Chapter 16

I yawned, reaching my arms above my head and stretching as I opened my eyes and smiled. Turning to wish Stryker good morning, I frowned when I saw the side of his bed was made and a note lay on top.

Had I slept in? Maybe he was already eating breakfast.

Sitting up, I grabbed the note and started reading. My stomach sank further with every word.

Aribella,

I wish you had come sooner. I wish that I’d met you before her. I have invisible scars which are deeper and harder to heal than the one you see on my face. I want to give myself to you, I want to fall in love with you, but my head won’t allow it. I’ve done that before and nearly paid for it with my life. I’m broken and you deserve a man who can give you his whole heart, without dragging you through a minefield.

I choked on a sob, and read the last few lines.

I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye, but this is for the best. Zander and Dawn will take care of you and if you need anything in your quest to help your people, send word and my secretary will give you whatever you ask.

Stryker

No.

He wouldn’t.

A numbness spread throughout my body as I processed what just happened. Last night things seemed okay. Maybe not perfect: he said he was afraid, but he seemed okay …

But he wasn’t.

Would I be okay if my lover tried to kill me in my sleep? No. I wouldn’t.

I had to go after him, tell him we could work on this together.

Rushing to get ready, I slipped on my dress and boots and raced down the stairs of the inn.

“Aribella!” Dawn’s voice came from a nearby table as I hurried through the dining area inside the pub. I stopped and turned to find her alone and holding a note. She was frowning. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

Her note was from Stryker too, it seemed. I glanced at the words, take care of her and I’ll pay whatever you need and shook my head. “I have to go after him.”

I moved to leave, but Dawn reached out and gently grabbed my wrist. “Sit down,” she said with compassion.

I did and blinked away tears.

“Where is Zander?” I asked her, looking around the inn.

She sighed. “We got word early this morning of a healer in the Northern Mountains who can temporarily freeze the effects of the curse for some of those that are more seriously affected. He’s gone to get the healer and bring him to the capital to help as many people as we can.”

I reached out and grasped her hand. I’d forgotten that she was having her own problems and instantly felt terrible. “I’m sorry about the curse on Zander’s people. Your people. We met some on the road, it looked painful.”

She nodded. “Thank you. It’s bad. One of my dear friends … ” Her words caught in her throat and it took her a second before she could go on. “One of my dear friends, Nysa, has been in a coma-like state for months. Ever since the night of my wedding. She’s growing weaker by the day and I’m so worried we’re going to lose her. I truly hope this healer can help us.”

I nodded, agreeing with her. It was awful that the people were suffering here as well as Faerie. It wasn’t fair.

Dawn pulled her shoulders back, a determined look sliding onto her face. “Listen, Aribella,” she said, and by her tone I knew she had slipped into ruler mode. “I know what it’s like to want to just get lost in falling in love with your mate but—”

“Mate?” I frowned and surprise flashed across her face before it morphed to guilt.

“Stryker didn’t tell you?”

My heart fluttered wildly, causing dizziness to wash over me. “Tell me what?” I asked.

She winced. “It will only make you feel worse at this point.”

“Dawn,” I warned her. “Tell me what?”

She peered at me with a look that had me bracing myself.

“They have mates here,” she said.

Mates?

“When you kissed,” Dawn said. “Was there a magical glow?” I gasped and she gave me a sad smile. “Confirmation of the mate bond.”

She was right. It made it worse. My heart felt like it had been run over by a herd of horses and I wasn’t quite sure how it was still beating.

“There will be time to go after Stryker and try to talk some sense into him, but right now our people in Faerie need you,” Dawn encouraged me.

Our people. I felt so guilty for not thinking of them as often as I should have.

“Your mother is preparing Princess Isolde to come next.”

Dawn’s face turned flat, like she was remembering a ghost. “Did she train you?”

“For a bit, until she determined I was too weak to carry out the task. She left for the Winter Court before we finished, but then Master Duncan took over.”

“Too weak?” Dawn asked.

