Mark of the Fae: A Fated Mates Fae Romance (Shadow Court Book 2) Read online

  Mark of the Fae

  Shadow Court, Volume 2

  K J Baker

  Published by K J Baker, 2021.

  While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

  MARK OF THE FAE

  First edition. February 1, 2021.

  Copyright © 2021 K J Baker.

  Written by K J Baker.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 1

  ASHA

  I was dying.

  Nothing could possibly hurt this much and not kill me. It felt as though my blood had been turned to molten metal, searing me from the inside out. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear. What was happening to me? Where was I?

  I no longer knew. My thoughts were beginning to fragment. Desperately, I tried to hold on.

  Think, I told myself. Think. Only moments ago, I had stepped into a portal with Raven to pass through the Veil from the mortal realm to the Fae realm. Hadn’t I?

  I am Asha, I thought as the pain tried to shred me. I am Asha Grant. I own an antiques shop. I love chocolate and old movies. And I love Raven. He’s here. With me. Everything is going to be okay.

  I gritted my teeth, trying desperately to hang on. But, holy hell, was passing through the Veil supposed to be this painful?

  Something was gripping my hand, something hard and unyielding. Raven. I clutched his hand tightly, the only thing keeping me anchored, stopping me from being blown apart like autumn leaves in the wind.

  Then something slammed into me and ripped Raven’s hand from mine. I went spiraling into the void.

  I screamed, but no sound came out. I was being torn apart. Torn, torn, torn...

  My knees landed on something hard. Flagstones. I heaved in a breath, then another. And another. I was alive. Alive.

  I raised my head. My vision swam in and out of focus and it took me a moment to register that I was kneeling in some vast hall. Behind me it stretched into the distance, seemingly into infinity, but ahead rose a sheer wall of white stone with a great arching doorway in the center.

  Raven was nowhere to be seen.

  Groggily, I got my feet under me and staggered upright. This was most definitely not the Summerlands. Where was I? And where was Raven? I clamped down on the panic that began to bubble in my stomach.

  “Raven!” I shouted. “Raven?”

  The dead air swallowed my shout. No answer came back.

  My eyes settled on the doorway. Made of plain, unadorned wood, the lintel was carved with strange, ugly runes. My skin crawled at the sight of them. I’d seen similar runes before. On the Orb of Tir.

  Something, some deep, primal instinct, warned me to stay away from that door. I backed up a step, hugging my arms around myself, suddenly cold.

  “Asha?” said Raven’s voice suddenly.

  My head came up. “Raven?”

  “Asha? Where are you? I can’t see you.”

  “I’m here! Where are you?”

  “I’m behind the door, Asha. You need to step through. You need to come to me.”

  Without thinking, I rushed forward, stretching my hand towards the elegantly carved door handle just as another, darker voice snarled, “Leave her be! It is not her time. She has a life to live first.”

  Raven laughed, a harsh, cruel laugh. “Invite her in. She can come play with us.”

  Ice slid down my spine. That might sound like Raven, but I knew, down to the depths of my soul, that it was most definitely not.

  The door suddenly swung open, revealing a beautiful rolling landscape beyond under a setting sun.

  “Come, Asha,” said Raven’s voice again. A crooning voice full of promise. “Come join us. “

  “No,” insisted the other voice. “She has much to do yet. See, child! Remember!”

  Visions enveloped me. Shezl and Taviel, the two Unseelie agents, breaking into my antiques shop to steal the Orb of Tir. One of them firing a gun at me. Raven appearing out of nowhere to catch the bullet meant for me and whisking me away to safety.

  My heart began to thump. The memory felt so real, like I was back there, reliving every moment of it.

  In quick succession I saw all the events that had led from that moment to this: agreeing to help Raven find the Orb of Tir, Raven fighting and killing Shezl. Taviel using his glamor to enslave Gracie, my best friend, in order to lure Raven and I into a trap. Taviel escaping with the Orb of Tir back to the Summerlands.

  And then finally, me and Raven stepping through that portal high on a pine-clad mountain...

  To bring me here. The final step. It all led to this. I only had to step through that door and...

  “No,” said that insistent voice again. “Get away from here, child! Get away! Remember that where you are going, nothing is what it seems. Nothing! If you remember that, there is a chance you may yet prevail.”

  “Asha!”

  Behind me the air shimmered like heat-haze and Raven suddenly appeared. His form flickered, insubstantial, like a ghost.

  “Hurry!” he gasped. “I can’t hold it! Take my hand!”

  I glanced back at the open doorway and saw dark figures beginning to materialize in the opening. Terror gripped me. I pelted towards Raven’s shadowy form, my fingers outstretched. I felt his very real, very solid fingers close around mine and yank me forward. The hall, the doorway, the visions disappeared—

  —and we were tumbling onto a grassy hilltop filled with the scent of wildflowers and the drone of bees.

  I had only a second to register this before Raven slammed into me, his muscled arms going around me, pressing me tight against his chest. His sandalwood scent enveloped me.

  I hugged him hard, pressing my face against his shoulder. He was real. Solid. Real. Right here.

