Night Bringer

by Stacey Trombley

  “Your teachers brought up your classes during the meeting today.”

  “Oh.” Rev flops down on his desk chair.

  Reahgan walks forward slowly, deliberately, his hands behind his back. “You can’t keep doing this, you know. Father is not happy.”

  Rev sighs. “Father is never happy. Not when it comes to me.”

  “You are young. You’ve got a lot left to learn, about father especially.”

  “Then teach me,” Rev says, his voice low, his eyes locked on his brother with an expression of adoration. Does he not see the arrogance in Reahgan’s stance? Does he not see his lip curled in annoyance? “You obviously have it all figured out. What am I missing?”

  Reahgan smiles, and to my surprise it reaches his eyes. He places his hand on Rev’s shoulder gently. “I love you, little brother. But life will not be the same for you as it is me.”

  “Well, duh. There’s only one High Court heir.”

  Reahgan chuckles. “That’s not what I mean.”

  “Then what? There’s no room in this family for me. Father wishes I wasn’t around. You’ve got all the important roles filled better than I ever could. What’s left for me?”

  “You don’t have to be me. You need to find your own way.”

  “What way?”

  “You’re young still, Rev. You’ll figure it out.” Reahgan steps back and waves dismissively. “In the meantime, learn what you can from your teachers while you have them. And more importantly—I know you want to impress father, but let’s just start with doing the basics to not disappoint him.”

  “Do you think if I went to every class and impressed every teacher daily, he wouldn’t find a reason to be disappointed in me?”

  Reahgan chuckles. “I’m sure he would. But he treated me that way many times too. You were simply too young to remember my awkward stages.” He winks.

  Rev groans.

  “This is a hard week for you, I—” Reahgan stops midsentence and turns toward me. My eyes grow wide.

  “What?” Rev asks.

  Reahgan purses his lips and narrows his eyes. “Nothing. Look, Rev, I don’t want something bad to happen to you. Being a rebel right now, isn’t a good idea.”

  “A rebel, are you serious?”

  “It’s how Father sees it.” He shrugs, turning back to Rev casually. “Father isn’t...” Rev sighs. “You might not be the best heir...in his eyes... but you’re still my brother, and I’ll do what I must to protect you.”

  Protect him? From his father? I wonder if that’s what he means. But then again, the fact that he has come very close to noticing me more than once...maybe he means me.

  I’m on the cusp of the truth I need. The way to save Rev and me at the same time.

  Reahgan marches from the room, leaving Rev with a confused expression.

  Rev runs his fingers through his hair, leaving it adorably ruffed.

  Even if I win this game against the Night Bringer, and I somehow find a way to kill someone in Rev’s place, will he think me a monster? I swallow, knowing without a doubt that’s true.

  That’s my fate.

  He doesn’t see me. He never will. Love wasn’t what I was after, so it shouldn’t feel like a betrayal that I’ll never have it. But my heart shatters at the thought of killing him. And aches at the thought of him hating me.

  I can live with that, though. I’ll never be with him. I’ll never kiss him. This fae prince who, somehow, fate decided should be my lover.

  My time will only last so long here, I’ve come to learn. The thorns on my wrist grow tighter and tighter, the skin is red and puffy. It may kill me eventually, I don’t know. But Reahgan is close to exposing me. So, I know I cannot keep my spy status forever. It will kill me. Unless I act.

  Chapter Sixteen

  I slip from Rev’s room while he’s distracted over his book. If he reacts to the door opening and closing, I’m gone before it happens.

  His door clicks softly behind me, and I take in a long breath. Before I can even breathe it out, the door across the hall flings wide, and Reahgan leaps at me. His arms wrap around my body, pinning me down. I cry out and thrash wildly, trying to escape his grasp, but he tosses me through his bedroom door and to the ground.

  I roll to a crouch, and he approaches casually, shutting his door behind him. His lips curl into a cruel smile. He holds out his hand and a bright light shines from his palm. It sears my vision, burning.

