Chapter 3
ISAAC
The shade looked the same as its shadowy counterparts. Humanoid in shape with scarlet eyes burning in its head and packing some seriously nasty claws. But those claws were made of crystal, each one a deadly yet pretty spike.
Handy for plucking eyes out.
Shudder.
The shade hissed. I expected it to spout some murderous stuff before it launched itself at us. But it skipped that part, surging forward in a terrifying rush.
We parted at the last moment, the fucker barreling past us. It spun, hissing its fury.
Riley unleashed his Tidal Pull, dragging the creature forward, then sent it hurtling through the air. It crashed into a shooting range, the whole thing collapsing in a burst of dust and debris.
“Sorry. A bit heavy handed,” Riley said.
The new type of shade leaped out of the pile of rubble, spinning through the air, shards of light shooting from its body.
One hit the ground, inches away from my feet. Not light, but a jagged chunk of crystal, smoking around its edges.
Holy crap!
I launched my sunlight. The shade hit the ground with a furious hiss, hurling another storm of shards before it collapsed into a puddle of liquid white.
Unable to move in time, a shard buried itself into the middle of my chest. My energy shut down in an instant, and I went to my knees, the air sucked out of my lungs.
“Whoa…” I rasped, ice flooding my veins, smothering me in a cocoon of numbness.
“Isaac!” Riley cried.
No pain. No blood from what I could see. But I felt something pass from me into the crystal, as if sucked out by a straw. The shard glittered, then collapsed into dust.
I tumbled onto my side, clutching my chest. No wound, no hole, still no blood or pain. But I was so cold. I shivered as if trapped in a freezer, my insides resting on ice.
From my position, I watched Riley launch his power at another shade, slamming it into the ground hard enough to break it apart. The fractured pieces tinkled like a group of tiny bells as they bounced everywhere.
Pretty sound…
Drake fired his gun at another shade, Jake joining him. The storm of bullets added more fragments to the bell party.
I shivered, desperate for one small kiss of warmth.
Ollie appeared above me in a crouch, the Brambles right behind him.
He touched my shoulder. “Are you alright?” His lovely hazel eyes moved down my body. “There’s no wound.”
I continued to tremble, words freezing in my throat.
Shit. This wasn’t right.
Ollie pressed the back of his hand onto my forehead. “He’s burning up.”
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.
Fine. I focused on her movements instead, watching the footprints slowly appear, and listened to her clogged chest rasp away.
“I ate one Moon, and wish to taste another,” she said.
She’d butchered Uncle Jonathon, boasting to Drake that she’d eat well after pulling out his intestines.
Gross.
“You’ll never get your grubby hands on my brother,” I countered.
“And what about you?” she replied, her honking breath a brutal, eggy tirade. “Can I lay my grubby hands on you?” she said.
Over my dead body and my ghost. “Go fuck yourself.”
She didn’t answer for at least thirty seconds, her breaths labored.
“Is that how you speak to the one who offered her help to spare The Moon’s life?” she finally responded.
My stomach flipped, my chest tight with rage as the image of his corpse flashed in my mind yet again. “For what? You didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart. And you want him alive so you can eat him? Oh, yes. You’re a real fucking saint, aren’t you?”
“Such a hurtful thing to say,” she answered.
“Yet true.” My fingers were numb, the adrenaline ebbing. I needed to get somewhere warm like five minutes ago. “How am I here?” I added.
The fae woman stopped walking. “Because I have managed to find myself a new path. One I will explore to the fullest.”
I’d like to explore smashing her invisible face into the nearest tree. “Why am I even here?”
She tutted. “So many questions The Sun knows I won’t answer freely. Just know that you are important to me. All three of you are, not just The Moon.”
Screw this. “As I said, not happening. No Aurora brothers for you.”
“The Star is the trickiest of all,” she waffled on, giving no shits about what I’d just said. “I wish you well in finding him for me.” Another cackle followed.
Done with this hag, I considered making a run for it into the forest, or even the orchard. Would it trigger a successful escape attempt, or only get me hanging out with the blue apples?
Wouldn’t hurt to try. Now I just had to summon the strength to go for it.
“The Sun will taste sweet,” the fae rasped. “I can already anticipate the sunshine in my belly. You look like you’re full of flavor.”
“Of course I do,” I couldn’t help firing back. “I’m the most delicious of all fleshy nibbles.” I flipped her the bird.
My middle finger set off an alarmingly loud cackle to startle creatures in the forest. White birds took flight, something else squeaked in fright. I even spotted a bunny hopping away for dear life around the tree line.
“Soon you—” She stopped, gagging on something.
I waited, listening to the sounds of her banging on her chest, the satisfying choking noises drawing my lips up into a smirk.
That’s right, eggy breath. Drop fucking dead.
She screamed, the blood-curdling ferocity of it making my heart leap into my throat. She kicked up snow, clearly spinning in an enraged circle.
What the fuck?
I slid back, pushing myself away from her toward the trees.
“This is not happening!” she yowled “This will not fail!”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I heard her snarl, the snow-kicking coming to a stop.
“You!” she hissed. “What have you done?”
Uh-oh. “Apart from freeze my balls off?”
She screamed again, charging at me, the footprints coming in fast. According to Drake, she couldn’t hurt him on account of him not being here physically.
That didn’t stop my bladder threatening to give up.
“Stay away from me!” I roared, trying my power again, preparing a fist to smack her down with.
“I will taste of the celestial men!”
She was on me, a hand grabbing me by the hair, dragging me forward.
Guess I wasn’t so safe in this place after all.
I swung my punch, colliding with what must have been her knee. She shrieked and her body hit the ground with a thud, leaving an imprint in the snow. She thrashed, making a psychotic snow angel, giving me a chance to get to my feet.