Chapter 7

Harpy Bay was a quaint fishing village. Thatched-roofed homes and storefronts lined the shoreline, and despite the frigid winds coming off the sea and the late hour, there were a fair amount of townsfolk out and about conducting business, making deliveries, working on the boats anchored in the harbor, and even socializing. I did my best not to stare at the unseelie as I passed—fae with features I wasn’t accustomed to like horns and tails and wings, fae with scaled skin who I suspected were full or half mer. I could have sworn I spotted some sort of water serpent while I was looking out at the water on the way into town. It was as long as the largest ship moored in the harbor; its scales glittered in the moonlight as it breached the waves before sinking below the surface once again.

But by far the highest concentration of unseelie in this town were the ones with the upper body of a man or woman, and lower body of a bird. Long black, bat-like wings dripped off their backs as they stared at me with their inky, beady eyes when I passed.

Harpies.

I had started to feel somewhat comfortable in this foreign land with Zander as my guide, but now that he was gone the oddities of Ethereum stood out starkly to me, reminding me that I didn’t belong in this world.

As Omen and I trotted through the heart of the market of Harpy Bay, I kept a sharp eye out for any Northern Army men. I told myself not to be disheartened that I hadn’t spotted anyone yet and scanned the open market shops for a tavern, the perfect place to find out about the goings-on in the village. My gaze snagged on a sign hanging off to the left that read The Sad Bass Tavern. Sliding off Omen, I secured his reins to a post before going into the pub.

I sighed in relief when I spotted a group of four fae dressed in military garb similar to Zander’s. They appeared to be enjoying a bowl of stew and a cup of ale, and from the ruddy tint on their cheeks I assumed it wasn’t their first pint of the evening. Nevertheless, I didn’t have the time or patience to find a sober group to approach. Who knows what’s happened to Zander in the hours since our attack. And who better to help him than his own men.

Going right up to them, I didn’t wait for them to acknowledge my presence before speaking. “I need to speak to the officer in charge,” I said, infusing my words with as much authority as I possessed, which was a lot considering I was a Summer Court crowned princess.

The fae males all stopped what they were doing and peered up at me with conflicting looks on their faces—two confused, one annoyed, and the last one leered at me, tracking his gaze over my curves, from my pants-clad legs up to my chest and down again. I refused to let my cheeks redden under any of their regard.

“Did you hear me?” I asked when none of them spoke. “I need to speak with your commanding officer immediately.”

“And what’s it worth to you?” the male who ogled me asked.

The food in my stomach roiled at the suggestive tone of his voice. I had to bite my tongue to keep from snapping back at him that it was worth me not splitting him open from navel to nose. Something told me I wouldn’t get anywhere with these males by being combative. I took a calming breath before speaking again.

I leaned in and lowered my voice, not wanting to start a panic. “I have news of your commander’s capture. I need to talk to the officer in charge right away.”

Those words seemed to sober the men up, at least a little. The three fae who hadn’t spoken put down their drinks and straightened in their chairs, looking more alert. The fourth simply leaned back, opening his legs wider as a slimy smile curved his mouth.

“Well, you see,” the lecherous fae drawled. “If you’ll be wanting to speak to Captain Regis, then you’ll have to give us something in—”

“Aron, stop,” one of the other fae barked, shooting his companion a dark look. “If the lass is telling the truth and we don’t take her seriously, we’ll be whipped.”

That shut the fae, Aron, up. I resisted the urge to shoot him a smug smile.

The other fae turned toward me. He’d been one of the men who initially appeared confused, but now he regarded me seriously. “I’m Bram,” he said. “We’re part of the infantry in the Northern Army. You say the commander’s been captured? How do you know this?”

“I was with the commander when we were set upon by bandits. They knocked me unconscious and took him. It’s been hours, so it’s imperative we start looking for him right away.”

“How do you know our commander and why were you with him?” he asked, suspicion clouding his eyes.

This was the tricky part. I’d claimed to have news about Lord Roan when I’d first arrived in Ethereum, and I’d somehow ended up shackled for my troubles. I didn’t want a repeat of that experience, so I needed to tread carefully.

“The commander is a friend,” I lied. “He was escorting me to Noreum.”

“A friend, you say?” Bram asked with a pointed look at the cuffs circling my wrists.

