25. Keira

Chapter 25

Keira

A ldrin stands before the immense Watchtower Tree we visited before infiltrating Cyprien’s camp, conversing with its five tree nymphs. They are dwarfed by its towering height. My eyes glide up to the canopy at its peak and a shiver runs down my spine at the memory of the first time Aldrin touched me up there on the defensive platforms.

It is getting harder to hate him. To remember that he broke my trust.

“I didn’t believe you when you told me how big this tree is.” Caitlin rides up next to me, her horse nudging mine with its nose. I stroke the mane of the horse I ride bareback absentmindedly, then quickly pull my hand back. Not a horse. A kelpie. Kai.

They became fervent when they realized our mission, insisting we ride them despite how uncomfortable it makes me. Aldrin gently pushed the idea, considering how slow we walk and how quick we tire. We agreed to ride, sometimes.

“Five trees,” I explain to Caitlin. “Intertwined. That is why there are five nymphs.”

Caitlin frowns. “Five…”

“Some don’t have enough power to form bodies and leave their trees.” A deep sadness fills me for those low fae trapped within their bodies and unable to travel.

Enough of their singsong voices and Aldrin’s deep rumble travel to us, that I know he is trying to convince them to join us.

I watch Klara and Drake enter the watchtower carrying the jackets we borrowed, then walk back out with the equipment and supplies we left behind. All five of the tree nymphs return to their trunks, their flesh becoming engulfed in moving vines and branches and bark, until they are no longer visible.

My heart sinks and I wonder if Aldrin has failed here, until he shoots a wide, boyish grin back at Cyprien. One that fades from his lips as his gaze shifts to mine.

Two nymphs materialize out of the watchtower, each holding their heart-stones that shine with brilliant green light.

One has hair of wiry twigs colonized by yellow lichen and vines with golden leaves encircling her wooden limbs. As she places her heart-stone into her chest, a great change takes over her body, bark turning into skin that is highly freckled and tattooed with the vines that had been real a moment ago. She wears a crown of twigs encircling a face akin to a high fae and the lichen has turned into tightly curled blond hair.

The male nymph has blunt woody spikes jutting from his elbows, knees and spine, with cascading horns of curling branches on his head. His entire body is modestly covered in spongy, yellow lichen. When his form combines with his heart-stone, golden skin covers his body, also freckled, and long white dreadlocks cascade down his back. Spines still jut from his skin, but they are muted in size.

Somehow the nymphs are even more beautiful in this form.

Aldrin leads us with renewed purpose. We travel for days through endless woods, and when the sun sets, we camp under stars visible through the canopies. There is peace in the fresh air that rustles through my hair and the scent of bruised vegetation rising from beneath my boots. I could lose myself in this court.

A forest of ancient trees surrounds us. Staircases of red and orange-capped mushrooms the size of a dinner plate colonize the wide trunks and sprout between tall roots that snake along the ground.

Creatures leap and scurry across those platforms as we pass. The black, furry forms of the puka with pointed ears scramble up the branches. Tiny goblin-like fae with long beards, pale skin and wearing mushroom hats run to small doors in the trunk and slam them shut.

A shudder passes through me at the sight of their fingers ending in long claws. They may be shorter than my forearm, but I wouldn’t want one dropping on me from the trees.

Over days, the landscape changes. The trees become tall and thin, like arrows jutting out of the ground and a rainbow of flowers bloom in the spaces around them. Tulips in shades of purple, pink, and red. Daffodils in white, yellow, and orange. Irises and hyacinth. Sprites of tiny white light dart between them as bees would in my own realm. The floral scent of pollen fills my head.

When we stop for lunch, I have Caitlin weave flowers into my hair. Aldrin approaches, carrying a mug of hot herbal tea for each of us, but he freezes at the sight of me. The motion is so brief, a mere hesitation in his step, but I catch it along with the fire that flares within his eyes, then dies.

“You look beautiful,” he utters, as though he cannot stop himself.

I hardly notice as Caitlin gets up and leaves us, muttering angrily.

