A Court of Silver Fae: Silver Fae Book Four

by KB Anne

  Words came out of her mouth, but none of it processed.

  She gently unrobed me and began treating me like I was one of her American Girl dolls. She moved my arms and adjusted my legs. I finally came to when she lifted my foot to put on my underwear.

  “I got it.” I finished getting myself dressed, then shuffled out into the bedroom.

  “Are you okay?” Jude asked rushing over. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  When I didn’t acknowledge him, he glared at Jovie. “What’s wrong with her?”

  Jovie guided me over to the door. “Low blood sugar.”

  Jude scrubbed his face with his free hand. “Is it because of her injury? We should get her medical attention.”

  I snapped out of my daze. “No, I’m fine. I just need something to eat.”

  He grabbed my hand. Something needled at the back of my head telling me not to let him but the numbness returned. He led me down the hall. When we got to the breakfast room, he guided me to my seat.

  “Good morning, Jessalyn. You look lovely as always,” Grandmother gushed.

  However, Grandfather’s hawk eyes missed nothing. “Are you alright?”

  “She’s tired. She woke up early to work out. Some breakfast will do her good,” Jude said and faded into the background.

  “Jessalyn, don’t overdo it. I’d hate to worry that you’ll be too tired to go on the boat with Jerry Jr. on Wednesday or miss your etiquette lesson today. Everything in moderation.” Grandmother tipped her tea cup at me before drinking it.

  I didn’t respond. Replying would imply what she said sunk in, and it didn’t. I was too numb to verbalize a single thought.

  I picked at my breakfast. I don’t remember eating it, but my stomach stopped begging for food. I drank my orange juice or at least I think I did. I sat staring at the wall my body numb.

  “Go lie down. You’ll feel better,” Grandfather said, his words somehow penetrating into my brain.

  I stood to leave. Jude came to my aide and led me back to my room. Once inside, he wrapped his arm around me. My brain screamed at him to get away, but it wasn’t loud enough for him to hear. He guided me over to my bed. I stared up at the canopy but saw nothing. I was so tired. I could sleep forever. My eyes closed, and I drifted off.

  I walked along the shoreline. The setting sun cast a brilliant display of purples, blues, and oranges. Sunset was always my favorite time of day.

  Warm sand squished between my toes, as soft ocean waves kissed my legs. This was my happy place.

  In front of me stood a silhouette. I put my hands on his shoulders and stood on my tiptoes to reach his lips. Before mine met his, I realized he wasn’t who I thought he was. I ran away from Jerry Jr.

  Another silhouette stood further down the beach. I rushed over and stood on my tiptoes. Without hesitation, my lips crushed against his. But the kiss felt different. Unfamiliar. Strange. My eyes flashed open.

  “Jude?”

  I leapt away in horror. He wasn’t who I wanted. Who I needed. He was the villain in my tale.

  Disappointment consumed me as I searched the beach for a third silhouette. Desperation swelled around me. The tide was rising. If I didn’t hurry I’d miss him. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I searched up and down the beach, but I was too late. He was gone

  “No,” I screamed. “It can’t end like this!”

  Someone shook me.

  “Starr!”

  “No!” I cried. “No.”

  Someone whispered in my ear. “Starr, it’s okay. You’re having a bad dream. Starr, it’s alright.”

  He cradled me to his chest, but it wasn’t Christian holding me. I wanted more than anything in the world to wake up to blue eyes that spoke to my soul. To have the madness behind me, but I wasn’t that lucky. Emptiness filled me instead.

  I chewed the inside of my cheek rather than break down in tears. I didn’t want Jude’s pity, and I especially didn’t want him to comfort me. When I finally opened my eyes, hazel ones watched me in concern. His face was uncomfortably close to mine.

  “You okay?” He said quietly so as not to be overhead. His lips danced much too close to mine. If I talked, mine would touch his, and that would not happen.

