Bound by Danger (The Alliance, Book 6)
Page 29
But then, he never had a choice. It was either fight or die, and at least he chose the winning side, even if it wasn't necessarily the right one, but she would never voice that opinion out loud. However, if he'd chosen the losing side, then she and Sahira would be on the run like all the other rebels.
She was still staring at her home when Sahira snatched the invitation from her hand.
"It’s an invitation to a ball!” Sahira gushed.
Lexi winced and braced herself for what was to come. The last thing she wanted was to attend some fancy ball, but the sparkle in Sahira’s eyes said her aunt was already planning what they would wear.
The invitation specified attending in their finest attire, which meant ball gowns. That was all well and good, but she didn’t own anything like that, and she wasn’t in the mood to go shopping.
Lexi almost groaned out loud, but she was well aware of the crow perched nearby, watching them intently. If her response was anything less than ecstatic, the bird would report her reaction to the dark fae king.
“It’s to celebrate the end of the war,” Sahira said. “And the king of the dark fae’s sons for helping the Lord of the Shadow Realms win.”
Some of Sahira’s enthusiasm vanished as she spoke. She may love the idea of a ball and fancy gowns, but they’d lost a lot during the war, and neither of them had anything to celebrate.
Lexi lost her dad, and Sahira lost her half-brother. They’d lost the luxurious life they once lived and most of the humans who once lived at and worked on the manor grounds.
But they weren’t the only ones who’d lost a lot. The human realm lost its innocence about the existence of immortals as well as countless lives. Every day, they continued to lose more.
And the dark fae king wanted to celebrate those losses. She found this a little strange considering he’d lost more than half his sons in the war.
Lexi bit her tongue as she gazed into the crow’s black eyes. When it tilted its head, the sun created a rainbow hue of colors throughout its feathers.
She’d never met them, but she knew Colburn, or Cole as he was more commonly known, and Brokk were the only sons the king had left. Out of his nine sons, five died in the war, and the other two survivors fought on the rebel side.
Like everyone who chose the losing side, they were stripped of their titles, land, and money. They were being hunted throughout the realms.
Many of those rebels ended up in the mortal realm where there was less magic, and it was harder to track them. Many others hopped through the Shadow Realms to avoid capture and death.
“We need gowns,” Sahira continued, and Lexi closed her eyes to keep the crow from seeing them roll. “We’ll have to go to the marketplace to purchase them. It will be fun.”
The two of them had drastically different ideas of fun, but at four hundred and fifty-three years old, Sahira was four hundred and twenty-nine years older than her. Her aunt had grown up and lived through far different times.
Sahira once attended balls held by kings and czars in the human realm while Lexi grew up in jeans and t-shirts. Sahira would sometimes talk about the old days with wistful sadness while Lexi’s old days were bowls of cereal in front of her favorite cartoons.
Though she often missed those days. They were much simpler, and her father was still alive.
This invitation was making Sahira’s year and ruining Lexi’s day. She dreaded everything about it, but she knew what she had to do.
Opening her eyes, Lexi focused on the crow. “Please tell the king we will attend.”
It released a loud caw before spreading its wings and taking flight. Lexi watched it soar high into the clear blue sky before vanishing as if it was never there.
With a sigh, Lexi looked beyond the manor to the smoke in the distance. She couldn’t see the ruined remains of the city a hundred miles away, but they were there. A week ago, she’d dared to travel close enough to see some of the devastation the dragons unleashed on it, but she remained a few miles away before she retreated.
She couldn’t do anything more by getting closer, though she wished she could. The humans who survived the massacre continued to filter out of the city every day. She’d heard from some of them that many other humans were choosing to stay behind and rebuild.
Every day, she watched as broken, ragtag groups of survivors fled the city in search of something more, but there wasn’t much left anymore. Each morning, she walked out to the road to watch those survivors and give them food. Some stopped to talk, but most continued without acknowledging her.
The dragons had unleashed a fair amount of destruction on the world, but most of their larger fires had been extinguished. However, some smaller ones still popped up. She had no idea what was starting them, and she wasn’t going into the city to find out, but sometimes they would burn for days.
The war had only ended a month ago. It was too soon to accomplish much rebuilding and far too soon to celebrate the destruction unleashed on so many. Hell, she didn’t think what happened here should ever be celebrated, but she was sure many other immortals would disagree… including the king of the dark fae.
Time was moving on, and the war was over. The immortals of the Shadow Realms wanted to move on with their lives. It didn’t matter that many in the mortal realm still suffered.
The winning side had gotten their way; immortals no longer needed to hide from humans. The mortals were well aware of their existence now, and that knowledge had ruined their lives.
Despite all that, a small tingle of excitement curled inside her belly. She’d never been to a Shadow Realm before; vampires usually weren’t welcome there, not even half vampires. And while she thought there was a good possibility she and Sahira might get killed if they tried to cross into the Gloaming, she was excited to see what lay beyond the human realm.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brenda K. Davies is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Vampire Awakening Series, Alliance Series, Road to Hell Series, Hell on Earth Series, and historical romantic fiction. She also writes under the pen name, Erica Stevens. When not out with friends and family, she can be found at home with her husband, son, dogs, cat, and horse.