Aldrin sits on a rocky outcrop beside me and passes a cup of tea. The warm damp steam rising from it caresses my face and fills my nose with the scent of peppermint and chamomile. I watch him wearily, as I would a wolf circling its prey, but he just sits there, content with silence.

I let out a long sigh. Talk of small things cannot hurt. “Everything in this realm is so sculpted and elegant, as though a god arranged each tree, every flower and leaf, fashioning the ultimate artwork. It is like I am walking through a painting.”

A slow smile forms on Aldrin’s lips, his arms casually leaning on his outstretched legs. “You like my court? There is so much I want to show you.”

He describes the different regions of the land and I become lost in the vivid descriptions of them. Not once does he ask about my own realm or try to pry more information out of me.

“You will love my capital, Keira. The City of Vertical Gardens rises into the sky like a mountain of both a forest and thousands of immense buildings. The palace itself sits in the clouds.”

I weave flowers into his hair as he speaks. It is so to remember the threat he poses when his eyes are filled with passion. Half of his long brown hair is tied up into a low knot, and by the time I am done, he has a crown of white daisies and daffodils in it.

We travel to a high altitude meadow shrouded with veils of mist. Green hills roll as far as my eye can see, and they touch the clouds. A ring of jagged mountains adorns the horizon before us. At a not-too-distant rise, the waters of a lake glimmer like diamonds as it reflects the late morning sunlight. The kelpies wicker at the sight of all that water.

“We will camp here for a few days,” Aldrin announces to the group, then turns to me and Caitlin. “You will find the Sky Lake is uninhabited.”

Kai prances beneath me, still in his horse form. I slip from his back and he rapidly transforms his upper body and face to his humanoid form.

“You will find, my exiled king, that we kelpies know the waters of this land better than you do.” There is an extra edge on his gravelly voice.

Aldrin raises his eyebrows as Kai canters away. “He’s a bit snappy.” Aldrin laughs. “The kelpies have been away from deep water for too long.”

“Kai has been jittery in anticipation all morning,” I say, then quickly chase after him as I notice he and the other kelpies practically drag Caitlin and her satchel of seed-stones toward that lake.

My thighs burn with exhaustion by the time I reach the top of the hill. The grassy meadow gives way to a shore of ragged boulders and polished stones. It is as though the clouds reach down to kiss the lake, shrouding it in mists. The still surface is an eerily perfect mirror of the sky. I shiver. It is much cooler up here .

Caitlin approaches me at the pool’s edge, but doesn’t make a move toward it. We wait as the kelpies near the waters with caution, dipping their hooves in, then taking slow steps that don’t disturb the inky surface. The liquid parts, but there are no ripples expanding out from the light impact. It is the oddest sight.

Iris suddenly rears up, her two front hooves dancing in the air, before bringing them down on the water’s surface, and they strike something hard. It is as though the water suddenly turned to glass. She lifts them again and slowly eases them back into the depths of the lake. I share a look with Caitlin, but we say nothing.

They submerge in the lake, transforming their lower half into the fins, gills and scales of their aquatic form, and disappear under the surface completely.

We wait and wait. The utter silence is unnerving. Minutes pass and I bite my lip as apprehension rolls through me, but the kelpies return to the surface and exit the lake.

Their sleek bodies transform into part horse, part humanoid once more. It seems their preferred form. Beads of water shimmer as they fall from their skin. The droplets are most curious, silver in color like a liquefied mirror.

“Powerful wards protect these waters.” Iris grunts. Nothing covers her bare chest but her long, pale green hair. I force myself not to give into curiosity and keep my eyes level with hers. “Old magic lies here. This is the deathbed of a god.”

I stare at her with my lips parted, wanting to ask what that means, but Kai speaks first. “It is a favorable territory for a Lake Maiden to be born, live and die. Very favorable,” Kai states.

“She shall absorb the power here. Meld it with her own. Give it all back to the lake when she dies,” Iris responds to our stunned expressions.

“Okay.” Caitlin nods at me. “No point in wasting time.”

We unlace our boots and I bunch up my leggings. I loop as much of the skirts of my dress over my elbow, and Caitlin rolls up her pants to reveal cream-white skin.

