by Eva Chase
From the glow seeping past the window blind, it was still daytime, and not late in the day either. Voices filtered faintly through the wall from outside. I couldn’t make out the words, but their tone was harried. My stomach knotted. I picked up the wand I’d left by the bedroom door and slid aside the door as quietly as I could.
The RV was empty. Worrisome sign number two. I padded down the length of it and nudged opened the door. Cool air and bright mid-day sun greeted me outside.
I understood part of what was going on right away. We’d pulled into a rest area to refuel. The other fae hunter cars and trucks were scattered around the two RVs. I guessed everyone had gotten off to grab some food and use the restrooms. But that didn’t explain why a bunch of them were clustered at the far end of the parking lot. A couple of the hunters were gesturing with sharp jabs of their hands. Jagger made a sweeping motion toward something in the distance.
Then Yasmin noticed me hurrying over and said something that made them all fall silent. They turned to watch me approach. My heart sank as I drew to a stop in front of them. Something was wrong. So wrong it prickled up through my consciousness and stole my breath.
“What’s going on?” I said.
Jagger swiped his hand over his mouth. “Your friends,” he started, and hesitated. I’d never seen him look so downcast.
My friends. “Keevan? Izzy? Priya? What? Just tell me.”
Howard piped up. “Dark fae took them. The damned creatures used one of their phones to text a message and a photograph to Jagger as proof.”
My heart stopped. Like the video a dark fae had sent Darton of his sister. But then the fae had only been following Audrey. He hadn’t touched her. “Why would they— What would they want—”
No. I didn’t need to ask. The dark fae didn’t pay a lot of attention to human activities, but they understood the basics of human nature well enough.
They’d threatened our families before, when they’d wanted to shift Darton and me to their will. That hadn’t worked. So they’d gone for the only other people around we cared about. Easy targets, who wouldn’t have been carrying weapons, who would have expected any fae that followed them to step back when they realized Darton and I weren’t around. A lot easier targets than attacking the king with his wizard standing guard.
The Darkest One figured there was an easier answer than sending her minions chasing after us across the country. She’d found the perfect way to make us come right to her. As soon as Darton heard Keevan and Izzy had been taken—
My hands clenched. No. I couldn’t let that happen. There would be no reasoning with him. There’d be no stopping him. These weren’t just vague threats—our friends were literally in dark fae hands. He’d go after them. The king in him wouldn’t allow him to do anything else.
Unless he never got the chance.
My body went still. There was my answer. The thought of him waking up and finding himself alone sent a twinge through my gut. But he’d understand, eventually. He’d know I’d done it for him.
That hadn’t just been a memory that had tickled past the edges of my sleep. It’d been a reminder. Sacrifice was the most powerful magic. The fae mercenary had used it. Rhedyn had used it. It had always been there within my reach, except I hadn’t been willing to face the consequences. I hadn’t been willing to leave my king.
Better to leave than to see him killed. Better that than killing him myself. The itch this morning’s bliss had subdued crept up through my arms again. I rubbed my hands over them.
“The fae have taken them to Chicago,” Yasmin said. “It’s obviously a trap.”
“Obviously,” I agreed. “But we can’t just leave our friends trapped there. I was already planning on going.” Jagger started to speak, and I shot him a hard look. “I’ve rested. My head is clear. I know what I’ve got to do. Darton’s friends and mine were my responsibility. He is my responsibility.”
Jagger frowned, but he inclined his head. “You have to do what you have to do, Emma.”
“Thank you.” I sucked in a breath. “What I need all of you to do is not tell him. And don’t let him leave that room on the RV. Someone can bring him food. He can pee in a bottle. Whatever. I’m going to lay down all the cloaking magic I can. If you can keep him there, they won’t find him before I’ve ended this.”
“Do you really think he’s just going to accept you disappearing and us not telling him anything?” Jagger said.
“I think doors have locks and he doesn’t have any magic to get past them,” I said grimly.
