A Darker Element

Hey Everyone, here's a sneak peek at the first book in the new Godhunter spin-off series entitled Beyond the Godhunter. A Darker Element is about the dark fey but each book will feature different characters from The Godhunter Series.

Chapter One
Before I was born, I remember only emptiness. Everything made me angry, everything made me hate. Mainly because I couldn't have any of it. Then we found her. She gave us form, purpose, and a place of our own. We, the dark-sidhe, were born. Still, I remained angry and so did the others. We tried to hurt her but she understood us, saw our pain. She forgave us and believed that we could become more than what we were. She took our element of Darkness and spread it out thinner, making dark fey as well as creatures to fill our kingdom. Life from our pain.
And the emptiness was filled.
My name is Liatris now. I chose it myself. Liatris a flower, a straight length of lavender softness that seemed proud to me and so beautiful in its simplicity. Everything I wished I was. All of us dark-sidhe took names from nature in honor of her. Our savior and, in a way, our mother. Vervain. She's human and goddess and fey. She's beautiful and strong, like my namesake, and I wish I were her. Not only because of all the things she is but because I believe Rowan is in love with her.
Rowan, King of Darkness.
We were once the same being. He was a part of me and I a part of him. Now we are separate and he suddenly seems so distant. Unreachable. At least for me. It appears that loneliness and emptiness haven't abandoned me completely. Every time I look at him, I feel it and part of me longs for the time when we were one.
I am a dark-sidhe. A member of the new House of Darkness. The newest kingdom and element in Faerie. We, the ruling sidhe of that House, each have one of the darker emotions as our gift, our magic. My emotion is Shame.
The others are beautiful and powerful in their dark glory. They walk the halls of our new castle proudly, their skin as black as the darkness we once were, their eyes as blue as a well of grief. I'm one of them. I have the same black skin, the same black hair, and the same blue eyes but when I looked in the mirror, I saw no beauty there.
Maybe it was my magic. Maybe I needed to learn better how to control it. Whatever it was, I could never look into the glass for very long. My eyes always began to water, my belly clenching with embarrassment. Did they all see it? How the beauty had passed me by? Were they as ashamed of me as I was of myself?
“We have visitors,” it was Dahlia, glowing with happiness and looking even more beautiful than normal, with her burgeoning belly. “The Earth royals have come for a visit.”
“Oh,” I met her eyes and then looked away quickly. My reflection wasn't the only face I had trouble looking at. Sometimes seeing their beauty was even harder than seeing the lack of mine.
“Aren't you going to come?” She frowned. “King Rowan is serving them lunch in the dining hall.”
“I'll be there momentarily,” I nodded and she shrugged, closing my bedroom door behind her.
I looked into the mirror. My black hair was just as shiny as Dahlia's, the true black of my skin was just as soft, my lips as dark a pink, and my eyes were a shade of blue. But where her hair fell in a shimmering straight length down her back like water, mine curled in wild disarray and could only be controlled by braiding. Her skin lay over a slim body with long legs and delicate hands while mine was stretched over hips that were too wide and breasts that were too large. I felt like a caricature of a woman, too ridiculous to take seriously. Where Dahlia's eyes were bright sapphire, mine were a strange twilight blue that was almost lavender. It was a washed out color, an indecisive shade on a plain face.
I sighed and looked away as I always did. It was no wonder Rowan never looked at me, I didn't even want to look at myself. I did want to see him though, so I crept out of my room and padded quietly down the hallway, keeping my eyes down to avoid the gaze of the rest of the inhabitants of Castle Tempest.
When I reached the dining hall, I edged to the side and slid down the wall, taking a seat at one of the lower tables to Rowan's right. He was completely engrossed in his conversation with King Cahal and Queen Aalish. The Earth King was glowering a little, probably because of the way Rowan was charming his wife, but he shouldn't have been worried. Rowan had become an expert at charming queens. It wasn't anything personal, it just seemed to be his idea of diplomacy. In fact, the only queen he didn't charm was the one he truly wanted; Queen Vervain.
I didn't blame Rowan. We all loved Vervain, we couldn't help ourselves. She was the only one who managed to see the potential for good in us instead of merely our capacity for evil. She saved us from ourselves and for that, she would always be loved in the Kingdom of Darkness. I just wished our king wouldn't love her quite so much more than the rest of us.
Rowan's eyes angled down to me and I quickly glanced away, my heart leaping in shock. He never looked at me. I could sit and stare at him all day and never worry of being caught admiring him. Sometimes it seemed that he'd look everywhere except at me. Like I was an eyesore he couldn't be rid of and so he simply ignored the fact that I existed. I took a deep breath and looked up again but he was staring at Aalish once more. A fluke. He'd caught my gaze by chance and I, as usual, had embarrassed myself by making too much of it.
