The Fae Lord's Companion, Part One: The New Earth Chronicles, #1

By Lisa Kumar

Six years ago, a fae raid stole away Lina's parents, dooming her to a life of poverty and scavenging. But she isn't one to give up in defeat. Since then, she's managed to scrape together a decent life with her grandparents. But that happy, simple life is shattered the day the arrogant Sidhe lord who took her parents returns...and claims her as his mistress. Though she vows to never stop plotting for her freedom, she can't deny the otherworldly pull between them. 

 

Gabreon knows only too well the trouble and heartache love can bring. But when he sees Lina again, he can no longer ignore her or their growing bond. Though claiming her goes against everything he was brought up to believe, he takes her as his companion. During the day, she holds herself away from him. At night, however, she sparks to life in his arms.

 

As a human revolution ferments, his growing relationship with Lina becomes even more perilous as enemies, both human and fae, seek to use her against him. Will he be able to earn her forgiveness and love? Or will they both perish before either has a chance to achieve what they so long for—Gabreon his redemption and Lina her freedom?

 

Lina and Gabreon's tale spans three books. This novel should be read as part of the series and is part two of a single-story arc. The Fae Lord's Companion, Part One has adult content and deals with sensitive issues. Was previously published under the title The Fae Lord's Mistress. 

Serialized on Tapas in the Premium Program as The Sidhe Lord's Mistress.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa Kumar
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393713241

Lisa Kumar

I'm a wife, mother, and romance writer who grew up in small-town Indiana. I studied psychology in college and have worked off and on in the mental health field over the years. I now reside in the suburbs of Chicago with my husband and our two sons. When not spinning tales of romance and fantasy, I can often be found with my nose buried in a book. I also love going for walks with my youngest son and taking Zumba classes. One of my stories, Bound to the Elvin King, won Ind'Tale's 2015 RONE award for best Sci-Fi/Fantasy.  You can find me on: Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/lisa_kumar Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lisankumar

Book preview

The Fae Lord’s Companion, Part One

Six years ago, a fae raid stole away Lina's parents, dooming her to a life of poverty and scavenging. But she isn't one to give up in defeat. Since then, she's managed to scrape together a decent life with her grandparents. But that happy, simple life is shattered the day the arrogant Sidhe lord who took her parents returns...and claims her as his mistress. Though she vows to never stop plotting for her freedom, she can't deny the otherworldly pull between them.

Gabreon knows only too well the trouble and heartache love can bring. But when he sees Lina again, he can no longer ignore her or their growing bond. Though claiming her goes against everything he was brought up to believe, he takes her as his companion. During the day, she holds herself away from him. At night, however, she sparks to life in his arms.

As a human revolution ferments, his growing relationship with Lina becomes even more perilous as enemies, both human and fae, seek to use her against him. Will he be able to earn her forgiveness and love? Or will they both perish before either has a chance to achieve what they so long for—Gabreon his redemption and Lina her freedom?

Books by Lisa

The New Earth Chronicles:

The Fae Lord’s Companion, Part One

The Fae Lord’s Companion, Part Two

The Fae Lord’s Companion, Part Three

The Fae Lord’s Companion, the Complete Edition

Mists of Eria Series:

Bound to His Fate, Prequel

Bound to the Elvin Prince, Book One

Bound to the Elvin King, Book Two

Bound to the Dark Elf, Book Three

Love in Time Series (Time-travel Regency):

An Earl in Time

Saving Lord Avingdale

The Faerin:

Crashing into You (previously part of the anthology Crashing into Love)

Coming Soon:

Claiming Riley (The Faerin)

Hearts of Tar

Claiming Lord Thuran

Other Titles:

Fey Marked

Santa for Christmas

The Fae Lord’s Lady

The Fae Lord’s Companion, Part One

Copyright © 2019 Lisa Kumar

All rights reserved.

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Dedication

To my family and friends for their unwavering support. And to my loyal readers, who always pick me up when I’m feeling blah about my writing.

