by Nissa Leder
“It’s a celebration. I’ve challenged my brother to a battle at the end of the summer. This is the opening ceremony.”
Peony had already told Scarlett this, but she didn’t mention it. She didn’t want her to get in trouble. A hush spread throughout the room. She followed everyone’s stares to see Raith waltz into the room with a dark haired fae at his side. “Father, Kassandra.” He bowed to them. “Cade, Scarlett.” He winked at her, not bothering to introduce his date.
After everyone had taken their places at the table, the king stood. He pressed his fingers to the side of his throat and spoke, “Welcome. We’ve joined today to begin a summer full of festivities.” His voice boomed through the room. He balanced himself with a cane in his left hand. “My youngest son Cade has challenged his brother Raith to the Right of Heir, which will take place on end of Summer’s eve. I wish them both well.” The king reached his hand out. A wine glass, already full with a deep red liquid, flew to his hands. He raised it, his hands shaking. “To my sons.”
The room followed by raising glasses into the air and clinking them against one another. Scarlett joined in. When she sipped the drink, it was fruitier than she was expecting. Every time she had wine, it was bitter and caused her to grimace. This was delicious. She drank some more.
“Fae wine is delicious,” Raith said to Scarlett as he took a drink. “Quite lethal to humans.”
Scarlett froze. Had this all been a trick? Did she just drink poison?
Cade reached his hand under the table and rested it on her thigh. “Don’t listen to my brother. Fae wine won’t hurt you. It’s just more potent than human alcohol, so you may want to take it slow.”
“Or if you’re spending the night with Cade, you may want to chug it.” Raith raised his glass to Scarlett.
She swallowed a chuckle.
Women dressed in cherry red dresses with white aprons brought out dinner. Scarlett was pretty sure they were human. Slices of turkey and ham were placed on Scarlett’s plate, paired with potatoes and a dish of fruit. She tried a piece that looked like pineapple, only it was blue instead of yellow. Like the wine, it was sweeter than she expected.
“So, brother, where did you meet such a lovely human?” Raith asked.
Cade sipped his wine. “It doesn’t concern you.”
“Curiosity has the better of me.”
Scarlett looked away. It seemed awkward to be talked about like she wasn’t there. She watched the humans walk around and fill the wine glasses from golden pitchers.
“That’s fine with me,” Cade said. He ran his hand up and down her leg, sending a shiver through her.
A woman approached their table. She lifted Kassandra's wine glass and poured more in. As she set it down, her hand slipped and knocked the glass over. Red liquid poured onto Kassandra’s lap.
A rush of panic spread through Scarlett. Panic that wasn’t her own. She could feel the woman’s terror pulse through her veins as if she were the one the queen was glaring at. Scarlett closed her eyes and breathed in the surge of emotion, causing something to buzz inside. Iciness spread through her, like when she’d entered Faerie.
What was happening to her?
It had to be the wine. Whenever she hand drunk alcohol in the mortal world, a warmth would spread through her. This must have been the effect of the fae wine combined with spending so much time locked in a room, her mind now playing tricks on her.
“I’m so sorry, my queen,” the woman stammered. “I will clean it up.”
The queen stared at the woman. She huffed and flicked her hand. The liquid from her lap rushed back into the cup, which sat back on the table as if nothing had happened. “You are dismissed for the night.”
The woman nodded and rushed away, taking her nervousness with her.
As the dinner finished up, people came over to congratulate Cade and Raith. Scarlett wasn’t sure a battle against your brother really deserved congratulations, but, then again, she didn’t know much about the Summer Court. The other fae at the dinner were all beautiful. Some had dark skin, others light, with hair ranging from blonde to midnight black. Most who approached glanced at Scarlett, but no one acknowledged her unless Cade introduced them.
A blonde woman eyed her as she reached Cade.
“Such a lovely dinner, my king and queen,” the girl bowed. She was the only woman in the room not in a dress. Instead, she wore leather pants anda matching vest. “Cade.” She bowed again.
