Warning! This bonus scene contains spoilers! Do not read until you've read the first three books in the series!
Chauncy stood before the hollowed out trunk of a massive tree that looked as if a stiff wind might blow it over. Yet it never had.
Because this dead-looking tree was a magical portal, a veil leading to another world.
The human world.
Chauncy forced his breathing to remain steady, clenched his fists to keep from nervously tapping his fingers against his leg.
He’d dreamed of this opportunity for too many years to recall, and yet he’d never actually, truly believed he would ever be given the chance.
He was about to cross through the veil. He was about to experience the human world.
And he had his queen’s blessing. In fact, she’d asked him to do this.
He felt a twinge of guilt. He did not like the idea of leaving her unprotected. He was the one who had recommended her for the position of queen of the land of the Seelie, after all.
But she wasn’t unprotected. Her mate, Mason, was an even more formidable warrior than Chauncy. Not to mention, he loved her with a fierceness that was unrivaled. That man would let no harm come to her.
Chauncy was certain of it. Certain enough to accept her offer to go to the human world. To take on the task of finding halflings, to teach them what it meant to be fae. How to better fit into a world that, in many cases, did not believe they existed.
And, eventually, once the queen had her council’s blessing, he would invite them to visit their homeland. To experience their birthright.
He glanced over his shoulder. The queen stood behind him, dressed in an odd-looking outfit—she called it a dress—her hair pulled away from her face and tucked into a bun at her nape. The rubies she normally wore in her pointed ears were absent.
Mason stood next to her, dressed in what he referred to as a “suit with a damned uncomfortable strangulation device.” He, too, had left his jewels back at the castle.
Chauncy smoothed his hand over his own suit vest, touched the tie. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as Mason claimed. He rather liked the way he looked in this foreign uniform.
Lavinia and Harriet, two nursemaids who had secretly snuck away to the human world years ago, had come back to the land of the Seelie at the queen’s request, had fitted each of them with these special uniforms so that they would blend in after they crossed through the veil.
They’d already covered themselves with a glamour to hide their fae attributes—the pointed ears, the dark eyes with no white around the pupils, and especially their wings. As they were all fae, they could see through the glamour, but humans could not.
“Ready?” the queen asked, not ungently, although he heard the excitement in the word.
They were going to visit her closest friends. Faeries she’d lived with, shared a home with, for seven years. She’d never imagined she would ultimately be living in an entirely separate world from them—nor that she would be the ruler of that world.
She was more than ready to spend quality time with her favorite people.
Chauncy stepped to the side, careful not to let his foot slip over the bank of the nearby stream that charged along, rushing toward the big river to the south. These human-designed boots did not have nearly the traction a solid faery-made boot did.
“Ready, my queen,” he confirmed.
With her arm hooked through Mason’s, the queen moved closer to the veil. The magic within began to shudder and shimmer, as if beckoning them.
“Remember,” the queen said with a smile, “you can call me Samantha in the human world. In fact, I command you to do it.”
He cleared his throat. “Yes, my—Samantha.”
“Very good.” She nodded. “Now, follow our lead. Just step up to the tree, walk through it as if you are walking through a curtain. Let the magic send you to your destination.”
In the blink of an eye, she and Mason were gone. Even though they’d warned him this was how it worked, it still took him by surprise, sent him rushing forward, his automatic response to protect his queen at all costs.
How was he going to survive, living in an entirely separate world from the leader he had sworn to guard with his life?
He lurched forward, and just as the queen had promised, the magic of the veil did the rest. It pulled him through, the sensation not so much like crossing through a curtain but more like a vise that was attempting to squeeze all of the breath out of his lungs.
Just when he thought he was going to pop like a bubble, the veil spit him out on the other side. He fell to his hands and knees on a swath of sand interspersed with rocks and chunks of dried- out, sun-bleached wood. He squinted against harsh bright sunlight that was so much more brilliant than it was in his homeland.
“Nice dismount,” someone remarked with a snicker.
He recognized the voice. Ezra. One of the fae who had mated with a human and now lived permanently in this world.
Chauncy rose and brushed sand from his hands and trousers, looking around with wide eyes. He was standing on a small hill, the veil behind him—on this side, it was part of a rock formation with a glorious view through the middle of an endless body of water.
Next to him was a steep cliff wall. He could see trees up at the top but not much else from this standpoint, at its base.
Below him was a wide stretch of sandy beach, waves lapping at it at regular intervals. Beyond the beach, he could just make out a narrow path that disappeared around a bend.
The queen—no, Samantha—was down on that beach, hugging someone, Mason slightly behind her.
Olive. Another faery who had come to this world and found love with a human.
