She often missed those days. They were muchsimpler, and her father was still alive.
This invitation was making Sahira’s year andruining Lexi’s day. She dreaded everything about it, but she knewwhat she had to do.
Opening her eyes, Lexi used her finger tocheck the yes box for her and Sahira. Created by fae magic, a goldmark materialized on the invite. She lifted the invite into theair, and the crow swooped down to take it from her.
It clasped the invite in its talons, releaseda loud caw, and soared back toward the clear blue sky beforevanishing.
With a sigh, Lexi looked beyond the manor tothe smoke in the distance. She couldn’t see the ruined remains ofthe city a hundred miles away, but every day she saw the smokerising from it.
A week ago, she dared to travel close enoughto investigate the devastation the dragons unleashed on the city,but she was still a few miles away when the roar of a dragon causedher to retreat.
She preferred to stay as far from thosebeasts as possible.
The humans who survived the massacrecontinued to filter out of the city every day. She’d heard fromsome that others were choosing to stay behind to rebuild.
Every day, she watched as broken, ragtaggroups of survivors fled the city in search of something more, butthere wasn’t much left out there. Each morning, she walked out tothe road to give those survivors food. Some stopped to talk, butmost would simply look at her with haunted eyes before taking theirbread and walking away.
The dragons unleashed a fair amount ofdestruction on the world, but most of their larger fires had beenextinguished. However, some smaller ones still popped up. Lexi hadno idea what started them, and she wasn’t going into the city tofind out, but their smoke filled the sky, and sometimes they burnedfor days.
The war ended a month ago. It was too soon toaccomplish much rebuilding and far too soon to celebrate thedestruction unleashed on so many.
Hell, she didn’t think what happened to Earthshouldeverbe celebrated, but she was sure many otherimmortals would disagree… including the king of the dark fae.
Time was moving on, and the war was over. Theimmortals of the Shadow Realms wanted to continue with their lives.It didn’t matter that many in the mortal realm still suffered.
The winning side had gotten their way;immortals didn’t have to hide from humans anymore. The mortals wereaware of their existence now, and that knowledge had ruined theirlives.
Despite all that, a small tingle ofexcitement sparked in her belly. She would soon enter a ShadowRealm for the first time; vampires usually weren’t welcome there,not even half vamps.
And while there was a chance she and Sahiramight get killed if they tried to cross into the Gloaming, she wasexcited to see what lay beyond the human realm.
CHAPTER 2
Twilight was settling across the land as Lexi andSahira stood before the growing shadows spreading throughout theforest across from them. It had taken them an hour to reach thedesignated entrance to the Gloaming, and Lexi clutched theinvitation that would grant them passage like it was a lifepreserver in a storm-tossed sea.
Around her, half a dozen other immortalstalked excitedly about what was to come, but Lexi couldn’t join intheir enthusiasm. She was too nervous.
It had been a week since the invitationarrived. In that time, Sahira had managed to barter enough of herpotions in the marketplace near their home to purchase two gownsfor them.
Her aunt then spent the next couple of daysgetting those dresses to fit properly and adding special touches tothem. They were some of the most beautiful creations Lexi had everseen, but the exquisite gown only made Lexi feel more out of place.She’d never worn anything like it before.
The other immortals and her aunt were all atease in their fancy clothes while she felt like an imposter. Theywere also all excited about traveling to the Gloaming, and shecouldn’t help wondering if she would be allowed to make thejourney.
Maybe the invite was sent to them byaccident. Her dad did fight for the Lord, but she and Sahira wereboth half vampire, and vampires weren’t exactly welcome in theShadow Realms. Neither were humans.
When the time came, would they try to enterthe Gloaming only to be bounced back or, worse, destroyed?
She tugged at the collar of her dress as thepossibility caused a sheen of sweat to dampen her skin.
Trying to distract herself from the risk ofimpending death, Lexi studied the two dark fae standing at the edgeof the woods. They wore only loose-fitting brown pants; theirchests and feet were bare. Like all purebred dark fae, they hadblack hair, black eyes, pointed ears, and lithe builds.
The shadows swallowed them until theyflickered in and out of the spreading darkness created by thesetting sun. However, the dark fae were known to be a part of theshadows.
From her distance of ten feet, she sensedtheir power, yet their ciphers didn’t go past the middle of theirbiceps. She’d only encountered a couple of dark fae before, but sheknew those black markings indicated the amount of power theypossessed.
They said the dark fae king and his sonspossessed ciphers that extended to their wrists. The oldestsupposedly had ciphers to the tips of his fingers, like theking.
Unable to stop herself, Lexi tugged at thecollar of her gown again as the sun vanished. There was a momentwhen the entire world held its breath as the last of the sun’s raysstretched across the sky. Then the shimmering, deep purple entranceto the Gloaming came into view.
