Page 1

Chapter 1

I stare downat my hands for the fiftieth time since Des and I returned from the Flora Kingdom, looking for something that indicates that I’m different.Changed.

Immortal.

I press my palm to my heart. Beneath the steady thump of it, I feel something else. Something magical and mysterious.

Something that wasn’t there just days ago.

My connection to Des thrums beneath my touch like a second heartbeat, the two us now magically bound together.

I slide him a coy glance.

Des sits along a thick stone railing, his back resting against one of the columns bolted into the rocky island above us. The two of us linger on the lowest balcony of Somnia, one of the six floating islands of the Night Kingdom and the capitol of the Bargainer’s realm.

“I’m angry at you, you know,” I say, though there’s no venom to the words.

The Bargainer’s eyes are closed, his head tipped back against the column.

“I know.”

I watch him as he sits on the very edge of the world, the dark night beyond him. In the distance, I can hear the chittering laughter of pixies riding the evening wind.

“You never asked me if I wanted to live forever.” My voice catches on that last word.

Technically, I’m not going to liveforever, but it might as well be that long. Thanks to the lilac wine Des fed me, I’m now looking at a solid four hundred years of life—if not more.

What will the earth look like by the time I actually kick the bucket? How about the Otherworld?

Need to talk to Temper about how freaking long fairy lifespans are.

The Bargainer’s eyes open, his glittering silver gaze looking fearsome and fae.

He gives me a hint of a smile, though there’s no humor in it. “Cherub, you seem to be forgetting the fact that you were dying at the time.”

I was dying, and he was unwilling to let me go.

He reaches a hand out to me, and his magic tugs me towards him. I frown as I’m ushered to his side.

Des taps my mouth. “Tell me, Callie,” he says, his voice is like honeyed wine as his hands fall to my waist, “don’t you want to spend more than just a few decades with me?”

Of course I do. That’s beside the point.

I’m upset that I never got a chance to decide my fate for myself. And now the future looms endlessly ahead of me.

Des lifts his inked arm into the air. Out of the night, a luminescent blue smoke coalesces, solidifying more and more as it snakes its way to the Bargainer’s hand. By the time it reaches his palm, it’s a glowing cord. I’ve seen this stuff before—spun moonlight.

The Bargainer manipulates it in his hand, working the eerie substance until it’s not just a cord, but an elaborate necklace.

I narrow my eyes as he brings the unearthly jewelry to my throat.

“That’s not fair,” I say as he clasps it behind my neck, even as my fingertips reach for the necklace. “You can’t just pull one of your pretty fairy tricks and buy out my forgiveness.”

But he can, and he has, and he will do so again. These neat little tricks of his have made me forgive a lot.

The Bargainer turns on his perch so that his legs straddle mine. He pulls me in close, my hips fitting snugly between his thighs. “My pretty fairy tricks are what you like best about me,” he says, his lips skimming my mouth as he talks. His gaze drops to my lips. “Well, that and my di—”

“Des.”