The Lord of the Crossroads stole me from the Ferals I called friends and family.  He thought I was one of them, and how he raged when he learned I was merely a carrier of the virus that made them.   Days blended into weeks, until I lost track of time in the dark forest where he held me.  Tortured me in an attempt to make the virus change me, and when that didn’t work, he tried to figure out how to use me to create his own Ferals.  He wanted to create a weapon, and he did.

Me.

But not the weapon he desired.  With my fae beauty and my own feral nature, I was able to draw out the beast in any man.  His lust.  His greed.  And his fear.  I took what my terrifying master had given me and used it to escape.  I slipped into the forest outside his lair and drank in the spirit of the trees around me.  They lent me their shape and appearance, and gave me some of their own dangerous nature.

As I ran, I heard the distant cries of wolves.  I remembered the wolves, the Ferals I loved.  I raced toward that memory, first on two feet, then on four.  My Lord howled in rage when I’d finally taken on the form of a wolf but not for him.

The trail I found took me home to the first man I had ever loved, but he was gone.  Hunters had come, I was told.  Killed him and several others, sundering the pack.  Lyla, my oldest friend and sister of my heart had left, taking with her her mate Chaska and others, and headed off to Mythic City in New Mexico, the source of the hunters that had almost destroyed them all.

There was nothing left for me in Eldon Well, so I left the bulk of my belongings in the care of the doctor in town who was also a friend, to give to someone who needed help as I once had when I arrived in that town years before.

When I stepped off the bus in Mythic City, I felt so alone, bereft of everything I had known.  It was an alien landscape to me, coming from a small town near a deep and ancient forest to a big city in the middle of the desert.  But Fate would play another card for me.

I was hardly away from the station when there, in front of me, was Lyla.  She helped me start a new life here, and her new pack welcomed me and I started to feel whole again.  I joined the Seelie court, drawn to the Summer’s warmth and the knowledge that just like the sun, it too can burn.

The other vacancies in my heart became filled by others.  A nymph, whom I helped escape from some thugs after her, and a male sylph who’d also come to her aid.  We three became close, as only those of our kind could get.  Many cannot understand our bond, for the nymph is part of the Unseelie court of Santa Fe.  I don’t think I can explain it, other than our loyalty to each other was forged through trials and distress, our victories and our failures.

Then something unexpected came into my life:  love.  My heart embraced two men: a Feral, like the mate I’d lost, and another Seelie fae, a giant minotaur whose voice resonated within me and whose love for me was larger than he was.  I loved them both, but turned to Richard who held the promise of a future.

That promise was cut short by the machinations of a Sidhe Lord, set into motion centuries ago.  The Lord released the Black Key upon the Mainland to wreak havoc and horror upon mortals.  It invaded Mythic City and then turned itself against the fae of the Seelie court, much to the delight of the Unseelie lurking in the darkness.

We spent weeks hunting it, trying to bring it down.  We did, but at a great cost.  Half a dozen Seelie succumbed to its curse, including the Guardian of the Sage’s Gate, whose knowledged we used to trap the damned Key – and it took Richard as he fell.  I scrambled to his side to heal him before it was too late but he bid me stay my hand.  The Key was now trapped within him, bound forever, and when his life was spent, so would the Key’s.  As the light went out of his eyes, my grief overtook me, and I refused to let him go until his body was cold.

I was gifted the Guardianship of the Sage’s Gate, a cold consolation for what I had lost.  I withdrew for a while, eschewing the company of everyone, even my closest friends, closeting myself with the Shadow Gate that was now mine to control and protect.  In that time, and through an odd set of circumstances, I became the “queen” of a group of tiny but deadly fairies, sworn to be my army.

Eventually, the weight upon my heart grew lighter, and the memories of Richard and his passing no longer caused me pain.  I am living again, the bonds with Less and Mira stronger than ever, and the possibility of a future with Chase dangles in front of me like a carrot.  I will be bold and strive for it, just as I work to keep my home safe from threats, be they Unseelie or otherwise.