I swallowed hard. “I have a weak heart. I faint when I grow overwhelmed. I’ve hidden it all my life but she found out and left to train the next princess.”

Dawn reached across the table and grasped my hand. “Sounds like my mother. I’m sorry.”

“She definitely knows how to execute a task.” I laughed nervously.

Dawn squirmed. “My mother knows, Aribella. She knows that the lords aren’t evil. She knows they are our mates.”

My mouth popped open. Queen Liliana?

“But then why would she send us here to kill them?” I asked.

“Because she will do anything for our people, and so that’s why we need to go now to see the Wise Ones. We’re running out of time.”

I wanted to run after Stryker, I really did, but I knew Dawn was right. If these Wise Ones had any information that would help our people then we needed to go see them now. I could deal with Stryker later.

* * *

After a quick bite to eat, Dawn and I left the inn on horseback. It would take three days of almost constant traveling to make it to the mountain range in the Northern Kingdom where the Wise Ones lived. I spent the better part of that time actively trying not to think of Stryker, but failing more often than not.

Had he made it back to his kingdom? Did he regret leaving me? Did he miss me like I did him?

I was furious at him for abandoning me, but at the same time I still ached for him. I didn’t know what to do with these conflicting emotions, so I did my best to stuff them to the far recesses of my heart and mind. But like anything suppressed, the thoughts kept finding ways to free themselves.

Traveling with Dawn was easy. She was the same fierce and strong Summer princess that I knew of, but also so different. She smiled more than I remembered from the few times we’d interacted and there was a glow about her that was undeniable.

Whenever we stopped for the evening or to rest the horses, Dawn would fill me in on what had happened to her since she left Faerie. We’d laughed about how she lost focus when she stepped through the portal and ended up in a pigsty. She told me of how she believed Zander was a royal guard when they first met and had ordered him to take her to the Northern lord, and in response he’d put magical shackles on her wrists like the ones my kidnappers had used.

Phantom spikes of pain had run through my own wrists when she’d spoken of the days she spent trying not to think about running him through with one of her blades. She’d winced when I’d admitted I had firsthand experience with those particular torture devices.

I finally learned the details of when Dawn met Stryker in person. She confessed that she’d broken into his castle with the intent to kill him because she realized she couldn’t take Zander’s life. Even knowing that she hadn’t succeeded, something twisted painfully in my chest at the thought that his life had been in danger yet again.

Knowing my relationship with Stryker, Dawn was careful with her words when she spoke of him to me, but I quickly picked up that he hadn’t made a good impression on her, which was easy to imagine. My first interaction with the scarred Ethereum lord hadn’t gone well either. But considering the moment I appeared in Ethereum I’d tried to cut out his heart as well, the blame for that wasn’t fully on his shoulders.

Something else Dawn shared with me was the true story about Ethereum. About how a Faerie Winter King had fallen in love with an unseelie and been banished to this world along with all the unseelie in Faerie.

I was furious to find out not only how many lies we’d been fed over the years, but also how the Ethereum lords had been branded as evil for so long. For centuries innocent men had been brutally murdered by the princesses of Faerie. It was beyond awful and I was determined that the legacy of lies and cruelty ended with us.

We passed from the Midlands and into the Northern Kingdom just before dawn on the third and final day of travel. Although there was no denying the cold beauty of the land, I could admit the climate was a touch more frigid than I was used to in the moderate Fall Court.

Luckily, since Dawn and Zander had set out to find me in the first place, they’d thought ahead and Dawn had given me fur-lined leathers and a cloak to wear. I was thankful for that because I would have been freezing in the cotton dress I’d worn in the Southern Kingdom.

As we traveled I spotted more and more unseelie fae along the way that were afflicted with the same magic sickness as the family on the road had been. Dawn explained that she and Zander feared that the curse would eventually bleed into the other Ethereum kingdoms, just as it was spreading through Faerie. For Stryker’s sake, I hoped that fear was unfounded.

It was well into the day when we finally reached the base of the Northern Mountains where the Wise Ones lived. After three long days of traveling I was dirty, sweaty, and tired. I would have traded my entire court for a warm bath and decent meal.

