by Lily Archer
“You plan to kill him?” We loop up and around the camp.
“Isn’t that obvious?” I won’t let him live, not when he might try to challenge me for the throne one day.
He looks away, then roars with laughter, his wings shaking. “The Ancestors were kind to send you to me, my dear heart. You do me proud.”
“You won’t interfere?”
“No.” He points to a peak up ahead. “Let’s set down there.”
I want to keep flying to stretch out my sore wings even more, but I acquiesce. For now. Snow crunches under my black boots as I land a little unsteadily, and I turn to lean against the dark rock at my back.
A twisted, stunted tree grows from a narrow crack, its thin branches trying so hard to reach the sun. But it will die, just like the soldiers milling about in the valley below. Everything will die and be reborn, this world mine to shape as I please.
Shathinor lands and turns his gaze to the valley.
“When can we march?” I’m itching to start the war, to bring death to the summer lands.
“You are so like me.” He tries to tuck my hair behind my ear.
I duck away.
He looks almost … crestfallen, and his tone turns wistful. “I missed your entire life.”
“You didn’t miss much.” The memories of my ‘human’ life disgust me.
“But I did.” He sighs heavily. “If only I’d known you existed, I’d have …”
“You’d have what?” I wave his words away. “Saved me from my stepfather’s beatings? Brought me to Arin? Had me live with you and your undead in that slovenly cave for centuries? Is that it?”
Irritation flickers across his face, but he tamps it down and continues, “If I had known when you were still a child, still here in Arin, think of how all that could have been different.” He peers at me, his black eyes probing. “Maybe if you’d been allowed to grow and thrive, you could have fought by my side in the last war. You could have saved me from the pretender. We could have ruled together, and I wouldn’t be in this state.” He glances at his silver chest plate and to the ruin hidden beneath it. “You and I could already have the world in our grasp. But your whore of a mother took all that away from me, banished you to earth, and sent herself to the Ancestors to make sure that secret was never revealed.”
I smirk. “What she didn’t know is that Cecile is an utter moron and sent me to Arin anyway.” I laugh, the sound harsh like crushing rock. “Good job, Sis.”
“Perhaps it had to happen this way.” He goes to reach for me again but lets his hand drop. “You are more powerful now than even the prophecy suggested. I can feel you, the darkness inside you seemingly bottomless.”
“Jealous?” I summon a ball of black death into my palm.
“Proud.” He swipes the ball away and tosses it at the stunted tree.
It withers and dies, its remains cascading down the unforgiving rock and into the oblivion below.
I run my fingers along my shoulder as I peer into my mirror. Leander’s bite is healed, but the fang marks will never go away. Claimed. Just like he promised me. But Leander claimed a foolish girl, one who believed in unicorns and fairytales. I press my thighs together as I contemplate our next mating, how much more it will be for both of us. He will be surprised, I’m sure, to find me in this vastly improved state. No matter. The bond is still there. I am still his. Soon I will show him how much better our mating will be now that I’m fully fae and imbued with my father’s dark power. He will love me like no other, and I will reward him for his devotion.
I sigh and lean forward, the dresser’s shoddy wood nicked and marred, though my father has laid out precious jewels along the top for me. Did he expect me to fawn over them? I swipe them aside but stop when my hand touches the soulstone.
The simple pendant has no power over me now. I run my fingers down its face, the smooth opal warm under my touch. Sometimes I think I hear it whispering to me in Delantis’s voice. The obsidian blade does the same. But whatever she wants to tell me, I don’t care to hear. I have everything I need. My army is prepared to march, and I’m ready to lead. Cenet plots behind my back, telling my father I’m not battle-tested, that I’m not ready. I close my hand into a fist. When the time comes and his head is on a pike, we’ll see who was ready.
Cecile walks in, my laundered clothes in her arms. She doesn’t look at me, and for the first time since I’ve known her, her confidence is drained away. Shoulders slumped, eyes down—she’s beaten.
“I like you like this.” I spin away from my dresser to face her.
