Heart's Storm (Falling Underhill Book 4)
Audra has been working for the family business forever. Having it sold to an elf partnership is surprising, but she has met one of them before.
Audra is working on spring prep for the greenhouse her family owns when one of the boxes contained something that was definitely not seeds. The ceramic sends her to another dimension in less time than it takes to blink an eye.
She is told to find the storm king to send her home, and she does, but he won’t. She asks him to return her to the mortal realm, and he offers her a tour of Underhill instead.
The tour brings them closer, and with neither of them agreeing to a time to part, Puck has to step in and draw a curtain over their frolics.
Back at home, Audra learns that not only have her parents put the greenhouse up for sale, it is a done deal. Her life begins to spin away from her, and the only thing that is steady is the hand of one of the purchasers who seems terribly familiar.
When her memories come back in a rush, she is mortified and fascinated. He is offering her an extensive future and her hopes and dreams. Should she jump at the chance or risk more than her heart in the embrace of the storm?
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Heart’s Storm
Copyright © 2021 by Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-989892-69-5
©Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.
Published by Viola Grace
Look for me online at violagrace.com.
Heart’s Storm
Falling Underhill Book 4
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Audra went through the numbers a third time, and she grimaced. There was no way she could make the payments for what appeared to be the fifth mortgage on the property. She had gone over and over her parents’ documentation, and her heart sank every time.
They had started a dozen projects—large projects—on the property and then failed at the simple things like new gravel for the parking lot.
Every profit they had turned had gone back into the greenhouse and simply been absorbed.
She groaned and went over to the new boxes of seeds from the supplier. Her parents had jumped on the heirloom bandwagon, and the boxes were supposed to hold industrial packets of seeds. The first two boxes were flowers and herbs. The third felt different. Heavier. She opened the box with her knife and pulled out shredded brown paper strips away from the object she had been sent by mistake. She reached in to lift it out, and the world spun wildly.
* * * *
She was a little cool, and when she finished with her lightheaded spinning, her hands shot to cover her as she realized that she was wearing some black ribbon and nothing else. Even the wedge shoes were made of ribbons.
“What was that?”
She got on her feet, steadied, and took in the heady scent of gingerbread. She walked to a wall and touched it. “Holy crap. It’s a cookie.”
A shimmering sound like someone stroking a cymbal with a brush sounded behind her. Audra turned, and there was a message being etched with a glowing glitter.
Dear Miss Audra,
You have fallen Underhill. If you wish to return home, please locate the storm king and ask him to return you to your realm. If he is obliging, you can return home in a few hours. If not, you will be automatically returned in a few days.
Good luck, and you are not in any danger. Oh, and the gingerbread house will self-destruct in five minutes.
Audra blinked. It was a scavenger hunt with only one clue, and that clue had a disturbing name. Working in a greenhouse meant that storms made her nervous. Snow could destroy a hoop house, as could high winds. They both made her uneasy, and now, she had to find a guy with storm in his name. Lovely.
She grumbled and heard the ticking on the roof. She blinked as a downpour started, and she understood how the house would be destroyed in five minutes. Water started to leak in through the crown of the roof in a cascade of melted sugar. Audra headed to the doorway and pulled on it. The door came off in her hand. She growled and stepped into the deluge and looked around at the melting sugar and soggy cookie that was beginning to collapse on itself.
She stepped and slipped away from it, down the candy walk. The moment that she cleared the localized storm, she paused with her skin dripping and her hair in her eyes. She looked for a signal, and there was a sign that said Storm, this way, so she took the hint and stomped to the path through the woods. She had no idea how this was going to play out, but looking for a strange man while dripping wet had never led any woman into a tricky situation. Right?
Audra stalked down the path, and she knew that she was on the right track when a dust devil wrapped around her and took her breath for a moment. It moved on, and she blinked and touched her hair. It was dry. Probably wild, at its short length, but it was dry.
“So... that was odd.” She continued on the path, and then, there was a wide-open expanse that led up to a rocky wall face. There was a castle crowded against the wall, and the open spaces around had dust devils, small squalls, and sun showers all at the same time.
She looked at the minefield of weather anomalies and tried to think of a way through them.
“What are you looking at?” The voice was right next to her ear, and warm breath moved across her cheek.
She shrieked and jumped back, forgetting the stupid shoes. He reached out to grab her, and he held her hand to support her.
She stabilized and looked up, and up. “What the hell do they feed you, and how do they reach that high?”
He smiled. “I have been feeding myself for a while now. Are you lost?”
