The shadow of the Golden Wood helped protect us from the storm to some extent, though the drifting dunes left our world a barren landscape of white mounds against the black shadows of the trees. The silence was punctuated only by the hiss of the falling snow, and the scent of ozone crackled in the air. I caught my breath—the temperature was icy, but it didn’t bother me, not now.
Whatever animals made the woodland their home were gone—in hiding from the storm or hunted down by the Shadow Hunters, and the forest felt empty, like an abandoned house; but the abandoned house was a trap and we knew it. The woods weren’t really empty. Myst’s forces were out here: Shadow Hunters and snow weavers and, no doubt, goblin dogs. She still managed to control some of the Ice Elementals, too, the ones who hadn’t fallen out from her spell and under my rule. So the forest wasn’t empty by any means, but full with our enemies.
Ulean swept ahead of us to help keep us on track, since the path was buried far beneath the snow and landmarks were almost impossible to read. As we silently passed through the trees, I fell into a light trance, moving forward on autopilot, as my thoughts drifted into the slipstream. And then . . . I was standing on a hill, in another snowstorm, and once again, I was running from Myst.
The hilltop was exposed under the night sky, but the storm was raging around me, and I anxiously looked for Shy. He was here somewhere, waiting for me. We’d made the agreement some time ago. There was no choice—no other option, and we had to go through with it now that we’d both run from our people.
And then, stepping out from a huckleberry bush that was covered by the snow, he came. Shy, my love. My one connection with Summer. This was the man who kept me from spiraling into the depths out from which I’d dug myself. My heart leaped, and I rushed forward, into his arms, as he wrapped me in his embrace and kissed me.
“Cherish, my love, you were afraid I’d change my mind?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but the fear had been there. We were from such disparate backgrounds, and our natures were an antithesis of the other. He was the morning light, and green grass, white wine on a summer night, wanting to play and lounge in the fields. And I was the night sky during winter, blood on snow, ready for battle, willing to destroy and maim. My hunger was fierce, and the drive to carve through flesh ran deep in my veins, but somehow, this son of the Summer had caught me in his web, and I had lost my heart to him.
I kissed him, edging his lips with my teeth—the needle-sharp edges severing skin till drops of blood appeared on them. Licking them off, I let him slide his tongue in my mouth, probing deep, unafraid of me. And that was one thing I loved most—he didn’t fear me. He accepted me, all of me, my bloodlust included. And that lack of fear had become an aphrodisiac. He danced with death and loved it, and in turn, he had sparked in me emotions I never knew I possessed, and I’d offered him my heart on a silver platter.
“Oh, my Cherish. Are you ready? We can’t linger long here. They’ll be after us soon.” Shy’s eyes were haunted. It had taken everything he had to turn his back on his people. I was far more fickle; it was easier for me because cunning and deceit were born and bred into my blood, but I understood what this meant for him and that made me love him all the more.
“I’m ready. Whatever happens, Shy, we’ll face it together. Whatever the future brings, we’ll walk into it side by side.”
And with that we were off and running.
It took two days of us racing through the forests for the slipstream to fill with whispers that we were being followed.
I’d hoped for a longer head start. Sometimes I was gone for a week at a time from the Barrow, and Myst, my mother, knew that I would return. But she had been watching me closely as of late. A few weeks back, she stumbled on my secret and ordered me to end the relationship. To be exact, her orders were harsher than that. She’d demanded I bring Shy’s heart to her; that I destroy what I loved the most to prove my allegiance to the Indigo Court, and to her.
And Shy had been ordered to put an arrow through my heart.
The Court of Rivers and Rushes had known about my people for some time now. They had been watching us as we swept through and hunted the yummanii who inhabited the area. We were cautious in our culling. You just don’t decimate a herd, or you destroy your easiest food supply. So we took animals and Cambyra Fae to supplement our diet. But after years of hiding out, we came to the notice of the Summer Queen, and she’d been quick to alert the Winter Court.
Which meant the Indigo Court was preparing to go into hiding. Before, when it became necessary to escape before we attracted too much notice, my mother had left a few of our people to populate a small nest in the area as we vacated. And so we managed to create a network through this new land that had become our home not so very long ago. We had pockets of allies strung across the continent, left behind as we worked our way northwest across this massive spread of land we’d discovered when the Great Fae Courts had forced us to take to the ocean and leave our old world behind.
And now we’d reached the edge of the ocean. But we still weren’t strong enough to take the locals, so my mother had planned our next move—to retreat into the shadows and build our strength. But she wasn’t about to let me keep any ties to the Summer Court. My love for Shy was a weakness.
“You are a disgrace—worse than a disgrace! You are a blemish to the name of the Indigo Court. You will end this dalliance immediately, and to prove that you honor your Queen—your mother—you will bring me the boy’s heart. Rip it out of his body. You are Vampiric Fae. You cannot love! I didn’t raise you to be a traitor.”
I’d always admired my mother, emulated her—until I met Shy. In that one meeting, my world changed, and everything I ever thought I knew dropped away, like a cloak of snow that melted in a sudden sunbeam. The ice around my heart had melted, too, and I’d been forced to make a choice. And my choice had surprised even me.
Now, having defied our respective peoples, we had taken our love and were on the run.
Two days in, and the hounds were after us on both sides. And we had some decisions to make. In my heart, I knew they’d catch us. But not before we blazed a trail through their forces. We’d burned our bridges, and the only way forward was to destroy anything and anybody that stood between us and our love.
“What happens if they catch us?” I turned to Shy as we stopped to rest. We’d run a hundred miles or a thousand, maybe. I had no clue where we were, but we were headed north—that much I knew.
“I guess . . . we fight till the end.” Shy’s beautiful blue eyes were cold as steel. He might embody the sun, but the sun could burn and crisp as well as warm and illuminate. “I’ve been thinking . . .”
I turned to him. “We aren’t going to make it, are we? Be honest with me. Neither my mother nor your queen will let us go. We’ve stepped too far beyond the boundaries, and they intend to make an example out of us.”
He paused, then his lip trembled. “I think you’re right. I don’t know if there’s anywhere we can get to where they won’t hunt us down and send their assassins after us. We broke the rules damned good, woman.” And he pulled me to his chest, engulfing me in his arms that felt like they could keep out the world. “I am thinking of something. There is a way . . .”