She hangs my clothes without a word.
I smile. “How’s your little human?”
Her motion stops for only a moment before she continues.
“I thought perhaps I’d killed her.” I call the darkness into my palm and play with it, tickling the tendrils of death with my fingertips. “But I hear she lives.”
When she doesn’t respond, I send a wisp of black to curl around her throat. “I’m speaking to you, Sister.”
“We’re not sisters.” She turns to me, the fire back in her silver eyes. “We will never be sisters.”
“Blood is blood.” I pull the darkness back inside myself, as if sucking it through a straw.
“You’ll never take the summer realm.” She hugs herself. “Queen Aurentia will—”
“Fall just like all the rest.” I rise and walk to her, reveling in the dark circles beneath her eyes and her lackluster hair. A week in the caves has robbed her of all the beauty she used to wield on earth. “I never realized it when you were in the human world, but here, surrounded by your own kind, you’re nothing special.”
“And you are?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” I let my wings expand, the dark feathers iridescent in the low light. “I think I’m a bit more remarkable than you ever gave me credit for.”
“You think any of this changes who you are?” She smirks. “You’re still the same nerdy loner with daddy issues you always were. Now you have wings and a bad attitude. Congratulations. You’ve finally peaked.”
I grip her throat and squeeze. “I took your shit for too long. You were nasty then, and you’re nasty now.”
“At least I’m consistent.” She grits her teeth.
“No, you’re just a bitch.” I throw her backwards, and she slides across the floor on her ass. “A stupid one at that.”
She climbs to her feet, her eyes flashing. “If you’re finished insulting me, I have some more laundry to do.”
“Not so fast, Sis.” I advance on her, though she doesn’t hold my gaze for long. It’s as if she can’t bear to look into my eyes. Good. “I have a little job for you.”
10
Leander
Stone scatters under my feet as I climb to the nearest ledge, the valley floor falling away beneath me. Thorn wheels into the coming night, his shape transforming from eagle to owl.
“Ravella won’t forgive you for this.” Gray grabs the handhold I just vacated and hauls himself up next to me.
“Someone has to stay with the horses. We need them for our escape, and if they aren’t there, we’re as good as dead. Taylor can’t make it through the Barren Lands on foot. She’s too fragile.”
“Still, she’ll be mad for years.”
“I’ll deal with it.” I launch myself up the unforgiving stone and grab another hold, my fingers aching.
“Shathinor.” Gray spits a few choice curses in the ancient fae language. “How did he survive? I saw you ram your blade through his heart. Saw you twist it. He was dead. No doubt in my mind.”
“Necromancers have tricks. So many fun tricks.” Selene skitters across the rock above us, her legs spiderlike as she makes easy work of the cliffs and sharp cracks in the rock.
“That’s creepy.” Gray stares up at her.
“Selene can hear you,” she singsongs.
I pull myself up until there’s a break in the cliff face, a ledge just wide enough to sit on. I help Gray up, and he collapses next to me, his la
rge frame taking up half the ledge as he starts rummaging in his pack.
Valen’s hand appears, and we both pull him up. He throws himself down and lies there staring up at the sky, breathing hard. “Climbing is not my thing.”
“Where’d you send Brannon?” Gray hands me a piece of dried meat and what’s left of our bread.
“He thinks he can do some more infiltrating in the camp, report back on planned troop movements, maybe give us a chance to break up the ranks before they get too far into the realms.”
Gray grunts.
“Give him a chance.” Valen reaches for the water. “You and Thorn are always so cynical.”
“You’re young.” Gray hands him the canteen. “Too trusting.”
“He’s always been loyal.”
“He shot Thorn in the wing two days ago. Remember that?”
“That was an accident.” Valen shrugs. “Besides, I fixed Thorn right up.”
