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Chapter 1
Ann
I’ve never wantedto kill anyone more than I want to kill my kidnappers. My fists have continued to beat on the back of the shadow beast that carries me for most of the night, but he seems as untroubled by my assault as I would be by the soft touch of sheets against my legs. I don’t know if the creature can even feel, or if he’s not reacting because he’s a huge being of nothing but muscles, but it makes the desperation inside of me grow.
“Asshole!” I shout, but my voice is ragged from all my screaming already.
The woods around us are a blur. I spot the other shadow beasts occasionally when the light from the moon illuminates them for the briefest of moments, and I see the shapes of trees, but that’s it. It’s as if I stepped out of a world of fire, and screaming, and battle into a different kind of nightmare.
All I know for sure is that I’m being taken further and further from the Royal Fae Academy. From my friends. From the only place my family will know to look for me.
And I’m scared.
In my twenty-three years, I’ve never experienced anything like this. Secrets I knew my fair share of. Shame… I knew that emotion even better. But true fear? Fear for my life? That emotion is still new to me. Something that creeps past all the happy emotions light fae are supposed to surround themselves with. And I know how it all started.
With Rayne.
With my mate.
A man who was murdered.
I thump the back of the shadow beast once more, harder, and I shout, but the sound is cut off by a sob I didn’t even know was building. My life before Rayne was boring. I was an average-looking light fae, born to an average family, and sent to the Royal Fae Academy like all light royal fae. I never felt special. I never felt excited about, well, almost anything.
Meeting Rayne and finding my mate was like suddenly seeing colors for the first time. He brought so much joy, and love, and mystery into my life. Soon, we were creeping together beneath the tunnels of the school, searching for the answers to secrets that only Rayne really understood.
But now I knew what he had been doing. He had been trying to save his sister and all the other dark fae.He was too good for this world.
He never lived to see what followed all his efforts, but I was proud to be part of the battle to help save the dark fae. I was even prouder that I stood against the shadow beasts and rescued my mate’s sister.
But now? Now I no longer feel like a brave warrior. I feel like a prisoner to beings that are terrifying and dangerous. As much as I try not to think about what they want with me, the question keeps popping back into my head.
Why did the shadow beasts take me?
Another sob escapes my lips, and the shadow beast that carries me slows for the briefest moment.
He makes a sound. It’s almost as if he’s speaking to the other shadow beasts, but I don’t understand his words if he is. I think I heard him speak English during the battle, but it could’ve just been my mind playing tricks on me because he doesn’t seem to understand me now or have the ability to communicate with me.
I don’t even know for sure if these creatures are intelligent enough to communicate with each other in anylanguage.Are they more man or beast?I think about them wearing those collars during the battle. It was clear they were prisoners then, but now what are they?
And when we get to wherever they’re taking me, will they hurt me?
“Just release me,” I say, loud enough that my words feel too loud in the dark night.
But the beast that carries me doesn’t respond or react. He just keeps running.
Time continues to fly by, but I’m not sure how many hours have passed until we come out into a clearing and I see that the moon hanging low in the sky. It seems these creatures have been running most of the night. The beasts seem to speed up, and I glance around and realize just how fast we’re going. Faster than any fae could move. If we’d been traveling this fast all night, I have a feeling we’re already days away from the academy.
My stomach sinks.
“Just release me! Put me down!” I beg again, my voice cracking.
None of them slow. They just keep going. More time passes, and then we suddenly stop.
The shadow beast that carries me lets me drop gently to the ground. But for some reason, my legs don’t seem to want to hold me, and I collapse onto the ground before him. My gaze moves from the hulking beast above me, his dark hair concealing most of his face, and then to the area around us. This area could be any other place in the woods, except I see a ring of stones and the evidence of wood having been burned in the center of the stones, and a river.
Why have they brought me here? What is this place?
There’s another noise from one of the shadow beasts. A string of sounds, like a low husky song, or a language unlike any I’ve heard before. The shadow beast emerges from the darkness beneath the trees and comes closer to me. This one, I think, has blond hair. But it’s long like the man who carried me, tangled, and filthy.
