Page 2 of Twist of Fate

And now it was held by hands other than the Queen’s, without a single flare of magic to alert her to this treachery. The stranger smiled, their cheeks stinging from the unusual sensation. It had been so long since they had anything to bring them joy. Shaking off their sentimental foolishness, the stranger hurried to complete their mission. The time to preen would come after, once they’d made their escape.

The long, winding handle of the staff slid down one leg of the stranger’s loose trousers while the decorative head disappeared beneath their outer garment. Unless someone looked closely, they would see only another servant hurrying through the palace.

The Queen’s magic continued to build, urging the stranger to hurry before they lost this small window of time. Soon, the Queen would gather enough power to seal the fae realm away from the human realm. No spell of this magnitude had ever been attempted, and no one knew how long the barrier would hold or what would be required to reopen the doorways.

Likely years.

Maybe decades.

With that thought and another small, brazen smile, the stranger hurried out of the vault.

Creep to the exit.

Stick to the walls.

Move fast.

Nothing to see here.

Within minutes, the stranger used a portal and left the fae realm, taking the powerful weapon to the human realm where it would be out of the Queen’s reach. From there, it would be easy for the stranger to right the wrongs caused by the Queen’s unmovable, cold heart.

The stranger wouldn’t stop with those tasks, though, and with the Queen’s staff in their possession, no one could hope to stop their plan.

CHAPTER ONE

Awave of heat slammed into Connal, throwing him into his brother’s large frame. Luckily, Asterius equaled the size of his namesake star. Asterius stopped Connal from landing on his ass with one oversized hand and a chest the size of one of the walls of the King’s castle.

Since thanking his brother would be an insult, Connal instead returned his attention to the monster that had rocked him backward. Before he could comment, the echoing boom of an explosion rocked Connal a second time.

“The fire demon is out of control,” Connal hissed.

His eyebrows, only slightly singed, appeared to be his only injury. And that was to his pride. Connal couldn’t imagine showing up to the Queen’s court in such a state. He’d never live it down. Although, as the youngest of four warrior brothers, he’d likely be reminded of his folly for many years to come.

“Aye,” Asterius said. “But then so were those hairy creatures crawling above your eyes. At least one of them has been tamed.”

Connal groaned but didn’t rise to the bait. They’d no doubt fight it out later, once they’d defeated this beast and returned to the newly formed Unseelie Court. At first, he’d thought the Queen offered them a boon with a last-minute assignment that would in effect banish them to the human realm.

Connal scoffed. Some honor.

The human realm offered little to keep four warriors of their caliber occupied. Connal could defeat any number of humans without using an ounce of his satyr magic. Many of the human realm’s shifters didn’t stand a chance against Connal’s talent. Hell, Connal had taken on a dragon within the first week of his arrival. He’d had his ass handed to him, much to his brothers’ delight, but how was he to know dragon scales were impervious to most magic and metal?

Needless to say, their transition to the unusual land of humans had been difficult, although through no fault of their own. They’d followed the Queen’s command to the letter: aid King Silenus in finding fae magic users in the human realm and bring to heel those reluctant to follow the King’s command. And if they had a secondary purpose, well, not even the King needed to know about that.

“Damnation!” Asterius bellowed as the raging inferno shot another blast of flames high into the night sky.

Although their experience in the human realm was limited, Connal didn’t need knowledge of the realm’s inhabitants to recognize a magic user had caused the extensive fire. Only one creature was capable of this level of destruction. “Damned demons.”

His brothers huffed their agreement.

Connal loathed the nasty creatures. Once he found the cursed beast, he’d happily remove its head. Connal searched the area but failed to locate the source of magic.

The sigil circling his wrist—a gift from the Queen of the Fae herself and the envy of every fae creature he’d met in the Unseelie Court—glowed with her magic. Its brightness left no doubt that the blaze was connected to what they sought, even if Connal couldn’t locate the source. Connal would serve his Queen—and the newly appointed King of the Unseelie—and destroy the threat. Demon hellfires be damned.

Zer, Connal’s eldest brother, stepped forward. Only slightly smaller than their shining star brother, Zer used his height to his advantage in every battle they’d fought over the years. His gaze remained focused on the fire.

A tiny pixie perched on his shoulder, her bright, shimmery wings a stark contrast to Zer’s ebony hair. Another refugee from the fae realm, his brother’s little friend had claimed him as her protector the moment they’d arrived in the Unseelie realm.

“Fly, Avaneel,” Zer commanded. “Be cautious, little one.”