RECAP OF BOOK TWO– A KINGDOM RUTHLESS AND RADIANT
​ (read the recap so you’re ready to dive into Book 3!)

Previously in the Age of Fae series...

Raewyn is in the cold, dark dungeon of Castle Seaspire, knowing she’s going to die. Either that or she’ll spend the rest of her life in there while her impoverished family suffers and starves. She’s so afraid it’s going to be death— it’s only a matter of time until Prince Pharis tells his father the King about her role in the witch’s assassination plot against the royal family. 

Maybe she should have taken him and his father out. Maybe if she’d gotten the job partially done and assassinated the worst half of the Fae royal family, the Earthwife, Sorcha, would have spared Raewyn’s family the fate she fears awaits them. The thought of killing anyone still turns her stomach, but the evil Fae King deserves no less for what he was doing to the human women in his retinue. 

As for her, it’s hopeless. Even Prince Stellon cannot help her now. He’s confined to his quarters under guard until the end of the Assemblage when he’ll be forced to marry an Elven woman of his father’s choosing. Raewyn chastises herself for letting herself count on him, believe him. Look where that got her. She wishes she had a glamour power like the Elves do so she could save herself. Alas, she is only human. 

Someone comes to get her from the dungeon.The jailer makes some snide remark about her mysterious appeal to princes, and she’s hopeful it’s Stellon after all, but it’s actually his brother Pharis. 
“My esteem shines upon you, my lady,” he says in a sarcastic tone. 
“Come to do the deed yourself?” she spits at him. 
Cheeky and arrogant as always, he laughs and gives her a wicked grin. “Which deed are we talking about?” 

Now she’s in the hostile hands of Stellon’s wicked brother, who clearly hates her. She’s whisked away under the dark of night on his huge, intimidating midnight black horse Dargan, going gods only know where—maybe to be executed off-premises so Stellon doesn’t find out. 
The last time she saw him, Pharis was telling Stellon how stupid he was to defend and love a woman who came there to kill him and his family. He’s probably just taking matters into his own hands, making sure she’ll never get another chance. No way he’ll have mercy on her as his kind, gentle brother did. 

As they ride away, she looks back at Seaspire glowing in the moonlight and thinks of Stellon, his misplaced optimism, and how close they came to happiness.

When the horse reaches the fork in the road, Pharis stops it. To her surprise, he asks which direction to her village. She’s shocked to realize he’s actually helping her.
“Why are you doing this? You hate me.” 
He says he never hated her, he just didn’t think she was well suited for his brother. 
“Because I’m just a human?” 
He hesitates to answer, then says, “well you are human, aren’t you? And he’s Elven royalty. Do you think you’re a suitable mate for an Elven prince?” He’s surprised when she looks humbled, and says, “No.”  
“Because my brother asked me to,” he says finally. “And because I happen to agree it would be better for you not to be in the palace. We’re all safer without you around.” 

Raewyn explains that she was tricked by the Earthwife and would never have actually carried out the plan against his family, that she could never kill anyone. 
“I could,” Pharis says. “If they were truly threatening my family, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” 

Raewyn is intimidated by the powerful Fae prince. She realizes riding in such close contact how much larger and stronger Pharis is. She’s super uncomfortable being so close to him. He seems uncomfortable as well, harshly admonishing her to sit still in the saddle in front of him. 

After encountering a nobleman who recognizes him, Pharis decides to get off the roads and take a detour through the forest. Soon the King will discover she’s missing and send out search patrols, and he says he doesn’t want the trouble of getting caught aiding and abetting her escape. Raewyn urges him to ride as quickly as possible, eager to get back to her family—and away from his unwanted forced company. 

They exchange banter while riding until he shushes her suddenly. They are not alone in the woods. This is Dryad territory, and while the other Fae species is nocturnal and dawn is breaking, there is a group of hunters returning home. When their paths cross, the Dryad men say something threatening about her in their language (which Raewyn doesn’t understand, but Pharis does.) He warns them away, saying, “She’s mine.” 

When that doesn’t dissuade them, he fights and kills them all. They far outnumber him, but he is more powerful—and he has that new shadow glamour which confuses them during battle. Nevertheless, there will be more. They can’t stay in the forest. 

As they ride toward open land, Raewyn accuses Pharis of brutality against the Dryads, not realizing they threatened her and Pharis killed them to protect her. Now that it’s daylight and they no longer have the cover of the trees, Pharis decides they must find a place to hide out until dark falls so they’re not spotted by the King’s troops. Besides, he hasn’t slept in more than 24 hours, and he’s exhausted. 

They find a cave. As he makes a fire for warmth, she gets sleepy. She’s surrounded by warmth and his incredible scent which permeates the cloak he gave her to sleep on. In the firelight, she notices his physical attributes, the incredible eyes and hair, the impressive physique.  

They both drink some saol water, and Pharis warns her not to have too much or she’ll get drunk. She already knows that, all too well. He’s displeased at the thought that Stellon might have gotten her drunk. 

“Why didn’t you tell your father about my part in the assassination plot?” she asks. 
“Go to sleep, little Wyn.” 

Pharis can’t allow any softness in himself toward her. If he cracks at all, he may crumble. He’s already struggling with his feelings for her and his love and loyalty to Stellon.

When she wakes later, she sees him coming back from the cave entrance, where he’s been watching to make sure no one saw them and followed them. He tells her it’s raining. As he settles onto the floor to finally get some sleep, she asks Pharis what the Dryads said to him and how he knew their language. She wants to know why the Dryads were so hateful toward him. He explains that there's brewing discontent between the different types of Fae.

 “Now I see why there were no other types of Fae at the ball,” she says. Pharis tells her intermarriage between Fae species is forbidden anyway, just like it is with humans. 
“I doubt any Fae have ever even considered it—apart from my brother who was clearly spelled by the witch,” he says, which hurts her feelings. 

She’s reminded of how little regard Pharis has for her and her kind. Clearly he would never consider taking a human as a bond-mate as Stellon was willing to do. She’s surprised he even considers her life worthy of preserving then reminds herself he’s only doing it at Stellon’s request. She admits a begrudging respect for the sibling loyalty and love, which she can relate to. In fact, she is filled with urgency to get to her own family. 

After Pharis falls asleep, she sneaks out and runs away. It’s storming, and she can barely see, but she needs to get home quickly. A mountain lion jumps into her path, snarling and crouched, clearly about to attack. Just before it does, Pharis appears and kills it with a dagger to the chest. He woke to find her gone and panicked, leaving the cave in a frantic search. 

Shaken and angry now, he throws her over his shoulder and carries her back to the cave, threatening to spank her. 

They’re both soaked and freezing when they get there. He had on a jacket, and the shirt he wears beneath it is dry. He hands her the warm dry shirt he just took off his body and turns around so she can change out of her sopping dress and into it. He’s rendered breathless at the sight of her in just his shirt. 

He resolves again to be impersonal with her. While hanging their wet clothing from rocks in the cave wall near the fire, he tells her it was stupid to run. She thanks him for saving her life and promises not to do it again, but he doesn’t believe her, so he keeps her forcibly trapped against his body while he tries to get some sleep, determined to hold her until nightfall so she can’t escape again. 

When she protests, he says, “You did this to yourself.” 
But what is he doing to himself? He groans in sweet misery as she protests and writhes against his body. Though he was on the verge of passing out, now he’s wide awake. He can’t sleep with her up against him like this, absorbing the feel of her body with every inch of his that’s in contact with her. 

He reflects that although he’s fooled around with plenty of girls, this feels different. Maybe because he’s of bonding age now, too, like Stellon, and it gets harder and harder to resist going all the way. Still he’s never actually gotten to know the other women he’s fooled around with. He doesn’t let people in close because the closer they are, the more damage they can do. He knows that better than anyone. 

When darkness falls, they ride again. Unbeknownst to her, Pharis is in hell because everything inside him tells him Raewyn is his, especially after their “nap.” He also knows his brother is in love with her. He’s gruff and kind of rude with her because he’s trying to resist temptation. He warns her that she should forget about Stellon because he never plans to see her again. 

When they reach the outskirts of her village, Raewyn is dismayed to see Dardick Creegan, the town bully, returning from a night of drunken carousing. She tells Pharis she doesn’t want to be seen by him, that he’s not kind, and Pharis bristles, wanting to know what that means. When Dardick nearly runs his horse into them, Pharis lifts his shadows, bringing them into view. 

The village man says something to malign Raewyn’s honor, irritating Pharis, who decides to teach the arrogant human a lesson. He uses his Sway to force Dardick to disrobe then instructs him to wait until daylight then walk down the center of the village’s main street, making sure everyone gets a look. He also instructs him to forget he ever saw them. 

