Dark Starlight

by Hannah West

  ‘What is that?’ I squeak.

  The man squeezes my wrists so tight it makes me squeal and tears bead my lashes. The pattern races up my arms and bleeds over my hands. Coal ribbons shoot from my palms and spear into his chest. His eyes go wide and his mouth opens, like he’s going to scream, but no sound comes out. I scream for him, black veins webbing over his face as his eyes fill with midnight.

  The darkness spreads, little rivers of night snaking from his eyes to blanket his skin, until the man looks made from shadow. Fear cramps my stomach, but it isn’t all mine. He’s terrified, and the more midnight covering his skin, the stronger I feel his terror. It needles my insides, making it hard to breathe, and bile creeps up my throat. My darkness remains coiled around him, slowly tightening, and pulsing in time with the rapid beating of my heart.

  His grip disappears from my wrists and I fall onto my backside. My heart drums loud in my chest as I stare up at his shadowy figure looming above me. He’s let me go but we’re still connected. His whole body shudders and the darkness uncurls in long ribbons. Midnight tendrils return to me, sinking beneath my skin to drench me in feelings I don’t want or understand.

  The man is gone and crimson stains the rock where he was standing. There’s so much of it, painting the rock and sinking between the crevices. I’ve never seen so much blood, and it takes a second to pull my gaze away. I look down at my arms to find the pattern gone. Bruises circle my wrists where the man held me and my shins are scraped.

  My feelings break through the thick sludge of the man’s still lingering inside me. I start to cry, desperate to escape. I’ve felt other people’s feelings before, but never like this. They never stay once the person isn’t touching me, but the man’s are like a brick in my belly.

  My legs are shaky when I push to my feet and stumble over the rocks to the sea. I drop into the water, shins stinging, as I wade through the waves until I’m in view of the beach. Mum appears through a crowd of people as I splash through the surf. She sees me a second after I see her and starts running in my direction.

  ‘Primrose,’ she breathes as she wraps me in a hug. ‘You’re trembling!’

  She tries to pull away but I’m wrapped tight around her, soaking in the warmth of her relief. Her love eclipses the man’s emotion, until it’s gone from my belly, and I sigh in relief.

  Mum pries my arms from her waist then drops to her knees in front of me. ‘Darling, what’s wrong? Where were you?’

  ‘T-there was a man,’ I whisper.

  Mum’s eyes widen and her gaze darts around us. ‘Where?’

  I shake my head unable to answer. All I know is he’s not coming back. Mum’s gaze roams my body then fixes on my wrists. She takes my hands and gently rotates them to get a good look at the bruises there. A tear slides down her face and I brush it away.

  ‘He did this?’ she rasps.

  I nod and more tears bead her lashes. ‘Where is he now, Primrose?’

  ‘Gone,’ I whisper, thinking of the blood painting the rocks beyond the breakers.

  Relief seeps through Mum’s panic and her gaze meets mine. I ache to tell her what I felt when the man touched me, so she can hug me and take the fear of feeling those things away. I want to tell her about how my darkness did something awful to save me. But she’s looking at me in the same fragile way as when she’s thinking of my father. And I can’t do it. I think of that visit to Doctor Minting’s office and how sad it made Mum. Things have been better since I stopped telling her of my darkness. I don’t tell anyone anymore, and I don’t draw it in pictures either. If people ask about it I tell them it went away, and I think Mum likes that lie best.

  ‘He defiled her!’ Aric roars jarring me awake. His rage saturates the air, sticking to my skin and making my head pound. ‘I’ll kill him.’

  ‘Such an act will start a war,’ a calm voice answers. ‘Perhaps-’

  A door bursts open, interrupting. ‘Highness, they’ve breached the border,’ another male shouts.

  ‘Where?’ Aric snarls.

  ‘Evergreen Valley.’

  I withhold a flinch when a warm hand brushes my forehead. The sense of rage increases on contact, mixed with an insane need to protect.

  ‘Guard my daughter with your life, Harlan,’ Aric orders.

  ‘Of course,’ the calm voice from before answers. A door slams drenching the room in silence, before Harlan says, ‘You can stop pretending now.’

