Princess of Shadows: A Dark Fae Fantasy Romance Read online

  A world where one man hunted me and another fed on me.

  Chapter 18

  Sebastian

  I was already so drained. Nyx would be at nearly full strength. I truly hoped that he wouldn’t be able to find the portal, that he would have to report to Seraphina that he lost us.

  I doubted that it would be that simple, though. I thought back on my mentor, on the only man whom I’d ever looked up to. He was the best. Even better than myself. There was a good reason that he was the leader of the Assassin’s Guild. He was an excellent duelist as well. Plus, he had two daggers where I had only one.

  If I were at full power, I would have been the expected winner. I was nowhere near full strength, and if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet on me. I had to conserve my strength. Every drop of it.

  So I rested, my head against the wall as Rose, Sinivyn, and Enivyn talked. I didn’t pay very much attention. Eventually, Sinivyn handed me a plate of food, and I ate it, not caring what it was. The fairy part of me could still regain my strength through eating, though not nearly as fast as full-blooded fairies could.

  I glanced at Rose. I knew what I would have done with nearly anyone else. I couldn’t do that with her, though. I’d already forced one experience with her. It wouldn’t be enough to tip the scales anyway. No, I didn’t have the time to feed the way that I needed to.

  And if Nyx found us while we were in the middle, before I’d actually fed, then I’d be even weaker than I was now. I sighed and asked for seconds. Sinivyn loaded the plate up again. He narrowed his eyes at me, realizing just how weak I was.

  I ate silently as the rest of them ate and talked. Rose seemed to enjoy Enivyn’s antics and hearing about the village. She would love it there. She’d feel more at home there than anywhere she’d ever lived, and she’d finally have a moment to get her bearings.

  I let out a slow breath before getting off the ground. I put the plate on the stack of dishes that Sinivyn would end up doing today. I glanced around, seeing that everyone’s eyes were on me.

  They all recognized that I was conserving my strength. Enivyn and Sinivyn would be wondering why I didn’t feed on Rose, but they wouldn’t question me. Not the gnomes. Of all the people in this sanctuary, these two and their brother would never question me.

  I closed my eyes and tried to rest as I sat back down, letting the food become strength. It was nowhere near as good as sexual energy, but it was better than nothing, and I’d take what I could get right now.

  * * *

  It felt like I’d slept for only moments before I heard Sinivyn whisper my name. My eyes snapped open. There was only one reason that he would wake me.

  Nyx.

  I jumped to my feet and peered out the window. Yes, Nyx stood in the middle of the field. Directly where the portal had led. Sinivyn seemed to shake next to me. I patted his shoulder and saw that Rose was awake as well.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. “Stay here. Whatever you do, don’t leave this hut. Nyx will abandon the fight to kill you.”

  “Isn’t there anything I can do?” she asked. Concern filled her green eyes. They’d changed colors as all fairy eyes did.

  “Be patient, and don’t leave the hut unless you see me fall. If that happens, the gnomes will get you to the village so that they can warn everyone. There’s a backdoor out of the village. It will take time for Nyx to find the village as long as everyone stays near the gnomes.”

  I turned to Sinivyn. “You know what to do. Keep everyone safe, but don’t leave unless I die. If I survive, I’ll need help.”

  Sinivyn put out his hand, and I took it. I could feel the fear and sadness flowing from him, but he stood tall. At least as tall as a gnome could.

  Enivyn ran over and hugged my leg. I patted his back, and he looked up at me. “Don’t die. We’ll miss you too much. And no one will bring us goodies.”

  “I’ll do my best, friend,” I whispered.

  Rose stood up, and I walked towards her. She wrapped her arms around me and whispered, “Don’t die.” Then, she pressed her lips against mine and every emotion that she felt flowed from hers into mine.

  Passion. Fear. Sadness. Lust. Even now, she lusted after me.

  I pulled back and smiled at her. “I’ll try.”

