Faye and the Heart of Fire Read online

  Faye and the Heart of Fire

  Nicole Bailey

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Bailey

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Fiona McLaren

  Cover design by Dane Low | ebooklaunch.com

  www.authornicolebailey.com

  “Her Triumph” © 1919 by W. B. Yeats

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  1. Faye

  2. Faye

  3. Alec

  4. Faye

  5. Alec

  6. Faye

  7. Alec

  8. Faye

  9. Alec

  10. Faye

  11. Alec

  12. Faye

  13. Alec

  14. Faye

  15. Alec

  16. Faye

  17. Alec

  18. Faye

  19. Alec

  20. Faye

  21. Alec

  22. Faye

  23. Alec

  24. Faye

  25. Alec

  26. Faye

  27. Alec

  28. Faye

  29. Alec

  30. Faye

  31. Alec

  32. Faye

  33. Daron

  34. Faye

  35. Alec

  36. Faye

  37. Alec

  38. Faye

  39. Alec

  40. Faye

  41. Alec

  42. Faye

  43. Alec

  44. Faye

  45. Alec

  46. Faye

  47. Alec

  48. Faye

  49. Alec

  50. Faye

  51. Alec

  52. Faye

  53. Alec

  54. Faye

  55. Alec

  56. Faye

  57. Alec

  58. Faye

  59. Alec

  60. Faye

  61. Alec

  62. Faye

  63. Alec

  64. Faye

  Bonus Content

  Name Pronunciation Guide

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Faye and the Heart of Fire depicts issues including PTSD, prejudice, alcohol consumption, death, grief, brief images of graphic violence, homophobia, hospitalization, end-of-life decisions, and parental acceptance.

  * * *

  I hope readers will find that I’ve handled these topics with sensitivity. However, I wished to include a note for anyone who may find this content triggering.

  1

  Faye

  I did the dragon’s will until you came

  Because I had fancied love a casual

  Improvisation, or a settled game

  That followed if I let the kerchief fall:

  Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings

  And heavenly music if they gave it wit;

  And then you stood among the dragon-rings.

  I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it

  And broke the chain and set my ankles free,

  Saint George or else a pagan Perseus;

  And now we stare astonished at the sea,

  And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.

  * * *

  -Her Triumph, W. B. Yeats

  2

  Faye

  I lifted my hand to the Ether and drew the clothes.

  Tight-fitting garnet leather.

  Sleeves that slid down my arms and stretched between my first and second fingers. Pants that hugged against my curves and ended in matching moccasins. At the hip, a half skirt flowed out behind me and whisked against the floor.

  So much like my selkie cloak.

  And yet, so different.

  I ran my hand over my midnight-dark hair Zemin had pulled into a braid for me, lacing in red agate beads.

  I twisted a stick of crimson lipstick up and glided it over my lips. The color reflected in the golden puddle of candlelight flickering over the dark wood of my dressing table.

  The stool scraped against the floor as I stood. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

  Telanes leaned against the wall in the hallway—wood paneled like every room in the compound—his eyes trailed over me. “Chin up.”

  I lifted my chin, rolling my shoulders back. “Good enough?”

  He smirked. “You know my answer to that already.”

  A smile touched my lips before I drew it away, and I slid my hand into his. The leather of his outfit—similar to mine, but darker, more streamlined, and ending in boots—grazed over my fingers. He had pulled his sandy hair back, wrapping it with a long strap of leather, as many of the dragons did.

  We strode down the hallway, not talking. I dropped his hand as we approached the double doors, pulling both of them open. The dozen beings sitting in the conference room snapped to their feet. I skimmed over them before walking in, Telanes trailing me, his face expressionless.

  We walked up to the head of the table. Walnut wood made up the furnishings, the walls, and even the molding around the fireplace in the room, and only the stretch of large windows kept it from being a shadowy space.

  Ete had one eyebrow cocked up. Her ebony hair sat in dozens of braids pulled away from her dark skin. The tension across her shoulders harbored bad news.

  Odim tightened his eyes, their hazel color catching a glint of light from the sun over the ocean just out the window. And whatever news Ete came bearing, Odim had opinions on it. I clenched my teeth.

  Marrim shifted her mocha braid behind her shoulder, her eyes averted like she wished to avoid the confrontation that buzzed through the air between us all.

  I paused for another moment. “You may all sit.”

  Chairs rasped across the floors as everyone dropped into their seats, some shuffling papers.