I cursed myself for not having the foresight to pull my sleeves further down over them. I was slipping. “Technically, I’m a captive of Zander’s. But for completely ridiculous reasons. I can assure you, we are on friendly terms.”

His eyebrows winged at the informal way I addressed his commander and the unintentional suggestion that Zander and I were close in an intimate way. This time my cheeks did warm, and I cursed myself again. I was doing this all wrong.

“Zander?” Bram said and then shared some sort of silent communication with his companions. I wasn’t getting a good feeling about this. After a few short moments he nodded, and all four of them rose to their feet, ignoring their unfinished meal and drinks. “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth, but I’ll take you to Captain Regis and let him decide for himself. For your sake, I hope you are because the captain doesn’t suffer liars. If you’re being untruthful with us, a beating will be the least of the possible punishments you’ll face.”

His threat was meant to scare me, but instead they caused a surge of relief to flood my system. Thank the stars we were finally getting somewhere.

After they dropped some coins on the table, I followed the fae out of The Sad Bass Tavern.

“She has the commander’s horse,” one of the men said with worry.

“I told you I’m telling the truth,” I snapped.

With that, I swung up onto Omen while the men readied their own horses. Once they mounted, I followed them through the streets of Harpy Bay and up into the foothills, where the military was camped.

We reached the military encampment in under fifteen minutes. There were about two dozen white canvas tents set up in a flat clearing. After stowing our horses in the makeshift stables, Bram, Aron, and the other two fae I didn’t know the names of marched me to the center of camp, two before me and two at my back. We stopped in front of a brown tent easily four times the size of any of the others. Two unseelie guards with fish scales running the length of their arms and neck flanked the entrance to the shelter.

Bram broke off from the group to whisper something to one of the guards, who ducked into the tent a moment later. It wasn’t even a full minute before he came back out and gestured for me to enter. I gave Bram a sidelong look as I passed him, and he just stared back with a resigned look on his face. They didn’t bother to unarm me before I entered the tent, probably believing a female wasn’t much of a threat.

Idiots.

The inside of the tent was blessedly warm. Lanterns were positioned around the perimeter of the space and a fire burned in the middle, the smoke releasing through a hole above it. There was only a single fae in the tent. He appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties and was seated at a long desk off to the side. There were papers scattered in front of him and he didn’t bother standing or even glancing up when I entered.

“Captain Regis?” I asked as I approached.

He finally looked up then, his eyes a glacier blue and his red hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. I tried not to stare at the pair of thick brown horns protruding from his forehead.

Unseelie.

“That is, indeed, my name,” he said. “But the question is not who I am, but rather who you are and if you truly have information on the commander or not.” His gaze was piercing, but I wasn’t intimidated easily.

“My name is Dawn, but who I am is of no importance. What’s important is that we start looking for the commander right away.”

Captain Regis’ gaze dipped to my wrists, which were now covered, but I had no doubt he already knew about the cuffs. Standing suddenly, he skirted the desk and came at me, hands reaching for my arms.

I sidestepped him, jerking away from his grasp as my hand itched to grab the dagger at my side.

Stopping, Captain Regis tilted his head. “May I?” he asked, gesturing to my wrists.

I didn’t want him to look at the cuffs, but I didn’t see a way out of it, so I resigned myself and held an arm out to him. He pushed my sleeve back and gently twisted my wrist this way and that as he studied the infuriating device.

Finally, he let me go and stepped back to lean up against the desk. He folded his arms over his chest, his face unreadable. “Those are indeed Commander Zander’s,” he said. “How do you expect me to believe that you want to help him when you’re still cuffed with his shackles and have seemingly stolen his horse?”

So he’d heard about the horse too? Great.

Admittedly, I was a little surprised myself that the cuffs hadn’t fallen off already. I thought going out of my way to help rescue the fae would cause them to fall off, but I guessed deep down part of me still wanted to do Zander harm. That, or these things were defective.

“Have you met Commander Zander? If you never noticed, he is rather vexing,” I growled.

One corner of Captain Regis’ mouth quirked up before he smoothed over his features again.

I shrugged. “I’ll admit I wouldn’t pass up the chance to give him one solid hit for the trouble he’s caused me, but that doesn’t mean my conscience is settled with leaving him to die.”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Can you prove to me that you know him? I cannot send my tracker fae out on a ruse.”

