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Chapter 14: Allegiance
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 15: Face the Music
I half-stumbled out of the cab outside my apartment building, feeling all the fresh soreness blooming through my body. My breasts, my thighs, and most of all between my legs. But it was a sweet, clear soreness that felt precious even as my body twinged on its way up the stairs. The pain was mixed up in memories of such tremendous pleasure…Just the memory made me catch my breath. But I almost screamed when I opened the door, and Tony and Cass charged me with looks that might have been joy and might have been fury on their faces. They both hugged me, hard, blabbering into my ears to either side as I tried to protect the most bruised parts of me. "Oh jeez, thank g*d," Cass's voice rushed hot against my ear. "When you vanished from the show, we were so scared, we thought something happened—!""We've been on the phone with people all night, we didn't sleep," sputtered Tony. "But you're here and you're okay and—Hester. What happened to your face?""My face?" I reached up to touch my ow
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 16: War Drums
Lord Raelen stood cold and austere, glaring down at me with silver fey-fire eyes from his almost superhuman height. The noble lines of his face were taut with rage. Among my scattered laundry and dehydrated air plants, he looked like a high fantasy actor who'd wandered onto the wrong movie set. But there was nothing phony about this, about the rich magical fury crackling like static electricity on the bedroom air. I closed the door quietly beside me, bowed my head, and curtsied low. I felt my uncle's rage stinging against my skin. I could not defend myself from that kind of power, even if I were bold enough to try. "Explain," boomed my uncle, thunder in his voice. I did not look up at him. "I cannot, uncle.""I do not have the words to tell you what folly, what utter foolishness and treachery—" He couldn't even finish his tirade, drawing in a sharp breath. The air flickered with fury. "If you cannot be trusted with a mortal body, a mortal and independent life, then we shall just
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 17: Windfall
I crumpled, hugging my knees to my chest, turning off my phone, and tossing it onto my bed. I sat there, mind whirling with the aftermath. What the hell did I think I was doing? I knew how I felt. I could admit it to myself, even if I couldn't to anyone else. And what about my career? I should be creating music, devoting myself to art—what did it matter if I made it big or not? There was a soft knock on my bedroom door. "Hey, Hester?" It was Cass, tentative but obviously excited. "You good? I thought I heard you talking to somebody.""Just the phone," I said, gulping down the lump in my throat. "Thanks for checking.""Are you, ah, up to look at something right now?""Sure. Come on in."Cass peeked around the door, a laptop balanced open on her forearm and her face radiant with enthusiasm. "So now that we know you're like alive and everything, I finally went back and checked my business email to catch up on stuff from last night and…"She turned the computer, angling it so I co
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 18; House Call
For two weeks, I thought I was safe from myself. There were those fancy lunches and fancy dinners, the open amusement and fascination by the record execs that I brought my roommate and her brother to those fancy meals, and even greater fascination when I turned down their proffered managers and told them in no uncertain terms that I was sticking with the excellent manager I already had. When I signed, it was with a label that didn't raise their eyebrows at that. Suddenly we were scheduling studio time, and Cass was in meetings and on the phone what seemed like 24/7 to set up a European and American tour. These wouldn't be stadium set-ups, but smaller venues: rock clubs and more boutique performance spaces, where the beer on tap was local and the sound guy was a local college kid. In a few months, I would be on the move. And there was plenty of buzz; I surrendered my social media to Cass as suggested by the label and watched my calendar fill up with interview dates and podcast appeara
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 19: An Understanding
I seriously considered just not going up there. It would have been so easy—or at least, far simpler and safer—to keep sitting here in my mess of a room, reviewing interview notes, pretending that I hadn't heard what Toby said. But now Sy's presence was a pressure on my thoughts; I couldn't read my notes without the flash of dark eyes catching at my imagination. I smiled involuntarily, biting my lip. I couldn't ignore this. Or at least, I wouldn't find any kind of peace of mind. Who was I kidding? Sy and I were bound together, somehow. Was that what love was, here in the mortal world? Something you clung to, rather than drifted away from in a long eternity? I had no idea. I'd never been in love in Faerie either. The trouble was…what if this was all just some strange fluke of magic? Seelie and Unseelie mingling on the mortal plane. Who knew what havoc that could cause? Was this the reason Seelie stayed away from Unseelie instinctively stayed away from each other? This…madness?I pic
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 20: The Good Stuff
Sy uncanceled his American tour, with a proviso: it was going to be OUR tour now. Side by side, he said as we lay in the sun-drenched haze of a suite in the nearest luxury hotel. I was coiled under deliciously smooth blankets, tucked against the firm heat of his ribs, reading over his shoulder as he typed out typical, curt, Sy-ish texts to his manager, his agent, his producer. He didn't ask; he stated. Tour is back on. Hester is headlining with me. Make it happen. As he typed, I focused on the pleasant thrill of the magic lingering on our skin: that golden feeling was like the slick of sweat, but if sweat felt how candy tasted. It's hard to put magic into human terms; that's part of the reason fae make such excellent poets and singers and storytellers. We have senses that reach to truths humans don't even know they're dreaming of.Sy put down his phone, screen down, on the sheets. His arm snuggled around me, fingers winding into my silvery hair. "It's done," he whispered beside my
