And beneath the mountain, the foundations pulsed once in answer, a single deep beat that rolled through the stone, through the bed, through the soles of Kara’s feet, and was gone.
Nick’s hand tightened gently around her shoulder.
Kara closed her eyes.
For one long, perfect moment, the world was warm.
* * *
The Fae Realmwas dying beautifully.If death could be beautiful.
Fane stood at the edge of the crystalline overlook and watched silver light fracture across the distant forests below like cracks spreading through glass, each split throwing thin, glittering shards of brightness across the canopy before fading.Massive glowing trees stretched toward the twilight sky, their branches haloed in pale fire, while rivers of pale blue magic cut through the land in winding currents that should have moved like water and instead moved like breath.
And everywhere, the realm trembled.
Subtle.But wrong.
It was the wrongness that bothered him most.He had stood in the Fae Realm a hundred times and never once felt it shiver beneath his boots like a horse about to bolt.
Jacque stepped beside him silently, worn jeans brushing his leg as she moved close enough for their shoulders to touch.One hand slid into his automatically, her fingers small and warm and familiar against his palm.Her green eyes reflected the fractured silver light spreading across the horizon, sharp and wary.
“We felt that one harder,” she murmured.
Fane nodded once.
The foundations.
Something had shifted again.
Behind them, Jen paced near the center of the fae council chamber while Decebel leaned against one of the towering crystal pillars, arms folded, watching his mate with the exhausted patience of a male who had long ago accepted chaos as a permanent feature of his existence.
“This is bad,” Jen announced for at least the fourth time in ten minutes.“What did you call it, Nissa?”
Nissa, seated across from the gathered wolves on her low silver throne, looked almost offended by the understatement.“The foundations between realms have been shaken.”
“See,” Jen pointed at the high fae.“Shaking foundations is never good.And why in holy hell have we not discussed whatever the heck are foundations between the realms?I keep asking for a supernatural book that tells us all this crap.”She slapped her empty palm, “Does anyone see a book?No?Funny, I don’t either.Which means when new shit happens, we don’t know what to do.”
“Female,” Decebel growled.“Getting angry about it isn’t going to fix it.”
Jen paused, glanced at her mate, and took a deep breath.“I love you.”
He grinned.“Are you reminding yourself, or me?”
“Both, just in case I kill you in your sleep.”
“You’d never give him such an easy death,” Jacque laughed.“Quit lying.”
Heather sat quietly beside Kale, her blind eyes unfocused as silver gypsy magic drifted unconsciously around her fingers.
“The darkness is learning,” Heather whispered suddenly.
The chamber went silent.
Kale immediately turned toward his mate.“Heather.”
Her expression tightened.
“It touched the foundations and survived,” she said softly.“Now it understands where the realms connect.”
