I did not want tofeel. I deserved the lonely, lifeless exile I now lived. And this unknown shifter, with his gorgeous body and alluring gold eyes, was threatening my very non-existent life with his intoxicating power.
Power, unlike anything I had come across from any other court of fae. From the stubborn fae elementals with their ability to wield earth, fire, wind, and spirit, to the siren singing water fae that controlled the riverways, the tides, and all ocean life, I thought I had seen it all in my two thousand and twelve years.
Even the shifters, with their vast strength, quick speed, and lethal predator instincts never manifested power quite like him…as far as I knew.
Consuming in its hot need, it called to me.
I shook my head to clear my senses. I was a shadow fae. My power was cold, glacial, and infinite. I had no need for this burning hot power. The last of my kind, the shadow fae once controlled all the dormant shadows of this world and manipulated them as we saw fit. We controlled the night.
I frowned. This shifter was pure limitless light.
“Perhaps he has evolved?” I waved my hand, talking to the shadows that appeared beside me. Floating with satisfaction from their fae meal.
Immortal life had a way of preventing stagnant eternity, although we still were classified by our courts, some of our powers had morphed to become uniquely individual. Our previous queen could control all four elements, my mother had the power of foresight, it was said even the shifter king of old had the power to see truth, making him an admired leader. My own had evolved as well, with the ability to see auras of fae around me. I read their souls just as easily as I took them.
“I wonder what his aura is like.” I glanced at them, watching them swirl happily. “You agree then? One little peek shouldn’t hurt?”
Their smokey tendrils bobbed excitedly.
“Except that's what you said about those shifters and their auras just about made me throw up in my mouth.”
The shadows shimmered in a laughing manner that almost seemed mocking.
“You’re insinuating I’m a coward. You didn’t see what I did.” Shaking my head at them, I turned to the shifter. “This better be worth it.”
Peering deeply at the last shifter alive in this camp I engaged my sight only to find myself gasping and stumbling backwards by the blinding light emanating from his very soul. Swirls of shining, glittering, golden light surrounded him in a perfect halo so bright that it was almost white in nature.
Sharply, I turned away, clutching at my chest to steady my racing heart and switching off my aura sight. His soul…goddess his soul was beautiful. The color was divine in nature with the mark of the ascended and in mere seconds, it cracked the monstrous darkness surrounding my own in its fiery blaze.
The shadows draped around me and I clutched at their darkness, spinning in confusion to face his unconscious form again, seeing him now in a whole new way.
My gaze raked over his bronze sculpted body, caked in dried layers of blood. Strong wide shoulders outlined a tall frame, and the nakedness of his chest revealed every delicious cut of newly healed muscle. His pants hung deliciously low off his hips, baring the provocative chiseled v of his abdominals down to his strong dark brown leather encased legs.
He was irrevocably the very definition of fae and I found myself enraptured by the very presence of him. For the first time, I understood what it was to be ensnared by our kind… much like all the humans of Earth who came in contact with us.
Humans were a plaything for the fae in their immortal boredom and we had manipulated their culture for centuries. From Atlantis and mermaids stemming from the water fae, legends of werewolves originating from the shifters, the fear of vampires from the long extinguished blood fae, even the stories of dragons, enchanted swords, gigantic sea creatures…it was all fae. Of course there were also a select fae who craved human worship and thus legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann were created.
I drew the shadows closer to me. Those times were over now. The gateways to other worlds and even realms within our own world had been sealed shut one hundred years ago.
Morta.
The day I destroyed our queen, murdered our people, and leveled the capital city of Faerie.
All that was left of the fae now were a scattered few elementals within the continent, the water fae hiding in their mysterious watery depths of The Under, and the shifters across the vast ocean in The West Isles.
Isolated, we lived out the rest of our lives within a massive world without the hope of ever having a legacy of our own. The curse prevented us from procreating and brought out the savages that laid within.
Without purpose to cull our violent nature we were nothing more than sophisticated animals, miserable in our own existence, killing in boredom, waiting for the day when there was only one of our species left.
A soft touch of shadow brought me back to the forest and I blinked slowly at the unconscious shifter, my lip curling in a silent snarl.
“What is he doing here anyway?” I hissed to the shadows. “They have their own damned continent, with their own murderous king to rule them.”
They were savages. The whole lot of them.
Except this one didn’t feel like a savage. He felt like something…more. More beautiful, more powerful, more commanding, more dominant. I just wanted to bathe in the glory of his shadow like a besotted fool.
Reaching out, I held my breath and cupped his face where the soft stubble of his beard prickled my palm. Only shifters grew body hair. The other courts of fae had no need for it. We were not animals outright.
