Excerpt
The Dark Queen of the Realm of Faerie paced over the moon-dappled mosses before her tangled throne. Her skirts flared out into gossamer shadows, and diamonds sparkled in her black hair like tiny, cold stars, capturing the light of the sickle moon high overhead. Every step she took snapped with frustration, and the creatures of her court flinched as the reverberations of their queen's anger echoed through the realm.
Even the powerful horned hunter and his red-eyed hounds stayed at the far edges of the clearing, the star-tarnished oaks at their backs. The court musicians stood in a huddled trio, fingers quiet upon their instruments. Only the fearful whispers of the denizens of the Dark Court sawed the edge off the silence.
The queen halted, the still before the storm, and the last whispers died. From the darkened pathway a figure made of shadows came; a knight bearing an enormous blade. He strode past the violet bonfire, the flames licking eerie reflections on his black armor; past the feral and nameless creatures of the court, past the hollow-eyed banshee, and the sharp-toothed goblins with their caps of blood.
"My lady." He went down on one knee and bowed his black-helmed head in supplication.
"What have you found?" Her voice was shaded with wrath.
"It is as you guessed. The opening between the mortal world and our own remains but a thin crack. Nothing has changed since that gateway was closed through deceitful mortal and fey means."
"Curse the Elder Fey!" She clenched her fists, and frost striated the velvet-deep mosses beneath her feet. "We are no more than beggars for the scraps of dreams, where once we were feared across every human land. There must be a way to enter the human world freely, and harvest the essence of our power."
"If there is, we will not discover that means in the realm, my lady."
The queen's eyes narrowed. "Then we must find someone who can. Surely there is one among the mortals who would bend to the needs of the realm."
She whirled, and the fey folk cowered from the sharpness of her smile.
"Scouts, keep watch on the faerie ring. Soon enough, a human will stumble into the Dark Realm—and when they do, we will be ready. This time, there will be no escape."
