Page 3 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses (Cursed Fae Courts #1)

Chapter Three

Aurelia

M y pulse quickened as my own senses finally identified the scent and movement of something creeping through the trees. Just outside the barrier but crawling closer as if it could see right through to where we stood. I strained for a glimpse of whatever it was but didn’t have to wait long. A second later, a flash of black-as-death eyes confirmed Sonoma’s words, and my breath caught at the sight of it.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a pale-skinned fae male with haunting, obsidian eyes—but I knew pure evil lurked inside that form.

The Obsidians had been fae until Heliconia twisted them into something else with her dark magic. I’d heard stories about children and parents alike being taken from their beds and painfully transformed. I ached with empathy at the way my people’s lives—and souls—had been stolen from them in such a horrible way. To be remade into a mindless monster enslaved to a wicked queen was a fate worse than death. But now, facing one in the flesh, my only emotion was fear.

Even from where it still huddled in the brush, the foul signature of its dark magic was stronger than anything I’d felt before.

Sonoma gestured at me to fall into a formation familiar from our practice sessions. But this was no practice, and for a moment, I stood frozen. She gestured again, never taking her eyes off the creature yet somehow managing to project her impatience and irritation.

Move.

Out of sheer will and muscle memory, I got into my fighting stance. Sonoma stood beside me with an unyielding stare that had felled enemies much worse than this one. Then she lowered the barrier.

“Is that wise?” I hissed. “It can’t reach us inside the wards.”

“It can see us,” she said grimly. “The damage is done.”

We watched as the Obsidian crawled toward us on all fours, its movements more animal than fae.

A shudder went through me that wasn’t fear. Anticipation. Or maybe a reaction to the immense power that rippled out of the elder Aine warrior. In Sonoma’s hand, Latha gleamed as if it, too, relished the idea of a fight.

But the Obsidian was mindless enough to ignore the warning. Almost too fast for me to see, the creature lunged from the undergrowth. Not at Sonoma. At me.

Large onyx eyes glinted with unnatural hunger before it was nearly on me, its mouth open and sharpened teeth aimed for my throat. I brought my sword up just in time to crash the hilt against the creature’s jaw. It stumbled sideways as Sonoma whirled, her footwork flawless as she brought her body around to shield me.

The Obsidian hissed, the sound thick with malice. Its pale fingers, sharp as claws, stretched toward Sonoma as it advanced.

She lifted her blade to meet it. Latha sliced clean through the creature’s wrist. Its hand fell to the ground with a thump. Blood poured from the severed limb, and the creature screeched, making me cringe.

With renewed determination, it lunged with its remaining hand outstretched, but Sonoma was quicker. She dodged, spinning out of the way and slashing her blade across its chest. The creature stumbled, its dark blood spilling onto the forest floor, rotting the ground where it touched the earth. When it straightened, Sonoma no longer stood between us.

The Obsidian realized it too.

“Keep your blade up,” Sonoma snapped at me.

I lifted Dorcha higher, my heart thudding so hard I thought it might crack my ribs. My breaths came in short gasps.

I had trained for this.

Trained.

It felt like pretending compared to standing before the wretched thing now. My blood crawled with distaste—but also with something that felt like recognition. Whatever this Obsidian was made from, it called to me.

It sang inside me.

That scared me more than the fact that it wanted to kill me.

As I stared, its face began to change shape. Instead of a male fae with a shock of chestnut hair and dead, obsidian eyes, it was a woman. She was beautiful with long dark hair that fell straight down her back. Her eyes were depthless and, unlike the hollow obsidian gaze, held a vastness of secrets—and rage.

The smile that curled her lips was cruel and knowing. “Hello, Aurelia.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

Sonoma screamed and brought her sword down, but the creature danced out of reach .

The woman’s eyes glittered. “Sonoma. Is that any way to greet a sister?”

“I am not your sister,” Sonoma spat.

I stared in confusion while Sonoma shoved me aside to plant herself between me and our attacker.

“What is going on—?” I began.

“Get out of my kingdom,” Sonoma spat at the strange female.

“Nothing’s changed, I see. Still wearing your heart on your sleeve. It always did make you reckless, you know.”

Sonoma snarled.

I blinked, confused at the intimacy between them. No one had ever called Sonoma reckless, but this creature said it like she knew from personal experience.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

The woman smiled at me. “My name is Heliconia.”

Shock rippled through me, though deep down, I’d known no one else could’ve pulled off the kind of magic she was using now.

“I take it you’ve heard of me,” Heliconia added smugly.

“What do you want?” Sonoma demanded through clenched teeth.

“Confirmation,” Heliconia said. Her voice was deceivingly light, but the look in her eyes was pure malice. “You did a good job of hiding her, I’ll give you that,” she added, her gaze flicking to me.

Sonoma seethed, but I jolted.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You’re the one they think will stop me,” Heliconia said.

I blinked. Was my marriage to Callan that intimidating to her?

“The Fates do not make mistakes,” Sonoma said, and I whipped my head toward her, my stomach churning .

Whatever Sonoma meant by that, one thing was clear: This wasn’t about my marriage.

Heliconia smirked. “Is that so?”

“What do the Fates have to do with me?” I demanded.

“Ah, you haven’t told her about her destiny.” Her amusement made it clear she didn’t remotely consider me a threat. Nor even worth addressing as she looked at Sonoma again. “Imagine the disgrace when I show up here and watch her cower like a novice at the sight of one of my soldiers.” She snorted. “This is the best the Fates have for me? It won’t even be a fair fight when I cut her down.”

“There is an army waiting for you to try,” Sonoma said coldly.

