By the Magic of Starlight (The Forbidden Realm)

New York   Boston

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For J.D.H. You know who you are, what you do, and why I love you for it.

It might have been the phase of the moon, or maybe it was the heady, sweet scent of summertime in the air. She really wasn’t sure what caused it; she knew only that her body was helpless against it. That warm, electric wave of forbidden desire was washing over her again and she could do nothing to make it stop. She’d been forced to leave tonight’s gathering place and seek the chilled solitude of the Great Lake.

She headed for the darkest, loneliest stretch of shoreline she could find. At least here she could burn for things not allowed and no one would know about it.

“Hello, Raea. I’m glad you found me.”

Raea’s body instantly reacted to Kyne’s warm, deep voice. It was in perfect contrast to the cool blue moonlight and the calming wet air coming up off the lake. Fairies were generally unaffected by mundane physical things such as air temperature, but lately Raea had noticed herself becoming more and more aware of her physical surroundings. She was more aware of all sorts of physical things.

“I wasn’t looking for you, Kyne,” she said, her eyes searching the shadowed landscape around her until his form became visible.

He sat on the low, sandy ridge that flanked the rocky shore of the lake. The cool light of the moon toned down the fiery oranges and gold in his coloring, yet the very sight of him made her insides grow hot. No, she hadn’t been looking for him intentionally, but it was all she could do to hide the fact that she was awfully glad to have found him.

“You seemed to be looking for something,” he drawled in that self-assured tone that drove her half crazy. “And I’m definitely something.”

Oh, but his cockiness grated. Especially because he had good reason to feel so overly confident. Kyne wasn’t like other fairies. He had something… special. She just wished she could somehow stop wanting it.

But now here they were. Together. Stillness surrounded them, sweetened by a light breeze and the distant call of birds as they darted about, looking for a place to settle in for the night. Languid waves lapped at the shoreline, making a watery rhythm against the age-rounded stones strewn everywhere. It was peaceful, and very, very empty. They were entirely alone.

“It’s good to see you, Kyne,” she said, pretending it was easy for her to stare out at the lake, to ignore his golden coloring, his unfairylike broad shoulders, his strong, well-formed wings. “I’ve been very busy lately, and—”

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said, not allowing her to complete the lie. “And to be honest, I’ve been avoiding you.”

She shouldn’t have been disappointed at his words, but she was. “If you’d rather not be around me, why don’t you flap on back to the gathering place, where you’re supposed to be?”

“Why don’t
you
?”

Oh, he was infuriating. She knew better than to enter into foolish banter with him, but somehow she just never could help herself when it came to Kyne. She always did the wrong thing with him.

“Because I want to be alone,” she replied.

He pointed out the obvious. “But you’re not alone. You’re with me.”

“Not intentionally.”

“Then why aren’t you leaving?”

“I think I will.”

“No you won’t. You’re going to stay here.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because you don’t really want to be alone, Raea. And truthfully, I don’t either.”

She refused to agree with him. She couldn’t let him know what she felt, what his presence was doing to her. She’d fallen prey to these feelings before and she didn’t dare allow it to happen again. No matter how badly she wanted it—had been wanting it since that one single time that she’d let herself forget her breeding, her station, the very foundation of her existence here behind the Veil in the Forbidden Realm. She’d let passion take her over and it had been wonderful. Amazing. Magical.

But she could never let it happen again.

It should have never even happened once. What they had done was… well, it was forbidden. It was dangerous. It could unravel the carefully constructed Veil that for millennia had kept their world safe and protected from humans. Giving in to that passion was foolish and reckless. It was very nearly the worst crime a fairy could have committed.

And yet here she was, sensing Kyne as he left his perch on the knoll to come toward her. She could practically feel his eyes on her, roaming over her pink form with all the hunger and tenderness of a lover’s touch. She wanted that touch so badly her body felt weak, as if starved for the very thing that might keep her alive.

“I’ve missed you, Raea,” he said softly.

“You saw me two days ago at the end-of-week gathering.”

“That’s not enough.”

“It has to be, Kyne.”

