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“ T hat was—” I wrinkled my nose at the bloodied camp. “Disturbing.”

I flicked my sword back into the void my shadows held for me and turned towards the last remaining shifter. Surprisingly, still alive.

I didn’t envy him that—being alive. I had imagined and hoped for my own death more than once in my self exile.

Except the fae were immortal…unable to die of natural causes, including taking our own lives, I was forced to live my many years with the knowledge of what I had done and what I had become.

A monster.

I glared at the slumped form of the shifter hanging in irons that seared his skin, recognizing the power that had flared around him just moments before I stepped into this camp.

The goddess had come, after thousands of years and abandoning us with a curse that was a slow torturous extinction, she had come.

For him .

Compelled, I took a step forward. The blood on him was more than a few days old but it did nothing to mar his beauty. My stomach flipped with anticipation with every step I took, the draw to be near him heady in its pull.

Even in his fae form, I could tell he was a powerful beast of a shifter and it was no secret of my undeniable draw towards powerful beasts.

From the deadly creatures of the northern night, to the sunbathing dragons of the south, I had always been drawn by their ferocity, their deadliness, and their loyal instincts to protect.

A weakness that had always led me into trouble and this time would be no different.

When his gold eyes had met mine, it took every bit of my focus to ignore the compulsion he stirred within me. Let alone the hot desire that rushed into me.

At that moment, I was more alive than I had been for almost a hundred years.

It made me want to kill him.

I did not want to feel . I deserved the lonely, lifeless exile I now lived. And this unknown shifter, with his gorgeous body and alluring gold eyes, was threatening my very non-existent life with his intoxicating power.

Power, unlike anything I had come across from any other court of fae.

From the stubborn fae elementals with their ability to wield earth, fire, wind, and spirit, to the siren singing water fae that controlled the riverways, the tides, and all ocean life, I thought I had seen it all in my two thousand and twelve years.

Even the shifters, with their vast strength, quick speed, and lethal predator instincts never manifested power quite like him…as far as I knew.

Consuming in its hot need, it called to me.

I shook my head to clear my senses. I was a shadow fae. My power was cold, glacial, and infinite. I had no need for this burning hot power. The last of my kind, the shadow fae once controlled all the dormant shadows of this world and manipulated them as we saw fit. We controlled the night.

I frowned. This shifter was pure limitless light .

“Perhaps he has evolved?” I waved my hand, talking to the shadows that appeared beside me. Floating with satisfaction from their fae meal.

Immortal life had a way of preventing stagnant eternity, although we still were classified by our courts, some of our powers had morphed to become uniquely individual.

Our previous queen could control all four elements, my mother had the power of foresight, it was said even the shifter king of old had the power to see truth, making him an admired leader.

My own had evolved as well, with the ability to see auras of fae around me.

I read their souls just as easily as I took them.

“I wonder what his aura is like.” I glanced at them, watching them swirl happily. “You agree then? One little peek shouldn’t hurt?”

Their smokey tendrils bobbed excitedly.

“Except that's what you said about those shifters and their auras just about made me throw up in my mouth.”

The shadows shimmered in a laughing manner that almost seemed mocking.

“You’re insinuating I’m a coward. You didn’t see what I did.” Shaking my head at them, I turned to the shifter. “This better be worth it.”

Peering deeply at the last shifter alive in this camp I engaged my sight only to find myself gasping and stumbling backwards by the blinding light emanating from his very soul. Swirls of shining, glittering, golden light surrounded him in a perfect halo so bright that it was almost white in nature.

Sharply, I turned away, clutching at my chest to steady my racing heart and switching off my aura sight.

His soul…goddess his soul was beautiful.

The color was divine in nature with the mark of the ascended and in mere seconds, it cracked the monstrous darkness surrounding my own in its fiery blaze.

The shadows draped around me and I clutched at their darkness, spinning in confusion to face his unconscious form again, seeing him now in a whole new way.