  I sigh and open my eyes. A blond male stands over me with eyes the colour of leaves in spring. Like all fae, he’s handsome as sin and looks only slightly older than me. It’s difficult to be around beings that don’t age, making it hard to gauge how old they really are.

  ‘How did you know?’

  He grins, flashing a hint of fang. ‘I’ve been healing for millennia, Princess. One of my talents includes discerning when a patient is awake.’

  ‘Great,’ I mutter and push into a sitting position.

  ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘I ache,’ I admit.

  He nods. ‘I gave you something for the pain.’

  I look down. ‘Who changed my clothes?’

  ‘I did,’ he answers then frowns at my horrified look.

  I swing my legs off the bed and look around, finding myself in my room in Aric’s palace.

  ‘Great. Just…great!’ I growl and stumble onto my feet.

  ‘You shouldn’t be up yet,’ Harlan cautions. ‘You went into shock after being rescued and it triggered a defensive reaction in your light. Such a powerful move is unheard of in such a young fae and it knocked you out.’

  ‘Whatever,’ I mumble, staggering a little as I go to the closet and search through the racks. ‘Where’s all the practical clothing,’ I snarl at the male as he stands concerned in the closet doorway.

  ‘Harlan-’ I start then frown, wondering why that name sounds so familiar. ‘Have we met before?’

  He shakes his head. ‘Perhaps you should lie down, Princess.’

  ‘Call me Primrose or don’t address me at all,’ I snarl then gesture to the rack behind me. ‘Is there nothing but dresses in this whole damn closet?’

  ‘If you wish for different clothing just manifest some,’ he suggests.

  I take a deep breath and let some of the hostility leak from me. ‘I don’t know how to do that yet.’

  Understanding flickers in his gaze and he steps closer. ‘May I?’

  I take his offered hand and he smiles, green eyes lighting. Something mists over my skin, gentle pressure rising around me.

  ‘Do you feel my light?’ he asks.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Can you feel how I’m using it to blanket your form?’

  ‘It feels like mist,’ I tell him.

  The pressure withdraws. ‘Can you do the same with your light?’

  I mimic what Harlan did, until darkness mists around me. I’m sort of impressed with how easily I’m manipulating my light, and resist the urge to give myself a pat on the back. But all the years of not being able to control it, back when I was human, makes being fae feel worth it.

  ‘Very good,’ he praises. ‘Picture what you wish to wear and it will appear on your body.’

  I picture a pair of skinny jeans and a long-sleeve top from my closet back home. Tingles skitter over my skin and I grin when I look down to find the items I’ve chosen.

  ‘This is going to save so much time in the mornings,’ I murmur.

  ‘You did very well,’ Harlan says and releases my hand.

  Harlan.

  My eyes snap wide with recognition. It can’t be…can it? Maybe I’m wrong and Harlan is the fae equivalent to John back in my realm, but I have to be sure.

  ‘Why didn’t you go get her?’ I demand.

  ‘I don’t-’

  ‘Alissa,’ I cut in. ‘Why didn’t you rescue her from the Light Realm?’

  Harlan’s face pales and I know I’m right. ‘How did-?’

  ‘She told me about you, after she discovered I’m
Dark Fae.’

  Harlan’s grief crashes against me. ‘What did she tell you?’

  ‘That she fell in love with you, and when you didn’t come for her she was forced to mate Oric.’

  ‘She thinks I didn’t fight for her?’ he whispers, pain lancing his features and percolating the space around us.

  I swallow hard against the agony pouring from him. ‘You tried?’

  ‘I breached the Light Realm to find my Alissa,’ he murmurs. ‘But Oric was waiting.’ Harlan closes his eyes and when he opens them again they’re burning with rage. ‘He came to the dungeon on the night of their Mating Ceremony to describe how she’d fought him.’

  I swallow hard. ‘He forced her?’

  Harlan nods. ‘I’m sorry you’ve suffered the same fate, Primrose.’

  It takes a second to register what he just said. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

  ‘I’m a healer,’ he reminds me. ‘Your father tasked me with seeing if you were still-’

  ‘Don’t say it!’ I shout when I realise where this conversation is going.

  ‘There’s no need to feel shamed, Primrose,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t your doing.’

  ‘Zephyr didn’t force me! I made the decision to mate him and was the one to initiate the bonding.’