Walking Raewyn to the door of her cottage, Pharis asks, “Is this the entire thing?” in an insulting tone, and she snaps back at him. 
He looks amused at her fiery temper for a second then looks sad. Then his expression changes again, and he harshly warns her never to come back to the palace or the royal city or even the rough market where she might be recognized, never to try to reconnect with his brother or she will die and so will her family. 

“I’ll burn all the drawings he did of you so they can’t use them to search for you.” He gives her a bag of coins and advises her to flee the village with her family. Waterdale is far too close to the royal city, and the King always gets what he wants, which at the moment, is her. 

Raewyn thanks Pharis for bringing her home, saying she knows what an inconvenience it was to him and that he doesn’t exactly love spending time with humans. He does not respond immediately, only stares at her. Then he says, “Some of them aren’t so bad.” 

She asks him to give Stellon a message, to thank him for taking such good care of her for the past two weeks and for treating her with more kindness than anyone ever has. Pharis scowls and says if she truly loves his brother, she’ll let him go. If she’s around, their father will use her as a bargaining chip and blackmail Stellon into obeying his every whim for the rest of eternity. He assures her Stellon will get over her then disappears into the darkness. 

It’s the middle of the night so when she goes inside, her family is asleep. Her father wakes, crying from happiness to see her again. He thought he’d lost her the way he’d lost his wife. The girls overhear them and wake as well, ecstatic to see her home. They’ve all gained weight and seem much healthier. 

They ask if the “wicked Elves” held her prisoner, and Raewyn realizes she thought they were wicked too not so long ago. Stellon definitely is not. Now she’s not so sure about Pharis. 

The children go back to bed and Raewyn tells her father they need to leave the village, though it will be slow going with his blindness and the girls being so little. The King may come looking for her, and Sorcha will likely punish her—or them—for her failure to carry out her end of the bargain. Heeding Pharis’ warning, she plans to begin preparing for their move in the morning. 

She’s awakened the next day by a knock on the door. It’s her friend Katricia with a warning. The King’s troops are just one village over, searching for someone named Raewyn. She rushes through the cottage, gathering supplies for the road. 

Back at Seaspire, Stellon’s father confronts him in a rage after discovering his precious prisoner missing. It’s his wedding day to the King’s handpicked choice, Lady Glenna. Now that Raewyn is safe, Stellon refuses the political marriage. The King accuses his son of changing since meeting the human woman and vows to find her and bring her back. He’s going himself, taking dozens of troops along. 

Mareth enters her brother’s room, and they talk about what’s going on. He tells her about falling in love with Raewyn. He shows her the locket, which he wasn’t able to give to Raewyn before she was whisked away. Mareth says the woman in the locket, Raewyn’s mother, looks familiar. He tells his sister he has no idea where Raewyn is now, which is the truth. Mareth confesses she also has an “inappropriate” love in her life but refuses to share details. 

Pharis returns, surprising them, and asks where the Earthwife is. She’s no longer in the dungeon (he checked because he intended to kill her to protect Raewyn.) Alarmed to learn Raewyn’s village is so close to the royal city, Stellon tells Pharis about their father and his search for her. 

Pharis warns Stellon to burn the drawings of Raewyn, and Mareth shows him the locket. Pharis also recognizes Raewyn’s mother. He remembers her. “Stellon, you know who this is, don’t you?” And then Stellon remembers and his heart crashes. “No, it can’t be.” 
But Mareth sees a bright side—the woman was Elven. Perhaps the King will allow Stellon to marry a half-Elven woman. 

Stellon wants to go to Raewyn, get her to safety, but Pharis keeps his promise never to reveal her location and says he’s the right man for the job, though he still hasn’t slept. “You go to Father, and I’ll go to Raewyn.” 

He vows to Stellon to get to her in time and keep her safe from their father then departs for Waterdale.

Raewyn’s blood freezes as she hears hooves approaching the cottage at a fast pace. But it’s not the King and his men—it’s Pharis. He tells her he’s taking her away, but she refuses to leave her family, so he takes Dardick’s horse, and the entire Hennessey family leaves Waterdale with him in the nick of time.

They leave the road and ride through the countryside, heading for eastern Sundaris, far from the royal city. He believes they’ll be safe there since the Elves of that region don’t mix with humans and would be unaware of a new family moving in. It’ll take them a month of riding to get there since they have to take the rustic route.


The little girls are scared at first of the huge Elven man. They ride with their father while Raewyn rides with Pharis again. He’s put a blanket between them this time, which Raewyn wonders about. 

She asks Pharis if he won’t be missed, being away from the castle so long—he’ll still have to ride back after leaving them. He says his brother and sister know what he’s doing, and he doesn’t care about anyone else missing him. 

Rae is surprised and asks whether he found a bondmate during the Assemblage. He shuts her down with a smart remark and then she asks about Stellon’s marriage, which was planned for today. Pharis doesn’t tell her that Stellon backed out of it. She asks if Lady Glenna is beautiful, and Pharis says yes… “but not as beautiful as you.” Raewyn is filled with a tingling sense of shock and a fluttery sensation in her midsection. Pharis tells her Stellon asked to never know where she was, and she fights tears, knowing she’ll never see him again. It’s truly over with Stellon. 

Because it’s safer to travel at night where he can cloak them, they find a daytime hiding spot and Pharis puts them in a camouflaged tent and covers the horses with the same Elven cloaking material. He goes to scout for the soldiers to see how far away they are while Raewyn and her family take a nap. 

When she and her father wake before the girls, they have a whispered conversation. He asks about Pharis, about how long he’s been in love with her. She misunderstands and starts to tell him about Stellon, about spending time with him in his suite. He asks, “Pharis kept you prisoner in his suite?” Then she realizes he was referring to Pharis and assures her papa the Elven prince is not in love with her. Her father says, “After all you mother and I did to keep you safe, you still ended up entangled in Elven business.” 

Pharis returns, and after dark they mount up and ride again. As they ride, she asks about Stellon, and he tells her his brother confessed that he could have gotten her out of the palace and back home sooner but selfishly decided to keep her there. She accuses him of lying, and he says if you were Elven, I’d tell you mind-to-mind so you’d know I’m telling the truth. She asks if maybe an Elf could speak to a human that way, and he wants to know why but she decides not to tell him that his voice haunts her mind. 

Pharis jokes with her that his nap in the cave was ruined by her snoring and she slaps his thigh. When he persists, she slaps it again, and he clenches them around hers warning her not to do it again unless she also wants a spanking. She puts her hands on the pommel in a death grip. 

Pharis notices Wyll listening to their conversations as they ride and is self-conscious about how arousing it is to ride with Raewyn. The folded blanket did no good. He keeps having inappropriate thoughts, and every conversation turns his mind back to the cave where he lay with her for hours while she wore nothing but his shirt. Once again he reminds himself it’s pointless. And disloyal. Not only is his brother in love with her, but he’s taking her far away and will never see her again after this road trip is over. 

Realizing he could be interrogated when he returns, he thinks about getting someone with mind-altering glamour to erase his memories of Raewyn then feels a flash of unwillingness to let them go. 

The girls spot a mother fox with her kits and get excited. Turi wants to play with the “puppies,” but Pharis tells her they’re not tame and that foxes can be vicious. Tindra says, “I always thought Elves were vicious, but you seem tame.” He laughs and says their big sister is something of an Elf-tamer. 

That begins a barrage of questions from the girls who are warming up to him and fascinated by the handsome Elven man. 

They’ll ask about how many castles the Randalin family has and find out he has one of his own near the northern border of Nordica with his own staff. Giggling, Turi asks Pharis if he’s Raewyn’s boyfriend. She answers quickly, saying they are just friends. The child informs him that Raewyn’s never had a boyfriend, that she and they as well are undesirable for marriage because they’re poor. He tells the girls their sister was the most popular woman at the First Night Ball. When they ask if he’d ever marry a poor girl, Pharis says he’ll marry whomever he wants to and doesn’t care about a woman’s wealth or social status, only that she’s a good match. 

When they stop for a rest and some water from a stream, Wyll seems to be in pain. He denies it, but they’ll have to travel more slowly than Pharis wanted to. There is no choice. Raewyn won’t leave her family. 
 
Raewyn pets and speaks sweetly to Cimmerian and asks about the change of horse. Pharis explains that Dargan needed rest, that he rides both equally and that Dargan and Cimmerian are brothers. Then he thinks to himself, it figures—they both love her. She comments on how much he loves his horses and how funny it is to think of him as having pets. He says, “I can be gentle when I want to be,” and Raewyn sucks in a breath and walks away. He follows her and she babbles, clearly nervous. When he asks if something is wrong she confesses she got uncomfortable for some reason. 

