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CHAPTER ONE
RUSH
“I know you’re here, Tante. Show yourself,” I called recklessly into the dark, vicious forest as I hunted for the mentor I hadn’t seen in a decade. Walking alone in Aralia after dark was an invitation to quick death, but what choice did I have?
As it was, I was already living on borrowed time.
All the years I’d spent carving out an identity and a place of trust and power in Merden’s court, just so I could be ready for Kana’s return - now, all of it had tumbled in a moment like a house of cards. All the intricate, careful machinations had fallen apart with the simple swipe of the princess’s finger in the battle arena, bringing my blood to meet those lush lips.
She was a dark and gorgeous creature, and together we were supposed to save this world.
Not ruin it.
“Tante, please. Time runs short,” I called again, hating the note of desperation that had crept into my voice and fearing the way the words were absorbed into the listening, watching forest.
If I couldn’t find the ageless fae to beg for her advice... no. I locked away the fearful thought and stepped deeper into the darkness, following the needle-thin trail of Tante’s invisible energy that only I could see.
The sudden whoosh and clap of wings against my temples knocked me to my knees on the mossy ground, but I reared up and fought back with my weaker earth magic, willing it to be enough. Vines grew from the ground like whips, and I snapped my sharp fae teeth at the fairy creature.
No gossamer wings or tinkling bells here - this one was all knuckled bone and whining screeches as it pummeled me again with its rough, leathery wings.
Snarling, I yanked at the substance of a nearby tree with my magic, swelling and twisting its branches into daggers that shredded and impaled the creature as it swooped toward me again. My vines wrapped its limbs, then its neck, strangling the fight from it. The creature wouldn’t die, of course.
Fairy creatures in this forest simply rematerialized when their bodies failed, returning each time more vicious than the last.
This one was large enough that it must have been deconstructed many times, and if it found me again after tonight, I would pay dearly. I strained harder with the vines, pulling apart the sinews of its misshapen body.
Finally, the fairy’s neck snapped under the force of the vines, and black blood dripped onto the forest floor, sizzling where it met cool dark leaves. I dropped the vines and darted around the blood, no longer taking the time to be quiet and careful. If I didn’t find Tante before the creature was reborn, I might never have the chance.
The night sky was no longer visible above as I crept through a tangled web of vines that seemed familiar, though much more overgrown than the last time I’d been here. The golden thread of energy I was following wound around the base of a massive, gnarled tree, seeming to disappear into its black bark.
“Tante, see me,” I called softly. “Hear me. Scent me.” And I used just enough of my precious stores of energy magic to surge the golden thread into a finger-sized rope, pulling on it gently with my mind to awaken her. I waited, praying silently to the Goddesses that Tante was not too deep in slumber. She was the only mentor I had left, and the last of her kind.
Just when I’d nearly given up - in this forest, it wasn’t smart to stay in one place too long - the tree creaked as though a storm were coming. Strips of bark peeled away and fell down over the moss-covered roots. Dry, brown leaves shook themselves loose from upper branches and floated around my feet as I watched a long black fingernail slowly scratch away the rotting wood from within.
“Well, well, Declan. I suppose your early arrival means you failed. How bad is it?” a raspy, rusty voice greeted me after several minutes. My heart shuddered in my chest at the news I had to give, and I struggled to find my voice as Tante emerged from the half-dead tree she’d been feeding on for a century now.
Her hair was tangled and matted with decaying wood and the insects that scurried after her work. Black gums and stained, razor-sharp teeth met my gaze in a semblance of a sneer.
“Well, boy?” she prompted, breaking away enough of the trunk to uncurl herself and stretch her skinny legs between the tree’s roots, her filthy, bony arms resting on them like she sat on a throne. Her hair did little to cover her nakedness, which she wore like a challenge.
I took a deep breath. It was best to get it over with quickly. “I’m so sorry, Tante. I have not been careful enough. The vampire princess tasted my blood, three days ago now.”
She made a noise that sounded like a snort and settled back more comfortably against the hollow trunk, a slim green snake twining itself in her filthy hair as her body began to meld back into the tree itself, gathering more of her power. I stayed silent as a child who knows they’ve done wrong and fears the coming punishment.
I’d been given a single task, and I’d managed to fuck it all up with the single, selfish decision to impress the princess by playing warrior in the vampire arena.
We could all fall for my pride, now.
Thankfully, the forest remained silent behind me as Tante took the time to gather her energy close. Even the snarling fairy creatures should know better than to disturb me when I was with her in this form.
Eventually, her eyes opened again, fixing on me with glittering intensity. “While it is true that you should not have let that happen, happen it did. There is only forward now, but we must forge a different path. And so, it is time you know the fullest, deepest part of your own blood.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to gauge her expression. “Do you mean my mother?” I asked, wondering if this old mystery might finally be revealed to me. Tante nodded, the little snake bobbing its head with her as my heart beat faster.
“In your veins runs pure, royal Aralian fae blood. This much you know - your father gave this same blood to Prince Ronan through Queen Ignea, but he chose a different fae to beyourmother. Nobody knows why Julianna was willing, for she’d rejected every fae suitor she’d ever had. Goddess knows that female was created too wild to be a mother, and certainly not suited to deserve twin boys.”
I bit down on the instinctive curses flooding my mouth. I didn’t remember my mother, so perhaps Tante was right about her. But no child wanted to hear such things, no matter how long it had been.
