CHAPTER 1
~ Raine ~
IgaspedasDarianand I exited the portal first, emerging from a ring of blue fire and entering a forest filled with colors so bright I thought we must have died and stepped into Goddess Falia’s haven. Well, I would have thought that if it weren’t for the three fae books still jabbing painfully into my chest, reminding me I wasverymuch alive.
Darian’s arms tightened around me, but I wiggled until he let me down, glad to have my feet on solid ground again. With one arm curved around the books, I bent over and focused on sucking air into my deprived lungs.Fuck. Traveling like that’s going to be hard to get used to.
Pulling out two of his throwing stars, Darian scanned our surroundings, his alert gaze taking in the foreign trees and plants. I straightened and copied his defensive stance, watching for any signs of unusual movement. If I had to, I was ready to drop the books and draw one of my blades at the first sign of an attack. But the forest was quiet around us, save for the gentle rustling of leaves and faint buzzing of insects. Fae warriors didn’t ambush us from the trees, and I relaxed my stance. No longer worried about the fae jumping out to kill us, I marveled at our vibrant surroundings.
Tall, willowy trees with flaky white bark reached high into the air, sunlight streaming through the branches laden with heart-shaped leaves and washing the forest in a rainbow of color. The shades of pink, orange, blue, and green made a spectacular display, and I lifted my free hand to let the light shine through my fingers. Smiling, I dropped my hand and stared at the thick bright-green moss that spread over tree roots and climbed up tree trunks, and the large boulders that were spread around the space, the silver rocks so smooth they resembled small, gleaming mirrors.
As Darian turned to me, his long fingers curled gently over my shoulder, and he leaned down to peer at my face. “Are you all right, lovely?”
I didn’t know how to answer that. Not long ago we’d been fighting for our lives against Warrick’s outliers, and now we’d just run from Zacal’s wolves and had traveled to the fae realm of Zalei.All rightwasn’t exactly how I’d have described my feelings. Before I could answer him, grunts sounded behind us as the others arrived. Darian and I stepped away from the portal as Asher, Locke, and Kade appeared, their faces hard and expressions wary. Prince Azaren was still bent over Kade’s shoulder, his body limp and unmoving. The moment the monsters were through, the portal closed behind them, and I sent a mental thank-you to the Goddess. If Zacal’s wolves had followed us, I didn’t doubt they would have attacked first and asked questions later. Battling in the forest would have been a sure way to alert the fae to our arrival in their realm.
Kade, Asher, and Locke peered around, their gazes scouring the forest before they turned their attention to Darian and me. Kade was still naked from when he’d shifted to save Prince Azaren, his sculpted body on full display, and I might have been distracted if it weren’t for the fae prince’s unconscious body still over one of the wolf shifter’s broad shoulders. Kade lifted Prince Azaren and dropped the beaten fae, not caring when the prince’s head impacted with a hard thud on the ground.
Wincing, I stared at Prince Azaren’s broken face. His azure-colored hair was so thick with blood that it was plastered to his head in patches, and the eye I could see was swollen shut and a nasty shade of purple. The fae king wasnotgoing to be happy when he saw the state of his son.
Locke shifted his arms, readjusting his hold on the other fae books and sighed. “We need the prince alive and in one piece.”
Kade ignored the vampire and kept his focus on me. “Have you been harmed?”
“I’m a little stiff but no worse for wear, thanks,” Asher answered as he cracked his neck, but Kade didn’t take his attention from me.
“Never been better,” I replied with a determined smile. It wasn’t really a lie. Sure, our situation wasn’t ideal, but with these powerful monsters by my side and the magic sparking in my veins, somehow I felt as though we could handle anything.
“That’s our girl,” Asher said with a lopsided grin and pushed the bundle of Kade’s clothing, weapons, and a leather satchel into Kade’s arms. “Now, who wants to bet Zacal is already flappin’ his mouth about us desertin’ Katakin for the fae?” Asher commented.
My smile fell as I thought about how the monsters in Katakin likely believed we’d changed sides and had now joined the fae. Things were going to be messy when we tried to return to Katakin.
“We’re lucky the portal closed before they could follow us,” Darian responded thoughtfully. “It happened only after you three arrived with the prince, so I can only guess the magic somehow detected the fae had passed through and had been designed to close immediately after.”
“There’s no point guessing about the portal, or even worrying about what the monsters in Katakin might now believe,” Locke said, pulling down the hood of his cloak and moving to the shade of a tree as Kade began dressing. “We’re here to find a way to break the curse, so we should focus on that.”
“And how the fuck are we goin’ to find that information? We don’t even know where we are. I mean, look at this place!” Asher strolled further into the forest then, examining the plant life.
Hundreds of toadstools covered the ground around us, the fungi growing together in bunches. The tallest ones reached my waist, making them look like little houses, while the smallest ones were only the size of my thumb. Asher stepped closer to a thick patch of them, his eyes twinkling with curiosity as he stared at their red caps dotted with white spots.
“Careful. We know nothing about this forest,” Darian warned the demon. “We would be wise to keep our hands to ourselves.”
Asher twisted his head to grin at the siren. “Since when have I ever stuck my fingers where they don’t belong?”
Darian gave him a disbelieving look, and his lips formed a wicked smile. “Well, there was that one time with the phoenix shifter—“ he began.
Phoenix shifter?I had no idea where the story was going, but from the devilish grin Asher sent back Darian’s way, I was pretty sure I didn’twantto know. Either way, Darian never finished his sentence. As Asher took another step forward, a faint squealing noise sounded, high and shrill. Asher’s face scrunched as a thin trail of yellow smoke curled away from his boot and toward the sky, rising into the air.
He peered back at us sheepishly and lifted his shoe. “Oops.”
Moving forward, we all stared down at the tiny toadstool he’d squished into the ground.
Locke’s eyes darkened, his brows furrowing with annoyance.
“For fuck’s sake, Ash,” Kade growled, moving closer to my side like he thought the crushed toadstool was going to attack us. Darian shifted closer to me as well.
“It’s just a toadstool,” I said with an incredulous look. “Sure, they might be poisonous if you eat them, but at least he only touched it with his boot.”I’ve seen these monsters fearlessly fight outliers that could burn them alive. Since when did they get so paranoid?
Darian arched a long silver brow at me. “Excuse the correction, lovely, but it’s a crushed toadstool in an unknown world. We have no idea of the dangers in this forest.”
