Glamour of Midnight

by Casey L. Bond

  “You’re fighting like you love them all, but the humans weren’t kind to you,” he pointed out.

  “No, but I’m not fighting for what they are, I’m fighting for what they have the potential to be. If we make a better world, a world where fae and humans live together peacefully, it would be worth everything. I’m fighting—we’re fighting—for hope and the possibilities it brings. I can’t think of a better cause. Can you?” I asked.

  He shook his head, looking down at our joined hands. “No, I can’t.”

  “Then let’s right the wrongs, Loftin.”

  “Together,” he promised.

  21

  KARIS

  Alistair led us through the maze of bone-covered walls, through archways and down steps, where the room finally opened up into a hollow swell in the earth, columns holding the stone up overhead. The ceiling was smooth, with a perfect mural of a spring sky, complete with wispy clouds and the warm sun stretching overhead. Along the walls was a meadow dotted with wildflowers. A fawn with a spotted brown coat sipped from a brook just to our right. And the tree of life, where all life is said to have begun, stretched up and into the sky to our left, its painted roots stretching across the smooth floor.

  In the center of the space was a raised slab of rock. On it, lay the Queen of Spring. Alistair fixed his bloody eyes on me. “Queen Gwyndlyn,” he presented.

  “You guard her?”

  He shrugged. “She gave us a place in her court when no other King would,” he admitted simply.

  “Where’s Finean?” I asked. “I thought he wanted to be here for this.”

  “He’ll be along shortly. We can wait for him, unless you’re in a hurry.”

  I shook my head, eager to begin.

  She was beautiful. Waves of shiny hair spilled over the slab on which she lay like honeyed wheat, with a golden circlet around her head. Idly, I wondered what color her eyes were. Her cheeks were a rosy pink, and her skin was tan and flawless. Everything about her seemed delicate. From her pink fingertips folded carefully across her middle, to the delicate and detailed flowers embroidered along the hem of her pale green dress.

  Her chest barely rose and fell with an almost imperceptible movement. Humans would have thought her dead and burned her alive, not knowing any better. I half-expected her to wake and fasten those eyes on me, and ask me why I was in her court, in her space.

  Would she crumble in despair when she saw her palace and home in ruin? Or would she lash out instead?

  In case she was in there listening, I introduced myself. “Queen Gwyndlyn, my name is Karis. I’m going to try to bring you back. I’m going to try and set you free.” I hoped like hell it didn’t hurt her.

  Just then, the earth began to quake. Loftin and Alistair both glanced at me. “It’s not me this time!” I answered.

  Then a familiar shriek echoed from down the hall.

  “Banshees!” the Leancan roared angrily. “Follow me!”

  “I could change them,” I panted, running after him with Loftin on my heels.

  Alistair stopped and grabbed my arms. “If you want to get away from Finean, now is your chance. There’ll be time to help the Banshees later. Now, you run. And you,” he entreated Loftin, “keep her safe.”

  Turning back to me, Alistair whispered, “Karis, it’s important that you listen. The Shades whisper to me, and they want me to tell you to conceal your heart.”

  “You see them, too?”

  He nodded and glanced around. All of a sudden, they were there. Shades. Surrounding us. The shadows of the dead. I searched each gray face for Iric or Gregoire’s among them, but came up empty. My stomach unclenched when I saw neither was there.

  “Conceal your heart,” they warned. All of them. Echoing. Parroting one another. “Conceal your heart.”

  “I will,” I choked. “Thank you.”

  Loftin peered all around us, but I could tell he didn’t see them. I stepped away from Alistair and took Loftin’s hand, closing my eyes and wishing he could see what I did.

  His startled gasp filled the air.

  LOFTIN

  “I see them,” I breathed.

  “Good, good. Now, we need to run,” Alistair urged as another shriek came, this time closer.

  Our feet pounded the floor as we followed him down corridor after corridor, up stairways and ladders whose rungs bent and creaked under our weight, until Alistair opened a hidden doorway. Light stung our eyes, but we were in the middle of the Eastern Wood. “Remember what I said,” the Leancan warned.

