The Last Heir of Elsewhere (Wilde Fae Book 3)

PROLOGUE BAEL

THE WAYWOODS, HUNTING DAY, ONE YEAR AGO

“The dead are loud today.”

Scion let out a long-suffering sigh, and dug his heels into the sides of his horse. “I have never known you to make a single statement without some insipid follow up, Bael. What are you getting at?”

“I was merely commenting.”

I grinned. “I think they know it’s hunting day.”

He snorted with derision. “What a wretched existence. To be foolish enough to die in the hunts and then to haunt the grounds where one died. I’d rather face true death.”

I chuckled darkly. “If you say so.”

Scion offered me another contemptuous glance. He still rode his war horse, even in the quiet woods on the outskirts of the palace grounds, and it was a testament to how well he’d trained the beast that it didn’t break stride or react to his constant movement.

My cousin and I looked nothing alike. Where he was dark-haired, silver-eyed and pale, I was golden in all ways. Even his expression was opposite mine: set in a perpetual scowl. Scion had only been back in the capital for a matter of weeks and clearly the confines of court life were grating on his temper.

Selfishly, I didn’t care.

Miserable or not, I was thrilled to have my companion back. I’d been painfully bored this last decade. There was hardly anyone to talk to except Gwydion, who was duller than dishwater, and Aine, who was away from home almost as often as Scion. Still, it was plain to see that Scion was miserable.

Of course, that was hardly a novelty in our family.

To be an Everlast was synonymous with misery, and had been for the better part of seven thousand years.

“This is pointless,”

Scion groused as we crossed over a small stream and into a denser patch of trees. “There wouldn’t be anyone foolish enough to enter the woods today.”

I hummed in agreement. King Penvalle had sent us out today to make sure that the hunting ground was secure. It was a pointless task that anyone could have done—we had thousands of servants and any number of them could have ridden through the woods, yet he’d demanded that we go personally. It wasn’t clear to me if it was a power play or if he was simply mad. Perhaps a bit of both.

My gaze caught on the path ahead, where the sun shone through the trees. A translucent spirit flew past, chased by an errant Underfae. I raised an eyebrow. It was as I’d told Scion: the dead were loud today.

They always were on hunting days.

Perhaps because the first hunt of the season was always held in the capital. It was impossible to count how many souls had been lost here over the last seven thousand years. These woods were full of the imprints of those who had lost their lives—or rather given their lives—to the Wilde Hunts.

Interrupting my thoughts, Scion craned his neck back to me again, this time turning nearly fully around in his saddle. “Are you planning to attend the hunt?”

I tensed. What he really meant was: “are you still going to tow the family line and stay well away from the woods this evening.”

He could have asked straight out, but for some reason he did not. While it was rude in the Fae court to be so direct, we never followed such laws amongst ourselves.

I shrugged. “I thought I would attend the party at the very least.”

“Hmmm,”

Scion said.

“What?”

He paused, and it was only the tiny stiffening of his shoulders that told me he was struggling to come up with a reply. “You know I would prefer you came with me, but it might be too dangerous for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you’re concerned about my getting caught up in the violence, don’t be. You haven’t been here for the past years, so you haven’t seen how bad the court has become. If I were to be overtaken by bloodlust it surely would’ve happened already.”

Scion’s hands clenched around his reins, his knuckles turning white. “If I didn’t know better, I’d call you a fucking liar. Grandmother wouldn’t allow that.”

I laughed. “She always had a blind spot for her sons, you know that more than most.”

Scion fell into an uncomfortable silence. His father had been our grandmother’s oldest son, the one who, if not for his untimely death, would wear the crown now instead of our Uncle Penvalle.

I would’ve liked to say Belvedere would have been the better choice for king, but then I really would be a fucking liar. Penvalle was bad—half-mad, violent, and power hungry—but Scion’s father had been worse…whether my cousin acknowledged that or not. Not that I should judge anyone for having a monster for a father. The heinous actions of my own father—my real one—would easily outweigh anyone else’s crimes two times over.

I opened my mouth to say something about it, but lost my train of thought as leaves rustled up ahead and a breathy moan reached my ears. I turned my head toward the sound like a wolf scenting prey. “Did you hear that?”

“What?”

Scion asked sharply.

I glanced briefly at him, then dug my heels into the sides of my horse’s flank. “I’ll be right back.”

“You can’t be fucking serious,”

Scion shouted after me. “You might not care about wasting your own time, but do not waste mine.”

I laughed. “Go back, then. No one is holding you captive, Sci, least of all me.”

The snap of twigs and panting breaths grew louder as I urged my horse forward. My ears pricked up.

“Put me down!”

a soft female voice whispered.

“What’s wrong?”

a man replied.

“Shhh.”

“Bael!”

Scion said again, his impatience evident. “What the fuck are you doing?”

He might not have time for anything other than exactly what was expected of him, but he would get to leave again as soon as the hunts were over. I would be stuck here for another hundred years, miserable and completely alone. I’d been bored for so long it was the small things that broke up the monotony. Who was here breaking the rules? Who might I get to punish?

“Patience,”

I said. “I want to check on something.”

