Princess of Shadows: A Dark Fae Fantasy Romance

by Olivia Hart

  Chapter 35

  Sebastian

  I was out of breath when I got to the village. Screams filled the air, and over everything, the scent of death lingered. This couldn’t be happening. I could see Rose on the top of a wall that hadn’t been there this morning.

  She ducked as lightning struck nearby. Dead assassins littered the ground around the wall she stood on. Two villagers were bleeding on the ground with knife wounds while Cara stood over them. Kasia was stabbing as someone sat on her back with a bow, firing arrow after arrow at assassins as they tried to surround Kasia.

  Between the warriors and the center of the village stood three gnomes who glowed like the sun.

  I sprinted towards them, and I felt the well of power that resided inside Rose. It was draining. Too quickly. Tapping into it, I shadow walked into a warren that I created, something I’d practiced regularly in the past month.

  I flowed out of the shadow next to Rose and immediately threw back my hood. Rose lashed out with her dagger as I’d expected, but I dodged. Her hand came up to use her powers, but she stopped as she noticed that it was me.

  “Protect the people in the village,” I commanded, and without waiting for her response, I shadow walked through my personal warren. I touched the stone and reappeared right behind an assassin. My obsidian blade sank into his head, and I was already shadow walking before I’d even had a chance to pull the blade out.

  I called the dagger back as I stepped back into the Immortal Realm, and it reappeared as I was stabbing upward into a different assassin’s head. The first body dropped only a moment before the second.

  In that moment, I was death like never before. These were some of the greatest duelists in the world, in any of the worlds. Yet, I killed with an ease that made them look like children before a soldier.

  Their bodies littered the field, single stab wounds in each of them. Dozens were dead in minutes. It was an impossibility. This was just one more way that Rose had made me better than I could be without her.

  Then I heard Rose scream. One of the assassins had realized that there was a warren beneath us. Rose’s body fell from the wall. In an instant, I shadow walked to her side, but it was too late for me to stop the assassin as he leaped from the wall.

  I reappeared in the Immortal Realm, sliding into existence a foot away from Rose, and I watched as if everything was in slow motion. Enivyn, glowing like a star stepped over Rose’s body right before the assassin hit her.

  The assassin screamed as he looked down on the light, his eyes burning out as he saw the light in its full brilliance. Enivyn looked up at the same time, and the obsidian dagger found the one weak spot in the armor that Rose had created for him, his face, slicing through flesh and bone like butter.

  My dagger slid across the assassin’s throat only a moment later, but it was already too late. The half-gnome’s body collapsed on top of Rose who pulled his limp body to her, his light fading out and leaving spots in my vision.

  The rest of the village continued the fight, but in that moment, only Rose mattered to me. Tears began to fall from her cheek as she stood up, cradling Enivyn in her arms.

  I could feel her emotions. Pure rage mixed with more sadness than I’d ever felt. I could do nothing for her, and for that short moment, I was frozen on a battlefield for the first time.

  Her eyes turned black. Not dark. Pure black, the same color as her wings that burned with power.

  A sphere of shadows snapped up around her as she walked onto the battlefield, carrying the half-gnome. The shadows seemed stronger somehow, denser. Another assassin used the warren, and he plunged his dagger into the shadow shield. Without even a scream, he died, his eyes seeming to smolder and smoke. His body fell to the ground, but the dagger stayed locked into the shield that surrounded Rose.

  She didn’t scream as she should have. She should have been in immense pain from the dagger strike as it pulled her power from her. She was so cold. The only pain that she seemed to recognize was the sadness of her fallen friend.

  All of the other assassins approached her and saw their dead companion with burned-out eyes. A group of the surviving fifteen surrounded her, their weapons drawn, but all of them hesitated to use them against this shield they’d never seen before. A shield that could kill.

  “Die,” she whispered, and mist rose from the ground, slowly climbing up the assassins’ bodies. They began to scream almost in unison, but none of them moved.

