Page 28

Wynter

A two-headed othrius howls nearby. I bolt awake, the night air cold on my bare chest, with no body curled beside me for warmth.

Where the fuck is Summer?

Heart pounding like a war drum, I fling my hand out and pat the ground in case she’s tumbled off our bed mid-dream.

Nothing.

No, no, no… Fuck.

After her encounter with the nix, she wouldn’t be so reckless as to wander off alone in the dark without waking me first. Would she?

Knowing her independent nature, yes . Yes, she fucking would.

Fear surges as I shoot out of bed, landing in a crouch. My clothing glamour snaps into place as my palms press against the cool soil. I send my magic into the earth like roots, reaching for the familiar voices that speak to me through my element .

The ground whispers back in a staccato pulse, relaying a disturbance. A panicked struggle. Shadows curl behind my eyes, and my blood runs cold in my veins.

Fucking Landolin.

I stumble to my feet and run to the river, eyes scanning the scuffed earth near the shoreline. Drag marks veer into the woods. Summer’s feet, small and bare, have left a wild pattern next to a larger set made by heavy boots that are firm and sure.

A primal moan rips from my throat, echoing through the trees like a war cry. If that shade prick has hurt her, I’ll strangle him with his own shadows and rip his flesh to ribbons.

My pulse hammers in my ears as I kneel again, shoving my fingers deeper into the soil. “Show me,” I command.

The earth’s answer comes quickly—a dense fog of foul shadows, twisting and concealing all but Summer’s kicking legs as they no doubt drag her away to the depths of Dorthadas, the capital of the Raven Realm.

Fuck!

Landolin, that shadow-born shit stain, has taken Summer again—eight fucking years after the first time he stole her. He’s the one who killed her parents at Gravenshade. I know it. Dragged her to the Shade Court like a trophy. A mindless toy for them to abuse.

But if she mattered so much to them back then , why sell her to Draírdon, the High Mage of the Merit Court? Why let her drift into my sister’s orbit—only to rip her away again eight years later? What the fuck are they playing at?

Fury burns in my chest, scorching away fear, leaving a boulder of rage in my gut and my spine rigid with the compulsion to get her back, no matter the cost … Even if it kills me .

The forest groans as I unleash my power with a single whispered word, vines and roots surging to life at my command. They ripple through the thorn-choked undergrowth, carving a path around thick trees as I follow its direction deeper into the woods, each step I take reverberating over the ground.

“Summer,” I shout, my voice’s echo swallowed by a hovering stain of dark magic.

Ahead, shadows writhe, creating an unnatural, smoky void in a small space between a copse of silver wraith pines. Remnants of Landolin’s magic. His scent clings to the air, smoke and cold ash.

I press a hand to the ground, and the forest answers. Tree roots surge higher, weaving through the darkness, searching for traces of Summer.

“Let her go,” I roar, my voice cracking as the ground trembles in response.

“If you hurt her, Landolin, I promise I will dedicate my life to the destruction of everything that’s important to you.

I’ll tear down your home, strip the life from your lands so that not a blade of grass will grow where I’ve walked.

And when you have nothing left, I’ll make you beg for an end that will never come. ”

A low chuckle rumbles from the center of the void, and then I hear it, Summer’s voice, weak but fierce.

“Wyn.”

Relief wars with terror. She’s alive. Still in this realm. But for how much longer? I tear through the trees, the earth rising underfoot and propelling me forward. Landolin’s shadows lash out, but I raise my hands at my sides and vines strike back, surging to shield me as I near the void .

Landolin slips from the shadows, blue-tipped hair gleaming, grin sharp as a blade. “You’re late, Wynter Fionbharr. A moment longer and she would have been gone.”

The ground rumbles as I brace my stance, breath steady, my power coiling, ready to rip him apart. Of course he waited for me. Couldn’t give up a chance to gloat. To watch me suffer.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” he continues, “but finders keepers is a law in your land. You should remember exactly who found this girl all those years ago. Me .”

