Queen of Stars and Shadows (Dark Fae Guardian #3)

Sarielle

Chapter Three

Sarielle

“ S o, what’s our plan, then?” I ask after Zara unbinds us. I rub my wrists to remove the marks they left.

“We need to see our friends and find out what exactly has been going on around here,” Asher says. “They’re the ones who sent for us.”

“They’re not far, only a few miles,” Zara adds. “We were almost there when we noticed that strange anomaly in the meadow.” She waves her hand toward it, a frown on her face.

Owyn shakes his head as he follows her gaze. “A strange coincidence.” Something in his tone makes me want to ask him to elaborate, but now is not the time.

No, right now, we need a healer, rest, and time to think.

As if reading my thought, Zara nods toward my arm, which is hanging limply at my side. “Do you need help with that?”

“I can help her,” Owyn says. “Now that we’re unbound.”

He pivots toward me, a hum of magic forming around him. I meet his blue eyes with my own. “You’re injured, too.” His nose and left eye are a mess from his run-in with Avonia’s guards.

A shrug. “It’s just bruised.”

Blue light swirls around my shoulder and arm, and a strange heat buzzes around me. A few moments later there’s a faint zing as my bone realigns, and my pain dissipates. A wave of relief moves through me. “Goddess, that’s so much better.” I rotate my shoulder, marveling at such a simple movement.

“Okay,” Asher says gruffly. “We need to make up time. Let’s move.”

I say farewell to Astherius, who issues a low growl of frustration but stands guard at the rift. Our new companions pick up a steady pace, alternating between walking and jogging through the rolling hills. In the distance, forests shadow the golden plains, and a row of purple-gray mountains rise behind them. The sun is beginning to fall, casting a pumpkin-hued glow across the land. It feels surreal to suddenly be back in Eldare.

But yet, I can feel in my bones, in my blood, that this place is no longer my home.

I grew up here, yet I never was part of it. I never stepped foot beyond the grounds of the Amethyst Palace, with the exception of my hidden valley behind the castle gardens. The secret I shared with Lilette. My heart flutters thinking of my best friend and the fate that’s befallen her. Can my dream really be connected to the strange happenings Zara and Asher came here to investigate? It seems so surreal. I’m not sure if I should say anything yet, not until I know more.

Darkness wraps around us as we enter the forest, which rises toward the distant mountain peaks. The ground here is covered in bright green moss, and ferns cluster around the roots of the trees. Huge trees, ancient trees, with enormous gnarly trunks like oaks, but topped with shimmering silvery leaves glowing faintly in the dim light. A faint chorus of crickets flows through the air, and somewhere in the distance I hear the gurgle of a brook.

At first it seems Zara and Asher are leading us at random through the trees, but then I realize we’re following a path. The moss in certain places gives off a faint effervescence, as do clusters of white mushrooms that line the way. It’s so subtle I don’t know how I even noticed it, but once I do, it’s clear it’s leading us to something. It’s so magical it fills me with wonder, at complete odds with the feeling of dread that fills me with every step.

Because every step I take leads me further from Zyren.

For now, I have to trust that he’ll be okay until I find him again. And hope beyond hope that, somehow, I can break the curse I brought down on us, and make him remember me again. Remember us . I’d thought for so long that he didn’t care for me as I cared for him, and then, when I finally realized he loved me, too, it had all been ripped away. My chest tightens as the pain makes it hard to breathe again.

But I have to be strong. I don’t just have a love to save. I have a realm to save.

And that’s what queens do.

“We’re here,” Zara says, breaking through my thoughts.

An archway of moss-covered stones stands before us, an odd, lonely sentinel between the trees. Beyond it, some ways in the distance, rises a stone lodge. A path of smooth, flat stones leads to a huge wooden doorway on iron hinges. Smoke curls from the chimney in one corner, giving off an herbal scent. A raven caws from a branch above our heads and flies toward the dwelling, diving in through an open window.

“We’ve been announced, it seems,” Owyn says with a chuckle.

Before we reach the threshold, the door opens silently and a curvy woman with short brown hair greets us. “Zara, Asher, thank you for coming.” Her eyebrows lift. “I see you brought reinforcements.”

Our companions look back at us and then to their friend. “Actually, that’s a bit of a story, but they’re new friends,” Zara says. “It’s good to see you, Uitan.”

“Come in, please.” Uitan waves us forward into the sprawling hall beyond, then gestures toward a roaring fire at the opposite end of the cavernous room. “Go, sit. I will get refreshments.”

