DARK IS MY EXILE

A WICKED REALMS NOVELLA

L.A. MCGINNIS
 Copyright L.A. McGinnis 2023

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or are fictitious, and any
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companies, events or locales is purely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-1-970112-81-8

Published in the United States of America by Fools Journey Press, 2023

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 1
TORIN

I
’d never feared death before.
Not like other Fae did, with their morbid tales of
the Great Beyond.
I’d never feared life, either, but I feared it now.
From my balcony in the Citadelle, I tightened the tie on
my thin robe and stared across the verdant, wide-open plain
that stretched to the Shoaling Sea, little more than a foggy
blur past the waving grasslands.
I wished this world was all I saw.
The vast flatlands of Caladrius. The crowded, boisterous
city of Tempeste laid out below me, twinkling faelights
glowing behind thick, glass windows, everything in the
shadow of Mount Sylvan. The eastern sky flushed pink by
the approaching dawn. I didn’t just see the world. I saw
everything.
I saw the future. A gift from the Old Gods, according to
my mother.
A curse, as it turned out.
Because what I’d seen last week…I wished I hadn’t.
My gut tightened at the thought of what today would
2 L.A. MCGINNIS

bring. I’d been standing outside for hours and the autumn
chill had penetrated my bones as deeply as winter’s hardest
freeze. I wished I could take back the vision, or forget what
I’d seen, but it was too late. I knew something the Fae King
did not.
Carex Centaria’s doom was approaching in the form of a
small, helpless child, and when that child arrived, none of
us would escape the destruction. Not even me, though I was
willing to die in the scorching cataclysm, so long as that
power hungry bastard got what he deserved.
“Torin, my love, come back to bed.” Zephryn’s deep voice
almost coaxed me from my perch, the promise of a warm
bed and even warmer lovers waiting inside my room was
nearly enough to lure me from my morbid thoughts.
But not quite.
“The king will send another battalion to the wall today.
Ten thousand more dead. And for what?” I closed my eyes
against the merciless sun rising over the mountains. The
golden rays did nothing to warm me. I doubted anything
would.
“For nothing.” My rage drifted away like ashes on the
wind.
There was the near-silent tread of heavy feet, then
Zeph’s big hands curled around my shaking shoulders, slid
down my body in a sensuous slide that normally would
have me turning, tasting, devouring him whole.
But not today.
Today, even Zeph couldn’t drag me out of my morbid
thoughts.
“Tor, look at me.” He turned me so he could peer into
my eyes, and I drank him in. Rugged. Powerful. Handsome,
with his full lips and high cheekbones, his dark eyes
simmering like the burning embers of a dying fire. Zephryn
 Dark Is My Exile 3

was the last of an ancient bloodline and power rumbled

from him like thunder, filling the air with the scent of smoke
and flame.
“You haven’t been yourself, lately. Come to bed and let
me take your mind off these hideous politics the king insists
on playing.” Zeph’s low growl sent a shiver through me, a
reminder that there was a deadly beast wrapped inside that
beautiful Fae flesh. “If you won’t let me love you, then
perhaps we could fly together today.” His hand drifted to my
hip, rested there, a gentle question, though I knew he
wouldn’t push.
“We could head east.” His voice was so, so casual. “Take
a look around.”
“And have some hothead shoot you from the sky?”
Another one of those chills went through me, this one for a
wholly different reason. “I don’t think so.”
“We’ll stay in the clouds.” His chest rumbled against my
back, this time thrumming with anticipation. “High enough
even the Taranth archers have no chance of hitting me. I’d
never endanger you, Torin, you are far too precious.” He
draped my hair over one shoulder, baring my neck to his
questing lips. “To all of us.”
I didn’t bother pointing out there wasn’t a cloud in
the sky.
“I know.” I leaned into him, drinking his strength, his
smoky scent, threading my fingers through his long, black
hair. “As much as I’d like to sail over Caladrius with you…I
have no interest in experiencing the bloodshed for myself.
Bad enough to see it every night in my dreams. The
smells…” I shivered, losing my words for a moment, but
Zeph understood.
The smells made everything real. I could almost pretend
the visions were only pictures in my head, but down on the
4 L.A. MCGINNIS

ground, with the strong scent of coppery blood, the screams

of the wounded…those were not so easily forgotten.
“Then come to bed, we have a few hours. Simon’s
hogging up your half of the mattress; let’s roust him into
taking your mind off this latest vision, whatever it was.” His
questing lips slid up the side of my throat and every thought
in my head blessedly vanished. “At least for today.”
I didn’t bother telling him why I was upset. The truth
was too dangerous.
He led me back to bed, where we discovered Simon
wasn’t sleeping after all, his golden eyes reflecting the sun
shining down through the open ceiling, bespelled to keep
out the elements, but to let in the light.
This was a beautiful, opulent room, bordered with walls
of rare, precious books, the wisdom of Old Valaria, every-
thing the High Seer of Tempeste required. Every luxury I
had ever asked the Fae King for. But this place was nothing
more than a pretty cage for a captive bird. We stepped
through the wide shaft of light spilling from the open ceil-
ing, warmth coating my face like fresh honey.
That openness was the only thing keeping me from
feeling like a complete prisoner, even though that, too, was
only an illusion, as was everything else.
I was chained to the king, to this place.
And my lovers were chained to me, by a tether stronger
than anything the Fae King could forge. Love and devotion.
Emotions the king would never understand, but would use
against us.
Zephryn tumbled me into the bed, straight into
Simon’s arms, whose bright golden eyes shone with laugh-
ter. “I told Zeph you weren’t interested in flying today. Not
that I’m complaining.” Sy dragged his tongue up my
throat, then down between my breasts, humming softly.
 Dark Is My Exile 5

“You taste like heaven, Torin. I will never get enough of

you.”
Simon smelled like the heated sunbeams cutting
through the darkness. Sweet, like caramel and amber
melting on my tongue. I wound my fingers into his long,
silky blond hair, letting him feast on me, Zeph cradling my
head, massaging my temples until my body went boneless.
Trapped between them—Simon my light and Zeph my
darkness—I relaxed and allowed myself to just feel.
To not worry about the future, but to savor the now.
Precious and elusive and far too short.
“Something’s wrong.” Simon reared back, and I cranked
one eye open to see his gold gaze darkening to a murky
brown. “Did you see something terrible, Tor?”
The truth perched on my tongue, bitter and deadly, so I
shook my head. “No. Just feeling nostalgic this morning.” I
managed a smile. “And lonely.”
His handsome face brightened before his arms bound
my body, his lips devouring mine in a wild rush, like he
couldn’t get enough. But that was Simon. Never wasted a
moment, never hesitated, wasn’t afraid of a single thing.
There were no almosts with Simon, and I wished I shared his
utter fearlessness when it came to life.
Zeph’s eyes were molten embers when he dragged my
thin silk robe off, Simon’s mouth moving down and down
and down, until I lay flat on my back, Zeph stretched beside
me, Simon positioned between my legs, my body already
anticipating the onslaught I was about to endure.
Endure wasn’t the right word. Surrender was more apt,
given I would be moaning out his name in just a few
minutes.
“I told you I couldn’t get enough, Tor. I am fucking
starving for you.” Simon’s fingers sank into my thighs as he
6 L.A. MCGINNIS

spread them wider, cool morning air rushing over my body,

peaking my nipples to hard, eager points.
“So fucking beautiful,” Zeph rasped, grasping my chin
between his fingers and turning my face to his, kissing me
deep and tender, stealing every thought from my head,
every breath from my body.
I want them to devour me. To erase the terrible truths
and replace them with something exquisite. Something that
was ours alone.
The first sweep of Simon’s tongue through my swollen
pussy sent my hips bucking up off the bed, right against his
ravening mouth, before he pressed one hand to my belly
and flattened me down as he feasted without shame, and I
came apart without reservations.
After all these years together, Simon knew my body
better than I did, knew how to make me shatter into a
million pieces with a brush of his tongue. The hollow ache
between my legs turned to a keening wail as he worked me,
my orgasm hovering frustratingly out of reach, his fingers
digging deeper into my thighs, holding me steady as I ached
for more.
“Come for us, my beauty.” Zeph pushed two fingers into
my mouth, pumped them in and out. “I want to watch you
fucking come on Simon’s tongue.”
His words weren’t gentle and that was what dissolved me
into a shaking, shivering mess as my climax rocketed
through me, legs trembling, arms wrapping around Zeph
because I needed something to ground me as I came
completely apart.
I was still shaking when Zeph rolled us over together, so
I ended up straddling his mountain of a body, hands braced
on his wide muscled chest; an erotic swivel of his hips drove
his cock up into me in one deep, filling thrust. I gasped at
 Dark Is My Exile 7

the sensation, the pressure as I stretched around him. For a

moment we stayed just like that, his low groan of satisfac-
tion curling through my chest.
“You are so beautiful, Tor.” Zephryn wrapped a handful
of hair around his fist and pulled me down to him, our lips
crashing together. I tasted fire and smoke, delicious,
forbidden power, his heavy, half-lidded eyes watching me.
“So are you,” I whispered, running my hands over the
faint scars on his left pec, over his hammering heart. One
small swivel of my hips and his mouth parted, and that low,
needy moan fed my soul. I loved that sound. Loved
watching this big, powerful male come apart for me.
Loved the way strength turned to vulnerability.
Loved how he was only like this with me. For me.
Then his hands gripped my hips and he thrust up, my
eyes rolling back into my head at how deliciously we fit
together, that beckoning pressure that made me want to
burn with pleasure, like a flame that won’t go out. The dull,
demanding ache in my core turned into fiery euphoria.
I was starving for them, and I wouldn’t be happy until I
had them both.
“Torin…” Simon’s hand slid up the center of my spine,
pushed me down, Zeph using my hair like a rope to tug me
flat against him, an electric charge rippling through me
when Simon’s fingers dragged moisture from my weeping
pussy up through the crack of my ass, worked it deep
inside me.
“Both of us, love. You’ll take us both, and this time when
you go over, we’re going over with you.” The gentle kiss he
pressed between my shoulder blades was almost reverent
and my heart thumped in anticipation as the head of his
cock nudged against my back entrance.
Simon’s low groan as he slid into me was deliciously
8 L.A. MCGINNIS

carnal, stripped of all his normal poise and civility. That

sound was stark, hungry need, and my eyes fluttered closed.
I loved them both so much. Enough to consume me whole.
“Are you okay?” Zeph’s lips tickled the shell of my ear.
“Better than okay. Perfect.”
These two would tear the world apart for me, and I’d
protect them from every monstrous evil. For an eternity, if
we had that long.
Simon pulled out, then with a slow thrust, pushed back
in, at the same time Zeph lifted my hips, then slid me back
down so slowly my core ignited, fire licking at the base of my
spine. We’d done this so many times, yet it never got old.
Familiar…but always new, always exciting.
Every sensual roll of their hips brought me closer to
release, but they took their time, as if they sensed I didn’t
want this to end, as if they knew this was my only reprieve
from a reality that was slowly killing me.
But this—them—was pure life. This was living.
My body locked up in pleasure, Simon’s curse and
Zeph’s shout rang off the walls and up into the brightening
sky above us; my mind was obliterated by the sweep of plea-
sure and the roar of blood in my ears, and in that second, I
knew what it was to be alive.
And when Zephryn cradled me in his arms like I was the
most precious thing in the world, and Simon planted gentle,
soft kisses along my shoulder before tucking me safely
between them, I knew what it was to be truly loved.
 2
TORIN

I
should have gone flying last week, I groused, my patience
fraying as the Fae King plotted yet another futile
attack with his advisors while his bloodthirsty court
looked on from above.
War, in general, was a pointless endeavor, and this one
had raged for a thousand years. Given my recent discovery,
Carex’s endless campaign against his brother, the Shadow
King, was the most pointless one ever, since no one would
ever win.
The arguing cut off, the silence pressing in on me.
“Allow me to consult with my High Seer.” I didn’t hesi-
tate when Carex shoved up out of his throne and headed for
the door, advisors and military men following in his wake
like he held their leashes. I fell in beside the king, catching
the faintest whiff of rot beneath the cloak of power he wore
like a mantle.
I could barely breathe in my tight, jewel-encrusted
gown, my head pounding from having my heavy locks
tightly coiled into an intricate display, but the king
10 L.A. MCGINNIS

demanded his High Seer behave and look a certain way, and
I’d learned to wear my costume well.
Behind us, sharp feet dragged across stone; the scent of
fear poisoned the air around me like a sulphur spring. “I
didn’t know she would be here today,” someone hissed
before they went quiet. I would have smiled, but the Oracle
intimidated even the most powerful Fae in Caladrius.
Even me.
No one else spoke until the doors of the Council
Chamber closed behind us with a boom, the Commander of
the Caladrian Guard clearing his throat importantly. “Word
from the front has the Solarys army putting up more of a
fight than we expected. Another two thousand troops will…”
“Two thousand is not enough.” Solok, the right Hand of
the King, stepped beside me, my breath stalling in my lungs
when his arm brushed up against mine. “Ten thousand now
will give us a decisive victory, otherwise, our latest campaign
could stretch past the solstice.”
“Make it happen.” Carex waved his hand in the air, and
for a moment, I thought I saw a hint of black veining
beneath his pale skin before it was gone.
Not one thought given to the innocent lives he’d just
wasted in the name of his Great War.
And why should he? Millions had died in the millen-
nium this war had raged, perhaps a million more would die
before the end. I’d closed off my mind to that endless stream
of senseless death, which stretched so far in both directions
—the past and the future—I wanted to vomit.
Sharp questions were asked by the king’s aides, skillfully
sidestepped by the commander.
Solok drifted closer, his rank scent wrapping around my
throat like a serpent’s choking coils. I tucked my arms in
tighter and his knowing chuckle skated down my spine.
 Dark Is My Exile 11