  Then I turned from all three of them and stepped out of the hut feeling nearly as ragged as I’d felt when I’d got here. The sun was shining. One thing that was in my favor. The wind blew through the trees, and I took a deep breath. I’d thought I would live forever, but all things must end. At least this would be in the pursuit of fixing things, of protecting someone that mattered. That mattered to the world. That mattered to me.

  I took another deep breath and began to walk to the field where Nyx was waiting. I walked towards the battle and, almost assuredly, to my death.

  Chapter 19

  Sebastian

  “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” Nyx said in that voice made of ash and smoke.

  “I could eat,” I said, smiling under my hood.

  “You know you’re going to die, don’t you?” He wasn’t going to enjoy this fight. Neither was I for that matter. Unlike most of the battles I’d been in, I genuinely respected Nyx.

  He was nothing like me. Descendent of dragons, he was my opposite. He was a murderer, but who wasn’t in the Dark Court. Unlike me, his honor was unshakeable. His reputation, infallible.

  Yet, he respected me for the things that I’d done. Things that others had condemned me for. And I respected him for his skills and strength. For training me when no one else wanted to be near me because of my father.

  “Once again, I don’t want to fight, Nyx. I just can’t let you have the girl. She matters more than your honor and even more than either of our lives. Even if it takes my life to protect her, I won’t let you have her.”

  “That’s too bad, Sebastian. I’d hoped that if it was going to come down to one last fight between us, at least you’d make it a good one.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, centering myself. Letting my awareness expand and take in all of the sounds, all of the feelings. Even from Nyx. Being half-incubus allowed me access to the emotions of people. Not exactly the same as mind reading, but the closest I could come to it.

  Confidence. Sadness. Readiness. And a strange fear. Keying in on it, I explored the fear. He was afraid that I was right, that he was doing something that was actually against his own code.

  I didn’t want this fight. I was sure that I was outmatched. I would not make the first move. Not this time.

  Nyx knew that this was the way that things would happen, and he didn’t wait for my move even though he was a much more defensive fighter when evenly matched.

  He leaped towards me soaring off the ground almost twenty feet above me, and I crouched as the air around him began to warp as he heated it. His daggers were in his hands as he fell towards me, and I waited, conserving my strength until he was only a few feet away.

  And I flicked my hand out, my only dagger appearing from mist and flying towards him as I rolled away. He had to twist to dodge the throw, but it still caught him in the shoulder, cutting through the cloak and leaving the slice a shining crimson.

  When his feet hit the ground, the earth seemed to shake with his impact. My dagger turned to mist and reappeared in my hand as I crouched, waiting for his next attack.

  Fire. He would use fire next. My control over the mists was worthless against it. I squatted down as I waited for him to attack. His face didn’t even register the cut on his shoulder. It would be just another scar on his body. A trophy from killing the Prince of the Dark Court.

  Nyx did not let his wounds heal in battle. It was why I didn’t bother to dip my dagger into my sheathe to coat it in the iron shavings. Healing took power, and in the midst of battle, he wanted every ounce of power for killing his opponent quickly, overwhelming him.

  He took a deep breath, and I braced myself, my hands touching the ground. Instinctively, I sought out a warren t
o jump to even though I knew that there were none nearby. This was why I’d placed the portal here. No one could get here quickly. Not without the portal that I’d hidden.

  Instead, I pulled on my second power. Strength over stone. A power I used very rarely. It was more draining, and it came from my fairy side, a side far more common.

  Nyx breathed out, and a blast of flame came rushing towards me. I pulled up on the stone under the soil of this field, and a door-sized piece of stone rose from the ground in front of me. A shield from the flames that threatened to burn me alive.

  The flames whipped around the stone, singing my shoulders and my cloak. Pain flashed in my shoulders from my burns, but I knew the wounds were minor. My dwindling power flooded the burns and healed them, leaving me with only a burned cloak.

  I quickly made two copies of myself and began my counterattack. I sprinted around the stone while one copy leaped over it and the other ran around the other side. Nyx would need a moment to recover from that strong of an outpouring of energy. Dagger in hand, I and my two copies raced towards him.

