By the Magic of Starlight (The Forbidden Realm) (8 page)

His wings unfurled, stroking the air and lifting them both up off the ground. The cabin was not built for flight, but distance didn’t seem his intent. In a heartbeat, he had her in the bedroom and deposited on the bed. He hovered over her as his hands went to the work of removing her clothes. Somehow the magic around them bent to his will and her feather top seemed to simply float off her body. The pink skirt followed immediately.

“How’d you do that?” she asked, watching her clothing flutter away from her and onto the floor.

“Magic.”

“But what sort of magic? You didn’t use any dust.”

“I wanted you naked, and now you are. There
is
something special about magic in this place. I like it.”

“I think I do, too,” she said. “It feels different… wilder, perhaps. I’m used to the magic feeling confined. Usually we harness it and use it as a tool, but this isn’t like that. I’m not sure this is magic I know how to control.”

“Then don’t control it, Raea. Let yourself go. What do you want the magic to do?”

It was a very good question. She could feel the magic flowing around them, coursing through them like blood in their veins and air in their lungs. It was part of them in a way she had never experienced before. She had never been so very aware of her magic, never so aware of her body. And Kyne’s.

What could she do with magic like this? No dust, no wishes… just wanting and desire, breathing and feeling. It was intoxicating and she wanted to give in to it fully. What did she want the magic to do? That was easily answered.

She wanted to drench her senses in Kyne, in the unfettered emotions she felt for him. And their passion. It was raging, frightening, but also tender and sweet. Yes, so very, very sweet.

Since the matter of his clothing had already worked itself out, she was left having to dream up some other magical occurrence. It hardly took any thought at all. Instantly a trail of glowing, amber honey appeared from a spot in the air just above them. It poured magically through the empty space between them and trickled in warm, gooey threads over her breasts. Sweetness, indeed.

Kyne watched in amazement. Raea giggled.

“It tickles.”

“By the Skies, you are creative,” he said, his eyes following the slow movement of the thick liquid.

“Creative and sticky.”

The last honey beads dropped from a magical point in the air, and then the flow was done. She felt the seeping pool of sweetness creep over her skin. Her nipples puckered as the honey engulfed them, coating her in tingling warmth. She watched, tantalized by her own body, yet aching with want for his.

“Now I suppose you’ll want me to clean that off you?” Kyne asked.

“Would you do that for me?”

He was already dipping in to suckle her. “It might take a while…”

“I certainly hope so.”

His lips closed around her nipples, teasing her and smearing the honey more than removing it. She moaned at the pleasure it gave her. When he left off his halfhearted cleaning, he kissed her lips again, sharing the sweetness. She pulled him down to her, the honey now coating his own skin. She’d have to tend to that later.

For now she needed to feel him, all of him, filling her fully.

It didn’t require magic to get there, either. He was ready for her, just as she was ready for him. He let up on his kisses just enough for her to gather fresh air, then to exhale it all in a blissful groan when the full size of his burning cock dove into her.

He was right where she needed him to be. Her body flared into reaction, arching up to meet him as he thrust once, then twice, then again and again. Their tempo urgent, she wrapped her legs around him and pressed herself closer and closer. She needed to touch every part of him at once. Her fingers found his firm, muscled butt and she gripped him there. He plunged deeper and deeper inside her.

The honey caused their bodies to slide, to rub back and forth across each other. His wings beat with every stroke of his pounding cock and she realized they were hovering in midair. It made her cling all the more tightly to him, increasing the sensations he caused with his thrusts. She did not even try to hold back her cries at this point. Passion was their ruler and she was nothing but its willing vessel, ready to overflow.

“I can’t hold it back, Raea,” Kyne gasped raggedly.

She knew what he meant. The last shreds of self-control were about to burst like a dam, flooding them with sensation. It had never been as powerful as this. She didn’t know if she was ready, but she knew that she wanted it.

“I want it all, Kyne. Give me everything.”

