Flame and Starlight by Dana Isaly
Chapter Six
“You’re lying.”
“I have not and will not lie to you, little duck. I need you to trust me.” He watched me closely. I twirled my hair nervously in between my fingers, tying little knots and then loosening them.
“I think I would’ve noticed her ears. And she doesn’t have any Faery dust. She doesn’t look any different.” I thought back to all the times I had been with Aoife. We had so many classes together, nights out, and coffee dates. Had I ever seen her with her hair up? There was no way she had skin like Asher’s, luminescent and silver. But…had she seen Asher’s dust when she tried to brush whatever it was she could see off my neck? Was that what she was staring at in the break room at work?
“She is High Fae. She has more than enough magick to hide the less-human things about her. Also, she isn’t High Fae of the Night Court, so she wouldn’t have the dusting as I do. She’s from Autumn, and they have blackened fingertips, like they’ve been dipped in soot, from their ability to harness the power of fire. She would be able to hide that from you—it really doesn’t take that much out of us to hide those types of things.” He waved a hand in front of himself, and the dusting that normally covered his skin disappeared. His hands pushed his obsidian hair back from his face, and his ears were rounded like mine.
“So, let’s say I believe you. You’re saying she was sent there to watch me and eventually take me. Take me back here? Which means that instead of being dragged here unwillingly and thrown into a place full of people I don’t know, I could’ve gone with Aoife in a much less jarring way. I could’ve stayed with Aoife, someone who actually likes me. An actual friend. But because you stole me, I’m stuck here with you.”
His eyes narrowed as he relaxed, and his dust settled back over his skin, barely shimmering but definitely there. The shadows around him stretched to cover his entire body, covering him in a storm cloud of temper. I finished all the food on my plate while he watched me, taking deep breaths and willing his shadows back into place. They didn’t scare me as much as they had previously, I realized. I leaned back in my chair, full and a little chuffed at how upset I had made him.
“She will figure out that you took me, Asher. She will come for me.”
“I would very much like to see her try.” The power that seeped into the air was almost suffocating. “You should believe me when I say, Alyssandra, that Aoife was not and is not your friend. She was sent there to eventually bring you into this world, and what would have met you at her father’s court would not have been safety. The High Lord of the Autumn Court is cruel and would not have treated you as nicely and as fairly as I am treating you.”
I scoffed, and he stood quickly, his chair flying several feet back and toppling over. He loomed over me, his shadows snuffing out the candles on the table, leaving only the light from the fireplaces. I kept my breathing easy. I refused to let him taste my fear.
“Your shadow work was intimidating the first couple of times, Your Highness,” I ground out and stood up to close some of the height difference between us. He still towered over me, but I held my ground, our noses so close they almost touched. “But now I recognize them for what they are—mere parlor tricks.”
“Is that so, little duck?” he asked as his shadows crept closer, that scent of jasmine and cedar heady in the air as they came closer. My breath hitched as they touched my cheeks and then wound their way through my hair.
Fuck.
They were cold but soft as feathers. I breathed in for the first time with them being so close, and they brought fresh mountain air into my lungs. They spread down my neck and over my shoulders. Before I knew it, I had closed my eyes and leaned into them. They were the cold side of a pillow in the dead heat of summer, comforting and refreshing.
And then gone.
I stumbled back a step and met his gaze. He cleared his throat and adjusted the front of his suit as the night crept back around his entire body like an onyx halo.
“You’ve finished your dinner. I have something to take care of tonight, so you are dismissed. Go rest.” With that he left, walking through the door to the right of one of the fireplaces, leaving me alone.
I scoffed at the dismissal and gathered the heavy velvet in my hands, running over to where he’d disappeared through the door. Behind it was a small servants’ stairway, dimly lit with torches and steps that were carved out of stone. I could just barely hear his footsteps down below. I took off after him.
“You know,” I said as I grabbed a torch off the wall. “I’m not so easily dismissed.” My words echoed and vibrated off the stone. The stairs twisted and twisted down around sharp corners. Holding the swaths of my dress in one hand and the torch in the other, I focused on the steps, praying I didn’t fall. I was never known to be graceful. Every few corners I made, there was a landing with a door that led off somewhere else in the castle. “Asher, hold on!” I yelled as I rounded another corner.
