by Eve A Hunt
“Prickly? She really hates that you’re another alpha.”
“I don’t know why. Every fae kingdom once had an alpha. I have no say here in this realm, nor would I attempt to take control.”
“But your information is a touch dated, isn’t it?”
He frowned. “I haven’t spoken to another fae since the night of the curse.”
“Things might have changed in the last few centuries.”
“I suppose we shall see.” Lucus looked as worried as I was.
Chapter 3
Under the wind-shuffled oaks, a woman with haunting eyes watched us approach. Her pale red hair nested in loose braids around her black antlers, and her presence rushed over me, pressing and alluring, before we were even close enough to see her features clearly. She wore a high-necked gown made of bluebells with glittering stitches that reminded me of a spider web touched with dew. Each hand boasted a large sapphire ring—and I mean large. The rocks were as big as a half dollar coin.
“Wow. The aesthetic is strong with this one.” I blinked, trying to figure out if I was scared or simply in awe.
“Damn it. Damn it. No. No. No,” Hekla murmured like she was chanting and hoping sheer will would make this all disappear.
More fae stood beside the female alpha, and others lounged on chairs and chaises made of roots and moss. Some had horns—spindly, short, tall, and jagged. I think they had to hold ruling blood to have the horns. That was my guess anyway. Wings of ivy and vine lay folded behind all the fae’s backs, not hidden by glamours as sometimes Lucus and his brothers had done. Though some of them had moss for hair or eyebrows, their features were sharp and painfully beautiful just as the fae I’d seen in Lucus’s memories, but these didn’t have kind eyes. They pretty much all had resting bitch faces with cold gazes and postures of disdain that spoke of extreme boredom. Viridescent gems and sparkling crystals shone from their ears and fingers, a match to their fancy outfits made of flower petals and oak leaves. A few had leaves sprouting from their palms and twigs for fingertips. Most held golden goblets that seemed to stain their mouths a blood red after they took a lazy sip. The cups had to be the source of that mulled wine scent I’d picked up.
One word came to mind as I looked them over. Decadence.
Lucus bowed at the waist, so I tugged at Hekla, and we mimicked the move.
The blonde daughter spoke to her mother. “This fae suffers under a curse. He and this human arrived through a portal created by their mage.”
I wasn’t a fan of the phrasing; I didn’t belong to anyone. But I bit back my retort because I would trade a little pride for the chance to keep my powers from electrocuting me to death. I needed access to mages more skilled than me, and I needed them yesterday.
The female alpha walked toward us, and it seriously seemed like she was floating. “Arrived by way of a portal, hmm?” She did not seem pleased, more like she was attempting to hide her incredulity. “Welcome to my hill, kin and outlanders. I am called Arleigh.”
Lucus studied the woman, meeting her gaze with a cool look in his green eyes. “I am called Lucus. I have two brothers who are feeding beyond your enchanted pool, beyond your henge. A vampire was in our party as well, but he has flown away. And this,” he said, nodding toward me, “is my fated mate. She requests permission to train with one of the mages who lives among you. Your daughter mentioned the arrangement of mages living alongside you.”
Their names reminded me that I needed to ask Lucus about whether or not Aunt Viv had been right about true names and the fae. She always insisted the fae hid their real names because if someone knew the truth, they gained a sort of power over the fae.
Hekla jerked me close and hissed into my ear, “What did he just say, Coren?”
“Oh, yeah. The fated mate thing.”
“Oh, yeah?” Hekla huffed, eyes popping.
“Later,” I whispered as the fae court scowled at our whispering.
Hekla covered her face with her hands.
The corners of Arleigh’s lips rose. “Fated mate. A mage and a fae. What an incredible rarity. I’ve never once,” her voice grew sharp, “heard of such a destined pairing. I do wonder how things will work out for you.” As Lucus opened his mouth to speak, she waved him to silence with a willowy hand. “My Corliss told you that we have mages here, did she? My dear does enjoy flaunting her knowledge.”
