Page 87 of First Light

While servants cleared the dishes, a lone singer stood at the foot of the head table and started a song, accompanied by a harp.

Carys didn’t know what to make of the singer, who was clearly not human but was very short for a fae. She had warm brown skin, black hair twisted in coils and decorated with gold beads and flowers, and eyes the color of sunlit water. She sang with the clearest, purest voice Carys had ever heard.

“Sing me a place where sea becomes sky

Where stone swallows mountain

Where this world goes to die”

She is also fae,Cadell whispered in her mind,but not of the Borderlands.

Carys felt the dragon’s eyes on her.

Do you recognize her, Nêrys?

Carys shook her head. “No. Why would I?”

Her name is Naida.

Carys was transfixed, frozen in her seat, but she sat up straight when she realized that she knew the melody the strange fae woman was singing. It was the same song Dru had been chanting through the woods as Duncan and Carys made their way into the Shadowlands.

“Write me a poem of heather and firth

Where forest touches night and night becomes earth

The shadows they call you when life becomes still

They call you to taste them

They tempt you to thrill”

Was it intentional? A popular song? What did it mean? She glancedat Duncan, but he was deep in conversation with Darius on the other side of the table. She let her eyes drift to Lachlan, whom she’d been trying to ignore since they returned, and he was staring straight at her, his eyes full of a longing she could hardly dismiss.

The singer continued her mournful song.

“The darkness it holds you

Don’t try to turn back

Its wild weathered places

Are all that you lack

The Shadowlands offer the life that you miss

And the ruddy wind whispers

A dark prince’s kiss”

Lachlan’s lips parted, and she could taste the memory of his kiss. Carys closed her eyes, her body aching for him, only to open them again when the hall burst into applause for the singer and the harpist.

“Lachlan!” someone shouted. “Lord Lachlan for the harp!”

The hall erupted in applause, and Carys looked around to see every eye on the high table. When she turned back to Lachlan, he glanced at her, then forced a smile and nodded at a young man who ran for the side of the room.

“Lachlan has a beautiful voice.”

Carys turned to see Duncan watching her. “He does,” she said. “He sang a lot in California. Loved it. Absolute magic on the guitar.”

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