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

Sarielle

Chapter Four

Sarielle

I chase Zyren for the rest of the night, but I never find him again. Finally, a couple of hours before dawn, I shift my focus to finding Lilette, but I can’t find her, either. Is it because I’ve worn myself out trying to find Zyren, or because something terrible has happened?

I awaken, my cheeks tracked with tears, my pillow damp from them. Sorrow and guilt wrap around my heart like an iron lock. The two people I love most in the world, both in trouble because of me. One I had abandoned, and one I had let get too close to me. How can I ever atone for all the things I’ve done so horribly wrong?

I get up and get dressed in my pants, tunic, and cloak from the day before. Restless, I leave my room, the door creaking slightly as I open it. I tiptoe through the dark lodge, making my way to the front of the house, and out into the night air beyond. When I step through the front door, I take several deep lungfuls of air, trying to calm the racing of my heart. The fractured pieces left of it, at least.

I nearly jump out of my skin when a shadow to my left moves, and Zara materializes from the darkness.

“You can’t sleep either, I see.” Her voice is soft and velvety like the night.

I shake my head.

“The night calls to me too strongly,” she says. She leans back against the stone wall behind her, tilting her head up to look at the sky. “I rarely sleep all the way through.”

As I watch her, she seems almost to sink into the night, her dusky skin blending with the shadows, her black hair nearly invisible. Only her eyes hold a faint glow, deep purple like some sort of exotic flower.

“I heard tales of your city as a child. The City of Night.”

She snorts. “Yes. Stealers of magic. Everyone’s most-hated foe for two centuries.”

“Well… I suppose. But did you mean to trap the magic?”

“No. It was a terrible accident, one we were finally able to rectify.” She glances over at me. “Except here. In Eldare. It seems the magic is sparse, and only a handful are blessed with it. Those who grew up with you, in the Amethyst Palace.” A shrug. “Asher and I can still use our magic, since we came from another realm, and so much of magic stems from its source, its origin. But it’s definitely weaker here.”

A shudder moves through me. I know what she means about the source of magic. My magic in Eldare always felt so different than my magic in Valaron. “I used to think there was something wrong with the magic here. Because that’s what he told everyone. The High Priest.”

Zara tenses. “So, what is the cause, then?”

“Zyren was the one who told me the truth, after he took me to Valaron. He says the High Priest is somehow siphoning it. Keeping it from everyone so he can control Eldare.”

The look on Zara’s face turns rageful. “After everything we did to return the magic to all of Aureon…”

Something in the way she says it, the anger evident in her entire body… “Wait… you don’t mean that you, personally, freed the magic from the City of Night?”

Zara winces slightly, ducking her head as if blushing. “Not just me. Asher as well.”

“You…” I can feel my eyes widen. “You two were the ones who rebalanced the magic?”

“Some call us villains for trapping it, some say we’re heroes for righting the wrong… depends on who you ask.”

“Maybe when we’ve rescued the missing people, and found Zyren, you can help us figure out how the High Priest is controlling the magic here.”

She nods. “If we had known, we would have done something about it sooner.” The way she says it, with a ripple of power moving across her thin frame, makes me very glad that she is not my enemy.

We fall into silence for several long moments, the only sounds that of the crickets and a night breeze tickling the tree branches above.

“I know where Zyren is.” I look over at her. “I saw him in my dreams. He’s north of here. Not far at all…” I trail off.

Zara shakes her head. “Your husband is clearly capable of taking care of himself, based on what he did today. Don’t worry, he’ll be okay until we find the missing people and can shift our focus.”

She’s right, of course. I can’t leave Lilette to some horrible fate. She’s in the most imminent danger now, her and whoever else is missing. After we find them, then I’ll have the trust of two powerful allies to help us with Zyren and the rest of our impossible mission.

But logic doesn’t make my heart feel any less torn.

Zara turns to look at me, her brow furrowed. “And did you get a location for your friend?”

I shake my head. “No. I’m not sure why I couldn’t…”

I trail off, and we fall into silence, neither of us wanting to state the obvious possibility for why I can’t find Lilette.

“That’s okay,” Zara says after a moment. “We’ll find Uitan’s husband first thing and see if they have any leads. Aside from that, Asher has exceptional tracking abilities.”

“Oh?”

She nods but doesn’t elaborate further.

As if to punctuate the dire tasks ahead of us, the sky begins to lighten with the first hint of dawn, and a bird off in the forest sings to summon the day. “I’ll go wake Owyn,” I say.

