A Dance With Darkness (2020 Ed)

by Jenna Wolfhart

  Steel sang through the silence, and roars rose up in response. My heart began to hammer as all I could do was stand there and listen to the violent sounds of battle. I held my breath and backed up so that I was pressed tightly against Liam’s chest. I didn’t care if Alwyn saw. I didn’t care if she scolded the both of us until the ends of our days. I needed to feel his strength against me. I wanted to feel his warmth when every cell in my body felt brutally cold.

  Screams and shouts and roars and whines sounded over and over and over again. There must have been at least five Redcaps outside the door, and it sounded as though our fae guards were no match for the brutality of the beasts. Liam curled his fingers around my arms, and his soft breath whispered against my neck. If I closed my eyes, I could disappear into his embrace and block out the horror of the night.

  But I didn’t want to block it out. Our guards were out there dying. And we were in here doing nothing to stop it.

  Slowly, timidly, I pulled away from Liam’s comforting embrace and strode to the front of the room where Alwyn was staring at the door with pure horror plastered on her usually stoic face. He didn’t try to stop me. Instead, he gave me a nod, his eyes shining with something akin to respect.

  “We should do something,” I said, clearing my throat so that everyone could hear me over the roar of the battle. “They’re dying out there.”

  Alwyn glanced over her shoulder, frowning back at me. “What do you expect to do, Norah? You’re incompetent. Your failed challenges have been evidence enough of that.”

  Wincing, I forced myself to keep my eyes locked on her face. She’d put voice to everything I’d always feared about myself. Incompetent. Helpless. Worthless. But if there was one thing I’d learned in these past weeks, it was that those fears were unfounded.

  I fisted my hands. “I’m actually not. I may not have had much formal training yet, but I have raw power. We all do. Not to mention the second and third years who have had some training. All of us together could easily fight these Redcaps.”

  “Like you did in the Great Hall?” She shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. “I appreciate your willingness to help your fellow fae, Norah, but the safest place for all of you is in here.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think so,” I continued. I wasn’t going to give up that easily. “If the Redcaps kill our guards, then they’ll aim all their strength at those doors next. After seeing them in action, I don’t think that will hold them off for very long. They had the element of surprise in the Great Hall. None of us were ready to fight then. We know they’re here now, and we’ve got enough weapons to go around.”

  “I agree with Norah,” Sophia said, striding up to stand by my side. For a moment, all I could do was stare at her in alarm. She hadn’t spoken to me since she’d told Redmond about Bree. A part of me wanted to hate her, but another part of me understood why she did what she did. In her eyes, all Redcaps were murderous creatures who had killed her friends. She didn’t know Bree was different. How could she?

  “Same.” Griff joined us, along with Lila and several of the third-year students. Soon, every single changeling had moved to stand beside me, along with my four instructors who looked torn between giving me a high-five and hiding me away in a corner somewhere.

  Alwyn ground her teeth and glanced at each of us in turn. “I shouldn’t go along with this, but something tells me I won’t be able to stop you even if I say no. Just...be smart. Don’t do anything stupid. And let us instructors take the lead.”

  As the battle raged on outside, the changelings worked together to move the chairs away from the door as quickly as possible. When we’d finally moved the last barrier out of the way, Alwyn unlocked the door and threw it open.

  The first thing I saw was blood. Lots of blood. The sight of it clogged my throat. A fae guard’s body flew through the air and landed before us all with a heavy thud. We gasped and stumbled back, and a large mangy paw edged around the door. Liam threw himself in front of me as the Redcap slowly strode into the training room. It took one long sniff around the room before opening up its massive jaws and roaring in rage.

  Everyone sprang into action. At least a dozen changelings and instructors launched themselves at the creature, swords and daggers swirling through the air. Many of the blades made contact, and soon enough, the creature had fallen to the floor. Those fierce beady eyes slid shut, and its last breath whooshed from its lungs.