  My muscles clench in pain, but I can’t move. Can’t cry out. I can move my eyes and my lungs are able to perform a tightly restricted breath but nothing more.

  The light from his palm burns my eyes, burns my skin. Searing. His control roars through my whole body.

  “I knew there was a spy here,” Reahgan says, walking casually around my frozen form. “Though I will say, I’m surprised to see a young girl. From the Shadow Court no less!” He chuckles. “And here I was ready for a challenge.” He shakes his head.

  I struggle against his control but I can’t move.

  “I thought you’d be my father’s assassin, here to kill my little brother.” He shakes his head. “But my father would never slip so low as to hire a teenaged lesser-court fae.”

  There’s a knock on the door and I gasp—well, I try to. My movements, even in my lungs, are too restricted for it. Already, my vision is spotted from hyperventilating on pressured lungs.

  “Everything okay, Reahgan? I heard something.”

  “All good, little brother.” His voice is so calm, his stance so casual. He hadn’t opened the door, but if he had, I’m certain his act would pass any test. He could fool anyone that nothing extraordinary has happened. “All good,” he says again, looking me in the eye, cruelty and cunning clear as day. He does seem to care for his brother, in some way. But that’s where his virtues end.

  He’s caught me in his trap, no different than the Night Bringer. I can see his sickening joy over it.

  He has a victim to play with, and he’s eager for it.

  My stomach twists and turns. My heart crumbles into pieces.

  I failed. I failed. Whatever Reahgan does with me will be only a preamble to what happens once I’m publicly exposed.

  Tears run down my frozen cheeks.

  Rev heads back to his room, the soft click of his door barely audible. Reahgan shines another ball of light toward the door, creating a secondary wall of white light. A barrier. For sound, I assume.

  Reahgan tsks at me, no sympathy in his stare. “Now, now, no tears. Not from a miscreant intruder. No, you did this to yourself.”

  He narrows his eyes at me, but my vision is growing more and more blurred. I’m going to pass out. I can’t breathe.

  Reahgan snaps his fingers, and the pressure on my chest releases. “Speak, monstrous child. I want to hear your story before we get to business.”

  I suck in ragged breaths. “What?” I barely get out between breaths. “Business?”

  He chuckles, a sound that reminds me so much of the Night Bringer.

  “We’re going to have a little fun together before I turn you in. You’re a trespasser, you know? An intruder from an enemy court here to assassinate me.” He lifts his hands in a mock shrug. “I can do whatever I’d like, as slowly as I’d like.” His words are slow and pointed, he reads my expression after each phrase. “Because no one knows you’re here. And no one will care what your body looks like when I’m done.”

  The fear that rakes through my body is painful. I’m trembling. No, no, no. I think. I can’t. I...

  “You’re not going to tell me your story?” He pouts. “Well, then I suppose I’ll just have to guess. Let’s see here.” He prances around me like I’m a prized cow. He pokes my leg, then my side. He runs his fingers up my thigh and I squirm, unable to get free of his magical grip on me.

  Sobs rack over my body.

  “You’re a pretty thing. From the Shadow Court, clearly. In a lovely dress. You’ve been here since the ball, have you? All the other guests have been gone for
a full day; the palace cleared. You’ve used your shadows to stay hidden. Why? Because you have nowhere else to go? A homeless stowaway?” He paces, enjoying his guessing game. “I found you in my brother’s room, which implies you were going to attempt to seduce him. Did you think you could make a prince fall in love with you?” He tilts his head. “A way out of your poverty-filled life in that pathetic court of yours?”

  He stops and places two fingers beneath my chin. “You were following me first. Did you learn about my recently found mate and then took a second choice in my brother? He’d be used to that. Behind me in all things.” He winks.

  He stands. “Well, here is something for you. A little boon for a child who won’t live more than a day longer.” He smiles, like he’s giving me a gift. He leans forward, so close I can feel his breath on my face. “The fae across the hall is no prince,” he whispers, amusement spilling into his voice. He gently brushes the hair from my forehead. “He’s my brother, of course. But he is not the King’s son. The scandal! I know.”

