Page 44 of A Bond with the Dark

A Whispering Leaf.

Whispering Leaves are the method of communication that fae of the Neverdusk and Luminara use to send messages. It’s been a long time since I’ve received one. The last one I got was when I was dating that lady from Luminara, and she would send me Whispering Leaves to let me know where our next clandestine meeting would be.

Luminara Fae are not supposed to mingle with dark things like me.

Meet me at the docks at Pelican Lakes at 11PM sharp.

—Tallyn

Wonderful.

A meeting with the Luminara Queen.

I’ve never met her, but I know my family members have.

Dealings with fae are never advised.

I up my ornate and antique mirror—it’s just a simple handheld mirror made of bronze—but what’s unique about it is that it’s my spelled mirror.

Vampires cannot look into mirrors, otherwise we will see our true reflection, our actual age. Hattie has the power to make anyone see what she wants them to see. So she cast a spell on eight different mirrors, one for each of us that only allows us to see ourselves as we looked the year we turned. As long as they remain in our vicinity, i.e. within the same state, we can look into any mirror and not revert back to our true age.

Hattie apparently already cast her spell for me to see the bracelet in the mirror, for when I retrieve it out of my bag, there is no reflection of myself, only the bracelet.

Carefully, I pluck the jewelry from the mirror and place it safely in my pocket.

The mirror dissipates to its shiny reflection, showing me the face I’ve known for two hundred years.

The path to where Tallyn wants me to meet her is quiet this time of night. Still cold from winter’s kiss—as spring is fighting its way to the surface with all her might—all the trees remain suspended, as if in remembrance of the wind, and the night is spun about in a cool mist.

Minutes seem to bloom and molt like seasons as long as it seems it takes her to arrive when I finally hear the sound of a branch breaking.

Turning toward the noise, I find Tallyn behind me.

Her mystic beauty is spellbinding, her long black tendrils half caught up in a braided crown with branches and sticks, her pointy ears sticking out of the dark tresses adorned by silver dangling jewels. Eyes the color of a coral orange reminiscent of a Caribbean sunset, they exude both power and danger at the same time. Her voluptuous body is barely contained in the gown of leaves and flowers; her iridescent wings flutter behind her in a delicate rush.

“You must be Dominic,” she says, floating herself to the ground where the boundary of air and Earth collide.

“And you must be Tallyn,” I say, holding out my hand.

Her shrewd eyes lance down to my hand and then back up to my face, her brows drawn together in contempt.

Am I supposed to bow to her?

As I lower my hand, she says, “You’ve been poking around the Neverdusk Dominion looking for answers, so I hear.” Her winsome voice replicates the winding rush of rivers through a ravine and being struck by a summer typhoon.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I say, and the terseness of her formal name in my mouth shocks me. “We have a problem. The grims are infecting our food supply. It’s getting dire. We need help to contain it.”

Her sensuous pink lips downturn into a frown and she crosses her arms over her chest, the silver bangles jangling. “That would be my brother Trystan’s domain. I cannot help you with that.”

“We think we found the answer, a phoenix, but we don’t know what that means or how to achieve it. Would you know anything about that?”

Shaking her head, her soft wings flutter on her back, picking her body up easily and gliding her toward the water. “I haven’t heard of a phoenix in this realm or any others in many years.”

“Well, we think we might have found one,” I say, following her to the lakeside, “but we just need her powers to come to light. Can you help with that?”

Her iridescent wings gleam in the moonlight as they set her down on the sandy soil of the beach. The wind lifts her raven hair ever so slightly as she turns to face me, her orange eyes tapering towards my mouth. “And who is the woman you believe has this power?”

I don’t know why, but I feel my body constrict with her question. Maybe it’s the way she’s asking it, or maybe it’s the suspicious nature of her energy. I get the feeling that she isn’t just asking to help us but has a darker agenda for what she wants the information for.

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