“It isn’t. We can’t go on this way,” he said, his voice ragged from fighting back the very same emotions she felt herself crumbling under. “I can’t, at least.”

“But we have to,” she said, and finally turned to face him. “It’s just the way things are, Kyne. You live your life and I’ll live mine and we can never let any of it overlap.”

“Is that really what you want?”

“You know as well as I do that our
wants
don’t matter. They’re
wrong
. Very wrong.”

He smiled and moved closer to her, his gaze taking her in, head to toe, and his golden aura glowing with unmistakable desire. She should have lied to him, told him she’d forgotten what they’d done, what they’d had between them. She shouldn’t have given him any clue that she hadn’t stopped wanting him no matter how hard she had tried. She
did
have wants, and they were very, very wrong.

“They don’t feel wrong,” he murmured.

It would have been the perfect opportunity to argue, but she didn’t. Instead she held perfectly still as his hand reached toward her, his fingertips brushing her cheek, sliding over a strand of her hair, skimming over the sensitive places along her neck and her shoulder. His skin felt warm against hers and an unwelcome shudder of response sizzled through her.

“This doesn’t feel wrong, either, does it?” he asked.

By the Skies, no it didn’t. She could feel the heat radiate from his warm summer body. She was becoming mesmerized by his deep amber eyes as they held her with every bit as much intimacy as she felt in his touch. She was falling into the swell of desire that always threatened to take her over when Kyne was near. She was allowing herself to be seduced.

“I love the way you respond to me, Raea. I can see in your eyes that you want me the way that I want you.”

“It’s dark out here. How can you see much of anything?”

“I don’t need my eyes to know how you feel, Raea. I can hear desire in your voice, I can sense it on your skin, I can feel it in the air as you breathe.”

He was right. She could sense all of that from him, as well. His touch was igniting passions inside her as his fingers trailed over her arms, her back, her tingling breasts where he pushed her clothing aside. Desire was, indeed, a sixth sense of its own and she was learning to understand it quite well.

“Besides,” he added, bringing her closer to him. “We have magic. We can feel things, do things the mundane world only dreams of.”

He was right about that, too. They had magic. But by the Skies, that’s what made this so very wrong, so dangerous. They were entwining magic with passion and history had proven their Realm couldn’t withstand that. Not for very long, anyway. She knew for herself she was already teetering on the edge, ready to fall hopelessly, helplessly into some great abyss. Her control was in shreds. How could she hang on if she let this continue?

She couldn’t. That much she knew.

“We can’t do this, Kyne,” she said, unable to push him away.

“We can and we have, Raea,” he said, leaning in to press his scalding lips to her neck. “And you want us to do it again.”

“No, it’s forbidden. Passion and magic cannot intertwine. We have to stop now.”

“We didn’t stop before and nothing bad happened.”

“But it will! I can feel it. We should never have permitted ourselves to give in to desire, Kyne. It was dangerous; foolish. It’s how the—” She stopped herself before she said more than she ought.

Too late, though. He understood what she’d been thinking.

“That’s how the humans live?”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Yes, of course you did,” he said, standing straight and letting his arms drop back down to his sides. “And you’re right. It’s the worst sort of human weakness.”

“We aren’t like them, Kyne. We just can’t be.”

“You mean
you
can’t,” he corrected, and rightfully so. “I can’t very well help being like them.”

“You’re half fairy; focus on that. You don’t have to give in to your human side. Come on, Kyne. You know what could happen, how important this is.”

“Is it, Raea? Is it really as dangerous as the Fairy Council keeps telling us? Is the Veil so fragile that a little bit of forbidden passion might tear it down forever? I don’t believe it.”

“Passion is human, Kyne. It can’t mingle with magic. That’s what will tear down the Veil.”

“It’s not human! By the Clouds, Raea, you felt it, too. I know you did. How is that, since you’ve no human blood?”

“But you do! It’s because of you, Kyne. I felt what I felt only because of you, never for anyone else.”