  As the mist climbed, slowly covering them, the screams got louder and louder until they just stopped. Slumping sounds filled the air as everyone in the village stood silently watching the woman that we’d all fallen in love with.

  Rose’s shield dissipated as she walked back to the center of the village with Enivyn still in her arms. I followed her, and she approached Cara. “Can we do anything? Is there any magic that can bring him back?”

  I wanted to reach out and hold her, to comfort her, but I knew that right then, the only person that Rose cared about was Enivyn.

  “No. There is nothing that can be done once the body is dead.” Rose blinked back more of the tears and lay Enivyn down next to the fire.

  “There will be a funeral tonight for Enivyn,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s the way things are done here or not, but we are having one. You’ll take care of this, Cara.”

  Cara nodded, and Rose turned to me. “There are wounded, Sebastian. Help them. I need time to rest.”

  “Andryn, I am sure that you are in no mood to cook, but I need food, and everyone needs something to eat at the funeral tonight.”

  “Yes, Lady,” he said with a bow.

  “Kasia, gather whoever you need to build a pyre for the assassins. Build it far enough away from the village that we don’t need to see it during the funeral.”

  My mother had been a Queen. The Queen. She’d always had an answer. She’d always had a plan. She’d been in battles, and she’d turned the tide in many of them. That had been nothing compared to this.

  My mother had been the Dark Queen for a hundred years. The only one that many had ever known. She had been a wonderful Queen, but Rose was stronger than she ever was. I’d never heard of anyone who could kill like this.

  I glanced back to where the mists had stood and saw piles of bones sticking out from under cloaks. Nothing on them as though they’d been picked clean by insects.

  No one understood the power of a Queen until she sat on the throne, but I knew that I would rather fight Seraphina and every person in her guard at the same time than to fight Rose alone.

  Somehow, that only made me want to protect her more. I glanced at her as she walked to our hut. There was nothing in the world that could make me leave her side ever again. Nothing.

  I took a breath and let it out slowly. She needed time to come to grips with her emotions, and I had my orders.

  Chapter 36

  Sebastian

  A pyre burned the remains of the entire Assassin’s Guild far to the north in the area that Kasia enjoyed running with her foals. The faint smell of burned flesh and hawthorn wood lingered in the air. That area would never be the same. It would be a haunted place, a place of evil in their minds.

  For the ten years that this village had existed, they’d had peace. Now, they knew fear, and everything would change. Never again would they feel the same simple happiness. They would train as warriors from this day onward. They all knew that if Rose and I hadn’t been here, the entire village would have died to that assault. They now understood just how fragile their peace was.

  I’d collected the obsidian daggers and their sheaths and put them in a bag. The Guild was gone, but the weapons were too valuable to destroy. These would be the weapons that the village would train with. A bag of weapons that was worth more than most palaces. Weapons that could kill Queens and Princes. Weapons that would pierce shields and put them on a much more even footing against more powerful enemies.

  Andryn’s stew was cooking, and a second, much smaller pyre had
been built just outside the village for Enivyn. His body had been cleaned, and he’d been dressed in the nicest outfit he’d owned, a simple foraging outfit covered in pockets. The gnome’s pockets had been filled with snacks by Sinivyn. All of his favorites. Honeyed walnuts, sugared berries, some small pieces of chocolate, and roasted seeds. He would go into the void with as many treats as he could carry.

  The battle that had been his death had been strangely one-sided. There had been wounded, but none were life-threatening wounds. Mostly, they had been accidents while untrained Fae used powers in ways they weren’t used to. There were a few dagger wounds, but after the iron had been cleansed, they healed quickly.

  Scraped hands and knees from tripping in their hurry. Bumps and bruises from running into each other. A few cut fingers from improperly handling weapons. The shifters had wounded mouths from biting hands that were wreathed in fire or were carrying blades.