  My heart is pounding in my chest. He is no heir of mine.

  It was literal. Rev isn’t the King’s son. He’s not his heir. Rev isn’t my mark.

  Did the Night Bringer know this? Did he trick me? Or did he make a mistake?

  The magic in my chest begins to vibrate in rage. It’s angry for me. It’s found a new target.

  Kill him, it tells me.

  My body is shaking so hard now. I can’t move! I scream internally. I can’t do anything. He’s going to hurt me, do whatever sick things he wants with me, and I can’t do anything to stop it.

  Use me. My magic begins coiling inside my body, building. We will kill him. We will destroy him. He is not more powerful than us together.

  My heart is pounding now, not in panic but in excitement. I look my captor in the eye. He doesn’t know he just freed me. He doesn’t know that his secret just placed a big target on his back. His words will not only make it easy for me to end his life—he’ll make me relish it.

  I pour everything I’ve felt over the last few days into this one moment. For me, right now, Reahgan of the Luminescent Court is the Night Bringer.

  I blink my mind back to focus. Reahgan is standing over me, examining me like a specimen in a science experiment.

  “What are you thinking, little monster?”

  “I’m thinking that I’m going to enjoy killing you,” I tell him, my voice low and sinister. It scares even me.

  The magic in my chest rumbles in laughter. It agrees.

  Claim me. Take me. Use me.

  Become me.

  The magic builds, spiraling into a spring—a trap ready to release.

  “I’d like to see you try, pathetic weakling. No Shadow Fae could rival me.”

  I unleash the magic inside. It explodes into a roaring wave of acidic black power. It pours over Reahgan, and he falls to the ground, writhing and screaming. His control over my body shatters, the wall of light around the room dissipates with it.

  I pull out the dagger from around my thigh. An obsidian blade. I leap onto the High Prince. The future of the realm.

  I’ll be a villain when I do this. They never will, but the people should thank me for saving them from this vile fae.

  I shove the blade into his heart, and his scream fills the palace. My mind spins. I am inside that cave, deep, thick darkness everywhere. And it is that evil monster trembling beneath me.

  Joy as black as my soul fills me. Reahgan’s body goes limp beneath me, but I stand there, pressing the dagger into this chest until the painted thorns on my wrist fall to the floor in a pile of ash. They leave deep crevices where they dug into my skin.

  Power rushes through my body, soaring through every molecule. The Night Bringer’s gift, his power, becomes one with my very being.

  Mine, I say to it, but there are no longer any whispers. It’s part of me now.

  Or perhaps, I am part of it.

  When the guards rush into the room, they find me still on top of their prince, laughing. Hysterical laughter. Because I beat him.

  No, not Reahgan. I beat the Night Bringer in his own game.

  I won.

  I won.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Two weeks later

  I stand before the High Queen and the rest of the High Court, my hands bound. I wear the rags of a prisoner.

  Behind me, many representatives of the Shadow Court have gathered to defend me. To learn of my sentencing. I pled guilty to killing the High Court heir, though I didn’t dare tell them why. I don’t need another reason for the Night Bringer to come for me.

  I’d finished his bargain. Is he angry I killed a different prince than he’d wanted? Is he angry that I outsmarted him? The magic is mine, but he will not come to my aid, he won’t free me of the consequences of my crime. I will get nothing else.

  But I won, I tell myself. Rev is alive. He hates me, but he is alive. And I am not bound to that evil creature.

  Bonus, I saved the realm from an evil ruler. Reahgan hid his wickedness well. No one saw it but me. I believe that. I force myself to believe it.

  In the crowd behind me, Rev stands beside his mother. It’s for his benefit that I didn’t tell the courts about the things Reahgan had said and done to me before I killed him. I don’t suspect it would have made a difference in their ruling—he didn’t hurt me. He only threatened it. And I didn’t simply defend myself. I willfully killed him.

