Outcast (Book Two of the Forever Faire Series): A Fae Fantasy Romance Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

take a selfie with you.”
    “’Tis is a shock, but ‘twill pass.” He urged her to bend forward until her forehead nearly touched her knees, and kept his arm around her shoulders. “Did you never wonder why you were so different from the other children around you?”
    “Too busy trying not to get my ass kicked by the older kids. Group homes suck.” His hands left her, and as Christine straightened she had to grab the edge of the crates to stay upright. “So my mom or dad was like you?”
    Colm nodded. “’Twas likely your father. Mortal women are very hard to resist, especially when we are hurt.”
    Christine listened with increasing awe as he told her about the Fae, and how they lived in secluded clans hidden from the rest of the world. While they looked mostly human, they were bigger, stronger, and more intelligent. They possessed superhuman abilities from birth that were related to their bloodlines and their own personal powers. They used magick, too, not only to disguise themselves but to protect their property and their people from their enemies, known as Dark Fae.
    As soon as she heard that Christine muttered, “The Blackstones.”
    “Aye. They’re among the worst of our darkest kin.” Colm sat down beside her. “I’m told you escaped them by using your power.”
    “That, and a lot of luck.” She touched a lock of his dark red hair, which curled around her fingers as if it were alive before slipping free. “What the hell am I gonna do with all this, Colm? I’m just a dancer with a good eye for angles. I never finished school– God, I can barely read. Maybe all that wonderful Fae stuff skipped me, or I took after my human mama.”
    “Without weapons or aid you outwitted and escaped a horde of Dark Fae,” he reminded her. “There are battle-hardened warriors I know who would quail at the same prospect. Your clan would be very proud.”
    “Since I’m a half-human love child, maybe not.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “You still like me, though, right? Maybe you could introduce me to your folks someday.”
    A muscle on his jaw ticked. “I have no clan. I am an outcast, as are all the other Fae here.”
    “They kicked you out?” She felt indignant. “I thought they were supposed to be smart people.”
    That startled a chuckle out of him. “You flatter me.”
    “Not really.” Christine wanted to do a lot more than that. “So why did these dumbasses do it?”
    His amusement abruptly faded. “For our misdeeds, each of us was sentenced to dwell forever in the mortal realm as eternal exiles. We have tried to make Forever Faire our clan, but it can never truly be the same. We are shunned by our kind. No Fae woman would leave her clan to be wife to an exile, or bear his children. The men take what comfort they can with mortal females, yet we must still conceal what we are. We do not age as they do, and their lives by comparison are so brief, it seems a cruelty to expect more than a brief dalliance.”
    The way he said that made her eyes sting. “Is that why you never…”
    “I am not like the others.” He gave her hand a gentle pat. “Your attentions are gratifying, my lady, but they are wasted on me. Since I was cast out I have been incapable with women.”
    “Okay.” Christine blinked. “I mean, not okay. Not okay at all. Colm, have you even tried?”
    Before Colm could answer, someone shouted for him outside the tent.
    “We will talk again later.” He stood up and moved away from her, disappearing for a moment in another shower of tiny stars before he changed back into a regular guy.
    “Hey.” Christine climbed off the crates. “You gonna tell me what you did to get kicked out of the Fae club?”
    “I fell in love with the Fae Queen, and gave her my heart.” Before he stepped out of the tent, he glanced back at her. “She still has it.”

Chapter 7
    “ I ’M TIRED ,” TARA complained as she finally came out of the bathroom. “Do I have to do this?”
    “Why,