Licked by the Flame (2 page)

T
he sky was a dramatic wash of wispy blue clouds and the cold yellow glow of early morning. Raea fluttered her wings, Fairy Dust glittering around her as she stretched out the stiffness in her limbs. Not that they hadn’t been getting a workout.

For the past three days, she and Kyne had been hiding here in this cabin, high on a densely forested hilltop, hidden by special magic she still did not quite understand. They’d been safe from anyone who might happen to be out hunting them, and no doubt someone was, considering she’d helped break Kyne out of his interrogation cell at the Fairy Council meeting hall. It had been all too easy to forget about that, though, and make the best of their time together here.

By the Skies, they certainly had made the best of it. Passion had ruled them night and day, and Raea’s body still hummed from the pleasure she found over and over again in Kyne’s arms. A lifetime of giving in to these forbidden wonders could never fully satisfy her. Still, she knew they couldn’t hide here forever. Kyne would wake soon and they’d have to discuss their future.

And perhaps elements of his past he’d not yet been willing to talk about.

A sound in the doorway behind her alerted her to the fact that this time had come. Kyne was up, strolling out onto the wraparound porch of the cabin to join her in the dewy morning air. She smiled at him and his wings unfurled, barely clearing the door frame.

The Sizing Dust they had used still lingered over him, his fairy body holding to this human size longer than Raea’s did when she was influenced by the dust. She was tiny in comparison to him now. Her toes wriggled as she dangled her legs, sitting on the porch rail in her usual fairy form.

“I can never get over what a giant you are,” she said. “Too bad the dust wears off on me so quickly.”

“It’s all right,” he said, breathing deeply and yawning. “We’ve still got a week’s worth in that little pouch my father gave us.”

A week. They could continue this way for a week, avoiding their lives and loving each other. But then what? Without the precious dust, their activities would be cut short. Literally. Kyne’s half-fairy body was unique; when he reached his climax in the heat of their passion, he grew to human proportions. Huge, massive proportions that still took her breath away every time. Without their supply of the Sizing Dust, Raea would be too small to give him his full pleasure. She’d no longer be able to be with him that way.

“We can’t wait that long to go back,” she said. “It’s been wonderful, staying here with you like this, pretending we don’t have a care in the world, but you know we can’t go on like this, Kyne. We have to go back.”

“No,
I
have to go back. You need to stay here, where it’s safe.”

“I will go where you go, Kyne.”

“No, Raea, you can’t. When I leave here, I need to go alone.”

“But—”

“No, it’s the way it must be.”

She hated what he was saying. Her soul ached at the very thought of being without him for as much as a day. How could she even consider existing without Kyne after the days they’d spent here, together?

“Do you mean you’ll leave me forever?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice even.

“No, of course not. Just until…”

“Until what? We don’t even know what we’re really hiding from.”

He was silent at that, so she continued.

“Besides, the Sizing Dust will run out. Whatever we do and wherever we go, we need to find more.”

Now he smiled. “You mean you’re not done with me yet?”

“Not by any means.”

He leaned against the railing beside her, and she realized his body was changing. He was finally reverting back to his usual form. She smiled, watching him shudder as if with a chill and then shrink with a puff of golden mist. He plopped down to sit on the railing beside her.

“And now we are equals again. Are you certain you still have no regrets, Raea? I should have never involved you in this.”

“I’m not involved in anything I didn’t run into willingly,” she assured him. “But don’t you think it’s time we try to find out just exactly what it is that we did run into?”

He sighed. She knew he would not welcome this discussion, but it couldn’t be avoided. Strange things were happening, and the only way to get to the bottom of them would involve dredging up the history Kyne would much rather ignore.

“You want me to go find my father again, don’t you?”

“I think we’re going to have to. I don’t know what the Fairy Council has been plotting, or really what that strange machine we found at the base of the mountain is for, but it seems that your father is involved in all of it. I’m afraid if we want to learn anything, we have to start there.”

“You keep saying ‘we.’”

