Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

ORION

I backed away from the severed head, its vibrant pink eyes fixed to me.

Pink because of Dawn, filled with knee-knocking malevolence.

"Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!" That word echoed around me, stirring the dead, ice-smothered trees of the Forest of the Lost.

Dawn was here in Faery when it wasn't supposed to be, an actual living entity speaking through the head of an undying fae.

My ears rang and my head was a battleground of thoughts. The thick, sickly sweet scent of decay sent my stomach into a roiling frenzy.

"By the stars," I whispered, lifting my axe as the head continued screaming at me.

What a turn of events.

My virtual pet, Wendy, was actually the lost queen of the replicating bees, and had teleported me from the royal palace to her dead home. Would she bring it back to life? If so, her honey meant Miko didn't have to die to end Dawn after all because anything could be replicated with that special honey.

Wow.

But Wendy had to awaken first to make the honey. And since all her worker bees were dead, I presumed it would be a solo undertaking.

Please just wake up…

I prayed to the stars for a miracle, pining for Miko and his pack of werewolves, all of them back on Earth dealing with fresh drama without me.

Every thread of my mating bond to Miko twanged like aggravated violin strings, the frustration at being so far away from him a physical ache.

I couldn't stand it.

I couldn't?—

No. No. No. Negativity wouldn't do. Being here in this forest brought me face to face with hope. Wendy was hope. I was hope, as Miko had dreamed. I wasn't here for Sugar Twists and laughter, as my mama always said.

A Sugar Twist would help brighten the next minutes. The Faery treat always perked me up after a long day.

The words of Miko's dream echoed in my head…

He comes, this scarlet-haired man, bearing a golden gift in his hand. For you. It is for you. It is for hope. He is hope.

Stars, those words came with a lot of pressure, but pressure I would transform into a useful weapon against the darkness. I was meant to be in Miko's life to stop him from dying. To protect him, to love him, to be his mate for more than five minutes.

Determination swelled inside me, making me stand taller.

I can do this.

The head stopped screaming, pink tears still oozing down its sunken cheeks. It bared its rotten, pink-stained teeth. I tensed, torn between running and splitting the wretched thing in half.

"Fae…" It spoke in a clear voice, twinned with a more crackly, alien sound.

The voice of Dawn.

"Cherry fae." Wisps of condensation puffed from its lips.

My feet were glued to the snowy, frozen ground, my veins filled with ice of their own, my heart pounding in my ears.

"Cherry fae who stole a queen bee."

I didn't steal Wendy. I'd found her, took care of her, and puzzled over her everlasting batteries, only for her to deliver this big bee twist.

Several kernels of pain flared in my chest for Miko. His face swam in my mind, memories of his touch humming across my skin.

I'll find you again, Mr. Robot.

I promise…

"Greetings to you," Dawn said with what could only be described as cold cheer in its tone. "Greetings. Greetings. Greetings. You bear witness to my awakening, to the truth of Dawn."

Something moved in the dead branches above me. Something dark and small, reflecting some of the pink light.

Hmmm. What fresh pandemonium was this? I didn't look at whatever it was for too long, preferring to keep my eyes on the head. The last thing I wanted was to turn my back and find those rotten teeth buried in it.

Or worse…

"I am a god. I am the new. I am the end. I hunger for blood and bones and ashes."

Wonderful.

"I change. I evolve. My children change and feed for me to grow in strength beyond your wildest dreams. We all feed. We all feed."

I shuddered at it calling zombies its children.

"An order of fools created me so they could become the greatest power on Earth. They abused magic, awakened me with sleeper blood." Dawn chuckled lightly, a tooth falling loose.

Sleeper blood?

"Sleep to wake. Sleep to wake."

The thing in the trees moved again. My scalp prickled, every muscle tightening. The moment it made its move, I'd be swinging my axe at the lurker.

"I am their failed conduit," Dawn continued. "They wanted to use me for dominance, to take ultimate control with the threat of destruction, with the promise of healing in exchange for compliance."

What in the stars' name did that mean?

