Autumn Rebel
The Wyth Courts Book 4
Juliana Haygert
Contents
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Six Months Later
Thank you
About the Author
Also by Juliana Haygert
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Juliana Haygert
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
First Edition June 2021
www.JulianaHaygert.com
Edited by H. Danielle Crabtree
Proofread by Jessica Nelson
Cover design by The Book Brander
Any trademark, service marks, product names, or names featured are the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if one of these terms is used.
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Author’s Note
I hope you enjoy reading Autumn Rebel!
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1
Red
Even though the night was cold, the spiced wine was warm, and that kept the male fae going. I brought my cup to my lips, but stopped midway when the Winter fae clipped the chin of the Autumn fae with his fist.
The Winter fae cheered.
I groaned, drank the rest of the wine in my cup, and discarded it on the snow. “Come on, Lennox!” I yelled over the cheering.
Lennox threw me a heated glared before ducking under the Winter fae’s arm and landing a hard elbow on the fae’s back. His opponent lost his footing and landed face-first in the snow.
“Is this better?” Lennox asked, his voice high pitched.
I didn’t have time to answer him as the other fae shot up and charged him, resuming the fight.
I looked around, searching for the young page who was serving drinks. I caught sight of him on the other side of the improvised ring, filling the cups of the other fae. Eventually, he would return this way. Meanwhile, I clutched the fur-lined cloak I had brought and tried to stay warm.
Whose idea was it to go traveling to other courts and offer them my services? Oh, yeah, mine. If I was here, suffering in the cold air of the Winter Court, it was my rusting fault.
But I couldn’t deny that after a handful of days here, it was easy to get used to the cold and the snow. And the fae. The soldiers welcomed Lennox and me, and even invited us to two of these games. Every few days, they constructed a makeshift ring behind the barracks, where the noise wouldn’t be heard from the castle, and fought among themselves. The only rule was no magic or weapons, only fists and your own strength. Bets ran freely with each match, but the money didn’t seem to matter. The main thing was the camaraderie and the fun.
Things I hadn’t encountered in a long time.
The first night they invited Lennox and me for the fights, I was skeptical. We were here as guests of the Winter King. I didn’t want to sneak around and do something we shouldn’t. But they assured me King Cadewyn—or Cade to his friends—knew about the fights, and even showed up once in a while to fight too.
I couldn’t tell if that was true or not, but I chose to believe it was.
Lennox stopped playing and landed a rapid sequence of front kicks in the castle guard’s chest that made him stumble back and lose his footing. Lennox advanced and brought up his fist in a beautiful uppercut. The guard went down.
Lennox lifted both fists to the air. “Yes!”
The soldiers around the ring groaned and exchanged coins. Only a few had bet on Lennox.
Sweaty but wearing a big grin, Lennox trudged to my side. The young page appeared and Lennox grabbed two cups of spiced wine. He offered one to me and brought the other to his lips, drinking it all in two big gulps.
When he was done, I handed my cup back to him. “It looks like you need this more than I do, captain.”
Lennox didn’t hesitate. He took my cup and emptied its contents. Then he reached to the side and fished his cloak from a bench lining the stone path—now mostly buried under the snow. He patted a hand over it, sweeping away the ice and snow that had clung to the fabric. He wrapped the cloak around his body and shivered.
“It was a good fight,” he said. “This might be for sport, but it’s different from the formal training.”
“Different is good,” I observed.
“Yes,” he agreed. “The more we train with different styles and patterns, the better our fighting will be.”
I nodded, but deep down, I wondered why we bothered. The last big fight in Wyth had been almost a year ago, when the witch Sanna had invaded the Sun City in the Summer Court. If it had depended on Crown Prince Lugh, we would have stayed away from that fight too, just like we stayed away when Cade had to deal with the Tabred invading and cursing his lands, and then when the Spring Court had to fight their tyrant fake king, Vasant—alongside the witch, Sanna.
