Fae Hunter (Tangled Fae Book 1) Read online

  Fae Hunter

  Tangled Fae: Book One

  Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Published by Sarah K. L. Wilson, 2019.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  FAE HUNTER

  First edition. September 4, 2019.

  Copyright © 2019 Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Written by Sarah K. L. Wilson.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  BOOK ONE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  BOOK TWO

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Behind the Scenes:

  For Cale.

  Other Books by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Dragon School Series

  First Flight

  Initiate

  The Dark Prince

  The Ruby Isles

  Sworn

  Dusk Covenant

  First Message

  Warring Promises

  Prince of Dragons

  Dark Night

  Bright Hopes

  Mark of Loyalty

  Dire Quest

  Ancient Allies

  Pipe of Wings

  Dragon Piper

  Dust of Death

  Troubled War

  Starie Night

  Ascendant Light

  Dragon Chameleon Series

  Rogue’s Quest

  Paths of Deception

  City of Ice

  Mist of Power

  Silver Eyes

  World of Legends

  Chase the Moon

  Shadow Quest

  Creeping Darkness

  Golem Siege

  Memory of Mountains

  Color of Victory

  Dragon Tide Series

  Dragonlet

  Dragon Staff

  Desperate Flight

  Bubbles of Hope

  Waves of Destiny

  Tides of Change

  Keys of Power

  Rock Eaters

  Underworld

  Chosen One

  The Unweaving Chronicles Series

  Teeth of the Gods

  Lightning Strikes Twice

  Thunder Rattles High

  Bridge of Legends Series

  Summernight

  Dawnspell

  Autumngale

  Winterfast

  Springhatch

  BOOK ONE

  When the barriers were weak, they came in. They were smoke and mirrors. They were dust and mist. They stole into our minds as smoke under a door. They slid through our thoughts as oil in water. We welcomed them. We wanted them. We were them.

  -Tales of the Faewald

  Chapter One

  His smile was both angelic and darkly sinful. It made my young heart flutter like a jar of butterflies.

  “I knew you were real,” Hulanna said, reaching toward him. The flower crown in her dark red curls had fallen over one eye – a crown almost identical to mine. It gave her a look of surprised innocence.

  His smile deepened.

  My sister and I were both breathless from our dancing and laughter, petals and crushed grass strewn around our feet like offerings. Our eyes were wide and cheeks bright with excitement.

  Dancing around the Star Stones was just daring trouble to find you – if you believed the old wives in our village. No one I’d ever heard of had dared to try it. No one except for us.

  “I just knew you would come,” her face practically glowed with excitement as her adoring gaze sought his.

  It wasn’t supposed to work. It was just a silly prank. I wasn’t supposed to call whatever it had called.

  He wasn’t human. That was the first thing of which I was sure. From the delicate points of his pale ears to the perfect marble planes of his gorgeous face and rippling muscles – a being like that wasn’t human. Did I mention that he was shirtless? His light silk vest was open and rippling in the breeze and his tooled-leather boots and brocade breeches hugged his strong form.

  I felt my face growing hot. I was trying not to look. Trying to pretend I wasn’t studying him from the corner of my eye.

  “I dreamed of you,” he said to Hulanna with a voice like a clear crystal bell. He crept a step closer. Here in the howling winds of the upland plain between the standing rocks – here in a place as open as open can be, as lonely as lonely can be – his simple step forward seemed intimate.

  I glanced back to where the woods ended and the plains began. Some instinct told me I should be in those trees right now. Everything inside me was screaming that I should run, run, run as fast as I could.

  But maybe, a tiny voice in my heart said, maybe he really did dream of her. After all, if he said that to you, you’d believe it, wouldn’t you? You’d believe anything that dropped from those seductive red lips and that devilish half-smile.

  He knows he’s charming, doesn’t he? The rest of my heart said. Does he practice that adoring look in the mirror or has he just seduced so many women that it’s natural to him?

  It was the eyes. It was those dark, magnificent eyes that seemed to see all your secrets at once. They dreamed the dreams of devils and angels, suggesting that rays of sunshine could kiss the shadows and create something utterly new. They’d seen things we could barely imagine – things too magical and wonderous for two village girls high in the mountains. They made me want to see all those things, too.

  I shook my head to clear it. Since when had I wanted to see magic? I was happy enough with my mountains and my future as the village hunter. I didn’t need magic or pale faces and inviting lips.

  “You dreamed of me?” Hulanna asked, her pale lips parting as if inviting a kiss. She took a step forward so that now she was standing almost inside the circle of rocks, her eyes large and liquid and her body swaying slightly as if she were still dancing the dance we’d used to call him.