Freezing wind ripped at my clothes and hair as I craned my neck to look up at the sheer rock face in front of me.

“How do we get up there?” I asked Dawn with a wary glance.

“We climb,” she said as she dismounted her horse.

My stomach dropped. “You can’t be serious.”

I looked back at the mountain, which seemed to jut straight up from the ground. I couldn’t even see the top because of the thick clouds overhead. I’d never climbed more than a small fruit tree when I was a child. And even then my mother had scolded me and forbidden me from ever doing it again.

I conveyed as much to Dawn and she went to her saddle bag and pulled out a length of rope, tying one end around her waist and then securing the other end around me.

“I’m a strong climber,” she said. “If you slip, this will keep you from falling too far.”

I eyed the rope connecting us skeptically.

“Trust me,” she said, the look on her face nothing short of grim determination.

She was always so strong and I admired that about her. I nodded and took a deep breath.

Dawn had told me everything I needed to know about the Wise Ones. What to expect when I entered their cave, how they looked and communicated with their minds, and most importantly that I only got to ask them one single question.

I knew visiting them to find out what I needed to do was the only way to end the curse once and for all, and also the only way to save my people without having to murder an Ethereum lord to do it.

I had to do this, so I swallowed my fear and started to climb.

* * *

Much to my surprise I didn’t die climbing up the vertical rock face. It took us forever because we kept having to stop whenever there was a small rock shelf so I could sit and try to slow down my heartbeats. There was one particularly frightening moment where my vision went blurry and I thought I would pass out, but I closed my eyes and breathed deeply and the spell eventually passed.

Dawn was wonderful and didn’t complain about the slow pace we were making, not even once. She only gave me words of encouragement and helped me keep my mind off the fact we were hanging off the side of a mountain hundreds of feet in the air.

After we reached the plateau we traversed a narrow path along the mountain’s edge. It seemed like years before we stood in front of the cave that led to the Wise Ones, but I knew it must have only been a few hours by the position of the sun in the sky.

Dawn had told me I had to go alone and so after mentally fortifying myself I plunged into the darkness. Even forewarned about the voices, when the whispered hisses started in my head I couldn’t stop my heart from beating furiously.

I tried to stay strong and brave, but the darkness was so complete and the voices, each one indistinguishable from the next, grew in volume until if felt like I was going to go insane. When my heartbeats reached a furious crescendo, I swayed, knowing I was going to lose the battle to stay conscious, and welcomed the silence with open arms.

* * *

I awoke on my side in a candlelit room with galaxies swirling overhead instead of a ceiling. It was blessedly quiet, and for that I was grateful. My hip and shoulder ached, telling me they’d taken the brunt of my impact when I fainted, but I was just glad I hadn’t struck my head.

I pushed myself up and stood on shaky feet. Feeling eyes on me, I turned to find four fae seated on rock thrones. Their skin was pearly white and each had two small horns. They looked exactly how Dawn had described them, down to their milky white eyes.

“ Another princess of Faerie ,” one of the Wise Ones said, and even though none of their mouths moved, I somehow knew it was the one who was seated directly in front of me.

“Hello, Wise Ones. Thank you for allowing me an audience,” I said, and then dipped into a small curtsy. I was unsure of the correct etiquette in this type of situation, but I was first and foremost a princess of Faerie. A lifetime of manners and decorum had been bred into me, not allowing me to be anything short of polite and reverent in this type of situation.

“ Please rise ,” the fae at the far end said, and I straightened. Their faces remained the same, lips not moving but I heard his voice in my head. “ We are very pleased to see you as well, Princess Aribella of the Fall Court, daughter of Queen Beatrice and King Leonard, child born with a weak heart, selfless protector of Easteria .”

I gasped a little at their long-winded name for me which provided some very accurate details about my life, and also some confusing information.

Protector of Easteria? What did that mean?

It was just proof that these fae really did know the future like Dawn said.

“We know you seek answers ,” one of them said, cutting off my internal thoughts.