I focused on the commander, an incompetent male,

much like his predecessors. I delved deep, knowing he
sensed my blank stare like nails raking down his spine as a
vision flashed through my head. Within five months his
head would be on a chopping block in front of the palace,
and Solok would wield the axe.
No surprise there.
“Let us consult the High Seer. What is the outcome of
this battle?”
They all turned their attention on me while sweat
trickled down my spine. “The Solarys forces will retreat to
the wall, but no further. This battle will last into deep
winter. We will lose as many to the cold as we do to the
fighting. The Axe is correct.” I swallowed the bile burning
my throat, knowing I was about to condemn more innocents
to death. “Sending more troops now will cut our overall
losses and maintain our superior numbers.”
The king nodded and leaned back in his chair. My part
of this performance over, I clenched my hands together as
the commander launched into a pathetic explanation of
why he’d miscalculated.
Even if I hadn’t foreseen the battle’s outcome, this was
simply common sense.
After a thousand years, the Fae King still did not grasp
military strategy. Carex relied on Solok, and because he
relied wholly on the Axe for everything…Solok could name
any price as payment for his services.
And he’d named his price, many, many years ago.
I forced myself to meet his ravenous gaze, the
consuming hunger that always lurked there. Before Zeph
and Simon and Cosimo, I’d belonged to Solok. A gift, from
the king, to his most loyal servant, like I was nothing more
than chattel. My knees shook beneath my gown, but I forced
12 L.A. MCGINNIS

my head higher. Masked the fear I could never fully stop

feeling.
The Axe narrowed his gaze on the commander while I
fluffed out my skirt, putting a few inches of breathing space
between us.
“He is the worst one yet,” Solok hissed, but thankfully
came no closer. “A hundred gilder says he’ll lose his head
before spring.” The closest courtiers chuckled, but I kept my
gaze fixed on our king, searching for another glimpse of
those black, unnatural veins.
Carex hadn’t risen to power through intelligence, but
through cunning.
He’d locked his brother—the Shadow King, the legiti-
mate heir to the Fae throne, and the rightful inheritor of the
Fae magic—in an iron casket, assassinated their father and
ascended the throne through devious manipulation.
It was no wonder he didn’t know how to fight a war.
Or govern, for that matter.
Or see the threat sitting right in front of him, like a
bloated, hideous spider, as the Oracle swept up to his side,
battle hardened males tripping over themselves to get out of
her way.
He might not see the threat, but I did, all to clearly. Even
before my discovery, I’d both feared and respected the
Oracle, like you’d treat a rabid dog, loyal to no one and
capable of devouring anyone when it became hungry
enough.
Her midnight gaze raked me over and I kept my expres-
sion bland, hands folded loosely in my lap. If the Oracle
caught a whiff of what I’d seen, I was dead, and so were
my men.
Knowing your enemy’s weakness could be your greatest
strength.
 Dark Is My Exile 13

Or get you killed.

I might be the High Seer of Tempeste, but I was expend-
able. And we had three hundred years until the vision I
foresaw came to pass. Which meant I had to survive—and
keep my males alive—all that time.
It also meant we had three centuries to prepare for the
bastard’s demise, and I intended to make use of every single
moment. There would be a revolution, but it would have to
be timed perfectly.
The meeting fell apart like a spring thunderstorm, the
king leaving with his fawning courtiers, Solok trailing
behind the commander and his men like a wolf scenting
blood, leaving me behind in the silence.
My nostrils flared when the stench of rot grew closer,
smelling too much like putrefying bodies.
Too much like how the king was starting to smell, these
days.
“Torin. It has been too long since you have sought my
counsel.” The Oracle’s fingers trailed up my arm like razor
points, ready to cut at a moment’s notice. “You used to meet
me with such…regularity. Now, it seems, you have forgotten
your way to my chamber.” Her lair, was what she meant.
I pushed air in and out of my lungs, every breath a shud-
dering mess of tangled emotion.
“My visions have been the same, Oracle.” I raised my
free hand to hide my yawn, as if I were oblivious to her
skeletal fingers wrapped around me. “Boring, almost.
Nothing but a war that does not end, countless deaths left in
its wake.”
True.
Always best to tell the truth in front of this foul creature,
since she saw the depths of one’s soul with frightening
accuracy.
14 L.A. MCGINNIS

“Nothing more?” Those sharp black claws pierced flesh

and veins, held tight. “Nothing of the future? Of the king’s
future?”
“Not that I recall.” My smile came as easily as the white
lie. “I expect when winter comes and the battlefield is empty
except for the crows, my head will be cleared of death.
Perhaps then I will see further.”
I hesitated, cursed myself as a fool, and asked anyway.
“Was there something you were curious about? Perhaps
something…you saw?”
Her nails retracted; the scent of my blood perfumed the
air around us and she licked her lips, as if she hungered for
a taste. “I don’t have the Sight, girl. You know that. But if you
saw something momentous, anything that changed the
course of our futures, you would tell me?”
“You would be the first.” I dipped my head. “After the
king, of course.”
“Of course. We all must know where our loyalties lie.”
I knew where mine lay, and it was not with this twisted
king who’d shackled me to this awful city so he could use
my magic to stay in power. Nor was it with this withered old
crone, who was far more dangerous than she appeared.
And from the creeping awareness in the Oracle’s pitch-
black eyes, I had to take a leap of faith…and trust someone
else with my secret.
Just in case I couldn’t see this through to the end.
Because three hundred years was a long time to stay
alive when everyone had a reason to want you dead.
 3
TORIN

T
ears streamed from my burning eyes as Zeph and
I soared higher, Simon flying at our side, clouds
blurring against the cerulean blue sky.
Zeph was in his dragon form, a sleek, deadly spear of
black scales and membranous wings, every mighty beat
lifting us higher and higher, until the sun seared the top of
my head. “Slow down, Zeph. If you go too high, Simon can’t
follow.”
His rumbling laugh sent me skidding sideways across
his broad back, my heart lurching as my fingers futilely
scrabbled for purchase across a sea of scales with no luck.
With a tip of his wings, I slid back into place, the golden owl
sailing at our side hooting in reproval at the dragon’s care-
lessness.
“I have to tell you both something. Simon, you must
make an excuse to go to Cosimo’s lab. Once I tell you what I
know, you have to relay everything to him, exactly as I tell
you, because it’s too dangerous for us to speak inside the
Citadelle.” They knew why we were sneaking around.
16 L.A. MCGINNIS

Because the king never allowed me outside the palace walls,

except for this.
To fly over the battlefield and survey today’s troops to
ensure everything aligned with that vision I’d spoon fed him
two days ago. In a few hours, I’d be locked back in my cage,
but right now…
I closed my eyes and held my arms out at my sides, the
wind tearing my hair out of the tight braid, Zeph’s powerful
body somehow, impossibly, soaring straight through the
clouds like a bullet.
Silence. Utter, complete silence. The kind I wanted to
wrap myself in so the world couldn’t reach me, so complete,
the voices didn’t creep in, my head blissfully clear for the
first time in months.
“Tell everyone you found a new star and you have to go
to the top of Mount Lancer to confirm. The king will be
hard pressed to get his spies up there since Coz’s workshop
is so remote.” Or the Oracle’s spies, which was the real reason
we were having this conversation a thousand feet above the
ground.
I could outmaneuver the Fae King and even Solok in my
sleep…the Oracle…not so much.
“I had a vision. Two weeks ago. I saw Carex die a
hideous death.” Beneath me, Zephryn’s wings snapped out
straight, his body rigid with tension beneath mine. “But
before that, he lost his magic. To a child.”
I gripped Zeph’s thick scales, sliding my fingers around
the rough edges, my butter soft gloves gripping tight. “I
couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl…but the babe had white
hair…and pale green eyes. It was High Fae, obviously
Carex’s…and some old Caladrian bloodline. There aren’t
many left, not with that color eyes.”
 Dark Is My Exile 17

The fact that Carex would allow a child to survive was

itself a mystery.
He had to know the risks, that any offspring stood a
chance at inheriting the magic. He’d murdered his father to
gain the ancestral Fae magic, but his predecessors claimed
the power in other ways. Some came into their inheritance
when their parent died. Some were bequeathed it by the
universe.
And some, like Carex, killed for it.
My breath caught as we drifted lower. “But we can figure
that out later. What’s important is that Carex will finally be
powerless. And without the magic, he could be killed.”
Simon hooted softly.
“There’s another part to the vision…a more disturbing
development. The Oracle isn’t who or what she says she is.
From what I saw…” I swallowed. They’d either believe me.
Or not.
“She is one of the Old Gods, like out of the histories.
And while Carex can be killed…she is truly immortal. And
the day Carex dies…so does this world as we know it,
because the land has to die, for the magic and the Old Gods
to rise again.”
Simon flapped closer, his golden eyes locking with mine.
“I saw…” These words—this vision—was me, pounding
a nail in our coffins. But living under the Fae King, we
always knew we were doomed, it had simply been a matter
of dying at the end of a blade, or at Carex’s hands when our
usefulness ended.
At least this way, I’d die for something, and maybe save
the world in the process.
“You’ve sensed the magic waning in this realm, haven’t
you? The crops have not been as plentiful, wildlife has been
18 L.A. MCGINNIS

dwindling, Carex has avoided expending his magic publicly

for years now?”
Zeph’s rumble echoed up through me, and I patted his
neck, saying, “That’s because the magic is cyclical.”
Cosimo had retreated to his mountaintop laboratory for
just this reason. To study why the crops were dying, why
every harvest was sparser than the last. Why people were
starving. He’d been gone two months, without a word.
“Every few thousand years, the magic dies out
completely. We are close to the end of this current cycle.
Only a great blood sacrifice will coax the magic to return.
“I’ve searched every book in my room, but found noth-
ing. I need Cosimo to look at the Valarian scrolls at the
temple. They might have some older prophecies or folktales
that could offer some clues.”
Zeph dropped lower, low enough I made out lines of
soldiers below us, their pale, upturned faces twisted in fear.
Then I saw the archers and ducked.
The air rippled around us, arrows whistling past as Zeph
dove straight down, Simon a small, golden bullet at our side.
Our forces had the higher numbers, but the Solarys calvary
sped straight for our front line, who crouched down,
readying their spears.
The sounds of grunting, explosions of final breaths,
flesh tearing beneath the assault of steel filled my ears.
That was bad enough, but the smell had me retching.
The scent of blood tinged everything—the churned-up mud
beneath the soldier’s feet, the smell of urine and offal as
bladders let loose in death.
And death hung over the entire field, as thick as the
flock of crows circling around us.
With a roar, Zeph sent a spume of flesh melting dragon-
fyre through the rear guard of the Solarians, then flapped,
 Dark Is My Exile 19

lifting us high for another turn. I didn’t speak again until the
clouds closed around us and my cheeks dripped with
condensation.
“Which is why I haven’t been sleeping.” This time, when
Simon hooted, I managed a weak smile. “I know, I know. I
shouldn’t have kept this to myself, but I didn’t want to put
you in danger. Then I figured I shouldn’t be the only one
who stays awake every night worrying. And you should
know…in case anything happens.”
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of wind
whistling past. “Anyway. The good news is, it won’t happen
for three hundred years. The bad news is…we’re the only
ones who know what’s coming.”
Zeph dipped his wings and banked, turning us in a slow
circle above the clashing forces, silver and blue coated
soldiers clashing with black suited ones, the battlefield
devoid of green for miles in every direction.
I shut my eyes, but couldn’t block out the sight.
“This is hideous. Such a fucking waste of life.” I patted
the side of Zephryn’s neck. “Let’s make another pass. Maybe
they’ll all run and we can stop the fighting for one day.”
His disapproving rumble traveled up through my legs
into my belly like an earthquake.
“I know it won’t make a difference. But at least it’s
something.”
 4
SIMON

I
flew on a cold autumn wind to Cosimo’s private
workshop, a small stone castle built precariously into
the side of Mount Lancer, like the structure clung to
the granite by hope alone. A thread of steps had been
carved into the side of the cliff, leading straight up, so steep
it was practically a ladder.
Five thousand, four hundred and thirty-two of them and
I thanked the gods for my wings.
Tempeste was barely visible through the shifting mists,
the flatlands a smear of green leading to the ocean beyond
as I soared higher and higher.
I doubted I’d been tracked, but I made a lazy circle just
the same, my lungs aching from the freezing air, tasting of a
long, hard winter. Solok’s spies were clever and I scanned
the skies for a lone raven or crow, his favorite kind of
tracker.
There had been rumors of Soul Reapers in the north,
and though Zeph had dismissed them as just that—rumors
—I wasn’t so sure. Just last year, a silver cave weaver had
crept out of the catacombs beneath the city and decimated
 Dark Is My Exile 21

the market square, killed almost a hundred Caladrian

merchants before the Citadelle guards had cut the beast
down. They’d boarded up the entrance the next day.
I scanned the clear skies one final time, then I soared
through the tower window, stole one of Cosimo’s thick,
embroidered robes—the lucky bastard didn’t sacrifice
comfort, even in the middle of nowhere—and descended
the circular steps to his workshop.
His voice boomed out before I hit the final step. “Tell
that fucking Fae bastard I was planning to come back, but
discovered something fascinating at Stonegate Pass.
Couldn’t leave until I proved it was real.”
I skidded to a stop in the doorway, every muscle in my
body freezing at the sight before me.
Pinned to a table was some dark, twisted creature I’ve
never seen before, with a fat, bulbous body and thrashing
stick thin legs—too many for me to even count—pincers for
a mouth, three eyes fixed on me in either desperation or
hunger, I couldn’t tell, and didn’t want to know.
Cosimo lifted his hands up over his head, sleeves rolled
back to reveal thick, corded forearms.
Magic throbbed so thickly my chest ached from the dull,
unrelenting force, though I couldn’t see my friend’s face,
since his hood was up over his head, his broad back to me. If
this was anyone else, I’d be back in the sky by now, but with
Coz…I backed up, making sure there was an open door
behind me.
“What…what the fuck is that, Coz?”
“Not sure, some aberration of magic from what I can tell.
Could have come from the High Barren witches, or through
the mountain passes from the Pale. But it’s deadly. Nearly
killed me in my sleep three nights ago. Took me until today
to trap it. I had to waste my very last chicken.”
22 L.A. MCGINNIS

Not a trace of fear in his voice, only curiosity, but that

was Coz. Not only had I seen him kill a Howler with his bare
hands, fight alongside the most vicious mercenaries in the
realm, but as the king’s High Astrologer, he had access to
secrets no one else knew.
The perfect mix of brawn and cleverness, and I was
godsdamned glad he was on our side.

