Winter of The Shadow Fae

by L. P. Dover

 Twenty-five years ago, Alasdair was a sorcerer whose hunger for power brought about a war in the Land of the Fae, intending to place himself in a position over all the Fae. He failed in this, was defeated by the Queen of the Ice Court. As he lay dying, he vowed to wreak his revenge upon those who thwarted his march to power. He transferred some of his powers to his son Kai, then laid a curse upon him. A spell that at some point in the future would drive Kai to kill those who had stood in the way of his father’s rise to power.  He had been but a boy of fourteen when his father laid the curse within him. But it never laid totally dormmate, the hatred simmered within him for twenty-five years, changing him into a hardened heartless man, caring for no one.

In the intervening years, the Land of the Fae had been divided into four distinct lands, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Some of the cruel, hard and fast laws had also been softened. Ella, the daughter of Queen of The Ice Court was coming of age. She would marry and create a new Court, one of Frost and more change would be coming under her rule.

The time had come, Kai would be the means of his father’s vengeance and he would begin with the death of Ella. As he stole into her bed chamber, he leaned over the beauty reposed in slumber upon her bed. No one had detected him. She stirred but didn’t wake. As he looked upon her the desire to kill her was ever as strong, but now it warred with his desire to claim her as his own as well.

Ella was a Keeper, the fae’s version of a guardian angel. When one of her kind were close to death, she was one who would appear to lead them to the Hereafter, the next world where the dead lived on in spirit. She was of an age to marry and claim her land that would become The Court of Frost.  For the last two years she and Iston, an Elven Prince, had managed a close relationship, leading to the belief of all that it would culminate in their marriage. However, Ella had her doubts of late. She’d had a vision of a man with dark hair and grey eyes, emanating power. There was as well a feeling of danger that surrounded him. For Ella there was something about him, that called to her. Told, he was truly evil, one of the Shadow Fae, the son of the sorcerer Alasdair and warned to beware of him. She had to find out more about him. To do this she would have to step into the mortal world of his home.

There was a time when marriages between Fae and humans was forbidden. If a Fae were to go against this law, they were banished to the mortal world for the rest of their days. It was a deadly environment, shortening the life of Fae banished there, some for crimes against the Land of the Fae, some simply by their choice of mate. But times had changed after the war, marriages between Fae and mortals were no longer forbidden and they might choose to live where they would. However, once banished they were not allowed to return to the Land of Fae.

There were times when Ella slipped into the mortal world to retrieve a dying soul to escort the dead to the Hereafter. As she stood by Linnet’s bedside, she felt him slip into the shadows. He was too late. He could only stand and watched as his mother took her last breath. It had been a long time since he’d last seen her. Once they had been close, but his father had changed that, as a boy he taught him to hate, to close off his feelings for anything but the service to revenge. Even so, Kai let another opportunity to kill Ella pass, as she stood with her back to him. Some part of him held him back, while deep inside the spell pulled at him, wanting to taste her blood. He knew he would one day kill her but until that day, he would watch her, get close to see where these strange feeling he seemed to have to protect her was coming from.

It started with a shared kiss. Ella knew who Kai was and wanted to learn more about him and his plans to kill her and her family. Watching him she saw her chance when she grabbed a Draya, a female half Fae, that was part of Kai’s group of Shadow Fae. Taking her back to the Ice Court, she questioned her to learn more of their plans. Ella returned to the mortal world shifting in her appearance to that of Draya to see if Kai would share information with her. What she wasn’t aware of, was that Kai could sense her presence as easily as she could sense his nearness. So, when he grabbed her, taking her in his arms and kissing her both were surprised at their reactions to the kiss that turned demanding and hot. Angry at herself and him she pulled away and ran. No matter how much he wanted to claim her as his own, he knew one day they would face each other with daggers, and one would die.

 There is so much happening in this story.  The story opens as Kai recognizes the time has come for his father’s revenge, for in truth it is his father’s hatred that lives on in his sons. The story may begin twenty-five years after the Alasdair’s death, but gradually throughout the tale the reader learns more and more about the history behind the war, Kai’s role and how it changes after he sees Ella and realizes the strange connection between them is tearing him apart. The story is presented succinctly but with twists and turns that you might not see coming. There is cruel death, a puppeteer who reaches beyond the grave with his hatred to destroy his children by turning them into monsters. There is love so strong it lives beyond the grave.

At first, I wasn’t certain I would appreciate Kai, he was a bit of a cyborg like character that only lived to wreak havoc and death. A man who turned away from his sisters and mother who so loved him, no matter what to follow in the footsteps of an evil psychopath, long turned to dust. Ella too seemed a bit hard hearted. Her relationship with Iston one of protocol and convenience, the merging of two different peoples. But Kai is fighting a curse that he didn’t ask for that has ruled his way of life and changed him from a loving young boy to a bitter killer. Ella cares deeply for her people and would place her life in danger to save them. But she has a duty to her living land, that will some day become her court. So as the story goes on we get a better look at the characters and how they change each other. It is inevitable though that the beast inside Kai won’t be ousted until it has seen the death of Ella. Will he be able to control the curse that holds him or will he be the death of the woman he loves. This is a story that took a minute to find my way in but once there I didn’t want it to end. I will say there are parts that broke my heart but I loved that romantic spicy tale of enemies that loved so well, each would die for the other.