Desert Tales Read Free Page A

had always sounded exactly like that when he’d successfully manipulated her. This time, he wouldn’t succeed.
    â€œYou could talk to the others out here,” he added. “The solitary fey will listen to you, and—”
    â€œNo,” she interrupted, foolishly hurt that he still saw her as a means to an end, a piece in a puzzle to be moved at his will. “I won’t ask them to join the Summer Court.”
    As Keenan stepped closer to her, Rika had to grit her teeth to keep from backing away. Winds spun around them, as if it were just the two of them together, apart from the world, as she’d once believed it would be. He didn’t reach out to touch her as he would’ve when she was human, but in the same tone that had haunted far too many of her dreams over the years, he whispered, “I never meant to hurt you. You know me, Rika. It’s a simple vow. Then my court can step in if anyone needs—”
    â€œYour court isn’t needed in my desert, Keenan. We handle things differently out here, and we have no business in court matters. The courts are a world away.”
    â€œYou’re being foolish, Rika. Letting grudges get in the way of what makes sense. Just talk to them.”
    He obviously wanted a way in to the loyalty of the desert fey, and so he was here now whispering regrets and tender words, but she wasn’t a naïve girl, not now, not for decades. She turned and walked away from him, and she didn’t look back even though she could feel the swirls of sand stirring as he resisted his anger.
    After a moment, a gust of wind lashed against her back, and she knew he’d left.
    Melodramatic as always .

C HAPTER 2
    Thinking about the past was something Rika steadfastly tried to avoid, but seeing Keenan dredged up old memories. She shivered, and even the desert heat suddenly wasn’t warm enough to counter the remembered chill. She shook her head as tears slid down her cheeks. Angrily, she wiped them away and looked toward the mortals in the distance climbing up the rock wall of one of the canyons. Three motorcycles—two with saddlebags and camping gear strapped down—were parked in the shadow of the canyon.
    â€œAt least they can’t see me.” Rika wanted to run toward them, to be near the mortals, to be far from where she’d spoken to the faery king, but she kept her pace, slowing briefly only as she passed some jumping cholla cactus. It didn’t truly jump, but like the sweetly named teddy-bear cholla, the spines were easily detached. She’d learned that lesson in her earliest days in the desert. Like some of the native desert fey, some of the plants here were beautiful but would cut her skin with only the barest touch. It was one of the things she liked about the Mojave: here, the faeries weren’t hiding their true nature behind court manners and pretty words. She liked the extreme honesty of the desert and many of its inhabitants.
    As Rika walked across the sand, a soft smile crept over her face as she saw one of those inhabitants, the first mortal to draw her attention so intensely since she’d become fey. Jayce was, like the world around him, real . She wanted to speak to him even more than usual, to lose herself in a conversation with him. She couldn’t. If he wasn’t interested in her, it would crush her.
    â€œIt would probably be a mistake,” she lectured herself, but she still stared at Jayce. Even the lingering clouds that reminded her of Keenan’s visit weren’t enough to completely convince her that her interest in Jayce was wrong.
    The faeries in the desert didn’t come near her as she passed them. They never did, but they stood so that she couldn’t help but see them watching her. Like most desert dwellers, they peered from where they were half-hidden behind the shelter of canyon walls, eyelet canyons, and caves. The faeries who were out in the direct sun moved with a languid