‘You said earlier that wouldn’t apply to me, because I am half fae,’ she argued. ‘Were you lying?’
‘No. You will still be affected; less so, because you are part fae. The fae stock protects you, otherwise it would be worse,’ he replied.
‘I’ll take my chances,’ she muttered grimly. She was so tired; she longed to sleep again on Finn’s soft, palatial bed. But she had to go. She knew that she had already stayed far too long. She hauled herself up.
‘Fine. Go. But…you must promise to love only me from now on,sidhe-leth. Otherwise, the magic between us will decline. I will treat you as a queen if you honour me as your king. You can gain great power, just by eating our food and drinking our wine and water, sweet one. I need you by my side.’ He reached for her wrist and wrapped his hand around it. Faye detected a sense of desperation in him.
‘But if my lover loves another, then I will punish him. And you, too.’ The threat against Rav was clear.
Faye pulled her arm away from Finn’s grasp. ‘I can promise no such thing until you treat me as queens should be treated.’ She turned to face him. ‘Queens rule. They pass judgement. Queens understand the realm they command. How can I be your queen if I’ve done none of these things?’
His smile vanished and his fine-featured face took on a watchful look. ‘I mean that I will treat you as a queenshould be treated. I will adore you. With my lips, my hands, everything of myself.’ He ran his finger up her arm, and she shivered at the electricity that flashed through her body at his touch. ‘But I cannot wed you as you do in your world. Such a thing does not exist in Murias, or any of the faerie kingdoms. And you cannot ever be the real queen of this realm. Levantiana is High Queen of Murias, and there is no one else who could be.’
‘I don’t want to be yourbride,’ Faye snapped. ‘I don’t know if I ever want to come back at all.’
She also knew that if he touched her again, if his hands held her breasts, if his full, sulky lips found hers again, she might be submerged once more in the erotic lassitude that had kept her here this long. ‘I need to leave,’ she insisted.
Finn picked up a golden vase and threw it against the wall. The explosion of reeds and water lilies caught at her skin like a rebuke.
‘There is nothing to think about!’ he roared; his eyes bulged in sudden fury, and Faye stepped back, her arms over her head as he kicked one of the delicate bedside tables over; it was made of crystal, and shattered on the floor. ‘You have no idea! None! How fortunate you are, what I have done to bring you here! Do you think this is how every mortal woman is treated in Murias?’ He strode over to her and caught at her hands, but she pulled them away.
‘Don’t touch me.’ Faye was trying to keep her voice controlled, as if calming a wild horse. She felt that if she shouted back, the situation would worsen. She was terrified, but the only way out of this was to pacify the faerie king.Moddie, Grandmother, give me strength, please help me, she prayed silently. She tried to visualise the shop, her safe place, her ancestors reaching across time to be with her, like she had felt them before, but she couldn’t concentrate.
‘Time to think! You don’t know what you arethinking, Faye Morgan. Few mortals are ever chosen to be the king’s consort, to come and go with freedom from his kingdom. You are special, and I offered you more than anyone.’ Finn’s eyes were flinty. As the anger rose in her belly –How dare he threaten me, how dare he intimidate me like this– some of the illusion that had kept her here fell away. SShe saw him for what he was underthe cold, powerful, desirous facade: spoilt, insecure, unable to control his emotions.
‘I didn’t ask for any of this!’ she screamed back at him. ‘You invaded my dreams. You kept me here as your lover. I want none of it!’
‘Then why did you conjure me in your little spell?’ he roared at her. ‘Yes. I know what you did. You made a poppet of me, and I appeared. Because it is fate that we be together,sidhe-leth. I have seen it. And you knew without ever meeting me. That was why you made an image of me and summoned me to you.’
‘I…I didn’t ask for a faerie king! I wanted a real lover. A man. To love me. A relationship,’ she protested, though she knew that it was true: Finn was exactly like the poppet she had made. How could anyone explain that? Was it fate, as Finn said?
‘Fine. Lie to yourself all you like, and deny your destiny. But I will not wait forever for you, and I know that we are meant to be together, as King and Consort, and that you are destined to rule the Crystal Castle with me alongside you. I suggest that you get used to the idea.’ Finn shrugged on his clothes and walked out, banging the door behind him.
Faye pulled on her clothes. She had to leave. Now.
He wouldn’t change. He couldn’t. He was of the oceans, and every ocean held monsters. Finn’s realm of water held the deepest, darkest places, where humans could never venture, just as much as it held sunlit bays where warm, transparent seas stretched over white sands. Finn Beatha was the King of Murias; hewasMurias, and he was unable to be anything else.
The illusion he had thrown over her, like a glamour, like a net over a fish, had shifted, and she knew she couldn’t go back to him. She could follow the labyrinth back to the faerie road that ended on Black Sands Beach. She could go home.
However, she was worried for Rav. Even if she never kissed him again, even if nothing ever happened again between them,he was in danger. Finn knew about them, and he was jealous, and she had seen the shadow under his golden magic.
Heart heavy, Faye walked out of Finn’s bedroom, out of the castle, through the market and followed the labyrinth home. The way was open – no one stopped her, nothing dallied her. As she made her way back to Abercolme, the grief at losing Moddie for the second time weighed heavy on her, and part of her longed to run back to Murias to search for her mother.
Yet, she sensed that she was on a precipice; nothing could stay the same, now that she had been inside Murias and had become the lover of the faerie king.
She knew in her bones that everything was about to change, forever.
20
Faye woke up in her own bed to the sound of birdsong. She rolled over groggily, patting the quilt for her phone. Locating it by her feet, she pressed the display and looked at the time. Six a.m.
She had left at 1.30 a.m., and she was back a mere few hours later, but she knew that she had been in Murias for days. Time ran differently in the fae realms; she had known that. It was an oft-mentioned part of fae lore.
She swung her feet out of bed and placed them on the wooden floor, then frowned and pulled up her right foot, resting it on her knee. The skin between her toes was sore. She rubbed her foot gently, then took her hand away and felt the sand on her palm.
She stared at the tiny granules of dark sand for a minute or more, feeling unease unfurl in her like a stray ribbon.
Faye stood up and caught her reflection in the mirror. She was naked, and a pile of clothes – jumper, dress, thermals – lay on the floor by the end of the bed as if she had stepped out of them there, but she had no memory of doing so. She knew shehad got dressed – when? Last night? A week ago? A month ago? – and gone to the beach, but then…then, it had felt like a dream.
