I swallowed hard, still trying to find my way out of my grief. It felt like it was just yesterday, although I knew it wasn’t. I knew I had a wonderful mother back in Sandpoint waiting for me, but this… this felt so real because itwasreal. My parents were dead.
My past life was with a beautiful set of parents who were now gone. With a shaky breath, I shook off the sadness and followed Artemis into an opening in the trees that led into a meadow. A cute little cottage no more than twenty feet wide with a thatched roof sat directly in the center of the clearing.
“I’ve been here before and I’ve never seen this cottage,” Brayden mused.
Artemis’ lips quirked into a grin. “You see it now because I want you to see it.”
“Are you the reason all of Moon Valley thinks there is a ghost haunting these woods and avoids this place?” Brayden asked, and Artemis’ smile grew wider.
He said nothing and Brayden just scowled. “Why show yourself to me now?”
We reached the door and Artemis dropped my hand, turning to face Brayden with a serious expression. “Because I’ve been here for over five hundred years in secret, and I heard you speaking of my brother when you first stepped into the woods. I knew my brother would not have given you my location had he not trusted you with his life.”
Brayden nodded.
“So we’re all friends here?” I asked nervously. This guy was cool but I wanted to make sure he didn’t harbor anything against Brayden.
Artemis peered from me to Brayden. “If the exiled king of the wolves risks coming to my woods, it’s worth hearing him out. I was there at my brother’s sentencing. The king pleaded with the Fae Lords for a private prison land for my brother. He was able to live out his sentence with dignity and visitors. It’s more than I could have done for him.” He looked somber now, and I noticed how he kept referring to Brayden as the king of the wolves. Even if exiled, he was showing him respect in the title, and I liked him for that.
“He deserved it,” Brayden said strongly.
Artemis nodded, opening the door to the cottage. “And I trust for my help with your problem you will tell me who killed my dear brother and help me to enact revenge?”
Brayden cleared his throat. “I will tell you, but revenge killing is not possible in this case.”
For the first time the fae’s eyes glowed a sickly green. “You deny me my price for your favor?”
Brayden cleared his throat, looking left and right at the trees. “I would deny you nothing within my ability, but this isnotin my ability to grant.”
That got a frown out of the fae. He waved us inside and I released the breath I’d been holding. We needed some of my powers unlocked so that Brayden could win this fight with Silas. If Artemis wouldn’t help us, we were in big trouble.
We stepped into an adorably small room filled with handmade, highly-lacquered wood, and the fae pointed to a chair at the small dinette set.
“Who killed my brother?” he asked Brayden, foregoing any small talk.
“You said there would be tea?” I tried to buy time so Brayden could think of how he wanted to break the news that his brother’s insides had been gobbled up by the leader of the Wild Hunt.
Brayden and I took a seat at the table while the fae tinkered with the woodstove, making tea. He was like his brother in that way.
I looked at Brayden and he sighed.
“Novus,” Brayden said, and the fae went completely still, frozen over the kettle like he was made of stone. He turned slowly and peered over his shoulder to look at the both of us, perhaps to see if we were joking.
“The hunt is on?” Artemis said.
Brayden nodded. “And he now has your brother’s power.”
Artemis looked at Brayden quizzically. “No he does not.”
Brayden frowned.
“What do you mean? I thought…” I was a newbie, sure, but Brayden said Novus consumed powers.
Artemis turned to fully face me. “On the next full moon, my brother’s soul will leave the Ether and head for the Heavenly Realm. On that night, his power will return to me, next of kin.”
Brayden looked visibly shook. “What do you mean, his power will return to you?”
The full moon was Brayden’s fight night, in three days.
