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Tyrren
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I wake from what feels like a dream. A very cold dream. But I’m a vampire. I don’t sleep. Therefore, I don’t dream. However, everything about the last hours have felt like a dream, starting with the bloody rain and massage. My throat burns.
I’m magically bound, but I’m strong and hungry and smell blood nearby.
It was my choice. The words echo in my mind.
“My main objective was to survive. Glandias was going to rend my shadow, so I let her. Yes, I had a choice.” Lea’s smoky voice floats to my ears. “I chose to become a shadow fae.”
There’s thunder inside of me. Longing. Desire. I can hardly discern if it’s hunger or something else.
Someone clicks her tongue. “Yeah, I get that. I was sent to an arena for Bloodsport to fight demons, a manticore, and my future husband to the death. There was no way I’d make it. The odds were against me. So I made the choice to go down a champion. If I was going to die, at least I’d die admirably and on my terms.”
At the word blood, I buck against the bonds. I open my mouth to scream, to bellow, but nothing comes out.
“By making the choice, I also retained access to parts of myself.” Lea speaks again.
I strain with all my might, desperate to get to her.
“How do you know that?” Soren from the Humvee says. “I’ve seen plenty of shadow fae. They’re husks of their former selves, driven to do grim deeds and so far out of balance, they cannot help but harm.”
“Perhaps that was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Glandias told me she had big plans. She said, ‘The best part, no one will see what’s coming.’ I decided right then that she’d be the one who wouldn’t see what was coming because it would be me. Lea, the fae she was making her prize warrior. I called forth my light, the best parts of me. Committing myself to it so I could access it when I’d need to. Then I let it go.”
“But that’s the thing. When a fae’s shadow is rended, there is no more light. It’s all shadow,” Soren says.
“You’re right, but it’s still out there somewhere. It didn’t die or disappear. It’s in the world, the ether, or wherever it goes. When I need to, I’ll summon it back.”
“How do you know?” The female’s voice is small, unsure.
“Because I made the choice to give it up,” Lea says. “It’s mine. It’ll return to me and reunite with the light.”
The other female makes a sound as though interested.
“Now, where is Tyrren?” Lea asks.
I burst free from the chair and storm into the other room. I see red. Blood. Prey. I will feed. Soren is nearest, the biggest, the juiciest. I go into a wrathful hunger and tackle him. I try to open my mouth to pierce him with my teeth, but it’s stuck shut. I punch and pummel, get him in a hold, and try to bare my teeth again.
Then in a flurry of black feathers, he slips from my grip and becomes a raven, flapping out of reach and toward a turret.
“Tyrren,” Lea says. “Tyrren, no.”
I blink a few times.
Her almond eyes, slender nose, and full lips appear carefully arranged as if captured in the still of a beautiful black and white photograph. But I remember her vibrancy, her freckles, her midnight eyes. I’ll always know what the real Lea looks like. Now, she’s in shadow.
But it’s not enough to slake my thirst. I lunge at the others. I force the bonds that seal my mouth to break. If I can’t feed on human blood, shifter or fae blood will have to do. Baring my teeth, I leap toward the other two fae girls, the ones who look remarkably like Lea.
The shining edge of a sword, aimed directly at my chest stops me. “Don’t move,” the woman wielding the sword says. She wears a police officer’s uniform and the badge says, Heather Bond.
“Yes, we’ve met. No, I won’t hesitate to end you.” Her voice is as unyielding as the weapon.
The other two fae send spikes of frosty energy my way, binding my arms and freezing me in place.
A tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome man strides in.
“Ivan?” Lea’s eyes widen.
“How is he going to drink this blood if his arms are bound?” Lea’s uncle asks.
“You can feed him,” the fae with dirty blond hair says dismissively.
“I’m all for vampire rights, but it stops there.” Ivan turns to me. “I promise to give you all the blood you desire if you promise not to hurt anyone here.”
“Or anyone period,” adds Soren, the raven shifter. He brushes off his jacket. A single black feather flutters to the floor.
I nod. My magical shackles loosen, albeit reluctantly, and I begin to feed.
Heather lowers the sword. “So this is the safe house, huh?”
“We thought Rose Court was fitting,” says one of the fae.
Heather lifts an eyebrow.
“It’s a Borea thing. Anyway, thanks for your help,” the fae with whitish hair says.
“Don’t mention it, Kiki. I learned what I could about the Nefral Weapons Trade.” Heather slices the air with the sword. “It’s a perfect blade especially for slaying demons, but it’s not part of the weapons trade. There are no swords involved.” She passes it to Kiki.
The hilt, the contours of the metal, and the way it glints are familiar. “I made that sword.”
“Yep, and it’s the ploy I used to get you locked up,” Ivan says.