Chapter 1

Lina Marren

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Discovery could be deadly. This part of the boundary, aptly called the dumping grounds, was off-limits for those of my kind who didn’t have clearance. I huffed out an anxious breath and tried to calm my runaway heartbeat. No matter how many times I did this, I would never be at ease. With a hand that shook more than I’d like, I wiped away the sweat beading on my forehead.

Anticipation and wariness careened through every nerve of my body. I’d come here at a time when this sector was to be empty—Wednesday afternoon—but that could very well mean there was a random patrol looking for poachers. I knew I wasn’t the only thief here. A few others had to be in various areas of the trash heaps. As I gazed around at the stinking piles of garbage, I forced away the worst of my fears. Why would anyone give a damn if I scavenged for food and other stuff they didn’t want?

I cast a wary gaze through the chain-link fence to where tall white walls of stone stood guard. Beyond the glistening rock, the better half lived in mansions surrounded by a world of magical creations of which I could only dream. Even the sky over there looked so much clearer, a vibrant blue that put the sickly gray, smog-filled air on my side to shame.

Of course, they put their garbage on our side of the fence, dirtying up land they didn’t have to live on. Yet the tyrants commanded that no human touch their trash unless special dispensation was given. Yeah, right. As if that would keep starving humans away. All it did was make my people stealthier and more careful. Even the threat of beatings, death, and other abuses wouldn’t keep us away.

A silent sigh escaped me as I shivered in the cool air. Better get on with it. My grandparents needed the money that my discoveries could bring. I might even luck out and find something edible. Gross as that may seem, true hunger always won out. That I had learned long ago. The days of the Sidhe giving food rations to us poor humans had faded away to nothingness years before I was even born. Now we did what we must to survive.

After taking a deep breath, I wrinkled my nose. Given the stench, everything was likely rotten, but stranger things had happened. At least it was mid-spring, so the smell wasn’t as horrid as it could be during a hot day. Plus, a brisk wind was blowing the worst of the stink away from me. Thank the heavens for small mercies. 

I sifted through the waist-high piles of rubbish, careful not to get my already dirty hands more soiled. I gave a small chuckle at my stupidity. Keeping clean was a futile battle, so I cast away all thoughts of it. With renewed determination, I dug through the trash. Anything sparkly or in good shape snagged my attention, and I pocketed a few of the treasures in a pouch that hung from my waist. The best one was a clear, smooth marble that was slick against my fingertips. Though the glass item was small, it glowed with a luminosity that could only now be wrought by the fae. Gran had said we humans once had the means to do such things through technology, but that sounded like magic to me.

When I caught sight of the mess that was my hands and clothes, a bubble of longing popped through me. Tomorrow was the second Sunday of the month—bath day. Though water was highly prized and regulated in the slums, my grandparents ensured all three of us got a thorough cleaning that one blessed day a month.

The sound of voices on the other side of the fence floated to me. Shit! I froze and then realized if I continued standing, I might as well be lit up with those wondrous neon signs from centuries ago that Gran whispered about during the dark of the night. If the other scavengers in the dumping grounds were smart, they’d do well to take cover.

After I crouched behind a small mountain of potato peels and rotten fruit, I inched over to the small valley between mounds. What I saw squeezed the breath from my lungs. It was him. The one from the raid six years ago. The night when my family had been destroyed and my parents taken, never to be seen again. Anger seared through me, hot and heavy. I hated him and all of his kind. The Sidhe or fae they called themselves, but they might as well be demons under their pretty exteriors.

I removed the hand I’d raised to stifle my gasp, careful not to disturb the debris around me. There were three others with him, but I ignored them in favor of the black-haired one. Rage exploded through my veins. The Sidhe beast strongly resembled an illustration of the fallen angel Lucifer that I’d seen in one of Gran’s contraband books on human religion that the underground movement distributed. To her, Lucifer was the ultimate evil. Though I wasn’t a religious person, I felt the same way about the fae male before me and hated him with every fiber of my being, yet... Yet, nothing! A silent snarl twisted my lips. Too bad someone so physically beautiful and damnably fascinating could be so ugly inside. Even though I wanted to attack him, to tear him apart, I wasn’t suicidal. I had no weapon, and I’d be one against many.

