Page 65 of His Dark Delights
I needed to stay focused. Or as focused as I could in the fae homeland.
Slipping silently from the room, I entered a massive spiraled stairway with more doors going both up and down. Everything was carved of the same silvery-blue wood. My breath hitched upon realizing the entire structure was indeed formed from one colossal tree.
Hallways and bridges made of woven hemp and vines connected one tree to the next. I explored further, finding that they formed the palace of the fae wild from a singular giant forest humming with magical energy. The silver woods were a castle, towering over the land with the tallest peaks reaching the clouds.
As I descended, I spotted more fae than I knew existed. The meager worldview I’d grown up with was expanding rapidly, almost too fast. I saw blue skin with scales and fins for ears. Green skin with beetle wings and turned up black eyes. Dark brown skin made of bark and green braids of woven pink and green ivy.
I’d spent so much of life thinking that my minor fae features made me stand out compared to humans. It hit me in the face to realize that I was so much more human in appearance than I’d believed. To all the fae I walked past, I must have seemed like a lost human girl. Some of them glanced at me that way, but I was too awed to care.
Outside the forest palace, whimsical music drifted through my ears. My legs carried me through plush blue-green grass glittering with dew where pixies flew. I wandered past sparkling ponds and small waterfalls where water nymphs sang, and mermaids splashed. Iwalked through a mystical shining glade where dryads and satyrs played instruments or danced.
It was in the dim glade, under limbs too heavy for the sun to penetrate, that I found dozens of fae of all types gathered. The ancient trees seemed to circle the area, protecting it from outside noise and creating a natural ballroom.
At the center of the dancers, I spotted Lunaric locked arms with a female dryad and a male water nymph, spinning in circles. There was a cup, shaped like a tulip and made of glass, dangling from his fingers. A thick, honeyed liquid dripped onto the grassy dancefloor.
He wore a pink and blue laced up vest and green trousers laced at his ankles. Rings and necklaces accentuated his clothes, as did the crooked circlet of woven silver branches on his brow. He threw his head back with boisterous laughter, so hearty and full of life that I unknowingly smiled with them.
On his next spin, the Prince of Fairy caught sight of me. His eyes widened, and his mouth split into a contagious, charming grin. He freed himself from his dance partners, who continued happily without him. He wove through the other dancing fae, waving his hand in my direction.
I took that as my queue to approach and stepped onto the dancefloor. And Lunaric took that as a sign to hook his arm around my waist and twirl me into the dance. A yelp bubbled past my lips, and I latched onto his shoulders. Thankfully, he seemed to sense the tension in my frame and slowed the pace. Without breaking his smile, the prince spun us into the center of the floor.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, coming to a sudden stop. My head spun as the music settled and all eyes turned to the prince. “I’d like you all to meet the brave girl who so valiantly rescued me from the Fairy Butcher. A long-lost member of our court, a flower nymph and my savior, Lilly!”
Cheers and applause echoed so thunderously that the sounds assaulted my ears. Bodies moved in close, hands touching me, lips kissing my cheeks, and arms embracing me. They were warm, welcoming, smiling, laughing, and they all smelled so good, and they were all so gorgeous.
Someone pressed a tulip glass filled to the brim with a viscous amber liquid into my hand. It smelled sweet, like flowers and honey. I brought the cup to my lips—
“Careful with that, Lilly. That’s fae wine. Very potent stuff.” Lunaric released my hand, allowing me to take a smaller sip than I’d originally planned.
My thoughts cleared a fraction, and my head settled incrementally from the high of excitement. Being surrounded by magic and fae and the energy of a party had intoxicated my rational mind.
“Wait,” I lowered the cup, “what about the flower nymph who will unlock my essence? As much as I appreciate the celebration and the warm welcome, I have a purpose here.”
“Don’t worry about that now, brave girl. The nymph strong enough for that isn’t here yet and she won’t be for some time. A few days maybe.”
“A few days?” I swallowed back a groan.
The music picked up again. All around us the fae swept in, dancing and spinning… some were even flying overhead. More arrived, dozens more spilling into the glade as the music played faster and faster.
“She will come, and we will help you. We made a deal, remember? Now drink, dance, and try to relax. You’re one of us here, Lilly. No one will hurt you,” Lunaric promised.
I trusted him on a deep, primordial level. A voice inside me said that he was right and that in this glade, this wilderness of fae and magic, I was finally home—I was finally free.
I tipped the tulip cup back and swallowed down the contents. Fae wine, sweeter than sugar and more addictive than any drug, flooded over my tongue. At once, the intoxicating property of the wine seized hold of my mind, chasing out everything and everyone I’d ever known.
There was a reason I was here… and suddenly it didn’t matter anymore. Those hopes and dreams slipped through my fingers as formless as smoke. The beat of the music and the bodies swaying, grinding, and spinning around me replaced my goals.
What was it I needed to do?
A hand grabbed mine and twirled me into the next song.
Oh, yes, I was here to dance.
Grass was blue, the sky was violet, and the water ran clearer than diamonds. The stars twinkling overhead had little faces that smiled, and flowers sang with actual mouths. It was so silly… just so ridiculously silly that I couldn’t stop laughing.
So, I laughed and laughed, and danced and danced.Then I drank and drank some more. Before long, days blurred together into one everlasting, dizzying party. A grand celebration where I witnessed acts of magic I could never have dreamt up and flying fae doing aerial tricks through the limbs of the forest palace.
I slept in the glade surrounded by dozens of new friends with more names than my cloudy mind could remember. Everything I tried to recall danced out of reach of my fingers. In brief flashes of clarity, my memories returned to me like dreams. It was the fae wild and fairy court that became my reality.