And he did. His climax raged over him and they landed back on the bed. He was nearly crushing her, his body wracked with passion that had him plunging into her with wild abandon. He murmured her name into her ear, begging her to come with him, to let the waves wash her away, too.

She was helpless to stop it. She cried out to the universe, barraged by one climax after another as every inch of her body exploded in pleasure. He growled and poured himself into her. She vibrated beneath him. Time and place lost all meaning. All she could do was hold tightly to him and gasp for air, waiting for something to make sense again.

As if anything ever would. Kyne was her world now. She needed him to exist. If he ever ceased being, she would, as well.

Her head was still spinning when he shifted off her and pulled her against him, cradling her and stroking her hair. She had no energy to speak, to tell him what he had done or how much he meant to her. She could only lay there and sigh, drawing warmth from his body and feeling peace in every corner of her being.

“I love you, Raea,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head as she snuggled against him.

They were the words of a human. She knew that. There was nothing magical in him now. His wings were limp, his body spent, and even the magic of the room did not cling to him as it had moments ago. He was a man, nothing more in this moment. Only the vilest, most tainted fairy could ever love that.

But she did. With the entirety of her soul.

“I love you, too, Kyne,” she murmured and gave herself over to exhaustion.

*     *     *

The sun was just coming up. Through the thick canopy of oaks, Kyne could see pink fingers of wispy clouds glowing in the east, radiating like beams up into the still-dark sky above. He had left Raea sleeping in the bed inside. She was back down to her normal size, curled up next to one of the down-filled pillows, her pink wings wrapped around herself and a satisfied smile on her face.

Kyne remained in his human size, the warm glow of their passion flooding his veins and his body still humming with the energy of it. He could take her again and again and never tire of this feeling. Apparently this special magic, the unusual recipe supplied to them by his father, had a more draining effect on him than on her. Perhaps it was because of his half-human nature, or perhaps it was because of the depth of his passion for Raea.

He stood on the wide wooden porch surrounding the little house and breathed in the fresh, damp air. Dew prickled against his warm skin. A pair of birds squabbled in the trees nearby, then darted off when they noticed him. Nothing but solitude and peace surrounded them on all sides. The house truly was at the top of the mountain, sitting quite securely on the crest of a rocky ridge while the earth dropped off sharply in all directions. The hidden pathway they had taken to approach the house was the only easily accessible entrance to the area. The site felt as if it were its own little island in a sea of forest.

He knew he should be planning for venturing back into the world to track down the mystery of the so-called network of machinery and whatever strange scheme was attached to it, but it was more than a little difficult to imagine leaving this place. It was the first place that he’d ever truly felt comfortable. It was as if he really belonged here, and that was a feeling he’d spent his life craving.

He was going to spend his life craving Raea, too, apparently. He let himself back into the house and moved silently into the bedroom. She looked remarkably peaceful. Would she let him wake her? Perhaps he should wait until he’d regained his usual, smaller appearance. They could play at love for a while before having to resize with the dust again. Would she be receptive to that?

He hunted around in the dimly lit room, trying to remember where he’d left the pouch with its precious dust. Ah, in the drawer of that small cabinet beside the bed. He’d tucked it there for safekeeping.

Quietly, he pulled the drawer open. Yes, there was the pouch. It felt tiny between his fingers and he was careful not to crush it and cause any of its contents to spill out, wasted for no good reason. As he was about to slide the drawer shut, his eyes caught on something. A box? No, it was too thin for that. He took it with his free hand and held it up closely to see it.

A photograph in a frame. He knew humans were very attached to these, keeping them as icons of loved ones. So who had kept this one here, and why had they not removed it when this building was abandoned as his father had claimed that it was?

There was just enough of the early morning sunlight creeping in for him to get a good look at the image. Recognition jarred him. His knees bent involuntarily and he sank down to sit on the bed, his eyes fixed on the picture and understanding just out of his reach. How could this possibly be? It simply couldn’t.