Her words seemed to have multiple meanings, none of which I could grasp. One thing I did know: This lady was shifty as hell.
Corliss glared at her feet, obviously wanting to snap at her mother about something but remaining obedient. I would’ve obeyed too if I’d been in her boots because, damn, her momma was scary.
The red-haired Arleigh approached Lucus, and I tensed, wondering if she was going to chit-chat more or possibly bite his head off. Literally. She grinned, flashing pearly teeth and the edge of a wine-stained tongue. “What is this I hear of a curse? Tell me your story, fellow alpha.”
A shiver traveled down my spine as Lucus went into the details.
He refrained from mentioning that I was the descendant of the Mage Duke. Perhaps because he thought all fae hated the Mage Duke? Or maybe he worried his brothers might be nearby and hear? His brothers still didn’t know, and thank everything they didn’t. I didn’t need any more trouble. But could Baccio and Aurelio have already finished feeding and trailed us through that terrible magical pond?
At the conclusion of Lucus’s lengthy recollection, Arleigh clasped her hands. Her smile was a twisted thing, full of bitterness. “The Mage Duke cursed you. Sforza himself. Some say he still lives, wrapped in that unique magic of his.”
“I assumed as much,” Lucus said gravely.
And here I’d been hoping the asshat was dead.
Arleigh’s antlers cast spindly shadows over her sharp-boned face. “What a fantastic tale,” she said, her lips pulling away from her teeth in something that resembled a snarl. “Trapped with a vampire, and your fated mate is a mage.” Shaking her head, she laughed, a husky and echoing sound in the thick grove of trees. “And now this powerful mage must train to avoid death. Fascinating.” Her smile fell as quickly as it had appeared, and she narrowed her eyes. “Oh, and condolences for the loss of your brother,” she said, referencing Lucus’s mention of the fallen Francesco.
How did she know I was powerful? Was it because I’d portalled us here and she’d claimed that was impossible?
Lucus’s hand drifted toward the red silk tied to his belt, his head bowed in thanks. When he looked up, his eyes had gone flinty. “Now that you’ve heard our story, would you mind if Coren met with the mages in residence?” He gestured toward me.
“She does look a bit wan.” Arleigh clicked her tongue, frowned at me, then waved a hand at two large males standing near the oaks—where she had been when we’d walked up. I realized there was a sort of throne there, a tangle of pale green, snake-like vines that formed the shape of a large palm where Arleigh must have sat when holding court. The males left the grove, disappearing over a hill. What were they up to?
Another jolt of my magic knocked me on my ass.
Hekla shrieked, then dropped to wrap me in her arms as amethyst lines of magic crisscrossed my body, threading pain through my chest and down my legs.
Lucus knelt beside me and took my hand, sweat beaded on his forehead as my body arched, my muscles on fire. “Soon you will tame this power, Coren. We are so close now.”
I wanted to believe him.
Tears shone in Hekla’s eyes as she looked to Lucus. “Can you hurry up whatever needs to happen?”
Arleigh stood over me, and I had never wanted to be on my feet more in my life. “Guards, you and you, please take our mage guest to meet the others.” Her eyes glinted with an unnamed threat.
The magic attack faded, and I gripped Hekla and Lucus as I stood. “How about the other mages come to me?”
Ignoring my suggestion—possibly because the fae queen wouldn’t be up for any such thing—Lucus got betw
een Arleigh and me. “I will remain at her side.”
“As you wish,” Arleigh said. “But you must agree to a binding if I’m to allow you, another alpha, to roam my kingdom.”
Lucus’s jaw muscles worked. “I have no desire to rule your people, my lady. I promise you this.”
“Either that, or we can take the time now to battle.” Arleigh’s grin was a scythe.
Sweat broke out over me. “Lucus, please just stay here. Feed on one of these big fabulous oaks. I’m fine. I’ll be with other mages.” I had no idea if I’d be safe, but what choice was there? I didn’t want him bound—whatever that meant—or fighting this bitch.
