Page 20

I whispered back, “No… it’s beautiful.” It was like honey in my ears, thick and golden, drowning out her warnings. I couldn’t hear her anymore, only the song. I tore her hands from my ears and stumbled deeper into the trees. They didn’t look like trees anymore. Their bark shimmered, molten, gilded, holy. Even the moss at my feet glowed like treasure.

Had the forest always been this beautiful? Or was I just now able to see the beauty?

Valentina's POV

Panic scraped down my throat as he guided himself deeper into the Fae’s glamour. Alexander had no idea what awaited him. He was young and foolish, which made him all the more reckless. If he crossed that threshold, I might never see him again, not for centuries, if ever. They didn’t need illusions of beauty. What they were was more than enough.

They weren’t the modernized Tinkerbell humans have grown accustomed to. I wish they had been. It would be easier to crush an insect if it were only two inches tall. But this was not that.

They were real Fae, low to high, forest creatures who lured men, human or otherwise, into their world. They bred with them. Drained them. And when the men returned, if they returned, they came back old, hollow things, broken and forgotten by time.

Their portals to the human realm were far more complex than those to Velarune. Older as a race, their magic simmered far deeper in chaos than I wanted to admit. Even if I wanted to travel to their domain, I couldn’t from Earth. There was some binding spell. If you entered from this side, it sealed you into their domain for as long as the master wished.

Alex was walking straight into their trap.

Even as an immortal, if he crossed into their realm with one of them, he’d return to find everything he knew gone, his kingdom reduced to ash.

Fae glamour only bled through this world in bursts. They could only pull one at a time. Now that he’d heard the tune, it was already choosing him as its prize. Venom flooded my mouth on instinct, a familiar pull coiling in my chest that I had to force down.

He had already eased us into the glamour they’d laid for him. Every nerve in my body screamed warnings, begging me to stop him before it was too late.

Sliding down his back, I rushed around in front of him, planting myself in his path. My palm slammed against his chest, halting him mid-step. “Alex, please,” I begged, aloud and in his mind. “You don’t want to go in there.”

I flooded his thoughts with warning, but a violent force shoved me out. It almost left me breathless. I had to shake my head to steady myself. It made no sense. Alexander didn’t know how to block me. He didn’t even know how to reach out to me yet. It had to be the portal. The glamour was already interfering with our bond.

Our bond was already fragile, the threads between us barely connected, since he wasn’t fully into himself yet. That had me raging at the thought of something interfering with something so precious. I was already under enough strain, knowing he had no idea what his biology did to me. My mind was surging into unfamiliar territory, and this felt like an utter intrusion.

He glanced down at me once, then tried to step around me. My pride wouldn’t allow it. I shoved him hard. He went down into the moss; breath knocked from his lungs. I followed instantly, straddling his hips, pinning his wrists to the ground.

“Listen to me,” I hissed.

“Val—get off me!” he shouted.

I shoved him deeper into the dirt as he barked orders at me, reckless and raw. “You will not tell me what to do,” he breathed from underneath me, his voice dipping into uncharted territory. When he uttered it, a silent thread from his side began to whisper its command to me. “You will listen to me.”

How dare he use something he didn’t understand against me? Even if it weren’t a full command he shouldn’t have been able to will it. He bucked from underneath me trying to toss me off as he said it. I tightened my thighs against his waist keeping him pinned in the moss. Everything about it pissed me off… and unsettled me in a way that made my stomach flip. He bucked again pushing his hip to the side to roll me on my side and my nails dug deeper into his wrist.

If he thought he was stronger than me in this moment, he was severely wrong. He wouldn’t be able to overpower me, not until his strength came in.

Not yet.

Right now, I was in control of him. Incapable as he as was.

“You do not control me,” I snapped. “You’re a child walking straight into a line of fire. Do you like the feeling of being burned? You’re chasing your own damn death, Alexander. I am not waiting two hundred years for you to come back to me.” I had already waited long enough to meet him. I would not fail my father’s mission, or lose my Velsera, because he didn’t understand the danger breathing down his neck.

Then it hit me. A foot shoved right into my ribs, and a blinding pain tore through my side. I was yanked off of him like a ragdoll and thrown across the mossy floor.

My body hit the ground hard, rolling until I caught myself on all fours. he heel of my boots dug into the earth, fingers curling into the moss, with my lips peeling over my fangs in a snarl. Whoever just struck me had made their last mistake.

My gaze found her in seconds. She was already reaching for Alex’s hand, her fingers delicate, deceitful. Her wings poked angelically through her thin white clothing. The fabric clung to her like breath, revealing pale skin and stiff pink nipples beneath brazen and cold as ice. Her thick, wavy hair spilled over her shoulders, and her full lips curled into a smile too welcoming to trust. Before she could lead him to the tree, their gate. I launched at her.

We collided, and I slammed her into the dirt. “You do not touch what is mine, you winged concubine.” My fist cracked across her jaw, and the illusion shattered. Beauty peeled away like glass to reveal the raw, snarling thing beneath. She hissed in her guttural tongue. I didn’t understand it. Didn’t need to. Fairy was never a language worth learning.

Yanking her up by her silky hair, I dragged her forward like prey, making sure my nails bit at the root. She clawed at the strap of my pack, jerking hard, but it didn’t shake me. Faes weren't really a match for vampires. “Get off me,” she snarled in English.

My free hand fisted the translucent wing and twisted it back until it cracked. “You tried to abduct what’s taken? That earns your death.” I glanced at Alex to make sure I hadn’t scared him. His face was a storm, confusion, curiosity… and the ghost of a smirk. And his feet were already closing the distance, silent but certain, as if his body had decided before his mind could. I knew then he wasn’t going to let me finish her.

She shrieked, struggling. “I didn’t know he was mated. I didn’t even know he wasn’t human!” I didn’t care if she didn’t. I yanked her wing harder, smiling at the crunch of cartilage. “I swear it!” she howled.