Awareness pulled at my mind and my eyelids snapped open. I took in the ceiling above me in confusion and then everything came flooding back. Lucien killed Marcelle, then I was shot. I was flying on the dragon king and then it got so cold… I passed out.
Lucien.
I realized then that a heavy, slightly cold hand was laced with mine. I gazed down into the sleeping face of the winter king.
I smiled at the peaceful look he carried, something he rarely did. Peering around the room, I noticed a slumped figure in the chair in the corner. One of Lucien’s maids. She must be a chaperone. I found it sweet that he was still trying to protect my reputation even after everything that happened with Marcelle.
I wiggled a little to adjust myself and Lucien’s head shot up into the air as he looked at me wide-eyed.
“You’re alive,” he breathed.
I smiled, reaching out to touch the worried lines around his eyes. “I am, thanks to you.”
If he hadn’t frozen my wound, I’d have bled out right there in Summer Court.
Lucien didn’t move, he just stared at me in shock as if he didn’t believe this moment was real.
Without wasting a second more, I leaned forward and pulled his lips to mine. I no longer cared about propriety or purity. I wanted Lucien’s lips on mine as many times a day as possible. He whimpered into my mouth as we hungrily tasted each other. Yesterday, I was pretty sure I was going to die, so I wasn’t going to waste another moment of my life not living it to the fullest.
He pulled back abruptly, shaking his head and looking stricken. “Wait, Madelynn, you don’t understand. Raife couldn’t save you, not fully. His wife had to do a special procedure.”
“Procedure?” I cocked my head to the side and he leaned his forehead against mine.
“You lost too much blood… so they gave you mine.”
His confession horrified me. Blood? “Gave me yours?” I asked, confused.
Lucien cleared his throat. “They placed my blood inside of you.”
They put his blood inside of me? I shivered at the thought. It sounded like dark sorcery, which I was wholly against. But I was happy to hear I hadn’t ingested it.
“Lucien, how? Necromancy?” Only the vile monsters that lived in Necromere did blood magic, or so I’d heard. They kept to themselves. I hadn’t heard of or seen someone from there my entire life.
“It was a human contraption. Not dark magic. I made sure,” he tried to reassure me, but I was still panicked at the thought.
Lucien’s blood was inside my body?
It was in this moment that I looked down to see what I was wearing. When I noticed my dress had changed, my eyes bugged.
“Queen Kailani changed you. I didn’t see anything,” he assured me. Would it even matter anymore? I’d nearly died. Lucien seeing me naked before marriage was the least of my concerns.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, checking his body for signs of injury.
He showed me his arm and the tiny red dot where they must have taken the blood. “I’m fine but… I confess I don’t know what this will do to your magic or your body. I’m sorry, I had to make a choice and—”
I put a finger to his lips to stop his frightened rambling. “I would give up all of my magic if it meant I could live a long life with you.”
A stomach-dropping grin graced his face and he gazed at me with adoration. “Marry me. Right now.”
I chuckled at that. The morning light was just filtering into the room and I reached up to touch his face. “I would love to marry you. Is my family on their way? Piper’s note said she was getting them out.”
His face changed then, a mask of anger for a split second, but long enough for me to notice. I realized my mistake then.
I’d said family, which included my father. A man who’d betrayed him.
Although I knew in my heart Lucien could not allow such a betrayal to go unchecked for fear of looking weak, I also loved my father. I hated him for what he did, but loved him for who he was my entire life.
“I meant my mother and sister. As far as my father is concerned, strip him of his title if you must, but please don’t kill him,” I begged, reaching for his hand.
“I have every right to take his life,” he growled.
He did. But I knew he wouldn’t. He was hot tempered, but when he stopped to think it through he wouldn’t cause me one ounce of pain. I knew it.
“My mother can lead Fall Court, and she will side with Winter. He did everything behind her back,” I told him. “She and my sister were innocent.”
His steel gray eyes looked deeply into mine. “Maker help me, I can deny you nothing.”