The pebbles of the shore are smooth and slippery beneath my feet. We tiptoe into the water, ever so gently. It is like molasses. A thick presence within it pushes back against us. My feet and legs almost immediately feel numb and disconnected from my body.

I wonder if the magic of this place doing strange things to my flesh or the iciness of the water.

I hold the sack of eggs bundled against my chest as Caitlin places both hands inside and pulls out a seed-stone. She scrunches up her nose as the gelatinous mass wobbles in her cupped palms. Its bathing solution trickles between the gaps in her fingers.

“It feels so strange,” Caitlin utters as she holds her hands just above the waters and releases it into the Sky Lake. We watch in silence as it drops below the mirrored surface and disappears.

Anxiety ripples through me and I turn to Kai. “There aren’t any predators here that can eat it, are there?”

The kelpie laughs. “She cannot be destroyed that easily.”

I begin to relax, then realize he didn’t say there were no predators. “Let's get out of here.” I pull Caitlin by the arm.

We return to the meadow and find the camp is completely set up, a ring of basic canvas tents built around a fire. The scent of coffee drifts on the breeze and I follow my nose straight to it. A kettle sits on glowing embers, while Drake spreads doughy flatbread across hot rocks to bake.

“How did you get the short straw of cooking again ?” I take one of the piled mugs and help myself to the coffee.

“Can’t keep my mouth shut,” Drake grumbles.

“I already knew that. How did you piss him off this time?” I flash a quick grin, and sit by the fire, warming my frozen feet.

“Cyprien was being an arrogant fuck, and I pointed out how many years he spent with his head up his arse instead of supporting Aldrin.”

I laugh. I can’t help it.

“Consider yourself lucky.” He flicks his gaze at me. “We usually rotate. The only reason you’re never on cooking duty is because humans can’t cook for shit.”

“Harsh…but probably true. We don’t have many native spices.”

I am halfway through my coffee when Aldrin catches my eye and beckons me to follow him by tipping his head. My stomach dips. A hundred good reasons why I should keep away from him flood my mind, but my body makes the decision for me. I drain the rest of the hot liquid, burning my mouth, then place the mug in a pile of dirty dishes, before scurrying off. I need to get close enough to him to find out what his plans are for my realm, after all.

“Hey, you can’t leave that there!” Drake calls after me.

“Sorry!” I call over my shoulder. “I’ll clean it when I get back.”

“Do you want to meet some pixies?” Aldrin’s amber eyes dance as they take me in.

I nod, hardly able to contain my excitement. “I would love to speak to them.”

Aldrin frowns as he walks beside me, so close the warmth that rolls off him sets my skin prickling. “I believe these ones only speak the old language. They are pretty isolated up here.”

“The old language?” I ask. “The one written in runes across the portals?”

“Yes.”

“I want to learn it,” I breathe.

Aldrin glances at me with surprise. “It would take years to master.”

“Surely you have a book or two in your library.” I hold my breath.

“Yeah, if you want to learn from a child’s education manual. But it won’t be easy,” he says.

He has no idea it is my dream. “I have nothing but time in my realm. Even after I marry Finan, it will be years before I become queen and take on an active role.”

Aldrin visibly flinches. I open my mouth, but I don’t know what to say. Instead, I glance over my shoulder, at Lilly and Silvan trailing behind us, to break the moment.

A sharp pain pinches the skin of my neck. A buzzing fills my ear, then another sting bites into the exposed flesh of my lower arm. “Something bit me!” I yelp, trying to swat it away.

Aldrin grabs my wrist, stilling me, and a breeze envelopes us. The smokey scent of burning pine fills my nostrils and thin tendrils of smoke are visible .

“The pixies are a feisty bunch. Territorial. They also enjoy the taste of blood. We must be close to their nest,” he says.

I raise my eyebrows at him. “And you want to talk to them?”

“More than that, I want some to join my quest. They are intelligent, and will behave…mostly.”

