Page 38 of Hell Fae Commander

When she shivered, I added a second blanket. The Midnight Fae Realm was much cooler than the Hell Fae Realm. It would take some getting used to after living in the blistering heat for so long.

“I wish I were joking,” he murmured. “But you really look like shit.”

“Your commentary is as helpful as always.”

“What are friends for?” he drawled.

“Sanctuary, I hope,” I muttered, causing him to cant his head to the side.

The unruly waves of his thick, dark hair fell over one of his ice-blue eyes while he considered me. He had a way of seeming to look right into one’s soul when he did that. It had never unnerved me. But it did now.

Because he could say no.

He could refuse me entry, leaving me with nowhere to go.

Then what?I wondered.

I’d left the place I used to call home. Turned my back on my fellow Midnight Fae. And now I was back, hoping like hell that my oldest friend would help me. Helpus. “Lucifer is going to kill her,” I whispered. “He’s probably going to kill me now, too.”

Shade said nothing, his gaze still assessing. Perhaps he wasn’t really assessing me at all, but the various paths drawn out before us.

I wasn’t exactly sure how the Fortune Fae gift of foresight worked, especially when it came to Shade’s abilities. His mixed heritage defined him as clearlyother. His ties to Aflora and all their shared mates had altered him even more.

Who knew what he was seeing? What he was saying? What he was doing?

I swallowed, my arms tightening around Camillia almost protectively. Shade wouldn’t hurt her; of that I was certain. But some of Aflora’s other mates might not be so forgiving of our unexpected arrival.

“If I recall correctly, Zakkai’s terms with Lucifer were to alter your magic to make you more Hellish in nature, not remove all of your Midnight Fae roots. Thus…” He trailed off with a shrug. “This is still your home, yes?”

“Is it?” I asked him, uncertain of the answer. Because I’d left this realm a decade ago, vowing to never return. Yet here I stood in the heart of the Midnight Fae Kingdom, essentially begging my oldest friend to offer Cami and me protection.

Lucifer would come for us, probably via Az.

How will Aflora and her mates react to that? Will they hand us over? Or will my rash decision to come here lead to catastrophic results?

“Let’s not worry ourselves with semantics or potential futures just yet,” Shade murmured, his gaze sparking with foreign knowledge. Sometimes I wondered if he could read minds, his intuitiveness a little too keen to be considered coincidence.

Alas, it was just Shade.

Power literally ran in his blood.

“This way,” he continued, angling his head down a long path framed with black and blue flowers. They created a delicate-looking courtyard, at least upon first glance. But a longer look confirmed what I suspected—those flowers had thorns.

And not just any thorns—bladedthorns. Similar to the razor-like grass at Midnight Fae Academy.

Aflora had clearly married her Earth Fae heritage to her Midnight Fae Queen magic, creating a new form of life around her palace. That enchantment stretched out before me as we moved, my focus shifting to the burning thwomps in the distance. I snorted when their bare limbs puffed with cerulean smoke instead of its usual fire.

Then I paused when a flurry of color blinked in and out of existence all along the black thwomp branches. “Fire gnats?” I guessed, frowning at the flickering lights. They were usually little flame balls of irritation, but these reminded me of festive decorations.

“Hmm,” Shade hummed, following my gaze and canting his head. “Aflora bespelled the palace walls to morph certain irritants into kinder species. In this case, she’s made it so that all fire gnats that cross over the walls turn into lightning butterflies.” He glanced at me. “If you think that’s fun, you should see what she did to the stonepeckers.”

My eyebrows rose. “Can’t they just peck their way through the enchantment?” That was what stonepeckers did—they were birdlike creatures who used their long beaks to peck at rocks and other items to absorb spells. Pesky little buggers.

“Her spell constantly rewrites itself, making it impossible for the stonepeckers to absorb.” His lips curled. “Which means they’re constantly changing shape and species, too.”

“I can only guess at why that amuses you.” Because he clearly used them for something nefarious. This was Shade, after all.

“Zakkai hates them.”