“S HOULD YOU BE THAT CLOSE ?” Even ten feet away, my

muscles locked up, some instinctual prey response kicking
in. All I wanted to do was get the fuck out of here and away
from that writhing thing.
“At least it’s at my mercy instead of the other way
around.” He paused; hands still raised. “So, the king finally
got tired of waiting. He sent you here to drag me back?”
“The king didn’t send me.” My eyes stayed fixed on the
creature, a jolt of horror going through me at the click, click,
click of those pincers, the foul green venom bubbling up
around them, the way the innumerable insectile legs
scraped across the table like razor knives. “Please tell me
that thing can’t get loose.”
“It’s not trying to eat you, is it? Then yes, it’s secure.”
Cosimo leaned closer, his nose less than an inch from those
snapping pincers. I couldn’t even look and turned away.
“Then who?”
I crossed to his workbench, picked up a hammer made
of some black, dull metal, the head as big as my fist, yet light
as air. Not going to do me a fucking bit of good if that thing
got loose.
“You know who.” I glanced to the creature meaning-
fully. The king had his spies—who was to say this wasn’t
one of them? Ever since Tor told us about her vision, I
 Dark Is My Exile 23

couldn’t shake the feeling everyone was watching our every

move.
“Get rid of that thing, and we’ll talk.”
Blue eyes glowed beneath his hood. “Ah. I see.”
A wave of his hand sealed the…centipede, I supposed,
into a tomb of glass, the thick, opaque coating a prison from
which the thing would never escape. The next moment, it
was gone, spirited away to wherever such horrors went
when Cosimo was finished with them.
“Is she alright? I meant to return sooner, but that’s the
fourth one I found and they are deadly as fuck. I tracked
them into the rift between the Fang Mountains, which is as
far as I dared go alone. This one…” His eyes darkened. “This
one came after me last night. If one of these got into the city,
the results could be catastrophic.”
“Torin’s…” I felt my insides shrivel up. “We’re in deep
shit, Coz. All of us.” I explained everything, his blue eyes
glinting beneath his hood before he tossed it back, revealing
a heavily bearded face, thick brown hair past his shoulders.
“She wants you to go to the temple, search the scrolls.
She thinks there might be something there.”
“She’s sure?” His hand gripped the edge of the battered
table like a lifeline. “And she hasn’t had another vision
since?”
I shook my head. I’d spent this past week hoping for
some miracle, a second vision that might prove the first was
a …mistake, though I could count on one hand how many
times that had happened.
“No. Nothing has changed. And just the once. But
Torin…she was sure, Cosimo. Sure enough to tell us, and
you know how seldom she divulges her visions.”
“I know. I know,” he muttered. “Thinks she’s keeping us
safe.”
24 L.A. MCGINNIS

“You need to come back to Tempeste. The Oracle…I’ve

been watching her, especially around Tor. She’s acting
strangely. I think she knows about the vision, and I think we
should all stay together. In case we have to get her out of the
city.”
“What does Zephryn think?”
“If it was up to Zeph, he would have flown her across the
Shoaling Sea to his island a week ago.”
“A week…” Coz’s blue eyes began to glow. “How long ago
did she have this vision?”
“Not sure, three weeks now, maybe. You know Torin. She
didn’t say anything until she did her research and was sure
the vision was real. She couldn’t take a chance on it
being…false.”
We looked at each other, our combined anger staining
the air, Cosimo’s hands clenching as he remembered the
night he’d saved her. The only time Torin went to the king
with a false vision, Carex ordered Solok to punish her.
She would have died, if it wasn’t for Coz.
Torin still bore the scars on her back, and every time I
saw them, I wanted to hunt down the Axe and kill him.
“Tell her I’ll be back in three days. Don’t leave her alone,
not for a single second.” Cosimo’s face was a mask of barely
restrained fury. “I have someone I need to see first, but I’ll be
at the palace before nightfall on that third day.” I tossed the
worthless hammer onto the wooden table, and the damn
thing groaned beneath the weight. Coz gripped my arm.
“If the Oracle is one of the Old Gods…she already knows,
Simon. Torin can see the future, but only in a finite, mortal
way. An Old God would see every thread, every possible
outcome of every scenario. Because if you’re right, and the
cycle does repeat, fuck knows how many times she’s relived
this.”
 Dark Is My Exile 25

I dragged my hands down my face. I’d reached the same

conclusion, but I’d come here hoping Cosimo would
convince me I was wrong. “We should get on a ship, like we
planned. Put this fucking realm to our backs. Start over on
the other side of the world.”
“You know we can’t. Not without careful planning. Carex
won’t let her go; he depends on her too much.”
“I fucking know, but this…this is bullshite, Coz. The king
and his fucking war are one thing, an Old God rebirthing
the ancient Fae magic…that’s fucked up.”
“Three days.” His voice was harsh. “Let me talk to my
contact, then we decide. If Torin’s vision is true, we get her
out of the city before the king finds out what she’s hiding. I’ll
stay and face the consequences. You three fly south.” I
opened my mouth to protest, to offer some other solution,
but he just smiled, sad and resigned.
“We always knew this would end with one of us sacri-
ficing everything for her. It might as well be me. I’m hardly
around anyway.”
 5
TORIN

W
here is my girl?”
“ The second Cosimo’s deep voice rang
through my chambers, I was running,
thighs burning by the time I threw myself against hm, lost
myself in his wild, winterly scent, his big, muscular body.
Coz might be the king’s astronomer, but he was built like a
warrior, a big brawny male with gold dripping from his
arched ears, and I traced his jaw with a grin.
“Your beard is so long. You haven’t shaved since you left,
have you?”
“Guilty as charged.” He kissed me hard, erasing every
day of the past months he’d been gone in a breathless tangle
of tongues and lips. Then he pulled away, watching me curi-
ously as I explored his beard. “I should have shaved. I know
how much you hate it.”
“I don’t hate it.” I twisted my fingers into his long beard,
shot through with streaks of amber that picked up the
sunlight like threads of gold. “I just like seeing your face.”
I always felt unsure and inexperienced around Cosimo,
maybe because his sharp eyes seemed to pierce the veils of
 Dark Is My Exile 27

time itself, or because his very essence seemed as immortal

as those mountains he loved so much—more, perhaps,
than me.
He was older than any of us, almost as old as Carex
himself, had seen kingdoms rise and fall all around
Caladrius, knew the mountains better than anyone, except
maybe for Zephryn, and not only could fight, but could cast
magic.
Real magic, the kind few possessed these days.
Right now, he seemed wilder than ever, and that
excited me.
I traced the edge of his robe, midnight blue with silver
embroidery, made by the finest seamstress in the city. “I
missed you.” Something like relief settled into place. For the
first time in months, we were all together, a rare occurrence.
“I missed you more.” His calloused fingers trailed slowly
down my face, as if he was desperate to commit my face to
memory, his expression softening. “I’m sorry I took so long
to get back to you, love. There were…problems to be dealt
with.”
“Problems that can wait?” I didn’t let hope spring fully to
life. Not when the king held Cosimo’s leash as tightly as my
own. I knew exactly why Coz was indebted to the king. And
I hated it.
“Problems that can wait. Carex doesn’t even know I’m
here and no one saw me return.”
I chewed my lip. “Are you sure? Solok…the Oracle…they
have more spies lurking about these days than they ever did.
Maybe you should go see the king, make your report, then
come back.”
“I’m sure, Torin. No one saw me return. We have time to
be together.” This time when he tilted my face to his, his
mouth pressed at the seam of my lips, happiness turning me
28 L.A. MCGINNIS

molten. Cosimo tasted of wide-open places and freedom, of

a life with no limits. His tongue swept in with practiced
ease, my whole body lit up with electric anticipation.
Freedom had been Coz’s whole life until I’d come along
and the king trapped him, right along with me. I never knew
how he’d found me that night Solok went too far. But
he had.
Cosimo had saved me, then forged some sort of agree-
ment with Carex. And afterwards….as long as Coz was
around, Solok never touched me again.
But these days, Coz wasn’t around very much.
And Solok grew bolder every day.
But Solok wasn’t Cosimo’s problem. He was mine. I
wasn’t a wide eyes greenling from the country anymore. I
was the fucking High Seer of Tempeste, and if he crossed
one more line, I’d deal with him.
I shoved all that ugliness out of my head, let every
thump of Coz’s beating heart sink into me, let myself accept
the absolute safety I felt in his arms was real. That he was
real. Being close to him was like coming home, and I never
knew how much I’d missed him until he was back.
“Let me take you to bed, Tor. I’ve been fucking dying for
you for months, ever since I left.” His deep growl rumbled
through me, sharpening the desperate ache between my
thighs.
“I’d like that.” I threaded my fingertips through his
beard, wiry, yet soft, my nails scraping his cheek. I didn’t
want to ask, but I had to. “Simon…told you?”
He stiffened against me, but nodded. “Everything. But
that’s a discussion for tomorrow, Tor. Right now, I’m not
wasting a single second we have.”
“Me either.” I smoothed my other hand across his chest,
under his silken robe, finding warm flesh layered over hard
 Dark Is My Exile 29

muscle. “At least you didn’t get soft, playing scientist in your
lab.”
“Hardly. Over five thousand steps, remember? And I
spent too many nights up in the mountains, hiking the
passes. No chance of getting soft.” He yanked me against
him, the huge bulge pressing against my stomach, making
my knees go loose. “Besides, I’m always fucking hard for
you, Tor.”
“Good.” I reached down and rubbed his cock, tightly
bound inside his trousers while the throb between my legs
grew more demanding. “This seems painful. Maybe we
should get you out of these.” His blue eyes twinkled, a grin
breaking across his face when I threaded my fingers through
his and dragged him toward the bed.
I couldn’t wait a minute longer. If there weren’t spies
everywhere in the palace, I’d have him right here, in the
entryway where anyone could see us. But my bedroom was
warded, the safest, most private place in the Citadelle.
And what I had planned didn’t need an audience.
“Damn, Tor, when you look at me like that…” Cosimo’s
grin turned into something sharper. “I get ideas. I’m yours to
command, Tor, just be gentle with me. I’m a lowly
astrologer, after all.”
“You’re no more an astrologer than I’m the queen.” I
snorted, my gaze snapping to meet his azure blue ones.
“Maybe not, but I do love looking at the stars. And you
are a queen, Tor, no matter how often you deny it.” My heart
stumbled a beat at the look on his face. “My queen. Our
queen.” Coz gripped my hand harder, then reeled me in
before he pressed his lips to my palm, that kiss burning a
trail straight down through me like a bolt of lightning.
“My stars. My moon. My entire universe.” He was so
careful this time when he brushed my cheek, tenderness
30 L.A. MCGINNIS

tinged with sadness, sending a shiver of foreboding straight

down my spine. “Until the end of time.”
I grappled with myself, wanting to peer deeper, to reach
for my Sight, to see what it was Coz saw…what he knew that
I didn’t. For the briefest second, I debated, his eyes dark-
ening to a beautiful shade of ocean blue, as if he recognized
my struggle.
But in my heart, I was a coward, and lost myself to his
lips and his roving hands and his breath in my lungs, willing
the outside world to disappear. The tendons of his neck
drew taut as he swept me up, the world tipping for a
moment before righting itself.
He kicked off his boots, yanked down his thin trousers,
peeled my dress apart, buttons spraying across the room
with a clatter. His coat got caught around one arm; I tore the
sleeve off his shirt, my fingers moving too fast to be careful.
Then we were tangled up in bed, where I pretended I
didn’t see that glimpse of sadness on his face as I caressed
his wide shoulders, ran my hands over his golden-brown
skin, his perfectly sculpted body.
Pretended tears didn’t burn in my eyes when I kissed
him, like I was drinking from some forbidden well that I’d
never drink from again.
That thought alone unleashed me, and I pushed him flat
to the bed, my aching need turning sharper, my mouth
crushed to his, fingers kneading flesh, tongues lashing as I
straddled him. More, more, more. And even then, this would
never be enough.
Never.
I rocked my hips, dragged my pussy up and down along
his hard length, like I’d mark him with my scent. I didn’t
know what I was doing, only that I wanted him to be mine
so completely, nobody would ever take him away.
 Dark Is My Exile 31

