The Dragon Prince

A Deal with the Fae

I took a step back from the doorway in shock, but as I did, I noticed a bright red fluid dripping from one of the magnificent creatures' wings. I decidedly hurried over to the window, flinging open one of the large panes. The bird swooped in past me, causing the air in my lungs to follow. 

There was a flash behind me, and as I turned I let out a loud shriek. 

“Gods damn it Arya, do you want the whole castle to know you’ve got a wounded prince in your bedroom?” Aideon flashed me a toothy grin from where he was now sitting half upright in the middle of the floor. 

“What happened to you?!” I asked, pointedly lowering my voice to little more than a whisper. 

“Oh, you know, the spoils of revels.” He shrugged, giving me a wink. I glanced down at his wounded arm, choosing my next few moves carefully. I needed to bandage his arm quickly, I decided. I figured questions could come after I got him patched up. I hurried over to the large armoire, slinging the huge doors open. I shuffled through the various articles of clothing, finally coming upon a long sleeve black shirt. I ripped one of the sleeves off of it and headed to the prince's side.

As I kneeled down beside him, a thought occurred to me. 

I was alone, in my bedroom, with a Fae prince. Not just any Fae prince, but one I’d been warned about multiple times since I’d arrived. The very same prince Ash obviously held a grudge against. 

My shoulders tensed slightly, my hands paused mid air as I was about to touch his arm. I felt a hand grasp my chin, turning my gaze to meet cerulean eyes. 

The incessant flicker of recognition once again taunted the edges of my mind. 

“We don’t have all night.” He drawled out, a smirk lining his full lips. 

“Why did you come to my room?” I let my shoulders relax a bit as I said it, attempting to alleviate the thick tension filling the large space.  

With a flick of his long hair, he let out a low rumbling laugh. Mischief played across the flickering pools that were his deep blue eyes. 

“Well, I promised a gorgeous woman that we’d continue our earlier conversation.” I felt heat creep across my features as I turned my face away from him. He dropped his hand from my chin, the smirk never leaving his lips. 

I finished cleaning up his wound, covering it as best I could with the makeshift bandage.  

“So you’re stalking me?” I asked as I rose, tripping over myself as I headed to the small stool in front of the makeup filled vanity. 

“Hmm, I suppose so.” His full lips pulled into a wide smile, long canines glinting in the dim lighting of the room. A strong sense of panic hit me as he stood and started in my direction, but he stopped at the side of the bed, plopping down onto it and sprawling out his long limbs. 

I took in a deep breath before my next question, trying to calm my anxiety. I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this strange Fae prince. This was my third encounter with him, and every time threw me off guard. I never knew how he was going to act. The first time I’d met him he’d been standoffish, the second playful and mildly romantic, and now…

“So what were you doing at the bar?” I finally let out. He was resting on the bed with his hands cradling his head, his eyes closed. 

He opened them a fraction and glanced in my direction, causing my heart to jump in my chest. 

“I came to see you.” He said matter of factly. 

“What?! Why would you come to see me? I didn’t even know who you were!” I startled myself, the words coming out more loudly than I’d intended. 

A smile creeped over his tired features, making him look even more handsome in the dark room. 

“Exactly.” He said, as he closed his eyes once more. 

I shifted in my seat, suddenly uncomfortable. The room felt smaller, his presence seeming to take up the entirety of the large space. 

“You’re a dragon shifter, right?” I asked carefully, tension once again filling my mind. 

“Yes.” He replied tiredly, one eye cracking open to look at me again. “Has anyone told you you ask a lot of questions?”

I shook my head slowly, another question poised on my tongue. 

“So how can you shift into a bird too? I thought Fae could only shift into one form?”

He sat up quickly, his eyes wide. 

“I’ll show you!” He hopped up from the bed and sauntered to the middle of the room. A bright flash cascaded through the room, causing me to shrink back. 

The prince was gone, but standing where he’d been, was a beautiful white stag. 

I jumped up from where I’d been seated, my mouth open in shock. 