I lean back against the cold rock as Gray and Valen have the old argument yet again. My thoughts stray to Taylor. Always her. I pray to the Ancestors that she knows I’m coming for her. That whatever horrors she’s seen or endured, I will do everything in my power to make it right, to heal her wounds, to give her whatever she needs, and that I will enact vengeance on those who took her. I can see her, the way her mouth turns up at the corners, the sweet little sounds she makes when she sleeps, the way she fits so perfectly against me, the way she looked when I claimed her. I press my hand to my chest, feeling her loss like a tear in my heart. The bond is silent, but it’s still there. Not severed, not gone, just achingly empty.
“Kingly fae,” Selene calls. “Come up, up, up. I see a way. One even Valen can tread with ease.”
“Thanks.” Valen wrinkles his nose and struggles to his feet, then hands the canteen to Gray. “I’ll go first so you can catch me if I fall.”
Gray snorts. “You have a lot of faith in me.”
“I was talking to Leander.” Valen hoists himself onto the rock face and aims for where Selene clings to the stone, her body upside down and her black eyes glinting.
I pack my thoughts of Taylor neatly away, the edges worn from frequent use and the pages still warm from the last time. She’s never far. I follow Gray, all of us struggling up the steep rock wilderness until we make it to Selene. When I get to her, she’s snoring, yet still clinging to the stone.
“Selene.”
She jolts awake and grins. “I was just chatting with my magic.”
I take Gray’s hand, and he pulls me up onto another, wider ledge. “It tell you anything interesting?”
“Oh, yes!” She follows, clinging to the rock and skittering sideways. “The best news.”
“What news?” Gray’s dark brows lower.
“We’re going to have company.” She jumps down and claps, then points at a crude stone staircase that hews close to the mountainside.
A summer fae appears from the top, her face weary and her steps uncertain. She stops when she sees us, her eyes widening.
Gray pulls his warhammer from his back.
“I’m looking for Leander.” She fixes her gaze on me.
“You’re a lure, female.” Gray jumps across a narrow chasm and lands on the steps below her. “Sent here to destroy us.”
“Does it look like I can destroy anything?” She holds her hands out. The attitude in her voice sounds faintly reminiscent of the way Taylor used to imitate her roommate.
“Wait, Gray.” I jump across. “Who are you?”
“Cecile.”
“What are you doing here?” I peer around for soldiers. This must be a trap. I throw up a quick cloaking spell around us, hiding my warriors from prying eyes.
“The short version? Shathinor kidnapped me, tortured me, used me to get his hands on Taylor, and now I’m pretty much a maid. They treat me like a changeling.” She seems struck by her own words, her face souring. “They treat me like a changeling slave,” she says again, the frown growing deeper.
“What about Taylor?” I grab her arms. “Is she all right? Is she hurt?”
“She’s fine.” Then she hurriedly adds, “Majorly scared, of course. Terrified of Shathinor and the undead and the soldiers and all that.” She waves a dismissive hand. “Worried about you, naturally. She’s sensitive like that. Caring and sweet. Changeling through and through, you know?” She stares at her feet, then continues, “Anyway, she asked me to come take you to her. So that you can save her.”
“It’s a trap,” Gray growls behind me. “Shathinor sent her to entice you to your doom. He knows we’re here.”
“No.” She holds out the necklace, Taylor’s soulstone. “She said you’d be here, could feel you through the bond. I swear she sent me. She told me to give you this.”
Gray advances. “Shathinor could have sent it—”
I take it and turn it over in my palm, warmth pulsing into my skin. The bond. “It’s from her. I can feel her on it.”
“Let’s go, then.” Valen gestures from across the chasm. “I’m ready.”
“No. Just the king.” Cecile shrugs. “I can only sneak one of you in. More than that, and I’ll get caught.” She shivers. “And I definitely don’t want to get caught.”
“Leander, no.” Gray puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s a trap.”
“Probably.” I pin Cecile with a hard look. “Lead on.”
Gray grabs my arm. “Wait.”
“Bad plan, my king.” Valen shakes his head. “Let’s talk about this.”
“The rest of you stay here and await my command. If I’m not back by sunup, leave this place and alert the realms of the coming war.” I shake my arm. “Gray, I’ll need that back.”
