And it bathed us in absolute, pure white.
THIRTEENFALLON
There was something warm pressed against my spine, the heat of it like a searing brand seeping through the cold that had permeated my entire being. I snuggled deeper, sinking into that unfamiliar warmth until a deep sound of contentment reached me. My head felt fuzzy, pulsing with the beginning of a groggy headache at my temples. I groaned as I forced my eyes to open, blinking back from the blinding brightness in front of me.
The sun began to rise over the mountainside across the valley. The land before us dipped low, giving me a panoramic view that was covered in cliffs, in mountains and rolling hills that seemed to defy possibility. The valley was filled with fog, making the center of it all seem bathed in mist. The mountains were bare of trees, the earth a deep red with bright green moss and grass, as I dropped my hand to the ground beside me and buried my fingers in the squishy, sponge-like surface.
It was somehow softer than the grass I’d felt in Nothrek, in thecrunchy, dying nature as it gave way to the coming winter. I squinted against the brightness of the sunrise, the way it painted the clouds overhead with a distinct display of yellow and gold, bathing everything in warmth. My face heated beneath it, and though I had to close my eyes to shut out the light that they weren’t used to, I still basked in the warmth of it on my skin.
My hand brushed against something as I raised it from the ground, the rough fabric making me open my eyes and study what I’d touched. A leg clad in trousers rested beside me, wrapped around my hips and hooked around my body like a cocoon. I twisted, staring in shock at Etan’s peaceful face. He’d propped himself up against a tree, the land behind me far more forested. The earth was covered in fallen leaves, the colors a myriad of reds, yellows, and oranges. It was so like Nothrek had been when I first emerged from the tunnels, but somehow so muchmore. His eyes were closed, his breathing deep and even with sleep, and he was completely lost to the waking world that was somehow so much more vivid than anything I’d ever dreamed of.
This was the world I was meant to explore.
I eased myself out from his grasp, carefully getting to my feet and putting some distance between us so that I could attempt to remember where I was and how the fuck I’d gotten here. The memory slammed into me so suddenly that I gasped, pressing my hand to my mouth to try to catch the sound before it could wake Etan. I scrambled to my feet, taking a few steps away from the man who had fucking kidnapped me while I slept. We were alone, no traces of anyone else nearby. With my back to the sun, I missed the moment it finally crested the horizon, too busy studying the land behind me.
Given the clear signs of a season in front of me, I knew that the area behind Etan had to be the Autumn Court. The Shadow Court was nestled within the Winter Court. I knew only from passing conversations I’d overheard and the stories Imelda had shared that the Winter Court and Autumn Court made up the Unseelie Court, that the Summer and Spring Courts were the Seelie Courts, putting them at direct odds throughout their history before the evil that was Mab had united them against a common enemy.
The back of my neck tingled, a buzz of magic against my skin where my hair had been pulled to the side and draped over one shoulder carefully. It was knotted there, tied with a ribbon that I had no recollection of owning or seeing in my rooms at Tar Mesa. I touched shaking fingers to the back of my neck, too fearful to turnand see what I might find behind me. There was nothing there to explain the touch, nothing present aside from the strange warmth of my skin. It came from both outside of me and within me, radiating around me like a cycle as I turned slowly to face the valley once more.
The sun of Alfheimr beat down on my skin for the first time, and I twisted my hand in the sunlight that seemed to shimmer with a warm, golden hue that wasn’t like the aura of gold that surrounded Estrella when she touched her magic. This was simply a golden sparkle along my skin, like someone had bathed me in flecks of gold dust. My skin was fair beneath the pulsing, shimmering glow as I shoved my sleeves up farther, tipping my face up to the sun to enjoy the warmth for the first time when my entire body wasn’t being torn to pieces and remade during the change from human to Fae.
I drew in a deep breath, my lungs filling with something ethereal as my insides warmed against the cold that had entrapped me for the entirety of my life. It chased away the darkness lingering within me, clinging to the corners of my mind and my very being and lighting my soul aflame.
I originally hadn’t thought I would recognize it when it came, hadn’t thought I would understand what it felt like at my fingertips, until I felt it dancing along my skin, a silent question posed in every touch.
