Chapter 2

Two

WESLEY

S weat dripped from my brow, heat warming my bones as I waded out of the dark thinking I’d find myself back in the realm of the Summer King again. The heat of his temper a melting blaze, though rare. He preferred the gentle warmth of sunny days in the shade, or a cup of hot tea in the winter.

Wesley?

I blinked open my eyes at the call of my name, expecting the dream to fade, but finding myself in a patch of sun-filled grass. Was Sebastian here?

Trees towered around me, but I basked in a thick ray of sunlight, burning away the lingering chill. Everything hurt. The mortal body far too fragile, I’d learned to manage the weaknesses, drawing close to power, and hiding among both mortals and fae.

My skin ached, healing, a tingling mesh of magic like bee stings wriggling over my flesh. But my lungs filled easily, air warm and soothing. If it were a dream, it was a good one.

I rolled over, forcing my body to shift from human to beast, and rose to unsteady legs. My stag form wobbly after months of inactivity. The rack of horns on my head weighed more than I remembered, and I sank back to the thick layer of grass, thirsty, hungry, but too joyous over the warmth to leave yet.

Had Summer finally solidified his realm? Had he rescued me from the dragon?

I sucked in a thick breath of air searching for the scents of him and his mate: honey and clover, icing and fresh baked bread, but all I smelled was lush grass, and the hint of changing leaves. I nibbled at the grass, desperate to ease the gnawing hunger gaping inside, and even that small amount of energy was more than I had. The warm waves of the sun on my skin lulled me back to sleep, dreamless for a time, a true rest I expected to be interrupted by the daggered reach of cold which always ripped me back into reality.

But the trickling sound of water dragged me from sleep rather than pain. First with a few broken dreams of drinking my fill, and then with a need to empty my bladder. Human shortcomings, my own witchblood ever a curse.

I struggled to my feet, the sun absent as night had fallen, but the moon stretched overhead large and full, beautiful as I couldn’t recall it ever being. The glowing orb hung huge and close, like I could leap toward it and land on the surface with one mighty jump. Perhaps when my strength returned.

My wobbling legs steadied as I emptied my bladder then followed the sound of water to a stream, studied it for several minutes, my heart racing, and throat clenching to drink. The fae could corrupt anything. I took a few hesitant steps toward the shore, expecting it to lunge at me, but it tinkled and danced as a normal stream should.

I couldn’t wait any longer and bowed my head to drink, the water tasting clean and fresh, slightly cool. The gentle breeze blew through the trees a soft caress rather than biting cold or stifling heat. I drank my fill and sank into the water, letting it pool around me, washing away the filth with the memories.

Had I found my way back to the mortal realm? It couldn’t be part of Winter; it was too warm. But the trees, a mix of oak, pine, and fir, were common to the mortal world and without blight. Layers of green moss crawled up the trunks of the thick trees and the grass grew tall enough to sway in the wind. The leaves high up danced with a soothing rustle, but the dark made it hard to define their color.

Movement caught my gaze, and my attention snapped toward a distant bush. Shadows hid a slinking darkness. It stilled, trying to blend, but in this form, I saw the outline of the beast. Too small to be the dragon. Was it the Hunt? I had thought Spring took control of those monsters, stealing them from Winter.

I got to my feet, ready to run. Another curse or blessing, perhaps, as none could catch me unless I allowed myself to be caught. Even tired as I was, I’d run until my heart gave out and the wild magic between worlds took back my soul to birth another White Stag.

The beast slid from the bush, muzzle darkened, wet with crimson in the bright moonlight, and dropped something at the shore’s edge a dozen yards from where I stood. Our gaze met for several seconds, but it slipped back into the shadows and vanished. I hesitantly inched forward to see what it had left.

A rabbit. Fresh kill.

I sighed, my mortal mind reminding me of meals that included the flesh of creatures. Not all bad, but the Stag hated it. We would be happier with mushrooms, or soft moss. Was this some sort of courting dance? The dragon turned to a wolf-like creature? Or something else?

I wandered away from the kill, determined to find a place to settle for the night that wouldn’t leave my back exposed, nibbling moss until a spread of clover sprouting between trees drew me in.

Gorging on the clover, I couldn’t help but settle into the thick spread of it and roll around. If this was a dream, it felt real.

The trees towered overhead, a canopy to ease the glowing light of the over-sized moon. Clover, a thick mat beneath me, and the distant sound of the stream, I lay down to rest. Would the beast return? Fed and warm for the first time in ages, I didn’t care. I’d have bowed to the Summer King and promised him anything for this moment, as fleeting as it might be.

Only the absence of bird chatter hinted where I was. Not the mortal realm, even though I’d been brought a rabbit and saw fish in the stream. The stretching silence, a lack of bugs, birds, or any movement beyond the water, made me search the trees for a sign of the spirits that haunted the mortal world.

There were two possibilities, either I had fallen into the purview of the earth spirit, or Green Man, as the mortals called him, or this was a fae realm. The presence of the beast, meant likely the latter, but I’d worry about it when I woke in the morning and found myself still curled up in the clover instead of chained to the floor of the Winter court.