There was a ripple of movement behind her, and the Lady turned. For a moment, nothing was there. The trunks and branches of the trees, outlined in black and silver moonlight, were empty. But she was certain she had seen something, and could feel eyes on her from the shadows. They didn’t feel dangerous or hostile, just confused like everything else.
“I know you are there,” she murmured at last. “Please come out. I am not your enemy, or at least, I am not an enemy you want. Show yourself.”
A shaft of moonlight rippled through the leaves, seeming to disentangle itself from the shadows, and a figure stepped into view. A slight faery in black leather armor, silver hair the same color as the moonlight. The Lady had not seen this type of fey before, though she had the strangest feeling that she should know her from...somewhere. The other faery did not attack or make any threatening moves, but the Lady felt uneasy knowing, somehow, that she was quite dangerous. Luminous golden eyes regarded her in wary bewilderment.
“Who are you?” asked the Lady.
For several moments, the strange faery hesitated, as if trying to decide whether or not to answer. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she gave a weary sigh.
“My name is Nyx,” the faery said. “And...that is all I know.”
The Lady frowned. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Where do you come from?”
“I...” Nyx’s brow furrowed, those golden eyes filling with anguish for the barest of moments. “I don’t know. But something is very wrong, I can feel it. I know I’ve lost something, but I can’t remember what it is. And you...” Those golden eyes shifted to the Lady, narrowing ominously. Her arms moved, and two blades of light appeared in her hands. “I feel I should know you...and that you’ve done something unspeakable. Who are you?”
The Lady smiled.
Raising her arms, she reached out and felt the magic of the Nevernever flooding into her, a deluge of glamour and power. The ground at her feet rippled, then sprouted with flowers and vegetation, coiling around trees and rising into the air. Overhead, the sky darkened, clouds swirling together, and lightning flickered between them, turning the world white for a moment.
“The Nevernever has spoken,” the Lady said. Her voice echoed in the lightning-charged air and rippled through the earth, making the trees shake and the ground tremble. Nyx staggered away, eyes wide, as the Lady stood before her, bathed in the power of Faery. “A new era has begun. Bow before your queen.”
19
EVENFALL ARRIVES
“Ash. Ash, get up.”
I jerked awake with a start, my hand instantly going for my sword before I recognized the face in front of mine. Meghan raised her hands in a soothing gesture, her eyes bright with worry and relief as they met mine.
“It’s me,” she whispered, and I relaxed, though something terrible hovered at the edge of my memory, waiting to break free. I was lying on my back, the ground beneath me hard and cold, and there was a sharp object jutting into my ribs. Overhead, lights flickered through the room, and the rumble of stone echoed in my ears.
“Did you see?” Meghan whispered, and with those words, everything came flooding back. Gritting my teeth, I struggled upright, feeling my head throb with pain. My skull felt like it wanted to burst, spilling memories, emotions, and the terrible knowledge of the past all over the floor of the chamber. I remembered now. I knew what happened, to the Nevernever, to the Nightmare King, and all the faeries of Evenfall. The memories that had been sealed away by the Lady and the other fey swirled around my head, screaming in pain and betrayal.
I felt sick with the realization. Evenfall wasn’t an event. Evenfall was the other side of Faery, the mirror realm of the Nevernever. An entire world of faeries and creatures just like us. And the fey that had come before had committed an atrocity, sealing away the Nightmare King and cutting Evenfall off from everything. And to make things worse, they sealed the memory of what they had done from the entire world, dooming the Evenfey to obscurity and being forgotten.
The Forgotten. My stomach clenched. How many of the Forgotten were actually Evenfey, hanging on to existence by a thread, longing for a home they couldn’t even remember? Rage filled me, echoes of the Lady’s betrayal ringing in my head. The Nightmare King might have been a true threat, but to seal off an entire world...
“You saw, didn’t you?” Meghan’s voice came again, and I nodded. “That they sealed off Evenfall and made everyone forget. Even Grimalkin was in on it, and the Wolf. Was the Nightmare King that big a threat?”
“I don’t know,” I murmured in reply. “Maybe we should ask him.”
“Screw Furball,” said another voice behind us, and Puck staggered into view. Blood trickled down one side of his face, and his green eyes were hard as he gazed at something over our shoulders. “I think we have bigger problems to worry about.”
I turned, and my heart froze in my chest.
The dais had been shattered, huge ice spikes still jutting into the air through the stone. Broken chunks of rune inscribed rock lay everywhere, the glow completely faded and dead. But where the seal used to be, an enormous tear of darkness had opened, a pit opening into the void, and it was slowly spreading over the ground like a stain of ink.
“Evenfall,” Meghan whispered, as the horror of what I had done finally hit me. The circle, the one I had destroyed, hadn’t been to summon the Nightmare King. It had been the seal to Evenfall, and all the memories the Lady had erased from the Nevernever. By destroying it, not only had I released those memories, I had also torn open the way to the mirror realm.
The path to the Nightmare King was open. Evenfall had come.
And I was the one who ushered it in.
“At last,” whispered a voice.
There was ripple of movement, and a bleached deer skull slid across the floor like the head of a huge serpent, trailing shadows behind it. It slithered up a broken column and rose into the air, and the gloom around it materialized into the Evenfey I thought we had killed. Swinging its naked skull toward the gash of darkness, it raised both arms as if welcoming something home.
“It is open,” the Evenfey breathed. “Evenfall has come. At last, after so many centuries, we can return home.” Its hollow eyes turned to me. “Unseelie prince,” it whispered, “you have my eternal gratitude. For destroying what the Lady accomplished so long ago. My apologies for the deception, but you played your part better than I could have imagined.”
Rage flooded me, and the power of the Unseelie flared to full strength. The Evenfey let out a chuckle that sounded like bone chips rattling against each other. “It’s addicting, isn’t it, Unseelie?” the faery whispered. “The rage, and the power that comes with it. Only the rulers of Faery, or a fey with equivalent magic, could have any hopes of breaking the seal. You are not a king, but your anger was inspiring. And now, the way to Evenfall is open at last, all thanks to you.”