Kingdom of Crimson: Crown of Faeries Prequel

1 | The Land of Faery

    I kept my hood pulled over my face as I sat in an old tavern just west of the border between Faery and the Human realm.

My fingers gripped my pint of ale, but I did not take a sip as I watched the people within the tavern. Filled with Humans, the tavern buzzed with a false sense of hope and longevity. I wanted to be able to feel those. I wanted to forget everything going on in Faery and be as naive as the mundane creatures that surrounded me. But, I could not. My duties within Faery weighed heavy on me, even now as I smiled under my hood as a drunken man slipped off his chair in a fit of laughter. His chubby red cheeks were shinny with tears as his chuckles echoed through the boisterous music.

    The man's friend pulled him back up and onto his seat, clasping a heavy hand on his shoulder.

Witnessing the camaraderie of Humans always lit the fire that burned deep within my soul.

To have a friend in Faery was not the same as in the Human realm. Friends were seen as a means to an end, an ally of sorts as we maneuvered through the many years our lives could have. Most Faery's opted for friendship vows to secure a long and meaningful relationship with another one of our kind, but others chose friends like they do with their lovers.

I chose to bind myself to Yvonne Belle within my earlier years. We had grown up together while going to school and had gotten close enough that our parents deemed us a compatible match as "friends". Ever since then Yvonne and I have vowed to protect and love one another until our days of death.

    My hand slipped from the cool copper pint.

    Yvonne has officially been missing for five years—considering Human time. In Faery, her time of disappearance was irrelevant as time was not constructed the same way as the Humans. Time does not matter to us Faeries. There is no point to it when all we do is live for eternity. Of course we can die, but most tools of iron have been banned from Faery for a very long time.

The thought of iron made my skin prickle. My eyes naturally darted around the Humans, searching for any iron bound pieces of jewelry.

    One touch of iron could be deadly to my kind. Iron sucks and burns magic from our veins, leaving the majority of us with a mortal body. Once this happens, if one is old enough, they could wither away to nothing more than ash. Luckily I was still considered young, but I still did not want to chance me running into any amount of iron.

    Thoughts of Yvonne tugged at the corners of my mind. I had been the only one to know her presence had left Faery for good because of our friendship bond. Everyday I tried tugging on that tether that bound our kindred souls together, and everyday I felt nothing but a hollow and empty pit in its wake. Where are you, Yvonne? I called out through the tether. No response came.

    "Ah, finally found you," a husky voice pulled my attention from searching the tether for Yvonne. I did not flinch as I looked up into the sharp, cruel eyes of Cade Walker, my father's right hand man. He pulled up a chair, thudding it roughly against the floor before sitting into it. He looked completely pissed at me and that made the corners of my lips upturn.

    "Here I thought I was safe from the likes of you in the Human realm," I rested my chin in my palm as I tilted my head. My hood shifted, revealing the shine of my unnaturally dark hair. I had my father to thank for my distinctive Faery features. My mother, a sea nymph, passed down her onyx silky strands of hair that shimmered the dark hues of the Nether. I pulled my hood closer.

    Cade huffed, crossing his well-toned arms across his chest. "Considering who your father is, there is no where you can hide."

    I rolled my eyes. "So, how is my father today?"