Prologue

How long have I been here?

Days blended into nights, nights into months, and months into years. Had it been two years or two centuries?

I’d lost all sense of space and time.

The magic making up my very essence had become clouded, distant. Maybe a forgotten memory. Maybe I wasn’t magic. I questioned my sanity most days.

My memory: faulty at best.

Magic no longer tangible, it slipped from my fingertips every time I reached out for it. Sometimes I felt as if I stood in a pitch-dark cave searching for a speck of light far, far in the distance.

Yet something about today felt... different.

Slowly I rolled onto my side, the metal clang of my manacles echoing on the stone walls of my prison. I squinted into the darkness with crusty, aching eyes. In the dim, I made out the wedge of stale bread and small mug of musty water. My mouth screamed for moisture and my belly ached for nourishment, but I didn’t have the energy to crawl to the life-giving sustenance.

If only starvation could actually kill me.

The Goddess wasn’t that kind.

In my cell, I heard nothing but my own wheezy breaths. I had no real strength. Felt no whisper of magic. They’d drained me more than usual this last time. I’d fallen asleep with my knees bent and feet against the wall, and it took me a few minutes to remember I had done it on purpose. I’d hidden my last sliver of hope deep inside a box, inside another box and then another, far inside my soul. It flickered as I recalled why I fell asleep like this.

Was today the day?

Recently my manacles had hung heavier on my wrists and feet. I didn’t know how long they’d been like that or when a kernel of hope had resurrected the idea of freedom, but I’d finally become emaciated enough to stand a chance.

One chance.

The twisted magic embedded in the sigil-painted walls of my cell weakened me as much as the starvation and blood-letting. But if I could free myself of the manacles and their draining spells—if I kept fighting—I could open those inner boxes and call on my last reserve of hope, my magic and strength, the one I’d been saving for so long... I’d almost forgotten it remained.

Then I could be free.

Merely thinking the word sent a surge of adrenaline through me. I braced my feet on the wall and with every ounce of effort I’d stored for a time such as this, I raised my hands and pulled.

The cuffs dug into my dirty flesh. My skin tore, but I didn’t stop even when warm blood flooded my arms.

I smiled and my cracked lips bled.

No more bleeding for those monsters.

The pain might be debilitating, but I’d lived beyond pain and suffering. Nothing mattered but freedom.

A wet sucking sound filled my cell.

My binds slid free.

Somehow, I managed to squeeze my fingers and catch the manacles before they clattered to the ground. Breathless and panting, I didn’t know how long I lay there afterward as pain throbbed through me. My mind drifted in and out of consciousness.

Get up!

My eyes fluttered.

The voice came from the next box inside me, closer than ever before. Inside me, the magic awakened as if from an intense slumber, disoriented and broken, but no longer out of my reach.

The manacles lay on my chest, my hands loose around them. Time had been lost. How long since I’d passed out?

Head spinning but determined, I gingerly pushed to sit and placed the manacles carefully to the side. My ankles were caked in blood, bruises, and dirt. The nails on my toes had grown thick and dark from disease. I didn’t care. Knowing if I could escape, my body would heal, I clenched my teeth hard, then took my own ankle in my weak bloodied hands... and snapped the bones.

I suppressed a scream.

Blackness swept over me as the pain nearly made me lose consciousness again. Before I lost my nerve, however, I broke the other ankle. My jaw ached and I wondered if I’d chipped a tooth clenching through the agony, but elation filled me. The shattered bones left my feet limp and misshapen. Useless. But they slid free from the second set of manacles.

Thank the Goddess!

Without the enchanted iron touching me, I felt a rush of energy fill me.

The next box inside me opened, and I held back a laugh.

The essence of my life stirred.

Without the iron holding back my Fae magic, I focused on the collar at my neck. Though also made of the iron Fae could rarely thwart, it also possessed a different magic than the manacles. Hedge magic forged by warlocks using my own blood. I fingered the collar and sensed demon blood—as well as something vaguely recognizable—pulsing through the metal alongside it.

Once the first box opened, the rest were easier.

That forgotten bit of power, the secret magic I’d hidden from my captors all this time, glowed warm inside me. I drew on it, not to stop my pain, but to find my blood within the collar.

