The frantic energy of the chase was a short-lived. I ran three blocks before the stitch in my side became annoyingly painful. The messenger, who I now mentally referred to as "Glacial Eyes," didn't even sound winded. His footsteps were measured and getting closer.
"Stop, Solar," his voice commanded, closer than it had any right to be. "You are merely delaying the inevitable."
I gasped, cutting sharply down an alleyway between a dry cleaner and a bakery. The air in the city felt heavy with exhaust and the chill of the coming dawn. The alley was dark, mercifully hiding me for a moment but I knew the Fae could see in shadows. I pressed myself against the cold brick, desperately trying to summon that blinding light again.
Do it. Use the fire!
But my hands only felt numb and tingly, the raw power from moments ago vanished, leaving me as nothing but a frightened girl in a thin t-shirt.
A shadow detached itself from the wall to my left, solidified into a physical form and grabbed my arm before I could run again. It was Glacial Eyes. His grip was inhumanly strong.
"Crude, but effective," he said, looking at the scrubbing brush abrasion on his chest. His expression was a perfect mask of disdain. "A pity your inherent power is so untamed. It could be useful."
I kicked out, aiming for his knee but he didn't even flinch. He just tightened his hold and suddenly, the buzzing static inside me, the energy I usually tried to suppress was gone. It was as if he'd simply pinched the wire and cut off the current. I felt powerless.
"My name is Kael," he informed me, his breath cold against my ear. "And I am the King's First Blade. You will address me with respect, or you will not address me at all."
"Go to hell," I spat, my voice shaking despite my best efforts to sound tough.
Kael merely chuckled, a dry, grating sound. "Charming. Perhaps the Nightshade Court will improve your manners, Seraphina Lyra."
He didn't give me time to process the use of my full name. Like how did he know it?
He lifted his free hand, and a hole of perfect, obsidian blackness opened in the space above the bakery's dumpster.
"Hold your breath," Kael advised, though the warning felt more like a threat.
He shoved me toward the gateway. A sick lurch hit my stomach. It felt an awful lot like the sensation of falling from a high place, and then my feet hit solid ground again.
I staggered, blinking rapidly, trying to clear the dizzying vertigo. The air here was cold, smelled of frost and something else: rich, dark ozone, like lightning had struck a field of velvet. Hmmm, how poetic of me.
We were in a hall where the walls were constructed with a black stone that seemed to absorb all light, yet every surface was detailed with carvings of intricate, twisting vines and thorns. Towering columns rose to meet a vaulted ceiling that was actually the night sky. It was a real, star-dusted night sky that was visible through a dome of glass. Everything was beautiful.
"Welcome to the Nightshade Court, little girl," Kael said, releasing my arm. I stumbled away, clutching the spot where his ugly fingers had bruised my skin.
Before I could form a question, the heavy doors at the end of the hall swung inward, moved by an unseen force.
All noise stopped. Hell, my heart stopped.
A figure emerged. He was flanked by guards in armor that looked like solidified shadow, but I didn't see them. I only saw him.
He was Fae, like Kael, but where Kael was a deadly tool, this man was the entire toolbox. He wore no crown, yet he radiated an authority that was heavier than gold. His hair was like polished obsidian, falling to the collar of a tunic made of material that shifted between liquid shadow and deep indigo velvet.
I felt the static within me which Kael had suppressed, immediately surging back. It was reacting to his presence like iron filings to a magnet. Only this time, it wasn't fear. What Kael called my solar power, the light, was instinctively reacting to the pure, overwhelming darkness of him.
This man must be the King.
As he descended the steps toward me, I finally saw the physical toll of his curse. It wasn't a mark, it was kind of an aura. The shadows around him seemed to writhe beneath his skin, making him a frightening sight. However, it was his eyes that looked truly scary. They looked to be shinning the color of burnt amber and ringed by a darkness that looked permanent. He moved slow, deliberate, confident.
It was taking him forever to get to me. Duh.
When he stopped three feet away, I had to crane my neck backwards to look at him. His scent that was like rain filled my senses. Why was he so close?
"Look upon me, Seraphina Lyra," The King commanded. His voice wasn't loud but it seemed like it stripped the air of oxygen, making my lungs burn. "Tell me what you see."
I swallowed, the instinct to kneel fighting with the desperate urge to run. "I see someone who broke into a library and kidnapped me."
His lips curved slightly, a tiny movement that didn't reach his eyes at all. "A shallow perspective. Allow me to offer a fresh one." He leaned in, and the world narrowed to the cold intensity of his gaze.
"I see the last remnant of the Solar line," he continued, his voice dropping to a near whisper that felt like a caress. "And I see the Sun-Fire that will save my kingdom from the Shadow-Curse that consumes me."
He straightened, the shadow aura around him deepening. "You are not a citizen of that mortal world, Seraphina. You are my last, desperate weapon. And the price of being that weapon is simple."
His gaze locked onto mine.
"You will marry me."