Read Caledonia Fae 03 - Enemy of the Fae for Free Online

day, the forests of the Otherworld could almost, but not quite, be mistaken for the humans’ Scottish homeland.
    Inside the villa, Munro made his way to the back. He heard laughter and what must have been Aaron plucking out a tune on his old guitar.
    The atmosphere was comfortable and provided them plenty of space. Every appointment was luxurious, from the marble floors covered with hand-made tapestries to the imposing artwork. It was a home the azuri deemed worthy of important people. The furniture was fae, but the men had incorporated human touches everywhere, things brought from home: photographs, stacks of paperbacks, a basket of seashells and rocks Douglas had gotten from a holiday to Florida, a throw Phillip’s nan had made him, everyday objects the fae found exotic and strange but served to remind the druids of home.
    As usual, Flùranach and Tràth were there too. The girl smiled at Munro when he came in, and the prince gave him a nod. Aaron’s song was far too bawdy for an eight year-old to hear, so he changed a few words, just enough so she wouldn’t quite understand them. Phillip had a slightly disapproving expression on his face, Tràth looked confused but amused, and the others howled with laughter.
    “Special treat tonight,” Phillip said to Munro as he sat. “Me and Aaron went through earlier. Grabbed a few things.” That’s what they called their trips to the human side of the Otherworld gates: going through . Aaron and Phillip, who had changed the least and simply appeared to have good skin and perfect hair, tended to make the most frequent jaunts, while Douglas, Rory, and Munro rarely visited the human realm anymore.
    “Oh yeah?” Munro asked. “Getting bored with your current batch of skin mags?”
    “What’s a skin mag?” Flùranach asked.
    Phillip tossed a cushion across the room at Munro and, if the former copper hadn’t ducked, would have nailed him with it.
    “I believe,” Tràth explained, “we can infer it to be a collection of images of naked human women.”
    Damn , Munro thought as the girl’s eyes went wide. The prince’s grasp of the English colloquial had improved.
    “Just for that, no Yorkie bar for you, Munro,” Phillip said with a laugh. He plucked a candy bar from a plastic grocery-store carrier bag and handed it to Flùranach.
    She squealed with delight. “I love chocolate!”
    Munro didn’t remember when the child had started to seem like part of this hodgepodge family. She’d been curious, like all the azuri fae, when the druids had come to Skye, but she had a special connection with them no one questioned. It wasn’t like the deep, personal bond he shared with Eilidh. At the same time, he felt linked to the girl. He was just glad the fae didn’t think anything of her hanging around when she wasn’t obligated by her demanding study schedule. The way her mentors worked the girl so hard shocked him, but fae culture wasn’t something he fully understood yet.
    “What’ve you been up to?” Munro asked the druids. He wanted to avoid talking about the murder until he knew more, and he hoped none of them had heard about it yet.
    Aaron continued to strum as the druids chatted about the properties of the stone, how they were thinking of trying wood instead. All of them, apart from Munro, were water druids, so they wondered if they might find wood easier to work with. They’d used stone because they wanted something that would last, but the dense rock resisted their flows. They began to discuss whether or not they could find a way to reinforce or even petrify the wood during the process.
    Munro told them about Griogair’s idea of him studying in the Great Library to search for clues as to druidic lore, and that Eilidh had agreed to have him provided with a translator.
    “My father has bestowed quite an honour,” Tràth said. “The runes in the Halls of Mist are the most ancient, the most sacred. We once had a store of knowledge here in Caledonia, but Queen Cadhla