A Touch of Starlight

by Jenna Wolfhart

  The floor.

  It bucked and heaved and rumbled beneath us. The rickety wooden inn groaned at the force of the quakes. Kael’s eyes cracked open, confusion rippling across his handsome features. I scrambled from the bed just as another rumble shook the earth. The bedside table tipped sideways and threw the still-lit candle onto the floor. Flames burst forward, wrapping themselves around the wooden planks.

  Shit. I jumped from the bed and tried beating the flames with a pillow, but the fire only spread even more.

  “Everyone wake up!” I shouted as I stumbled back from the growing fire. “There’s another earthquake!”

  Rourke and Liam sprang from their bed, fists raised as if they’d just been awoken to face an attack. It took a few moments for them to register what was happening, all the while the fire continued to spread. Finn’s strong arms circled my waist, and he dragged me toward the door. He shouted at the others, ordering them to follow close behind.

  Somehow, his words cut through their sleep-addled daze. Rourke grabbed our belongings, and we were down the stairs within moments, joining the rush of startled fae as they fled from the burning building. The barmaid stood by the door, motioning everyone through with the wave of her hand. Tears stained her cheeks, and I felt my heart clench tight. This was her home. This was her life. And now it was all going up in flames.

  After we stumbled outside, I stared up at the inn. Horror grew in my gut as the flames licked up the wooden sides, engulfing every room it came into contact with. I coughed, my lungs still burning from the smoke. Other patrons stumbled around or held their loved ones close.

  From behind me, I heard the rumble of hooves on the ground, and I turned to see four riders slowing to a stop at the top of the nearest hill.

  My skin crawled at the sight of them. They reminded me of my dream, my nightmare. The one where I’d stood on the battlefield, staring down at dozens upon dozens of bodies. They littered the bloodied ground. Their vacant eyes stared up at a moonlit sky. But this wasn’t a battlefield, and there were no dead fae on the ground. Just fire and smoke filling the midnight air.

  “No,” Rourke breathed, his voice full of horror. A chill set deep within my bones. I’d never heard Rourke sound like that before.

  I turned to see him staring at the riders. His eyes were wide, and his hands were curled into tight fists. Dread pooled in my gut, and I glanced at the hillside once again, following his gaze. The riders remained, their horses stomping their hooves against the dirt. There was something….off about them, though I couldn’t put the feeling into words. It was if they carried a darkness with them. Their faces were obscured in shadows. No detail about them could be seen. They were vague dark shapes on the hill and nothing more, but I knew without a doubt that they were dangerous.

  They truly were like the fae in my dream.

  “Who are they?” I asked, though I was afraid to hear the answer.

  “It cannot be,” Rourke said with a slight shake of his head. “It is impossible. I must be wrong.”

  My heart thumped in my chest. “Wrong about what?”

  When he turned to me then, my entire world was shaken by the haunted look in his eyes. “Those four riders are not of this realm. They are Dark Fae.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The riders vanished before we could reach them. One moment, they were there. The next, they were gone. Another sign that they were who Rourke thought they were. The fae of this realm were not able to use their magic to shift from one location to another. Which meant…the Dark Fae must not be bound by the magic of this world. Not exactly a comforting thought.

  “Why would they be here?” I asked a pacing Rourke as he strode from one spot on the grassy hill to another, spinning on his feet as he kept casting looks down at the blazing fire.

  Until now, I had thought I knew what the Dark Fae wanted: me. But they had clearly seen me standing here without a weapon in my hands. They’d had their chance to get to me just then, and they hadn’t attacked. Hell, they hadn’t even approached. So, why had they been here if not for that? Had they known who I was? Surely they did.

  “I cannot say why they were here,” Rourke said, rubbing his chin as he tried to reason through what had just happened here. “It it illogical. We have paid our Tithe this year.”

  “Maybe so, but this certainly explains the earthquakes,” Liam said with a growl. He looked as though he were itching for a fight, his entire body trembling with unspeakable rage. “It’s been a very long time since they’ve come to Otherworld, but I heard stories of when they came in the past. The world reacted to their presence. Trees would fall. The stars would flicker. I never truly understood what that meant until now.”

  “The storms.” Rourke’s face clouded over even more.

  “I knew they would return,” Kael said in a quiet voice. “You remember what Queen Viola said. They want Norah. Viola failed, so they’ve come for her themselves.”

  My gut clenched tight, fear churning through my veins. I didn’t want to be afraid of the Dark Fae, but I couldn’t help myself. I was.

  “If that’s truly the case, then we need to get her out of sight as soon as possible.” Rourke stopped his frantic pacing to glare out at the darkness. “We need to go somewhere that is safe, and we need to warn the courts about the presence of the Dark Fae in this realm.”

  “We cannot return to the Academy,” Finn said with a frown. “We need to find the Starlight for Norah. Otherwise, the venom will take hold of her soon.”

  Kael clenched his jaw. “I can go find the Starlight alone. I know the best places to look. You three can take Norah back to the Academy where it’s safe.”

