A Lady and Her Magic (Faerie 1)

“There’s no possible way I’ll turn Ashley and Anne over to Claire.” She shook her head vehemently. “Absolutely not. I will see this mission through to completion.” If it was the last thing she ever did before her wings were clipped, it would be worth it.

“Ashley, is it?” Marcus asked, his voice dreadfully heavy.

“That’s his name,” Sophia quipped back. Then she thought for a moment and jumped to her feet. “There’s something I need to see,” she said.

“Can it wait until tomorrow?” he asked, his voice weary.

No. Anne’s night terror would be over by then. “I need to go and see what upset Anne. Come along or not,” she said. “But I’m going.”

***

Ashley strode down the corridor, trying his best to take his mind off the sprightly little lady who’d been in his chambers only moments before. But it was difficult. He could still taste her on his lips and feel her in his arms. But a scream from his daughter’s room broke him from his improper thoughts, in somewhat the same fashion a glass of cold water tossed upon his person might.

Ashley quickened his pace. When he entered Anne’s room, he found her nurse sitting on the edge of the bed trying to coax Anne from the corner into which she’d retreated. “Excuse me,” Ashley muttered as he motioned her to the side and reached for Anne. She scrambled across the bed and into his arms, clinging tightly to his neck as her legs wrapped around his waist.

He rubbed her hair and crooned to her, the way he did every time she suffered a night terror. She sobbed into his bare neck, her hot tears leaving a sticky path in the crease between his shoulder and neck.

“Shhh…” He crooned. “There, now. Is it really that bad?”

She nodded into his neck without lifting her head, but at least her sobs and shaking were beginning to subside.

“Must have been a positively wretched dream,” he said softly. He motioned for the nurse with one hand. “Leave us, please,” he mouthed to her. When the door was closed firmly behind the nurse, he set Anne slightly away from him so he could look at her to be certain she was truly all right. She drooped onto her pillow with a heavy sigh and a large sniffle.

“Better now?” he asked.

She gave him a tearful nod.

“Do you want to tell me what it was about?” he asked gently as he arranged the bedclothes around her.

“I was falling,” she croaked out, her voice still choked by her former tears.

“Falling, as in you tripped?” he questioned. He already knew the answer. It was the same dream she always had.

“No, I was pushed,” she said with a hiccup.

It was as he feared. Anne had experienced the same nightmare for weeks after her mother died suddenly. It had lessened through the years, but it was still at the back of her mind. It only resurfaced in times of difficulty. “You’re safe in your bed now,” he soothed.

“I was falling,” she repeated.

“You’re not falling now,” he said softly. “Are you?”

“No.” She sniffled again.

“You’re tucked safely into your bed.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Would you like for me to tell you a story?”

She gave him a hesitant nod and he crawled higher in the bed to lie beside her, then began his lighthearted tale.

***

“He doesn’t look very dangerous,” Marcus murmured from beside her on the windowsill where he perched precariously beside Sophia. He unbalanced himself on the sill, and Sophia had to reach out to catch him. It was unfortunate that mal

e faeries didn’t have wings of their own. “He looks normal,” he lamented.

Sophia shook her head, not drawing her gaze from Ashley and his daughter. It felt almost like eavesdropping to observe such an intimate moment. “He’s not dangerous. Just misunderstood.”

“Did he kill her?” Marcus always did have a way of getting to the meat of a matter.

Sophia whispered. “He says he did.”