A Kiss of Shadow (Court of Starlight and Darkness #2)(9)

The platform had only a small covering, and he was forced to join us. Wolf stayed at his side. I had a feeling Lore would have stood farther away if given the chance. As it was, he stood only ten feet from me. His winter-forest scent was impossible to ignore, and I felt like I was extra sensitive to it. My heart raced, and my skin heated.

Get it together, nerd.

“Will it be a private train?” I asked, unable to bear the silence. I also wanted to know what we were in for.

“No, though we will have a private car,” he said. “The train will travel through the different fae kingdoms, picking up royalty from each. Once everyone is aboard, it will arrive at our destination.”

“Which is where?”

“A palace hidden deep within Central Europe.”

“Europe?” Surprise flashed through me, along with excitement. I’d done so little traveling that going anywhere was exciting, but Europe was top of the list. “But how are we getting there on a train? There’s an ocean.” A thought occurred. “Actually, there’s water between your island realm and the mainland too.”

“Magic,” he said, his gaze on the tracks that disappeared into the distance. “Each kingdom conceals the exact location of its castle and capital city. That’s why this station is so far from ours. The other stations will be like that as well. The train provides a safe way to transport everyone to the High Court Palace.”

“Why don’t we just transport there?” It was so convenient for other things.

“There are no traditional portals there,” Lore said. “The High Court Palace is a neutral zone. As such, it contains many of our most important relics and books. We agreed long ago that the palace should only be visited by multiple delegates at a time. Hence, the train. If there was a portal directly there—or if we knew exactly where the palace was located—then someone could sneak in.”

“Is everyone really so dangerous and mistrusting amongst the fae?”

“Yes.” Meria, Eve, and Lore all spoke at the same time.

“Right, then.” I’d really need to get my head in the game. “So no one knows exactly where the palace is located?”

Finally, he looked at me. The eye contact made energy zing through me.

“You have a lot of questions, you know that?” he said.

“Yep. Will you answer them?”

His jaw tightened slightly, but he didn’t look terribly annoyed. “There used to be two stewards of the palace. They were neutral parties belonging to no court, and they knew where it was. But they disappeared about twenty years ago.”

“Disappeared?”

“Killed or run off, we don’t know. They just disappeared.”

“Strange.” A low rumbling caught my attention, and I turned to look down the tracks. A steam locomotive rumbled toward us, its white plume drifting back on the breeze. Shiny green and gold paint decorated it, making it look like the most perfect model train I’d ever seen.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed.

“It needs an upgrade,” Lore said. “I agree with the logic behind it, but it is too slow.”

“Too slow?” I turned to look at him. “How long will we be on it?”

“Two days. We are at the outer edges of fae kingdoms and are therefore first to board. We need to pick up everyone else.”

I blew out a breath, hoping I’d at least get a few good views from the windows.

The train rumbled to a stop in front of us, and several people in green and gold uniforms jumped off. They hurried to the back of the station where we’d left our luggage.

“This way.” Lore gave Wolf a rub on the head and started toward the train. The animal stayed behind as Lore climbed on. Everyone seemed to hold back long enough for me to go first. Was it a royalty thing?

I frowned and looked back at Meria, eyebrows raised. She shrugged.

Whatever.

I followed him onto the train.

I could handle being close to Lore. No problem. It wasn’t like there was insane sexual chemistry between us or anything.

Ha.

We’d entered directly into a car that looked like a fancy living room. There were large leather chairs and wooden tables, along with bookshelves and paintings on the walls. A narrow hall at the back led deeper into the car, presumably into bedrooms.

Lore took one of the chairs, lounging with the deadly grace of a panther.

I sat next to him, looking out the window to see Wolf trotting off the platform. “He doesn’t come with you?”

“Doesn’t like the train.”

Fair enough. It didn’t seem suited to a nearly feral animal. “Tell me more about the High Court. I get the impression there’s more to the story.”

He nodded. “I thought you’d catch on to that.”

As everyone else filed into the car and took their seats, Lore spoke. “There are many arguments amongst the different fae courts. When we arrive, it’s likely we’ll face danger from rivals.”

“The Court of the Northern Fae?” I remembered him mentioning the long-standing war with them.

“No. They are scattered.”

Right. They’d decimated one of his villages, and in return, he’d killed so many of them that their court had moved away from their territory. Yikes.