I smiled, relieved my father would keep his life. After his betrayal, my father would not be welcome here, and although it saddened me I wasn’t ready to see him either. I needed time and space before that wound healed.
“Come, let’s get breakfast and prepare to wed the second your mother and sister get here,” Lucien said. “The Nightfall queen has retreated for now.”
That was welcome news. The ladies’ maid helped me bathe and dress, and I met Lucien in the large dining room.
The second I walked in I was reminded of his father and our altercation here.
“Oh, Lucien, I forgot to ask about your father. Did the elvin healers come for him?”
Lucien looked down at his plate and a sadness fell over his face. “They did. But at the last minute my father chose the other option you gave him. He’s currently enjoying endless mead and wine in a cabin in the mountains.”
My heart plunged into my stomach at his declaration. After all that, he chose to stay sick. I walked over and ran my fingers through Lucien’s thick dark hair. “I’m sorry,” I told him.
He looked up at me with an unwavering strength. “Don’t be. It’s the first time I’ve felt at peace in my own home since my mom was here. I was always afraid to ask him to leave for fear of the fight it would cause between us and what my power would do.”
My chest tightened at his declaration and I allowed him to pull me into his arms. It was bittersweet. Nice that his dad wasn’t here to hurt him and bully him any longer, yet sad that he wasn’t willing to get help.
“Maybe when we have children he’ll change his mind and want to—” My words were cut off when the door to the dining hall burst open and slammed against the brick wall.
My mother stood there with Piper. Both looked stricken with pale faces and snow-blown hair. My mother’s cheek was bleeding from a small cut and Piper was covered in dirt and leaves.
I scanned the space behind them, a stone sinking in my gut. “Where is Libby?”
My mother swayed on her feet. “The Nightfall queen’s men tried to take her. But I fought. She’s okay.”
I leapt forward just in time to catch her as she fainted.
Lucien burst from the table and came around to help me lower my mother to the ground as Piper kneeled before us, cradling her arm to her chest. She was injured.
“Talk to me, Piper!” I barked. She seemed to be in shock.
“Your dad and mom fought them but… they had fae powers. Wind, snow, fire, uprooting trees.” She paused and I steeled myself.
“Where is she, Piper?” I rested my mother’s head lightly on the ground and stood, ready to ride to their location and get my sister back.
“She’s here. In your room with a nurse. She’s shaken but fine,” Piper told me, and looked at me head-on. I could see the trauma hiding behind her eyes. My friend would never be the same after what she’d seen. “Maddie, they had metal wings. They tried to fly Libby out of there. Your mother…” She stared down at my mom’s limp form. “I’ve never seen her like that. She was so powerful, she flattened every tree for a mile, but… she depleted her power saving Libby.”
“No,” I sobbed.
My sweet mother. Depleting your power as a fae could be a permanent thing. You used up so much of your magic in one moment that the well ran dry.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
The room was suddenly plunged into a deep coldness. I looked up at Lucien. His eyes were practically glowing silver. “The war has begun. This is inexcusable.”
I rushed towards him as my mother started to moan and awaken. Piper bent to help her while I placed my hands on Lucien’s chest. “Please. Please, tell me we’re going to get revenge for this. She went too far,” I growled.
A conflicted look crossed his face and my stomach tightened.
“Of course we will, Madelynn, but we can’t rush out right this second. We need to rally an army.”
I was afraid he would say that.
My throat pinched with emotion as I tried to remain calm. I wanted to suck the wind into the room and throw it at a tree, but I had to keep my head. “If we wait too long, Zaphira might take someone else important.” How dare she try to kidnap my sister! Was she going to drain her of her power? The very thought made my blood boil.
“I could plunge her entire lands into a death freeze, but I’d risk killing the innocents there,” he told me. Therein lay the true issue. We knew from reports of defectors that had fled the Nightfall realm that innocents were there who hated Zaphira, and they didn’t deserve to die for the actions of their mad queen.
