My body trembled, and it took every single cell of power in my body to keep my feet exactly where they stood. I wanted out of here. My mind begged me to flee.
A neigh drifted out to us from behind a doorway to our right. My eyes met Rourke’s, and we both swallowed hard. I knew his thoughts as if they were my own. We didn’t know what we would find on the other side of that door. We didn’t know what kind of state they might be in.
Rourke let go of my hand. “We need to let go of the shadows. The poor creatures won’t be able to see us otherwise.”
With a nod, I dropped the shadows. Instantly, I felt an ache in my gut, as if a distant, long-forgotten part of me was now missing. That’s strange, I thought to myself. Perhaps it was a side effect from using the power so much and for so long. I’d been shadowed almost constantly since Rourke was kidnapped. Maybe that was too much, even with the stone to protect me from the darkness.
Whatever the reason, it wasn’t important now. We needed to focus on these horses, and then get the hell out of here.
Rourke and I inched toward the door and slowly eased it open. Inside, the room held the same sickening paint of blood that the rest of the butcher shop did. Our two horses were chained up to the wall. Both of them were covered in red. Tears sprang into my eyes as I felt their fear and their despair flood into my mind. How much were they hurt? It was impossible to tell, not with all that blood.
Closing my eyes, I reached for my magic, testing and feeling and gently prodding through the horses’ fear. I couldn’t access their memories to find out what had happened, but I could sense how they were feeling now. Despite all their fear, I could find no pain. Just panic. With a soft, soothing voice, I murmured out loud, slowly caressing their panic away.
When I opened my eyes, Rourke was staring at me. He looked as though he’d seen a ghost.
“Rourke, what’s wrong?” I whispered, glancing over my shoulder and half-expecting to find a Wilde Fae staring back at me.
“If I didn’t know better, I would swear you’re related to Marin. What you did just then…” He shook his head. “You remind me so much of her.”
“What?” I whispered, heart stuck in my throat. “Is that…is that possible?”
“No, it’s not. All of her family died years and years past, and she never had any children. Besides, we know who the four fae couples are who gave up their offspring that year for the tithe. They are normal Lesser Fae of their Courts with no connections at all to Marin. It’s almost as though the realm realized it was time the Greater Fae returned to these lands…so it’s given us you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said, heart pounding hard.
“Is it?” He raised his eyebrows. “Look at what is happening now. War, Norah. And if Spring attacks Winter after Autumn attacked Summer, we’ll be nothing left but pieces soon. We need something—or someone—to remind us that we aren’t as different as we all think. We need to be united once again.”
“What a load of horse shit.” A growl echoed from the open doorway behind us. With my heart in my throat, I whirled toward the sound, coming face to face with a female fae that was as tall as the roof of the building. Her skin was a sickly green, and her red matted hair hung down to her waist. She leaned forward and sniffed before lobbing a mouthful of spit at my feet.
“Norah.” Rourke’s voice had been warm and full of passion only moments before, but that eerie iciness had settled back into his words now. “Come to me.”
The Wilde Fae snapped out her hand and twisted yellow fingernails around my wrist. “She’ll be staying right here with me until you tell me what you’re doing in my shop. You trying to steal my meat? Bad move on your part, you Autumn filth. I haven’t even had a chance to serve any of it yet.”
So I’d been right. The horses hadn’t been harmed. Not yet, at least.
“Let go of me.” I kept my voice steady and calm, doing my best to match Rourke’s tone, but my heart was galloping like a horse at top speed.
“You look familiar.” She narrowed her eyes and sniffed again. “Wait a minute. Weren’t the Queen’s guards searching this place for a changeling female last night? They said she had blonde hair…MALEK!”
Her sudden shout made me jump. Seconds later, a burly male fae stomped up behind her, sniffing and peering over her shoulder with squinted red eyes. “What’s this shouting all about? You catch some thieves trying to get our fresh meat?”
“It’s that changeling everyone was getting all excited about last night.”
