It was my father who broke tradition centuries later by taking the fae throne. He killed the previous king, denied the trial at the Cave of Blessings, all because he was a vengeful dragon who wanted the throne—and my mother.
Half moon fae, and all my power came from him. The draconic bloodline was too overpowering for anything else to surface.
Olivia fluttered in the air in front of me.
She had been the one to tell me the truth of my lineage after I exiled my mother. I’d always assumed it was a way to get closer to me, and it had worked. My little black heart. My most trusted companion.
“What are you waiting for?” I said, standing behind her.
She glanced back. Her normal snarky expression had been replaced with an air of cautiousness not normal to her character. “Do you think there are any more twisted there?”
“You don't have to come,” I said. “You can stay behind.”
She shook her head. “Pixies live there. I need to see what happened and bring back any survivors.”
I eased around her, and she landed on my shoulder.
“Be ready for anything,” I warned, reaching a finger over to brush her side.
She gripped the ends of my hair. “I’ve got two pouches of bone dust. You won’t have to chomp a thing.”
When we stepped through the portal, the air quality changed. Gone was the refreshing, earthy scent of our woods, replaced with an acrid burnt smell and the putrid scent of decay.
This village sat in the forest below our mountain range closer to the human settlements. It was a quaint village with common fae, pixies, even a few halflings.
None of those creatures walked the dirt this morning.
Raiders had burned the wooded thatched homes. Doors were left open, some swaying with the breeze. The first body we crossed, planted face down in the dirt, long fingers dug into the earth as if it had tried to crawl to safety.
I squatted near its body and rolled it over.
Dead pale eyes gaped at the morning sun, its face stuck in an expression of horror. Dirt covered its tawny skin and part of the left ear had been bitten off.
I didn't see any other marks. No signs of what creature had killed this poor fae.
I stood, motioning with my finger toward an open cottage with a trail of blood leading inside it.
When I had received word early this morning of news of a decimated village and the strange stories coming from the handful of survivors that talked of monsters, shadows that moved with teeth, creatures that wanted their flesh, I knew I had to investigate it myself, against Acaden’s wishes for me to go alone.
Everything pointed toward the Lich King and his malintended fiends.
Since the Rift had been closed during the great war almost a hundred years ago, the Lich King had advanced his kingdom, destroying more settlements and claiming them as his own. Towns that once bustled with life now teemed with undead, wraiths, and other denizens that showed no fealty to the living.
Using my hand, I pushed on the door holding it open. A female fae slumped over in a rocking chair, with black veins skittered across her skin.
“A darkthing’s bite,” Olivia whispered.
“There hasn't been a sighting of one in years.”
Black veins covered her, originating from a circular puncture wound on her arm. The darkthings were creatures from the Never: the Shadow Realm. Once the magi had closed the Rift, they stopped the creatures from entering, but all the ones that were already here had no place to go and so they scattered across the lands, infecting and destroying whatever they could.
There was not much I knew about these darkthings, only that they couldn't breed and their bite meant instant infection or death, depending on how long the creature fed.
Over the years, there had been stories of creatures infected with the darkness from a bite or scratch from a darkthing. Most of them were monsters. The most popular tale was of the Kraken by the Oasis who had been felled by a light bearer and a trio of fae, which included Acaden. It was part of the reason I called him to court.
We had been fortunate the darkthings didn't seem to like the mountains for whatever reason, and there had never been one by my castle. In all my life, I’d only come across one, and never this close to my home.
I had very few memories of my father, who seemed too busy with politics than with family, but I would never forget my first encounter with a darkthing.
