Lina: Twisted Fairy Tales Book Two

34: Mark Of Fate

Papa yelled my name as I ran off, but I was not interested in hearing any more excuses or arguments from the two infuriating men plaguing my life. With a sigh, I stopped and drank from a stream. That wasn’t fair to Papa, if I was being honest with myself, and probably wasn’t entirely fair to the Fae King either. There was a part of me that was prepared to admit I was probably being irrational, but I stifled it quickly. I wasted the rest of the day in the woods, hunting in my fox form, lounging in a tree as a cat in the sun, staring at the sky and watching the clouds pass by as I wondered how to make things different. I stuck close to the stream, so the sound of the water nearly masked the soft footfalls I expected to hear, but that took much longer than I thought they would to approach me. I sighed.

“I’m fine Papa, I’ll be back in my room sometime after dark. My fox will be fine.” I called without looking, then muttered. “Like it always is.”

“While I appreciate the information, especially the knowledge of your future whereabouts and the fact that your father usually checks up on you, I’m not sure I appreciate being mistaken for him.” The Fae King’s voice resonated with amusement and I sat up so swiftly I fell off the branch I was on. He chuckled a little harder at that, and so I tried to recover my dignity by standing, while wiping furiously at myself and glaring as a retort.

“Well I don’t recall you ever giving me your name.” I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest to prevent his wandering gaze. “Maybe I should call you things like ‘Papa’ more often, just to make a point of it.” The Fae King approached me, heat in his gaze, the colors in his eyes shifting and swirling.

“Bargain with me for it.” He purred. I blinked.

“For what, your name?” I asked, confused.

“Yess.” He whispered, circling me. Even with one bound arm and damaged wings, he seemed to resonate pure Fae attraction. I sucked in a breath and stepped away.

“I thought you lost your power.” I hissed under my breath. He approached me once more, backing me towards the trunk of a tree.

“I did. What you feel is the draw between us, little Laoina.” The Fae King murmured. He crowded me, and I slipped under the arm he tried to use to block me. He followed. “You feel the bond forged between us by bargain and blood. You use your Gods-given talent to save me. That has repercussions, you know.” I shook my head as he continued to pursue me.

“I owed you. There is no bond. There is no bond.” I snapped, trying to convince myself more than him. He chuckled, baring sharp pointed teeth to me and reached his good arm up to the neckline of his tunic. With an angry snarl, he ripped the shirt down its front, exposing the strange red and violet-purple scar that branched across his chest and shoulder. The root-like tendrils seemed to pulse in time with his angry heartbeat and as I backed away, I tripped and fell, landing on my back with a hard expulsion of breath. “I don’t.. I can’t..” I panted, but he dropped to his knees in front of me, and leaned forward over me, balancing on his good arm.

“Touch it.” He growled.

“No!” I yelped.

“Touch it!” He bellowed back and I shook my head. I didn’t want to. I was afraid of what I would find. What I would know.

“No!” I screamed. But he grabbed my hand, sitting back on his haunches. I struggled, but even injured, he was stronger than I. My hand curled, fingers trying to hide in my palm, but the Fae King didn’t let that deter him. He slammed my hand over the scar, the path the lightning had taken through his body. The trail my power had taken, the mark my magic had left, and I shrieked, arching and bucking, trying to free myself, even as the Fae King threw back his head and groaned in ecstasy. Sparks shot across our joined skin, and I felt it this time, now that I knew what I was looking for. The drain, the pull. I went limp, my hand relaxing under the Fae King’s, I could feel his pain. He hurt so badly. He would never say, but the damage and injury to his body, and being cut off from his Realm, his power, from me. All of it hurt him so badly. I sobbed. Why did he have to show me this? Make me feel this? With a scream of rage, I tossed my head back against the ground and funneled power into him, sending what I could toward his injuries, trying to help heal him, heal something in him, even if I wasn’t sure what. I couldn’t live with this on my conscience.

He released a grunt followed by a pained moan that trailed off into something that sounded far less painful and far more s****l. My arm went numb, then limp in his grasp, and then the rest of me went limp as well. Eventually, the strain was too much and my eyelids started to droop. But not before I saw the Fae King unwrap his bound arm and flex it in wonder. He looked back at me with the softest and sweetest expression. I could swear it was gratitude and devotion, it looked so very close to the look Papa gave Mama, that for a minute it blended into my dreams. Dreams in which Papa had danced with me and Mama, long ago..

The cold sheets touched my bare back, and a wet, cool cloth wiped the dirt from my skin. I opened my eyes just enough to see the Fae King tucking the blankets up around me.

“I think that was more than a fair Bargain for a name.” He murmured as he kissed my forehead softly.

“Arran.” He whispered next to my ear. “My name, is Arran.” It sparkled inside my mind, tickled in my ear, a forbidden fruit of knowledge that warmed me up from the inside out. “Keep it close to your heart, and tell no others. Names are sacred to the Folk. They give power over their owners. I’m entrusting my very soul to you with this name. Please treat it gently.” One final kiss to my temple later, and he was gone, and I wasn’t even certain the whole thing wasn’t just a dream.

That is until I woke up the next morning, nude, in my bed, with Arran’s name still pulsing inside my blood, and the uncanny feeling that whatever I had done the evening before to the Fae King’s scar, it had created an even tighter bond between us.

“Arran.” I whispered to myself, and I could have sworn that somewhere, in the woods, he answered.