I place my thumb into my mouth, sucking on a third bite, and the iron tang of blood hits my tongue. Aldrin’s eyes linger on my mouth, his gaze flaring with heat.

I turn away from him before he notices the flush building across my cheeks, in time to see Silvan madly swatting at a small cloud of pixies darting at him. A laugh bubbles out of my lips and the tense man sends me a look that promises death.

There is a city of pixie mounds hidden in a valley. Each one looks like a bundle of long pipes connected at their base, ascending in height to form a peaked shape. They are constructed from grey granite, with shimmering speckles of white, black, and pink. I cannot shake the similarities with termite hills from my mind.

The air around the city buzzes with thousands of pixies. Their moving forms are flashes of bright colors. Aldrin leads us down the slope and through the edge of the city, full of ruins of mounds that are nothing but collapsed rubble.

“I wonder if this damage is from warfare or if these pixies have lost so much magic they can no longer sustain them.” Lilly points out.

“That is what I plan to find out,” Aldrin says.

We pick our ways through the intact regions of the cityscape, where many mounds are as tall as Aldrin. They are beautiful in their own way, with spiraling runes carved into the stone.

Swirls of flying figures spin around us like an angry tornado and Aldrin bellows the same words in old fae again and again.

A pixie stops right before my face, inspecting me as I stare at her. The tiny female has lilac skin covered in places with the palest fur. Violet eyes with no whites linger on my rounded ears. Her heart-shaped face tips to one side, ruffling the fur that grows on her cheeks and forehead, and sticks up in a short puff on top of her head. Fuzzy antlers moving around furiously .

It is not the striking, dragonfly wings that catch my attention, but the long, indigo fingers that end in sharp, black claws.

My heart hammers from being surrounded by thousands of those creatures. They could tear me apart with their hands. I grip onto Aldrin’s bicep as another pixie whizzes past and fear flashes within me.

More dart in to look at me, chittering in that language I so desperately want to learn. They are a rainbow of colors. I have to resist the urge to swat them away as they lift strands of my hair and pull at my clothing. I am bitten on the side of my neck and I gasp loudly.

Aldrin frowns deeply and grits his teeth. “These low fae have forgotten their king.”

He speaks an enchantment in a low voice. The words swirling around in my head, building and building, as they overlapping with each other like he has a dozen voices. My skin prickles and my mind feels like it is being squeezed by an iron vise.

The swarm of pixies shudder as one, as an intense ripple of power explodes out of Aldrin. It crashes through me, and I am filled with an urge to kneel before him. I turn in a circle instead, still on my feet, and witness all of those airborne pixies on the ground, prostrate toward him. Even Lilly and Silvan kneel with an arm crossed over their chests.

“Gods, I hate to do this,” he mutters, urging his companions up.

“Why didn’t it affect me?” I whisper to Lilly.

She gives me a warm smile. “Because you are not of his court and cannot be urged to bow before him.” She pats my shoulder, then walks ahead of me.

As the pixies rouse, Aldrin barks orders at them in that old tongue.

Multiple pixies of pure gold appear, beckoning us to the center of their city, toward a mound of glittering quartz that dwarfs the rest. It is large enough for Aldrin to duck his head and enter comfortably. Their queen sits on a throne at a dais, her pure white skin sparkling like a thousand tiny diamonds. She immediately starts bowing and scraping before Aldrin.

I peer into the mounds next to me, through little windows to the cozy interiors. They have comforts inside, beds and couches made of mushrooms and flowers. Rushes across the floors from dried leaves. Tables of large nuts with tiny pastries laid out upon them. There are vines that loop across the ceilings, with cured meats or dried herbs strung from them. It looks like a dollhouse.

It is familiar and foreign at the same time.

“Hhhmmm,” Silvan grumbles. “So the corruption affects them too.”

“That explains the destroyed mounds,” Lilly chimes in, tipping her head as she listens to the conversation. The golden swirls of the tattoo across her forehead and scalp shimmer in the direct sunlight like precious metal.

I glance between them. “Tell me what they are saying.”

