Tricked

“Bad decision, Hel. Really bad.
What did you do?”

— Helen “Elle” Andrews

Have you ever had a really bad day? Like the type where you want to just pull the blanket over your head, go back to sleep, and wake up when it’s all over?

Yeah. Me, too.

It all started with a stupid fight. Honestly, I was probably looking for a reason to storm out of the apartment and get away from my boyfriend’s disappointed sighs for a few minutes. A walk in the nearest park was just what I needed.

What I didn’t need? To impulsively walk through a ring of strange-looking mushrooms only to end up in the mythical, magical world from my mother’s supposedly made-up fairy tales.

Faerie. I’m in Faerie.

As soon as I cross over, I’m lost. The fairy circle is gone, the trees all look the same, and I don’t have any idea where I am, or how I’m going to get home. 

I think I can trust the pixie.

Nope.

Maybe the pair of dwarves who seem so kind?

Yeah. Seem is the key word there.

By the time I’m on my way to the auction block at the Faerie market, I can’t help but stew over all of the ways I’ve been tricked. This sucks. 

And it only gets worse after that…

Tricked is a prequel novella set directly before the first book in the Imprisoned by the Fae series, Trapped. It’s the story of how Elle ended up in Faerie, and what led her to be thrown into the infamous prison, Siúcra.

Get your copy of Tricked at the following retailers. As a KU title, it is exclusive to Amazon:

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Amazon CA
• Amazon AU

Excerpt:

It’s an open space, about the size of my living room. The grass is a vivid green, standing tall instead of crushed by hundreds of feet. No sticks. No patches of mud. No flowers. Just grass—and a ring of mushrooms formed in the center of the clearing.

Not even regular mushrooms, either. Like they’re straight out of a fantasy painting, these are toadstools. Red caps, white dots, pale stalks… the whole deal. I count fifteen of them, perfectly positioned to create a circle.

Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? It’s a fairy circle.

My mom told me stories about fairy circles. They were right up there with the other fairy tales, myths, and fables she would regale me with as I was growing up.

Legend says that a fairy circle is a tie between our world—the human world—and the world that belongs to the fairies (aptly called Faerie). There’s a thin veil that separates the tech-dependent humans from the magic races. Fairy circles pop up when the fairies cross over and dance, using the mushroom caps as stools for their teensy bodies. Even after they return to Faerie, the land remembers and the fairy circle could often be used as a portal between both worlds.

At least, that’s what my mother would tell me.

I loved hearing her stories. I still do, even though I’m in my mid-twenties and I’ve been out on my own—well, with Jim—for years. Whenever we get together for dinner or for holidays, she’ll always have another one for me.

Now I’ll have one for her.

It might be stupid. Might be reckless. Might not make any sense, either.

I can’t stop myself.

As if I’m a moth being drawn to the irresistible scene before me, I walk straight at it.

I have to do it. It’s my impulsive nature all over again. My mom’s stories ringing in my ears, I couldn’t stop myself from approaching the fairy circle if I tried.

Honestly, I don’t really expect anything of it except to walk through the strange circle and laugh when nothing happens. It’ll be a story I can share with Jim today, now that I’ve cooled off some. He can eat his sandwich while sipping on his cold coffee and I can tell him how I saw a fairy circle straight out of one of my mother’s stories. How I actually attempted to see if it would transport me to Faerie. And how it didn’t work so I came home where I’m already living the perfect fantasy for me.

Maybe he’ll laugh. Or maybe he’ll ask me with another sigh if I’m ever going to grow up at last.

I can just hear him sighing already. Because that’s all he seems to do whenever he has a free minute to actually pay me any attention.

I frown, then look down. While I was musing, I guess I brought myself right to the edge of the circle. For a heartbeat, I almost wish it would bring me to Faerie.

And that’s when, with a heavy step, I cross the border created by the toadstools.