by Sophie Stern
Dark fairies aren’t allowed anywhere: least of all Dark Falls.
After a few seconds of staring, the wolf shifts into a tall, lean woman.
“Fancy seeing you here,” she says.
“Hello,” I say, because I mean, what else am I going to say to a random lady outside of the forest? She really should put boots on. It’s cold and muddy and there’s no way she’s comfortable wearing nothing at all.
“I take it you’re traveling through the forest,” she says.
“I take it you’re good at stating the obvious,” I retort.
“It’s 40 gold pieces to travel through the forest,” she says.
I laugh.
Seriously, what the actual hell? 40 gold pieces? She’s out of her mind. That’s more than most people make in a month. I’m certainly not paying her 40 gold pieces. That’s not even for “safe passage,” as I’m well aware of. She’s not going to accompany me through the forest. She’s not going to ensure that I stay safe.
The woman’s eyes narrow as she glares at me.
“40,” she repeats.
“I think not,” I tell her.
Pulling out the amulet, I spin it in a circle until the woman’s eyes glaze and she shakes her head before looking around. She looks down at herself, obviously confused that she’s in her human form, and quickly shifts back to being a wolf. The amulet doesn’t make me disappear. Instead, it makes me unnoticed. She might be able to see me, but she won’t notice me.
Once she wanders off, I sneak by her and start walking down the forest path. In the daylight, it’s easy to navigate. The trees are far enough apart that streams of sunlight pour down into the space and I easily step over the brush ahead of me. There are monsters that lurk in the forest, but somehow, the amulet seems to give me strength. My mother loved this amulet and wore it every day. She said it gave her luck.
Today, we’re going to see if that’s true.
It takes me an hour to cross through the forest. I only see a couple of goblins, but they’re preoccupied with eating and hunting and don’t even look my way. The woods continue on for miles both East and West, but this portion of the forest, the portion that leads to the North, is the narrowest. There’s a worn path that leads straight through, so I follow it closely, cautious and careful to watch out for anything that might come my way.
It’s not until I’m just about to exit the forest that I finally come across a creature.
This time, it’s a lion.
Considering I’m nowhere near a zoo, I think it’s safe to say it’s another shifter. This time, I don’t wait for it to shift and speak to me. I spin the amulet again and once more, it works. The shifter is confused and wanders off, which allows me to walk out of the forest and down the path once more. This time, I realize something.
These shifters have to be getting to the woods somehow. Surely, they didn’t walk here. Surely, they don’t live here in the midst of the darkness. Not near the demons. Even shifters aren’t known for having a fondness for demons. Nobody likes the demons. They’re almost as bad as fallen angels, but at least the angels stay far away from everyone else. They’re too good for Earthlings even when their wings are cut off. Go figure.
Instead of heaving directly out of the woods on foot, I look around for a few minutes until I find a carefully hidden deep blue carpet amongst the shrubbery. The shifter is nowhere to be seen as I hop on, get my balance, and start moving.
I’m going to make it to town in half the time.
“Hang on, Tulip,” I say. “I’ve got this.”
Chapter 3
Edward
“The demon problem is getting out of control,” I say to my advisor. Wyatt slinks lower in his chair, frowning unhappily. The blonde-haired fae isn’t used to being called out, but I don’t really care. “You promised me you had it in the bag, Wyatt. Those were your exact words.”
“Well, I don’t think those were my exact words.”
I shoot him a look that tells him to shut the fuck up and he smartly does.
“What are you going to do to fix this?” I tell him. “Seventeen fairies have died this week. Seventeen. That’s just within the city limits. Who knows how many died in the other towns this week?”
Dark Falls is the largest city, but there are at least five tiny towns surrounding it directly, followed by the Dark Forest. I don’t really know how many cities are beyond the forest. The townspeople all call it the forbidden forest, but I have no idea why. They’re perfectly allowed to travel wherever they like. There’s not much I stop my kingdom from doing.
As long as they don’t get fucking eaten by demons, I don’t care.
There are other kingdoms in the nearby vicinity, kingdoms of vampires and humans and other types of creatures, but they stay away from us and we stay away from them. Except for demons, it seems. Apparently, demons feel like Dark Falls is a playground. Just my luck.
“Well, the reports say-”
“I don’t give a fuck what the reports say,” I slam my hand down on my desk. Wyatt actually shivers. Good. He’s scared of me? He should be. I’m the damn King of the Fairies. I’m not exactly happy to hear that my own citizens have been dying and that no one seems to know how to stop them. Why did the demons start surrounding Dark Falls, anyway? It’s a very new problem we’ve been having. Until a few months ago, there had never even been demons in this area.
Now they’re fucking everywhere.
From what I’ve heard, the Dark Forest is full of them.
Why have they been leaving their own kingdoms?
Why are the monsters coming here?
I’m perfectly happy having my kingdom at peace. If there are demons coming, we need to stop them now. If we don’t, war will be inevitable, and I do not want a war. Nobody wants that. There’s no doubt in my mind that the dark fairies of my city would win any battle, any fight, any war. That doesn’t mean I want to take the risk. I have no interest in wagering the lives of my citizens because the demons don’t have the self-control to stay away.
