Candlelight highlighted an archway leading into a massive white-domed gazebo.
My breath caught.
This was the moonlit gazebo I’d read about in the tomes.
The stone floor spiraled into a labyrinth. Massive candelabras and firelit braziers threw dancing shadows across the surrounding fae. Moonlight beamed through the open center of the dome, illuminating the runes etched into the pillars that pulsed an otherworldly blue.
I’d studied the passage under the illustration so many timesthat I’d memorized the words:Under the moonlight, where magic and life dance, two will be one, an infusion of power, a destiny of souls, a tethering to break the realm. Be seen as you are, truth or lie, and the moon will bless you accordingly.
I’d dreamed of this place, and now that I was here, my stomach churned.
Right place.
Wrong fae.
The immortal fae king I had fantasized about had turned out to be a broken dream.
Needing to settle my anxious thoughts, I focused on the court, who had dressed for revelry in fine, dazzling colors.
Gitz, dressed in a navy-blue doublet with gold buttons, held a rope tied to Boots. Just seeing my donkey filled me with a sense of ease, and a bit of mirth—the goblin butler scrunched his nose at Boots as if accompanying a donkey was completely beneath him.
I spotted Gideon surrounded by his sisters. He nodded at me as I passed.
A strange-looking fae stood under the arch, tall and hunched, skin the color of brown with a hooked nose resembling more of a beak, wearing a strange vine-like headdress covered in flowers. White hair hung past the creature’s pointed ears. It wore a green robe covered in white stitching.
Kane stood in the front, his back facing me as if he had no desire to see who he was marrying. He was fully clothed, dressed in a similar glittering silvery fabric; the sleeves hung just past his wrists. His dark-black hair was down, the braids I was used to seeing completely undone.
I stood beside him, my spine straight, my gaze fixed ahead.In this moment, I would not show fear. No matter how much a scream wanted to claw up my throat and choke me.
“Face one another,” the old fae said, holding up a bony finger.
I faced Kane, keeping my head down, the veil giving me some sort of security. He pulled a key ring out of his pocket and nodded at the pixies, who released my train and moved to grab the sides of my veil.
The pixies lifted the veil that covered both my front and back of my head just enough to reveal the collar, keeping my face hidden.
He reached around my neck and inserted the key. There was a slight pressure against my neck and then the unmistakable clicking of a lock. Power surged through me and it gave me a comfort that could not be described with any words. A familiar blanket wrapping me in its warm embrace.
The pixies dropped the veil, my magic giving me a slight reprieve.
Kane moved closer to my face. “Don’t do anything foolish.”
I may have been angry and a little aggressive, but I was no fool. Out here, it didn't matter how powerful I was. Kane wouldn't be the only fae I would have to fight, and I did not know the magic that any of these fae commanded.
With thirteen elemental powers and hundreds of different mutations, there was no telling what I would be up against.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t respond.
Reaching out to the nearby foliage, I summoned the ivy to crawl along the ground and curl around his boots.
His gaze darted between our feet.
Then his shadows wrapped around my ankles, biting me with the cold of his touch.
Our gazes met, his gleaming with slight defiance, and an undeniable spark flared between us. One that held an important question.
Who would yield first?
Whose power was stronger? His biting shadows or my ability to wield nature as a weapon?