  We all stood staring at the creature. No one was certain what to do next.

  “Is that it?” asked Griff.

  His answer came soon enough. Four more beasts hurtled into the training room, each one storming toward a different cluster of changelings. Everything turned to chaos in that moment.

  Liam pressed a sword into my hand, and as soon as my finger curled around the hilt, it was as if the weapon became an extension of my hand. I whirled through the air, slicing the blade at the creature I fought. There were five of us on one. Me and my four males against the Redcap. Liam’s roar was as loud as the beast’s, and Rourke moved with a speed and grace that matched the most glorious of ballets.

  My sword found its mark several times, and after what felt like hours, the beast finally fell.

  I whirled on my feet to face the next creature. It rose up before me, its brilliant blue eyes latching onto mine.

  Blue eyes. Not black or red, but blue.

  My heart shook, and I stumbled back.

  No. It couldn’t be. Bree would never do such a thing.

  Alwyn’s words rang in my ears. The Autumn fae were using the Redcaps, controlling them as a way to launch violent attacks on the Academy. Somehow, they’d found my friend, and they’d sent her here to kill me.

  She hesitated, the deafening roar in her throat dying away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Griff charging toward her. Before I could think, I jumped in the way, holding up my hands as his sword swung toward me.

  “No!” I shouted. “Stop!”

  His sword froze in mid-air, only inches from slicing right into my neck. Griff frowned, stumbling back, his eyes locked on Bree’s monstrous form behind me.

  “Get out of the way, Norah,” he said, voice harsh and full of furious emotion. “That’s the last Redcap here. It needs to be killed.”

  “No,” I said, more quietly now. “This isn’t a Redcap. It’s Bree, my oldest friend from home. She doesn’t deserve to die.”

  Griff shook his head, letting out a harsh laugh as he gestured at the carnage in the hallway. “She helped kill all those guards, Norah. I get that you think she’s still the human girl you knew back home, but she isn’t. She’s a monster now, one who is attacking us. Now, move out of the way.”

  “No. She didn’t do this.” My heartbeat was so loud in my ears that I could barely hear my own voice. “The Autumn fae are controlling her, just like Alwyn said. She would never attack anyone. Not on her own.”

  “You’re talking about a Redcap, Norah. A Redcap.”

  With tears in my eyes, I turned my back on Griff to look up into my friend’s beastly face. Those eyes. They were so sad, so tortured. Bree was in there, somewhere deep inside the Redcap’s monstrous body. She didn’t want to be doing this, and I knew exactly how I could make this all okay.

  “I’ve got a plant that can heal you, Bree,” I whispered to her, reaching up to press my shaking hands against her rough fur. “You don’t have to be like this anymore. Just...turn back into your real form so that they can see what you really are. Human.”

  “Norah,” Kael said quietly as he inched up behind me. “I don’t think you’re going to get through to her, not when she’s like this.”

  But I could only ignore him. “Bree? Come on, I know you can do it. I’ve seen you change back before. Remember?”

  Tension filled the room as I faced off against the beast. We stood in the center of the training room, her sorrow-filled eyes locked on my face. She shuddered beneath my hand, and for a moment, I thought I’d made her realize what she needed to do.

&
nbsp; But then her body stiffened, and she jerked her head toward a distant sound that none of us could hear but her. And then she was off, charging down the hallway. Griff let out an exclamation of surprise. He rose his sword and took off behind her.

  “No!” I screamed, but it was too late. More changelings joined him in the chase. At least a dozen of them took off to hunt down my friend.

  With a heavy sigh, I fell to my knees and pressed my hands flat on the cold floor. Bree was in there somewhere. I knew it. Even after everything that had happened, I couldn’t give up on her. She’d certainly never given up on me. But I didn’t know how to get through to her. Not when the Autumn fae were controlling her mind, and not when my fellow changelings were desperate to shove their swords into her throat.

