The Water Witch by Juliet Dark Read Free Book Online

looked as ancient as if he had in fact been that god. Looking into them I saw the centuries he had passed here under the unchanging sky of Faerie, slowlylosing his humanity, becoming this creature who must feed on human life to feel anything.
    “You would not like what you would become here, Cailleach.” He pronounced my full name with an Irish lilt,
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. “Without human contact, the fey are bloodless creatures: beautiful but unfeeling, ageless but with none of the fire of youth.”
    A trill of laughter interrupted him.
    “That sounds pretty youthful to me,” I said, punching his arm playfully. “Are you sure you don’t want to get rid of me so you can hook up with one of the undines?”
    He made a face. “Those poor creatures? One can only pity them. Sure the young ones come back full of the zest and fire they’ve absorbed in the muck and mire of the human world …”
    I remembered the taste of raspberry on the young undine’s lips and wondered how she was finding her first moments in Faerie.
    “… but after a century here they lose that. Come.” He got to his feet and held out his hand to help me up. “I’ll show you.”
    “You’re going like that?” I asked, looking his long, lean, naked body up and down. “They’ll never be able to keep their …” But before I could finish my sentence Liam was clothed in a loose white tunic, slim dark green leggings, and soft leather boots, and I wore a long linen dress that swished as he pulled me to my feet.
    “In Faerie you can make yourself into whatever you like,” he said, pulling me close to him. “Although I prefer you unclothed,” he growled. “Those damned undines are just as likely to jump you as me.”
    “Maybe we should stay here,” I said, pressing against him. I pictured myself wearing a flimsy nightgown and … presto!I felt the silk slide over my skin. I added a pair of kitten heels and a whiff of Diorissimo.
    “I could get used to this—an unlimited wardrobe and no dry-cleaning bills!”
    Liam gave me an admiring look but turned to walk up the hill, pulling me with him. “There are other bills to pay,” he said.
    I followed him up the grassy hill over which the undines had run, a bit crestfallen that my seduction hadn’t worked. I changed into jeans and T-shirt as we walked, but then, remembering how pretty those undines had looked, switched to a sundress I’d admired in the Anthropologie catalog. As I’d suspected, the halter top was too snug for my breast size, but maybe I could change that …
    “Don’t you dare,” Liam growled without turning around.
    “Could you always read my mind?” I asked, adding a lacy cardigan to my outfit.
    “Not in your world, but in Faerie everything is transparent. It’s one of the things that can get a bit … tedious here.”
    I tried to read Liam’s thoughts but got only images—mostly of me naked underneath him.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I want to remember every moment.” We’d come to the top of the hill. He turned to me, his eyes wide with sorrow. “Those memories will have to last me a long time.”
    “Oh, Liam …” I began, anguished that I couldn’t give him what he wanted from me, but then my voice froze in my throat as I saw what lay below us. Green meadows starred with wildflowers of every imaginable color rolled down into a valley split by a broad river. Mountains rose on the other side of the river, each range a different hue of indigo, violet and blue, shading away to palest pearl and dove gray. The mountains looked as if the sun were setting over them, but therewas no sun. The rest of the valley was filled with honey-gold light.
    “It reminds me of a painting by one of the Hudson River School artists,” I said as we ambled down the sloping hill. On either side were thick woods. I sensed that they were full of creatures watching our progress, but I saw only the flicker of movement and, once, the silhouette of deer antlers against the ridge behind us.
    “The