Page 110 of Facade

I followed—every instinct screaming to stop. Go back.

I should've listened.

They flew past the docks and over the sea… I hesitated. To fly out over the sea this close to sunrise could be a death sentence. Yet I had to see what they were up to. I flew higher in the cloud coverage and took off as fast as I could.

We flew for almost twenty minutes. My wings started to tire, the burning pain creeping from my back, up along my shoulders, but I pressed on. Finally, they descended toward the water, where a ship waited. A ship flying the Fae kingdoms’ flags.

My heart stuttered—then stopped.

Why would the Fae be this close to our lands?

Something told me then—when the wind tore the clouds apart and revealed a vast armada bearing the Fae flags—that Aiden and the Queen had done something unforgivable.

I needed to tell the King. But when I started back toward our lands, clouds and fog had grown thick.

I got turned around, thinking I’d been flying back toward our lands, but I must've turned further east.

I flew lower, trying to recognize any landmarks, my wings ready to give out.

A spear whistled through the air and pierced me through the shoulder, and the ocean rushed to meet me.

31

Evanee

I shot up, dragging in a new breath of life.

“Evanee!” Ryker knelt next to me, his concerned gaze searching every inch as I turned to hang my legs off the large bed.

“I remember,” I croaked, the room spinning. “I remember everything.” A laugh bubbled up my throat, the sound a mere rasp. A fang sliced into my lip, making me wince, yet the pain sadistically brought me joy—my body was back. I was me again.

“I remember you,” I said around my tongue as I licked the blood off my lip. His eyes flared briefly, then settled into a look of relief.

“Ryker, what happened?”

His jaw worked before he ran a hand through his hair, and sat in a velvet, cream armchair beside the bed, so at odds with his black fighting leathers. He didn’t launch into the story so much as drag it out—piece by piece, like it hurt to say.

He told me he looked for me that night when all hell broke loose—skipping over what we'd done leading up to that—but was needed on the battlefield, to protect the civilians.

How the Fae had a relic to help them use magic.

Aniah tried and failed to destroy the object, but managed to hide it with a human, whom she wouldn’t name, at the cost of having her powers stolen by whatever dark, ancient power lay within the orb.

Ryker had searched everywhere for me, and when he couldn’t find me, he thought I was dead. Until word reached him that I’d been shot down over the water and taken to the Fae lands. From there, he and Aniah searched for the entire three years. Now she stayed behind—to help Malachai, as they’d helped me.

Each word felt heavier than the last, settling into place with sickening clarity.

I shook my head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I’ve been with Malachai and Aiden these past weeks and never knew who they were.” It was more than disbelief—I felt sick. Dirty. wrong. I’d let Aiden touch me. Touched myself to thoughts of him… A shudder snaked over my body as nausea churned.

“I feel like something in me should have recognized them.”

“You couldn’t have. Not with that memory curse.” He shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t think Malachai’s memories are completely locked away.”

“How so?”

“He… interrupted Aiden and me in several… intense situations.”