Ever Fire

Ever Fire (A Dark Faerie Tale #2)

• Title Page
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-one
  
• Chapter Twenty-two
  
• Chapter Twenty-three
  
• Chapter Twenty-four
  
• Epilogue
  

Ever Fire

(A Dark Faerie Tale #2)
 

By

Alexia Purdy

Ever Fire

(A Dark Faerie Tale #2)

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Copyright © 2012 Alexia Purdy

All rights reserved

Published by

Lyrical Lit. Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious and are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, or locales or persons, living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Cover design © Alexia Purdy

Cover stock photos:

© Kristinashu / Dreamstime.com

© Can Stock Photo Inc. / rrosentreter

For my children:
Ethan, Rayven, Maximus, and Elias.
You are all my light in the dark, and I am blessed to have you in my life.
Mommy loves you!!!

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I thank God for everything he has blessed me with. Without his wisdom and guidance, I would not be here.

I want to thank my family and friends. There are so many of you who have cheered me on in times that I wanted to give up and throw the whole thing out the window. Without you, I could not have gone this far. I want to personally thank Amber Tunney; my BFF, whose encouragement and wise words helped me write better and sleep at night. Amy Conley, the best proofreader ever, and whose awesome enthusiasm makes me smile every day. Daniel & Sandy Alcaraz. All our talks and brainstorming helped me immensely, and I am blessed to have you guys in my life. Thank you to Cyndi Stauff for all your advice and help. My cousin Natalia Lopez. I strive to face life with as much life as you. Love you Prima!

I also want to thank my lovely RN coworkers and friends. The list of names is so long, probably as long as this book. Each and every one of you have helped me in one way or another, whether it’s editing, reading my stories, gushing about it, giving me suggestions, or just supporting this starving author. I love all of you. You are the awesome in this world!

Ever Fire

(A Dark Faerie Tale #2)

Chapter One

SHADE’S ONLY THOUGHT
was of running. She let the ground fly under her feet, feeling the dirt shifting with her shoes as they were imprinting themselves into the dark, soft earth. She was not afraid, nor did she have to run. No, she
wanted
to run. The need to feel the air rush past her with its fingers ripping through her hair, and the bushes and leaves whipping on her skin was overwhelming. The fresh earthy air fed her lungs, and the beating of her racing heart was the drummer of the tempo.

Running in the forest had turned into a soothing meditation for her since returning from the Santiran Fountains. It was funny that the woods seemed to have become her sanctuary, even though her adventures in the great outdoors had been no less than scary. She often wondered; since her powers had grown, did it mean that the ‘Faery’ in her now craved the intimacy of nature more and more? Regardless, she enjoyed her daily sprints in the forests around her house.

The solitude gave her time to think. To think about her powers, her life, her future, and her commitments. She had pledged her allegiance to the Guildrin Clan, a Seelie Court of Faeries. Shade hadn’t realized how much allying oneself with Faeries would involve, but for now she was happy that it did involve a lot of magical training, weapons training, fight training, and the history of the Fey lessons. It was a ‘Fey University’ of sorts. Her brain was often fried and required her to use her daily runs to recharge it.

*****

SHADE’S REFLECTION STARTLED
her in the dismal dark of night. The mirrored closet doors reversed the room enough to make her wonder where the heck she was. Blinking, she rubbed her face and let her eyes adjust to the dim twilight. She let her breathing slow to a more calming rate as her heart slowed its frantic flutter. It was just another nightmare to wake her from her sleep. They had become more and more frequent since returning from the long journey across Faerie. The dangers she had endured to retrieve a powerful Santiran Water Magic for Queen Zinara of the Guildrin Seelie Court had left its mark. She wasn’t exactly sure what had triggered the nightmares, but the delirium of sleeplessness was getting old fast.

The soft tap on her door as it slowly creaked open made her jump again.

“Shade, are you alright?” Dylan’s whisper floated across the room to her. His hair was growing out and lay in dark wisps across his left eye. His piercing blue-grey eyes seemed to glow in the dim twilight, and flashed about the room as if scanning for disturbances. She lay back, relieved to see the Faerie guard. Dylan waited patiently as she reached over to click the nightstand light on.

“Yes, Dylan, I’m fine. Just another bad dream.” She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Her hair was a messy chestnut tangle that snarled around her shoulders. She watched Dylan as he gave her a slight nod and retreated, clicking the door shut behind him. She wondered how it was that he always knew when something was going on with her. He just seemed to be there, immediately, every time. Of course being so near and down the hall at her house did seem to have something to do with it.