“A changeling, huh?” He grunted. “Changelings are nothing special.”
“No, this one is,” she insisted, her eyes glittering. “The Queen’ll pay top marks for this one. Go get Quarn. He knows how to make contact.”
Steel whistled through the air by my ear as Rourke moved at a speed that could rival sound. His blade stopped just before it hit the female fae’s arm, the one she was using to keep me trapped in place.
“If you go anywhere, I will not hesitate to slice through your mate the way you do with your meat,” Rourke said, his eyes locked on the male. “So, if I were you, I would stay right where you are.”
The Wilde Fae hissed, but he didn’t dare move an inch. “You’re going to live to regret this, you Autumn filth.”
The insult just rolled right off Rourke’s back. I was coming to realize he was more than used to it.
“Shadow,” he said to me. “You can slip out while I fight them.”
“Rourke, no.”
“Do it,” he said through clenched teeth. “This isn’t up for debate. Remember what you promised me.”
I did remember, and until now, I hadn’t felt prepared to break that promise. But something had shifted in me these past few days. Maybe it was because of my growing feelings for Rourke or maybe it was because I was quickly realizing I wasn’t quite as useless as I’d feared. It was still hard for me to imagine myself as a Greater Fae, but I now knew I had a strength within me that was far more important than my ability to call upon powers no one had expected me to have.
I wouldn’t leave Rourke here to fight these Wilde Fae alone. Not when we were better off working as a team.
Of course, he was probably going to kill me when he saw what I had planned.
Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I gathered the shadows around me. Instantly, the room exploded into chaos. Rourke danced back away from the door, most likely to give me space to escape. Both fae cried out in anger. They whirled, grasping at the air where I’d been only moments before. And then they turned their rage onto Rourke.
I’d trained for this. I was ready for this.
With my gaze focused hard on the fae, I pulled my sword from my scabbard and pushed the shadows away. My sword sliced through the air as I swung toward the male fae. He spotted me just in time, jumping to the side and grabbing an axe from the corner. Heart hammering hard, I tightened my grip on the hilt. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rourke battling it out with the female. She’d managed to produce two daggers, and her movement almost matched the speed of his.
I had to keep the male busy, even though his weapon was the size of my head and dripping with a thick, ghastly red.
I bent my knees and raised my sword before me, still and steady and calm.
The Wilde Fae chuckled. “You think a tiny little changeling like you can really survive in a fight against me?”
“Why don’t you try me?”
“I don’t actually want to hurt you,” he said. “How ‘bout you just lower that sword, and you can enjoy some of that meat right there instead?”
“So that you can sell me to the Queen of Autumn? Yeah, I don’t think so, buddy.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Now, listen here. You come in here disturbing my sleep and messing around with my meat. You should be lucky I don’t chop off your head right now.”
“Like I said, you’re welcome to try.” I lifted my lips into a smile. I hadn’t moved the entire time he’d been babbling. My hands were steady, though my arms were
beginning to ache under the weight of the sword. I could tell my calm demeanour was beginning to rattle him. And it was clearly pissing him off.
Without another word, I swung my sword again. This time, he didn’t see it coming, but he got his axe in front of his body just in time. Steel slammed against steel, a sound that crackled so loud it made my ears ring from the force of it. I stumbled back and narrowed my eyes, taking a moment to catch my breath. This fae was strong, and his axe even stronger. Rourke was still in the corner, battling it out with the female and her daggers.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
With a deep breath, I disappeared.
The male fae let out a cry of alarm and strode forward with rounded eyes. He whirled this way and that, moving so quickly that I had to dance to the side to avoid getting smashed. With a grunt of rage, he swung his axe through the empty air. I ducked out of the way, holding my breath when the floor creaked underneath my feet. But he didn’t hear the sound, not with his own heavy footsteps and the roars that only intensified as the seconds ticked by.