  “The Academy won’t be safe,” Liam barked as he stormed from one end of our huddled group to the other. “The Dark Fae will be expecting us to return there. Remember the last earthquake? That was at the Academy. I bet they’ve been keeping an eye on the place for days. I wouldn’t even be surprised if we found out they encouraged all those attacks.”

  Kael paused, and then gave a nod. “You’re right. The Academy isn’t safe, but the Winter Court’s castle will be. There are a few Hunters currently living there, but that’s it. It’s deep within the mountains, surrounded by ice and snow. It would be impossible for the Dark Fae to sneak up on us there, and they are unlikely to want to trek through that kind of weather.”

  “We’d still have to make it all the way from here to there,” Rourke said. “And next time we come across them, they might not just walk away.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest, shifting my gaze left and right as I watched the heated exchange between my mates. It was time for me to get a word in edgewise. “We can travel off the road. It’s less conspicuous.”

  Rourke frowned but didn’t argue. Liam scowled. Finn didn’t look too bothered one way or the other.

  But Kael...he hated the idea. “We’ve gone over this, Norah. You’re too weak to travel that way.”

  I gestured at myself. Even though my current state might have escaped their noticed, it hadn’t escaped mine. I wasn’t weak or unstable, and my neck didn’t even feel painful anymore. I felt strong. And I felt more than ready to tackle the road ahead of us, even if it was long and wearying and bitterly cold at the end.

  “I would much rather spend some nights sleeping on the ground than have the Dark Fae sneak up on us again. They’re obviously here for a reason, and it’s one we need to find out. But until then, we need to keep as low a profile as possible.”

  It was impossible for them to argue against that. Not even Kael could find a reason to turn our party back onto the road. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hide forever. The time would come soon enough when the Dark Fae would no longer stand idly by on the hillside.

  I didn’t know why they were waiting, but I knew they would come.

  It took three more days for us to reach the border between the free territory and the winter lands. We’d had no more run-ins with the Dark Fae, and the Wilde ones had been nowhere to be seen. After
the fire at the inn, the trip had been pretty uneventful, though I was beginning to tire of berries and porridge.

  And I wanted nothing more than to go back to those moments before everything had gone wrong. I’d been so happy. My body had felt so light. At the time, it felt as if the world was finally on my side. Everything was falling into place.

  Too bad that feeling had only been temporary.

  There was nothing to mark the border between the lands. From where we stood in the dense autumn forest, I could see nothing beyond us but another carpet of orange, red, and yellow. A golden sun beamed through the thick, curling branches, and the rustle of wild animals echoed all around us.

  Kael’s face had brightened the closer and closer we’d gotten to the border. He was practically beaming now, an alien expression for his usually stoic face. He gestured through a small break in the trees and smiled as I gingerly stepped toward it.

  When I ducked under the limb, I blinked at what rose up before me. Gone were the fallen leaves and the bright golden sun. In its place, everything was a bright sparkling white, and buckets of snow drifted down through the thick branches and vines. I gasped and dropped back my head, enjoying the cold kiss of the snow on my face.

  “This is a sight for sore eyes,” Kael said with a smile as he stepped up beside me. “And it looks like you don’t disagree.”

  “I love the cold and the snow,” I said. “There’s something so vibrant about it. It makes me feel alive.”

  Kael glanced over to me then, his eyes shining. “The cold is making your cheeks pink. It suits you, my love.”

  Warmth spread through my body, even though the temperature was far colder than anything I’d ever experienced in the human realm. Kael and I had bickered about not taking the main road, but I knew he was only trying to keep me safe. He was scared of losing me, just as much as I was scared of losing them.

  Behind us, Finn, Rourke, and Liam popped through the border and began to hand out the warmer cloaks for us to don now that we were in the colder lands. The five of us fell silent as we began the final trek to the castle. We’d have to wind our way up the side of the nearest mountain, and then we’d be to the prior home of the Winter Court. The former home of the Royals. My heart hurt just thinking about it. Queen Viola, even though she’d been defeated in the end, had left behind a horrible mess and a pile of bodies far larger than I liked to imagine. The realm was beginning to heal now, but it would never fully recover until the Royals had been replaced. And I knew no one wanted to truly think about that just yet.

  “How are you feeling, Norah?” Kael asked as we crunched through the deep snow. He cast a sideways glance my way with a curious expression on his face. “It’s almost been a week since the attack.”

  It had been a week, but it felt much longer. In fact, it felt like months had passed since I’d faced off against the changeling whose place I had taken in the human realm. “Honestly? I feel fine. I keep expecting to have weird cravings for violence or for some kind of fleshly hunger to take over my mind, or for my hands to suddenly feel like they’re going to morph into claws. But none of that has happened.”

  “Truth be told, you should have experienced some side effects by now,” Kael said. “It makes me wonder if…”

  “If what?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Perhaps you’re immune.” He held my hand as we crunched through a deeper patch of snow. “You’re a Greater Fae. Your magic is different than ours. Remember that I accidentally bit you all those months ago. Nothing happened then either. At the time I thought it was because the bite was fleeting. Not enough venom got into your bloodstream. But now, I wonder…”

  That bite. I’d almost forgotten about that. If I thought the attack felt like months ago, then the bite on that cliff felt like years.

