6. The Stolen Bride
Clearly, there was no reasoning with frogs.
So, I did what any reasonable woman would—ran home and hoped never to return to the pond again.
Later that evening, I joined my father at the dinner table. Outside, the sun was setting, and the trees were swaying in a gentle wind. It would be a good night to sit on one of our large covered porches.
Magnolia was running late, a common occurrence, and we were just about to start our first course without her.
”No sense is letting the food grow cold,” my father said.
I draped my napkin in my lap and was poised to take my first bite of lamb when we were interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
”Who would knock at the dinner hour? And unannounced?” my father boomed.
The knocking didn’t stop. It was loud and insistent. Finally, my father gave a permissive wave, and a servant left to answer the door.
The servant returned with the man from the pond, the one who had so gallantly gifted me his traveling cloak, the man with piercing green eyes and magnetic pull.
I blushed and smiled up at him uncertainly.
He didn’t look at me. Instead, he turned toward my father. ”Your daughter has promised me her hand in marriage. I’ve come to collect her.”
My mouth fell open. How could he say such a thing? I ran through our entire conversation from the night before, trying to think of anything I might have said to mislead him. I hadn’t even accepted a dance, certainly not a marriage proposal.
Finally, I came to my senses and declared, ”I have made no such promise!”
My father sat in stunned silence. His eyes flicked between me and the man, trying to understand what was happening. After a long moment, he stood and walked toward the man. ”Who are you?”
The man’s green eyes glimmered as he replied, ”A powerful man. One you do not wish to have as your enemy.”
My father raised a suspicious eyebrow. ”Are you with one of the visiting kingdoms? What is your name?”
He ignored my father’s question. ”I asked your daughter to stay with me always, and she consented. She disrobed in front of me.”
My father glanced back at me, but he didn’t meet my eyes.
My cheeks were beet red, and if I could have dissolved into a puddle and seeped through the palace floor, I would have done so at once. How dare he invite himself into our home, approach my father at our table, and attempt to malign my virtue in some misguided proposal?
”She accepted jewelry,” he continued.
”What?” I gasped out loud. I hadn’t taken jewelry from him, only a cloak and one I would be more than happy to return. Anything to see this stranger out of my house.
”This afternoon by the pond,” he added with a wicked grin.
My father held up a silencing hand. ”No more. Daughter, what say you?”
I felt my gut drop. This afternoon… by the pond... accepted jewelry. I knew what was happening now. Last night, this man’s pull had felt magnetic, magical even. I had walked out of the pond in naught but a wet shift. I had let him kiss the inside of my wrist. I had fallen asleep thinking of him.
Now, as he stood before me, I looked past his glamour and noticed the inhuman glint of his bright green eyes and sharp, pointed ears.
This man was the frog.
Worse, he was… ”fae,” I hissed.
Sick dread pooled in my stomach. How could I have been so reckless? I began to replay our entire conversation from the pond. What exactly had I promised?
My father’s face turned as red as his handlebar mustache, and he barreled forward to stand directly between me and my unwanted suitor. ”No waterwalker will steal my Georgia. You already have one of my daughters. You will not take another.” He looked like a wild boar, ready to lower his tusks and toss this sick creature out of our home.
My heart clenched. Oh, Daddy.
”An alliance with my court could be of vast benefit. Her dowry can be anything you wish.”
”I am not fool enough to bargain with your kind.”
”If only your daughter had been as wise.”
I stood and shouted, ”I will not marry you!”As soon as the words left my lips, it felt as if the air had been knocked from my lungs. I fell to my knees and gasped for air.
My father started toward me, but he didn’t go far. A tree sapling erupted through our marble floor and began to wrap around his feet and legs. It grew and twisted, and I feared it would crush him.
No!I thought desperately.
As if things weren’t bad enough, they became even worse.
My younger sister appeared at the top of the staircase, and she stared down at us with wide eyes. ”Georgia!” she cried.
I’d known Maggie her entire life. I knew her even better than I knew myself. If I didn’t stop her, she would charge down the steps and try to take on this fae with naught but a dessert fork.
I had no choice. I would do anything not to lose another sister. I couldn’t go through that again. So, I rasped out, ”I will go with you.”
Just like that, a swirl of dark storm clouds encircled us. His eyes bored into mine, and I tried to return his intensity. Gone was my mysterious savior by the pond with soft caresses and seductive glances. In his place stood a monster with great and terrible power. My heart skipped a beat but this time out of fear.
The fae were destruction.
He would ruin me.
After a long moment, he echoed my words in a low voice, ”You will go?”
Through the swirling entropy, I could no longer see my father or sister. I prayed they were okay. If this was my fate, I wanted to do one last thing for my family. I took a deep breath and straightened my back, trying to steel my nerves. ”I have terms.”
He laughed, but no mirth reached his cold eyes. I couldn’t believe I had ever thought them bright. ”You have no bargaining power here, princess.”
I ignored his mocking tone and lifted my chin. ”Then make it a wedding gift.”
From his towering height, he smirked down at me. ”Anything for my bride.” The words were threatening and seductive in equal measure.
”Promise that Maggie and father will remain untouched by your kind. Promise they will remain safe.”
”Not even I can control the unseelie fae, but those within my power shall not lay a finger upon them. You have my word.”
”And none of the unseelie at your behest,” I added suspiciously.
He grinned. ”Perhaps you shall survive my court after all. You’re not a complete idiot. Very well. Any other terms?”
Slowly, I shook my head.
He snapped his fingers, and the storm clouds dissipated.
