The Rise of Fortune and Fury (Chronicles of the Stone Veil 5)

I’m pretty confident I could make my magic do that, but I have no clue if the spike is made of iron. It could be a futile effort, and then my secret would be revealed.

Instead, I give him a grateful nod. My voice is small and puny, my hope being that he’ll think me weak and dejected. “Yeah… I’m hungry.”

Leaning forward, Pyke places the tray on my lap and straightens. The cuffs on my wrist allow enough room for me to pick up the spoon on the tray and dip it into what looks like beef stew.

I ignore him in favor of the food, figuring if they were going to kill me, it wouldn’t be by poison. The first spoonful is lukewarm at best and, by taste, I can clearly tell it’s from a can. But I want to keep my strength up, so after I chew and swallow, I take another spoonful.

It’s after that one goes down that I ask Pyke, “So… are you going to tell me how you got paired up with Kymaris?”

It happens so fast, my head spins and my stomach lurches, but the chains disappear. I’m not on the floor anymore but rather sitting at a table with the bowl of stew before me. Pyke is on the opposite side, sitting in a chair.

“More comfortable?” he asks.

I nod without hesitation. Far more comfortable.

Pyke nods at the bowl. “Eat up, and I’ll tell you a story.”

“Hope it’s a good one,” I mutter, and Pyke actually laughs. The spoon is still in my hand, so I dip it back into the stew as he starts to talk.

“I’m sure Carrick has told you enough about me for you to realize I’m a bit of an adventurer. Time in Faere moves slowly, and I’m easily bored.”

I swallow the food in my mouth. “He said you fought alongside him in many battles.”

“Indeed,” Pyke agrees with a fond expression. “But more so than the boredom of Faere, I was quite lonely. Being the Light Fae prince means no one is ever quite up to par, and while dalliances with all the fae ladies in the realm were fun, I was searching for more.”

I frown. “You mean… love?”

Pyke shrugs. “I wouldn’t have put that word on it at first, but I was searching for something missing within me. That emptiness was filled when I met Kymaris.”

My spoon remains poised over the bowl, but I’m too shocked by this revelation to even think about eating. “But how? How would you have met her?”

Pyke’s gaze moves from me to the staircase that leads up as if he’s pondering whether he should tell me or if he should just leave. Luckily, a Light Fae’s vanity and ego tend to rule the day, and since he—like Kymaris—considers me no threat, I can tell the moment he decides it won’t hurt to tell me.

Leaning forward and placing his arms on the table, he says, “I was out in the Faere countryside hunting one day. I’d stopped by a stream to rest and as I was sitting there, I noticed something shimmering in the air just on the other side of the water. It was like the air itself was rippling. The longer I watched it, the more a female shape began to take form, which made me even more curious. I crossed the creek to look closer and, as I approached the rippling air, I could see more clearly what was on the other side. It was a room done in floor-to-ceiling shiny black tile with a huge blazing fireplace. The orange light cast the figure in better relief, and I got my first look at Kymaris.”

My eyebrows draw in. “She was in the Underworld?”

“She was,” he says with a chuckle. “Apparently, she was poking at the veil into Faere. She had some stone magic within her, but not enough to tear it. It was enough for her to get close and peer in at her sister’s realm, and I was the first Light Fae she’d ever seen.”

“What did you do?” I ask in almost a whisper. My food is long forgotten, so I set the spoon down.

Pyke stares at me, a fond smile playing at his mouth. “I fell in love, of course.”

My surprise is so great that my jaw drops.

Pyke laughs, shaking his head. “I can only imagine how odd that sounds, but it’s true. And when we spoke, it was only minutes into our conversation that I knew it was felt from her, as well.”

“You could speak to each other?” I ask incredulously.

“We could,” he says with a nod. “But the veil held firm. She couldn’t cross into Faere, but it was thin enough that we could converse. We could even press our palms together against it.”

“Unbelievable,” I mutter.

“I thought so, and it was a secret I maintained for decades,” Pyke continues. “We met regularly at the veil between our worlds, and we fell deeper in love.”