My gaze raked over his bronze sculpted body, caked in dried layers of blood.

Strong wide shoulders outlined a tall frame, and the nakedness of his chest revealed every delicious cut of newly healed muscle.

His pants hung deliciously low off his hips, baring the provocative chiseled v of his abdominals down to his strong dark brown leather encased legs .

He was irrevocably the very definition of fae and I found myself enraptured by the very presence of him. For the first time, I understood what it was to be ensnared by our kind… much like all the humans of Earth who came in contact with us.

Humans were a plaything for the fae in their immortal boredom and we had manipulated their culture for centuries.

From Atlantis and mermaids stemming from the water fae, legends of werewolves originating from the shifters, the fear of vampires from the long extinguished blood fae, even the stories of dragons, enchanted swords, gigantic sea creatures…

it was all fae. Of course there were also a select fae who craved human worship and thus legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann were created.

I drew the shadows closer to me. Those times were over now. The gateways to other worlds and even realms within our own world had been sealed shut one hundred years ago.

Morta.

The day I destroyed our queen, murdered our people, and leveled the capital city of Faerie.

All that was left of the fae now were a scattered few elementals within the continent, the water fae hiding in their mysterious watery depths of The Under, and the shifters across the vast ocean in The West Isles.

Isolated, we lived out the rest of our lives within a massive world without the hope of ever having a legacy of our own. The curse prevented us from procreating and brought out the savages that laid within.

Without purpose to cull our violent nature we were nothing more than sophisticated animals, miserable in our own existence, killing in boredom, waiting for the day when there was only one of our species left.

A soft touch of shadow brought me back to the forest and I blinked slowly at the unconscious shifter, my lip curling in a silent snarl.

“What is he doing here anyway?” I hissed to the shadows. “They have their own damned continent, with their own murderous king to rule them.”

They were savages. The whole lot of them.

Except this one didn’t feel like a savage. He felt like something… more . More beautiful, more powerful, more commanding, more dominant. I just wanted to bathe in the glory of his shadow like a besotted fool .

Reaching out, I held my breath and cupped his face where the soft stubble of his beard prickled my palm. Only shifters grew body hair. The other courts of fae had no need for it. We were not animals outright.

His mouth parted in a sigh when my touch trailed over his smooth lips and his warm breath washed over my face leaving behind the scent of chocolate and spice.

I licked my lips at the hunger that pooled deep in my belly at his delicious scent and forced my hand to trace the crooked contour of his nose with my fingertips.

Enjoying that one perfect imperfection of him and wondering why this specific injury hadn’t ever healed.

His long dark lashes fluttered on his chiseled cheekbones and I reached up to sweep back the light brown hair that had fallen over his brow. Long only down the center of his head, the sides of his head were shaved short, the texture of it much softer than the coarse bristle of his beard.

His tormentors had called him the golden one mockingly. If they only knew how true his aura was to this name they wouldn’t have dared slander it. They would have trembled in fear before him. An ascended fae, goddess touched, a leader of all, the light within the darkness.

Snapping my hand back I finally exhaled and stared at the iron chains binding him. Memories of that cold metal burning my wrists and the emptiness I felt at being disconnected from my shadows made my stomach churn with revulsion.

Shaking my head, I rubbed at my wrists. “I am free…somehow I got free.” The mystery of that day, the broken iron shackle, was something I had never solved. Clenching my teeth, I glared at the chains. “ Separ .”

Black tendril shadows immediately obeyed, severing the iron chains that held the powerful shifter. A singular breeze rustled my unbound hair and blew through the Wildwoods, the silver foliage whispering excitedly at my newly sealed fate.

Irritated, I kicked the iron chains that had thudded to the ground away from him and then looked up to see over two hundred pounds of pure limp muscle falling directly towards me.

“Shit!” I cursed, unable to sidestep the bronzed glory falling on top of me, I braced for impact.