The Skye Trilogy: Isle of Skye, Isle of Night, and Isle of Dawn. * Bonus: Scrumptious Skye Confections Cookbook* (36 page)

“Neither are you. I have no favorites. I love you all equally,” she said

I snorted. A few months ago she wanted to ship me off with my dad to Fairlia, never to be seen again, now she was professing love.

“Shut up Willa.” Winifred said stiffly as she walked out the front door regally.

“Hugs and kisses to you too.” I returned. “See you girls later. Bye dad, bye Uncle Oliver and Cuddy. Meet you at the Geek Squad Headquarters in an hour J.”

I took one last look at my new bakery before I turned and joined Granny Winifred.

It was the first smile I had in a long time.

“You’re worried.” Winifred stated a half an hour later. Winifred, Riah and I were standing on the northernmost point of the island. Once a week my grandmother came out here and cast enchantments around the island. There was an impenetrable protective barrier that surrounded the island that for several hundred years had held out any enemies.

“I am.” I admitted. “We still don’t know who this Fae Lord is or the witch he’s working with right now
. We don’t know if they have made any plans with the Rau to come here. We don’t know jack shit about anything and the time is quickly dwindling down. The Fae will be here in a few weeks, and we are horribly unprepared.”

“I feel the same way,” she said. “We have to have faith though.”

“Faith?” I asked. “I don’t know if faith is enough.”

“Mathias will be back soon. I’m sure he has come up with a plan or even discovered some information.” Winifred said

“Maybe,” I said. “He hasn’t been in contact, so I have no idea what he’s found.”

“I’m sure Mathias has everything under control.” Riah said

“What was your take on Sidra and Kelvin’s visit?” I asked Winifred. “Do you think they realized we were holding some things back?”

“Sidra I’m sure knows that something is up. She is probably waiting for us to confide in her.”

I was quiet for a minute while I remembered my Fairy grandparents visit. My father’s parent’s Queen Sidra and Prince Kelvin arrived shortly after Christmas. Although the visit went well it still seemed very formal. They were both charming and were genuinely interested in meeting me and reconnecting with my father.

Winifred had decided to keep the news of their arrival as secret as possible which is why only Winifred, my parents, and I met with them. Everything seemed to be going well until the topic of Gussie and Julia’s miraculous rescue came up in conversation. Mathias and I had both decided that keeping Sidra in the dark was in the best interest of everyone involved.

We didn’t want anyone tipping off the Fae Lord that we were onto him. Mathias and my grandmother also believed that keeping some of my more unusual powers, like my freaky fire and lethal blood, to ourselves played more in our favor.

We had tried to gloss over some of the details but when I finally looked at
Sidra; her sharp eyes seemed to bore right into my brain. I knew that she was aware we weren’t entirely forthcoming with her.

“What are we going to do?” I asked

“We are going to do what our clan has always done. We’re going to survive,” she answered

“Do you think I would ever let anyone hurt you or take you from me?” Riah asked. “I know who would get stuck with taking care of Cupcake.”

“Leave my puppy out of this.” I smiled

“We will find something soon. I know it in my heart.” Winifred said

“What if it’s too late?” I asked. “What if we don’t have all the pieces put together in time?”

“Willa, one thing I have learned since meeting you is that you can and will do anything you set your mind too,” she said, “I believe in you.”

“Awesome. No pressure or anything.” I snorted

“If we do fail I think we should at least consummate our relationship.” Riah said, “We should give in to our deepest desires.”

“You are right Riah.” I said gently. “Do you know what my deepest desire is concerning you?”

“What’s that Luv?”

“You in an apron,” I answered

“I’m assuming you mean me naked in an apron?” he asked curiously

“If you’re comfortable with that, sure,” I said

“A little kinky but I’m game.”

“Great!” I answered. “Tomorrow we’ll make this dream come true. I can’t wait to see you roll out some dough and do some baking.”

“That’s your deepest desire?” Winifred

“Concerning Riah, yes,” I said. “Do you realize he’s never cooked or baked anything ever?”

“Why do you have to be so cruel to me when all I do is worship?” he asked

“You can worship some flour Lord Hawkins. That’s an image I will carry to the grave with me.”

“Your wish my lady,” he bowed mockingly

I turned to walk away after giving Riah a smile but stopped short.

“Paintings,” I said aloud. “If there are paintings of the Fae Sanctities they would have to be done by a Fae painter right?”

“Most likely,” Winifred agreed

“It looks like we are going to the library Riah.” I said determinedly. My grandmother was right. When I set my mind to something, I went after it. Right now I wanted the Fae sanctities, and I wasn’t going to stop until I found them.

Lucky them.

Chapter Two

“So your grand idea is to try to find the Fae painter who might have done a series of paintings of the Fae Sanctities?” Jeremiah asked a few minutes later when Riah and I pulled up to the Isle of Skye Library and Archives building where he worked.

“Yes.” I answered. “How hard can it be? There can’t be that many well-known artists.”

Both Jeremiah and Riah burst out laughing. “Willa, you’ve never been to Fairlia but let me tell you the whole place is a shrine to the arts. Paintings, tapestries, and pottery of all kinds line every surface of that place.” Jeremiah said

“There are several hundred famous Fae painters Willa.” Riah smiled

“Shit.” I said. “Well, we have to do something. I refuse to believe Julia had this vision out of the blue for no reason.  We can narrow it down to a few and see if she recognizes a particular style or something.”

“Maybe we should just ask your grandmother.” Jeremiah offered. “You know, the Queen of the Faeries, Nymphs and Sprites.”

