Darkly Fae: The Moraine Cycle

  “Wait,” Melania said, her eyes wide. “I can see him.”

  Winnie nodded.

  “I have fae blood?” Mel asked, her voice filled with a sense of wonder.

  “Even better.” Winnie’s mouth spread into a grin that was probably meant to look enthusiastic, but appeared more terrified than anything else. “Turns out, you’re the daughter of a fae god.”

  Chapter 3

  Mel thought it was possibly the accomplishment of the century that she managed to stay upright. Her legs felt like pudding and she wasn’t entirely sure that she was breathing.

  “I’m sorry, what?” she asked.

  She couldn’t have heard Winnie correctly. That just wasn’t possible.

  “Your dad,” Winnie said, approaching her friend. “You always said you didn’t know anything about him.”

  Mel shook her head. “You’re wrong. He’s a deadbeat. A loser who bailed on a pregnant girl.”

  “You’re wrong,” Winnie replied. “His name is Belemus, and he is the fae god of fire.”

  This time, Mel felt her legs start to buckle beneath her. She locked her knees. She refused to give in to the overwhelming shock and panic that were currently flooding her bloodstream.

  “Belemus?” she echoed. “Bel. My dad’s name is Bel.”

  Winnie took her hands. “I know this is a lot to absorb.”

  Mel couldn’t hold back the bark of laughter that bubbled up. A lot to absorb? That was the understatement of the millennium.

  Magic was real? Winnie’s stories were real? Mel’s dad was a freaking fae god? It was too much.

  Winnie flicked a gaze at coyote guy, and then back at Mel.

  “There’s more.”

  Great. Mel wasn’t sure she could take any more.

  “There is a bad guy,” Winnie explained. “A really bad guy. And he’s trying to do something that could ultimately destroy the entire fae realm.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mel nodded, pretending like any of this made any kind of sense. The words swirled in front of her eyes like birdies in an old school cartoon.

  “There is just one thing he needs in order to carry out his nefarious plan,” Winnie continued.

  Maybe this was all a big joke. Winnie knew how much Mel loved her stories. Maybe this was some elaborate prank to try to convince her that they were real.

  Future-ex-stepdad number six was in on it, pretending not to see coyote guy and his giant sword.

  But that didn’t explain coyote guy himself. As in the changing from a guy into a coyote thing. She had touched him, felt the crazy spark when her hand connected with his wrist. Try as she might, Mel couldn’t come up with an explanation for that one.

  “Mel?” Winnie shook her gently.

  “What? Oh, right.”

  “I said, Ultan only needs one thing to complete the ritual.”

  “What’s that?” Mel asked, despite the sudden and overwhelming urge to not hear the answer.

  Winnie gave her a small, awkward smile. “Your blood.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “It’s kind of a complicated story,” Winnie replied.

  “Try,” Mel demanded.

  Winnie looked helplessly at coyote guy, as though she didn’t know how to—or didn’t want to—explain. The hair on the back of Mel’s neck stood on end. She had never known her friend to be at a loss for words.

  Coyote guy said the words for her.

  “Ultan seeks to raise the dark clan,” he explained. “To do so, he needs to drain your blood.”

  Fear and shock gave way to anger. “What?”

  “We won’t that happen,” Winnie rushed to say. “That’s why Liam and I are here.”

  “To what?” Mel demanded, verging on hysterical. “To stop the homicidal vampire who wants to drain my blood? What kind of world is this?”

  “I know it sounds crazy—”

  “No. Not crazy,” Mel replied. “Horrifying.”

  All those years, all those stories, Mel had so wanted them to be true. So wanted to believe that she could escape into a magical forest, escape her life. Never once had she imagined Winnie’s fae realm could be dangerous, deadly, and dropped on her doorstep.

  What was she thinking? She couldn’t actually believe any of this. Coyote guy’s transformation aside, this could not be real. And she had seen enough mind trick magic acts to know that somehow that transformation could have been faked.