Suddenly, he went still. He cocked his head as if listening. This was my chance. Maybe my only chance. Pressing my lips together to keep my breath from whispering from my mouth, I slowly stood behind him. My heart roared in my ears as I raised my sword. This felt wrong, in a way, but I knew what I had to do if I wanted Rourke and I to survive. Gripping the hilt tight in my shaking hands, I shoved the blade into the male’s neck.
Chapter Thirteen
After the male fell, Rourke and I joined together to dispatch of the other fae. My hands shook, and my heart pounded, and my whole body felt weak and drained. Rourke took my face between his palms as he peered into my eyes. There was something comforting in the golden glow of them. Something soothing, almost as though he was speaking to me with his soul.
“It’s okay, Norah,” he said in a soft voice that sounded nothing like his usual steel. “You’re okay. You’re alive, and I’m alive, and the horses are okay.” He pulled back and regarded me carefully. “And you fought like that even after being drained from healing me. That is…unprecedented, Norah. Perhaps I’ve underestimated you. Perhaps we’ve all been underestimating you, including yourself.”
“I killed him.” And I’d done it like an assassin, shoving a sword into his back when he didn’t know I was there. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that.
“You did it so we could survive,” he said. “And as much as I hate to say it, we’re going to have to go now if we want to keep on surviving. This fight was noisy. It likely woke some others. It won’t be long before someone comes to investigate.”
I gripped Rourke’s hand tight in mine and nodded. As much as I needed to process the violence of what I’d just done, he was right. It would all be for nothing if we got caught now, and the crash of steel and tumble of bodies had been loud enough to wake the dead.
Rourke and I unchained the horses from the wall and led them back out through the front of the butcher shop. Several Wilde Fae were clustered at the bottom of the stairs outside, staring up at us with anger, revulsion, and hunger. I grabbed the reins and launched myself onto the back of the horse, and Rourke did the same. And then we charged.
The Wilde Fae stumbled back as the horses bore down on them, jumping out of our way as we galloped straight for the open gates. Cries of anger rang up behind us, and several of the fae pounded the ground in an effort to chase us down. We were outside the village within moments, though the cries rang out behind us for a long time after. The Wilde Fae were out for our blood. We had to keep moving.
Dread pooled in my stomach when we finally approached the tavern at the edge of the Summer lands. The door was flung wide open, and splotches of red painted the outer walls. Several bodies littered the ground, their limbs twisted at odd angles. Rourke slowed his horse, and I followed suit, slipping my hand into my pocket to feel the comfort of the stone. I could hide us, if needed.
“No need for that, Norah,” Rourke said in a chilly voice. “Whatever happened here is over. The attackers are long gone.”
I loosened my grip on the stone, but the tension in my body remained. “Who would have done this? The Autumns? The Queen didn’t mention anything about trying to breach the Summer border.”
Rourke didn’t answer. The truth was, he didn’t know anything more than I did at this point. He flicked his reins and motioned for me to follow. Slowly, we approached the tavern. Despite the fact that the attackers were gone, my heart raged in my chest and my palms were slick with sweat. We passed one body and then two, and that was when I realized how Rourke had known the truth. Flies buzzed all around them, and the stench was…
I closed my eyes and twisted my head away. They had been like this for a couple of days.
The echo of footsteps reached my ears. Footsteps that very much sounded as though they were coming from inside the tavern. Rourke heard them in the same instant I did, and he was off his horse faster than I could even register what was happening. His sword was from his scabbard and his weapon held high as he stalked in front of my horse, his back turned to me.
“Hide yourself, Norah.”
But the face that appeared in the doorway of the tavern had thick red hair, blazing bonfire eyes, and a smile so bright that it could blind me for days.
“Norah? Oh, thank the forest.” Liam started running to me then, his feet pounding against the soft dirt. I slipped off my horse and found my own body moving instinctively toward his, my heart in my throat. Seeing him now brought back a rush of emotions. I had missed him. Fiercely. And there had been a small part of me that had been worried I’d never see him again.
