Page 3 of The Last Heir of Elsewhere

Realization flooded me and I cackled a harsh laugh. Shecouldsee us, and her lover thought she was insane.

He was missing the beauty in the situation. Insane, she might be, but I found her fascinating.

I leaned over to my cousin, keeping my eyes fixed on the girl. If she could see us, she could likely hear us too. “I think you’re losing your touch. The pretty Slúagh girl can see us.”

Even as I spoke, I wondered if I’d inadvertently lied. Perhaps she was not Slúagh—human—after all. Maybe she was something else.

“No,” Scion disagreed sharply.

He moved so fast I barely had time to wonder if the humans would be able to see his movement. He took a step toward them, raising a hand to cast an enchantment. Something rose in my chest unbidden—a strange desire to step between my cousin and the girl, whose name I didn’t even know. But before I could act on the absurd impulse, Scion stopped.

She gasped a full second too late and squeezed her eyes shut even as Scion had already stopped. There was the answer to one question, then.

She was at least partly human. Her reactions were too slow, her movements too weak.

She was far too breakable.

“Did you mean to stop?” I asked Scion thoughtfully.

Scion stared at her, clearly horrified, then gave a tiny shake of his head, which I knew would be all the confirmation I’d get. He’d intended to kill her, but could not. I knew of only one reason why the Fae would be physically unable to harm someone… “Fascinating.”

Scion made an angry sound in the back of his throat, and spun on his heel to leave. “Let’s go.”

I didn’t move, keeping my gaze fixed on my new puzzle. My new obsession. The air shifted, like something in the fabric of the world had been set in motion, and as the breeze hit my face the scent of honey and magic drifted toward me.

If that was how she smelled, I had to know what she’d taste like.

“Bael!” Scion barked a harsh command.

He felt the pull too, then. He must, or he wouldn’t be so eager to run in the opposite direction.

It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, would come regardless, and I felt sure I would see this girl again.

“I’m coming,” I replied, my mouth turning up in a wide grin. “I’ve seen all I needed to see.”

1

LONNIE

THE CUTTHROAT DISTRICT, INBETWIXT, ONE WEEK SINCE THE RISE OF THE REBELLION

“Focus, little monster.” Bael’s breath grazed my neck sending tingles over my entire body. “Try to imagine nothingness. Like, darkness that stretches on forever.”

I gritted my teeth. “Should I imagine nothing or darkness?”

He paused, and there was humor in his voice when he replied: “Whichever.”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight, but all I could think about was the warmth at my back and the shivers dancing over my skin. Clearly, Bael was oblivious to the fact that his presence alone was enough to shatter my focus.

Although, I supposed it was better to be distracted than terrified. At least I’d grown beyond that point in the last week…mostly.

Bael and I stood in a dark, musty store room, lit by a single lantern and dirty window overlooking the city street. It had been a week since our escape from the fallen obsidian castle, and five days since we found refuge with the Thieves’ Guild in Inbetwixt. Downstairs, the guild was bustling with conversations and footsteps—something I never would have noticed had I not spent the last hour trying to think ofnothing.

Shadow walking—or the ability to magically propel oneself between one place and another—was not something that came naturally to me. Truly, magic in general didn’t come naturally to me. Nevertheless, I’d spent the better part of the last week trying to learn to control whatever untrained abilities lay dormant inside me.

The results had been…mixed.

I’d been taught all my life not to use magic or something horrible would happen. In the last weeks, I’d leaned that my fears were not baseless. Whenever I’d tried to call fire to my hand, I seemed to call other things as well, and deadly monsters would flock to my side like moths to…well,a flame.

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