Summer’s thoughts come through loud and clear. She’s stress-counting again—373, 374, 375—when she suddenly breaks off to send me a message.

Run, Wyn. Go. I’m not worth dying for .

Bull. Fucking. Shit.

I’ll never desert her.

Fury overtakes me as I drop to the ground and slam my hands down. The earth erupts, vines bursting upward to shred Landolin’s shadow magic. Thick smoke solidifies into a shield that erupts with a boom, forcing my vines away.

“The Hunt has no right to her,” I say through gritted teeth. “You sold her to the Merits, relinquished your claim.”

The void behind Landolin pulses, its coldness seeping into the air around us as it splits open, revealing Summer suspended in the center, her body bound by vibrating tendrils of shadow.

Her eyes are wide with fear, and when they find me, they fill with a desperate hope that ignites something feral in my chest.

“ Landolin ,” I grind out. “Give her back. Now. She belongs to me.”

“Ah, Wynter, if only you’d woken from your sweet dream sooner, perhaps you could have stopped me. But dirt is slow and thick, and I walk with the Hunt’s immunity to your realm’s Elemental laws. Your magic breaks apart before it even touches me.”

“And still you have no right to her.”

Centuries ago, the Raven Realm won sovereignty over the Wild Hunt from its original masters, Yurendyl, the oldest of the fae realms. Rumors persist that, bound by blood to its ancient will, the hunt is slowly destroying Landolin in body and mind. I don’t know how, but I pray to Dana this is true.

If there exists a way to bring his fate forward, I only wish I knew it.

Landolin takes a step closer, a long jacket of dark leather swinging around his calves.

“I lead the Hunt. I go where I will. You know what happened the first time I took her. Your land upholds the law of finders keepers. Your sister’s husband’s court stole her away from me.

What I do now only rectifies past wrongs. ”

“The Merits bought her from your father. You have no claim over the girl. So let her go.”

My fists clench, my ragged breath sawing in and out of my lungs. The ground beneath me trembles, cracks spidering outward as my magic surges forward.

Landolin laughs, low and cruel. “You don’t understand, do you? This girl has always belonged to my court. Belonged to the Hunt.”

“She chooses where she belongs, and it’s not with you.” I thrust my hands downward, and the earth groans. Jagged spikes of rock erupt from beneath the forest floor, spearing toward Landolin, but shadows coil, swallowing him whole, and he disappears before the stone can reach him .

He reappears at my back and whispers against my ear. “You’re so predictable.”

I spin and a wave of roots bursts from the ground to trap him, but again he disintegrates into shadows and slips through the cracks like water through fingers. He darts in front of Summer, a demon in the dark smirking up at her barely conscious, limp form.

But I have no interest in his games. Not while Summer’s life is at risk. I slam both hands toward the earth, and the area beneath Landolin’s boots buckles.

If I can bury him alive, it may take centuries for the Hunt to find him.

The ground begins to collapse and swallows him up to his knees, then his waist, his body sinking inch by inch.

Landolin’s smirk falters. “Enough.” He raises his hand, and the shadows enveloping him twist, forming a row of arrow-like shards. I brace for the strike, but he flings them at Summer, not me.

“No!” My focus breaks as I turn to face her fully, my roots lashing out to intercept Landolin’s magic. They deflect it, but while my attention is on Summer, Landolin springs his trap.

A shadow flies through the air, sharp as a dagger, and plunges into the side of my head.

The pain is blinding, forcing me to my knees.

I try to shift into my wolf and tear the shade prick’s throat out before he has time to dematerialize, a skill that only certain Unseelie fae possess, but my body refuses to obey.

My magic falters, the ground rising around Landolin, lifting him from the grave I built .

“You should know better, Wyn,” Landolin purrs, his coal-black eyes gleaming as he steps close. “Letting your heart guide your decisions makes you predictable. Vulnerable.”

“Better that than be a life-long asshole,” I spit out.

