by J. L. Weil
Unlacing my fingers from Kai’s, I braced myself for what I was sure would be a harrowing journey ahead. I’d been running for so long that it was almost normal.
My keen gaze scanned the trees that bordered the edge of the property, looking for any sign of the fluttering pixie. The first stirring of worry twirled inside my gut. Please let her be okay. Without her, and the soul star she carried, I was doomed. There were only a few hours left before I felt the effects of being separated from the charm that encapsulated my fae magic, which was incited by the essence of my soul.
The only things that moved in the trees were the leaves, and the branches swaying with the evening winds.
“She will come,” Devyn assured quietly, placing a hand at the small of my back.
Filling my lungs with fresh air, I exhaled, knowing he was right. Tink might be tiny, but she was cunning. Her ability of seeing the past, future, and present, gave her an advantage. She would know precisely where to find me.
The shift into my fox took a tad longer than it normally did, and I could only account that to the loss of my soul star. Soon, all my magic would be gone. Not a drop left for me to draw upon, and then my body would slowly fade. I’d read about the stages a Kitsune went through when apart from their soul star. Until my power was absorbed by another fae, the process of losing myself would be slow and drawn.
We ran through the forest for at least two hours, stopping long enough to take a drink of water when we came across a river or small pond. Then we were running again. By the third hour, my stamina was winding down and nearly spent. The deeper we went into the woods, the colder the air became, making it difficult to breathe—more so, while running. The altitude there in Thornland made the air thicker.
My paws flew over the icy ground. Kai was nothing but a streak of darkness on my left, and from the corner of my eye, I caught Devyn’s form blurring to my right.
When we came to the foothills, I stumbled, claws scraping the ground. Devyn signaled for us to stop and I nearly collapsed where I stood—my legs shaking. I had a massive headache, and every part of me was in agony.
My exhaustion was so acute that I lost hold of my shift, sending me back into my human form. I didn’t have an ember of magic left in me. Dropping to the ground, I braced my back against a tree, seeing curls of sunlight begin to peak at the horizon.
Devyn crouched down beside me, brushing a damp strand of hair behind my ear. “Are you okay, Kitten?”
I gave him a short nod because I didn’t think I could even speak. Not yet.
“We need to get her warm. Without her fur, she’ll freeze to death,” Kai rasped to a scowling Devyn.
“Don’t you think I know that?” Devyn gritted between his teeth. Even fatigued and breathless, the two of them could still find the energy to bicker about me.
Wonderful.
Numbness spread over me as Kai snapped a few branches from the tree above my head, gathering wood. The feeling was followed by the chattering of my teeth. That can’t be good. It happened so quickly, the sudden and arctic ice in my veins, that I might very well have been in jeopardy of freezing to death.
With a snap of Kai’s finger, a black spark ignited. I squinted, thinking for sure I was seeing things. Flames weren’t that color. Yet, he ran his fingers over the twigs at my feet, and I watched as they caught fire—the dark blaze licking over the wood greedily.
“Twilight flames,” Kai supplied, noticing the confusion on my face. “They burn twice as hot as normal fire.”
Interesting. Curling my legs up to my chest, I waited for the fire to seep into my body, chasing away the chill that I couldn’t seem to get rid of myself. Devyn held a bottle of water in front of me, ordering me to drink. With a small, thankful smile, I took it, and even those muscles ached. As I pressed the bottle to my lips, my fae ears picked up something.
Buzzzz. Buzzzz.
I didn’t know how I heard it over the clattering of my teeth, but I knew that sound, and hope bloomed inside me. I wasn’t the only one who picked up the noise. Devyn and Kai stiffened, their eyes whirling in the direction where we had come.
“Who do you think it is?” Kai whispered to Devyn.
A speck of movement appeared in the distance, and the three of us watched it grow closer with both suspicion and reproach. I swallowed; my throat so dry that I could hardly do so. Could it be? I was afraid to hope.
Tink?