She asks him to teach her how to ride properly, and he realizes she wants to ride separately from him, which hurts his feelings, but he pretends it doesn’t, and he agrees. She’s acting skittish with him now, which makes him wonder—is she feeling the same chemistry he feels? Once again he condemns himself as a bad brother for having such thoughts and feelings about the woman his brother loves. 

They ride through the night, leading the other horse so the girls can sleep if they need to. Raewyn mentions her worry over her father and her big worries over Sorcha. Pharis doesn’t mention knowing that Sorcha is free. 

He reflects that his own father wouldn’t put up with any sort of pain for his offspring and begins to think that maybe he won’t return to the castle after all. Maybe he’ll go spend some time at his own castle up north, Stormcrest. And maybe his brother was right, that the perfect girl for him will come along eventually. Unfortunately, as Raewyn dozes and leans back against his body, he can’t help but feel like she already has. 

They travel for weeks, riding by night and sleeping by day, camping in remote areas. Raewyn and the family sleep in the tent while Pharis sleeps alone, out in the elements. At times it rains, and Raewyn feels bad for him, but he doesn’t complain. She and the girls forage for food while Papa rests, and Pharis hunts, bringing back small game to eat along with the Elven raff. The girls treat him like a big brother now, begging him to play with them and tell them stories. Pharis is sweet and indulgent with them. They haven’t spotted a soul in more than a week. 

Wyll gets sicker each day and is obviously in horrible pain. One morning when they dismount, he falls down. He begs Raewyn to leave him. He can’t bear the thought of her being hurt or killed because he slowed her down. “I can’t let what happened to your mother happen to you. And I’m putting the girls and all of you in danger because I’m slowing your  travel.”

Raewyn tells her father she absolutely will not leave him to die, helpless and alone, and he tells her it’s going to happen anyway eventually and that maybe it’s better if the girls don’t see it. He passes out. 

Overcome with emotion, Raewyn instructs the girls to keep an eye on their father and runs away to hide herself so she can cry. The power of her sobs surprises her, and she tries to cover the sound, but Pharis hears it and comes running into the copse of trees, his dagger drawn. 

He’s clearly disturbed to see her crying, and she’s embarrassed to show such weakness in front of him, but she can’t stop. In fact, it gets worse. He shocks her by pulling her into his arms. She cries against his chest as he strokes her hair and back. 

Raewyn calms a bit and thanks him, feeling embarrassed. She apologizes and says she never cries. He says he never does either. 
She says she fears the Earthwife is dead and her father soon will be as well—perhaps the witch’s spell linked their lives? Pharis says “she’s not” and tells Raewyn he’s known for a while that Sorcha escaped the dungeon and is still alive and well. She’s mad at him for not telling her sooner. 

He says why are you mad? What would it have helped? What would you have done differently? You’re not going to go to another EW for another cure. They’re all connected, like a spiderweb of mysterious magic. “Telling you would only have added to your worries, and you have enough.” 
“Don’t treat me like a child, Pharis—you’re not my father,” she says.
“No, I’m not. But your father will be dead soon, and then I’ll be all you have left. You need to consider that.” 
“You’re a monster!” she screams. “I’d rather fend for myself than spend any more time with you.” 
“Well there’s gratitude for you,” he says. “I give up literally everything for you, and you throw it back in my face.” 

Pharis storms off and pulls out his sword. She hears the sound of him whacking small trees, blowing off steam. 

Raewyn calms down and goes to find him, feeling bad about what she said. For a few minutes, she watches him without his awareness of her. His muscles ripple as he swings the huge sword again and again. He is so powerful and devastatingly sexy. 

She chastises herself wondering what’s wrong with her, how she could be so attracted to him. But then how could she not be? It’s not just that he’s gorgeous. He’s so much kinder than she ever would have suspected. The way he comforted her when she was crying gave her all the feels. His touch was so good she could almost taste it. That deep voice crooning soothing assurances had been even more delicious.

He turns and sees her watching him. Pharis is still shaking from seeing her cry, from the way it had felt to hold and comfort her. He’s never been the one people turn to for softness and sympathy. He’s rocked. He thinks this really must be his fated bondmate because he could literally feel her pain. 

All sorts of troubling emotions ran through him as he held her. They are still running high. Raewyn approaches him and starts to apologize, but he cuts her off and apologizes for what he said, that it was cruel and inappropriate and that maybe her father will get better (though he knows he won’t.) 

 She says she didn’t mean what she said about wanting him to leave and that he was right, she needs to start facing the fact that she will lose her father soon. She asks if they could make camp there for a while, so that he die in peace, instead of jolting along on a horse, which makes the pain worse. Pharis says of course. 

The mountain valley where they’ve stopped is remote, far from any roads. She and the girls forage while he goes to hunt, wondering what they will do for food after he leaves them in Sundaris. Pharis plans to leave them with plenty of money, but they won’t be living near any busy marketplaces. So the next day he begins to teach Raewyn to hunt and some self defense moves as well. 

They work on knife throwing first, and then he suggests they spar. He invites her to come at him and try to stab him. She’s doing well. Then he decides to stop taking it easy on her and show her how a real opponent would react. He quickly has her on the ground, but she surprises him with a quick move and fights back. 

They roll a few times, and he ends up on top of her, his heavy body pinning her down. The fighting has taken the lid off the rampant sexual energy between them, and it’s flowing freely. They both feel it, breathing hard, their pupils dilated, skin tingling as they’re locked in a stare. He knows he should roll off of her, but he can’t seem to make himself do it. This is too much like the thoughts he regularly has about Raewyn.  

He reminds himself she loves his brother and that he’ll have to leave her soon, commanding himself to get up. Just as he’s about to obey, she says, “wait,” in a breathless voice that almost breaks him. She grabs his sides, keeping him there, and lifts her body to rub against him. He’s famous for his self-control, but this woman undoes him. 

He’s about to lose control completely and kiss her—and much more—which will make things all sorts of complicated, but the little girls spot them and yell, “Look! Raewyn and Pharis are wrestling.”  

He abruptly rolls off of her, but distracted as he is, he rolls directly into a fireweed patch. Immediately he begins to get sick. He tells Raewyn it’s fireweed, poison to Elves, and he’ll be dead within the hour unless she can find the antidote plant. Luckily they always grow in close proximity. 

He manages to tell her what to look for, and she runs around, searching for it, panicked that he’s going to die. With the help of the girls, she does find it, and when she returns, she finds him feverish, delirious, deathly ill. She gives him the antidote plant, which is difficult because he’s locked his jaw and doesn’t understand what’s going on. She begs him to open up for her, tells him it’s Raewyn, that she’d never ever hurt him. Somehow through the delirium, he listens and lets her put it in his mouth. She wills it to work. She can’t lose him. Then she mentally corrects herself--they can’t lose him. They need him. His breathing normalizes, but he’s unconscious. 

While he’s recovering over the next few days, Raewyn tends to him, giving him saol water and water from the stream, wiping his face and chest with cool cloths. She’s moved to see him in such a vulnerable state. As she’s bathing his body with the wet cloths, she spots a tattoo on the sole of his foot that matches the large one on his chest and abdomen. He’s hallucinating and mumbling, thinking at times that he’s with other people. As she finishes washing him he mumbles, “I love you.” She wonders if he’s hallucinating about his mother or some woman he was formerly involved with. Maybe he lied about having never really gotten close to one. Inappropriate jealousy bubbles up, and she tamps it down. 

Later when he’s lucid again, Pharis is extremely grateful to Raewyn, and she’s surprised. She realizes he must have a nurture vacuum in his life– he’s lonely and grew up with a cold, neglectful father and an absent mother (because she was killed in battle.) Though he’s spent time with lots of women, it’s clear no one has ever treated him with love, except perhaps his mother. She doesn’t know because he never speaks of her. 

She is visibly fatigued and Pharis rubs her back and arms and legs. It feels heavenly. During the massage, he tells her she deserves to feel good. She does so much for everyone else. “Now I see why Stellon was convinced you were an angel.” 
As he rubs her foot, she asks why he has two tattoos, and why one is so large. He says it’s in defiance of his father’s shame about his “inferior” glamour. She’s confused, asking again why shadow glamour would be so shameful. He confesses that he has more than one, which she remembers Stellon saying was possible but rare. She asks which one the symbol represents, and he tells her he doesn’t want to talk about it. She tries to argue that it’s probably not as bad as he thinks it is, saying she thinks their father shamed them both for no reason. He assures her there’s a reason, believing he’s bad and deserves the shaming.

