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“You willnotbe leaving,” Kalen said in a firm voice.

Val came up beside me and took a swig of her drink. “I, for one, think that bastard deserved it. Now, does anyone want to dance?”

Thirty-Three

Tessa

SIX MONTHS AGO

Sometimes, I did not know how I could live in Teine for even one more day. My lower back often itched from Oberon’s attack, even all these years later. It would throb with pain, and when I touched the raised skin, strange heat would curl into my fingers. It was as if the wounds were alive.

Today was one of those days. And when the scars burned with the heat of the sun, my feet—itching to escape—would carry me to the western edge of the Kingdom of Light, where a wooden wall separated our small piece of the world from the rest. The chasm didn’t stretch around this far, but the mists still pushed against Oberon’s power-infused barrier. Through a hole in the wall, I watched the haze and wondered at the monsters that lurked in the darkness.

I’d spotted a few hulking forms a few times over the years, but none had ever come close enough for me to get a good view of them. They would be there one moment and gone the next, nothing but a formless blob of silent, gathered shadows, like ancient ghosts sweeping past.

As I leaned against the wall and watched the fog, I wondered what it would be like to live out there, away from the heat of the eversun—away from Oberon and his cruel soldiers.

Was the Mist King truly beyond these borders? Could he be watching me right now? An uneasy rush went through me at the thought.

My father had once left this place to get answers. He must have found something out there, but what? If I followed in his footsteps, would I find them, too? These questions had haunted me for years, but I’d never been brave enough to climb over the wall to find out for myself. Death lurked beyond the borders.

An eerie shriek split the air, breaking me out of my reverie.

With a gasp, I stumbled away from the wall just as the wood shook like a trembling branch in the wind. A yellow eye flashed outside the hole, and a feral howl ripped through my very soul. My mind screamed at me to run, even though the shadowfiend could not get through that wall. It was impossible. Oberon’s protective magic kept the monsters from coming over the barrier and into Teine, and yet…

Fear choked me like a beast’s talons clutching my throat.

An image flashed in my mind. A small child raced through the mists with a beastly creature bearing down on her. The little girl sobbed. Her face was so, so pale, and her arms flailed in front of her as she reached—desperately—for her father. I shook my head, shoving away the sight. My imagination was getting the better of me again. I was no child, and I was not in the mists.

I’d never been in the mists.

But the image soared back into my mind again, and something about it felt so terrifyingly real.

The shadowfiend’s eye vanished from the hole in the wall. The heavy thump of its retreating footsteps soon followed. I exhaled, feeling a little silly for my overreaction.

Shaking my head at myself, I followed the path toward my village, so lost in thought that I failed to notice the fae soldier’s approach upon my return. He cut me off just before I reached the front steps of my home, where my sister knelt on the porch washing off the dirt.

The fae man towered over me. They all did. His yellow eyes were as sharp as the tips of his ears, and his snug leather armor highlighted his broad shoulders and impressive chest. But it was his lips I noticed most. They were set into a very thin, very hard line.

“Is there a problem?” I asked, motioning for Nellie to go inside the house. She shot me a fearful glance, but then she scurried in, closing the door quietly behind her.

Good.

“Where were you?”

“Just taking a walk.” I folded my arms. “There are no rules against that.”

“A walk where?”

“Just…through the village and the woods.”

“Turn around,” he commanded.

My hands curled into claws. “I have done nothing wrong.”

He stepped near, and the heat of his fiery power pulsed against me. Like Oberon, this soldier was an elite fae, and if I did not do what he asked, he could turn his fire on me and burn my body to a crisp. Shaking, I turned and lifted the back of my tunic, knowing what he wanted from me.

He pressed a gloved finger against my throbbing scar, and pain hissed through my back. I dug my teeth into the insides of my cheek.