City of Fae

“I won’t hurt you … unless I have to.”


I didn’t have time to consider what his words could mean. An electric crackle sparked beneath the skin of my hand and darted through nerve endings. Pleasure and pain writhed through me. In a blink we’d jumped from my stairwell to Chancery Lane Underground Station. Tingling from head to toe, I blinked rapidly, refocusing. Reign turned me and bumped me back into a tiled wall. “Okay?” He leaned in, so close his cheek brushed mine. Delectable little sparks danced between us.

“I think so …” I whispered.

“Don’t let go, not yet. To get to Under, you must hold on. There are things in the dark down here you shouldn’t see …”

I didn’t want to let go but should have as soon as that realization hit me. His free hand rested on my lower back, while our hands were clasped between us. He smelled of sweet berries, of delicious things that cried out to be tasted, but masked a poison inside. His hair tickled my cheek, his lips brushed my ear. I wanted to turn my head and taste those lips, to ease my free hand down his back and pull him closer. This is what it’s like when they take you, my voice of reason chimed in.

“I think …” I swallowed, moistening my dry throat. “I think I need to let go now.”

He pushed off and tugged me along behind him. Up steps, through pedestrian tunnels, left and right, down more steps. The lights flickered. Debris littered the floor. The crowd thinned until we were the only two jogging through the tunnels. We descended crumbling stairs and passed through a door into darkness. I groped in the black with my free hand. Reign’s grip tightened. Slowly, and with each uncertain step, my eyesight adjusted to the dark. The tunnel around us appeared to be a mismatch of white tiles, crumbling earth, pipes and cables. An abandoned subway tunnel. The majority of the tracks had gone, but the few that remained I managed to stumble over. Reign veered us off through a service door and the tunnels changed again. A tangible veil of static electricity washed over me, and we emerged into a vast underground chamber, easily the size of a cathedral, lit by strings of colored lightbulbs. What is this place? Elaborate tapestries adorned the walls. They depicted scenes of liquid darkness, of trees tipped with diamonds, and paths that meandered, whittling away into an impossible distance. Those dreamlike images had to be the fae’s mythical homeland, Faerie. Just tapestries, nothing malevolent … but I could feel myself falling into them, even from across the room, and I had to root my feet to the spot to quell the encompassing urge to cross the room and touch them. Touch me. Just like the fae. Touch me, those tapestries seemed to whisper.

Reign let go of my hand, breaking the spell, and the all-over dance of numbness and pleasure peeled off me. I reached for the wall to steady myself, breathing hard and fast. Panic fluttered in my chest. What had I done? I’d held on too long. I could feel it, even now, the surge of something … not me. I lifted my gaze and peered at Reign through my bangs. He cocked his head, a slight frown on his face, and he looked like the next best thing to Christmas to my fae-addled mind. Damn, I was in deep … As the aftereffects of his touch waned, I stood straighter and squared my shoulders. I’m okay, I’m in control.

A dozen fae lay sprawled about the domed chamber like beautiful limestone statues scattered among splashes of color. Some perched on the edge of a pool table, others sat on the floor, and a few lay draped over plush couches. Languid and beautiful, they barely registered our arrival, at least to begin with.

“Sovereign.” A female rose from a couch. A thin gown strap slipped from delicate shoulders. I blinked, struck by her cotton candy and sunshine beauty. Her skin so pale, but her lips and cheeks rose-petal pink, and her hair an elaborate mass of white curls, half pinned back, half spilling free. “We feared you’d forsaken us for the humans.”