I had been fighting in the Autumn Court’s army since I could hold a sword, and I would do anything for my kingdom, but I had grown tired of watching the disparities of Wyth from afar. Most of the other courts had united to fight together. Why couldn’t we? Just because the former king thought our kingdom didn’t need to depend on others? That we should be strong and efficient independently? Because he didn’t want to
have any debts to pay?
That had been many years ago. I had urged the crown prince to change his stance on the matter, but he wanted to follow his father's example. So, I remained quiet.
But at some point, I couldn’t sit on my ass and watch anymore. Disobeying direct orders to stand down, I marched out of the Autumn Court and faced Sanna and the trolls with the other courts. And since then, I had barely stepped foot in my kingdom.
After helping at the Summer Court, I had gone to the Night Court and helped Prince Nix and Princess Amaya train a new crop of soldiers, and now here I was, at the Winter Court, helping General Kei with his soldiers. He wanted to train them in different styles and tactics than they were used to, and I was happy to oblige.
In the handful of days Lennox and I had been here, we had received many compliments from the generals and the king. I tried not letting that go to my head, but it felt great to be useful again.
Not that there wasn’t much to do in the Autumn Court, but I had always wanted—needed—a change of scenery. Now, I was finally getting one.
The fighting went on for two more rounds while the coins flowed, along with the wine and ale.
Then Xitan, one of the White Knights, walked to the middle of the makeshift ring and pointed his finger at me. “I challenge Prince Redlen for a fight.”
A cheer erupted around the fae, and Lennox patted my shoulder. “I don’t think you can get out of this one, Red.”
Who said I wanted to?
I unclasped my cloak and pushed it into Lennox’s arms. My sword had stayed back in my room, but I never left my dagger behind—I unfastened it from my belt and handed it to Lennox too. As I walked toward the ring, I rolled my shoulders and flexed my bare arms—I had been ready to fight. The soldiers whistled and cheered, eager to see a foreign prince getting his ass kicked.
As if I would allow that to happen.
I stepped into the ring and faced Xitan as he said, “Remember, my lord, no magic.”
I nodded. When fighting, my instinct was to reach for my magic first—my power of the Autumn elements or shapeshifting into my fox form—but since arriving in the Winter Court, we had trained without any of it. It was a nice change of pace.
We positioned ourselves in combat stances—feet apart, fists raised, eyes locked in a defiant glare.
For a minute, we just stayed like that, facing each other, while the crowd around us exchanged bets. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lennox exchanging coins. He better be betting on me, or I would demote him to a castle guard when we got back to the Autumn Court.
If we got back to the Autumn Court.
When the chatting and movement reduced around us, someone yelled, “Fight!”
Xitan didn’t waste time and came at me, his arms throwing punches left and right, forcing me to retreat backward and dodge in rapid succession. The worst part of fighting in this court wasn’t how skilled the soldiers were; it was the rusting snow and ice. Even though the ring had been cleared of snow, a thin layer of sleet and ice remained, making it difficult to find footing. During the fights, I had seen many able fae fall because they slipped on the ice, and that had given their opponents an opening.
And they were all used to battling in these conditions. I wasn’t.
I ground my heels on the ice as best as I could and held my ground when Xitan swiped a hook at my head. I ducked and landed a pretty uppercut to his stomach. The soldier gasped and stumbled back, losing his balance and almost falling back. He pressed a hand over his chest, inhaling deeply, but I didn’t give him a chance to recover and come at me again. I charged headfirst and wrapped my arms around his midriff, taking him down. Again, he gasped for air. I allowed him two seconds to recover before straddling and raising my fist to his face.
“Surrender?” I asked.
One corner of his lips tugged up. “Never.” In a flash, he scooped some of the snow accumulated at the edge of the ring and threw it at my eyes. I blinked, but in that one second, he acted. Taking advantage of my disorientation, Xitan flipped us and pressed my back on the cold ice. “Use your surroundings, prince.” I groaned from the chill spreading through my body and from not being used to this scenery. Of course, the snow. “Surrender?” he asked, his fist lined with my head.
“Prince Redlen!” a voice echoed through the night.
The soldiers turned to the voice and stood at attention. Xitan clasped my arm and shot up, helping me stand beside him.
