Falcon Fae Read online

  Falcon Fae

  Terry Spear

  Terry Spear

  Contents

  Foreword

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Terry Spear

  Falcon Fae

  The World of Fae, Book 9

  Terry Spear

  Falcon Fae

  Copyright © 2017 by Terry Spear

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  ISBN-10: 1-63311-026-5

  ISBN-13: 978-1-63311-026-7

  Discover more about Terry Spear at:

  http://www.terryspear.com/

  ISBN: 978-1-63311-026-7

  Foreword

  Synopsis

  Prince Owen is tasked with the mission of encouraging Sigrid—a magic user, a falcon fae like him, and the granddaughter of the traitor who tried to take over Owen’s grandfather’s kingdom—to return with him to the falcon fae kingdom to fight their enemy. Only, as far as Sigrid is concerned, Owen and his royal family are her enemies.

  She is their last hope to fight a powerful mage, but she’s not buying it. Not until the dark fae queen advises her to do what her grandfather had tried to do before she was born—take over the kingdom!

  To Terri Edeen, whom I met at The Rustic Inn in Castle Danger, Minnesota on the North Shore of Lake Superior. She came with her sister, Sandra Kay Gangestad, who was just as nice. Not only is Terri the sweetest lady, she had made a wolf print vest to wear for our visit! She’s very talented. Thanks for being a friend all these years, Terri! May the fae bring you only the best of luck!

  Prologue

  Twelve-year-old falcon fae Sigrid hated to break the promise she’d made to her grandmother, who warned her never to use her abilities for anything other than good. Queen Avalon, the golden fae queen, had commanded Sigrid to fight the queen’s war against the griffin fae. What else could Sigrid do?

  Her parents had died three years ago in an earlier war between the two fae kingdoms, and her grandmother had died the year after that. Sigrid had only had three days to prepare for this, and now, on the first day of battle, armed knights were headed for her cottage in the woods to take her to the dunes where the battle was waging. But could she use her magic to turn the war in the queen’s favor?

  Sigrid could do all kinds of useful things: find missing objects and people, identify magical artifacts and people who had magical abilities, unless they could cloak them, hide her fae trail and her fae kind, put people to sleep, either by their choice, or not. If she’d been so inclined, she could have made a living as a master thief. The queen had the mistaken notion that because Sigrid could do many different things, she should be able to do all things, magic-related. No matter how many times Sigrid would tell her that she couldn’t, the queen knew better. She was the queen, after all.

  Sigrid didn’t always use her magic skills to do her work though, either. Sometimes, people just needed to believe in magic, and if she was convincing enough, the magic was really all their own. Like the queen wanting a child in the worst way, and after a decade of trying, she’d asked for Sigrid’s help. Sigrid convinced her the child was coming. And it was. What the child would be—boy or girl--Sigrid couldn’t have said, because she really had nothing to do with it. But the queen was so sure she would have a child, she quit fretting about it, and she and the king had a son at the end of the year.

  Sigrid was sworn to secrecy that she’d used her magic to help, which, since she hadn’t, wasn’t a problem at all. Since she’d visited the queen and king on a most important quest—and the baby came when babies do—the rumor spread that Sigrid had all to do with it.

  And so, William, crown prince of the golden fae, was born. The queen knew that Sigrid was the greatest magic user of all times, which brought Sigrid to this business with the war between the golden fae and the griffin fae.

  Her grandmother had told her she was gaining her abilities so quickly, and so young, that she would be a powerful magic user. But with power, Sigrid had to learn control, and discover what they were. Every magic user had different kinds of magical skills. It wasn’t something that they could predict before they…arrived. She had to learn to keep her abilities secret, or at least the ones that could get her into trouble. The minor ones that would help people out? They were okay.

  Her grandmother had taught her time and again: just because someone could do something with their abilities, didn’t mean that they should.

  Like use them in this battle. Sigrid told herself she would do something minor, which could truly happen because she’d never fought anyone’s battles before.

  At least, that was the plan.

  Sometimes she’d gain, or learn of, a new ability during a stressful time—like the time she was in a blinding snowstorm, unable to find her way home, and created a stone hut, just by moving stones on top of each other until she’d formed the perfect shelter. She’d been ten when she’d discovered that interesting feat.

  What might happen during the duress of being embroiled in battle?

  Sir Fallon, the golden fae leader of the troops, rode to her garden gate, all dressed in his red and gold uniform as if he were going to a ball. “You’re to come with me now!”

  Butterflies were fluttering around in her stomach and she wrung her hands. “I’ll fly there.”

  “No, it’s too dangerous. You’ll have the knight escort.”

  If it was too dangerous for her, she should stay home in her cottage, dispensing magic that would help others and not use magic of a hostile nature.

