Cienna's Amulet, A Christmas Romance (Raymara Barwil Romance) (4 page)

“Cienna, whenever I’m with you it doesn’t work. Believe me, I tried when I first knocked at your door and when you found me in your house...you do something to me…” He had been unable to finish as Cienna leaned forward and began kissing him, reaching her warm hands to his manhood again...

A flash of light had interrupted their lovemaking and looking up they had seen three cloaked figures in the trees who had jumped down, and began digging clawed hands into Cienna and Miguel’s naked flesh. Miguel had been powerless and his cries of pain pierced Cienna’s heart. The heat had been faster to come this time and as she struck each of the pestriors, her ring glowing bright red, they had been instantly incinerated to ash and smoke.

“You’re a handy sprig-gan to have around, you know…” smiled Miguel as they hurriedly re-dressed.

“What is a sprig-gan when it’s at home?” Cienna smiled back, relieved that Miguel was unharmed.

“A faery my dear… Now, we must hurry before more pestriors come along. We must stick to the motorway and stay out in the open with the other motorists.  Hurry! What would Joseph say if he knew we were having a sexual pause at the time of the attack? He’s trusted me with your life… and you saved me!” They jumped back in the car and continued their journey.

Cienna was thoughtful. That attack had taught her that her anger was directly related to the force of the heat that she could generate. It was now obvious that the ring had a major something to do with the power that she now had. Damawyn, you knew this was going to happen...

Now, as they stood holding hands, this all seemed like a lifetime ago. Cienna turned to Miguel, “I’m nervous about meeting my father. I’ve been so angry at him for so many years I don’t know how I’ll react. I’ve never even seen a picture of him.”

“He’s a wise, generous and kind man Cienna. He’ll explain everything to you when you meet him. He took me in when I was only fourteen after my parents were taken by pestriors in Spain. I didn’t understand then...he was the one who told me about my faery heritage,” he said, his voice breaking.

His eyes are filling with tears, I feel his pain.

“Shh, it’s okay. I’m sure he had his reasons,” said Cienna gently, placing her arms around Miguel’s waist.

Chapter 6

“My dear, you are the last fire faery. Your mother was also a fire faery, she was killed by dark forces just after you were born. They have been trying to wipe faeries off the face of the earth since time began. Cienna, you need to know that I sent you away with your grandmother to protect you.”

Joseph’s light grey eyes shone as he placed a hand on Cienna’s head. They were in his chamber, in the Castylly Sprig-gan, in the centre of Caer Sen Senana, an invisible land to humans, accessed by the faery-folk via Sennen Cove beach. He sat in a large mahogany throne-like chair,

Cienna sat curled at his feet. She looked into her father’s face, drinking in his features
recognising herself in the curve of his lips, the tilt of his nose. His curls were white and stopped at his shoulders but now she knew where she got some of her features from and she was fascinated to see herself in this man. She looked nothing like her Damawyn, who had been tall and fair haired, with larger more rounded facial aspects.

“I am descended from the Dryad faeries. We live all over the world but originate in Celtic countries, we protect the trees but our element is air. The fire fairies are the most powerful. As long as we have a fire fairy in our midst, we can keep the pestriors at bay. You see, their aim is to make this earth barren, to destroy the trees, animals and upset the environment until the human race eventually dies out. They wish to take over this earth and raise up the spirits of their evil ancestors. We, the evolved faeries and our full faery ancestors before us have always existed to protect nature and its balance to keep the human race going.”

Cienna nodded. She was exhausted and did not have the energy to speak.

###

About ten miles after her and Miguel had quitted Loggans Moor, her car had broken down some miles from the village of Sennen, where snow was falling lightly but steadily.

They abandoned the car on a deserted roadside but were unable to find a taxi service that would take them even close to where they needed to go and so they trekked for more than an hour to reach Sennen Cove. Miguel, who seemed to know exactly where to go, had grown increasingly quiet as they got closer to their destination and his mood seemed to grow dark. They had walked in silence for the final half hour across snow covered fields until Miguel had stopped at a particularly large oak tree and closed his eyes.

Joseph is near, I can feel him. He opened his eyes.

“Cienna your father is near. Air faeries are able to communicate with each other by telepathy. Be ready.” Before he finished speaking, a hooded figure in a cloak had moved from behind the tree. Cienna immediately lifted her right hand and willed her ring to trigger its fire against this dark force. Nothing happened. She didn’t feel warm in the slightest now and for the first time she could feel the real chill of the winter air.

“Get back, pestrior,” she hissed, as the cloaked figure drew closer. She saw with relief that it was a human hand that emerged and pulled the cloak off. The man under the cloak had a head of white hair and was not much taller than her.

“I’m no pestrior...my daughter.” He ran to her and squeezed her, laughing and crying and lifted her off her feet.

As his words sank in, she did not resist and hugged him back gently. Despite herself she had cried like a little girl. Miguel had walked a few yards away and stood watching them, smiling wryly. He had completed his mission and he was happy for both of them, but for some reason he felt jealous. I’m losing her already... There’s no way that Joseph will free her to be with me. Not when he has finally got her back. She deserves time to be with him, but I want her to myself. How can I go back to my life and be happy without her?