“That’s a criminal offense.” Heather jerks her head in his direction.
Ivan smirks. “I’d never deny that I’m a criminal but more of the Robin Hood variety.”
“You can get behind that, Val,” Kiki says to the fae with dirty blond hair. “Rob from the false king and give to the unseen.”
“Except I rob from gangs and other crooks and give to the vampires.” Ivan reaches for the sword. “And this particular item I asked Huxley to make for Lea.”
He passes it to her. I remember working the pommel into a perfect sphere. I crafted the flames on the hilt with care, hammered the heck out of the blade, and practically imbued the thing with my blood, sweat, and tears.
“Why?” Lea’s hard eyes land on Ivan.
For a second, he flinches like he was kicked in the chest.
“If I’m not mistaken, your sisters are here to tell you that,” Ivan says.
“Wait. You knew about them?” Lea is on her feet. Her shadow darkens to a shade that can only be described as ominous.
He holds up his hands. “I’ll tell you my part, but put the sword down, Lea.” As ever, there’s a level of command in his voice that anyone would be hard-pressed to ignore.
Heather lifts her eyebrows as though impressed.
Lea turns on me. “You knew he was having a sword forged for me? What else did you know?”
I shake my head. “Huxley had me make all kinds of unique and unusual items. I didn’t ask questions and I didn’t know it was meant for you.”
“It’s the same sword we had the night we slayed those demons.” Lea addresses Ivan, “The night I didn’t kill any nats.”
“I know.” Ivan’s eyes soften.
“And for everyone’s information, the sword has a name,” I blurt.
Everyone plasters their eyes on me.
“It’s called Fire Eater.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, any self-respecting sword must have a name. It’s part of sword lore. Everyone knows that.” I feel less vampire and more nerd right now but had to diffuse the tension.
“For my part, around the time when you were born, Emeric became the false king of the Southlands. Emeric the Brute. I despised him. We were rivals. But as it was, your mother put you in my care and I knew the Nefral Palace and Rjoklund would no longer be safe for you, Lea. But I also knew he’d seek you when you turned eighteen...or, as it turned out, before then.”
“You knew he was the one who attacked me sophomore year?” Lea asks.
Ivan nods. “And I chained him up in a cave full of night howls.”
Callen shifts uncomfortably.
“He must’ve escaped,” Ivan says.
“Why me?” Lea presses.
“You’re tied into the prophecy.” Ivan’s eyes narrow and he pauses as though considering what to say next. “Emeric knew you’d eventually come for him. When I learned he’d returned, I had to think fast. The safest place was RIP with its wards and protections that I couldn’t provide. Leave me to pulverize a wayward vampire, but keeping you from a brutal mage? I thought it was the right choice.”
“Why was I brought into this?” I ask.
“Emeric was clever and masterminded a plan to cover his tracks. Pit the fae and vampires against each other and the nats against both. He used you to make it look like I was behind setting loose the demons. He intended to use Lea to be the face of destruction for the X-Crew. The police came down on me hard.” Ivan eyes Heather. “I should’ve realized something was wrong. I should’ve gotten you both out. Brought you to Borea.”
“But then we wouldn’t have found her,” Kiki says. “Strange that I’d already known her.” The fae’s eyes land warmly on Lea. She now has the family that she never had and always wanted.
“That’s not all though. Emeric was using a rune of passage to get on and off-campus, bypassing the wards. At first, he and the headmistress were in cahoots.”
“We had a sting operation but were too late. Jurik was recruiting the strongest fae for the false king in the Southlands...Emeric,” Heather says. “Kiki and the others came to me for help when they got to Terra. When I saw your necklace, Lea, I knew. But could only keep you safe for two weeks. We had to figure out a way to get you out and safe. In the meantime, Glandias took Jurik’s place using mage magic when she learned we were looking for you.”
“We located an abandoned hospital upstate where Jurik and Emeric were housing the shadow fae.”
“We successfully rescued them...and you,” Kiki says.
“That was a happy accident,” Soren says.
“Did Glandias survive?” Lea asks.
“I think so,” Val says.
“So what’s the sword—Fire Eater—for?” Lea asks, glancing at me. “Slaying demons?”
“No, it’s for destroying a vampire,” Ivan says. “Cold steel to the heart.”
I flinch. “Ironic that I made the item that will destroy me.”
“Not you, Tyrren,” Ivan says.
“And I thought only fae were repelled by steel,” Kiki says. “This whole thing is unsettling.”
“We’re all confronting some uncomfortable truths, sis,” Val says.
The two fae sisters smile. Lea doesn’t, but I think it’s because it’s lost in her shadow.
“So who’s name is on this sword?” Lea asks.
Ivan parts his lips like he wants to say more but can’t, won’t.