  “I believe it’s pressing that we begin with discussing the dragons that are dissenting.” Ete placed both of her muscled arms on the table, interlacing her fingers. “I know you don’t wish to take drastic measures; however, I believe you should reconsider.”

  “I’ve made it clear how I feel on that topic,” I said.

  Ete’s expression tightened. “More dragons have dissented this week. We must give a firm response.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Beron?”

  “I agree with Ete.” His eyes flared with flecks of peach that contrasted against the warm brown of his skin. “These dragons could destabilize our race. I don’t believe their dissension is innocent.”

  “They have done nothing yet to prove otherwise,” I said.

  Ete’s lips pursed, tension wrinkling around them like lines in a spiderweb, but she nodded. Odim smacked his hand on the table, his mustache drooping with a frown. “I will not sit here and be silent. This is a foolish decision and not how dragons handle things. We should put these dissenters down without mercy.”

  “No,” I said. “We need to rise above that. We should address them, but not execute them.”

  Odim hissed. “Rumors ran through the halls that a spineless selkie took the dragons over. I suppose they were true after all.”

  I stood and kicked my chair behind me. It clattered against the floor. I threw my hand back. The chair cau
ght on fire, smoke curling around the ceiling, the board members illuminating in flickering orange light.

  “Let me make something perfectly clear,” I said through my teeth. “You are welcome to disagree with me and share your opinions. But you will not sit here and demean any race, and most certainly not the race of my mother.”

  Eyes dropped to the table. Tension rippled through the room.

  Odim cleared his throat and lowered his gaze. “If you’ll forgive me. No one here would disparage your mother. We all respected Liora.” He touched three fingers to his forehead and then to his heart.

  I threw water magic back to the chair, dousing it. A puddle formed on the floor; smoke filled the room. Someone jumped up and opened a window. Beron tapped his fingers together. “I believe what Odim intended to say is that there was disquiet about having a leader who takes a different form than the dragons, and there have been whisperings of resentment over the matter.”

  “If that is what he intended to say,” I shifted my gaze to Odim, “then he may say it like that. But do not expect me to sit back and tolerate you speaking of my mother’s race in that manner. Tell me, Odim, do you think my father would have allowed it?”

  Odim’s expression tightened. “He would not, my lady.”

  “I won’t either.” I held his eye contact unblinking. After several heartbeats, he dropped his gaze again.

  “On the note of your mother,” Marrim broke in, “we should discuss the summer solstice festival.”

  Smoke whispered through the air like fog. Telanes stood and brought another chair for me and I sat, drumming my finger on the arm. “What about it?”

  Marrim blinked several times, pursing her lips like she considered what to say. “Your father always celebrated the summer solstice grandly in honor of your mother.” She swallowed. “Of course, last year we were all still in mourning for Heracles.” She bowed her head and tapped her fingers to her forehead and heart. “But, this year I believe it would be wise to carry forward the tradition.”

  I nodded. “Perhaps we could make it more.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What if we invited other races? Tensions still linger. Perhaps we could bring our world together for a positive purpose.”

  “We have but twelve weeks to prepare for this, my lady,” Marrim said breathily.

  “Ete?” I asked.

  She nodded. “The idea has merit, but Marrim is correct, it’s an enormous task to accomplish in such a short time. And would add even more to your schedule.”

  I held back a sigh, my breath caught in my throat. “Well, we will have to make it work. On the note of my schedule, I’m making a change to it.”

  The board member’s faces snapped up, a few shuffled through their papers. Wrinkles swept across Ete’s forehead. “You’re shifting your hour for swimming later in the day?”

  “I am.”

  “My lady,” Odim practically bit the words out, “changing your schedule without running it by the board first will cause undue chaos.”

  I met his gaze, my eyes tightening. “It is my schedule and my right to change it if I choose so.”

  Odim’s jaw tensed, but he blew out a breath as he inclined his head.

  Once the meeting wrapped up, Telanes and I walked into our suite further down in the heart of the compound. I sighed and lifted my hand to the Ether, pulling my selkie grays and cloak. Telanes chuckled. “Come on, my love.”

  He looped his fingers through mine and drew me through our foyer, and then past our room, dominated by a four-poster bed with golden curtains, and into our sitting room. He walked over to my favorite place in our suite, a cream chaise tucked beside a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the blues of the sea.

  Telanes pulled an olive tunic and tan leggings from the Ether and laid back into the chaise, pulling me down into his arms. I groaned.

  “Do you have any more meetings this morning?” he said.

