For a light fae, she seemed to have sense enough in her head. Having heard that most fae of her kind were foolish and ignorant, especially when it came to the woodlands, that surprised me. She surprised me.
I wondered again what she might have done to make her want to flee her homeland. There wasn’t anything that could make me leave Vanglosa, not even the sins or curse of my own father. It had actually made me stronger, overcoming the reputation he left behind, and more determined than ever to become the best lord of our clan that had ever lived.
So what crime had this female committed to make her run so far away she found herself in foreign lands, at the mercy of the Northgall winter bearing down on us, and in the hands of…me?
Chapter 5
JESSAMINE
I couldn’t sleep. Wolf had slipped off into the night after we’d found enough kindling and wood to keep the fire going. Redvyr said that he often left at night. The last time he did, he’d come home with me draped over his back.
Redvyr added, “I hope he doesn’t drag any more helpless females into camp. One is enough.”
I wasn’t annoyed by his description of me beinghelpless. Throughout our brief acquaintance, I realized that grouchy was his normal temperament. Besides, he was right. Iwashelpless. I couldn’t make it out here alone. I needed him.
Funny though, I hadn’t remembered climbing onto a wild Meer-wolf the night before. I’d fallen unconscious with those silver eyes watching me. He’d somehow managed to scoop me up, or I’d subconsciously climbed on and clung to him. Either way, the wolf had saved my life. As had Redvyr.
He slept now across the fire from me on his bed of furs. In sleep, his expression softened, his prominent brow smooth rather than pinched into a scowl, his mouth relaxed instead ofsneering or mocking. He didn’t seem so ferocious as he did in the light of day.
My full bladder prodded me to empty it. Since I had no food, I’d filled my belly with water. Redvyr promised there would be plenty for me to eat once we reached his village tomorrow.
When I’d asked if I’d be allowed to stay in his village for a while, he didn’t answer me. He’d walked away without a word. If I wasn’t permitted to stay, I worried about where I would go next. The Mevian lord looking for his runaway bride now knew I was in Northgall territory. Would he continue to seek me out?
“Your magick is exactly what I need, princess.” He gripped my arm tight, leaning in close. The only sound other than his grating voice was the bees buzzing in our floral garden. “And you’ll do exactly as your lord and master tells you.”
I willed the memory to disappear, refusing to think about that day before I left the only home I’d ever known. A home that had given me shelter and food, but not love and affection. Most of all, not the protection or care I deserved. Not after Draydyn died, anyway.
My bladder reminded me again that I must relieve myself. Quietly, I shoved out of the furs and lifted one of the lone branches of kindling before lighting the tip as a torch.
Earlier, when Redvyr demanded we find kindling, I was sure it was a lost cause since snow covered nearly every inch of the forest. What I hadn’t realized was that Redvyr was an extremely powerful fae male, stronger than I’d imagined. He found a fallen tree, a blanket of snow covering it. With what seemed like little effort, he picked it up and flipped it over.
Beneath it and on the underside, there were plenty of broken, dried branches and some we were able to crack off of the trunk itself. I’d watched him break off a branch as thick as my thigh with such ease, all I could do was stare until he’d asked if Iplanned to actually help him gather the kindling or simply stand there and watch him do it alone.
He was such an ornery beast, I thought as I tip-toed to the mouth of the cave and peered out. The woodlands were so quiet, but I believed him when he said there were monsters who lived out there unseen. Though it would be rather embarrassing, for I knew his heightened sense of smell would tell him that I urinated right outside the cave, I wasn’t going to be stupid and go any further.
Picking my way to the left of the cave opening, I leaned my makeshift torch against the outer wall of the cave. Grabbing hold of a thin tree branch from an elm growing alongside the cave, I held it for balance and pulled up my skirt with the other.
Before I could manage to relieve myself, something wrapped around my wrist. I gasped and instantly grabbed my torch, thrusting it toward whatever was holding me. The creature holding me then grabbed my other wrist, pulling me up until my feet left the ground.
With the torch still gripped in one fist, I stared in fearful awe at the creature. It was a dryad stag, a big one. His antlers, at least sixteen points, jutted out of his leafy head, his face and body an ashen green. His eyes were full black except for pin-points of red at their centers.
What I’d thought was an elm tree was in fact this frighteningly large dryad which had been semi-attached to the outer cave wall.
“A skald fae beauty,” he garbled with a creaking voice, his mouth a black pit. “Far from the waters of home.”
“Please,” I begged, willing my magick to come to life. “Let me go.”
My skin glowed with vibrant energy, bright markings of light glittering along my arms. The creature observed me with interest, those black eyes haunting and so very wrong.
“Great stag,” I said with magick in my voice, melodious and echoing. “You must put me down. You must let me go.”
While he did appear mesmerized by my voice and the ethereal glow of my skin, he wasn’t truly hearing me. My magick wasn’t working on him. Blue claws sprouted from my fingertips. My fangs sharpened inside my mouth. When he lifted me close so that he could peer at my face and into my eyes, I managed to barely scrape one nail upon his bark-covered shoulder.
He grunted but otherwise seemed unaffected by the poison I passed to him. He wasn’t simply fae. He was god-touched. An ancient one. His massive size and crown of antlers on his head told me so. I couldn’t get my hands free to penetrate his leathery, leafy skin with my poisonous claws. And there was certainly something terribly wrong with him.
Now that my face was so close to his, I noted black webbing underneath the pale green of his skin. A vibration of dark power radiated from the creature.
“Mighty ancient one,” my voice echoed with the power given to me by my Goddess Nemia. It also shook with the fear welling up inside me. “You will not harm me. You will let me go.”
