Page 4 of The Shadow Heir

Casimiro

“Curse the stars,” I grumbled as I stared at the door of a grand mausoleum in the center of a human cemetery. This wasn’t where I’d hoped to find the next mortal on my father’s list. With a flick of my wrist, the heavy stone door responded to my magic and swung open with a grinding sound, releasing a wave of cold air and the stench of embalming fluid. I cringed. The way mortals preserved their dead remains prickled my skin.

Even through a sealed box, my nose could detect the awful smell.

The coffin I sought sat on a shelf above another cobwebbed box. This one was studded with gems. I propped my hands on my hips and shook my head. Stealing dead people was never as fun. They didn’t fight or scream.

I took out my knife and popped off six of the rubies lining the edge of the smooth wooden coffin. Humans were so wasteful—especially the rich ones—thinking jewels would do any bit of good against the nightmares facing them after they left the mortal world. I tucked the small stones into my pocket as mymind flashed with images of crooked little waist-highduendes, with their pseudo-magic and their annoying way of always smelling like rotting garbage, who would likely tunnel into this mausoleum later this very night in search of gems. These lesser fae, often serving in the homes of the high fae, hoarded jewels like dragons, even though the long-nosed creatures couldn’t access the magic inside the stones like a high fae. Aduendecould use a ruby or an emerald as a nice little bargaining chip, though, anytime they happened upon a desperate fae or the occasional unsuspecting human. Better that I use the valuable stones.

I shrugged and extracted one of the tiny rubies. Humans knew very little about the magic in their world, and more times than not, their attempts to ward off the shadows only succeeded in bringing us closer. This man had bargained with the Shadow King—a fool’s plea—and assumed a handful of rubies would keep my father from taking his dead body. Well, not my father. Me.

While Father was away visiting other courts, his errand of collecting mortals fell to his heir. As of one year ago, I was his oldest heir.

The last time my father had been away, it had been my older brother, Augustín, who’d collected the mortals bound to the Shadow King. A stab of anger pierced my chest as I rolled the faceted stone between my fingertips. The ruby thrummed with a pinprick of welcoming heat—just enough magic to fuel a spell for five minutes, six depending on the spell. A waste in most cases. But when dropped into an elixir, a ruby or amethyst or sapphire of this size would increase the potency threefold, a far more useful application of the stone’s magic.

Even though Father would be angry that this mortal was dead, I was grateful for the gemstones as I slipped them in my pocket. As if hearing Augustín’s voice, the wordsdon’t waste what we’ve given youechoed in my mind.

With a huff, I shoved the painful memories aside and placed my hand on the coffin and envisioned the place in the woods where I’d agreed to meet Felipe, who’d agreed to help me on my second night of collecting mortals. When I opened my eyes again, I stood in a dark forest beneath thick pines. The coffin rested beside me on the ground.

Crashing footsteps—a mortal’s by the sound of them—preceded Felipe as he strolled into view between the tall trees, pushing a middle-aged man whose hands were bound.

“Getting cold, princess?” he called over the man’s loud footsteps.

I rolled my eyes at his epithet. “Did you enjoy harassing the mortal with your brute strength?” I asked.

Felipe shoved the man to the ground. He grunted and didn’t attempt to get up. After spitting on the forest floor beside the mortal—also unnecessary—Felipe propped one foot on the man’s back.

I pursed my lips. “My father wants them whole, not broken.”

After a small kick, Felipe removed his foot. “There. Happy?”

“Not usually. But that’s not your fault.” I turned and stared at the coffin. “Father doesn’t appreciate the dead ones. He’ll blame me for this when he returns.” I flexed my fingers as the ghost of pain lanced up my arm from my father’s last display of anger.

“Do you think one of ours killed him?” Felipe muttered, his eyes flicking to my hands and back to my face.

My mouth turned down as I studied the coffin. Mortals died if they broke a bargain with a fae, but a fae only suffered a temporary loss of magic, unless the deal had been specifically crafted to end in death. High fae from every court, including ours, frequently killed mortals bound to my father in an attempt to weaken the Shadow King, a man whose reign had stood unbroken for three thousand years, ever since he’d forged a fifthcourt when there were only ever meant to be four. But in three millennia, no one had succeeded in dethroning my father.

I shrugged. “I’ve no doubt there will be another coup attempt, as usual, while Father is away, but I doubt this”—I indicated the coffin—“was one of ours. Wouldn’t give anyone in our court much advantage to weaken him while he’s on the other side of Rivenmark.”

Felipe half-smiled as he kicked a pinecone toward the mortal who was awkwardly trying to get up with his hands bound. “No, indeed.”

As my father’s current heir, my errand was to bring to the Shadow Court all the mortals my father had bargained for, and that meant collecting bodies—living or dead.

That’s why we were out here in the mortal world, fishing for humans he’d bargained with, while he proved to the Star Queen—again—that his court was a powerful ally, and they couldn’t afford to turn on us, should another court attempt to attack our own.

Felipe chuckled and pulled a tiny bottle from the inside of his waistcoat. “We could always try this.”

“It’s a coffin. Not a sickbed,” I said, flicking my wrist at the box.

Felipe frowned, clearly disappointed that I wasn’t in the mood to joke with him. Since I was placed in the role of acting sovereign in my father’s absence, nothing really seemed funny anymore.

Felipe, however, persisted. “If this could imbue that corpse with enough strength to walk into your father’s throne room, it might be worth it. Just to see the look on his face.”

“Even if we put a dozen rubies in that vial and made the corpse dance for a fortnight, Father would not be impressed. And besides, he’s not returning for an entire year. By then, this corpse will smell too foul to dance for us.”

Felipe offered a dry chuckle and tapped his chin. “So we bring back one living captive?”

“One?” I arched my brows at Felipe. “Oh, there’s more than one. What, did you think my father wasmodestin making these bargains?” I cracked my knuckles. “That’s why I brought you with me, to save time.”

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