Midnight Star

I tug on the reins. "Up!"

But my gryphon keeps flying straight down. We need to level out. I pull harder, and he surges up, pushing me back in the saddle so fast I lose my grip and fall to the side. My leg catches in a leather strap, and I flip upside down, dangling like a rag doll off the saddle. The gryphon lurches wildly in the sky, confused without his rider guiding him.

I reach for my leg, trying to pull myself up, but my one arm is nearly useless from the cuts and blood, and it's hard to find purchase. I catch my ankle and attempt to leverage myself into a better position, but my bloody hands slips. The leather strap breaks.

And I fall.

The earth rushes up to greet me, and I know in this moment I am going to die. I will be a splat of blood and bone on a world I don't understand.

I close my eyes. I don't want to see when death steals me. Instead, I think of my mother, how she sang to me when I was little. I think of Fen, how his arms felt around me, how tight he held me when he was sleeping.

And then I feel arms around me. Real flesh and blood arms.

I no longer fall. I float through the sky.

I peel my eyes open, his name on my lips. "Fen?"

Asher smiles down at me. "Not quite, love."

***

We fly higher until we land on a cliff far above Air Island. Asher carries me off the black gryphon he guided and sits me down against a silver tree. My arm burns with pain, blood dripping everywhere from my wrist and forearm.

He doesn't speak, just rips strips of cloth off his nice suit and wraps them around my cuts until they stop bleeding. When he's finished, he sits in front of me, his face hard. "You almost died!"

I rub my arm, flinching from the pain. "I'd rather die than be a prisoner."

He pauses, the anger draining from his eyes. He falls back to sit on a stone, the moon bright behind him. "I never wanted you to be a prisoner. I wanted to tell you the truth… have you join the Fae willingly. But my father, he doesn't trust you."

"You don't have to follow him," I say. "You are your own man."

Asher looks at me with more vulnerability than I've ever seen in him. "He's my father. He's the King. He's taught me all I know."

Despite my anger and pain, something in his eyes tugs at me. I put a hand on his. "You're the better man."

He snorts. "I've had millenniums of people telling me otherwise." Asher's eyes drift to the sky above us, a sky full of stars. "Sometimes… Sometimes I just wish for home."

"Your realm?"

"No." He shakes his head. "Home. My true home. Where my brothers and I played in the Silver Gardens. Where my mom sang me songs of the angels."

I close my eyes, picturing his words in my mind. "Tell me about your home. The house you lived in."

"It's… it's hard to remember." He chuckles, but it's not a happy sound. "Gifted with immortality, but no great memory. There are only flashes left. Only dust I try to grab in the wind. I remember… I remember a palace of white and gold. I remember spires that glow like the sun. I…" he grows teary, then swipes at his eyes. "I'm sorry."

I squeeze his hand. "We all miss home."

He smiles. "Thank you. For helping me remember."

"Asher, let me go home. Let me go home back to Fen."

He looks at me deeply, a great sorrow lurking in his eyes. "Sometimes, we can never go back."

Chapter 3

LOST CITY

Fenris Vane

"Fen is a good man, but he is myopic in his focus."

—Kayla Windhelm

Her blood pumps through my veins, like fire and ice. My demon mark burns with her call, a demanding pulse that beckons me, drawing me forth, through the layers of fresh snow and ice, through the carcass of winter left behind by the storm.

I am not a man accustomed to fear, but I feel it now, filling me with its poison of doubt. What have they done with her? What will they do? What if I never see her again?

Kayla lays a hand on my arm. "I see the worry on your face, brother. Ari is strong. And if they wanted her dead, they wouldn't have gone to such lengths to keep her alive."

My half-sister is not wrong, but it does little to temper my rage. I should have kept her safe, instead, she saved my life and risked her own.

I had hoped for some clues at Stonehill Castle, but of course there were none. And despite the refugees of my capital city swarming to the castle for safety and help, despite the chaos caused by battle and death, I left the moment I felt Ari call for me with blood.

Kayla insisted on coming, though I know she worries for her charge, Daison, who didn't make it out with the others. She worries for the people under my care. But she too loves Ari, I remind myself. She wants her safe and home almost as much as I do.

"There is nothing out here," Kayla says as we walk further into the wildness that is the outer edges of my realm. We are coming close to the Outlands, where rebel Fae likely gather to strategize their next move.

They must have her there, in the Outlands, on the edge of our world. Where else could they have taken her? Certainly not to one of my brothers—none of them would work with Fae. And if the raiders still have her in my realm, they are more foolish than even I have given them credit for. I already have what scouts I can spare searching my lands. With orders to kill.

The pulse in my wrist changes and I stop, looking around at the withered trees and old stones. "She's close." The white wolf at my side sniffs at something in the air and growls. I rest a hand on Baron's head. "Find her, boy. Find Ari."