Tracker fae. That sounded promising.

I placed one hand on my hip. “Well, for starters, I rode his horse Omen here willingly—I didn’t steal him. And secondly, I slept in his sister-in-law’s barn yesterday. Brienne and her twin sons Kegan and Kipp. If that’s not enough proof—” He held up a hand, the color draining from his face.

“When was he taken?”

Finally! It seemed the mention of the personal names of his family had spurred this fae into action. “Several hours ago. There were six bandits, and they used a debilitation rune of some type that drained his power and nearly paralyzed him. One of the bandits said his boss wanted to speak to Zander before he cracked me over the head, and I was knocked out.” I peeled my hair back to show him the egg that had grown there and was now blessedly healing.

The captain rushed passed me and burst out of the tent. “Get me Tomas and Gwen!” he barked to the men.

I stood there silently as the minutes ticked by until the captain returned with two lithe-looking fae. They weren’t wearing the regular Northern Army regalia. Instead they wore strips of leather and moss. Small twigs hung from their long brown hair as they regarded me.

Fascinating, they resembled trees or bushes.

One was a young female, maybe sixteen, and the other male, not a day over twenty. They had similar features. Brother and sister?

The young female, Gwen, flared her nostrils as she stepped closer to me. “She smells of him. She speaks the truth.”

“Do you require food before we set out? I’ll need you to take my trackers to the last known spot the commander was,” the captain asked me as he strapped a sword on his hip. The sense of urgency had just been ramped up a notch.

“I’m fine. I can chew on some smoked meat on the way,” I told him.

He nodded, and with that he burst from the tent and within minutes I sat atop Omen once again. The way Captain Regis’ eyes widened when he saw the stallion told me he recognized the horse as Zander’s, and he started moving even faster. After mounting, we were ready to ride out with over a dozen members of the Northern Army behind us and only the moonlight to guide our path.

Captain Regis leaned in to one of the soldiers who was staying behind. “You will make all decisions about the war in my absence. If the rebellion has him, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands.”

I frowned at that, but when his gaze flicked to mine I wiped my face of all evidence that his words of a war and a rebellion affected me.

Was there a war going on that I didn’t know about? Was this related to what Brienne and Zander were talking about in the kitchen? He’d pulled her away to update her about some rebel invasion. It was all a possibility, I only got to this realm a few days ago. It made sense then why these men were out here. They were at war. All while the Northern lord sat in his pretty castle, no doubt, as his people bled for him. That was infuriating and gave me the fuel I would need to kill him without guilt.

I led the way out of Harpy Bay, barely even needing to guide Omen to the spot where I’d lost Zander. A dozen times along the ride I asked myself what I was doing. I had a horse, I had a current map that the elderly couple had drawn me—why wasn’t I riding for Noreum where the lord sat and taking his heart? Sure, it would be easier to get an audience with the Northern lord with Zander’s help, but I was skilled and trained well enough to be confident I could sneak into the castle and get the job done.

The truth was, every day that passed was a day my people in Faerie suffered. Crops were decimated by the darkness. The sunlight that powered my people grew dim. But no matter how logical it was to turn Omen around and seek to complete my mission on my own, I couldn’t force myself to abandon Zander to his fate. The inability to put my mission and the fate of the Summer Court before anything and everything else scared me, chilling my blood more thoroughly than the freezing northern air ever could.

Why was I risking all of that for a guy?

Snuggle bunny.

Little bird.

The bastard had grown on me. His incorrigible flirting, his stupid pet name for me. I couldn’t just leave him to die.

“Why do people keep trying to kill or capture Zander?” I asked his captain.

Captain Regis gave me a side glance and I noticed a pelt of fur ran down the back of his neck and disappeared under his shirt. He was part beast, as all unseelie were, but I was becoming less and less revolted by that, and more simply curious.

“He’s the commander of the entire Northern Army. His enemies are many.”

I chuckled to myself. Zander had said almost the exact same thing to me. And I guess they had a point. I was princess of the entire Summer Court, and although things were peaceful now, there were times growing up when my mother had to be guarded against uprisings because she’d raised land taxes.

Omen whined, and I peered at the ground in the darkness. There was a lump off to the side. The dead body of a fallen bandit.

“Here,” I said.