  He pushed me to arm’s length, looking me up and down. “Are you all right?” he demanded, his lilac eyes scanning my face.

  Come play with us.

  I shuddered, taking a deep breath. “What was that place?”

  “You were taken to the very border of the Twilight Land,” he replied. “Fates, Asha, if you had stepped through that door...” He didn’t need to finish the sentence.

  “How?” I asked in a shaky voice. “I thought the portal would take us directly to the Summerlands.”

  He scrubbed a hand through his inky-black hair. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “A trap perhaps, set by the Unseelie. Or an effect of the Orb’s magic?”

  Nothing is what it seems. Nothing!

  The warning echoed in my head. What had it been referring to? The Summerlands? Were we finally here?

  I drew a deep breath, pushed away the memories of the hall and its door and its voices, and took my first look at my new home. An undulating landscape spread out ahead of me. Thick green grass carpeted the land and trees whispered in a faint breeze. I shaded my eyes against the sun, catching the glint of water far in the distance. Except for a faint purple tinge to the sky, the place looked little different to the mortal realm. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  “Is this it?” I asked. “Are we here?”

  “Yes,” Raven said with a wry
smile. “Despite the Unseelie’s attempts to thwart our journey, we’ve made it. This is the realm of the Fae. The Summerlands.”

  He looked around, purple eyes darting everywhere, alert for danger as always. But what danger could there be here? He was a king after all, wasn’t he?

  King. Oh God. A thought that would drive me crazy if I thought about it for too long.

  “We seem to be in the middle of nowhere,” I observed, looking at the seemingly endless vista of trees. “Where exactly in the Summerlands?”

  “Within the border of the Shadow Court,” Raven replied. “The Ravenhold lies a few miles to the west. The protective shield around the palace means teleportation directly inside is impossible.” He gave me an apologetic look. “We’ll have to walk. Not the entrance I had envisaged for my queen.”

  Queen? My stomach flipped. I was no queen. I was just a broke antiques dealer with an eighties cartoon obsession. What had I been thinking coming here?

  But one look at Raven shattered my doubts into tiny fragments. He was watching me steadily, his black hair falling onto his shoulders and his expression serious. My heart swelled. My mate. The man I was destined to spend my life with. I could no more have stayed behind in the mortal realm than I could have cut off my own arm. Whatever challenges this realm posed, we would face them together.

  Raven held out his hand. “Ready?”

  I took it, curling my fingers through his. “Ready.”

  Hand in hand, we set off.

  The grass was so thick beneath my feet that it felt like carpet and the air smelled cleaner, fresher than I’d ever experienced. As we walked, I breathed deeply, savoring the sensation in my lungs, allowing its cooling touch to chase away the terrors of our passage through the Veil.

  Nothing is as it seems. Nothing.

  We walked steadily, side by side, and I looked around like a wide-eyed child, taking in this new place. This new world that was to be my home.

  As we crossed a stream, I saw that the water sparkled like crystal and the sound it made as it bubbled over the rocks was like the tinkling of tiny silver bells. We passed through a glade where bars of sunlight streamed down through the branches of the mighty oaks that ringed it. Butterflies danced in shafts of light, hundreds of them, but they were larger and more brightly colored than any butterflies I’d ever seen.

  A smell lingered on the air and it took me a moment to place it. It was the smell of life. It reminded me of springtime when the flowers first start to awaken and the air is filled with promise of things to come. That’s what the air smelled like here: soil and grass and growing things.

  Yes, it’s fair to say I was enraptured.

  Raven, though, clearly did not share my sentiment. He prowled by my side in silence, his expression intense, his brows furrowed. The further we walked, the stronger his unease seemed to become.

  He stopped abruptly, holding up his hand. I froze, listening. I heard only silence. Even the birds had gone still.

  “Don’t move,” a voice growled behind us. “I have an arrow trained on you. Do anything I don’t like and you’ll be wearing it. Now turn around slowly so I can see your faces.”

  Raven tensed and his hand moved fractionally towards his blades before thinking better of it. We slowly turned. A man stood behind us, dressed in woodsman’s clothing. He had earth-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, and from his sharp-boned features, he was clearly Fae.

  And he was holding a bow with an arrow nocked, pointing right at Raven’s heart.

  I swallowed thickly. This was not the welcome I’d hoped for.

  “Is that any way to greet your sovereign?” Raven said softly.

  The man’s eyes widened in surprise and he quickly lowered the bow. “Raven?” he said incredulously. “Is that you?”

  “Bowen, you old bastard,” Raven replied. He was grinning now. “I should have realized it was you. Nobody else can sneak up on me like that.”

  “Ha! What else would you expect from the best tracker in the Shadow Court?”

  With a laugh, the man—Bowen—strode across the clearing and he and Raven were suddenly embracing like old comrades, laughing and slapping each other on the back.

  I wiped a hand across my brow, letting out a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

  “Spire take me, it’s good to see you, Raven!” Bowen cried. “Or should I be calling you ‘sire’?”

  “Between you and me, it is always Raven.”