  Someone cleared his throat. I couldn’t look over to see who it was. Jude had me pinned in place, but he could. He lifted his head to the person speaking. “What’s up?” he said sounding lazy.

  I tried to shimmy off the bed, but I was held fast by Jude’s arm around my shoulder.

  “May I speak to you in the hall?” Thomas asked. He didn’t sound pleased.

  “Later?” Jude returned his head to the pillow, my pillow.

  “Now Jude,” Thomas ordered.

  Jude sighed as he released his hold on me. I sat up quickly, thrilled to be free from his grasp. He ambled over to the door, with Thomas in hot pursuit.

  “Way to go,” Sami snapped.

  I ignored her. She wasn’t talking to me.

  “I said, ‘Way to go.”

  “Are you talking to me?” I was in no mood for a confrontation. Not after my morning. Not after what I learned about her and what she did to Christian.

  “Is there another spoiled brat around?”

  That did it. “Just you. Next question.”

  “Listen bitch, you better keep your paws off the guys. They have a job to do, and they don’t need you distracting them.”

  I stared at her at one time I called this person my best friend. “What is wrong with you?

  My question caught her off guard.

  Good. She better keep on her toes for now on.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You weren’t always such a bitch. When did you turn psycho?”

  Her lip curled, revealing a canine. “Hang around with you long enough and the crazies come out.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate that.”

  “You better watch yourself or I’ll…”

  I flew off the bed. Yes, flew over to her.

  “Or you’ll what Sami?” Thomas growled. Her eyes rounded. She thought her and I could have an all-out cat fight without any witnesses.

  “Nothing,” she meowed like the obedient pet she was.

  “That’s what I thought. If I catch you making another threat to Jessalyn, you are done with the Organization and when I mean done, I mean done. Wood stake to the heart. End of story.”

  Sami might have doubted my threats of violence, but there was no question that Thomas would make good on his.

  “Yes sir. There will not be any more problems. I promise.”

  Uh, did she just call Thomas sir? The jungle cat tamed into a declawed house kitty.

  “I don’t expect there will be.” He planted himself in front of the door with folded arms. Jude was nowhere to be seen.

  The encounter should have left me feeling satisfied that Thomas subdued Sami with the efficiency of General Treadwell.

  Keywords, should have. Something bothered me.

  “How long is the training to become a knight of the Shadow Fae Court?”

  “Excuse me?”

  I crossed my arms. “You heard me.”

  “There is a process.”

  “Is guarding me part of that process?”

  He flared his chest. “An accelerated form of it, but yes.”

  “So, Jude is also part of the accelerated program?”

  He set his jaw. “For now.”

  I read between the lines. “But his interactions with me jeopardize his chances.”

  Thomas’s nostrils flared out. “Yes.”

  I studied him for a long time. He didn’t squirm or shift his weight, but he wanted too. I strolled over to him.

  “Tell me, is it your destiny to protect the Silver Fae too?”

  “Yes.” His eyes bulged out of his head like he couldn’t believe what he admitted to me. His pupils began to dilate as he fell under my power.

  “Why the secrecy? Why hide the truth from me?”

  I touched his arm. He bl
inked. His pupils returned to normal.

  He leapt away from me. “Enough.”

  But I wasn’t done with him. I reached for his arm again. He wrenched it away from me expelling my word magic out of his system. His Shadow Fae defenses went on full alert.

  “Jovie, Sami, hold her in place.”

  But weak vampires and Shadow Fae were no defense against a powerful Silver Fae.

  My lip curled. “They can’t hold me,” I said and flew out of the room.

  My back twitched. My wings itched to break free. I didn’t actually sprout wings when I flew over to Sami I just moved fast. Silver Fae fast. Much like I was doing now.

  “Jude,” Thomas shouted.

  Jude stepped into the hall from the room next to mine. He tried to stop me, but I was too fast for him. He cursed and took off after me.

  Alarms sounded. With my magnified hearing, it felt like my eardrums were pierced with chopsticks, but nothing would slow down a Silver Fae.

