Page 90 of The Forbidden Fae King

The air around the city buzzes with thousands of pixies. Their moving forms are flashes of bright colors. Aldrin leads us down the slope and through the edge of the city, full of ruins of mounds that are nothing but collapsed rubble.

“I wonder if this damage is from warfare or if these pixies have lost so much magic they can no longer sustain them.” Lilly points out.

“That is what I plan to find out,” Aldrin says.

We pick our ways through the intact regions of the cityscape, where many mounds are as tall as Aldrin. They are beautiful in their own way, with spiraling runes carved into the stone.

Swirls of flying figures spin around us like an angry tornado and Aldrin bellows the same words in old fae again and again.

A pixie stops right before my face, inspecting me as I stare at her. The tiny female has lilac skin covered in places with the palest fur. Violet eyes with no whites linger on my rounded ears. Her heart-shaped face tips to one side, ruffling the fur that grows on her cheeks and forehead, and sticks up in a short puff on top of her head. Fuzzy antlers moving around furiously.

It is not the striking, dragonfly wings that catch my attention, but the long, indigo fingers that end in sharp, black claws.

My heart hammers from being surrounded by thousands of those creatures. They could tear me apart with their hands. I grip onto Aldrin’s bicep as another pixie whizzes past and fear flashes within me.

More dart in to look at me, chittering in that language I so desperately want to learn. They are a rainbow of colors. I have to resist the urge to swat them away as they lift strands of my hair and pull at my clothing. I am bitten on the side of my neck and I gasp loudly.

Aldrin frowns deeply and grits his teeth. “These low fae have forgotten their king.”

He speaks an enchantment in a low voice. The words swirling around in my head, building and building, as they overlapping with each other like he has a dozen voices. My skin prickles and my mind feels like it is being squeezed by an iron vise.

The swarm of pixies shudder as one, as an intense ripple of power explodes out of Aldrin. It crashes through me, and I am filled with an urge to kneel before him. I turn in a circle instead, still on my feet, and witness all of those airborne pixies on the ground, prostrate toward him. Even Lilly and Silvan kneel with an arm crossed over their chests.

“Gods, I hate to do this,” he mutters, urging his companions up.

“Why didn’t it affect me?” I whisper to Lilly.

She gives me a warm smile. “Because you are not of his court and cannot be urged to bow before him.” She pats my shoulder, then walks ahead of me.

As the pixies rouse, Aldrin barks orders at them in that old tongue.

Multiple pixies of pure gold appear, beckoning us to the center of their city, toward a mound of glittering quartz that dwarfs the rest. It is large enough for Aldrin to duck his head and enter comfortably. Their queen sits on a throne at a dais, her pure white skin sparkling like a thousand tiny diamonds. She immediately starts bowing and scraping before Aldrin.

I peer into the mounds next to me, through little windows to thecozy interiors. They have comforts inside, beds and couches made of mushrooms and flowers. Rushes across the floors from dried leaves. Tables of large nuts with tiny pastries laid out upon them. There are vines that loop across the ceilings, with cured meats or dried herbs strung from them. It looks like a dollhouse.

It is familiar and foreign at the same time.

“Hhhmmm,” Silvan grumbles. “So the corruption affects them too.”

“That explains the destroyed mounds,” Lilly chimes in, tipping her head as she listens to the conversation. The golden swirls of the tattoo across her forehead and scalp shimmer in the direct sunlight like precious metal.

I glance between them. “Tell me what they are saying.”

“Aldrin is listening to their complaints, as a king should.” She has a motherly air to her, clearly much older than the rest with a few signs of aging around her eyes. “About their struggles with the fading magic. How the high councilor would not hear them out. Apparently they sent emissaries to ask for help from Aldrin and were shocked to find he no longer ruled. The Senate never even met them. Their story was told to an administrator, then they were ushered out of the capitol with hostility.”

“Aldrin has more allies than he realizes.” Silvan picks the dirt from beneath his fingernails with a small blade. “Especially if it comes to civil war.”

“It won’t come to war.” Lilly says, sharp as steel. “Aldrin won’t allow it. Why do you think he went into exile in the first place? He respected the wishes of the Senate and people alike, against my advice.”

Silvan raises his eyebrows at Lilly. “I didn’t know you wanted him to fight.”

“I recommended an assassination, or ten.”

A silent understanding passes between the two of them, as they turn to Aldrin again. I desperately try to understand the undercurrents.

“Do you believe he can win back his throne with diplomacy?” Silvan asks.

“Perhaps. To a degree. But there will be bloodshed by the end. There always is.” Lilly says.

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