My Fair Traitor Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  What's Next?

  Other Books By C.J. Anaya

  Author's Note

  Acknowledgments

  About The Author

  Copyright

  Seventeen Years Ago

  “Did anyone see you, Insley?” he asked.

  The queen snorted in derision to cover up her supreme anxiety over this fact: she had just embedded a charm of their joint creation within the mind of a hospital nurse in the maternity unit, only to leave her precious daughter in the care of defenseless humans. The very human baby she held in her arms now would act as decoy in case her husband’s suspicions came to fruition.

  “I feel that this is an overreaction to a situation that has never escalated to more than empty threats and awkward meetings,” she replied. She and her husband stood just under a tree a few hundred yards from the hospital’s entrance. The darkness of the night and their individual glamours shielded them from prying eyes. The baby in her arms let out a tiny wail. She rocked her gently, making cooing sounds to silence the tiny infant’s hungry wails. The queen’s guilt at taking another mother’s child and basically abandoning her own to who knew what kind of fate threatened to tear her heart in two.

  Could relations between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts really have deteriorated to such an extent that this desperate move on their behalf had actually become justified? There hadn’t been a Changeling Selection in decades.

  “The king of the Seelie Court has grown more unstable with every passing day. It isn’t just his own paranoia we now have to deal with. For whatever reason, he believes that Prince Jareth and Crysta are fated mates,” her husband, Rodri, replied.

  Her eyes opened wide in disbelief, Rodri’s actions now making far more sense.

  “Delusional,” Insley hissed. “The logistics of such a union would be catastrophic for both courts. Besides the fact that Jareth is nearly two hundred years her senior, the natural order of magic would never allow fated mates to be chosen from two different seasonal elements.”

  Rodri heaved a frustrated sigh, reaching for the tiny human when it let out another wail. She watched as he took the babe from her and cradled the child in his arms. Her heart twinged at the familial sight. They had tried for so long to have children, centuries of pain and frustration due to her inability to produce an heir and their complete ignorance as to why she had remained infertile for so long. Those had been dark times for both of them, creating a strain on their relationship that had only recovered after the news of her pregnancy with their daughter. Giving birth to Crysta had been one of the most joyous days of their union, and now they had to give her to another family to raise.

  To humans, no less.

  “I explained that to King Moridan during the emergency meeting he called to order. To save the Fae realm, he demanded we kill our daughter and prevent inevitable disaster. My protests fell on deaf ears.” His soft gaze moved from the baby in his arms. The severe look he gave her made Insley’s heart stutter with fear.

  “He made it very clear that if we refused to…deal with the problem…he would have no choice but to deal with it himself. She stays hidden, my dear. For as long as it takes to disprove his theory. Crysta isn’t safe while the king holds to this irrational belief.”

  She nodded, tears flowing freely as she stifled the urge to run back to the hospital and hold her daughter one last time.

  “Please, my love,” her husband murmured, “she will have a member of the Fae watching and caring for her from a distance at all times. We’ll come retrieve her once the danger has passed.”

  “Who did you assign such an important task?”

  “The less you know, the better.”

  His answer gave her more cause for panic.

  “By the realms, Rodri, has it really become so dangerous that you must compartmentalize this information? We are not defenseless. Our power is just as great as the Seelie Court’s.”

  Her husband’s worried look made her insides grow cold.

  “I truly believe Moridan is imbalanced himself. There is something dark and dangerous lurking within his mind.”

  “Dark magic,” she whispered.

  He merely nodded.

  The consequences of anyone dabbling with impure magic were catastrophic. The realms of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts existed within the principles of balance, on the goodness of the elemental energies within that balance. Dark magic was a threat to the Fae realm as a whole.

  “What can we do?” she asked, hating to feel so helpless.

  “Exactly what we’re doing right now. Crysta’s magic is powerful and pure. She must live to help us combat this threat, especially if King Moridan’s insanity has trickled down to his heirs. Jareth is nearly as powerful as his father. We won’t be able to fight against two royals of the Seelie Court if they’ve embraced the Dark Arts, and there is no telling what Jareth might do if he believes the king’s delusions and fights to discover if Crysta truly is his fated mate. The possibility of such a unique bond would be impossible for any Fae to resist.”

  “And what if the delusion is a reality?” she whispered, horrified at the thought.

  Her husband’s gaze hardened as he steeled himself for his answer.

  “Then she will remain in the human realm for the rest of her life. She and Jareth must never engage in such a union. The Fae realm would deteriorate as a result.”

  Insley let out a choked gasp, fighting her sorrow at the unfairness of their situation. She turned to look one last time at the hospital where her daughter peacefully slept.

  “I’ll come for you,” she whispered. “No matter what we discover.”

  Within moments the king and queen of the Unseelie Court dissipated from the human realm, taking the human infant with them.