  All so minor in comparison to the atrocities of normal battle. There were no severed limbs or corpses that had been burned beyond recognition. There was no need to mercy kill anyone. It had taken less than an hour to decimate one of the strongest fighting forces in the world.

  The fact that only one person in the village had died from an attack by the entire Assassin’s Guild was a miracle. A miracle in the form of a woman who was approaching the fire now.

  She no longer wore the simple linen dress that she’d worn the past few weeks. Tonight, as both moons shown brightly in the night sky, she stepped down the pathway through the village in a black dress made of something that seemed to shimmer with darkness instead of moonlight.

  As she approached the cookfire, I realized that her dress was the same pure blackness of her wings. It was magic made manifest. An extension of her power that flowed like any other dress, but as she stood near the fire, the light seemed to be repelled by it.

  “John and Sinivyn, please carry your brother to the pyre.” Her words did not ask. They commanded. The girl that I’d stolen from the Mortal Realm was gone, and a Queen stood in her place.

  They did as she bid, picking up the wooden board that held Enivyn’s body. Even in death, the gnome was smiling. There was a small gash across his forehead where the assassin had killed him, but otherwise, he seemed to be sleeping. Small sobs filled the air as many of the villagers began to cry.

  Rose followed them with me behind her, and the rest of the village followed behind us. She didn’t even seem to notice me as I stood beside her while they lifted their brother onto the pyre using step ladders that had been placed on either side. Her gaze and focus were on the one that had been lost.

  When they had retreated, Rose stepped up to the pyre and put her hand against the wood. Smoke began to rise, and as she pulled her hand away, I saw a flash of light so bright it would have blinded anyone nearby. Then it was gone.

  The wood had been coated in oil, and as the oil caught fire, the flames spread. A plume of smoke rose into the air as the wood was slowly engulfed. Rose stepped back beside me, and I could see tears falling down her cheek.

  “Enivyn is the kindest person I have ever met. He was the first one to trust me, the first to welcome me into the Immortal Realm. He was a friend. Always quick with a joke, and always ready to help when there was work to be done.”

  “I’ve never felt at home anywhere, but Enivyn showed me that this village could be home. He showed me that the people here were not the same as everywhere else. They could be more than friends. They could be family. I will never forget the first person to show me that I could have a family. I will never forget Enivyn.”

  As she stepped back, I stepped forward. “Enivyn was a gnome, and gnomes are not warriors. They’re not soldiers or guards are even assassins. Gnomes hide and find things. Yet, when our Queen was in danger, he did what I couldn’t do. He protected her. He kept her safe so that she could keep everyone else safe.”

  “Without Enivyn, everyone in this village would have died. Even me. He’s not just a gnome. He’s a hero. And, no one will ever forget his name. I think that he’d like to know that. Even while he rests between worlds.”

  John stepped forward, tears streaming from his face. “I will miss my brother’s smile most of all. He was always there to brighten my day with his smile and laugh. He was the Prince of Smiles. I don’t know if there’s anyone in the world who can smile as well as Enivyn.”

  Sinivyn said, “He was an annoying gnome, but I loved him. He stole my food, but I didn’t even mind very much. The world is worse now. I wish my brother had not died.”

  One by one, each of the villagers stepped forward to remember Enivyn. We all stood and watched as the fires consumed his body. The smell of burnt rowan wood filled the air.

  Tears fell, a gift to the departed. This was the first person in the village to die since I had built it. He was also the first person that I’d brought here. Without Enivyn and his brothers, this village wouldn’t have been safe. They’d have been found by seers or sensed by passing Fae.

  “This will never happen again, Sebastian,” Rose said, turning to me. Her eyes glowed with an inner fire, dancing from black to ice blue.

  “People die, Rose. Even in the Immortal Realm, everyone dies eventually.” I wanted to reach out and hold her, to comfort her, but she wasn’t sad. She was furious.

  “Not like this. Enivyn never did anything to hurt anyone. He didn’t deserve this, and I won’t let it happen again.”