I follow the others through the high-ceiling room, staring up at the wide oak beams set overhead. Colorful woven rugs cover the stone floor, and several large leather chairs sit in a semi-circle around the hearth that takes up the far wall. Candles in tall iron sconces dot the space.

Uitan disappears off to the right, which appears to be where the kitchen, library, and a sitting room are located, which I catch snatches of as we pass. There’s a small doorway on the left side of the great room which I imagine leads to the bedrooms. The raven that announced us sits on the back of a tall wooden chair up against the wall, its blue-black feathers gleaming in the light from the flames. It lets out a low chirp as we pass.

I’ve barely settled myself into one of the chairs, next to Owyn and across from Zara and Asher, when Uitan reenters the room, carrying a wooden tray with ceramic mugs and two tall pitchers, one metal, one stone. She sets them down on a low table between the chairs.

“Water and hot tea,” she says, pointing to each of the pitchers. “Help yourself. I know you’ve journeyed far.”

Owyn and I exchange a glance. She has no idea how very far…

While Zara goes for the stone pitcher with tea, Owyn takes the metal one and pours each of us a glass. I drink thirstily, the cool water a balm to both my throat and my nerves.

“Where is Harken?” Asher asks. I notice he’s the only one who doesn’t take a drink. I take in his pale skin and dark hair, and the memory of him consuming the energy of the nightmares flashes through my head, making me shiver. Is that all he sustains himself on?

Uitan, who has taken the last seat at the apex of the semi-circle, frowns, her whole face darkening. “He went to the nearby town to help the villagers there.”

“To help them with this evil you wrote us about?” Zara asks.

A nod, and another shiver. “There are people missing. Many people.”

My heart goes still. “How many people?”

“At least a dozen, in this area alone,” the woman says. “And I’ve heard rumors from towns further on that there are many more. Even so far as the Amethyst Palace.”

I can’t help the gasp that escapes my lips. When everyone turns my way, I realize I can’t keep my secret any longer. “I… I dreamed of this.”

“You what?” Asher asks, his face furrowed in surprise.

I ignore him, gesturing to Uitan. “Please, finish. What do you know of who—or what—is taking everyone?”

“Nothing,” she responds. “Just that there are often signs of struggle. People taken from their beds at night, mostly.” She looks at Zara and Asher imploringly. “That’s why we summoned you. You helped us once long ago, and we hope that you can do it again.”

I look over at my new friends, curious as to their history and how they came to be the seeming saviors of this realm. They know my story, but I don’t know theirs.

“You seem connected to all of this somehow,” Zara says to me, and I can’t help but notice the tinge of suspicion in her tone. Our alliance is beyond fragile, and I don’t want this to ruin it.

I draw in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve always had special power in dreams,” I explain. “Sometimes I can find people I’m looking for. And I’d been connecting with my friend Lilette that I had to leave here when I went to Valaron. I dreamed of her several times, but this last time… she was gone. And not just her, the Amethyst Palace was empty.”

“I wonder…” Zara begins before trailing off. We all go quiet as she seems to turn something over in her mind. Her purple eyes find mine. “It’s too great a coincidence that the rift brought you back to Eldare, so close to your missing friend.”

“As Queen of Nightmares, your power clearly showed you what was happening here,” Asher adds. “Perhaps somehow your desire to help your friend brought you here.”

I shake my head. “But I didn’t open the rift. I only widened it to escape.”

“They could be on to something,” Owyn says. “As Queen, your magic is tied inexplicably to the nightmares, and to all of Valaron. Maybe, somehow, the magic tapped into your desires, even if Avonia was the one who wielded it.”

My head spins. Could it really be possible that the conflict in my heart, my need to save my friend, had opened a passage to another world?

“Whatever the case, you are here now,” Uitan says. “You can find those that are missing. Bring them back.”

“I can try again tonight, in my dreams,” I say. “Try to get another clue as to where everyone has been taken.”

“We’ll certainly do everything in our power to find them,” Asher says, his voice a deep rumble of power. As it shivers over me, I wonder yet again what magic he possesses. Zara’s shadow magic feels closer to mine, but his… his is something entirely different.

“At dawn, we’ll go find Harken, and begin tracking those that are missing,” Zara says.

I feel a fracture in my heart. I might actually be able to find Lilette, to save her from whatever darkness has fallen over this place. But in doing so, I draw further away from Zyren.

“Let me prepare dinner, then you can rest,” Uitan says, getting up from her chair.

“Do you have maps of this land?” Owyn asks her.

She nods and points toward the library. “In the trunk in the corner of the room.”

