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  “She chose this?” he asked, claws receding and the red sparks in his eyes fizzling out, replaced by a subtler green. He wrestled with his thoughts, brows coming together. Perhaps he believed I’d ordered her to her end.

  “She chose to save us, yes,” I replied. “She was free to make that choice.” I missed Shinj’s warmth, and with Kesh’s absence, I hadn’t felt so isolated since the prison. The solid ground with which I’d become accustomed these past few months had turned over beneath me. First, the Nightshade mantle had been cut from me, then Kesh’s bond, and now Shinj was gone.

  I propped myself against a rock, churned out of the ground by Shinj’s impact, and took a few moments to smooth over my rattled thoughts.

  “You all right?” Kellee asked.

  I nodded, knowing my voice would betray how I was nowhere near as “all right” as I let on.

  Sirius approached through the piles of churned earth, Eledan’s book clutched in his tek-hand. His guarded expression had gained a few cracks around its edges. Tiredness made his eyes glassy. He did his best to stand tall, but it didn’t last.

  Anger crackled off Kellee, and he snarled. “Shinj was worth a thousand of you.”

  “Kellee…” I sighed. “He tried to help.” It would be easy to blame him, but knolls were a force of Faerie. There was nothing more he could have done.

  Sirius bristled. “I did not foresee this outcome.”

  “None of us did.” I nodded toward the forest. “The Hunt could return. We should meet up with Kesh and keep moving.”

  Kellee lingered, his breathing increasing. “The Hunt is going after Eledan,” he grumbled, scratching his jaw. “We can’t allow it to get to him.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “His warfae marks aren’t just marks. They’re a key.” He waved off any imminent questions. “I know because he showed me.” He cleared the growl in his throat. “I didn’t remember until the Hunt started rooting around in my mind. He showed me in a dream while torturing me. Eledan’s marks form one key to the Hunt’s freedom.” He jerked his chin at the book under Sirius’s arm. “That’s what you’ll learn in there.” He swallowed and ruffled his hair, dislodging dirt. “Also, I think we’re all connected in more ways than just Kesh. When the Hunt was inside my head, I…” He paused to collect his thoughts. “Shit, I don’t even know how to explain it. You felt it, right? Our connection?” Sirius and I nodded. “We are the answer. All of us. Together.”

  “Including Eledan?” I asked, needing confirmation.

  “Maybe. The way things are going, probably.”

  “I’ll find Kesh and Sota,” Sirius volunteered. “You both need to return to Eledan before the Hunt reaches him.”

  Kellee growled at the idea of saving Eledan. It didn’t sit well with me either, but for someone who had been forgotten for so long, Eledan clearly had more to do with everything happening than we’d first believed.

  Sirius whistled. A fire-touched horse emerged from inside the remaining tree cover, black skin quivering and its mane of flames licking the air. “Take her. She’ll get you to Eledan.”

  The horse plodded toward Kellee and lowered its head for his hand.

  “Without Shinj, our options for sanctuary are limited,” Sirius told me. “We’ll need to regroup somewhere.”

  “Nowhere on Faerie is safe,” Kellee said, scratching the horse’s nose. It snorted its approval and nudged him in the shoulder. The horse was likely part unseelie and recognized the same in him.

  Kellee was right. The Hunt would eventually find us. We needed another option. “Meet us back here with Kesh and Sota in twelve hours,” I told Sirius. “I’ll have a way for us to get clear of Faerie.” I neglected to tell him our temporary escape would be a tek shuttle from the Excalibur. He had enough on his mind without my adding a trip on a tek-leviathan to it.

  Kellee swiftly mounted the horse and offered his hand. I settled behind him on the beast’s back.

  “Ready, fae?” Kellee asked.

  The mountain of Shinj’s broken carcass caught my eye. I sent my mental farewells to my friend, wishing things had ended differently.

  Sirius lingered and observed the fallen ship. He sighed, and after a few moments, he added, “I can return her body to Faerie, if you believe the vessel would have preferred that?”

  Scavengers would come. Eventually, Shinj would return to Mother Faerie, but Sirius was offering to save her that decay. “Thank you.”

