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D ust.

Dust was everywhere and it continued to sprinkle down from the sunlit sky, so thick in the air that I could scarcely breathe without inhaling the grit fully in my lungs. Yet here I stood, on a half crumbled balcony.

Waiting. I was waiting.

Sunlight broke through the thick air, highlighting the utter destruction of my home. The capital, the City of Light—it was gone.

A harsh rattling breath escaped me as I took in the desolation. Gone were the elegant shops, luscious gardens, sparkling fountains. Just crumbled marble, tints of gold, and lush splintered wood covered our once sacred city.

Worse, there was no sound. No cries of pain, no harsh sobs of loss, no chickadees trilling wildly looking for the comfort of their perches. Even the corrupted inner city, where the most wicked fae resided was silent, buried beneath the rubble.

Waiting. I was still waiting.

Desperate for just one cry…to know that one pitiful soul still lived—still existed.

It just couldn’t be.

I was part of an already dying race. Abandoned by our goddess and cursed with infertility after a long bloody war over a thousand years ago. Our extinction was inevitable but it could have been slow. I could have made sure that what was left of the fae lived a long, prosperous, and happy existence.

Except…I failed.

I was their hope, their salvation, their dark hero…and I failed. And yet, I felt nothing. Nothing but hollow emptiness. I wasn’t even able to feel the warmth of the sun's mocking rays.

Waiting. I was still waiting.

Not for hope. It was clear that time had passed.

A dark, inky blackness oozed from the ruined city and gathered like a plume of smoke from a campfire.

Finally, they were here.

Infinite.

Ominous.

Dark.

Shadows.

So life-like, they moved through the air with a sentient purpose—a deadly power unlike anything this world had ever seen.

And they were mine .

Instinctively, I reached outward to their darkness allowing them to swarm my hand before wrapping themselves around my body as if to thaw the now frozen heart inside of me.

“She is gone.” I whispered to them and closed my eyes that burned with unshed tears. She was just dust now, forever gone just like the rest of the fae that lived here.

Opening my eyes, I took one last look at the city I had dutifully served and destroyed. I was not the general they had hoped for and I sure as goddess was not the heroine they had loved.

I never deserved such love anyway.

After all, monsters never did.

And I was the worst monster around .

Alive—but dead inside.

***

I stared at the utter desolation with nausea threatening to rise from my churning gut. The sun set low on the destroyed City of Light, casting a peaceful glow that was mocking in the chaotic turmoil roiling inside of me.

A long low whistle speared the silence from my best friend, his violet eyes glinting with admiration. “Fucking Faerie.” He cursed. “She did this?”

I shook my head as an all too familiar feeling of desperation flooded my tired eyes. I stumbled forward on the verge of collapsing when a strong hand from my other side gripped my shoulder. I could not hide the flinch his touch created.

“You are not healed enough for this Emon, let us return you home. You cannot keep going on, my cub.”

I shrugged off the support from the healer who had joined me here. “I’ll be fine Jar and there is no time, if I am going to find her I must leave tonight.”

Out of my periphery, I could see the healer give my friend a look, jerking his head towards me and hissing under his breath. “Tyr, talk some sense into him. ”

Tyr scoffed. “He practically dragged himself here and we couldn’t stop him then, healer. What makes you think we can stop him now?”

My tears spilled down my face, only half listening to their continued squabbling about my current state and I growled out. “I have to find her. Where is Penina?”

“I’m here.” A gentle voice called and the deadly silhouette of Faerie’s most infamous assassin stepped forward into the remaining sunlight. “I brought you something.” She smiled brightly and shoved two bound fae onto their knees before me. “I found these two searching through the rubble.”

I peered down at the grief stricken fae. Their heads hung low and their shoulders slumped in defeat. Their hands clenched in front of them bound by a leather cord that was clearly not needed.

They were broken…like me.

Clad in heavy black leather, caked with grime and dust, the one with bright wavy green hair looked up at me through his low hanging locks. Stormy hazel eyes glared, recognizing me for what I was.

A shifter.

His partner didn’t bother. Hair white as snow covered half her face and it slung sharply towards the ground where her tears stained the crumbled earth.

“Who are you?” I growled low.

Green hair narrowed his hazel eyes on me. “We don’t answer to shifters.” He spat.

I smiled, my fangs glinting in the low light. “So there is still some fight in you. That’s good.” I nodded. “Penina?”

Jerking him back by his hair, the assassin flipped down the collar of his uniform, where a delicate silver pin, crafted to look like a swirl of smoke, was clasped on the inside.

I inhaled. “Shadow forces.” I nodded to Penina, who dropped the fae’s head and quickly moved to flip the collar of his partner, revealing the same pin beneath, “Captains, by the looks of it.” I growled and crouched low, catching both their gazes this time.

I stared into a singular stormy gray eye of the fae with white hair. “Where is your master?”

“Dead.” She hissed back.

I shook my head, they didn’t know. “Your queen is likely dead, yes. But that is not the master I speak of. Yours is very much alive and I will find her. ”

Neither could hide their shock nor the new hope glimmering in their eyes.

Green hair laughed dryly. “If what you say is true, shifter. Then may the goddess help you. If the general doesn’t want to be found, you won’t be finding her, she will be finding you .”

Distracted, I barely recognized the threat before his meek partner lunged for me with a snarl. Penina was faster. A blade stopping the shadow force captain mid attack.

“Easy little elemental.” Penina purred down at her.

I frowned, assessing them both again, recognizing them from the stories I had gathered. “Elementals? As in the elemental twins. The captains of her inner circle. Riley Dragoon and Xi Chin.”

They glanced at one another then. A thousand words spoken in one look. I should know it, it was the same for me and my friends here today.

“What is your plan if you do find her, shifter?” The fae with white hair didn’t bother to flinch away from the blade caressing her exposed throat.

Xi. Her name was Xi Chin. The earth elemental. I recognized her now. It was said that only the dead knew what the other half of her face looked like.

I rose and took in the destruction again, sadness seeping into every pore of my body. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me now…waiting.

I was so tired. Jar’s firm grip caught me again and my body shuddered. I blinked to stop the world from tilting and shook my head hard, fighting to stay upright.

Growling, I stared out beyond the horizon, gripping hard to the leather strap of my satchel slung across my shoulders. “I’m going to bring her back home...”