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RUNAWAY FAE
By
A. J. Cove
(copyright by A.J. Cove, February
2009
Cover Art by Alex DeShanks, February 2009
ISBN 978-60394-278-2
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are
of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or
events is merely coincidence.
Chapter One
“If you have a problem with what I’m doing, Liam, that’s just too
bad. I’m an adult and can make my own decisions.” Shauna glared up at her long time friend, annoyed
that he had decided to block her opening into the human world. “I just thought you’d be
supportive.”
Liam ran a finger down her cheek, staring into her eyes. She
trembled and pulled away and he sighed. “Shauna, you are a princess, aFaerie princess. You cannot leave
Faeland without an armed escort. No matter how old you are, that’s still true.”
She frowned, wanting more than anything to throw a childish
tantrum right about then. “Like I need you to remind me of that, Liam? I’m reminded of who I am
every freaking day when I have to sit in court with my parents, ruling over stupid, boring problems
that these stupid boring people have.”
With a growl, he grasped her by both arms and held her against his
chest. She forced herself not to pay attention to her nipples skimming against his hard chest. This
was her friend, and because they had both developed over the last twenty-five years, into adult
Fae, lately, she had trouble remembering that.
She had wrestled with Liam in the grass down by the lake, sparred
with him in the school yard when the instructor wasn’t watching. Now, she couldn’t seem to take her
eyes away from his body, all muscles and hardness in so many right places. She bit her lip thinking
of it. But she didn’t want anything to change between them. Liam didn’t see it that way. So, she
was leaving sooner than later.
He glared down at her and then his gaze dropped to her mouth. He
had caught the movement of her biting her lip, and seemed mesmerized by it. Shauna squirmed against
him to get free. It had the opposite effect. “Shauna, you and I ....”
“No.” She shook her head. “We’re friends, Liam. We’ll always be
friends. But right now, I have to leave.”
“Why?” She heard the hurt in his voice. It was no secret to her
that Liam was content with living his entire life in Faeland. Even when he had been offered the
position of retriever, he turned it down because it would mean leaving Faeland too often. She
couldn’t respect that. “Why can’t you just stay, Shauna?”
“I’m sorry.”
He kissed her then, rough and hard. Shauna allowed it because she
would miss him with all her heart. And because he tasted so good. The tip of his tongue parted her
lips, while she curled into his firm hold. The erection he sported was stiff against her stomach,
making her want to stroke it, to feel it inside her. She was dizzy with his kisses and took a long
time to remember her vow. Friends and only friends. Nothing more.
She pulled away from him when his mouth trailed to her neck. “Let
me go, Liam. Please let me go.” She cupped his face in her hands. “You know how unhappy I’ve been
here, how this simple life just isn’t for me. I want excitement and adventure. If I thought you
wanted it too, I would say come with me.”
The shock of her words was clear on Liam’s handsome face. He paced
some feet away in the brush. He rubbed at his neck as he appeared to be listening to the sounds of
night around them. She had chosen a perfect time, midnight when all the Fae were at the Festival of
Magic. No one would notice them missing. Hopefully.
“It just seems wrong to let you go without telling someone. You
are a princess ....”
“Don’t start that again. And I know you won’t betray me, Liam.
Please, you can’t betray me.” She rushed to his side, looking up at him to gauge his unspoken
decision. “Once, you said you would do anything for me.”
“I was drunk ... and off duty.” He had the grace to laugh. “I said
some things that shouldn’t have been said.”
Shauna ran a hand down the front of his uniform, feeling his
muscles tense. She wasn’t above seducing him to get what she wanted. Liam’s growing feelings for
her were obvious to everyone who watched him stare at her whenever they were in the same room. He
could be stronger, she thought. Wilder, more dangerous. She had never told him that.
“You said you love me,” she began. “So that wasn’t true? It was
just the drink talking?”
“Shauna.”
“Tell me, Liam,” she demanded, already realizing her plan of
seduction would not work. She was still a tomboy at heart. “Explain to me why you lied to me about
how you feel. Tell me you say one thing and mean another.”
He grabbed for her again, but she moved out of reach.
“Loving you means caring for you. Making sure you’re
okay.”
“You’re not my guard! I left them in the town hall, partying like
everyone else. Getting drunk, and saying what they don’t mean to some other unsuspecting
virgin.”
Liam’s features darkened. She had gone too far. Backing up a step,
she tripped over something on the ground. When she would have fallen, he caught her. Then, with a
wave of his hand, easily executing his magic, he closed the portal she had opened earlier. “Your
guards may not be doing their job, but I am. I am still a royal guard, despite not being assigned
to you. It’s my duty to watch over the king’s family. Period. Now, I am taking you back to the
party. Or if you prefer, I can escort you home.”
She fell into step beside him with no choice since he still had a
firm hold on her arm. “Always safe,” she muttered.
“Excuse me?”
She spoke louder, “I said, you’re always playing it safe. I’m sure
that will make a nice common Fae very happy some day. After all, you’d be shooting too high for
your station to pursue me.”
Shauna knew she was hurting him more with her words, but she was
bitterly disappointed. For months, she had planned and plotted to go. All that time, she had hoped
he would give in and go with her. Instead, Liam had blocked her escape. Right then, she hated
him.
Liam walked stiff and proud at her side. “You’ve made how you feel
very clear to me, Princess. The carefree children we were are in the past, as you’ve said. And
apparently, so is our friendship.”
Tears welled in her eyes. I’msorry. She would have to start all
over again to find a way of escape, and this time, if Liam had no reason to keep an eye on her, she
might succeed.