Chapter Two
DEVYN
I’d been keeping a close eye on Karina for the last mile. Through our bond, I sensed how bone-tired she was, and still, I continued to push. I hated every second, knowing she was forcing herself past her limits.
Damn Talin.
We couldn’t afford to slow down or stop, knowing the Lord of Thornland would have his men scouring the land for us. Also, I hadn’t forgotten about Ryker, but she needed to rest, so I’d give her a few hours beside a warm fire.
Handing her the water, I was about to curl up beside her and pull her into my arms when I saw the flicker of alarm spring in her eyes. A millisecond later I heard why. Someone was coming.
Kai went rigid near the fire, also picking up the buzzing sound coming our way. “Do you want me to cut them off?”
“No,” I sighed. “It's the pixie.” For the first time, relief swarmed inside me at the sight of the pixie. Well, assuming she had Karina’s soul star. I didn’t want to entertain the idea that Talin or someone else had taken the stone from Tink.
Fuck. No.
That was a thought I refused to let take fruition.
Tink was a pain in the ass, but she had proved to be an asset in protecting the queen, and that was what mattered to me.
Tiny iridescent wings sluggishly beat while Tink fluttered toward Karina, as if she, too, was nearly unconscious—like the queen beside me. The pixie landed clumsily on Karina’s knee. “Tink,” my mate gasped in an almost inaudible sound, her voice shaking.
“This belongs to you.” Removing the necklace she had wrapped multiple times around her little neck, Tink placed it into Karina’s open palm.
Tears gathered in my mate’s eyes as she closed her fingers around the stone. “I don’t know how to thank you.” Her voice quivered once more, barely above a whisper.
“You don’t need to thank me. I was meant to help you,” the pixie replied, her body slumping. She had followed our trail the entire way, which was commendable, and also damn impressive considering I cloaked our tracks, but I was betting it was her gifts more than her tracking skills that led her to us.
Karina offered Tink some of her water and I nearly protested. She hadn’t taken a sip yet, but her blue eyes met mine and I exhaled. It was in her nature to think of others before herself. I relaxed only after she drank her fill, but it wasn’t enough. She was too pale, lips too dry, and the usual luster in her eyes was gone.
Setting the water down, her fingers fumbled with the chain on the necklace as she inspected the clasp. “It’s broken. What do I...” Her voice trailed off, catching on a clog of emotion.
“We’ll get it fixed,” I promised, my heart clenching at the devastation on her face. “Now rest.” We didn’t have much time, but hopefully, it would be enough to give her a boost of strength, especially with the source of her power returned.
She tucked the charm safely inside the cloak’s deep pocket, dropping her head on my shoulder. Karina was asleep the second her eyes fluttered shut. I took comfort in the soft, even breaths warming my neck. Securing her into my arms, I held onto her.
“How far behind us is he?” Kai asked the pixie.
Curling herself into the crook of Karina’s arm, Tink yawned. “He is very confident he will find you. The lord called for his sentinels and has dispatched them to track you. They will catch up to us by nightfall if we linger more than a few hours.”
Frustrated, Kai ran a hand over his face. A muscle feathered along his jaw. “He always was an arrogant prick. We can’t keep running. We need transportation. It would give her time
to rest.”
I couldn’t argue with him. Everything he said was true. “Then we take what we can find.”
Surprise flickered in his Unseelie eyes. It wasn’t like me to stoop to thievery, but we had little choices, and with the world at stake, morals could be bent. Sometimes to win in war you had to play a little dirty. “Do you want me to scout the area?” Kai volunteered, the glint of eagerness lit his expression at the idea of performing a bad deed.
My eyes drifted to Karina before I replied, uncertain which would be the wiser choice. To let him go off on his own? Or to entrust him with Karina’s safety? I couldn’t be in two places at once, and after a moment of consideration, I knew I couldn’t leave her. “Can you manage?” I asked.
“Don’t insult me, brother,” he retorted in that familiar, condescending way of his.