  Harlan stares at me in shock. ‘You chose him?’

  I nod. ‘Aric had me kidnapped from my Blessing Ceremony. And that’s how I know all the stuff about you and Alissa. She told me while escorting me to-’

  ‘Alissa was escorting you?’ Harlan snaps. ‘Why not Oric?’

  ‘Oric faded-’

  ‘He left her?’ he snarls, making me back up a step. His fury lessens and he stares at me in awe. ‘Alissa remains?’

  ‘Why are you so angry?’

  ‘Mated pairs fade together because their lights are bound,’ Harlan answers. ‘For one to fade first is nearly unheard of, and leaves the remaining fae in pain.’ He growls again, expression vicious. ‘Oric loved her, yet left her to suffer?’

  ‘Oric and Alissa tolerated each other,’ I tell him. ‘There was no love in their mating.’

  ‘How can you know that?’ he argues.

  ‘Alissa’s told me. Maybe Oric could fade without her because they hated each other.’

  Harlan nods. ‘If Alissa and Oric’s mating was so disjointed there may be a window of opportunity.’

  I shake my head. ‘You’ve lost me.’

  ‘Oric is gone from this world, their link severed. It means Alissa can claim another, before her previous bond claims her for ascension.’

  ‘You mean she can claim you before she fades?’ At Harlan’s nod I ask, ‘Won’t that mean you’ll both fade at moonset in the Light Realm?’

  ‘Moonset?’ he whispers.

  ‘Focus,’ I snap. ‘I’m asking if claiming Alissa will kill you, Harlan?’

  Harlan shakes his head. ‘Oric was over a millennia older than Alissa. Her life span altered to match his.’

  Meaning mating Zephyr knocked two millennia off of my suddenly long life.

  ‘So, if you mate Alissa it will save her,’ I say.

  ‘I’m only a century older than Alissa. Bonding our lights will mean her lifespan will alter to match mine.’

  ‘Then what the hell are you waiting for? We have to get you to the Light Realm before moonset, Harlan.’

  He snags my wrist when I push past him to leave. ‘Light Fae have breached the Dark Realm, Primrose. Zephyr is with them.’

  Oh no. ‘What?’

  ‘He’s here for you, but Aric won’t let Zephyr leave with you,’ Harlan warns.

  ‘But we’re bonded,’ I argue. ‘If Zephyr dies then so do I.’

  ‘There are ways of killing Zephyr without fading you,’ he informs me.

  ‘But I chose Zephyr. Why is Aric so desperate to separate us?’

  ‘Aric thinks you were forced into bonding, the same way Oric forced Alissa,’ Harlan answers.

  I remember what Aric was shouting when I woke up. ‘He thinks Zephyr defiled me.’

  ‘Zephyr is Oric’s heir, and Aric believes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’

  ‘He’s wrong,’ I snap, but I had a large part in Aric’s opinion of Zephyr. I came running for help, when I should’ve listened to what Zephyr was saying. ‘It’s my fault. I made my father hate the Light Fae.’

  ‘No,’ Harlan argues, his regret weaving around us.

  There’s something I’m missing. ‘What aren’t you telling me?’

  He sighs. ‘Aric and I were children together, our mothers inseparable. We grew up as brothers, and when Oric imprisoned me Aric was the one who got me out. But the damage was done.’

  ‘Damage?’

  Harlan swallows hard. ‘They cut off my wings.’

  ‘Oh my god.’

  ‘Oric wanted no female to ever find me attractive.’

  ‘He was a monster,’ I say forming new respect for Alissa.

  How the hell did she survive all those years with the male? I feel blessed that I had no real interaction with him.

  ‘Aric couldn’t forgive what the King of the Light Fae did to his blood brother, and war was ignited between the Dark and Light Realms.’

  ‘And that king’s son in mated to Aric’s heir,’ I murmur.

  ‘Can you understand Aric’s rage?’ Harlan asks.

  I can understand Oric was a psychopath, and I’m lucky Zephyr is nothing like him. I thought my situation was bad, but it could’ve been so much worst. No wonder Alissa comes across as a Stone Cold Bitch when you meet her. That female is owed a happy ending.

  ‘Aric’s going to kill Zephyr,’ I breathe.