  And I am proud of it.

  I hate that this kind of joy swirls through my chest, but I cannot stop it. I can’t even hide it.

  I couldn’t kill my real enemy, but I did kill a fae who was so much like him it made me sick to my stomach. I’m glad Reahgan is dead.

  He showed his true colors. The things he threatened to do to me, no good person would ever even think, let alone say. I could see it in his eyes.

  He was eager for my pain.

  When I passed Rev today, his eyes were red and narrowed, his jaw set. I am now his brother’s murderer. I don’t think he even made the connection between the masked female at the ball and the wild creature standing before the court now. I’m relieved about that if I’m honest. Let him have hope that that female is still out there.

  As much as I know Reahgan was bad, I also know that Rev loved him.

  And I know I have no future with him now, even if he could forgive me. I lost that possibility before I’d even met him. My heart aches for that loss.

  The loss of something I didn’t even know I wanted.

  The King of the Luminescent Court stands beside the High Queen as one of the High Courtier advisors. He appears even angrier than his son.

  I don’t blame them, not for one second.

  My parents are in the crowd too, holding each other tightly. Their faces carry as much pain as the Luminescent royal family. I imagine they hate me for what I’ve done. They haven’t been allowed to visit me or see me face to face without a crowd of witnesses.

  I’m secretly relieved by that. It’s easier to act like a monster to those who don’t know you. To those who have assumed terrible things before they even laid eyes on you.

  I remember their hushed conversation about sending me away. Well, I suppose they’re getting their wish. But I also remember the fear in my mother’s voice and I see it in her eyes now.

  Except she doesn’t seem to be scared for me. It’s like...she’s scared of me.

  The High Queen doesn’t look me in the eye as she makes her announcement. Her amber eyes are sad and tired. “The female before us committed a grave crime. She has openly admitted to it.”

  A few shouts in the crowd interrupt her, but they hush quickly. Everyone, it would seem, wants to know her ruling. “But she is seventeen years old. She has not yet finished even one of her rites of passages to adulthood.”

  Whispering begins around the room. Most are hoping I’ll be sentenced to death.

  “For that reason, I have erred on the side of leniency.”

  The Lumines
cent Court king’s jaw drops. The room hushes, and a chill rushes through the room.

  “I sentence you, Caelynn of the Shadow Court, to permanent banishment. You will live out your days, however long they may be, in the human realm. You will not be permitted to set foot in our realm ever again.”

  My gaze darts to my family. Is it just me, or is that relief in my father’s eyes?

  I let out a shaky breath and turn back to the Queen’s somber stare. Does she know banishment is a worse punishment than death for me? I cast my eyes to the ground.

  They don’t realize how much I hate myself or how much I love my court.

  Or perhaps the Queen does know this, and that’s why she chose this ruling.

  Not only will I be entirely alone, away from my beloved homeland, I will be forced to live with my tattered soul. Day after day, year after year. A fae, alone in a magicless world. Wandering with no purpose. Reliving the darkness and pain inside of me.

  The Shadow Court is my home. It always will be no matter where I go, no matter if I never step foot on magical soil again.

  My heart breaks as guards lead me out of the room, accompanied by jeers of hatred. I glance at Rev as I pass him. One last look before I leave him behind forever.

  The hatred in his eyes is clear as day. His tense muscles tell me he wants to kill me, here and now. He wants to destroy me for what I did. And I don’t blame him.

  I will accept my punishment, as much as it hurts. Because I know I deserve it.

  And my life will be entirely different than I ever imagined.

  I lost, in so many ways. But against the most evil being I’ll ever meet—I won.

  It’s not over!!

  Don’t worry. Caelynn does get the chance to go back to her homeland! She just has to compete in the Trial of Thorns for the chance to earn a pardon. It just so happens, Prince Reveln is also competing.

  Continue reading about Caelynn and Rev’s story in Trial of Thorns!