The Royal Fae- Astra (book 1)

Forgotten

Chapter 4

"But how can I be? You are a prince and a fairy, I'm just a failed writer. In fact, I fail at everything, why do you think I'm back here?! And just look at me, you have people like your second in command who quite literally looks like an angel and I'm just nothing". I find myself pulling away from him and pacing as I'm talking, he just looks at me like I’m going mad. Maybe I am going mad none of this makes sense, maybe I'm dreaming I'm not even here I'll wake up soon and realise none of this was real. My legs feel like jelly and my eyes become blurry then everything goes black.

When I wake up, I'm back in bed, I open my eyes and realise I'm still in the strange room and I groan at the stupid bright light.  I hear a chuckle and turn to see those stunning blue eyes staring at me, I find myself blushing and pull the covers over my head to hide my face, why does my body keep reacting like this?

"Are you planning on showing me your face ever again?"

"No, I think I'll just live under here now"

"I don’t think I can live with that; I've lived without you for too long already"

And with that I feel the bed moving and dipping all around me I slowly look over the top of the blanket and find myself face to face with a rather amused fairy prince. I can feel the heat of his body hovering over me and my heart is going over time.

"Please don’t hide away from me". His expression looks genuinely upset and I can’t help but caress his face, he closes his eyes and leans into my hand.

"How is this all happening? Why me? Look at you"

"Look at me? Look at you! I always knew there was something special about you but when I saw you reading your book in the garden this afternoon in the same place you used to read my heart skipped a beat. You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen can you not see that?"

My breathing hitched at his words, his eyes sparkled as he spoke and I couldn’t hold myself back, I ran my hands through his hair and pulled him down towards me. I looked into his eyes and kissed his lips. For a second his eyes grew wider and then they turned a darker shade of blue before he returned my kiss with a sense of urgency. The kiss became passionate and deep, and we didn’t stop until both of us had to breathe.

He pulled away slightly and kissed me lightly on the nose.

"I have waited for what feels like an eternity to feel this way I cannot lose you again....."

"I have never felt right I always felt like something was missing but being here with you I feel like I'm whole again and I don’t want to lose that either".

A clicking sound behind us brought us back to the present and before I was even aware Loni had sat back onto the chair without a hair out of place.

As I tended to what I'm sure is rather unruly hair by now Lily came in at speed and proceeded to talk with him so quietly I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could see that he was getting tense his jaw was clenched and he had grabbed the arm of the chair with such force I wasn’t sure how it hadn’t snapped.

When Lily marched out, I felt the need to comfort Loni, he seemed far away in thought, so I climbed out of bed and knelt in front of and took his hand. He seemed to relax immediately and looked down with a smile.

"Are you okay?" I patiently wait for to answer as he runs his hand through his hair and sighs, I can tell he is trying to decide whether to tell me or not, but I don’t want to push him.

"Astra, I need to fill you in on more of your missing memory, I wanted to enjoy some time together before it became a necessity to potentially ruin our reunion. But matters have been taken out of my hands" 

"Okay...should I be worried?" I find myself moving away a little as my mind races through all the possible things that he might say but I end up making myself get worked up. Loni must be able to see the panic and come to join me and kneels in front of me and takes my hands in his. I revel in his soft touch as he brings my hands to his lips and kisses them.

"Astra, I need you to calm down and understand that no matter what you have me, you will always have me. I know that you might not feel for me the way I feel for you but I need you to see that you are my life and I cannot and will not lose you again. Please please just listen." 

His eyes look deep into mine and I can see the sincerity in his gaze, I might not remember our past, but my soul seems to know him, my body seems to feel safe. I take a deep breath and nod so that he knows I am ready.

He pulls me to my feet and leads me to a sofa that looks like a fallen tree covered in thick moss, but the moss is a deep blue colour and the wood seems to be gold. I shake my head I need to keep my attention on Loni.

He pauses and looks at me one more time.

"When you left 10 years ago, we were best friends, we spent all our time playing in the garden or lazing under the oak tree. I knew you were special but not why.  You left one day with just a letter saying goodbye and it hit me very hard, I spent all of my time searching for you. I ignored all my duties and travelled far and wide trying to find some trace of you. You only came back once for the summer 5 years ago and when I first saw you again reading under the tree I couldn’t understand why you couldn’t see me, I tried every day for the entire 6 weeks but it was all in vain. By the time you left I felt different, weird things were happening to me and I didn’t know why. So, I asked my father and what he told me made no sense, that I was in love. It could only have been with you; you were all I could think about!

However, this could not be true as you are human and I a fairy.

I had a friend who was good at finding out anything about anyone, so I asked him to find out more about you, what he found was unexpected."

5 years ago...

I stood behind the oak tree and watched Astra reading a book while lying in the shade created by the thick summer foliage. This is her favourite place and I loved to see her so carefree and happy, this was the first time she had been back since she had been taken away by her parents and she could no longer see us, but I could see her. Over this summer my feelings for her had started to grow and I couldn’t understand what was happening, we have been friends for years, but this is something else. With her sight now gone we couldn’t talk but it didn’t stop me spending every minute I could near her.

I decide that I need to find out what I was feeling and there was only one fairy I could talk to about things like this, my father. He is not someone that I go to lightly, but he is one of the wisest fairies I know. I had decided not to give all the details but only the ones that I need to be able to find out what is happening.

"Father I need your help I've been feeling so unusual recently and it just seems to be getting worse. I can’t think straight, I feel like my heart is missing most of the time and my wings keep changing colour what is going on?"

My father smiles "oh I remember feeling like this and I did exactly the same as you I went to your grandfather in such a flustered state. This only happens for one reason and that is when you have found your love. As you know when we fae fall in love it's forever but sometimes it builds up slowly a slight change to our thoughts and bodies here and there but by the time we realise its ingrained into our souls! You are in love my son! Who's the lucky fairy?!"

"Love? But I can’t be...."

You see fairies can only or have ever only loved other fairies, as far as the history books tell us anyway and they go back for a millennia.

I find myself running to my friend he is the best researcher and tracker I know, there must be something about Astra that I do not know, I can’t possibly have fallen in love with a human, could I?

I swear Hawthorn to secrecy and ask him to find out everything he can about Astra, at first he couldn’t find out a thing until he came across some fairy news. This news would have coincided with the first time I saw Astra inside the house, her mother and father and moved into the empty house during the night and the next morning there she was a little bundle of light in a dusty old run down house. The news story was about a king from another group of fairies who had lost his daughter, she had been taken by the human mother. He was desperate to find his daughter, but she was never found”.

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