There was a knock at the door and I looked over to see a beautiful woman with white hair that held a brown streak in front. She wore a regal dress and stood next to a dapper-looking elf. I knew instinctively this was the elf king and queen.
“We heard about the attempted kidnapping. How can we help?” the queen said.
I nearly cried in relief.
“Zaphira is getting bolder. We must strike a blow so that she knows this was unacceptable,” Lucien told the elf king.
Raife Lightstone nodded, his moonlight-colored hair shaking around his shoulders. “I’ve been waiting years for this war, you know that.”
I was so grateful to have these men working together to ensure nothing like this ever happened again. The thought of my mother or sister being taken filled me with so much fear I felt sick.
“I hate to ask this…” I looked to the elf king. “…but my lady-in-waiting is hurt.” I motioned to Piper, who held her arm to her chest as my mother lay in her lap.
Without a word, he knelt next to Piper and waved a glowing purple hand over her arm. Her face, which was previously pinched in pain, relaxed, then he went to work on my mother.
“She just needs rest. Exhaustion.” He peered up at me from my mother, who was in and out of consciousness.
“Thank you,” I told him. “And thank you for helping heal me.” I looked to the elvin queen. “Both of you.”
She smiled at me as the elf king waved me off like it was no big deal. I suppose he saved lives every day and it wasn’t a big deal to him. But it was to me.
“Do you have spare healers you could send to the battlefield when we strike?” Lucien asked the elf king, completely going into war mode, which I appreciated. The fact that the Nightfall queen had gone after my sister left me feeling angry but also afraid. I’d mistakenly thought we’d have a few months until we were in full-blown war, but the war had begun like Lucien said. There was no way we could let Zaphira get away with trying to kidnap a royal and live. We needed to crush her before she did something even more bold.
“Absolutely. I’ll ready them now,” the elf king declared. The elvin people were known for their healing. Even the weakest among them had some sort of healing power, and they were all expert archers. Having them in battle with us would be priceless.
“We have the Winter Soldiers,” Lucien told me, “Every single one of them will do as I ask.”
I stared at my mother. She seemed to have gained her composure, and stood with Piper’s help. “Fall Court is already suiting up and heading this way,” she told me. “Your father stepped down in leadership this morning and left me in charge.”
There was shame in her voice. I knew she must be so disappointed with how he’d handled things. Their marriage was strong, and I hoped it would survive this. Lucien hadn’t yet stripped him of his title, but he would when he had a moment to breathe. It would devastate my father, who had served our people for decades, but he’d made a mistake selling me to Marcelle and backing out of the agreement with Lucien. If he kept his life, I considered us lucky.
“If the Nightfall queen has Summer and Spring Court powers, then we will need them too. I will go rally the remaining courts,” I declared.
Lucien growled. “They left Thorngate. Let them go! Zaphira will come for them eventually and I will deny their pleas for help.”
I snapped my head to glare at him. “I am their queen now, Lucien! So they will do as I say, or may the Maker have mercy on their souls.”
Lucien looked impressed at my outburst. Maybe it was the tone in my voice but I believed he knew I would not return here without an army.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked.
Someone deeper down the hall cleared their throat and we all turned. It was hard to miss the dragon-folk, they were built like horses and this one was no different. The man before me, who I assumed was the dragon king, as I’d never seen him in human form, was a massive gentleman, as tall as Lucien, and as wide as two Luciens. He was stacked with muscle, his black hair braided into a ponytail at the back, similar to how Lucien wore it.
He stepped into the dining room, my mother and everyone moving out of the way so that he could do so, and then bowed lightly to me. “Good to see you doing better, my lady. I’m Drae Valdren, the dragon king.”
“Madelynn Windstrong,” I told him, and curtsied.
“So, I admit I was eavesdropping, and I have a plan on how to retaliate on the attempted kidnapping of your sister,” he declared. “It will win us an edge in the war and buy us time to get Axil Moon here.”