  This wasn’t real. It was a joke. One she did not appreciate.

  “You should leave now,” Mel said.

  “Mel, no,” Winnie argued. “It isn’t safe for you here.”

  Mel’s blood ran cold in her veins. This felt like the most heinous betrayal.

  It was one thing for Winnie to make her believe, to try to convince Mel that the stories were real. But now she was trying to scare Mel. Mel didn’t get scared. She got angry.

  “You’ve had your fun,” she said. “Now go.”

  There was a loud banging noise from somewhere else in the house. She swore to god, if future-ex-stepdad number six was starting one of his freaking DIY projects right now she just might have to kill him. She couldn’t take the sawing and hammering on top of everything else.

  “It’s not a joke,” Winnie insisted.

  Mel snorted. Didn’t Winnie know her at all? She wasn’t some gullible noob who would believe this kind of craziness. Even with the whole he’s-coming-to-drain-your-blood fear tactics.

  More banging echoed from within the house.

  Mel glared at her bedroom door. “I really am going to kill him this time.”

  Coyote guy blocked her path before she could reach the door.

  “Get out of my way,” she told him.

  His face looked chiseled from stone, frowning as he appeared to be listening to the sounds the DIY moron was making.

  “Move,” Mel said, pushing on his shoulder in a futile attempt to get him out of her path. There was that spark again.

  He twisted his head slightly to the side, like a dog listening to some far off sound.

  “Look, stud muffin. This tall, broody, silent thing might work on other girls, but right now you’re just pissing me off.”

  She might as well have been talking to a brick wall.

  “What, Liam?” Winnie asked, her voice tight with worry.

  Good show.

  When coyote guy’s gaze shifted to Winnie, Mel took the opportunity of his distraction to slip around him and yank open the door.

  Everything happened at once.

  Mel lurched into the hallway.

  Coyote guy grabbed her around the wrist.

  Winnie shouted, “No!”

  Mel realized that it wasn’t her stepdad making all that noise. A massive black wolf with lavender eyes and snarling teeth leapt toward her.

  Chapter 4

  Liam yanked Melania back into her chamber and shoved her behind his body. His limbs moved on instinct, drawing his sword and slicing it through the air as Ultan went for the throat.

  The blade should have cut through the traitor’s beastly form without much effort.

  Instead, it bounced off the wolf’s shoulder, knocking the creature into the wall. Ultan was instantly back on his feet, crouched low and snarling like the ferocious predator he was.

  Liam was vaguely aware of screaming behind him. He couldn’t discern if it was Melania or Winnie. It might have been both.

  Why hadn’t the sword penetrated the traitor-turned-wolf’s fur? All fae were vulnerable in their ainmhi form. The one day each month that all fae were required to spend as an animal was a means of both recharging their magic and, he imagined, reminding them what it meant to be mortal. The rest of the month, only an enchanted weapon could deliver a killing blow.

  But even Liam’s enchanted sword had not harmed so much as a hair on the traitor’s body.

  Had Ultan somehow found a way to become immortal as his ainmhi?

  Did that mean he was also immortal in fae form?

  “Stand down,
traitor,” Liam growled.

  The wolf snarled ferociously and crouched, ready to resume his attack.

  “Mel, no!” Winnie shouted.

  Liam sensed movement at his side a split-second before Melania appeared, wielding what looked like a wooden club.

  “Let’s see how you like a baseball bat to the skull,” she said.

  She lunged for the wolf. Liam’s arm shot out, catching her before she could literally deliver herself into the grasp of the fae they had come to protect her from.

  She looked at him like he was insane. There was a fierce charge of rage radiating from her. He had to respect her willingness to risk herself to protect others. He knew she did it not him, but her friend. In any other circumstance, he would likely admire that kind of courage.

  Not in this situation, however. In this situation, her courage could get her killed…and doom the fae realm to the same fate.

  “Winnie,” Liam called out, “take her.”

