Moon's Flower (Kingdom, #6)

He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. More glorious than the flowers that bloomed beneath her touch, even the moon’s flower that’d nearly brought tears to her eyes.

And was it her imagination, but the wind seemed to hold a hint of that frosty perfume she’d smelled when she’d touched the glass-like petals.

“Are you hurt?” he asked in cool, crisp voice. A voice that literally seemed to slip inside her soul and resonate through her blood like the hum of crystal dancing in the wind.

“Huh?” was the only thing she could think to mutter.

His small grin, rattled loose the marbles in her head and with a slight shake, she got unsteadily to her feet.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I thought you’d seen me. I am about ten times your size. I would have yelled if I’d known you weren’t looking.”

Legs feeling incredibly unsteady… good gods were her knees knocking? She attempted to ignore the very strange reaction she was experiencing to being in his presence and tried, without much success, to not appear as daft as she was currently feeling.

“No, I’m sorry. I was just…” she frowned, because that overwhelming need she’d felt to flee earlier was now completely vanished, how very strange, “I was thinking,” she said weakly.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen a man before.

She had.

In picture books, and often times in tales told around the campfire as magical mirages lit up the night sky, but she’d never been within the actual presence of a live one.

Never realized just how virile and masculine a male truly was. Fairies were all women. She’d never questioned why, until now. Looking into his eyes, feeling her heart thump a chaotic, frenzied beat, she wondered if perhaps it was because the mere presence of them was so… so… overwhelming. She swallowed hard with a tongue that felt two times too thick for her mouth.

Even white teeth flashed when he smiled down at her. “What were you thinking of, little fairy?”

He seemed in no rush to release her, and she knew she should get off his hand and stand on her own power, but something inside her was oddly hesitant to leave his side too.

Grabbing her thick braid with two hands, she smoothed her flyaway curls down as best she could. Standing on his palm was nice, but it was making her act ridiculous. Needing room to breathe so she could think, she hovered away from him and thought for a moment she witnessed a flash of disappointment light through the rich brown of his eyes.

Done patting her hair, she began flitting her fingers along her dress line, making certain the petals stayed where they should, fluffing them out so that they cascaded around her slim legs becomingly.

She knew she was primping, but she wasn’t quite sure how to stop it.

“Well, human, I was thinking…” should she tell him her true thoughts? She didn’t know him. What if he laughed? What if he treated her as June had earlier? She frowned.

The tip of his pinky grazed her chin, the touch jolted like fire and made her hiss with a sharp indrawn breath.

“I will not laugh,” he said, but it was the way he said it, so kind, so sweet, that made her finally brave enough to open up.

“I was thinking I should leave the fairy glen. Tonight. Right now.” She shrugged, feeling rather foolish now that the words were out and waited with a much too hard pounding heart for his reply.

Glancing over his shoulder, the man appeared to be searching for something. It gave Calanthe time to study him more fully. It was hard to gauge with her a tenth of his size whether he was a tall human, but he appeared to be so. Wearing dark pants and dark brown jacket, he wasn’t dressed in any sort of garb to distinguish him as being from a specific region of Kingdom.

Who was this man? It wasn’t as if there was an enchantment around the glen to prevent humans from entering, occasionally a few brave souls had been known to come inside for a visit… and over the years a few others, but those that had were always looking for their godmothers and they were quickly gone before anyone could see them for longer than a few seconds at most.

But not many came to seek out fairies, since it was well known throughout the regions that fairies (apart from godmothers of course) were all rather self-serving and rarely prone to helping others.

Why was he here? But more importantly, who was he?

Moving toward a large green knoll, he sat.

Why?

Was he actually interested in chatting with her?

Unsure whether he wished her company or not, she stayed where she was and waited, but for what, she wasn’t entirely sure.

“So you want to leave the glen?” he finally prompted, with a small nod. And the way he was sitting, with his torso slumped over his bent knees and looking straight at her, it was obvious he meant to spend some time.

Fighting a smile, she did something bold. If he meant to stay, then she didn’t want him to view her as simply a doll-like fairy. And it had nothing to do with wanting him to see her as attractive. Truly.

Gathering her courage, she called forth her magic and transformed.