I try to get to my feet, to summon the earth again, but a smoky veil invades my mind, slowing my thoughts. Suffocating my rage. My breaths come shallow as the Shade Prince poisons the air with dark magic, choking my connection to the land.

I can’t move. Only feel consciousness seep from my mind.

Summer .

“Poor Seelie prince. I know you can’t help but fight for her,” he says.

“Being told you were a hero by the simpering Elemental Court has woven the idea into the very fabric of your being. But know this, you will lose every single time you challenge me.” His shadows darken around the void, obscuring my view of Summer. “Do you know why?” he asks.

“Let me guess. Because you’ll keep cheating?”

“No, because I’m willing to do what you won’t.”

He flicks his hand, and another arrow shoots toward me.

I watch its progress, unable to even flinch from its trajectory.

I fight the pull of the shadow, trying to lock Summer’s face in my mind—the shape of her reaching for me, her mouth open in a scream I can’t hear.

Then Landolin’s magic engulfs me without mercy, her name on my lips as I collapse.

Some time later, I jolt awake with a sharp pain thudding behind my eyes and a sense of suffocating dread. I rub the side of my head, and my fingers come away sticky with blood. I groan, pushing up onto shaking arms, and freeze.

The moonlit clearing is empty, and I’m not at the campsite, in bed with Summer beside me. What the fuck happened? The last thing I remember is falling asleep in her arms, blissfully happy, followed by a nightmare full of shadows.

I reach for Summer through the soil, and then it hits me. Those shadows were real. I remember her voice screaming my name. The feel of my head cracking under that dagger of shadow magic. The fight. That fucker Landolin. It wasn’t a dream. It happened.

I stagger to my feet, my legs weak beneath me as I stumble back to the campsite.

Our bed is strewn across the ground. The cloak I made for her is missing.

My heart slams against my ribs as I bolt through the woods to the clearing again.

My gaze sweeps the area, searching for anything. Anything at all.

And then I see it. A disturbance in the earth, a violent smear of scuffed dirt and grass. My knees hit the ground, my fingers pressing into the soil. I reach for Summer, letting magic seep through the land like quickening tendrils.

The story unfolds in a rush—boot prints too large to be hers, the drag of a body, Summer’s body, pulled unwillingly into the trees. A void of shadows. Me, trying to bury the Shade Prince alive.

“No.” My voice cracks, terror shuddering through me.

Landolin came for her, just as I’d feared, and I hadn’t been able to stop him.

I hadn’t protected her like I promised I would .

A tremor runs through the earth, mirroring the rage rolling in my chest. I slam my palms down, forcing my power deeper into the ground.

“Where is she?” I growl to the soil, the roots, the bones of the Land of Five. “Answer me, dammit.”

A flicker. A pulse of something warm and human. My magic catches it, clings to it. The remnants of Summer’s bright energy.

I surge to my feet, the ground rising and rippling as if urging me forward. The trail leads deeper into the woods, a path still wrapped in the shade-rat’s foul shadows. My vines lash out in the dark, clearing the way as I sprint forward.

With each step, Summer’s voice echoes in my mind. Her laugh, her fire, the way she spoke my name when I was inside her, closer than I’d ever hoped to be. The memory of her scent, her smile, pulls me forward through a waking nightmare.

I won’t let Landolin have her.

Not again.

The trees thin out, and as I stumble into a small clearing, I drop to the ground and plunge my hands into the dirt again, desperate for clues.

“Please. Please. Please,” I beg, but the earth offers only silence in reply.

For one agonizing moment, I can’t draw breath. Can’t move. But then the ground softens, opening to me, and I feel the pulse of her heartbeat, faint and fragile. Still alive.

Fists clenched, I rise, the ground trembling as I turn in the direction of Talamh Cúig. Home . But I won’t be there for long.

“I’m coming for you, Summer. And when I find Landolin, if he’s hurt you, I’ll tear him apart. ”

But to reach his land, I’ll need an Unseelie monarch to open a path to the Raven Realm.

Which means…

Fuck me sideways.

I’ll have to ask Merri.