In 1678, six maidens seek happiness, love, and passion in the Highlands of Scotland. A land where myth and truth have no borders, where good shares a bed with evil, and where spells can be made, and even broken.

Gypsy, Alishandra Orona, has the power and the magic to unleash their wildest dreams. But the price is high, if not nigh impossible.

Fall in love with the mystique, magic, and the forbidden in the world of THE ENCHANTED FAERIE.

EXCERPT

Excerpt from the Enchanted Faerie Anthology

Beltane Faerie of Fate by Holly Greenfield

Alishandra held out the basket to her, and Calinda lifted her hand, hesitating. How would she learn to love without the fear of loss? What would she do if she found him, and then lost him? Worst of all, what if he never found her?

"Go on, take it," he encouraged gently. "What is the worst that can happen?"

She blew out a pent up breath. The worst was an eternity without hope. Living and knowing that she would die alone. She pulled her hand back, and let it fall into her lap. "The worst would be, if I were tae lose the ability to care for my clan."

Shaw abruptly stood, as Alishandra continued to offer the faerie. "Are ye a coward, Calinda Avatar? Are ye afraid of life?" he demanded to know.

"How dare ye? I doona see you running off tae claim yer bride!"

"I canna run off tae claim her, if she will no' commence the chase."

"What?"

He turned around and took a few steps before he faced her again. "Just pick it up. What are ye so afraid of?"

She glared at him and then at the faerie inside the basket. "What am I so afraid of?" she spat. "What do I fear?" she yelled, yanking the faerie out of the basket. "Tae love and lose," she said as her hand began to feel warm, the heat increasing as she looked down. The faerie glowed ruby red and Alishandra was gone as if she had never been there.

"Drop it Calinda!" Shaw yelled, seeing a fiery light surround her.

But she couldn't. The faerie's glow held her transfixed, its warmth spreading through her veins until it faded from red to the color of heather, darkening as her fears seeped from her eyes in fat tear drops.

"Calinda let it go!"

His pleas were off in the distance as the delicate faerie fed on Calinda's emotions. The loneliness that engulfed her, now ached in every bone of her body, and as she fought the reality of what it was making her feel, it turned to the color of a dark, stormy sea and she screamed out, "Shaw, it hurts!"

She curled forward in pain so great he felt the ground beneath them shake. He launched toward her, but was stopped by an unyielding barrier, as if Calinda were cocooned in a solid blue shield. He had wanted to give her hope; by praying that she would see between them what he had always seen. What he had always known was there.

The blue glow of the glass faerie illuminated her face, and he could see the anguish she felt in her heart, her fears etched in the lines of her face as it contorted in pain. Her coal black hair had fallen forward, blanketing her shoulders, and dusting against her skirt, just above her thighs.

What had Alishandra given him? Was she gypsy or oracle? Was it mystical intervention or a deity revealing what a person should seek out on their own? How could he have been so wrong? Had he just lost Calinda before he even had her?


©2008 Holly Greenfield

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press