There was a small cluster of faeries—and humans—greeting them. Willis, Lavinia, Harriet, Ezra, Olive…the dark-haired man holding a squirming halfling toddler must be Olive’s human mate. The other human, a lovely woman with dark hair, a sunny smile, and an unmistakably pregnant belly must be Virginia, Ezra’s mate.
Last was a halfling child, who looked to be maybe seven or eight years old. He was fair-skinned with dark hair and dark eyes and—
“Is that the queen’s child?” Chauncy pointed at the halfling.
All of the adults in the vicinity paused to stare at Chauncy.
“I have borne no children,” the queen said, cutting her gaze to Olive’s human mate, “and certainly not with Joseph.”
“Joseph,” Chauncy repeated, glancing at the man, whose brow was furrowed, his free arm wrapped protectively around the halfling. “You are the boy’s father?”
“I am.”
Chauncy looked to Mason, seeking confirmation of his suspicion. Mason spent as much time in the queen’s presence as he did; surely, he saw it too. “He far too strongly resembles the queen for us to deny him.”
Mason canted his head, studied the boy. “I have long thought he bore a resemblance to someone I know, but I’d not been able to pinpoint who.”
“Chauncy, what are you—”
He cut off his queen with an apology and then added, “Not you. The previous queen.”
Everyone went silent. The only sounds were the waves lapping at the beach, birds chattering to one another in nearby trees.
Olive arched a brow at her mate. He threw up his hands. “I had no idea she was even a faery, let alone—seriously? She was your queen?”
“Do not dare sound prideful of that fact,” Olive warned him. “She was an evil person. Sorry, Miles.” She pressed a kiss to the top of the child’s head.
Miles shrugged, apparently unaffected by this news.
“Oh my goodness,” the human woman, Virginia, said. “Does this mean Miles should be the ruler of your kingdom?”
Mason spoke up. “Succession in our world has nothing to do with blood ties. And even if he were to exhibit all the necessary traits of a strong leader, it is doubtful our subjects would accept a halfling as their leader. We are still working to convince them to allow halflings to enter the land of the Seelie on a temporary basis.”
Samantha fisted her hands on her hips and glared at Mason. “This happened while you were her consort. How did you not realize she was pregnant?”
He shrugged. “She often went through phases where she did not want me around, and I was happy to oblige her.”
“Yes, but—” Samantha mimed a large, rounded stomach.
Mason canted his head, stared off into the distance. “Now that I am thinking about it, she did start dressing differently for a few months, at about the right time. Loose clothing instead of her usual garb. A fair number of fae at court started doing the same thing, and I thought it was ridiculous. They all looked so foolish.”
He shook his head. “We did not have sex often during that time, but when we did, it was always from behind, and she did not undress from the waist up.”
“I still cannot believe you were not aware.”
“Samantha, I did not want to be her consort. If she left me alone, I did not question it. I simply enjoyed the reprieve. As that wasn’t the first time she commanded me to stay away for months at a time, it did not raise any concerns. When she went back to her normal dress, I figured she’d grown tired of a silly fashion trend. When she demanded I return to her bed, I did. When she started undressing for sex again, I still didn’t question it, because her tastes and desires changed on a whim and rarely made any sense.” He paused.
“Honestly, the only part of the whole thing that is truly surprising is the fact that she came to the human world in the first place. With how seriously she took security around the veils, I assumed she feared what was on the other side and therefore would not ever consider slipping through on her own.”
“Or perhaps because she had gone through, she was fully aware of the ease with which her subjects could escape her harsh treatment and overly strict policies,” Ezra suggested. “And that is why she took guarding them so seriously.”
Chauncy shook his head. “I still cannot believe our previous queen birthed a halfling child.”
“Me neither,” Samantha piped up.
Mason shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, not anymore. She is dead and Miles is Olive’s son, for all intents and purposes. He will be raised properly, respectfully.”
Samantha grinned and ruffled the child’s hair. “Perhaps we will convince our people that there is nothing wrong with a halfling ruler and you truly can become my successor.”
“I can be a queen?” Miles asked.
Chauncy shrugged. “I suppose it is possible.”
“In much of Europe and in other parts of the world, male rulers are called kings,” Virginia explained.
“What is Europe?” Chauncy asked.
Ezra clapped him on the back. “You have much to learn, my friend. Come on, let’s go up to the house. This is going to take a while, and my mate needs to sit down and prop her feet up.”
Chauncy couldn’t wait to learn.
And he couldn’t wait to start his new mission.
Tracking down the fae halflings who lived in this world.
THE END
Need more? Read the next book in the series, The Faery & the Halfling, HERE!