  Instantly, Winnie was at his side, wrapping her arms around her friend and pulling her away. Back into the chamber.

  “What the hell, Win?” Melania screamed as her friend dragged her away. “Let me help.”

  “You can’t,” Winnie insisted.

  There were sounds of a struggle, then muffled shouts. He could well picture that Melania was being forcibly restrained by her friend.

  Winnie said, reassuringly, “Liam can handle this.”

  Indeed he could.

  Liam turned his full attention back on Ultan, who was studying Melania with an undisguised hunger in his pale purple eyes. Hunger not for the flesh, but for the blood that flowed through her veins.

  Not if Liam had anything to say about it.

  He flexed his fingers around the hilt of the sword.

  “Impervious or not, you will not get past me,” he told the traitor.

  The stakes were too high. He would stop Ultan from taking Melania, or he would die trying. There was no middle ground.

  The wolf snarled at him, as though displeased with Liam’s display of resolve.

  “No magic is perfect, Ultan. I will find your weakness.” Liam allowed a wolfish smile of his own to spread across his mouth. “And when I do, I will kill you.”

  At that, the traitor hesitated, dragged its gaze away from its quarry to glare at Liam. Good. Better that the beast’s attention was on him than the ladies.

  It studied Liam for several long moments, as if deciding whether the battle would be worth it. Whether he would still achieve his goal if he tried to attack.

  Liam stood firm, every muscle in his body tensed and ready for a fight.

  A fight that never came. Without warning, the wolf spun on its haunches and fled down the hall and out the front door.

  Liam stood in the doorway between Melania’s chamber and the rest of the home for a long time, sword held before him and waiting for the wolf’s return. It might have been a trick. A tactic to make Liam believe he had retreated from the battle, only to return and redouble his efforts before they had time to regroup.

  Liam couldn’t take that chance.

  “Is he gone?” Winnie finally asked.

  Backing into the room, Liam swung the door closed before turning to answer the question. His eyes widened when he saw that Winnie had her friend on the floor and was sitting on her back to keep her down. She had both hands clamped over Melania’s mouth.

  From the furious look in the demigoddess’s eyes, she did not approve of the tactics.

  “Yes, he is gone.”

  Liam took an instinctive step back as Winnie released her friend.

  Melania jumped to her feet and whirled around to face Winnie. “What. The. Hell?”

  Winnie gave her a helpless shrug. “That was Ultan.”

  “That was—” Melania shook her head. “What? No, that was a wolf.”

  “A wolf is Ultan’s ainmhi,” Liam offered.

  “His what?”

  “Ainmhi,” Winnie repeated. “Just like Liam turns into a coyote, every fae can shift into animal form. Normally they are mortal in that state…”

  She let the words fade off and gave Liam a questioning look.

  If only he had answers for her.

  “So, let me get this straight,” Melania said. “The bloodthirsty vampire fairy who wants to kill me—”

  “Not a vampire,” Winnie interjected.

  “—was just in my house in the form of a wolf?”

  Winnie shrugged.

  “Yes,” Liam answered. “And he will return. We need to get you to safety.”

  Melania frowned. “What about my mom? I can’t just leave her here.”

  “Ultan has no interest in her,” he started to explain. When it looked like she was about to continue arguing, he suggested, “But we can send a security detail to watch your home until the traitor has been captured.”

  That seemed to satisfy her.

  “Okay.” She kneeled down beside her bed and pulled a bag from underneath. “Just let me pack a few essentials and tell my mom I’m going to stay with Win for a few days.”

  Liam watched as she started shoving her essentials into the bag—though in what universe a bag of chocolate bars counted as an essential, he did not know. But at least she had agreed to return with them. He wouldn’t have to stay in the human realm any longer than absolutely necessary.

  And, he had to admit, that was more of a motivation than he wanted to admit.

  Chapter 5

  Mel’s mom was surprisingly okay with her daughter being gone for a few days. Probably because of the post-fight makeup bliss that was Mel’s number one reason for wanting to be gone.

