling its prey, but he just sits there, content with silence.

I let out a long sigh. Talk of small things cannot hurt. “Everything in this realm is so sculpted and elegant, as though a god arranged each tree, every flower and leaf, fashioning the ultimate artwork. It is like I am walking through a painting.”

A slow smile forms on Aldrin’s lips, his arms casually leaning on his outstretched legs. “You like my court? There is so much I want to show you.”

He describes the different regions of the land and I become lost inthe vivid descriptions of them. Not once does he ask about my own realm or try to pry more information out of me.

“You will love my capital, Keira. The City of Vertical Gardens rises into the sky like a mountain of both a forest and thousands of immense buildings. The palace itself sits in the clouds.”

I weave flowers into his hair as he speaks. It is so to remember the threat he poses when his eyes are filled with passion. Half of his long brown hair is tied up into a low knot, and by the time I am done, he has a crown of white daisies and daffodils in it.

We travel to a high altitude meadow shrouded with veils of mist. Green hills roll as far as my eye can see, and they touch the clouds. A ring of jagged mountains adorns the horizon before us. At a not-too-distant rise, the waters of a lake glimmer like diamonds as it reflects the late morning sunlight. The kelpies wicker at the sight of all that water.

“We will camp here for a few days,” Aldrin announces to the group, then turns to me and Caitlin. “You will find the Sky Lake is uninhabited.”

Kai prances beneath me, still in his horse form. I slip from his back and he rapidly transforms his upper body and face to his humanoid form.

“You will find, my exiled king, that we kelpies know the waters of this land better than you do.” There is an extra edge on his gravelly voice.

Aldrin raises his eyebrows as Kai canters away. “He’s a bit snappy.” Aldrin laughs. “The kelpies have been away from deep water for too long.”

“Kai has been jittery in anticipation all morning,” I say, then quickly chase after him as I notice he and the other kelpies practically drag Caitlin and her satchel of seed-stones toward that lake.

My thighs burn with exhaustion by the time I reach the top of the hill. The grassy meadow gives way to a shore of ragged boulders and polished stones. It is as though the clouds reach down to kiss the lake, shrouding it in mists. The still surface is an eerily perfect mirror of the sky. I shiver. It is much cooler up here.

Caitlin approaches me at the pool’s edge, but doesn’t make a move toward it. We wait as the kelpies near the waters with caution, dipping their hooves in, then taking slow steps that don’t disturb the inky surface. The liquid parts, but there are no ripples expanding out from the light impact. It is the oddest sight.

Iris suddenly rears up, her two front hooves dancing in the air, before bringing them down on the water’s surface, and they strike something hard. It is as though the water suddenly turned to glass. She lifts them again and slowly eases them back into the depths of the lake. I share a look with Caitlin, but we say nothing.

They submerge in the lake, transforming their lower half into the fins, gills and scales of their aquatic form, and disappear under the surface completely.

We wait and wait. The utter silence is unnerving. Minutes pass and I bite my lip as apprehension rolls through me, but the kelpies return to the surface and exit the lake.

Their sleek bodies transform into part horse, part humanoid once more. It seems their preferred form. Beads of water shimmer as they fall from their skin. The droplets are most curious, silver in color like a liquefied mirror.

“Powerful wards protect these waters.” Iris grunts. Nothing covers her bare chest but her long, pale green hair. I force myself not to give into curiosity and keep my eyes level with hers. “Old magic lies here. This is the deathbed of a god.”

I stare at her with my lips parted, wanting to ask what that means, but Kai speaks first. “It is a favorable territory for a Lake Maiden to be born, live and die. Very favorable,” Kai states.

“She shall absorb the power here. Meld it with her own. Give it all back to the lake when she dies,” Iris responds to our stunned expressions.

“Okay.” Caitlin nods at me. “No point in wasting time.”

We unlace our boots and I bunch up my leggings. I loop as much of the skirts of my dress over my elbow, and Caitlin rolls up her pants to reveal cream-white skin.

The pebbles of the shore are smooth and slippery beneath my feet.We tiptoe into the water, ever so gently. It is like molasses. A thick presence within it pushes back against us. My feet and legs almost immediately feel numb and disconnected from my body.

I wonder if the magic of this place doing strange things to my flesh or the iciness of the water.

I hold the sack of eggs bundled against my chest as Caitlin places both hands inside and pulls out a seed-stone. She scrunches up her nose as the gelatinous mass wobbles in her cupped palms. Its bathing solution trickles between the gaps in her fingers.

“It feels so strange,” Caitlin utters as she holds her hands just above the waters and releases it into the Sky Lake. We watch in silence as it drops below the mirrored surface and disappears.

Anxiety ripples through me and I turn to Kai. “There aren’t any predators here that can eat it, are there?”

The kelpie laughs. “She cannot be destroyed that easily.”

I begin to relax, then realize he didn’t say there were no predators. “Let's get out of here.” I pull Caitlin by the arm.

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