Page 9

I glared at the tanned muscular back of Emon who was setting a quick pace south towards the Balsam Plains, the southernmost point of the Wildwoods. He had easily sniffed out the cabin’s escape route and then proceeded to remind me of all my failures, taunting me to follow him.

My jaw clenched and my hands curled at my sides. I knew what he was doing, making himself a target so I would give chase. The problem was…it was goddess damn working!

If Deirdre was alive…

No. She was dead and I would prove it.

My eyes tracked his powerful stride, his toned ass taunting me with each prowling step. Only to be made worse by his bag slapping quietly against his side. Another taunt. I should have pilfered the contents…my damned honor was the only thing that had prevented me fr om doing it.

Why in the goddess would a werewood tree hide a bag for him?

Who in the goddess was he really?

“It’s unusual for a shifter to travel alone. Do your people hate you as much as your little gang in the woods did?”

Amused gold eyes flashed back at me. “The opposite in fact. They adore me. It’s me that prefers solitude.

I am sure my friends will be more than displeased that I didn’t allow them to tag along on this journey.

” He shot me a smile. “I have a feeling they’d love you though. Most shifters do, you know.”

My steps faltered and I narrowed my eyes on him. “I’d say you’re lying if that was even possible for us.”

He shrugged and danced around a patch of red dragon plants that were ready to snap his balls off.

Damn, I was hoping I had distracted him enough to at least see that happen. He gave me a knowing look.

“That’s exactly my point.” He waved at the plants.

“They would have laughed their asses off seeing you distract me enough to step into that kind of trouble.” The affection for his friends in his warm growling tone was evident.

He raked a hand over his hair. “I do miss them. I have been gone too long.”

I tickled the dragon plants under their thorny chins with my shadows and they slumped to the ground in slumber. “How long have you been gone?” I ignored his surprised look at the vicious sleeping plants and stepped gingerly over a pod of mushroom caps.

He quickly caught up to me. “Over the past one hundred years, I’ve checked in off and on but not long enough to ease their concern.” He gave me a small smirk. “You have been difficult to find.”

“That was the point.” I drawled. “I did not and still do not want to be found.”

Would my gnomes have died had he not found me?

He shook his head, reading my thoughts. “My presence had nothing to do with your cabin being discovered.” He said softly.

My hand twitched for my sword but I continued walking—fleeing more like it. Was that who I was now? The former general that hid, that ran? A monster following a goddess damn shifter of all things?

Emon started to hum an old tune from my childhood and I found myself glaring at his back again while my traitorous shadows danced to his sultry song.

They hadn’t left me since he had come and I could not tell if that was because they were infatuated with the shifter or worried for me.

In the end, it didn’t matter. My shadows were loyal, the only thing I could trust in this world.

Unlike Deirdre…

Her name was like a ghost that haunted my soul.

Once the Queen of Faerie, she was the most powerful fae elemental to have existed.

Harnessing all the elements and spirit, she was a beautiful and deadly creature…

and I loved her for it. We were drawn passionately to each other from the isolation that came with tremendous power.

I hadn’t even allowed myself to think her name let alone speak it since Morta and I hated that the very sound of it made my heart fracture—that I still had love for her evil soul.

“Are you okay?” Concerned gold eyes peered back over a deliciously defined shoulder.

I hated that shoulder. “I’m Faerie fantastic.”

“We will be at the Balsam Plains soon.” I could hear the laughter in his deep voice. “Then we can find shelter for the night. It won’t be safe to travel in the dark.”

Flipping my hair over my shoulder I smirked. “I have no fear of that, shifter. In case you haven't noticed, I am the darkness.”

He chuckled deeply. “Oh I have noticed, little umbra. How could I not when all its sinful secrets are wrapped up into one beautiful fae?” Casually he launched himself on one hand over a large fallen tree. His entire body planking sideways with graceful ease and then disappearing from sight.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. Waving my hand behind me, shadow wings sprouted at my back and instantly raised me above the ground.

Emon was waiting on the other side with his arms crossed and a smug smile plastered on his face.

When he glanced up and saw me flying not only over the tree but over his head as well, that smile split into a wide admiring grin.

Landing softly on the ground in front of him, my wings dissolved and I shot him a smug look of my own.

He prowled towards me. “I’m impressed.”

I flipped my long black hair again and turned to give him an assessing look. “That only makes one of us.”

His deep sensuous chuckle made my stomach flutter and made me walk further away from him.

We were close to the southern ridge-line of the Wildwoods now anyway and I found myself looking forward to the waves of prickling green valleys and thick gnarly brambles of the Balsam Plains.

Jackalopes would be out at this time of day, wreaking havoc in the underbrush and disturbing the white flowered fairy rings that beckoned any traveler to its sinful revelry.

As I stepped out of the woods, I faltered, the sun blinding me. Raising my hand to shield its powerful rays, my sight adjusted and I inhaled sharply.

The bright evergreens I expected to see laid charred and broken for miles. Black ash littered the ground with what looked like hundreds of jackalope horns adorning the bleak landscape—a warning to any who came here.

In the distance, I could just make out the faint outline of a fairy ring, except no white flowers encircled it…no powers of seduction called to me to dance my life away inside it…because there was absolutely no life left to do so.

The sun settled behind the clouds and I watched as a dark foreboding shadow fell upon the haunted lands.

Forcing myself to step forward onto the dusty black dirt, an eerie black mist curled up around my leathered boot and charred branches broke beneath their thick soles.

I could feel the sickening disease leaking from the land, attempting to latch on…

clawing desperately for the essence of life within me.

“No.” I whispered when my eyes caught sight of large bones protruding from the dead valley. Rushing over, my hands reached out reverently to the towering ribs that arched over my head. My fingers trailed along the smooth surface while tears formed in my eyes.

“I know these bones.” I whispered brokenly, feeling, rather than hearing the shifter standing stoically behind me.

Stooping down, my vision blurred when I touched the smaller carcass that had been lovingly guarded in its final moments.

“This was a cù-sìth mother and her pup.” My eyes closed and tears fell.

“I saved this pup once. Did you know it takes five hundred years for a pup to mature into a full adult? Its mother never leaves their side until then.”

“A loving and honorable devotion that most of us will never be able to experience.” He added softly.

Rising, I turned to him. “The fae are not deserving of such a gift.”

Emon’s eyes froze on the tears running down my pale cheeks. The turmoil inside of me was burning quickly to anger .

“You will tell me everything you know.”

“Yes.” He choked gruffly and I stilled when he reached to wipe a tear from my face. His touch seared my flesh while he studied the wetness on his fingertips. Growling, he looked back up at me. “I will tell you all of what you need to know, little umbra.”