by Nissa Leder
The banshee stalked toward Scarlett, fangs exposed. “I told you we’d meet again.”
“Leave me alone,” Scarlett shouted.
“And why would I do a thing like that?” the banshee said. “You’re the one who doesn’t belong here. This isn’t your world.”
“I’ll…I’ll leave.” Scarlett backed as far as she could until she was pressed into the wall of the castle.
“But you can’t.”
Scarlett glanced to her wrists, a purple outline of the blessing rope tattooed to her skin.
Cade moved back into his own mind. The dream should be far enough along for his plan to work, a big thanks to Scarlett’s own fear. Cade went to Scarlett’s room. She was asleep in her bed, body curled into the fetal position.
He shook her gently. “Scarlett, wake up.”
When she awoke, she jumped at the sight of Cade.
“It’s okay,” Cade said. “You were having a bad dream.”
He could feel her fear, but he couldn’t feed off of her emotion, so he let it be. There were other ways for him to recharge his power.
“Come here,” he pulled her into an embrace and brushed the hair out of her face. “You’re okay.”
Her body sank into his as she sobbed. “I’m going to die.”
“Shh…” He rubbed her back. “No, you’re not.”
It might be a lie. Cade and Poppy wouldn’t be the only dangerous things in the battle.
Cade placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face. He gently pressed his lips onto hers. At first, she merely accepted the kiss, but then her lips kissed back. He lifted Scarlett and lowered her onto the bed and moved on top of her.
Scarlett’s breathing grew heavy. Cade could hear her heartbeat race. He took in the passion between them. The bargain kept him from feeding on her emotion, but Raith didn’t mention anything about sex not being allowed.
Since Scarlett’s pain had been so strong, Cade had never seduced her all the way. But now the power in him roared. If Raith thought he could stop Scarlett from helping Cade win the battle, he was wrong.
Chapter Twenty-Four
A moan escaped Scarlett’s lips as Cade lifted her nightgown and brushed his fingers against her stomach. When he touched her panties, Scarlett froze.
What was she doing?
He’d awoken her from that nightmare and then was kissing her and it felt good. She didn’t know if she’d live past the battle, and his lips on her neck helped dull her fear.
“No, stop.” Scarlett panted.
Cade’s lips touched her neck again and he jolted back, pressing his hand to his mouth. “What the…”
The bargain said Scarlett couldn’t be forced to do anything against her will. Somehow, its magic must have stopped him.
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said.
Why was she apologizing? She didn’t want to fuck. So what? She didn’t owe him anything.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, his voice gentle.
“I just don’t feel like doing this.”
His eyes narrowed. “Typical human.”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t appreciate everything I’ve done for you. You’d be sitting on top of that hill still mourning if it weren’t for me. What kind of life was that?”
“It was my life, and I would have figured it out eventually.” Anger boiled inside Scarlett. She pulled her nighty back into place.
“Pfff.” Cade got up from her bed and headed to the door, leaving without another word.
What an ass. He’d only been using her for the power she gave him, which, if Scarlett was being honest, she’d known all along. But he was right; she was weak. Running away was easier than facing it all, so that’s what she did—all the way to another realm.
She’d dug her own grave, but maybe, just maybe, there was a way to escape it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Almost as if his feet had minds of their own, Raith walked down the unfamiliar path to the infirmary. There had been no war during his lifetime, and since the fae rarely got sick, he’d had no reason to come to this part of the castle.
Except once.
He and Cade had snuck into the battle wing after their classes one day. Their father had told them a million times to stay away until they were old enough to start training, which only fueled their curiosity. Raith was twelve, Cade seven. It would be three years until Raith was old enough to train. He only wanted to see what the battle wing was like. They’d be careful.
“We’re going to get in trouble,” Cade said as they made it into a room full of weapons.
“Not if you keep quiet.” Raith admired a set of daggers hanging on the wall. “These are amazing.”
Cade glanced over Raith’s shoulder. “Whoa. Real weapons.”
“Here, let’s fight.” Raith tossed one of the daggers at Cade’s feet.
Cade picked it up and twirled it in his hands. “We shouldn’t.”
Raith struck his dagger, making contact with Cade’s.
Cade didn’t swing back.
“Don’t be a baby,” Raith said. “Fight.”
Cade raised his dagger and gave a half-hearted swing at Raith. “This isn’t a good idea. Mom wouldn’t like it.”
His mom wouldn’t like it. Kassandra was not Raith’s mother. “Awww, momma’s boy, are you?”
“Shut up,” Cade said.
“Does she still rock you to sleep at night.” Raith hit Cade’s dagger again.
“Stop,” Cade said.
“Gonna go cry to mommy?”
“I said stop!” Cade screamed as he sliced his dagger at Raith’s face, the orb on the dagger’s handle glowing green.
Raith lunged backwards as the dagger came toward his eye, scraping the top of his eyebrow. “Ow.”
“I’m sorry.” Cade dropped his dagger and stepped to Raith.
“Get away.”