  “That’s good news then, isn’t it?”

  A ghost of a smile flashed across Kael’s face. “Yes, though I’m certain you would have been able to handle the beast, if that was what it came to.”

  A long pause stretched out between us. I hoped that our mission to find the Starlight wouldn’t fall to the wayside now, just because I’d somehow escaped the repercussions of the venom. I still needed the cure to help the others.

  “I’d still like to go and find the Winter Starlight while we’re here,” I said. “Just in case. It doesn’t hurt to take it, right?”

  Kael gave a nod and fell silent again as we made our way through the falling snow. It took several more hours for us to reach the castle. The collection of intricate buildings sat clustered behind a large stone wall topped with battlements, the entire castle erected on the side of a steep mountain. It loomed over the snowy canyon below, casting jagged shadows across the ground.

  When we strode up the winding path, several Hunters whispered out from the shadows. They were unarmed, but they stood just in front of our path, blocking our way to the castle’s front gates.

  “Princess Norah,” one of the Hunters said as he bowed his head.

  Princess? Shock flittered through me at the word. That had certainly been the first time anyone had called me that, and I wasn’t particularly certain how I felt about it. Technically, that was who I was, but still. It wasn’t as if I’d grown up inside the courts. And it wasn’t as if Marin had even ruled in recent years.

  Princess. I weight it in my mind. I supposed I could get used to it.

  The other Hunter glanced at each of us in turn before he turned his coal black eyes in my direction. “It is good to see you alive and well, Princess, though I have to admit I am surprised. I thought you had returned to the Academy to work on your training. May we ask why you’re here?”

  “We were hoping to take refuge here for awhile. Plus, we have some news we’d like to share with the courts, and we thought this might be the best place to do that.”

  I didn’t mention the Starlight. There was no reason to alarm them if it wasn’t necessary.

  The Hunters exchanged glances before the nearest one spoke. “Of course you are welcome to stay here as long as you’d like, but you must be aware that the courts no longer exist as they once did. There are no rulers. Queen Viola saw to that, and no one else has stepped in just yet. I think everyone who might be eligible is waiting to see what…well, I believe they’re waiting to see who might claim the crown.”

  “I understand,” I said with a nod. “But surely there must be someone in each court we can speak to about something of grave importance. A representative? Or a Hunter from each season?”

  The Hunter gave a nod. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. We could summon the Hunters from each of the courts, if that is how you’d like to proceed.”

  So formal. And with so much deference. Almost as if they saw me as some kind of leader. Maybe they did.

  I hated to tell them that I was anything but.

  “That’s fine,” I said with a smile before reading out a hand in attempt to give his a shake. “What’s your name?”

  But he bowed instead. “I am Desmond, loyal servant to the crown. Marin’s crown.”

  My heart flickered in my chest. “Nice to meet you, Desmond. Do you think you could put out the summons to the others for me, please?”

  “Of course,” Desmond said with a small smile. “It would be my honor to serve the Princess of Otherworld. The daughter of Marin. The heir to the crown.”

  I blinked at his words.

  “In the meantime,” he continued, “shall I show you to where you’ll be staying? We have a spacious living quarters that you can share.”

  He glanced at my instructors clustered around me, and my cheeks warmed. Of course he would assume that we would share our living quarters. He was probably all too aware of Marin’s harem, and rumors had likely been spreading through all of Otherworld about my own. Marin’s daughter, and her four instructors. The idea that everyone knew about our situation…well, it made my head spin.

  I swallowed hard and nodded before any of my instructors could object. “Thank you. Of course we’ll s
hare.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The last time I’d been to the Winter Court’s castle, I hadn’t exactly been given a chance to appreciate it for what it was: breathtakingly beautiful. Queen Viola had dragged me into the throne room, and I’d never seen more than that large stone room with its vaulted ceilings and frosted windows. Now, I could see more of what made this place so grand.

  High, curved ceilings loomed above with intricate paintings stretching across every stone surface. There were swirls of white and black and gray, highlighting what I imagined to be visual histories of the fae. We passed marble statues of previous Royals, and flickering sconces lined each wall. Thick red carpets had been placed on every floor, muffling the echo of our footsteps.

  Desmond stopped just before a door that opened up into a living area that held several empty bookshelves, a cluster of sofas, and a fireplace that had yet to be lit. A draft blew toward us from a cracked frosted window, making me shiver deeper into my thick cloak. There were several more doors that led out from the living space, perhaps entrances to a bathroom, a study, and the...bedroom.

  “This is Queen Marin’s living quarters,” Desmond said. “She had her own home, of course, before it was burned down, but the four courts kept some living quarters precisely meant for her when she travelled. That meant enough space for her family. You will find the master bedroom for the Princess and four separate rooms for the future mates.”

  “This is Marin’s room?” My heart trembled in my chest as I gazed at the room with a newfound appreciation. My mother had stayed here. This had been her own personal space. I was almost afraid to walk into it.