The pickup truck had been carrying my main duffel. I stalked over, dug into it, pulled out the jar of shadow-tinged blood from the last time I’d worked on my king’s dragon. With the jar in one hand and my wand in the other, I slunk back onto the RV.
Darton was still deep asleep. I couldn’t help stopping for a moment to look at him, his arms and legs spread akimbo on the bed, his face gentled by sleep. Even with the blinds closed, the faint light that crept into the room sparked in his gold-blond hair. He had a lot of rest to catch up on after the horror of that day and night in dark fae hands. I hoped he’d sleep a long while yet, for his benefit as well as mine.
He was going to be angry with me. I was absolutely sure of that. But he’d also be alive, and after a while hopefully he’d be able to see that mattered more.
I opened the jar, dipped the end of my wand into the collected blood, and drew a streak of it along the bedroom wall. “Darkness stretch and darkness hide,” I murmured. A splinter of pain shot up my arm at the shadow-working, but my magic complied. The dark energy I’d drained from the dragon shimmered up to the ceiling and down to the floor. I dipped the wand back in and drew the line longer, repeating the chant.
The hardest part was tackling the stretch of wall over the bed. I leaned over Darton, reaching my wand across, and he shifted onto his side with a murmur. I froze in place. He hugged the bedspread to him, his brow knitting, but his eyelids didn’t even flutter. After a long minute, I finished my reach and slipped around to the other side.
When I connected the line to its tail, the dark shimmer snapped into place around the entire room. A crackling discomfort had spread all through my nerves. Sweat dampened my forehead and the back of my neck. I swiped at it with my sleeve. Then I gave myself one last look at the man my heart had always belonged to.
“Live long and well,” I whispered. If I could have made that a spell, I would have.
Jagger was waiting for me outside the RV doors. He took in my weary state with only a crook of his lips.
“This is for you,” he said, holding up a key. He motioned to a navy blue sports car parked on the other side of the rest area’s lot. “It’s full of gas, and it’s one of our guy’s private vehicles, so you won’t stick out like a sore thumb in one all covered with lamps and solar panels. I figured you’d want to get where you’re going as fast as possible.”
I hadn’t even started to think about how I was going to get to Chicago. My throat tightened. “Thank you,” I said. “I mean, not just for this—for everything—”
He cleared his throat to cut me off. Were his eyes looking a little misty? “Don’t get started with that,” he said gruffly. “You know we’re good. And I think you’ll also be wanting this.” He hefted an electro-gun and handed it to me. “I know your magic gets you pretty far, but there’s nothing wrong with having backup.”
The tightness became a full-out lump. It took me a second to speak. “Thank you, again. You take good care of my king, all right?”
He smiled properly then. “You know I’ll do my best. Blew up my house for the two of you already, didn’t I? And hey, I’ll tell you what. If you can manage to do what you’ve got to do and still make it back, you can have the story of my scars the next time I see you.”
A grin touched my lips despite myself. “Sounds like a deal.”
I stopped at the truck again to grab my duffel. I checked the side pocket quickly to confirm my spell-worked knife was still there
. Then I tossed everything into the back seat of the sports car—other than the electro-gun and a fresh wand, which I decided to keep in easy reach up front.
Okay. I had everything I needed.
Most of the fae hunters had gotten back into their vehicles now, but they were all watching me. Light only knew what they were thinking of this plan. I gave them a quick wave, because some acknowledgement seemed only polite, and then I slid into the driver’s seat. The engine hummed on with a buttery smoothness.
I wasn’t going to kid myself. There was almost no chance I’d get to take Jagger up on his offer. I wasn’t coming back. But this sacrifice was what my life had been meant for. All my lives. How lucky was I that I’d gotten to have so many of them, frustrating as they’d often been, in the first place? How lucky was I that I’d gotten to know my king over and over, despite the lonely parts in between?
