First Light - Prequel to the Lightbearer Series Read online

  Chapter 8

 

  “There are precious few Lightbearers left here, and yet you still remain. I cannot help but wonder why.”

  Sabine lifted her exhausted gaze to Xander, who leaned against the trunk of a tree, where he had stood sentinel for the past few hours while she arranged for each group of Lightbearers to travel with the faery queen to their new home.

  The time between the queen’s first disappearance, with James, Dirk, and four others, had seemed to last several lifetimes. But then the queen had appeared out of thin air, Dirk clinging to her hand, and James’s second-in-command had assured Sabine that while their new home was significantly colder than here, it was entirely safe and held all the promise the queen had mentioned.

  After that, the transfers had occurred with steady speed, one group after the other, until Sabine’s vision blurred with the constant flow of Lightbearers from the place they had called home for less than a year, to a place she still knew nothing about. Gently resting the glass orb containing the demon into a crevice in the cliff wall, she finally turned away and wandered over to Xander.

  “I am their queen now. It is my job to ensure everyone is safe. I will go with the last group.” And then I will never see you again. She did not understand why that thought caused an ache in her chest. She loved James. Her destiny was to rule the coterie by his side. So why did she feel so conflicted about Xander?

  “I can tell you are uncertain.” He pushed away from the tree trunk and stretched, revealing a tease of dark skin and muscle between the hem of his shirt and the waist of his trousers, before he dropped his arms and hid it from view again. “If I thought I could keep you safe, I would try to talk you into staying with me.”

  “I wouldn’t.”

  “Do not be so sure. You well know how determined I can be when I want something.”

  She smiled. “’Tis true, I suppose. Still, I have mated with James. I love him.”

  “You are afraid you could have feelings for me, as well.”

  She turned her head to the side. The sun had begun to rise, the red sphere steadily climbing over the horizon, casting streamers of light that widened with each passing minute. Her body greedily soaked up the replenishing rays. She could feel Xander’s reaction, the same as her own. Would she no longer sense him when she left this place? That, at least, would be a welcome change. It was tiring trying to sort through three sets of emotions in her head.

  A shift in the atmosphere warned her the faery queen had returned. The last group of Lightbearers hovered near the entrance to the soon-to-be abandoned series of chambers. Dirk appeared, as he had for each transfer, and began issuing orders. After a moment, he moved his head from side to side, as if searching for something. Finally, his gaze alighted on Sabine and Xander, and he strode toward them with purpose in his gait.

  “It is time, your grace. The king is anxious to have you by his side again,” he called out.

  “I am sure he is,” Xander drawled.

  Dirk scowled, and Xander growled, low in his throat. Sabine stepped in front of Xander. “Stop, both of you. Dirk, take those last few and ask the faery queen to return one last time for me.” He started to protest, and Sabine cut him off. “Take them. I will be here waiting when you return.” She spoke as if she had been born to be his queen. Maybe she had been. When he walked away, she focused on Xander.

  “I think as soon as they are gone, I shall steal one last kiss. For memory’s sake,” the shifter said.

  “You do not remember the kiss we shared?”

  “Vividly. Which is why I want another.”

  He reached for her, but before he could make contact, Sabine heard her name shouted and turned toward Dirk.

  He leaped away from the faery queen and remaining Lightbearers a scant second before the group disappeared, and began running toward Sabine and Xander, light and magic coalescing into a sword, while his face bore a combination of fear and determination.

  “They have found us,” Xander said. He pushed Sabine toward the cliff. “Get inside. Go!”

  But she couldn’t run for safety. A cougar leaped over the tiny stream and flew right at Dirk, who was between her and the entrance to the coterie. Dirk slashed his sword through the air, catching the shifter in mid-flight, but another came right behind it.

  “We must help Dirk,” Sabine called, and without even thinking about it, she summoned a sword, held it high, and charged toward the warrior. The pounding of boots on hardened earth told her Xander was right behind her.

  Sabine was so focused on getting to Dirk that she did not pay enough attention to her own surroundings until a slash of something razor-sharp caught her ankle and sent her tumbling to the damp earth next to the water. She cried out and watched as blood poured from four long wounds on her leg and soaked into the soil. A growl pulled her attention away from the pain, and she lifted her sword in time to block another attack. The animal yelped, indicating she’d wounded it, and scurried away, out of sight.

  But three more stalked toward her, murder in their glowing eyes. She darted her gaze around, saw Dirk battling with two shifters and Xander with three others. She was on her own—and she would not die. She could not. She had a coterie to co-rule. A king to return to. A mate to live for.

  They pounced, one at a time at first, and Sabine inched toward the wall of the cliff while slashing her sword back and forth, keeping them at bay. When they realized they could not take her down that way, they teamed up and attacked as a group, jumping, slashing out, causing numerous superficial injuries that, when combined, were quickly disabling her. And her magic, which hadn’t yet been fully replenished from the day before, was waning fast as she pulled on it to help her heft the sword that was getting heavier with each passing minute. She would not be able to fend them off much longer.

  And Dirk and Xander were not faring any better. In fact, Sabine could no longer see Xander, and that worried her. Had the attacking shifters killed him?

  Just as that fear hit her, a wolf joined the three shifters steadily attacking her. But instead of aiming his fury at Sabine, the wolf turned on the other animals.

  “Xander,” she said, her voice hardly more than a gasped breath as she watched him take down first one, then the second, and finally the third shifter. When he was done, his snout and half his body was covered in blood, and Sabine did not know if it was his or someone else’s. She cared only that they were dead and Xander was not.

  “Xander.” She said his name again and whimpered. He shifted into human form and dropped to the ground next to her. “Dirk?” she asked, afraid of the answer.

  “Alive. But will definitely need one of your healers.”

  “Are we safe?”

  “No. That was the first wave. There are more coming. We must get you to safety.”

  Sabine closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall of the cliff behind her, struggling to catch her breath and pull her emotions into check. “Thank you.”

  ‘Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Sharing your magic. It is a gift I will never take for granted.”

  She nodded. There wasn’t anything else to say on the subject.

  “The queen has returned, along with your king, I’m afraid. It looks as though I will not be able to spirit you away after all.”

  Sabine could hear the sounds of a scuffle, shouts, and cries of pain. The atmosphere was thick with magic and tension, yet she could not seem to pry her eyes open to see what was happening.

  She felt her hand move, and then something brushed against the back of it. Xander’s lips, she suspected. “The time has come for us to part ways, my Lightbearer.”

  The possession in the way he said my Lightbearer was unmistakable. She clutched at the hand that held her own. “What about you? Will they come after you?”

  “If they do, they will not catch me. Remember, I have shifter and Lightbearer magic now. I am practically invincible.” He chuckled at his own joke. She opened h
er eyes when he released her hand, and watched as he laboriously climbed to his feet.

  “I can see if the queen will bring back a healer, to tend to your wounds,” she offered.

  He shook his head. “I will shift. The process speeds our healing.” He glanced over his shoulder. When he turned back to her, his eyes were glowing. “You are safe now. Take care, Lightbearer. Perhaps, one day, our paths will cross again.”

  In the blink of an eye, he shifted from man to a majestic hawk and then flew away, up over the cliff and out of sight. Sabine lowered her gaze and watched as James hurried toward her, the look on his face both concerned and relieved. Confident Xander was right, she closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

  James would bring her back to the light.

 

  Chapter 9