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“I can't have you speaking of what you've seen here this night. You'll need to come with me. I don't have time to argue about this. There's danger afoot, and I can't promise that you'll be safe.” Kellen kept his tone even, hoping to convince this woman to come with him. He also didn't need her repeating stories of the Fae around Galway, but as time was running out and the royal guard would have followed him, his options were about to be taken from him one way or the other.
“What do you mean danger is afoot? Am I in trouble? What are you? Did you really come from the sky?”
Kellen took a moment to study the woman, taking in her tousled lavender hair, soulful eyes, and leather jacket thrown over a frilly tulle skirt. Combat boots completed the look. She was arresting in a confusing way—both with a come-hither appeal and a back-off attitude—and he wasn’t sure which one to listen to.
“I could ask the same of you, darling,” Kellen said. He stepped toward the woman once more. Again, her hands came up.
“Back off.” Once again, to his surprise, Kellen found himself unable to step forward. Fury roiled. At her. At whomever killed Alistair. At his lack of control in this situation. He didn’t have time for this nonsense. If he couldn’t force her to come with him, and he wasn’t sure he had the time to test whatever powers she held, then he’d need to secure her silence.
“If I leave you here, how do I know that you’ll tell no one of what you saw?” Kellen crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her reply. To her credit the woman took a moment to think about it. A smile broke out on her face.
“Two things. Answer a question for me and pay for my silence. I'll be the first to admit that I'm the mercenary sort, and it would be ideal if I didn't have to worry about where my next meal was coming from.”
Kellen scanned the woman's body, for the first time noticing the leather jacket concealed her thin frame. There wasn't much she could do about the hollows at her cheeks. Perhaps she wasn’t a very good minstrel.
“What is your question?” Kellen asked.
“What are you?”
“Give me your name,” Kellen countered, rocking back on his heels.
“Raven.” The woman also crossed her arms over her chest, mirroring his stance, and waited. Time was of the essence now. It was likely his people were at war in the skies above him and now that Alistair was gone, he needed to get moving. “I am Kellen, Ruler of the Air Fae.” Kellen wasn't sure why he’d given Raven his name or why he felt the need to let her know his position, however, there was something about her that made him want to prove himself. Which was such an unusual and uncomfortable thought, and he immediately regretted giving her his name.
“Fae,” Raven whispered. Instead of fear drifting through her eyes as Kellen often found when humans discovered the Fae, excitement bloomed as though he’d answered a question she’d long held.
“That's the truth of it.” Kellen’s eyes scanned the dark shadows of the streets. “You’ll need to watch your back. There’s danger here. Both Dark and Light Fae. I’m one of the good ones.”
Raven huffed out a laugh. “That's what all the guys say.”
“Believe what you want, but I'm telling you that I’m on the side of good. I don't know what's happened to my friend, and I don't know if the Dark Fae will be following, which is why I’m warning you to sleep with your eyes open. They’ll know we spoke. Meetingmeis a danger toyou, and they’ll now consider you as an asset in their game. If you won't come with me, then the best I can do is warn you. The choice is yours.” It wasn't in Kellen’s nature to force people to do things, and if she wanted to open herself up to danger, that was on her. “What are your powers, Raven?”
Raven’s stormy grey eyes widened.
“My power is my voice.” Raven tapped her finger on the guitar that was still slung across her body. “I love singing, and it’s not just my job, it’s my life.”
Kellen noted that she didn't really answer the question, but he was out of time as he heard the winged Alicorns approach in the night. Opening his palm, he showcased a few gold coins which were far more valuable in the human realm than they were in the fairy world. “I have your silence?” Kellen waited for Raven’s nod of agreement. When she gave it, he flipped the coins into her case and darted forward, grabbing her chin in his hand, and lifting her face to his. For a moment fear flitted through those gorgeous eyes of hers. “I'll hold you to that.”
For a brief instant, Kellen brushed his thumb across the softness of her lower lip, a shock of recognition warming his blood, the spark mirrored in her eyes. And then he dropped his hand, dancing backward before she could punch him again, and hopped on the Alicorn that materialized out of thin air.
“What the...” Raven gasped in surprise. Kellen took to the skies, leaving her alone on the street corner far below, his royal guards circling him. Flying close to one of his most trusted guards, he leaned over, and commanded the guard’s attention.
“Stay here with her. Something’s wrong. I don’t want to lose track of the woman. Keep her safe. Understood?”
The guard nodded, peeling off from the group, and returned toward Galway as Kellen urged his Alicorn on.
Kellen told himself it was because he was worried for her safety as the Dark Fae were ruthless in destroying anyone they thought connected to the good Fae. But it was more than that. Raven of the mournful eyes and tough attitude had enchanted him far more than any Fae woman he'd met before. Maybe, someday, he'd get a chance to investigate why.
2
Raven
She'dknownhe was Fae. He wasn't the first she'd seen, though he had a different aura than the others who slipped through the shadows in the early morning hours. Raven wondered if the slightly purplish hue that clung to the Ruler of the Air Fae was the color of the good guys and if the silver men that she'd seen slipping through back alleyways late in the night were those of the “bad” Fae.
Raven slipped a hand into the pocket of her leather jacket, cupping her palm around a gold coin she'd taken from the fallen Fae before Kellen the Ruler had appeared. She wasn't sure what had made her do it, whether it was curiosity or if it was years of living on the streets that made her take advantage of the situation, but she’d palmed the coin and had it in her pocket seconds before the Ruler had hit the ground. Now she pulled it out briefly and studied it, surprised at how the gold warmed to her touch. It was almost as if the coin had its own pulse, which was a creepy thought in its own right. There was a unique design across the front of the coin, a Celtic knot with an etched unicorn in the middle, or in this case, Raven supposed it was the beast that Kellen had flown away on. And just how cool was that? If she'd known that he was going to take her away on a flying unicorn, she might have reconsidered her position on going with him.
Nevertheless, if what the Ruler,Kellen, she reminded herself, said was true, then she needed to get moving. One thing Raven had learned in all her years on the streets was to heed warnings from people who were in the know, and was there anybody more in the know on mystical comings and goings than a Fae ruler himself? Bending over, she grabbed the few coins from her guitar case, zipped them into her small wallet, and put the guitar neatly in its case. In moments, she was striding down the empty streets of Galway, chin in the air, eyes ever vigilant. Over the years, Raven had learned how to carry herself, and she no longer feared the night or the empty streets the way most people would. Instead, at some point in her life she'd become one of the night walkers, a term she affectionately used to refer to everyone from the street buskers to the homeless who begged for change on the corner. They were all in the same game, weren’t they? Hustling for a living. Just some people were better at it. A light flipped on in a flat, and Raven’s stomach twisted as a young mother came to the window, rocking her baby in her arms. Must be nice, Raven sneered, annoyed at herself for being jealous of an infant. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been, or had allowed herself to be, held.
Her boots echoed on the pavement, the quiet of the city settling around her shoulders. Well, as quiet as a city could be. Raven always took extra care toreallylisten, as it could be the difference between being jumped for what change she had made that night, and her next meal. A few drunk voices caught in an argument drifted by on the wind, but not close enough to be a nuisance to her. She turned the corner to her street, grateful to almost be home.
