Bright Wicked: A Fae Fantasy Romance

by Everly Frost

  We need a way out—and fast.

  Keeping one arm outstretched to maintain my starlit barrier and repel the flames, I thrust my other arm lower, aiming a burst of starlight at the space beneath Nadina’s thunderbird. The burst upsets the bird enough that it bucks and Nadina loses her balance. Her power falters for a moment, giving me a few seconds of reprieve. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

  Before Nadina can recover, I stream power into the air beneath the other birds. It doesn’t burst anywhere near enough to harm them—I don’t ever want to hurt a thunderbird—but the explosions cause them to buck and rear, their wings colliding, making them panic.

  The rider on Nadina’s left bounces off to the side as her thunderbird jolts. She slips from the saddle but tries to cling on…

  Her falling scream makes my heart stop. She’s dropping straight toward the glitter field and she’s far bigger than a mouse.

  In our efforts to evade the other birds, we’ve descended too close to the field, well within the reach of its explosions.

  “Treble!” I scream. “Up!”

  One arm still outstretched to deflect the last flames spearing my way, I twist and grab Nathaniel’s arm, pulling him down into a crouch beside me so he won’t fall off.

  Two riders send fire streaming at us, leaning over from the side of their birds. I deflect their power at the last moment as Treble soars past them into the sky.

  Below us, the falling woman hits the field.

  Glitter shards explode up into the air so high and so fast that they cut right through the riders who were leaning across their birds. The women slide off, their dead bodies plummeting toward the glitter field. The rider-less birds try to rise higher, their wings damaged and bleeding, but they can’t fly fast enough.

  My heart sinks as the fallen riders hit the field, triggering more explosions of glass. The air sparkles with the deadly shards, turning the space below us into a flurry. The flailing birds scream under the new barrage of glass daggers flying upward.

  Tears stream down my cheeks as the birds also fall.

  Treble’s wings beat in strong, panicked sweeps, lifting us above the reach of the explosions just in time. I crouch low, holding on to Nathaniel as Treble darts between two thunderbirds ridden by Solstice fae, who try to block our path. I fling my power left and right, blocking the flames they aim at us while I balance on Treble’s back.

  My name is shouted from above us. I catch sight of Talsa in the distance. It looks like she was staying high, but her bird suddenly darts to the left, colliding with a Solstice fae who was about to dive at us from above.

  I don’t have time to decide whether Talsa deliberately got in the way of the attacking fae or whether her bird was simply spooked by the explosions below us.

  A flame sizzles past my face, close enough to singe my hair. Nathaniel spins, my sword raised in his hands. “Aura! Behind you.”

  I turn just as another plume of fire skims my shoulder.

  Nadina’s thunderbird soars toward us, her attacks dangerously close. Treble banks left, but Nadina’s bird tracks our path, its flight quick and agile.

  I stay in a crouch and raise my hands, preparing to defend us when Evander appears off to the side. He drives Cadence toward us. Ice streams from his hands but narrowly misses us and—somehow—hits Nadina’s flames instead. The impact forces Nadina off-balance and her thunderbird swings to the side.

  Evander draws alongside us and leaps onto Treble’s wing bone. I sense he’s using his power over the air to keep his balance as he takes a swipe with his fist at Nathaniel. His blow flies wide, far wider than it would have if he were serious about making an impact.

  I shout, “Brother, please—”

  He doesn’t let me finish, following up with another punch aimed at Nathaniel’s stomach, but he pulls the hit before he connects. Relief fills me. He’s making it look like he’s fighting us so he won’t be branded a traitor.

  “One day you’ll remember what happened that night, Aura,” Evander whispers, between pretend swipes. His magic carries his murmurs directly to my ears. “When that day comes, you can clear your conscience and atone if you need to. Until then, you’re still my sister. Now go!”

  He somersaults back into his bird’s saddle, gathering his power in front of his chest as if he’s going to blast us with it, but waits the split second it takes us to rise higher into the sky. Deadly ice explodes across the space beneath Treble’s belly, just missing us. It was a powerful enough strike to make anyone think that he was really trying to hurt us.

  We’re still flying above the glitter field and pure chaos exists between us and the border. As other Frost fae dart into the fight, ice and fire streak toward us in turns. My reflexes are stretched and my muscles scream, but I spin and turn, deflecting the attacks with my power while Nathaniel blocks anyone who gets in close enough to stab their weapon at us.

  Suddenly, Treble screams.

  The awful sound tears through my heart.

  The wind snatches at my hair as I whirl toward the flames rising from his left wing. “No!”

  Nadina flies above us, leaning over her bird, a satisfied smile on her face. She couldn’t hit me, so she hit Treble’s wing instead.

  “Your turn to fall, Aura!” she shouts, tugging on the reins so her bird lifts high into the air, evading the burst of starlight I fling at her.

  She screams an order at the other fae. “Rise up! Let them fall to their deaths together.”