“Aldrin is listening to their complaints, as a king should.” She has a motherly air to her, clearly much older than the rest with a few signs of aging around her eyes. “About their struggles with the fading magic. How the high councilor would not hear them out. Apparently they sent emissaries to ask for help from Aldrin and were shocked to find he no longer ruled. The Senate never even met them. Their story was told to an administrator, then they were ushered out of the capitol with hostility.”

“Aldrin has more allies than he realizes.” Silvan picks the dirt from beneath his fingernails with a small blade. “Especially if it comes to civil war.”

“It won’t come to war.” Lilly says, sharp as steel. “Aldrin won’t allow it. Why do you think he went into exile in the first place? He respected the wishes of the Senate and people alike, against my advice.”

Silvan raises his eyebrows at Lilly. “I didn’t know you wanted him to fight.”

“I recommended an assassination, or ten.”

A silent understanding passes between the two of them, as they turn to Aldrin again. I desperately try to understand the undercurrents.

“Do you believe he can win back his throne with diplomacy?” Silvan asks .

“Perhaps. To a degree. But there will be bloodshed by the end. There always is.” Lilly says.

A chill runs down my spine. It would be insanity for me to remain here when that happens, but it is getting harder and harder to drag myself away from him.

I watch Aldrin as the pixie queen talks in fast succession for long periods of time. He doesn’t rush her, and each time he speaks, more of the tension seems to fall from her small body.

Aldrin is nothing like the stereotypes of the high fae from my world.

Lilly leans into me. “Aldrin promised we will stay here for three days, and the high fae will take turns fueling magic into these lands. The throne room is a siphon that distributes the raw power into the earth. These are the duties high fae neglect.”

I stare with rapt fascination as Aldrin, Lilly, and Silvan place their hands on the quartz pipes of the pixie’s mound and the stone illuminates beneath their touch.

A soft, low-pitched whistle fills the air as the light of their raw power grows, engulfing the entire structure and pulsating downwards. A wave of static energy washes over me, making stands of my hair float upwards. By the time they are done, all three fae are panting, and their faces shine with sweat.

The pixie queen beams a smile at Aldrin.

On our second day in the meadow, I borrow a bow and quiver of arrows from Drake and practice shooting at a target he creates for me from roots and earth. He pulls them up from the ankle length grasses and sets the woody tentacles to sway defensively around my mark. I attempt to take control of their motion to allow my arrows in.

My earth magic was undiscovered before I came to this realm. I cannot grow roots or branches, but I can manipulate what is already there. I can destroy it.

I notch my arrow and line it up with my target, a large, ripe fruit akin to an apple. A light breeze slips through my hair, and ripples my long tunic around my legs, held in place by my tightly laced cotton corset. I abandoned my dress today, opting for thick leggings instead .

I thread a weave of air upon the arrow’s shaft, so I can guide its trajectory with precision. Tendrils of my earth magic run toward those moving roots to lasso them in place, but my grip on the weave keeps slipping.

Closing my eyes for a long moment, I thrust my power into the ground through my feet. My awareness follows it, as the magic links each bit of vegetation growing in the dirt between my feet and that target, like forging a tunnel through them. I struggle to hold onto hundreds of sprouts of grass across the distance all at once.

The whipping motions of the roots around my target slow to a snail’s pace.

I shoot my arrow.

It rushes toward that target. I nudge it with air while still wrestling the roots. This is where all my weaves usually unravel, but this time the arrow flies true and the roots merely twitch. I suck in a breath with anticipation as the arrow flies toward the fruit.

It is an inch away when a root snaps out of my feeble control and snatches the arrow out of its trajectory, wrapping its feeler around the shaft and snapping it in half.

I stare with utter confusion and impotent rage, until a rumbling laugh echoes behind me.

I swing around to Aldrin. “You!” I practically roar.

“Me.” He has the audacity to grin.

“I almost had it!” I slap his chest hard as he makes the mistake of walking right up to me. “You broke my arrow.”

“You’re doing it wrong,” he says. The roots toss the apple-like fruit toward us and he catches it and takes a bite. “It took so much of your focus; you didn’t even notice me approaching.”

