The Faceless Woman by Emma Hamm (i love reading .txt) 📕

“It’s almost impossible to describe.”

He knelt in front of her, blocking her view of the exquisite forest. Air whooshed from her lungs as she looked upon him in a new light. Everything about the Unseelie fit in this wild place. Tinged with the colors of growing things, his unusual hair fluttered in the slight breeze. Spiraled branches outlined his head like the horns of a god.

Above all else, he held himself with a confidence that surpassed anything she had seen before. He held himself like a lord of man, like a champion, like… Her mouth gaped open.

Like a king.

“Who are you?” she quietly asked.

“I am known by many names. But here, they call me Prince of the Unseelie Court, the Lord of Darkness, Heir to the Kingdoms of Night.”

Her fingertips went numb. “You’re…you’re a royal?”

“If you want to call it that.” He reached out as if he wanted to touch her cheek, his hand hovering between them. “My brothers are first in line. It’s unlikely I’ll ever be king.”

King? King of the Unseelie court? She couldn’t comprehend what he was telling her.

“So you mean to tell me I cast a binding curse on not just any Tuatha de Danann, which is bad enough, but on an heir to the Unseelie throne?”

“You are correct.”

Aisling smacked his hand out of the air and shrieked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She was a dead woman walking then, because the Unseelie wouldn’t take it well that she’d essentially killed their son. Why had she come here? Grandmother was right, and everything was going to change because she wasn’t going to be breathing by tomorrow morning.

“Why would I have told you?” Laughter lightened his voice.

“Are you kidding me?” She shoved his shoulders with both hands. He barely moved, so she did it again, grunting as she struck him. “You’ve killed me, you ridiculous man! I cursed an Unseelie prince.”

“I told you it surprised me.” He obliged and let her shove him onto his rump. “No one has ever dared to curse me before.”

“With good reason! They’d have the entire Unseelie court hunting them down.” She pulled at her hair. “Oh gods, I’m going to have to go into hiding. I never should have let you talk me into coming here. Death would be better than what the Unseelie will do to me.”

“No one is going to hunt you down.”

“I cursed a royal. Of course, they’re going to hunt me down! An eye for an eye, a heart for a heart.”

“They’re not going to seek retribution.” He stood, wiping dirt off his backside.

She had to hide. She had to run, although she didn’t know where to go in these cursed lands. The portal wasn’t an option. As soon as she stepped through, their binding curse would be severed, and they both would die.

Was that better? Aisling didn’t know. Living was the ideal solution, but was it living if the Unseelie Fae were pulling her apart bit by bit?

“Witch.”

“Stop talking, I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself alive.”

“Witch!” He stepped in front of her and pulled her hands from her hair. “Stop it. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

She froze, staring up at him. “Why would you say that?”

“You’re going to help me break the curse, aren’t you? That’s enough to make amends.”

“That’s not the Unseelie way.”

He arched a brow, the raven eye fixated on her. She realized it was staring directly into her gaze. “What do you know of the Unseelie way?”

“Enough to know that it goes against your rules.”

“We have no rules, love. That’s why we’re Unseelie.” The Unseelie gave her a grin that set a fire burning deep in her belly, turned on his heel, and walked away.

She was stunned. He wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her? He was going against everything he was, everything his people were, just to make a point? She knew faeries liked to play with humans, but what was the point of this?

“Are you whistling?” she called after him.

“Do keep up, witch. We’re in the Otherworld after all.”

He had a point.

She sighed and glanced back at the portal, her last moment to decide if she wanted to make a break for it or decide he wasn’t lying to her.

Aisling shrugged and started after him. Faeries couldn’t lie, and if he was twisting his words, then he was fantastic at it. This was a rare opportunity, and she planned to fight tooth and nail to make certain it didn’t end with her head separated from her body.

The brush cracked and shook and then a furry, black body burst out of the brambles and raced through the forest after the Unseelie. Lorcan bounded across emerald green moss, launched himself off the side of a trunk, gracefully arched in the air before he landed on the pads of his feet.

“Aisling, you’re too slow,” he shouted.

“Are you happy to be here?”

“Of course. It’s the Otherworld, you foolish girl!”

Even her “not” familiar liked this place more than the human world. Shouldering the weight of the Unseelie’s pack, she shook her head and started after them, taking her time.

Thankfully, there was still human food left. It wouldn’t sustain her for a long time, but she wasn’t going to touch anything in the Otherworld until she was certain she could return to the human realm. The legends all said a person who ate of faerie food or drank faerie wine would be stuck here forever.

It wouldn’t be the worst place to be stuck. She reached out and touched a tree, marveling at the silver bark. Even the plants were a hundred times more elegant than those she had grown up with. Leaves fell in slow motion, tree trunks looked like molten silver, and roots poked through the ground, curled in spiral patterns.

How was it possible for a place to be so beautiful and yet so dangerous?

She followed the Unseelie for an entire cycle of the sun. She counted their steps at times, but lost track of