I didn’t care that he had been listening in and only wanted to hear about his plan. King Drae Valdren was a force to contend with. He once flew into Nightfall territory to kill Queen Zaphira’s son as retribution for murdering one of his people. If he was talking, I was listening.
Drae clapped Lucien on the back. “The winter king will build up a ten-foot wall of snow and ice at the border. This will buy time for Raife to get his healers in here.”
Lucien nodded. “I can do that easily.”
Drae then looked at me. “This also buys you and I time. I will fly you back to your people and you will convince them to join the war.”
I tipped my head high. It was a great plan. “Let’s leave at once!”
Drae chuckled at my eagerness. “I’ve sent for my wife. By the time she gets here, you and I should have returned, with backup on the way. While the fae army attacks at the border, it will draw Zaphira’s forces out.”
Lucien grinned. “And you fly over them and rain fire.”
Drae nodded. “Arwen can fly too. We can reduce their numbers considerably.”
“The Nightfall people have magic powers now,” I said. “What if you are both killed?”
Drae rubbed his chin in deep thought. “She’s got a point.” He then peered at Lucien. “If we die, freeze everything and avenge us.”
Good night! That was morbid.
Lucien chuckled. “You know I would.”
Kailani cleared her throat. “As a last resort, right? Because there are good people in Nightfall, people who hate Zaphira and just want to leave. She keeps them under curfew and forces them to join the army at a young age.”
We let that settle over the room. It was easy to want to wipe out an entire people over the actions of their leader, but it didn’t make it right.
“As a last resort, yes. Until then, I will rally the rest of our people and we will show Queen Zaphira she’s messed with the wrong fae,” I growled.
Lucien cleared his throat. “No offense, sugar plum, but we aren’t sure your powers are still working. I’d hate to send you off alone without knowing you can protect yourself.”
I’d completely forgotten about the blood. Just the thought of Lucien’s blood running through my body made me feel a little queasy. But there was no time to dwell on that.
“Then let’s see if my power is still intact, shall we?” I said to the room.
My mother had stayed quiet nearly this entire time, but now she was frowning. “What happened to your power?”
A few of us chuckled and I led everyone outside, explaining to my mom on the way what had happened with the blood donation. We all walked through the back garden area to a small open field. There was a thin sheet of snow on everything and it was cold. The trees had no leaves and it was the perfect place to practice.
Lucien, the dragon king, the elf king and queen, my mom, and Piper, were looking at me.
“No pressure,” I laughed nervously.
“I’m just glad you’re alive. Whether or not you are powerful anymore doesn’t matter,” Lucien said.
It was sweet, really, but I would be devastated. One thing I’d always felt confident about was my wind magic.
Dropping my fingers to my side, I splayed them out. The group behind me stepped back a pace and I called the wind to me. It whistled through the trees’ frozen branches, causing the icicles to break off and fall to the ground. It was a warm up, and good so far. Opening my eyes, I reached out my right hand and allowed a fraction of the rage I had built up for Queen Zaphira leak out of me and embolden my power. A wall of wind ripped through the canyon to the right and slammed into the tree, breaking it in half. There were gasps behind me but I stayed focused on my power.
There was something new there, something wild and cold and reckless. I pulled on it, letting the magic flow out of me, and yelped when an ice shard flew from my palm and slammed into the trunk of a tree.
I dropped my hold over my powers and then spun, facing Lucien with wide eyes. My heart rattled against my chest like a bird in a cage and I feared he would somehow be mad.
“You have some of my power.” He sounded in awe.
“That was amazing!” Kailani added.
The elf king rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, now we know the blood donation worked. It more than worked.”
That made me beam. “Do you think it’s permanent?” I asked.
The elf king peered at his wife, who shrugged. “No way to know. We are on new ground with this. But I’ll take extensive notes in my medical journal and leave a copy with you in case you ever need to use it with your people again,” she said.
I gave her a smile of gratitude, but I was worried about what Lucien was thinking, and everyone seemed to catch on to that because one by one they left to go back inside.
“Are you mad?” I asked him, stepping closer so that he could pull me into his arms.