Darton had told me days ago that maybe I should let him go. He’d been right, just not in the way he’d thought. I had to stop clinging to my time with him and go to meet my proper fate.
I hit the gas and turned the car onto the highway toward Chicago.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Even if the fae hunters’ data readings hadn’t pointed us toward Chicago, I’d have known the dark fae had gathered around this place before I even hit the city limits. A supernatural cold stretched across the state for dozens of miles around, too thin for the steel shell of the car to keep out. I shuddered as I slowed into the urban traffic, wishing I could murmur a few words to warm the space. But any light fae magic might bring my enemies running right to me.
The first part of this plan required stealth. The second part... I hadn’t quite figured out yet. I was hoping the first part would give me the pieces I needed.
The cold wasn’t only in the fae energy saturating the air. A real, physical chill had settled over the city with the deepening night as well. The pedestrians on the sidewalks hurried along with coat collars high and hats pulled low. Frost dappled the edges of the windows. A bitter wind warbled past the car as I drove through the suburbs toward the city core.
From what I was hearing on the radio, the situation on the east coast was even worse. All the major lakes had frozen solid. It had hailed in New York City, chunks of ice big enough to shatter windshields and store windows. But the Darkest One didn’t want to make this city too inhospitable. She wouldn’t want to scare off the world leaders or the audience she wanted her dragon to devour.
The chill sank deeper into my body until I couldn’t stop shivering. I parked on a downtown street, my senses alert for any fae physically nearby, and got out of the car. Walking got my natural energies flowing through my limbs a little more, keeping the cold at bay. And I didn’t want to come up on the dark fae’s urban enclave too fast.
I wandered the streets until I had a clear sense of it: The dark fae had taken over a section of parkland down by the lake. It looked like a recent installation: a series of neatly winding hedges stretching across a broad span of stone tiles. Just the sort of orderly lines that would appeal to dark fae sensibilities.
I watched from a few blocks away as people ambled toward the hedge garden as if meaning to take a stroll along the paths—and then veered away without a change in expression. A magical barrier like the ones the light fae put up in their woods was “encouraging” the locals to take other routes.
Figures stirred among the hedges, but I couldn’t make out any of them clearly. If the Darkest One was there right now, she was out of my view. I’d have been able to sense her essence at the briefest glance. But I could feel her presence in the city in the sharpest jabs of the frigid air against my cheeks and hands.
The fae probably already had some idea I was in the area. All their previous actions suggested they’d been keeping an eye on my movements. But the Darkest One wanted me and my king to come to her. If I didn’t push the matter, I could hope she’d be content to wait for my next move.
And she might have been, but a few minutes later, it became clear not all of her minions were of the same mind. Three figures shrouded in shadow, two male and one female from what I could make out of their features, slipped away from the hedge garden and headed my way.
My back stiffened. I wasn’t ready for a confrontation. And how the hell was I ever going to get close enough to take on the Darkest One if the other fae perked up before I was near enough to even see her? I’d used up almost all of my willow ash—
Oh. The thought struck me like a zap of electricity. There was the inspiration I’d been looking for.
Instead of trying to paint myself into a dark fae, I could simply step right inside one, couldn’t I? There’d be no better disguising my true nature than that.
The dark fae were approaching steadily. I faded back down the street, making for my car. If this was going to work, I needed to do it as far from the other dark fae as possible. No one could suspect the switch.
My fae senses tingled as the three followed me. They were only half a block away when I hopped into the car. I pulled onto the road and drove away from them as if I meant to flee. But I didn’t challenge the speed limits even a little. I wanted them behind me but keeping up.
They fell back in the first minute, but after that they kept pace. They must have been tracing my energies the way I followed theirs at the edge of my awareness. I led them on a winding path through the city core and south into an industrial area that was even darker and nearly vacant this late at night.
When I hadn’t seen or sensed another being in five minutes, I pulled over outside an abandoned warehouse. I picked up my wand and the electro-gun. Then I got out of the car and leaned against the hood to wait.