  “Why are you helping us? I thought you were on Finean’s side,” Karis sputtered as he pulled her to the surface.

  The Leancan chuckled. “I am on your father’s side. And while Finean thinks he exercises power in my lair, it’s time he learned that he is not my master.”

  “Who’s my father?” She waited for his answer while I climbed out of the shaft.

  Suddenly it clicked. Master of the Leancan, Master of the Shades… Now I knew exactly who her father was and couldn’t be happier, because it definitely wasn’t my father. Or the King of any of the Seasonal Courts. Why didn’t I piece it together sooner?

  “He wants to introduce himself,” Alistair divulged, shooting me a look of warning.

  The air turned cold and frost covered the dried leaves on the ground. “Run! I’ll lead her in another direction,” Alistair shouted before taking off through the woods toward the south so fast, he was merely a blur.

  KARIS

  Loftin and I ran north. Either Alistair hadn’t taken her attention away, or there was more than one in the forest, because a Banshee caught up to us quickly. She unhinged her jaw in a grotesque display and let out a howl, and then threw something at us. It fell on the forest floor between me and Loftin. He raised his sword, preparing for battle.

  “See what it is,” he instructed.

  A familiar smell wafted up from the forest floor. I dropped to my knees to find a strip of flesh. “No!” I wailed.

  “What is it?” Loftin asked, crouching beside me, but keeping his eyes on the floating she-bitch. His eyes caught fire as the scent reached him.

  “Did you do this?” I asked the Banshee.

  Her rotten lips turned upward in a taunting grin. I rose to a crouch.

  “Karis, no!” Loftin cried as he lunged for me, but I was already past him.

  And lunging

  for

  her

  throat.

  She hissed as I grabbed hold and threw her to the ground, instantly transforming her back into the Seelie fae that lurked beneath. I unsheathed my knife. “Is he alive?” I asked, stalking forward.

  “The boy lives,” she panted, clutching her side. “For now. Nemain wants to see you before midnight. Alone.”

  “Who removed his flesh?” I screamed.

  “Don’t hurt her!” Loftin bellowed, rushing to the faery’s side. “Lita,” he breathed, gathering her into his arms tenderly.

  She whimpered, grasping for him and holding him tight. “Loftin?” Her voice chimed like one of the tiny iron bells that had tormented me for so long.

  He held her tight. “I had no choice,” she cried. “You have to believe me.” Tears gathered in her eyes. Loftin pinched his eyes closed.

  Did he really believe her? “There’s always a choice,” I growled. The two finally remembered I was standing in front of them.

  “Not for us. We are bound to her, which means we are compelled to follow her orders. No matter how bad or wrong, we have to do it,” she whimpered, but then turned to Loftin. “I’ve done terrible things.”

  “So have I,” he admitted quietly, raking his hand down her yellow-orange hair. He placed his lips on her forehead tenderly. “We all have.”

  Someone cleared his throat behind us, and I turned to find Finean standing there. How did he find us? “I’m so glad I was able to find you.” He flicked his eyes to Loftin and Lita, and with a smirk chided, “I take it you two know each other?”

  I didn’t
know why it bothered me; whether it was true, or the fact that he’d voiced it, or why I hated that Loftin was so familiar with this ‘Lita’ character. They seemed to know each other intimately.

  Alistair showed up a moment later. “Oh, good. You found them.”

  Loftin helped Lita to her feet. “Can you take her to safety?”

  “The Autumn fae are not welcome in the Court of Reflections,” Finean replied resolutely. “But if the Leancan will allow it, she can stay in their lair to recover.”

  He glanced at Alistair, who nodded once.

  “She can stay,” Alistair allowed, but added, “temporarily.”

  Tears streaked down Lita’s cheeks as Loftin led her to Finean. Alistair’s eyes were on me, his lips tipped up on one side. Finean promised to be back in a moment, waved his hand over the ground, transforming the surface into a mirror, and they stepped into it and disappeared.

