Chapter One
The Blood Moon
My head jostles, my teeth jarring together repeatedly. Fearful blue eyes are the first thing I see when I wake. Fear, like it’s a tangible living thing, is flashing in his beautiful gaze. I feel it draining right into me with intensity.
Strong arms are cradled around my body and his chest heaves against me with every stumbling step he takes. My head bobs against his shoulder and he glances back behind us once more.
Crimson washes out the sky. It’s an ominous color of deep red like the heavens are wounded and bleeding out. But shining stars light our path as he carries me through the thick tangle of trees.
“What are we doing, Ryder?” A thrashing feeling pounds against my fingertips as my hand settles over his heart. It’s strong. Strong but full of terror.
He adjusts my weight, pinching my feathers in the process, sending a spike of pain through my shoulder blades.
Then I see them. The beautiful inky black wings arching up from my back. My fingers delve into them, distracted momentarily from the change my body just underwent hours ago.
If I had known the well of the Hopeless would have transformed me into an image of strength and stability, I would have leapt into it years ago.
“We have to get to shelter before the Blood Moon comes.”
The Blood Moon.
“What’s a Blood Moon?”
Harsh breaths fall from his lips as he checks behind him once more.
“When nightfall comes, this realm lives in terror. Because when it gets dark, the sky turns red for exactly one hour.”
“Why? I don’t understand?”
A large tree trunk slams into his shoulder and he winces from the jarring impact. It misses my face by less than an inch and I find myself clinging closer to him. Carefully he lowers me, my feet meeting the lush green moss of the forest floor. He leans into that tree and gulps down breaths as he stares up at the ominous sky.
“Nix slip from their realm to here for feeding. They’re nocturnal and relentless. The wardens of this land put a spell on our sky to signal the time that the nix are coming. When the heavens bleed red, and screams slash through the night, death strikes this world in lashing chaos.”
The stream of information doesn’t make much sense to me.
“What’s a nix?”
He pushes the locks of his blonde hair from his face as he levels me with a serious look. “If we don’t hurry, you’re going to find out.”
My wide eyes land on the iron cuffs still wrapped around his wrists, preventing him from using the one ability we really need right now.
He can’t teleport us. But I have at least one thing I know we can use.
“I can fly us, just point the way and I’ll fly us.”
“Do you even know how to use those things? Back in the mortal realm, that was just your new fae energy pushing through your veins. It’ll be harder now. You’ll need training and guidance, just like I did when I went through my changing.”
His training was a disappearing act. Mine has to be easier than that.
The tired sound of his voice drowns out into a whisper as a shrieking noise emits through the air. It’s like a scream that’s crawling through the woods, clawing at the trees and sinking right into my body. The fine hairs of my arm stand on end as a shiver skims through me. For only a second, Ryder and I stare wide eyed at one another.
“Fuck, they’re here.”
His warm, calloused palm grips my hand and then we’re running once more. Limbs snap against my broad wings. I tuck them in against my back the best I can but they’re too big. I’m slowing us down with every tree that slams into my delicate, glossy feathers.
Another deafening cry lashes through the night, sounding nearer. Then I hear it; wood splintering, cracking with a hollow sound. I look back over my right wing, and white, shining eyes meet mine. I stop in my tracks, stumbling into harsh bark and falling to the damp ground as I just stare into the nix’s large, glossy gaze. Long claws are sunk right through the heart of a wide tree trunk. It’s an image of deadly power. Spindly limbs are covered in slick blue skin, as if the thing just leapt from the ocean to meet us here in the middle of the forest.
A long, lashing tongue sweeps across each individual jagged tooth within its wickedly smiling jaw. It holds a disturbingly human resemblance.