  “You can’t stop bad people from doing bad things. No one can.” I could feel the rage boiling inside her. So much anger. I’d never felt anyone so filled with it.

  “The Queen can.”

  I stared at her for a few seconds and nodded. “Yes, the Queen can stop a lot of it.”

  “Then I’ll become Queen.” She turned away from me and looked at the fire that released her first real friend.

  In this moment, I was sure that touching that fire would hurt a lot less than touching the one that burned inside the woman I loved.

  Chapter 37

  Rose

  The pain of losing Enivyn was still there. Every time I ate. Every time I saw John or Sinivyn. Every time I went into the forest. It was getting better, though.

  I wasn’t going to let this happen to my friends again. I would let Queen Seraphina target me instead of the ones I cared about. I would be the wall standing between her and the Dark Court, and if that wasn’t enough, I would destroy her and any who stood with her.

  Sebastian had tried to explain that the Courts thought of things like this as games. Build the better army. Eliminate rivals. Trick people into disgracing themselves. Slowly move up the hierarchy.

  I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to crush the hierarchy. I felt the power inside me. I’d seen what I could do. From what Sebastian said, there was no one in the world who would be able to stand toe-to-toe with me in a battle. Not even Seraphina.

  But there were new rules to play by. Yes, I could start a war, but that would cost many lives on both sides. Instead, I was going to have to play their games to some extent.

  Sebastian promised to teach me, to guide me. He had friends in Court that would help as well. But before we could do anything, we needed to travel to the Dark Court.

  I wasn’t going to let this village become a bargaining chip for them. We would break the portal and only after I could protect the village would we open it back up. That meant years most likely.

  “We’ll miss you,” Cara said. Her eyes turned milky white as she held my hand. “There is a room that you will find before it is too late. A room where lies do not exist. A room filled with pain and anguish. Find it and the truth will be yours.”

  A goodbye from a seer. Advice that I knew that I’d never understand until I needed it. I tried my best to set it in my memory, but already, the words seemed to fade as all prophecies did.

  “I’ll miss you too, Cara. Keep them safe and don’t let the pups run you too ragged.”

  She smiled and nodded. The entire village was line
d up to see us off. Tears filled many of their eyes, but exultation filled others. They knew what I was setting off to do. Finally, someone would keep them safe.

  I just hoped that I could be that person. I’d managed to make this place my home. I’d managed to learn to fight, to learn to kill. But could I learn to be a politician? Could I really be a Queen?

  I waved goodbye to them and took Sebastian’s arm. I wore a silk dress that Cara had made for me in the three days since Enivyn’s funeral. Sebastian wore his cloak, but under it, he wore a silk shirt as well. His pack was slung over his shoulder, and we were well supplied for a journey.

  He didn’t know what the Dark Court would be like when we got there. If Seraphina had heard that the Assassin’s Guild had failed, there would be repercussions. At least until I took the throne.

  We began to walk the path that would lead to the portal. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d done to those assassins there at the end of the fight. It had been one thing to fight them. They’d had a chance then. I’d been expecting to have to fight eventually. That’s why Sebastian had trained me so forcefully.

  What happened after Enivyn died was different, though. I didn’t know exactly how I’d done it, but I’d combined magics into triples. Shadows, stone, and light to create the shield. Then mist, light, and stone to kill.

  I’d tried to reproduce it again, but I couldn’t. Even when I thought about holding Enivyn’s body, I couldn’t get back to that place of anger that had let me destroy an army in seconds.

  I glanced at Sebastian and wondered how he felt about me now. Instinctively, I reached for his magic and felt his emotions. There was such a mix of them. More than I’d ever felt in him. Fear, uncertainty, excitement, and lust as always.

  But more than anything, there was pride.

  He was proud of me for becoming a Queen. I still didn’t understand how he could think that I would be a good Queen when I’d only known I was a fairy for a little over a month.