  “Where have you been?” the other man asked. “There have been all sorts of rumors flying around—and worse things besides. Spire, but I nearly put an arrow in your back just now! Thought you might be an Unseelie spy.”

  “Unseelie?” Raven said, tensing. “Within the borders of the Shadow Court? They wouldn’t dare!”

  A pained expression flashed across Bowen’s face. “Much has changed while you’ve been away.”

  Raven scowled. “So it seems.” He stepped back. “Bowen, this is Asha Grant. My mate.”

  Bowen’s eyebrows rose in surprise. His hazel eyes flicked to me and I flinched, wary of his reaction. Raven had warned me that many of the Fae would not take kindly to him taking a mortal mate. But Bowen merely glanced from me to Raven and back again, before a huge grin split his face.

  “Ah! I see it now! I wondered why your aura was so strong.”

  Then, to my utter shock, he dropped to one knee before me. “It is an honor to meet you, my queen. I am yours to command.”

  I stared at Bowen, mouth working like a landed fish, but no words came out. I glanced helplessly at Raven. Was that amusement I saw dancing in his eyes? Damn him!

  “I...um...that’s not necessary,” I floundered. “Please get up.”

  “As you wish, my queen.”

  “And call me Asha.”

  “As you wish, my...ah...Asha.”

  Raven laid a hand on Bowen’s shoulder. “You mentioned rumors. What rumors?”

  Bowen shrugged. “Too many to list. You’ll have to see for yourself.”

  Raven’s expression tightened. “Then let’s get going.”

  We set off. Raven walked to the left of me, Bowen to the right, and I got the impression that through some unspoken agreement the two men had appointed themselves as my guardians.

  I wasn’t sure what to make of that. I was used to looking after myself. Heck, I’d been doing it for most of my life, and suddenly having two very dangerous Fae males protective of my person was a little...unsettling. Raven was bad enough. But Bowen as well? It was all a bit unnerving.

  They set a brisk pace and I found myself trotting to keep up with them. Soon my legs were aching and my lungs were burning. I knew I shouldn’t have canceled my gym subscription.

  I was so preoccupied with putting one foot in front of the other that I didn’t notice they’d stopped until I walked right into Raven’s back. He put out a hand to steady me then pointed.

  We were standing at the top of a rise. Below, the ground sloped gently down into a wide, fertile valley with a silver river snaking along the bottom. Fields of golden crops filled the valley, gently swaying in the breeze, and the sun had begun to sink below the valley’s western rim, illuminating a structure on the far side.

  A castle. Or rather, a series of castles. Or palaces. Or manor houses. I wasn’t sure of the correct term as I’d never seen architecture like it before. Carved from a milky-white stone that gleamed in the light of the fading sun, it was a complex construction of high towers, slender pinnacles, and graceful walkways. Pennants flapped from the peaked roofs, which shone golden in the sunlight.

  I goggled. It was stunning. I wasn’t sure what I had expected of my first view of the Ravenhold, but this surpassed everything I had imagined.

  “Home,” Raven breathed, a smile lighting his face. “We’re home.”

  Home? I thought. My home? Or yours?

  “If we hurry,” Raven said. “We’ll be there by nightfall.”

  I said nothing, allowing them to guide me down the
hill to the valley bottom. Nerves squirmed in my gut like snakes. Home. Such an easy word to say. Such a difficult thing to make a reality.

  Despite Raven’s prediction, we lost the sun before we were halfway along the valley bottom. Night descended quickly, falling almost between one breath and the next, but it was not dark.

  With the coming of night, the vegetation began to softly glow. The leaves, the petals, even the grass, gave off a soft silver light so that it seemed as though I was walking through an enchanted grotto. Raven and Bowen paid it no heed but I found myself laughing with delight and gaping at everything like an excited child.

  The Summerlands were beautiful.

  Nothing is as it seems. Nothing.

  I pushed the warning from my mind, unwilling to think about those insidious voices from the Twilight Land, and instead concentrated on our destination. The path that led to the gates of the Ravenhold was wide and paved, clearly well used, but was deserted as the three of us made our way up to the great, arching doorway set in the wall. It stood high and wide enough to accommodate five or six trucks side by side. We halted as guards barred the way.

  “Who seeks admittance to the Ravenhold?” one of them intoned in a deep voice.

  This seemed like a ritual greeting, as Raven made a strange gesture with one hand and replied, “A son of the Shadow Court who comes in peace.”

  “Then enter and be welcome, Arion, King of the Shadow Court.” With that, they all went down on one knee and bowed their heads.

  Raven irritably waved them to their feet.

  “This is where I leave you,” Bowen said to Raven. “You know how court intrigue brings me out in hives.”

  Raven sighed. “I would sorely like your counsel in there, my old friend.”

  Bowen laughed. “You make it sound like you’re going into a den of wolves! Which, now I come to think about it, probably isn’t too far from the truth.” He shook his head. “My place is guarding our borders and I’d better get back to it. With your permission, of course, Your Majesty.”

  Raven nodded and Bowen turned to me, giving me a deep bow. “Until we meet again, my queen.”