Page 26

Shayne Lyro and His Nightmares Wide Awake

There sat his heartless father, his wicked brothers, and other young fairies who had once called themselves his friends. They all looked back at Shayne as he stood in the great hall. His own blood ran down his arm and over the handle of his fairsaber, dripping off the end and soaking into the red carpet. He’d fought a Lyro guard on his way into his childling home. And he had that rude guard to thank for leaving him with an open wound in his arm. But even amidst the fighting, the running, the pattering of his feet over the cold floors into the great hall, he hadn’t uttered a word.

The twenty-four hours it took Shayne to get here were the longest of his life. And though he hadn’t come on a straight path, and many things had happened in those twenty-four hours, he had felt a certain emptiness that was deeper than any he’d faced before. It had been twenty-four hours without smiling. Twenty-four hours of denial. Every step had been a plea, an angry pursuit that had mimicked the pounding of his chest.

At the end of twenty-four hours, he looked into the faces of his past where his father and brothers sat in their chairs, unashamed of the works of their own hands. And Shayne said the first words he’d spoken since setting foot in this place.

“Give her back to me.”

A few whispers flittered through the room. Massie tilted his head like a cat, and Hans-Der squinted as if trying to figure out what Shayne meant, even though it was obvious what Shayne faeborn meant.

Jethwire was a different story—he was the only one smiling. His icy eyes and twisted mouth made Shayne’s insides curl with the story they told.

Lily was here in this room. At least, she had been recently. Shayne looked right and left, though he didn’t see a pretty human with tattooed arms and long blonde hair. He didn’t hear her rhythms, and though he could smell traces of her, she felt… He closed his eyes as he refused to acknowledge just how cold and far away she felt.

Queensbane, if she was dead…

Hans-Der leaned forward on his large chair and folded his hands before him. It was a posture he’d often used right before a righteous scolding. Shayne wasn’t having it. He raised his fairsaber toward his father—a threat, and a statement: Speak or die.

Lesser fairies inhaled and scurried back as if afraid they might get caught in the crossfire of a terrible Lyro fight right in the middle of the great hall.

“Give who back to you? That human?” Hans-Der guessed, feigning innocence, and Shayne’s jaw tightened.

“Yes,” he said through his teeth. “That human. She’s mine.”

From his seat, Massie snorted a quiet laugh and placed a fist over his mouth.

Hans-Der’s face spread into a smile, too. The look was infuriatingly charming and held a pinch of gloating. “I have no idea where she is,” he said.

“Don’t lie to me,” Shayne demanded. He took a step forward, and Jethwire stood from his seat. It was a motion to assure Shayne that if he made another move toward their father, Jethwire would do something about it. Which was laughable. “What are you going to do, Jethwire? Throw your little flute at me?” Shayne guessed.

Jethwire couldn’t find his stupid smile now.

Hans-Der chuckled as he relaxed against his chair. “My tongue would tingle if I was uttering falsehoods,” he said. “It doesn’t. I’m telling you the truth. I have no idea where that human is.”

Shayne’s fairsaber wavered. He stared at his father’s face; one he’d been reading since he was just a boy. One that told him that perhaps this horrid man was telling the truth… until the corner of his father’s mouth quirked.

“You’re still lying, Father. And it’s putting your throat dangerously close to being stabbed through with my fairsaber.” Shayne took another step forward, and this time, Jethwire took two steps down the dais, his cold eyes whispering threats of their own.

Hans-Der, on the other hand, was smiling now, showing his teeth. Almost like he was proud Shayne could see through the falsehood, like he was realizing all over again Shayne was capable of figuring that much out.

“Very well. You’re right, Shayne. I’m lying.” He folded his hands and rested them on his lap. “Move, Jethwire. Sit down and let him be,” he added.

Jethwire glanced back at Hans-Der with a look of question.

“Not only will Shayne refrain from killing us, he will also be taking his rightful place in the highest chair of this household tomorrow,” Hans-Der assured as he stood. He descended the dais slowly, and he came to stand before Shayne, ignoring the fairsaber raised at his neck.

“Why would I ever do that?” Shayne asked. He inhaled; Lily’s fragrance was everywhere—even in the carpet below his feet. He was sure if he just turned around, searched the House, he would find her.

Hans-Der reached up and pushed the fairsaber aside with the end of his finger. “Because once I tell you where that human is, I’m sure you won’t want her anymore,” he said, and Shayne’s skin cooled. “This is the cost of your choice to disobey. I never fail to punish disobedience. You know this.”

“Where is she?” Shayne thought to drop his fairsaber and grab his father’s throat with his bare hand before all these witnesses.

“Swear yourself in as heir of this House. Submit to me and to this household, take your chair, and I will tell you where that human has gone.” Hans-Der’s voice was level, and Shayne’s heart broke in his chest.

So, she was gone. Lost to the Ever Corners. Lily wasn’t really here in this House, despite all the leftover traces.

The fairsaber nearly slipped from Shayne’s fingers. Even if he set out immediately, he could spend years searching the Corners for a human, and he still might never find her. She could already be in the Silver Castle or in some other unreachable place, or she could be the property of the vilest fairies he’d only heard stories about. She could already have suffocated beneath the pressure of it all. She could already be dead.

No, he couldn’t wait. And that was wildly unfortunate. Because Shayne knew not a soul in this House would tell him where Lily was unless he did the one thing they wanted.