* * * *
Shauna stepped stiffly up to the palace door and nodded regally to
Liam, something she never did to anyone. It had the desired effect of making him back off. He gave
a small bow but waited until she opened the door. When had he become such a stick in the mud, she
wondered? Years ago, he had gone skinny-dipping with her in the lake at five in the morning. It was
freezing cold and drizzling. They were so stupid, but they had fun.
Now, as she paused on the step with her hand on the knob to go
inside, she noticed the moonlight shimmering in his midnight hair as it curled about his handsome
face and pointed ears. It was true, with his build, those smoky grey eyes and that considerate
disposition, some woman would consider herself lucky to have him. But not her. It couldn’t be her.
Not because she was above him being a princess. She hated herself for saying that to him. But
because she craved adventure and Liam craved security. They would never meld well together, would
be at each other’s throats before a year was out, just like they were now.
“Goodnight, Liam,” she whispered.
“Goodnight, Princess.”
It hurt. She turned to go when an explosion lit up the night sky.
Both of them spun toward the orange ball curling up from the town hall. When Shauna would have run
back down the path leading there, Liam stopped her. “No, you go inside where it’s safe. I’ll send a
guard to protect you.”
She shook her arm free. “No, I’m not staying here while my
family’s down there. Something is going on, and I intend to find out what.” She started off again,
but this time Liam lifted her off her feet. As hard as she struggled against him, it was pointless.
Shoving open the palace door, Liam called out to her family’s long time caretaker, “Ultan!” The old
faerie shuffled into the hall. “Make sure she stays. For good measure, I’m putting a spell on all
exits so she can’t come out before someone releases it.”
Shauna stood in the lobby of her home fuming and worried. The
explosions continued, and now as she watched Liam cast the spell and run down the trail, she saw
that the fire was laced with red and black around the edges. Every Faerie knew what that meant.
Evil. Something evil was attacking their village, and as far as she knew, it had never happened
before.
A check of all the windows and doors of her home indicated that
Liam had kept his word. Each time she shoved against the doors or windows, they held. None opened
more than an inch before an unseen force slammed them closed again. She tried magic of her own, as
she had been trained right along side Liam as he developed over the years.
When a warm glow started in her hand, she pointed toward the door.
“Oscail láithreach bonn!”
The door shook against its hinges, but didn’t give. She tried
again with the same results. Then after trying for two hours, the door suddenly gave. It blew off
the hinges and slid out across the bushes that lined the grounds around her home. Shauna darted out
of the opening and ran full speed toward the town hall.
The explosions had stopped a half-hour before, but she heard
screams still as she neared the area where the Festival was held. She gasped in shock and terror as
she witnessed her countrymen fighting the dark magic cast by tall slender creatures with skin as
black as the night sky. The hollow ting of swords clashing and dull thud of one entering flesh,
made her stomach turn.
Shauna’s thoughts were of her family, her mother and father and
older brother. They must be safe. She couldn’t imagine why the guards hadn’t escorted them back to
the castle as she had been left. And though Liam had promised to send a guard to her, none had ever
arrived. Fear drove her forward, to search the area for those she loved.
The hall was destroyed. Only rubble remained where the old hall
had stood for over three hundred years. Tears sprung to Shauna’s eyes as she stumbled over the
debris. When she fell, she cut her hand on a discarded sword, and she picked it up. It hung too
heavy, but she gripped it in two hands while searching.
“Help me, please!” It was her mother, somewhere in the trees
beyond the scene of destruction. Shauna ran carefully to avoid turning her ankle. When she burst
through the trees to a small clearing, it was to find her mother being attacked by one of the dark
creatures.
Without thought, Shauna charged, holding the sword out in front of
her. When the point pierced its back skin and it screamed on the night air, Shauna spewed the
contents of her stomach. She dropped the thing dead at her mother’s feet.
Shauna wiped her mouth on her once beautiful ball gown, now
stained with soot and dirt, torn from sharp items snagging it. She tumbled into her mother’s arms.
“Mother, what happened? What’s going on? Where is Father and my brother?”
“Shh, baby. Calm down first.” Her mother told
her to calm down, but she felt the woman trembling. Her
mother had always been the strong one, standing up to anything, including her husband. She didn’t
like to experience the situation that could bring her mother to her knees.
“Mother, where is our family? Where is Liam ... or ... the other
guards?” Shauna was terrified of hearing the words that she knew her mother would say.
“They are dead.” Her voice quivered. “First the guards, then your
father and brother. Those monsters came from portals all around the hall. I don’t even know how
they could open so many at once and then for us not to know ahead of time. Our magic was no
match.”
Shauna sobbed against her mother’s chest. “Mother, you saw my
father and brother die. What about Liam? Please tell me you aren’t sure, that maybe he can be
around here somewhere.”
Her mother shook her head. “I’m sorry, Shauna. I know how much you
loved him, even if you denied it. Everyone else saw love growing between the two of you. Your
father and I discussed it, him being a guard and you a princess. It would not have been proper for
you to marry him.” Her voice broke. “But your father would have given you anything.”
Shauna cried out, “No, Mother. It-I-I broke off our friendship
just tonight. I said things that I didn’t mean to him. I was cruel. And now, he’s gone and I can’t
make it better.”
Her mother tightened her hold, as they sat under the
waning moon, with smoke and ash in the air. The screams lessened, the clang of swords died away,
and the black creatures slid out through portals as the sun rose in the sky over the weeping Faerie
village.
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