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“No, I’m telling you to run.” He looked behind me to Iola. “Ready two horses. You’re leaving. Now.”
47
LONNIE
THE OBSIDIAN PALACE GROUNDS
For the second time, I watched a prince of Everlast disappear and screamed with frustration.
The horses stomped nervously, and Iola jumped. “Are you alright?”
“No,” I snapped. “I will be back shortly.”
“No!” she said, nearly as loudly as I’d screamed. “You heard Lord Bael. You can’t.”
Cold…something licked up my fingers, that same feeling I’d had earlier in the barn. Not the same as the flames, but no less angry. “I am tired of being left behind.”
I clenched my jaw—furious, afraid, so many other things I couldn’t name. I wasn’t sure what I even intended to do now or where I needed to go. Before, I’d had a clear plan, but now, I simply could not stand by and do nothing.
“Wait here,” I told Iola.
I didn’t wait for a response. This time, I didn’t shadow walk, instead striding out of the doors and onto the dark lawn.
The burning castle was the only thing illuminating the darkening sky. Night had truly fallen now, and embers flew into the air like will-o-whisps or twinkling cinder-stars. I might have been beautiful if it were not so horrifying. If it did not remind me so very much of the flames in Aftermath, the fires in the pits of the Source, and the flames that flickered inside me, begging to be set free.
With no clear idea of what I intended to do, I took off running toward the castle. My feet pounded a violent, familiar rhythm against the well-worn path, and for a moment, it was only me in the darkness, the sound of the roaring fire and the beating of my heart.
I slammed into something hard and unexpected and bounced off.
Light danced behind my eyes, and my breath left me in a woosh as my spine slammed into the hard ground. My lungs spasmed, and I gasped, struggling to breathe.Nothing hurt, aside from my lungs as they worked to even out my breathing, but the shock of the impact had been all too overwhelming.
My eyes shot open, and I blinked up at the shadow of a stranger looming over me. My blood ran cold as I realized that I’d just run headlong into a trap.
“Dullahan,” I breathed.
It was and wasn’t a question, and the moment I spoke, I knew for a fact that I was telling the truth. My heart raced with mingled fear and something like excitement. I’d been looking for Ambrose Dullahan for months now, for so many reasons I would have to start a list of all the things I needed to ask him.
The male stepped toward me, the same dark cloak and stolen mask as I’d come to recognize making him look almost unreal in the hazy air. He cocked his head before reaching up to push the mask off his face. “Since we are being direct, what name are you going by now, Elowyn?”
48
LONNIE
THE OBSIDIAN PALACE GROUNDS
My mind stuttered to a halt, and it was a moment before I could speak.
Ambrose Dullahan looked every bit the Fae royal, with an arrogantly handsome face, high cheekbones, and straight jaw. His complexion was fair, while his eyes were so dark and fathomless that the dark sky looked gray in comparison. His hair was the same moonlit silver of his brother’s eyes and shaved on one side to reveal a long scar that ran the length of his skull.
While he was not quite as angelically beautiful as Bael or as intensely seductive as Scion, there was something in the way he carried himself that radiated power.
He had the sort of power that made soldiers march and kings kneel.
The power that started rebellions.
The power that inspired women to run into battle with his name on their lips.
I scrambled to my feet as words returned to me. “How the fuck do you know my name?”