  Terrified and her heart pounding like crazy, she rode with the knights toward the southern dunes into battle where the island fae and the falcon fae clashed.

  She was afraid of using her abilities for war, that something bad would befall her. Or the golden fae. On the other hand, she was afraid she would fail the golden fae, and their troops would be captured or killed. Since they had given her grandmother and parents their protection when her own kind would have murdered them, she felt she owed the golden fae.

  Even in battle, the golden fae wore golden armor, shining in the sun, said to blind their enemies. She thought the griffin fae were smarter, wearing sand-colored tunics and trewes and blending in with the sand dunes they were now fighting on. Sir Fallon motioned to the top of a ridge of sand dunes. “Go. Give us victory.”

  She studied the sifting sand on top of one of the dunes, a cloud of particles tossed about by the winds, the sky bright and blue, a few white clouds drifting over the blue-green ocean. Off in the distance, she could see mists that surrounded the island fae’s home.

  The men were fighting with swords and archers were shooting at select targets from a distance. She shifted out of her fae form and into a falcon, hoping none of the griffin fae could shift. Or that anyone would notice the small, insignificant falcon standing on top of a dune.

  She’d asked others if the griffin fae could shift. If they could, they would have the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. They could be much more dangerous th
an her falcon when she shifted into that form. No one she spoke of knew for sure. As far as she knew, all falcon fae could shift into a falcon. But only some dragon fae were shifters. And some, like the hawk fae, didn’t shift at all.

  This was the first real interaction between the golden fae and the griffin fae—all because the griffin fae felt the ocean surrounding their island kingdom for miles out was their territory. When the golden fae found a sunken ship of gold treasure and claimed it for their own, the two kingdoms went to war.

  Not caring anything about treasure, Sigrid thought the griffin fae didn’t want the gold as much as they didn’t want trespassers in their ocean. The golden fae claimed the griffin fae could only call the island their own territory and not the waters surrounding it. They were not giving up the gold. Yet the ship and her crew had been taken hostage and now the two fae kingdoms were at war while the golden fae tried to have their ship, crew, and treasure released.

  Sigrid soared to the top of the sand dune, wishing she had trees to sit in for camouflage like a falcon would, not out in the open like this. Especially if the griffin fae had shifters. She would be a sitting…falcon and in grave danger. Unless she could use her magic to stop them.

  She didn’t like the wind sending particles of sand blasting her feathers, and getting the dust in her eyes, either.

  She could melt the sand and cool it and the dunes would turn to glass. Not that that would help her own side. She could make the griffin fae troops fall asleep, but she didn’t want her own to slaughter the sleeping men, and she didn’t trust that they wouldn’t.

  And then her worst fears came to fruition. As soon as she shifted into her fae form, her wings tucked behind her, one of the knights fighting down below looked up and saw her. He shouted something to some of the other griffin fae, and instantly, a dozen of them shifted into griffins with the head and wings of an eagle, white, gray, and black feathers, wicked curved beak, sharp, foreleg talons, and bright yellow eyes, and the body of a golden lion, clawed hind paws, and swishing tail. They were terrifying to look at, much larger than her and much more ferocious looking.

  They zoomed straight up the face of the dune where she was standing. They would kill her if she didn’t do something quick.

  Her wings fluttered nervously about her. She had never used her power to fight any fae before. Two of the griffins screamed at her as they swooped up the slope for the kill. She raised her hands and drew on her power to make the creatures—vanish. Transport them somewhere. Praying whatever she did would happen and quick!

  A misty blue portal opened, the battlefield down below going completely silent—no battle shouts, or cries from wounded men. No orders given, or arrows whizzing across the sandy beach. No clanking of steel swords against steel or wooden shields. Only silence.

  Eleven of the griffins were sucked into the vortex, and only then did Sigrid see an unseelie fae staring back at her in the other plane, her eyes glowing silver in outrage, but her mouth was agape too. Their kind hated the seelie fae more than anything. No one Sigrid knew could open a portal between their planes—not using inherent magic.

  Sigrid quickly closed the hole before the unseelie entered their world. After the great war between the two of them: the seelie and unseelie were separated by different planes of existence, just as they were from the human’s world. The only difference was both the unseelie and seelie could visit the human world and cause mischief for the humans.

  One of the griffins had been out of her sight, coming in from behind her. Her heart did a flip, but before she could turn and use her magic on him, he grabbed her in his talons, his curved beak reaching down to rip her apart. She shifted into the falcon, and he lost his grip on her. She soared toward the forest to escape him, at least until she could settle and focus on him so that she could use her magic on him.

  He screeched, swooping down at her, giving her a near heart attack. Then she heard a bolt released, singing through the air, and the griffin crying out, then he fell to the beach below.