The tracker fae were already off their horses, on all fours sniffing the ground like animals. It was quite unsettling. With the darkness of night and the way they were dressed, they blended into trees and bushes so there were moments I couldn’t see them at all unless they wanted me too.

“I have his trail,” Gwen answered, and I jumped to find her beside the captain and me.

He nodded. “Which direction?”

“West.”

“Follow it. Gather intel but do not strike without me. We’ll head west and camp if you don’t get back to me in one hour’s time,” he told her.

She and her brother took off on foot then, racing through the forest at incredible speeds. I wondered at that moment why they had ridden on horses at all.

“They conserve their energy for the hunt,” Captain Regis said beside me as if reading my mind.

With that he clicked his heels and pointed his horse west, and the rest of his soldiers, about a dozen, followed him. Omen moved to get in line, but I hesitated. Zander was safe, his men had his trail. I should leave now and worry about my own people.

But a tiny part of me wondered if he was hurt, if these soldiers would need my help to recover him. Against everything my mind was telling me, I urged Omen on, and after about an hour we stopped in a grassy field dimly lit by moonlight.

The dozen soldiers with us made quick work of camp setup. They had a fire going, four tents built, and meat roasting in no time.

“They know what they’re doing,” I told the captain. He nodded. “We’ve been at this a long time.”

Interesting. How long? I wondered, but I was road weary and needed rest. I’d ridden most of the day and night and spent a large part of the afternoon unconscious. Sleep pulled at my limbs, and I yawned.

“Get some sleep. I’ll wake you if we find him.”

I hesitated, feeling that he should know my powers and ability to help if needed. “I’d like to be a part of the rescue. I have sunlight magic—”

“Absolutely not,” the captain said, looking at the cuffs at my wrist. “We don’t take civilians or captives on rescue missions. My men are more than capable. Get some rest.”

Okay, obviously that pissed him off. Great.

Not wanting to just sit there and argue, I stepped into one of the tents set up for Gwen and me. There were two bedrolls, and I sank into one, letting sleep take me instantly.

* * *

I was shaken awake and blinked rapidly to see Captain Regis hovering over me with blood-splattered cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” I gasped, taking in his appearance. His chainmail was torn right through, and he was bleeding from the collarbone.

“The fae who have him …” He shook himself as if horrified by some memory. “They have a voidspawn.”

“A voidspawn?”

“Fae that feed on darkness, haunt you with horrible visions until you go crazy and kill yourself. It’s only killed by sunlight. It’s torturing the commander right now and have already killed half my men.”

I jumped up so fast that he was forced to fall backward on his butt lest he crack heads with me.

“Take me to him,” I demanded, my heart in my throat.

“Are you sure you have sunlight magic?” the captain asked, and I pulled for my power, effortlessly blasting a small beam of golden rays right at the ground at his feet.

He gasped, and then grabbed me by the arm, tugging me toward his horse. I was still half asleep, so I didn’t protest when he practically threw me up onto his horse by the armpits and then got onto the animal behind me. I felt like a little kid riding a horse with her dad. He kicked the stallion, and we rode for about ten minutes in the dead of night through a trampled trail before I heard shouts.

Jumping off the horse, I crouched down as I took in the sight of six soldiers flat on their stomachs up ahead.

One peered back at us and held his hand up in a fist.

I knew that sign from my mother’s royal guard. It meant stay. We waited until the men popped up onto their feet and waved us over. As we ran to meet them, I took stock of their pristine uniforms. This was what was left of the soldiers, the other half who hadn’t yet faced the voidspawn.

The rest were dead according to Captain Regis.

Captain Regis gestured for us to huddle around him. “We go in and take out the resistance fighters while Dawn fights the—”

A guttural scream cut jaggedly through the night air, and my heart leapt into my throat. I recognized that voice. That was Zander.

Without waiting for the captain to say anything more, I took off running toward that cry, pulling my magic through every cell in my body as I did and building it up. This was not a fight I would win with a blade, and if I ousted myself as a princess of Faerie by displaying too much power, then so be it.

I burst through a thicket of trees into a dark clearing. There were a few fires lit off to the side, but in the middle was Zander, surrounded by his dead fallen soldiers. He was tied to a tree, the debilitation rune on his chest glowing brightly as he roared in agony, thrashing his head left and right.