Wyatt just stares at me and shrugs.
“Not good enough,” I say. “Leave. Make a plan. Bring it to me. You have twelve hours.”
Wyatt glowers, but scurries out of the room. As soon as the door is closed, I pick up my wine glass, chug it, and throw it at the door. The glass shatters into pieces and they all fall to the floor like pretty little diamonds.
It’s a pity.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have broken it.
But I’m a loss as to what to do. My father would have known. Had he still been here to guide me, he would have known. Dropping my head into my hands, I growl. My wings come out: glittering and bright. I can’t even stop them from appearing. My shirt rips as they tear free from the fabric covering my body, but I don’t fight it.
Today, I just accept it.
The reality is that my people are being systematically hunted and I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s bringing the demons to Dark Falls or what made them think that the fairies deserved to be hunted. I don’t know why there seems to be such a shortage of the antidote to fairy bites.
I don’t know anything except the right now, I am totally, completely lost.
I sit for what feels like an eternity and finally, I get up and leave the office. My wings are still out, which is usually a pretty good indicator that I’m either really pissed off or I’m going to battle. Today I might be doing both. Who knows? It’s barely even noon and already, I’m in a sour mood.
The workers who make the castle the incredible entity that it is scurry out of my way. One brave fairy asks if she can get me anything. She winks, and I know what she means, but I ignore her and keep walking. I don’t sleep with fairies who work for me. Hell, lately, I don’t sleep with anyone.
Not since my wife died.
Everyone at the castle knows that I’m celibate, at least for now, but that doesn’t stop the occasional employee from trying. I’m not the most attractive king, but I’m good-looking enough, I suppose
, and besides, the females here love whoever holds the most power. In the castle, that’s me. Hell, in the kingdom it’s me. That’s one of the reasons I never date. I have no idea to tell who wants to spend time with me because they like me and not because they think I can give them something.
The women I know are nothing like Cheryl.
Cheryl was the perfect wife. She was a wonderful bride and an incredible queen. Together, she served the people of Dark Falls with me. She was beloved as a leader and did so much to help the children, the families, and the individuals of our city. We loved this kingdom. Together, we ruled it. With Wyatt as our advisor and Cheryl’s sisters to help, we made this place better.
And then she was gone.
In the years since her death, the kingdom, as I knew it, has fallen away.
It’s gotten dark.
Lonely.
And now we have a demon problem.
Fuck.
I keep moving down the hallway until I reach the one place I can truly be alone: the library. I close the doors behind me, locking them, and then I pace the aisles of the room until I find the book I’m looking for.
It’s an old one. The pages of the leather-bound copy are worn and well-read. They’ve been loved because together, Cheryl and I used to read these pages as a couple. Fairy Tales for Dark Falls Fairies is a silly title, perhaps, but it’s a collection of stories from our community. We both loved losing ourselves in the pages of these stories.
We loved everything about immersing ourselves in books that could help us forget, just for a little while, how much we’d lost. As an individual, losing a child was painful. As a couple, it was devastating. I don’t think either one of us really ever recovered from losing our little boy. It certainly didn’t make things easier. In a world where vampires hunted and demons roamed, the death of a child was just one more horror that we shouldn’t have had to bear.
I sit in the library and I turn the pages of the book. Soon the old, crinkly pages are wet with my tears, but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything anymore.
I just want the pain to stop.
I want the killing to stop.
I want all of it to stop.
It’s not very king-like to cry over a girl. It’s not very royal-ish to shed tears over losing your love, but that doesn’t stop the fact that it happened or that she’s gone or that I’m alone in the universe now.
I guess that’s not entirely true.
I still have Wyatt.
I still have my people.
I still have the tiniest sliver of hope that somehow, things will be okay.
What I need is a plan. Every king needs one. What I need is to figure out exactly what steps I need to take in order to get rid of these damn demons.
Step one: figure out what’s attracting them. They certainly didn’t wander into Dark Falls by accident.
Step two: find out how to fight them easily. As faes, we’re strong, and we’re wonderful at avoiding danger, but we don’t often come out on top in fights with demons. Other creatures we can slay without issue, but demons? Demons are a tricky bunch.
Step three: get rid of them for good.
Banish them.
Say goodbye.
I miss my wife. I miss having Cheryl around to help me bounce ideas off of. I miss her in so many ways that it hurts, but most of all, I miss the way she always seemed to know exactly what to do when things got hard. She always knew exactly what I needed to hear. She could guide me.
She was my lighthouse.
And now she’s gone.
All I have now are my demons.
Chapter 4
Rose
The carpet stops working about two miles out of Dark Falls. That’s not too bad. I can walk that easily, so I start moving. Maybe the enchantment is tied to the original owner or something. I’m not sure, and I don’t know very many spells, so I can’t exactly get it up and working on my own.
