Free Red Solstice (Alfheim Book 1) by Unknown

name”, I ask.
    “Names are a dangerous thing, Lilly Millefleur, they give you power over people”, he replies, smiling.
    “Then may I ask why I am your target?”
    “That is no problem.  Your grandmother was visited by a soothsayer who foretold that her grandchild would produce the next heir to her land within the year. Therefore I am here to take you back to her”
    “But, that does not necessarily mean me,” I protested  “I do have two brothers”.
    He shrugged “It would seem that your grandmother is not over keen on boys”, he said. “After all they are so unpredictable.
    “Then she is a fool”
    He looks at me as if I have metamorphosised into something  truly strange.  “In your case I am inclined to agree” he says looking thoughtfully at me.  I find him hard to read.  He seems to think along different lines to the people I know.  Maybe that is why he fascinates me, apart from his fondness for geas or whatever they are plural.
    “What will happen to me if I go with you?”
    “She will chose you a rich husband, one who will supply a decent political alliance so ensuring the longevity of her reign.”
    It is all so matter of fact.  No space there for feelings.  I can see why my mother ran away.
    “On the plus side”, he continues, “You can chose as many lovers as you wish once an heir is in place”.
    “She has my undying gratitude then” I reply and he laughs out loud.
    “I thought that might please you”, he says.
    “Please me?  What right have you to decide what will please me.  You took advantage of my vulnerability with your unfair use of spells.  Did my grandmother tell you to seduce me: What sort of moral society does that to potential virgins?”
    “But you were not a virgin”.
    “No, but I might have been one and even then what right do you have to sit there judging me, you rapist”
    “I have been called many things” he started but I was not in the mood to listen.
    “you are sending me into slavery with some old man I have never  even met just to satisfy a grandmother who must have been a real monster for my own mother to run away from her and you expect me to be pleased that I can fornicate afterwards and bring up a child to be just like you and your precious people, loose moraled, thoughtless, arrogant, self centred, pompous  You do not know me or what I want or need.   So, will I have to be drugged to go on my honeymoon just because you got slap happy with one of your spells”.
    He is looking genuinely puzzled and then he takes off his jacket and starts to examine it intently.  I am incoherent now with tears, partly of anger and part blessed relief that I have vocalised some of the strangeness running through my head.
    He takes  a deep breathe and stares back at me.  I manage an unfeminine sniff and find myself presented with a pieces of linen shaped like a handkerchief.
    “It should not have affected you to this extent”, he finally said, “It is designed to create a little pliability and the desire to seek me out, so that you would leave with me without any trouble.  I have used it before without things spiralling out of control.  I would not, could not take another without their willing it so.  I thought that,” he pursed his lips and looked down at the ground, “ the way that you looked at me was,” he shook his head and then raised it to look me in the eyes, “ I was certain you felt something more, that you saw beyond this trifling thing and saw me as an object of desire.”  His eyes sparkle like aquamarines and his lips are, I bite my finger to shut the thoughts out of my head,  I do not feel very good, faint almost.  This has been all to much and I need to make my escape before I do something even more irrational.  “I have to go”   I force the words out and resolutely will myself back.  Nothing seems to have moved.  I am not even certain if time has passed since this started  or if it is even real.  I stand with some