My followers emerged from the shadows by the street corner a moment later. They fanned out, the woman coming straight at me and the two men moving to circle around me. I held the electro-gun down by my side where it wasn’t quite as noticeable. These ones might not have been in the groups that had engaged the fae hunters before. They might not even know what the weapon I held could do. Surprise would always work in my favor.
“What are you doing, fae-in-a-human-suit?” the woman said in a hiss of a voice. “Where is your pet king?”
“Do you really think I’m going to answer that question?” I said. “How stupid do you think I am?”
The dark fae sneered, which meant pretty darn stupid. “I’m sorry to disappoint,” I said. “If you want any info from me, you’re going to have to drag it out of me.”
“A process I suspect I’ll enjoy,” the woman said, and lunged. Her lips moved at the same time, spitting out a spell. I jerked my wand to dispel it, snapping a line of my own at the same time. The man at my right whipped a lash of dark magic toward me too. As I whirled to meet it, the third fae joined in.
I wanted them closer. I had to hold on before I showed my entire hand. I cast a bolt of light in one direction and dodged the other spell. It clipped me in the shoulder, sending a searing chill down my arm. The electro-gun slipped an inch in my grasp before I caught it. But the fae were closing in on me, exactly the way I wanted. I bit back a whimper and swung the weapon into the air.
“Darkness fall and darkness dull,” I shouted, gripping my wand and pressing the gun’s trigger at the same time. As I spun around, a stream of electricity slammed out all across the street, urged on by my spell. It smacked all three fae across the head. They crumpled to the ground. Not dead—I wasn’t using my one hope at producing that level of power on these lackeys—but unconscious, and hopefully for a while.
The exertion had left me panting. The wand had turned dark and brittle. I tossed it aside and grabbed a fresh one from the trunk.
I was getting low again. And this was the last of my supply anywhere. But then, I didn’t expect to be needing them again after tonight.
I walked to each of the fae, keeping the electro-gun and the wand pointed at them. Over the two men, I cast a binding spell across their arms and mouths with a little zap from the gun for extra oomph. If th
ey woke up sooner than I hoped, it would take them some time to break free from that spell.
Then I chucked the weapon in the car and bent down beside the dark fae woman. “I can promise you I’m not going to enjoy this at all,” I said to her limp form.
Gritting my teeth, I dragged her to the car and pushed her into the back. To give this plan the best possible chance, I couldn’t be finishing it here at the scene of this crime against dark fae kind.
I drove farther into the industrial district until I came across an alley so narrow I could only just squeeze the car into it and so dark I couldn’t see more than a few feet inside. I pulled in until the darkness closed around the car. Then I flipped on the overhead light so I could see what I was doing.
The dark fae woman lay motionless as I dug a stick of incense and the knife out of my bag. With a snap of my fingers, I lit the incense and set it, burning, on the dashboard. Then I tipped the driver’s seat back as far as it would go and held up my left arm.
I’d studied human anatomy for enough years that the spread of muscles, tendons, and bones beneath the skin were more familiar to me than my current face was in the mirror. I knew exactly where and how deeply to cut.
A slow bleed, that was what I wanted. I didn’t know how long it would take me to get to the Darkest One. If this body died too soon, I might not be able to use the sacrifice against her to full effect. Eight hours—that should be enough.
I dug the blade into my skin. My breath hitched at the sting. A thin line down the wrist, just enough to let the blood start seeping out.
“I give my life to take another’s,” I murmured, putting all my conviction into the words. “I give my light to squash the greatest darkness. Lend me the power to shatter her shadows.”
A tremor ran through me. I couldn’t tell whether it was the magic’s acceptance of my sacrifice or just my body objecting to its death. Maybe both.
I sagged back in the seat and closed my eyes. As I inhaled, the herbal smoke of the incense filled my lungs. My soul loosened within its shell of flesh. I cast myself up—and into the sprawled body behind me.