“Maybe I was ignoring you,” I say.

His teeth sink into the crisp flesh of the fruit again. “You don’t want to wrestle with your earth magic. Use it as a gentle caress, convincing the plants to do your will. Let me show you.”

He tosses the core over his shoulder, but his focus is on me. I give him a curt nod. Aldrin turns me toward the target, so his hard chest lightly presses against my back and places his palms on either side of my face, his fingers at my temples. I become hyper aware of his closeness and my breath hitches.

I relax into his touch, that strangest of embraces. Aldrin tethers his magical wield to my awareness and core of power. He tugs on it, and my senses stumble forward.

Then he leads us down and through the ground, his magic hopping between each set of roots along its path, instead of trying to hold them all. His magic runs right up the roots around my target, stroking them to relax and wilt.

It feels like he caresses fingers down my own awareness and my mind melts into him, my magic a calmed beast. There is an intimacy in the way his power touches my own, like he fondles my depths.

“This is a simple trick to undo another’s magic on a plant,” Aldrin murmurs into my ear.

“And…how did Drake…” I try to hold onto my train of thought as his breath tickles my neck. “How did he make the roots move?”

Aldrin sends a pinch through that tether to the plant, making it writher with agitation. That same sensation grasps my power and awareness, sharp and sweet as though he had pinched my bottom. I gasp, a shiver running through me. I wonder if he knows the effect he has on me.

Likely, he is doing it on purpose.

“And this is how to move it with your direction.” He pushes his will into the roots, gentle as a lover’s kiss and firm as steel, gliding across my essence as well. His hands stay at my temples, they don’t physically touch my body, but it feels like they are all over me.

“But I cannot make them grow like you do?” I turn in his embrace to look up at him, and his arms wrap around my waist. I am terrible at keeping my distance from this man.

Aldrin peers into my face. “No,” he says, his eyes flicks down to my lips. “You don’t have any spring magic.”

My heart stammers at the heat in his hooded eyes. The bastard knew exactly the reaction his magic had over me, and I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it.

“Let me do one more thing.” His hands cup my face and tips it upwards, his fingers gliding to my temples. “I want to check something.”

“Okay,” I half-whisper. I don’t think I could deny him a thing in this moment.

Aldrin’s power thrusts into me, hot and hard like a shot of whiskey burning through me, reaching depths I never knew I had.

My breath hitches as cold sweat breaks out over my skin, but he buries it further. It strokes and caresses in the most delicious manner all the way down. A smug grin pulls on the corners of his lips, until he suddenly staggers away from me.

“What?” I manage. “What is it?”

He runs a hand through his dark hair. “You have an immense well of power, Keira, but there is a massive block on it. You hardly access a fraction of it. What are you, to have that much power?”

“Human. I’m human Aldrin.”

“Yeah. Human, with a hell of a lot of fae,” he retorts.

The fact that my grandmother was impregnated by a fae flies to mind. One she claims was incredibly powerful. “It doesn’t really matter, Aldrin.” I throw back. “I am duty bound to the human realm regardless of what is in my blood.”

He seems to shake himself. “I need to think of a way to break that block. But I came here now, because I didn’t get to teach you how to base jump. We got…distracted last time.”

My stomach tumbles at the idea of falling from the sky. “Gods,” I mutter. “Do we have to?”

Aldrin turns deadly serious as he forms a staircase of platforms hanging above the ground. They are of hardened air, but thick enough that their shape distorts the light and are clearly visible.

“This is what you don’t want to do.” He walks up the steps. His floating body is an eerie sight.

I raise my eyebrows. “You start by showing me the wrong way to do it?”

“Yes. It takes too much time and magic reserves,” Aldrin continues. “But you get the basic concept. Create a platform, step on it, then retract the one behind you.” The lowest air base disappears, as more form above him.

I watch Aldrin in awe, my lips parted, as he reaches the height of a house, then simply leaps to the grown, landing in a crouch. Dust and small stones plume up in a radius around him, but he stands and strides over to me completely unaffected.

“Let me demonstrate the correct way to base jump.” He says.