  Present Day

  For the record, lighting socks on fire and then encouraging an inexperienced Winter faerie to put them out with her puny ice powers is likely to burn an entire apartment building to the ground.

  After the fifth round of Jareth lighting things on fire and waiting for me to miraculously extinguish the tiny flames—and failing miserably of course—I wondered if I’d ever had any powers to begin with.

  “You have to concentrate, Crysta. You already know what that frozen core feels like, so just focus on it and tell it what you want it to do,” Jareth said. “Visualization is key.”

  I stared at the tiny flames and willed my core power to shoot out more than a few pathetic flakes of snow. When that failed I tried a few eyebrow wiggles and then tweaked my nose just in case the old TV series Bewitched had been onto something. I grimaced as my fifth pair of socks turned to ash. I was so off my game…not that I’d ever had game. When the fire went out on its own, I palmed my tired eyes and let out a frustrated sigh.

  “I can’t do it,” I said. “I’m the worst Winter faerie ever.”

  Jareth chuckled and came over to me, enfolding me in his secure hold. I breathed in his fresh scent and wondered for the millionth time what this gorgeous faerie even saw in me.

  “It just takes some practice. You possess enormous power, but you have very little experience wielding it.”

  I pulled back to
look at him.

  “But shouldn’t I be able to do more by now? It’s been two weeks since your father threatened to kill me and you linked our souls together. Two weeks of us trying to increase my magical abilities so I can at least perform some basic defensive spells, and nothing. All I can do at the moment is give someone a very limited white Christmas.”

  “Don’t forget the unorthodox yet highly effective maneuver you pulled on me when you unintentionally froze a specific area of my body a few weeks ago.”

  “You only think it was unintentional,” I said with a wink. “And I’m seriously troubled that I haven’t been able to replicate that cool trick.”

  He gave me a stern look, but couldn’t hold it for long. His teasing smile broke through almost immediately as he pulled me closer, bringing our lips a few inches apart.

  “Don’t think I’ll let you get away with that. The penalty for using your magic on me involves your soft lips on mine for as long as I deem necessary.”

  I rolled my eyes and smirked.

  “Right, because being kissed by you for an indeterminate amount of time is a real trial.”

  He made a low noise in the back of his throat that almost sounded like a growl before he took possession of my lips and made good on his threat. My fingers threaded through his hair as his arms locked me to him, pulling me in and making us one in a way that made me feel as if I would never be whole without him.

  Not even a month ago, Jareth had appeared in my apartment, told me he’d been assigned to kill me, and then proceeded to turn my world upside down by falling in love with me, becoming my fated mate, and convincing me I was actually a faerie. Through some sleuthing of his own, he discovered that my parents were the rulers of the Unseelie Court until they were murdered by King Moridan, Jareth’s father, in an attempt to get rid of me.

  Apparently, King Moridan thought our fated mate status would eventually destroy the Fae realm since Jareth was a Summer faerie and I was a Winter faerie.

  Ha! As if someone as nondescript as me could ever be that powerful or even that important.

  Jareth firmly believed that our union would somehow work even though we didn’t share the same elemental magic. I didn’t really understand the logistics of it, but I loved him and trusted him, and quite frankly I wasn’t willing to give him up for anything. Call me selfish if you want to, but after seventeen years of foster care, I was all about holding on to the good things in life and never letting them go.

  I’d never had a family and never felt like I belonged anywhere or with anyone. Jareth was my family now. He’d given up his birthright to be with me, and I was never ever going to let him regret it. Which meant he could have my kingdom to rule by my side if he wanted to. It was the only thing I could give him to make up for what he’d sacrificed to keep me safe.

  But if I couldn’t even put out a couple of burning socks, I didn’t see how I was ever going to rule the Unseelie Court. A faerie queen with no magic didn’t sound feasible to me. More like super pathetic.

  Pitiful.

  Lame.

  And what if there were other, more beautiful faeries within the Court who could wield their powers with more skill than me? An epic inferiority complex had developed and was messing with my mind.

  And now my age was something to consider.

  Two days ago, I turned the big one-eight.

  I was officially eighteen, something Jareth insisted on celebrating by apparating me to a few different spots around the world. Places I’d always wanted to visit. Tourist traps, really, but I was all about Paris’ Eiffel Tower, The Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, and the Thames River Cruise in London. For a terrifying assassin, Jareth was one hell of a romantic. I’d never felt so special in all my life.

  Unfortunately, he was convinced my powers would be more accessible to me now that I’d come of age. He’d been drilling me all day on spells that any Fae child could easily accomplish.

  Not me, of course.

  It was a bit demoralizing.

  The soft meow of Nala as she rubbed against my leg broke us from our affectionate exchange.

  “I don’t think she has any food in her bowl,” I said as I reluctantly pulled away from Jareth.

  He smiled and gave me a soft kiss on my forehead before releasing me.

