The Endless Series book 1: The Fairys Bargain

Chapter Five: Emma Endless

Five

The apartment needed to be packed up. If left after a week, without any notice, there would be questions. There had to be no questions. When Louisa returned from sending Clark to faerie to look for Ben, the packing started.

It was done quickly, swiftly, without any conversation. I had tried to say something when she arrived, but no words would come out. “You told her?” was all she said with a look at Bradley.

Louisa had always had a good read on when something was wrong.

He grimaced. “I had to, Louisa. Someone had to! Would you rather it be Oberon? Because we’re getting to the point where that’s what would happen. Do you want her to hate you for eternity?”

“It’s not my fault,” Louisa said, “I didn’t ask Mum to make that deal. She made it on her own. Why do you think I didn’t want you getting involved with Ben? Or moving here? No attachments. That’s always been the rule. Always.”

“Funny, you didn’t warn me off of Clark,” I said.

Louisa snorted. “Oh, please. Clark’s always on his moral high horse. He might be in love with you, but he was never going to be with you. The amount of times I had to talk him off a ledge for his feelings, he wasn’t ever going to be a threat. He might have been adopted, but he’s our brother. Besides, you’ve never been interested in him. I’d know. If you are really honest with yourself Emma, you’ve always been a bit fascinated by Oberon, haven’t you?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” I said coldly, and grabbed a cardboard box from nearby, “I’m going to go pack my room. Don’t follow. I suggest you start with the kitchen. Try not to break anything, since you seem to be so good at that.”

I stormed away from her, to my bedroom. I started with my books. The ones I’d brought with me to New York from England, that had been my childhood. The advanced reader copies of the ones I’d worked on. Ben’s book, The Dragon Queen, the one that had brought us together in the first place.

I was packing up my life. A life I would never see again. I grabbed Bens book, hugged it to my chest, and crumpled on the floor. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. I knew I would be giving up the apartment, my single life when I married Ben. But then, it had seemed exciting. Now, it was as if I was being swallowed whole by a marriage I didn’t want, and there would be no part of me left.

A sob wrecked through me as I hugged the book.

The door opened, and there stood Louisa, with Bradley right next to her, both looking from me to each other with concern. They sat down with me on the floor and wrapped their arms around me.

For the whole of the evening, we stayed like that, as I grieved for my mortal life.

At some point, I fell into a sleep, the kind of sleep only a long, tired, out cry can bring. When I came to, I was on the floor, in my room, but Bradley and Louisa were gone.

“I’m hurt, my dear fiancé,” Oberon’s voice drawled, “does our time together really mean so little to you?”

He was sitting on the edge of my bed, still wearing the same, form fitting suit he had earlier. It was strange, seeing him in mortal clothes. Clothes that, unfortunately for me, made him look really, really, good.

I picked myself up off the ground.

“You used me,” I hissed, “you lied to me.”

“Tricked,” he said, “there’s a distinction. Faeries can’t lie, remember? Regardless of the way it happened, we were still together, little one.”

“I was seventeen!”

“I know,” he answered, “as was I.”

“You pretended to be seventeen. You weren’t seventeen. You weren’t honest about anything.”

He got up from the edge of my bed, walking towards me slowly, his eyes changing from green, to yellow, to red, back to green. “I was honest about how I feel about you. I know you were honest about the way that I made you feel. I made you writhe with my fingers, I made you spend with a single touch.”

He towered over me, his head almost hitting the ceiling. Faeries were tall, nearly god like. He had long, blond hair, and there wasn’t a single, part of him that didn’t scream warrior. He was a fighting machine, all muscle.

I did remember how he had made me feel.

I’d been seventeen when it happened. It was during midsummer. Louisa and I had sneaked through the gateway, curious about the faerie celebrations we knew would be taking place.

It had been dangerous, going to the faerie court because of my Mothers bargain with the King. But I had begged and pleaded with Louisa for months to take me before she reluctantly agreed.

The Gateway was in the garden of the estate, in the center of the maze. It was a blue door that wasn’t attached to anything, that seemed to lead to nowhere at first until you stepped through. We had dressed in pink and purple formal dresses; the kind American girls wore to prom and had put flowers in our hair.

There was wine drinking, and love making happening all over. Every fey had a kind of firey look in their eye, determined to make trouble. Louisa was swept away by a pretty redheaded female fey, and I watched the dancers, off to the side.

I swayed in time with the music, humming softly as I did. I didn’t know the steps, didn’t want to draw attention to myself so I watched without participating Until, in the center of the dancers, there appeared a young fey boy who appeared to be about my age.

He was skinny, lithe, with blond hair. A single braid had been made, tied with golden thread. He came towards me. “I smell Endless blood on you.”

I swallowed. “I’m the great granddaughter of Edward Endless.”

“Edward Endless….” He smirked. I should have known then who he was, but I’d been a fool.

“The one and only,” I said.

“Which granddaughter are you? Louisa? Or Emma?”

I bit my lip. I should have given my name, but I had never met the faerie king. I didn’t know what would happen if he found out I was there, but perhaps if he thought I was the gatekeeper I would be spared.