“Tor.” His deep voice was an echo against the blood

rushing in my ears, this screaming, demanding need to fill
the hollow ache inside me. “Torin.” Cosimo’s tone turned
sharper. “Look at me.”
He cradled my face in his huge, rough palms, scraping
his thumbs over my cheeks, through the tears I didn’t even
know were there. “You and me, Tor. Until the very end. I am
yours. Completely. My heart.” His lips brushed over mine
and something cracked inside me at his utter tenderness.
“My body.” Another slow, deliberate kiss. “My soul. All of it,
yours, forever.”
Every word blazed in his eyes, in his face, every piece of
himself given to me so freely, so completely.
“I know,” I said helplessly. “But we’re running out of
time.”
“Then we make the most of what we have.” Coz sounded
so fierce, like he’d wrestle the world into compliance, force
the universe to obey our rules. “Kiss me, Tor. Give me every-
thing you have and don’t ever be afraid. I’ll always find a way
to be with you, because there’s nothing that can keep us
apart.”
I threaded my fingers through his hair and kissed him.
One shift of his hips and he thrust his cock into me, up
and up and up, filling me so completely I gasped when he
was finally seated inside. “Good?” He searched my face for
an answer, my slow nod giving him permission to pull out
and sink back in, deeper this time, the stretch bringing the
smallest pinch of pain.
He pulled out and thrust back up, deeper, chest
expanding beneath my palms as I pushed myself upright,
the angle of my hips turning the pressure into something
sharper. I lifted my hips, until only the very tip of his cock
was inside, then lowered myself down, the sensation of him
32 L.A. MCGINNIS

filling me up, that delicious stretch around his girth pulling a

moan between my lips.
“That.” He husked. “Make that sound again for me, Tor.”
This time when I lifted my hips, he met me halfway with
a sensual roll of his hips, pulling me down, fingers digging
into my hips as he thrust, again, and again. Again. Every
punishing stroke echoed inside me like a thunderclap,
stoking the wildness that wants to take me over, turn me
into something else.
Something completely unhinged and reckless.
Release clawed at me, straining to take me over, but I
fought the lure. I didn’t want this to end. I wanted to ride
this reckless edge with him for as long as I could, for him to
be pounding inside me, to be filled with power and love and
unrestrained need.
We turned into an ocean tide. Surging. Retreating.
Moans echoed off the walls, our scents drenched the air,
sheets tangled around my ankles as I rode him, his fingers
sunk into my hips so deep I felt every nail. Cosimo was so
beautiful he made my heart ache, made the world cease to
exist. I dragged my fingers through the sweat pooled in the
divot between his pecs, wishing we could draw this moment
out forever.
His eyes turned the color of a storm at sea, flecked with
lightning, his face tightened in concentration, his corded
neck straining. I lowered my head, sank my teeth into those
tight, taut muscles, bit down hard, his groan turning to a
plea.
“Fuck, Tor. Fuck.” I chuckled against his skin, sinking my
teeth in deeper, knowing I’d leave a mark. Good. I wanted to
mark him. For everyone to know he belonged to me. Only
to me.
There was nothing between us right now. Nothing.
 Dark Is My Exile 33

“Come for me, Tor. Come for me now.”

He pressed his thumb to my sensitive nub and I
imploded. Like all that pressure had nowhere to go except
inward in bolts of rapturous lightning that struck and shat-
tered, over and over again, obliterating me, my body locking
up, every muscle taut, my core clenching around him,
milking him.
Cosimo’s body arched beneath me, his churning hips
crashing into mine, roaring out his release like a warrior
issuing a challenge, and this time, I exploded outwards,
gripping his shoulders like I’d never let him go as I came
apart, breath exploding out of me from the force.
I collapsed, boneless on top of him, then slid partway
off, too tired to even care about anything, except we’re still
touching, he’s still here, we’re together.
“Best homecoming ever.” He pulled me back onto his
chest, planted his lips in my hair, my eyes drifting closed,
too heavy for me to keep them open anymore.
“Agreed. Next time, don’t stay away so long.” His heart
was thunder beneath my cheek, his arm a safety net I could
spend my entire life inside. Home.
 6
TORIN

M
y patience frayed like thread as this latest royal
audience dragged on, Solok standing far too
close, his foul stench stuffing up my nose like
a rotting corpse. The Oracle lurked on the far end of the
gleaming throne room, her eyes pinning me beneath their
glittering oblivion, as if she saw every secret I was keeping.
Through the enormous arched windows, the mountains
and the city rooftops were coated with snow, a light dusting
that arrived weeks sooner than any of us expected.
Thus, the emergency audience and the king’s foul mood.
“Every supply wagon is stuck on the flatlands, bogged
down in the mud from the melting snow. We didn’t antici-
pate…” The panic in the commander’s voice was palpable.
Yet another weakness Carex would hold against him.
Perhaps five months had been a generous estimate. This
could well be the commander’s last official audience with
his head still attached to his body.
“And our forces?” The king’s gauntleted fingers tapped
on the arm of his throne with a metallic cadence that made
my teeth ache. “What of them?”
 Dark Is My Exile 35

He’d taken to wearing the gauntlets a few weeks ago, and

the diamonds on the ends glittered in the stark winter
sunlight. Fine craftmanship. The finest, and I resolved to find
out who’d made them and why.
“We should pull back to the Midlands, to the forest
edge,” the commander suggested, twisting his hands. “The
soldiers can secure firewood and shelter; the wagons will
reach them in three days once the ground dries.”
“Which allows the Solarian forces to advance further
into my lands,” Carex mused softly, death in his eyes as he
leaned forward. “Land it took us all summer and fall to
retake by force. My brother will win the battle this year…and
I shall lose.”
Which was what this all came down to.
An endless pissing contest between two privileged,
powerful males, fighting over a thin scrap of land and who
sat on which throne, while millions died in their names.
My hands gripped the arms of my own chair as the
Oracle scuttled forward, her movements jerkier than usual.
Behind me, Solok went still, as if he knew…as if he fucking
knew what was coming, and panic took me over. Because I
did not.
I hadn’t had a vision—a proper vision—in two months.
Not since I’d seen Carex’s fate.
I should know what would happen next, but I didn’t, and
it occurred to me what a terrible crutch my foresight was.
How much I relied on knowing what was about to happen,
which meant right now…I was hopelessly vulnerable. If the
king asked…
“High Seer. What is the outcome of the commander’s
decision? Can we afford to wait a week for the wagons, or
should we pull back now? Our soldiers will fight to the
death, but once those front lines fall…”
36 L.A. MCGINNIS

If our defenses fell, there would be nothing keeping the

Solaryn army from streaming across the flatlands and
arriving at the city. For a thousand years, we’d kept the
enemy from our gates, and even if we beat them back, Carex
would look at this as a resounding defeat and all our heads
would roll.
I lifted my chin and forced my numb mouth to move.
“I’ve seen them fall. Pull back to the Midlands, have the
soldiers reform the lines there. They’ll have wood and good
hunting in the forest, then the supply wagons will arrive in a
few days.”
Something about the king’s sudden stillness should have
tipped me off, but instead, I recklessly plowed on. “Once this
weather breaks, our forces will push them back to the wall.”
“You’ve foreseen this?”
I nodded slowly, Solok’s breath dusting the back of my
neck.
“In a vision?” He asked, his black, piercing gaze nailing
me to my chair. “You had a vision that showed you the
outcome?” I swallowed, well aware of my predicament. I’d
failed the king only once and had the scars to prove it.
Solok’s breathing turned erratic. Anticipatory.
Mine shallowed out, spots dancing in my eyes.
“I did.” No sense in backing down now. I’d made my
fucking bed and now I had to muddle through this and try
not to die.
“If you are lying, Torin, there will be consequences.”
Solok’s hands slid over my shoulders like cold eels, the tips
of his nails sinking in like knives, blood blooming through
my dress.
“If the girl said she saw it, then she did,” the Oracle
rasped, the tension in the air snapping apart like a broken
band. “You’re blaming the wrong person, my king. It wasn’t
 Dark Is My Exile 37

your Seer who sent the supply wagons to get stuck. It was
your commander.”
The entire room blurred before me, my vision going
dark around the edges as Solok’s gripping hands slid away,
dragging his nails through my flesh, leaving gouges behind.
But at least I was no longer trapped beneath the king’s
ravening gaze.
The commander was, and the poor male was on the
verge of collapse.
When the king’s private guard dragged him away, and
Solok tossed me a fiendish grin, I knew I’d never see the
commander again.

I WAS HALFWAY BACK to my chamber when the Oracle

appeared before me, as if spawned out of thin air. “That was
reckless, girl. Carex is a fool, but not that big a fool.”
“I saw the army retreat and I saw the woods. I pieced the
rest together.” The lies slid off my tongue as cleanly as
Solok’s nails sliced through my skin. Fifty years in service to
the Fae King had given me nerves of steel, and right now,
they were all that kept me upright.
I shrugged. “There is a chance I could be wrong, but if
the wagons are stuck, the soldiers are better off near the
woods.”
“You truly believe that?” The predatory tilt of her head
reminded me of a Howler I saw once when I was a girl, right
before it slaughtered an entire family. “Do you know what
manner of creatures live in those woods? There will be
hunting, but it won’t be the soldiers doing it.”
My blood iced at the look on her face. “You didn’t save
38 L.A. MCGINNIS

those males. You just sent ten thousand soldiers to their

deaths. What do you think the king will do, High Seer, when
he finds out his entire army has been slaughtered?”
I clenched my hands so hard my knuckles cracked, and
her amused expression had nothing to do with humor and
everything to do with the fact she had me trapped.
“The wagons will arrive to supply an army that is
already bloated and rotting. The creatures of the forest will
feast and the Shadow King’s army will arrive on the steps of
the Citadelle in less than a month’s time.”
Silence hung between us. Anything I said now would
prove I was a liar, and once she went to the king, I was dead.
And so were my lovers. Fuck. Think, Torin, find a way out of
this.
Her feet clicked dully against the stone floor beneath
her long, heavy skirts and I fought the impulse to retreat
when she dragged her sharp fingernails down my face.
“The king will kill the owl first.” Her voice hummed with
delight. “Then the dragon, then the astrologer. Then you,
Torin. Your only worth is seeing the future, even if it’s not
the future Carex wants you to see. His days are numbered,
as you know. Because you have seen his future, haven’t you?”
My heart stuttered to a stop as I waited. This close, the
infinite differences between us were so clear. Dark, unnat-
ural magic wrapped around me, as cold as the space
between the stars, stealing the breath from my lungs.
“However…I am your friend, Torin. You might not
believe that, but I will offer you a token of that friendship. I
will save you from yourself. The army will be protected from
the forest beasts, long enough for the supply wagons to
reach the soldiers. But I want something in return.”
“What’s that?” I managed to say.
“An ally.” Her smile revealed sharp, pointed teeth.
 Dark Is My Exile 39

“Three hundred years is a long time to wait, and there is

much to prepare. Help me in the future and I will help you
now.”
“At what cost?” The words were out before I could stop
them.
Her devouring smile grew bigger, more eager. “Think of
what you have to lose, Torin. Your men believe they provide
a shield of muscle and bone that keeps you safe, but in real-
ity, they are the means by which you will fall. Help me and I
will keep them alive. Don’t and…” One shrug of her thin
shoulders and everything inside me crumbled.
Caught. After all these years of maneuvering and sacri-
fice, I was caught.
She knew it, as well as I.
“I’ll take that as a yes. And we are all caught in this web.
Even me, even the king. None of us can escape, and power is
only an illusion. Remember that, High Seer. No one can
change the future, and we are all prisoners of our fates.”
Pain seared through me like I’d been doused in hot tar,
my arm on fire. A strong stench of smoldering fabric
engulfed me, then the Oracle was gone.
When I rubbed my palm over my burning arm, I hissed
in pain. I’d been branded, a mark the size of an apple,
seared deep into my flesh.
 7
TORIN

I
stumbled back to my chambers on legs made of
rubber, collapsed on the hideous skull throne hidden
beneath a sheet, and cradled my head in my hands,
my nerves fraying.
I cursed this aberration that made me the king’s
prisoner.
I’d never asked for the Sight. Never wanted to be differ-
ent. A freak.
But I could see the future, and my parents had sold me
to Carex for twenty thousand gilder, a windfall to poor, illit-
erate farmers from the southern region, and once I gave the
king my first prophecy, my fate was decided. I became the
High Seer at the tender age of sixteen, and despised every
second of my existence.
“Tor?” Simon hurried toward me, wrapping a robe
around himself. “I was there, at today’s audience. I saw her
talking to you, I heard what she said.” He dropped to his
knees before me, his expression both furious and wary. “I
heard everything.” He breathed in deeply; his heart was
pounding so hard I heard every ragged beat.
 Dark Is My Exile 41

I scanned the open ceiling, the walls, the closed door

before I hissed, “You know better than to eavesdrop, Simon.
If they caught you...”
“There’s nothing they could do to me that would be
worse than if something happened to you. We’re getting you
out of here.” He grasped my hands, his jaw set. “Right now.”
“I can’t leave,” I whispered. “You know I can’t. The price
is too high.”
He rocked back on his heels. “Cosimo is meeting with
Carex as we speak.” He cocked his head to the side, his
burning gaze colliding with mine. “When their meeting is
over, you, me, and Zeph will go flying.” Every word was a
spike to my heart. “Because along with Coz’s report to the
king, is his recommendation the northern pass should be
surveilled.”
“She will know,” I whispered flatly. “She’ll see right
through Coz’s bullshit story and throw us all in the
dungeons.” I rubbed the brand on my arm. “And we have
another problem.” I scanned the walls, the open sky above
us, then lifted my sleeve, just enough for Simon to glimpse
the mark burned into my skin.
Fury erupted from him, filling the room with caustic,
oily sourness. His chest heaved before he got control, beads
of sweat plastering his golden hair to his forehead, even
with the chill. “I knew she marked you…but to see it...” His
jaw flexed. “I swear I will kill her.”
I laid my finger over his mouth. “Enough. She won’t fall
for us going into the mountains on some bullshit excuse of
Coz’s.”
“Except it’s not bullshit. Coz really did find something.”
“What did he find?” Simon’s face closed off.
“Zeph is bringing something to mask the brand. Once
he takes care of that, we’ll head north.” His chest inflated
42 L.A. MCGINNIS

before he blew out a long, slow breath. “Cosimo found

something in the mountains. Or rather…something found
him.”
“But he never…” I bit my tongue. Coz seldom talked
about what he did for the king, unless it had to do with his
beloved stars. But there were other, darker tasks Carex had
Coz perform, and I’d seen him drag himself home in pieces
enough times to know they left a stain on his soul. “What
are we searching for?”
Simon pulled me to my feet, then toward the bedroom.
“When Cosimo returns, he’ll fill you in.”
In other words, our enemies were listening and Coz was
planting our cover story, and Simon didn’t exactly know
what it was yet.
“I see.” I watched him lay out my flying leathers, and
began stripping off my uncomfortable, high throated gown,
the one the king and his court expected me to wear. The one
that stank of the Oracle’s corruption. “We’d best be ready,
then.”