  “The Asper,” I exclaimed, holding my arm up. “That’s how he’s watching me. That’s how he knows where I am.”

  Alistair surveyed the solid glass laying over the ground and stomped on it. “Oops.”

  I stared at the outline of the serpent and asked it to come alive to leave my flesh and become real. My arm itched and it felt like my muscles were writhing beneath my skin, but the snake emerged. Fangs exposed, it slithered toward the Leancan and darted its attention between he and Loftin.

  I turned it to ash.

  Alistair took a breath.

  “Snakes make you nervous?” I jested.

  “Only the Asper,” he smarted, his lips upturned in a half-smile.

  “He’ll know you helped us,” I warned.

  Then his smile widened. “Oh, I know. Our Master thinks it’s time to show Finean his place in this world, and I, for one, will enjoy my front row seat.”

  Loftin shifted his weight. “We should go.”

  With a nod, we took off running, leaving Alistair behind.

  “You are the strongest in Faery, Karis!” he shouted. “Never forget that. Your possibilities are only limited by your imagination.”

  22

  KARIS

  We made it to the edge of the border of the Northern Forest where the former Court of Winter was, and where my mother had established her Court of Ash. Feeling the cold, knowing that Iric was so close, and that I was getting ready to face a woman who wanted me dead… it all began to overwhelm me. I ground to a stop, watching the ash rain down around us, and couldn’t help the tears that fell down my face. I’d held them in for miles, but couldn’t anymore. Loftin was in front of me, holding my arms, desperate to help.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  The better question was, What wasn’t wrong? “Who was that faery to you?”

  With only a slight pause, he began, “Her name is Lita. I was betrothed to her before my court was destroyed,” he asserted, searching my face. The thought of Loftin with Lita was painful in a way I didn’t understand, and I was sure my expression let him know exactly what I felt about their reunion. Tears sprang into my eyes.

  Loftin stood in front of me. “What is happening?”

  My emotions are spiraling out of control. That’s what’s happening. My heart hurt. I rubbed my palm over my chest to quell the ache.

  “In Ironton, I turned two human men into ash,” I admitted quietly, peering up at him to see the horror in his eyes. I needed to see the moment he decided I was just like my mother, and that he was right all along. I was an aberration, an abomination of the worst kind. He’d been right to hunt me and drag me to her.

  “Were you upset or scared when it happened?”

  “Yes,” I replied, my lips trembling at the thought. “But they didn’t deserve to die just for scaring me.”

  “How did they scare you?” he asked.

  I shook my head, too embarrassed to tell him.

  “How did they scare you, Karis?” he punctuated the words.

  “They came into our house when Iric wasn’t there,” I whispered.

  “Did they hurt you?” he asked, his voice breaking.

  “There were two of them. They didn’t get the chance, but they would have.”

  He exhaled. “They deserved to die.”

  “No, they—”

  “Boil me alive, Karis! They deserved it!” he exploded. “Instead of making it quick, you should have drawn out their deaths. Everyone in Ironton would have heard their screams for days if I’d been there and found them with you!” he exclaimed. “And just so you know, Lita is not the one I want, Karis. My heart belongs to you.”

  “I don’t deserve it,” I mumbled.

  “No, Karis. I don’t deserve yours.”

  Did it even matter now that we were about to be slaughtered? I couldn’t let Loftin go with me. I knew what Nemain wanted. She wanted to kill Iric in front of me so she could watch me crumble, so my grief would overwhelm my power. She wouldn’t even have to fight for what she wanted. And when she did come for me, she would cut out my heart while Loftin watched, and then she would kill him. Slowly.

  The ache in my chest wouldn’t stop. This pain in my heart.

  And then it hit me.

  Alistair’s warning. The Shades. The way the Washer woman pointed at my chest…

  “Conceal your heart,” I mumbled beneath my breath.

  “Conceal your heart? What are you talking about?”

  Realization dawned. In the vision with the hunter I didn’t recognize, she asked him to bring her my heart. “My mother. She needs my heart, doesn’t she?”

