by D. N. Hoxa
She’d said that before, but I shook my head. “You don’t understand. I don’t deserve to live. I—”
“I know very well what you’ve done, Prince. But death is not yours to have yet. You must leave, now, and you must start your search right away,” she said, confusing me more by the second.
But I didn’t care who she was, or what she looked like, or how she sounded. The truth was that a monster like me deserved death. “I killed her,” I reminded the spirit, looking down at my hands. They were clean, but to me, they’d always look red now. Covered in Taran’s blood. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The horse moved, her hoofs slamming on the marble angrily. I looked up, expecting to find her galloping toward me. Maybe she’d have mercy and end me herself. The gods knew that the death my father would serve me would not be easy.
Maybe that was exactly what I deserved.
The spirit came closer and closer until barely two feet separated us. I saw her in detail, her wide eyes, her white fur, her light. She raised her head up as if to get my attention, and then her voice filled my mind once more.
“You did not take her life. She still lives.”
My entire being hung onto those words. For a moment, every fiber in me wanted me to believe them—but how could I?
“I saw it. I killed her with my own hands. I can feel her blood on my skin—I saw it.” When her light had left Taran’s eyes, when her body had given up right there in my arms.
“She lives, Prince,” the spirit insisted, turning my insides into chaos. “And her responsibility is as great as yours.”
Suddenly, my body needed to move. My heart beat so loudly, I was sure the spirit could hear it. I made it to my feet, even though part of me didn’t believe those words. Even though part of me insisted I’d only lost my mind because I was on the brink of death.
But there was also a part of me that didn’t doubt anything she said, no matter how absurd. I had never heard of Winter spirits before. There were no stories in any of the books I’d read. But history can be altered at the hands of the powerful any day. My father had wiped entire months from the Royal books, and he’d added his own versions exactly as he pleased. I’d witnessed it myself.
But to be fair, none of it even mattered anymore.
“Then I need to find her.” If there was a chance, even if a talking horse said so, I’d search the worlds for Taran. I wouldn’t rest until I found her.
“You will, when the time is right,” the spirit said. “Now, your duty is to begin your search.”
“Search for what?”
“The Stone of Creation. It’s the key to everything.”
Her face glowed brighter as she spoke. My hand rose, the need to touch her, to feel if she was as real as she looked, almost winning me over. I caught myself at the last second.
“What’s the Stone of Creation? And what’s everything?”
“Go, now,” she said and began to walk backward. “Find it. Keep it safe. The fate of Gaena depends on it, Prince.”
“No, no—wait. What am I looking for? Where is Taran?” Because she knew. She had to know.
But she didn’t tell me. She kept moving backward toward the hallway.
“Wait!” I called again and went after her, but I couldn’t move as fast as she did. Her hoofs were gliding on the floor now, no longer even making a sound.
“There is no time, Prince. Go, run, as fast as you can,” she urged me, and she disappeared around the corner.
I ran after her. “Wait!” My feet slid on ice—there was ice everywhere, a portrait of my father’s wrath, and I barely managed to make it to the corner, but when I did, the hallway was empty. She was gone. No glowing white horse anywhere that I could see, only two servants with trays in their hands, frozen in place.
I turned around to look at the Great Hall once more. Had my mind really given up on me? Had I imagined the whole thing?
Something moved. An arm lowered—an Autumn fae who’d had her arm raised up halfway to her head. The movement was small, but in the sea of statues, it was easy to notice.
A footstep. A Winter fae on my right had had his foot raised, and now it slammed against the marble floor, sending my mind into shock.
They were moving. The people were already starting to move.
Soon, my father would move, too, and when he did, I would never see the outside world again.
She lives, the spirit had said. Taran was alive.
And that was more than good enough for me.
I ran with all my speed back to the heart of the Great Hall, where I’d been frozen by my father’s ice. My sword lay there, waiting for me. I grabbed it, took off the emblem of the Winter Court, and threw it as close to my father’s feet as I could. I wanted him to know that I’d gotten away.
Then, I ran for the doors.
The cold air outside gave me a new energy. Every soldier keeping guard was as still as the walls of the castle. They didn’t move when I ran past them. I never stopped to look behind me, too afraid I might see my father. Afraid I might have no choice but to stop and fight. I hadn’t won the first time, and I wouldn’t win this time, either.
But nobody made a single sound.
Nobody—except Storm.
I found her in front of the gates of the castle. She was alive, and she was moving. She was neighing and slamming her hoofs on the ground, as if to tell me to hurry. I had never been more close to freedom in my life.
Sheathing my sword, I made it to Storm in no time. The six soldiers who guarded the gates on either side didn’t stop me when I pushed them open. Then, I jumped onto Storm’s back.
“Take us away,” I said, but I didn’t need to guide her. She was already running away from the castle.
I looked behind, still too stunned to make sense of what had happened. Only the tips of the mountains behind the castle were visible from here. The Winter spirits. They’d watched me my whole life. Laughter escaped my lips when we passed the town nearest the castle, and I saw that the people there were frozen, too. The world was perfectly still for now.
