CHAPTER ONE
The realm spun around me in mist and shadows, air and wind. During the magical transport, I barely felt Kole, the male who had once been the stoic warrior I’d grown smitten with but had ultimately betrayed me.
Yet I knew he was there. He was taking me back to the Imperial Council headquarters, or wherever they deemed it “safe” to imprison me, despite the fact that I’d committed no crime.
Even during his mistphase—the magical ability to transport near instantaneously across the realm—it felt as though my heart was breaking. Kole had taken the Stone from me upon the Council’s orders, and because of that, my uncle would either die or turn into whatever creature he was becoming.
A memory flashed through my mind of my uncle’s pale, taut skin and the fangs that parted his lips. Even in the mistphase, a shudder racked me, and just as the mistphasing winds began to calm, despair hit me like lightning because all of my work had been for naught.
The Stone was supposed to have saved Timith, my one wish returning him to a healthy fairy. Yet even thoughI’dfound the Wishing Stone, and its single wish was rightfullymine, Kole andthe Council hadn’t allowed me to cast it. They’dstolenthe Stone from me so the Council could use it.
My feet hit the ground in a jolting halt, and the realm solidified around me.
The second my line of sight cleared, I frowned in confusion. I’d been certain that Kole would be mistphasing me to the Council’s headquarters, but we’d materialized in a hallway that was more decadent than anything I would expect to see in a warrior’s residence. But perhaps such extravagance was how they lived. The Council was secretive enough that nobody outside of the Council actually knew.
Beside me, Kole stood rigidly, his huge sword strapped to his back. Midnight dark hair was tousled atop his head, as though the mistphasing winds had blown it into disarray. His sharp blue Solis eyes peered around the hallway, but as usual, his face was impossible to read.
However, since he didn’t immediately whisk me away somewhere new, I figured that this strange hall was indeed where he’d intended to take me.
Silence filled the space between us. Heavy, chargedsilence. It was just the two of us since Kole’s fellow warrior, Jamie Axthrower, had gone elsewhere with Verin, the servant who the Council suspected wasn’t an innocent servant at all.
A tremble shook my frame. I still had so many unanswered questions.So many.
Giving Kole my back, I completely ignored him and wrapped my arms around myself even though wherever we’d landed wasn’t cold. If anything, it was warm and comfortable.
Head canting, I studied the residence more. Tapestries lined the hallway’s stone walls. Bright fairy lights were suspended from the ceiling. Wealth was apparent in the artwork that hung in golden frames. And high above us, streaming through the windows lining the hall’s length, was silvery moonlight.
Given how bright the moonlight was, I guessed all three moons were out, but I’d lost track of the time. We’d left Silventine Wood just after sunset and had arrived back at my aunt and uncle’s home, but so much had happened since then.
Too much.
My heart twisted anew becauseeverythinghad gone wrong.
I eyed the warrior coldly. “Where are we?”
Kole’s throat bobbed, and his irises blazed as violently as a deadly storm churning over the Adriastic Sea.
“I’ve been instructed to bring you to these chambers,” he replied gruffly and nodded to a closed door that stood right in front of us in the impressive hallway.
I rubbed at the blue shackle encircling my wrist. Its tingling magic was designed to suppress a fairy’s ability to access their internal power. Kole still didn’t know that it did nothing to me. It was no different than a fairy’s Shield. My unique magic was immune to those too.
I fiddled with the blue cuff more, swirling it around my wrist. “You really won’t tell me?” Despite trying to keep my voice steady and cool, my tone sounded as hurt as I felt. “Not even in this, Kole? Not even after you stole the Stone from me and told me that my uncle—” My throat tightened, and I couldn’t continue. Swallowing my grief down, I rasped, “Couldn’t be saved?”
A huge surge of energy rose in the warrior’s aura, but his face remained impassive. No emotion leaked through on his features. Absolutely nothing.
The grief inside me tripled. Before, I’d found his hidden emotions an endearing trait, but now...
Now, it was like a blade to my heart that twisted nonstop. I’d been so stupid to think that I could trust him and that perhaps he truly cared for me. The attraction that had sizzled between us while I’d been hunting the Stone hadfeltreal, but I’d been a jobto Kole, and even if some part of him had genuinely wanted me, his allegiance was to the Imperial Council.
Not me.
Eyes narrowing, I focused on the Wishing Stone shining through Kole’s pocket. The Stone glowed right through the material of his pants, as though a sun lived within it.
Magic surged inside me at the sight of it, but I took a deep breath and tried my best to suppress my pain and anger. I also stopped myself from verbally lashing out at Kole.
And even though the temptation was there, I didn’t enter his mind and read his thoughts. Nor did I take control of him entirely and command him. Ididn’tovertake his free will because I’d promised my aunt and uncle that I would never do such a thing.
And I intended to honor that promise, especially since it was the last thing I could do for my dying uncle.