He did, wrapping them around me tightly. “Never. I’m surprised and happy. The more powerful you are, the more protected you will be,” he said.
I frowned. “Then why do you look sad?” I asked. Maybe he didn’t realize how much he wore his emotions out in the open, but I could tell by the look on his face that something was bothering him.
He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s selfish.”
I peered up at him, craning my neck. “Tell me!”
He planted a kiss on my lips and then pulled on my hand. “I’ll show you.”
We walked past the snow-covered garden and to a giant cathedral I hadn’t noticed in the distance. It was made of stone and stood two stories high, with dark wooden arches and ornate trusses. As we neared, I gasped at the beautiful stained glass depicting the phases of the moon, along with all of the different elements.
“I didn’t know you had a cathedral in Winter Court.” Cathedrals were usually associated with those who worshiped the Maker. We had many in Fall Court. But Winter Court was rumored to be lacking in the belief of a higher power or a preordained destiny.
“My mother had it built. She demanded to my father that she had a place to worship the Maker,” he said as he reached for the ornate engraved wooden door. I smiled at the thought of his mother demanding his non-believing father build her a cathedral.
When he opened the door, I stepped inside and a little gasp of surprise escaped me.
There were hundreds of white flowers, freshly hung from the ceiling, lining the aisle and all over the front altar. No one knew what the Maker looked like but we knew all came from him and all returned to him, so we envisioned him a lot like the bright shining sun that hung in the sky. Giver of life. A huge orange and yellow sun was centered in the far wall of the stained glass. It cast buttery hues along the white flowers.
“I’m sad because I wanted to marry you here. Today. I didn’t want to wait, I didn’t want to have to fight Zaphira right now. I want to live out my life in peace as your husband.”
I spun, blinking away tears, knowing that these flowers were fresh because he’d asked his staff to ready this room to marry me.
I sniffled. “When did you have this done?”
I wanted to be selfish too. I wanted to marry and not have to rush off into dangerous territory and possibly get killed.
“Yesterday, before I left with Drae to come get you. I told my staff I was returning with my bride to be and we would marry at once. Then Zaphira attacked and you got hurt and… well, you know the rest.” His face looked downcast.
“I’m sorry.” I grasped the sides of his jaw. “I promise you, after I get Spring and Summer to send their troops to the war, we will marry. I’ll go now and be right back. With Drae flying, I can be back in a few hours.”
He sighed, looking upset. “Last time you said that, you were taken by another man and I found you half dead.”
I pulled him to me, crushing his lips against mine as an ache built in my core. Did he have any idea how much I wanted him? I’d never desired anything more in my life.
Pulling back, I held his gaze. “I will marry you, Lucien Thorne. I swear it on the Maker in this house of worship.”
Lucien grinned. “Now you have to or you’ll be struck by lightning.”
I laughed at the old wives’ tale. “Exactly. So have no fear.”
Lucien reached up to thread his fingers through my hair and pulled my face to his lips, planting a kiss on my forehead.
The door to the back of the cathedral burst open and a guard rushed in. It was in that moment that I realized I had been alone with Lucien, without a chaperone, for the first time and I didn’t care.
The guard was wearing the emblem of a messenger, and he was wheezing from running too hard. Before he could open his mouth to speak, the ground shook, causing a crack to splinter one of the artistically designed glass windows of the cathedral.
I gasped, looking at Lucien.
“What was that?” he bellowed.
The messenger spoke then. “Queen Zaphira is at the border with a thousand men. We need you.”
A thousand! Already? She was mobilizing quickly.
“She’s going to try and take out Winter because she knows of the separation,” I said.
Lucien took in a deep breath as if to calm himself. “Then go and rally your people. If a single one of them hurts you again, in any way, I will freeze Spring and Summer, taking the life of everybody there. I don’t care how many innocents die.”
His declaration sent chills down my spine, mostly because I knew he would. There was a darkness inside of the man I loved, one I constantly had to keep in check.
