Queen of the Fae: Book Two in the Fae Unbound Series (Fae Unbound Teen Young Adult Fantasy Series) (21 page)

“Tom, I feel like the proud parent sending you out on your first date tonight. Are you sure you don’t want Lizbet and me to come along and keep you from making a complete fool of yourself?” James asked from where he sat on the edge of the bed, watching Thomas make his final clothing check.

“Thanks, but I’d rather make a git of myself with as few people present as possible, if it’s fine with you.” Thomas gave a final glance at himself in the mirror on the back of the bedroom door and pushed back a curl that had fallen over his eye. “Anyway, her father’s going to be joining us, so no pressure there.”

James smiled and then leaned forward with a more serious expression, “I’m happy for you. I can tell you’re uncomfortable with this, but I think Tanji gets that. She may seem pushy, but that’s just surface. She knows you’ve spent six lifetimes as a monk. I’m sure she won’t try to rush things.”

“Maybe if I’d known her before this—in a lifetime when she wasn’t my great-aunt, I mean—I wouldn’t have been such a successful monk.” Thomas kept a straight face as he said it, then turned to James and burst into a grin, raising his hand, palm out, “High five, mate! I’ve got a date!” 

Tanji ran past her father as he walked to answer the door when the doorbell rang. “I’ve got it, dad! It’s Thomas. He’s coming to dinner, remember?”

Ron turned and walked back to the den to finish his show, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. Like he could forget! He never would have believed his daughter could fall for the monkish type, but she’d begged for her father to allow a trial date and approve of Thomas despite the difference in their ages. When you have a force of nature for a daughter, it’s nearly impossible to resist her. 

The first snow started to fall that year as Tanji twirled in the red satin dress and the dress’s full skirts flew out around her. She admired the effect in Lizbet's full-length mirror.

"Morgan was a definite pain, but she had some fine taste in gowns. I can seriously have this for homecoming? My dad gave me $150 to spend and I’ve got my earnings from my first week in the shop, but with this dress? That can go into my Scottish vacation fund instead. But girl, you should have aethered me there for the funeral, and I could have visited a lot sooner."

"Yeah, yeah. There you go again with ‘why did you leave me behind?’ It’s been almost a month. Time to drop it,” Lizbet said, “Eamon wanted it to be small and quiet, I’ve told you that. It was somber, Tanj. I mean, really somber. Eamon and James aren't proud of what they had to do to save me, and I’m not real cool with my part in it, either."

Tanji's look went serious. "Yeah, I didn't mean to be flip. I'm sorry."

"Like you can be serious in satin," Lizbet laughed and ran her hands down the sides of the blue velvet gown she was wearing, "This one isn't bad when you get used to how fancy it is. You know what it needs?"

"It looks great with just your amulet."

"You think too small, Tanj. I mean, if James and I and you and Thomas are going to really make a splash..." Lizbet concentrated and winced a little as she felt the tearing feeling around her shoulder blades that she now accepted as her price to pay for controlling Morgan’s magic. Things were never really going to be normal again: might as well embrace the things she had.
Welcome to the new normal, Lizbet
. She spread the wings that matched so well with the royal blue of the dress. "Every once in a while, girl, I need to work the wings because the wings are
fierce
."

Mona slipped out of her shoes and dug her toes into the frozen mulch beneath the dusting of snow, barely noticing the cold. As she did, roots reached out from her feet into the earth and her body stiffened, her trunk lengthening and branches growing up toward the sky. The transformation was painless now—could always have been, if Morgan had told her about the potion that would allow her human cells to transform without the agony. But Morgan hadn’t cared. She’d used Mona and let her suffer. 

The voices began to fill her. She searched for the one voice she wished to communicate with that day: the voice of her sister fae, a full dryad named Eugenia who helped Mona keep Lizbet informed about what was happening among the fae in Europe. She did this gladly—Sheila was a good friend, and her daughter was turning into a good queen, traveling regularly between Ohio and Scotland on the aether while still managing to keep up with her schoolwork. Lizbet was concerned about the elves and wanted to know all the rumors as soon as they occurred.

Mona listened silently to Eugenia’s urgent whisperings, anxiety growing within her as she continued to transform. Just before her essence hardened and she became more tree than human, the arrow flew from the bushes and struck through her very human heart.

Thank you, dear reader, for making it all the way through ‘till the end! I hope you enjoyed the story. If you did, please consider writing a review on the 
Queen of the Fae page at Amazon.com
. Without reviews, an independently published author's books are virtually invisible on the retail sites. 

If you would like to be updated about the progress of the series, read additional content related to the books (Tanji is writing her own blog there), and learn about any special contests or giveaways, please visit
faeunbound.com
. You can sign up for the series mailing list from the home page. Please note: I am not much of a marketer. You won't get huge numbers of emails from me!

At the time of release of this novel, I am working a an adult novel called The Familiar which will be released in June. Book 2.5 in the Fae Unbound series is a shorter novella entitled Dragon Tender which takes place in Europe among the Elves. The timeline coincides with the events leading up to the ending of Queen of the Fae. It should be available Setptember, 2014. The fourth (and probably the final) book in the series, tentatively titled "Call The Wisps" will be released at the end of 2014 or very early in 2015.

Again, thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to contact me from the contact form at faeunbound.com if you have any questions or complaints. I would love to hear from you.

Jill Nojack

Jill Nojack is a writer, musician and artist. She has traditionally published several short works (stories and poetry) in small press. The Fae Unbound series is her first set of published novels. She expects to complete and publish the additional planned books in the series by the end of 2014.

When she isn’t exploring her creative side, Jill enjoys laughing too loud and long in public, long bike rides, and talking about herself in third person. She resides in the great American Midwest with a long-suffering cat.