**ASH**
“What are you doing here?” I ask the leaf crowned wanderer I find at the edge of the Forgotten Wood.
He smiles at me, his green eyes alight with mischief. “You know why I am here, Ash. Prince of all that is dust and mortar. You have something that belongs to me.”
I grin at him, wielding a ball of swirling dark energy in my palm. “You are mistaken,” I say. “And you are on foreign land.”
“You think me an idiot, little Prince. You’d not strike me for several reasons that I know of, so put down that silly little ball and return my rightful property.”
I chuckle, although inwardly I am filling with rage. Daphne and Petra will have made it to my castle by now and with any luck, so have Klyesqye and Dionie. But as I have yet to feel the presence of a new mortal in my castle, I am a little concerned. However, I cannot let my worries show. Especially not to this trespasser.
“I’ll not be doing that,” I scoffed. “For she is not your property. We merely passed through your lands on the way to mine. And despite your best efforts to capture this mortal, you failed. So, she is mine.”
“Mortal?” The King of the Meadow, laughs. “Is that what she is? Fine. It must be as you say. But it matters not. For soon you will know, she is mine. I felt her the moment she stepped into the Woodland Realm. And when you find out what I already know, you will return her to me without argument.” He bows, then whistles low and songlike into the trees. “I do thank you for chasing away those troublesome clouds. They are most unnerving. Hiding things in plain sight the way they do. Stealing voices and words right from my mouth.”
A graceful, sparkling white mare stomps through the woods from the trail beyond, stopping in front of the king. “Ash, dear boy, you still have much to learn. Perhaps, your mortal, can teach you that.”
“That’s it? No fight? No political games? I am disappointed, Majesty. You are losing your edge,” I say.
He laughs as he mounts his steed and I notice for the first time, the woodland nymphs at the edge of the woods. “I did not come here to fight you, but to invite you to a winter feast. The feast of the Meadow.”
My eyes narrow in shock. “What? You are hosting the great feast?”
He nods. “I am. Bring your companion from the human world and I pledge to you here and now; she will not be harmed by any creature of the Woodland Realm.”
I want to laugh at that. I despise trickery and none are as slippery as the faeries of the meadow. Then before I can engage him further, he takes off toward the trail heading back to the Woodland Realm.
Arriving at Castle Fury, I have but one thing on my mind.
Daphne.
I am stopped by Finn at the gates of Fury Rekyr, and just by looking at his angry face, I know he is about to tell me something that may end his miserable life.
“Ash, my prince,” he hisses as I leap from my steed and hand the reins over to a couple of lesser soldiers. “I must beg your forgiveness-”
I laugh, “Must you? And I’ve only just arrived. What, pray tell, have you done this time?”
I glare at him and his eyes lower. Taking a knee he mumbles, “I am afraid Klyesque has entered here with a traveling mortal.”
I smirk at him, my eyes going bright. “A traveling mortal. So, she is inside then?” I ask him, somewhat confused. Thoughts of Daphne being pregnant and not ill, flooding mind.
*If she has entered here? How did I not feel it?*
Maybe...because she is ill? Or maybe because she is pregnant?
Given the strange fact Trielle has chosen her, I am inclined to believe there’s something decidedly special about her.
*Could she perhaps be, a lost witch?*
“Klyesque claims that she is your guest. I tried to stop them Highness, I did. But I-”
“Shut up,” I say softly. “You tried to stop them? Did you hurt her?”
Despite the anger that I was already harboring for my beautiful peasant, the thought of one of my own touching her in any way, especially in harm of her, boiled my blood.
“I-I did not,” Finn cowers.
“Then you shall live,” I say, and he stands confused. “That mortal belongs to me and what I decide to do with her, remains to be seen. But until I say otherwise, you will treat her as an honored guest.”
“Honored guest?” He repeats, his eyes narrowing.
“Do you question me, Finn?”
He shakes his head. “No, of course not.”
“Then pray what Klyesque has to report doesn’t settle your head upon the Trail of Fallen Rock, much like Ambassador Furel’s.”
He winces. “Of course. I shall repent.”
I roll my eyes, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Did you harm her?”
He shakes his head, “No.”
I smile, but there is no joy in it. “Then I shall let it pass.”
The look he gives me is one of total bewilderment. “I am grateful, my prince.”
I roll my eyes and saunter into the rock gardens of the internal city. My eyes set on the now open doors of Castle Fury. A breathless, familiar voice stops me before I can enter my home.
“You’ve stolen the mortal girl,” Gehna chuckles.
*Stolen? What?*
I spin around slowly, allowing my magic to thrum to life and snatch her by her long slender neck. She gurgles. “What madness are you spouting now, Gehna?”
She trembles three feet from me and as the courtyard is full of different Fae, they all stop and stare.
“I am going to drop you-,” I say, “-and you are going to silence yourself. For I have stolen nothing, and you are pissing me off.”
“Ash,” Klyesque interrupts, coming toward me from the castle’s entrance. She leans toward my ear to whisper, “The witch is here.”