A tingle started at the base of my neck, my senses on high alert.
“Crispin?” I called, panicking that my husband wasn’t out corralling the hens and telling them to be quiet.
The front door was open. Something we never did, otherwise Boots would come inside and make a mess of the kitchen.
“Crispin?” I yelled again, running into our home.
The rest of our breakfast still covered the table: half-eaten bread and jam and butter melted from the afternoon heat. After stepping around the table, I opened the door to our yard in the back where we kept all the firewood.
“Deirdre.”
I glanced to my left. Crispin sat on the ground, leaning against the cottage, holding his stomach, an angry glare on his face. Blood seeped out around his hand, staining his shirt.
“You’re bleeding!” This wasn’t a slight cut, either.
Stumbling to his side, I reached out to apply pressure to the wound. “What happened? Why didn’t you yell for me?”
“No time to panic.” Crispin pulled himself up, wincing as he grabbed the sword by his side. His legs shook with each movement. “It's time for us to leave.”
I shook my head. “What? No. Why?”
“The Deathless One is here.” Crispin groaned as he stood to full height, towering over me and shading me from the sun.
“Are you sure it’s him? It could be one of the scepter knights from the temple. We knew King Henry might send knights after us. Going into hiding could have been considered treason. We may not answer to the King of the Fae, but our own king would certainly not be happy that I ran away.”
“I don’t think a scepter knight would ask where his human bride is. Remember the plan.”
How could I forget? Crispin forced us to practice every full moon to make sure that if we needed to escape, we would both be ready. But that wasif.
If…
I shook my head again.No.
“Where is he?” I asked.
Crispin glanced toward the shadows near the side of themountain, no more than a hundred feet from our location. There stood the King of the Fae, a blade of shadows in his right hand, the top drenched in blood. Crispin’s blood.
The day I had convinced myself would never come had arrived.
The Deathless One was here.
Crispin stepped forward, both of us side by side. He looked at me, a silent understanding passing between us.
“We can do this,” I said, and he nodded, his blue gaze filling me with strength.
Kane sauntered closer, wearing nothing but boots and black pants, a thin silver rope belt the only dash of color on him. Shadows curled around his body, ending in a dark spikey crown on his head. Even from this distance, the heat of his magic pulled the air taut between us. A pulsating intensity that made my power want to rebel back.
I had never seen him before. The immortal fae king destined to be mine since birth.
My heart raced, but I tried to stay calm.
We knew this moment was always a possibility, but how did he even find us? We had been so careful. Nobody knew of this place except my grandfather, and he would slit his own throat to keep my secret safe. And if we were traceable, surely someone other than Kane himself would have come for me first.
“This will be a lot easier if you come with me.” Kane’s silky voice had a rough edge to it–the sound eerily pleasing, and yet somehow almost exactly how I imagined it all those years ago.
Wisps of shadows snaked off his hands like long fingernails, wrapping around his wrists like the black bracelets he wore. Shoulder-length onyx hair–partially braided–hung past his pointy fae ears, his skin a warm peach tone with thick eyebrows over hooded chromatic amber eyes peeking at me with curiosity.
If he wasn’t the epitome of my impending doom, I might have found him attractive.
