Night Vision (6 page)

By the time we finished hashing out matters, it was too late to do much, but I wasn’t tired. Grieve took my hand and led me outside. Here, behind the barriers of the portals, at least Winter wasn’t gripping us in her icy claws.

Grieve’s skin had an olive undertone, and his features were alien and yet exotic. But his eyes…his eyes had always captured me. When I was young, they’d been cornflower blue. That had changed when Myst conquered Lainule’s land, bloodied the Barrow, and killed and enslaved hundreds of the Cambyra Fae. She’d turned my beloved Grieve into one of the Vampiric Fae. She had drunk him down.

Like all Fae turned by either the vampires or the Indigo Court, Grieve had not died. Instead, he recovered, stronger than the vampires, stronger than the Fae. He’d become part of the Indigo Court, and his eyes had turned deep black, like the true vampires, but scattered with the sparkling stars marking the Indigo Court.

Only we’d managed to reverse some of the hold that
Myst had on him. Although still a dangerous predator, at least he was no longer at the mercy of the constant bloodlust that drove the Shadow Hunters. He was my Wounded King. But his eyes would never be blue again.

Most of the birds were silent by midnight, but the animals of the Summer realm were out and about, and we could hear them slipping through the woods around us. A snake slithered past and it suddenly occurred to me that, once we took our place in the realm of Winter, we wouldn’t see snakes again. Or the giant banana slugs that inhabited the forests of the Pacific Northwest from spring to fall. Or robins, returning for the spring. A deep sense of loss began to sink through me, and I lowered myself onto a fallen snag covered with moss and mushrooms.

Grieve sat beside me, picking up my mood. I leaned my head against his shoulder, breathing in the scent of bonfires and rainstorms and chill autumn nights. He wrapped his arm around me and kissed the top of my head.

“How are you holding up? I know the training is coming fast, and it’s not easy. But soon we’ll be married and you’ll be my Queen. We’re going to make it this time around, Cicely.” He nuzzled my neck, and I caught my breath.

Grieve held my heart hostage with love, and he knew how to make me respond in a way no one had ever been able to before. He freed me to soar.

I caught his hand and brought it to my lips, kissing his fingers. “I hope you’re right. This lifetime hasn’t been much easier than the last.” Grieve and I were bound by a love that spanned lifetimes, soul-bound by a potion taken long ago when I was Myst’s daughter and he was crown prince of the Summer realm. We’d been Cherish and Shy then, and in the end, our love had gotten us killed.

“I felt Lannan, yesterday, sliming on you.” Grieve kicked a rock near the stump. “Someday…I will kill him.”

“But not today. And not tomorrow. We need him, still. And remember, he no longer holds my contract. Now that
I’m Queen-Elect, I don’t have to submit to him. Let it go, for now. Let it be.” I didn’t want to think about Lannan. “Tell me about the Golden Isle—where Lainule and Wrath are going.”

Grieve let out a long sigh and stroked my hair back away from my face. “The Golden Isle lies long distant, in the mists. It is the homeland of the Cambyra Fae. Where we began. Where
all
of the Sidhe come from. We are born in body to this world now…though millennia ago, we were born in the Golden Isle first and then emigrated here. And when we die, when we begin to fade, we return to the Golden Isle. The islands are not paradise, but rather secluded, away from all other realms.”

I pressed my lips together, thinking. After a moment, I gave him a sideways glance. “Lainule is dying, isn’t she? Even though we found her heartstone. Tell me the truth. I need to know.”

Grieve slowly nodded. “Yes. Once you reunite a queen with her heartstone, she begins to age in this world. Only by returning to the Golden Isle will she live out her natural life span.” He looked like he wanted to say something but then shook his head.

“What is it?” I poked him gently in the side. “Tell me. No secrets!”

His dark eyes, with the swirling stars, turned toward me. “You do realize that as long as your heartstone stands and you are not murdered, you will not die. Becoming Queen, going through the initiation, will make you effectively immortal.”

The forest echoed with silence. I closed my eyes, trying to wrap my head around what he was saying, but it seemed so huge, so immense, that there was no way of comprehending the full extent of what I’d gotten myself into.

I hung my head. “On a logical level, yes, I think I knew that. But it still hasn’t hit me, yet—what this all means. Not in my gut. So much has happened in such a short time that I’m reeling with the changes. Sometimes I take a breath
and wonder if this is all a dream. A prolonged nightmare…” I touched his hand. “Most of it, that is. Not you. You’re the dream come true.”

He entwined his fingers through mine. “When Myst took over the Barrow and routed our people…when she turned me…the only thing that kept me going was the hope you would return. That something would end the eternal winter. I know now that I can never return to who I was. I was born to rule the land of Summer, I know it in my heart. And now, I must take to Winter’s throne. But it’s all right, because you will be there with me. And thanks to Luna, and her sister—Zoey—I can control the Shadow Hunter in my soul.”

Bringing my hand to his lips, he grazed my wrists, nipping gently and tasting the blood that flowed. His tongue played gently over my skin and I closed my eyes, reveling in his touch.

“Do you really believe that this time, we’ll get our happy ending?”

When he brought his gaze up to meet mine, his dark smile widened. “I hope so, my love. Finally, after all the years…I hope so.”

Long ago, there was a vampire named Geoffrey. Only his name wasn’t Geoffrey at the time. But he had a yen for power, and he was determined to take over the Vampire Nation. His reasoning went thus: Turn the Dark Fae, and the result—the Vampiric Fae—would be under his control, with both their own powers and those of the vampires. And it would make him stronger and more powerful and he could throw down the Crimson Queen and take the throne for himself.