His hand tightened around his fairsaber, but the rest of him dropped—his shoulders, his stance, his optimism. Could he really say goodbye to his true brothers forever? To the café? To the human realm? To Kate? To… to Lily? Could he say goodbye to Lily’s police station, to secretly following her on her morning jogs, to her endearing scolds and the way he had her blushing schedule wrapped around his little finger? There was no going back to any of that if he did this, not even in a few years once things blew over. There was no sneaking away or maneuvering out of his position to live a happy life. In the whole North Corner of Ever, only Queene Levress had the power to stand against a household as influential as the Lyro’s, and that was because she had all the armies of the North at her fingertips, and she was allied with Hans-Der.

No, there was no way out. And there was only one way to discover Lily’s location.

Shayne released a growl and tugged at his hair. “I’ll do it,” he stated.

As the words left his lips, his cracked heart hardened to stone. He refused to feel anything more about this at all. It would destroy him if he did.

He sighed and dropped his hand from his hair. He knew this was coming anyway. He’d already decided on the way here what he would do. He’d already said his farewells to everything he would never see again.

Hans-Der’s wide grin made the man look younger than he was. Shayne couldn’t stand looking at it. Instead, he dropped to his knees and stared at the floor, letting his fairsaber fall away with a clamour. For all his years of running, all his time spent training with the Brotherhood to defeat people like this, for all his time spent among the humans… this is what it had led to: Shayne chained to a chair for eternity. To be quiet instead of loud. To never laugh again, because he wouldn’t have anything to laugh about now.

“Bring the ring,” Shayne said.

Hans-Der folded his arms and looked down the end of his nose where Shayne waited. “You know there’s no way to trick the heir’s ring. You can’t get out of its bind. But just in case…” He nodded to someone Shayne couldn’t see.

Sounds of struggling and a low, muttering voice filled the hall. Shayne turned on his knees to find two huntsmen dragging a scowling auburn-haired fairy over the carpet. They tossed him down at Shayne’s side, and surprise filled Shayne’s face.

Dranian lifted his head, growling about his ‘one bad arm’. Shayne watched him take in the image of Hans-Der, the fairy who had purchased him all those years ago and had never once made things easy for him.

“I have no idea whether you were aware your old fairy guard followed you here or not, but now that I have him, I’m sure you’ll follow through on your promise,” Hans-Der said. “We shall have the swearing-in ceremony tomorrow night. And I’ll keep your fairy guard contained until then to ensure you don’t attempt any tricks.” With that, Hans-Der crouched to a knee and looked Shayne in the eyes. “I have, after all, waited all these years to solidify an heir. I’d hate for you to get away again.”

Shayne’s mouth parted as Dranian was kicked by a hunter. Massie threw his head back and shrieked in high-pitched laughter that pulled Shayne’s flesh into bumps. Dranian took in deep breaths, his lashes fluttered, but he focused long enough to tilt toward Shayne and mumble, “Don’t worry. I understand why you had to come here and do this.”

Warmth and dismay puddled in Shayne’s chest. He struggled to spit out words, fighting the temptation to reach over and take Dranian’s hand. His greatest, dearest friend, and the realest, truest, most loyal brother he’d ever had. “We’ll always be the best of friends. You and me,” he whispered back. “Regardless of where I am.”

Jethwire carried over a bronze bowl. Everyone in the room leaned to try and see inside it.

Dranian was grabbed by the hunters again, and too quickly, his presence left Shayne’s side. Shayne looked back over his shoulder; fear, worry, shock, and all sorts of other things pasted across his eyes. Dranian had the same sort of face, though he wasn’t one for big expressions. Still, the two of them locked eyes that way, and as they did, Shayne gave his forever-friend a small nod. A nod of, “Goodbye.” A nod of, “Good luck.”

The truth was, he wasn’t surprised to see Dranian at all.

But still… Shayne closed his eyes after Dranian was taken away. Knowing Dranian would come here didn’t make what Shayne had to do any less real. He hated goodbyes.

“Let me swear in now , and then tell me where Lily Baker is,” Shayne said to Hans-Der one more time. “I have no interest in waiting until tomorrow. I’ll become the official heir right now.”

Hans-Der reached over and lifted a gold ring from Jethwire’s bowl. He studied the large Lyro crest stamped atop it. The gold band had a magical glow that radiated, casting flickers of light along his face. Shayne’s stomach twisted into knots as he imagined wearing it. As he prepared himself for that ring to bind to his flesh where it would become impossible to remove. Where his role to govern the household would begin.

Hans-Der dropped the ring back into the bowl. “We’ll get the preparations ready for tomorrow,” he decided once and for all. Then, he turned, faced the room, and shouted, “Let’s celebrate!”

Shayne watched as fairies leapt around the hall. Music began to play, but he closed his eyes. He couldn’t bear to see them rejoice. Instead, he turned and headed for the maze, and he made his way around the curves to his room, expecting it to feel cold and abandoned like the inside of his chest.

The moment he entered, he gasped and slapped a hand over his mouth and nose.

Lily’s scent was on everything .

It was like a caress of false hope, trapping him in a nightmare while he was still wide awake. She was everywhere, yet nowhere. Her fragrance was on his pillow, bound to his sheets, in footsteps on the floor, and resting in the air.

Shayne leaned on his bed, holding himself up by his fists. He whispered, “Where are you, pretty Human?” The room answered with silence. And so, he vowed, “I’m going to find you. Even if it takes me the rest of my life.”