“That was you?!” My raised voice echoed throughout the room. With another flash, I was standing in front of a swirling mass of white butterflies. The largest one flew close to my face, brushing its silky wings across my cheek before fluttering back to the swarm. 

I stood as still as a statue, attempting to put the pieces together in my awestruck mind. I watched as the butterflies slowly gathered together midair, forming a human-like shape before disappearing. Aideon stepped forward in place of the swarm, grinning from ear to ear.  He gave a small bow, his eyes twinkling mischievously. 

“It was indeed. I’ve been watching you for a while.” 

Heat flushed through my body again, attempting to strangle me. I had no idea why this gorgeous prince had been following me, but I needed more answers.

“So… you can transform into three different creatures?” 

“I can transform into many different things, Arya” He said with a wink. “Being a Fae prince has many advantages. The royal blood of the Ice Court runs stronger than many others, I believe the Spirit Court was the only other… before they fell, anyway.” 

I stepped back, looking him over carefully, unsure how to respond. He strode toward me suddenly, causing me to jump back even further, but he caught me by my chin once again, pulling my face toward him. 

“Not many people know of this, Arya. I’m going to have to ask you to keep this to yourself.” I nodded, jerking my chin from his grasp. 

“So why are you telling me?” 

He gave me a wry look before taking a step back from me. “Because you asked. I don’t want to mislead you, and It’s not like I can lie anyway.”

I raised my eyebrows questioningly, he caught the look I gave him and continued. “Fae can’t lie.” He shrugged. “We can misdirect and skirt the truth, but we cannot outright lie.”

“Okay… so when you told me you lived in the mountains?” I asked, thinking back to our conversation at the bar. He grinned again, letting out a small laugh.

“I never said which mountains. The Ice Court is filled with them.” 

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. 

“So why are you here now then, what do you want?” I asked exasperatedly. 

He raised his hand to his chin, stroking nonexistent facial hair comically. “I have a proposition for you.” 

“And what is that?” I sat back down on the plush stool carefully, thinking back on the last time a Fae had tried to lure me into a deal. I’d just barely escaped with my freedom, and that had just been a woman at the market. What could a Fae prince possibly ask for?

He gave me another grin. “Oh, a favor in exchange for information about your parents, to be collected at my leisure.”

I sucked in a gasp at that, my mind suddenly blank. 

“What do you know about my parents?! Where are they?” He raised a finger to stop me, tilting it back and forth in front of him. 

“Tsk tsk tsk,” He tutted at me. “No information without an agreement.” 

I shook my head vigorously, attempting to clear my foggy mind. If I agreed to this, I knew that I would be in debt to a Fae prince. If I didn’t and something happened to my parents, I knew I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. 

“Okay. I agree to your terms. Now please, tell me where they are.” 

A predatory smile crossed his face as I felt a hard tug at my heart. A sensation like a thick cord wrapping around my soul hit me, causing me to double over. 

“Well if I’d known it would be that easy, I would’ve brought it up before.” He said with a small chuckle. 

“What the hell was that?!” I gasped, still struggling for air. 

“That, Arya, was the bond of our deal snapping into place.” 

I nodded, feeling the effects of the bond wash over me like tidal waves.

He turned, walking over to the still open window. 

“Wait! Are you not going to tell me about my parents? What about our deal?” 

He turned back and paused for a moment, pressing a finger to his lips. In an instant he was standing in front of me again, our lips close enough to touch. He looked deeply into my eyes before pressing his lips against mine, hard. 

A sensation I’d never felt before hit me. It was like a dam breaking, threatening to drown me in heat. I felt something inside me shatter, like a glass window under too much pressure. 

He pulled away, leaving me gasping for air. 

“They’re in the fallen Court.” He whispered, before turning back to the window. 

He leapt up onto the windowsill, giving me a wink. I watched as he shifted into the bird I’d seen when I’d come into the room, the makeshift bandages falling to reveal his arm now fully healed.

He soared off into the night, leaving me breathless, and with even more questions than when he’d arrived.