Aldrin moves lightning-fast, leaping upwards in staggered jolts as thin platforms of air form beneath his feet then rapidly disintegrates. It is a beautiful dance through the sky.

He reaches the same height again, before misplacing a foot and landing in a heavy crouch. Sweat glistens the muscles of his bare arms below his rolled-up sleeves and fire burns in his amber eyes as he looks up at me. A hint of a smile plays across his lips.

“Now you try,” Aldrin commands.

“I can’t do that ,” I half-whisper.

“You can and you will.”

I weave a single platform, then step on it. Pride fills me and I turn to Aldrin beaming, but it disintegrates beneath my feet. I stumble to the ground, lurching forward and Aldrin hooks an arm around my waist and pulls me against his chest.

“I already know I’m going to enjoy this,” he murmurs into my hair, before letting me go.

I shoot him a dark look, but try again. I fall so many times, stumbling off the side of platforms, forgetting to hold my wield or simply losing sight of where I built them and leaping into thin air.

Aldrin catches me again and again, with his strong arms and tendrils of air. Each time, he places me gently back on my feet as though I were the most precious thing in the world.

My head spins after a fall from my own height and my blood rushes. I allow Aldrin to hold me close to him while I regain my bearings.

“Can we do something else? Anything.” I pant out. “This is too hard.”

“Anything?” He raises an eyebrow at me, but just as my blood heats, waiting for sensual promises to leave his lips that I know I’ll have to deny, he gives me an intense, serious gaze. “How about we practice your destructive earth magic?” He leans right into my ear. “Just try not to pierce me with a hundred needles this time.”

A slow grin forms on my lips. “I can’t make any promises. Perhaps you need a few needles to burst your overinflated ego.”

A laugh reverberates through his chest, still pressed to mine. “You are going to regret those threats.”

Before I have a chance to loosen more witty, teasing remarks, the ground rumbles beneath my feet. Thick, rough bark brushes against my back as a whole damned tree grows behind me. Its girth thickens and its canopy branches out overhead, as though it had been there for a decade. The casual use of so much magic is staggering.

“Redecorating are you?” I say, tipping my head toward it, but Aldrin ignores me. He grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me back slowly into the trunk, pinning me there.

My lips part and my breath catches. I should be afraid of a fae restraining me, but the way he touches me is far too seductive for me to think straight.

The look in his hooded eyes has heat pooling in my stomach, and lower. Then he presses his thick, muscular thigh between my legs and his broad chest crushing mine leaves no space between us.

Aldrin’s body forces me against the tree, but that isn’t enough for him. He watches my face for any signs of resistance as he takes each of my hands and holds them above my head, into the foliage of hanging vines.

My stomach flips and a small whimper leaves me as tendrils curl around my wrists and tie me to the tree.

I could break them easily by ripping my hand away. I could tell him to get off me and we would, but I don’t want to.

My breaths become ragged as Aldrin leans down, his lips so close to mine that I could lean forward and kiss him. He glides a hand across my cheek, then runs his thumb down my lips.

I gaze up at him motionless. Stunned and not wanting to break this moment .

His voice is soft and hoarse. “I have been wanting to test that blood oath I made to you, Keira.” His hand runs up the sensitive skin of my exposed arm, where the sleeve of my tunic has fallen away, until he touches his restraints. “You see, I cannot bind you with vines, I can’t even pin you with my leg, unless you want it. Now show me your autumn magic, and destroy these bindings before I lose control of myself.”

Aldrin pulls back from me, smirking, and the cool air rushes in.

“No,” I say.

He freezes. “No?”

I wield air to push him between the shoulder blades and force him back into me. “No,” I repeat. “I am enjoying this.” I know I have gone too far when Aldrin’s gaze falls to my lips and he brings his face so tantalizingly close. Panic rears up in me and I tense. “Wait—” My chest heaves as I try to summon rational thought. I cannot trust him, cannot allow him to get too close. He is fae. Ruthless. Brutal. Manipulative. Except he has shown me he is nothing like that time and time again.

“I - Aldrin, we can’t…we shouldn’t...” I pant, still arching my back and pressing into him.