Zara nods and follows me as I go back into the lodge. Within a half hour, the four of us are gathered back at the front of the lodge. Uitan passes out crusty rolls of bread with cheese inside to eat on the road. Then she hands Owyn and I each a dagger.

“I noticed you were unarmed,” she says. “Doesn’t seem wise, given what you’re up against.”

I smile and take the dagger, sliding it down into my boot. Breakfast and blades. The day is off to a good start, much better than the day before.

“You remember where the town is from here?” Uitan asks Zara and Asher. “Not that I’m certain Harken is still there…”

“I’ll find him,” Asher says with a slight smile, and Uitan returns it with a knowing smile of her own.

We thank Uitan for her hospitality and say our farewells, then head off into the forest once again. We go north, back the way we’d traveled the night before, at least until we hit the forest’s edge. Then we trek east through the grasslands. My heart drops. Somewhere to the north Zyren is waking, alone with no memories… at least none of recent history. He’d seemed to remember the far distant past. But does he even know fully who he is, that he’s a guardian?

I turn it over in my mind as we travel, and when we stop briefly for water an hour later, Owyn places a hand on my shoulder. “We’re going to find him, Sarielle.”

We’re standing alongside a rushing creek, the two of us on one side, Zara and Asher a dozen paces off on the other.

“I know,” I say softly. “It’s just that…”

“Just what?”

I can’t bring myself to mention the curse. Because, if it’s true, and I let it happen, I’ll never forgive myself.

“Nothing. I’m worried is all.” I shake my head.

My eyes drift over to our new companions. I can’t help but notice that Asher hasn’t taken any water. Like he hadn’t eaten anything last night or this morning.

“I wonder what makes Asher such a good tracker,” I whisper to Owyn. “And why he doesn’t eat or drink anything.”

Owyn shoots me a sidelong glance. “It’s because he’s blood fae.”

“Blood fae?”

“You know, a vampire.”

My eyes widen as I turn to him in shock. “I thought they were nothing but a tale!”

“Says the Queen of Nightmares?” He lets out a chuckle. “And, by the way, vampires have excellent hearing, so…”

A flush creeps across my cheeks and I whip my head back toward Zara and Asher, but they seem to be ignoring us. Well, until Zara waves for us to cross the creek so we can get moving again.

Another hour brings us to the nearest town, Bane’s Crossing. It’s small, just a smattering of stone buildings sitting in the shadow of the mountains. There’s not a soul to be seen on the road that cuts through the middle, as if the whole place is abandoned. As we pass through, though, I catch the rustle of curtains in windows once or twice. We’re being watched, but everyone seems too scared to come outside. Not that I blame them.

“He’s not here,” Asher says, which for a moment seems to be stating the obvious, but then he points north. “He went that way, along with several others. I can catch at least five different scents.”

His eyes dart to mine for the briefest of moments, a small smile on his lips, and I realize then that he must have heard our conversation by the creek after all.

“I say we borrow some of these horses,” Zara says, pointing to a small enclosure near the edge of town, near a road heading north. “We’ll make much better time that way.”

Owyn shrugs. “I don’t exactly see anyone around to protest.”

It seems wrong to take them without asking, but it’s not as if we don’t have a vital task at hand. We spend a few minutes saddling and bridling four of the horses with tack from the barn next to their paddock, and then we head onto the road heading north. We urge the horses into a canter.

Before too long we’re in another forest. An hour passes, then two. I can’t help thinking once again how surreal it is that I’m traveling in the realm I grew up in, the realm I spent my entire life in up until three fortnights ago. A realm I never truly belonged to. A realm I saw only through gilded palace gates. Now I’m back, queen of another realm, and trying to save both from my enemy.

I’d left this place as a girl in so many ways, and it seems I’ve lived a whole lifetime since then. It can’t all be for nothing. I can’t have come this far, fought so hard, loved this deeply, only to have everything taken away from me. My throne. My family. My friend. And now the man who sets my soul afire.

I can’t have.

“They’re up ahead!

Asher’s sharp voice cuts through my thoughts. Something in his tone makes me look over at him astride his black horse. His eyes narrow and he leans low along his horse’s neck, growling and kicking to urge him into a gallop. They shoot off like an arrow, Zara right on his heels. Owyn throws me a look and we follow.

A few moments later I realize what Asher must have heard before anyone else—above the beat of our horses’ hooves, a chorus of piercing shrieks fill the air. As we draw closer, I hear something else, too, the sound of snapping branches, the clang of weapons. My heart gallops on my chest in rhythm with my horse’s movement as we plunge down the forested path.

The road abruptly opens into a small meadow, and the sight before me takes the breath from my lungs.