“Poppy, this is Scarlett.” Cade gestured to her. “Scarlett, this is Poppy, my trainer.”
Interesting. Poppy had an intensity in her eyes that made her look like she was ready to kick ass. She nodded to Scarlett, then turned her attention back to Cade. “I’d like to arrange next week’s practice times, if you have a moment.”
“Of course,” Cade said as he stood. “I’ll meet you at the top of the stairs, Scarlett. I think it’s time we leave.”
When Cade left with Poppy, Scarlett excused herself from the table and headed to the stairs. Someone followed.
“We meet again,” Raith said as he caught up with her.
“I guess we do,” she said.
He circled in front of her, blocking her path. “There’s something different about you.”
“Oh?” Scarlett would have thought he was crazy earlier, but after feeling the woman’s emotion surge through her, she wondered if she was different. Had coming to a land of magic somehow changed her? Since following Cade through the door in the forest, her emotions felt like a roller coaster. One moment, she’d be full of pain. The next, numb. When Cade’s mouth was on hers, lust filled her. Could the whirlwind of feelings make her crazy? Or had she really sensed the woman’s anxiety? “Shouldn’t you be with your date?”
“She’ll survive.” Raith tilted his head as he eyed Scarlett up and down. “My brother seems infatuated with you.”
She tried to back away. Something told her he wanted nothing more than to hurt his brother and she had no desire to be a pawn in their chess game. “Not really.”
“Your emotion is lovely. Right now, you’re afraid I’m going to hurt you.”
“Should I be?”
“Not of me,” Raith said.
Scarlett turned and hurried up the stairs. She wasn’t sure where she was going. All she wanted was to get home.
After Cade spoke to Poppy about training, he went to the top of the stairs to find Scarlett. She wasn’t there. Instead, Raith sat on the top stair with his elbow resting on his knee, boredom on his face.
“Where’s Scarlett?”
“She went that way.” Gaze forward, Raith pointed behind him up the staircase.
“Leave her alone,” Cade said. “She’s mine.”
“Quite the protective one, are we? And of a human.”
“You only want her because I’m the one who found her.” Cade marched up the staircase, stopping in front of Raith. “I need energy to train for our battle, and bringing a human here was easier than going to the human realm.” He didn’t need to explain himself to his brother. He didn’t ask Raith how he replenished his magic.
“Then why not find a different human?”
Why did Raith care so much how he fed? Whatever the reason, Cade liked it. Scarlett was his, not Raith’s.
Soon, the crown would be Cade’s, too.
Chapter Eleven
It was the first time she’d been out of Cade’s room and away from him in three days, and Scarlett finally had a chance to run free. She wasn’t sure what her plan was. She was in another realm, more than just a cab ride away from home. Unless there were realm jumping cabs here. Somehow, she doubted it. If she could get away from the castle, she could hide until she found someone to help her home. Not the greatest plan, but a plan nonetheless. It beat playing Rapunzel in the room Cade had trapped her in.
Her moments of clarity didn’t last long. The mind fog she experienced after Cade numbed her pushed her desire to escape far away. This was her chance. She needed to act now before he could us
e his ability to control her emotions against her again.
Raith’s words replayed in Scarlett’s mind. Not of me. Maybe he was just trying to freak her out. Or maybe he was saying she should be afraid of Cade. Or Kassandra. Something about the queen scared her. She’d always had good intuition about people, and her gut told her to steer clear of the Summer Queen. Maybe she’d just read too many fairytales where queens were always evil, but if her intuition told her to be nervous, she would trust it.
Scarlett peered through a cracked door. She entered a library. Bookshelves lined the walls, full of books from floor to ceiling. Darkness filled the room, which was lit only by the moonlight sneaking inside through a large window on the other side of the room. She hurried across and peered outside. She was on the second floor of the castle. The courtyard hung below.
How long did she have before Cade found her?
