Page 1 of A Game of Monsters (Realm of Fey #4)

Duncan Rackley was dying, and it was all my fault. That was a truth which haunted me day and night, never leaving the edges of my mind. And as I left Imeria Castle behind, I couldn’t stop thinking about my duty and how, if I continued to ignore it, the fate of the world – the peace it believed it had finally achieved – was under threat.

I tugged down at the hood of my cloak as the harsh winter winds embraced me. My mare, a beautiful black steed with a velvet coat glittering like obsidian, battled through the downpour of sleet and snow, undeterred and unbothered. Snowflakes as big as my hand obscured the view, leaving gentle kisses against my ice-cold skin. Although my waxed jacket kept the material from becoming sodden, I still felt the chill of my court deep in my bones.

Ice and blood, one and the same. And yet, I felt like a stranger to it. Undeserving and unwanted, human but not. Fey but not. A king in name but nothing more.

Lost to the storm around me, I was no different than the snowflakes that fell: helpless to do anything but exist in the stream of wind that guided me along, waiting for my inevitable downfall.

Life in the wake of saving the world should’ve been a cause for happiness and joy. At least that was the case for everyone else. For me, I knew the truth. When we destroyed Duwar’s gate and its keys, supposedly locking the demon within its eternal prison, the truth was Duwar had escaped in a new prison. The flesh of the man I loved. His bones were a cage hosting the demon, his skin a shield to hide the dark truth from the world. My burden was to know this damning truth and find a solution to it, all whilst the world around me delighted in an era of peace it’d not seen in a long time.

I could hear the town of Berrow before I saw it. The streets were alive with chatter and noise, the delightful call of full homes and streets bustling with my people. My people, as if I could claim them, as if I deserved them. But I buried those thoughts as Silvia, my mare, trotted onto Berrow’s main street, leaving my horrors and worries behind.

Although I hated to see my people’s misplaced love for me, today, I forced myself to face them. In the months that had passed since our battle at Rinholm Castle I’d kept myself secluded in the ruins of my castle, with no desire to mingle with a world which I put under threat with every passing hour. But today, I had a purpose for my visit to Berrow, and for that I’d have to leave behind my self-loathing, if only for an hour.

“King Robin,” a fey called from his stall at the side of the road. He was bundled up in fur and thick materials, his pale face almost completely concealed by a knotting of scarfs, all beside two beady black eyes and rosy cheeks as red as apples. For a moment I thought of Jesibel – my friend who had survived Aldrick’s treatment but had survived… changed. Like Jesibel, this fey was one of those we freed from the Below: the underground prison beneath Lockinge Castle. I’d promised to return him home, and I’d fulfilled that promise. And yet, he was safer in Lockinge Castle’s prison than he was here with me.

Because there was a demon lurking in my shadow.

“How do you fair, my king?” he asked after I didn’t reply to his initial greeting. My subtle nod clearly wasn’t sufficient as a hello, or a farewell. “Could I offer you a warm cider for your travels, a gift of my thanks for everything you have done for us?”

I smiled down at him, unable to formulate words. Truthfully, I wanted nothing more than to take the drink, down it and demand another. Alcohol was ideal at numbing the mind and its anxieties. But it was best the town didn’t see the man they called king getting drunk, considering they hadn’t seen me in weeks.

Drinking myself into a stupor was something I’d do when I returned to Imeria. Drowning my worries, hoping the sharp spirits would dull the reality of horror I hid inside of me – and the walls of my castle.

“Thanks for your offer.” I watched as his expression faltered, obvious upset creasing his forehead into a map of lines. “But maybe next time?”

The peddler nodded, wafting a steaming mug of warmed ale to tempt me one final time. “It’s made from the recent harvest at my orchard. Something that wouldn’t have been possible without your funding and aid.”

I smiled, because it was the least I could do. “I’m glad to hear you’ve had success, and really, I do appreciate the offer.”

