by Nissa Leder
“I don't think seeing me naked will blind you.” Cade chuckled.
As he continued removing clothes, nervousness tingled his stomach. He didn't think being nude in front of Poppy would bother him, but as he walked toward the water, he covered himself.
He dipped his toe in first, expecting the water to be cold. But it was pleasantly warm—the perfect temperature. What heated it?
He waded further into the water. The liquid against his skin felt marvelous. He'd never gone so long without cleaning himself. Life in the castle always promoted cleanliness, and the only time he'd ever spent more than a night away from it was when he visited another court where there were ample baths and showers.
“I'm adequately covered.” Cade sunk further into the water.
Poppy turned, only her head peeking out. She’d dipped her head under the water so her now wet hair clung to her body above the water. “So, you got to meet your aunt. How's that feel?”
“Bizarre. Until Raith told me our mothers were related, I didn't know I had an aunt. Then, even though I didn't completely believe him, I thought she was dead.”
Poppy held her breath and dipped her head under the water again. When she resurfaced, her hair was slicked backward.
Lit only by the single torch, the cave was dark. But the light of the fire was enough to highlight Poppy’s cleavage popping out of the water.
Poppy glanced at Cade then dipped lower. “My eyes are up here.”
“I've seen your eyes plenty of times,” Cade joked. “Other parts, not as often.”
Chivalry told him to stay where he was. Poppy was his guard—maybe his only friend. But something else told him to wade closer to her.
The bond between them didn't exist here. Any choice they made or didn't make was free from the confusion of the tie.
Since becoming king, he had little time to think about being intimate with someone. The last woman he’d kissed was Scarlett. He’d resisted sleeping with her to better feed from her emotion as he had prepared for the Battle of Heirs. He couldn’t even remember the last woman he’d been with before her.
He couldn’t deny his attraction toward Poppy. She’d always been beautiful, but he hadn’t fully noticed her appeal until the Winter Solstice. But he’d ignored it then because she was the only one he trusted. He couldn’t risk losing her.
Poppy moved toward him, lifting her body slightly more out of the water. “And you like what you see?” Her big eyes watched him.
“I do.”
Cade ignored the voice in his head telling him to think this through. He closed the gap between them and leaned his face toward hers.
Before his lips found hers, he paused. He wanted her, but he wanted her to choose to cross the line they now straddled.
With her lips slightly parted, Poppy leaned in the last inch and crashed her mouth into his.
Cade’s hands twisted through her hair as their lips danced.
Poppy wrapped her arms around his back as their bodies pressed together.
“I'll come back,” Sage’s voice echoed through the cave.
Cade and Poppy separated, shifting their attention to her.
“We…” Poppy started.
“It's okay, I can keep a secret.” Sage turned, and before Cade or Poppy could reply, she was out of sight.
“That was…” Poppy touched her lip.
Great? A mistake?
What was going through Poppy’s head? Cade needed to know.
More importantly, what was going through his head?
Poppy had become his closest ally. His closest friend. Was whatever was about to happen worth jeopardizing that?
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next morning, Scarlett and Kaelem continued on the path around the valley.
The forest thinned out and they approached a field of grass.
Scarlett glanced over the ledge. The presence of the tree still buzzed inside her, stronger than before. Moving around the valley as they had been doing hadn't brought them any closer, but they’d moved past the forest of bare trees.
Ahead, a staircase began, zigzagging down to the bottom of the valley.
“I knew there had to be an easier way.” Kaelem continued to the staircase.
Scarlett hesitated. It couldn’t be that simple.
As Kaelem neared the path entrance, a figure appeared in front of him.
The hybrid creature had the lower half of a goat, furry with hooves, and the upper half of a man except for the ram horns curling back from his head.
“Not so fast there, fae.” It towered over Kaelem by at least a foot. “This path requires a toll, I’m afraid.”
Kaelem looked at Scarlett, who hadn’t been able to pry her eyes from the creature. It had appeared in a blink. That had to take some sort of magic.
“We don’t have any money,” Kaelem responded.
“I don’t want money.” The creature smirked.
“What do you want?” Kaelem’s voice was thick with annoyance.
Ironic since he usually loved games. Apparently, they were only enjoyable when he was the instigator. Although he didn’t seem to mind Scarlett’s game at the Seelie Court.
“Your mind.”
Kaelem stiffened. “I prefer not to give that up, I’m afraid.”
“And you?” The creature stared at Scarlett.
“No, thanks.”
Kaelem slowly reached for his sword.
“Now, now,” the creature said. “That won’t end well…for you, at least.”
Kaelem stopped.
The creature continued, “I don’t want to steal your mind, only test your mind power.”
Kaelem tilted his head. “We’re listening.”
“Answer me a riddle, and if you answer correctly, you can both pass.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then I steal your mind.”
A pulse ricocheted through Scarlett. Similar to the tree energy, but different. She searched the area for anything out of the ordinary. Well, besides the goat man in front of her. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew something had changed.
“Yes, you felt them enter,” the creature said to Scarlett.
“Them?” Scarlett asked.
