Page 86 of Kingdom of Faewood

Hello, my beautiful creatures, I crooned to them.

A large one drifted forward, and its inky blackness swirled around me. Teeth gnashed in its black jaws, venom dripping from its fangs. I ran a hand along its cool back, my fingers trailing over its frigid skin.

More semelees appeared, swirling and dipping around me, roiling me in shadows as their whispers began.

She’s come to us, Daughter of Darkness, Commander of Shadows. What do you seek, Lorafin?

My soul tugged on Jax’s magic, calling it forth until imagescame to me.

The picture of a young male appeared in my mind. A half-breed.

I cocked my head.How curious.

Antlers sprouted from the male’s head, and eyes so blue they resembled the Adriastic Sea regarded me from a rugged siltenite face. Dark-blond hair. Sharp features. Wide nostrils. An eagerness filled his eyes that reminded me of prideful youth.

Brow furrowing, I studied the male.

This was who Jax sought.

I had no idea who he was since Jax had refused to tell me, but considering the lengths the Dark Raider had gone to in order to find him, he had to be somebody important.

I showed the image to the semelees.Find him, I commanded.Tell me where he is or if he’s passed to the afterlife.

The semelees crooned and swirled more. They spun around me, touching, caressing, and reveling in my presence. Bewitching images of me locked within their embrace came from them. Feathered touches and swirling darkness called to the shadows inside me. I could have that for eternity if I succumbed to them.

A vibration along my throat jolted me, and I wrenched back.

Find him, I instructed in a firmer tone and forced myself to ignore how they begged me to fall deeper into their realm.

They sped away, and I floated in the darkness again, letting my fingers slide through the shadows. Minutes passed. Maybe hours. Perhaps days. I floated and existed, staying in the Veiled Between for longer than seemed normal.

What’s taking so long?I finally called into the void as I forced myself from the enchanting mist.

A semelee slithered forward.The male you seek, we’ve found him, we think, but...something’s not right.

What do you mean ‘something’s not right’? Find him!

Yes, Princess of Darkness.The semelee swirled away again, its tail flickering in the shadows.

I floated again, and a sense of this plane’s otherness began to overtake me once more, but I forced myself to concentrate. I’d never had a semelee unable to locate someone or answer a question. They were all-knowing beings. I’d had siltenites commission me, with seemingly impossible questions to answer, yet the semelees had always known.

And they’d always been right.

Inky power swirled in my soul, and magic crackled around me as another thought struck me.Are they toying with me? Perhaps hoping to trick me into staying too long and becoming imprisoned in their embrace?

That thought jerked me to the core.

Well?I snapped at them, calling in the distance.Where is he?

Another appeared in the shadows.It’s him. We’re certain now.

Why did you hesitate before?

His feel in the fae lands at this moment in time, and the feel from the image you showed us, are different, which is why wetook a closer look, but it’s him, and he’s alive. Although, he’s not right.

Not right?My brow puckered.Explain.

The semelee showed me an image. The Wood. The male Jax sought, standing despondent with several other half-breeds. But the male who Jax was looking for was there. It was clearly him. He matched the picture Jax had mentally shown me completely.

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