She looked him up and down. He was an elf. His waist-length hair was black with silvery streaks that didn’t look like they were age-related. He had a belted wrap tunic, an ankle-length skirt, and boots with a long sleeveless robe over it all. Everything on him looked designed to catch the wind. It was the crown of lightning with thunderclouds at the edge of his brow that allowed her insight into his identity.
“I am looking for the storm king.”
He smiled. “You have found him.” He bowed low, and it was like having a horse be polite.
She exhaled slowly, and his gaze flicked to her chest. “Hmm. I have a question to ask you, but since my boobs aren’t doing the asking, I would rather you met my gaze for it.”
He jerked his gaze up, and there was a slight smile on his lips. “Yes, what would you like to ask me?”
“Will you send me home?”
He cocked his head and hummed lightly. “Let me think about it.”
He still had possession of her hand and pulled her against him. There was a flash of lightning, and they were no longer standing at the edge of the woods. She was standing in a comfortable room with a fire, a throw at the edge, and some large overstuffed chairs.
He summoned—there was no other word for it—a tray with tea and two cups.
“Take a seat, and I will explain things to you. This is part of a plan that is working out differently for different kings, but the long and short of it is...” He explained about Puck and about the magic and about the women being found and brought to the fey kings. “His plan is to anchor us to the mortal world with families and children to allow the lesser fey to have more magic to draw on.”
“Right. So, where
do I fit into that grand plan?”
He gave her a look like she was a little dim. “Well, you are a female, you have an aura that will mesh well with mine, and you are adorable.”
She grimaced. “I am definitely not. Any of my friends will confirm that.”
He grinned. “Perhaps they are not looking at you from my perspective.”
She suddenly blinked. “Oh, I am Audra, by the way.”
He poured her a cup of tea with one spoon of honey. “Raiden. Though no woman has said the name for a long time.”
That locked her up. Normally she would have wanted to repeat it to make sure she had it right, but she grinned. “Can I call you Nik?”
He handed her the saucer with the teacup. “No.”
She grimaced and said, “Thank you, Raiden.”
He smiled. “You are welcome, Audra.”
He walked over to the other chair and took a seat with his own cup of tea. “So, you find yourself in a land that your folk used to dream of. Is there anything that you would like to see?”
She blinked. “Um, while I know what an elf is, thanks to modern media, I am not quite sure what Underhill is.”
He smiled. “May I show you?”
Audra sighed and sipped at her cup. “After the tea.”
He nodded. “Very well. Are you comfortable?”
She shivered and sipped at the tea again. “It’s a little chilly.”
His gaze flicked, and she casually moved a hand across her chest while she held her teacup in the other hand.
Raiden shrugged. “Sorry, I had forgotten the benefits of a cool room.”
“I am not a toy, Raiden.”
He sighed. “I have not had a female in my home for centuries. I apologize if I was letting my impulses hold sway.”
“Okay. Apology accepted.” She smiled and finished her tea. She set her teacup in the saucer and slowly lowered her arm to set the cup and saucer on a nearby table.
He kept his gaze on her face, but she could tell that the effort cost him. She laughed. “What is the deal with the ribbons?”
“Ribbon, singular. It keeps us from trying to seduce you without your consent or participation. Apparently, that is very big in the modern era, so Puck built it into the enchantment.”
“Yeah, now that women aren’t chattel, we have a lot more freewill as to what we can and will do with our bodies. Force still happens, but we don’t have to pretend that it was romantic anymore to save our sanity.” She smiled tightly.
“Ah. Well, it seems the evolution of the mortal realm has proceeded apace.” He set his cup in the saucer, and it floated back to the tray. Hers did the same.
She nodded. “We are not there yet, but progress has been made.”
“So, you live on your own?” He cocked his head.
“Mostly. I live in a house on my parents’ property. I guess I am not the flagship for female independence.” She grimaced.
He grinned. “None of us are perfect examples. I am not a very good fey. I am slow to anger but nearly impossible to calm down.”
“So, why doesn’t that make you a good fey?”
“We are known for quick tempers and instant change in mood. When my mood changes, I stay there.”
“Ah. Got it.” She nodded and clasped her hands around her knees.
“Are you ready to go and see the map of the worlds?”
“Worlds?”
He quirked a smile, extending his hand to her as he stood. She stood up, balanced on the damned shoes, and took his hand.
He held her hand as they walked out the door of his parlour and into a wide hall of carved stone.
She blinked. From the outside, it had seemed to be brick, but the entire living space and hallways were made of carved stone. One piece of carved stone. She was walking through the mountain.
She moved a little closer to Raiden as the weight of the mountain was over her head, and it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling. She liked the feeling of wind and rain on her skin.
Chapter Two
Audra was nearly plastered against the elf’s side as the temperature grew lower. “If you are going for the nipples, they can cut diamond by now.”
