She approached him cautiously. ‘That’s okay.’ She stepped forward and he opened his arms, accepting a hug. He sighed and laid his head on her shoulder, then pulled back slightly and gazed at her.
‘I missed you, too. Can’t say that hasn’t been part of what’s keeping me up.’
Faye felt the energy between them change. She felt Rav’s desire for her, as she had before, and she still wanted him.
But the pull of faerie was strong in this house, and she was reminded of Finn’s threat to Rav’s life. Faye still wasn’t a hundred per cent sure that Finn had witnessed her and Rav making love on the beach, but she thought the implication was there that he had. Finn Beatha was jealous, and dangerous. He was also a faerie lover who was so entrancing she could barely remember to eat.
‘Why did you run off that night? After we…you know? Were together? You’ve been so distant. If I did anything wrong, please tell me. I don’t want to have hurt you.’ Rav stroked her cheek, and Faye looked into his eyes properly for the first time since they had kissed on the beach.
The heady pull of faerie was at odds with Faye as a practical, powerful earth witch. And this Faye, the one whose magic wove the power of crystal and smoke and rain-soaked earth wanted Rav – this Faye wanted a good man she could trust to love her, to honour her as she should be honoured. This Faye was fighting the power of faerie that wanted to overpower her altogether and suck her in its undertow.
‘I just…it’s hard to explain.’ She brushed his lips with hers. ‘But I’m here now.’
‘Is this happening? Is this for real, now? Because I don’t think I can cope if I have you and lose you again. I like you, Faye. Please don’t…I don’t know. I just want to know where I am with you,’ Rav appealed to her. Faye realised with alarm that he was holding back, protecting himself from her.
Is this really who you are now?Faye wondered, stepping outside of herself for a moment.How have you, Faye Morgan, become someone that inspires such uncertainty? And such desire?She didn’t recognise Rav’s vision of her, and it was troubling to have that double sense of herself.
‘I like you, too,’ she murmured, touching his cheek and meeting his gaze as honestly as she could. She would give him all of herself that she could; he deserved more, but Finn was a secret she was unable to disclose, even if she wanted to.
He returned her kiss like she knew he would.
Faye couldn’t deny that there was a chemistry between them. Being with Finn was being inside the addictive, effortless lull of faerie. She was helpless there. A sex slave. Willingly, she submitted to all of Finn’s dominant depravities, and she loved every second.
But being with Rav made her feel powerful, sexy and invincible. The difference was, with Rav, she wasawake. She was sober, and she was in control. Finn led her through a dark dream of excess, but with Rav, she could enjoy his healthy masculinity and feel appreciated as a woman. A woman, his equal, and not a slave.
She didn’t know Rav at all, really, but she wanted to; and, when she was thinking straight, she knew she wanted some stability in her life. Usually, the only person in her life who gave her any support was Annie; it would be nice, she admitted to herself, if there could be someone else in her corner.
This wasn’t an ordinary dating situation. Faye examined her motives for being here. If it was hard for Rav to compete with afaerie king, it was also true that having been in faerie had given her the confidence to pursue Rav – to respond to him – in a way she wouldn’t before.
Rav kissed her hungrily, as if he had been waiting for this. His large, strong hands gripped her waist, and she felt his primal need to have her, to feel her feminine energy meld with his masculine, animalistic need for her. His mouth covered hers easily, and he groaned as he kissed her and hardened against her.
For long, velvety moments, Faye revelled in the kiss; she felt made of honey under Rav’s touch. There was something about the way he was, the way he touched her, talked to her – that made her feel queenly, womanly, full of sweetness.
But suddenly, she was pulled away – taken through the air at great speed by rough hands that pinched where they held her.
Faye knew without being told that the faeries had her, though she didn’t know how or why. The sound of cruel laughter cut the air, snatching away the air she needed to breathe…Stay away from the human man, sidhe-leth.Finn’s voice sounded like he stood next to her, but as she whirled around, looking for him, there was no one there.This is a warning.
Before she had time to take a breath, she found herself standing over a chasm that fell away to nothing under her, and she reeled from sudden vertigo, slipping from her tenuous footing. She flailed, reaching for mossed rock on both sides of her, not knowing where she had been taken to, and marshalled her instincts as quickly as she could.What was it that grounded me before?She reached for the vision of the shop, her place of power. Closing her eyes, she remembered the security of its stone-flagged floor under her feet; of Grandmother, sitting by the fire with a blanket over her knees.I am a Morgan, you cannot take me. Return me immediately! In the name of my Morgan ancestors, in the name of Grainne Morgan, Icommand you, Fintanaeon of Murias, return me! I am human, I am of earth, I am a witch, you cannot take me like this.
Faye’s eyes snapped open as she heaved in a ragged breath, doubled over by the – what? A kind of slippage into faerie, an out-of-body experience? – that had just happened. She was back in Rav’s house.
‘Rav.Rav!’ She shook him; he looked enchanted, vague. His eyes were misted over.
‘Sorry, I…I don’t know what happened there. I was kind of…transported. I don’t know…I…’ he stammered, confusion muddying his expression. ‘Were we…? I thought I was kissing you, and then you…disappeared.’
‘I don’t know what happened. It felt like I was transported somewhere, too. A precipice. It was so real…’ She shuddered. Rav stepped back, away from her.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, Faye,’ he murmured, rubbing his eyes. ‘This is getting weird.’
‘I should go.’ She frowned. Finn had warned her that he didn’t want her to see Rav any more; clearly, he meant it. But Rav looked so disappointed that she felt terrible.
‘Please don’t go.’ He took her hands in his. ‘Please, keep me company at least for tonight? I don’t want to be here on my own again…Please? Stay?’
‘Okay. But this is faerie territory. They were here first…There is supposed to be a balance between them and us. It’s a lot to explain, but I guess we have to work harder to appease them, for them to let you live here uninterrupted.’ Privately, though, Faye wondered whether the denizens of Murias would ever leave Rav alone, now that their king had decreed that Faye was his. Even if she and Rav never had any contact again, Finn was just that petty and cruel – and Rav’s house still sat on the faerie road.
His face brightened.
‘Thank you.’ He kissed her again, and she felt herself respond. He took her hand shyly.
