CHAPTER ONE
June
Scotland
This was suicide. Noreen knew it.
But there wasn’t another way. Which left her no other choice. No matter what happened, she would pay for the consequences of her actions.
It was the least she could do.
She swallowed hard and stared at the laptop screen sitting before her. On her left was a cup of tea with tendrils of heat rising from it. She looked up and let her gaze slowly wander the café.
The glamour and magic she used prevented humans from seeing her true coloring—or feeling the attraction they always experienced when a Fae was near. It was necessary to keep a low profile.
Though it wouldn’t keep her hidden from everyone.
Noreen glanced out the windows of the internet café to the passersby. The world looked normal. But then again, it usually did right before everything went to shite.
She didn’t like being so exposed. It was only a matter of time before she was found. There wasn’t a single person she trusted. Already, they scrutinized her every word. She was a good liar, but when so many were double-checking the things she told them, it didn’t matter how thorough she was. They would find out.
Of all the options she had, this was the best one. There was no way she could walk up to a Dragon King. They would likely kill her before she got the first word out. She opted not to ring them either since she would prefer to keep her identity a secret.
Noreen quickly crafted her message using a buffer email account and a VPN. The virtual private network would allow her to make anyone who read the email think she was halfway around the world. With a throwaway email as well as using Proton Mail as the host, she was as anonymous as she could get.
As soon as she hit send, she signed out of everything and rose from her seat. No one around paid any attention to her. She tugged her baseball hat low over her face and strode from the café.
As soon as she walked outside, it felt as if every eye in Scotland was focused on her. The nearest Fae doorway was over thirty miles away. She could teleport there, but there were those who could follow the trail of her power. Was this how humans felt? Always having to do everything on their own without the use of magic? She hated it.
However, if she wanted to live, she would do it.
And she very much wanted to live. Now more than ever.
Noreen stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted the Light Fae walking with a human female. The two were laughing and talking. She gazed at the Fae with the thick strip of silver in her black hair and realized that she was looking at none other than Shara.
The Fae had once been Dark but turned Light and mated with a Dragon King. Noreen hadn’t believed the story the first time she’d heard it, but it was soon revealed to be the truth. Seeing Shara with her own eyes was much different than hearing a story, though.
Noreen took a step toward the Fae. Maybe Shara would listen to her. No sooner had the thought gone through her head than Noreen realized it was a terrible idea. She ducked out of sight and went the opposite way so as not to run into Shara.
“Suicide,” Noreen whispered to herself. “If the Dragon Kings don’t get me, then the Others will.”
She’d known the reality of her situation when she decided to take action, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified. How many more times would she stand before the Others and lie? How long before they realized what she was about and executed her?
One of her skills was the ability to deceive others convincingly. She did it with little effort, actually. It came naturally. Then again, she’d never had so much on the line before. She worried that she would try too hard, and others would start to see through her lies—and she’d be caught.
The constant worry was exhausting. It was bad enough that she had the Others watching her. Now, because she just had to go and do the right thing, she was about to have the Dragon Kings on her arse, too.
Because no matter the steps she’d taken to be anonymous, they were smart enough—and powerful enough—to figure out who she was.
That was fine. She was prepared for that. She just wanted to make sure that she was long gone from this realm when it happened. All she had to do was get one King to listen to her—and believe what she was saying. Then, they could take it from there, and she could high-tail it to safety somewhere else.
At least, that was the plan. A part of her thought about sticking around and fighting with the Kings against the Others, but she didn’t particularly like the sight of blood or death. Strange for sure for a Dark Fae, but everyone had their quirks.
Noreen’s mind went through options of what might happen with her email. She hoped the words she’d used would alert the Kings that it wasn’t a hoax. Surely, they would take such information seriously.
How long should she give them before she sent another message? The only option she’d left them was to reply to her, but they didn’t have to do that to believe her. For all she knew, they could have already read it, taken her words to heart, and were in the process of getting things ready for war.
She rolled her eyes at her hopefulness. That wasn’t going to happen, and she knew it. But it would be nice if it did. It would solve all her problems.
Well, not all of them, but a majority of them. Yet, she wouldn’t be able to leave until she knew for certain the Kings had listened to her.
“Shite,” she mumbled.
That meant she would have to check the new email account she’d set up in case the Kings contacted her. More than likely, she’d have to send several more messages. All the while keeping her actions secret from the Others.
Maybe it would’ve been better to take her chances by just going straight to Dreagan and knocking on the door. She nearly laughed out loud at the thought. She—like all Fae—knew of the barrier around the sixty thousand acres owned by the Dragon Kings. The moment she stepped through it, they would know of her arrival and be on her in seconds.
It was one way to get their attention, but with the way things were going, the Dragon Kings were more the strike-now-and-ask-questions-later kind of guys, and that didn’t really work for her.
She rubbed her thumb over the pads of her fingers as she itched to use magic to make a laptop appear so she didn’t have to visit another internet café, but it was a chance she couldn’t take at the moment.
“Things really go to shite when you try to do the right thing,” she said as she walked into the abandoned house that she’d come across.
But was this the right thing? For so long, she’d believed the Others were in the right. Noreen wasn’t sure when she’d changed her mind. It wasn’t one thing she could pinpoint, but she suspected several instances had happened over the thousands of years. And now here she was, her loyalties changing sides. She’d debated on this course of action for the past fifty years, but it was the most recent turn of events that had finally swayed her.
For one, she had really liked Balladyn. She hadn’t wanted to. She had actively hated him at first. Then, she’d seen what he’d done for the Dark when he became king. He wasn’t just after power. He wanted to unify the Dark and make them great again.
Then, Usaeil had killed him. Noreen fisted her hand as she recalled seeing the Queen of the Light sink her sword into Balladyn’s back and take his life.
And she hadn’t been the only Dark outraged by the murder.