1
“A beacon lives here?” I ask, staring up at the rundown building in front of us that humans call an “apartment complex.”
I, Boreas Everfrost, warrior prince of ice and defender of the frost kingdom, have my doubts about coming here at all.
Earth is a lawless place. Savage. Unruled. Undefended for the most part.
But that’s why we’re here.
“Shut up,” Ivar—once prince of light, now given the utterly mundane human name of Ian—strides past me. He’s carrying enough luggage to blow our cover even with the suppressors we’ve been given to keep our magical appearance under wraps.
Not that we’re much different. A little taller. Long hair, as befits a warrior, and of course, pointed ears and gigantic flaming magical wings.
Nothing too intense.
“Perhaps she wants to keep a low profile,” Flint the fire fae, now Flynn, says, cocking his auburn-haired head as he stares at the scenery with me.
I frown in consternation at the faded brick exterior, the sign with its missing letters, and the lawn, which is littered with bare patches and weeds under clumps of dirty snow.
After months in the human world, preparing for my mission, I long for the sparkling, frost-covered palace I call home.
“Come on.” Tynan—once known as commander of darkness, now known only as Tanner—strides by with the rest of the luggage
I glance at the different numbers on the doors as we walk down the hall, marveling at the tight spaces of human living conditions.
Some of the numbers hang down at an angle, lending to the overall dereliction of the place.
From what I’ve seen of the human world, I have no desire to stay here any longer than I have to.
I listen carefully for resonance as I follow the others to our apartment at the end of the hall. If the beacon is as powerful as reported, I should be able to feel something.
I wait, heart pounding, hoping to get a hint of some tiny wisp of magic that could indicate her presence, but nothing.
I don’t even know why I care.
I’m here to stop the chaos princes that have invaded and go back to my kingdom, nothing more. I care not for this world with its lawlessness and its chaos.
Though we can fight off the chaos princes, the chaos infecting every facet of this place will never be vanquished.
If only they had the order of my world.
“Boreas—I mean, Brett—you pompous idiot, get in here and help.” Tanner has finally lost his patience with the luggage.
“This is ridiculous,” I mutter, walking in to help move the boxes around. I sniff the air, scenting a mix of unpleasant aromas I can’t place. “I can’t believe we’re expected to be satisfied with these accommodations.”
Flint shakes his head. “Not all of us live in a sparkling, lofty kingdom of order. This place isn’t so bad.”
I glare at him but bite back the harsh retort on the tip of my tongue. Flynn and I have built a sort of friendship, despite the fact that our kingdoms have hated each other for a very long time.
I walk to the window and look out at the scene as snow falls silently on the dingy streets and cars laden with ice struggle by on the uncleared pavement.
Chaos.
I wave my hand, gently clearing the snow from the walk so no one falls. I pull the snow from the parked cars so they aren’t trapped.
When I see a car sliding helplessly on ice toward a parked car, I gently bring up a barrier of snow to cushion and stop it.
Satisfied I’ve resolved a little of the chaos around me, I’m about to leave the window when something catches the corner of my eye.
A woman has just pulled up to the curb, and she’s now getting out of her car to grab a shovel out of the back of the trunk.
I squint as I stare at her, trying to make out more of her form, but the heavy winter clothing covering almost every inch of her hides her from my eyes.
An odd feeling of frustration wells up in me, and I press both hands to the window as I get closer, staring so hard I can’t seem to blink.
“You are going to look like a psychopath, staring out the window like that,” Ian says, walking up to the glass to look out.
Somehow I feel oddly possessive of the scene and attempt to block his view. But soon, the other fae are joining.
“What’s going on? Is that human shoveling out that other human’s car?” Flynn asks.
“I think so,” Ian says, looking from behind me. “Ah, look, another is helping. Sometimes they can cooperate.”
Tanner glances over darkly, then gets back to unpacking.
He hasn’t been the same since our first fight against a chaos prince in this world.
“Hm, there’s something about the one in the puffy clothing,” Flynn says.
My heart rate increases, and I don’t even know why. I feel a tickling at the ends of my ears, as though my suppressor is failing. My eyes narrow in on the woman…
And it hits me.
Resonance unlike anything I’ve ever felt, ever expected, surges through me, strong enough to knock me on my back if I let it.
I feel my wings break through and surge up just as Flynn jerks me back from the window and Ian curses and shoves the curtains closed.
“Suppressor,” Flynn says, putting out his hand as Tynan throws it to him, landing it in his palm.
I can barely feel the bracelet slipped onto me until the magic starts to abate.
Now I can breathe. My wings retract. My ears go back in.
“He’s going to be using three by the end of this, mark my words,” Tynan says moodily, relaxing against the counter now that the drama is over. His dark eyes glitter as he appraises me.
“That’s just because I’m most powerful,” I say, once I’ve caught my breath. “I can’t help that. Besides, I just felt resonance.”
Flint perks up. “Really?” His auburn hair is mussed from shoving me. “From the woman out there?”
I nod, feeling as if my heart is jumping out of my chest, wanting to join with its match, to begin bonding ourselves to one another.
“I’m going out to meet her,” I say eagerly, striding out into the hall before they can stop me.
I’m in luck because just as I’m headed out into the hallway, she is making her way back inside.
Her deep, fathomless brown eyes meet mine, and a wet lock of dark hair falls from her hood to lie over her forehead. The ridiculous puffy black coat she’s wearing hides her body, but that doesn’t matter to me.
What matters is what I feel inside, the surge of magic, the pulse of my heart as my bonds reach toward my perfect match.
And I’m certain she’ll feel this too. This amazing feeling. This sensation of soaring toward one another as if carried by clouds.
I’m her ideal soul bond, and she’ll know it by the time she gets closer to me.
Will she jump on me when the resonance hits? I prepare myself for the onslaught of her passion, opening my arms wide for her to use me as she likes.
But she stops, taking a step back, eyebrows rising. As the whole world seems to slow around me, I blink, for some reason focusing in on the snowflakes on her brows and lashes.
I can feel the other fae piling out into the hallway to watch my utter humiliation.
She looks like she doesn’t know what to do and takes another step back as I slowly drop my hands, realizing there isn’t going to be any joyful union.