It was cold, and wet, like someone who had just gotten out of the bath or from a swim. The water dripped from whoever’s face was before mine, and terror chilled me from within. My heart thumped in my chest as whoever was straddling my body sniffed my neck.

Why couldn’t I see them?

The darkness was thick and all-consuming.

“Hmm,” a male voice whispered. “You look like her. You smell like her. Are you her?”

I shook my head. Who?

“No,” he said. “This will not do. I want to see you. Examine you.”

Within seconds, a jolt tore me from the my spot on the forest floor and I found myself lying facedown in mud.

Shivering, and completely disoriented, I pushed myself to my knees. Everything was…different.

The goblins were nowhere to be found.

I sat on my hands and knees in the middle of a jungle. The tall trees were dark and still, and the sky was a dull red. I remembered skies that color. In the human realm, the sky would sometimes turn red in the summer.

Where was I?

The smell of rotting flesh and fresh rain mixed in a sickening scent that had me covering my nose.

A pile of charred logs appeared before me. From that, a stake appeared and my cheeks paled. Within the blink of an eye, two people screamed as flames licked and consumed them.

No.

The screams ended in an odd purr as the flames were sucked away, leaving the two people standing there, together, holding hands as they were tied to the stake.

Silence surrounded me as I mustered the courage to crawl closer and take a look. The crunching below my hands and knees only amplified the eerie quiet. Before I even got a look at the bodies, I already knew who they were. My heart thumped in my chest.

A cry strangled within my throat. “Father,” I gasped, realizing that I was witnessing their deaths, in reverse. “Mother.”

“No. No. No,” the voice said, softly.

A cold sensation flooded my midsection when I reached out for her and was ripped back.

I crashed into the jungle floor with a thud and a grunt.

“That’ll be enough. I just had to be sure.”

My head pounded with pain and I tasted blood from biting my tongue.

“Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Her tiny nose. Yes. Yes. It is her.”

His voice came closer, and I was awestruck by who I saw before me.

I had imagined a weyr, with wiry arms and legs too long for its body. Maybe rubbery wings with holes in it. Not the vision who stood before me, leaned back against a tree.

He was tall, with short hair the color of violets. The color was so intense and radiant that he had to be fae. No—not just any fae—Unseelie.

Wait. Realization filled my bones and seeped into my blood.

Jasper. The emperor of the dead. The ruler of The Veil.

Pensive amber eyes looked me up and down as the man thought to himself.

I looked away. His chest was bare, and his tight abs almost distracted me. With an olive skin tone, it made his hair and the thick black line of paint across his eyes stand out more.

“Who told you it was okay to come back to the magic-realm? I have a mind to snap the tiny threads of your brain and leave you simple-minded.” He chuckled, pushing himself off the tree and crossing his arms over his chest. “No one would want to marry you then.”

The idea that he could destroy my intellect and sanity had me clawing at my eyes to waken myself.

He snorted. “What are you doing? I was only joking. Pull yourself together, girl.”

“Who are you? Where am I?”

He appeared before me, crouched like an animal. Feral. Wild.

“I asked first. Who are you?”

Swallowing, I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say.

He grabbed me by the chin, and slowing came to his feet. He lifted me from the ground, brows knitted together over the most hypnotizing eyes I’d ever seen.

He snickered. “Why are so afraid? You’re supposed to be this magical creature with the power to smite me with just a look. Have the Guardians gone soft and chosen a squishy little girl who I can pull apart with my teeth? Did they not tell you who I am…what I am?”

I shook my head, eyes wide as I peered down my nose at him. He held me up with his arm outstretched as if I weighed nothing more than a fallen twig with a curious flower he needed a closer look at.

“You’ve come to destroy my world, haven’t you?”

“Lies.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Tell me your name,” he said. “Before I snap your neck.”

“Princess Celeste Delacord,” I sputtered, the fear of death loosening my tongue.

“Brilliant,” he said, dropping me to the ground. “That’s all I wanted to know. A pleasure to meet you, my queen.”

He mocked a deep bow that flung his bangs into his eyes. They lifted to me and a wicked smirk came to his full lips.

“And, I am…” he tapped his fingertips to his lips. “Your humble servant.”

My eyes darted around me, desperate for an escape. I didn’t respond. Instead, I broke into a run.

His laughter filled the jungle as a rope flung around my body and he snatched me back. I fell into his hard chest and he turned me toward him. Our bodies shot across the clearing until my back was slammed into a tree. He pinned me, so close that out noses touched and his slick abs were pressed against my belly.

His canines lengthened and he licked them. “How about I change into what I really am and pick my teeth with your bones?”

I tensed, but fire filled my eyes as I looked back at him straight in the face. “You go ahead and try. I can destroy you with a blink of an eye. Don’t make me do it.”

For a moment, he was surprised, then amusement filled his expression. He let out a howl of a laugh. “You will do no such thing. Your power has yet to be awakened.”

My blood ran cold. He knew. But, how?

“By the grace of the Guardians,” he breathed into my neck. “You certainly smell delicious. Like fire, and innocence. How about you give me a taste? I’ll awaken that burning flame within your soul. I’ll show you what real power feels like.”

I squeezed my eyes closed as his lips brushed mine. My breath was ripped away from my chest and I was awakened by someone shouting my name.