I swung down from my horse and strode forward at double the speed any human could have walked, my hair blowing back from my face. My gaze skimmed over the trees, searching for whomever was speaking too loudly, doing such a terrible job at trying to be quiet. Even if we’d been human we would have heard them. As Fae, they had no chance of hiding from us.

My eyes landed on the couple in the trees. I glanced at the male and immediately forgot his face—one guard looked much the same as every other to me at this point. My eyes traveled to the girl and my lip twitched.

She was pretty for a human. Pretty generally, I supposed. Her wild red hair was falling loose from some vain attempt at taming it, and there was a flush across her pale, freckled cheeks.

Not enough of a flush, in my opinion.

It was plain to see what she’d been doing with the guard, whose unremarkable face was becoming uglier by the second. Unbidden, the image of shoving her up against that tree myself flitted through my mind. Tearing that hideous dress off her and putting a real flush on her pretty face.

Fuck. What was I thinking?

I had no qualms about human lovers—preferred them, in fact. They were easier to talk to than high Fae, oddly more honest and forthcoming. A good quality in a sexual partner. Still, I didn’t know anything about this woman. I’d never noticed her before, and there was no reason to be standing here now, as if bewitched.

I shook my head slightly, as the sound of Scion’s boots hitting the earth sounded behind me. “As I said, I don’t see why you have to waste our time chasing after…what? Shadows?”

He was being intentionally obtuse, now. I glanced back at him sharply to show my displeasure. I opened my mouth to retort, but before I could the girl moved out of the corner of my eye. I turned back abruptly, and froze, watching her. Beside me, Scion seemed to be doing the same. None of us moved, as if frozen in an odd sort of standoff.

She was staring right at me. Or rather, she was staring at the clearing where she probably heard the hooves of our horses or felt some disturbance in the wind. She couldn’t actually see me, as Scion’s illusion kept us invisible from the eyes of mortals. Except, as I watched, she reached slowly for the hand of her guard, as if taking comfort in his presence.

That was…unusual to say the least.

Some humans had a sort of natural awareness of magic. Usually those who were either changelings—humans taken from across the veil as children and raised to serve the courts—or those who had some far distant Fae ancestor. This woman looked too young to be a changeling. We had stopped taking changelings before I was born, and the redhead couldn’t be more than nineteen? Twenty? Perhaps she had a great-grandfather who was Fae, and that was all there was to it.

“Fuck this,”

Scion said sharply. “I thought you saw something interesting. If I’ve seen one guard fucking some Slúagh whore in these woods, I’ve seen them all.”

I laughed. He was right, of course. There was nothing remarkable about the woman aside from her pretty face. She couldn’t see us, it was merely an odd coincidence. I began to turn away.

“What are you staring at?”

The guard asked the woman, his voice cutting sharply through my internal dialogue.

“Be quiet—”

she breathed, softer than the sound of her own rapid heartbeat.

I froze again, the sound of her voice rooting me to the spot.

“Why?”

her guard scoffed. He reached for her arm, pulling her around to look at him. “What the hell are you doing, Lon?”

She stared frantically between him and us, swallowing hard. I watched a bevy of emotions cross her face: Confusion, terror, realization, and then her skin went so pale that whatever color had been in her cheeks looked as if it might never return. “I?—”

Realization flooded me and I cackled a harsh laugh. She could see us, and her lover thought she was insane.

He was missing the beauty in the situation. Insane, she might be, but I found her fascinating.

I leaned over to my cousin, keeping my eyes fixed on the girl. If she could see us, she could likely hear us too. “I think you’re losing your touch. The pretty Slúagh girl can see us.”

Even as I spoke, I wondered if I’d inadvertently lied. Perhaps she was not Slúagh—human—after all. Maybe she was something else.

“No,”

Scion disagreed sharply.

He moved so fast I barely had time to wonder if the humans would be able to see his movement. He took a step toward them, raising a hand to cast an enchantment. Something rose in my chest unbidden—a strange desire to step between my cousin and the girl, whose name I didn’t even know. But before I could act on the absurd impulse, Scion stopped.

She gasped a full second too late and squeezed her eyes shut even as Scion had already stopped. There was the answer to one question, then.

She was at least partly human. Her reactions were too slow, her movements too weak.

She was far too breakable.

“Did you mean to stop?”

I asked Scion thoughtfully.

Scion stared at her, clearly horrified, then gave a tiny shake of his head, which I knew would be all the confirmation I’d get. He’d intended to kill her, but could not. I knew of only one reason why the Fae would be physically unable to harm someone… “Fascinating.”

Scion made an angry sound in the back of his throat, and spun on his heel to leave. “Let’s go.”

I didn’t move, keeping my gaze fixed on my new puzzle. My new obsession. The air shifted, like something in the fabric of the world had been set in motion, and as the breeze hit my face the scent of honey and magic drifted toward me.

If that was how she smelled, I had to know what she’d taste like.

“Bael!”

Scion barked a harsh command.

He felt the pull too, then. He must, or he wouldn’t be so eager to run in the opposite direction.

It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, would come regardless, and I felt sure I would see this girl again.

“I’m coming,”

I replied, my mouth turning up in a wide grin. “I’ve seen all I needed to see.”