S IMON WAS in his usual soft buttery leathers in a shade of

tawny brown, perfectly matching his gold-streaked hair and
striking eyes. I was in black pants and a sleeveless shirt,
feeling like I was about to be dragged down into the abyss.
I hadn’t missed the knives Simon slipped into his boots,
nor the blade at my side, in a carefully hidden sheath.
Zeph’s heavy footfalls pounded through the antechamber
and he exploded into the bedroom, his ember-flecked eyes
scanning me from head to toe, then straight to my bare arm.
On the brand seared into my skin.
 Dark Is My Exile 43

So, Simon had told Zeph and Cosimo everything and

now…now my beloved, unflappable males were acting out
of pure panic.
“Sit down, Tor.” Zeph steered me to the nearest chair.
“Let me look at that.”
“It’s nothing.” I resisted the urge to rub the hideous
mark that burned like pure dragonfyre, to hide it beneath
my jacket where no one would see it.
“Torin, stop fighting me and let me help. That has to
hurt.” Zeph’s handsome face was unreadable except for that
furrow between his brows, his calloused hands gentle as he
cradled my arm. “This is deep. The magic…there’s a tracking
spell in there.” His slow hiss blew out a shower of angry
sparks.
Warmth flooded through me like molasses, sinking into
every dark pocket, a contented sigh slipping out of me as his
magic began to heal me. “There. Does that feel better?’ His
thumbs stroked down my arm, leaving a blaze of wonderful
heat behind.
“Much better.” I opened one eye. “But you know as well
as I do that…” His mouth cut off the rest of my sentence,
then it was just Zeph, the taste of flame and smoke, his
clever tongue erasing every coherent thought in my head.
His rough palm grasped my wrist, before the cool bite of
metal met my upper arm, right over the Oracle’s mark. “This
relic will counter the Oracle’s magic. The magic will keep
you hidden.” Zeph murmured against my lips; his soft
warning little more than breath caught in my mouth.
The second the metal encircled my entire arm, my flesh
went numb, a strange sensation and one I wasn’t sure I liked.
Zeph pulled away, holding my gaze.
“This was a family heirloom of Coz’s family,” Zeph
explained, loud enough anyone listening could hear,
44 L.A. MCGINNIS

securing the cuff over my upper arm, the cold metal

warming against my skin. “Coz wanted you to have this,
even though he couldn’t be here to give it to you himself.”
Because he was meeting with Carex.
A surge of fear induced anger swept through me. Coz
was usually the smartest of us all, but he was going to get
himself killed. We had to be smart right now, not impulsive.
We had to be strategic, and outthink our opponents, not
make reckless decisions that put us all in jeopardy.
“We’ll get airborne as soon as Coz gives us the go
ahead.” Zeph’s face became a blank mask as he held my
jacket out, staring through the open doors leading to the
balcony, like he was waiting for something to happen. Or
somebody.
Whatever was about to happen…I hadn’t seen this in any
vision.
Didn’t know how to stop it, except to appeal to their
common sense.
I shoved my arms through the sleeves, glanced at the
churning sky. “There’s a storm blowing in. Perhaps we
should wait for tomorrow. The winds will pick up in the
mountains, and once it starts raining, flying will be
treacherous.”
I didn’t know why Simon wouldn’t just shift into his owl
form, but the fact we were both armed meant they were
expecting trouble, and he wasn’t interested in escaping
quickly. Or at all.
“Coz said this is an urgent matter,” Simon countered
softly. “Needs to be taken care of today.”
I clamped my mouth tight while Simon braided my hair
into a tight tail before stuffing it down the back of my shirt.
Why wouldn’t they listen to reason? This was simply one
 Dark Is My Exile 45

move on the chessboard, and we were far from being

outplayed…unless they knew something I didn’t.
“Still…” My pulse was racing like a hummingbird’s
wings. “No sense in rushing into anything. Not before we
know what our options are.”
“We already know what our options are, and deep down,
so do you.” Zeph’s deep voice thrummed with deadly intent
as he turned me around so I had no choice but to stare up
into his eyes. “And it’s flying north to investigate this threat,
Torin. You know what happens when threats are allowed to
fester.”
Zeph slowly buttoned up my jacket, one button at a
time, his gaze locked with mine. “In all the years we’ve been
together, I’ve never asked you for anything, Tor. Never. But
I’m asking you for this. Fly north with me. Do this for me, if
for no other reason.” In his gaze, I glimpsed the devastating
truth.
He was afraid.
Not of the king or the Oracle. Not for himself or Simon
or Cosimo.
But for me.
This powerful male was afraid for me, and was willing to
risk his life to protect me from monsters more powerful
than all of us put together. Was willing to defy the Fae King
and the entire Caladrian army to keep me safe.
Would die to keep me safe.
I gulped down a shuddering breath. “Please. Let’s not do
this today, Zeph. We’ll sleep on this and tomorrow, things
will look clearer.” His amber-tinted gaze paralyzed me,
because while Zeph always—always—gave into me, this
time he’d get his way.
I couldn’t refuse him. Not after that.
46 L.A. MCGINNIS

“I’ll be ready to fly in two minutes. You’d better to be

ready, too. We have to get off the ground. Quickly.”
Before the king readies his archers, he didn’t say. He didn’t
have to. I got the message, loud and clear.
I trailed behind him out onto the wide, jutting balcony,
the perfect place to watch the city below. Or shift into an
enormous black dragon so your wings didn’t get stuck in the
doors. I loved watching Zeph transform from Fae form to
dragon, a magnificent sight that took my breath away, every
time.
The air out on the balcony grew charged, electricity
crawling down my arms, lifting my hair. Zephryn became a
tower of might, expanding, smooth golden skin splitting,
turning to black shining scales, his handsome face elongat-
ing, his mouth widening, teeth growing to wicked, deadly
lengths.
My breath caught in my throat as wide, muscular shoul-
ders expanded to block out the sky, even before he spread
his immense wings, every vein visible in the membranous
skin stretched between the long, bony digits. His roar rattled
the glass in the windows, sending a shower of molten sparks
onto the crowd milling below.
Power, personified.
On the street, Fae pointed at Zeph’s outstretched wings,
translucent in the sickly winter sun, stretching the width of
my entire chamber. His iridescent scales picked up blue and
purple and gold from the watery winter sunlight, shim-
mering like a rainbow when he whipped his tail around,
nearly sweeping me off my feet.
A belch of smoke and fire and a baleful glare over one
scaled, hulking shoulder let me know that was no accident.
Zeph was done waiting and his dragon…was dying to get
airborne.
 Dark Is My Exile 47

Simon shoved Zeph’s wing out of the way to lean out

over the parapet and scan the gawkers crowding the street
below. “Coz’ll be here any minute.” But he gnawed at his
bottom lip, something he only did when he was nervous,
which wasn’t often.
I relaxed. Coz would put an end to this. He’d talk some
sense into these two and then we’d come up with a plan to
deal with the Oracle and the king, and get through these
next three hundred years with our heads intact.
“Why aren’t you shifting?”
His golden eyes flipped up to mine. “I’m riding with
you.”
“We’d make better time if you flew,” I said pointedly.
“Your weight will only slow Zeph down.” They were overre-
acting. Yes, the Oracle had me cornered, but running wasn’t
the answer. I ran my hand down Simon’s arm, but he kept
scanning the street. I pressed my lips to his ear. “Zeph’s
beyond reason, but we can wait until tomorrow. Nothing
will change between now and then, Sy. Nothing.”
“You’re getting on Zeph and going to investigate
Stonegate Pass. With or without me.” I bristled, both at his
tone and not being given a choice. I shook my head as I tried
to decide how to talk them out of this…without tipping off
the spies who were certainly listening to our every word.
One wrong move right now and we’d all end up at the
end of Solok’s whip.
“Fine. But Stonegate’s almost a day away and I need to
know what we’re looking for.” I huffed, pulling on my
gloves. “Or this will be a complete waste of time.”
“No, you don’t,” Simon murmured, twining his fingers
together. I set my boot in his hands and he lifted me onto
Zeph’s back, high enough I could clamber up the rest of the
way, feeling like a crab out of water. Simon, of course,
48 L.A. MCGINNIS

mounted gracefully behind me, one arm banding around

my middle, the other gripping the thick scales.
“I thought we were waiting for Coz?”
“He’s already here.” Simon nudged me, and there was
Cosimo, staring up at me, his blue eyes brimming with
something I couldn’t quite place.
I raised my hand, opened my mouth…and that’s when
the guards—the king’s private soldiers and Solok—raced up
the main street and tackled him from behind.
We were airborne in a rush of bitter cold wind and
boom of powerful wings, leaving the shouting soldiers
behind so quickly, I couldn’t see what happened, only
glimpse the writhing knot of blue and silver uniforms, and
Solok, staring balefully after us as we disappeared into the
low clouds.
 8
COSIMO

P
ut the cold iron shackles on him. Make sure
“ they’re tight.”
My first thought when the king’s fucking
soldiers slammed my face into the filthy cobblestones was, I
shouldn’t have ever come back to this shithole of a city.
The second…I should have gotten Torin out of here a
long time ago.
But she was out of here now, and watching her disap-
pear into the sky, past the meaty arm of the bastard pinning
me down, gave me a rush of joy. “Your breath is seriously
foul.” I grunted when the guard closed his hand around my
face, nearly gouging out my eye as he secured my hands
behind me, the shackles biting into my wrists.
The iron did its job, whittling my magic down to practi-
cally nothing.
“Get him on his feet.” Solok’s voice was sharper than a
serrated knife. “You think you’re so fucking clever, don’t you?
You think I didn’t know she was planning to run? I know
everything when it comes to Torin.”
50 L.A. MCGINNIS

Even with the iron, I could summon a common spell

and escape them, but that wasn’t the point.
No, I’d accomplished exactly what I meant to today. My
woman and my friends were free, headed somewhere these
fuckers would never find them, and no matter what
happened to me, that was all that mattered.
“Not everything, apparently. But please, go on. Sing your
own praises to someone who doesn’t give a shite.” I lifted my
gaze to the sky, barely picking out the speeding dark speck
against the gray sky.
Solok leaned closer, his gaze raking me up and down.
“She belongs to me, you see. Always has, always will.”
Fury rattled the cage that held my heart; I pictured my
hands wrapped around his throat, his eyes bulging out of
his head. But Torin was free. So were Zeph and Simon. This
sick fucker would never touch her again.
“Talk all you want. Empty words don’t mean a fucking
thing.” His anger fueled me like fine wine, my grin so wide it
felt like it was tearing my face in half. “You are an animal
and someday, someone will put you down like a dog in the
street.”
“Not if I put you down first.”
So maybe I wouldn’t be alive to see it, but hopefully
Torin would watch this fucker die.
“We’ll see about that.” My wink sent blood flooding into
his face. “I believe you’ve made that threat before, Solok. All
words no action, isn’t that what the ladies say?” Air
exploded from my lungs when his fist sank into my stom-
ach, shattering two ribs along the way.
“Get him to the Citadelle. Second level. Now.”
Pain turned my vision fuzzy, then slid off me like water
when they jerked me up off the street and dragged me
beneath my armpits toward the Citadelle.
 Dark Is My Exile 51

Solok didn’t matter. None of this mattered. Torin was

free. With Zeph and Simon to protect her, she’d always be
safe and she would never be alone, which was enough
for me.
They even had hope for the future. My side quest to the
High Barrens had been productive and illuminating, even
though the trip cost me an extra day, mostly because it took
me fucking forever to find my quarry.
The High Witch of the Barrens confirmed Torin’s vision
was true. This world repeated magical cycles over and over
again, every ten thousand years, and we were approaching
the end of this latest one.
Three hundred years away, exactly as Torin foresaw.
Three hundred years and by that time, chances were,
everyone here would be gone. Or at least, this world would
be very, very different. The High Witch hadn’t exactly been
forthcoming, but the old crone never was.
Up until this morning, my plan had been to lay low and
get Torin somewhere far, far away from Tempeste, after
months of careful planning.
But the Oracle showed her hand far sooner than we
expected, and once Simon filled Zeph and me in on what
happened, we knew we had to smuggle Torin out today. The
Oracle didn’t ally with people. She drank them dry and
tossed aside their empty shells once she was finished.
My meeting with the king told me the rest of the story.
Beneath his pale, perfect skin and his brand-new
gauntlets, I smelled the rot.
The same stench as every foul beast that crawled out of
Stonegate Pass, and it had crept into the very heart of this
city, corrupting everything. Perhaps the corruption had
been building for a thousand years, and I’d just now
noticed, but that didn’t matter.
52 L.A. MCGINNIS

It was here, and we had to get Torin out before it

poisoned her, too.
Around us, Fae shouted, pointing at the sky and I
managed to lift my head enough to see two sinuous forms
dart upwards between the tall buildings. Wings
outstretched, the sun illuminating the thin skin stretched
tight between their bone-like fingers.
Dragonhunters.
Small and lithe, they could scent their prey thirty miles
away.
Solok turned, long enough to make eye contact. “They
won’t be able to outrun my hunters. Like I told you, Torin
belongs to me.”

T HIS FUCKING PLACE .