Magic.
Magic that was so much stronger than the faint, tiny whispers I’d gotten trapped in the Shadow Court with Imelda’s warding to keep it at a distance. I didn’t dare reach out to answer, even without Mab watching over my shoulder, and instead turned to make sure Etan was still sleeping. He’d lolled to the side without my body to keep him pinned to the tree, his head dangling in a way that looked uncomfortable. He could wake at any moment, find me glowing in the sunlight.
I couldn’t risk being seen as I discovered exactly what magic would answer, and I let my eyes drift closed slowly as I thought back to all the times Imelda had explained the concept of warding. She’d taught me how to lean in to the warding she’d placed on me at birth, the very same one she’d refreshed as I lay on the snow of Alfheimr, screaming in pain as I shifted from human to Fae, and after I’d been taken to Tar Mesa. I’d witnessed Estrella’s powers make a slave of her, watched them bind her to a will that was not entirely her own. The consequences for herhad been far-reaching, including the mate that she would lay down her life for.
I would never allow myself to be controlled in the same way, doing whatever it took to maintain autonomy over my own being. I wouldn’t be beholden to a court because of some magic flowing through my veins when I’d spent my entire life existing as a person without it, wouldn’t let my carefully maintained composure be altered in the name of some birthright.
The call of the magic was too strong to ignore, and I needed Imelda to strengthen her wards if I had any hopes of keeping it contained in the future. It existed within me, but it was a mirror for the magic of Faerie that surrounded me. All of our kind who possessed magic had it both within our blood and in the world around us, and Imelda referred to it as a symphony that required both aspects to achieve true beauty.
I reached out with my consciousness, touching the warding that Imelda had placed on me. I didn’t know what it disguised, nor did I care to, but I stroked against the wall it formed between my magic and the magic of Alfheimr. It shriveled away within me as I wrapped it in a firm hand, grasping it and pulling it with all my might. I shoved it back inside the barrier of Imelda’s warding, a thing that would need to be refreshed very soon, and locked it away until I wanted to use it.
Shoved it into the deepest recesses of my mind until I was truly alone and could risk getting to know what existed within me.
I opened my eyes to watch the sunlight on my skin wink out like tiny fires in the night, the golden hue fading from my fair skin and leaving me feeling suddenly cold. There was no doubt what had triggered the strengthening of the magic, and what had burned through Imelda’s warding so quickly.
The sun.
I swallowed as I lowered myself to the ground, sitting with my legs dangling over the rounded edge of the mountaintop as I waited for Etan to wake. He might be my husband soon enough, but that didn’t mean he got to lay claim to the parts of me I would keep for myself.
I just needed to find a way to bring Imelda to the Summer Court, and I needed to do it quickly.
Before everyone learned the truth that there was magic in my veins after all—that it burned inside me after a lifetime in darkness.
FOURTEENETAN
I woke with a start, the realization that my arms were empty sending a pang of panic through me. I couldn’t explain this intense knowledge that something was missing, that a part of me had walked away while I slept. We lingered at the edge of the Autumn Court, the Summer Court sprawled before me like a beacon welcoming me home.
The place where Fallon had once slept was empty now, the only companion nearby the presence of Thunder where I’d left his reins tied around a tree trunk in the shade behind me. He looked like he didn’t want to keep moving, like the sweltering heat that waited for us in the Summer Court was something he dreaded, and I couldn’t blame him entirely in spite of my desire to make it to my home.
We would need to pass through the desert before we could get to the lush center of the Summer Court with its flowing waters and ocean breeze, but this was a journey Fallon and I needed to take before our coronations.
“Fallon?” I asked, getting to my feet and spinning in disbelief. I couldn’t believe the woman would be foolish enough to wander off in the middle of the Unseelie Court, that she would show so little regard for her own safety that she would wander alone in an unfamiliar, dangerous place without any magic or weapons to protect her. We’d separated from the others before making camp for the night, as soon as we’d crossed the boundary out of the Winter Court. They’d taken the direct route to Vallania, leaving Fallon and me to take the long way alone.
