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Chapter 48
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Fairy-Struck Chapter 49
"Dad?" I asked as I sat beside Nighean's bed, waiting for her to wake up."Yes?" Keir smiled at me.It was getting easier and easier to call him Dad, which seemed to delight him to no end."Do you remember the night I made the cloud appear?" I was staring thoughtfully at Bress, who was seated across Nighean's bed from me; staring at me as if not only was I his entire existence but he was perfectly happy with that."Yes, of course." Keir frowned. "The night before you were crowned.""Is this what I did to our fairies?" I waved a hand at Bress."I..." my father's face fell. "Not this exactly. To achieve this kind of result, you have to pour stardust directly into your victim's eyes, but it's possible that you cast a version of it. Something less...""Consuming?" I asked."Yes," he agreed. "Less consuming. I don't have that ability, but magic always changes a bit in the transfer. Perhaps you're able to spread out the spell to affect an entire room full of fairies.""Or perhaps it
Fairy-Struck Chapter 50
That night, I stood on the dais in the dining hall and addressed the Twilight Fey. Keir remained seated behind the high table and allowed me to do the talking, but Cat was standing loyally beside me; looking ready to hurt anyone who reacted badly to my speech. I gave her a quick head pat to try and keep her calm, but I was pretty sure she was reacting to my nerves so it didn't do any good."You have all been so welcoming to me," I started. "You've made me feel as if I'm one of you, even though I know some of you were unsure of me in the beginning." I saw some of the fairies exchange confused glances. "You had good reason to be concerned. I'm only half fairy and although most of you are halflings as well, I'm well aware that it makes a difference when one of the halves is human."Cat whined and leaned against my side; causing me to steady my stance."I was born with great psychic gifts and was taught very early on how to control them," I went on. "Not so with my fairy magic. I've only j
Fairy-Struck Chapter 51
After the Star's Guard welcomed their new brother into the fold, the Twilight Fey surrounded Conri to do the same. Then toasts were made to the new knight. Even King Keir came down to wish Sir Conri well and add his approval to Danu's decision but, eventually, the Court calmed and my father escorted me back to the high table."I've never seen anything so beautiful as you speaking with the voice of Danu," he said proudly. "I will carry that memory with me forever.""So will they, I hope." I looked out over the crowd and knew that they would. Attitudes would alter. Prejudice would depart. The Fey may be stuck in their ways but they always listened when Danu spoke to them. The lessers would be considered less no longer.I believe they will," Keir echoed my thoughts. "Now, what have you decided for Bress?""I imagine this existence would be more pleasant than that in a dungeon," I said and cast a look at my cousin.Bress looked lost; staring out at the court as if he wasn't sure where he w
Fairy-Struck Chapter 52
Restraining Bress wasn't a problem since I kept him enchanted all the way down to the dungeon. It was two floors below the dining hall and was actually pretty nice for a dungeon; not that I'd seen a lot of them. It had clean cells equipped with sturdy beds, little private bathrooms, and small dining sets. They looked pretty damn comfortable... except for the bars and bare stone walls that is.I waited until Bress was locked away in one of the cells - the only one now occupied - before I released him from the enchantment. He immediately fell to his knees; his whole body shaking as he lost the contents of his stomach all over the stone floor."Maybe I shouldn't have let him eat first," I said dryly."My Lord Bress, are you all right?" Tiernan called out tersely. "There is a washroom behind you if you need some water."Bress spat, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and then rolled his eyes up to stare at me. His shoulders were tense and his expression was enraged. I caught myself
Fairy-Struck Chapter 53
We decided not to risk bringing anyone else in to help us. It would be a clandestine operation that we weren't even telling my father about. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. So, it would only be Aodh, Tiernan, and I riding out to the Unseelie Court with three carriages; one for each of us. Hopefully, we'd have enough room to fit all of the seelie prisoners."What are you doing?" The deep rumble came from behind me, making me jump. I turned to see Conri leaning in the stable's doorway."Nothing that concerns you," Tiernan answered crisply as he finished attaching the lead to my horses."Have you already forgotten that I'm a member of the Star's Guard?" Conri straightened and sidled over with the graceful gait of a predator."The what?" Aodh asked from where he was already seated atop his coach."My personal Guard," I said to Aodh before I looked back at Conri. "I'm fine, Conri, go back inside the castle.""Where are you going with three empty carriages, Princess?" He
Fairy-Struck Chapter 54
The tunnels were empty, and we made good time in reaching the lower levels of the castle, but once we were there, I realized there was another flaw to our plan. I had no idea where they kept the seelie prisoners. Tiernan saw me hesitate as I stepped out of the tunnels, and he stepped past me to look around."Prisoners are commonly kept in cells." Tiernan glanced back at me. "True for humans and fairies.""Excellent," I said and looked around the large room. "You think those cells are down here?"We were in the bowels of the castle and the room we stood in was carved out of the mountain itself. The stone was roughhewn, with obvious tool marks marring its damp surface. The floor was smoother than the walls, laid with tiles of some kind of gray stone. Directly in front of us was a set of stairs and although it was too dark to see how far up they went, I knew from my last journey down them that they went quite far. At the base of the stairs, a hook was set into the wall and a lantern hu
Fairy-Struck Chapter 55
"Does everyone who needs assistance have it?" I asked the group and saw them all nod. "Will you all be able to walk?""Yes," a bean-tigh answered, her elderly appearance tugging at my heart. "If you can lead us out of here, we will walk. We'll crawl if necessary."My throat constricted with her words so all I could do was nod. They were all beaten, cut, or broken in some horrible way, and yet they would have dragged their broken limbs across a field of glass to escape the Unseelie Court. After witnessing only one night of what they had been put through, I know I would have too. I would have done anything to escape that existence.I had to take deep breaths to calm my rising anger. I wanted to run out of that room and slaughter all of the Unseelie for what they'd done. Instead, I focused on what I could do to help the injured seelie while we waited for the others to return. I pulled clothes and shoes off the guards and passed them out to the fairies; tearing some of the clothes to ma
Fairy-Struck Chapter 56
We couldn't risk taking the seelie back to the Twilight Castle and have my father discover what we'd done, so we had to take them directly to the Seelie Court. Unfortunately, the fairy mound which led to the Seelie Court was all the way on the other side of the Twilight Kingdom and we couldn't make it that far by nightfall. So, after a few hours, we decided to make camp.When I opened the door of my carriage, the moth that I'd completely forgotten about flew out and landed on my shoulder. "There you are." I gave it a quick glance before I reached up to help my passengers out."I don't know how you did it, but thank you for bringing us a mending moth," said an apsara—a fairy of clouds and waters—as she took my hand."A what?" I cocked my head at her as she found her feet."A mending moth." She drew a graceful finger down the blood-red fur of the moth's body. "They can heal almost anything with their dust." Then she leaned down to speak to the moth, "Thank you again, little one."Th
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