Soot smudged one of her cheeks, and her green eyes streamed from the smoke. She stared up at me, her mouth slightly open.
“You saved my life.” She breathed in deeply, her chest rising and falling. She’d nearly died, and already desire shone in her eyes. But those two things went together, didn’t they? Death and lust. “I don't know how to thank you.”
Once, her beauty would have sparked something in me, but those days were long gone. Her terror had been a burning ember in my chest, but her desire did nothing for me. I hadn’t felt anything in eons. Hadn’t dreamt at night. Hadn’t desired a woman. Nothing but dead ashes inside.
I pulled my hands from her grasp. “Then it's fortunate I’d rather you didn’t thank me.”
I turned to walk away from her, following the winding street back to my house.
That had been an interesting diversion, but already, my mind was turning back to the blue-haired morgen.
The beautiful, dethroned princess.
I’d be returning her magic to her. Was it stupid to give her so much power? Perhaps, but she wouldn’t keep it long. As soon as she finished what I wanted of her, I’d kill her.
Cold ash lay where my heart used to be. But when I killed Aenor, I’d feel again. Then the spirit of sweet revenge and victory would burn in me like a star.
As I walked, my silhouette cast a long shadow over the walls, and my heart raced. The days were getting shorter, which meant my time was running out. I had only until the Samhain to get what I wanted.
My destiny had a deadline, and if I missed it, I’d be trapped here forever. I had one week left, and I wouldn’t miss my one opportunity.
I’d burn the whole world down to get what I wanted.
3
Aenor
I shoved my hands into my skirt pockets as I walked, and the rain started to drench me.
Adrenaline buzzed through my veins as I tried to work out where that fae had come from. The effect he’d had on the world around him wasn’t like anything I’d seen before.
Salem will set us free.
If there were more of those things roaming the earth, the world would become an inferno. Salem’s inferno.
Whatever happened, I had to stop him.
I hurried along the seawall, sucking in the scent of briny marine air. The ocean air whispered over my skin as I walked along the waterfront. The glistening waves crashing below me. When I glanced out at the ocean waves, I felt a surge of protectiveness. The seas were life, and I’d do whatever I could to keep them safe. If the fire fae roamed the earth, the seas would boil.
I needed answers. Fast. Because when Salem came for me, I’d be under his control.
I was heading back to the place where I’d spent the last week: the library.
I sat in an arched alcove, sipping my steaming coffee. Lanterns hanging from the vaulted ceilings cast glowing light over two stories of bookshelves. With all these books, connected by ladders, this place was packed with ancient wisdom. It was just that it was often hard to find what you needed.
On my lap, I flipped through a book about spells. I’d found it just lying there in the alcove, open to a page about a binding collar—a collar that would steal a person’s magic forever. It also left them insane, gibbering wrecks, tormented by loss.
Would that work on Salem, I wondered? It seemed tempting.
In any case, the spell book gave me an idea. A different tactic now. I hadn’t found Salem’s name listed in the chronicles of the ancient fae, or the gods, or the cursed. But when he’d chained me up, Salem had used a strange spell. He’d forced me to taste some kind of fruit. It was delicious, really, sweet and tangy, with a juice that ran down my chin and made my pulse race…
But that wasn’t the point. The point was that the fruit had done something, and I wanted to find out what it was. And then I wanted to learn how to kill him.
Having flipped through every page, I closed the book on my lap. Then I found my way to the stack of books about curses. After searching the spines, I selected one labeled Temptations and paged through the index. It was hard to discern some kind of pattern in most of these books. Texts in the ancient world didn’t adhere to logical systems like alphabetization or grouping by concept. Instead, they could be arranged by “elegance and beauty of the first letters,” or other things that made no sense.
I took another sip of coffee, getting a much-needed caffeine jolt.
When I turned the page again, I finally found what I was looking for: a picture of a ripe red piece of fruit hanging from a tree. Bingo. My pulse raced. I stared at the fruit a little too long, remembering how delicious it had tasted, my mouth watering.
Mentally, I translated the ancient fae text.
The forbidden fruit of enchantment—a power unique to—
The name was crossed out. It had to be Salem, though. Who else used fruit?
Allows him to track the enchanted.
Another sip of coffee. Tracking. That was what I’d expected. Obviously he knew where I was here in Acre. He could find me wherever I went. That wasn’t the worst thing in the world, was it?
I read on.
Gives him the power to compel the enchanted to do whatever he desires. He controls their minds and bodies completely.
Cannot be broken.
My stomach sank.
This was… worse than I’d thought.
Salem had complete power over my mind and body, and I hadn’t found any updates on how to kill him.
I leaned back against the window, closing my eyes to try to think clearly.
What had that fire fae said about him?
Salem will set us free. Something about the evening star, and—
Mag Mell. It was an ancient kingdom, I was nearly positive. One of the many fae kingdoms, now lost to time.
I leapt up, spilling a little coffee on myself, and rushed to where I remembered seeing a book about ancient kingdoms.
Fallen king of Mag Mell…
I scanned the shelves, weaving through one stack after another, until I found the words Mag Mell inscribed on the spine of an ancient book.
Bingo.
I pulled it from the shelf and started flipping the pages. They were old and water-damaged, the ink smudged, but the book started off clear.
It began with the whole fae history. The heavenly beings in the skies were divided into two broad types: gods and angels. Sometimes, the celestial gods beamed like stars in the heavens.
The evening star. That was what the fire fae called him.
After the heavenly wars, the losing gods and angels fell to earth. They started to change. Most became demons. Some became fae—those who’d fallen to the part of the earth that later became the British Isles. The fae reveled in earthly joys: dancing, sunlight, wine.
And in these ancient days of the early fae, some formed a paradise called Mag Mell.
The following page was very interesting. It was about an ancient race of fae called the Fomorians. A picture illustrated a gnarled, flame-headed creature with burning fingertips—exactly like I’d just killed. So that’s what it was.
Apparently, the first king of Mag Mell had displaced the Fomorians from the land. They were supposed to be extinct. And if they ever returned, they’d bring drought and fires with them wherever they went.
The foul creatures once withered plants and dried the rivers with evil heat. The prophecies say King—— might raise them once more if he is not stopped.