That had been the wrong thing to say. She could feel the heat radiate off him, could see his wings beat faster and a flame ignite behind his eyes. She could sense the passion rise up within him. Clearly he liked hearing that he made her feel things no one ever had. And now she was feeling those things once more. Her own heart beat faster, blood pounding through her body. Infuriating fairy! She could not let herself get caught up in this again.

“The world did not end because of what you felt, did it, Raea?” he asked softly.

“Stop it, Kyne. You know it can’t be.”

“I know it can, and I know you want it to be. Just as badly as I do.”

“No! Our people gave that up generations ago. Passion brought nothing but trouble into the Realm; there’s good reason it’s so very forbidden. And with your history, Kyne! If we get caught you’ll be… No, I can’t let that happen. There’s too much at stake. If you can’t control yourself, I can. And I’m saying no.”

But he was still close to her, his essence still affecting her ability to think straight. His body was changing, too, losing some of its delicate fairy elements and appearing larger, solid, more human. The passion roared inside her, knowing just what wonders he could do with those human attributes he possessed. It took everything she had not to flutter into his arms and let his humanity sweep her away.

“I could make you say yes,” he whispered, one golden hand reaching out to touch her, to caress her cheek so very gently.

Her eyelids drooped and she pressed into that caress. His heated skin felt so good against hers, the electricity between them fueled by so much more than mere magic. Did she dare let herself give in? She wanted to. Badly. She wanted to take what he offered and let herself revel in it, forgetting all about rules and risk and the horrible consequences they could both face.

But he pulled back abruptly, breaking the spell. She barely caught herself from falling as she startled back to reality. Kyne had moved away from her, the air feeling even colder and darker than before. She followed his gaze to a spot of light over the landscape behind her. It was growing brighter, approaching.

“Someone’s coming.”

His words rang judgment in the quiet night. Someone knew they were here; someone knew what they were doing. They’d been caught.

“Admit to nothing,” he murmured. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”

She cringed at the notion of lying to another of her kind. If Kyne had half an idea the thoughts and intent that had circled through her with just that one simple caress, there was no way he could expect her to claim they’d done nothing wrong. They most certainly had, and she’d been well on her way to doing it again. If this intruder was here to accuse them, she could only confess guilt.

There was nothing to do but wait quietly. In a matter of seconds, the dim light became a dim form, which appeared clearer and soon they could recognize their worst fear. And she did recognize him.

Another fairy. His name was Swift, and he worked in the Department of Restraint and Obedience. Two things Raea had sadly been lacking these days.

“Raea and Kyne,” he said as he grew closer. “Stay where you are.”

“We’re not going anywhere, Swift,” Kyne called back. “We don’t have any reason to leave.”

“If you don’t want to stand punishment, you might have good reason.”

He was with them now, his green wings stroking the air in carefully measured tempo. Everything about Swift spoke of control. He was the epitome of fairy efficiency and clearheadedness. Since he’d come all the way here, there was no doubt he’d known what he would find.

“Punishment?” Kyne asked, matching Swift’s wing stroke and control. “Is it a punishable offense to hover over the shore of the lake?”

“Don’t play your games, Kyne. It’s been barely three weeks since that little mermaid episode, so you’ve got no room for misbehavior.”

Mermaid episode?
By the Skies, he knew what had happened! Raea could hardly believe it. They’d tried so hard to cover their tracks, to keep those events secret. For three weeks now she’d thought they’d succeeded, but apparently not. Could Swift really know about it?
All
of it?

Raea was nearly shaking too hard to keep herself airborne, but she remained silent. What could she say? What could she do? Swift seemed to know everything that they’d done. There was no way to protect herself or Kyne from the retribution they’d face.

But Kyne furrowed his brow. He seemed to be unsure what Swift had referred to.

“Mermaid episode? Refresh my memory on that, if you don’t mind. I’ve been so busy doing my job lately I can’t quite recall.”

“You know perfectly well what I’m referring to! You and Raea had some sort of involvement with a mermaid and a human. The matter is under investigation and rest assured we will get to the truth. We’ve had more than enough reason to keep you under close watch, Kyne. Don’t think we don’t know what you’ve been up to.”