Page 11 of Solar Shadows

What? No. I was chilly as fuck!

He kept his hand there, but I only felt cold emptiness.

“You will not stop me!” a cracked, high-pitched voice declared.

My eyes moved to the first shade. No longer a pool of light, its body was brighter, taller. It flung its head back, wings bursting from its back.

Unfortunately, my new shade-killing marks on my palms didn’t itch or burn. Riley’s also didn’t seem to be active, meaning no killing crystal shades for us just yet. And no Shade Horns honked, no Radiance Pulse Cannons popped off either—two important security measures in place to work against shades.

Darn rule changes!

“This is mine!” the same voice spoke as the creature took flight.

“What’s—”

Within the blink of an eye, I found myself curled up in snow, a fine mist crawling over my body.

I rolled onto my back, the cold too much, the wind fully knocked out of me. And a rotten sense of dread dragged wet towels over my soul.

“Where… Where…” I couldn’t speak, only examine my surroundings as I forced myself to sit up. Despite the snow, a warm rush of adrenaline gave me back the use of my body.

There was a dense forest behind me, a frozen river swallowed into its dark vastness. Up ahead sat a cottage with a roof covered in snow, a pool of ice beside it. Interesting. To my right was what looked like an orchard with blue apples, the trees painted with frost, and the sky was a strange orangey-gray with smudges of dark cloud across it.

There were bloodied footprints in the snow, lines of blood crossing the white, the mist licking around the surface of the ground in a constant stream of swirling creepiness.

Oh, no. My shoulders slumped, horror pooling like molten iron in my guts. This was the fae woman’s place, the frozen part of Faerie where she’d mentally brought Drake all those times by manipulating his scrying power. Where Uncle Jonathon had come to when he’d used the Rainbow Stones to split himself into seven parts in a failed bargain to give Riley to her.Possibly. We weren’t entirely sure, just like we were clueless as to who she was. But we knew she was trapped here, so dangerous that the Winter Queen of Faerie sealed her behind a wall of fae magic on the tip of a peninsula in the lands of Winter.

Big thanks to Drake’s power for those details.

I went to summon my sunshine, but it failed with a pathetic sputter.

“What’s going on?” I asked aloud, my voice weak.

The snow crunched on my left, fresh footprints forming as the invisible fae circled me. She hid herself with fae magic, which operated on different rules to Earthly magic. Most fae specialized in one magical skill, unless they were blessed with greater magic like a monarch or this rotten woman.

I tried my power again, coming up empty.

Wait a minute. I wasn’t really here. More of a metaphysical visit instead of a physical one.

Although the snow freezing my butt cheeks said otherwise!

“A big welcome to The Sun.” The woman’s deep and croaky voice, like she’d puffed on too many cigarettes, slithered through the air. Wisps of condensation puffed from her hidden lips, the smell of rotten eggs wafting at me.

I gagged, holding my nose, looking for an exit.

“Soon I will taste you.” She cackled, then broke into a coughing fit. A fine mist of blood puffed into the air, red droplets splashing the snow.

Had she hurt herself?

I hoped so.

“Taste me?” I questioned. “What are you talking about?”

“Silly me for speaking,” she added. “Silly me for giving things away.”

“Is this something to do with that shade?” I asked.

She cackled again.