I couldn’t help the pang of embarrassment that she hadn’t bothered to stand up for me directly. But I kept my chin high, refusing to react to the slight.

Heliconia merely narrowed her gaze. “You’ve gone to great lengths to stop me, old friend. But in the end, it won’t matter. I will come for you and take the Summer Court for myself.”

“The only thing waiting for you here is your destruction,” Sonoma snapped, raising her sword. “If you’ve come for it now, stop hiding behind spells and shadows, and fight me.”

“And what about your young trainee? You’d steal her chance to be a hero?” Heliconia tsk ed. “Not very Aine of you at all.”

“I am Aine, and I will destroy you,” I said with as much confidence as I could muster. It sounded weak even to me, but I couldn’t stand by and watch her dismiss me like a trifling inconvenience.

Heliconia snorted, but her dismissal only urged me on.

“I will not let you harm my people,” I added.

Something inside me whispered encouragement, a magic I’d never felt before stirring at last. It gave me the confidence to stand straighter—even when Heliconia sent tendrils of power toward me.

Shadows—nothing more.

And still, it took everything I had not to react as they poked and prodded at my ankles, snaking up my legs.

When I refused to cower, she smiled that catlike smile again.

With a battle cry, Sonoma swung out her sword, cutting through the shadows until they broke apart.

“If you touch her,” Sonoma snarled, “I won’t wait until you decide to march to these gates. I will come and slaughter you myself.”

Heliconia’s eyes narrowed.

I gripped my sword, ready for an attack.

“Your fear is unbecoming,” Heliconia snapped at Sonoma. She whipped her gaze to me. “If you want a fight, you shall have it. Let’s see what you’re really made of.”

Her face vanished, replaced once again by the Obsidian’s. His form solidified—I knew it somehow in my bones, thanks to whatever strange, new magic surged through my veins.

Sonoma knew it too.

She whirled, racing around with her sword already swinging.

The creature managed a single step in my direction before it lurched forward awkwardly, arching its back. Its mouth opened in what promised to be a scream but came out as a gargling hiss. Blood leaked from its open mouth before it fell, shoved face-first into the dirt by the force of Sonoma ripping her blade free from its back.

She hadn’t even bothered to let me fight it.

The creature moaned, the sound rattling and wet as it rolled onto its back and stared up at the sky. That strange call in my own blood returned as I looked down at it.

Magic whispered, sinking beneath my skin .

A forbidden song in my veins.

I couldn’t look away.

More blood leaked from the Obsidian, and I found myself fisting my hand to keep from reaching out and touching the liquid that pulsed with the creature’s ebbing life force.

“Aurelia.” Sonoma’s voice held a question—and a warning.

“I can feel it,” I murmured, stepping closer to the fallen monster.

The creature’s head jerked up, its once-fierce eyes now glazed with terror as if it could sense the end. Its lips curled in a silent snarl, more black blood bubbling up through its mouth.

I knelt beside it, my boots squishing in the wetness.

Sonoma’s words cut through the stillness. “Aurelia, don’t.”

But I couldn’t stop.

The magic rose inside me, dark tendrils of power curling through my body like smoke. My hand extended, my fingers trembling.

The dying creature’s life force unraveled before my eyes—twisting, writhing tendrils of magic lifted from its body, drawn toward me. The energy surged into my outstretched hand, a dark and intoxicating force that burned as it entered.

The creature screamed—its final sound a haunting echo—before it fell limp, collapsing into itself as if drained of every last drop of vitality.

My pulse thundered in my ears.

The magic was cold, searing through my veins, but beneath the chill, there was something else—something alive. Not summer’s warmth. Not light or heat or any of the things a Summer fae princess should possess. It was power born of death, drawn from the last remnants of a dying thing.

And now it was mine .

I staggered, my heart racing at the implication of what I’d just done—what I’d just become. I tried to resist it, to remove it somehow, but it was too late for that. I could feel the darkness feeding me, strengthening me.

My surroundings sharpened, the colors of the forest becoming more vivid. The ground beneath my feet seemed to hum as if the forest, too, could sense the shift in my magic.

“Aurelia!” Sonoma broke through the haze, and I gasped, drinking in the last of the creature’s energy with a shudder.

Sonoma was at my side, her face pale. “Are you all right?”

“I… What happened?”

“Your power awakened.”

My power… I had magic. Finally. Relief coursed through me for a split second until I realized how stricken Sonoma looked.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“How long have you known you had death magic?” she asked in a strange voice.

Death magic?

I blinked, trembling as her words sank in. “I…I don’t. That’s impossible. It’s?—”

Death magic belonged to the Furiosities. It belonged to Hel. To demons. To darkness. Not to summer fae like me.

But Sonoma was grabbing my shoulders, shaking them. “Look at me. Has this happened before?”

“No,” I said quickly. “It just came over me, and I took some of it in— Am I going to become like that thing?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Her certainty broke through the fog of my fear, and I realized with startling clarity that, while Sonoma looked unhappy, she didn’t look surprised.

“How do you know so much about this?” I asked.

“Because I’ve seen your kind of magic before, and I know where it comes from. ”

“Where does it come from?” I asked, dread coiling in my gut.

“Hel,” she said.

Despite those exact suspicions, I gaped at her. It was one thing to know it and another to have it confirmed. But it made no sense. Magic was bestowed through bloodlines. I’d seen our lineage as part of my studies. Both of my parents were very decidedly summer fae. There wasn’t a trace of demon in the entire royal line.

“How do I have it?” I asked.

And then, somewhere in the distance, I heard it.

Trumpets. From the castle.

The sound was faint, carried by the breeze through the trees, but unmistakable. Sonoma’s expression shuttered, and the moment was over. Callan was here. And I was already late.