Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,57

head to the side and pressed it against his back as the motorcycle began rumbling under us.

Oriande stopped talking, shooting us an evil glare as the roar drowned her out. Jack looked amused.

Behind them, I saw Robin talking to a Garda. He glanced up, his expression darkening, but there was a group of reporters rushing towards us.

Gwyn took off. I bit back a shriek as we roared away, nearly splattering right through a pixie hovering in midair and armed with several recorders.

The Hunter just laughed as it ducked aside in a panic. He pulled onto the Mainway, breezed past several cars, and called over his shoulder to me, “Seriously, hold on really fucking tight, Bananas!”

“I can’t hold on any tighter!” I yelled, but my voice was torn away by the wind.

The wind that whipped us as the bike’s tires left the ground.

The Mainway fell away beneath us, and I was pretty sure I left my stomach somewhere down there as well. The buildings of Avilion threw off sparks of morning sun as we rose above them.

He turned the bike, circling the brilliant spires of the Seelie Palace. I dared to look down, my arms already hurting from how tight I was clutching Gwyn.

Several of the servant Fae were looking up, and the Garda were collecting on the palace walls.

“We can’t get too close,” Gwyn called back to me. “The Garda get their panties in a twist.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine why.” I had to yell for him to hear me, but I didn’t care. My eyes were glued to the sight of Avilion laid beneath me like a map, the Eridanus River glittering in the distance.

From above, the Seelie Palace looked almost like an enormous flower, painted in scarlet, gold, and emerald green. He turned us south, and my breath caught as we passed over the Mainway and business district towards Mothwing Falls.

From above, the Falls seemed like a garden. Every brick building was painted in different hues, with plants creeping over the buildings. Some houses had trees growing on top of them, their roots encasing them entirely.

I loved my home, but Avilion was even prettier from the sky.

He took us over the river, and Sobek Street stood out from the rest of the shining city. The dark strip of land sat next to Acionna Harbor, and… were we descending?

“You’ve seen yours.” Gwyn shifted gears. “Now you get to see mine.”

The bike plunged out of the sky.

I was pretty sure I was screaming. Maybe. It was hard to tell with the wind ripping through my hair and the fact that my butt actually rose up off the seat.

I practically scrambled to keep myself attached to Gwyn like a barnacle, shrieking all the way.

“We’re going to crash into the street, you crazy son of a—!”

We plummeted towards the black concrete below. There was a single steel manhole cover in the street, embossed with a crescent moon and vines, and it slowly slid aside to reveal a dark hole to nowhere.

“No, we’re not.” He laughed again, clearly enjoying this insanity.

I curled up against Gwyn, hyperventilating in my helmet, wind-whipped tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes.

The light vanished entirely.

I cracked my eyes open. The walls of the tunnel were just big enough to ride through, walls made of vines and shimmering stone.

We drove through another mist and I felt a lurch all around me, like the world had turned inside out, and my ears popped.

The bike burst through another tunnel and soared into the sky. “Welcome to the flip side!” Gwyn shouted.

I gaped at it, my heart hammering from more than just the near-death experience. We’d left Avilion behind in the midst of a morning sunrise.

The sky here was dusk, washed in tones of violet and indigo. Stars still glittered above wispy clouds.

Below us, the normal districts of Avilion had vanished. Instead of the prismatic Seelie Palace, a massive, thorny castle overlooked the city below.

This was Annwyn, the inverse city of the Unseelie Court.

We soared over it slowly, Gwyn letting me drink in every detail of the Unseelie Court.

There was a forest of giant, glowing mushrooms in the distance. A black lake just on the outskirts of the city was lit up from within with swirling clouds of teal fish. Outside the thorny palace, there was a mansion that glittered like ice, overlooking a steep drop to a winter forest.

And everywhere, the trees glowed with little pixies and sprites. I reached out to feel for the trees from another land, sinking