Uitan heads to the kitchen, and Owyn retrieves a large map, returning a few minutes later to roll it out on the table after we clear the tray of drinks. We spend the next hour familiarizing ourselves with the realm. The layout of Eldare on a map I of course am intimately familiar with… I’d spent countless hours in my childhood poring over every map I could get my hands on, dreaming of life beyond the palace walls. Now, however, it’s odd to look at it from an entirely different perspective. Never in a thousand years had I dreamed my life would take the turn it had. I may have spent the beginning of my life behind those walls, but now I had seen not one world, but two.

Zara points out where we are on the map, which is about fifty miles southwest of the Amethyst Palace, in the far southern corner of Eldare, framed by the sea. The place I grew up sits roughly at the center of the small realm, and the royal palace, where the king and queen of Eldare reside, is due north of that another fifty miles. Not far beyond the royal palace is the border of the realm, where it joins with the rest of Aureon.

“And you are from Eldare, too?” Owyn asks Zara and Asher.

She shakes her head. “No. We hail from the City of Night. Far, far on the other side of Aureon.”

I stiffen in surprise. I’d heard of that place, as had everyone else in Aureon—the place where the wild magic was trapped for over two centuries, depriving the other realms of magic. Until just over two decades ago, when it had been released and returned to the other realms.

“Maybe one day you will tell me your story, too,” I say.

A smile moves over her lips. She looks over at Asher, who smiles at her with such love it makes my heart twist painfully. “Perhaps we will.”

“It is quite the tale,” he adds.

Uitan summons us to dinner shortly thereafter, a simple but delicious meal of hearty stew and savory muffins, and after that we are shown to the guest rooms. Zara and Asher share one, and Owyn and I each have our own. I realize, as I shut the door behind me and strip down to my undergarments, that I’m utterly exhausted. It seems it’s been the longest day of my life. I’d woken thinking I would have to marry a lord from the Court of Memory to gain the army I needed to defeat Avonia, only to have her army arrive and capture us. I’d been held captive, seen Zyren’s brother resurrected from the dead, and watched a dear friend die before me. And that was all before traveling to another realm and losing my husband to a madness that was entirely my fault.

My body feels numb and lifeless as I go to the small basin in the room and begin to sponge myself clean with cold water. I stare sightlessly at myself in the small mirror, my long silvery hair, my golden eyes, my pale, pale skin. I’d read about the curse in my family book, the history of House Otreyas. I’d known what would happen if an heir of House Lyonian fell in love with an heir from House Otreyas, and both possessed nightmare blood, a trait that skipped most fae in both bloodlines. A trait started two thousand years ago when my ancestor fell in love with a nightmare and the bloodlines first mixed…

I’d just never thought Zyren would actually fall in love with me.

And I’d been so tragically wrong.

The part that terrifies me most, however, isn’t that Zyren has gone mad and lost all memory of me. It’s the last part of the curse. The part where that madness leads eventually to death. I have to find a way to fix this. I have to, if it’s the last thing I do. Even if it means forsaking my realm and my duty as queen.

Because I’d rather the whole world perish than live in one without Zyren.

When I climb beneath the covers of the small bed, illuminated by a pool of moonlight coming in the lone window, I beg for sleep to take me. Because for years now, my guardian has been with me each night, either in my dreams or by my side. He may not remember me now, but I have power over my dreams, and I will find him, as he found me night after night. As he watched over me countless times.

Sleep claims me quickly, but it seems ages later, searching mist-shrouded landscapes and shadowy terrain, that I finally catch sight of him.

Zyren stands a few yards away, silvery clouds clinging to his tall form, rippling his black cloak about his ankles. He’s facing away from me, and when I call to him, he spins, surprised. His pewter-colored eyes narrow, and he stiffens. But he doesn’t run. He just watches me, a wary expression on his face.

The relief I feel seeing him, even if only in dreams, is overwhelming.

The fog swirling around us parts slightly, moving around a circle of small boulders with runes carved on the top. My heart leaps—I know where he is now, I’d seen it on the map earlier. A set of old ruins to the north. An abandoned castle said to be occupied once by the fae, something I thought as a child was only a myth until I found out that I myself am fae. If we can get started early enough in the morning, maybe we can catch up to him…

As I watch him, hope flaring, Zyren lifts an arm toward me, as if beckoning…

But his eyes are cold and distant, and I realize he’s fading, he’s shutting me out of his dreamscape.

“Zyren!” I cry, my voice echoing through the darkness. It feels like a knife in my gut, an emptiness so vast, I can’t draw breath.

My guardian—my husband—turns, and he walks away from me, leaving me alone in my dreams for the first time in as long as I can remember.