The Fae Book 2: Burr and Daisy

Chapter 8: Connecting The Dots

I stood at the edge of the shore, the waves lapping over my bare feet, a storm not of my making flashing and rumbling in the distance, far out over the water. For the first time in my life I felt...at odds, at a loss. Adrift. Restless. It was a feeling I'd become familiar with over the last four weeks since that fucking family dinner when I'd discovered Daisy had pulled a runner and no one knew where she was.

I was about to come out of my motherfucking skin. Never had I felt like this. I'd always been secure in who and what I was, sure of myself, my path, my destiny. 

For my entire life, I'd known I was different, set apart, special. Destined for great things. I'd had fairies in my ear since I could remember, teaching me to speak their language, calling me prince, fawning all over me, teaching me things about nature, about the fae. As fae royalty, my life was charmed. I excelled in school, at sports, at anything I set out to do. Boys wanted to be my friends, girls, even from a very young age, wanted to be my girlfriends, teachers favored me, adults praised me, complete strangers complimented me -- even in my own family, there was some deference for who I was and, more importantly, who I was going to be.

From a very early age, my body had hummed with my gifts, my powers. I could heal and restore creatures, and later, people; I could absorb pain -- literally take the pain from certain people only and pull it into my body, away from them. From the time I was a small boy, I could generate little bolts of lightning in my very hands, bolts that got bigger and more powerful as my powers grew with age. My body was always, to some extent, electrified, so I had to prepare myself for any skin-to-skin contact, otherwise the other person and I would feel sharp and sudden tingling shivering down our skin.

Everything came easily to me, and once I became King at eighteen, things somehow became even easier. I continued to skate through life like it owed me something and all the gifts it showered down on me I took as my due. I was fae-blessed and life was good. Great. Fantastic.

When I'd joined the military after college for four years, I was immediately assigned to a team so secret and elite, only a handful of people knew it existed. Normally it took years to make it onto the team, and I was chosen right away. They sent my team on the most critical, dangerous missions, and I fucking led the team because it was what I was born to do. Lead. Conquer. Improve the world for humanity's sake. My superhuman gifts came in handy, and I was known for my daring, my bravado, my fearlessness. When you have thousands and thousands of the fae protecting you, keeping you from all harm, it's easy to be courageous -- to outsiders, you might look like a daredevil, but that doesn't matter because it was the results that counted, and my team achieved. Every single mission was a success, so I lived full speed ahead, all out, balls to the wall. It was an exciting, exhilarating way to live, and it helped to calm the storm in me.

I stayed in ten years, but now I'd left the military behind. The fairies had been whispering that it was time to settle down, take my queen. Find my Sceptre.

I'd expected my path to continue as it had been, smooth and easy. I'd thought Ginni would make a fine queen, only to discover that she was not the person she'd always shown me. My conceit and vanity had led me to think that my True Queen would look the part. Ginni may have been beautiful, elegant and regal in her bearing, but she hid her ugliness.

I thought about the way her words and threats could have upset Daisy so badly that it could have put the baby and Daisy at risk. She had threatened the mother of my child and my unborn baby, and although I wanted to be angrier at Ginni, I knew I was the real culprit here. I knew I was to blame when it came down to it. My vanity had sought out Ginni -- an actual model, flawless, every man's ideal with her blonde hair and blue eyes. She looked stunning on my arm, her fair looks complementing my dark ones. I had this stupid fucking picture in my head of what the King of the Fae and his True Queen should look like. Stunning, breathtaking perfection. The kind of couple people would look at and wish they could be.