Though they continued to talk, I couldn’t make out a word they said. They spoke too softly and, more than likely, in their own language—one forbidden to all but the most fortunate of humans. Ha! They could keep their devil tongue. I had no use for it. My life was about toil and centered on a little shack that held my few belongings and, most importantly, my grandparents’ love. I needed nothing more—well, nothing more than except his death. As that wasn’t going to happen today, I had to wait for them to leave.

I eyed the small group, fear and mistrust swirling in my gut. What were they doing in this section? By their fine dress of embroidered tunic and handsomely tooled boots, they had to be of noble stock. And wherever nobles showed up, trouble followed closely behind. They took what they wanted, whether it was our blood, body, or life. That was why my grandparents had always told me to stay far away from them.

Other than a few semi-serious run-ins with them, I’d come out relatively unscathed, with only a couple of bruises, and still a virgin. But only because the Sidhe in question had been seeking a human target to scare without taking it too far—too far being a hard beating, rape, or death. I had friends who hadn’t been so lucky, and some hadn’t lived to tell of the horrors that they’d experienced. Afterward, their bodies had been dumped back on our side like so much trash.

But I shouldn’t have to worry about that right now. As long as they didn’t have dogs, especially fae bloodhounds, they’d probably never know I was there. A shudder worked its way through my body at the thought of those beasts and their red eyes. And their long, pointy teeth and ravenous appetite. Thank God, I’d only ever seen them from a distance and never while scavenging, so they’d been completely under control. If the hounds were after a person, the only way to avoid detection was by swallowing a potion that hid all body scent.

That drink was beyond my means—not to mention illegal. That last part did little to faze me, though. Next to striking or killing a Sidhe, a human who poached from the fae was about as criminal as one could get. Punishment could be anything from a small fine to a swift but painful death, depending upon the capricious mood of the Sidhe.

My gaze remained glued to the Lucifer look-alike. His face would always be seared into my memory, and the last few years had changed him little. If I had any sense, I’d cower until the danger passed. But I seemed in sparse possession of that quality today. In spite of my anger, a maddening curiosity prodded me to watch and satisfy a terrible, unwitting fascination that had taken root the night of that fateful raid.

I gritted my teeth as rage spiked through me, leaving me a quivering mess of nerves. A sick sort of attraction that I couldn’t explain or understand gripped me now. It’d been there since the first time I saw him. How could I possibly feel anything but hate toward the fae who could’ve been the one to send my parents to their deaths? At least I hoped they were dead. The alternative would be much worse. Even now, the thought of prison-like work camps, where torture and grueling work were the norm, racked my body with a shudder. Wanting to bury those images in the deepest recesses of my mind, I focused my attention back on Lucifer.

Though I lurked in the shadows and he in the light, something about him drew me, damn him. His face inhabited both my dreams and nightmares. It was such a pristine countenance, clean and shining in the sun. Even on that long-ago night, he’d been clean and bright. Everything I physically was not. I ran my fingers along the grimy skin of my cheek and knew my brown hair looked no better. Yet I knew I was the better person in every way that mattered. He was a killer, a family destroyer, so why did he haunt me beyond what was expected?

I closed my eyes in an effort to still my turmoil, but my mind refused to listen. Instead, it replayed images and sensations of that night that had taken my parents away. My mind clouded with anger once again until my breath rasped in my ears. Taking a deep gulp of air, I knew I needed to calm down or risk getting caught. So I did what I did best—observed.

Though the other male Sidhe with him were similarly attired in rich blues, greens, and silvers, none but he held my attention for long. He might look refined, but I watched him as I would a wild, feral animal. Like the others, he had long, silky hair. A clip held his raven tresses back from his face and revealed his pointed ears.