  As I entered the kitchen, Jareth followed, standing behind me as I pulled out the bag of cat food and poured it into Nala’s bowl. His nearness gave me goosebumps, and I remembered the first time he’d cornered me in the kitchen when I fed Nala. Not that she really needed the food at the time, but I’d needed some space. His presence and his intense gaze had more than flustered me. It had nearly undone me, and at the time I hadn’t been ready or willing to let anyone get too close, especially not someone sent to kill me, thank you very much!

  Jareth placed his hands on my shoulders and drew my back against his chest. Then he nudged my head to the side and began planting soft kisses along the length of my neck. I folded my arms over his and let the warm tingles shoot through my body.

  “You know,” he said, “for the last two weeks I’ve willingly slept on the floor, but I’d like to sleep next to you from now on…if that’s okay.”

  My heart seized for a moment, tiny tendrils of panic invading my previous warm fuzzies. My experiences with intimacy were next to zilch besides the one time I’d been forced to…

  I quickly blocked that memory from my mind and frantically searched for an answer that might make a modicum of sense. I just didn’t know how to talk to him about the way I truly felt or the fears and disillusionment that plagued me.

  Kisses were all fine and good, but anything beyond that seemed like a violation of my body and mind. I knew that wasn’t how it was supposed to be, but I couldn’t see how surrendering to anyone like that and allowing myself to be so vulnerable could ever be a good thing.

  Jareth must had noticed how much I tensed up because he slowly turned me to look at him, his eyes full of concern.

  “Crysta, you know I would never force you to do anything you didn’t want to do. Right?”

  I mustered up a fake smile as memories of a different man with a different attitude about the whole thing flashed through my mind again. I tried not to shudder.

  “It’s just that, I’m not really comfortable with taking things further, and I’m super old-fashioned.”

  It sounded lame, but it was definitely how I felt. I’d never planned to share my body with anyone but my husband.

  He gave me an encouraging smile that seemed genuine.

  “If marriage is what you’re waiting for then I can certainly bunk on the floor until things are official.”

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “Jami’s room is still sitting empty, you know? We can always buy some manly Batman Lego sheets and quilt to match. Unless you’re into Ninja Turtles.”

  Jareth tilted my chin up so I was looking into the bottomless depths of his beautiful eyes. I’d gone for humor to derail the conversation, but I could tell it hadn’t worked. All I saw within those deep blue depths was love, concern, and tenderness. I relaxed even further.

  “You never need to feel anxious about us. I know you have no experience in this matter, Crysta. I won’t betray your trust by pushing you into a level of intimacy you’re not ready for.”

  He gently kissed my right temple where my fated mate mark stood bright and beautiful. It looked bright and beautiful to me, anyway…every single time I studied it in the mirror.

  I was kind of obsessed with it.

  “Thank you,” I said. I blinked back some tears, unsure as to why I felt like crying in the first place. Then I grabbed Nala’s bowl and took it back to the living room, placing it near the door.

  “I think we need to move our studies to include different species of Fae. It would be wise to visit a local library and uncover the material we need to educate you more fully on the creatures of my world.”

  I was grateful for the change in subjec
t, but going to the library to do research on the Fae realm made zero sense to me.

  “Why would a public library, in the human realm, have any resources that could teach me about the faeries in your world?”

  He clasped his hands behind his back in a stance that I had dubbed, The Professor. He always struck that pose when he started teaching me something new about his world.

  It never bothered me. I liked the way his arm muscles and pectorals were shown to greater advantage through the green leather of his apparel.

  Super distracting, though. I couldn’t say I’d absorbed much of what he’d already taught me.

  “Humans and faeries have been interacting with one another since the beginning of time. Surely you’ve read Hans Christian Anderson’s writings, or maybe the Brothers Grimm managed to grace the classics list in your underdeveloped literature courses?”

  I gave him my best flat-eyed stare.

  “I’m not quite as uneducated as you think. And I figured those stories were just myths and legends.”

  “That’s what’s so ingenious about the whole concept of a myth or a legend. Change the subject matter to suit your needs just enough to where it becomes fictitious instead of a reality. Humans know of us, but don’t necessarily believe in us.”

  Jareth sat down on the couch and grabbed an urban dictionary we’d found at a book fair in downtown San Diego. It was almost scary the things that popped out of his mouth now.

  “Why bother when you have very little regard for humans in general?”

  He thumbed the book open and then looked at me as if I should already know the answer to that question.

  “Crysta, those fairy tales are scary as hell. Would you really want to come across a faerie after reading any of those works?”

  “Ah. Intimidation and scare tactics. Why am I not surprised?”

  “Yes. I think it quite groovy.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “Quite…groovy?” I nodded at the book in his hand. “In what year was that slang dictionary of yours published?”

  “Does that matter?”

  “It does if the word psychedelic means anything to you.”