When the darkness had come, she’d been alone. Her Dark Ones had not come for her.
She walked away from her home with only vengeance in her heart.
Chapter One
The dead things of the world loved Lachlan McIver. It was the shame of his life that he couldn’t return the affection.
One half of the heir to the Unseelie throne looked down at the small dog barking and jumping at his feet. He took a deep breath of the forest air and prayed to the gods for patience. He’d walked into the woods behind the palace because he’d looked in all of Shim’s other haunts. His brother wasn’t at the tavern in the village. He wasn’t in the kitchens. He wasn’t sitting in their room staring out the window toward the west, the direction of the door to the Seelie plane. It was where he often found Shim these days, a vacant look in his dark eyes.
He needed to talk to his brother about the morning’s news, but he found himself alone with a dead dog. He wasn’t sure where Shim had gotten off to, but he would more than likely laugh and pet the damn thing. Shim wouldn’t even notice that something had taken half the yipping dog’s side out. Likely it had been a bear or maybe a troll who had been lucky enough to catch it, but not lucky enough to finish its meal.
“Go away.” Lachlan tried to put some distance between him and the now-reanimated corpse of the former terrier. It simply yipped and followed him.
Lach attempted to ignore the creature. It wasn’t the first dead thing to imprint on him. He was coming into his power, and without his bondmate, it tended to go a bit wild.
Bondmate. He closed his eyes as the thought of her coated his senses. He didn’t need to be near her to feel her. Gods, he’d never been close to her, but she was in his heart. He felt her every minute of every day. But what would he do if he had to stand in front of her? When he and Shim invaded her dreams at night, he was whole, his face as perfect as his brother’s. Would she turn away from him when she saw the real Lachlan McIver? He rather thought she would. She was a beauty, a pure Seelie princess, who would probably run from her beast of an Unseelie prince.
It was, perhaps, better to see her only in dreams, but like many things in his life, he had no choice. He had to find her. His powers were flaring, going wild.
And Shim...
Lach growled a little as he realized where his brother was. He turned and jogged toward the beach, praying his idiot brother hadn’t fallen asleep where selkies would take him.
He jogged across the grounds, reaching the highest point. From here he could turn back and see the Dark Palace shining like a jewel. To the east he could see the road. A small party was approaching. His father’s advance guard had already confirmed that it was his cousin Julian leading the rebel Seelie Kings.
Her brothers.
Gods, he was going to meet Bron’s brothers, and he hadn’t figured out if he planned to tell them a damn thing. They would scoff and tell him he was bloody insane. His father would shake his head. Only Gillian and Duffy in all the plane believed their secret—that they had already bonded to the Seelie princess. Without permission or even her real knowledge. It had been instinctive, a cry that had crossed two planes, saved her life, and inadvertently ruined Lach’s face.
He shook off thoughts of that terrible day and turned back to the sea. He couldn’t see his brother, but there was a small figure awkwardly moving on the rocks that made up the beach.
Little gnome. Big axe. That was Duffy. And where Duffy was, his brother couldn’t be far behind. The little gnome hefted the axe Shim had given him months before on the date they had mutually decided on for the celebration of Duffy’s birthday. Duffy had wanted an axe. The damn thing was nearly bigger than the gnome, and more than once he’d fallen on his ass from trying to swing it. The year before, Lach and Shim had bought their lifelong friend a set of custom-made armor. The blacksmith had laughed the whole time he’d made it.
It wasn’t that no one had told Duffy that gnomes weren’t warriors. It was that Duffy was terribly hard of hearing when he wanted to be.
The dog at Lach’s feet yipped and panted as though just waiting for the fun to begin.
“Go away.” Lach started down the trail that led to the beach, the little dog at his heels. He tried to give the dog the command to stay, but it wasn’t a well-trained thing. More than likely his lack of discipline was what had led to his untimely death. “Duff!”
Lach yelled at the gnome the minute he hit the beach. Now he could see Shim, lounging with his back against a boulder, one hand over his heart. His legs and feet had sunken in the pebbles beneath, telling Lach that he’d been there for a while. No sandy beaches here in the Unseelie plane. Everything here was hard and deadly. He’d been to the Vampire plane with its tropical beaches. He’d stood looking over the peaceful sea in someplace his cousin had called Hawaii, and he’d wanted to bring Bronwyn there. He’d imagined sinking into the soft sand and reveling in her body. Bonding time, the vampires called it. First bite. Oh, that first bite would be amazing. First blood.
His fangs descended. The damn things did it at the worst times, but he’d gotten used to it. And he’d gotten used to ignoring the hunger. When he wanted real blood in his mouth, he would go hunting and gorge himself on predatory creatures. The hunt fed him as much as the blood did.
His brother had another coping mechanism.
Shim lay with his eyes on the ocean, but Lach knew damn well that wasn’t what his brother was seeing.
The dead dog barked, warning Duffy of their approach. The gnome shrieked a little, and his axe came down on the pebbled sand just barely missing his feet.
“Lachlan. You scared ten years off me life.” Duffy leaned over, resting his hands on his knees and dragging cool air into his lungs.
Lach narrowed his eyes, standing over the gnome. At six feet five inches, Lach knew he was intimidating to the four-foot gnome. “And what do you think you’re doing to me, Duff?”
Wide blue eyes looked back up. “Ain’t doing nothing but protecting Shim, Lach.”
Lachlan pointed out at the sea. Not forty feet off the shore was a telltale froth of water. That white churning proved how reckless his brother had become.
“Were you going to use that axe on the mermaids?”
Duffy turned quickly, his hat falling off his head. “Mermaids? Bloody hell.”
“Yes, bloody is the key point. It’s going to be your blood and then Shim’s that’s going to be all over this beach and all because my brother here can’t deal with reality.” Lach nearly growled when he turned back to his brother and rolled his eyes. Shim had a smile on his face, his eyes blank. He didn’t even notice that half a damn dog was licking at his chin.
“What the bloody hell is that?” Duffy asked, staring at the dog.
“A damn straggler.” Lach wasn’t sure what Duffy was so squeamish about. It wasn’t the first time some dead thing had followed him around. “Try to wake his ass up. We have trouble coming.” He walked to the edge of the water. The icy tide lapped at his feet. “I don’t need this shit!”
A shimmering presence rose from the foam. Gorgeous and deadly, the mermaid smiled, shrugged, and then dove back down to the depths.
Everything, it seemed, was coming after them. There wasn’t a creature on the plane who couldn’t sense their weakness, and every single one of them was ready and waiting to pounce.
He turned back and saw his main problem. They were weak because Shim had stopped fighting.
“Where is he?” Lach asked, staring at his brother, the other half of his soul.
“He was mumbling something about fields and wheat.” Duffy came to Lach’s side, his mouth turned down in a flat line. “I think he feels her more clearly here.”