  Everything suddenly became incredibly hot as Nyx raised his hands to either side. The air around Nyx began to waver, and I jerked to a stop, the copies continuing towards him.

  They caught fire as they stepped five feet away from him, their bodies turning to mist and fading almost instantly. I threw my dagger once again, and Nyx couldn’t dodge it as he held the power around him.

  As it flew through the air, it seemed to slow as it passed that point where my copies burned up, and then it slipped through, hitting Nyx in the chest. He grunted as the tip buried into him almost an inch deep.

  Unlike a normal man, it was not a fatal wound for Nyx. Nyx was born from the blood of dragons, and his flesh was stronger than that of normal Fae. The dagger slowly sapped him of his power, though. If I’d been holding it, I’d have been gaining that power, but I couldn’t get close enough to him.

  Finally, he let the shield down, and as he reached for the dagger, it turned to mist and reappeared in my hand. He began to race towards me, his hands firing burst after burst of fire at me, and I danced around them. Each one got closer, but so far, I’d managed to survive each blast.

  The very air in the field seemed to be on the verge of catching fire with so much heat. This was not going well. I had to get close enough to fight him, but my powers were nearly useless against him, and he knew all my tricks.

  Throwing daggers at him was only going to get so far. I danced closer to the stone that I’d raised from the ground, using it as a shield.

  “Fight me!” he roared from twenty feet away. I tried to center myself. How could I get to him? How could I get through the fire to force him into an actual knife fight? I was at a disadvantage in a knife fight, but at least there was some chance of regaining some of my energy. The next time one of those fireballs hit me, I wasn’t going to be able to heal myself or I’d be completely drained.

  “Fine. Come fight me and quit throwing those fucking fireballs.” He laughed and it sounded like rocks grinding together.

  “So that you have a chance? No, Sebastian. You’re already almost drained. You’ll be dead soon enough.”

  I heard him take a deep breath, and I touched the stone in front of me. It broke at the ground level, and I heaved, picking it up. Then I threw it. Powering it with magic and using my power to enhance my strength, it flew through the air at Nyx. His eyes grew wide as the giant stone became bigger and bigger in his eyes.

  I immediately sprinted towards him, my body following the stone. He couldn’t follow through with his attack or he’d be hit squarely in the face by a three-hundred-pound stone.

  He dropped to the ground, his chest pressed to the burnt and ashy grass, and I pounced in a last-ditch effort to get on his back. He rolled just as my dagger dug into his shoulder, ripping free of the blade.

  He screamed as it tore through the flesh and blood spurted from the wound. Without hesitating, as he rolled, his arm shot upward towards me, and a flash of light blurred my vision.

  Pain filled my chest. A fireball. He’d caught me squarely in the chest with a fireball. I had pulled only a touch of power from him with that strike. If I healed the wound, I would be nearly mortal.

  I stepped back, blinking away the light blindness. And I saw her. Running into the field. Nyx saw my gaze shift and he followed it.

  “Don’t stop me, and I’ll let you live,” he growled, pain still tinging his voice.

  I could barely move. Everything inside me screamed to heal and run. Jump into a warren and get away to feed.

  But I couldn’t. I gritted my teeth as Nyx stood up and began walking towards Rose. She stopped several hundred feet away from him and seemed to realize how bad of a mistake she’d made.

  I tried to ignore my wounds and chase after Nyx to at least draw his attention long enough for Rose to get away, but my legs failed me. I hit the ground hard, and I screamed as my burnt chest slammed against the ground among the charred grass.

  Nyx and Rose both turned to look at me, but Nyx turned away almost immediately. He knew that I would never be able to catch him with my current wounds. I put my hands against the ground wishing there was a warren under me. I could cross the space between us in an instant.

  And I felt a hidden reservoir of power. Not my own. Something different. A Queen’s power.

  I looked up and saw Nyx leap through the air. Rose put her hands up, and her wings seemed to flash in the sunlight. Then a blinding light filled the air in front of her as she stepped to the side.