My neck tingled, and there... just there. The magic seized hold of my own life force, and I pulled it into me. Like a warm blanket wrapping around me at night, it found its place back home. Once my power left the collar, the useless metal could not hold me.

Footsteps approached.

I was out of time.

My magic was broken, scattered pieces inside me. Only by bonding my soul to my undiscovered mate would heal it. But I gathered what I could, rapidly weaving together the portions that fit, and drawing on the shadows of darkness and the faint light in my cell. Sputtering power swelled hot inside me, and just as my cell door burst open, I disappeared with a pop.

A scream of rage faded in the distance.

Glaring light blinded me so I covered my eyes—they’d not seen daylight in countless years. The green sky was different from anything I’d ever seen, but bright and new. The air around me felt warm and dry, the dampness of my cell forever gone.

Weak laughter broke my chapped, bleeding lips, ending on a breathless sigh.

I collapsed to the ground, soft sand cradling my broken body. I found the strength to tilt my head and watch my bloodied hand press deep into the glorious indigo sand.

I did not know where I was, but I didn’t care.

I was free.

Falling still, I closed my eyes. Hunger gnawed at my belly, but the familiar pain would not kill me. My feet and ankles throbbed in tortuous waves, and I welcomed the pain because it meant I was still here.

Alive.

Free.

If something came along in this realm to kill me, it did not matter. My captors would no longer have the satisfaction of the power my blood had given them. I drifted off to sleep, hoping my immortal Fae blood would heal my injuries over time.

If I woke up again, so be it.

If not, such was the Goddess’s will.

At least I would die free.

––––––––

“Mercurian.”

I blinked hard in the dim light, and then let out a cry of defeat. I was back in my cell. My escape had been a dream and—

“Mercurian, open your eyes.”

Terrified, I lifted my eyelids. A dark green sky stretched above, littered with golden stars and three moons, one pink and the others silver and purple.

My body felt different, foreign. Yes, the familiar hunger and weakness remained, but once again magic flowed through me. The indescribable realization that I felt no pain sent the panic receding as swiftly as it came. Trying to get my bearings, I sat up and looked around this strange realm. Blue sand, a green sky... I was not in my cell, nor anywhere I recognized. And I was no longer alone.

I gasped in wonder.

An ethereal white creature stood before me, glowing brighter than the moon and stars above. The unicorn’s mane and tail fluttered in a breeze of its own making, each hair a delicate thread of spun silver and gold. Its coat shone brighter than the moonlight and her—yes, my unicorn was female—eyes were filled with a kaleidoscope of wisdom and color.

She did not smile but I could hear it in her voice. “You have finally awakened, Mercurian.”

I did not fear this creature of light. “How do you know my true name?”

She shook her glorious mane. “We know everyone’s name.”

“Where am I?” I questioned as the rolling indigo sand whispered around me.

It was then I noticed the blood had been cleansed from my skin and my fingers looked like something I had forgotten. My ankles were no longer broken, my nails healthy and pink. My skin looked clean, bright and fresh.

“Did you heal me?”

“You were very broken when you came to our world. We fixed your vessel, but we cannot heal your soul.”

I nodded at this information. Only one thing would fix me—uniting with the other piece of my soul the Goddess had placed in some unknown mate I’d yet to meet.

“They’re coming for you.”

“No!” I cried, scrambling back in the sand. “I cannot go back!”

“Mercurian,”the unicorn spoke my true name, calming me. “You will never go back to that place, just as you will not remember me. Heed my words, little one. The rest of your soul is coming. Find it. Cherish it. Be happy.”

The heady aroma of lilies and mint wafted over me, and warmth suffused my every limb. My eyelids fluttered in the sudden changing light. As if a mere child being told to sleep, I laid back in the soft white sand, calm and serene. I stared up at the navy midnight sky, feeling as if something had happened that I should remember.

But like a dream, or sand between my fingers, the wisps of it faded away.

“Over there... look,” a man whispered.

The voice was not of my captors, but I flinched despite the promise of serenity and safety I’d been given.

Who’d promised my safety?

I could not recall.

I turned my face, preparing to draw on my broken magic and protect myself, until I saw a familiar face and felt the succor of his kingly magic.

I let out a sob of relief.

“By the Goddess, how did you end up here?” The Fae King knelt at my side and took my hand, the single moon glowing behind his face like a halo. “It is okay, my child. You’re safe now.”