Weirdly, it was comforting to see my stepbrother return to his usual shameful self. “Fine,” I sighed, the cold air curling in front of my face. “But not far, and not for long.” What I didn’t want to admit was that I needed him, but the words weren’t necessary. He knew.
“I’ll be quick. No one will even know I’m there,” he assured, standing up in front of the black flames and dusting off his legs.
Kai was good at sticking to the shadows and masking his presence. He was also good at stealing shit. “Don’t try to be a hero.”
“I’ll leave the heroics to you.” His gaze went to Karina still wrapped in his black cloak. “She won’t agree to this.”
“I know, which is why we need to do this while she is asleep.”
He nodded, and on a crisp breeze that shook the leaves, Kai faded into the shadows, leaving me alone with the queen and the pixie.
Sleep was a luxury neither Kai nor I would have for the next few days, but we were accustomed to going long periods without, thanks to the training we had both endured under Talin. I could imagine all too well her uncle’s rage at learning Kai and I had both betrayed him. Karina wasn’t the only one on his hit list now.
Not that I cared what the bastard did to me as long as the queen made it to Katsura and took her place on the throne. If I managed to fulfill my destiny as her Shaman, that was all that mattered to me.
I didn’t dare sleep but kept my eyes trained on the treeline just over the bluff. Tink was softly snoring, cuddled up with Karina, and I took small comfort in her ability to sleep. It meant we were probably safe for the time being.
Yet, as the minutes turned to an hour and the hour dragged onto two, I regretted sending Kai out there. What if Talin caught him? He’d be executed on the spot. Then there was always the other alternative I didn’t want to consider… What if the bastard double-crossed us and went straight to Talin, giving up vital information about where we were and the queen’s abilities?
She had seven tails now, making her one of the most powerful fae, a bit of knowledge I don’t think she was aware of. But I couldn’t think about that now, nor what that amount of power was doing to her body and her mental state. I had to find a way to keep Karina out of harm’s way first and foremost.
I only prayed to the gods that her human body would be able to sustain her Kitsune powers until then.
“Do you ever get exhausted brooding so much?”
I whirled my head in the direction of Kai’s voice, doing my best not to jostle the girl still dead asleep in my arms. “Fuck, you asshole,” I muttered, keeping my voice low. “What took you so long?”
“Don’t tell me you were worried about me,” he retorted, a lazy curl of his lips. “Oh, I see. You believed I might have deceived you. How disappointed you must be to see me return.”
Kai spent his life trying my patience, while I spent my dreaming of ways I could kill him. “Cut the theatrics. What did you find?”
He clutched his tongue, moving closer to the fire. “So surly.”
“Kai,” I gritted out between clenched teeth that made my jaw ache, but I welcomed the pain. It reminded me that I was alive, kept me focused on what must be done.
Crouching down he warmed his hands near the fire. “There is a place southeast of here that has what we need.”
“How far?” I asked.
His palms rubbed together as his eyes flickered to Karina. “At least an hour by foot.”
An hour. It could have been much worse. “We’ll leave after you’ve taken a moment to rest.”
He settled himself against a tree trunk near the black flames that still burned—and would until Kai released them. Sometimes his power frightened me. Perhaps “concerned” was more an appropriate word. Regardless, I didn’t trust his dark magic.
“Then what?” he asked, folding his arms in front of him as he stretched out his legs.
“We take her home.” Looking back, it was where I should have taken Karina after saving her from Ryker’s clutches, but I had wanted to give her a moment of peace and a place for her to adjust to the changes in her body. Becoming fae was no easy task for a human.
“Stop blaming yourself,” he griped, reading the expression that came into my face.
I loosed a breath. “That’s like asking you to stop breathing.”
He grinned and closed his eyes. “You’d like that.”
“Shut up and rest. I’m already tired of your voice.”
His chuckle was harmless, but Kai wasn’t.
Too soon, I stood back on my feet, lifting Karina into my arms. She was still too tired to wake up, and I didn’t have the heart to force her from her dreams. It was there that I hoped she found a moment of calm and happiness, for her life in the Second Moon so far had been anything but that.