He appeared younger than the other fae but not by much. Long youthfulness was the nature of his people, some of whom lived for untold millennia, or so I heard. After reaching adulthood, they didn’t change much physically until thousands of years had passed, only aging subtly during their latter years. I’d never seen a fae that looked a day over fifty, so I supposed that was their upper limit to looking old. Still, the intervening years lay heavy within their eyes. In testament to this, his physique belied the age reflected in a gaze I somehow knew to be sky blue.

Which I shouldn’t know.

In the flickering light provided by the torches, such a detail had been impossible to notice, let alone note. It was another mystery that dogged me and kept me tossing in my hard bed at night. At this moment, however, it wasn’t important, only my morbid curiosity was. That decided, I finished examining him.

Finely tailored tunic and pants hugged a long, lean form that held a surprising amount of muscle. A cape had been carelessly thrown about his neck and flowed around his heels in the slight wind. He was handsome in an otherworldly way, and that sent a spike of ire through me. My fingers flexed with the desire to claw into him, to make him feel my pain. I fisted my hand in my filthy jacket to curb the impulse.

What was he doing to me?

My lips twisted into another snarl. I hated him, so what attraction could he hold over me? It wasn’t merely my hormones acting up at the sight of a good-looking face. I knew what lurked underneath. Plus, even though I was twenty, I’d never had much time for boys. A few groping sessions behind an abandoned shack was all I could claim. They all invariably ended the same way—a knee to the groin whenever overzealous hands wandered to places I wasn’t quite ready for them to explore.

So why did I dream of his hands on me? Why did this fae stir me so when I should, and did, hate him? My fingernails bit into my palms as I clenched my hands. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, I’d say that his draw was because I could only observe him from afar. He posed no threat to my heart, for even if I hadn’t loathed him, he didn’t even know I existed. If he did, he’d only regard me as a squashed bug on the bottom of his expensive boot. Most Sidhe treated their bloodhounds better than they did their human servants. Julia had backed this up, and as a scullery maid to an elite Elvin household, she should know.

Just then, the wind turned, and a particularly malodorous air slammed up my nose. Though I’d thought myself largely immune to junk pile stench, my gag reflex proved me wrong. A low, strangled sound escaped me. Apparently, it wasn’t enough for the fae’s sensitive hearing to pick up, for they paid no heed to it.

Phew. Now I had another problem, though. The muscles in my right leg were screaming in protest of my crouched position. In a moment of stupidity, I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. That was all it took for the worn soles of my shoes to slip on a mushy patch of food. I crashed face forward into the stinking heap before me, a dull thud ringing out like a hectoring shout.

Shit, shit, shit! I lay there, frozen in place and forgetting how to breathe. My ears strained to hear any telltale sound that the Sidhe had noticed my moment of insane clumsiness. The voices had stopped. Damn. With dread tugging at my insides, I pushed myself up, which allowed me the slightest peek between the mounds.

They’d all swiveled their heads in my direction. I pulled back quickly, cringing, and forced myself not to fidget. Surely, though, they could hear my heart trying to thud out of my chest?

Oh, God, this wasn’t good. If they came searching for me or found any of the others... A beating would be merciful to the death or rape they could mete out. My only hope was if they thought scouring the trash dumps was beneath them. But they could easily call for a lesser Sidhe or human to do the dirty work.

Lucifer turned to the others and said something. One of the brown-haired fae shrugged and walked away. I held my breath. Was he going for reinforcements while the others waited?

Soon, the other Sidhe followed the path of the first one, Lucifer bringing up the rear. They didn’t head for the dumping grounds’ gate but toward the white walls and the Elven part of the city of Chimra. Relief washed over me, and a pent-up breath whooshed from my lungs.

Lucifer stopped in his tracks and faced the two little mountains that hid me. His eyes narrowed, and panic flooded my veins. His gaze meshed with mine for an interminably long second before he spun upon his heel and trailed after the others.

Unmindful of the rotting food around me, I collapsed against a pile. He’d seen me. And done nothing. Why? Though I told myself it might have been an act of capriciousness, some niggling sense warned me Lucifer did nothing without a modicum of forethought. Barely aware of what I was doing, I lifted trembling fingers to wipe the worst of the goo from my face.