  “No, but we have the leader’s symposium this afternoon.”

  “Good.” His fingers tangled into my hair and he eased the braid apart, setting each bead down onto a side table with a tink, tink, tink.

  “I bet Zemin is going to be annoyed that she has to redo my hair before we leave.”

  “Will she then?” He finished pulling the last beads out and ran his fingers through my hair. “Tell her she knows where to find me if she wishes to discuss it.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  He clicked his tongue. “You see Zemin as demure? I don’t know, I think she has fire under her skin.”

  “Deep under.”

  He laughed and brushed my hair back from my neck, pressing his lips against the flesh there. He hovered for a moment, his breath tickling over my collarbone and causing goosebumps to rise. “Tell me what it is, Faye?”

  “What?”

  “What’s bothering you?”

  I sighed and draped back against him. The ocean seemed to hum for me, like a puppy desiring a playmate. The light from it bounced around the room, sparkling over bottles of wines and spirits aligned on top of a cabinet against the wall. “This is just really difficult, that’s all. A year and a half of doing it and it’s not gotten easier.”

  He traced a finger over my ear. “Could I offer you a thought?”

  My words came out shaky. “Of course.”

  “You can be honest with some of your board, you know? Not everything falls solely on you. There are others who would help share the burden.”

  “Like who?”

  “Ete.”

  “I talk to Ete.”

  “And you’re fully forthright with her about how you’re struggling?”

  I twisted a section of my cloak. “Somewhat.”

  He kissed the back of my head. “That’s what I mean. Consider trying to open up more to some beings you trust here. It’s okay to be vulnerable with some. You don’t have to be strong all the time.”

  “I’m open with you.” I looped an arm up behind his head, finding the leather strap and pulling it free, his hair dropping to his shoulders.

  “Mmm,” he said, his voice deepening. He leaned in and kissed my neck again, his tongue trailing over my skin.

  “Telanes?”

  “Yes?” His breath tickled against me.

  “Are you nervous being with me?”

  He sat up straighter and readjusted where he faced me. His eyebrows pulled together. “Why do you say that?”

  I sighed. “My powers are so unpredictable right now.”

  A grin slipped up on his lips. “And when they build up too much, they make you irritable.”

  “They do not,” I snapped. He smirked, and I rolled my eyes. “Fine, maybe a little.”

  “To answer your question though,” he feathered a kiss against my cheek, “no. It turns out I like to play with fire.” I groaned again, and he pulled me in tighter. “I can tell you someone who is nervous around you after this morning.”

  “Who?”

  “Odim.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Good.”

  Telanes laughed, his body vibrating against mine. He snagged my waist and flipped us over where I lay against the chaise, him with his loose sandy hair and piercing blue eyes hovered above me, his knees pressing divots into the furniture. He leaned in and kissed me in such a manner that sucked the air from my lungs.

  “Come, my dragon, you need to burn off some steam. And I have an idea of how to do just that.”

  “Swimming?”

  He nipped my neck with his teeth. “Not the activity I had in mind, actually.”

  “Oh, so you intend to read me poetry then?”

  “I shall whisper verses against your skin if you like.”

  I traced a finger down his neck. “This idea has potential.”

  He smiled and snapped me up in his arms, walking us back towards our room.

  I stepped onto the island that rested in the midpoint between both sides of the Ether. The sea billowed around it, washing over the sand like it becko
ned me. The other side of the Ether—where the selkie village resided—was too far to see from the island. But I trailed my gaze out towards it for a long moment, anyway. I took a breath of the salty air and then strode into the council building, Telanes walking alongside me.

  We arrived last, as we always did, at the leader’s symposium. Every head in the room snapped towards us as we stepped in, taking in the burgundy leather of our outfits, the dozens of dragon guards flanking us, the sharp edges of our expressions.

  The lower council sat on the bottom floor in their hundreds of chairs. My gaze met Daron’s and a touch of a smile reached his lips before he pulled it away. The high council and their several dozen members arranged in a circle on a middle level of the building. Prometheus inclined his head to me. I kept my expression neutral. But his eyes twinkled anyway. The outfits and the show of it all didn’t fool him.

  The leaders all had boxes on the third floor. There were a few among them that didn’t buy Faye the fierce dragon leader, either. Sair’s gray eyes sparkled, and she raised an eyebrow. Liri smirked, tossing her golden curls over her shoulder. And Marious frowned as he always did when we walked in, his aqua eyes tensing.