Raewyn tells him she has a talent for sensing someone’s greatest fear and that she thinks the King fears both his sons. Nervous, he asks if she can sense his greatest fear. She lies and says no so he won’t be uncomfortable, but she does know what it is—that no one will ever love him and that he’ll always feel alone. She thinks it’s strange since everyone wants to be with Pharis. 

He realizes she has a glamour gift, though she’s only half-Elven. One more reason to keep her safe from his father the King. He wonders whether he should tell her about her heritage but hesitates. Maybe she’s safer not knowing. There must be some reason her mother and father never told her. He plans to ask Wyll about it when they get a moment alone—and before it’s too late. 

Over the next few days, he continues to teach Rae fighting and hunting skills, and Wyll continues to decline. His pain is so great it’s hard for him to stay quiet, and he begs Pharis to kill him so he won’t give away their location. Pharis refuses. He can’t kill Raewyn’s father—how would she ever be able to look at him again, even if it was for the best? The little girls are suffering as well to see their father like this. He has to find a way to fix it. 

Desperate for another alternative, Pharis tells Raewyn he’s going to visit a village he spotted high in the mountains and find some kind of pain cure so the man can die in peace instead of agony. Raewyn is worried about his safety, but he assures her it’ll be fine. 

He goes into the remote village, tucked away in the mountains beside a beautiful waterfall. There are no roads nearby, and he’s amazed to see there’s a whole community here. The villagers are suspicious at first—they never get visitors—but he assures them he’s an ally, says he needs a pain cure for a human friend and will pay any price for it. 

They say they have no medicine, no Earthwife, but that there is an Elven healer who lives on the outskirts of the village and helps them. Pharis is surprised but filled with new hope. This could be exactly what he needs. 

He goes to find the healer’s cottage, intending to convince her to let him borrow her glamour for a little while, though he won’t tell her who it’s for or where the family is hidden. You can never be too careful. He explains the situation to her about the human “friend” and offers money. She won’t take it or give up her glamour to him, even temporarily —the villagers need her too much, and she can’t chance it for this stranger. But she does make him a promise mind-to-mind that she’ll heal whoever it is and tell no one. He asks her to come with him and heal Wyll. 

She says, “Bring him here,” and explains that this remote village is very safe. It gets only the rare passerby, mostly humans, never an Elf before him. It’s too far off the beaten path. The king’s tax collectors don’t even bother visiting it. “It’s a safe refuge. That’s why I’ve stayed.” 

She says the human villagers have never told any of the occasional travelers of her whereabouts and reversed allegiance, protecting her. They love her as one of their own, and she loves them in return, healing their injuries and ills. She is estranged from her own people because she was branded a traitor for healing humans during the Rebellion. The healer says she’s sure the villagers would also protect anyone else who might happen to be trying to avoid the King’s notice, and Pharis agrees to bring the others there for the chance for Wyll to be healed. 

He returns to the campsite and tells the Hennessey family the good news—they’re going to sleep indoors tonight on real beds. The girls are ecstatic. Raewyn wonders if it’s safe to be seen, and he tells her what the Elven healer said. 
“The healer? You found a healer?” He nods. “And she’s agreed to help your father. She might be able to do more than relieve his pain.”  

They make it to the idyllic village, and Pharis carries Wyll in to see the healer. The healer immediately eases his pain to the point he is able to converse with Pharis. He makes a request before undergoing the healing process, which the healer says may kill him instead of healing him since he’s so weak. 

Wyll asks Pharis to take care of his girls if he doesn’t make it. And if he does and the healing works, he asks Pharis to take Raewyn away and leave them behind in the village. He and the children are slowing them down—and her continued presence with her family endangers them. They are all weary of the constant travel. Pharis promises, and then Wyll asks him for one more vow—never to tell her about her Elven heritage. “I know you love her,” he says. He believes the information will put Raewyn in even more danger. He says his wife broke all the rules to be with him and was determined Raewyn would never pay the price for her disloyalty to her people. It feels wrong. He wants to be completely honest with her, but Pharis agrees to the deathbed vow. 

Pharis knows how Raewyn’s mother died, but he doesn’t tell Wyll. It would only cause more pain. 

The healer does her thing and says, “Now he must rest. We’ll know by morning if it was too late or not.” She says he’ll need to sleep a lot over the next few days and should not be moved from the village on horseback or otherwise. 

She tells him they can stay there in the village safely as long as they like. There’s even an empty cottage since the elderly resident passed away months ago and no one’s moved in because no one moves to this village. 

“When he’s recovered, and your friends are ready to move on, you might consider staying a while. “It would be nice to have the company of another Elf. Are you unbonded?” she asks. 

Pharis is picking up that she seems to be interested in him. He says he’s not bonded but assures her he is completely taken already. 

Raewyn and the girls move into the cottage, and the children are ecstatic. “A real home!” They carry on about how wonderful it is to be indoors again and get to sleep in real beds, and Raewyn realizes how weary they are from the constant travel and nocturnal lifestyle. It’s been such a strain on them to ride every day like this, and there is still so far to go. She feels bad for dragging them into this situation. She builds a fire and makes tea and invites Pharis to join her in the cozy intimate setting when he comes in from feeding and grooming the horses. 

They chat before the fire, and he asks about her mother. She explains how her father was brought home from battle blind and terribly injured, and then her mother went off to battle herself, charging Raewyn with taking care of her father, the home, the animals. She told her daughter that it was her responsibility and that she could do it, that she was stronger than she knew, that she didn’t need anyone and not to ever think that she did. She also told her daughter to guard her heart, that love does not conquer all and to be careful about getting swept away in her feelings, but Raewyn doesn’t mention that part to Pharis. 

Because she was so young, Raewyn misinterpreted that to mean she should be wary of love and also to sacrifice herself endlessly for her family So she became too independent for her own good, especially because her father was in such bad shape and then later her stepmother died, leaving two little girls who needed care. 

Now Pharis understands why she’s so fiercely independent and has a hard time receiving help. She says “I have never told anyone what my mother said that day. I don’t have any friends close enough to share that kind of information with.” 

He’s touched that she opened up and shared it with him. “You and I are both pangolins, as it turns out.” 
“Pangolins? What’s that?” 
He explains they are hard-shelled animals with overlapping scales like tiny dragons. They have protective armor and they can roll themselves into a ball when threatened.” “I do that,” she admits. “So do I,” he confesses, “I pretend nothing bothers me.” 
She says, “I noticed. You use humor as a shield.” 
“And you use stubbornness,” he says, laughing.
“Actually I think I use hard work,” she says, admitting it to herself for the first time. “Of course some work is necessary, but I have to admit, I overdo it. I keep going far beyond the point of exhaustion. I just find it hard to stop, you know? It’s gotten to the point I don’t feel comfortable with rest. I’ve gotten more sleep on the road with you than I ever did at home because under these circumstances I am forced to rest.”

“And forced to accept help,” he says. “I know how much it bothers you. I would like to see you have an easier life, little Wyn. You deserve it.” 

“You deserve a good life, too,” she says and he snorts, disbelieving it. 
“You do. You’re a good person, just like Stellon said. You’ve said before that you’re a bad sort, but I just don’t see it.”

“Well I’ve certainly been living like a monk since leaving Seaspire,” he says as if complaining. Then adds glibly, “Not a single skirt has been chased.”

Raewyn says, “I’m being serious. What happened to make you think of yourself in such a derisive way?”  
“That conversation,” he said, “Calls for something a little stronger than tea. And it’s time for bed.” 
 
When he realizes there’s only one bed, he suggests sharing it, but she resists, knowing it’s dangerous when she feels the way she does about him—it’s so much more than friends now. When she says she can’t because it’ll set a bad example for the girls, he snaps that she was happy and willing to share a bed with his brother then leaves, saying he’ll sleep in the tent outside.  
    
It’s apparent the healing worked. Pharis carries Wyll into the new cottage the next day, and he looks well. Not only is he pain-free and much stronger, he’s no longer blind, and the fix is permanent, unlike the Earthwife’s cure. 

The family celebrates together with Pharis looking on and smiling. 
Raewyn is super grateful. And she’s amazed at Pharis’ kindness and mercy. 
“You did this. It’s all because of you. I can never thank you enough.” He shakes it off. 