  Nyx screamed and fell crashing to the ground beside her. She stared at him in horror and began to walk backward away from him, her hands going to her mouth. Nyx lay on the ground screaming as his hands covered the gauze over his eyes. Gauze that protected his eyes from white light.

  Nyx was the son of a half-dragon, raised in a cave for more than a hundred years. His kind could see in the complete dark of a cave. Their eyes were only able to adjust to the fire that they controlled. White light was not natural in the world of dragons. At least not his kind.

  He was the perfect hunter in the darkness, but in the light of day, his eyes would already be aching. That flash could have blinded him. He would heal it, but that was not something he was used to doing in the heat of battle.

  I felt for that reservoir and realized that I couldn’t pull the power into myself. Instead, it seemed to augment me, making me not just a half-incubus, half-fairy. I was something else. Part Queen?

  I touched the ground again, hoping that the impossible would be made possible, and I felt for a warren. There was none.

  But, just as a bridge pulled at you, wanting to be used, the Queen’s power pulled at me, showing me the answer. I directed it through the ground towards Nyx. Towards Nyx’s shadow as he stood up, rubbing his eyes and growling at Rose.

  Then I felt it, the warren. Tighter than any I’d ever seen. As I slid through my own shadow into the warren, I saw that it was filled with a different mist. Black mist almost like smoke mixed with a white that could only be described as condensed sunlight.

  I slid through the tunnel only a few feet long. My wounds ground against the stone as I slid through the tunnel that was barely wide enough for me to fit through. I groaned, knowing that no one could hear me, and I reached out to touch the end of the miniature warren.

  The image of Nyx grasping his daggers in both hands appeared in my mind. His cloak trailed behind him on the ground as he prepared to rush Rose once again. I smiled as I slid through the nothingness between this space and the Immortal Realm.

  My hand wrapped around Nyx’s neck. My legs wrapped around his waist, and I plunged my obsidian dagger into the back of his neck with every ounce of strength I had left, slicing through his spine. His arms and legs seemed to collapse as he lost feeling everywhere below that point.

  As he fell to the ground, I held the knife, feeling his strength drain into me. The power flowed into my burnt chest, healing it bit by bit. Nyx gas
ped under me, and I felt the power inside him fade until there was nothing.

  Until the shell that had held the soul of the man who had raised me was empty. Until I knew that he’d gone back to the void. He’d been the only man who had seen me as something to protect and teach. He’d been the only one other than my mother who had seen the value in my bloodlines.

  I hadn’t wanted this, but he hadn’t either. He’d be proud that he was bested by me, that the student had surpassed the teacher. I felt the sadness roll over me in waves, but I pushed them back. Not now. I would grieve later.

  I pulled the knife out of his neck and rolled him onto his stomach. It was only then that I heard Rose screaming. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, glad to be rid of the pain.

  Then I bent down and picked up his daggers. They would be his only real possessions. Nyx, the greatest assassin in the history of the Fae was dead. I remembered when he’d shown me these same daggers a thousand years ago and begun teaching me how to use them. Then, I remembered the day that he’d handed two hartskin sheathes to me, giving me the most valuable gift I’d ever received. I could never have been a part of the Assassin’s Guild, but that had been his way to say that I was worthy. That he was proud of the man I’d become.

  He had not been my enemy, yet I’d been forced to kill him.

  “Rest, friend. You’ll be remembered. Seraphina will not get away with turning us against each other.” I patted his chest. His scarred hands seemed to relax, and I stood up, holding his daggers.

  Turning to Rose, I said, “It’s done. We’re safe now. Nyx didn’t work with anyone else, so we shouldn’t need to worry about any other assassins.”

  She ran to me, and I held her against me as tears fell down her cheek. “I thought you were going to die. I couldn’t watch that and not do anything.”

  I took another deep breath and said, “I thought I was going to die. I should have died. Your being here is the only reason I didn’t.”