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 21: Out of Dodge
Cass and Toby and I parked the fast-food-smelling little Honda in long-term parking at Heathrow and fumbled our bags into the terminal through the muggy summer evening. We didn't even make it to the self check-in kiosk: Sy's security guy, Dave, stood there in his solid, expressionless professional stance, waiting for us. "Mr. Dage is in the private lounge," said Dave, without introduction. "He's asked that you join him. I will take care of your tickets and check your luggage.""Oh, ah, thanks," Cass tried to put on her best manager-in-charge voice, but she looked even shorter and tinier in front of Dave's massive bulk. "But it's all carry on. We, ah, didn't want to shell out for checked luggage."Dave's steely expression gave no hint of scorn, but I read between the lines when he said, "There's nothing to trouble yourself about. Mr. Dage owns the plane. There is no charge."I blinked. A private plane. Of course he hadn't bothered to mention that. One more small prank—mischief was
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 22: New York, New York
Barely twenty-four hours later, we were standing on stage at Madison Square Garden. The view was a blur of brilliant stagelights, sliding and twisting around each other, their intense heat crisping my face like strong sunshine. I could sense the massive crowd invisible beyond those lights, the pressure of their cheers intensifying as the spotlight found me. For a moment I couldn't breathe. Then I felt the shift of air as Sy stepped up beside me. I felt myself relax. I suddenly felt balanced, as if some cosmic scale had come into alignment. It felt deeply absurd to be afraid of this moment, this dreamed-of goal suddenly materializing in real life. And it felt absurd to be afraid when I knew what we could do together.Sy looked at me, and the smile on his face was full of sweet secrets, remembered delights. The hotel countertop. The airplane shower. This morning in the sweet quiet of the early morning, tenderly waking each other up. When he was near, I felt like I could do anything. My
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Prince from the Other Side Chapter 50: Prying Eyes
The morning light struck in through the wide picture windows of the chalet bedroom. We were still firmly in bed, sticky with sweat and Sy's slow whiskey kisses from the night before. I couldn't stop touching him, even lazily half asleep. I kissed his jaw, the subtle rise of the dark laurel tattoo, his shoulder. I felt him nuzzle his nose into my hair. "We have to get up," he whispered, and I shivered with pleasure as I felt his hot breath against my ear transform into a teasing nibble. "People are going to start getting here soon.""Hmmmph…Just a little while longer."His palm slid up my rips, kneading distractingly at my breast."And you're not helping," I scolded, pressing against him. I felt his c*ck stirring against my leg, and we lay there together in the tender potential of what might come next. A gentle repetition of last night: my lips coaxing him to attention, his hips firm and strong against mine as he pushed deep, igniting all my most secret senses. He was careful aroun
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 49: The Break
My heart sank like a stone, hard into my gut. I took a half step, trying to put myself between that mighty silver sword and Sy, protected by nothing but his dignity and a ripped t-shirt. But Sy tugged at my hand, holding me back. His voice was firm and clear as he continued. "But Lord Raelen made a mistake in trying to frame me in this instance. I remember the execution of the killer from my youth. I remember his fruitless instance on his innocence. And I remember the one piece of evidence offered: the murder weapon itself. There was no doubt his essence was linked to it. A forensic certainty. But there was no consideration that this might be a trick of new magic, a magic developed and kept secret for the very purpose of pulling off the ruse. If I may…"And he leaned down, picking up the dagger from the stones. It dripped incriminating red at his feet. The Seelie Court stiffened around their Queen, watching the Unseelie wielding the bloody knife mere feet away from her. But Sy e
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 48: In the Hands of the Queen
The magic caught at once: I felt it ignite like a dynamite fuse, searing towards unstoppable explosion. The Queen's attention was on us. It was like looking up at an impossibly tall ocean wave about to crash down on your head.But Realen moved fast. The next thing I knew, I had toppled out of his arms to the hard ground. The air around me was an explosion of silvery Seelie magic and the golden burst of Sy's invocation. I scrambled blindly forward over the broken stones, toward that sense of safe, familiar gold. Toward Sy. I had to get to him before…Song echoed to my ears, a song so delicate and lovely it shimmered against my skin like pleasure. The might of the Seelie court in its glory crashed like waves of thunder. The gray light of this place exploded into brilliant silver. Horse hooves, charging, shook the ground. The horses were spectral, cloud-like, too lovely to be physically real, as was the armored woman astride the lead mare's back. Queen Titania sat tall, impossibly, on
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 47: The Danger of a Name
