The Dark Huntsman: A Fantasy Romance of The Black Court (Tales of The Black Court Book 1)

by Jessica Aspen

  His voice dropped low.

  “One like ivy shall entwine

  An elven prince wilt then be bind

  This downfall then the queen’s shall be

  Enacted by the MacElvy”

  “What does it mean?”

  “I don’t know, my love, but I don’t think you or your family will be entirely safe until we have found the prince and solved the puzzle.”

  Trina locked her hand around Logan’s ribs and held him tight.

  He squeezed back. “Easy, lass. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “I’m not worried about me. But Cassie, Bryanna, and my aunt…they’re out there running from the queen.” She wasn't worried about herself. How could she be? She had the love and partnership of a gorgeous fae for the rest of her, now very long, life. Aoife, Logan’s uncles, Stephan, even Solanum, when pressed, would look out for her. “We’ll be safe under Oberon’s protection, but what about them?”

  “I know. I have Kian to worry about. The prince is somewhere and I’ve put off finding him too long. Finding your prophecy is only the first step. Tonight, we’ll reach a safe haven. We’ll find your family. Maybe Oberon will shelter them as well.”

  “And your prince?”

  “When we have Kian, we’ll face the queen.”

  Thank you for reading Trina and Logan’s adventures. Did you enjoy reading The Dark Huntsman? Here’s what you can do next:

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  Dare to enter Jessica Aspen’s world of steamy, fantasy romance in her twisted fairy tale series: Tales of the Black Court…

  Book Two

  Prince by Blood and Bone: A Fantasy Romance of the Black Court

  A rebellious prince, a reluctant witch, and a mysterious prophecy, twisted together in a tale of Beauty and the Beast

  Trapped in an underground palace Prince Kian must remain a beast, or give in to the queen’s plan to strip him of his powers. But Kian refuses to submit to his mother’s evil plan and is determined to escape both his prison and his curse, even if it means dabbling in witch’s magic.

  On the run for most of her life, Bryanna MacElvy has never learned to use her healing Gift. When she’s pulled by Kian’s spell into his prison, the prince sees the golden witch as his salvation. Refusing to let her go, or to accept she is incapable of curing him, Kian offers her a terrible bargain: heal him, or give up her freedom forever.

  Their lives entwined by fate, the prince must learn to love a human, and Bryanna must learn to trust herself, or risk losing their freedom, his powers, and their passion, to the evil of the Black Queen

  Download Prince by Blood and Bone HERE

  Book 2.5

  The Other Side of the Mirror (a short 2.5 tale)

  When the Black Queen of the fae sends ogres to attack their safe-house in Albuquerque, the three remaining MacElvy witches are forced to use a mystical fae globe to escape. But things go very wrong. When Cassie comes-to her sister, Bryanna, has disappeared and Cassie and her mom are stranded in the lands of the fae. With nothing but their magical Gifts to help them they must find Bryanna and make their way home through Underhill, a magical land where strange beasts, evil spirits, and fierce warriors stand in their way. Or will the evil Black Queen track them down and kill them before they can make it to safety?

  WARNING: This story is not a romance. It’s the backstory tale of what happens to Cassie while Bryanna is busy saving Kian from being a beast.

  Download The Other Side of the Mirror HERE

  Book Three

  Broken Mirror: A Fantasy Romance of the Black Court

  Cassie MacElvy believes she’s a fae princess, but her life of pretty gowns and constant parties is an illusion. Trapped in a twisted spell, Cassie uses her psychic Gift to help the Black Queen hunt down the rebel Prince Kian and his human wife, never knowing she’s hunting her own sister. But when a handsome black-eyed fae kisses her, the fairy tale begins to crumble, and she tumbles down into a confused rabbit hole of memories and magic.

  Bosco is the court’s fool and a womanizer, but secretly he’s a spy, looking for a missing human psychic. All he has to do is find her and hand her over to his mysterious employer, and he’ll finally have enough power to complete a quest he started nearly a hundred years ago. When he runs into a beautiful fae princess who shouldn’t exist, he knows something is very wrong in the queen’s court. But lovely Cassie might be the only person who can help him achieve his quest, and Bosco decides he will root out all of Cassie’s secrets, even if it means losing her trust.

  Download Broken Mirror HERE

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Trina and Logan’s story, The Dark Huntsman. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it. This book, and the whole series, is special to me as it was the first of my efforts twisting fairy tales. In 2008 I got serious about my writing and sat down to write a paranormal romance, but I wanted to write something besides the ever popular vampires. I decided on a twist of Snow White, but what would be the twist? I’d always thought the real hero of that story was the huntsman, who defied the queen, and not the prince who rides in at the end. So Logan, the huntsman, became Trina’s lover. As I wrote the story I realized Trina wasn’t alone in her life, she had cousins who needed their own fairy tales, and the series grew from there into the three books that will be out over the next few months. Trina and Logan’s story was finished in January 2009, but it’s taken several years (and a few re-writes) to bring it to market. I’m thrilled you’ve discovered it and the rest of the Tales of the Black Court: Prince by Blood and Bone, The Other Side of the Mirror, and Broken Mirror.

