“How did you get here?” I glance around, but no one else is in the cave. Just the three of us. Not even a guard. If only we could get free, we could disappear right out of the cave entrance.
“Someone came for us through the ley lines. I was in our dorm room with Taylor, and someone knocked at the door. I opened it, and saw a lesser fae that looked kind of rough, I guess? He had snake eyes.”
“Crimson clothes? Scales?”
“Yes.”
“Cenet. He’s a Vundi warrior.”
“I tried to slam the door on him, but I … I think I fell asleep.”
“He’s pulled that crap on me twice. I’m kind of over it.” I strain so hard I think I’m going to dislocate my elbow and rip my shoulder open. Nothing. “Have you seen anyone?”
“No.” She kicks her leg a little so she spins around. “Taylor!”
“What?”
“Not you.” She wriggles again. “The real Taylor.”
I watch as she tries to face the other me. “I am the real Taylor.”
“I mean my Taylor!” she snipes, but then her tone softens. “Wake up. Come on, wake up. You’re scaring me.”
Oh, god, what if I’m dead?
I put one hand to my face. What if the other me is dead? Also, how am I touching my face?
I squeak and rocket up out of the chair. “I’m free!”
“How?” Cecile spins back to face me.
“I don’t know.” I feel my wrists.
“Get us down!” She wobbles with excitement.
“Okay, let me think.” They’re hanging at least ten feet over my head. How in the hell do I reach them? “I’m going to find a ladder or something.”
“A ladder?” Cecile grips her hair with her chained hands and pulls it out of the way. “You seriously think there’s a ladder in here?”
“I don’t know, but your tone isn’t helping your cause.” I scoot along the edge of the table and peer into the dark recesses at the back of the cavern. Nope. Not going into the pitch black. “They got you up there somehow, right? Let me look around.” I head toward the opening that leads out into the night.
“Don’t leave us,” Cecile hisses.
“I’m not leaving you. Even though you sent me to a scary fae world where I was held captive in a dungeon, almost eaten by an obsidian witch, and kidnapped by a Vundi sandman, but that’s neither here nor there, is it?”
She lets her hair drop, hiding her face from me again.
I turn my back on her and pick my way through the white stalagmites that jut up from the stone floor. Giving the tree a wide berth, I move faster, though I keep glancing around as though someone might run out and bust me. But the place is barren. Who captures three people and just sticks them in an empty cave? Doesn’t matter, because I intend to get us out of here.
Creeping to the edge of the cave opening, I stop and peer over. It’s a sheer cliff. Damn. And that’s not even the worst part. Far below the mountain peak and along the valley floor, thousands of fires are burning. Campfires. And in the background, carried on the wind, is the unmistakable drumbeat of war. Is this what happened to the disappearing lesser fae and changelings that Leander has been searching for? Are they an army?
“What do you see?” Cecile calls.
“Nothing good. We need to go. Now.” I turn and almost run into a man.
No, not a man. A tall, wiry fae with black hair, even blacker eyes, white skin, and enormous raven’s wings spread out behind him.
I stumble backwards, a shriek caught in my throat.
He grabs my arm before I fall off the cliff and sets me on my feet. A chilling cold leaches from him, along with a darkness that seems to coat the air with black soot. Evil. There’s no other word for this creature.
When he smiles, fear twists in my gut like a serrated blade.
He takes my hand and pulls me back into the cavern, now filled with dozens of warriors that weren’t there only moments ago. What the—
Cenet stands at the fore, the snake scales along his face glistening in the low light. His crimson scarf is gone, revealing a brand on his neck. It’s an image of the tree in the center of the cavern.
The black fae pulls me forward, his grip unbreakable and one of his ebon wings at my back. I pull against his hold but get nowhere. As he leads me into the unrelenting darkness at the rear of the cavern, he says, “It’s about time we got to know each other, Daughter.”
2
Leander
The snow at the border is already red with blood, my guards falling back from an overwhelming summer realm force. Grayhail and Valen are thundering this way, but they won’t be here soon enough.
Ravella materializes beside me. “Ready.”
I can’t risk magic, not when my guards are so deeply engaged. This must be done with direct combat. “Let’s go.”
I draw my sword and enter the fray, slashing and battling through the golden-armored soldiers, mowing one down, and then another, and then more until my guards are able to rally and push them back.
Too much blood is spilling, the truce between winter and summer breaking right before my eyes. Our tenuous peace, gained only after centuries of fighting, lies broken on the snowy ground.
Ravella ghosts through the fight, her silver knives glinting before finding home as she weaves in and out of the vale.
Captain Tavaran swings for her but misses as she disappears and reappears behind him. Her blade is swift, but I’m swifter. I stop it with my sword before she plunges it into his neck.
“Tavaran,” I roar and send a gust of winter down the ranks, one that will frost the summer fae but leave my warriors unbothered.
He spins, and Ravella darts into the fight behind me, her sneaky blades doing untold damage. Something tickles in the back of my mind, an ugly feeling that I can’t place, but then it goes quiet. I focus on Tavaran, on ending the mess he’s created on my doorstep.
“You’ve broken the truce!” I send spikes of ice shooting up from the ground, caging him in.
He swings, but his sword glances off the slick surface. The spikes build and join until he’s caged in an icy prison.
Thorn charges by in bear form and tackles the nearest summer soldier.
“Give us the changeling.” Tavaran rams his armored elbow against the bars. Bits of ice crack along the surface, but they don’t break.
“Never.” I raise my sword. “It would be so easy to kill you now. To freeze your heart and shatter you. To simply ram my blade through you. Call off your soldiers, or I will end you here and now.”
He scowls, his silver eyes hardening.
Fool. I could destroy them all. But I am not my predecessor.
I try to calm the vengeance in my blood, the frigid rage this invasion has pulled to the surface. I can’t give up our hard-won peace so quickly, despite the fact that summer has committed a grave sin against us. I speak as earnestly as I can. “We may yet have time to stop another war between our realms.”
“You stole the changeling, killed Lord Tyrios, and fled Byrn Varyndr. If anyone’s broken the truce, it’s you.” Tavaran’s sneer is trying to convince me that saving them isn’t worth it.