I scanned the stone walls, painted with the blood of the
king’s enemies.
And Solok’s victims.
I spit a mouthful of blood onto the stones, knowing it
was just the first of mine to mark this room. There would be
plenty more by the time Solok was done with me. Some-
where, beneath the layers, was Torin’s blood. My lungs had
been filled with it, the night I’d gotten her out of here. If I
dug deep enough, I could almost smell the scent of lilies.
Safe. She was safe. I had to believe it.
Zeph could outfly those dragonhunters. I knew he could,
because he’d fly until he dropped from the sky, if it meant
keeping Torin out of the Oracle’s clutches.
“Recognize this place?” Solok crooned, in a cold tone
that probably struck fear into most of his prisoner’s hearts.
 Dark Is My Exile 53

The night I got Torin out, I slayed a dozen guards and

almost killed the Axe. I would have, if not for the extra time
it would have taken to bring the tenacious fucker down.
Time Torin hadn’t had that day. She still bore the scars,
wouldn’t allow Zeph to heal them, because she wanted to
remember what happened when she failed.
We all suffered.
Even my bargain with the king had been worth the
price. Trading my skills—and my freedom—for Carex’s
assurance Solok would never touch Torin again. I rolled my
aching shoulders. The sick fucker would never touch her
now, because he’d never find her.
“Not so brave now, are you? Fucking astrologer to the
king. We’ll see how long you last once I get to work.”
I just grinned. “Do your worst, arsehole.”
Two soldiers stripped me, taking care not to dislodge the
shackles, the only thing keeping them alive right now,
blanching at my knowing grin. Solok took the time to scan
his table filled with whips and hideous devices, running his
fingers over every one, like he was struggling to decide.
I already knew which one he’d choose. And when Solok
turned, coiling the steel-tipped whip, I didn’t look away
when he raised it over his head. The first strike flayed the
skin off my back.
Three hours later, my blood filled the cracks between
the stones like red rivers, one lung was collapsed and my
arm was broken. In three places, if my guess was correct.
And that wasn’t the only thing broken.
Solok held what remained of his favorite whip, looking
like he’d just ruined his favorite toy, and was about to burst
into tears.
“Maybe you can fix it.” I jerked my head at the pieces,
blood splattering all down the front of him. “Reattach it,
54 L.A. MCGINNIS

somehow? You could ask around, see if anyone has some

glue.”
His growl turned feral. I laughed, but the entire room
became a smear of black, nausea punching me in the gut,
every bit as devastating as Solok’s fists, battered from
beating me for hours. The bastard loved his work almost as
much as I loved mine.
There was a tentative knock at the door before a pasty-
faced soldier stepped inside, paling as his gaze flew over the
walls, the table. Me.
“Sire. There is a message waiting for you. Up top.” The
poor male jerked his head, spit sliding down his chin, his
face turning green. “It’s the dragonhunters…only one
returned. The other…”
“Out.” Solok’s hiss turned feral, his rage filling the room
with sour bitterness, the door slamming closed with a
resounding boom. “You haven’t had enough, have you? Such
a glutton for pain.”
“I suppose you should see about your hunters. Oh, sorry,
hunter. Seems like you might have lost one.”
“She told me to keep you alive.” His face was mottled.
“But sometimes…sometimes a body just…gives out during
torture.”
“I can keep going as long as you can.” In truth, I was
about done. But nothing could stop my inner celebration.
Not the fact I’d never leave this place. Not the fact I’d die
down here alone and never see my Torin again. If the
dragon hunters were already back, and only one returned,
they’d lost Zeph before he even reached the mountains. My
broken laugh sent bloody spittle dripping down my chin.
“Something funny?” Solok was all rage-stained impo-
tence. He knew as well as I did what the message meant.
“Only that all good things must come to an end.” If the
 Dark Is My Exile 55

High Witch spoke true, once the Fae King lost his magic,
Solok would lose his power as well. Good riddance. I only
wished I’d be around to watch them fall.
“One day, the Fae magic will choose another heir.” I
watched Solok’s face. “And when that day comes, this city
will burn. Mark my words, it will burn, and so will you and
your ilk.”
The door opened again, and this time, Solok turned
even greener than the soldier.
“Did you find out where they are headed?” The Oracle’s
raspy voice slithered up my spine, wormed its way into my
brain as I tried to focus. “Did you discover anything at all,
other than he’d die before he’d give her up?”
“I’m not finished.”
“Oh, but you are. He’s mine now.” She turned to me,
slow, like the predator she was, an Old God toying with her
tiny, helpless prey on a world she’d inhabited far longer
than we’d even existed.
I wasn’t afraid of much. Five hundred years had stripped
me of most terrors, and I’d faced nearly every predator this
world had to offer, but this creature was stronger, smarter
and more ruthless than anything that existed.
“Let us see where Torin has gone off to,” she murmured,
clasping my head between her taloned hands, pressing her
palms against my forehead.
“I won’t tell you a thing, you fucking monster.”
“Who said anything about talking?”
A groan burst from me when her talons sank in, fresh
blood dripping down my face, my eyesight blurring into a
sea of red. She shredded my brain apart, one memory at a
time, all of them stripped from me as easily as Solok had
stripped the flesh from my body.
For one hideous second, she was inside me, clawing and
56 L.A. MCGINNIS

scratching, digging through everything that I am, everything

I ever was. Every precious memory was hers for the taking,
there was nowhere for me to hide, nothing she didn’t see
and I was laid so bare I wanted to scream.
But I couldn’t.
The Oracle’s hands slipped away and I slumped forward,
spilling onto the stained cold stones as boneless as a fish.
She knew everything.
My last thought before I was swallowed by pain-filled
darkness was that I’d failed Torin.
I failed them all.
 9
ZEPHRYN

D
arkness was our friend when we crash-landed on
the parapet of a jagged black mountain I hadn’t
seen in a hundred years, the thick, brimstone-
drenched air choking me as my legs gave out. I skidded
across the sheer surface, stopping only when my shoulder
crunched against a heap of jagged rocks, shredding away
scales and flesh with hideous efficiency.
“Well, that was graceful, Zeph. I’ve seen better landings
from first timers.” Simon eased Torin off my back, her low,
pained groan a bolt through my heart. “But thank you, my
friend, for getting us here.”
My answering rumble shook the solid rock below us,
and I rallied the last of my strength, even though I was on
the verge of collapse. We were on the outer edges of my
territory, overlooking the ocean, the salty drenched air thick
as soup.
Torin would be sore when she woke, but at least she
would wake up free of the Oracle’s clawing grasp. We’d
flown southwest for two days straight and my head flopped
onto the cold stone, too heavy for me to hold aloft another
58 L.A. MCGINNIS

second. I folded my shredded wings along my back, muscle

and bone creaking awkwardly back into place.
The dragonhunters had ravaged my wings before I’d
chomped one of the little fuckers in half. Simon sported a
gash on one arm, protecting Torin with his blades while I
fought the first one.
But I’d made it. We were safe, and nobody—not even
the Oracle—could touch us now that we were here.
I eyed the sturdy stone wall that surrounded this entire
island, the pillars of light rising from the shifting mists.
Well, once we were behind that shield, she couldn’t touch
us. But getting us inside the wall…would be tricky.
The far-off booming of wings grew closer, and I got my
feet underneath me, legs as rubbery as my neck. The air
glistened with raw magic, coating every breath, surrounding
the moon with a halo of color.
“You said they wouldn’t kill us on sight. You’d better be
right about that, Zeph.” Simon tightened his grip around
Torin, then sank back into the shadows as two enormous
winged forms materialized through the mists.
My heart beat a ragged, desperate tempo in my chest, my
lungs were on fire, but we were safe. I was finally home.
Darkhold.
Even after a hundred years, this place looked the same,
even smelled identical to when I’d left, magic and sulphur
and ravenous power seeping from the glittering black stone
beneath my claws. When two sleek dragons gracefully
landed on the edge of the parapet a moment later, I realized
nothing had changed after all.
Stave, the bigger one, blue and long necked, raked me
with his ravenous gaze, pausing far too long on Torin and
Simon. I raised my head, gathered fire in my lungs, and
steadied my shaking legs, ready to strike.
 Dark Is My Exile 59

The other dragon—gold and delicate, too small to be

much of a physical threat—addressed me first. No surprise.
Cirnon might be the smallest of our race, but he was clever
enough to be my father’s advisor these past seven hundred
years.
Zephryn? Why did you come back? You know the rules.
My mate’s in trouble. We had to get her out of Caladrius and
somewhere safe. Don’t fucking even think about eating her or I’ll
gut you.
She’s nothing but skin and bones. Stave chuffed out a laugh
through a thick fog of smoke. Not enough to her to make the
meal remotely worthwhile.
Even in my exhausted state, I roared out a consuming
wave of rage and flesh peeling heat. You will not even think
such things, if you wish to live.
Sorry. If Stave was in his Fae form and had hands, he’d
be holding them out right now, trying to placate me. But he
didn’t. That was a joke, sire.
This is no joke. We are being hunted and you have to hide
her. I slid my tail to block Torin and Simon, then turned
back to Stave and Cirnon. My mate needs protection. I’m
invoking the Law of Sanctuary. I’ll pay the toll, just take her in
and hide her behind the Great Shield.
The king decides who stays and who does not. You know that,
Zephryn.
I ground my teeth. Then let me speak to him.
Smoke spilled from Cirnon’s leering smile, spilling out
between his jagged teeth. I expect your father won’t be happy
his only son has returned with his mate and… His eyes drifted
over to Simon. And whatever that puny little thing is.
Just take me to him. I wanted to hide Torin in my den,
not play these bullshit political games with my sire’s
henchmen. My arrogant brute of a father could wait
60 L.A. MCGINNIS

another day to make his dominance known, for fuck’s

sake.
No need. He’s already here. Stave and Cirnon scuttled out
of the way, leaving a wide-open space for the King of Dark-
hold to land.
Zyghon’s claws ripped furrows into the shiny black
stone, wings spread wide as he bore down on me. His once-
black scales were gray and dulled, loose skin sagged around
his face, battle scars marking him from nose to the tip of his
massive tail. But when he opened his mouth, fire burned
blue in his throat, the same shade as his eyes.
Father.
Zephryn. When they said you crossed the outer boundary, I
could not believe my spies. But I see it’s true. Savagery burned in
Zyghon’s gaze, a culmination of a hundred years of ruling
over this clan through brute strength. I forced myself not to
shrink beneath that devouring glare, the memories rein-
forced with pain that lurked behind those glittering eyes,
too much like my own.
I came here for a reason. Gods, I hated bargaining with
this fucking monster, but for Torin, I’d sell my soul to
Corvus himself. I am formally requesting sanctuary behind the
Great Shield.
I kept my head lowered; my throat pressed flat against
the ground so he couldn’t so much as think about ripping
it out.
Yet I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Five hundred years
on this island, three hundred of them as king, and he was
still alive. A miracle of sorts. And this was my future,
standing before me.
Zyghon’s silence stretched on forever, cunning intent
kindling in his expression. This bargain carried a heavy
price. Any price my sire would name, I’d have to pay. And
 Dark Is My Exile 61

we both knew, before he even spoke mind to mind, what

that price would be.
You will take my place as king, as you should have a century
ago. Tether yourself to Darkhold as its rightful protector. The
binding ceremony will be tonight, and in return, your mate can
stay. His nostrils flared wide, foul scented steam billowing
around me. And your friend, if he makes himself useful.
The fate I’d spent a century avoiding was here. But if this
kept Torin safe, I’d take my father’s place and rule over this
chunk of rock with teeth and claws and sheer brutality,
because that was the only language my kind understood.
My father turned his head to the peak rising from the
center of the island, the craggy top as sharp as a dragon’s
claw. My gaze followed his, my gut clenching.
You and I will meet on the High Talon in a few hours. His
leering mouth widened into a hideous smile. Come ready to
spill blood.

“Y OU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME .” Torin’s cold-as-ice tone raked

down my spine. “What were you two even thinking?” She
snorted. “You weren’t thinking. Not one bit.” Simon busied
himself carrying his pack to the bedroom, leaving me to face
her alone—the coward.
“We should have stayed in Tempeste and outmaneu-
vered the Oracle. Now…” Her gaze drifted off through the
enormous window overlooking the Hold. “Now you have to
fight your father in some kind of death match and she’ll
hunt us until the end of time.”
“She’ll never know we’re here.” I ran my fingers along
the bright gold cuff around her upper arm. The band hid
62 L.A. MCGINNIS

the brand completely, not so much as a hint showing. I had

faith in Cosimo’s magic, and he’d sworn the spell inside the
cuff would hide her. Now that we were behind the shield,
the old crone could search from one end of this world to the
other, and never find us.
“After tonight, I won’t be able to roam as freely as before,
but I can still fly you anywhere you want to go. And Simon
will always be with you, Tor.”
“While you traded your freedom for mine,” she hissed.
“That’s not fair, Zeph. And I don’t agree. We should leave
right now, figure out another way to deal with her.” I shut
out the aching plea in her voice, the absolute agony splitting
my chest in two.
“Do you know what the Oracle did to the other High
Seers?” I pulled a stool closer, swung my leg over. “Oh, there
have been at least five before you, Torin, though none have
lasted very long. She used every single one to further her
own plots, then offered them up to the king as sacrificial
lambs. Exactly like she did with the commander. She’ll do
the same to you, and we can’t take on Carex’s entire city
guard. So don’t tell me I shouldn’t have traded my freedom
for yours. I’m doing this because it keeps you safe.”
Simon slipped his arms around her, and some of the fire
banked in her eyes. “She would have used you as a pawn,
Tor, until she had no further use for you. How long since
you’ve had a vision?” Simon asked softly. “A real vision?”
“Weeks,” she whispered, her shoulders slumping.
“Months, if you want to know the truth. But my sight will
come back. It always does.”
“And when you can see the future again, then we choose
a different path. But until then, we stay safe, and we stick
together, like always.”
“What about Cosimo?” Her voice dropped to a whisper.
 Dark Is My Exile 63

