Chapter 1
JESSAMINE
“Colder than a witch’s tit, I tell ya,” groused the old wraith fae as he guzzled the warm, spiked cider I’d set in front of him.
He was a trapper, for certain, judging by the string of pelts he’d dragged into the tavern with him, not trusting any criminals about to leave them outside with his horse and cart.
His two horns curled back out of his head, the tips coated with ice, as were the tips of his pointed ears.
Laughing, I added, “Good thing you avoided the worst of the weather. Haldek’s made a hearty venison stew.”
The wraith fae set his tankard down with a loud belch. “Pardon. Been in the woods too long. Needed that, I did.” He leaned toward me conspiratorially. “Bring me a bowl filled to the very top and there’s an extra coin in it for ya.” He gave me a wink.
I glanced over my shoulder to where Haldek was waiting on a table in the corner then whispered to the trapper, “I’ll cut your slice of bread a bit bigger, too, eh?”
“Thatta girl,” he chuckled, lifting his tankard again. Before he took another sip, he eyed me carefully. “What’s a pretty fae girl like you doing in these parts?”
I couldn’t count the number of times curious customers had asked me that.
The Borderlands housed all kinds of fae—dark and light alike—but never had I seen one of my own kind so far from the Nemian Sea.
That was exactly why I’d chosen it. It was a rough line of territory separating the Lumerian lands of the light fae from Northgall where the dark fae lived.
It was made up of randomly situated inns, taverns, and a few mills, where any and all fae traveled and did business.
“I want to see all parts of the world. I’m just here to make a bit of money then I’ll be traveling on soon enough.”
It was somewhat the truth. I’d been here for months, but I was biding my time and saving my coin before I had to find another small village where I could hide.
“An adventurer, are you?” He grinned, revealing his long canines. “Like me, I’d say. You speak demon tongue pretty good for a foreigner.”
Smiling, I replied with pride, “I studied many languages with my tutor.”
I always thought my magickal gift to speak to naiads in their language had made it easier to learn other tongues. The dark fae language commonly called demon tongue had come to me almost as naturally as my native language, high fae.
“An educated girl, too.”
He raised a clawed finger, his gray skin pale from the cold, then he reached over to the bench at his side where his pile of furs sat. He pulled out a narrow, white pelt and handed it to me.
“How about you take this for your extra efforts on my behalf?”
I took the small but very fine, silky pelt. “Oh, I couldn’t. That’s worth far more than good service.” I gave him a smile and handed it back.
“You take it, girl. It would make a fine pair of gloves for those little hands of yours.” He frowned as he stared at my hands. “Just be mindful you measure for your, uh…” He gestured toward my webbed fingers.
“Thank you.” I smiled at him. “It’s very generous of you.”
The color filled his cheeks, his skin darkening to a deeper gray. He was blushing.
“Well, it’s not often I can get a pretty girl to smile like that at me. Besides,” his voice turned serious, “the elkmine otter’s hide is as soft as the fur. Touch it and see.”
I flipped the pelt over and ran my fingertips over the underside of the hide. “Wow, you’re right.”
“Hmph,” he grunted with confidence. “Trust me. Those will keep your dainty fingers warm, girl.” He gave me another wink. “The gods have been good. I got me a good prize of them. I can go home and rest till summer now.”
“Let me get that warm stew for you then.” I tucked the otter pelt into my apron pocket. “You’ll need it for the trek home, I imagine.”
“Aye. Not too far to go, but far enough.”
I hurried back through the small tavern, which was quieter than usual with very few customers out in this kind of weather. Haldek was in the kitchen when I entered, ladling stew into two bowls for the table he was serving.
“The old trapper always makes a stop here before returning home,” he told me as I stepped up to pour my customer’s bowl.
“Does he?” I asked.
Haldek was a wraith fae as well, with four black horns instead of two curling out of his head.
He was a brawny male, which served him well being a tavern-keeper in the Borderlands.
I’d seen him break up a fight between two shadow fae once with barely any effort at all.
And he’d been more than kind to me, never asking why I’d come here or why I’d decided to be so far from my own kind. For that, I respected him most of all.
“Aye,” he said, setting his bowls on wooden plates with thick slices of buttered, brown bread. “But he’s come a bit early. The snow must have cut his trapping off too soon.”
