I nodded. “Each court’s lands reflect their season, and all of them are nearly dead.”
“The monsters I saw last night were Unseelie?”
I nodded.
“Why would the Unseelie and their queen do this?”
“The Queen is ruin and rot.”
Ash rained down from the sky, a sooty piece falling onto her cheek. She brushed it away, leaving a streak behind. Her fingers were stained as well. “What is this?”
“Ash.” Does she really not know, or is she playing me?
Her brows furrowed. “It coats everything, like snow. Is that why it looks so barren?”
The decay must not have bled into the human lands yet. At least something remained untouched. “At one time, this whole land flourished. You could scarcely walk through the underbrush, it was so thick. Now, everything in Faery is dying.”
“Like our wall of smoke.”
I cleared my throat, unable to look at her. “Very much so.”
She was quiet for a moment.
“How did you get inside the wall?” I asked curiously.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re fae,” I announced simply. “The wall’s magic wouldn’t let me in, not for lack of trying for hours. So how were you able to not only breach it, but live on the other side of it?”
“I’m not fae,” she argued, her eyes snapping to mine.
My mouth gaped open. Boil me, is she mentally ill? She was definitely fae, but she certainly wasn’t blind like Trava said, though she did have a staff… Karis was a puzzle.
“It’s a little overwhelming,” she admitted quietly.
“What is?”
“Everything. My vision is sharp and clear, the scents are crisp, and I can hear things... things that are far away, things that are close, and everything in between.”
“Those are your fae senses,” I remarked.
“Another gift?” she asked.
“Gift?”
“I was gifted the sight of the fae just last night,” she explained, her eyes focusing on and off various trees, their limbs, the leaves that littered the ground, the wall. They darted everywhere. “The Governor just sent another girl into Faery, but she can’t have been gifted the sight because I received it instead. Her name is Trava.”
I didn’t tell her I’d seen the girl, or what kind of shape I found her in. I had no doubt she was dead by now.
“Why do you carry the staff?”
Karis sheathed her knife, but clutched the wood tighter in her hands. “I’m blind. Well, in my world I am. Or I was before I was gifted the sight. In addition to finding Iric, I’m supposed to find the smoke to save the wall. But,” she stared at the pluming smoke barrier, “it looks so thick now.”
Every human city had the same protection, and around each of the cities the smoke had grown thin lately. And every midsummer, the settlements sent one human into the woods, based on some silly superstition they shared. The truth was that there was nothing in Faery to fortify their wall. No magic smoke to find. Hell, there was barely any magic left at all.
The Unseelie knew this. Perhaps it was they who’d given the humans the false tale about sending their own into the woods? It was why they roamed the forests more at this time of year than any other. They were hungry and ready to feed on whomever was foolish enough to leave the sanctity of their protected cities.
However, the smoke somehow thickened when she stepped through it. My wager was that every wall looked the same now, and that the humans would be celebrating soon enough. Someone was their champion, and the sacrifices of their citizens had not been in vain.
“Were you born in Ironton?” I asked.
“No,” she answered, glancing at me as if to say I was asking too many questions.
She inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to get her bearings. She looked as if she might fall over, but held to the wooden stick, leaning her weight against it.
“How old are you?” I asked.
“I’m not sure.”
She was nineteen. She had recently become a mature fae female, and her powers had just fully formed. “You seem very young to be brave enough to leave your home, especially being blind.”
Inhaling deeply, I could smell the residue from the glamour she’d worn. She believed herself human. Blinded, she’d never seen her features and hadn’t been able to compare them to the humans around her. Whomever hid her did so exceedingly well. The humans would have seen a young girl grow up among them. But I wonder if she had felt different from the humans around her. Trava attested that people teased her. Called her names. Called her a Changeling. How nearly right they were, and how foolish. She could have obliterated them all.
“I’m not brave, but I am worried. Can you help me find Iric?”
“He went this way,” I announced, kneeling and tracing the path of his footprints through the wood.
“If a faery gives their word, they have to follow through,” she reported with certainty, reciting it as Trava had about the rule never to give a faery your name.
“That’s right.” Our words, our bargains, were our covenant. They were unbreakable.
“Do you promise not to harm me, Loftin?”
“As long as you promise not to threaten me again,” I conceded. I could have knocked the blade away, broken her wrist, and taught her never to pull a knife on someone if she didn’t know how to use it.
“I’m sorry about that. I promise not to threaten you as long as you promise not to hurt me.”
I nodded. “I promise that I won’t hurt you, Karis of Ironton.”
“And you’ll help me find Iric?”
“As long as the path is safe, I will.” And in the direction I needed her to travel.
She seemed satisfied by the pledge, and it was true. I would not hurt her. I would simply deliver her to her mother, who would probably tear her apart, or worse, but I would keep my pledge to her until that time. If we ran into this Iric fellow along the way, there was no need for him to also die. I could keep my word to her about his life and see that he made it back to Ironton safely.
I took in her too-tight clothing. Her shirt was worn at the elbows, just as her pants were worn at the knees. Why would anyone hide her in a human village?
“We should run,” she urged. “He’s fast.”