Scarlett tried to pry the window open. It didn’t budge.
She closed her eyes and pictured the window lifting. The iciness returned, subtler this time. Her veins warmed, heating her from the inside out.
The window slid up.
Like magic.
That didn’t make sense. Had someone else opened it? No one else was in the room. Was her mind playing tricks on her? The longer Cade played with her emotion, the less in control of herself she felt.
She didn’t know how she it opened, but she didn’t stop to worry. Carefully, she climbed onto the windowsill. The ground was at least ten feet away. She didn’t have time to be afraid. She spun so her back faced the courtyard and then eased her body down as far as she could while hanging on. Then she dropped.
Scarlett’s legs hit the ground with a thud. She fell backwards and landed on her butt. She’d be sore tomorrow, but she was out. Her dress constricted her movement, so she tore a rip in each side. She prayed no one would see her as she jogged through the courtyard. The moon and stars lit the night. They looked the same as if she were back home, lying on a blanket in the grass next to her mom and peering into the sky like they used to. Scarlett felt the pain creeping back in but pushed it away. She needed to focus if she wanted to escape.
On the far side of the courtyard was a gate, a towering forest behind it. If she could make it there, she’d be harder to find. She ran faster. The gate was cracked open. Score. Scarlett hurried through it and into the cover of the trees.
Now where?
She followed the path that led from gate. The forest was much darker. The trees were thick and kept the light out. Why couldn’t she have escaped during the day? Her pace slowed as she gingerly stepped on the ground, careful not to turn her ankle.
Something shuffled in the trees.
“Who’s there?” Scarlett asked. Walking alone down the street at home was scary enough. Being alone in a dark forest in a whole other world was much worse. Her desperation to leave had clouded her judgment.
A figure stepped out. A woman with nearly translucent skin swayed toward Scarlett. “What a divine gift to find its way to me.”
“Stay away,” Scarlett said. She bent her legs and raised her fists.
“And what fear I feel.” She cocked her head to the side and grinned. Her incisors were the longest of her teeth, like a vampire.
“What are you?” Maybe Scarlett could stall. Cade must be looking for her. So much for wanting to escape. But going back with him was better than whatever this lady wanted with her. “What do you want?” She tried to speak louder so someone might hear.
“Food as delectable as you is hard to come by in these woods.”
“They’ll know I’m missing. They’ll come for you.” Scarlett’s heart pounded in her chest. Her mother’s face flashed in her mind—not the lifeless face she had last seen, but a joy-filled face of love. She swallowed the terror immobilizing her.
The woman circled around her, hunger in her dark eyes. “I’ll be long gone, and you’ll be nowhere to be found.”
Scarlett tried to think of something to do. Somewhere she could run. Something she could say to stop her. Instead, she froze.
The woman attacked.
Thank god the feast was over. Raith had a long summer ahead of him. He preferred to be alone in his tree. If he had to be around other people, he’d choose people away from the castle. Court was boring. A whole world existed outside the castle walls, one free of ritual and expectation.
He walked through the courtyard to his door, which, to his surprise, he could see. Normally when he shut it, it glamoured itself invisible to anyone but him. When he got closer, he realized it was cracked open.
He heard voices. Strange. Most of the forest fae kept away from the castle, and most of the Summer Court kept even further away from the forest.
A scream made Raith move faster.
He sprinted through the gate and into the thicket of the forest. Another scream steered him on a path leading deeper into the woods.
A large figure pinned Scarlett’s hands behind her back. She must have wandered out into the forest to get away from Cade. Maybe Cade should have warned her what would happen if she left the safety of the castle. Now, she’d be eaten by a banshee. Too bad, too; she might have made the summer more interesting.
Raith could save her. He really should save her. A poor human seduced into a dangerous world. Here was his chance to be a hero. The good guy. The misunderstood brother.
Terror pulsed from Scarlett. Raith breathed it in. Magic buzzed inside him.
Sympathy for the human filled him too.
