Chained (A Choice of Light and Dark, #1)

by Lacey Lehotzky

To everyone who has been to hell and back and remains unbroken

Twenty years and three hundred and sixty four days had passed since I was first chained.

For as long as I could remember, the story of the lost princess of the Night Realm was a dark whisper in the back of my mind – kidnapped the day she was born, torn from her dying mother’s arms, never to be seen again. I was ten years old the day she burst into the world, a day that fundamentally changed the course of my life, too.

As Night Fae, we had an intimate relationship with the moon and stars, both fueling our Goddess-gifted magic.

You will never be chained again. You will be free to run and roam and feel the starlight on your skin.”

“Izidora doesn’t know what it is like to be cared for. Perhaps you can be the one to show her that kindness.”

I was safe. I was alive. As safe as I could be as a lone female among eight powerful Fae males.

“Night Fae are blessed with starlight and can create floating orbs that illuminate the way.

When she finished the apple, her big, black eyes blinked at me and she nuzzled into my chest. Sighing, I wrapped my arms around her neck, and she pulled me in closer with a tuck of her head, giving me an equine hug.

My eyes burned as I wondered how Mistik knew that was exactly what I needed. Touch from the males was not welcome, yet I craved the warm affection to reassure me I was worth loving.

Goddess help me, Fates damn me, I wanted her so fucking bad, and she had no clue the beast she was awakening beneath the surface of my skin.

“The most beautiful blooms hide the sharpest thorns. You are a deadly bloom, Izidora, and don’t let anyone see your thorns until it’s too late.”

Fae and nature are intimately connected – our magic is given to us by nature and in turn we give it back. When Fae have tried to bend nature to our will instead of coexisting with it, the Goddess fights back. She is the caretaker of all life.”

We were a family. I had no mother, and honestly no father. I had no siblings, no cousins, and no grandparents. Those thoughts should have left me adrift in aloneness, but instead, my heart swelled with love for the Fae around me. Families were supposed to lift you up, work together, and support each other. Family isn’t blood, but rather who you choose to surround yourself with.