###

Listening to her father in the castylly that first night, Cienna’s whole life had become clear to her; her father had always loved her, Damawyn was right all along. She had never really felt she belonged anywhere and had been unable to commit herself to working for anyone full time. Working freelance had given Cienna a feeling of freedom and her Damawyn had never pushed her to follow a particular career.

Damawyn always told me to follow my heart and do what I felt was right. This feels so right. Kilkhampton was perfect, but this feels like my true home. She had decided that she would write to Alice and Bethany asking them to watch over her house while she was away, as she had gone to travel the world. They would not question it as they knew how impulsive she could be and Cienna had always spoken about this dream with them.

“Was Miguel a good companion? He’s like a son to me and I knew I could trust him to bring you safely to me.”

“Oh yes, I really enjoyed his company, although I thought he was stark raving mad when he first approached me with your message!” She laughed to cover up her blushes as she thought about what an excellent companion Miguel had been.

After accompanying Cienna and her father to the castylly, Miguel had left to return to Spain where he was taking care of Joseph’s former forestland with the other faeries that still lived there. He had said a quick goodbye to Cienna with a pat on her shoulder. As her father was around he did not dare to embrace or kiss her, although his heart was breaking inside.

Cienna had been saddened, but her joy at meeting her father could not be quenched. I tasted what true love could be like
, but maybe it is just not in my destiny. I will hold on to the memories of the hours I spent with him, but I have so much to learn now, I cannot dwell on what could have been...

“Yes, father. He really took care of me. He’s a good man,” she continued, with a small sigh.

“I am now unable to leave Caer Sen Sennen, Cienna. That is why I could not come for you myself, after your Damawyn died. The Castylly Sprig-gan is now the only safe zone which the pestriors can’t enter. I was badly injured in Spain, last year by a coven of pestriors, who stole my amulet, or soon as it’s called here, and my powers are now limited. During this attack they found out that you were living in England and it must have taken them all those months to figure out exactly where.”

“You mean an amulet like my ring?” asked Cienna.

“Yes, we all have soons that intensify our powers. Your ring contains an opal stone that can only help fire faeries. My soon was an emerald bracelet.”

I wonder what Miguel’s amulet was...he never told me...

Chapter 7

Happy New Year, Damawyn. I miss you so much.

Cienna rubbed her ring as she walked down on the hillside. She didn’t feel like joining in the celebrations in the castylly with the other faery folk who had been playing musical instruments and singing all evening. Her father was particularly gifted at playing the harp and as Midnight had drawn closer, he had played a particularly heart rending tune whilst singing a ballad that he had written about her mother and her beauty, whilst she had been pregnant with Cienna.

It all became too much and she had fled the castylly, seeking solace in the night air. The faeries she had met over the past week were a happy and positive bunch. Most of them had known what they were from birth and were comfortable in their skins, but for her it was still a shock getting used to this new life with all the powers and secrecy it entailed.

Her thoughts turned to Miguel. He would understand. He knew what it was like to think you were one thing, then to suddenly have your reality turned upside down.

I miss you too. I only knew you for a few days, but I miss you, like I miss Damawyn. Even worse because I know you’re out there somewhere…do you miss me the same?

She leaned against the nearest tree as she almost collapsed with the strength of her feelings.

How could I just let you go like that? I was so caught up in father that I didn’t even say goodbye properly!

Cienna heard footsteps approaching and quickly stood up. As she squinted into the darkness, she saw that it was Joseph and she smiled. He had done so much to make her feel welcome; she did not want him to see her sadness.

###

The New Moon shone over the forest as Miguel walked on. Trees were no obstacle as he went through them, the molecules of his body shrinking down into nothing as he passed through solid objects and reappearing as he reemerged. His mind was frantic and he could not focus on anything apart from the tightness in his chest. It had started since he left Cienna at Caer Sen Senana and grown worse every day he spent in Spain. He was missing her; his heart was breaking more with every hour that passed. He had never felt like this before.

The other faeries would be feasting as they did whenever there was a New Moon, but this was the mid-January Moon, the first one of the new year and so it was an extra special night for their people. He could not join in with the feasting. He had no appetite and was only hungry for Cienna’s love.

As he strode on, he remembered her face when he had first entered her. Her eyes had grown wide and he knew it had been her first time. With every stroke he made he had fallen into an abyss of love like he had never known before and when they had burst into ecstasy together that night, he had vowed to himself that he would make her his own forever.

He was now going to fulfill that promise, if she would have him, no matter what the consequences with Joseph would be.

The lights in the trees did not catch his attention at first. They were always displayed on special occasions when clusters of fire flies would gather in decorative displays for the faeries’ delight. Faeries found it highly amusing that humans would try to emulate this effect, using what they called fairy lights in their Christmas trees. Nothing was as beautiful as the real thing.

The lights gradually became brighter and soon Miguel noticed that the path to the entrance of the Faery caves, near the entrance to Caer Sen Senana was lit up on both sides by fireflies that hovered symmetrically.

He had come back to Cornwall, to Sennen Cove, on the night of the Duggle of the First Moon, to declare his love for Cienna, but it looked like there was something special going on here.

He heard the whispering of many voices as he reached the rocks that signified the secret entrance to the faery caves, and as he muttered the chant that revealed the entrance, he walked into a great crowd who all turned to him, smiling and stood aside to let him walk through. “Hurry, boy, you’re going to miss it!” said an elderly earth flower fairy who he had known since he first came to Cornwall.