And as soon as I had, I ran directly into him face-first, one of my legs sliding between his and down a couple of steps. My dress fell from my hand, ready to catch myself from falling. It circled in the air and connected with his bicep. His free hand wrapped around the wrist of my arm holding the fire. He held my hand up and away from his face, keeping the fire far enough away from anything that could be set alight. Because my left foot had slid down to the step behind him, my entire body was pressed against his. He was still as stone, and my nose still hurt from the harsh contact it made with his chest. His arm I was holding slid slowly around my back.
“If this is what you wanted, little duck, you only had to ask.” His voice was gravel and heat, and my breath stopped at the sound of it. Only for a moment before I caught myself, but long enough for him to catch it. It had been too long since anyone had spoken to me like that. With his arm still around my back, he smirked like he could read my mind and then lifted me up so that I stood on a single step in front of him and released my hand. “You won’t need this,” he said, taking the fire from my hand and hanging it on an empty perch behind him. “My magic lights this castle anywhere anyone needs it.”
“Oh,” I said, adjusting my dress around my legs where the slits on my thighs had wound up closer to my hips. “Well, I came down here because you don’t get to just dismiss me like that. We were having a discussion.” I crossed my arms and stared at him. With me a few steps above him, he was still taller than me, but not by much, and I could meet his cold glare.
“I am High Lord, princess. I can dismiss who I want, when I want.” He gave me a full smile, the firelight glinting off his sharpened fangs, and turned on his heel, descending once again. I lifted my dress again and followed him down.
“Where do these go? We’ve been going down them for a long time. Do they go underground?”
He sighed. “No. If you continue all the way down, as I am doing, they open up to the ground level.”
“Is that where your room is?”
At that, he laughed. “No, I am on the same level as you. I can show you later if you wish.” He glanced back and winked at me. I huffed and continued to follow. After a couple more minutes, the stairs ended into a dark wooden door. He turned the black handle, and it opened out into a wide hallway that lit up as we entered. The floor was covered in a midnight-blue carpet that was so soft I could feel myself sink into it with each step. The walls were covered in grand paintings of Fae in crowns and suits and gowns, each one’s skin wrapped in a soft silver-blue sheen.
“Is this your family?” I asked, stepping up to a painting of a female that caught my eye. Her hair was as white as snow and fell in waves to her waist where the image stopped. Atop her head was a crown of stars and gemstones. Her eyes were the color of lavender and seemed to glow while following me where I moved. The smirk on her mouth wasn’t playful like Asher’s. There was something awful behind it. Like she was thinking of eating me alive. I shivered.
“They’re very distant relatives and past rulers of the Night Court.” That must’ve been all he wanted to divulge because he was off again, striding down the hallway, wall sconces lighting his way as he went. I jogged to catch up to him, my legs shaking with exhaustion from the day as I caught up. “Can I help you with something, Alyssandra? Despite what you might think of me, I do actually have business to attend.”
“I told you, we were discussing things, and you just decided you were done talking. But I wasn’t.” I fell into step next to him as we rounded a corner. At the end of this hallway was a rounded door, locked with heavy steel in several places.
“I didn’t leave because I was done talking. I left because you’re tired, your body is literally about to give out on you, and I have things to do that cannot wait.” He placed a hand on my shoulder as we approached the door and stopped. “Emric is on his way down. Can you just stand here for two minutes and stay out of trouble? Just go to your room and go to sleep. You’ll be training harder tomorrow. You need your rest.” He eyed the dusting on my shoulder and neck, a cloud of his own dust marking me, tracking me. I rolled my shoulders, and his hand fell.
“What’s so important?”
“You are filled to the brim with questions,” he said through a sigh and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. His eyes were red and tired when he stopped his assault and instead raked his fingers through the waves of his hair a few times. “If I explain to you what I am doing tonight, do you promise me that you will go back upstairs with Emric and go to sleep?”
I folded my arms across my chest but nodded in agreement.
“Fine,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door. “Tonight is Mayassar. Every month, on the new moon, the High Lord of the Night Court is responsible for making sure Mayassar is watched over and completed without issue.”
“And Mayassar is?” I prodded.
“Mayassar is when the evil souls of our world cross over into the After. I am responsible for making sure that every soul makes it over and doesn’t cause…problems.”
