Prologue

By Sara Aziz

________________________

The sun rarely shines in the North. Instead, it flees among the clouds to spur the moon’s rise so it may dance with the stars. That’s what Mother says, her pale, silvery eyes gazing at the sky with both hate and love.

A burning hatred and a fiery love. For my mother, murder, and fear had been her companionable sins for too long. It was he who had created these new hells in her.

“Never fear the darkness, my love. The world was birthed in darkness, and that is where it shall return.”

The oddest thing was that I had never feared the darkness, regardless of what she said. Terror of the dark was for those who never knew what they could find in it. But Fae never feared the unknown. Fear was a death sentence.

And I had no intention of dying today.

---

The wood was quiet in the silence of the night, and I hummed quietly to a tune mother used to sing when I was a child, golden hair swaying with her. The Korinaj forest was almost my home, where I knew I could feel him.

Lorkai, Lord of Night.

My father. His power stretched across the land, but the cursed woods were his domain especially. I’d once asked Mother how they were cursed, but she’d told me to not ask again and to never summon in the woods. She said Father had, and that was why he was the way he was. I still wished sometimes that I could even just see my father, even if he didn’t know I existed. The snow was falling softly, hitting the grounds like the chimes of the school’s bells. I ran a hand down the trunk of a proud tree, relishing the rough feel of the bark beneath my hands. I sighed with pleasure as I raised my face towards the moon, the cool rays a temptation against my bronzed skin. I heard the crunch of footsteps on the snow and froze. Mother tread so lightly, to hear her was to hear the gentle breeze and the water ripple. This was someone else, their steps loud and fumbling. I felt my lips quirk unexpectedly at the strangely endearing way this person bumbled through the forest. Creeping towards the source of the sound, I threw myself behind a tree when I heard a foul curse. The voice was deep, a baritone that did something to my head and made me wish for things I couldn’t describe or voice.

A man.

Peeking around the fauna, my eyes widened at the sight of a tall, lean-figured male with a bow strapped to his back. The hunter turned in my direction, and I hid deeper in the darkness, even though I knew he wouldn’t be able to see me unless I wanted him to. His dark eyes flashed across the trees, silvery black hair ruffling in the wind. The sharp angles of his face spoke of a life similar to my own. He wasn’t traditionally handsome- no, his features were too harsh for that, but it was the round tips of his ears that made me stumble back. He was not only a human man, he was a human man who intrigued me. Who made me want. By the gods themselves, Mother was going to kill me. The stumble made me clumsy, and I stifled a gasp as I stepped on a twig and it snapped. The sound echoed through the trees, and his head darted to the tree I’d been hiding behind. I stilled, suddenly very aware I was wearing nothing but some simple black trousers that were a size too small and a tunic my mother had bemoaned its use of any longer. I narrowed my gaze when he pulled free his bow and loaded it. Stepping out of the shadows, I slowly approached him so he could see me in the moonlight. I thanked Diana it was so bright tonight, and I gently lifted my hands in a silent plea for understanding. He swallowed when he spotted my pointed ears. Or perhaps he was just looking at the ridiculously low neckline of my tunic. Mother had told me to throw it away.

“The Fawn of the East,” he breathed, and I nodded slowly at the moniker the villagers had made for the daughter of the beautiful wild woman. The girl who drifted through the shadows without leaving a trace, who knew the woods as her home above the company of others. “I thought you were just a rumor.” Was that a hint of sadness in his voice?

“No more than you,” I whispered, and he stumbled at the higher note of my voice only Fae could achieve. Perhaps he hadn’t been looking at my ears after all. “What are you doing in these woods? There is no wildlife left in its winters.”

He blinked, glancing down at his bow as though just realizing what he was holding. “I’m not looking for animals.”

I felt a chill skitter down my spine. “You mean, you’re not looking for prey.”

He met my eyes unflinchingly, a smile playing at the edges of his hard lips. It lacked humor, and I swallowed at the violent edge in his eyes. “No. I didn’t.”

Backing away, deeper into the woods, for each step I took he followed. It felt like a cat toying with the mouse as he played with me, allowing me the illusion of escape. The gentle breeze lifted, twirling about us in a dance I knew better than to join.

“Whatever you’re looking for, I hope you find it,” I called to the winds before turning on my heel and darting away, allowing only the silence as companion. But still, I couldn’t outrace his quiet words.

“You shouldn’t.”

I sat on the wolf’s fur carpet before the fire, warming my cold hands when the door slammed open and Mother appeared. I jumped to my feet, hurrying over to clean up her spot on our small oak table, biting my lip as she sat with a panicked expression. That couldn’t have been panic.

