Page 4 of Blackwarden

Cherished addition? But addition to what?

The treaty with the Dark Fae, made centuries ago, was murky at best. Concessions the humans had made after the Fae Wars.

The details had never been fully explained to the common folk, instead they had been shared between the members of the Council of Magistrates.

I wanted to know more, but this did not seem like the right time.

I tucked his words away to think on later.

“Who are you?” This was the question I’d been burning to ask. Who and what , really.

The smile that had brightened his expression slipped from his lips as they parted.

“I am the Gatekeeper.”

Did he truly mean for me not to know his name? His eyes couldn’t hold mine. He glanced down at his fingers intertwined in front of him. Did he hesitate to answer me?

“Do you have a name, or am I to call you Gatekeeper? Dark Stranger? Hey, you?”

He smirked at this last one.

“My name is Keres.”

“No family name?”

“It’s not important right now.”

Oh, it was important. If he wasn’t telling me, it was likely very important. He avoided eye contact, yet again.

“Is it true, Fae can’t lie?”

I’d wondered this my entire life. It seemed such a strange concept. As a human, my day was built on half-truths, and tiny lies. “How are you?” “I’m fine.” “How lovely.” “Tis indeed.” Clearly lies. Most people were not “fine” or “lovely.” They were sad, or starving, or terrified .

He met my eyes, his brows curving with his frown and I straightened in my seat. Even with frustration clearly written across his face, he was gorgeous.

“Your human knowledge of the Fae is—”

“So, it’s wrong? You can lie?”

He tipped his chin up, transforming back into the terrifying Dark Fae who had greeted me at the front door, made of shadows and midnight. How could he change the way I saw him with the tiniest tilt of his head? I grabbed my glass of water, trying to ignore his glare.

“If I could lie, I might have greeted you with a different face.”

I almost spit the water out that I’d just gulped down. “A different what?”

Like a melting frost from the blades of grass, his horns seemed to shrink away, his ears rounded over.

Familiar golden-brown hair lengthened around his face.

Slender eyebrows thickened, his nose grew longer and more bulbous, his lips thinned, and his chin widened.

The muscles in his neck and shoulders stretched, pressing against the fabric of his doublet as he filled out—muscular and bulky.

I was out of my seat in an instant. The man sitting across from me was Bastion. I tried to breathe but choked on a sob as I slammed my hands over my mouth. Bastion was dead.

“Would this face be more to your liking?”

It was Bastion’s face, his hair, his build, but not his voice. I took a step back, nearly falling over my chair as I tried to move further away. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real.

“No.” I scrambled to put more space between me and Bastion.

Not Bastion, Keres—the Dark Fae. Every fiber of my being knew the man across from me wasn’t my husband, and yet.

..I yearned for one more embrace, one more kiss, from the man I’d loved with all my heart.

And it felt so wrong. “You’re a monster. ”

I turned to run, but before I could get far, a warm hand slipped around my upper arm and held me firmly in place.

I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to look at him, afraid to see Bastion’s face again.

If this was the magic I was to be acquainted with, I’d rather die.

Every day for the past year, I’d tried to tuck the memory of Bastion away, my heart breaking every time the whisper of his voice came to me in a dream.

I missed him, but I hated him for dying—two terrible emotions wrestling for dominance over my heart.

“Ms. Greene.” I struggled against Keres until he released me, and I flew forward into the wall of the dining room, catching myself with both hands. “Rosalin.” He raised his voice, and I risked looking back at him.

Dark horns and midnight blue hair greeted me. My shoulders slumped with relief. Thank the Earth Mother, Keres had donned his own face. I wouldn’t have been able to handle looking into the eyes of my dead husband again.

“Please,” I whimpered as he stepped forward, taking me by the upper arm more gently this time to lead me from the dining room. “Any face but that one.”

He guided me down the hall, and I went with him, lost in a numb stupor.

I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings as we ventured deeper into the gloom of the Gatehouse.

I should have. I would need to know how to get back to the dining room for meals.

But I’d turned my thoughts to something far darker.

How did Keres know what Bastion looked like?

How had he managed to conjure such a perfect image of him?

Had he been the Fae that killed him? I tried to collect myself as we walked, but the warmth of his hand was enough to strip my mind bare.

I was trembling as fear and frustration warred with one another for dominance.

I wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and melt through the floor.

“How could you know that face?” I wasn’t sure I’d asked loud enough for him to hear. I wasn’t sure I actually wanted an answer.

“It was the only face I could see tied to your emotions.”

“My emotions?” I squeaked. Could he read my thoughts? My stomach bottomed out. Were they all there for him to rummage through? I didn’t need anything else tearing me down at that moment. If he could see my deepest secrets, the wanderings of my mind...

“It’s complicated.”

“Can you read my thoughts?”

“No.”

“Can you see my memories?”

“No.”

I took a sharp breath. He couldn’t lie.

“How could you see him then?”

“It’s complicated.”

This wasn’t a good enough answer. I don’t know where I found the bravery, but I yanked my arm from his grasp. “Make it less complicated,” I demanded as I stood my ground.

When I looked up at him, his eyes were wide with shock, as though he’d never been challenged in such a way before.

An ember of pleasure at catching him off guard, flared to life in my chest. It was fleeting, replaced by an anger so viscous it chased away the fear and sadness that had filled me moments before.

My eyes filled with tears again, but these were born of fury.

“Why his face? Why Bastion?” My voice cracked, my hands balling into fists at my sides.

“You have heavy emotion tied to him,” he said with an even tone, as if that was enough explanation.

I glared at him for a long moment, unsure what to say, before storming down the hall in the direction he’d been leading me. I had no idea where I was going, but I didn’t particularly care. As though we were old friends, he matched my pace, walking beside me.

“Here,” Keres said, as he turned toward a door, cutting me off.

I flinched as the brazier mounted on the wall beside us burned to life, reminding me yet again, I was surrounded by magic.

His magic. He pushed the door open into a lavish room with wide windows dressed in black velvet.

I was too stunned to move for a few seconds before I was drawn in like a moth to a flame.

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it was not.

..this. It was as if I’d been taken from a dark nightmare and thrust into a decadent fairy tale.

My fingers danced over the wooden trim, decorated with tiny carvings of animals and fairies that meandered along the walls and around windows and door frames.

A roaring fireplace cast a pleasant glow over a sitting area.

An overstuffed leather chair hugged by a side table cradled a stack of books, waiting patiently for me to read them.

Positioned beside it was a small round table with a single wooden chair occupying the space closest to the windows.

Bookcases lined one wall, though they were mostly empty, aside from what looked like an inkwell and a journal.

On another wall was a door that stood open, a massive bed nestled on the other side, wrapped with a canopy of matching black drapes.

Opposite the bedroom was another door that led into what looked like a bathroom, with glittering black and gold tiles.

“I hope your suite is to your liking, Ms. Greene,” Keres said from the hall, not stepping a single foot into the room. When I turned to face him, I was met with an arrogant smirk before he bowed. “I’ll fetch you in the morning for breakfast.”

Before I could say another word, to thank him for the generous accommodations, to apologize for my tear-streaked face, to give him an explanation for why I’d reacted the way I had, he was gone.