“So ask your question ,” another said, the voice infiltrating my mind.

Okay, they were getting right to it.

Dawn and I had gone over what my one question should be, so when they asked I didn’t hesitate. “What task do I need to complete to help bring an end to the curse on Faerie forever?”

We’d reasoned that since taking the heart of an Ethereum lord back to Faerie didn’t end the curse, only stopped it for a hundred years, I didn’t need to add that caveat to my question.

One of the Wise Ones rose, startling me. They’d been so still since I regained consciousness that to see one of them move now was a little jarring.

I held my ground as the unseelie approached me and then reached out a hand. I forced myself not to flinch away from him when he laid a palm flat against my chest, right over my heart.

“ You have one question, and you don’t want to know how to heal your heart ?” he asked.

I blinked back at him, chills running the length of my arm.

Of course I would give anything to heal my heart. My ailment had held me back my entire life, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind to ask that. My life wasn’t worth more than those of my people’s, and I said as much to them.

A small smile lifted the corners of the Wise One’s mouth that was mirrored on the fae still seated behind him. With a nod, he stepped back and returned to his throne. I couldn’t help but feel like that question was a test, but the look on his face told me I’d passed.

“ Who accompanied you here today? ” the Wise One who’d just retaken his seat asked.

“Dawn. Co-ruler of the Northern Kingdom and the Summer princess.”

Two of the Wise Ones exchanged looks and then one asked, “ Not the Eastern lord? ”

They wanted to know if Stryker had come with me? Did that mean they expected him to?

I shook my head, a sudden ball of emotion clogging my throat. “He …” I was going to say he couldn’t make it, but that wasn’t really true and I got the overwhelming sense that lying to these fae would be detrimental.

His mouth downturned ever so slightly. It was a microexpression, but it told me that my answer didn’t please him. Why would he care if Stryker had come with me or not? But his next words surprised me so much the question was wiped from my mind.

“ You think you are faint hearted, but you are not ,” the Wise One said. “ You are one of the strongest fae we’ve ever met. Don’t forget that. Especially in the days to come. ”

Tears sprung in my eyes. I’d always struggled to see myself as strong. To hear someone else say that I was, helped me believe that it was true.

“Thank you,” I choked out, but then reined in my emotions. “What about my question?”

The Wise One directly in front of me nodded once and then said. “ You do, indeed, have a part to play in ending the curse that ravishes both lands .”

Both lands. To me that was definitive confirmation that the magical sickness in the Northern Kingdom was because of the curse in Faerie.

I held my breath, waiting to find out what I needed to do. They’d told Dawn that she’d already completed her task when she bonded to Zander. I didn’t think that my task would be as easy, but I secretly hoped it wouldn’t involve anything to do with getting Stryker to love me because that felt impossible at this moment. He’d made it perfectly clear he didn’t want me when he left.

“ You need to find the Shadow Heart buried in the place that treasures are kept. ”

The Shadow Heart? What was that? A literal heart, or was he speaking metaphorically? If it was buried it couldn’t be a living heart, right? Either way, I had no idea how to do that.

“What’s the Shadow Heart?” I asked.

“ Your question has been answered. No more will be allowed. Farewell, Aribella .”

That couldn’t be it. I didn’t understand what I was meant to do. They couldn’t just send me away without answering my question.

They all bowed and before I could contest, everything went pitch-black again. My heart sank. I fumbled my way in the darkness before finally emerging from the cave to find that dusk had fallen. My final hope was that Dawn would know what I was talking about, but when I explained to her what had happened, she was just as confused as I was.

“The Shadow Heart buried where treasures are kept,” Dawn mused, tapping her finger against her lip. “Someone must know what it means. We’ll go back to Noreum and talk to Zander. He might know something. And even if he doesn’t, we won’t stop until we figure it out.”

I nodded, but still felt defeated. I couldn’t help but wonder if Stryker had come, if he’d have known what it was, but then I gave myself a mental shake. Going down that road wouldn’t help any. Stryker wasn’t here and he’d made it clear he didn’t want to be.