I ditch the little magic rug in some bushes and get going. Perhaps I should leave it on the side of the road so its owner can find it easily, but I’m not really a fan of shifters trying to make a buck off unsuspecting villagers who just want to make their way through the forest.
That’s not very fair.
It’s not a nice way to play, now is it?
There are so many poor faes who live outside of the big city that charging them to get closer to the city basically feels like robbery. I pass around the outskirts of Dark Town, careful to stay out of sight, and then I keep walking toward the capital city.
Dark Falls is surrounded by a huge wall. Seriously, the wall is enormous. It’s made of stone and interlaid with watchful eyes, so it’s not only impenetrable, but unapproachable, as well. In order to get into the city, you need to be able to prove you’re a fairy and that you’re a citizen. Most everyone in Dark Falls has a charm they can show to prove they belong. I don’t know how they’re issued or how you acquire one. All I know is that I don’t have one.
It’s fine, though.
I’ve got something better.
The amulet should be good enough to get me by the city guards. If I play my cards right, I’ll be able to slip inside undetected. No one will notice that I’m not from the city or that I’m not even a proper fairy. Dark fairies aren’t exactly known for being beautiful. Oh, there are rumors and stories that we’re meaner and more vicious than ordinary faes, but that’s simply not true. A dark fairy has dark wings and when we mate, we mate for life.
Regular fairies can have as many partners as they like.
Not us.
When a dark fae takes a lover, she takes him forever. Good or bad, right or wrong: they’re linked. Bound. Together. In some ways, it’s very romantic. In other ways, it’s horrifying to think about. I don’t want to necessarily be linked to the first guy I fall for. What if he’s the wrong guy? What if it’s the wrong time or the wrong situation? What if we mate and then we still choose to go our own ways?
My sisters always warn me that I over-think things. They say I’m too cautious. They think that I consider all of the possibilities and focus too much on what could go wrong instead of enjoying what could go right.
I think they’re crazy.
I suppose that if I sleep with someone and it doesn’t mean anything, I could go my own way. There’s no physical bond that will hold us together, but my heart will always crave him. It’s the curse of the dark fae. We’re so powerful in so many ways, except in this one. The link will be broken in death. I suppose that’s why so many dark faes kill their partners.
I approach the guard and spin my amulet. He doesn’t seem to notice me as I make my way past him. I slip into the city completely undetected and I can’t help it. I breathe a huge sigh of relief once I’m past the security checkpoint.
And then that’s it.
I’m Dark Falls.
I’m in the city.
It’s been a long time since I was in Dark Falls. It’s been years. My mother brought me here as a tiny fae, but that was long ago. After the king’s wife died, everything changed. He started developing his playboy persona and the city was put on lockdown. No one really knows why things changed. Hell, nobody even knows how she died. Maybe he killed her.
A lot of fairies think that he killed her.
There are vendors and shops and people mulling about in the busy city streets. The roads are packed as I make my way down them. I push past people shopping, selling, and buying. There are citizens shouting, haggling, and having fun. Everything smells delicious and a wave of hunger washes over me, but I’m not here to eat.
I’m here to find a wizard.
I close my eyes and try to remember Martin’s exact directions. I make it to the end of the first row of vendors and shops, and then I turn right where the road intersects with a row of houses. I keep moving, then, and I’m careful. Cautious. I shove my hands in my pockets as I head down the street.
I don’t notice anyone lurking around here. Strange. I push past some people crowded aroun
d and keep walking. Then I take a left. A right. Another right.
Eventually, I find myself in front of a tiny little door. It’s almost too small to fit through.
Almost.
It looks unusual. In a row of shops, this one is almost squished between two others, as if someone shrunk the building and nestled it between the two others. Hesitating for just a moment, I look around. The blue door is exactly where it ought to be and is just as Martin described, but it seems...different.
Something doesn’t seem right.
Something doesn’t feel right.
This is where Martin said his wizard friend lives, but there’s a strange feeling in the air. It’s almost ominous. It’s not often that I get uncomfortable feelings when I’m searching for something or looking for something, but suddenly, I feel like I’m being watched.
Suddenly, I feel like I’m not supposed to be here at all.
If my mother taught me one thing, it’s that you should always trust your gut. It’s saved me in more ways than I dare to count. Part of me wants to ignore the feeling and push the door open, burst inside, and ask for the potion I need, but there’s another part of me that knows this is a terrible idea.
It’s a horrible plan.
So I stoop down and pretend to tie my shoe. I cautiously look around as I do, and that’s when I see it. Just across the alley from the shop, there’s a little flower pot and inside the pot is a small, tiny stone that seems to glow. No one would notice it unless they happened to stop, as I have.
So Luther’s shop is under surveillance.
That can’t be good.
The little monitor is so small that I doubt anyone else has even seen it. The charmed stone could have been there for days, weeks, or even months without detection. It blinks again and I look away. I finishing fake-tying my shoe, stand up, stretch, and keep walking. I spin the amulet, just in case, and then I round the corner. As soon as I’m out of sight of the shop, I breathe a sigh of relief, but I don’t quite know why.