  He approached the nearest section of ship. His warm, spicy magic brushed against mine. Knotting vines laddered up the warcruiser’s enormous bulk. Moss and grass spread, smothering her dull gray skin with bright greens. In minutes, the warcruiser had been painted with Faerie’s living flora, and beneath, the earth—Faerie—would welcome her home.

  Thousands of warcruisers had fallen in the first war. I’d hidden among their floating carcasses in the debris zone, where Kellee had found me searching for a spark of life to resurrect. Those ancient remains would never be returned to Faerie, but Shinj would, as it should be. She had earned her peace.

  Sirius glanced over. I nodded my approval, afraid the lump in my throat would choke off any words.

  “All right, hold on,” Kellee grumbled. I looped my arms around his waist. He kicked the horse into a canter and then a gallop, following old tracks through the undergrowth, startling wisps and pixies into the air.

  Were Sirius’s intentions truly aligned with ours? Save Kesh or save Faerie? It was becoming increasingly clear we might achieve one but at the expense of the other. Like us, Sirius would need to choose his loyalty and soon.

  Chapter 23

  Kesh

  As we walked, the spaces between towering oaks darkened, becoming thick and warm. Wisps darted and buzzed, creating dancing light and layered shadows.

  “Where are we going?”

  Ailish ghosted ahead, moving eerily quiet through the brush. “Somewhere I think you’ll like.”

  “Why can’t we talk right here?”

  “You’re a woman of many questions.”

  “Because nobody will give me a straight answer.”

  Sota’s gun ports had dropped open some time ago. He trailed behind me, watching our six for Kellee and any problems.

  I planted my boots in the mossy earth. “This is far enough.”

  Ailish halted and turned, showing me the beautiful half of her face. Her smile was deliberate but only skin deep. “Your males are approaching. There is nothing to fear.”

  “Then we can wait for them right here.” In a dark forest, in the depths of Faerie, where there were creatures who would happily hunt us all. “You have a surplus of time?”

  “I do, but you don’t, mortal Nightshade. Tell me one thing…” She picked her way over the leaf mulch and stopped close enough to touch. Her blue clothes sparked beneath the darting wisp-light. Yips, clicks, and pixie songs filled the quiet. “Would you trade everything for a chance at immortality?”

  “What?”

  “Everything…” She gestured down the length of me. “The Nightshade mantle, the polestar driving light through your fragile veins. These things are killing you. With every breath, you die. Every second slays you. Your males are immortal. Even the tek-man will long outlive you. You are their weakest link. You were not made to live, but what if I could change that? What if I could take the threat of death and decay away? What if I could soothe that aching, mortal body and make it last forever?”

  My heartbeat became so heavy, I tasted it in my throat. “You can do that?”

  “You saw my home. One of many. My waters heal and can do more.”

  It seemed wrong to want something I shouldn’t have, but while bonded with Talen, I’d had the strength and power that went beyond a saru lifespan. I’d healed quicker. I’d been stronger. Faster. If I accepted her offer, I would get to live. I wouldn’t have to leave Kellee alone. I’d always be there for Talen. Sirius wouldn’t have to watch me die one last time. And Sota… Sota would always be my friend. />
  “Your males… their love is fierce. They fear your death,” Ailish whispered. “They seek ways to help you survive, but you, a mortal saru, cannot survive the polestar. Give it to me and the Wild Ones will return it to Faerie’s sky.”

  “You would do that? You know how to do that?”

  “We will.”

  “Then you don’t know how to return it, not yet. Why not?”

  “The person who has the information keeps it from us.”

  “Who?”

  “The Wild Prince.”

  Eledan. Again, fate walked me back to him. The Wild Ones wanted the knowledge, and he kept it from them, likely because he trusted them as much as he trusted me. Or could there be another reason? Eledan was always one step ahead of us, playing his games, seeding ideas into our dreams so we never knew for certain whether our thoughts were our own. He’d been inside each of us. He’d wandered the minds of the palace saru and no doubt visited sidhe dreams too. Separated, there was no knowing what he was planning, but whatever it was, the Wild Ones, like Ailish, had run out of patience with him.