I looked over to Queen Aalish. Her king was striking, with vines growing from his dark green skin and twining through the matching shade of his hair. His yellow eyes blazed out from the darkness of his face and with the constantly moving vines shifting around him, he gave the impression of a predator lurking in the jungle. King Cahal had a quiet allure but Aalish was a bright beacon among the darkness of the men surrounding her.
Her coloring was the reverse of her husband's, with daffodil yellow hair and skin, and bright green eyes. That bright hair was arranged intricately on her head, wrapped up and around her crown in ways that resembled flower petals. Her face was elegant and a touch arrogant, with a little lift at the end of her tiny nose and exceedingly high cheekbones. She moved like a willow tree, all sweeping curves and slow waving, never a sharp angle to be found. The sharpness was reserved for her voice. She was a perfect faerie queen and she looked right at home sitting at the high table beside Rowan.
I sighed, knowing I'd never belong there. Then I turned my attention back to my fellow fey instead of brooding on it. The dark fey had embraced their new lives with zeal and determination, especially now that our element was diluted enough to be controlled. They lived everyday with passion, delighting in every breath that was truly theirs for the first time. Everyone but I.
I seemed to be the only dark-sidhe who didn't rejoice in this new existence every second of every day. The only dark fey who saw unhappiness in our reality, misery in being separate. They all found joy among each other, couples forming easily and changing constantly. The pleasures of the flesh were something we'd seen a lot of but never had the chance to experience when we roamed the world as the Darkness. So I guess it was understandable that they delighted in those pleasures with an almost hedonistic zeal. Except for Dahlia and Rue, that is. Those two had pretty much settled on each other from the start.
I sighed and gave up trying to figure out my fellow fey, choosing instead to ponder the Godhunter again. Queen Vervain had crossed boundaries and realms, uniting people who previously rejoiced in being separate. She valiantly fought gods, unearthing and destroying their plots to manipulate humanity. She was goddess to an entire pride of werelions, who she looked after like they were her children, and as the Queen of Fire, she'd brought the monstrous Hidden Ones out of hiding and demanded respect for the mistreated pixies of all kingdoms. All this while maintaining loving relationships with a werewolf prince, the ruler of Asgard, the Archangel of Death, her werelion Ganza, and the King of Fire. How did she do it?
Just thinking about her life made my head spin. I didn't want all of that, such responsibility shouldn't be mine. I wasn't a fighter and I wasn't a leader. I wasn't smart enough to discover villainous plots or inspiring enough to motivate people to change. I didn't want to have multiple lovers or rule a pride of werelions. All I wanted was one man and perhaps a child but I knew even this simple dream would never be mine.
I'd been a part of the Darkness for so long and the Darkness had been banished to the Human Realm for most of that time. So on top of feeling out of sorts among my own kind, I also felt out of sorts in the Faerie Realm itself. I'd delighted in humanity. I enjoyed their humor, their manner of speaking, and their depth of emotion. Of course back then what I'd truly loved was exploiting those emotions and making the humans as miserable as I.
A shiver passed over me.
“Would you care for some wine, Liatris?” It was Mandrake, another dark-sidhe.
He took the seat beside mine as he filled my glass, without bothering to wait for my answer. That's Mandrake for you. He always assumed he knew what you needed, especially if you were a woman. Perhaps that came from holding the magic of Jealousy. It was possible that he could sense what people wanted, or at least what they were jealous over. I glanced at him in concern, hoping he couldn't sense my jealousy over Vervain.
“Thanks, Drake,” I whispered and took the glass.
“Sure,” he angled himself so that he could face me and leaned an elbow on the table. “Why do you always look so sad, Lia?”
“I'm not sad,” I gave him a fake smile. “I'm happy. Things are going well for us.”
“Yes they are,” he licked his lips. “I don't believe you're happy though.”
“I am,” I protested.
“Are you?” He lifted a brow. “I bet I could make you happier if you let me into your bed tonight.”
My wide eyes shot to his and then back to my glass. Drake's eyes were such a dark blue, they were almost black. I'd heard the other women talking about him and they said he had a heart to match those eyes but then again, that could just be the jealousy talking. He did love to spread his magic around... among other things.
All I knew was I had enough jealousy without him adding to it. Mandrake had gone through nearly all the female dark-sidhe and I had no intentions of being his next conquest. I picked up my glass and shook my head.
“No thanks,” I whispered and stood up.
I headed back to my room, grabbing a piece of fruit from a bowl as I went. It looked like I'd be spending another day behind closed doors. Fine by me, I was more comfortable there anyway.