Page 55

Everly

I had finally started to thaw by the time we arrived at the village. Even in my borrowed leathers, I had spent the entirety of the journey to the Wild Lands frozen. From the frigid temperatures so high in the air, from shock and fear.

But mostly from my ring.

It had pulsated with increasing urgency, sending spirals of ice all the way to my fingertips like it was begging me, ordering me to go to him. Every part of me had screamed to obey.

But Draven couldn’t have fought the Unseelie in his state, and the wards wouldn’t have held forever. The only way I could save him was to get the Skaldwings as far from him as I could manage, and hope like hell my sister could keep him alive.

Which he was, as of now. The ring had calmed down, but it still flickered cold on occasion, enough to let me know he still breathed. He was still in danger, but he was alive. I had to believe he would stay that way.

Which was more than I could say for myself once the Thane got a hold of me. Any minute now.

I sucked in a breath, trying to stave down the panic at facing down the reason behind my nightmares. The reason my mother was probably dead.

The tip of a spear prodded my back, and I shot a glare at Tavrik, who was steadily becoming my least favorite person after three endless days of being chained to him in the sky.

He grinned, more a baring of his teeth. “Hurry along now. You know the Thane doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

I had learned early that the only thing Tavrik respected was strength, so I mirrored his smirk, though mine was decidedly crueler.

“No, he doesn’t tolerate failure well at all. I wonder who he’ll blame for the way this mission turned out.”

My gaze slipped pointedly to Zerina, who was pale and clinging to life in the arms of the fae who had looked so familiar.

He had been my friend, back when I was allowed to have them. Before I was given to the mages. The lines of his face were harsher now, sharper with more than just age, and he hadn’t looked at me once for the entirety of our journey.

Tavrik answered with another prod to my back, though his smirk had notably fallen from his features.

It was a hollow victory when the Thane was waiting for me.

Members of the clan turned to stare as we walked through. Most of the faces were familiar, but there were several who were new. And too many missing.

Fae who were aunts and uncles and cousins to me, still on a frozen battlefield. Still dead by my husband’s hand.

I swallowed, ignoring the furious, betrayed expressions and the spittle that flew at my feet.

You abandoned me first, I wanted to say. You let the mages take me, but Draven killed them for daring to try.

I didn’t want to think about that, though. Him. Any of it.

Guilt and fear and panic were too close to the surface as it was, and this was not a place for weakness. The Winter Court had always felt removed. Those weren’t really my people. That wasn’t really my life.

But I was intimately familiar with the ways of the clan.

I squared my shoulders, letting my shimmering wings flare. Shifting was physical. It didn’t need mana.

But even before anyone realized that I was defective, the faint shimmer of my wings had set me apart. My mother had always explained it away. You’re just unique. Blessed by the Shard Mother.

There were no hybrid shifters, so no one had thought to question it, least of all me. Not until the day she broke me free from my chains, tears in her eyes, a dagger in her hand. She whispered the name of an estate in my ear, asked me to trust her, and told me to run.

Though she must have known my uncle would kill her for letting me go.

Finally, we reached a familiar building with towering exposed ebony beams and a thatch roof nestled into the cliffside. Memories assaulted me. Chains and screams and pain.

But worse still were the happy ones. Remembering when laughter echoed off the walls of my childhood home.

The other Unseelie fell away, but Tavrik and his spear stayed at my back, ushering me through the wide threshold. Through an entryway. To a spacious, rustic room with tall windows that let in all the light of the afternoon sun.

It was too bright. Too open. Too easy to focus all of my attention on the male in the center of the room, the familiar face I would have gone the rest of my life without seeing.

The Thane.

Tavrik sank to a knee, shooting me a warning look to do the same.

I didn’t move. I would not kneel before this male.

Fury flashed across Tavrik’s features, and he darted out a hand to my arm, fully prepared to yank me to the ground.

The Thane held up a hand, clearing his throat.

“That’s not necessary, Tavrik. After all, you don’t kneel for family.”

My blood rushed in my veins, heartbeat stilling in my chest as I stared at the male who had ruined my life.

“What? No greeting, after all this time?”

Shards , he was still such a bastard.

It gave me the strength I needed to lift my chin, returning his greeting with every ounce of courage I could dredge up from my weary soul.

“Hello, Uncle.”

End of Book One