  “You have freed all the saru,” she went on. “What other battle must you fight, Kesh? You have done enough. Agree to surrender the polestar and the Nightshade mantle and I’ll give you immortality. You no longer need to fight. Kesh is all you’ll be.” Her sing-song voice made the offer sound reasonable. It was just a matter of saying yes, and all the hurt, the pain, would go away.

  “Don’t bargain with them…” Sota urged, standing close behind me, like always. My conscience. My friend.

  He didn’t know what it was like to feel death stalking him like it stalked me now. I was dying. I could feel it, like a thread unraveling. The end was approaching. The polestar must be returned to the sky and the light and dark put to rest.

  “You never wanted any of this,” Ailish whispered, moving in closer.

  “No, I didn’t…”

  “You’ve wanted freedom before you knew what freedom was. You’ve fought so long you don’t know any other way. I understand…” She reached out a hand to stroke my cheek. “You don’t need to fight any longer.”

  I swatted her hand away. “I thought I was supposed to fight for Faerie? Isn’t that what you said? Faerie loves all Her children. I was to embrace the light and the dark, not give it up to you…”

  Her clear eye flared. She curled her hand toward her chest.

  “Something has changed.” I stepped closer. “Is it the Hunt?”

  Her nostrils flared, as though I’d insulted her. If it wasn’t the Hunt, then what?

  She stiffened. “He told us he would give us the Nightshade.”

  Eledan again. I recalled the snippets of conversation I’d overheard here and there. In the crystal palace, moments after he’d woken, Ailish had asked him to remember their deal: “You have not forgotten your oath to the Wild Ones.” He’d bargained my life to the Wild Ones in exchange for their support once he woke up, knowing none of the sidhe courts would welcome him back with his tek-heart. Now that he was awake and the Hunt was back, the Wild Ones wanted him to pay up. They wanted my power as the Nightshade, but Eledan hadn’t yet given me up.

  The Water Witch was not my friend, and she looked at me as though I were her dinner. I dropped my hand to my whip and flicked its tails loose.

  “Then what are you waiting for? You want the Nightshade, so take me…”

  Sota’s guns whined, charging up.

  Movement among the shadows drew my eye, and all around, figures took form, coalescing out of the air or revealing themselves among the bushes. Horned creatures, tails lashing, all Wild Ones, but they didn’t attack. They waited, their eyes aglow and full of want.

  The unseelie chose their Nightshade. The title was earned and held. I’d only recently earned the wings, but if they could have taken them from me, they would have already. On Faerie, magic couldn’t be taken; it had to be given. That was why Ailish had offered me immortality and freedom… For the polestar. Really, it was a surprise it had taken any fae this long to bargain for the greatest weapon ever known.

  Power snickered down the whip, crackling it back and forth like a loose live wire. The Wild Ones hissed and recoiled from the alien tek.

  “Say the word and I’ll cut them down,” Sota offered, voice chillingly calm.

  “I don’t want to hurt any of you.” Raising my voice, I sent the words far into their number and on into the dark woods.

  “Just accept the offer!” Ailish snapped. Her blue gown glowed and rippled, as though she were water. “Surrender your names to me!”

  I’d never surrendered to Faerie or anyone. I wasn’t about to start now. “No.”

  “Stubborn fool!” Her glow brightened, lifting her off her feet. Her gowns flowed, bleeding into the air, expanding her outline. As her hood blurred, light fell on the skeletal side of her face, revealing her true visage.

  Two could play that game.

  I breathed in and mentally jabbed the new, emerging part of me, summoning the same inky power I’d had on Eledan’s balcony and while fighting Dagnu. It filled my veins, pouring into my thoughts, making me more.

  Ailish laughed. “The more you use it, the more it kills you. So fragile a thing it is to be mortal!”

  “Stop this!” A column of fire moved toward us out of the trees like an apparition. It took me a moment to recognize Sirius inside those flames. His hair had become long tongues of flame, his body and clothes a pillar of fire.

  Ailish’s waters throbbed and lapped outward, flowing and then receding. Her beauty wilted. Lines cut into her smooth skin, her body curling in on itself. “Fire Lord… this is not right!” Her musical voice cracked. “She was promised to us, the Wild Ones! Her names are ours!”