  I kissed him then, capturing his lips and leaning into him as he pulled me tight against his chest, pouring my heart into our kiss. His eyes fluttered closed and he let out a soft moan, deepening it further. I needed him to know, to feel what I felt for him so he wouldn’t forget. I knew what I had to do now. Pulling away from him, removing my lips from his, and stepping out of his arms was the hardest thing I’d ever done.

  “Loftin, I need two things from you.”

  “Anything,” he immediately answered.

  “Promise?” I asked, knowing he would be livid when he heard my request.

  “Of course.”

  “I need you to release me from the favor I owe you.”

  He opened his mouth to protest, but I covered it with my finger. “You promised.”

  His eyes were ablaze with anger as he shook his head slowly. “Why?”

  “Loftin, you promised.”

  “Fine, I release you,” he retorted angrily.

  “I also need you to keep something safe for me. Safe and hidden. You can’t tell anyone you have it.”

  “Of course.”

  “Promise me?”

  His eyes drilled into mine. “I won’t tell anyone I have… Wait, what are you giving me?”

  I pulled my tunic over my head and unbuttoned my blouse. “Karis?” he asked, uneasily, eyes shifted toward my chest, my breast wrap, and the planes of my stomach that lay beneath it.

  LOFTIN

  “I have a feeling that what I’m about to do will change me,” she said calmly. “And that I won’t be the Karis you know. But remember who holds my heart, Loftin. It belongs to you, so it’s fitting.”

  “Karis,” I whispered against her ear as she raked her nails down my chest.

  “Don’t forget who I really am. Don’t forget what’s in my heart.”

  Whispering words that swirled with power, she reached her hand into her flesh and curled her hand upward beneath her ribs. Her mouth formed an ‘o’ and she let out a choking sound as she removed her heart, plucking it out of her body. Her skin healed in seconds and she held her beating heart in her hand, blood dripping off it as she looked at me. “Do you trust me?”

  “I do.” It was true.

  “Take off your tunic and shirt.”

  I quickly did as she asked, and then she reached her free hand into my abdomen, holding my flesh and muscle open as she shrank her heart and tucked it beneath my ribs, right next to mine.

  For a moment
, the sound of their opposite beats was deafening as they rang in my ears. But then her beat shifted, becoming one with mine; strong and sure and pounding with determination.

  “Now I’m heartless. Just like my mother,” she tried to joke as she held a hand over my skin. There was no wound.

  It wasn’t funny, but I still wanted to kiss her senseless because through it all, she kept her sense of humor, and also because we were probably going to die and I might not get another chance. I stepped forward to do exactly that, when there was a shift in her posture. Her smile fell away and her face turned to stone, a wicked gleam entering her eyes. She tilted her head.

  “Karis?”

  She laughed, running her hands up from her chin, over her face, and around her hair until she looked like her mother’s twin.

  With a backhand, she sent me flying into the stiff, frozen trunk of a tree. I landed at the base with a thud. She was in front of me in an instant, my throat between her claws. Where the hell did those come from?

  Appraising me, she sighed. “You’re too pretty to kill.” With that, she released me and disappeared into a cloud of writhing midnight.

  Cursing, I pushed to my feet. Lita told her to come to Nemain by midnight or Iric would be killed, but I knew I couldn’t beat her to Nemain on foot.

  She didn’t even recognize me now, which meant she wouldn’t know Iric. And if she or her mother hurt him, when she did take her heart back, it would destroy her. I ran back toward the Leancan lair. I hated to ask Finean for help, but it was the only way to get to her before she did something she would regret forever.

  Scald me alive.

  23

  LOFTIN

  Cillian hissed as I entered the lair. As Alistair’s second, he would know where to find Leancan King. He glanced behind me, no doubt waiting for Karis. “Where’s your guard dog?” he snarled.

  “Karis is in trouble. I need to talk to Alistair and Finean. Now!” I shoved around him.

  Cillian ran behind me into the catacombs and deeper down. “They’re in the mirror room,” he reported, pulling my shoulder when I accidentally ran past it.