  There was nothing I could do now. As hard as I’d tried, I’d lost.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The thunder continued to rage outside while the changelings returned to their rooms. Several of the instructors had taken off to track down Griff and the others. They’d likely chased Bree out into the storm, and no one should be running around in the thunder and lightning, least of all right now when the threat of the Autumn Court was so fresh and so real.

  And me? Well, all I wanted to do was plop face-first onto my bed and stay there for hours. I’d been trying so desperately hard to undo what had happened to Bree that horrible night in Manhattan. The attack on her had been my fault. I’d attracted the Redcap, and it had turned its ferocity on Bree because of that.

  But it felt as if I’d only made things worse. I’d brought Bree to the attention of the Autumn fae, and they’d sought her out. To control her, to make her do things Bree would never do.

  I would never get a chance to heal her now. Her mind and soul would be lost to the beast.

  There was a soft knock on my bedroom door, and I merely groaned in response, my face still smashed onto my pillow. I didn’t need to look up to see who it was. When the fae eased onto the bed beside me, the scent of frost and mist filled my nose. A delicious scent, but one that reminded me of what I’d been trying to do.

  And how horribly I’d failed.

  “Bree was still in there, Norah,” Kael said quietly, rubbing his palm gently across my back. “I could sense it.”

  “So could I,” I muttered into the pillow. “That’s why I tried to stop Griff from attacking her.”

  “He won’t get to her,” he said. “In beast form, she’s far too fast.”

  With a sigh, I rolled over to stare up into Kael’s darkly handsome face. “I know. But that doesn’t change anything. It’s impossible for me to cure her now. She’s gone. Right back into the hands of the Autumn Court.”

  Kael reached out and traced a soft thumb against the curve of my neck. Despite everything that had happened, despite the sorrow that was building up inside of me, his touch soothed me in away that nothing else could. Fire sparked in my gut, and everything within me sighed. I breathed in the wintry scent of him.

  “There’s one thing I know about you, Norah,” he said, voice gruff, eyes shining with something I didn’t quite understand. “And it’s that you’re a fighter. I’ve said it from the beginning, and it’s why I thought you might turn out to be a Summer fae. You have a fire within you. Don’t let what’s happened to Bree douse that in any way. Instead, let it feed your flames.”

  With a sigh, I reached up and weaved my fingers through his. “I don’t see how fighting can change anything.”

  “Don’t you?” He arched his brows. “Here’s a little training lesson for you. Suppose there is an enemy, one who has decided his mission is to destroy your home and everyone within it. He keeps launching attacks, and he has taken something of great value to you. What do you do in response?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know.” I shook my head and glanced around the room, spinning through the various possibilities in my head. But I wasn’t a strategy genius. I didn’t know about fights, about wars, about battles. All I knew was my despair, my anger, and my desperation to save my friend. “Punch him in the face?”

  Kael chuckled. “And what else would you do?”

  Frowning, I pushed up from the bed so that we were now sitting face-to-face. Our hands were still locked together, and I swore it felt as though our hearts were beating in sync. “I mean, in an ideal world, I’d track him down, take back what’s mine, and make sure he can never attack me again.”

  “Well.” He smiled. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

  With a heavy sigh, I flopped back onto the pillows. “Yes, it would be something. It’s too bad that’s impossible.”

  “And why is it impossible, Norah?” he asked.

  At the tone of his voice, I sat upright once again. “Because I’m assuming that attacking the Autumn Court is pretty much not syllabus-approved. And also against the laws of this realm.”

  “You’re correct.” He leaned forward now, dropping his voice to a low growl. “Do you know what else is against the laws of our realm? Planning assassinations. Attacking our Academy. And controlling the beasts. They’ve wronged us. They’ve hurt us. They have tried to take the most important thing in the world from me, and for that, we will be retaliating.”

  My heart lurched, and I sucked a sharp breath in through my parted lips. His words made my head spin, not to mention the fierce expression on his face. Kael was usually so calm and collected, so in control of his emotions, but something had set him off, revealing the true depths of his soul.

