The Goblin King by Shona Husk Page A

didn’t want to marry him. Roan frowned. She didn’t want to be near him.
    What bound her to Steve?
    He reached out his hand and touched the ends of her pale blond hair. He preferred the dark honey gold she’d had when she was younger. She flinched in her sleep as if feeling his cool touch. He stepped back, making sure the shadows hid him in case she woke. Her thoughts still pulled at him, strong like summons, ripping at his muscles as if her call remained unanswered. He was here with her, yet it wasn’t enough. She was dreaming of him, calling him to the Summerland.
    He gave in and let the sound of her voice lure him from the Fixed Realm to where she wanted him. At first he’d used nightmares to travel between worlds, then he’d learned to travel by will alone. Unlike true goblins, he could travel between realms. Dai thought it was because they still had a soul and were connected to the Fixed Realm. Once his soul was gone he would be like every other goblin, trapped in the Shadowlands until winter solstice. But Eliza’s pull was different from a summons. Lighter, clearer.
    The compulsion to go to Eliza left his body in peace as he arrived in a grassy field. Trees swept around three sides, a river on the other. The landscape was so familiar, yet so alien, like the Shadowlands had been colored in using the bright palette of a child. He inhaled the summer air, sweet with fresh grass. Then he closed his eyes for a moment and tried to remember when the world had been so pure. He couldn’t. This wasn’t the Fixed Realm. It was too perfect, as if all the best bits had been brought together in one place.
    On his back the sun was warm, and his skin didn’t burn the way it would in the Fixed Realm. But the heat didn’t reach his cold metal core. He opened his eyes and lifted his hand, examining his flesh by daylight for the first time in too long. He was human in appearance. Roan lifted his face to the sun. A simple pleasure he’d almost forgotten. Beads chimed as the breeze caressed his hair. It was too good to be real.
    And it wasn’t.
    This was the Summerland. Eliza had called him into her dream. She’d tried many times when she was younger and he’d been able to ignore the requests. Now he couldn’t. Now she fully believed in his existence and her visit to the Shadowlands had strengthened their connection.
    This was the place he had brought her so she wouldn’t have to look on his goblin body. It was where he’d given her the bead, and where she’d looked at him with something other than fear. It was where he could pretend to be human.
    The calf-high grass rippled and shied away from him as he walked toward Eliza, who was clad in a filmy nightgown. The sky was perfect summer blue and the sun shone brilliantly. Butterflies cavorted among the wildflowers of the field, only he noticed the gray clouds gathering on the horizon. He swallowed, not wanting her dream to end, but knowing he was already destroying it by being here.
    “Eliza.” Her name sounded like a prayer on his lips. He wasn’t hiding in the shadows and skulking through nightmares. He was safe and he was human. And he was with Eliza. She had called him and for the moment his soul was intact. The few delicate threads that tied it to his body held.
    She turned and her pink lips parted like a blossoming flower inviting a taste. “I was thinking of you.” She cocked her head and frowned, eclipsing the joy his presence had caused. “Are you real or a dream?”
    Roan took her hand, drawing her to him. “Real.”
    He should know better, but he couldn’t resist holding her again. “You called to me in your dream, and I couldn’t refuse.” That sounded better than saying he was too weak to resist her. He stepped close and brushed her hair behind her ear.
    Eliza grinned, brilliant and untainted. She threw her arms around his neck. The lightweight nightgown offered no protection to either of them. Her heart beat against his chest and echoed against his