  Every thunderbird near us darts upward, every rider racing to fly to safety beyond the reach of the glitter grass that will shatter when we hit the field.

  “Treble! No!” Tears blur my vision as Treble continues to shriek in pain. Of all the low moves Nadina could make…

  Nathaniel grabs me. He points upward.

  I follow the direction of his finger. Evander is the only one who hasn’t abandoned us. Ice is already forming around his hands, but if he puts out the flames, he’ll be a traitor. The Queen will have him put to death.

  Far above us, I catch sight of Imatra watching us fall.

  Treble is losing height rapidly, but maybe if we get off his back, he’ll have enough strength to coast clear of the field instead of crashing into it. Then Evander can help him without being branded as a traitor.

  Nadina told me it was my turn to fall.

  It finally is.

  I spin to Nathaniel. “I don’t expect you to trust me, but will you believe me when I say I don’t want you to die tonight?”

  His forehead creases, but he’s holding my arm, his grip firm and certain. “Yes.”

  I gasp in a breath at his unexpected trust, my heart glowing beneath my armor so brightly that it casts light between us. Before I can doubt myself, I slip my arms around his chest and pull him close. Easing my sword from his fingers, I tap it to my shoulder, where it conforms with my armor again.

  Nathaniel allows me to drag him down onto Treble’s back. I slip into his lap and hook my legs around his hips, preparing to curl them around the backs of his thighs, wrapping myself around him as tightly as possible.

  “We call your people Fell: the fallen ones,” I say to him. “It’s time for me to fall too. Will you fall with me?”

  The crease in his forehead clears as he wraps his arms around me, holding me close. An expression of acceptance grows on his face. “I will.”

  I close my eyes, filling my lungs with the scent of his skin. “Okay then.”

  I tug us to the side, leaning my weight into thin air.

  The world is quiet as we slip from Treble’s back and plunge toward the glitter field.

  Chapter 23

  The wind is fierce. It rips and tears at us, trying to pry us apart as we fall.

  Screaming with effort, I hold onto Nathaniel, twisting so that I’m beneath him, refusing to let his body part from mine. He fights me. He wants to hit first and cushion my fall, but I won’t let him.

  At the last moment, I fling us sideways, driving my body into the g
round.

  We hit the glitter fronds and I brace for every limb to break and every bone to shatter.

  The grass thickens beneath my back, a wild thicket forming that bends, catches us, and flings us back up into the air. I gasp as we lift up before we drop and bounce onto the platform of grass again, up and down until the thicket sinks beneath us, depositing us gently onto the earth.

  I lie beneath Nathaniel as the glitter grass rises up around us, curving over to form a green canopy that blocks out the sky and all the thunderbirds sailing through the air far above.

  Right before the grass closes over us, I see Treble rise higher without our weight on his back. I close my eyes and wait, my heart beating hard, praying that I don’t hear him hit the ground. Praying that Evander will get to him in time.

  All is quiet.

  No explosion.

  Nathaniel’s chest rises and falls rapidly against mine, one hand resting under my head, his other hand pressed to my shoulder. “Aura… how…?”

  I bite my lip. “I had a bad day when I was fifteen years old.”

  He waits for me to continue, his lips pressed together in a quizzical line. “And?”

  “After I nearly killed Serena, I flew out to the burn site and I was so angry… and reckless. I ran toward the glitter field, daring it to hurt me.” I close my eyes as he rubs my shoulder. “I ran right through it. Don’t ask me how or why. That burn site is like death to me, but the glitter field is like life.”

  “So this is how you bound my hands yesterday morning,” he says.

  I reach out to run my fingertips along the nearest stem. “It will turn back to glass once I’m gone,” I say.

  I’m still wrapped around him and I find myself suddenly frozen. I didn’t think past this moment, didn’t expect to survive. I don’t have a plan, can’t see the future.

  “We need to run now, Aura,” he says. “They won’t give up until we’re well into the marsh.”

  I shiver. I’ve never gone beyond the immediate border, never ventured past the misshapen trees. They’ve always marked a safe zone for the fae. Anywhere past the trees is the land of darkness. My people won’t follow us past that point.

  Nathaniel rises back onto his heels and pulls me with him. The canopy stretches above us, but it won’t be high enough to cover us once we’re standing.

  “I’m ready,” I say, preparing to rise. “Promise me you won’t let go of my hand. I don’t know what the field will do if you aren’t touching me.”

  He gives me a crooked grin. “I won’t let go.”

  As soon as we push through the canopy, shouts fill the sky. Nadina and the Solstice fae are driving their birds through the air, dangerously close to the glitter field, coming after us.

  The Queen’s scream rises above the other shouts. “Kill them! Don’t let them get to the border.”

  Nathaniel’s grip is strong as I break into a run. He times his steps with mine, keeping pace beside me, our arms pumping in unison. The glitter grass parts, glistening emerald stems bending aside to allow us to run through it.

  Seconds later, fire strikes the ground behind us, missing us by inches.