Even with Raith’s enhanced healing power as a fae, the wound wouldn’t close. He would have to tell his father what happened. As he pressed his sleeve into the cut, he saw the panic on Cade’s face. So, when he found his father, he lied. He told him he snuck in alone and was throwing the dagger in the air when it came down and sliced him. His father gave him a long stare, but said the cut was punishment enough.
Raith had to go to the infirmary to have a nurse look at his wound. She told the king that it had been done with a blade enhanced with summer magic. She could make the bleeding stop but there may still be a small scar.
Raith hadn’t been back since, but the nurse had been right, the scar still remained.
When he opened the infirmary door, a nurse looked up. Her expression softened when she recognized Raith. “The king is at the end, behind the curtain.”
It was the same nurse who fixed his eye—the best she could, at least.
Raith nervously walked to the king.
His father looked frail lying on the bed, his legs tucked underneath blankets. His gray hair nearly reached his shoulders now—a big change to the neatly trimmed cut he wore when Raith was a child.
The king opened his eyes. A smile formed on his face. “My son.”
Raith magicked a chair from across the room next to the bed and sat down. He took his father’s hand into his own. “What’s happened to you?”
His father coughed. “She’s consumed my mind.”
“Kassandra?”
The king shook his head. “Your mother.”
Raith didn’t know what to say, so he kept silent.
His father continued, “I see her in my dreams and when I’m awake. She haunts me constantly. I watch her scream in pain, watch her die. And then she returns.”
Ghosts weren’t real. His mother had died long ago. She was gone.
“I miss her more than anything.” The king squeezed Raith’s hand.
Raith held in the tears forming behind his eyes. He wouldn’t cry. Not now.
“Would you like to see her?” his father asked.
“She’s go
ne, father.”
“No, son. In my mind. The good times, not the bad.”
Raith nodded and closed his eyes.
He dove into his father’s mind.
The king rode through the dark forest on a gray mare. The smell of pine enveloped him. He’d always loved to ride but rarely ventured far from the castle. His father always discouraged it.
But now—his father was gone and the king could do what he pleased. His horse picked up speed, gracefully galloping through the thicket of the trees.
Why had his father been so fearful of the woods? It was lovely here. He slowed the horse down and hopped off, tying her to a tree by a creek. As the horse drank, the king explored. Twigs crunched beneath his feet as he wove a path through the trees. A note was stuck to one of the trunks.
He meandered to it, paying no attention to his footing. As he reached for the note, a rope strangled his ankles and sent him flying upward, feet first. His crown clunked to the ground. He struggled, but something tied a chain around his wrists. The king tried to use his magic to free his feet, but his magic didn’t work.
“Gotchya.” A short creature with long, pointed ears and ash brown skin looked the upside-down king face-to-face.
A goblin.
It bent down and picked up the crown from the ground, inspecting it carefully with its long, thin fingers. It bit down on the metal.
“Let me go,” the king demanded.
The goblin laughed. “You have no room to bargain here, King.”
He was screwed. Of all the stupid things to do, getting caught by a goblin was high on the list. Goblins were nasty creatures, greedy to their core.
An arrow flew through the air, missing the king’s face by two inches. The goblin cocked its head around. A woman, with long, mahogany hair approached them.
“Next time, I won’t miss, goblin.”
The goblin snarled at the woman, but it dropped the crown and scurried away into the woods.
The woman glanced at the crown and then to the king. “A Summer Court fae, caught by a goblin of all things.” The woman laughed, propping her bow against a tree. With a wave of her hand, the rope at the king’s feet untied and he dropped to the ground with a thud. She bent down and pulled the chains off of his wrist.
He had never seen a more spectacular woman. The life in her eyes shined like a comet in the night’s sky.
Whoever she was, he wanted to get to know her better.
Raith pulled back into his own mind. A tear dripped down his father’s cheek. Raith choked back his own emotion.
“I loved her,” the king said. “So much.”
“Me too,” Raith said.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a good father to you.”
Raith shrugged. “You could have done better. But you weren’t all bad.” He wouldn’t sugar coat it. The older Raith got, the more distant his father became. But they’d had good times. That’s what made it hurt.
A coughing fit attacked the king. He closed his eyes and rested his head on his pillow.
“I’ll let you rest.” Raith gave his father’s hand one last squeeze.
He was already late for his training session with Scarlett. He hadn’t planned to visit his father, but he was glad he did. Seeing his mother through the king’s eyes brought both happiness and anger to Raith. At one time, they were truly in love. And then his mother died and everything was ruined.
Raith shifted his thoughts to the battle as he climbed the stairs in the training tower. Jaser and Scarlett were talking when Raith entered the battle room.
“And he honors us with his presence,” Jaser said. “Scarlett and I were just getting to know each other a little better while we waited for your late ass.”
“I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“My, my, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Jaser said.
Scarlett just stared at Raith. Thanks to the blessing bond, he knew she could sense his mood. He could feel her concern for him, mixed with her own turmoil.
“Let’s get started,” Raith said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Scarlett sensed Raith’s bad mood the moment he entered the room. Even before she could see him, she felt something was off. Ever since she’d entered Faerie, things had felt different. She’d sensed the emotion of others on multiple occasions, but this was something else. Something stronger. It was as if Raith’s mood was her mood, too. Like they were connected, two parts of a whole.