Once I wrestled my pulse under control and life seeped back into my weak legs, my survival instincts finally kicked into existence. The trash yard suddenly seemed darker, even though the sun poked sickly through the smog-and-cloud covered sky. Shadows lurked around every garbage heap. The unclaimed treasures—both Sidhe and human items the Sidhe or well-to-do humans discarded—no longer called to me. All I wanted was the safety of my grandparents’ shanty.

As I ran through the maze of rubbish, the sight of Boundary Road caused my heart to lighten. Pausing, I swept my gaze over the visible portion of the road. No guard—nor anyone else, for that matter—was in view. Good. Drunks, even if they were guards, could often be counted on to sleep on the job. It wouldn’t do for the residents of this section to see me leaving the trash heaps. Even those with clearances weren’t around. They had permission to dump or scavenge trash only on certain days and in certain areas. I sighed in relief and dived through a loose portion of fence that was located right near the ground.

If I stayed in the shadows, I could slip across the road and into the narrow alleys of human Chimra. Unfortunately, I’d have to go through Upper Chimra, better known as UC, where the more well-off humans lived. They might look askance at me, but I wasn’t breaking a law by being there. Even though UC humans curried the favor of the Sidhe, they couldn’t totally forbid the presence of the lower classes.

As I crossed the road, I couldn’t suppress the spring in my step. My mind kept singing, Home free. That was what I—

A hand shot out and grabbed me by the arm, tugging me into a small, deserted alley.

Chapter 2

My heart tried to jump out of my mouth as I whipped my head toward the person holding me. I squinted but couldn’t make out anything but a bright glow that hovered about a foot above me. Terror pounded through my veins, and my lips opened to let out a scream.

A palm slapped over my mouth and muffled the sound. Another arm banded around my chest, pinning in my arms, and yanked me back. What had to be a male’s body molded to my backside. A fresh wave of fear hit. Oh, God, I’d made it through twenty years without being raped, so please not now. It was a situation I’d escaped a time or two, but I knew that my luck couldn’t keep holding out. I couldn’t even reach the dull blade I carried in my back pocket.

With adrenaline pounding like a drug through me, I yanked against the iron hold. It was like fighting a brick house. I still landed kicks where I could. Not even a grunt came from the man holding me, which sent a fresh spurt of anger coursing through me. Damn him, I was truly helpless.

My attacker withdrew his arm and shoved me against a dingy wood wall. As he caged me in by placing a hand on either side of my head, my eyes adjusted to the dim light. What I saw sent a surge of dizziness and rage through me. You!

Yes, me, human, he said in a dark, rich voice, his gaze never once leaving from my face. As if to punctuate his words, he leaned in closer, his body mere inches from mine. The scent of mint and pine wafted over me.

All the sirens in my head screamed at full blast. Oh, God, he was so close and so much worse than a human man. That glow had been Lucifer, his magic. The fae I hated and yet seemingly desired, though I didn’t know why.

I parted my lips to scream, but he again stuck a hand over my mouth. God, how I wish I could stick him with my knife, but it’d do no good. Through some deviltry or another, fae of his station were all but immune to human weaponry.

Quiet. Do you want to bring everyone down upon our heads? Promise not to scream. You won’t like the results if you do.

His words pierced my mindless panic, so I gave a shaky nod even as the urge to bite his palm swallowed me whole. I opened my mouth, but he sent me a chilling glare that stilled my intention. Don’t even think about it. I bite much harder than you ever could.

I shivered at the double meaning apparent in his words. Distaste for him rolled through me. After he removed his hand, I took in a shuddering breath. Though I hated being in such close proximity to him, at the moment I had little choice. Maybe he’d grow bored and leave me alone if I did as he said. Or that could make him all the worse. For now, though, I’d try compliance.

You’ll behave? Then his nose wrinkled. Though your stench alone could mean our discovery.

I, yes...what? I knew my