“Stop,” Scarlett screeched.
“You smell so warm,” the banshee said. She slid Scarlett’s hair from her neck. “Ow,” she said as she dropped her grip on Scarlett’s wrists. “You burned me.”
Scarlett lunged from her as she held her hands in the air. The banshee was too quick, though, and snatched Scarlett’s leg and pulled her toward her. She lifted her by the ankle and sunk her teeth into her calf. Scarlett yelped and tried to break free, but she couldn’t. Whatever she’d been able to do before didn’t help her now.
Raith sighed. He’d helped a human once before. Out of pity, out of weakness, he wasn’t sure, and he was about to help another one. He darted from the cover of the trees and slammed his body into the banshee. The banshee screeched as she released her grip on Scarlett and rolled into a crouch, anchoring herself between Scarlett and Raith. She hissed.
“She’s mine now. It’s too late for her.”
Banshee venom was lethal to humans. It would kill them without the antidote, which Raith didn’t have. He could just leave her to the banshee—pretend he was never here. But if he saved her, at least she wouldn’t be eaten limb by limb, a less merciful death.
Raith pulled a knife from his boot and chucked it at the banshee. It hit her in shoulder. The banshee gasped, but she pulled it out and threw it back at him. He dove out of the way and landed with a summersault. The banshee pounced. She gripped his throat. Raith kicked her ten feet back. He hadn’t filled his magic since yesterday. He hadn’t expected a fight. A nice dinner, some banter, but not a banshee at his throat. The pain he’d absorbed from Scarlett was a start, but banshees were relentless. He needed more.
With his eyes closed, he breathed in the forest around him. He didn’t have much time before the banshee would return. Magic entered his fingertips and moved through his hands. He pushed his palms forward. A murder of ravens flew from them. They pecked the banshee’s eyes as she wailed.
Raith dusted himself off as he got up. The ravens struck until they faded away. The banshee clawed at her face. She would heal eventually—if nothing ate her first. But if he let her live, she might stick around for revenge. Banshees were spiteful like that. Annoyingly so. Raith brought his knife soaring to his fingers then he stabbed the pitiful creature in the heart, leaving it for something else to find as dinner.
Scarlett was curled into a ball on the cold forest floor. Blood dripped from the wound on her calf. Raith picked her up gently. She groaned but didn’t stir. Once they were in his t
ree, he carefully placed her on the bed where she should be safe. He needed to go to the healing wing of the castle. Without medicine, she would die.
Raith slammed the gate as he returned. The antidote for banshee venom was gone. A fae wouldn’t die from a bite, but it could get infected for a while without treatment. Apparently, a couple of banshees had moved closer to the castle and had been feeding off of unsuspecting fae. The healers were set to search the forest for the herbs needed to make more tomorrow, but it would be too late for Scarlett then.
He snuck into his tree. If she was still asleep, he didn’t want to wake her. Then, if he didn’t want to be a jerk, he’d have to tell her she would die. To his surprise, when he glanced at the bed, she was sitting up, looking at her leg.
“Bad night,” Raith said.
Scarlett’s neck snapped toward him. “Oh, it’s you.”
She wasn’t afraid of him. That was good.
“What happened to me?” she asked. Her dress, now covered in dirt and leaves, had been ripped on each side, the slits sliced seductively high up her leg.
“When I showed up, you were fighting a banshee.”
“Oh. That’s what that thing’s called?”
Raith didn’t remind her that she had burned the banshee. That was unusual. He wasn’t sure what it meant. When he checked her wound, he was shocked. It should have turned purple and started to spread already. Instead, it looked as if it were healing. He wet a cloth and wiped off the dried blood. All that was left was two bite marks. Somehow, Scarlett’s body was repairing.
“Will I be okay?” She rubbed the wound.
“I think so,” he said. He could tell her how unusual it was for her to still be alive. That even a Summer fae would be more affected by a bite than she seemed to be.
But he kept it to himself.