“We’ve been over this J. We can’t risk telling her anything yet.” I replied with a sigh

“I have to agree with Jeremiah on this one.” Riah said. “Willa, she is your grandmother. Why don’t you trust her?”

I thought about that for a minute. It had been such a short visit with Sidra. She had been charming and polite, but her serene royal mask had been set on her face the whole time. The one time she had dropped it had been when they were leaving, and she had hugged my father tightly before she said her goodbyes.

Even though, Winifred had shown great dislike for me and wanted to ship my dad and me off to Fairlia when I first arrived, I still had inexplicably trusted her. I sensed right away that she was a fighter, someone who would stand up for what she believed in, Sidra, on the other hand, seemed more inclined to be political correct.

For this I needed a warrior, not a politician.

“Tell you what, if we still haven’t uncovered anything by the time the Fae arrive, I will consider confiding in her.” I announced

“Finally,” Jeremiah said grinning

“Finally what?”
I asked

“Finally you are thinking with some sense,” he replied

“As opposed to the majority of the time when I’m an idiot?” I asked perturbed

“Not an idiot.” Riah answered, “Just a beautiful, stubborn, woman.”

Jeremiah rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t he have an off button?”

I cut Riah off as he started to speak. “Can you please not provide an opening for him and his crappy lines?”

“It doesn’t matter. I can pull them out of thin air.” Riah responded, “Especially when I’m around you.”

“Ok, this is ridiculous.” I said shaking my head. “Let’s get to work.”

“On you?” Riah smiled mischievously

I just rolled my eyes before I stomped away to go inside the library.

Two hours later we were no closer to finding any new information. The vast number of artists that were from Fairlia was overwhelming.

“It’s a tiny little country on a different dimension. How many freaking artists can these people reproduce?” I asked frustrated

“I told you so.” Jeremiah said

“I told you so.”  I mimicked as a child. “If you’re not part of the royal family of the court or realm, it’s like you’re an artist, musician, or tradesman. There are no other options for these people?”

“You forgot jugglers.” Riah added. “There’s seems to be an unusual amount of those kicking or should I say juggling around the kingdom.”

“This sucks!” I said, getting out of my chair.

“Willa calm down...” Jeremiah started

“No, I don’t want to calm down. It’s been four months, and we haven’t found anything! I have all these freaky powers that everyone’s so amazed by but the only thing they’re good for is to kill vampires.”

“Some might argue that’s a pretty good thing.” Riah said

“Well, screw them. I just want to find something, anything for goodness sake, just give me a hint.”

“Can you please keep your voice down?” Jeremiah asked. “Kids are going to start coming in here for story time soon.”

“I’ll give them a fucking story.” I said

“Oh, good Lord Willa, really?” Jeremiah asked as he stood up and slammed his chair into the table.

“Well, I’m sorry Mr. Librarian but I’m pissed. I’m irritated. I’m frustrated. I just want a Goddamn clue!” I yelled as I punched the wall next to a bookshelf.

“That’s enough.” Jeremiah said. “You need to take a break. You will not take out your frustrations on these hallowed walls of the Library.”

“Hallowed walls?”
I smirked. “What did you step out of The Lord of the Rings? Should I buy you a large staff and call you Gandalf?”

“The Lord of the Rings is a classic literary work recognized and loved by millions of people.” Jeremiah said. “I’m sorry if you don’t enjoy the brilliance of J.R.R.  Tolkien. Perhaps if he threw in some BDSM scenes you would be more interested.”

“Oh, ok, ‘Mr. I only read the classics’? Tell me what’s the name of that small group of yours on Facebook? Men of Fifty Shades?”

“You hacked into my Facebook again?” he asked furious

“If you leave it open, I’m going to look.” I answered

“Umm, guys?” Riah interrupted

Ignoring him, Jeremiah said. “That’s funny. You know that’s how I feel when I pick up your mail and packages.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked

“Willa…” Riah said

“Well dear cousin, when you order something from a sex toy shop, I’m going to look.”

“For your information that was a gag gift for Julia’s birthday last month. Not to mention that’s against the law!”

“A gag gift?
Then why did you buy two?” he asked

“I would like to explore this conversation in greater detail, but Willa, Jeremiah? Have you ever seen this book before?” Riah asked.

“What book?” I turned and there lying on the ground, was a large, red leather bound book.

“Where did this come from?” Jeremiah asked

“Well, after Rocky here punched the wall, it fell from the top of the bookshelf and landed open on this page.” Riah answered

“It’s not cataloged.” Jeremiah said quizzically as he ran his fingers over the binding. “That’s so odd.”

“Well, what does it say?” I asked as all three us knelt down and started reading

The great artist Patcoena, son of Thoma and Apalina of the Air Kingdom

Thoma was the second son of the Air Lord, Joseiah and

Apalina was the third sister of the mighty Fae King

Cormagglia.

“Where the hell do they come up with these names?” I asked

“It goes on to say that Patcoena, after finishing the painting in the Great Hall of Fairlia’s grand castle, mysteriously went into hiding. His work was widely admired but once King Cormagglia died, he became a recluse.”

“That must be the great hall.” I observed. The large picture in the book depicted a stunning ceiling painting in a large, ornate room.

“It doesn’t say why though.” Jeremiah finished

“Interesting,” Riah muttered before continuing. “It is rumored that the new Queen commissioned several works from Patcoena but those works
have never been put on display. Soon after Patcoena disappeared, and he was never to be seen or heard from again.”

“This has to be it.” I said excitedly. “We need to get Milton on this. We also need to scour this place for any other reference that is made about Patcoena.”