I let her set the pace. Could the girl be lying about thinking herself human? The thought burned through my mind. She is Nemain’s daughter... she could be manipulating me.
But she seemed sincere; overwhelmed and frightened, if I read her expressions correctly. She was taken from Nemain when she was a child. I wasn’t sure how old, but if she were glamoured from a young age and brought up among humans, she might truly believe she was one.
For hours we ran and she never tired. Thoughts tumbled through my mind about the possibilities of this girl and whether this was some sort of trap. But if Nemain wanted me dead, she easily could have sent me to the Court of Shadows herself. She had the opportunity.
Karis’s Iric—if he was still alive, which was doubtful—couldn’t be very far ahead, for the fae can easily outrun humans. But his lifespan would depend on whether he had run in the direction I needed to take Karis. When the sun began to set over the hills, her steps slowed. “How can you be sure we’re going in the right direction?”
“I can smell his scent. Can’t you?”
She sniffed the air and then smiled. “I think I can.”
“Karis, you can scent him because you are fae. You’re not human.”
Her smile fell away and she placed her hands on her hips. “You’re the second person to tell me that today, and it’s aggravating.”
My spine straightened. “Who was the first?”
Her mouth parted for a moment before she finally answered. “No one.”
NEMAIN
I clutched my chest, feeling a ripple of power so magnificent, it almost knocked me down. That could only mean one thing.
I rushed toward the mirror.
&nb
sp; Karis was in Faery.
And she was dangerous.
The Seelie had kept the Unseelie enslaved for years, justified by the seemingly perfect Utopia they had created. Four seasons. No room for anything or anyone that didn’t fit into their perfect molds.
Never again.
I couldn’t risk Karis restoring their lives or powers. And while I had only the ability to consume and end, she had the power to raise the former courts and their leaders to their once-famous glory. In doing so, all the Unseelie would be sealed under the Great Mountain once more, to waste away beneath, trampled on by the fae who thought themselves higher.
If not I, then who would make sure Karis could never help them?
There were still Seelie who lived in Faery; the ones who managed to escape when I plowed through the courts, razing them one by one. I decided the best punishment for them would be to let them try to survive in a world where they weren’t on top. The Prince of Autumn was a prime example. He’d been able to survive thus far, by my grace and by sheer luck, now that the playing field had been leveled.
Yet, he wanted to ruin all I had worked so hard to create. He wanted to bring his father’s life force back from the Court of Shadows. But I knew he would never be satisfied with simply having his father back, and his father would never stop fighting to have his power restored if I raised his life force from beyond. The pair would be a constant thorn in my side.
Gliding to the wall, I slid a finger over the smooth glass of the mirror.
“Majesty?” it purred.
“Show me my daughter.”
My reflection blurred as a new one emerged from the rippled surface. I reached out to her, careful not to touch the mirror’s surface and disturb the image, lest I lose it.
There she was – running in a thick wood, weaving through thousand-year-old oaks.
Karis was a woman now, beautiful and threatening. We shared many of the same features: hair of dark ash, and full lips that appeared stained with berries and blood. Our bodies were built the same, lithe but feminine. Where my eyes were dark, hers were pale gray, almost silver, wide and innocent. But there was no innocence in her. If she unleashed the power she hid within, there would be no hope for the Unseelie.
I tapped the surface and watched the image fade back into my own.
Summoning the leader of the Banshees, I waited until she floated into the castle’s throne room where I lounged. The creature inclined her head. Beneath the respectful gesture, her eyes burned with a hatred I enjoyed immensely.
I pointed toward the image in the mirror. “Search the Southern Forest. Find the fae princess and return her to me. Slaughter anyone with her.”
With a shriek and a fierce flapping of her shredded garments, the Banshee flew from my presence.
Had the bounty hunter found her? I didn’t see him near her in the image, but it was possible he was with her. If he was, I had no intention of honoring my bargain with him. No Seelie fae would receive power again as long as I lived and breathed.
My daughter was in Faery, and it was a dream finally come true.
6
KARIS
“Come on, we need to keep moving,” Loftin ordered, eyes alert and darting across the darkening sky and the sparse forest that seemed to fit better into the night than it did the day. “We need to find somewhere safe to rest.”
“I’m not resting until we find Iric,” I answered stubbornly.
“It’s not safe in the forest at night. We stop when I say we stop.”
No. I wasn’t stopping. “You can stop when you want,” I retorted. “I’ll go ahead on my own.”
“Have you always been so stubborn?” he gritted.
“Yes,” I answered with a disarming smile. “I have.”
“Karis, Iric will also have to seek cover and rest at night,” he argued. “We’ll probably catch up with him in the morning.”
I knew Iric would have to sleep. I just hoped none of the fae heard his snoring. We could make up time if he stopped and we didn’t. We could catch him.
“I don’t want to stop, but I do want to talk,” I entreated sweetly.
Loftin let out a sigh. “Fine.”
“Why do you keep saying I’m fae?” I asked. If it hadn’t been for Iric, I would have planted my feet and demand that he answer my questions. Instead, I ran alongside him at a rapid pace. I wanted to keep him moving. Hope blossomed in my chest. If we could find Iric before it became dark, Loftin could see us back to Ironton as soon as tomorrow, and I could tell Iric how the smoke had thickened without our help. But if we lost him in the night, we might not get him back.