  I stood at the top of the stairs. My wings fought to break free but the iron cross still held them. No matter. I skipped down the two flights in four long strides. My eyes fixed on the front door. I sped down the main hall leaving the shouts of my guards behind. I held up my left hand. Magic shot out of it and zapped the front door. Upon contact, the double doors flew open. Maniacal laughter erupted from my mouth. Freedom at last.

  Kenneth stepped out of the Throne Room. His eyes widened when he saw me.

  “Stop her,” Jude shouted.

  Kenneth cursed and took off after me. He was fast, faster than Jude and Thomas, but I was faster. He reached for my arm, but he only found empty space. I easily shifted away from him and kept going. Treadwell wanted me as an assassin. My ability to anticipate attacks was one of the reasons why.

  My eyes were lasered on the front door. If I could reach it, if I could reach fresh air, let the sun warm my cheeks, I would become the true Silver Fae I was meant to be.

  Kenneth lunged for my foot. My wings tore off the iron cross and burst from my back. I leapt into the air. A soft breeze lifted my wings. A blue cloudless sky welcomed me. I arced higher well on my way to freedom at last...

  Then a lightning bolt struck my chest.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Starr

  * * *

  Someone once said knowledge was power. They were right. When I realized Christian didn’t betray me something inside me snapped.

  When Thomas disciplined Sami, something inside me clicked.

  Then he began answering my questions, something inside me clicked.

  I lured him into answering me with my words. At the ranch, he refused to talk to me except to admit that Treadwell warned him about me about my knack for escape, my power of persuasion, my extreme speed, all attributes of my Silver Fae nature. My wings finally broke free from the iron cross. I spread those beautiful, powerful wings and took flight.

  But a more powerful force stopped me. It wasn’t Kenneth, a Shadow Fae Knight or Thomas and Jude, fast tracked Shadow Fae trainees. No, there was only one powerful enough to stop me. The true Heir of Wings and Shadow.

  My grandmother rubbed the palms of her hands together as she paced in front of my cell.

  “It truly is remarkable, isn’t it Horace? She’s more powerful than even we imagined.”

  “Yes, she is,” my grandfather said, though he didn’t sound half as pleased as my grandmother.

  She twirled around, her long silver skirt lifting. “When will the new fitting be attached?”

  “Kenneth should be returning with him via the portal a minute.”

  She smiled at me. She was positively giddy.

  I took in my surroundings. I was locked in a six-sided cell.

  “Where am I?” My tongue felt thick in my mouth.

  “Jessalyn darling, you’re in the dungeons. We can’t have you escaping with the Summer Solstice fast approaching.”

  Lie to them.

  I blinked trying to understand the voice in my head. Was Christian close enough that he could project his thoughts or now that I knew the truth about him, it was my subconscious speaking to me in his voice? My survival instincts kicked in.

  “I wasn’t trying to escape. I wanted to stretch my wings and take flight. I planned to return immediately.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Do you honestly expect us to believe you?”

  “I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me. I’ve followed the contract.”

  Except I didn’t. I tried to escape. It wasn’t my grandmother who stopped me. Or my grandfather. I was more powerful than either one of them. I wasn’t sure how I knew that but I did. It was the magical confines of the contract that knocked me out of the sky.

  Grandmother’s eyes clouded over. The excitement left her as quickly as it arrived.

  “Horace, it’s awfully damp down here. Shall we adjourn to the parlor until Kenneth returns? Sometime in the dungeons would be good for her.”

  Grandfather pursed his lips as he considered his wife’s request.

  “Fine. We will attend to you later.” His eyes flashed brightly as he turned to me. If he was hoping for some sort of scared or apologetic reaction from me, he ought to be ready for disappointment. Time alone, even if it was in the dungeons, was a gift.

  They disappeared up the carved stone stairs. When they reached the top, a giant door slammed shut, and the lights went out.