“Then why is your air wield still pushing me against you?” He raises a single eyebrow at me, and the corners of his lips kick up. I can’t hardly hold onto my train of thought, much less answer him. “You don’t want to get too attached to me when you have to leave this realm. Tell me to stop, and I’ll stop.” Aldrin doesn’t release his grip on me.

“I don’t want to, but…” I close my eyes as he trails kisses up my exposed neck.

“Just once, Keira, to level the score. To satisfy a burning need. Once can’t do much harm.”

“Level the score?” I ask. My chest heaves as his kisses travel down my collarbone and toward my cleavage. He slowly pulls at the laces of my tunic to get better access, searching my face once more. I let out a groan as his lips touch my skin again. If they travel any lower, he will expose my whole breast .

“The last time we touched, your hand disappeared into my trousers, but I never got to return the favor.” To accentuate the point, Aldrin drags his thigh up my throbbing core and the friction shoots intense sparks of pleasure through me.

I cannot think straight when he touches me like this. “Just this once. To level the score,” I utter.

His amber eyes flash and his mouth is on mine in a heartbeat. Our lips and tongues collide with desperate need as he presses harder against me. I forget about my earlier protest and disintegrate the vines at one wrist so I can thread my fingers through his hair.

Those hands rove all over my body, slipping under the hem of my tunic to grasp at my breasts, while mine slide down to the curve of his arse.

Every inch of him is perfect.

Aldrin rubs his thigh across my core a second time and I hiss in a sharp breath of air at the explosion of sensation. He removes leg from between mine, pushing them further apart with the motion.

He watches my face closely as his hand runs down my breast, over my sensitive stomach and to the band of my leggings. It glides beneath, slipping under my panties as well, until those callused fingers reach the apex of my core. I shudder under that touch and arch my back into him. Aldrin groans as he feels just how wet and ready I am for him.

I grip tightly onto his shoulder as his finger rolls my clitoris again and again, my body jolting with each swirl.

An arrogant grin grows upon those sensual lips as he soaks in my every expression, especially when he slides two fingers deep within me. Then they start to curl.

I melt, right there in his arms, and moans fall from me.

“That’s what I’ve been dying to hear from your lips.” Aldrin growls in my ear.

Those punishing fingers work me hard, trusting and curling deep inside, his thumb tracing circles on my most sensitive part. Waves of pleasure crash over me, building and tightening within me.

I need more of him, but I can’t take too much. Can’t pass a point of no return. I free my other hand by vaporizing the vines and undo the lacing of Aldrin’s trousers, fingertips grazing over his erection in the process. He grunts in surprise, but doesn’t stop his wicked fingers moving within me.

I pull him free and gaze down to catch the sight of his hardness arching out of his pants. It is almost enough to make me crash into a violent climax. I slide my fingers across its length, pausing to run circles over its head with my thumb, delighting in the feel of it.

Aldrin’s breaths become harsh and throaty, and when I palm his cock and pump it rhythmically, he lets out ragged, soft growls right in my ear.

A deep tension grows within me with each volley of pleasure he rings from me. It becomes so intense my legs shake and I think my heart will give out, but those fingers continue to rub and caress my inner walls until they clamp down on him.

All the sensations clash within me until I reach a boiling point, and I tip over the edge and into a release so strong I cry out from it. Aldrin doesn’t let up as he guides me through wave after wave of bliss, until I collapse in his arms.

My hand still moves across that massive cock, forwards and backward, until Aldrin’s bulky body tenses around me and a choked groan leaves his lips, his seed shooting over my hand in hot spurts.

He buries his head in the crock of my neck and we stay like that for a long moment, panting and reeling. I wrap my arm low around his waist and tip my head to his shoulder. It feels so right, buried within his embrace.

“I didn’t think you’d actually let me touch you,” he admits, voice muffled.

“Just this once, Aldrin,” I say and he nods, but I don’t know if either of us believe me. I have terrible self-control, and he has none at all.

This is only going to end in heartbreak.

Regardless of what grows between us, I have to return home.