I launched myself into his arms, and my feet left the ground. He twirled, pressing his nose deep into my hair and breathing me in just as deeply as I breathed him. Sunflowers, fresh rain, and fire. Those fresh, familiar scents that made my bones ache.
Finally, after several long moments of this, Liam set me back down on the ground. His eyes searched mine, and he frowned, and then he turned to Rourke, questions circling in his eyes.
“She looks exhausted,” was all he said to my Autumn companion. And then he glanced at the horses. “Why are they covered in blood?”
“Nice to see you too, Liam,” Rourke said in a voice clipped short. “Glad to see you’re not among the fallen here.”
Liam turned back to me. “Norah, are you all right? What took so long? Did you get the stone? I’ve been worried out of my mind, which is why I came here. And then I found…this.”
I’d almost forgotten that Liam and the other Summers would have no idea why we’d taken longer than expected.
“I’m so sorry, Liam,” I said, reaching out to squeeze his hands. “Things got…complicated.”
Rourke and I filled Liam in on what had happened. How the shopkeeper had betrayed us, and how the Autumn Court had taken Rourke as a prisoner. How I’d snuck in to free him and how I’d overheard the plans of the Spring Court. We even mentioned the storm, but we kept the details fuzzy there. Still, Liam didn’t miss how I stumbled over my words or the blush that began to creep up my neck.
“Something has changed between you two,” he said. “Hasn’t it?”
I swallowed hard and glanced at Rourke. He looked as calm and as undeterred as always. “We may have…realized we have some feelings for each other.”
“I see,” Liam said quietly before giving a nod. “Well, it was only a matter of time.”
“You’re not…” I lifted my eyebrows. “Upset? Mad? Jealous?”
Liam and I had never defined the relationship between us. We hadn’t yet had the chance. But we both knew there was something there, something neither of us could shake, no matter who tried to tell us we had to. That didn’t stop me from feeling what I felt toward Rourke, and toward Kael. I just hoped this—whatever this was—didn’t cause any of them to turn away from pain and anger.
“If he were any other Autumn fae, I would be very jealous. So jealous I would probably challenge him to a fight.�
�� Liam shook his head with a chuckle. “But for some reason, the idea of you with Rourke doesn’t bother me at all. Maybe because I saw it coming a mile away.”
“You do know this doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings for you as well. I still…want you, too.” God, this was so complicated, and kind of embarrassing.
“Relax.” He grinned and winked. “You’re a Greater Fae. Of course you’re going to have feelings for more than one male.”
“Alwyn isn’t going to like this,” Rourke said to Liam. “And don’t forget about the Barmbrack Ring.”
Liam scowled. “Alwyn can bite it. And as for that ring…hell, maybe she’ll end up marrying us all.”
I rode between Liam and Rourke when we returned to the castle grounds. Two Lesser Fae immediately scurried over and took our horses and our stash of weapons, whispering about soap and water and brushes. They would clean the poor creatures while we took to the war table to discuss my findings with the Hunters. As I turned to go, one of the horses nudged my hand with his nose. Shocked, I turned and met his brown eyes. There was something in them, something soft and fierce and strong all at once. He nudged my hand again and whinnied lightly before nuzzling my neck. My heart throbbed and a strange sensation of pure unbridled love filled my soul.
“You’re welcome,” I whispered.
With one last nuzzle, the horse turned and trotted away.
Liam and Rourke fell into step behind me as we turned toward the hall where the Hunters were waiting for us.
“You know, Marin was like that,” Liam said so quietly to Rourke that I almost didn’t hear. “She and animals had this intense connection. They’d stare into her eyes and look at her like that, like she, I don’t know, belonged to them.”
“Yes,” Rourke said in return. “She calms them as well, instead of controlling them. Not to mention all the other things.” A pause. “I truly believe the realm would rally behind her if they could see what she can do. What she’s like. We shouldn’t keep hiding her in secret, not when the realm is in turmoil.”
A Song of Shadows Page 12