Pharis asks Raewyn to join him later for lunch. She expects a boarding house or inn that serves food, but they walk all the way through the magical little village to a spot near the waterfall where Pharis surprises her with a basket of sumptuous food. They have a picnic with delicious food and wine, hidden from the village by a small knoll. 

They talk and laugh while eating. The scenery is beautiful, the day is warm, and Raewyn basks in Pharis’ attention and the joy of knowing her father is healed and her sisters are safe. Pharis asks her to allow him to surprise her and produces a blindfold. 

He feeds her as she tries to guess what each food is. It’s a fun little game, but it soon turns sensuous and then Pharis shocks her by kissing her. It feels incredible, and she returns his kisses passionately. But suddenly it stops and she no longer feels his maddening body heat. 

She rips off the blindfold and sees Pharis has moved away. He’s standing, staring at the waterfall breathing heavily. 

When she asks what happened, he apologizes, saying he shouldn’t have done that, that he forgot himself for a moment. He makes a lame excuse about the wine and how it’s been a long time. She’ll ask how long it’s been, and he tells her he’s kissed no one since meeting her. She recalls his father saying how difficult it gets when you’re of bonding age, and he’ll say that’s not the reason, that he’s been “busy.” 

He doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, and now the conversation is awkward. Trying to get him to warm up again, Raewyn asks Pharis about his mother and won’t accept his usal glib response or half answer. He never speaks about his mother. 

“Just be honest with me,” she pleads. “Unroll from your protective ball and let me in past those pangolin scales of yours. I’m not a stalking mountain lion, Pharis.”
No, you’re something far more dangerous, he thinks. 

She says, “I told you my painful story.”
Finally, he relents and begins speaking for the first time about what happened to his mother. He hasn’t even told his brother and sister the full story. That’s because, as he explains, her death was his fault. 

He tells her about how he went out to the battlefield even though he’d been forbidden because he was cocky and overconfident in his glamour and wanted to “be a man.” He was sixteen and didn’t want to be a coddled prince, wanted to do his part. But he got into trouble pretty quickly.  

His mother spotted him about to be killed and came to his defense, using her glamour of strength and battle prowess. But they were outnumbered and surrounded. She was mortally wounded, and the only way she had left to protect her young son was to give him her glamour. Of course, she knew his glamour and that he would be able to glean hers and save himself with it. 

She commanded him to take it and get off the battlefield alive. “I’m going to die anyway. Do this for me. Make my death mean something. I would die for you a thousand times.” 

By the time he’s done with the story, they are both crying. He tells her he’s avoided battle since then because anyone seeing him fight with his mother’s gleaned glamour (including his siblings) would see it as evidence that he killed her. Raewyn says, “No, it’s evidence of your mother’s love. Don’t you see? She is part of you now—and you will always have a part of her. That is a great gift.” 

Desperate to soothe his grief and shame, Raewyn opens Pharis’ shirt and kisses the large tattoo, the symbol of his Gleanor glamour and lifelong shame, showing him the love and acceptance he’s never been able to give himself. Overcome with emotion, he can no longer resist her. 

He rolls her onto her back and covers her, kissing her like she is vital oxygen, pulling away for a moment to say “Gods what are you doing to me?” before going in again for more. It’s even better than he always knew it would be. He reflects on the blindfolded feeding game, how he watched her mouth as she tasted and chewed and smiled and laughed. He felt like he was going to die if he didn’t kiss her soon and can’t believe she made the first move. He feels like he’s in one of the frequent dreams he’d had about her. 

Raewyn keeps kissing Pharis, getting lost in the moment, feeling it progress closer and closer to the point of no return—for him. The kiss is shockingly good, different than it was with Stellon. That was very nice of course, but this kiss is life-altering and feels like a key clicking into a lock, opening something inside of her. 

But she stops it. She has to. It’s stupid to get in deeper with Pharis than she already is. She’ll never see him again once their journey is over, and that’s going to hurt. And he can only take one bond-mate for a lifetime. 
“This is pointless,” she says.
“We’re getting to the point,” he says and tries to continue. “Give it a few more minutes.” 
Unable to stop herself, she kisses him for a few more minutes as it gets hotter and hotter. 

“What is wrong with me?” she wonders. “Why do I have so little control over myself when it comes to him?”
 Kissing him is amazing, of course, but she can’t let it happen again. They need to roll it back to just-friends. It’s stupid to get any more involved than they already are. 
She tries to talk sense into him. “You’re an Elven prince with duties to the crown and his people, and I’m a penniless human commoner.”

Pharis seems overjoyed about what’s happening, acting like another person almost. Something has been freed in him. 
He says, “I don’t care about our differences—or my ‘duty.’ That’s where my brother and I differ.”  

“You’ll care when you get back to the royal city, and it’s time to take a noble High Fae bondmate— and you’ve already bonded with some human.” 
“You’re not just some human,” he says. “You’re my human.” 
What? She doesn’t understand.
“And I’m not going back.” He says, “by now my father knows I’ve defied him and deprived him of something he truly wanted. That’s a deadly sin as far as he’s concerned. I can’t go back, even if I wanted to. We’re both fugitives now—a matched pair.”   

Pharis asks her to leave with him, just the two of them. He says it’s what her father wants, that Wyll asked him to take her away and leave him and the girls to stay in the village. Pharis says he’ll leave them enough money to last them the rest of their lives and give the girls a huge dowry so the stupid human men won’t be deterred from marriage. 
“I’ll make sure they have everything they need. They’ll be safer here than they would be traveling. You know that.”  

He tells her they can go anywhere—or everywhere. “I can take you to see all those places you want to see—the Cyan Sea, the Drylands, the Silvery mountains.”

She says it’s too big a sacrifice for him to give up ever seeing his brother and sister again. “You love them more than anything.” 
He says, “Not more than… anything.” 

He says his siblings will be fine, her family will be safe in the village, and she’ll be safe with him, far from Sorcha’s reach and his father. 

And because she’s not there to hang over his head, Stellon won’t be forced to do anything against his will. What he doesn’t say is she’ll also be far away from Stellon. He still believes she’s in love with his brother, and he knows Stellon is still unbonded. He has no doubt his brother would love to have her back if it were possible. 

“He told me he knew the two of you were doomed from the start. I’m sure he misses you—gods, what man wouldn’t? But I know my brother. He’s always been the happy go lucky sort, like one of Mareth’s golden retrievers. He’ll get over it eventually and be happy again, especially once he has children, which is something he’s always wanted.”

She says, “Right. And it’s undetermined whether I’d ever be able to give him children as a human—even if we were allowed to be together.” 

Pharis knows better but once again doesn’t say it. 
He says, “I don’t care about that. And no one cares whether I produce heirs,” he tells her. Pharis kisses her again and assures her he’ll take care of her always.

She thinks about it, not sure what the right thing to do is. She realizes what a huge sacrifice Pharis made for her and is feeling rather friendly toward him after what he’s just done for her father and the way he’s opened up to her. Not to mention those sweltering kisses. He is very tempting.

And it’s true that she’ll endanger her family if she stays with them. The King might never stop looking for her. He’s probably put a bounty on her head. There’s nothing for her back in her village or at the palace now that Stellon is married. Maybe staying on the move with Pharis would be best. It makes sense. 

She realizes she could be happy with Pharis—but how could he be happy with her? She’s not immortal, and she can’t give him children (as far as she knows.) She still believes she’s fully human and he’d be giving up too much to be with her. She thanks Pharis for his generous offer but says she’s not sure it’s the best thing for him. 

“What do you mean? I just told you it’s what I want.”  

“Traveling with a human fugitive will put a serious damper on your love life. Could you really be happy spending all your time with just one woman?” 

Pharis gets angry. “You’re talking about rumors. Yes, I fooled around with lots of women before I met you—I was trying to distract myself from the knowledge no one would ever really know me, no one could ever love me because of what I’d done, because of how I am. But you are different. You see past my scaly armor to the heart of me. And if you’re worried I can’t commit, let’s just put that concern to rest right now. I’ll bond myself to you right here and now, and I’ll never be able to be with anyone else for the rest of eternity. I don’t ever want to be with another woman.” 
 
She’s shocked by his words and looks uncertain, like she might be about to say no. “There was a spell…” she starts to say. 

“If there was a spell, it worked on Stellon, not on me,” he says. “Think about it—did I act spellbound when I found you in his bed? When I caught the two of you later just before you foolishly bonded yourself to a man who wasn’t free to be with you?” 
He pounds his chest. “I’m free. I’m right here. I may not be the Crown Prince, the golden boy, the chosen one everyone wants. But I want you. More than anything I’ve ever wanted in my entire cursed life. I have to have you little Wyn.”
He grabs her, kissing her desperately. 

