She's No Faerie Princess

She's No Faerie Princess

By

Christine Warren

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Tobias parted the cut in her dress, ripping it slightly

wider to get at the injury…

When he pressed the cotton to her skin, the muscles inher stomach clenched reflexively, and he heard a softgasp whisper between her lips. His gaze shot

immediately to her face, and he found himself staring into eyes the color of an African violet and just as soft.

Framed by her inky lashes, they held him riveted with her calmly curious expression.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice low and husky and tumbling from between lips so sweet and red he thought they ought to come with a warning label, "but I don't think we've met before. Who exactly are you?"

"A sexy, engaging world spiced with humor that draws you in, never lets you go, and will leave you begging for more!"

—Cheyenne McCray, national bestselling author

St. Martin's Paperbacks Titles

By Christine Warren

Wolf at the Door

She's No Faerie Princess

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters,organizations and events portrayed in this novel areeither products of the author's imagination or are usedfictitiously.

she's no faerie princess

Copyright © 2006 by Christine Warren.

Excerpt from
 
The Demon You Know
 
copyright © 2006 by

Christine Warren.

ISBN: 0-312-34776-6

EAN: 978-0312-34776-5

Printed in the United States of America

St. Martin's Paperbacks edition / November 2006

St. Martin's Paperbacks are published by St. Martin's

Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

For J, K, and S. Again.

Because they love me even when I don't speak to them

for weeks at a time.

SHE'S NO

FAERIE PRINCESS

CHAPTER 1

"She's three hundred and thirty-seven years old. That's a

bit late to be running away from home."

"She aren't running away from home. She just taking a

vacations."

"It looks a lot like running."

"And how does you know what running look like, you big

pansy? You is too old to get faster than a hobbles!"

"Shush!" The hiss in Fiona's voice got her companions' attention, and they fell into a tense, bristling silence. "Silent" or "sniping" described how Babbage and Squick spent nearly all their time together, but at the moment, Fiona had other things to worry about. She couldn't afford a distraction. "I told the both of you that if you wanted to come see me off, you were going to have to be quiet. If you can't manage that, I can always send you back to the palace."

The pixie and the imp exchanged fulminating glares, onefrom the spot where he fluttered beside Fiona's head, theother from his perch on her shoulder. She ignored themboth, concentrating on making sure they weren't beingfollowed as she picked a path through the dense, coolforest north of the Summer Palace. Normally, no onewould have cared that she'd gone and certainly no onewould have stopped her, but as she had recentlyrealized, very few things these days were "normal" at the

Seelie Court.

"Your Highness," the pixie broke in again, his tone clearly

disapproving, "I really think it would be better—"

She fixed him with a sweetly dangerous smile. "Babbage,my dear friend, if you don't shut up in the next fiveseconds, I might just change my mind and take you withme."

The resulting silence lent a genuine curve to her smile. She could hear Squick chortling beside her ear, but sheignored him. She'd learned long ago not to encourage theimp. Or any imp. It only gave them ideas.

The pixie continued to flutter beside her head and castdisapproving glares in her direction, but disapproval didn'tbother Fiona. She'd grown far too used to it over theyears. Babbage, on the other hand, lived in mortal fear of Queen Mab's disapproval, which was why the threat ofbringing him along to the human world had shut him up insuch a hurry. Fiona's aunt had decreed this particularvacation destination off-limits to her people ages ago,and Babbage had never been one to disobey a directorder. Unlike Fiona.

Turning away from examining the trail behind her forfollowers, Fiona started forward again, her violet eyesscanning the forest on either side of the trail for any signof pursuit. All remained eerily quiet. For about fifteenseconds.

"Personally, I thinks a little vacation are a fine idea, Princess," Squick piped up, and Fiona didn't have to glance over at his perch on her shoulder to know he'd be grinning tauntingly at Babbage as he spoke. "Things has

been getting real… complicated at court. A nice refreshing tour of boring human land are just whats we needs for lifting our spirits."

Fiona shot him a sideways glance. "Who said anythingabout we?"

The imp looked shocked. "But Missy Fiona! You has totake us with you! Who will protects you if I's not there? The human land cans be a hideous, dangerous places."

"I think I can handle it, Squick. It can't be any more

dangerous than court is becoming."

She grimaced at the truth of her own words. Forsomeone who had grown up at court, as she had, acertain amount of danger was to be expected. Therewere always intrigues and deceptions to deal with,enemies to avoid and loyalties to question, but thesedays, the perils of politics had grown unexpected teeth. Ones that had just yesterday attempted to clamp downon Fiona's unwitting head.

Her mouth firmed into a line of displeasure as sherecalled the experience of being cornered in a remotealcove by a particularly ambitious courtier. The entirepopulation of Faerie knew the queen was planning onnaming her heir from among one of her two dozen or sonieces and nephews before the next Passing Moon, andapparently the odds on Fiona were high enough to makeher an attractive target of would-be consorts. No oneseemed to believe her protestations that she had nointerest in ascending to the Seelie throne. It had taken asnapped temper and a knee to the groin to get themessage across well enough to make her escape, but ithad taken significantly less to convince Fiona it was time

to take a nice, long, remote vacation.

Too bad her chosen spot was on the banned-travel list.

Ever since an incident a few years ago when the queen'snephew had been spotted by several humans as hegallivanted around New York, Her Majesty had gotten alot tougher about enforcing the ban on travel between Faerie and the human world. Most people tried to stayaway from upsetting Mab.

There hadn't been much chance that anything wouldcome of the sightings, considering most humans hadstopped believing in the existence of the Fae—Faeries,as they called them—many human centuries ago, but Mab did not like to be thwarted.

Fiona didn't see how anyone could consider a quick littlevacation to the human world as "thwarting," though. Afterall, it wasn't like your average human would be expectingto see a Fae walking among them, and with a littleglamour—the smallest form of Fae magic—she couldmake sure all they did see when they looked at her wouldbe a perfectly normal human woman.

Even without magic, her basic appearance didn't give heraway. She was human shaped, with one head, two arms,two legs, and the requisite number of eyes and nosesand such, and at five feet, four inches, tall she fell easilyin the acceptable height range for a human female. Herblack hair might be a bit long, since she wore it to herhips as most Fae did, but it's not like it hissed oranything. And if her skin was paler than the averagehuman, well, she could always say she was afraid of skincancer. The Fae were immune to it, but she'd read that itwas a big concern for mortals. The real need for the glamour came from the subtle, luminous bits of magic that nature had woven into her being. The glow that made her skin look more like moonlight than peaches and cream. The bright glitter of starshine in her pure violet eyes. Those were the things that might give her away, but humans, in her experience, were not that tough to fool.

And while the world full of mortals went about itsbusiness in blissful ignorance, she'd be able to do someshopping and take in a few concerts. She'd done it beforewith no problems. She didn't foresee any this time, either.

"I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling about this," Babbage grumbled, apparently unable to bear the living silence of the forest clearing a moment longer. He'd lasted longer than Fiona had expected. Pixies were not well-known for their taciturn natures. "If you step through that gate, you'll be sorry."

"You is always feeling bad," Squick grumbled. "That ain't