Her mom had been cool when Shade brought him home and introduced him as her new friend from school, who needed a place to stay so he could graduate from their high school. They had played it off like his family was moving for his father’s work and he didn’t want to change schools. Dylan had appeared as innocent as a teenage boy could appear. He had used his glamour and charms on her mother. Somehow it had worked, and Shade’s mom had agreed to let him stay. Her mother wasn’t naïve; she had her hawk eyes on them constantly, but she seemed to loosen up after a few weeks had gone by without any kind of ‘incident’.

Shade smiled at the thought. Dylan did make her heart jump with a flip or two when he was nearby, but they had not really had much time together since returning from the journey. School graduation, parties, and high school friends had sucked up her time like leaches. Ultimately, it had kept their conversations to a minimum, but that hadn’t kept her from dragging him along to every function. He hadn’t found them quite to his liking, but he had been too curious to admit that he really hadn’t minded going with her that much and seeing what went on at the parties. At the very least, he liked to be near her. She was glad her mother hadn’t objected when Dylan had asked to stay longer, probably for the whole summer. Her mother had just nodded and smiled while moving about her day as usual.

Shade reached over and clicked her lamp off, robbing the room of light. Blinking, she let her eyes adjust to the night glow that slowly drizzled in from the streetlights outside. Wiggling down into her bed, she pulled her pillow under her head and sighed. The sweet warmth and softness of her bed beckoned her back into the lull of sleep. She silently prayed that the nightmares would stay away, at least for tonight.

Chapter Two

“
YOU KNOW, YOU
could come with me,” Brisa, Shade’s friend, inquired. “I don’t have a roommate yet. You don’t have to stay in this ho-hum town Shade. Why the hell would you want to stay here anyway?”

Brisa pushed the bowl of chips towards Shade. She grabbed a handful and munched on the salty bits. Shade was trying to avoid Brisa’s constant badgering. She had told Brisa everything that had happened in Faerie, but it was all so beyond her that it was no surprise that she didn’t understand why Shade wanted to stay. Brisa was headed to UCLA after the summer was over and Shade had decided to stay put in their hometown and attend the local community college. Well maybe, she hadn’t really decided on what she wanted to do with her life quite yet. Finding out you’re a part-Fey Changeling, along with being a fire-resistant human does kind of change things a lot.

“Look Shade, I know you want to go and ‘find yourself’ and all, but you have to come with me. What am I gonna do without my BFF to rule the campus alongside me?” Brisa stared back at her. Shade’s silence was more than she could bear. Brisa sighed while grabbing her sketchbook and pen. Her eyebrows furrowed as she scratched the pen on the paper. She didn’t know what to draw; she just knew she had to draw something when she was frustrated.

“Brisa, I can’t go, you know that. There is so much I don’t know about everything right now, and I can’t find out anything about myself if I’m hundreds of miles away from here. I have to do this, for my own protection at the very least.” Shade crossed her arms and let her head drop back onto the edge of the bed as she sat on the floor. She didn’t feel so vulnerable and open there. Closing her eyes, she took a breath in and tried to think of something else they could talk about. The tension between them wasn’t so bad, but it got thicker whenever Brisa tried to lure her out of the city. It just wasn’t going to happen right now.

“I really wish you would change your mind,” Brisa mumbled back. “I just don’t think that staying is what you should do. It’s dangerous out there. Why would you want to risk yourself in the lands of Faerie? I sure as heck wouldn’t want to. You hated it out there, remember? All the dirt, bugs and crap! What did it get you? An array of scars and some really sore muscles. Plus you almost got yourself killed, not once, but several times! Come to college with me, it’s nice and safe.” Brisa was furiously scratching at her drawing pad now, her olive complexion burning red in frustration.

“Brisa, I wish you could understand. It’s really weird, but even though I hated it out in the wild during that journey, now I feel compelled to go there. Maybe I draw my energy from the land... I told you that my powers were stronger in Faerie than they are here. I guess it’s something I need to be near.” Shade slumped as she yawned and stretched, already sick of the subject.

“Well, at least that Dylan guy is pretty cute,” Brisa said as she gave Shade a smug grin. “It might be worth it if everyone in Faerie looked that good. So, is he like your boyfriend now or what? You take him to all the parties, but you definitely don’t get all touchy-feely with him. What’s going on with you two?” Brisa chewed on a sour twist candy she had swiped from Shade’s nightstand as she waited for an answer.

Shade sighed. Pressing her lips tight, she could feel her face run scarlet. “No. For your information, Dylan is
not
my boyfriend. He’s like my bodyguard; He’s bound to protect me since his brother tried to kill me. It was the only way Queen Gretel of the Teleen clan would let Darren live. Otherwise, he was screwed. I have to figure out how to dissolve this bind before anything else too. I can’t have a Teleen Warrior ‘guarding’ my body all the time. Especially not at college, though I do really like him.” Brisa giggled and made smooching noises with her lips. Shade just rolled her eyes.