Silence reigned.

  The trees had gone still. I didn’t even dare breathe. The only sound was the heart-clenching drip… drip… of Royce’s blood.

  Durst wouldn’t knock. And the townsfolk… it wouldn’t make sense for any of them to come all the way out here, in the midst of whatever chaos besieged Fellbrook, and just politely tap on our front door.

  I knelt beside my friend, eyes transfixed on the door. I couldn’t seem to move.

  The knock came again. Once, twice, three times… soft but insistent.

  Perhaps it would think no one was home. Perhaps it would leave. Perhaps Durst would come and kill it, and help me, and know how to help Royce, and perhaps everything would be alright.

  Drip. Drip. Drip.

  I found myself pleading silently up at my friend. Please wake up. Please open your eyes. I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to save you.

  My mother’s letter had said that I would be beautiful, clever, and brave. The thought twisted through my mind like a distant dream; here, trembling in a pool of my best friend’s blood, I felt quite the opposite of all those things.

  “Excuse me.”

  I pressed myself against the chair. The voice was muffled, masculine, and horrifyingly unfamiliar.

  The front door creaked open.

  And there, framed by distant firelight, was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.

  He was tall and slender, robed in dark fabric that shimmered like a river in the night. A curtain of shoulder-length, raven-black hair framed moonlight-pale skin and eyes the color of starlight. There was an aquiline nose, sharp cheekbones, a graceful jaw, and full lips as red as a lush rose.

  I buried my face against the soaked crimson rags. I was going to die, right here in my kitchen. Slaughtered like a helpless animal. Not beautiful or clever, and certainly not brave.

  I’m so sorry, Royce. I couldn’t save you. Mom, I’m sorry I wasn’t what you thought I’d be. Durst… please be okay. You have to be okay.

  It was a long time before he spoke. And then, in a voice like velvet, “I don’t mean to intrude, but I seem to have lost my dog.”

  Silence crawled through the house. The phrase, such a shockingly mundane thing to say, made me turn and look up at him in disbelief.

  “W-w-what?”

  The Fae stepped inside. “I don’t mean to interrupt this… moment,” he waved a hand towards Royce, sculpted nose wrinkling, “You’re clearly having. It’s very touching, I’m sure. But I’m looking for my pet.”

  I didn’t respond, other than to stifle another sob.

  After some time he gave an irritated sigh and continued, “He’s about this tall, likes to step in and out of the shadows, and… mm…” The Fae took a deep breath, his attention drifting towards the hallway. He pondered for a moment, then looked at Royce and added wryly, “Might be covered in blood.”

  This was it, then. A Fae monster was going to execute me because I’d been party to the death of his pet. The wildness of the situation made me bold enough to finally speak.

  “I’m… I’m sorry, y-your… it attacked us.” I gestured feebly towards my bedroom. He didn’t look, just fixed me with a fierce glare. “W-we… it tried to kill us. The… the trees… they… he’s outside.”

  Perhaps I could run past him, to the safety of the witchwood. Perhaps they could skewer him just like the hound. But… that would mean leaving Royce.

  I couldn’t leave Royce.

  Two languid steps and the Fae was beside me. A floral smell filled my nose as he knelt.

  I cringed but kept my arms firmly pressed over Royce’s leg.

  “He attacked you? Mortal, I don’t have time for half-truths. Try again.”

  Blood roared through my ears. He was too close, too real, I couldn’t breathe… I closed my eyes. Turned my face away. Babbled. “That’s… that’s wh-what happened. He came into my room, the bed, it was terrible and…. I’m sorry, we didn’t… m-mean for him to die. Please don’t… please don’t hurt us.”

  Silence. I drew in ragged breaths. Counted my final heartbeats.

  “Hurt you?” Warm breath washed over my skin as he chuckled. “How dour. I have a better idea. This… poor man is clearly very dear to you.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I dared to open my eyes. His voice was soft. Gentle. Curling around me like smoke. And that perfect face, so close to mine...

  I should recoil, I knew. I should be terrified. And deep down I was, but… he was so beautiful…

  “Would you like me to save him?”

  My heart stopped. “What?”

  The rose-red mouth bloomed into an enticing smile. The teeth behind it were milk-white, straight, and perhaps just a bit sharp.

  “Would you like me to save him?”

  A hand under my chin, cool and strong. And those eyes, just a breath from mine. This close, I could see that they were not silver but rather an endless, depthless black, scattered with pinpricks of pale light. It was like gazing into a clear night sky adorned with stars.

  Fathomless, beyond beautiful, and I was falling into them…

  “You just need to help me find something,” he purred.

  “Help… you?” I slurred, swaying. The smell of roses filled my head. My hands slid off of Royce. Glass tore at my palms. Heat blossomed in my chest and I jerked backwards, shaking my head. It felt like I’d woken from a deep sleep. I staggered to my feet.

  “S-stay back!” I raised my hands, as if to ward him away. Blood dripped down my palms.

  He stood. Those captivating, otherworldly eyes narrowed to dark slits. “Curious. Is it a binding or simple generosity,” he spat the word like a curse, “That bolsters you?”

  My back hit our pantry door. My head spun with the image of an endless night sky. “I… I don’t know what you’re t-talking about.”

  He stepped towards me and for a moment I saw, as if out of the corner of one eye, shadows looming behind him, above him… shadows that swallowed up the moonlight, that stretched away forever and ever...

  I gasped and they disappeared.

  “I have no patience for lies.”

  “I’m not… please, I don’t know what you mean!”