“That’s because we’re in this together, Kyne.”

“No.
I’m
in this. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Nothing to do with me? I’m sorry, did I miss something? Who were you with when the council sent Swift to take you into custody? And then who came sneaking into the Meeting Hall to break you out of confinement? I had to seduce you while I was invisible, if you recall! And who has been climbing all over you like a raging wild animal ever since? Me, Kyne. It’s me. You’re not alone anymore, and neither am I.”

His amber eyes searched hers, and she could see the concern that filled him. She loved that he worried for her, but she worried for him, too. Someone back in their Fairyrealm had been plotting against him, and she wanted to know why. Fairies and humans were in league and that could only spell trouble. Somehow she and Kyne had to uncover the truth.

“Please, Raea,” he said, laying his hand over hers. “Don’t make me drag you into more danger. Let me keep you safe. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you. I need you to be safe.”

“You think I’d feel the least bit safe if you went off and left me here alone?”

“I’d rather have you alone than dead,” he declared.

The words rattled inside her. Did he really think things were quite that serious? Of course certain members of the council had been behaving mysteriously, and those two fairies they’d seen in the forest several days ago had clearly been up to no good…but was this truly a matter of life and death?

“You think it might come to that?” she asked softly, stroking his cheek and letting the warmth of his skin seep into her fingertips.

“I won’t take any chances, Raea. I have to go look into this alone. I just couldn’t live if I let something happen to you.”

“Then you know exactly how I feel. I can’t let you go, Kyne, not now. Whatever you do, I’m doing it with you.”

“I can see we’re going to have an argument over this,” he said, clutching her hand to his lips and kissing it gently.

“I’ll win it, of course. You know I have my ways.”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself. I’ve got a few persuasive tricks of my own.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to be especially convincing, won’t I?”

“I’m not going down without a fight,” he said with a crooked little smile that assured her they weren’t talking about investigating the council right now.

“You’re not going down?” she asked, flashing him her own wicked grin and letting the glittery aura emanating from her speak for itself. “Then you know I will.”

She fluttered up off the railing and hovered before him, raking her fingertips over his solid form and slowly sinking lower, lower until her lips were perfectly positioned. Oh yes, he was going down, all right. And she was going to take him there.

Their argument might be on hold for right now, but one thing was certain. They were going to need more Sizing Dust again very soon.

Fairy Dust glittered in the air around them, and Kyne ran his hand over the soft, silky strands of Raea’s tousled hair. Her pink aura glowed with satisfaction and a contented smile touched the corners of her lips. He touched those lips, tracing their contour and feeling the heat of reaction course through his veins. He wanted her again, already.

They’d spent the morning making love, as they’d done every day since they’d left their lives behind and come to hide here, safe in this strange, enchanted cottage on the top of a forested hill with the Great Lake barely visible to them off in the distance. The special magic here kept them protected from detection by the Fairy Council, as well as anyone else in the Forbidden Realm who might have reason to hunt them. And indeed, they had reason.

Initially he’d assumed the Fairy Council dragged him in for questioning because they’d become suspicious about his overly human behaviors. Passion was forbidden, after all, and he’d certainly given free rein to his. Worse, he’d drawn Raea into his shameful inclinations. He’d tempted her and she’d given in to the illicit thrill, despite the fact that it meant she faced the same censure and ruin that he did.

But it appeared that wasn’t the only reason he’d been marked by the council. They’d not asked anything about his interaction with Raea, and in fact it seemed the council was not interested in her at all. She could have been free from the indictment that Kyne faced. But she’d shown up and used forbidden magic to help him escape. She was in just as deep as he was now, and he wished he was noble enough to regret that.

He couldn’t, though. Raea was here, with him, and he loved her for it. They were fugitives now, but they were together. They’d discarded the rules, reveled in passion, and witnessed things no one had intended them to see.

But could he keep her safe? He was coming to realize the stakes were much higher than they’d ever imagined. These carnal infractions he and Raea engaged in paled in comparison to the things he’d learned his own kind were up to.

