I whirled around, dagger at the ready. There stood a man. Well, he wasn’t a human man, that I was certain of. I’d never seen anyone with what I could only describe as a silver-blue skin color. He moved toward me with a graceful walk that also didn’t belong to a human. Almost as if he glided rather than walked. Long fingers pushed stray, pure white hair out of his unnaturally perfect face and his black-eyed stare made my skin crawl.
Taz appeared at my side ready to continue the fight. “Your pets stole my friend’s belongings.”
Everything about this man was so foreign I couldn’t look away. “And what are your pets exactly?” I wanted to ask what he was but I didn’t want to make an instant enemy by insulting the man.
“They are imps,” he replied in a voice like rushing water. With a small wave of his silver ringed fingers, the ice on the imp holding my sword hostage, melted. The creature growled at me and scurried toward its master. “And they found it under a bush. Who is to say it is yours?”
A huge raven called from a close tree and the man looked over, exposing his pointed ears.
He’s a Fae of some kind. The merfolk said they all had pointed ears. “It is mine. I hid it there and I demand you give it back.”
With a cruel smile he turned his head to face us. “You demand it?”
The fierceness of his voice surprised me. I clenched my hands at my sides, readying my magic. If this man wanted a fight I would be ready. He couldn’t be much worse than a vampire. “That’s what I said. That sword was made especially for me and a gift from my father. I won’t part with it.”
“You are human, you do not demand things of me.” The vibrations of his commanding voice pierced my chest.
I clenched my hand in front of my face and an invisible cord wrapped around his neck, cutting off his air. The tighter I squeezed the less air he’d have. “Give me back what is mine or die.” Before I did it, I knew it would be a mistake, but this man thought he was superior to my kind and I wanted to find out why. Maybe he’d never dealt with a magic-born human before.
His eyes widened at my attack and he grabbed at his throat, searching for something he couldn’t find.
Just when I thought I had the upper hand, a dark mist rolled in out of nowhere, churning around our feet. Then a heavy pressure crushed against my body, a sensation I’d never felt before. Within seconds my head pounded and my lungs couldn’t get enough air. I released my spell and dropped to my hands and knees. My arms and legs couldn’t withstand the force pressing upon me. I collapsed on the ground, my cheek smashed into the dirt. Taz crashed down beside me, his muffled cries startled me further.
“Stop! Please, you can have it. Take my sword.”
The pressure lifted as fast as it had come. I sucked in air but choked on the black mist. I forced myself to my knees, desperate for fresh air. The Fae man grabbed me by my hair and wrenched me to my feet. “I am The Prince of the Winter and Night Courts. I could kill everyone you love with the snap of my fingers and then make you my eternal slave, girl.”
I held in the whimper that threatened when he pulled my hair even tighter.
His menacing black eyes searched my face. “Keep your sword.” His fingers loosened. “And pray to your gods that you never see me again because if you do, you will be in chains.”
The black mist grew to a massive cloud. I coughed into my sleeve, and slammed my burning eyes shut. When the sunlight shined through the darkness and I could breathe again, I dared look. The Fae Prince had vanished, along with his imps. My sword however, remained.
Chapter 6
I snatched up my sword and quickly ran behind a bush to change. My mind flooded with the encounter. The power that man had, his appearance, the creepy creatures I’d never seen or heard of who obeyed him without question. Prince of the Winter and Night Court. Anger and embarrassment burned my cheeks.
“Why don’t we know anything about them!” I shouted at Taz. “Why have we never heard of this court or this blueish skinned being?” I strapped my sword onto my waist and came out into the open. “I didn’t even know people could look like that. And he took both of us down like it was nothing.”
Silently, Taz starred in my direction with unfocused eyes. Probably trying to process it all himself.
“Hello!” I said, smacking his arm.
Blinking, he said, “I don’t know, Vis. I don’t know.”
I marched toward the town. “Zyacus! He needs to know about this.” What if there were more of them here, now? Ready to attack the castle. “No one has seen or heard from what the merfolk call Fae on this land, to my knowledge, and suddenly one shows up at our academy months ago and then this prince attacks us. He probably controlled the birds too.”
Catching up to my side Taz slid his sword back into its holster. “I don’t have any answers but if there are more like him, we are in trouble. Queen Daelyn could contend with him but she’s only one person.”
“I wish he could have stayed around long enough so we could have asked him what he wanted. Why he is here.”
With lowered brows, Taz vigorously shook his head. “No! Stay around? Vis, he could have easily killed us. And he said if you see him again you’d be in chains. His slave.”
“I will never be anyone’s slave,” I bit out. Too long have my people, magic-born been enslaved. I wouldn’t let it happen again.
“No, we will not be slaves,” Taz added. Both of us were