He’s devastated, terrified of the way he feels, thinking he can’t have her because he’s not good enough and that she’s still in love with his brother, which bothers him so much because she is HIS perfect match, not Stellon’s.  
“I know your heart is still with Stellon, but I’ll take any small part of you you’ll let me have.” 
 
Raewyn. “Just weeks ago, I was with Stellon, being kissed for the first time in my life, feeling like my heart would break because we couldn’t be together forever. This all feels very sudden.” 

“It’s not sudden to me,” Pharis says. Then he gets angry again. “Even a thousand miles away, he’s still coming between us.”

“Why do you sound so angry?” she asks.
“Because you refuse to see what’s right in front of your face. You have since the beginning.”
“The beginning? What do you mean, the beginning?” 

Working up the courage, he starts to tell her about what the matchmaker’s glamour said. 
“Even before this journey began, you were all I could think about. You’re all I think about day and night, even my dreams are filled with you. Even after I found out you were with Stellon, it was hard to sleep, to think, to carry on with daily life. You asked about other women… I haven’t even thought of another woman since the night I met you at the First Night Ball.”
She’s shocked. 
“There’s more,” he says. “The night of the ball, before you got there, Stellon asked me to—”

A horse thunders into the glen. Stellon slides from the saddle, running to them and pulling her into his arms. 

“My love,” he says, attempting to kiss her. Pharis looks like he’s ready to kill him for interrupting—and for touching his woman.

Raewyn turns her head so his kiss lands on her cheek. She’s surprised he’s so obviously overjoyed to see her. Pharis said it was only a love spell, and that Stellon had said he never wanted to see her again or even hear from her or know where she was. Plus, he’s married now, and he knew she had no intention of being his mistress.

“Is your bondmate with you?” she asks. 
“My bondmate?” 
“Lady Glenna.”
He shakes his head in confusion. “I backed out of the wedding. Pharis didn’t tell you?” 
She glares at Pharis, realizing he’s been leaving out pertinent details and twisting the truth and misleading her about Stellon’s feelings. 

Stellon says how much he’s missed her and that he has wonderful news that changes everything. He tells her she’s half Elven, and her mother was nobility. 
“So now we know Elves and humans can procreate, and you might have a greatly extended lifespan—immortality even. I love you. You love me. And now there’s nothing to keep us apart.”
“Now who’s telling a slippery version of the truth?” Pharis says. “Tell her the rest of that story, Stellon.” 

Stellon evades his brother’s urging and carries on delivering the good news to Raewyn. 
“My father has agreed to allow us to marry. I told Father about your mother being Elven and of noble birth. He has agreed to let us marry.” 

She glares at Pharis. “You knew the King had agreed to let Stellon marry me?”

He says, “No, that’s news to me, and I’ll believe it when I see it. Stellon, you know that’s not what I was talking about. Tell her the rest.” 

Stellon ignores it, though he knows full well what Pharis means. 
Raewyn looks at him in wonder. “Your father has really agreed to let us marry? And you believe him?”

Stellon says yes, that his Father swore it to him, mind to mind. 
“You can ask him yourself.” 

He tells them that he’s actually traveled here with his father, who had a tracker capable of finding her—with his own amplifying power to help. 

Stellon explains that he caught up to his sire on the road and talked him into allowing him to marry Raewyn. His father asked him to amplify the tracker’s glamour so he could find his true love and marry her at last.

Pharis is incensed—and frightened for Raewyn.  “You idiot. What have you done?” 
“What have YOU done?” Stellon yells back, taking in Raewyn’s mussed hair and kiss-swollen lips. “I know what she looks like when she’s been kissed.”  

Ignoring that, Pharis roars at Stellon. “You played right into his hand. He’s just using you, brother. As always. And you were desperate enough to believe him.” 

“You’ll see,” Stellon says. “It’s all going to work out. Thank you for keeping her safe, Pharis. We’ll talk about what else you might have done later. I’m too happy right now to challenge you to a duel.” 
“As if you could ever beat me,” Pharis snarls. 
He takes Raewyn’s arm, pulling her away from his brother. “Come on, little Wyn, we have to get out of here before it’s too late.” 

It’s already too late. The king arrives with his troops, trapping them. What’s worse, Sorcha is with them, much to the horror of both Raewyn and Pharis. She’s on a horse next to the King’s.  

 “You’re working with her?” Pharis asks, astounded. 
“She was already on the ride,” Stellon explains. “In order to get out of the dungeon, she offered to use a location spell to help Father find Raewyn. The best thing I could do was come along to protect her. Between Sorcha’s spell and my amplification of the tracker’s glamour, we were able to find you.”  

“Don’t worry,” Stellon says. “She can never tell Father about Raewyn’s part in the plot without also revealing her own. And I couldn’t tell him what the witch had done without also convicting Raewyn. He’ll never know that the future Queen of Avrandar was ever involved in such a plot. All is well,” he assures his brother. 

“It’s pretty damned far from being well,” Pharis says. “This is a disaster. Stellon, don’t you see? She was the one who told the king about the two of you. I should have put her to death as soon as she confessed her plot. I foolishly thought it could wait until I returned—and she was already gone. Now I guess I know where she was—with our father, hunting Raewyn. And you helped them.”

“I helped myself to find her—so I can marry her, as the King has said I can.”

Pharis calls him a fool and attempts a last-minute move to get Raewyn out of there, but it’s too late. They are surrounded at spear-point.

Pharis turns Raewyn’s face toward his and looks into her eyes, taking her face in his hands. I’m going to protect you, no matter what it takes. Do you trust me? I will get you out of here—somehow.
He doesn’t know if she hears him or not. He’s kicking himself now—he should have told her she was half-Elven so they could have been practicing speaking silently. 

The King is disgusted to find his second son with Raewyn, apparently besotted with her. 
“Not you too. I have two imbeciles for sons.” 

Stellon is surprised by the remark but still hanging onto shreds of hope. 

Pontus says, “There must be something special about this little human piece of flesh. I’ll have to sample her myself after all.” 

Stellon whips his head toward his father. What is he saying? Was Pharis right?

Pharis knows that Sorcha was in on the assassination plot, and he could out her, but not without revealing Raewyn’s part, so he holds his tongue, studying the witch while she studies him, trying to get a read on him and obviously coming up with her next play. 

The king still doesn’t know that Raewyn is also “Lady Wyn,” the would-be royal assassin he met at the ball. He just thinks she’s Stellon’s human paramour and his best blackmail material to ensure his son’s obedience. He is very happy to have re-acquired her. 

Then dear old Dad pulls the rug out from underneath the Crown Prince. He orders Raewyn taken into custody, and Stellon is shocked. “What’s going on?” 
His father lied. He only wanted to find her and needed Stellon’s Exalting glamour to do it. He never intended to allow them to be together. He still just wants her to hold over Stellon’s head. 

Stellon pleads for her life. “Allow our marriage, and you won’t regret it. She’ll make a great queen, and I promise to be the heir you’ve always wanted if you just spare her.” 

When his father scoffs at the disgusting idea of half-Elven grandchildren and says no, Stellon blurts out a desperate lie. “You have to let us marry. We’ve already bonded. I won’t be able to bond with an Elven woman.” 

Pharis’ head whips around, his eyes go wide, and he has a THAT’S MY WOMAN glare on his face. He looks back at Raewyn, wondering if it’s true.

Now the king wants to kill Raewyn, but he can’t if what Stellon is saying is true (which was Stellon’s point) and he’ll have to allow his son to marry her. “This had better not be true. If it is, I will be forced to make your brother heir—and nobody wants that.” 

Pharis is hurt (once again) by his father’s lack of love and respect for him and lack of regard for his own skills and gifts. He thinks he’d make a fine king someday, but his father refuses to see that.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a truthsayer with me on this expedition, so I don’t know if you’re lying,” the King said.

 Sorcha volunteers to do a test to find out. She sweeps her tongue through Stellon’s mouth, gagging him. “He’s lying. He’s still a virgin.” She offers to test Pharis as well, but the King says he doesn’t care about him, wounding Pharis again.

Stellon says it doesn’t matter that they haven’t slept together and vows to marry no other and give the king NO grandchildren, (and lose the throne in the process) if Raewyn is harmed or held captive, and his father is outraged. 

He points at Pharis. “And you—I will take the ride back to Seaspire to think it over, but I have half a mind to end your useless life, and do it in front of the entire Court for daring to defy me and keep this girl from me.” 