I blanched. “You have to escort ghosts into the afterlife? Like a Faery version of Hades?”
He rolled his eyes at my comparison. “They are not ghosts, and there is no afterlife for the souls crossing over on Mayassar. They will cross into the After and become nothing. They simply cease to exist.”
There was a pit in my stomach, and it grew cold and hot at the same time. The entire plate of food I ate out of spite earlier was suddenly sitting in there, heavy as bricks.
“Do they fight you? Do they try to escape?”
“Some do. Not often, but they do sometimes get desperate and try to escape. It normally only happens with the souls who were exceptionally strong when they were living, mentally and/or psychically.” Gooseflesh rose over my arms, and I felt a creeping sensation make its way over the dust on my shoulder. “It’s far enough away that you don’t have to worry about them,” he said, eyeing me like I might pass out. “I’m also very good at what I do.” He flexed his crossed arms and stood straighter off the door now.
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Well, thank goodness there’s a big strong male around to save me from the wandering souls. Speaking of, where is Emric?” I brushed some nonexistent dust off the front of my dress. “I’ll need to make sure I keep him standing guard outside my room all night just in case.” I met his eyes and smiled at his defeated face.
“Stay here and try not to get into any trouble.” The locks moved and opened with his magick. The shadows around him came to life in the icy wind as he opened the door and stepped out. I took a couple of steps back from the door, trying to shield myself from the cold. He gave me one last glance. “Good night, Alys,” he said, and the door slammed shut behind him as he walked out into the snow.
“Someone went on a field trip.” I jumped at the sound of Emric behind me. I shrugged and watched the locks all click and slide back into place.
“Is Mayassar dangerous?” I made my way back down the corridor with Emric in tow. I could almost hear him hesitate.
“He told you about that?”
I nodded. “Is it?”
His sigh of impatience was almost identical to Asher’s. We took a different route and began climbing staircases clearly made for guests and not servants. My thighs burned with every step.
“Mayassar isn’t easy. And not just in the sense that it’s hard to control the souls that are passing. It’s hard to have to watch them disappear into nothing. I honestly don’t know how Ash does it every month. Making sure each soul crosses over only to become nothing but part of the ether.” He took a deep breath. “But it’s part of his court, and he won’t let anyone else take on the job. And there’s a balance. Noori, which happens every full moon, is the opposite of Mayassar. On that night, he escorts souls into Summerland. The souls who are judged as living lives worthy of Summerland pass over under the light of Nyxa’s full moon and live forever in constant summer.”
“Who is Nyxa?” I asked through a stifled yawn.
“She is the Goddess of Night, our court’s patron Goddess.”
I pushed my hair out of my face and over my shoulders, taking it all in. I couldn’t imagine having to carry the weight of that around on my soul. Forcing souls, even if they weren’t worthy of their Summerland, into the After only to watch them dissolve into nothing. Their lives may already have ended, but Asher had to end them completely and forever. He was the final, striking blow. I wasn’t sure if guiding any number of souls into the Summerland could ever take away the weight of the others.
“Don’t worry yourself with it,” Emric said as he turned down the hallway that held my room. “Ash has been doing this for a while now. And every High Lord and Lady that came before him did it as well. Each court has responsibilities they would rather not have. But life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, Wheezy.” He elbowed me, and I gave a weak laugh at his nickname for me. We reached my door, another guard standing next to it, and I could hear Mavka behind it.
“Thanks for walking me back. Let me guess, see you at first light for round two?”
“At your service,” he said with a bow and then walked off in the direction we had come from.
“Hey,” I said to the guard next to my door as I twisted it open, but he stared straight ahead. I stuck my tongue out at him and slipped inside. The room was filled with warmth and the scent of hickory.
“Come on, then. Let’s get you in bed. I think you’re about to fall asleep where you stand, child!”
For the first time, I didn’t fight her as she made quick work of getting the dress off and my nightgown on. My eyes were heavy as I picked up the small tin and rubbed some salve into my forehead. There was no more pain, and when I looked in the mirror, only a yellowish bruise remained. It was almost completely healed. I sat the tin back on the vanity and kicked my slippers off as I crawled into bed. I barely registered Mavka closing the curtains of the bed around me, sealing me in darkness, before I plunged headfirst into sleep.
