Extraits

Je raccrochai, tremblante, et balançai le téléphone par la fenêtre. Je le regardai dégringoler dans les airs et s’écraser au sol dans la rue sombre. J’avais usé pas mal de téléphones dans cette ville. Peut-être que je devrais arrêter d’en acheter de nouveaux.

Je mis la boussole dans ma poche avec un sourire.

- Merci.

- De rien.

Il se coupa un autre morceau de fromage.

- J’espère que la trouver t’apportera la sérénité, Cass.

J’avais besoin de servir à quelque chose. Et peut-être que j’avais envie de me trouver entre ses bras puissants à nouveau pour me laisser aller à ce sentiment de paix encore une fois, m’endormir au son des battements de son cœur. Il semblait qu’en sa présence, le chaos qui faisait rage dans ma tête s’apaisait.

Bonne à rien. Ses paroles résonnèrent dans ma tête comme une malédiction.

"In order to fight among the fae, you need to unveil. As far, when we unveil, we become faster, stronger, more powerful. Without that ability, you're vulnerable. You'd be like a mouse among the wolves, and your safety would distract me until I'd no longer be able to function the way I need to. Until you can unveil, you'll never be safe among the fae."

A powerful change of horror enveloped me, pulling me under, until nothing existed but me and the black rush of the screams. And then, just for fragment of a moment, I recalled a name. Cassandra. I forced myself to roll this idea around in my mind, slowly collecting bits and pieces of myself from the river. I was an FBI agent. I liked Oreos, hip-hop, and I couldn't tell expensive wine from the cheap stuff which meant I liked all of it. I liked watching dance videos and binge-reading historical romances about brawny Scottish lairds. I used to keep a diary in high school with cutouts of old movie stars. I wanted to look like - Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley. I was a pixie, a half-far. I'd been stung by bees three times and had an allergy to bananas. I was a profiler. My first crush was a boy nicknamed Blaze how wore eyeliner and played guitar. I was a terror leech. And a changeling.

A lump rose in my throat, and I walked to the portal, emptiness gnawing at my chest. I felt unmoored, I guess, completely untethered. I'd hoped Roan would be some kind of ans answer for me - a goal, a mission. I needed to serve a purpose now. And maybe i wanted to feel his powerful arms around me again, so I could feel that sense of peace, sleeping against his beating heart. It seemed that in Roan's presence, the raging chaos on my mind went quiet.

CHAPTER 1

I sat on Roan’s floor, bathed in the orange light that licked along the length of a charred log in the fireplace. I pulled the rough wool blanket tighter around my naked skin. Exhaustion had seeped into my muscles like a toxin, eating at my tendons. The last few days had taken their toll on my body, and my legs wouldn’t stop shaking. I felt like the last time I’d actually slept well had been in Roan’s arms, listening to his heart beat, enveloped in his warmth.

But it wasn’t just the physical effects of my journey through the woods that made me shiver. My thoughts churned in my mind like unquiet spirits. In the past few weeks, I’d discovered that the people who’d raised me weren’t my birth parents. I was a fae changeling, swapped at birth. My biological father had been a sadistic monster known as the Rix—and I’d killed him. I’d trapped my human counterpart, Siofra, in a reflection. As far as I knew, she lingered there still.

Unable to get warm, I trembled under the coarse blanket, trying to block out the look in Siofra’s eyes when she had realized what was happening to her.

With a sudden snap, the log in the fireplace broke into two, its pieces tumbling into the glowing embers. A stream of sparks shot up from the flames, the fire crackling. I took a shuddering breath.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned to see Roan, clutching a pile of clothes. He dropped them next to my bag on the floor. “I found you something to wear.”

Golden firelight danced over the beautiful planes of his face, and his emerald eyes burned into me. I forced my breathing to slow down, taking in the vicious tattoos that whorled over his thickly-corded forearms. He could feel my inner turmoil, the thoughts that roiled in my skull. I knew he could feel my emotions whirling out of control, though his expression remained stony, his jaw rigid with disapproval. I’d disappointed him by arriving days later than I’d promised, and he was not in a sympathetic mood. I could almost feel his anger washing over me.

Slowly, I rose. “Thanks.” I had meant for it to sound grateful, but instead it sounded bitter, acidic.

Shadows darkened his eyes. “The king’s men are canvasing the woods, looking for me. You can’t stay here long. They’ll sense your pixie energy.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Your aura shields mine.”

He folded his arms, glaring at me.

“Look, I came here,” I said. “As I promised.”

“We needed you days ago, at the Council—as I said. Your presence serves no purpose now.”