Pure chaos.
That was all she’d known of this world. Chaos. Evil. Power. Control. The fae realm wasn’t making a great first impression.
Frankly, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to rouse her. Something told me Karina’s exhaustion went deeper than just human tiredness.
We hurried over the rolling hills swiftly and silently, making our way to Wreston Thicket. The openness kept me on edge. We were exposed, like sitting ducks just waiting to be plucked. There was nothing but snow-covered mounds between here and where we needed to be, leaving us no other choice.
If we kept to the shadows and I used what little power I had left to shield us, it might be enough.
“Here, let me carry her,” Kai offered. “You need to conserve your strength or Talin will find us that much easier.”
I refused to admit his suggestion was logical, because the truth was, I didn’t want him near my mate. Just the thought of her in his arms started a fire in my blood. “No. I’m fine.”
Kai’s one-sided grin went up a notch. Only my stepbrother could find a reason to smirk even in the shittest of times. “I’m not going to seduce her when she is half dead. Give her to me. I know she is your mate. You’ve made that point very clear. Besides, there is nothing I can do or say that will change the link she has to you. The queen has made her choice, gods save you.”
“Not helping,” I grumbled as my boots tramped over the snow.
“When have I ever really been helpful, if I didn’t get something out of it.”
And that right there, was why I was reluctant to give her to him. Kai always had his own agenda. “Exactly. How much farther?”
He lifted his chin toward the east. “The farmlands are near. We need to be alert.”
It was midday, which meant people were about, tending to their lands, even in this shitty weather. Fae in this part of the world knew our faces. We were no strangers to Thornland, or to those who inhabited its brutal planes. It took a certain fae to make a home there, to live in the Siberian weather all year round.
I snuggled Karina closer to my chest, telling myself not to worry, that she needed this bout of rest. Yet, something in the back of my mind was nagging at me, urging me to wake her. As if Tink sensed my mounting concern, the pixie opened her eyes, glaring at me in a way that said if I touched Karina, she would bite off a finger.
“Stop fretting,”
Tink’s small voice muttered while she stretched out her arms, only to curl back in a new position where she lay on Karina’s shoulder. “She is in a fae stasis.”
Pressure weighed heavily on my chest. I suspected as much, but I didn’t want it to be true. A fae stasis was probably what she needed, but there was no telling when she would wake. It could be an hour from now or much longer. Days. Weeks. Months. I refused to go any further. There had been fae known to fall into stasis for years, but only because they chose to sleep so long. Karina was too stubborn, too motivated to stay locked in slumber for more than was necessary.
I just prayed she awoke soon.
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand how much her body, and her magic, needed this time of complete stillness and silence to replenish her energy. She had drained herself completely, which was why she had fallen into stasis, but that deep dormant state, made our mating bond go dark.
I couldn’t feel her. Couldn’t reach her. Couldn’t sense it.
The panic of that loss was real inside me.
We had another bond, one not as complete as the mating bond—my Shaman connection to her. Yet, even that was faint. It honed into her location, yet that was all. Just enough to allow me to keep her safe.
I gave Tink a long, steely look, and the pixie didn’t say another word on the matter.
The hike wasn’t easy. Under the fine sheet of snow and ice, were craggy boulders, but we had to be approaching the farmhouse Kai had found soon. Flecks of white snow fell from the grey sky in big, intricate flakes. One landed on the tip of Karina’s pink nose, and I watched with a sad smile as it melted.
We cleared the valley, and all we had to do was to follow the icy river until we reached the homestead. Then we’d wait for an opening, keeping to the shadows. It would have been strategic to wait until nightfall, but at any moment, one of Talin’s militia could burst over a foothill. We had to take our chance and pray no one stood in our way.
With my steps cushioned by the snow, and Kai soundless beside me, I made out the blurring image of a home nestled between a cluster of tall trees when Tink bolted upright—her eyes wide and wild.