  She turned and flew back toward the dunes, only this time when the griffin fae saw her coming, they began to run off. She had turned the tide. Not because she’d killed all their soldiers, but because a small falcon fae had taken on their griffin warriors and sent them into oblivion.

  She had no idea she had such a power, and she could never use it again. Now, she worried if she ever met an unseelie in the human world, the unseelie might think to take her prisoner and use her to open more portals to enter the seelie world. Not to mention she’d sent eleven warrior griffin fae into their world, who would most likely fight the unseelie to the death, or be killed outright rather than languish in an unseelie dungeon for the rest of their lives.

  Sir Fallon rode to the top of the sand dunes to take her home, though she could have flown home herself. No one could transport here because of the iron ore beneath the sand.

  “Well done, Sigrid. The word will spread and everyone will believe we are invincible. Where did you send the griffin warriors? We thought for sure you wouldn’t come out of that confrontation alive.”

  They hadn’t seen the unseelie then. Which was good. She didn’t want anyone to know she could open a hole between their worlds. They might think she was too dangerous for them to allow her to live.

  “To an underworld of sorts. They won’t be coming back.”

  The only good thing that had come out of this was if everyone thought they had a magic user who was too dangerous to attack, maybe they’d think twice of waging war against the golden fae. But if Queen Avalon thought she was going to use Sigrid to fight and win more battles? Over her dead body. She would never fight for the golden fae again. If men wanted to fight men for whatever reason, they could do so without her.

  At least that’s what she vowed.

  But that was the problem with living under the protection of a royal family. Her wishes were not her own.

  1

  Prince Owen couldn’t believe it when his father told him to locate the granddaughter of the falcon fae who’d tried to murder his grandfather and solicit her to aid them!

  “I don’t understand. I thought her grandfather was a traitor and caused the whole revolution in the first place, which split our realm into two. I didn’t think her grandmother or any of the rest of her family had lived.”

  “I didn’t either,” King Yarrow said, pacing across his throne room. “If you hadn’t lost your abilities to that blamed mage, I wouldn’t need to send you for her, now would I?” His father stopped pacing just long enough to glower at Owen. “The golden fae gave her refuge. Find her and bring her home now. You have the means. Just do it.”

  Owen knew it didn’t mean she’d agree to the plan. Why should Sigrid? Somehow, he had to convince her that she needed to return with him. And he had to control her power so she wouldn’t use it on him! That still wouldn’t work though. Even if he negated her power just to bring her to their realm, he still had to convince her to fight for them.

  “And you’re certain she’s a magic user and can truly aid us?” Owen asked. There wasn’t any sense in “recruiting” her, if she couldn’t.

  “She won the war between the golden fae and the griffin fae, singlehandedly when she was only twelve and that was six years ago. So, aye, she is capable of great magic.”

  “How did she—”

  His father waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s a guarded secret. All we could learn was that she made all the griffin fae knights and foot soldiers run off in terror. The griffin rulers gave up the golden fae’s ship and its crew, and the treasure the golden fae had found in their waters—anything to keep the magic user from wreaking any further havoc with their kingdom.”

  Owen wondered just what Sigrid had done. He didn’t believe he had any abilities—at least before he’d had the confrontation with the mage—that could terrify another kingdom’s armies to such an extent to turn the tide of war in their favor. He thought he could manage eliminating one pompous mage though. Owen had been mist
aken.

  “What are you waiting for? For the fighting to begin? Go, now!” King Yarrow said.

  Owen’s cousins both were standing outside of his father’s office, waiting for him, and would accompany him.

  After bowing to his father, Owen took his leave, left the chamber, and apprized his friends of what they had to do.

  “You have a plan that includes protecting us from her power, don’t you?” Connelly asked.

  “Do we even know what she’s capable of?” Tarrant asked.

  “No one seems to know, exactly, except she can win wars.” Owen hoped they wouldn’t end up dead while trying to solicit her help, but no matter what, she had to come back with them.

  If she didn’t kill them before that could happen.

  As a falcon fae shifter, Sigrid was certain her fascination with a couple of dragon fae shifters living in the dragon fae realm of Morcalon was because of her ability to fly like them. The red-scaled dragon, Kiernan, looked like he was on fire, ready for battle at a moment’s notice, showy like a male cardinal in flight. Halloran was another who appealed to her, his scales a silver green now that looked like they were made of silver metal with a verdigris cast, giving him a touch of an old-world appeal.

  The dragon fae had to shift into dragons to be able to fly. With her? She had options now that she’d turned of age—hide her brown and orange-colored wings when she was in her fae form, wear them proudly, or turn into a full-fledged falcon.

  Her friend Kayla, both a golden fae and a dragon shifter fae and now mated to Alton, a full dragon shifter fae, and Sigrid flew high above Kayla’s castle. Kayla was lavender in color, and she grew the most beautiful fields of lavender, her claim to fame.