“Okay, time to teach the mortal to fight,” Jaser said. “This should be fun.”
When Scarlett first saw Jaser, she nearly ran the other way. He had a fierceness to him that intimidated her. Then he said, “Hey, human.”
She relaxed. Something about his nonchalance assured her he was okay. A nice change to the stares of all the other fae.
Now that Raith was there, they got started on training.
“So, what combat experience do you have?” Jaser asked Scarlett.
“Um, none.” Unless they counted the fistfight she got into in third grade because a bully made fun of Natalie’s haircut. The cut was awful, but that didn’t give him the right to embarrass her, so Scarlett tackled him on the playground. She was clearly winning when a teacher pulled them apart and she got suspended for three days. Her mom was not very happy when she picked her up from school, but when Scarlett told her why she got in the fight, she lightened up. Thankfully, she’d been on her medication then. Otherwise, who knew how she would have reacted.
“Okay, so a beginner.” Jaser turned to the wall of weapons. “Let’s start with a staff.” He pulled it from the wall and chucked it to Scarlett.
She caught it.
“She can catch, that’s a start,” Jaser joked.
It was a simple wooden staff. Scarlett held it awkwardly, not sure what she should do.
Jaser grabbed a fancier looking staff from the wall. It was metal with a white orb in its center. When he gripped the staff, the orb lit up orange. “Step one, hold it firmly in front of yourself.”
Scarlett did as he said. He hit his staff with hers. Her staff flinched toward her, but only a little.
“Good.” Jaser swung again, this time lower.
Scarlett moved the staff to meet his hit.
Jaser looked at Raith. “Well, if you’re going to have a human as your second, this one has good reflexes.” He winked at Scarlett.
Jaser refereed to Scarlett as a human, but there was no malice to the tone of his tongue. Both Cade and Raith had treated Scarlett like she was more than something to be spit on, which was the vibe she got from the other fae in Faerie, but the brothers seemed possessive of her. Jaser’s attitude toward her was different—like she was a friend.
Jaser continued, “Since we only have a week to prepare, I think we should stick to the staff. It will be less threatening to Cade and Poppy, so they’ll feel less pressure to kill you.”
“That’s a plus,” Scarlett said, half-serious, half-jokingly.
“I agree,” Raith said. It was the first thing he’d said in a while. Scarlett felt sadness from the bond. Something was on his mind. Either Jaser didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because his focus was solely on Scarlett.
Jaser continued to show Scarlett defensive moves with the staff—how to block from one attack to the next. Even she was pleasantly surprised at how well she defended herself. She was sure Jaser was going easy on her, but still. She was far better at it than she could have hoped for.
“Okay, now you take this one, and I’ll grab a sword,” Jaser said. “It has fae magic in it which won’t do you much good, but a wooden one would do a piss poor job against a blade.”
Scarlett switched staffs. When she took the metal staff in her hand, the orb glowed purple.
“What in the hell?” Jaser said. “Raith, look.”
Raith glanced at the staff in Scarlett’s hand. “Well, look at that.”
“What?” Scarlett asked. She remembered when the dagger had glowed when she was here with Cade. She was care
ful not to let him see then—in case it meant something, which, apparently, it did. Somehow, Raith didn’t seem surprised.
“Did you know?” Jaser asked Raith.
“I had a hunch.”
“How?”
And they were both ignoring Scarlett’s question. Great.
“Come here, Scarlett,” Raith said.
She went to him. He placed his hands on the side of her head and closed his eyes. Then a memory came flooding into Scarlett’s mind—when she got bit by the banshee and Raith saved her. He took her to his tree house and then back to her room and erased her memory.
“You messed with my head,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” Raith said. “Truly. I don’t like to do that to people. I just didn’t want you knowing it was me who saved you, at least not then.”
If she couldn’t feel the bond between them, she may have thought he was lying and didn’t care at all about what he’d done. But regret trickled from him and Scarlett couldn’t find it in herself to be mad about it.
Raith told Jaser how the banshee bit Scarlett and he couldn’t find any serum to heal its poison, so he thought Scarlett would die. But she didn’t.
“What does it all mean?” Scarlett asked.
“You have fae blood in you,” Raith said.
Scarlett remembered her healing powers. It all made sense. Yet, how could it be?
She thought long and hard for a moment—should she tell them about her ability to heal or not? She hated to get even more wrapped up in this world than she already was, but if she and Raith didn’t win the battle, she could die.
What choice did she have but to trust them?
“Let me show you something,” Scarlett said. “Do you have a blade that isn’t made with fae magic?”
Jaser gave her a small knife. “This work?”
“Yes.” Scarlett took the blade and asked Raith for his hand. “I need to cut you.”
Raith nodded, eyebrow raised. The blade was sharp and his skin sliced easily. He winced slightly as a wound appeared on his hand. Scarlett felt his pain through the bond.
She covered the wound with her hand and reached inside herself to heal it. Energy flowed from her into where the knife had pierced his skin. When she moved her hand, the cut was gone.
