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His face is hidden by the shadows and his hood. Something tells me that it’s a male, though, and his coloring makes two things super obvious: he’s Unseelie, and he’s gunning for an unsuspecting Jim.
I can’t let that happen. I have to do something to save him.
As if the Unseelie senses my desperation, he turns the shadow cyclone into a freaking hurricane right as he wraps the shadows around him and Jim, swallowing the two of them up entirely.
No!
I throw my arms up to cover my face as I dash toward him. I get slapped with hunks of ice torn from the wintry ground, whipped with rocks and dirt and debris kicked up from the wind, but I stumble as I yell again. “Jimmy!”
My only response is a full-throated male scream that is eerily cut off before it’s finished.
8
This is my nightmare come to life.
The night I followed the gnome Grimly into the depths of the shadowy woods to find his raven’s feather, I came face to face with one of the tricky and cruel faerie folk. It was a shapeshifter who first appeared as Jim, then Rys in a bid to keep me from retrieving the raven’s feather. It had hurt to see Jim, even when I knew it was impossible for him to be standing there in Faerie, but to see Rys after we were initially separated?
It fucked me up and good.
I almost gave up on paying Grimly off then and there. If it wasn’t for a stroke of luck—when the raven flew away, leaving a feather to float down in front of me before I turned my back on the shapeshifter and got the hell out of there—I probably would’ve. I snatched that damn feather, guarding it with my life until I could give it away, and even after I made it back to the protective circle, I still had the fake Rys’s cajoling whisper making me doubt… well, everything.
And that’s when I had that nightmare.
I was in the shadowy woods of the Shadow Realm, facing off against Rys and Jim while my old boyfriend was demanding me to choose. I stuttered and I stumbled—like I was just doing—but before I could come up with an answer, I saw a raven and some shadows that turned into a faceless creature who whisked Jim away.
Nightmare? Who am I kidding? It was a fucking premonition, and I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do.
He’s gone.
Jim’s… gone.
I need him back.
It’s as simple as that. No matter what, I’m not going to let some bastard pop up from the shadows and take him. He doesn’t deserve that. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t even be in Faerie.
I have to do something.
My mind is a blur. I keep replaying the moment that the Unseelie appeared from the depths of the shadows, latching onto Jim even though he didn’t have his permission; the fact that it had to have burned the shit out of his hands didn’t seem to bother the mysterious fae.
I don’t know who that was or why he went after Jim, but my instinct is to chase after him. Doesn’t matter that he disappeared back into the shadows, taking Jim with him. Now that the tornado has stilled to an eerie breeze, I start to run.
I don’t get far. Maybe three or four steps before someone grabs me. Whoever it is is strong. Their grip on my arms lifts me right off of the icy ground before I’m tucked against a chest so warm, I just about melt.
I know this male. This fae. And though his touch sends a soothing wave of energy through me, dulling the sharp edge of my overwhelming panic, I jerk my body, trying to break free from his hold.
“No, Rys, let me go!”
“He’s gone.”
I can’t accept that.
I won’t accept that.
I struggle harder. His grip tightens, not enough to hurt—never to hurt—but I’m stuck.
I still try, even as he says, “Listen to me. He’s already been dragged through the shadows. You’ll never find him.”
“I have to!”