“Bind me.” Lucus held out his beautiful hands, the hands that had been warm on mine, the hands that had defended me against his own brother Baccio.
Arleigh nodded as four guards—three females and one male—surrounded us. A lean female with hair like a carpet of fine moss and larger wings than most called a vine from the ground and whispered over the curling plant. Emerald light sparkled over the vine as it looped around Lucus’s wrists. Then with a sticky sound that turned my stomach, the vine sank into Lucus’s body.
Lucus took the whole process stoically, like none of it bugged him, casually letting his magically bound hands to fall to his sides. So he wasn’t physically bound? Maybe the binding limited his fae power over the trees and vines and whatnot. Now I was on my own. Hekla didn’t have any magic to fight these maniacs if it came to it.
“What about Hekla?” I asked, my mind foggy from the combination of my magic’s smackdown and the panic clutching my chest.
Arleigh’s lip curled. “Take the human too.”
The guards led Lucus, Hekla, and me away from the prying eyes of the court into a stand of beech trees whose dead leaves rattled like bones above our heads.
Chapter 4
As the guards ushered us around a tight bend in the path, the trees grew so thick that I almost forgot it was morning. The guards’ bare forearms seemed to glow from within. A ruby color shimmered along the paths of their veins and arteries like their blood was made of light. What was happening? Lucus and his brothers never looked like that in the dark. It was then I noticed the guards’ fingertips. It was tough to see, but their fingertips—those that weren’t of the twig variety—appeared jet black, the ebony hue bleeding toward their palms. It was on their ears too. The tips had gone the color of midnight, the darkness reaching in tiny, blurred lines toward the rest of the ear.
I caught up with Lucus, leaving Hekla behind a step. “Do you see that, or am I imagining things?” I asked Lucus, keeping my voice quiet.
Lucus’s eyes widened, and he spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “They are unseelie. I had thought their existence was nothing but legend.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“Unseelie are the dark fae. If the tales are true, they enjoy the parts of life that seelie fae such as myself, mages, humans, and even vampires fear. Pain. Betrayal. Twisted games of chance.”
“Fantastic. This sounds like a real picnic we’re in for here.”
Lucus’s breath shuddered out of him, and he pressed his lips into a line. He didn’t look thrilled about this unseelie thing either. “The fact that their guards are unseelie means all of them are unseelie. We have entered into the world of the dark fae.”
I sighed.
Beyond a campfire and a few piles of seasoned wood, two structures formed out of living trees stood, unearthly and eerie. Roots had risen from the ground like giant hands, fingers arched over the brush to create what looked like prison cells. A woman in a dull red gown emerged from the first structure and paused, seeing us.
She wiped a clod of mud from her cheek and eyed the guards warily. “What is this?” Her accent was different from the fae—French, perhaps—and when she met my eyes, a zing went through me like I recognized her even though I’d never seen her long nose or square jaw before in my life. Dropping the bag she’d been toting, she walked over. “A mage?” She leaned around the bulk of the guards to study me. “How did they trap you?”
I blinked at the question and at her defeated tone. She sounded like she’d lost something and couldn’t get herself to care very much about anything else.
“Enough.” The guard at the front pushed her back.
Her hands sparked with amethyst light, but her dull eyes held nothing of rebellion. “Of course,” she mumbled obediently.
Lucus and I spoke at once.
“What’s going on here?” I demanded of the guards, not liking the feel of this place or the way the guards had bullied the mage.
“Explain yourself,” Lucus barked.
The first guard muttered, “You’re not our alpha,” before they turned to leave.
Lucus and I traded looks as they left. “We’re in deep shit, aren’t we?” I said.
“Quite possibly.”
“How did they trap you?” the mage asked again, her voice almost robotic. This gal wasn’t right in the head for sure.
“I used a portal in a spell book. Listen, I’m super new to this, and my magic keeps trying to kill me.”
Lucus’s arm twitched, and he flexed his hands like the magical binding irritated him. “She needs training. Can you help us?”