“Louisa,” I lied.

He smiled. “Emma.”

“I---”

“Your nostrils flare when they lie.”

“Who are you then?”

He paused. “What’s it matter? Are you planning on staying forever in faerie, human?”

“Maybe,” I said.

“Hmm. You would fit. You look very much like a court faerie in that dress. But that was a dress that was meant to be danced in. Come, dance with me.” He took me by his hand, leading me out to the dance floor.

The musicians were playing drums, and bagpipes. The moment that we joined, the dance slowed, joined by a harpsichord, and a piano. The tune turned haunting, as if the musicians had made it specifically with us in mind.

We danced, long into the night, arms wrapped around each other, chest on chest. It was as if we had been crafted into a statue. ‘Figure of lovers’ or something equally ridiculous. I didn’t care. I was entranced by this strange, young, faerie.

He kept on getting me glasses of faerie wine. Which I knew I shouldn’t have drank, but I did anyway, until my lips were stained red, and I was laughing with heady excitement, buzzed, bubbling.

We made our way to the woods. There, he pulled me close, and kissed me. It was my first, real, kiss. I did not count the frantic, troubled thing that Clark and I had once shared when he was drunk during a New Years Eve party.

“I want to taste you,” he purred into my ear.

I licked my lips in answer, laughing nervously, the wine still making me dizzy, uncertain. He took that as an answer. “Lay down,” he told me.

I did, not entirely certain why I was listening to this stranger. Only knowing that I felt compelled to. “What’s your name?” I whispered, staring into his eyes.

“O,” he answered.

“O?” my brow furrowed. “That’s it?”

He laughed. “Yes, I want you to say my name as you do that.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I’m going to explore you now, Miss Emma Endless, and you are going to open for me in all the best ways. Do you understand?”

I shook my head no. I didn’t know what he was speaking of, but I knew from his tone that it would be pleasurable. “Sit up for a moment, love,” said O.

I did, resting on my elbows. O pulled down her zipper, letting the straps of my dress fall off. “What is that?” he asked, looking at my bra.

“My bra,” I answered.

“Well, it’s coming off,” O told me, and he removed that too. The dress had fallen off, leaving nothing but my breasts. He took them in his hand, massaging my left breast with one hand, making my back arch up.

“Ah!” a gasp escaped me.

O smiled, pleased with my reaction. “Did you like that, my sweet? I’ll make you feel good. I’ll make you feel wonderful. All over.” His hand crept in underneath the skirt of my pink dress, his fingers caressing my legs in circles, making me shiver with his touch.

I was powerless to stop him, lost in the sensations that his hands were making me feel. Then, I felt it. His hands over my center. Cupping----what I knew from my reading of Mother’s dirty, romance novels-----my center.

I bit my lip. “O!”

He grinned. “Not yet, my sweet. Not yet. I haven’t even started yet.” A single finger entered my center. I bit my lip again, and I could feel him stroking me, playing with my folds, rubbing, and rubbing, making my hips arch up, and a cry escape my lips. He kept on, showing no signs of letting up, obsessed with that little bit of flesh between the center of my thighs.

“Have you been with anyone before, my sweet?” he asked. “You feel divine, but you seem uncertain….”

I shook my head. “No one…. well…no one has ever been interested.”

“I thought I smelled innocence on you.” He grinned. “Let’s take some of that, shall we? Let me have some of you for myself. To remember.” I scrunched my face. I didn’t know what any of that meant, or what we were even doing. I knew it was s****l, I knew of s*x, but I didn’t know all that it entailed.

All I knew was that I wanted the amazing way that he made me feel, to get lost in something bigger than myself. This moment seemed big, a declaration that I was not some prize in a bargain.

He stood up, and pulled off the leather pants that he wore, revealing himself to me. Then next came his shirt It was the first time I had seen a man this way, fully revealed, but he wasn’t a man. He was a faerie. I didn’t know what would come of this, if it was safe to even be with him.

I sat up on my elbows for a second. “O, I don’t think I should…. what if we----”

But he was in me already. Deep inside me, with all his might, taking me for everything until I was nothing but a heap of a girl, crying out the goddesses name each time he touched me. He grunted with each thrust, the fey taking over him, anything resembling a man now a creature of the woods. The fair folk. With a final, guttural sound, sweat dripping down his brow, down my body too, he collapsed onto me.

He wrapped me in his arms, tightly. “Emma,” he whispered, “my Emma. My Queen.”

His words jolted sense through me. “What did you say?”

He pulled back so that he could see me, his face no longer boyish, but that of a hardened warrior. A Kings face. He licked his lips. “Surely you knew it was me. Knew I would find you the moment you stepped into my realm. How could I not? I knew your scent, the instant you were through the gateway.”

“No,” I whispered. My stomach dropped, realizing what I had done, who I had done it with. “I thought I…I thought…”

A sob escaped me. “Get off me!” I cried, hitting his bare chest. “Get off me, get off me!” The sob kept on coming, like a giant river that had been released. His brow furrowed in confusion, but instead of letting me go, he stood, picking me up in his arms, cradling me. He fixed the straps of my dress so that they were on me again and carried me through the woods. The crowd parted, revealing Louisa standing there.

