Free The Spinner and the Slipper by Camryn Lockhart

darkness, deeper than night itself.
    “If you would return to the mortal world without my husband noticing,” said the queen, “there are ways this might be arranged.”
    The faerie captain stared at the cloak. Hope rose in his heart, momentarily drowning out his loyalty to Oberon.
    “It is, after all, most unfair that the girl should die because my lordly husband is in a snit,” Titania continued. “He can be most unreasonable at times, as we both well know.” She handed the cloak to the captain, who accepted it without a word. “Go on, good man. Go rescue your lovely lass. Fulfill your vow to the fullest.”
    A number of protests rose up in the green-eyed man’s throat. But his need to hasten to Eliana’s side drove them all back down again. Without even daring to breathe a word of thanks, he donned the cloak, vanishing at once so completely that even Titania’s quick eyes could not follow him. The next moment he sped away from this world to the other.
    Titania chuckled softly to herself, shaking her head. Somehow she knew that her fun was just beginning!
    With this thought in mind she turned from the crystal ball . . . in time to see King Oberon fill the open doorway across the room. She jumped in surprise then greeted him with an enormous, glorious smile. “Good evening, beloved husband!” she cried.
    Oberon grunted and strode into the room. “Don’t you try to distract me with your pretty face and pretty words, woman!” he said. “My good servant Puck tells me that he saw you making away with my cloak of darkness. And I want to know why. ”

    “Since you don’t need me anymore, I suppose I’ll go back where I came from.”
    Eliana leapt up from the spinning stool, dropping the handful of straw she’d been futilely trying to twist into thread. Her shoulder bumped into the faerie man in her haste to turn around and face him. With a glad cry she flung her arms around his slender waist.
    “What took you so long?” she exclaimed, her face buried in his chest. “I thought you’d gone for good!”
    The faerie man drew a sharp breath then patted her head awkwardly. “I was unavoidably detained, dear one,” he said gently. “But I’m here now. I’m here.”
    “I cannot do it on my own,” Eliana said, pulling back, suddenly embarrassed. She put a hand to her flaming face, wishing she could hide her blushes from his quick gaze. “I tried, but . . .”
    “I saw,” said he, smiling down at her. “It was an abysmal effort at best! Apparently you did not inherit your mother’s abilities.”
    Eliana frowned, shaking her head quickly. “I know it was a foolish effort, but I didn’t know what else to try, and you didn’t come and didn’t come—”
    He laughed then. “You make it sound as if I’d abandoned you!” When the girl was silent, he pulled her close and tucked her head under his chin. “I would never do such a thing.”
    Eliana shuddered and then relaxed into his embrace. As though confessing some guilty secret, she said, “King Hendry told me that I am to be presented to his son at the Spring Advent Ball. I think he means for . . . for us to marry.”
    The faerie startled at this, his face darkening even as he held Eliana close. “So soon? Even though you’ve never met?”
    Her arms tightened about him, thrilling him to the heart. “He’ll still kill me, won’t he? If I . . . if you don’t spin the gold?”
    A long pause. Then the faerie man said, “I am not sure. But I wouldn’t put it past him.”
    At that, Eliana let go of the faerie and turned to the spinning wheel dusted with crumbled bits of straw. She could not bear to look at the faerie but hugged herself, clutching her own arms with trembling fingers. “I have nothing left to give you. The necklace and the ring were all I had of any value.”
    “Is that true?” The faerie man moved soft-footed around to the other side of the spinning wheel. His brilliant eyes sought hers in the gloom, and she could not help but