  If you enjoyed The Dark Huntsman please consider lending it to a friend or leaving a review on sites like Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything and Shelfari. Spread the word of what you like to read. Your reviews help other readers discover new authors and new books to love.

  On that note, keep scrolling along to discover an excerpt from chapter one of Prince by Blood and Bone.

  Cheers!

  Jessica

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  Prince by Blood and Bone

  Book Two, Tales of the Black Court

  Excerpt chapter one

  Bryanna curled her head onto her knees and let her long blond hair fall over her face, effectively blocking out the burn of the Albuquerque sun, but completely failing to warm the cold lump of loss in her belly.

  Failing to shut out the arguing in the kitchen behind her.

  “Mama, I’ve tried and tried to have a vision about Trina. You know I have. But it isn’t coming through, and I don’t know why!” Cassie’s frustration sounded loud and clear through the open screen door. “We need to move on, we’ve
been here too long and we’re putting ourselves at risk.”

  “No.” Their mother repeated. As if saying it over and over again would force Cassie to listen. “Trina knows we’re here. If we move locations, she may never find us. We need to give her more time. It’s not like you’ve received any visions of danger.”

  There was a moment of silence. And then her mother’s voice quavered. “Have you?”

  “Mama, it’s been months,” Cassie said. Even though Bryanna didn’t want to hear what came next, she found herself holding her breath and listening, digging her fingers into the crumbling concrete of the stoop beneath her. “Trina stayed back to confront the faery queen’s spy. She would have found us by now——” Another long moment of silence that lasted far too long before Cassie finished the dreadful thought. “—if she’d survived.”

  Bryanna lifted her head. The hot wind gusted, drying out her lips and blowing a stray tumbleweed down the middle of the empty alley behind the house. It wasn’t only the tension strung tight under their words that kept her outside, it was the subject itself. The loss of her cousin Trina had driven a wedge into their already stressed-out family. Now, not only had they stayed too long in one place, they risked losing what held them together.

  Small, hot, infested with creepy New Mexican bugs, and located in a rotten neighborhood, the squat adobe house had to be one of the worst places her family had ever used during the last fifteen years of running. Bryanna poked a stick into the wide crack splitting the bottom stair of the back stoop and tried to focus on the sun, the heat, even the dusty smell of burning pavement. Anything but the rising argument going on inside the house.

  Trina had never joined them at the safe house. Never contacted them. Never called.

  “Mama, she’s dead.”

  “No. I won’t believe that.”

  Tears clogged the back of Bryanna’s throat, and she felt like she choked on wet cotton.

  She was supposed to be over this. She had to get over this. She was twenty years old now, and loss had become just another part of her sucky life.

  It had been years since she’d cried like this, but losing Trina made her once again vulnerable and small—the lost little girl whose father had died and whose world had blown apart. The same little girl who’’d had to leave toys and friends behind as what was left of her family fled the wrath of the queen of the faeries.

  She stretched out her long legs in their short-shorts in an effort to add more color to her naturally pale skin. There was nothing for her to do. No decision for her to make or argue for. She agreed with both of them. They should stay. They should run. Either way, no one would listen to her.

  “You said Trina would be all right.” Her mother’s voice cracked. “You said she’d be fine.” Bryanna tightened her fingers into balls, her nails digging into her palms hard enough to draw blood.

  “Things change. What I see will be accurate, but only for a short while. Mama, something’s happened to her.”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  “Whether you believe it or not, we need to move on, or risk the queen finding us.” Right or wrong, Cassie always spoke as if the more firmly she said the words, the more right she was. “We’re the last of the MacElvys, and we’ve survived the queen’s purge only because we’ve been smart. Staying here is suicide.”

  An ant crawled over Bryanna’s bare toe, cruising across her chipped, hot pink nail polish. The thought occurred to her that she should do something about the sorry state of her pedicure, but right now she didn’t care. Right now none of them cared about much besides the growing knowledge that Trina must be dead.

  While her mother and older sister battled it out in the kitchen, Bryanna leaned back and tilted her face to the sky. They’d make a decision, and she’d follow along. And anyway, even if she had a dog in this argument, it would take more energy than she’d had since Trina had gone missing, to fight for her opinions.

  Cassie’s voice tightened. “Something’s wrong. I have that heebie-jeebie thing crawling up my back.””

  “Nothing’s felt right without Trina.” Months of pent-up grief rushed out of Theresa’s mouth and her voice cracked. “She’s my baby, just as much as you girls are. I’ve raised her since she was little. I can’’t give up on her. I won’t.”

  “I know, but…oh!” Cassie’s voice cut off in mid-argument. Even the dry wind held still in the empty alley. This was it.

  “Bryanna, hurry!” Theresa shouted.