  “Promised by whom?”

  “The Wild Prince, in his dreams.”

  Sirius stood among them, wearing a disapproving scowl, like he’d come across a group of misbehaving children. “An oath already stands. You cannot make another.”

  “But the prince delays!”

  “Enough!” Sirius’s flaming visage flickered out of existence and reappeared between me and Ailish, so hot I stumbled back against Sota. “If you were foolish enough to bargain with the prince and not specify your terms, you must live with the consequences, else the Hunt will find you.”

  “He controls the Hunt!”

  Sirius’s growl sounded more like fire devouring a building than anything male-made. “Silence, Water Witch, or I’ll take the side of your face I spared before.”

  She cowered, her water sizzling to steam and her youthful appearance burning away to reveal the crone behind the lie. Sirius stared her down until she bowed her head and shuffled backward.

  “Eledan no more controls his creation than you or I do.” He cast that scornful gaze at the crowd. “Go, all of you, and know this: to invite The Nightshade’s ire is to invite death.”

  The Wild Ones dissolved into the shadows, the forest holding them close. All that remained was the occasional wisp dancing on a soft breeze.

  My power had also faded, withdrawing into that new, unknown part of me.

  Sirius’s flames spluttered and dripped off him, vanishing as soon as they left his body. Beneath it all, his skin had paled and his eyes had dulled to a washed-out green. He swayed on his feet. I rushed in and caught him by the tek-arm before he could stubbornly shove me away.

  “I’m fine…” he grumbled.

  “It’s a wonder Faerie doesn’t strike you down for that blatant lie. Hold on to me.” His arm folded around my waist and locked tight enough to tell me he was suffering. He wouldn’t lean on me if he weren’t. “What happened?”

  “The ship, Shinj, struck at the Hunt. Shinj did not survive.”

  Oh, Shinj, no. And Talen. He was so close to the ship. “Is Talen all right?”

  “He is angry and hurt but hides it well.”

  “Kellee?”

  He winced. “The vakaru is always angry.”

  “Not always. He’s
had a hard time. We all have.” We hobbled to a fallen tree. “I should have been there.”

  “No. Had you stayed, you would have died.”

  Sirius dropped onto the fallen log and leaned forward, sinking his hands into his hair. His shoulders shuddered.

  Sota raised an eyebrow at the guardian’s obvious exhaustion. More had happened to weaken him, but demanding answers would only shut him down. I knelt in front of him and placed a hand on his warm knee. When he lifted his head, pain had changed his face from its hard, stoic mask to a play of sadness and regret. His mouth, always so quick to sneer, pulled down, and his eyes held great wells of sadness.

  “Sirius…?”

  His tek-arm looped around my shoulders and clamped me so close I got a face full of autumn-scented hair.

  “What did she offer you?” he whispered, his voice as wrecked as the rest of him.

  “Immortality.”

  He locked his hand in my hair and pushed me back, his stare severe. “You said no?”

  I nodded.

  His fingers tightened too much, but not from anger. I couldn’t read him, not confidently, but he seemed afraid. He slipped his fingers free, and slumped forward, the fight draining out of him like his colors had.

  “Eledan bargained with your life as though you were his to give away,” he said. “I’ll not let that rest.”

  Sota, behind me, still had his guns out and watched Sirius with the same distrust he’d had since the guardian had entered our lives.

  “It’s all right. I can handle Eledan,” I told Sirius, moving across to sit beside him on the log. “Did you get the book?”

  Sirius reached inside his coat and withdrew Eledan’s tome.

  I snatched it and immediately opened it. The page was blank. That couldn’t be right. I flicked to another page. Blank. I flicked through them all. Every single page was a wash of faded white. “I don’t understand.”

  “Nor do I, but I’m not sure it matters.” Sirius lifted his head. “The vakaru—Kellee faced the Hunt, and when it tried to get inside his mind, it unearthed Eledan’s secret. The marks on Eledan’s body are connected to the Hunt. It’s likely yours are as well, cut into your skin to match Oberon’s. The Hunt knows it. With Oberon dead and Sota shielding you, Kellee believes it’s going after Eledan.”