The mage’s mouth turned down at the edges, distrust the only emotion in her dead-like eyes. “You’re fae,” she said, her French accent letting go of the word more quickly than my English version did. I supposed the tree root magic was translating between us.
Lucus inclined his head. “And her fated mate.”
The mage’s mouth hung open. She shook her head. “Fated… Impossible. And you can’t have portalled here,” she said to me. “Not without one of Arleigh’s guard with you.”
I shrugged. “We did.”
Narrowing her eyes, she cocked her head. “I think maybe they muddled your memory. Well, my name is Nora Smyth. You have much to explain before I can train you. Let’s make a fire and talk over food.”
“Finally!” Hekla threw up her hands. “A person that makes some sense!”
The fire crackled as we told our tale again, ate the last of the leek soup Nora had made for us, and gobbled down the two blueberry scones Hekla had wisely tucked into her pockets before she’d headed up to the castle to rescue me. I had the best best friend.
“I don’t want to ask,” I said over a mouthful of scone, “but what is the deal here? Seems like you aren’t being treated fantastically.”
Seated on a fallen tree next to the rotting stump where Lucus and I sat, Nora tilted her head like she was considering my words. “The deal…”
Lucus bumped me with a hip. “The roots’ language magic sometimes struggles with your colloquialisms.”
“Ah. Nora, you are treated as lesser by thine fae bitch upon thou weird vine throne. What sayest thou about this foul abode?”
Lucus rolled his eyes, and Hekla snorted, spilling a spoonful of soup.
Nora coughed and set her wooden bowl by her boots. “While I’m glad you can smile despite our situation, I find myself less inclined to joke.”
I felt like an asshole. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be an annoying jerk.”
Hekla held her soup bowl with trembling fingers. “Coren can be an accidental asshole sometimes. You’ll get used to it. She has a good heart.”
I glanced at her. “Gee, thanks.”
A faint smile passed over Nora’s lips as she looked at us, and for the first time, she almost looked normal. What had this woman been through that had ripped the life from her?
“The fae believe we’re less than them.” Nora put another branch on the fire. “With the Yew Bow, they have imprisoned us here to do as they see fit.”
My pulse hammered my eardrums. “Imprisoned?” Shit. “For how long?”
Lucus and Hekla stared at Nora.
“Forever.”
My stomach flipped over, and a shiver rattled my spine. And then we were all asking questions at the same time.
&
nbsp; Chapter 5
Nora held up a hand to quiet us, then pointed to me. “You first.”
Heart coming out of my chest with panic, I stuttered the first things that came to mind. “Two questions. One, how do they imprison you? Can’t you magic yourself out of here? And also, you keep saying we. Where are the others?”
“That was three questions,” Hekla whispered in between chewing her nails.
I glared at Hekla, then looked back to Nora.
“Only one other mage lives.” She jerked her head to indicate the second dark structure behind us. “He’s there. I’ll wake him once it’s fully night. He avoids any unnecessary contact with the fae, keeping to himself during the day when they’re most likely to visit. Don’t mistake his actions for cowardice. He bears the brunt of the Yew Bow’s boundary, and the toll it exacts from him is unconscionable.”
I sat, adrenaline rushing through me, making my head light. Were we trapped here? Surely not. I’d chosen to come. But did that matter?
“What is the Yew Bow?” I asked. The second root chamber showed no movement at all. I shuddered, thinking of someone huddled in there, half dead. “Can I bring him some soup? Hekla, do you have any more scones hidden in that sweater of yours?”
Nora’s shaky, sad smile made me want to cry. “You can bring him some soon. You are kind.” She jabbed the fire with a charred and sharpened stick. “As for your question of how the fae keep us trapped… It is complicated.”
A life of pain seemed to pass over her features. Her eyelids shuddered like she might be blinking tears away though none appeared to be gathering. The corners of her mouth drew down in something worse than a frown. The impulse to go to her and throw an arm around her sang through me, but I held myself back. She might not want a stranger showing her attention like that.
Lucus added a log to the fire. “This Yew Bow…it’s not the one from the legends, certainly.”