If I truly was fae, I would tell my adoptive family, and Iric, goodbye. I wouldn’t be able to live in Ironton anymore. And truthfully, it would be for the better. He would finally have a chance at a good life, a wife, and kids. Just like Vivica imagined.
“Because you are,” Loftin answered simply, his lip raised at the corner. “Humans aren’t built the same. Fae are tall and lithe, where humans are short and sometimes squatty. Our ears are pointed. Your senses are much keener. When you were in the human city, was your sense of hearing acute?”
The blasted bells couldn’t even muddle the sounds around me. I eased my fingertip over the top of my ear to find that he was right. It was slightly pointed. Both of them were.
What the hell? I stopped and felt them again.
But I’d touched them a thousand times before…
There was no way. No freaking way.
“Is this some sort of trick?” I screeched. “Did you do this to me?”
“No,” he scoffed. “It’s your true nature.”
“It is not my nature. Human is my nature. Are you messing with me? Doing this to make me look fae so something doesn’t eat me?”
“Pointed ears will not keep you from being eaten,” he quipped with a smirk. “Don’t you feel it? You already said everything was sharper. That’s not because you were given a gift, Karis. The fae don’t randomly choose humans to bestow our senses on. That’s ludicrous. Fae don’t care about humans at all.”
“Then what about the smoke wall? Are you saying humans aren’t supposed to retrieve smoke from Faery to bolster it?”
“No, they aren’t. There’s no smoke in this land that can strengthen your walls. They are—or were—thinning. Eventually, the magic holding them will fade away entirely.”
“And then what – we all die?”
He pursed his lips. His answer was yes.
I felt the tip of my left ear again. I couldn’t stop. I was freaking out. My heart pounded and I felt dizzy. None of this made sense! I wasn’t fae. I couldn’t be fae. I lived in a human city, for goodness sake.
Was I only blind in Ironton because I was fae, and I really didn’t belong there?
“Calm down Karis, you’re beautiful,” he judged quietly, his eyes boring into mine. “And being fae isn’t anything you need to be ashamed of or feel bothered about. Your skin is flawless.” He stopped and brushed a finger down my cheek and back across my jaw. “Your eyes are clear and bright, and your lips...” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t think about those. Your lips are pure torture to a fae male. And if they didn’t drive a male mad with hunger, your scent would.”
The fact that Loftin liked what he saw made me tingle from head to toe. He stepped closer and inhaled, closing his eyes. “Fae who look like you and me? They’re rare now, on the verge of extinction, as the Unseelie ravage and take over the land. I hope you can appreciate how precious you are.”
‘Rare’ and ‘precious’ weren’t two adjectives I would ever have used to describe myself, but he seemed sincere in his appraisal.
Loftin pressed on. “You haven’t always been blind. You were glamoured. At some point in your early life, you could see as well as you can now. And you’re powerful enough to have seen through the glamour at times. Maybe you didn’t always realize it, but something in your subconscious did. You were blind, but did you ever bump into anything?”
&nb
sp; “I used my staff,” I faltered, clutching it in my hands.
“I can smell the magic on you now, even though it’s faded. Did you, in your mind, imagine things as people talked about them? Simple things like the sky or the grass beneath your feet?”
“I did.” While that fact alone didn’t necessarily prove I was fae or glamoured, it was also what the shade woman specified in Ironton. And I knew now that she was real, not just someone playing a prank. Which meant she was dead. I’d seen and spoken to a dead woman. What was happening? Could all fae see Shades?
“Is that why some people didn’t like me?” I asked. “Because they didn’t think I was clumsy enough to be blind, or could they smell the fae magic on me?”
He observed me with a serious expression and shook his head. “The whole human village saw you as a human. Humans don’t have the same senses we do. They wouldn’t have been able to tell you were different from them.”
“They didn’t treat me like a human most of the time,” I admitted quietly. “They were scared of me.” And rightfully so.
He stopped and turned to me. “How so?”
I cleared my throat. “They thought I was a Changeling. They accused me of being evil, and insisted that they wanted me to leave. Some spat on me when I walked through town by myself. If Iric was with me, they wouldn’t dare, because he was a Border Gray—one of our guards, and he was well-respected. But he couldn’t always be with me. Before we left, things had gotten worse. He was afraid to even leave my side. I always thought they treated me differently because I didn’t grow up in Ironton. Iric just... found me wandering around one day, blind and stumbling around, trying to find something to hold onto or someone to help me. I had no memory of how I came to be there or who I was. If it wasn’t for Iric—”
Loftin let out a low, rumbling growl that set my hair on edge. For a moment I thought he was angry for how I’d been treated, but then I heard a blood-curdling, high-pitched shriek and a creature appeared in the air above us.
The world became frigid.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
Our breaths came out in puffs of white smoke, the vapor immediately freezing and tinkling to the frozen ground beneath our feet. The closer she came, the more the world froze and us along with her.
Glamour of Midnight Page 6