Mother was never frightened.

“Gianna, did you meet someone in the woods?” She turned, meeting my eyes, and I found I couldn’t lie when she looked at me like that.

Like one wrong word would break her heart.

I tilted my head before nodding. My odd tick I could never get rid of. Her face turned white, and I swallowed at the shame climbing my throat. What had I to be ashamed of? It was he who’d encountered me, spoken with me, then followed me.

“I’m not looking for animals.”

“You shouldn’t.”

The sadness in his eyes as he murmured my moniker.

He wasn’t just looking for prey.

He’d been looking for…me.

“Mother…?” The words climbed my throat, demanding answer, reason, any way to make sense of the nonsensical.

“Gianna, we have to go. Now.” Jumping from her seat, she hurried to the bedrooms, and I paled. Following her, I found her throwing clothes in a bag, messy and uncoordinated. What had happened in town? Why had the huntsman been searching for me?

What did she know?

“Mother-“

My question was interrupted by the bang on the door as a growly voice called, “Open the door now, Luna, or we break it.” I flinched at the harsh words, and Mother placed a comforting hand on my cheek before grabbing my arm, dragging me to the window.

“Run, my darling. You have to run now,” she whispered in a hushed tone, “you have to go before they get you too.” There was a panic in her features as she unlocked and opened the window, flinching at the sudden onslaught of cold.

“Who?”

“Him.”

There was only one person who could inspire that sort of love and hatred in my mother’s voice.

It seemed the Lord of Night had found us at last. I bit my lip as I tilted my head, a confusing mixture of fear, excitement, and rage pulsing through me. Fear for the day I would meet the man known as the bane of the kingdom, excitement for the thought of finally meeting him, and rage for what he’d done to my mother.

Running towards the window, I leaped out the glass, toppling into the snow. Mother would be fine.

Mother could survive anything and anyone. She’d survived the Lord of Night once, she could do it again. She had to.

Jumping to my feet, I whirled and ran face-first into a stone-hard chest. Looking up, I saw the cold face of the hunter from the forest. There was a regret in his eyes as he gripped my arms.

“You shouldn’t have run.”

I tilted my head, and he gasped as a shadow stabbed into his leg, another forming a dagger at his throat.

“And you shouldn’t have come, human.” He stared cross-eyed at the knife, and I bared my teeth, fire swirling through my veins. “It won’t kill you, sweetheart. Just mimics the pain enough so that you’ll wish it did.”

Drawing the knife away, he stared down at me with an appreciative glint in his eyes.

“Let. Go,” I said through clenched teeth, and he shook his head as he dragged me to the front of the cottage.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” he said, emphasizing the last word, and I flushed. “I can’t do that.”

I swallowed a scream at the scene that encountered us. My mother was on her knees as a wolflike man towered over her, sword poised above her throat.

This wasn’t a summoning.

This was an execution.

“Your mother was supposed to live,” the wolfish man growled. “But it was you the Lord truly wanted. And it seems you need to be taught the consequences of trying to disobey the Lord. By trying to escape, you signed her death sentence.”

Lunging for my mother, the hunter yanked me back into his chest, lashing his arms around me. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, and I spat at his shoes in response.

The man raised the sword, and I wished I could close my eyes, but I wouldn’t steal that honor from my mother. The honor of a daughter witnessing her death.

And the sword fell. I tried to ignore the nauseating clunk of her head hitting the ground and the way the pure snow around her slowly turned red with blood. The empty gaze of her pale eyes.

The world was drowned out as a roaring in my head deafened me. One of the hunter’s arms around me lifted to press a hand to my mouth, encasing the screams that begged to be released.

The executioner met my eyes, a slow smile spreading across his lupine features. “I’ve never killed a Fae before. You lot were supposed to be immortal, weren’t you?” He looked back down at the still corpse. “But you’re as weak as a human.”

“Enough, Achar.” The hunter’s voice was harsh above me, but I barely recognized them over the blood rushing in my ears.

I’ll kill him.

I will kill him.

The shadows began frothing around his feet as I clenched my teeth, a howl building in my throat. But I tamped it down, letting the shadows disperse.

Mother wouldn’t just want me to end them. She would want me to tear them apart till they were begging for mercy.

Weak as a human. Achar would regret that. His death, I will enjoy the most. But first, I would start with the man who’d sent them, who’d wanted me back after so many years.

I belonged to no man, much less my father.

I would tear the Lord of Night and his court apart.

Till all that was left was bones and dust.