You banished me from ever returning to your kingdom. You took my friend. You took so many people from Abercolme,she replied, her heart hammering fiercely.Return them, and I will talk to you.
She didn’t want the faeries here; she wanted nothing more to do with them. She’d left her shop, Mistress of Magic, and come to London to get away from the memories.
Faye. Do not ask what I cannot give. Be true to your fae self and come to Murias. Your destiny awaits you, Finn said, his eyes glowing.
I will not come unless you release everyone you took. Including my friend, Aisha,Faye said.You are evil. I want nothing to do with you.
I know you want me, sidhe-leth, the faerie king replied.The fire in your blood cannot be denied.
I do not want you, she retorted.I never want to…do what we did, ever again.
The faerie king laughed.
I know that is a lie, he said in a low voice.I know what you dream.
Faye blushed.
And I know that you will return to me and fulfil the prophecy. You will rule the Crystal Castle of the Moon with me at your side,Finn said.Return to your human man. Pretend that you are satisfied with the commonplace if it pleases you. It matters not; your life is cursed until you return to me. You will only find fulfilment in the fae worlds now.
That’s not true. Everything you say is a lie. Be gone!
Faye reached into her bag and gripped the hag stone – a small stone with a hole through the middle – which she always kept with her. It was a stone from a protection charm that her grandmother had made and hung up in their shop, and Faye had threaded it on a black ribbon and brought it with her to London. The legend was that if you held a hag stone to your eye to look through the hole, you would be able to see faerie magic and avoid being cursed.
She held it up in front of her.Be gone, Fintaneon, King of Murias, she thought fiercely.Leave me alone.She knew that if she commanded the faerie king with his full name, he had to obey her. It was not a trick that had seemed to work on the faerie queen Levantiana, however.
As you wish, sidhe-leth. Finn Beatha chuckled, and his face started to disappear.But you will come to me sooner than you think.
‘Faye. Are you all right?’ Rav was leaning towards her, looking concerned. Realising that she was holding the hag stone up in her fist, looking like she was about to throw it, Faye lowered her hand.
‘I’m fine. Sorry. I just…had a bit of a strange moment for a second.’ She swallowed hard and returned the hag stone to her bag.
Faye shook her head and cleared her throat.
‘What happened? You just went completely blank.’ Rav regarded her cautiously. ‘Then you waved that stone at the mirror. What was that?’
She could have told him. Rav had met Finn Beatha; he knew how dangerous the faerie realms could be. But for that reason, Faye said nothing.
They had come to London to escape faeries. She didn’t want to worry Rav. He was just starting to heal.
‘It was nothing,’ she assured him, and picked up her champagne glass. ‘To us. To London.’ She clinked his glass with hers.
Rav watched her warily, but nodded. ‘To us,’ he repeated, his face a mask.
Later, the dream came again. She was back in Abercolme on Black Sands Beach, and the faerie queen of Murias, Levantiana, was asking her something over and over again. In one hand, the faerie queen held decapitated human heads by their hair. Withthe other, she reached out for Faye’s belly. Faye was pregnant, and the beach behind her was on fire.
Faye understood that the faerie queen was demanding a bargain. Life for life, a child to save many human lives. In the dream, Faye knew that this had already happened; she’d already pledged a child to Levantiana, the High Queen of Murias, in a bargain to save Rav from being imprisoned in there. She had also agreed to help Levantiana fight her father, Lyr of Falias, the elemental realm of earth, in return for Levantiana teaching her faerie magic. She was in deep, but she’d had no choice. Faye hoped that somehow, the faerie queen wouldn’t come to claim what had been agreed.
Still dreaming, Faye fell to her knees at the edge of the tide.Please, please don’t take my baby, she begged, but Levantiana picked up Faye’s palm, forced the fingers open and handed Faye the bloodied, twisted hair of the dead.
Now, I will have what is mine, she cried, and Faye woke, crying.
3
Excerpt from Grainne Morgan’s diary
Summer solstice, Midsummer, 21 June 1588
Gwyn Beatha, Faerie King of Murias, made an appearance this morning at sunrise. Ethel, Marian and I made sure to mark the appearance of the sun over the beach at the break of day, and he arrived on a chariot pulled by water kelpies as the sun rose. We were the only ones ready to be up at such an hour; the village enjoys the festivities later in the day, but as ever, are mostly interested in drinking and revelry.