  That, and the crazy magical wolf guy who had tried to grab her from her own home. She was pretty not okay with that either.

  As they walked out through the trailer park that had been her home for as long as she could remember—the guys in her mom’s life might change, but their address never did—Mel tried to process everything that had happened since Winnie showed up at her door. Winnie telling her that magic was real, that her stories were true. Coyote guy—Liam, Winnie had called him—changing into a coyote before her eyes. And wolf guy showing up at her house.

  All in all, Mel felt like she had ample reason to freak out.

  Which in no way explained why she wasn’t. At all.

  She should have been in hysterics. She should have been calling Winnie a liar and dialing 911 or the X-Files or 1-800-MY-FRIEND-IS-NUTS.

  Instead, she was surprisingly calm. Surprisingly…okay with it all.

  Fine, not okay with wolf guy. But the rest of it? Yeah. Pretty much.

  Her easy acceptance of what would have seemed impossible only a few hours ago made her freak out more than anything else. She had to be losing it. How else could she explain the fact that everything Winnie told her felt right. Felt real.

  At the edge of the trailer park, Mel climbed through the hole in the shoulder-high chain link fence that she used daily on her way to school.

  “Explain again why we’re not taking a car?” she asked.

  “There are no roads to the veil.” Winnie climbed through after her. “The path through these woods is the shortest route.”

  Liam vaulted over the fence.

  “How did you—?” she began.

  “The sooner we reach Moraine territory,” he said, walking past her as if she wasn’t speaking, “the better.”

  Mel’s mood quickly shifted from awe—how had he cleared a five-foot fence in a single leap?—to irritation. She did not like being ignored.

  With Liam leading the way, the two girls followed him along the path. Mel studied his back as they walked. He was tall, several inches taller than her, which possibly explained how he’d cleared the fence. His spine was stick straight, his steps even and long. Everything about him said military.

  They were far enough back that Mel didn’t think he could hear a whisper.

  “What’s his deal?” she asked Winnie.

  Winnie looked at him
, as if seeing him for the first time. “He doesn’t say much. They call him the Statue of Clan Moraine.”

  A statue. Yes, that fit him. Bigger than life, as solid and immovable as stone.

  Mel suddenly wanted to know a lot more about him. “How do you know him?”

  “He’s the Captain of the Palace Watch.”

  Mel gave her a confused look.

  “The military force that guards the palace,” Winnie explained. “It is their responsibility to protect the royal family and the seat of the clan.”

  “And he’s the head guy?” she asked. When Winnie nodded, she asked, “Isn’t he kind of young to be the head of a military force?”

  Winnie made an odd kind of grimace. “Fae don’t age the same way we do. Or, maybe more accurately, time does not pass the same in the veil as it does in the human realm.”

  Mel’s mind spun. Winnie made it sound like the fae lived in some kind of alternate universe. Then again, what did Mel know? Maybe they did.

  Winnie was the expert.

  But Mel felt like she knew them. She had been reading Winnie’s stories for years, had re-read them over and over again. She probably knew them better than Winnie herself. It blew her mind, the idea that, all of a sudden, these characters she had cherished above all others, were going to be flesh and blood in front of her.

  She might meet the lost princess or the ice witch or the heartbroken prince…for real. It was equal parts a dream come true and way too much to believe.

  “Wait!” Mel pulled up short as she remembered one of Winnie’s stories from a couple years ago. She leaned in close to her friend’s year. “Liam?” she said, her voice barely a breath. “Is he the one with—?”

  “Yes,” Winnie replied abruptly before Mel could say the words.

  Liam MacNeil, the fae guard with the scars that criss-crossed his entire back. Winnie had described him—had described them—in such exacting detail, that Mel could picture them as if she were looking right at them.

  “No way,” Mel whispered.

  Winnie always said she didn’t know how he got the scars. At the time, Mel had been beyond frustrated. How could she not know? She wrote him, for crying out loud.