Chapter 2
Ash
I gasp awake, my entire body coming alive all at once.
My heart skips a few beats and I try to rub the ache away deep inside my chest. The one that exists purely from seeing Sabina again.
Yet it’s her words that roll through my head, again and again and again.
“Why’d you torture Kade.”
The question in Sabina’s childlike voice. Haunting doesn’t cover it.
Maybe that’s why as my eyes flutter open it’s all I can think about.
Never mind my new reality awaits. I could be burning alive in hell right now and none of that would matter.
Except for Sabina.
My beautiful, chaotic, loving cousin.
And maybe that’s what finally gets me out of bed. Because if I lay here one more moment then emotions I’ve kept long buried may bubble up and up and out and I’m not sure that is something I can even face today.
So I get up. Blink away the haze of sleep only to see the endless color-scape of twilight outside the window.
The cool stone floor sends shards of ice through the soles of my feet as I wrap a dark robe around me.
I shouldn’t complain, my new quarters in the Unseelie Court are perfect.
If they were dipped in the Arctic, that is.
Despite the open windows and the ever-burning fireplace it’s beautiful really, my new gilded cage.
Wrapping the robe tighter I set to the window, letting the cool air wake me up further. Outside the purple and pinks of twilight extend as far as the eye can see.
It’s beautiful if you don’t look too close.
Resting my head on the stone, I watch the Dark Forest with its tall barren trees, where shadows move too quickly to be considered normal. Not to mention the creatures that dive up toward a full moon only to dive back into the cover of trees.
The Unseelie Court isn’t dark as I expected.
Where the Seelie Court is light and faux beauty, the Unseelie Court is its mirror. But it’s not endless night and a full moon. No, it’s twilight and sentient shadows.
A soft knock drags me from the moment. I step from my tower window and open the door. I know it’s Kestra before I even reach for the handle.
She shows up every morning. Same time. Has since the trials, over a month ago now.
Most days I look forward to our time together. Other days I share an unfortunate kinship with Kieran’s sister. And some? I just want to be alone.
“Ash?” Her soft voice filters under the door a moment before I open it.
She’s the perfect feminine counterpart to Kieran. Same sharp jaw, same ice-blue eyes, but softer somehow. Warmer.
“Morning.” The word comes out on a yawn.
“Oh, Ash, it’s so cold up here.” Kestra sets the tray of coffee down and rushes to the open window where she reaches out to close the shutters.
“The cold doesn’t really bother me.” I mutter the words before I can think better of it.
Kestra’s smile turns into a crooked frown as she glances at me over her shoulder. “Oh, Ash, I’m—”
“Don’t.” Sorry, she was going to say sorry. And she is. She apologizes nearly every morning. “You are just as much a prisoner as I am.”
And every day her father keeps me locked in the tower, apart from not just my mates, but from the wildlands my court calls home, kills a small part of me every day. Turns out Moros knew just how to torture a Wild Court Fae.
Remove her ability to touch the soil. I learned far too quickly that I recharge that way, which sleeping in a tree hollow should have been the first hint.
This tower is killing me. Slowly. Day by day, something inside is going quiet. Like my Wild magic is forgetting how to breathe.
And it isn’t just that, it’s my earthly home. With my cousins, and my family.
“Well.” She sighs, giving me one of her charming smiles. It isn’t that they’re rare, they’re just so warm and wholesome. “Mine was by choice.”
Kestra is the embodiment of a Disney princess. Only she’s Fae, and Unseelie and could probably kill you with that same smile.
“You could have stayed.” She never would have remained at the Academy. Not with Kieran returning to the Unseelie Court.
No, this sweet princess is my handmaid. By choice. To remain near a woman she barely knew.
Knows.
“Don’t you start, either,” she scolds me while making the bed. I’ve told her not to do that but she doesn’t listen.
Kestra needs to remain moving at all times. She doesn’t stop.
Cleaning. Researching. Gardening.
Honestly I’m exhausted just watching her most days.
“Fine, I won’t.” I make my cup of coffee from the beans she smuggled from the other side. Well, Earth. We are on the other side. “Oh, this is the best.”
“Kieran picked them up,” she teases, tossing the blanket to remove the wrinkles.
Just his name. My heart skips. A strange pinching twists through me. And as always I look at my left wrist where our bonding bracelet glows.
I got the guy. Sure.
His dad just won’t let him near me.
And the other two? Finnian’s probably buried in some archive pretending research will fix this. Orion’s out there somewhere burning through the Borderlands looking for a fight he can win.
I don’t even know if they’re okay.
That’s the part that wakes me up at night. Not the cold. Not the stone. The not knowing.
“Oh.” I hide my interest behind my cup of coffee.
Kestra sees right through me. “If it helps he’s more asshole than brooding lately.”
“It doesn’t.” I wrinkle my nose as I take another long sip of coffee.
“I hear father may introduce you to the court,” she says and I know she is trying to ease me into their life. “Starting with breakfast.”
Into the Unseelie life.
I love her for it no matter how much I know I don’t belong here.
“How fascinating.”
“It is,” Kestra carries on, not even noticing my sarcasm. She just doesn’t get it. She’s far too innocent. Except somedays I wonder how much of that is an act. Only time will tell. “Now my time here, I always looked forward to the balls.”
She holds her blanket, well mine now, to her chest and sighs.
“You should go,” I tell her. “Maybe find your own harem.” I wag my brows at her.
“Shush you.” Her cheeks flush. Adorable.
“What?” Done with my first cup, I move onto the second. “What kinds of Fae are you into? Court Fae? Royal? Centaurs?”
“Ashlynne.” She’s scandalized.
It’s the only thing that keeps me going.
“How does one have sex with a centaur?” I tap my lips like I’m really thinking of it.
Actually I am.
“Ash.” Now she laughs outright, that’s when she shrugs her shoulder and mutters, “Doggy style.”
I nearly drop my coffee. “Kestra.” She ducks her chin, still grinning. “You thirsty princess.”
“Honestly it’s the banshees you should watch out for.”
“I’m stunned. Really. Stunned. You vixen.”
“Now will you go?” She pleads again, tucking a sheet into the corner of the mattress.
“Maybe.” I sigh. “I’m really starting to enjoy this wall.”
Her frown says it all as she looks around, finally understanding. “Because it’s a tower.” She shakes her head. “Also if Father chooses a formal introduction, two of your guys will be there. You just have to go down to breakfast this morning. Get on his good side.”
The guys. Except Kieran, who Moros banished in a twist.
It’s been a month. A whole month of cold stone and twilight and nothing but the bond at my wrist to prove they’re even real.
Ignoring the fact her father does not have a good side, I think about it for all of two seconds. “Why wouldn’t you lead with that?” This time I do spill my coffee as I set it down and trip over my own two feet getting to the bathroom.
“Because I’m learning this thing,” she follows after me snapping her fingers. “What is it. Ah. Sarcasm.”
I pause in pulling my shirt over my head to glare at her. “You’re evil.”
“I’m Unseelie.” She winks, grabbing the door handle. “Oh, and I learned from the best.”
She shuts the door.