  We don’t stop. The edge of the field is a hundred paces away and the foggy marsh beckons in the distance, a shrouded freedom waiting for us.

  Another ball of fire hits the glitter field on my left-hand side. I flinch away from it, but Nathaniel keeps me steady, his grip on my arm urging me forward.

  Three more fireballs hit the ground, one right in front of me. I don’t have time to scream. I veer to the left, tugging Nathaniel with me, our feet flying across the earth as flames explode around us, but the grass remains green and soft, impervious to the heat.

  The edge of the field is twenty steps away. Then ten.

  We burst through it and keep running, still hand in hand. There’s no reason to hold on to each other now, but I don’t want to let go.

  “Stay with me, Aura,” Nathaniel shouts, tugging me faster along the muddy ground, our feet kicking up sludge.

  A final blast of flames sizzles behind us and then there’s silence. Even the shouting stops. They won’t admit it, but the fae fear the mist and all the monsters they believe hide within it. They won’t pursue us now.

  We race into the fog toward the tormented tree where Nathaniel first appeared, but I dig in my heels as soon as we reach it. “Stop. Please. I need to stop.”

  My chest heaves and the silence fills with our rapid breaths. He doesn’t let go of my hand, the glow between us casting shadows through the haze.

  My senses tingle and my skin prickles. A breeze eases across my cheeks, wiping away the tears I didn’t know I was shedding.

  “Evander,” I whisper, my heart in my throat as I pray for him to hear me.

  My brother’s response is a soft burst of sound on the wind. “Treble lives. Go, Aura.”

  His voice vanishes, the last traces of the life I knew disappearing too quickly.

  I’m about to follow Nathaniel—a man I know almost nothing about—into darkness. I don’t know what will happen to Evander, Talsa, or Crispin after I leave. I don’t know what waits for me beyond the marsh.

  The rays of the new day lighten the sky behind us, but the sunlight doesn’t touch the ground where I stand.

  It’s dawn.

  The second day of the Law has begun.

  I have two more days to live.

  I spin to Nathaniel, close my fingers tightly around his, and run with him into the misty woods.

  Continue Aura and Nathaniel’s story in Radiant Fierce (Bright Wicked 2).

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  Radiant Fierce (Bright Wicked 2)

  One lie.

  Two traitors.

  Three chances to survive.

  Get your copy of Radiant Fierce.

  When Aura Lucidia unwittingly invoked the Law of Champions, she bound herself to the fate of her fiercest enemy—the human warrior, Nathaniel Shield. Now she will be forced to fight him to the death at the end of the third day.

  Aura becomes a traitor to her people when she chooses to save Nathaniel’s life in a battle that reveals her true enemies and the truth about her past.

  With the foundations of her life torn apart, she has no choice but to escape with Nathaniel into the heart of Fell, a land of dark creatures and savage laws ruled by an even crueler King.

  But with every step she takes, Nathaniel’s secrets grow and so does the intense attraction between them until the truth that Nathaniel is hiding threatens to tear Aura apart.

  Now she must choose between survival or loyalty.

  But how can she follow her heart when she’s destined to kill the man she loves?

  Aura and Nathaniel have two days left to live. The second day has begun.

  Radiant Fierce is a full length fae fantasy romance, the second in the Bright Wicked series, a trilogy told over three consecutive days.

  A fast-paced tale of forbidden love, sworn enemies, and alpha warriors.

  Recommended reading age is 17+ for sex scenes and language.

  Storm Princess Saga : The Complete Collection

  If you loved Bright Wicked, you’ll love the Storm Princess Saga.

  The complete set includes all three books in The Storm Princess series plus over thirty exclusive bonus scenes and an exclusive life after story.

  I am no ordinary princess. My crown is lightning, my tears are rain. I am robed in thunder and my voice is the howling wind. It's my du
ty to protect my people from the storm the gargoyles created to tear the elven world apart. I am a slave to the rules that dictate who I love – and when. Despite the power raging around me, the greatest storm is the one inside my heart. Do not touch me or you will die.

  Taken from her family to be the chosen Storm Princess, Marbella Mercy spends her days subduing the storm that was sent to destroy her people. But the storm is growing stronger and soon it will be beyond her control. Each House sends their strongest champion to battle to the death for the right to stand by her side. Some fight for power, others seek glory. Only one fights for Marbella's heart.

  Baelen Rath is the last warrior from the feared House of Rath. Determined to protect Marbella from the darkness creeping across their land, he will risk everything to reclaim her heart. But when forces turn against them and powerful enemies are revealed, Baelen and Marbella will face dangerous betrayal to break open the secrets that keep Marbella bound.

  For fans of epic tales of forbidden love, heart-pumping battles, and thrilling suspense.

  This complete series is over 330,000 words and contains:

  The Princess Must Die

  The Princess Must Strike

  The Princess Must Reign

  Plus exclusive bonus scenes and a life after story.

  Get your copy of the Storm Princess Complete Series.