Blood Faerie by India Drummond Read Free Book Online

help him. Of that he had no doubt. The closer he got, the better he felt. For once he wasn’t planning and carefully deciding. He just walked.

    After a long while, Munro stumbled. How long had he been out here? The memory of his journey was dim. His legs shook. He felt hungry and exhausted. He wanted to lie in the cool grass. It took a moment to get his bearings. Tall green trees surrounded him. A tractor growled far in the distance, so he thought he was somewhere near a farm. The ground did look comfortable. Why was he here? He couldn’t remember. Maybe if he sat down and took a moment to consider, everything would make sense later. He only needed a rest.

    ***

    It didn’t take long for Eilidh to reach the border of the kingdom lands. They weren’t marked by sign or stone, or even cutting river or stone dyke. Unlike human borders, the influence of the kingdom lands moved like the tides, spreading out at night when the fae were at their most powerful and receding in the light of day.
     
    Passing outside the kingdom lifted danger from her shoulders. The fae would not come after her in the human world. She posed no threat as long as she stayed away. Even still, she felt bereft all over again. Every part of her wanted to run back to Saor, beg his forgiveness, tell him it had been a horrible mistake. But she couldn’t. The fae conclave was not known for reasonableness. Her exile hadn’t arisen from her actions, although she had committed criminal acts, but from her existence. She could touch forbidden magic. The mere ability made her an outlaw.

    The moment she stepped outside the barrier, she felt a presence. Someone sought her. Something in the unrelenting focus on her created a small but constant mental pressure point she could not ignore. Questions filled her mind. The magic was like none she had encountered before. It felt strange and foreign. It sparked curiosity and fear. Fae magic always felt familiar, even if she did not know the incantation or the one who cast it.
     
    The source, she felt certain, came from some distance. She could possibly avoid it by going far west and then doubling back to Perth. It would take time, because she would have to travel in an odd meandering line to avoid the kingdom territories that stretched hundreds of miles. Human clusters burned holes in the fae’s influence and protection. At this time of year, with the long summer days, she had more breathing room than usual. But there were many pockets of strength she must avoid at all costs. Few would show as much compassion as Saor if she were discovered.

    Curiosity and…something else…made her squint toward the distant source of alien magic. It drew her. She stopped dead in the forest, frozen so completely that her muscles complained. Eilidh forced herself to relax and take one step after another toward the source of this peculiar sensation. A faint wish for her father’s advice flitted through her mind. She pushed it away with a barely-breathed curse. She had to learn to think differently. Wishing for her old life made her worse than foolish.
     
    The foreign magic tugged, and she moved more steadily toward it. She was fae. What could she have to fear? The question taunted her, but she ignored the well-practiced jibes. Faith. She was fae.

    After more than an hour of walking, she could nearly touch the aura of the strange magic. She circled around and listened. She felt a presence, but only one. She heard no speech. The wind, with some gentle coaxing, brought the scent of a human, definitely male. Her old skills as a Watcher came quickly back. She climbed up a sturdy conifer. Humans rarely glanced up. The source did not move, but it did pulse. She wished, not for the first time, that she had not been born so utterly incompetent in the stone element. Then she could have spoken to the ground beneath his feet.
     
    He stirred. Climbing down, she inched closer, staying well hidden, unable to resist his pull. Munro. Fear tingled in