“That isn’t mine to share, I’m afraid.”
Could it be Nevina? Kassandra? The Seelie Queen and her advisor? If any of them got to the power first, Ashleigh would be in more danger.
“What will it be?” The creature lifted his shoulders. “There are other ways into the valley, all with their own risks.”
“We’ll do it.” Scarlett stepped to Kaelem.
From her side, he eyed her curiously. “I guess the lady has made up our minds.”
“Very well.” The creature smirked. “Though not alive, I can grow. Though I have no lungs, I need air. What am I?”
Scarlett’s fingers shook. Would he really take her mind if she guessed wrong? She exhaled her nerves. She’d already committed to the game. Though not alive, I can grow. Though I have no lungs, I need air. These types of riddles were always sly in their answers. What could grow but wasn’t alive? A bank account? Somehow Scarlett doubted this creature knew much about bank accounts and they didn’t need air.
Love? She glanced at Kaelem and felt a pang in her chest. She didn’t love him. God. And love didn’t need air either, not really.
“Two more minutes,” the creature said.
“Wait, what? You didn’t mention a time limit.”
“You didn’t ask.”
Scarlett huffed. He should have informed her of all the rules. She took a deep breath. She needed to focus.
“Thirty seconds…”
Air. The key was air. What was air? An element.
“Ten…”
Like earth and water and…
“Fire,” Scarlett blurted. “It’s fire.”
The creature tilted his head to the side, horns and all. “Is that your final answer?”
“Yes,” Scarlett said with as much authority as
she could muster, as if confidence would somehow help.
The creature’s expression shifted.
Scarlett held her breath. If they were wrong, would she feel him take her mind from her? She prayed if she couldn’t make it home to protect her sister, Raith would.
“Correct,” the creature said then grinned. He stepped out of the way.
Scarlett jumped to Kaelem, who pulled her into a hug. She squeezed his waist, thankful to still possess her mind. He cupped her face in his hands and smooched her.
“Brilliant!” Kaelem said.
Scarlett pulled back and bit her lip. Why had she instinctively leaped to him like that? It was just excitement, she assured herself.
Slowly, Kaelem and Scarlett walked by as if he would change his mind and steal their minds just for fun.
The creature grabbed Scarlett’s arm. In her mind, she heard, Don’t trust anyone. Not even your companion.
Scarlett nonchalantly tilted her chin, acknowledging his words.
With each step, the tree’s power beat harder inside her, bird wings flapping in her heart.
Scarlett needed the magic inside of it.
She wouldn’t let anyone stand in her way.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sage laughed as she recalled the expressions Cade and Poppy wore when she’d walked in on whatever they were about to do. She almost felt bad having interrupted.
She meant what she’d said, she could keep a secret. She wouldn’t tell anyone what she saw, but she couldn’t help but wonder what had happened after she’d left. Especially when she went back to the water to rinse off after they’d returned.
How clean was the water then? But she hadn’t bathed in days, so no matter what they’d done, a questionable bath was better than none.
Now, after a good night’s rest, they all followed Rowen. They’d climbed back up to the forest above the valley and followed the edge around to the left.
“There are four entrances to the valley below, not counting the long fall down for anyone who decides to jump to their death,” Rowen said as she trekked forward. “Body, mind, spirit, and blood are the sacrifices needed to reach the tree. The way you tried to go was the body entrance.”
“Where are we going now?” Raith asked, just a step behind his mother.
Sage still couldn’t believe they’d found her. After all his searching for information, she wasn’t even dead. A much better ending. She wondered how Raith was processing it all. They hadn’t had a chance to talk alone yet.
“Spirit.”
Everyone except for Rowen eyed each other.
The fae were not spiritual creatures. Unlike humans whose realm had an endless supply of religions and deities to follow, the fae world lacked a desire to connect with anything other than their born court.
One could say Autumn fae were divinely connected to nature, Winter to ice, Summer to their energy, and Spring to flowers and gemstones. But there were no gods worshiped in Faerie.
Sensing the confusion, Rowen added, “Don’t worry, it isn’t a religious test. From what I’ve heard, it’s more of a soul search of sorts.”
No one spoke. This wasn’t as relieving as Rowen implied it should be.
Sage thought of the pain she’d caused her family when she’d run away—a black mark on her heart. She’d needed to leave for herself, but that didn’t take away the selfishness of it. If this test required selflessness, she’d never pass.
They approached a small lake.
“Across this, a trail begins that will lead down to the valley,” Rowen said.
The purple water kept perfectly still. Not a single blemish marred its surface.
As Sage stared at the lake, a figure appeared in front of her, blocking her view.
With goat legs and a naked chest with fully-formed breasts, the female creature stood tall. She scanned the group with her caramel-colored eyes. Her long brown hair was tied into a braid and pulled to the front, and from the top of her head grew a pair of pointy horns.
“My, my. What a large group.” Her bell-like voice rang through the air.
“We’ve come to cross the lake.” Rowen bowed her head.
“I’m Ailani. And you are?”
“Rowen.”