“We’re not just leaving him behind, are we?” Simon met my
gaze over her head and the blood in my veins turned ice
cold. Coz bought us time to get a head start on the drag-
onhunters, a distraction for Solok to play with until we were
safely behind the shield.
His sacrifice was part of the plan. We’d never meant to
rescue him.
I clenched my jaw so tight my teeth ached. “We belong
to you, Tor. We’d die for you. It’s something we all came to
terms with a long time ago.” I tipped her tearstained face up
to mine. “Coz knew this, better than anyone. This was his
idea. I swore to him we’d stay hidden; we wouldn’t expose
you. I mean to keep that promise.”
“You can’t. You can’t just leave him there. Solok…” Her
voice cracked. “He’ll take Coz apart, Zeph, he’ll fucking take
him apart.”
“He will,” I told her, forcing my own voice to stay steady,
even while I wanted to shred this world apart. “Cosimo
knew where he’d end up and decided the sacrifice was
worth it. You are worth it, Torin. We’ll gladly die for you. All
three of us.”
“That’s bullshit, Zephryn. I won’t allow it.”
“This is already done, Torin. We planned this out long
ago, and none of us have a single regret.”
Tears gathered in her eyes like silver starlight, slipping
down her pale cheeks, and I gathered them up on the end of
my tongue, tasting of salt and lilies and sorrow. “We will
never leave you, Tor. Until the bitter end, whatever that
might look like, we’ll be by your side. And gods help anyone
who tries to take you from us. I’ll bury them so deep
beneath this mountain, they’ll never escape.”
“And what about you?” Her fingers slid slowly down my
face, traced my tight jaw as if she could wipe all this pain
64 L.A. MCGINNIS

away. “You’re trapped here forever. None of this is fair,

Zeph.”
“Whatever I gave up…was worth this.” I dipped my
head and kissed her as gently as I could, coating my
lips with her flowery taste. “Any sacrifice is worth it
when it comes to you, Tor. I would steal every moment
from this world, thieve away time itself, to give you the
future you deserve. And living free is far better than
serving as the king’s seer. You deserve so much more
than that.”
Simon ran his hand up her spine, pressed his lips to the
nape of her neck. “We only exist because of you, Tor. Only
for you, and as long as our hearts are beating, they’ll beat
for you.”
We tumbled into my bed, a tangle of teeth and lips and
tongues, of unsaid promises and regrets. Then I was inside
her, plunging and plunging into her wet, tight heat, my
chest aching like my heart might finally shatter apart.
For the first time, I was truly home.
My mate. My mountain. My future laid out before me.
King of a land I’d given up for the mate I loved. Now I
had both.
Hours later, I left Simon and Torin curled around each
other and padded out into the great room, the fire nothing
but glowing gray ash, the outside chill seeping in. Once
tonight’s ceremony was over and I was king, I would make
this den a haven for us, as safe as any in Darkhold, because
my trove held the most precious thing of all.
Torin.
I blew the dust off a bottle of Dragonhold’s finest wine,
set it on the counter for later, after I defeated my father.
We’d celebrate our new life. Our new start.
“It took me some time to unravel the wards protecting
 Dark Is My Exile 65

this place. Your Great Shield is a clever piece of warding for

a bunch of mindless beasts.”
The Oracle slipped out of the shadows, her face a pale
smear against the darkness, her ravenous eyes skimming
down my naked body, lighting up with something I did not
want to examine too closely.
“You had to know I’d find you, Zephryn. Even Cosimo,
clever though he is, could not protect his mind from me.”
Her rasping chuckle sent a jolt of horror straight through
me. “Fear not, he is still in working order. I do not ruin
serviceable tools, not when I still have uses for them.”
Fucking holy gods. I could transform inside my den, but
with my bulk, I wouldn’t be able to maneuver. I flashed her
an ugly smile, instead. “You know what we do to outsiders in
the Hold. You have to be mad to come here.”
“You took something of mine. I want her back.”
I leaned my hip against the counter and crossed my
arms, trying to look nonchalant. Hard to do when you’re
naked and there’s an Old God oozing about, looking like
you’re her next meal.
“Torin doesn’t belong to anyone, least of all you.”
“This entire world belongs to me.” She crept into the
light, her eyes glinting like raw diamonds. A musky coppery
scent perfumed the air, and my nostrils flared. Fury spilled
from me, scales erupting over my shoulders, down my back
before I could stop them.
“You stayed away so you wouldn’t be trapped here. Yet
you traded your own freedom for Torin’s. Noble of you.”
I kept quiet, sucking in another inhale of blood-infused
air. I knew that scent, as well as I knew my own, and the
foundations that braced me up began to crumble. “You
might have made a good king, Zephryn. Better than your
brute of a father ever was.” She lifted one hand to her
66 L.A. MCGINNIS

mouth, licked her red, dripping fingers with a long, black

tongue.
“Your people lost their king tonight. And you know what
happens to leaderless dragons.”
The floor rocked beneath me, but the proof was right
there, smeared across her lips, my father’s scent—his blood
—coating the entire room with savage clarity. My dragon
clawed to get free, to kill. To shred. To destroy. “Do you know
what you’ve done?”
“The world needs blood to make it strong. To feed the
magic.” She bared her teeth in a gruesome grin. “And your
kind will bathe this mountain in a fountain of red.”
A roar ripped from my lungs, my heart cracking in anger
and fear and pain. I spent the past hundred years avoiding
my fate, but I loved my people. Loved my mountain. And
she’d just ruined both with brutal efficiency.
Dragons needed a king to keep them in line.
Without leadership…this mountain would become a
graveyard.
“You brought this upon them, Zephryn. You were
supposed to protect them. Instead, you’ll destroy them.”
One second, I was a naked, mortal Fae being ogled by a
creeping crone. The next…my bulk filled the space and I
snapped my teeth…catching nothing but air, the Oracle’s
rasping laugh tangling around me. Then she spun me
upside down and slammed me into the ceiling, hard enough
fire and smoke exploded from my lungs.
“Now, now, none of that,” she crooned, embers show-
ering down around her. “Don’t blame me for your mistakes.
Your people will devour each other until there is nothing
left. Fight until every den in this mountain is barren.”
I twisted in time to see Simon and Torin race from the
bedroom. They slid to a stop, gaping at me helplessly
 Dark Is My Exile 67

suspended upside down, then the Oracle, coated in my

father’s blood, effortlessly holding me captive.
“Get her out of here. Now.” My roar echoed off the walls
and Simon shoved Torin behind him, blade in one hand,
and I could only watch as he sprang, slicing a clean gash
down one withered cheek. Black blood welled…then the cut
healed over.
“Torin.” The Oracle lifted her hand and Torin slid across
the floor, straight into her waiting arms. “Now watch what
happens when you defy me. You lose the things you love the
most.”
My den—the entire mountain—shuddered, then a deep
cracking ruptured my eardrums as spikes of black obsidian
erupted from the floor, driving into the ceiling all around
me. Like they were driven by the hammers of the gods, they
ruptured and grew, until Torin and Simon were barely
visible between the thin slivers between the stones.
Inside my head, as vile as any nightmare, the Oracle
crooned. “Sleep well, my almost-king. You will never see the
light of day again.” Her laugh skittered down my spine
before she released me.
My body transformed as I fell, bones shattering on
impact. Darkness swallowed me as the final stones heaved
into place, and I crawled over, pounding my fists against the
unnatural rock, glistening with black, writhing magic,
echoing with the Oracle’s final message.
“Your world will become nothing but chaos, and you
will be trapped beneath it, listening to the screams of your
people. A suitable punishment, for taking what was mine.”
 10
TORIN

O
ne moment I was watching Zeph be imprisoned
by a prison of black rock, his eyes glinting with
desperation and hate as the Oracle pinned him
to the ceiling, as easily as one might trap a fly beneath a jar.
The next, we materialized outside on the parapet where
we’d landed a few hours ago, watching violence rage
around us.
My gut twisted as dragons tore at each other mid-flight,
keening screams echoing as the weakest plunged to their
deaths. Others burned everything in sight with long deadly
plumes of dragonfyre, the entire mountain ablaze in
hideous splendor.
“You did this, Torin,” the Oracle murmured softly,
outlined against the fiery backdrop. “We made a bargain,
you and I. You broke your word.” Her hand snapped out and
peeled the gold cuff from my arm, tossed Coz’s relic onto the
stone, where it clattered away into the shadows. “There is
nowhere you can hide, nothing that will keep you safe from
me. There is no escaping your fate.”
My hands curled in on themselves. I want to tear her
 Dark Is My Exile 69

face off her skull, melt her bones, rip her heart from her
chest. The force of my hatred was so consuming, it took my
breath away.
“Your vision was true. There will be a child. Carex will
lose his magic. Then comes a war to end all wars. From the
blood spilled that day, a new world will rise. But I need you
to play your part, when that time arrives. Convince the king
to keep the child alive, because his instinct will be to kill her
while she’s still in the womb.”
“Fuck off.” Everything blurred through my tears,
through the consuming anger at the chaos she’d wreaked.
Two dragons crashed together, the boom echoing across the
valley. They tangled together, ripping and shredding with
horrendous ferocity, before one of them went limp and
plummeted.
“Be glad I’m more merciful than my brethren. They
would have slain you and started over. This way, you stay
alive…” Her eyes slid over to Simon, bound in black,
writhing shadows. “And so does the shifter, since he seems
harmless enough. The dragon and the astrologer…well,
their fates are up to you.”
I didn’t even know if Zeph was still alive. The last I’d
seen him…I frantically rubbed my screaming heart, trying
to claw its way out of my chest.
And Coz…Coz was back in Tempeste.
With Solok.
“What do you want from me?” The words were little
more than a hollow vibration in my empty, gutted chest. But
the moment they came out of my mouth, I felt better. They
were willing to die for me. I would do the same for them.
Maybe a little at a time, over these next three hundred
years…but I’d do it.
“Play your part. Earn back the king’s trust and keep it,
70 L.A. MCGINNIS

until I have need of you. Begin gathering accomplices for

what’s to come. We must fill the court with allies we can
depend upon.”
“You mean manipulate.”
“That, too.”
The entire world was ending and she was talking about
forging alliances. I swayed on my feet when a falling dragon
crashed down a few feet away, the impact blowing back my
hair, the bone crunching crash sending bile racing up my
throat.
When my hand slapped against the stone, I got a flash of
Zephryn’s face. Twisted in pain as he dragged himself across
the black, polished floor of his den, but…he was alive. And
I’d seen him. My gift wasn’t gone, not completely. I squeezed
my eyes closed.
“I’ll do whatever you want…but only if you keep them
alive. Both of them.”
“That was so easy. Let’s go pay your astrologer a visit,
shall we?” Her smile turned sharper. “See what Solok has
left me to work with, before I start making promises I can’t
keep.”

“I’ M RIGHT HERE , Tor. Right here,” Simon said fiercely when
we landed in Tempeste, on the second level of the royal
prison, outside a door I recognized all too well. My body
went limp, my palms clammy as she pushed the door open.
Then I was on my knees, Cosimo’s battered face between
my hands, his bleary eyes rolling from side to side. “Oh
gods, what did he do to you? I’m sorry, Coz. I’m so, so sorry.
But I’ll make this right, I swear.” His body was a brutal
 Dark Is My Exile 71

patchwork of bloody whip marks, burns, bruises, jutting,

broken bones. “Fix him. Now.”
I climbed to my feet, pointing to his ruined body, hatred
sinking its teeth into me deeper than I ever thought possi-
ble. “Fix him, right the fuck now. Or our deal is off, and you
can fucking go rot in the Great Beyond.”
“You mortals. So sentimental.” A wave of her hand and
Cosimo’s broken body arched off the floor. I barely reached
him in time to cradle his head, keep him from slamming
down against the floor. Gashes faded before my eyes, new
skin forming beneath the dried, crusted blood. Only when
his body was like new did I relax, my fingers tracing his
sweat stained brow.
His eyes flickered open, hazy with recognition, his
mouth parting in a half smile before confusion took over.
“Tor?”
“That’s enough. Get away from him.” I was dragged to
my feet by invisible hands, shoved past the table, straight
into Simon, who wrapped his arms around me, pulling my
shaking body against his.
The Oracle tugged a necklace from her bodice, the
metal blackened, the white stone at the center dully glow-
ing. “This is a soulstone. Very old, and very powerful, this
stone is spelled to trap a soul inside, for an eternity, if neces-
sary.” Her eyes glittered with malice. “Since I had to leave
Zephryn behind, I should keep Cosimo close, in case you
need a…reminder of where your loyalties lie.”
Her eyes blazed with malice. “He will see everything.
Hear everything. And not be able to change a thing. Cosimo
will be helpless for the first time in his life. The perfect
punishment for someone who thought he could outwit me.”
“Tor? I’ll come back to you.” Coz flipped himself onto his
stomach, his hand reaching desperately toward us, horror
72 L.A. MCGINNIS

sparking in his eyes as he slowly faded away. “I’ll find a way

to come…”
Then there was nothing left except bloodstains and
scraps of cloth.
“There. Now you belong to me, Torin.” Her smile grew
even more hideous. “I’ll let you keep the shifter. It’s always
good to know you have more to lose. Defy me and I will
smash this pendant beneath my heel.” To prove her point,
she let the stone dangle above the floor, and I swore I heard
Coz screaming before she laid the pendant against her
chest.
“Plot against me, and I will collapse that entire moun-
tain on the dragon and let him smother.”
Heartache and helplessness warred inside me, a battle
in which there were no winners.
Only losers.
I will slaughter this monster with my bare hands. I lifted my
eyes to hers, putting every ounce of my hatred and venom
into my gaze, willing it to cut her down where she stood.
“Still so defiant, Torin.” Her voice dropped to a crooning
murmur, and my blood ran cold. “Perhaps a…more personal
sacrifice will drive my point home. Something to remind
you of your mistake, every time you look in the mirror.” Her
dry, amused chuckle skated over my bones and the entire
room blurred, shapes turning into foggy blobs, light fading
to darkness, the Oracle becoming an indistinct shadow.
I reached up, touched my face, but could only hear
Simon’s soft, broken cry. “No. Not her eyes. You fucking
bitch…”
“Careful, Simon, or I’ll lock you away, too, and your
precious Torin will be left all alone. You don’t want that, do
you?”
I blinked and blinked, but now all I saw was darkness,
 Dark Is My Exile 73

not even shapes. No light at all. Was I blind? I wrapped my

fingers into Simon’s shirt and hung on for dear life.
“Go back to your chamber and get some sleep, Torin.
The king’s audience is first thing tomorrow. I expect to see
you there, and at every one after that. We have much work
to do, so don’t be late.”
Even though I couldn’t see, I knew she was gone, leaving
her sweet, rotten scent behind.
Simon’s hands were shaking when he lifted me into his
arms. “I’ll take you back, Tor. Come, put your arms around
my neck, love.”
My heart was a worthless, dead thing taking up space in
my chest. My memories were nothing but screaming
dragons and Zephryn’s pain-filled face, Coz reaching toward
me, as if I could save him from this mess I’d created.
My head spun as Simon carried me up the circular steps,
his steps fast and sure, his arms tight around me.
He laid me on the bed—still smelling of all of us—and
built a fire, the crackling logs reminding me of Zeph’s body
breaking when it landed on the stone floor of his den, just
before the jutting black stones cut off my vision.
I strained to make my eyes see, tried to force them to
work.
But everything was black. I curled into a ball, tucking my
arms beneath me and began to shake. “Am I blind, Simon?
Did she take my eyes?” I was too afraid to touch my face
again, too afraid of what I’d find.
“You still have your eyes, Tor.” His voice shook, his body
trembled against mine. “But…they’re white. Like
moonstones.”
The bed shifted beneath us when he got in, pulled me
against him, the smell of his tears mixing with my own. “She
should have taken me, instead. She should have...”
74 L.A. MCGINNIS

