Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

them. Someone whispered off to the left somewhere, but when I looked, there was nobody there. A moment later I heard another whisper, and another, and another.

There were people everywhere, it felt like, moving in on us from around the clearing. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear them, and I could sense them. The skin along my arms broke into goose bumps, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on their ends, and before long, I saw the first few lights begin to manifest around us.

They came within the trees, little wisps of light—most of them blue, or pale green. They hovered close to the circle, spun around it, then shot around Ashera, the moon children, us. They seemed playful, curious, like we were a strange new thing for them to explore. Ashera hadn’t stopped whispering, but it was clear she wasn’t controlling them—she was talking to them; asking questions and getting answers.

She’d asked for silence, so I didn’t ask the questions I wanted to ask. I wanted to know what these things were. Were they spirits? Ghosts of the dead? Watching them play and dance made me think of will-o'-the-wisps back home. I had never seen one, but I had heard of them before, and these beings seemed similar.

“You, Prince,” Ashera called out, the word prince spoken with contempt.

Cillian turned to face her. “Yes?” he asked.

“We are almost ready to begin. Do you come here freely, and of your own will?”

“I do.”

“Do you accept there is a foreign spirit burrowed within you?”

He nodded. “There is.”

“Do you ask the spirits of this sacred forest for aid in removing it? Understanding that you will be indebted to them whether they are successful or not?”

“Spirits, I ask for your help… I will be in your debt.”

The will-o'-the-wisps converged on the ritual circle Ashera had created, shooting toward it like bullets but stopping short of entering it. I watched them all hover at the circle’s edge, their collective light illuminating the snow, the trees, and even the faces of the moon children across from us. The whispering abruptly stopped, replaced with a kind of soft humming sound that sounded almost like song.

It was beautiful… quiet at first but gaining strength and volume as the moments passed. The melody suddenly split, breaking into a harmony that rose, and fell and floated in a kind of fluid motion. The spirits bodies began to pulse, their lights brightening and dimming with the music. It was mesmerizing. I didn’t want to look away from it.

My fingertips tingled, and I noticed streaks of light beginning to pull away from me and move toward the circle. Mira, Mel, and even Gullie were producing these streams, but I didn’t think any of us meant to. It wasn’t long before Toross, Jaleem, Lora, Praxis, and even Ashera were joining in, the magic within them bubbling up and funneling into the ritual circle—into the Prince—like he was calling it himself.

Only he wasn’t. I could see the confusion on his face. He’d never experienced this before, and it had caught him by surprise just as much as it had me.

The Prince slowly spun around, watching the spirits as they sang to him, for him. He was suddenly bathed in light, and it played on his face, painting it in shades of blue and green, and heightening his already breathtakingly gorgeous features. My heart swelled at the sight of him in this light, and in my mind, an earworm took hold.

If you wanna be my lover…

I shook my head and smiled at no one, then I heard the grumble of thunder, and the record scratched. Turning my eyes toward the source, I saw it; the Veridian. It was just an impression against the dark sky, a patch of thick clouds barely visible from across the top of the tree line.

Seeing it there made my heart move in completely the other direction. It sank into my stomach like a hot ball of fire, triggering a sudden release of adrenaline that made my limbs shake.

“There it is,” I whispered to Gullie.

“Right on cue,” she said, “We were right about him.”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come.”

“Me too.”

“The ritual is ready,” Ashera called out. “Let us begin.”

“Do it quickly,” Toross barked, “The Veridian comes.”

Ashera turned her head to her wolves. “Create a perimeter,” she said, “The circle must not be broken.”

Lora nodded, and with a grunt to the other two, the moon children took on their wolf forms and moved toward the Veridian. They didn’t go too far, never entering the tree-line, but they were far enough away from us that they’d be the first line of defense against whatever came out of the dark.

I took a deep breath. “I think that’s my cue,” I said.

“You stay right here,” Mira said, “Let them do what they’ve been told to do.”

I shook my head. “I can’t just stand here and wait. I have to help.”

“I will also help,” Toross said.

“Must you?” Mira asked.

“Unless you have a problem with this?” he replied.

Mira rolled her eyes, took a step forward, and clasped her hands together. When she pulled them apart, a long, white, gorgeous recurve bow appeared in her hands. With a flick of her wrist, she manifested a quiver filled to the brim with arrows.

“Fine,” she sighed, “If you must engage the darkness, I suppose I also should.”

“Look at them,” Mel put in, “Preparing to fight as a couple. Isn’t it cute?”

I jabbed a finger at her. “You put those heart eyes away.”

Melina drew a dagger from her belt, a smirk spreading across her lips. “A few weeks back you were complaining the fae have no hearts. Now you want to stifle our emerging feelings? Make up your mind.”

Gullie floated over to Mel’s shoulder and held onto her hair. “Yeah, it’s not very human of you, is it?”

Mira’s eyebrow went up again. “She’s right, you know.”

“Yes, I know she’s right,” I said, “And you know I love all of this and all of you. There’s