Pharis sees an opportunity. He starts to reveal Sorcha’s part in the assassination plot, but the Earthwife interrupts, telling the King that BOTH princes are under a love spell, saying she tasted it on Stellon’s tongue and just now placed it. “They don’t know what they’re doing or saying.” 

Stellon vows there is no spell— his love is real, that no one and nothing will change his mind, that he will refuse to marry anyone else and the royal line will end with him. 

Outraged, the king orders Raewyn killed on the spot. “No royal in his right mind would choose a half-breed over his birthright—especially a common one. Not only is she unfit to wear the crown of princess of Avrandar, she’s not even good enough for my retinue.” 

Before the soldiers can strike her down, Pharis lunges forward and pulls her away from the soldiers and protectively into his arms, but he adds a lewd look and tone, putting his hands on her boldly and possessively. 
“I’ll take her for my retinue then. I don’t mind slumming it a little now and then.” He adds that she’d make a good “servant” for him, if his father doesn’t mind. 

The king is disgusted by his second son’s obvious interest in the half-breed, and Stellon is incredulous— offended at his brother’s offer and at the way he’s touching her
 
Pontus says to Pharis, “You’ve just proved once again you are NOT king material and never have been. Let us hope your brother gets over this sickness or we are all doomed.”  

He believes Stellon and Pharis both to be bewitched by Raewyn and is ashamed he’s so weak-minded as to be brainwashed by a half-human. The witch tells him the only way to have his sons go back to their senses is to kill Raewyn. 

“The girl is dangerous. She must be put down.” 
Pontus gets off his horse, intending to do it himself. As he approaches with drawn dagger, Pharis turns away, hunching his body around Raewyn’s. 

Stellon yells for his father to stop, vowing he’ll give Raewyn up and marry Lady Glenna. 

The King is not dissuaded. He says, “You’ll forgive me when she’s dead and the spell is broken.” 
Stellon threatens to tell the entire High Fae Court that both Princes were so weak they were brain-washed by a witch’s spell and that neither of them will ever forgive him for killing Raewyn.

The king still isn’t moved, but Pharis gets an idea.  
“There are things you still do not know, but I know the full truth about this woman,” he says.
He claims to have borrowed a truth-sayer’s glamour so he knows all about the assassination plot. 

Stellon begs him mind to mind, “Please don’t. You swore not to betray me,” and Pharis says mind to mind, “I’m not betraying you. I’m protecting you. I had to do something to save your idiotic neck. You’ll get over her.”

Then Pharis reveals that Raewyn and Lady Wyn are one and the same person, that she was the assassin and went to the ball that night to kill them all. 

He says he’s been working to get Raewyn away from Stellon since discovering her in his chambers—for his brother’s own good. And he didn’t kill her himself because he knew she didn’t act alone and has been trying to discover her accomplice. He points at Sorcha, telling his father she is the Earthwife who helped. 

Pharis says Raewyn told him herself after he gained her trust and repeats it mind to mind. His father believes him. 

When the King decides to kill them both then and there, Pharis stops him. “Wait now—you’re missing a golden opportunity to demonstrate your power and greatness.” 

Pharis says they should be publicly executed in front of the full Court because they need to make a public example of anyone who dares threaten the royal family. He argues it’ll be a great deterrent for any other humans who might dare to think of harming their Elven benefactors. 

The king agrees with his second son for once, and orders Stellon held by guards so he doesn’t kill his brother. The whole company prepares to return to the palace with Raewyn and Sorcha locked up in the prison carts. 

Stellon hates Pharis with the fire of a thousand suns. 
He won’t speak to his brother mind to mind. He can’t trust him anymore. 

Thankfully Raewyn’s family is nowhere in sight (they’re safely tucked away in their new cottage and don’t see or hear anything. No one knows they are there but the healer, and the villagers certainly aren’t talking to the King’s men, cowering in their homes.) 

Jolting along in a prison cart, Raewyn can’t believe the depth of Pharis’ betrayal after the time they’ve spent together and the things he said. He trots along beside her on Cimmerian, and she spits at him, saying, “NOW I understand why you’re called the Prince of Tears. I used to assume it was because you broke so many girls’ hearts. Now I know it’s because you’re also the Prince of Lies.” 

It’s all over. Now she will be killed and never see her family again. Maybe in their remote village, they won’t hear the news of her execution. Hopefully they will never be found. Can she trust Pharis not to reveal their location? She should never have trusted him for a second. Her stupid heart and foolish need to be loved and seen has become her undoing. She should have heeded her mother’s parting words. 

Weeks later they arrive at the palace, and Stellon mopes in his room, heartbroken. His true love Raewyn is once again in the dungeon awaiting her execution. 
When Pharis visits, he tells him to get out—he never wants to speak to him again. 

Pharis says, “Don’t you realize I saved her life with that suggestion? Father was going to slay her on the spot—and apparently you and me as well. He was angry enough he’d have let you have the sword you were begging for. Not only did I save our necks, I bought you some time to save her life.” 
 Then he encourages Stellon. “This isn’t like you. If I loved a woman as much as you claim to love Raewyn, I wouldn’t let anything stop me or let anyone take her away from me—not even Father.”

Stellon asks, “What can I do? My glamour is useless, just as father has always said.” 
Pharis says, “He’s always said mine is useless, too, but he doesn’t know everything. Maybe neither of us is as weak and useless as he’d like us to believe.” 

Stellon remembers Raewyn telling him she thought the king was afraid of his sons. At the time he didn’t believe it, but maybe she was right. 

Pharis suggests a plan where they work together to overthrow their father—it’s his last ditch attempt to work with Stellon and not have to work this out on his own. 
“We could do if you’re willing to take a stand against him. Mareth would help us—she could call in her friend Melanthios or maybe a bear or a herd of elephants or something.” 

Stellon rejects the idea, not believing in his own strength. “He is too powerful. It would take an army of allies, all using our glamours, working together to defeat him. We are not enough.” 

Pharis sags in disappointment. He suggests… “maybe we can at least work together to get Raewyn out of the dungeon one last time.” 

He tells Stellon for the first time that he holds more than one glamour. That gives Stellon new hope. Pharis lays out the plan: 
He’ll siphon the jailer’s awareness glamour, giving Stellon a chance to sneak in and save her. Then he can use his shadow glamour and cloak them while they smuggle her out of the palace to safety. 
Grateful and full of hope, Stellon agrees, determined to save Raewyn, even if it costs him his own life. 
“I’m sorry I lost faith in you,” he says, “I should never have doubted your intentions.” 
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Pharis agrees. 

Pharis goes to the dungeon to do his part. When Stellon gets there, he finds the jailer away from his post and takes the key ring from the wall, setting off in search of Raewyn’s cell. 

He spots Pharis up ahead, but before he reaches him, torches blaze to life and soldiers storm out of the surrounding cells. Then his father steps out. 
“You were right,” the King says to Pharis. 
“I told you he’d try again,” Pharis says. “Lovestruck until the bitter end, poor sap.” 

 He didn’t actually use his glamour on the jailer. Not only that, but Pharis warned his father Stellon might try something like this, thanks to his “bewitchment.” 

Now the king locks him away as well—to keep him “safe from himself” until the next morning when Raewyn and the witch are executed. Then the spell that’s clearly come over him (and made him a human-lover and traitor) dissipates. The King thanks Pharis for his help and commends him for his loyalty. 
“The love spell ends tomorrow morning. Then I will have both my sons back.” 

As he’s tossed into the cell, he hears Raewyn’s voice from the adjoining one. At least they have this chance to say their farewells. He forgives and loves her for her involvement with Pharis, and she apologizes, saying she was just as fooled as he was. It’s all very sweet and sad. 

After the King and his soldiers leave (apart from the guards at the cell doors.) Pharis comes to gloat through the bars in full sight and hearing of his father’s personal guard.

 Stellon hates him for tricking him, but Pharis says “clearly you don’t have what it takes to rule a kingdom if you were not even willing to TRY to save the woman you supposedly love. You didn’t even fight. 
“I was willing to die for her!” Stellon counters. 
“What good would that do her?” Pharis says. “Or me or Mareth? Anyway, it’s about to become a moot point.” 
He says, “Tomorrow she’ll no longer be a distraction for you,” in what seems like a blase reference to her impending death, and Stellon calls him a monster. 

“Don’t worry. Once she’s gone, you’ll be back to your position as the golden child and back in line for what you apparently want most–your father’s approval and the throne of Avrandar. Of course, if the ‘spell’ doesn’t lift when she’s executed, then you might be deemed unfit to rule, and I’ll be the new heir and future king,” Pharis says.
“You bastard. I trusted you,” Stellon says. 
He thinks Pharis did all this to take his birthright from him, sacrificing poor Raewyn in the process. 
“And I trusted you,” Pharis says. “Everything comes to an end eventually.”
Stellon says, “If you wanted my birthright, all you had to do was say so. I’d have gladly handed it over to save her.”
“Too little too late, brother.” 