I reached up blindly, found his face, laid my fingers over

his lips. “No. Don’t ever say that again,” I whispered fiercely.
“Never, do you understand? If she’d taken you, too…I would
give up, right here.”
He kissed the ends of my fingers, then tucked my hand
against his chest, his forehead leaning into mine. “Does it
hurt? Please tell me it doesn’t hurt.”
“It doesn’t.” I closed my eyes. Opened them again. No
difference. I couldn’t see a thing. How was I supposed to do
anything? “How am I supposed to get anywhere, if I can’t
see?” I asked helplessly.
Once, I’d been able to see further than anyone. Now I
saw nothing at all.
Fear swallowed me whole, clogging my lungs, freezing
my heart. I was trapped in this fleshy prison with no escape,
in a world I could no longer see, with a future that was
hidden, when I most needed to know what was coming. My
body shook uncontrollably, nothing holding me together.
“Listen to me, Tor, just listen. I will take you wherever
you want to go. I’ll be at your side until you can do this on
your own.” Simon’s lips brushed my face and the tears
flowed faster. “You have me. You will always have me.”
“I can’t do this, Simon, I can’t,” I hissed between grit
teeth. “Not for a day. Not for three hundred years.”
“You can.” Simon sounded so sure. “You will.” His hand
slid down my side, smoothing out my smoke-scented
clothes, taking away some of this blind terror.
“You will do whatever it takes to get through this, Torin.
And I will never leave your side. Not for one single minute.”
He pressed his lips to my ear, his warm breath smelling
of caramel and amber. Familiar smells. The smell of home.
Of love. Of security. “We will get them back. Somehow, we’ll
get them back.”
 Dark Is My Exile 75

My heart cracked open, spilling out all my pain and frus-

tration, tears soaking my pillow. “She’ll kill them if we try.”
He pulled me closer, so his body pressed into me, from
ankle to shoulder. “Not if we’re careful.”
I opened my eyes, but there was only blackness. Then
Simon gently cupped my chin, and for a second, in my head,
I caught a brief flash of fierce, golden eyes. “I might not be as
strong as a dragon, or as clever as Cosimo, but I have my
talents. Information, Tor, is better than any sword, mightier
than any army.” His fingers traced my cheek.
“Secrets, especially, have brought down entire kingdoms.
They will bring down this one. And you and I will be there
to watch them fall.”
 11
TORIN

I
n the ten years since that horrible night, nothing
much had changed.
My sight had returned…in a manner of speaking.
I was still, technically, blind. My vacant, white gaze only
added to the mystical appeal of my role as High Seer, and
the king never missed an opportunity to put me on display.
But I’d found a way—with Simon’s help—to use my Sight to
help me navigate the real world.
What I saw was fractured, like staring at the world
through a broken window, but I could see.
Carex postured for his court, his silver gauntlets now up
to his elbows to hide his blackened, rotting flesh. The court
clawed for tiny scraps of recognition they’d never get. I
refrained from blowing out a long, bored breath at their
theatrics. With the Oracle’s unflinching gaze pinned on me,
I’d best keep up appearances, and today…today was a very
special day.
Not that anyone but the two of us knew why.
Us, and the golden owl perched high in the shadows,
watching everything with charged intent.
 Dark Is My Exile 77

I hated that Simon was here…but was glad he watched

over me, just the same. Horns echoed and the towering
double doors were thrown open, names were called out by
the herald.
Lord and Lady Wynter.
The two potential members of the Caladrian court
advanced, their hair nearly as white as the cloudy, perfect
marble below our feet, glowing in the hovering faelights.
The king was framed by his looming throne carved from
moonstone; the diamonds set into the design flashing rain-
bows in the hot summer sun.
Lord Alaric Wynter was a handsome male in his thirties,
his silver-white hair gathered back in platinum bands, his
clothing impeccable. His wife, Lady Wynter, was the
epitome of a High Fae female. Cold, imperious. Unat-
tainable.
Rumor was, they were building a castle on the side of
Mount Sylvian and had hired the best craftsmen in the city
so the building would be finished before winter set in. Not
that I would ever see it, since I was confined to the Citadelle.
The Fae King raised a hand and the Oracle swept
forward, leaning closer to catch whatever question Carex
asked as his advisors gossiped amongst themselves like
unruly children.
While she was distracted, I focused on her ever-present
necklace, narrowed my vision down to a blade, sharp
enough to carve through the layers of spell work separating
me from Coz, trapped inside the soulstone.
Are you all right?
I’m fine. His growl of frustration brought tears to my eyes.
Stop fussing over me.
I’m not…fine, I’ll stop. Are you seeing this?
Like I have any choice. His pause seemed to go on and on.
78 L.A. MCGINNIS

This might work. They’re from the High Barrens. Witch blood
flows in their veins. Something she doesn’t know. Yet.
Can we use that to our advantage?
Let me think on it. Witches are notoriously untrustworthy.
His rough chuckle echoed in my head and I wanted to
capture that sound, tuck it away into my heart. Though I’ve
trusted them enough times and never been burned.
I miss you. The unhelpful thought slipped out before I
could stop it, the tightness in my chest growing unbearable.
I talk to you every day, Tor. More than I ever expected. Prob-
ably more than I deserve, Coz scolded gently. Now remember
what I told you yesterday and play your part. Or your plan will
fall to pieces and you’ll have wasted ten years.
Then he was gone, leaving a swirl of humored ire
behind.
“The Lord and Lady Alaric Wynter,” the scribe
announced, the king glancing up in disinterest when the
pair stopped in front of him and bowed. Pale blue eyes, as
clear as the Shoaling Sea sparkled in their pale faces, not a
shred of emotion in their icy expressions.
“The Oracle said you wish to join my court?” Carex
asked, eyeing the tops of their lowered heads. “We have not
accepted a new bloodline in over a thousand years. Since
my father’s reign.”
Lord Wynter wisely kept his head down as two pages
hurried forward with a silver box, the intricate top set with
sapphires as big as my fist. “If it would please the king, we
bring a small offering to help support your war against the
Solarian forces. We would do what we could to help defend
Caladrius against the usurper king to the east.”
Carex straightened on his throne, waved his sea of advi-
sors away. “How much support?”
Lord Wynter raised his head enough to meet the king’s
 Dark Is My Exile 79

gaze. “As much as is required, your majesty.” One of the

pages flipped open the lid, revealing more silver and
sapphires than I’d ever seen before.
Carex’s frown deepened. “Are you bribing me, Lord
Wynter?”
Alaric had the good sense to back down from the king’s
withering stare, the Oracle pursing her lips in disapproval.
Ten years of planning gone to waste, if this didn’t work. Ten
years of my hard work and I’d have to start all over again,
find a new ally to plant inside Carex’s court for the day
when we’d finally need them.
“Not at all.” The Lady Wynter swept into a low curtsy;
her smile as cold as her glacial eyes. “We feel it is our duty to
defend our interests from those who wish to take what we
have. Just as you do, my king.”
Greed, and a kindred soul the king should readily recog-
nize. Please let this be enough.
The Oracle’s eyes glittered in approval, but Carex just
drummed the diamond points of his gauntlets on the moon-
stone throne. His personal guard subtly repositioned them-
selves behind the Wynters, hands resting on the pommels of
their swords.
I cleared my throat, swallowing thickly when every eye
in the room landed on me. “She speaks the truth. Your
brother readies himself for an early attack, before the
summer rains let up. His forces will advance down the
North Road in three days.” I nodded to the Wynters. “Their
monies will forge many weapons for your arsenal. Once the
weapons are ready, send your army to meet them, my king.
Or the enemy will arrive at your gates by midweek.”
The Oracle didn’t show any outward sign of surprise, but
she had to be shocked to her core. I just smiled sedately and
prayed Coz was right about what he’d overheard. My visions
80 L.A. MCGINNIS

were hit and miss these days, but Coz…he was the best-
informed person in all of Tempeste, since the Oracle never
took that pendant off, and her spies reported everything
back to her.
We’d finally figured out a way to use her own vile
scheme against her.
“Three days?” Carex turned whiter than he already was,
heaving himself out of his seat. “Pay my scribes, Lord
Wynter, your official acceptance ceremony will be in two
weeks.”
Welcome to the Caladrian Court. Cosimo muttered inside
my head. It’s sure to be a lovely experience, right up until they
lose their heads. I didn’t bother hiding my smile.
Carex fled, his advisors straggling behind him, his court
lining up behind the Wynters, finally seeing the obvious
way into the king’s good graces.
Gilder. Lots and lots of gilder.
I pushed out of my chair with trembling hands, well
aware the Oracle watched my every move like a hunter
studied its prey. I could practically hear the questions
swirling inside her head. How did she know what the Solarian
army was doing? Did she really have a vision?
I followed the stream of people, hoping Simon waited
until the room was empty before he left through one of the
open windows. By the time I reached my chamber and shut
the door behind me, my stomach was tied in knots. I quickly
passed the skull throne, the scrolls and books piled on my
worktable, heading straight to my bedchamber to peel off
my sweat-soaked gown.
Simon flew in on a soft rush of wind, soaring down from
the open ceiling, circling and circling to land beside me,
trading feathers for skin, gold glittering eyes for ones that
were nearly identical.
 Dark Is My Exile 81

“That went well.” He buried his face in the crook of my

shoulders, breathing in big gulps of air. “Better than I
thought. Cosimo was right about the army, then.”
“Yes, he was.” I turned my head, his gold-streaked hair
tickling my nose. “I wonder if she bought my act, or was just
playing along?”
“She bought it. Had her doubts for a moment, but in the
end, she bought it. And you are having visions again, just…”
“Not regularly. And not very often.” And not of anything
important. But I refused to think about that. For the first time
since the night the Oracle imprisoned Zephryn and Cosimo,
we had the advantage. And we meant to use it.
“Two hundred and ninety years left to go, Tor.” Simon
planted a tender kiss on my right eye, then the other. “We
have our first allies, now we gather every last piece of infor-
mation and find a way to free them.”
Every night we had this very same conversation. A ritual,
of sorts, counting down the time we had left and plotting
how to get our friends back. One that settled us both, even if
they were just words. “All she has to do is let the wrong
thing slip…”
“And we’ll get them back,” I finished, relaxing into his
touch. “We’ll all be together again, Simon. Together.” That
word had taken on an almost mythological meaning, like
safety, or home, during these past ten years.
The promise of a future stolen from us.
A future we’d take back, through cunning and force.
“And I still have something to lose. Something so
precious…” I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed
my eyes, burrowing into his warmth. “I’m not losing you,
Simon. I can’t.”
His soft laugh sent a shiver through me, humming with
carnal promise as he gathered me closer, trapping me with
82 L.A. MCGINNIS

his legs. “There is nothing that can separate us, Tor. No force
that will split us apart, nothing that will dim the love I have
for you. Our flame will burn until the end of time.” He took
my hand, pressed it to his heart, his eyes shining.
“All of this is yours, Tor. Every part of me.”
My next, ragged breath was filled with the scent of
caramel and amber. “And I swear to you, at the end of all of
this, you’ll get the happy ending you deserve.”
And when he kissed me, I believed him.

If you want more Wicked Realms,

The story continues with

SAVAGE IS MY KINGDOM

In Caladrius, the rules are simple.

Stay alive. Never show fear. And always guard your heart.

But I’m trapped between two powerful kings, the keeper of a

stolen magic that can shatter two kingdoms, or forge a new
one. The only question is, will I survive long enough to
make my own choice and save the men I love from the gods
determined to enslave us all?
 Dark Is My Exile 83

And, if you enjoyed this story,

I also have three steamy vampire series:

The Darkfell Vampire Clan series

The Blackstone Vampire Clan series

The Shadowsend Vampire Clan series

84 L.A. MCGINNIS
 ALSO BY L.A. MCGINNIS

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