General Kei strode among the fae, coming toward me.
“Good evening, general.” I ran a hand over my pants, patting off the ice and snow. “Were you looking for me?”
General Kei stopped at the edge of the makeshift ring. “Not me. King Cadewyn is asking for you.”
I frowned. At this time of the night? “What is it?”
General Kei glanced around and as if he had issued an order, the soldiers dispersed and walked away. When no one else but Lennox and Xitan were within earshot, the general continued, “There’s trouble at the border.”
When Kei said there was trouble at the border, I imagined it was the border with the Day Court or maybe the Dusk Court. I hadn’t thought he meant south, where the Winter Court met the Triad River, and beyond it, the Tywyll Forest.
The last I heard, Cade had joined forces with his mate, Amber, and the king of the Day Court. Together, they had conjured a magical barrier to keep the Tywyll Forest isolated forever. How could there be trouble now?
I met with the king in front of the White Castle, where he waited for me with a handful of his White Knights. The king and his knights shapeshifted into their wolf forms. General Kei and Xitan did the same. I glanced at Lennox and we shifted into our fox forms.
My fox was dark red, like my hair, and almost twice the size of Lennox’s burnt-orange fox. Beside Cade’s white wolf, my fox looked small, but what I lacked in size, I compensated for in agility and speed.
We rushed through the forest, our paws pounding the snow and ice covering the ground. I couldn’t deny the Winter Court was a beautiful place, with all the eerie whiteness blanketing the earth and the ice wrapping around the trees, giving them a crystal-like shine. Shame it was a little too cold for my taste.
We slowed down when we arrived at one of the border outposts. Two guards emerged from it, and we shifted back to our fae form to talk to them.
The two guards bowed to their king.
“What’s going on?” Cade asked. He had his long white hair falling down his back, and wore a fancy white fur cloak over his broad shoulders. “The report said there was movement outside the barrier.”
“Yes, my king,” one of the soldiers said. His name was Aimon. The other was Birch. I had seen them both before during training. “Right where the river narrows and becomes shallow. We saw shadows behind the magical barrier.”
Cade glanced at me. “How about you and I go investigate?”
Before meeting Cade in front of the castle, I had made a quick stop at my room in the barracks—I had been offered a fancy guest chamber in the castle, but I had refused—to grab my armor and my sword.
Now, I placed a hand on the hilt of my sword, hanging from its scabbard at my hip, and nodded at the king. “I’m ready.”
Lennox’s brow slammed down and I knew what was going through his head. He had been my best friend since we were little kids. We had joined the army together, trained all our lives together, and when I advanced in rank, I arranged for him to serve with me. Most of our missions, most of our fights had been together, and he always got anxious when I left him behind. He had made a vow to protect me, and he couldn’t keep that vow when he wasn’t with me.
I looked at him and gave him a brief nod, assuring him that everything would be all right. Lennox pressed his lips in a tight line but didn’t say anything.
Cade took the lead, and I followed. The two of us marched through the snow until it stopped at the river’s bed.
“There,” he said, pointing to a soft bend in the river, where it became a thin
and shallow strip.
We approached the bend. I couldn’t see the barrier, other than a murky glare in the distance, but I could feel its powerful magic brushing against me like a gentle wind.
I watched for movement or shadows behind the barrier but didn’t see anything.
“Even if we see something, it’s not like they can cross it, right?” I asked. “I mean, there’s no way to break the barrier’s magic.”
Cade’s brow was furrowed as he assessed the barrier for any weakness. “I don’t know. How many times have we seen magic that was seemingly indestructible, and then something came and undid it?”
True. I hoped this wasn’t the case.
“But—“
A shadow loomed behind the barrier and jumped through it. Cade lifted his hands and sent out a wave of ice, and I brought the wind, but it was too late.
The shadow caught us.
2
Blair
The sword came for my head and I ducked, escaping the harsh strike that was sure to take me out of the fight.
“Oh my,” someone whispered from the corner of the arena.
I rolled my eyes, but didn’t spare half a second thinking about Jora and her worries. Because if I did, Sage would definitely take me down.
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