I felt pressure around my stomach, a powerful arm hooked across my ribs. Then I felt the swell of sweet Seelie magic all around me, the brilliance halo of silver and softness. My uncle was holding me against him, my back to his chest. And he was holding a knife at my throat. THE knife. Why was I still alive?Then my eyes focused, and I saw Sy.He was standing free of his chains—and the chains themselves lay in broken pieces behind him, splinters of black metal embedded in the wall. Sy was irredentist with golden magic, wrapped in it, as if he were standing at the center of a hollow golden sun. Magic sparked from his fingertips and his wrathful dark eyes. "Let her go," he snarled. There was granite in his voice. I waited for Jarrah to make a mocking retort, but there was nothing. I strained my eyes sideways, toward where I thought Jarrah would be standing. All I saw was a dark, sooty smear on the flagstones. One of his dark boots lay half melted at one end. I didn't have to as
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 46: Justice
There was only a second to act. Luckily, Jarrah hadn't seen me pull my phone from my pocket when he flipped me over. And he didn't see my thumb hovering over the 'play' icon until it was too late.A burst of golden magic ignited on the air as mine and Sy's recorded voices burned together in the stillness. I felt the rush of magic through my veins, against my skin, and I took hold of the energy at once, pushing all of it I could gather in that second against Jarrah.The Unseelie lord flew backward off me, the knife flying from his hand as he crashed into the broken flagstones behind him. He was on his feet in the next moment, but so was I. The music was still playing. I balled my hands into fists, pulling more and more of that magic to myself. I pushed the magic around me in another rush, just in time. I felt Lord Raelen's attack smash against my magic barrier from behind me. I shuffled quickly to get out from between the two powerful fae lords, pulling golden magic around me agai
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 45: An Opportune Murder
"Uncle!" I screamed, vision blurring with relieved tears. Lord Raelen turned his elegant, serene face toward me, wreathed in silvery Seelie magic, and I saw nothing at all in his expression. That's when I knew I'd made a terrible, terrible mistake."Lord Jarrah, I believe I was perfectly clear," said my uncle calmly. "I instructed that she be dead by the time of my arrival. I have no wish to see this."Maybe there was the smallest tremor in his voice. Maybe."Uncle?" I wheezed, straining to make sense of this—though of course it made perfect sense. I just couldn't admit it to myself. "Silence, child." Lord Raelen did not look at me, his face turned deliberately away to look instead at Jarrah's face. "This is necessary. It pains me, but it is quite necessary. Jarrah—""Why?!" I shouted, choking, hands scrambling against the stones. "Uncle, what is happening?!""War is a necessity, my dear child," whispered my uncle, and his composure did not slip an inch. "The Queen is weak. Th
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 44: A Trap Closes
Darkness and cold buffeted my skin, tangible malicious magics nipping at me like tiny insects. But all of a sudden, we burst out again into air and light—that same, no-man's-land gray light of the sky. I twisted, trying to grip Jarrah's wrist to relieve some of the terrible tension on my scalp as I dangled by the hair in his grip. My eyes swam with tears, but I blinked them away, trying to focus. We were in the overgrown, stony ruins of what might have once been the great hall of some ancient palace. The floor was broken by huge tree roots and the shifting of earth. This place had been empty for a long, long time—forgotten, in fact. I'd never heard of a palace in the borderlands between the Seelie and Unseelie realms. I heard a cry of distress and despair—in a voice I knew as well as my own. "Sy!" I screamed. "Sy, where are you?!"Suddenly Jarrah's hand let go of my hair, and I crashed, sprawled, onto the broken stones. I raised my head, mind swimming with pain and confusion a
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 43: Homeward Bound
I knew before I opened my eyes that it had worked. The sense of the air was entirely different here, the magical energy in every atom of the breeze against my face. But there was something strange and sour about the overwhelming tide of Seelie magic prickling against my skin. Something cold at its heart, where there should be summer warmth and vibrance.I opened my eyes. I was sitting on a vast, rocky plain. It was somewhere I'd never seen before. It wasn't Seelie land; neither was it Unseelie. This must be the barren no-man's land between the two realms, in the space where the Seelie's eternal summertime sank into Unseelie shadow. I stood carefully, gripping the iron poker, and slung the guitar over my back. I didn't like the raw sense of this place, its tangled sense of chaos and unbalance. But Sy was around here somewhere. I was sure. I'd spent so much of my energy getting here focusing on him, on my longing for him, that I knew the magic wouldn't have dropped me far off the
Prince from the Other Side Chapter 42: The Way Is Open
There were preparations to make first. I had the energy—the comments just kept coming—but now I needed direction. Wandering into Faerie with nothing but a lovelorn heart and bald desperation didn't seem like it would take me very far at all, and it certainly wouldn't do Sy any good. I gathered up the various mismatched scented candles from around the chalet's various over-designed bathrooms and arranged them in a careful circle on the living room floor. There was a convenient grill lighter stocked beside the wood stove. Then I descended down into the studio and retrieved the nearly empty whiskey bottle from last night and Sy's beater guitar, the less-than-tour-ready model he played around on for fun. Into the candle circle they went. I had the iron poker, but in a world of magic and fae forms, the iron wouldn't be doing any convenient banishing. It would certainly hurt any faerie flesh it touched, but in all likelihood that would just make the fae party pissed and pained rather t