Ailani looked at the rest. She stared until they all shared their names.
“Much better,” Ailani said. “You’ve come to cross the Spirit Lake? What is it you seek on the other side?”
“The tree,” Raith said. “We’ve come for its power.”
“You’ve all come for its power? Only to be disappointed, I’m afraid. It cannot be shared.”
Sage eyed Cade and Poppy from her peripheral. They kept their gazes forward.
“We need to keep it from falling into the wrong hands,” Raith added.
Ailani placed her hand on her hip. “And what if one of you is the wrong hands?”
“I’m not sure,” Raith answered.
Ailani smiled. “Lucky for you, only a clean spirit with good intentions can pass the Spirit Lake.”
“And if our intentions aren’t pure?”
“That’s for me to decide. Perhaps you’ll drown. Or, if I’m feeling particularly nice, I’ll pull you back to this edge of the shore.” Ailani gestured to the water. “So, who’s first?”
“I’ll go,” Raith said.
The longer they all took, the longer Scarlett was alone with Kaelem, and Raith didn’t like that. Not one bit.
He ignored everyone else as he passed Ailani and arrived at the water’s edge. Scarlett needed him and that was his only focus. He’d deserted her twice. This time, he’d be there, even if she’d fallen for the Unseelie King.
The water sent a chill through him as he stepped his first foot in. With an inhale, he continued until the water reached his neck.
“You must walk all the way across if you wish to pass,” Ailani said. “Your feet will stick to the ground, even when your head submerges. Best to hold your breath.”
Raith took one last inhale before dipping his head into the water. As soon as he was completely into the lake, a vision hit him.
He could feel his feet continue to move forward, but now his consciousness was elsewhere. An unusual forest surrounded him as the sun sat high in the sky.
There were trees of different shapes and sizes, some with fruit, others completely bare. He sat on a large log with smooth, white bark.
“You are lovely.” Ailani appeared next to him. She ran a finger down his arm. “Strong, handsome, caring. Conflicted about your mother and the other woman. Hurt at your mother’s abandonment. Envious of the woman’s feelings for another man.”
How did she know all this?
“When your body is in the lake, you are mine to explore,” Ailani said.
She could hear his thoughts?
“Yes, Raith. I can hear your thoughts and see inside your soul. I know your past and see flickers of what could be in your future.”
Ailani stood and moved in front of him. Her exposed breasts—now at his eye level—were good-sized, yet perky.
Raith shifted his attention elsewhere.
“Don’t be ashamed.” Ailani touched his cheek with her palm. “You can play with them if you’d like.”
“No, thanks.” Raith kept his gaze high. “I want to get to the other side of the lake as soon as possible.”
“To save the woman.”
It wasn’t a question, but Raith nodded.
“What about your mother? You finally have her back. What if you drown and never see her again? You can turn back now.”
Raith didn’t want to lose his mother after having her back for such a short period. But he’d already abandoned Scarlett in his search to learn more about his mother. He wouldn’t do the same again.
“But that was just for information,” Ailani purred. “This is for your mother, who is very much alive. Surely, Scarlett would understand.”
It was different now, Raith had to admit. After so many years motherless, the desire to get
to know her pressed heavily into his mind.
He didn’t want to have to choose between them.
But what if the time came when he had to make a choice?
Who would he choose?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cade waited for his brother to reappear on the other side.
“Who’s next?” Ailani asked.
“Where’s Raith?” Cade stepped forward.
“He’s being evaluated,” she purred.
He’d been underwater at least a minute. Maybe more.
“You cannot help him,” Ailani said. “But you can start your journey across.”
Cade continued to the shore and stepped into the water. He’d only be able to help Raith if they both made it across.
When his head submerged, a forest appeared around him. Was Raith here too?
Ailani appeared in front of him. “He’s here, yes.”
Cade scanned the area but saw no one and nothing but the trees that surrounded him.
“Well, he isn't exactly here,” Ailani added. “You're in your mind and he's in his, but I'm with you both.”
What had they done?
“Now, now, don't worry,” Ailani said. “Yet.”
She was in his head, which he should have expected. How else would she see inside him to allow him across the lake?
Ailani circled Cade. “You used her for your own gain.”
Who? Scarlett?
“Yes, the woman who fills your brother’s thoughts. And you thought you'd killed them both.”
Regret hit Cade. He gulped. He’d let his desire to win overshadow everything else, but he'd regretted it. Truly. Would this woman believe him?
“Regret, yes. Everyone seems to be so good at regret after they've achieved what they'd wanted.” Ailani stopped in front of Cade again. Her gaze latched onto his.
“But would you really take it back? Would you give the Summer Court to your brother if it meant you'd never left him for dead?”
Cade kept his eyes on hers as he thought about what she'd asked.
He wanted to say yes, he'd give Raith the crown if he could undo his actions. But that was a lie. He wanted to be king. Partly for his own selfish reasons. But also because he wanted to be the king his people needed. He didn't think he’d feel such protectiveness over the Summer Court until he'd stood in front of his people and looked into their eyes after accepting the crown.