  I let the darkness swallow me. Not in a hand-myself-over-to-evil kind away, but I allowed the silence of the darkness to quiet my mind. From Christian speaking in my head to our closeness at the gym to Jovie’s disclosure of the truth on that fateful night when I thought Christian betrayed me to the appearance of my wings and my near escape, I regretted none of it, except for the time wasted believing Christian cheated on me.

  When I first met Jerry Jr and we shook hands, I realized I loved Christian. I loved him with all my being. I loved him now. I’d love him always. We were connected in a way I didn’t understand. He was everything to me.

  “Starr?”

  My eyes snapped open.

  “Starr, is that you,” a voice called out.

  Was my head playing tricks with me? If it was, it had a twisted sense of humor.

  “Coda?”

  “The one and only.”

  My heart sped up.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I always wanted a place of my own though the moldy basement smell, the metal bars, and no light wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

  I chuckled. Coda always found the light side of every situation. Gods, how I missed him.

  “Sorry, it’s been a long… What day is it?”

  My heart soared at the sound of his voice.

  “Monday evening.”

  “That’s it?”

  “I guess so.”

  “It’s been almost thirty hours since I’ve talked to anyone. I’m delirious.”

  I snorted. “Doesn’t take much does it?”

  He laughed with me. “No, it doesn’t.”

  I instantly felt a million times better with Coda around. “How did you get here?”

  “We went to OneTruth yesterday to scope it out and see if we found an opportunity to rescue you. By the way, you looked smoking.”

  My face warmed. “You saw me?”

  “Everyone saw you.”

  My pulse raced. “Even Christian?”

  He sighed. “Well, everyone but him.”

  Doubt flooded my mind. Maybe Jovie lied to me about Christian. She lied smoothly to Sami when she came in to check on us. Maybe she’s a pathological liar just like Sami.

  “Now, before you get upset, he was roofied.”

  Thank the gods. “I know.”

  “You do?”

  “Jovie told me today.”

  “So, all this time you thought Christian cheated on you.”

  “Yes,” my voice broke.

  Keep it together. Keep it together.

  “I’m so sorry Starr. If we h
ad anyway to tell you…” he trailed off.

  I pounded my knuckles against the iron bars on the floor to ward off the sadness and snap myself out of it. My veins iced over.

  “Coda.”

  “Yes?”

  “Back to the present and hurry.”

  “There was wolfsbane in the ventilation system.”

  “What does that do?”

  “Immobilize anyone who possesses our People’s magic.”

  Treadwell told me the Fae and wolf shapeshifters were enemies. Was the wolfsbane a security measure to prevent their enemy from stepping foot on hallowed ground?

  “Did you set off bombs during the Dedication Ceremony?”

  “What? No, that wasn’t us. By then, I was already cuffed and stuffed. The other two, you know who, but not Christian, Frank, or Di, got away.”

  He confirmed what I suspected. Rebecca was working with my friends. Ben didn’t get caught. I prayed to the gods for that blessing, but who set off the bombs then? My mind raced through possibilities, but the clock was ticking. We had to hurry.

  “Who brought you here?”

  “Treadwell and his cronies,” he said, bitterly.

  “Has Jude been down?” I didn’t think so because he was by my side whether I wanted his presence or not.

  “No.”

  My ears pricked as I heard the far off click of a key being inserted in a lock. My veins buzzed with power.

  “Coda, I have an idea.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “They’re going to fit me for a new iron cross.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “No, it’s not. The iron cell dampens my power, but I might be able to free you. Once the new iron cross goes on, I’m finished.”

  “Free yourself and get out of here. I’ll survive whatever sick torture they have in mind.”

  The memory of the fur stole from yesterday came back to me. I almost doubled over retching as I realized what animal it came from.

  “No, you won’t Coda. Now, get ready.”

  I slipped my head through the bars and concentrated. I pictured a lock and the internal locking mechanism. I envisioned bolts, spindles, and springs rubbing and turning against each other.