But in each one, there was alwayshim. The leader of the light fae rebels, who lived in a forgotten city on the other side of the chasm.
Because he was masked and cloaked, I could tell little about him. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and gruff. His wavy dark hair fell to his shoulders, and his eyes were the color of ice. Not that I’d ever seen ice, other than in my dreams. The snowy hilltops were nothing more than a figment of my imagination as far as I was concerned. I’d never see any of that in person.
That night, my dreams took me to a shadowy forest where fireflies twinkled in the deepening dusk. No sunlight here. I always found it odd, like I was looking at something unreal. Which was just as well. These were only dreams, after all. A way for the captain to communicate with me.
“What happened?” he asked from his perch on the wide limb of an evergreen tree. The mossy needles drooped around him, transforming his figure into a gathering of shadows. Even though I couldn’t see much of him, my heart still pounded, curiosity pulling me toward him like coiling string. “You didn’t show up at the drop-off tonight.”
We always met at the wooden wall at the base of the mountains behind Teine. He stayed on one side while I was trapped on the other. I passed him the gemstones by shoving them through a hole in the wood. As a fae, he couldn’t cross the bridge to mine the stones himself. That invisible wall of power kept him out.
“The king caught me.” I hugged my arms to my chest, remembering the look of pure rage on King Oberon’s face, and the warnings that had come after.
His head snapped toward me. Those glittering eyes raked across my body as if searching for answers. Heat brushed my cheeks. “What?”
“He caught me at the chasm and took the jewels,” I said. “I had nothing to give you tonight, and I thought it best not to meet, just in case he has someone watching me. We can try again in a few weeks when he’s forgotten about it. How many more gemstones do you need to banish the mists?”
Even though I could not see his face, not even his lips or his chin, I could have sworn he frowned by the way the corners of his eyes twitched down. “This makes little sense. The king would not let you go if he caught you stealing his gemstones.”
The captain stood and strode toward me, his billowing cloak and elaborate mask hiding his face from view, except for those piercing blue eyes that bored holes into my skin. Anger churned in the depths of them. My blood chilled. I’d seen that anger from him before but never directed toward me.
“This isn’t good, Tessa.” His deep voice rolled over me. “Oberon does not allow rebellion in his kingdom.”
“Trust me, I know,” I whispered, a memory of Father’s head flashing in my mind. I’d never told the captain about what had happened six years ago. We didn’t talk about those kinds of thing. It was the gemstones and nothing else. Any time I asked him something personal, he turned the conversation around. “I’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“You put yourself in danger every time you go into that chasm. I always worry,” he murmured.
Tension crackled between us as he gazed down at me. A soft wind rustled my hair and blew a few strands into my eyes. The captain reached out toward me with a gloved hand. My breath caught in my throat. With fae-like grace, he brushed the hair behind my shoulder. Everything within me coiled tight.
For a moment, I forgot all about the king.
But then the captain shook his head and stepped back. “Oberon will never let this be. He’ll be angry about what you did. If he hasn’t done something yet, he will. You need to get out of—”
Suddenly, I was jolted out of my dream by hands wrapped around my shoulders, shaking me. I blinked away the image of the forest. My mother’s concerned face hovered over me, her golden hair a mess of curls that fell into her eyes.
My insides churned, worry spiking through me.
“Mother?” I whispered up at her. “What’s going on?”
Had the king come for me already?
“You were thrashing and mumbling in your sleep. Tessa, my love, you were having another nightmare.”
I relaxed against the pillows. Thank the light. “Oh. I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“Don’t you be sorry.” She pressed my damp hair away from my forehead. “You can’t help these horrible nightmares of yours.”
But what she did not know was that my dreamtime visit with the fae’s rebel leader wasn’t the true horror. If anything, it was my only escape. The nightmare was this. Being here, trapped in this place by the fae king who would one day, sooner or later, destroy me any way he could.
Four
Kalen
Tessa was in danger.
Throwing my legs over the side of my bed, I snatched a pale gray gemstone from the collection I always carried with me. I went to the hearth and knelt before the fire, the heat stroking my face. Tessa had been stealing for me for months and nothing worrying had happened until now. I’d grown complacent.
Too complacent.
I held the gemstone above the flames with metal tongs. After a moment, dark lines crawled across the smooth surface until the entire jewel turned black. The power of the stone thrummed, calling to me, waiting for a name.