Raewyn goes to the bars and says, “I can’t believe I ever thought I—” but cuts herself off before she says the word “love.” 
There’s a hint of hurt in his eyes, but Pharis’ cocky sneer returns, and he taunts her. 
“Poor little Wyn, always putting your faith in the wrong people. Such a shame. Your father, the Earthwife, Stellon, who is powerless to save you and too cowardly to do it anyway…”
“You,” she adds, attempting to slap him, but he just laughs. 
“See you two ‘lovebirds’ tomorrow… in the arena.” 
“Go to hell,” Raewyn yells. 
“You first, Wildcat,” Pharis says with a wink before he casually strolls away. 

At least she can spend her last night on earth with the prince who actually loves her. How foolish she was to believe Pharis might actually care for her, that he might have returned the love she hadn’t been able to stop herself from feeling for him.

Early the next morning she stands before the gathered Fae kingdom at the gallows, facing certain death. Her family isn’t there with her thankfully but they will grieve her for the rest of their lives. She hopes the Earthwives never find her father and sisters—she can’t help them now. 

The royal family sits on a high platform, holding goblets of wine, watching the festivities. Stellon looks miserable, bound to a chair. The king looks annoyed at the Crown Prince’s attitude, Mareth is crying, and Pharis looks calm and rested. He actually smirks at her when she glares up at him. What a monster! After all the time they spent together and all the sweet things he said, he feels nothing. 

Sorcha stands beside her at the gallows, hands bound as Raewyn’s are. She asks the Earthwife, “Was there ever a love spell?”
Sorcha turns to her. “Do you really want to know?”
When she says she does, an evil grin spreads across the witch’s face. “Then the answer will go to the grave with me.” 

The hangman places a noose around each of their necks and drops black hoods over their heads. Raewyn thinks of Stellon’s smiling face from a happier time and sends up a final prayer. 

Meanwhile, up on the royal viewing platform, Stellon begs his father to reconsider the death sentence. The King tells him not to worry, that he’ll be back to himself in a few minutes as soon as Raewyn’s life ends, thus ending the love spell. 

Pharis sends Stellon a silent mental message. You’re asking the wrong person. 

As the hangman steps over to the lever, awaiting final orders from King Pontus, Stellon tries a desperate move. He throws his wine in the guard’s face and grabs his dagger, cutting the ropes that bind him to his chair. He tries to bolt from the platform and get to Raewyn, but guards stop him and hold him in place. 

Desperate now, he begs his brother to do something to save Raewyn as the King rolls his eyes and Mareth cries harder.  
Pharis is making deals, even now (or appears to be.)
 What will you give me? Pharis asks mind to mind, sounding calm, as if he’s been waiting for it.
Anything. Anything you want. Take everything I have. Just save her. 

Pharis grins. Way ahead of you, brother. 

Just then a shadow covers them. A deafening screech tears the air, and an enormous dragon swoops down into the arena and devours the executioner as the man leaps from the gallows platform, trying to escape. EXACTLY as Pharis planned. 

Raewyn stands there hooded and bound but the rope around her neck is severed by dragonfire. Stellon shouts at her to run and jump. She does run forward, flying off the edge of the platform just before the dragon lights it up. Sorcha is incinerated along with the guards cowering beneath the wooden planks. 

As Raewyn runs, the dragon dips and grabs her in its talons, lifting her off the ground. Terrified, Stellon grabs a crossbow and loads it, firing at the dragon. Pharis yells at him to stop, warning that he might hit Raewyn by mistake. 

Stellon ignores him and fires again, not hurting the dragon but annoying it. Turning back toward the royal platform, the creature opens its mouth and prepares to blast those atop it. Mareth screams and runs for the stares. Her father the King literally shoves her out of the way as he too tries to escape. King Pontus shouts to his children, ordering them to protect him. 
Normally his Compelling glamour would make it impossible to disobey his order, but it feels different this time to Stellon. Weaker. Pharis just laughs. Has he gone mad? 

Around the arena spectators scream and rush for the exits. Raewyn is still alive, squirming in the dragon’s grasp. Stellon loads the crossbow again, but Pharis orders him to stop, and Stellon finds himself obeying, though he has no intention to. 

A fireball hits the platform, but Stellon, Mareth, and the guards atop the platform are unburned, though the platform is on fire. They must flee. No one can find Pharis as they evacuate. They do spot the King, lying on the ground near the base of the platform. His corpse is smoking, his golden crown melted over his skull. 

Stellon gets Mareth a safe distance away and goes back to try to find Pharis, but the blazing platform collapses. No one could go into that fire—or come out of it—and live. 

They look up and see the dragon flying high above, heading north. Stellon falls to his knees. Raewyn is gone. 

As the dragon disappears from sight, Mareth says, “I think Pharis did that. Before we came out here this morning, he asked to borrow my glamour. He said it was for a good cause—a matter of life and death.” 

Stellon realizes with shock that he also gave Pharis his Exalting glamour when he invited him to “take everything I have” if only he’d find a way to save Raewyn. They speculate their brother gleaned the Kings’ Compeller glamour as well, using the powerful combination to control the dragon.
Mareth cries and says it appears Pharis was as welling as Stellon to die for Raewyn’s sake, that he must have given his life to save her. 

But did he save her? 

Who knew how far the dragon might take her and what it might do when it got there—if it even took her to the ground and didn’t decide to simply let her go mid-flight.

Mareth and Stellon hold each other and cry, mourning their losses. Casting a look at their father’s smoldering remains, Mareth says, “Stellon… you’re King now.” With a jolt he realizes she’s right. He is now the King of Avrandar… and the unhappiest man in all the Six Lands. 

Stellon sits on the throne, disinterested in the plans being presented to him for the coronation. His advisors urge him to give up the search for Raewyn, assuring him she must be dead, either dropped or crushed by the dragon—or eaten by it. He orders them to keep looking, though there has been no sign of her. 

One of them pleads with him to combine the coronation ball with a bond-mate ball, telling him it would be wise to choose a wife quickly and forge an alliance with a powerful house to protect his claim to the throne. Stellon is not nearly as scary as his powerful father was. They tell him the kingdom is vulnerable to takeover from other Fae who felt ill-treated by King Pontus and long to rule themselves. His people—and the humans in villages across the land—are counting on him to do his duty. 

Stellon recalls a promise he made to Raewyn that when he came into power he would be a better ruler than his father. Honoring that promise is all he has left. He tells his advisors to go ahead and make the announcement that he’d be launching a search for a new bride. 

Now that Raewyn is dead, he will never love again anyway. What does it matter whom he marries now?

***

EPILOGUE IN PHARIS’ POINT OF VIEW–
We see Raewyn sleeping in luxurious sheets, surrounded by flowers in the tower of a castle in a far away land. A worried male voice asks if she’ll be okay, if she’ll wake up, and is assured that yes she will. The healer says her injuries were severe, but that she will heal.

“She’d better,” Pharis warns the woman. “Or you’ll find yourself minus your glamour—and your head.” He wouldn’t mind adding the skill of healing to his own growing arsenal. 

The healer, who cared for Pharis and his siblings when they were young and now serves Pharis in his own castle, Stormcrest, leaves the room.  Pharis lifts Raewyn’s limp hand and kisses it, whispering against her fingers, “Wake up, Wildcat. Come back to me. I’ll never let anything hurt or scare you again.” 
 
He never should have allowed it in the first place. He’s beating himself up over his risky plan and her resulting injuries.  

He reflects on the moment he first met Raewyn, when the borrowed matchmaking glamour revealed how wrong she was for his brother—and how perfect she was for him. His perfect match. That was why he fought Stellon so hard on it. But his brother blundered ahead anyway, nearly getting them both killed. 

That won’t happen again—Pharis swears Stellon will never get his hands on Raewyn again—not as long as he’s alive. Not until he and Raewyn are bonded anyway. 

He never wanted the crown. She is ALL that he’s ever wanted. 

Now, thanks to his new Compelling glamour, he will have whatever he wants. And what he wants more than anything, for the rest of eternity, is Raewyn. But when she wakes—if she wakes—will she want him too?

Ready for Book 3, A Crown Splendid and Shattered? Grab your copy here and read the exciting conclusion of the Age of Fae series! 
Ebook: https://geni.us/AgeofFaeBK3
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKPXK7HD