Standing in front of him was the most horrifying creature I’d ever seen. It stood over ten feet tall, made of shadows and darkness. It was so black I felt if I walked through it I would fall into an endless void. With no visible arms or legs, the cloaked figure floated like an apparition a foot off the ground. A thick black cord of its darkness trailed from the top of its cloak right into Zander’s head. My legs trembled at the sight of such a nightmarish monster, but I gritted my teeth and readied for battle.

“Intruders!” Someone sounded the alarm, and the monster turned to face me.

Reaching out, I blasted the creature with everything I had, holding nothing back. It was like a sunlight bomb went off right in his face. I closed my eyes, but even so I temporarily blinded myself as well, and when my vision adjusted I watched in relief as the black cord going into Zander’s head snapped and recoiled back into the monster made of darkness. With that amount of power, I expected the creature to be a puddle of shadows. Dead. But instead it swallowed my light like it was nothing.

Impossible.

But there was no time to panic. It was coming for me. The cord dangling from its body flew at my face and I shot another beam of light at it, watching as it recoiled.

Sunlight stream after sunlight stream, I shot them at the creature like arrows. Was it my imagination or did the monster look smaller? Like it was shrinking?

Ignoring the tumult of fighting around me, I reached for my power and blasted the dark fae with a huge light bomb again. This time when my sunlight power connected with the monster, I saw it was definitely smaller, shorter than me now, like my light was consuming its darkness.

I pulled for more magic, feeling the open well inside of me overflow with power. I was aiming for its chest when the dark tentacle collided with the side of my head and a suction of sorts took hold on my temple. I gasped as a cold, dark, foreboding fear overwhelmed me, and then I was sucked into a nightmare.

It was like a vision playing out before my eyes.

My mother sobbed in the throne room, and there were hundreds of dead bodies around her. Black rain pelted against the windows as she screamed at the mirror that stood at the end of the room. “Where are you, Dawn?”

No. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. The beast was trying to trick me, feeding off of these dark thoughts and growing bigger again.

Taking in a cleansing breath, I forced myself to focus, not letting my thoughts run wild like they normally would. I reached up and grasped the cord attached to my head and shot a beam of fire mixed with light from my palm, causing it to snap away from me like an injured animal. A high shriek filled the night, then the vision of my mother was gone.

It was time to end this. The creature before me was now only as tall as a goat, but I knew it would grow bigger if I didn’t fight with everything I had right here and now.

I pushed all the sunlight magic I had left inside of me at the creature. A dangerous amount, an amount Master Duncan told me never to do.

Never deplete your reserves. You could kill your magic forever.

Well, it was kill or be killed. This thing was feeding on my soul, I could feel it.

The light exploded out of me, and the beast hissed, but I continued to blast him with more and more of my magic.

“Dawn, be careful!” Zander shouted from where he was tied to the tree.

Did he know I could deplete my power? Of course he might suspect, as all seelie were at risk of burning out.

Pulling my sunstone dagger from its sheath with my free hand, I lunged at the shrinking creature, shoved it into the center of the black abyss that was its chest, and the darkness swallowed my weapon whole.

No!

Dizziness washed over me as fire appeared in the center of the black creature’s chest. The sunstone. It shone brightly from within the creature, who hissed and began to smoke and fall apart, disintegrating into shadows. The sunstone dagger thumped to the ground in the spot the creature had been, and sweet relief infused my body that it wasn’t destroyed.

The trees blurred before me, and I blinked rapidly as one of Zander’s men untied him. “The commander is secure—the bandits ran off,” the soldier called to the others.

I stumbled forward, my hands going numb as I brought them up to look at.

I gasped when I saw that they were bright red and peeling. I’d … burned myself. How ironic.

I began to laugh deeply as I fell to my knees. Then Zander was there, catching me as another wave of dizziness washed over me.

“What’s so funny, little bird?” Zander asked as he peered down at me with concern.

I think Master Duncan was right. I’d depleted my power, and with no sun right now I was drained, barely able to keep my eyes open. It felt like death was knocking at my door.

Reaching up, I traced the black blood running from a cut at Zander’s neck. “I know what you are,” I whispered, my mind feeling fuzzy.

I felt him stiffen beneath me as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his ear. “Black bleeder, royal family.”

He frowned. “Oh, little bird. You don’t know the half of it.”

And as the darkness swallowed me whole, it felt as if I would never feel the sunlight again.