Faebound (Faebound, #1)

by Saara El-Arifi

And for a time, all was well. But no matter how much the gods wished for peace, they had given their children the one thing that would never ensure it. Free will.

And where there is value, there is power, and where there is power, violence will always brew.

But it’s impossible to mask the aroma of a thousand-year war. It lived in the air, in the skin, in the very bones of the earth.

Like many elves, Motogo’s gender was as flexible as the weather, accepted like the fall of rain, and change welcomed like the turns of seasons.

‘You are the fire of my heart, and the beat of my drum. I am yours under moonlight. Until the rhythm sings no more.’

Three years ago, he spoke of a prophecy that foretold the second coming of the fae. It was then that the diviners knew that his illness was progressing – the fae only lived in faerytales now.

‘The one born of a storm’s mist shall be your beloved. But when the waning moon turns, you will grant them their death

Under a waxing moon that no one can see, when the sun flares and twilight reigns. A burdened partnership will die when poison passes their lips. One gilded, one pearl.

With teeth of knives and eyes of fire, the fae killed every human, for humans were the most magical of beings. When the fae drained their life force they became imbued with their power. Until only one human remained. Afa he was called. The last of them. Damned to wander the land alone. He travelled across seas, across continents, gaining knowledge wherever he went…

The knowledge enhanced Afa’s power, and when they returned to the Fae Lands, he cursed the fae for what they had done, banishing them to Mosima, a land entombed in time.

You will wield magic unmatched, speak prophecies unspoken. You will be the leader we seek, and the leader we are due

Love and hate are oil and water, separate but similar, and sometimes they swirl together, making it difficult to tell one from the other.