I summoned the courage to speak. "I don't understand."

"They designed a creature of all things in me," it replied. "To destroy, to provide a miraculous cure, to keep the sheep in the grip of their whims. Imagine such pure power. Imagine such wicked corruption." Dawn chuckled again. "They failed, giving way to me."

My temples throbbed as I tried to process this information, the puzzle pieces not quite fitting.

What did Miko discover in the mind-walking he did with Trev and Malorie? And was he okay?

Please be okay…

"First, I changed Earth," the creepy head continued. "Then I slept and evolved. Faery king closed his doors. Faery king is a fool. You will see. You will all see. I will claim. I will win. I will be free."

Those pink eyes flared and its teeth snapped together. Another one fell out, rolling into a small dent in the ground.

"Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!" The screaming returned, louder than before, my ears under attack.

I guess this meant the detail sharing part of this nightmare was over.

Covering one ear to give myself a smidge of reprieve, axe in the other hand, I glanced around the dead forest for a way out. Snow fell through the gnarled branches, getting heavier by the second. I needed to find shelter before I became a fae-flavored ice lolly.

Driving the axe into the head wouldn't do anything but silence Dawn temporarily—which would be a good thing right now.

Sweating profusely despite biting cold, I braced myself to spare my ear drums and my sanity.

Three.

Two.

One.

I charged, letting out a roar with the axe held high.

"Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!"

I leaped over a jagged root, then brought the axe down on the head. The blade cleaved through flesh and bone with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

Wow. This was one sharp axe.

Dawn's screaming died, the two halves of the head falling aside like a freshly sliced apple. Pink blood and brain matter oozed across the snow, quickly turning to the black of the undying fae's juices.

"By the stars," I breathed, my shoulders hunching.

I drew in several deep breaths, my nerves a jumbled mess. Silence crept through the forest, only the gentle pattering of the falling snow making any sound. The cold made itself known again, pushing through my fearful sweat.

I plucked Wendy from my pocket, her plastic orange casing replaced with glittery golden glass. A gold bee slept on her tiny digital screen, a stream of z's floating above her.

"Are you going to wake up?" I asked her.

Nope.

"Sleepy bee…" I whispered, stroking the smooth casing with my little finger. "Please wake up."

A rustling above my head spiked my survival instincts.

Pixie balls!

I dropped Wendy back into my pocket. "Who's there?"

No answer, no sign of anything this time despite the rustling.

"Answer me!" I bellowed, sick of the gnawing fear in my belly.

A figure darted between two bent trees, wielding an axe of his own.

Crap. Another undying fae. He was as gray-skinned and gaunt as the last one I'd faced. Painfully thin, his skin stretched over his skeleton and wearing only dirty brown rags. He appeared to be wreathed in sorrow for the lost bee queen, yet also full of hope for her return. That hope gave him and the other undying fae unnaturally long life.

"Who are you?" he demanded, the brittle strands of his brown hair clinging to his forehead.

"Can you point me in the direction of a fire?" I tried.

Worth asking, right?

The fae tilted his head to the side, those dark eyes too curious for my liking. "What are you doing here?"

Did I try spinning a lie, or try running for it? Yes, I could fight him, but my fingers were getting numb, begging for some heat.

"I saw something," he said.

"What did you?—"

Before he could answer, his eyes turned pink, a chuckle passing his lips.

My guts turned to curdled eggs.

"Cherry fae cannot run. Cherry fae cannot stay."

Other undying ones hurried through the trees, their eyes full of Dawn.

I lifted my axe, praying for a sharp exit. I might have trained myself to fight and flee in a zombie apocalypse, but there were at least ten men and women ready to chop my body into tiny pieces.

Three more joined the army.

Unlucky thirteen for me.

My grip tightened on the axe's handle, my choices narrowing down to one.

I have to fight, I told myself, the pep-talk lacking in potency.

"What do you want?" I tried talking first.

"Cherry fae must die." The fae spoke as one, a new attack on my eardrums. "Foolish hope must perish."

They all charged.

Oh, pixie balls!