But it was, and he was staring right at it. His hand suddenly went weak and the frame began to slip through his fingers. He was returning to his fairy form; the heavy frame was too much for him to hold. He dropped it onto the bed beside him as he withered, becoming small and out of proportion to the furnishings around him. He was left sitting on the huge bed in his diminutive fairy form, gazing at the photo, at the faces recorded there in less than professional fashion. It was printed on cheap paper and slightly crooked within the frame.

“What is it?” Raea asked, stirring from her spot.

“A photo. I found it in the drawer here.”

He felt the slight movement as she made her way to him.

“What’s it a photo of?”

“Lovers, I suppose.”

She slid up beside him, peering at the photo as it lay there on the bed. A smiling couple posed in the picture, clearly taken at close range by one of them. They took up much of the frame, obscuring much of the background. Just enough of the familiar wallpaper pattern from the front room of this cottage was visible around them, and of course Raea would recognize the face of the man.

“It’s Baylor,” she noted. “This image appears to have been taken here, in this very house.”

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?”

“But who is he with?” She leaned in for a closer view.

The glimpse of a glittering fairy wing appeared in the photo and Kyne could sense the very moment Raea noticed that, too.

“Is that… She’s a fairy!” she exclaimed. “By the Skies, Baylor was here, in this house, with a human-sized fairy!”

“It looks that way.”

“Hmm, I don’t recognize her. She must not be from our region.”

“No, she isn’t.”

“Do you know her?” she asked.

He nodded, and waited a moment before answering.

“She’s my mother.”

Raea’s surprise was nearly as great as his own. She wrinkled her brow, staring at the photo as if she couldn’t believe what she saw there.

“But… how would there be a picture of her here?” she questioned. “And she looks so… she looks pleased to be with him. I thought her relationship with Baylor was less than amicable.”

“Apparently it’s more amicable than I thought. This is a recent photo.”

“Recent? But I thought you said he used her and abandoned her even before you were born?”

“I thought that he had, but this seems to suggest otherwise. This photo shows my mother as she appears today. And look at the image of Baylor. He would have been a much younger man if this had been taken before I was born.”

“You’re right. But this means…”

“It means my mother is still in contact with my father, and they’ve been here together. Recently.”

“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, laying her hand on his shoulder.

He didn’t, either. There was nothing really to say, after all. Nothing made sense all of a sudden. Had his mother lied to him? Was there more to his parents’ relationship than the horror story Kyne had believed all his life? What he knew he’d had to piece together from hints and innuendo, the rumors he’d heard whispered around him. He’d asked his mother over the years, of course, and she’d confirmed that his father was indeed human, but she’d never been willing to discuss anything further. Naturally it made sense that she’d not want to relive whatever trauma or heartbreak had surrounded the matter and he’d never pressed her. It had been enough to know that she’d been victimized by a human, seduced and misused.

But now that explanation wasn’t enough. Clearly there was more. Somehow, in some way, Kyne’s mother was still involved with his father. Could it be she was even in on his scheme?

“They do look happy,” Raea said at last.

They did, but he refused to admit it. He’d spent a lifetime trusting his mother and hating his father. Now this?

“It doesn’t make sense. How did he lure her here? What is he up to?”

“Maybe he isn’t as terrible as you think he is, Kyne.”

Her voice had been soft, her words spoken carefully, but he didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to find out why his mother had lied to him, let him hate his own father and despise his own genetics all of these years.

“I have to find out, Raea,” he said. “I have to know what this is about.”

“Of course you do, and I’ll help you.”

The thought of her getting even more involved in whatever this sordid scheme was tore at his conscience. He couldn’t let her do that, endanger herself any further. Things had already gone too far and he was way out of his element.

“No, Raea. I need to look into this alone.”

“Alone?”

“I need to go confront them about this, both of them. You stay here, Raea, where it’s safe.”

“You’re leaving me?”