She came up short, her hope fizzling when a woman with curly auburn hair and stormy blue eyes stepped into the room. The first thing Rori noted was the casual appearance of the woman compared to everyone else she’d met so far. No fancy Faery gowns or exquisitely tailored outfits, perfect hair or impeccable appearance. The woman was beautiful, despite her baggy sweatpants and cable knit sweater that hung off her shoulders. Her hair was pulled up in a loose ponytail, tendrils caressing her rosy cheeks.
Rori’s eyes drifted to her ears. Seemed to be a telling feature of all Fae, and her first point of assessment with a new person.
This woman did not possess the characteristic points of the Fae. They were rounded like her own. Human.
“I hope I’m not intruding. I wanted to come by sooner, but my kids have kept me busy.” She closed the door behind her and met Rori in the middle of the room. Like Rihanna, this woman carried a comforting warmth around her, and afriendly smile that helped ease her worries. “You must be Rori.” She held out her hand. “I’m Moira.”
Rori took her hand. “You’re Rihanna’s sister?”
Moira laughed. “Technically, sister-in-law, but they don’t follow our family lines here. So, to keep things simple, Rihanna’s my sister.” Moira raised her hand, exposing a lightened scar across her palm. “Her brother is my soul mate.”
Rori reached a finger toward the scar.Blood bond.A resounding hum tugged at her heartstrings as she traced the mark before she dropped her hand in haste, a burn lighting her cheeks. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. All this Fae stuff is a lot to take in, especially if you’re not familiar with it. I’m still learning as I go.” Moira motioned to her towel. “Did Shaye forget to fill your wardrobe? He said he would make sure you had enough clothes until Rihanna and I could take you to get more fitting attire.”
“Oh! There’s plenty of clothing.” Rori’s face burned hotter as Moira glanced around her and found the puddle of black in front of the mirror. “I, uh, it’s just?—”
“Complicated. I know.” Moira snorted and shook her head. “I asked him to make sure you had items that you’d feel comfortable with. Not all fancy get-up because I know I had a hard time adjusting to the attire when I first came here.” Moira slipped past her and gathered the gown off the floor. “These things are too damn confusing if you don’t know what to expect. Aspen had to help me many times in the beginning because I couldn’t figure them out myself. Even now, I struggle. Hence this.” Moira spread her arm down her leg and chuckled. “I make sure Shaye keeps a stash of lazy clothes for me.”
“Someone took my clothes on the first day. I’d be contentwith those if I could get them back, instead of bothering everyone with picking out clothes for me.”
Moira waved her fingers for her to come closer. “One thing I learned real fast is that nothing is a bother. Shaye and his family want you to feel comfortable and at home while you’re here. If it’s for a few days or a few years, in the end, we want you to make yourself at home. We’ll do whatever we can to help you acclimate. I’ll send Shaye back to the mortal realm to pick up more suitable clothing for you, if that’s what helps you adjust.”
Rori hesitated before she approached the woman smoothing out the dress. “That’s unnecessary. I don’t anticipate being here long. I have things I need to handle at home.”
“Mm, well, until the danger with Grison and his posse are handled, Shaye won’t let you leave. You’re as good as dead in the mortal world, especially without adequate protection.” Moira shook out the gown and began to feed it from the top over her arms. “Right now, you lack the protection to keep you alive. Here—let me help you.”
Rori lifted her arms and allowed the woman to pour the gown over her head. She slid her arms through the narrow sleeves and untangled the towel from around her chest as the gown fell to her feet. Moira came up behind her and began threading the laces through the holes. Rori watched her in the mirror. She stood a few inches taller than Rori, and held far more confidence than Rori had known since the days of Rich. The lace bodice tightened around her, molding to her frame, enhancing the curves of her waist and the gentle flare of her hips. The design could be considered deceptive, since she knew she didn’t have such curves.
“My first time here was against my will, but for my benefit, if that makes sense. At the time, I had little understanding of the circumstances surrounding Shaye and a curse set uponhim. I didn’t realize it in the beginning, but this is the safest place for us. The Talaenian land is protected by the land’s spirits, old magic, and the Goddess. Evil can’t tread here without severe repercussions. The last who came here with ill intent died.” Moira’s fast-moving fingers paused. She caught Rori’s gaze in the mirror, the lightness gone. “Except for Thaddeus. Thierry, one of our closest friends, was responsible for shooting him through with two arrows. The Talaenian arrows had been fashioned in such a way that the shafts were porous to allow the iron from their cores to seep into their targets, poisoning our enemies faster than those without porous material. Thaddeus shouldn’t have survived the blow, but he did.”
The way Moira brought up Thaddeus’s injuries twisted a defensiveness within Rori, but she fought it back. She didn’t know the full story behind the battle, the conflict, the bad blood between Thaddeus and this family. The little she did know, she understood that Thaddeus most likely was to blame for his own incurred injuries, but it didn’t temper the protective creature that rose within her.
Moira’s mouth curled in a grin. “How I see it, the Goddess wanted him to survive. Her reasoning is for Her to know and him to find out, but regardless, he’s alive and is further blessed with a soul mate of his own.”
“You seem very tolerant of having an enemy in your home. I’ve been told Thaddeus and Shaye have a rocky past.”
Moira nodded, lowering her gaze to the dress as she continued to lace up the back and fasten the eyehooks. “They do, but I’ve always been the type to believe not everything is as it seems. People deserve second chances, when earned. I also believe that had the Goddess believed Thaddeus to be a lost cause, She wouldn’t have fated you to a man bound todeath.” She shook her head. “That would be incredibly cruel.”
“We’re mere ants on the spectrum compared to any perceived deities. Just like us mortals are mud on the soles of the Fae.”
The laces snatched, the fabric across her breasts cinching tight. Rori sucked in a sharp breath and waved her comment aside when Moira caught her gaze once more.
“Who told you that we’re mud?” When Rori didn’t answer, Moira huffed with pursed lips. She tied the laces between her shoulder blades and stepped around Rori, taking her gently by the bare shoulders. “I’d be more than happy to put mud where their mouths are. Or better yet, let them lick the mud offmysoles.“
For the first time since she arrived in this magical place, Rori found a genuine smile easy to form. She even snickered at Moira’s fierce threat, and found a warmth in the woman’s reciprocal smile. Moira lowered her hands from her shoulders and jutted her chin toward the door.
“Rihanna said you’ve been given a tour of the castle and met our cousins yesterday. I had hoped to bring you into the village today, but Shaye says the weather isn’t going to hold for a trip, since I don’t speed across the land on horseback unless I’m sharing a saddle with Shaye or Rihanna. Fae horses are amazing creatures, but they’re downright frightening when they run like the wind, literally.”
The woman assessed Rori’s gown, adjusting the V of the bodice and the lace trims of the short sleeves. Rori had yet to get a full glimpse of the gown on her, and whether the color made her skin look sickly pale or matched her fair complexion.
“I’ve never ridden a horse, so perhaps it’s a good thing we aren’t making the trip,” Rori said.
“You’ll love the village, but walking is out of the question and there’re no cars here. So horseback it is.”
“What about the whole teleporting thing?”
Moira’s nose wrinkled. “Shaye thinks sifting around here is too passive. He enjoys physical action over magic.”