  Another step. Behind him, Royce slumped fully out of the chair. He hit the floor with a heavy thud.

  The Fae’s sculpted face grew thoughtful. “Perhaps my language is… inadequate. What is the term your kind uses? Pact? Covenant?”

  I gave my head a confused shake, unable to look away from my fallen friend.

  He gave a sharp sigh. “Use words, human. Does that gesture mean you don’t know the term, or that it is not your condition?”

  I managed to drag my gaze back towards the Fae. His jaw was clenched. It looked like whatever patience he had was wearing thin.

  “I don’t…” I sucked in a deep breath. He had said he could save Royce. Perhaps there was a way to help my friend, after all. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be… difficult.” I took a brave step forwards. “P-please, you said you could help him… I’ll answer your questions if you… s-save him.”

  My voice cracked. I felt hot tears begin to drip down my cheeks. But I managed to meet the Fae’s gaze, even managed to lift my chin a bit.

  He seemed to consider my words.

  “Please,” I whispered. “He’s my best friend.”

  He took another step forward, and this time I held my ground. Those full, red lips parted in something between a smile and a sneer; predatory and dangerous and very, very pleased.

  “Aren’t you bold, human? Very well, we have a deal.”

  Something cold coiled through my insides. It felt like a snake was curling itself around my chest, squeezing… I fell to my knees with a cry.

  The Fae watched, mouth curved into a cruel smile. Then he turned towards Royce and twisted one hand, as if beckoning something forwards. Moonlight spilled in through the windows, through the open door, bathing the kitchen in silver and washing over Royce. The horrible, cold sensation stopped just as quickly as it had started. I rushed past the Fae to kneel beside my fallen friend.

  He was fine.

  Perfectly fine.

  His trousers and shirt were torn and flooded with blood, but beneath the ruined fabric there was only smooth, tanned skin. His eyes remained closed, but his face was peaceful. His broad chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. I sobbed in relief.

  The Fae chuckled. “How easily dazzled you humans are. And now, to my questions.”

  I rose, swallowing the sudden lump in my throat. I hadn’t thought this far ahead. What if I simply didn’t have the answers to whatever it was he wanted to know? Would my life, and Royce’s, then be forfeit?

  “I might not… know everything.”

  He scoffed. “Indeed.”

  My face, doubtlessly smeared with blood and tears, grew warm. “That wasn’t… I mean that I-”

  “What Fae have you met?”

  My brows knotted together. I blinked at him.

  He stared back. Waiting.

  Finally I answered, “Well… um, you?”

  It was his turn to blink. His expression grew dark. “I am not amused, human.”

  I spread my hands helplessly. “I’m not trying to… I’ve never met a Fae before. At least, not before your… pet.”

  He cupped his chin in one palm, head tilting. “Well. You’re either astoundingly oblivious… or you’re a very good liar.”

  “It’s the first one,” I muttered. Heat bolted up my throat.

  Silence snaked through the kitchen once more. I started to twist my fingers together, a nervous habit I’d had since childhood, then flinched at the immediate flush of pain.

  He slipped one hand into a deep pocket and pulled out something sharp, golden-hued, and luminous with warm light. Something I’d seen countless times before.

  I could even see chips of polished white rock still clinging to its edges. Had he ripped it from the statue in town? I shuddered at the thought of what terrible strength it would take to tear away part of the stone.

  He examined the glowing weapon fragment, eyes glittering with a thousand pinpricks of gold in its light.

  “This is a relic of your quaint town’s history.” His gaze flicked up, capturing mine. “I trust you are intelligent enough to know at least that.”

  I nodded.

  He slowly twisted the shard this way and that, so that its edges caught the moonlight and gleamed.

  “Good. Then the gravity of my words should not be lost on you when I say that history is about to repeat itself.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. Ashes, what did that mean?! As I was reeling he walked forward. His fathomless eyes were fixed on my face, curious and intent, searching for… something.

  “And so my next question is this; why did my pet attack your friend?”

  “Why… what does that have to do with history-?” I drew back, hands wringing at the hem of my nightdress. Another surge of pain. I whimpered.

  “Explain the circumstances,” he murmured, now only a breath away, “Around why my dutiful hound enacted such violence upon your friend.” His voice was low. Commanding. Steel beneath the velvet. “The truth, this time.”

  And there it was again; that endless shadow behind him. Swallowing up the room, the light, the air. My heart pounded wildly.

  “I’m waiting.”

  “I…” I lifted my chin. “I already told you. Your d-dog came into the house. Into my bedroom. My friend was trying to s-save me. And then the trees…” I shuddered at the memory.

  He seemed to consider this, lips pursed. “He went into your bedchamber?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hm. And do you happen to have something… hidden away in your bedchamber? A most precious gift, perhaps?”

  I blanched, immediately thinking of the runebook. A precious gift, indeed, and undoubtedly a very powerful one. My gaze fell to the sun-bright steel in his hand. Part of something that had killed a powerful Fae.

  Was that it, then; why he was asking me strange questions instead of just slaughtering me? He’d said he was trying to find something. Something that might pose a threat? Was this horrible, blood-soaked night, just a… a scouting mission, of sorts? It made a terrifying kind of sense.

  The Fae had me cornered. I met his eyes and shook my head in earnest denial.

  He seemed to read the look on my face anyways. He smiled triumphantly, then spun away.

  I didn’t even have time to protest as he swept towards the hallway. And he didn’t make it more than three steps before a lustrous silver arrow sank into his back.