  What kind of magical creature comes when you call? What’s in it for them if their world is so fascinating? Is it a prank? A trick?

  Or can dreams really come true?

  He held his hands out as if he wanted to touch her – as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. As if giving in might break the spell. And the burning adoration in his eyes made me swallow even though it wasn’t meant for me.

&nbs
p; My face grew hotter. I shouldn’t be watching this private moment, should I? If it was real. If it wasn’t all a sham – then surely it was private.

  But we’d come up here together. Just two sisters sneaking up to the forbidden rocks. And we’d made our crowns and danced the dance of the Shining Ones as we skipped through knee-high flowers of blue and white and gold and we’d laughed and tried to describe how beautiful they would be when they came.

  We’d been wrong.

  But only because our imaginations were too small. Only because words weren’t enough when it came to this being. Words would never be enough.

  “Of you,” he agreed, nodding, and his eyes warmed even more – how was that possible? – as his smile seemed to draw her close. “I’ve been dreaming of you all my life. My one, true, perfect mate.”

  Hulanna laughed just a little nervously. “That can’t be me. Can it?”

  The way she looked down coyly, the way her dark lashes made fans over her cheeks and her rapid breathing made her chest rise and fall so quickly that eyes were drawn to her form – well, maybe she didn’t know what that might do to a man. I had a pretty good idea. I’d been watching boys’ eyes get big around Hulanna all my life. She was the pretty one. The dreamy one. The one everyone wanted to know.

  But she hadn’t been good when she convinced me to come here with her.

  Our parents were going to be so angry when we got home. Furious.

  “I had a dream,” she had said while we were herding the goats to the high pasture this morning. “And it was of a place where gemstones are more common than wildflowers.”

  “Sounds cold,” I’d said, twitching my rod to remind the goats to keep going.

  “Of a place where everyone is beyond beautiful – like the angels of heaven.”

  “I hate beautiful people,” I said, prodding one of the goats with my finger to move his stubborn behind down the path. “They don’t bother being anything else. They aren’t funny or smart or wise or interesting – they’re just pretty because that’s all they need to be.”

  “The food there was all ambrosia and truffles,” she sighed.

  “Have you ever had ambrosia? I mean, the bards talk about it as if it’s amazing, but what if it’s just goat’s milk? Maybe it’s all a scheme that some ambrosia dealer down on the lowlands uses to get people wanting something that’s actually awful.”

  But she wasn’t having any of my cynical attitude today.

  “There was a prince there – the most beautiful prince in the world with raven black hair to his shoulders and huge green eyes and corded, rippling muscles running down through his core, and ...”

  “Let’s stop the image there,” I said dryly. “The only core I’m interested in right now is the core of the apple waiting for me with my lunch.”

  “Don’t be like that, Allie. Will you come with me to the Star Stones?” she’d asked – no, begged – and she’d turned that look on me. It was the look she was giving him right now. The look that would make you do anything.

  “I’m not worthy of you,” he was saying to her with those green eyes sparkling in the sunlight and that dark hair curling around his neck and brushing his nose where it fell out of place. But if he really thought that, then why was he here trying to seduce her? He bit his lower lip and reached out a hand, almost touching her – but not – as if he were afraid to taint her with his touch. “Please. Please say I have a little hope.”

  And he looked like a tortured soul – like her answer could break him to a thousand pieces. She drew in a breath and I saw it catch in her throat.

  “Don’t,” I said – and I broke the spell. I hardly knew why I was speaking at all. There was a magic to this – a magic that told me in a loud voice in my mind that this was none of my affair. I should be silent and small. I ignored the loud voice, whispering. “Don’t do it.”

  His features hardened and for a moment, I saw something feral in them – something like the wild hogs we hunt in the downs – something that would gore you with a tusk as soon as look at you, but Hulanna’s eyes were on me.

  “Don’t you see, Allie?” she said to me, with a pitying look in her eye as if I could never understand this. “We’re fated mates. He’s the prince of my dreams.”

  “Nothing’s fated,” I said uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot. But I wasn’t as certain as I wanted to be, and it showed in my tone. After all, who was I to judge? Maybe he really was the prince of her dreams. Maybe I was just jealous. No perfect man had ever told me that he’d dreamed of me. No imperfect one either, for that matter.

  All his perfections only made me conscious of my own imperfections – my hawk nose, too-bright red hair, and sharp features. My less-than-perfect figure. If he ever touched me, he’d find me wanting. But not Hulanna. She was all perfection. When our parents made us, the dice had rolled all in her favor. Twins – but not identical. Never that.