A king may not need to explain himself to his people, but old Robin was an over explainer, so I couldn’t help but offer one final excuse in hope of dampening the man’s clear offence. “I have a meeting with someone very important, best I don’t stumble over my words during the conversation.”

“Aye, Your Majesty. I understand, thank you for stopping.”

I squeezed my feet into Silvia’s side, urging her ahead, not wanting to see the disappointment glaze over the kind man’s eyes. “Always.”

The deeper I travelled into Berrow, the less I could fathom just how much it had changed in the past few months. The once-empty town was now overspilling with life. Fey and humans dwelled beside one another, occupying homes glowing with lit hearths and alive with the song that was joy. The streets had been cleared of debris, ruins of buildings either completely rebuilt or still under construction. If there was anything that could distract me, it was seeing the success of rebuilding Icethorn as the grand place it had once been. Silver linings and all.

Being here, surrounded by it, I found it hard to imagine there was remaining tension between Wychwood and Durmain – the human and the fey realm. Or the internal conflicts in the Oakstorm Court.

A world once divided had been brought together; or at least that was the illusion I had neatly woven.

If only they knew the truth .

I left Silvia with the stable master, who promised her carrots and oats. I thanked him, careful not to allow room for further conversation. Silence was easier to navigate these days. It was what I was used to… unless my advisor, Eroan, came to visit.

Even more vendors had been set up on either side of the street. I smelled cinnamon dusted on baked goods, salted meats roasted over fires and the sharp-tang of harsh cheese mixed with sweet fruits. I would’ve given anything to join them, to delight in their wares and laugh alongside them. But I had something I needed to do – items to collect before I returned home to the demon I hid within its walls.

For the umpteenth time, I mentally ran through my short list.

Iron. Gardineum extract. Books. News from the world beyond my cold castle walls .

Before I knew it, my feet had taken me to my first destination. I scrunched my gloved hands up, starring at the town hall as though it was my greatest enemy. I knew who waited inside and had spent weeks doing what I could to stay away from him, even if that was far from what I wanted to do.

It took courage to step inside, leaving the comfort of the street. But I did it because I had no other choice.

The town hall had been one of the most damaged places in Berrow, so much so I didn’t even notice that Berrow had one when I first visited with Erix after escaping a gryvern attack. It’d been excavated from beneath rubble and snow. Once nothing more than a shell – a skeleton of rotting wood and rooms full of snow and ice – it now stood tall, thanks to the supplies my allies in the Cedarfall Court had sent to aid in the rebuilding effort. A month, that was all it took for it to be rebuilt as the heart of Berrow. Dark, oiled beams held up an impressive curved ceiling. The treated wooden panels that made up the exterior and interior walls had been treated with fire, making them impenetrable to the cold and further decay.

I lifted white knuckles and knocked on the door. Not a beat later, they swung open to reveal two soldiers standing vigil on the other side. Both wore the black and grey tones of my court, their silver cloaks stitched with the Icethorn symbol: a sword pointing north through a mountain range.

They bowed the second they saw me, removing their helmets out of respect. I caught the flash of pride in their colourless eyes, round-tipped ears, the twitch of leathery wings unfolding beyond slits in their charcoal-grey cloaks.

Gryvern – or at least they had once been. Now, with the gradual return of their humanity thanks to the death of their sire, Doran Oakstorm, and the claim of their new master, these gryvern were the only soldiers I had to call upon. They were gifted to me by the one who controlled them – the man whose door I had finally knocked upon in my desperation.

“I’m here to speak with” – I took a deep breath, forcing the final word out – “Erix.”

The two gryvern spared each other a glance. Their greytinged skin reflected the light from the many burning sconces that lined the walls of the corridor at their backs. “We didn’t receive word of your arrival, King Icethorn,” one of them said.

“We apologise for not being better prepared to welcome you,” the other added, looking behind me in search of something that wasn’t there. “Did you not arrive with a guard?”

