Bite Of Winter (Fae's Captive #3)(12)

Beth gasps and scrambles away from me.

“What’s wrong?” Tears stream down my cheeks, and I can feel everything, the texture of the chair’s fabric, the humidity in the air, the heat of Leander pressing against my side. “Leander.”

“Release her,” he demands.

“Wait.” Delantis, concentrates harder, the glow from the stone spreading through her until her hair verges on neon white.

“Please.” Spots dance in my vision, and my lungs burn. “Lean—” I fall.

And I keep falling. Through stars and oceans and trees and veins and neurons and swirls of ember and night. When I land, it’s on a tuft of the greenest grass beneath a perfect azure sky. I reach for my necklace, but it’s gone.

Sitting up, I feel a cool breeze rushing down my skin and rustling the grass at my toes. My ears hurt, and my back is itching so badly I contemplate lying down in the grass and wriggling.

“Leander?” My voice seems to carry impossibly far and echoes back to me despite the wide open emerald field.

“Here you are.” A wisp of blue shoots up from the grass in front of me and coalesces into a female form.

“Where am I?”

“You know you’re giving off sparks? Dark bursts of starlight.” She leans down. “It’s beautiful, but dangerous.”

“The witch said she dimmed it.”

“Nothing’s dim here.” The blue smoke twirls around and returns, this time taking Leander’s form. “Everything is possible here. Stay.” He offers me his hand, the streaks of blue eddying inside his long fingers.

“But where is here?”

“The place where all magic-wielders must come if they want to become powerful.” The voice changes into Leander’s. “And you, little one, could be the most powerful of all.”

“I’m just a human. No magic. No—”

“Wrong.” It tsks.

“No, it’s true. I can’t do any magic. I’m a college student. I—”

“Lies don’t become you.” The creature morphs again, this time into my mother. “Stop fibbing about Steve, Taylor. He’s a good man. He’d never hit you. And I don’t see a mark on you. Go to your room!”

“Stop.” I shrink back, my skin going cold and clammy. I’m not supposed to be here. Where’s Leander?

It swirls again and takes on Beth’s shape. “Don’t worry. Just take my hand. I’ll show you all you need to know.”

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

It sighs hard and long, then changes into a tall fae with a stern brow, one I recognize.

“Remember me? From the stables?” It pulls down the top of its tunic and shows me black streaks spreading from where I struck the stable fae with my blade.

“I don’t—”

“Magic.” It snaps its fingers. “This is magic. The darkest kind of all.”

“It came from the knife! It was Leander’s. He gave it to me. There must have been some sort of poison on the blade. I don’t know.” I wrap my arms around my knees.

“No simple poison can inflict instant death.” The black spreads farther, dark lightning streaking along its chin and into its cheeks. “But you can.”

“No.” I scurry back across the grass, but the blue smoke keeps up with me, hovering along, its hand out yet again. “Come with me. We shall dance with the darkest denizens of night. I am not afraid of you. Not like the rest of them will be.”

“Afraid of me?”

“Yes.” It oozes closer. “When they find out what you are.”

“Wh-what am I?”

“I will tell you all, show you all, give you all. Just take my—”

Someone calls my name, the sound growing louder until I see an orb of bright white light. “Taylor, come now before the magic drags you down.” It’s Delantis’s voice. But can I trust it?

“Stay here, little one.” The blue is Leander again. “I can protect you.”

“Don’t listen to it! Come, girl. Run!”

I jump to my feet and, with one more look at the blue smoke, I dash toward the white orb. When I hit it, my body goes numb and my mind silent, but I can hear the shriek of the blue smoke, its anger vibrating in notes of frustration.





I wake encased in granite. No, not granite. Leander’s arms. He rocks me slowly, a song lilting off his tongue. The words must be in old fae, because I don’t understand them. His voice is deep, the low notes soothing. I hold my breath, not wanting him to stop.

But he does, the sound fading away. “You’re awake.”

“Hi.” I look up at him.

“Thanks to the Ancestors.” He crushes me to his chest.

“Can’t breathe,” I grit out.

He pulls me away and peers at me. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” My ears aren’t bothering me anymore, and my back isn’t itchy. Winning on all fronts, really. “What happened?”

“Your stone.” He looks at it.

“You can see it now?”

“Delantis broke the visual enchantment, but we still can’t remove it.” He reaches for it but can’t touch it. It repels him the same way it repelled the obsidian witch.