Page 59 of His Darkest Desire

Kinsley frowned. Something had happened. Why else would he have looked so haggard, so…diminished?

“How did the beast get in?” she asked. “I thought nothing could get through the mist.”

Now Vex looked down, watching his hand as he traced patterns on the water and the bubbles spread outward in its wake. “This is a place caught between worlds. It is not your realm, but neither is it a fae realm. It is…layered amongst them. There exist means of traveling between worlds. An unfortunate number of monstrous creatures possess that ability, though some few fae also hold the knowledge and power to traverse the planes at will.”

Vex lifted his eyes to meet hers again. “And fewer still are the fae-touched mortals who may cross between worlds.”

Kinsely eyed him skeptically. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He raised his hand from the water, shaking droplets off his fingers. “You’ve fae blood, Kinsley. Greatly diluted, but it is undeniable.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that somewhere down the line, one of my ancestors was fae?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“You saw the wisps. In your world.”

Kinsley shook her head. “It was dark, and they’re made of fire. Anyone would’ve seen them.”

“Ghostfire. More akin to magic than flame. But Echo, Flare, and Shade are tied to this realm. Even when they venture beyond the mist, their essences are far too diminished for most mortals to perceive them.”

“People have seen wisps and ghosts and…and creatures for as long as there have been people. I can’t be the only one. That doesn’t automatically make me fae, right?”

Vex stood up and walked around to the side of the tub, his eyes upon her all the while. “Your conveyance carried you to the edge of this realm in your world. But it was you who tore through the barriers between worlds. As your mortal life faded, the fae blood in your veins unleashed its magic.”

He sat down on the bath’s edge. “When I retrieved your belongings, Kinsley, I also collected some of your blood. Every test I’ve performed upon it has confirmed my suspicions. One of your distant ancestors was seelie. A realmswalker. And diluted though it may be, their magic flows through you. You breached this realm, Kinsley. You opened the way. Else we never would have met.”

Hope roused within her, and she sat up a little straighter. If that power really was inside her and she’d already used it once… “Does that mean I could open the way again and go home?”

The ghost of a frown curved his lips downward. “Even were you on the precipice of death again… No, Kinsley. Mayhap you could open the way, but you cannot leave this realm.”

“Because you won’t let me go.”

“Because you are bound to me,” he said, voice falling low and raw, “and I am bound to this place.”

“What? You…” She leaned closer to him. “What does that mean, Vex?”

“This realm is my prison, Kinsley. I cannot cross its borders.” He exhaled heavily. “You recall the day you attempted escape, do you not? When you fled through the woods?”

Kinsley’s fingers bit into her arms as she recalled the pain she’d felt upon entering the fog. “Yes.”

“You thought you journeyed straight and true.” He dipped a finger into the water, tracing a straight line, but then bent that line into a wide curve. “Yet your path was of my choosing, warped by illusion. I sought to keep you from the mist, to protect you from it. Still, it grew apparent that you’d not relent until you knew there was no way out.”

Vex’s eyes fell to her wrist. Kinsley glanced down to see the strange ivy and thorns marking glowing a faint green around it.

“The pain you endured, the disorientation, the confusion and fury… They are shadows of my own.” He lifted his finger and swirled it. The steam thickened and gathered on the water’s surface, creating a cloudlike ring around a ghostly miniature forest. At the center of the forest, tiny but unmistakable, stood the eight rune stones that lay beneath the cottage.

“I’ve tried to cross the mist countless times, Kinsley, knowing full well the inevitable outcome,” he continued. A miniscule figure strode into the mist and vanished, only to reappear in the center of the ring—the stone circle. “And every time, I suffered a hundredfold what you did in your attempt. I say it not to diminish your pain, but to praise your tenacity, for I would not wish a fraction of that agony upon any but the one who sealed me here with a curse.”

He waved his hand, and the steam dissipated.

Kinsley met his gaze. “The one who destroyed your tower trapped you here, didn’t she?”

Vex nodded.

“And the wisps?”