Lina: Twisted Fairy Tales Book Two

11: Vixen's Enticement

My room was deathly silent when I awoke. The Fae King’s fading scent had me confused at first, until my mind began to catch up.

“Oh gods..” I moaned, burying my face in my pillow. Three days. For three days I had tried to attack him. With s*x. Sexually attack him. And all this time, I’d been accusing him of being like that.. But no he’d.. He’d held me close and given me a cool bath when the heat flushed through my system again, and gently kept me off him as I’d tried to.. Climb him like a tree.. Oh my face must be as red as my fox-fur.

He hadn’t taken advantage, but I’d sure tried to.

I had really wanted to see what was in his pants. I groaned aloud again. Lifting my head slightly, I took a peek at the room. It was as bad as I feared. How many times had I tackled him? How many times had he gently rebuffed me?

Even the strange mattress thing was a disheveled mess, blankets everywhere. Oh gods, what did I do? Model my wardrobe for him? Why were my clothes all over the floor? With a moan, I forced myself to sit up. The last few days were such a blur, and through it all, I could only remember his steady presence, soothing me, holding me, gently rubbing my back or running his fingers through my hair. He’d been an absolute gentleman.

“Ah, good morning My lady!” My Spicy jailer called, opening the door, and I hoped I wasn’t blushing as hard as it felt like. “Good Faery, My Lord was right..” She gingerly stepped around a dress and what could possibly be a towel to place a tray on the table across the room. “He told you might need some help this morning, but Lords of the Realms, whatever were you up to?” She mumbled to herself, surveying the mess.

“Apparently, I was intoxicated on Fae Magic.” I eyeballed her from under my brows as she hissed.

“Lady, that word, really!” She scolded.

“Ah, give it up already.” I groused, rubbing my temples. I was definitely coming off of whatever Magicks had been used, and I was feeling it. A Faery Magick Hangover. Spice blew out an exasperated breath and began to pick up scattered bits of clothing while my thoughts raced.

The Fae King didn’t touch me. Like it or not, I begrudgingly had to give the Fae Lord credit for being more honorable than nearly any human man I knew. I had thrown myself at him, and he hadn’t once touched me in any way unbefitting a gentleman. No matter what I tried. I could remember that much.

“Of course he didn’t.” Scoffed Spice. I jolted. Had I been speaking aloud? Is this what a true hangover felt like? “Though I still object to that horrible term, and wish you wouldn’t use it. Our King is indeed an honorable man. He would never dishonor himself or you by taking advantage in such a way. The very idea!” She shook out a shift, tsking. I sighed. No matter how they grated on my nerves, or how the abduction made me insane with anger, I had to admit I couldn’t fault them in everything. A reluctant admiration had started to grow in me. They maintained my health, and the King seemed to be doing what he promised in the beginning.

He seemed to be protecting me.

I shook myself to try to force the thoughts from my mind, clinging to my grudge belligerently. My whole body felt drained, so I simply glared at Spice as she bustled around the room, muttering to herself while she cleaned up for a time.

“What exactly was that? That night?” I finally interrupted her hissing tirade about the state of my room and my use of the word ‘Fae’. My mind felt like jelly and I wasn’t entirely sure of the exact night, (was it two nights with three days passing, or four?) so I supplied her with a further explanation “That sparkling snow that fell?” She heaved a sigh as she folded another garment, turning to face me, though never taking her eyes from her work.

“I told you before our lands were having trouble producing.” She sighed again, placing a folded shift in a drawer, then sat on her customary stool to look at her hands in her lap. “That is in all aspects. Our people, the Folk, too.” She finally met my gaze.

“‘As fares the King, so fares the Realm.’” Spice quoted to me sadly, and I shoved myself into a more comfortable seated position.

“Then why not get a new King?” I crossed my arms and raised a brow challengingly. She closed her eyes as if wearied by my arguments. To be fair, I did tend to offer a lot of them.

“He is a good King, and still yet maintains the most power of us all. We do not wish to depose him. You would not understand.” She turned her head away. I did understand, in a fashion. The loyalty was admirable, to a point. But if their fortunes could be improved by replacing their king, weren’t their loyalties misplaced? Spice distracted me by continuing. “The snowfall was our way of encouraging growth. Of everything. The land, our Realm, our people. We share our Magicks and let them fly, in the hopes that..” Her hand rested on her stomach, and it suddenly became clear. The reason she didn’t mind watching over me as a captive. Her undying faith in her king to get what she wanted… Some women would go very far indeed for a child, and truth be told my heart ached for her. I hadn’t even realized she was trying for one.  And if their hopes all pinned on their King.. he could have easily seduced me with the way I’d thrown myself at him the night before. I was suddenly chilled, but also there was a warmth deep in my chest that prompted me forward. I was across the room before I had even thought to move. My hand covered Spice’s own, and she froze under my touch.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” I murmured, heartbroken and driven by something I wasn’t quite sure I understood. “I hope..I hope you are able to receive everything you’ve longed for.” Spice met my gaze with tears in her eyes, and as one of her hands came to rest on my cheek, I suddenly felt the drain from the night before compound itself.

“You are so much like our King, my Lady.” Spice breathed softly. “I wish you could see it.” I opened my mouth to make some retort about kidnapping and madness, but wobbled in my crouched position and had to catch myself before I hit the floor. “My Lady?!” Spice cried and got up to help me from the floor, leading me back to the bed where I collapsed less than gracefully to drift into a semi-conscious state of sleep. I could hear Spice moving around the room for a time before I fell into a deeper slumber. It was a strange sleep, like I had been pulled down and was being held under by a sense of exhaustion the likes of which I’d never felt before.

Later that night, I was briefly awakened by my name being gently murmured, and my hair being brushed from my face. A soft kiss made its way to my forehead, but by the time I’d managed to drag myself up from the bottomless pit my fatigue had created, no one was there. Only the scent of the Fae King remained.

An uncomfortable feeling twisted itself in my innards.

Why was he being so kind?