“What did you do?” her gaze was blazing, she looked from me to Oberon.

“I simply took what was mine,” Oberon told her, “I was trying to make certain that she was okay. She was going to do something foolish, so I-----” He placed me down on the ground. Louisa grabbed me, rubbing my shoulders.

“I didn’t know it was him. I didn’t know,” the tears were streaming down my face, my entire body was shaking as I sobbed.

“Come on, Emma. Come on. I’m sorry, I never should have brought you here.” We left, through the door, back to the family estate.

It had been nearly five years since I had thought of that evening. When I had gotten back, Louisa had given me a forgetfulness potion. The same one that she had wanted to use on Ben, before things had become difficult.

But there, with Oberon, in my dream it was impossible to forget. “You lied to me.”

“Faeries can’t lie,” he reminded, “I wasn’t trying to hurt you, Emma. I wanted you…I wanted you to feel comfortable, I thought if I appeared to you as young Oberon instead of King Oberon perhaps I wouldn’t terrify so much. I never lied to you, Emma, not once.”

“I was seventeen,” I insisted, “I wasn’t ready for any of that. s*x should be between two people that love each other. Or that know who they are. It shouldn’t have been a trick.”

“It wasn’t a trick,” said Oberon, “I want to love you, Emma. To care for you. I should have approached it another way, for that I am sorry. I’ve waited for you for years. We haven’t even had a chance to properly be together, already you’ve tried running off with someone else.”

“I’ve been bound to you my whole life,” I whispered, “do you know that when I went to America I had to ask for permission? I was eighteen. I should have been able to make that choice for myself but instead I had to ask you. My brother had to give up five years of his life for me to make that happen! Perhaps you can understand why I wasn’t so thrilled. I don’t have freedom because of you.”

“The Harvest is coming, my sweet.” He stepped forward, taking my hands in his, pressing his forehead to mine. “Come to faerie, marry me, and I will give you everything you desire.”

“You stole my fiancé,” I reminded him, “what makes you think that I would go anywhere with you, willingly?”

“Perhaps, we could come to a new agreement. What I want from you is an heir. Love is secondary. I don’t have to have it. It would be nice if it happened, but I’m the faerie king. Love is fleeting in faerie, especially with a mortal.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“I’m suggesting this,” he placed both of his hands on my shoulders, “come with me to faerie, marry me, and give me an heir. Once my heir has been provided, you are free to do as you wish.”

I frowned. “That sounds too good to be true. There’s got to be some kind of price, there always is with faeries.”

“The price is that you leave the child with me. If you even so much as have contact with the babe, unless I give permission, you’ll be turned to stone.”

“What about Ben?”

“Agree to this, and I’ll give the young man up without a fight. No harm, no fowl.”

“Will I really get my freedom? You won’t try turning me to stone the moment I leave faerie?”

“Only if you return. It will be more beneficial to me, in the long run, raising my heir by myself without outside influence. I suspect, my sweet, that you have a bit of a soft heart. Soft hearts do not survive well in my land.”

I bit my lip. “There’s just one thing.”

“What is it?”

“If I agree to this, I don’t want the child to come looking for me. Or to even know who I am, and I….”

He tilted his head to the side, as if he thought that he could get the answer out of me that way.

I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to remember the child. I want it to be as if it never happened, as if you let me go.”

“Are you certain?” he asked. “Sometimes not knowing is more difficult than knowing.”

I nodded. “I’m sure.”

“One more thing.”

“What’s that? What else could you possibly want from me?”

“If, after a year of being with me, you fall in love with me, you forfeit the right to leave. Promise me this, above all else, and I will enter this bargain with you. I’ll even give you your Ben back. But not until the bargain is complete, and if you forfeit, Ben will lose all memory he ever had of you and faerie.”

“I still have until The Harvest?”

He nodded. “You still have until The Harvest.”

“Okay,” I said, “Okay.”

He grinned. “Excellent! Let’s seal it shall we?”

He kissed me. Kissed me in a way that I hadn’t been kissed since I was seventeen, alone, in the woods of faerie with him. He tasted as good as I remembered, making me hate him more than I already did.

When we parted, he disappeared from the room, as though he had never been there in the first place. I woke with a start, still on the floor of my bedroom, still wrapped in my siblings’ arms.

“Em?” Louisa asked. Her face was filled with big, sisterly concern that made my heartache. What would she think, knowing the deal that I had made with Oberon? “What happened?”

“The bargain has been rewritten,” I croaked, my voice raspy from crying, “he gets my first born, and I get my freedom. Ben will go free.”

Louisa rubbed my shoulders. “Let’s go somewhere the faeries can’t here. We need to talk.”

I nodded in agreement, Louisa woke up Bradley, and the three of us left my apartment to find some place that we couldn’t be heard. It was easier said than done. Faeries could be anywhere, everywhere, and since I was Oberon’s bride of course they would want to listen in on my conversations.

We went to a church. You can find anything open in the middle of the night in Manhattan, and that included a church.