  Harlan nods and darkness rises inside me; stretched thin and boiling with rage. Harlan gasps and stares at me with wide eyes.

  ‘You’re a Lumen.’

  I look down to the flowers blooming around my feet, but Harlan isn’t staring at them. Onyx swirls surround me in inky tendrils, as my darkness breaches the barrier of my skin. It’s frenzied, like the day of Mum’s funeral, but I’m not afraid. I draw from its strength and let it take control.

  ‘We’re going to Evergreen Valley,’ I tell Harlan.

  I’m speaking, expressing my wishes, but there’s something else driving me forward. I know what I need to do, without having the knowledge of how I know it. I can’t explain it, other than my darkness has knowledge of things I don’t.

  ‘But-’

  ‘The one you seek is there,’ I cut in, and know I’m speaking of Alissa. My internal freak-out meter would be overheating, if not for the calm my darkness pushes through me. Okay then, let’s do this. ‘If you wish to bond her in time you’ll take me there.’

  He stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. Fear and awe taint the air, as realisation rises through his features. He knows what’s happening, even if I’m not sure of it. My darkness isn’t in complete control. I can take the reins back at any moment, but know it will risk Zephyr. If he is hurt in this war I’ll have the reins ripped from me. What happened after Mum’s funeral fills my mind. I woke surround by dead flowers, the life sucked from their crispy remains. Insidious whispers ghosts from the creature in my middle, saying I’ll wake to more than dead flowers, if Zephyr is harmed.

  Harlan offers his hand and I take it, skin prickling at the taste of his essence. My darkness is hungry, but only one fae has the nourishment it desires. The closet disappears behind a wall of green light then fades to grass so tall I have to bend my head to see the sky.

  ‘Evergreen Valley,’ Harlan murmurs then shoves me to the ground.

  An essence orb wizzes over us and burns through the grass behind where I’d been standing.

  ‘Realms!’ Harlan hisses then pushes off me to hurl green orbs at our attacker.

  The huge male grunts and grips his right shoulder, body crackling with turquoise light. I push to my feet and put a hand on Harlan’s arm, when he puts himself between me and the other fae. Harlan meets my gaze as I step around him, and w
hatever he sees causes him to stand down.

  Darkness reaches inky arms to wrap around the fae. Turquoise eyes widen in fear and my darkness soaks in the emotion, tightening its hold on the male. Midnight lines appear beneath his skin, the pattern of my essence lighting his insides. His eyes blaze turquoise then bleed to black. Darkness creeps over his skin, painting him in shadow. I feel the spark of life in his middle, before my darkness drains it from him.

  For a moment I’m six-years-old again, standing in a pink swimsuit on the rocks, staring at blood-drenched rocks. I should be horrified at what just happened to the fae, fear tickling the fringes of my mind, but my darkness pushes the emotion away before it takes hold. The Earth is scorched where the fae was standing; nothing remaining of him, not even a crimson stain to mark his passing. Harlan’s staring at me with wary eyes, but doesn’t seem surprised at what I’ve done.

  ‘This way,’ he says.

  Turquoise flowers bloom from the ground where I step, the same shade as the light of the fae I just killed. Sounds of battle reach my ears, the scent of blood and burning grass tickling my senses. We break from the long grass, onto the edge of a valley. The landscape is a mix of lush greens, blazing with flares of neon light. Hundreds of fae are fighting in varying shades of armour.

  Harlan lights up in front of me, thousands of emerald scales replacing the clothes on his body. They knit together as I watch, forming skin-tight armour the shade of Harlan’s light. It covers his whole body, tipping his fingers with emerald claws and his head with a vicious-looking helmet. He glances back at me, green eyes the only thing visible through the slit in his helm.

  ‘Go,’ I say when I feel his hesitation to leave me.

  He turns and runs into the fray, making his way toward the opposite end of the valley. Harlan dodges essence orbs and other fae, maintaining a determined gate. I plot his course, finding his prize when lilac armour glints from the opposite end of the valley. It hugs a feminine frame, and even though I can’t see her features beneath the wicked helm, I know Alissa’s beneath the jewel-toned scales. She slashes lilac claws at a fae twice her size, taking him down in a graceful manoeuvre. Another fae replaces the first, but Alissa despatches him just as fast.