  “What have they tried to take from you?” I barely whispered.

  With a growl, he said, “You.”

  My breath caught in my throat, and I leaned forward to wrap my arms around his neck. His lips were soft and gentle, but his kiss was full of hunger. There was something so fierce about him underneath that cool exterior, and it made every cell in my body come alive.

  Our kiss deepened as he pulled me onto his lap. My legs spread wide, encircling his waist. His thumb caressed my neck and a thousand tiny sparks lit up my skin, much like the stars that I once saw dance in his eyes.

  I wanted nothing more than to stay here like this and to feel his mouth explore every inch of my skin. But there was something whispering in the back of my mind, a voice I couldn’t hush even if I wanted to. With a heavy sigh, I pulled away from him, my entire body shaking with the yearning I felt deep within my gut.

  “We can’t,” I whispered. “Not right now. Not when Bree is out there. All I keep thinking about is how scared and alone she must feel. I want you to do what you said, Kael. Retaliate. Force an attack on the Autumn Court. And I want to come with you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  As soon as there was a break in the clouds, we set off to the Autumn Court. Alwyn had insisted the first-years stay behind, but she’d allowed me to tag along after a strange whispered conversation with my four instructors. She had cast me curious glances after that. Not for the first time, it felt as though they were hiding something from me. Something that had to do with my powers and the necklace and maybe something more.

  So, our rag-tag group consisted of eight instructors—three had stayed behind to keep an eye on the first-years—as well as Alwyn, me, and thirty second and third years. It was pretty much the entire Academy, and we were marching straight toward the Autumn tree line. Half the changelings and instructors had swords while the other half had bows and arrows.

  Ironically enough, I was one of the rangers. It was the only way my four fae males would allow me to come along. I was to stay on my horse in the back, and I was not to dismount under any circumstance. Rourke would stay by my side, since he was also strong with the bow. The others would go in with their swords, a fact that made me more than a little uneasy.

  If any of them fell in this battle, I’d never be able to forgive myself. While I knew they were forging forward in this fight in order to save the Academy, I was here to save Bree.

  When we finally reached the tree line, the heady warmth of summer fell away. It was replaced by an e
erie chill, one that sunk deep into my bones. The leaves rattled in the wind, and trees creaked as they bent. We had truly entered Autumn now. There was no turning back.

  And, I couldn’t help but notice, we were being watched. I could feel several pair of eyes on me.

  “Rourke,” I said in a whisper, almost too low to hear over the heavy thud of the horses’ hooves. “I think we’ve been seen.”

  “Oh yes,” he said. “We were seen awhile ago. No one enters or leaves the Autumn woods without it being noted, and they would have seen us coming down the path, even though we were technically still in the free territory. The real question is, who saw us? A rebel? One of the villagers? Or was it one of the Court’s scouts? If it’s the latter, we will end up fighting very soon.”

  I shivered. I was ready for this. Or, at least I thought I was. Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous and maybe a little bit afraid. We had no way of knowing what we were walking into. We had no idea how many Redcaps they currently had in their control. And, we didn’t know how big their army was.

  Autumn fae were notoriously secretive. They’d kept the total number of their Hunters a private matter over the years. They could have hundreds. Or even thousands.

  We could be walking straight into a trap.

  A horn sounded in the near distance, and our little changeling army slowed to a stop at the edge of a forest clearing. Rourke motioned to Kael, who was near the front. He shook his head, a signal that we should move no further.

  “Does it bother you that you’re about to fight your own Court?” I asked.

  “I suppose it doesn’t matter now if everyone knows, not after what we’re about to do this day.” Rourke gripped the reins tighter in his hands. “I’ve always been against Marin’s assassination. For several years, I joined the rebels. I left when I realized they were making no true difference to the fate of the Courts. I thought I could perhaps make more of an impact at the Academy instead. Make things better. Like they used to be.”