Across the room, my father’s head lulled to one side, and his eyes were still closed. He appeared to be sleeping. My sister was desperately trying to remove the tree limbs encircling his chest.
”What have you done? Release him,” I growled.
”He is unharmed, and I will release him as soon as we depart. You have my word,” he said.
I nodded, tears stinging the corners of my eyes. For all of their faults, the fae could not lie. So, I knew he would be forced to honor his pledge. The sooner I left, the sooner my father would be freed.
Before I could take more than a step forward, Maggie ran and fell to the floor at my feet, wrapping her arms around my middle. Just as she had when we were little. Her hot tears soaked through the fabric of my bodice. ”Don’t go,” she wailed.
With a calm I didn’t feel, I stroked her hair. ”It’s okay, Maggie. Everything is going to be okay,” I lied. ”We always knew I would marry for an alliance.”
”Not like this,” she whispered.
No, not like this, I thought.
I wanted to hold her and cry, too, but our father needed me. What if the sapling with its strong encircling limbs was cutting off his breath. I thought I could see his chest rising and falling, but I couldn’t be sure. Tentatively, I loosened her fingers from my waist. ”I must go.”
My fae captor turned on his heel and strode toward the door. He turned his head to glance in my direction. ”Come, bride,” he called as if I was a favored hunting hound.
I fought my pride which wished me to dig my heels into the ground and refuse him.
I imagined the words falling from my mouth. ”I should rather die.”
Then I pictured it—my father engulfed by the sapling and my younger sister swept through the doors in my place.
Cold, hard resolve filled me. I straightened my back. I would leave with my dignity. I would leave as a princess, not a blubbering mess. ”Release my father, so I can safely go to my room and pack my dresses.”
”You have no need for dresses,” he said.
My eyes widened. What sort of insinuation was he making? Were the fae so wild that their brides ran about half naked?
As if reading my thoughts, a slight smile crept up his face. ”You will have an all new wardrobe as any married woman should. The dresses will be made of the finest fabrics, and pearls will drip from your neck and ears.”
I didn’t want his finery, but I was relieved to hear they were not as savage as I feared.
”The sooner we leave, the sooner your father is freed,” he reminded me.
I glanced over at my father once more. His eyes were closed, and I knew he probably couldn’t hear me when I said softly, ”Goodbye.”
Blinking back tears, I turned to follow my bridegroom out of my childhood home and away to a land of monsters.
My sister launched herself at the fae, but thorny vines crept up her legs and held her unharmed but in place.
”Goodbye, Maggie,” I said.
As the heavy doors closed behind us, I felt as if my heart would cleave in two.
We walked in silence for some time. I was worried about Maggie. Would she be okay without me? She had lost so much already–her mother, her eldest sister, and now me.
When I was four, I lost my mother to a terrible fever. When I was fifteen, I lost my elder sister to the fae. It had been hard, breathtakingly so.
But Maggie had it worse. She hadn’t even been two years old when mother died. She had still been sleeping in a crib in the nursery. Once, I heard the servants whisper that ”it was best she wouldn’t remember.” But Maggie knew what she had lost.
Every night of that awful first month, Maggie had snuck out of her crib and crawled into bed with me. I’m sure the nursemaid knew where Maggie went, but who would have the heart to separate two mourning children?
Years later, Maggie had lost Briar.
Today, she was losing me.
Now, Maggie stood truly alone–the last princess, the eldest sister, and the sole remaining heiress to our kingdom. I knew she wasn’t that small, crying toddler anymore. She hadn’t been for a long time. She was a fun, quick-witted, and confident young woman.
But I was still worried. A kingdom was a heavy burden to bear.
When we exited the palace gates, no one stopped us. It had been my last hope.
Outside, I looked around with wide eyes. It had been a long time since I had ventured so far outside the palace gates. When I was a child, when my younger sister was still in the nursery, my older sister Briar and I would run past the gate, clasping hands and giggling. We would play in the sandy soil or collect moss to make nests for swamp birds.
That all changed after she was taken. The gates closed. My father’s guards and my governess were everywhere. Even at twenty years old.
”Come, little sparrow,” the fae called almost affectionately. ”Let’s free you from your gilded cage.”
I felt a growl rise in my throat. Free me from my cage? Had he no sense of self awareness? He was ripping me away from my family. I had never hated someone so much in my life. I opened my mouth to say so but stopped short. It was unwise to anger the fae. They neither understood nor cared about human emotions.
I knew where we were going. The fae lived on a terrible island, shrouded in mist, and hidden not far off our shores. Any ship that sailed too close would be dragged to the bottom of the ocean. No one visited them there. Only the unwise visited them in our marketplace. If you were even more unwise, you could strike a bargain. Like me.
I was the biggest fool of them all.
The sun had fallen behind the ocean now. In the shadows of the large oak trees, glass bottles rattled. As we neared it, one of them began to swing wildly.
With studied indifference, the fae untied the string, releasing the bottle and letting it smash against the ground. The bottle broke, and a sprite flew out.
”Nasty human,” it buzzed in my ear.
I swatted at it, and it flew away.
Now that we were out on the open road, the fae man shook off his glamor like an old cloak. His black hair was longer, his ears formed sharp points, and there were shells woven into his hair. Most amazing of all, iridescent, blue-green wings erupted from his back. His shirt was unbuttoned, and leather belts hung low on his hips.
He was as wild, beautiful, and fierce as the sea he longed to drag me across.
Though we were miles away, I could feel the ocean air stir my hair. He grinned.
I loathed him, and yet... a rare opportunity had arisen. Free entrance to the fae realm. This chance would not come again. I might find my stolen sister.
Maybe something good would come of this yet.