Page 3 of Last Ride of the Umbra Fae

There it was. Fear.Not for himself, but for me.

“We are in the middle of a gods-damned desert. There isn’t anyone for miles,” I said, taking another puff of the herbed smoke, but my mind still reeled back to whatever was lurking in that storm.

“You don’t know that,” he sharply replied.

“Well, Pa, maybe I just don’t give a shit anymore.”

“You should.”

“And what about you?” I pulled back on the reins until my horse came to a complete halt. “If you don’t care, then why should I? Why keep fighting if it’s just to survive?”

My heart pounded against my chest while he remained calm and calculated. You could cut the tension with a blade and itwould still be potent. I stood my ground, hardening my gaze as his jaw began to flutter in aggravation. That had been too much truth for the old man as shadows stirred in his dark brown eyes. I gritted my teeth in challenge.

“You might be a grown woman, but you are still under my care.”

Under his care.

I scoffed. “I am chained to a feathered bastard, who you so happen to like.” I waited for a remark from the bird above us, but he was already flying away as I glanced up.

Clever bird. He hated when we argued.

The air remained charged as the two of us faced off, but a slight shift in the wind changed the entire atmosphere. My senses heightened as the energy hummed around us, but it wasn’t from Pa nor me. With a brow raised, we stared in cutthroat silence until the feeling passed, but the inner cleave across my chest remained, because even now, I still couldn’t get him to say how much I meant to him. Anger stung my eyes.

“I am a prisoner on open terrain. Fate be damned for you.” I clicked my tongue and gently nudged my horse’s sides with the heels of my boots, riding off before I could hear his retort.

I caught up to the bird,my shadow, and it wasn’t long until we saw an outline of another shithole town off in the distance.

“Tell that stubborn old man there’s a sight on the horizon.” I opened the bond on my end so he could speak.

“He already knows,”the bird said, coasting down to perch on my shoulder. Upon landing, he stretched his glossy feathers wide.

I huffed. “Of course he does.”

Another land, another town. Another hellish place I could never claim as home for long. Nothing more than a bed to rest my head at night and maybe a man to fill it. Those nights rarely happened. Skies were endless and dreams were painless becausesleep never came. All I had were living nightmares—ones I couldn’t escape. By the looks of some of the people who roamed these dirt roads, they were living the same kind of hellish waking dream.

Pa’s horse galloped in haste as he approached me. The tension had eased, but the way he tightened his grip on the reins told me some remained.

He’d get over it by tomorrow, but his leather gloves groaned and creaked, reminding me of his worked and calloused hands, strong enough to snap the neck of any fae or human alike. I knew my limits with the legend these lands feared, but I was still crazy enough to test him.

We seemed to draw every man and woman’s gaze as we rode into town, pretending to be something we despised, like we were just some ordinaryhumanfolks. We had no choice but to stay hidden in a world where we were hunted.

Fear was a dreadful bitch, a disease that festered in the cracks of their morals.

This worthless town had no more than a dozen or so buildings, and we claimed it as ours for the night. All dirt paths led to some rundown places that not even the tumbleweeds wanted to bounce by. Luckily, the best-looking building was the saloon—most likely the only building that brought them any money.

They wouldn’t know we were fae at first glance. Marked by darkness, or so the story went. Our markings depicted who we were. Black-tipped ears with hands that looked like they were dipped into the dark evoked fear in those who were not like us. But it was the rarity in the iridescent glow to mine that turned heads. The same star-like luminosity freckled across my face. They were beautiful when exposed, complementing my bronze skin. In the right light, they were what had made me stand out from the rest of the Umbra Fae—the shadow wielders. Ma hadsaid I was marked by the goddesses of the moon and that’s why I shone like a star beneath it.

We kept our ears hidden inside our cowboy hats. My dark hair cascaded down in soft waves, flowing to my hips with strokes of sun-kissed highlights. Pa’s shoulder-length, salt-and-pepper hair had the perfect blend of dark leading to deep sideburns and a sharp jawline. For the most part, we appeared normal, but I couldn’t let people get too close to me because, frankly, I was just too fucking shiny.

A man walked across the road, carrying a lantern to light his path. I caught sight of a faint, amber glow brimming out of his pocket. There was only one stone that harnessed that much healing.

Our Eternal.

The blightstone was a gaping reminder of the betrayal to all fae. It was a hybrid of amber and bloodstone.When two worlds collide, the ancestors had said of how the stone of Eternal was formed. Its never-ending glow would always light the way to those who needed healing.

The brute looked our way, dipping his worn hat in greeting as his leather chaps swayed from side to side, oblivious to who stared back. I felt the hum against my chest as the magic of Eternal cast its song, churning like thick honey, calling to salve the cracks in my soul and rebuild its crumbled foundation. My eyes stung as a deeper part of me summoned the shadows, which yearned to crawl their way out to make a home around his neck.

“Good evening, ma’am,” he said.

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