I was scared, but my determination didn’t waver. If Taran was really alive, I would find her, even if I had to search every world in the universe for the rest of eternity.
Chapter 3
Chapter
* * *
Elo
* * *
My teeth chattered. I hadn’t been this cold even when I was Mace’s prisoner in the Winter Shade. The water was warm against my skin, but it was my insides that were cold. Like they’d already tasted death and they couldn’t shake off the feeling yet.
Where was I?
The statue with two heads over me answered my question. I was in the New Orleans Shade, in Manun’s Waterfall. I’d been here before. It was the closest thing to Gaena that Earth had to offer. I’d gone swimming in its waters once, and then I’d never been able to find it again. The Shade had refused to take me to it.
Now, here I was.
Manun the Giant had two heads and both his mouths wide open. Water spilled out of them, coming from the rocks from which Manun was carved. It fell straight into two huge open hands before it separated into streams and fell in the pool I was swimming in, held together by invisible barriers at the sides.
My memories came back to me, slowly at first. The fight with the sidhe and the necromancers had been brutal. The Shade street had been drenched in blood, red and purple. So many people. So much death. I remembered Julie and her granddaughter, Charlotte. Lola and Mandar. Bo-bo and Ari, the necromancers, and the Light sidhe who’d been determined to get back to Gaena through the Gateway that the Shade guarded.
They’d ruined the Protection Unit of the Sacri Guild to get to it.
Had they succeeded?
Mace’s face took over my vision completely. My heart twisted and turned and skipped one too many beats while my mind recalled the details of our last encounter. He’d thought I’d betrayed him. He’d stabbed me right through the heart and twisted the dagger to
make sure I didn’t heal. He’d watched me die in his arms, and he’d felt no remorse because his mind hadn’t been his own.
But he’d killed me.
Why was I here?
My entire body shaking, I forced myself to turn around, and once I saw the hill, with the pear tree in the front, and the woman with the silver hair waiting beside it, I remembered that I had woken up here before. How long had it been? The sky was still dark. Had it been dark the last time? I couldn’t remember.
Right now, it didn’t matter. If I couldn’t warm myself soon, I was going to freeze to death as if by Winter magic.
It was a miracle that I managed to move my body fast enough to reach the edge of the water. My feet sank in the sand, and I pushed one after the other for what felt like hours before I was completely out of the water. Fresh grass beneath my feet. The air wasn’t as cold, but the cold didn’t let go of me.
“Warmth,” I whispered, my eyes on the woman, but my request to the Shade. Magic slipped from my fingers, aimed at the ground. I’d give everything I had to the Shade if it could warm me right now.
Heat rose from the ground, slipping inside my feet. I was still shaking, my arms now wrapped tightly around myself, my eyes never leaving the strange woman’s. She was elf, that much I could see. Her hair was silver, just like mine, and her eyes were silver, too. Her hair covered her ears perfectly, but I didn’t need to see them to know that they were pointy. There were no wrinkles on her skin, but somehow, the look in her eyes made her seem like she was a thousand years old. Her soul had lived so long, it even showed in the small smile that stretched her almost white lips.
“Do you care for some clothes?” she finally said, waving her hand at the tree trunk. I could have sworn there had been nothing there before, but now, clothes were folded near it.
I wanted to speak, but my chin was still quivering. I only nodded, but stayed in place, as the heat of the Shade made its way up my legs, melting the ice that coated my bones and all my organs. Even though memories replied in my mind, in those moments, all my being was focused on getting warm. Everything else could wait. My heart would explode if it didn’t feel heat soon.
Eventually, the Shade’s warmth covered me from within completely. My body no longer shook, but my limbs still felt stiff, like I hadn’t moved them for the longest time. I even had trouble holding onto the clothes with my fingers that had forgotten how to behave like fingers. It took me a long time to put the clothes on. A pair of dark jeans, similar to the ones I’d bought for myself, but not mine. A dark green shirt with buttons in the front and a pocket over my heart. The black sneakers were a bit too big for me, but I tied the laces tightly, and I could no longer feel the extra space. My skin was completely dry from the Shade, but my hair was still wet.
I was no longer going to freeze to death.
I was okay.
A loud breath left my lips. What was happening with the world? What was happening with me?
The woman stayed by my side and watched me, as silent as the Waterfall. She never took her eyes off me, never stopped smiling. There was something about her that I found strange—threatening and calming at the same time. Maybe it was her voice? It was light, too light, but authoritative, too. So much like my mother’s.
“I died,” I told her when I could speak. I’d meant to ask her who she was, but the words slipped from me before I could think it through.
“You didn’t die,” the woman said and waved at the ground. “Sit with me, Pain Seeker.” She folded her legs beneath her and sat down on the grass gracefully. The cloak she had on covered her completely. I had no idea what she had under it.
I didn’t want to sit down, but my limbs were still so heavy. I sat down in front of her, perfectly aware of her every movement. Her hands were over her lap as if she knew what I was thinking.
“I did die,” I told her. “I remember. He stabbed me through the heart and twisted the dagger. I felt myself dying.”
But the woman shook her head and kept on smiling like she was hearing the silliest thing.
