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He was not in human Glamour but cloaked with invisibility, yet she had acknowledged his presence when he’d surprised her. What was more, he was a Royal, and her mother had told her tales of what Royals did with their kind. She knew the tales of Royals, all Seelie Fae, visiting, discovering what they were, seducing, and then whisking them off to Faery.
Now what? Play dumb, yes, that was it; she could do dumb. What moved her to peek at him she didn’t know, but she did. He saw her interest with narrowed eyes. What was she doing—what was wrong with her?
She had never seen a Royal before, but she knew by the torque around his neck, which was gold and etched with the insignia of his Royal House, that he was one.
Ro
yals were the most magically potent of all Fae and therefore the most dangerous, and this one was the hottest Fae she had ever seen. She was mesmerized by the way his long, thick, flaxen hair blew in the wind all about his handsome face. She was so damned taken by his good looks and his smokin’ body. Oh, this was not good. There was only one thing to do.
She took off at a speed, even greater than the one she knew she possessed, aware that it was probably useless. No matter how fast she could run using her Fios magic, she couldn’t out distance him. He was a Fae, with the power to ‘shift’, which allowed a Fae to step from one place into another in only a matter of seconds. She didn’t know if that was science or magic, but she knew she would be trapped.
Fae seers had many extraordinary gifts. However, not all Fios had the same gifts. One of her particular gifts was speed. She held the hope that she would hold no interest for him, that he would not bother himself to stop her. Wrong.
Evidently, stopping her was what he wanted to do.
She ran into a brick wall that she realized was his chest, bounced off like a rubber ball, and fell backwards so hard she had the wind knocked out of her.
The Royal Fae Prince stared down at her as she lay back against the grass trying to catch her breath and asked, “What, by Danu, are you?”
* * *
Pretend you don’t hear him! Pretend you don’t see him, she told herself. Yuh, duh, he knows you turned when he shouted at you. He knows you ran away from him.
Doesn’t matter—just pretend. She said out loud, “Huh … what did I run into? A tree? I don’t see a tree. Must be just clumsy me, tripping over nothing.” She got to her feet and brushed herself off.
“Don’t be foolish. I know you can see me—my reflection is in your eyes, and your eyes are not quite human,” the Royal Fae scoffed. “Now answer my question. Just what are you?”
“Don’t you know? I thought Royal Fae were all-powerful, all-knowing … all-magical. You should know, but if you don’t, well, one up on ya, mister,” said Jazz, starting to walk off.
He reached out and clasped her arm with one hand, gently stopping her. “You are going nowhere until you tell me what you are and why you were about to touch the dolmens. You should not even have been able to see them.”
“Well, there you are—saw them, meant no harm, just curious, so that’s it. You go your way. I’ll go mine.”
“Are you working with Pestale?” He glared at her.
“Don’t know him, so, no, not working with him,” Jazz said, hoping she could find a way to make him let her go. Then he surprised her by bending to put his nose near her ear and taking a long whiff of air. He sucked it in deeply and then moved to repeat the action just under her chin.
She had been so stunned that she had gone rigid, but she couldn’t deny the tingling sensation his nearness elicited from her. She looked up to find his deep russet-gold and alien eyes full with what appeared to be glitter. His gaze was hypnotically difficult to turn away from.
They were Seelie Fae eyes but not coldly calculating as she had been told by her mother, who had been taught this by her mother. His eyes seemed to hold a fire in their depths. She formed a thought in that moment, a silent acknowledgement that what she had been taught might not be right. And that made her frown. She had never looked into the eyes of a Fae. She had never been close enough. Her mother had told her Fae were rigidly disciplined, without souls, without empathy—no heart. She had never doubted her mother, but … this Fae made her wonder.
“You don’t smell of him,” said the Royal Fae. “However, that in itself means little. You have a choice—tell me who and what you are. Tell me your purpose here, or remain with me indefinitely until I can get to the bottom of—”
Suddenly the earth beneath their feet began to rumble.
The air began to swirl with dust and leaves all around them. A crack of thunder, deafeningly loud and with a power of its own, joined with the rumbling earth and created a deafening fissure right where they were standing!
The earth beneath their feet began crumbling away.
“What, by Danu?” the Royal Fae exclaimed and grabbed her, bringing her right up against his hard body.
Swirling winds surrounded them, and Jazz thought a tornado had hit.
Misty atmosphere invaded Jazz’s nostrils as earth fell away from her feet. They were going to be swallowed up by the ravine that was forming.
Was this possible? Did Ireland get earthquakes and tornados?
No time for clear thought as he held her tightly; she relied on him to somehow transport them out of danger. Odd that she should find herself relying on a Fae …