I dipped the ladle into the bubbling pot of stew hanging over the fire spit. “He’s had a good run, it seems, even if he was cut short.”
“Good for the old one,” he added as he carried out his platters of food.
After I set the brimming bowl of stew on the platter, I cut two thick slices of the brown bread, and then a wedge of sharp cheese to put on the side plate with extra pats of butter. That old trapper needed sustenance if he was heading back out in this weather. The snows had come early.
I carried his meal to the table. He grunted with appreciation as I set the bowl and each plate in front of him.
“Now that’s what I call a feast.” He dug in hungrily.
Smiling, I asked, “Can I get anything else for you right now?”
He heaved back and tapped his tankard. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bother you for another of these, soon as you can.”
“No trouble at all.” I took his tankard and headed back into the kitchen.
Haldek kept his regular barrels of ale and mead behind the bar in the dining hall, but his special cider had to be heated over the fire. After pouring another tankard for the trapper in the kitchen, I pushed the door open back into the dining hall, completely oblivious until it was too late.
“Nay,” Haldek was saying to the four moon fae males in the doorway with blue and golden fae wings, all of them large and armored with swords and fur cloaks. But most specifically, all of them wearing the sapphire and silver colors of Mevian royalty, their lord’s regalia. “None of that kind here.”
I was frozen in the doorway, fear sinking its claws into my gut.
“We were told someone of this description—” The moon fae male who was speaking suddenly stopped when the one beside him slapped his shoulder and pointed to where I stood.
Haldek snapped his head to me, his eyes fierce. “Run!”
I dropped the tankard and spun, looking back over my shoulder to see the old trapper shoot out his walking stick and trip one of the warriors while Haldek wrestled with the others, shoving two back against the wall.
Where fear had frozen me a moment before, it now jarred me into a full run, panic spurring me on.
I flew through the kitchen, around the chopping table, through the larder, and out the back door into the snowy night.
Without a thought, I fled north, determined to go as far into dark fae territory as I could.
I should’ve left months ago. I should have known they’d find me here in the Borderlands.
The dark swallowed me, the snow falling lightly now. The half-moon far above peered through the clouds, casting a pale glow on the white-covered forest floor.
“Help me,” I begged the moon goddess Lumera, running faster into the woods.
Though I’d not worshipped her much in the past, she was a light fae deity. Surely, she’d have mercy on me.
My feet quickly began to numb. Though I always wore the boots Haldek had given me, made of thick deer hide, the freezing cold was seeping through. Still, I ran fast and hard, my breaths puffing out in white mist. I’d rather die in the cold than be caught and taken to Mevia.
In the far distance, I heard one of the moon fae calling, “Jessamine! You can’t run forever!”
“Like hell I can’t,” I muttered and ran faster, snapping branches as I delved deeper into the forest where the trees grew closer together.
Before long, my feet and legs were stiff and frozen, my limbs moving automatically to take me farther away. My face stung, the tip of my nose and ears pierced with the sharp pain of cold. I couldn’t feel my fingers or hands. But still, I ran.
The clouds covered the moon, darkening the forest, enveloping me in an ethereal haze. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was the moonlight fading or if I was dying. My shoulder clipped the trunk of a tree, knocking me to the ground.
I gasped in pain, panting, my lungs stinging as I gulped down air before pushing myself back up and trudged on.
My energy waned. I hadn’t summoned my magick to help me see, too afraid the light would guide my enemies closer, but it seemed my body acted on instinct, more determined to save my life than I was.
Heat suffused my body as the magick ignited my blood, my skin glowing with pearlescent light.
As my mind grew fuzzy, I determined that if they caught me, I could at least try to use my magick to subdue them.
To kill them. But they’d have been warned about me, about what I could do, and I’d not escape all four moon fae males.
The radiance of my skin shined bright, magick pouring heat through my blood, so that I could still find my way through the forest without running into a tree again, or over a ravine.
While the bitter cold beat against me, my limbs frozen to the bone, the warmth radiating outward from my chest put me into a drowsy state.
Somewhere behind me, I could hear the moon fae calling my name and saying nonsense, like they wouldn’t hurt me. My mind drifted back to another time when I had run deep into the woods.
“Jessamine!” My brother called for me.
I remained crouched behind the fallen tree, nestled among the twiggy branches, determined to never go home again.