I rolled my shoulders back, feigning the fake smile that I’d perfected, and regretting how easy it was to lie. “We are in an era of peace, the first of its kind in generations, perhaps longer. There is nothing that can threaten me here, not anymore.”

It was a point no one could argue with, and yet both the gryvern gave me a look as if they could see right through my lies. “Precaution is still wise, King Icethorn.”

“No need for that,” I said, waving them off, adorning the mask of the unbothered, cold-hearted king I’d become. “And I didn’t send word ahead because this is somewhat of an impromptu visit.”

“We understand, although Erix will not be pleased,” the gryvern replied, his voice almost sounding forced out of a throat full of stones. “The world may be saved, but you are still the king, and new threats can replace the old. Please, send for us next time, and we will escort you, as previously agreed.”

As previously agreed.

No. It was never agreed that I’d need full-time shadows. Erix had attempted to offer it, but my refusal had been clear and that had not wavered since my last meeting with him. Even now I still could hear the sharp tone I’d used the last time I’d been in a room with him, his wild panicked eyes and frantic demands. As if he still believed there was something to fear in the world, and yet when I looked him dead in the eyes and asked him what, he never gave me an answer.

Because he didn’t want to, or he couldn’t, I wasn’t sure.

Our argument had pained me at the time, and the memory weighed on me even now. The gaping maw of time had simmered between us since, drawing us apart just like with all of my friends and allies.

But I had good reasons not to have shadows. I had secrets that required the dark to hide in.

I swallowed down the sudden spike of sickness. If I hadn’t cultivated such a rigid control over myself, I would’ve doubled over and spilled the contents of my stomach across the gryvern’s recently polished greaves. “A short journey from Imeria to Berrow will hardly allow room for danger. After all,” – I forced a smile – “we’re in an era of peace, as I’ve said. The days of danger are far behind us.”

I hardly convinced myself, let alone them.

The air around me seemed to grow heavier suddenly, and I wasn’t the only one to notice. The gryvern guards parted before me, just in time for a new voice to join the fray.

“It’s with that mindset that you’ll find yourself harmed one of these days, little bird .”

I looked from the soldiers to the corridor behind them. Parting from the shadows, with arms clasped behind his back and chin held high, was the man I’d been avoiding since our last encounter, even though he was the very person I needed in this moment.

He was the person I had needed since returning with Duncan from the Elmdew Court.

Erix. The man I once called my personal guard, my lover. The man who was used as a puppet and killed my father. The man who had proved himself to me, over and over. The man who had vowed that I was his duty, and his pleasure. Erix who’d sworn himself to me, and I’d discarded him the first moment I could.

Perhaps he hated me for how I treated him the last time we saw each other, but if only he knew that I did it to protect him.

I’d do anything to protect him.

Erix looked more like the fey I had met for the first time in the Hunter’s camp than he had at any time since his unwilling transformation. His skin had reclaimed its sun-kissed hue, no longer a drab grey but sparkling like gold. Bright silver eyes bore into me from where he stood, tall and straight-backed, his entire focus pinned to where I stood. Erix tensed in every manner of the word; his jaw tightened as he drank me in. It was shadowed with a light beard that matched the short-shorn cut of his hair. It was impossible to not admire the structure of his bones, even if I wanted to look away, I couldn’t.

He – like his gryvern beside me – had his wings on display outside of his armoured outfit. Half fey, half monster – and yet from the way he looked at me, I couldn’t help but remember that he was completely and entirely mine if only I accepted it. Whether or not he was beside me these days, he still had my best interests at heart.

He always would.

Eroan reminded me as much, every week, when he told me Erix had asked after me during our two-man council meetings. Erix’s incessant requests for an audience with me, which I declined every week.

I just wasn’t prepared to accept it. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I had to protect him.

“Erix,” I said in greeting, his name awkward in my mouth. “How – how are you?”

“Surprised, to say the least,” he replied, stopping just shy of his soldiers – I could pretend they were mine, but it was Erix they ultimately followed. “But the important question is, how are you ?”