He looked at her in surprise. “I apologize; I don’t feel the temperature.”
The air around her got warmer, and she was able to move so that there was some space between them. Stealing body heat wasn’t something that she did often.
She shivered, and he turned to show her a room that had a ceiling made of a starry sky and a huge projection of a tree in the centre of it.
“Oh, wow.” She walked forward and let go of his hand. The tree was gorgeous and not a species she could identify. The leaves were a strange shape, and the bark looked smooth in some spots and jagged in others. Her fingers curled as she wanted to stroke the bark.
“This is the world tree. It has dozens of names, perhaps hundreds in different languages, some of which have been forgotten.” He stood behind her, and as he reached out, disks appeared, stacking horizontally from below the roots. “We are here.”
He pointed at one of the disks that was green and bright. “These are generalized representations. The mortal realm is a globe, the realm of light is a diamond, but here, we represent them as disks.”
She nodded. “Got it. So, where is the mortal realm?”
He pointed to the blue-green disk above Underhill. “Here. What Puck is trying to do, is to pin the two realms together.” He moved his hand, and the two realms were pierced in one spot then another, and after a few more, they were connected as if they were riveted in that one place. The glow from Underhill began spreading across the mortal realm.
“Oh. Wow. So, it will really leech out like that?”
“It builds on ancient sites, and the echoes of power get stronger.”
She nodded and watched the spillover crossing the mortal realm. The swirling colours were hypnotic. “Wow. That’s lovely.”
He chuckled. “I am glad you think so. It is the women from your realm that are making this happen. We are boring and lazy without something to focus on, so having Puck seek out compatible females has definitely drawn attention. The last of the fey ladies left this area for the realm of light ages ago.”
“Why are you stuck here?”
“The kings control the weather, the seasons, and the flow of magic. We do our work in the mortal realm and Underhill, and there is spillover into the realm of light or the bright lands.”
“What is that level under the bright one?”
“The shadow lands or dark lands depending on your historical context.”
“Oh. What’s there?”
“Shadow elves. They survive on the trickle of magic that escapes the shadow lands.” He touched the lower level, and the image zoomed in. It wasn’t black; it was all the colours of shadow—blues, greens, greys.
“It’s lovely.”
He chuckled. “You think so?”
“I know pretty when I see it. The tree is amazing. It makes me want to climb into it to look for seeds or nuts.”
He looked at her with surprise in his expression. “Why?”
She faced him head-on. “Because I like trees.”
“Ah. That would do it.”
He reached past her and tapped the level of Underhill. The tree disappeared, and the map expanded to show her mountains, valleys, lakes, rivers, castles, and areas that looked like ruins. She was fascinated by the forests and the green spaces.
“Would you like to visit any portion of Underhill?”
She nodded. “The ruins look sad, but the forest near them looks new and vibrant. Could I see that?”
“Certainly. I will have to be in contact with you, though.”
“What?”
“I have to hold you.”
She blushed. “Oh, uh. Fine.”
He chuckled and stepped in close, and then, he wrapped his arms around her. There was the rumble of thunder and then a
flash of light.
Audra squinted and looked around. It had gone from night to day in a second. “Wow. Bright.”
The light dimmed to a more bearable level, and she looked up to see light clouds overhead. “Oh. Um. Thank you.”
He chuckled. “You are very welcome. Now, what are you looking for in the trees?”
She looked to her left and looked at the magnificent and healthy specimens. She walked to the trees and touched the trunks, feeling the energy inside them. “Wow. They are amazing.” She leaned against one of the maples, and she sighed.
Raiden followed her and paused. “You look really happy. I admit to being surprised.”
She chuckled. “My family owns a greenhouse. I never get to see anything that is more than seven years old. Lots of seedlings, lots of plants, but nothing with this strength and energy.”
He smiled. “You like power?”
She glanced at him, and his dark eyes were smouldering. “Uh, in trees.”
He stepped toward her, and he seemed to shrink to a more manageable size. Something in the human range. Six foot six at least.
He bent his head, and he brushed his lips across hers.
Audra’s blinked and tried to debate the pros and cons of continuing. Her skin was tingling, and their lips were the only point of contact, so what was the harm?
His hands gripped her waist, and his fingers tightened.
She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed. He didn’t budge, so she pulled her head away and dug her nails into his shoulders. At her job, she clawed through the dirt like a mole. Her nails were strong.
He blinked and raised his head. “Too fast?”
She glanced down at the grip he had on her waist. “Little bit.”
He shuddered and let her go. “Right. Would you like to examine the woods more?”
She shook her head. “No, but I do want to see more of the countryside. Can we do that?”