“No.” Valen jumps to the stairs. “If Shathinor gets his hands on you—”
“He’ll kill me.” I turn to look at both of them. “I knew that risk when I left the winter realm, but I will do anything to save Taylor. She is my sunrise and sunset, and if she asks for me, I will go to her, no matter what.”
Gray scowls, Valen’s face falls, and Selene is snoring again.
“I must see this through.” I offer my hands. They take them, reluctantly, and grip my forearms. “Trust me. Trust that I know what I’m doing, and we will all be together again—either at High Mountain or in the Glowing Lands of the Ancestors.”
“The second option doesn’t seem like the best one.” Valen pulls me into a hug. “Good luck.” His voice is tight.
“This is a bad idea.” Gray squeezes my arm and releases me. “I won’t let you live this down. Not here or on the other side.”
I smile for the first time since Taylor was taken. “I would expect no less.”
“My king.” Valen drops to his knee, his head bowed.
Gray’s face sobers, and he does the same. “My king.”
Cecile clears her throat. “If we’re done here, I’ve got laundry and—”
I turn to her so quickly that she stumbles backward, barely catching herself on the wall.
Trap or no, my fate lies with Taylor. “Lead me to my mate.”
11
Taylor
Cecile’s steps are loud even as she tries to creep down the hallway outside my door. Leander barely seems to touch the stone floors, but I can sense him. Everything inside me goes taut. My mate his here. The one who will rule Arin by my side.
I face the door, smiling as it creaks open and Cecile hurries in, Leander on her heels.
He stops, the air growing cool and his body tensing. “Taylor?”
“Yes.” I step forward, suddenly worried he won’t recognize me, not as I am.
He rushes to me and pulls me into his arms, crushing me against his chest. “Thank the Ancestors. You’re safe.” He kisses my hair, his lips straying down my cheek and meeting my mouth with a fervor that sets off an ache inside me.
I wrap my arms around his neck and answer his tongue with mine, every bit of the passion I feel for him going into this kiss.
He pulls back, but not far. �
��I have to get you to safety. What did he do to you?” He glances at my darker hair, then runs a hand along one of my wings.
I shudder at his touch, every bit of me attuned to what it feels like to be near him again.
“Taylor?” Cecile waits at the door. “I did what you asked.”
“Your pet is safe. Get out,” I hiss.
Leander’s brows draw together, but I don’t have time to explain, not when my need for him blots out any rational thought. I skim a hand down his abs and reach into his pants.
“My mate.” He kisses me hard, his cock in my hand like an iron rod covered with the finest silk.
“I want you.” I back away and strip my shirt off.
He watches, his eyes hungry as I shuck my pants away and stand naked before him.
When I drop to my knees and pull him toward me, he reaches for my wings again. “You’re fae? How?”
I don’t want to talk. Not now. I pull his cock free from his pants and lick the head.
He growls and runs his hands through my hair. “Little one, we must leave. You aren’t safe.”
I take him to the back of my throat, my tongue pressed against his cock as I start bobbing my head.
His groan creates a sensual wetness between my thighs, and I reach down and rub my clit as I suck him until my cheeks go hollow.
With a roar he lifts me and pins me to the bed. “Taylor, what is this?” He peers into my eyes, desire and confusion warring inside him.
I spread my legs wide and rock against him. “I want you, my king. I need you deep inside me, mated and loved.”
His low purr vibrates through me.
My fangs lengthen, and without a thought, I sink them deep into his shoulder. He roars and enters me, filling me as I cry against his warm skin, his blood flowing on my tongue. His hands grip mine, holding me down as I take everything he offers—his body, his blood, the bond between our souls.
I let go and lick my lips as he claims my mouth again, his body surging into mine and shaking the bed with each powerful stroke.
“Mine.” He nips at my lips as he owns me again and again, his powerful body made for me and me alone. Releasing my hands, he grabs my hair and pulls, arching me so he can suck my throat.