“You can’t kill a Pain Seeker, Elo,” she finally said. “Your magic would never allow your body to die, unless you gave it away.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“You must first give away your magic if you wish to die. That is the only way you can,” she said, but she still made no sense to me. There had been two Pain Seekers among elves throughout the millennia. I’d read all about them and their powers, but nobody had told me this before. Not even my father, and he’d taken to studying my kind even more seriously than I had. He would have known. He always knew everything.
“But I felt it.” In my bones—I’d felt my soul leaving my body. I’d felt the cold.
“I understand that. Your body did die, technically. But your magic healed you,” the woman said.
“But how?” You can’t heal a body that’s already dead. It wasn’t possible.
“It’s magic. That’s all the reasoning you need,” she said. “Are you warm enough?”
I narrowed my brows. “I died in the Shade. In front of the Guild’s Protection Unit. Why did I wake up here?”
“Oh, the Shade,” she said, chuckling, and touched the ground as if she were patting it. “Such a marvelous creature. You did die in the battle, but Manun and I have made a deal.” Next, she waved her hand at the two-headed statue. “You accepted the terms when you ate its offering.”
“I didn’t—” The words stuck in my throat. I looked behind me at the tree. No pear was on its branches anymore, but there had been one the first time I found this place. And I’d eaten it.
“Fear not, Pain Seeker. Manun has kept your magic in its waters and drew it to you when your body died. All is well, I assure you.”
But all wasn’t well. “What happened to Mace? Where is he? What happened in the battle? Where are the sidhe?”
She raised up both her hands, palms facing me. Was she going to spell me?
Of course not—she was elf. But what if she, too, had active magic like I did? Who was she?
Before I could ask her my next questions, she spoke.
“One thing at a time,” she said. “You wanted freedom, a fresh start. Now, you have it. The sidhe are still here. Nobody will be able to find them—except you. At least not before it’s too late.”
“You know about them?” I asked halfheartedly.
“I do. They are an ancient people, as ancient as all fae races. They are violent and brutal, but more than that—they are convinced that they are right,” she whispered.
“Is it true? That there were seven kinds of fae in the beginning. That we are fae, too?” As absurd as it sounded, I had the feeling this woman could give me the answer.
“It is,” she said without hesitation. Shivers washed all over me. “In the beginning, we were all one and the same—fairies. Our magic evolved to adapt to the conditions we lived in, in Gaena, but we were one nation—we, elven fairies, and season fairies. The sari, the sidhe, the virdi, the mare, and the lumen fairies. We all lived together in Gaena.”
The idea seemed ridiculous—not that we were all one nation, but that we’d ever shared Gaena before.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Power,” she said, looking away at Manun for a moment. “The greed for it turns men to monsters. There was no unity, no single ruler, but many who thought they were superior to their fellow fairies. It happens in every world, sooner or later. We all are victims of greed one way or the other.”
“The Stone of Creation.” The name spilled all over my memories so suddenly. My parents had mentioned it to me in a dream. Hiss had told me about it in reality.
My heart skipped a beat when I looked around and didn’t see him. Where was Hiss? Was he okay? Had he been hurt in the battle?
“It is a very powerful thing. A very dangerous thing, Pain Seeker,” the woman continued. “And you need to make sure that the sidhe never find it. You need to make sure that they never make it to Ga
ena.”
But my mind was elsewhere for the moment. “Have you, by any chance, seen a snake with ten eyes around here? His name is Hiss, and he is my friend.”
She wasn’t surprised at all. “He’ll find you soon enough,” she said, her voice still as light. She didn’t sound the least bit annoyed by my confusion.
I shook my head. “The Stone of Creation. A powerful thing,” I repeated, forcing myself to focus. “How would I stop the sidhe from going to Gaena? There are twenty-three Shades in the worlds and all of them have Gateways. I wouldn’t know where to even start looking…”
My voice trailed off. The memory of the light and the eyes of the sidhe made me unable to continue. I couldn’t hope to fight against them and win. There were too many of them—I’d seen it all in the battle.
“It is no easy task,” the woman said, her eyes filled with pity. “But it is your duty. And you cannot do it alone. You need help, Pain Seeker. You need to find your strength.”
“Where? How do I find my strength?” I was willing to do what it took to stop those people. I’d seen what they’d done in the battle, how they’d collapsed an entire building with people, innocent people still inside it. I’d seen how they’d killed the Guild officers who’d come to our aid. And the fae soldiers who’d accompanied Mace. People like that couldn’t be allowed to roam around the worlds free.
“You need your weapon, your spirit, your soul, your magic, your believer, and your army,” the woman said. “That’s how you defeat the sidhe—and if you’re lucky, you’ll do it far away from Gaena.”
I didn’t even know how to ask a question.
“Your shoulders are so young to hold such a burden, my dear.” She reached out me. I almost moved away. Her hand was colder than mine, but it was real. Skin against skin. She wrapped her fingers around mine and squeezed as if to reassure me.
“But I can’t do it,” I whispered. “I want to—I just can’t. I’ve seen what those men can do. I’ve already failed.” I’d failed myself and my parents, who’d asked me not to let the sidhe through the Gateway.