It was such an awkward conversation, as if we were strangers catching up. Which was exactly what we were now: strangers made by my hand.

“I’m fine,” I lied. “And you?”

“As I’ve already answered when you asked me the first time, I’m surprised.” He stepped aside and gestured for me to follow him. “I trust you haven’t journeyed all this way to reiterate how you don’t need me as your personal guard, or have you changed your mind since you dismissed me?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. Pathetic, like a fish out of water. Taking a deep breath in, hoping to clear the cobwebs of my anxiety, I ended up sounding like a petulant child. “I didn’t dismiss you.”

“No?” Erix scoffed, silver eyes trailing me from head to boot. I lowered my hood, feeling as exposed as a person standing in a ray of sunlight in a darkened room. “Not in a manner of speaking. But making me Lord of Berrow, knowing the responsibility that would come with it, is certainly a back-handed way of dismissing me from the service I should be completing.”

I stopped stock-still, forcing Erix to do the same. “We’ve had this conversation, and I’m not willing to open it again.”

Erix scoffed. “I thought as much. So, have you come to inquire into my first couple of months as a lord, and see that I’m not abusing my power?”

I picked up my pace again, falling into step with Erix. “I gave you this position because I trusted that ‘abusing power’ was not ever going to be an issue when it comes to you. There was no one better for the job,” I replied.

“Then what brings you to my door?”

“Believe it or not, I’ve not come all this way to argue again.”

Erix huffed a laugh, finally drawing his eyes off me. “Of course you haven’t.”

“Iron,” I said, plain and simple, needing this conversation not to draw on for too long. “Eroan told me your gryvern–”

“ Your gryvern, Robin. They follow you, as I do; we’re your loyal subjects.”

I hated the serious bite in Erix’s tone, how his words struck as true as the steel at his waist.

“Yes, well,” I continued, clearing my throat in hopes that would make me sound more confident with my strange request. “Eroan informed me that they’ve recently confiscated three carts worth of iron from the Hunters’ encampment on the border of Wychwood and Durmain. I’ve come to see the stores.”

“I’m sorry,” Erix said. “But you’ve come too late. The iron has already been dealt with. It was best not to keep such a material close to so many fey. I haven’t got anything left to show you.”

Dealt with meant it had been taken north of Berrow, to the lake known as the Sleeping Depths, and dumped into its waters, never to be claimed by another again. Which was exactly not what I needed here, considering I had a purpose for a material that removed a fey’s power.

A purpose currently festering inside my castle walls.

“What about the labradorite stores?” I added, fumbling for something – anything – that would help me keep my secrets. If Erix dwelled too long on why I was interested in the iron, it would not end well.

One look into Erix’s eyes, and apparently, I had failed before I even began.

Erix narrowed his gaze on me. “As agreed with Cassial and his Nephilim, all labradorite stores are being shipped to Lockinge before they make the journey to Irobel. I haven’t seen any in weeks. Reports from Cedarfall, Oakstorm and Elmdew are all the same. The borders have been torn down, we are no longer a land of four courts, but a united realm. Just as you desired.”

“Good,” I said, nodding whilst a cold shiver trailed down my arms like the kiss of ice. “That’s good news.”

Was it?

It wasn’t new information to me, but I was still struggling with the idea that Erix had no iron. I waited for him to ask me why I needed the one thing that could render me powerless: my weakness.

The truth was that iron was no longer the thing that made me weak.

“If you are in need, though I cannot fathom for what for, I could send a request to our allies and ask for a store of labradorite back?” Erix asked. I couldn’t help but feel like he was testing me.

“No, no need.” Silence stretched between us, so heavy I rushed to bring an end to our interaction. “Well, that’s all I came here to inquire. I see Berrow is thriving, which I thank you for. Erix, your work here is… really impressive, but there’s no reason for me to waste any more of your time,” I said, turning on my heel, the ache inside my chest impossible to control now.