Fairies had conspired with humans to make a machine used in the collection and suppression of magic. Its ultimate purpose was still a mystery, but Kyne knew for a fact it did strange, horrible things when Veiled creatures were near it. He and Raea had learned that the hard way.

When they’d first encountered it, a machine had reduced Raea and Kyne to weak, helpless creatures controlled totally by their basest instinct. They’d become slaves to their passions. Sensors near the machine had somehow notified the council of their presence, too. They’d almost been captured.

For all the years Kyne had trained himself to deny his desires, being in the presence of that machine had sent his senses over the edge, pushed him beyond his ability to hold back. By the Skies, he and Raea had been so lost in each other that they nearly loved themselves into unconsciousness. Or worse.

The council came remarkably close to ridding themselves of two wanted fugitives that day. It had been mere luck that the side effect of Kyne and Raea’s passion was an overload of the machine. When they reached their climax, the machinery reached its own climax and became disabled. Still, they had needed help to escape.

Baylor came along. Kyne’s father. It had not been a happy reunion.

Baylor told them the machine was called a Regulator. It had been created by fairies and humans secretly working together to strengthen the Veil, and the machine required both magic and passion to work. He hadn’t given much explanation beyond that, and Kyne wouldn’t have trusted it if he did. Baylor was a human. Kyne had spent his life hating the man for siring him, making him a half-breed who didn’t belong in either realm. Why should Kyne trust this man any more than he could trust the Fairy Council?

For Raea’s sake, he needed to find out what was truly going on. They’d both been drawn into this confusing web and it was his fault. He was the one who introduced her to passion. He was the reason she couldn’t dare show herself among their people again. She was innocent and shouldn’t have to pay the price for his flaws, for his weaknesses.

She would argue with him, of course, but he knew what he had to do. He had to leave her. He just hoped that when it was time for him to go, he’d be strong enough to do the right thing.

The thought of it tore at his soul, and he instinctively slid his arm over her and pulled her tighter against himself. The Sizing Dust would be wearing off soon for her, so he’d just let her rest. As usual, she’d given herself fully; she’d loved him with all of her heart, every ounce of her passion. He soaked it up with abandon, leaving them both drained and exhausted. He would hold on to this moment as long as he could until—

A sound outside their bedroom jolted him. He jerked up, and his wings spread quickly to cover Raea and protect her as she slept. Someone was here! He could feel the presence, hear the light footsteps as they moved about the cabin. His senses went on high alert and he pushed back the covers, sliding into the pair of human shorts that he’d found in the closet and had been using during their stay here.

Raea stirred. “What is it?” she asked.

“Someone’s here.”

She was clearly startled, so he tried to be as calm as possible.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it,” he assured her, moving toward the door. “Wait here.”

She nodded, and he could see her body begin to shrink as fear canceled the effects of the Sizing Dust and she returned to her normal size. In a few moments she’d be small enough to fit in a man’s hand, tiny and vulnerable to danger. Kyne would keep her safe no matter what. Whoever was out there, he sure as hell wouldn’t let them anywhere near Raea.

He pulled the door open and peered into the main living area. He could clearly make out a figure—a man. Who was he and how had he found them inside their magical refuge? Obviously he was not trying to be stealthy, standing there in the open, his large, human form silhouetted before the window. Kyne’s eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight streaming in and recognition swept over him before the man even spoke.

“I hope I’m not interrupting.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Baylor?” Kyne demanded, pulling the door shut behind him as he stalked toward his father.

“I came to check on you. Obviously you took my advice to lie low for a while.”

Baylor had been the one to direct them here, but Kyne wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a thank-you. The fact that Baylor had saved him from capture on this one single occasion did not even come close to making up for all the years Kyne had been abandoned and left to fend for himself and his heartbroken mother, struggling to hide his heritage and the shameful truth of his half-fairy, half-human existence. He owed Baylor no thank-yous, that was for certain.