Only it didn’t work the way he thought it would.

First mistake: He picked the wrong person to turn. He sought out Myst, who wasn’t the Unseelie Queen, who wasn’t even the Winter Queen of the area, but who thought herself a likely candidate. She had a thirst for power of her
own and wasn’t one to knuckle under someone else’s rule. She agreed to the bargain, and—being the brilliant leader she was—she let Geoffrey think she would go willingly into his control.

Second mistake: When Geoffrey turned her, he didn’t count on the fact that turning the Cambyra doesn’t result in the same end as turning a yummanii. He fed on her to the point of death, and then she fed on him. So far, so good, as far as the vampires were concerned.

But Myst didn’t die.
Myst didn’t die, and she didn’t respond to Geoffrey as her sire, as one of the yummanii would.

Instead, she began to heal. And her healing was fast and furious. As she returned to life, she changed. She rose from her deathbed, dark and terrible with black eyes filled with stars. Her skin took on a cerulean glow. And her powers were greater than the sum of both her heritage and Geoffrey’s.

Myst rose from her deathbed and fed on the vampires keeping watch over her—draining them dry of both blood and energy. And then she turned those of her own kind, and so the Indigo Court was born, and the war between the vampires and the Indigo Court took hold.

But the Vampiric Fae had one up on the true vampires: They could breed. And the first child born to Myst was a daughter named Cherish.

And Cherish…was me.

Fast-forward to centuries later. A new land—one uninhabited except by a tribal culture who could not fight those of us belonging to the Indigo Court.

I was out for a morning walk when I smelled fresh prey on the wind. Summer grass and apples, oak moss and sunlight…and so I pounced. But my prey—a gorgeous young Cambyra prince named Shy—caught hold of me by the heart. A bond formed almost immediately, one we could neither explain nor deny. And so we ran away together, but our people followed, both sides furious. They hunted us down, and at the end, before they could kill us, we drank a
potion to bind our souls and reunite us in a future life. We died in each other’s arms.

And so, here we are. Brought together by a love forged long, long ago.

But Myst is rising to power. And behind her swarm the Shadow Hunters—the Vampiric Fae of the Indigo Court. We’ve slaughtered hundreds of them, but they are regrouping. They flock to their mistress, monstrous creatures who turn into ravaging beasts, who bite to the bone, chewing muscle and gristle, reveling in the blood of the fallen, siphoning the life force away from all they capture.

Maybe this time around, Grieve and I can put an end to it. Maybe we
can
have our happy ending, and help out the world, too. At least, that’s the plan.

“We need to sleep, love.” Grieve stroked my face. “You promised to help Luna and Peyton up at the house tomorrow.”

I nodded. “Give me a few minutes, would you? I want to take a moment by myself.”

“Be careful, then. I will wait for you by the Barrow.” Grieve kissed the top of my hand, then took off. I waited till he rounded the curve in the path before turning toward the Twin Oaks that formed the portal leading to the outer world.

A noise behind me made me stop, and I quickly spun around to find myself facing Check, one of the guards assigned to keeping an eye on me. I recognized him from when we routed the Shadow Hunters from the Barrow.

“Your Highness, please, don’t go out there alone.” He moved to my side and gazed down at me, a soft smile playing on his lips. All the men in Lainule’s service were gorgeous—and his eyes were the same cornflower blue that Grieve’s had once been. He was wearing leather armor, and a long sword by his side glistened with silver trim.

I paused, not wanting to cause him distress. “Check, you know that I’m not full-blooded Cambyra. Does that bother you? Do you mind that I’ll be taking the throne?”

He frowned, then cocked his head. “No, Your Ladyship. I think…the days are over when the Cambyra can hide from the world. And someone who is born to both worlds might just be the way to forge that merger.”

“Then, as you state, since I am not entirely from the Cambyra world, things will change. And one thing that has to change is that I won’t live my life locked away in a tower. I’ll take on the robes, I’ll move to the Barrow, I’ll lead the people in the best way that I can, but I won’t be a prisoner. I’ll be cautious.” I stopped and smiled at him. “I’ll be good. I won’t try to ditch the guards. But I come from the world out there. And I need to come and go as I please. Do you understand?”

He cracked another smile. “I think I do, my Lady. But understand my sacred duty—I cannot let you go alone, not and mind my conscience. Please forgive me, but I plan on escorting you, and Fearless as well.”

His companion stepped from behind a nearby tree. Fearless was as good as his name. Grieve had told me that he was paired with Check because Check always kept him in balance. They were both brave, and true to the Court of Rivers and Rushes. If anybody was going to protect me, I knew they would.

“The former Regent still walks abroad, and it is the night, when he will be waking,” Check whispered, leaning closer.

That decided me. This was as far as I could sanely push the matter. Either they went with me, or I went back to the Barrow, because even though I chafed at the restraints, the truth was—Geoffrey and Leo were out to wreak havoc on us. And Myst was out to kill us. And I couldn’t count on any place being truly safe at this point.

“Thanks, Check. I’d…appreciate the company.” I led the way to the portal, although when we got there, Check slipped in front of me and insisted on going through first. I gratefully stepped back and let him.

The energy of the portal was like a brilliant, sparkling vortex, and I was slowly getting used to it. As I emerged
from the net of magic between the Twin Oaks, I saw that Check was kneeling on the ground about ten yards ahead, examining the snow. The look on his face was one of worry.