A murmur of anger and alarm went around the table. “An Evenfey spy,” one of the nobles hissed. “How dare you come into this sacred place, creature of shadow? Do you know whom you spy upon? We are the high lords and ladies of Faery. You overstep your bounds.”
A deep growl came from the trees, where the monstrous shaggy creature peered out with glowing green eyes. “You should kill it now,” it said. “If it lives, the Nightmare King will know what you are planning. If you don’t wish a war with Evenfall, it needs to die here and now.”
The captured faery stared out of the web of branches at us, her golden eyes narrowed and hard. “Treachery,” she stated in a cold voice, glaring at us all. “It appears the Order was right. The fey of the Nevernever cannot be trusted. You would kill us all, erase us from existence, for your own comfort and peace of mind.”
“We have no choice, Evenfey,” the Lady said, her voice surprisingly gentle. “Don’t you see how the mortal world is being affected? The Nightmare King’s influence is too strong. The humans will destroy each other if we cannot stop him.”
The Evenfaery shook her head. “The Nightmare King draws his power from the human realm, not the other way around,” she replied. “If humans are growing angrier and more violent, it is of their own volition, not ours.”
“Do not twist words, shadow creature.” A tall sidhe noble stepped forward, pointing with a long, thin finger. “Your presence, the very existence of all Evenfey, causes terror and fury. Your king is by far the strongest influence the mortal world has seen.”
“You cannot seal us away.” The trapped faery’s voice held the faintest hint of desperation, though she hid it well. “The faeries of the Nevernever and Evenfall are the same, just different reflections of each other. We are born from mankind’s darkest fears and nightmares, in the same way you are born from their dreams and imagination. The Evenfey cannot help their nature, but we still deserve to live.”
“We are not suggesting otherwise,” the Lady soothed. “But we will seal away the Nightmare King, and all of Evenfall, from the mortal realm and the Nevernever. It is not a matter of choice. It is a matter of survival. And sadly, so you cannot return home to warn the Nightmare King, I fear you are going to have to die as well.”
She gestured, and the tangle of roots, vines, and thorns contracted like a fist closing, crushing the Evenfey within. I winced, but instead of being torn apart, the faery’s body shattered into fragments of light, like the reflection of the moon in a pool of water, and disappeared.
“No.” The tall sidhe stepped forward, examining the knot of vegetation. “A trick,” he exclaimed, shaking his head. “Curse the Evenfaery—we were talking to a shadow. The spy is gone.”
“Then there is no time to waste.” The Lady turned to the circle, her voice and expression grim. “If she informs the Nightmare King of our plans, the Nevernever will suffer his wrath. We must seal off Evenfey, and the Nightmare King, now. There is a site in the Between,” she went on. “A place of power, where the Veil is thin, and the emotions of mankind flow freely, strengthening it with glamour. I will meet you there, and we will do what must be done. Hopefully before the Nightmare King realizes what is happening.”
* * *
I blinked, and when I opened my eyes, the scene had changed, as had my memories.
The Nightmare King knew.
The Evenfaery had delivered her message, and unsurprisingly, the fey of the Evenfall had responded in kind. With violence, terror, and fury, trying desperately to stop the ritual from happening. The Nightmare King himself was on his way to the Nevernever, and his terrifying presence could be felt for miles, looming ever closer.
Wind whipped at my hair and cloak, as below me, my stag mount bounded madly through the forest. I was someone else now. The faery whose memories I had been inhabiting before was dead, killed before he could ever reach the ritual site. In fact, all the fey who had been at the meeting that night were being targeted. The faery whose head I was in didn’t know how they were being killed; the fey nobles were all very powerful, and the peasant fey of the Nevernever feared them, but somehow, impossibly, the Evenfey had managed to kill one of their numbers. This notion filled the faery’s heart with terror. She had never known the fear of death before. The decision to seal away the Nightmare King was a mistake; they never should have agreed to such a thing. It was that one faery’s fault, the youngest member of their circle. She was far too ambitious for her own good. But tonight, it would be over. If she could reach the meeting site, the Nightmare King and the Evenfey would be gone, and no one in Faery would even remember what had happened.
Something bright suddenly streaked out of the trees, and her mount gave a squeal as it toppled forward. She was thrown from the saddle and hit the ground hard, rolling to an undignified stop at the base of a tree. Grimacing, she pushed herself upright, seeing the stag lying a few paces away on the path. A thin shaft of moonlight pierced its throat, and as the beast gave a final shudder and was still, she could suddenly feel eyes on her from the shadows between the trees.
Terrified, she turned in a circle, gathering her power as she scanned the trunks, searching for enemies. Eyes appeared in the shadows, golden eyes the color of the moon, razor-thin blades of moonlight shimmering to life around her.
She screamed.
* * *
And I was in someone else’s memories.
There weren’t many of us left.
Of the circle of fey who had attended the meeting that fateful night, only three had survived, including the faery whose memories I was seeing. The rest were gone, mysteriously slain by the vengeful faeries of Evenfall. Two sidhe stood opposite him, the tall noble with silver hair, and the Lady. Around us, I recognized the dim, eerie light of the Between, all sounds and colors swallowed by the endless wall and curtains of mist. I stood on a large, circular stone dais, surrounded by huge columns and ancient pillars. Mist curled around the pillars and crept over the dais like ghostly fingers, seeking to hide the hundreds of runes and symbols carved into the surface of the rock. Gazing down at them through the faery’s eyes, I felt her shiver, as dread curled through her stomach. Something about the circle seemed ominous. She tore her gaze away so she didn’t have to look at them.
“Are we ready?” The Lady stepped forward, and her voice was calm, almost triumphant. A stark contrast to the cloud of fear and uncertainty swirling through the air around us. The Lady wore a silver white gown that glowed in the fog, and her pale wings cast a faint nimbus of light around her.
“Why here?” the faery whose memories I was seeing asked. “The Between is not a place I would normally set foot in. Why have you called us to this spot?”
“The ritual must be held in the Between,” the Lady replied. “Holding it in the Between is the only way to affect both the mortal world and the faery worlds at the same time. Not only that, it will be difficult for something to stumble across the ritual site so deep in the Between. As long as the seal remains, the spell will be permanent, so it must never be tampered with.”