  Maybe this sparkly pale creature really would make her happy. But why did it feel like he couldn’t? Why did it feel like this was a ruse?

  “Our love is fated,” the being said and from his back, a pair of wings suddenly appeared – ghostly as if they were only half there. They were iridescent in the sun like dragonfly wings. “The love of Lord Cavariel, Prince of Cups and,” he tilted his head to the side like he was listening to something, “and Hulanna daughter of the Hunter.”

  He smiled like he’d just solved a riddle but Hulanna’s cheeks were pink as she stood on tiptoes to look at his magnificent wings.

  How did he know her name?

  “Or at least,” and here he bit his lip in a way that shot little thrills through me even though it wasn’t aimed at me at all. How could someone so dangerous be so appealing? He made my insides feel like butter even while my mind was screaming that something wasn’t right. “It is if she wants it.”

  “I want it,” Hulanna said shyly and a bit breathlessly. She must be feeling the butter thing, too. “It’s why I came here today.”

  She was smiling now – the smile of a girl in the prime of her beauty accepting the invitation of the man of her dreams. A smile of triumph and certainty. A smile of achievement.

  Fear rippled through me, tangling with the buttery feeling in a way that confused me.

  Because none of this could be real, could it? Because until this afternoon when we arrived here, I’d spent my life in our little village, the daughter of the village hunter. And Hulanna was my twin sister. She wasn’t someone fated to marry an otherworldly being. She was just Hulanna.

  Oh, I’d heard the tales of the passing tinkers, and farmbards, and monks. I’d heard the firelight tales of the Elders. I’d even read the two books they kept in the school – Tales of the Faewald and History of Zrakterra. And yes, there were stories of the Shining Ones – of Fae males falling in love with human women, but until this moment, I’d never believed they were true.

  “What do I need to do to prove to you that I am yours for the taking?” he asked her, and somehow he seemed even more beautiful than ever with his open hands held out to her and his eyes wide as if his very heart were being offered to her in his hands. His lips were slightly open as if there were a thousand things he’d like to say to her.

  “Nothing more,” Hulanna said, with a broad grin and before I could call to her to stop, she reached through the Star Stones into the circle that none of us were supposed to cross, and she took his hands and stepped forward into the circle to join him.

  The angelic smile on his face widened and he seemed to almost glow as he leaned down to kiss her. It was sweet and beautiful and terrifying all at once and after a moment his kiss turned passionate and hers did as well and I thought that I should look away.

  Good thing I didn’t. If I had, I wouldn’t have seen what happened to Hulanna and no one would have ever known.

  With a flash of light, she disappeared, leaving only the shining Prince of Cups.

  “You too, little sister?” he asked as his hand reached for me.

&nb
sp; “What have you done with her?” I gasped. My face felt cold now, my legs trembling.

  “There might be a fated mate for you, too,” he said with a wink and then he vanished and another Shining One was there in his place. This one was just as pale, just as green-eyed and just as perfect. But I could feel the feral nature in him even more strongly than I had in Lord Cavariel or whatever fool name the other had given us. Dark tattoos like intricate vines clung to his forearms and tangled up his sides. And the look in his eyes was more triumphant than Hulanna’s had been.

  “Give her back!” I shouted, but I didn’t dare step into the circle,

  “Come get her.” His teeth were pointed inside his wide grin. And that grin was not nice at all. “Step in the circle.”

  I spun in place. I needed to get help. Someone would be out there. Someone would help me get her back. They had to.

  We hadn’t meant any trouble. We’d just been fooling around. Who could have guessed that dancing – just silly dancing! – would have this kind of consequence?

  My heart was beating so fast that I couldn’t hear his next words, but as I ran, I felt fingers scrape my shoulders and that was all I needed to launch into a faster sprint.

  My crown of wildflowers fell from my head, petals flying up as I crushed it underfoot. My vision jarred with each pounding footstep. I stole a look behind my back, my heartbeat roaring in my ears.

  He was right there! I was barely ahead of him at all!

  His perfect face had transformed from angelic to feral and the look in his eyes was hunger.

  I screamed, running, running, but too afraid to look in front of me with his hands so close, those pointed teeth so, so close. The smell of death chased me with him, as if he’d already devoured me. I didn’t dare tear my eyes away from him.

  I felt pain first, even before I realized I had run into something.

  And then everything went dark.

  Chapter Two

  I woke to a pounding headache and voices. Voices and darkness. I could smell my bed and the pine, cedar, and fermenting goat cheese scent of our home. I sank into the scent, grasping at its familiarity. I’d had a terrible dream. The worst dream possible.