  Bryanna pushed off the warm, sunny stoop, and raced up the stairs. She wrenched open the creaky screen door in time to see her sister’s eyes roll back into her head and her tiny mother springing to catch Cassie’s long limbs as she collapsed.

  Cassie’s body jerked and went rigid.

  The voice of prophecy emerged, thin and reedy and foreign. “The ogre hoard is coming. Flee! Now!” Her head lolled back, the riot of golden red curls blocking Bryanna’s view of their mother’s face. Theresa’s body bent under Cassie’s weight, and she struggled to keep her from hitting the hard Mexican tile floor.

  Bryanna hesitated, the metal of the open screen door burning her hand.

  “Run Bryanna, grab your kit.” Theresa laid Cassie down on the floor. “This one hit her hard.”

  Bryanna edged around her prone sister and sprinted down the tiny hallway to their room and her nearly empty bag of pre-spelled herbal remedies. When she got back to the kitchen, her mother had Cassie propped up with a pillow. Cassie blinked her eyes and moaned.

  Theresa held a wet cloth to her daughter’s forehead, smoothing her long, red hair back and crooning soft soothing words.

  Bryanna put on a kettle of water for the herbs before rummaging through her kit. “I think they’re getting worse,” she said. She pulled out the herbal tea they used for Cassie’s fits. “We’re almost out. This is one of the last packages of herbs I spelled last summer.”” She exchanged worried looks with her mother. The spells had taken hours and the tea was almost gone.

  Theresa’s brow knit. “I don’t want to put pressure on you, but…””

  Bryanna bowed her head and pushed the bitterness out of her words, “I’ll try to help her.”

  She was a failure as a healer, and her family knew it. She was too young, too inexperienced, too inept. She should have had someone to help her with her Gift. Should have had more than some scraps of notes and the occasional words of wisdom from the few healing witches who had let them stay. Should have had formal schooling. Trina had had Theresa to show her how to be a green witch and Cassie’’s visions just came, everyone knew the Goddess favored psychics, but Bryanna had nothing.

  No mentor, no training, no skills.

  She spread her feet wide, closed her eyes, and inhaled, attempting to block out Cassie’s panting and their mother’s anxiety. She’d gleaned what she could from the one or two books that had survived their nomadic lifestyle. None of them had done much more than give advice on how to heal minor bumps and bruises. Psychic migraines weren’t in the table of contents.

  This wasn’t working. She was too distracted by the pressure of her mother’s expectations. She couldn’t focus on her breathing, couldn’t relax enough to open her Gift and draw power. Her sister needed her, and she was failing.

  She took another deep breath and searched for serenity. A trickle of calm slid over her aura, coating her in a thin layer of peace.

  “Get a bowl,” Cassie panted.

  Bryanna jolted. Her eyes flew open as her centering fractured.

  Her sister’s sheet-white face went an odd shade of green. Before she could react, her mother placed a bowl beneath Cassie’s chin and lifted her up. Bile spewed from Cassie’s mouth and the smell of vomit rose.

  She turned away. Useless. She was useless.

  Even if she got focused, she couldn’t do much more than take the edge off of Cassie’s pain. She was no better than a cup of her own herbal tea.

  Theresa wiped Cassie’s mouth. “Shhhh, sweetling. We’ll get Bryanna’s tea
down you, and in an hour or so, you’ll be right as rain.”

  “There’s…no…time.”” Cassie tried to sit up, grimaced, and sank back, clutching her temple. Her green eyes were anxious. “The ogres are coming. Now.”

  “Don’t be silly.” Theresa shook her head. “You’’ve always managed to keep us one step in front. There’s time.”

  “No! I saw them.” She clawed at her mother’s hand. “They’’re here.”

  Bryanna lifted the faded yellow curtain and looked out the kitchen window. She frowned.

  Small, run-down bungalows lined the deserted alley. Nothing out of the ordinary, just dusty dry yards, battered chain link fences, and another stray tumble weed kicking its way down the strip of dirt separating the houses. She went to the living room. The view out the front window seemed just as empty. She realized she couldn’t hear anything. No kids, no cars, no people.

  The tiny hairs on her arms lifted.

  She let the front curtain drop. “There’s nothing there, Cassie.” She returned to the kitchen, crossed to the screen door, and pushed it open, taking another long look. Cassie was never wrong. The ogres would be here. Bryanna had never seen a premonition hit Cassie so hard, so fast. There was no way they could move her like this. She couldn’t even lift her head without barfing, how could they possibly get her into the van and drive?

  “Mama,” whispered Cassie, as if she’d heard her sister’s unspoken thoughts. “Mama, there isn’t much time. You both have to go.” She rolled into a ball on the hard tile floor, her drawn face hidden under her bent arm and loose curls.

  “We aren’t leaving you.” Theresa’s voice shook. She clutched Cassie’’s free hand, desperation and fear in her eyes. She spoke quietly, her voice tight. “Bryanna, make sure the doors and windows are locked.”