Night Fae (Dark Fae Kings #3) - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,27

with him or Rydstrom, but I’d cherish every second I could get.

My finger traced his beautiful, hard contours, and he brought my palm to his burning lips for a tender kiss while he remained unconscious.

Fae kings were ruthless, but they were wonders as well.

My heart gave a pang as I thought of my eventual departure. I wanted to see my mates again and get to know them more, and I’d give all I had to return to them.

Rydstrom, Baron, and their knights had drilled the rules and every trap they could think of about the Wild Hunt into my head, but no amount of training or intel could prepare anyone for the hunting game.

War drums beat in my heart even as I basked in the amber sunlight and my mate’s warmth. I could feel the Wild Hunt coming for me sooner rather than later.

Chapter 9

I ambled beside Rydstrom as he led me toward the black-stoned temple, his fingers entwined with mine. All of us would have to walk through the Court of Nightmares to reach the Realm of Night and Dreams.

A dozen Night knights flanked their king and me and guarded our backs. My parents, with blindfolds covering half of their faces, were placed in the center of the formation, each with a knight guiding them. It wasn’t that Rydstrom didn’t trust my parents or was trying to give them a hard time. No one, except Rydstrom’s warriors and his high Fae nobles, could pass through the Court of Nightmares, where nightmarish creatures roamed the black temple, without their minds being compromised, or even irrevocably damaged. If my parents saw the nightmare, they’d never unsee it again, and it would be with them until it drove them to deep despair and madness.

Beautiful yet terrible faerie wasn’t the place for mere mortals, and the Court of Nightmares was the worst in all Elfame. Yet the Night City, bordered and shielded by the Court of Nightmares, had become the safest place for my siblings, considering the rampant spread of Pestilence in the human realm and the fact that they’d become a target to an evil queen.

When the Night knights brought my siblings into their most protected city, they made my siblings drink a magical potion and then carried the unconscious children through the temple to protect their minds.

Rydstrom glanced at me with concern as we stepped through the Temple’s vast iron gate. I did not wear a blindfold. I was the Night King’s mate. His mark burned on me as forcefully as mine was imprinted on him.

If I was to be both the Dawn Queen and the Night Queen, now was the time to act like it. I wouldn’t be intimidated by the nightmarish creatures, even though my pulse spiked and anxiety knotted my gut. Rydstrom’s subjects would be mine, too, as I’d rule them one day. That was, if I survived the Wild Hunt and returned.

Shadows of monsters beyond one’s imagination appeared on the walls on either side of me, watching us, and I tried not to look at them despite their menace thickening the air in the dark temple. Shapeless things that exuded brutal violence and insatiable hunger emerged from the ceiling. They shifted like flame, darkness, or liquid, registering directly in my mind rather than my eyes. I’d dealt with beasts of fang and claw, but these monsters were the most dreadful I’d encountered.

Their abysmal darkness pressed into me, wanting to bury me alive in a cocoon of nightmares.

My throat went dry as terror rose in my chest, but I couldn’t ask Rydstrom to shield me if I wanted to be his equal. And he knew he had to let me do this alone, as this would make an impression as to how his queen made her entry into his court.

I snarled silently and shoved back the creatures’ aggression instead of bowing down, which only ignited their curiosity and evoked further challenge.

An abyss of terror bore down on me in black, hard waves. Peril permeated every inch of the air. Dad and Mom, the bravest mages I’d ever known, shuddered and gasped at the onslaught, even though it wasn’t meant for them and it hadn’t slammed into them directly.

The guards pressed closer to my parents to shield them.

“Never take off your blindfolds, no matter what you hear or imagine you see,” Drake told my parents. “One glimpse of their ancient, raw power will destroy even most immortals’ minds.”

My parents nodded.

“Don’t believe what you feel, either,” I added to encourage