Shadowborn Academy_ Year Two (Dark Fae Academy #2) - G. Bailey Page 0,1

I’m lying on my side on a soft bed, my hands clenching some kind of rock. There is a literal wall of translucent crystal glittering in front of me. I look down at my hands, opening them to see a white rock with purple veins crawling all over it. I drop it onto the silk-covered bed I’m on and flinch at the pain, near the right side of my stomach.

Where the hell am I?

“Pitch?” I whisper, hoping to hear his comforting voice inside me.

Shock rings through me when he doesn’t answer. I don’t feel him anymore.

My shadow...is gone.

“Ah, you’re awake my darling Corvina,” a melodic, deep, and vaguely familiar voice states behind me.

I snap my head around and stare in shock at the sight of a fae standing in front of me. Only he isn’t just a regular fae...not when he wears a crown and sits on a throne cut from shards of glass that momentarily blind me. I know who this is. I’ve seen his face in the Book of Zorya. He’s the Light Fae King of Helios.

King Ulric is enchanting to look at, like a painting you just keep staring at and finding more stunning things the longer you gaze. Long white hair flows to the ground around him, even from the height of the Throne of Helios he’s sitting on. His piercing blue eyes are like pure gemstones that match the crystals carved into the silver crown nestled on his head. His moonlight robes seem to shimmer like the moon against water, no doubt woven from the finest silk in all of the Enchanted Forest. There is a deadly beauty to his demeanour, the way he sits in comfort on the throne, never moving his gaze from mine. He’s calculating something, much like the fae are known to do.The coldness in his gaze is akin to icicles trailing through my veins.

I sit forward as the laughter I heard before carries to my ears again. I move to the edge of the bed, placing my bare feet on the crystal ground. The ivory silk gown draped over my body spills around my ankles. We are in a crystal box, floating in a giant throne room with ivory serpentine pillars that stretch up to the ceiling. At the bottom of the room is the light fae court, more beautiful than I’ve heard. Tall green plants, colourful flowers, and breathtaking tropical bushes fill the floor, separated only by pathways made of gold and silver which reflect the light from the wall-to-ceiling windows. Waterfalls and rivers disappear between the bushes and that’s where the beauty ends.

Among the dancing fae are humans and creatures I have never seen before. While some of the humans are crying, faces distorted with pain, others look downright euphoric despite their bloodied feet. The stone floor seems to be soaking up the blood and tears as if the fluids are payment. Above them, some of the fae fly around, laughing and taunting the defenseless creatures below.

A game for the fae. That’s what the humans are. That’s what everyone is unless you are one of them.

How in the name of Selena am I here?

Swallowing down my revulsion, I turn to the king. “How do you wish me to address you, Your Majesty?”

The biting sarcasm in my tone makes his lips twitch.

Digging my hands into the silk sheets, the panic of why I’m on a bed in the first place makes me stand, pulling my lips back into a snarl.

“If you are going to hurt me, think again. I bite.”

“You are every bit my daughter,” the king states around a laugh. He thinks I’m his daughter? The idea is just downright hilarious. “Please, do not move much. I have healed you but you were close to death. I’d rather not use more of my magic. You cost me dearly, Corvina Charles.”

Is this king fucking insane?

“My parents were human and I’m a shadowborn,” I tell him, folding my arms over my chest. “Dude, you have the wrong chick.”

My stomach hurts like a bitch, so he is right about not moving at least.

Why would the king of the fae heal me? What could he possibly want to do that for? And why is he claiming to be my father?

King Ulric’s eyes narrow into icy shards. “I do not. You are my firstborn daughter, Princess Corvina of the Light and Dark Fae Courts. The first royal child born of both courts who can claim the entire fae world.”

My breath hitches at his