The Eternal Night - Rachel Morgan - E-Book

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Rachel Morgan

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Beschreibung

Cinderella retold: Fae, vampires, shifters, and a Godmother who’ll grant you any wish—if you pay the price.


Finding herself with some unlikely allies, Elle prepares to face the man calling himself the vampire king in an enchanted land of never-ending darkness.


~ ~ ~


This is episode 4 of 6 of a SERIALIZED Cinderella retelling. It is not novel-length. Expect cliffhangers! Approximately 26,000 words or 115 print pages.


**Prefer to binge-read all the episodes together? Look for City of Wishes: The Complete Cinderella Story**


~ ~ ~


In a world of fae, vampires and shifters, where wishes can be bought and bargained for, Elle is human, bound to her stepmother by a slave charm. Her only hope at freedom is to wish for it. But the Godmother rules the illegal wish trade, and the price she demands is steep. Is Elle willing to pay it?

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CITY OF WISHES

4: The Eternal Night

Rachel Morgan

CITY OF WISHES

4: THE ETERNAL NIGHT

Copyright © 2019 Rachel Morgan

Summary:

In a world of fae, vampires and shifters, Elle is human, bound to her stepmother by a slave charm. Her only hope is to wish for her freedom. But can she pay the price the Godmother demands in exchange?

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For more information please contact the author.

v2020.03.31

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Next …

About the Author

In a stylishly furnished lounge in one of Vale City’s most expensive apartments, the Godmother dropped into an armchair with a huff. She smacked her fist down on the cushioned arm of the chair. “Why can’t I find her?” she demanded, though there was no one else present to hear her question. Midnight had come and gone hours ago, and the slave girl, Elle Winter, should have returned to her attic. But she wasn’t there, and no amount of magic seemed to be able to locate her.

A small creature fluttered in through the open window. “Yes?” the Godmother said. The pixie zoomed closer and alighted on the arm of the chair, just in front of the Godmother’s fist. She tilted her hat—or was it half a shell?—and squeaked something. “No sign of her anywhere near the house?” the Godmother asked. After another few squeaks, she sighed. “Well, thank you for looking. I appreciate it. In fact, if you don’t mind hanging around, I may have further use for you. What’s your name anyway?” She listened as the pixie squeaked something unintelligible. “I’m afraid you’ll have to repeat that.” The pixie tried again, her words a fraction slower. “Oh, well if you like that nickname,” the Godmother said, “we can go with that. Tash. Easy enough to remember.”

Her phone rang, and she reached to pick it up from the side table. She tapped the screen, brought the phone to her ear, and said, “Yes?”

“I’ve confirmed that it’s true, Godmother,” said the man on the other end of the call. “The vampires who invaded the ball had magic.”

“I suspected as much.” The Godmother sighed. “Well, I suppose we couldn’t expect that spell to stay a secret forever. Not while there was still a record of it out there somewhere, even if that record is incomplete.” She crossed one leg over the other. “But as long as the vampires don’t perform the ritual in full, their power will never last. But if they do complete it …” She frowned. There was still the problem of the missing girl. If no magic could locate her, there was a strong possibility the vampires had her. Was it too late already?

“This is becoming a mess,” she muttered into the phone. “I don’t like mess. Not unless I’m the one causing it.” As an afterthought, she added, “Did the royal family survive?”

“Yes.”

“Including the prince?”

“Yes.”

A smile pulled at the Godmother’s glossy lips. “So the slave girl failed to pay her price. Well, there’s a small bit of good news. Still, this Allegiant mess changes things. What to do, what to do …” She drummed her fingers across the top of her leg, her mind flicking through all the options and the possible outcomes.

“There’s something else,” the man on the other end of the phone said. “There was a protest at the ball. Humans campaigning against the slave charm.”

The Godmother groaned. “That helps absolutely no one.”

“I know. I think the king will use this to strengthen his case. He may finally be able to get the National Council to vote in favor of making the slave charm mandatory for all humans again.”

“More mess,” the Godmother muttered. “Well, thank you for keeping me updated.” She ended the call without saying goodbye. Then she let out a long sigh and returned her attention to the pixie.

“Do you know what it says in our country’s constitution, Tash? Well, in every constitution in every country in the world, if we’re going to get technical.” Tash replied with a disbelieving squeak. “Why, yes. I have memorized the Constitution of Astranerica,” the Godmother said. “I’ve been around for a very long time. Sometimes I get bored. I need to find things for my brain to do. Anyway, Tash, the part I’d like to bring your attention to is that little bit in the Bill of Rights that mentions freedom. This, my dear young pixie, is what it says.” She waved her hand and gold letters appeared in the air as she spoke, matching her word for word. “Every member of a magic-blooded High Race has the right to freedom.”

Tash sat on the arm of the chair and leaned back on her tiny hands.

“The key, of course,” the Godmother said, “is in the words ‘magic-blooded.’ We fae have our Essence, which lengthens our lives and allows us to do a great many fantastical things no other race can do. The vampires have a type of magic that gives them long life, speed and superior strength. And shifters have a type of magic that allows them to change their physical shape. But what do humans have?” She nodded slowly as Tash replied, an amused smile curling her lips. “Correct. It does appear to suck a great deal for humans. It makes you wonder why they were ever considered a High Race, doesn’t it.” She steepled her fingertips and pursed her lips. “Unless, like me, you know the answer.”

She sat in silence for another few moments, then lifted her phone again and searched for a name she hadn’t contacted in quite some time. Raising the phone to her ear, she murmured, “It’s time to move a few pieces around the game board, Tash. Would you like to stick around and observe the fun?”

The morning after the most disastrous ball Belmont Palace had ever hosted, Dex found himself walking along a nondescript street in a quiet borough of Vale City with a pair of woman’s black combat boots sitting on his upturned palms. After spending several hours this morning listening to his furious father rage about vampires and humans, he’d finally managed to get away.

Sneaking out of the palace grounds without his parents’ knowledge was a skill he’d mastered years ago. It was his nanny who’d first helped him, when he was very young and had begged to explore the forest on the other side of the palace wall. He’d learned a few tricks from her, like befriending the right people on the palace staff. These days, that included the security team who monitored the back entrance near the garages where all the palace vehicles lived. The guards didn’t mind turning a blind eye as long as Dex wasn’t alone. Xander or Olly, sons of trusted noble fae families, generally accompanied him, and that always seemed to keep the guards satisfied.

Dex looked down at the shoes again as he reached the intersection of two streets. The rhinestones sparkled in the morning sun. He’d found the shoes wedged between the balusters alongside the palace front steps while searching for Elle the night before and recognized them instantly as hers. He wanted to get started immediately on a tracking spell, but his father’s guards had found him at that point, and it had been impossible to get away from them for the remainder of the night. It wasn’t until mid-morning that he’d come up with a good enough excuse to escape his father’s office.

The shoes shifted ever so slightly on Dex’s palms, pointing toward the left now. He turned that way and continued walking, Olly at his side. The two of them had parked a few streets back and left the car behind after blindly following the shoes’ directions, accidentally turning up a one-way street, and almost crashing into a taxi. Olly had convinced Dex that walking was safer, though Dex found it frustratingly slow. He’d earned himself a few odd looks, wandering around holding up a pair of shoes on his hands, but he ignored the sideways glances and raised eyebrows. Just like the truth spell he’d used on Azriel, the tracking spell wasn’t supposed to be known by anyone outside of law enforcement, so he certainly wasn’t about to explain to anyone what he was doing.

“Oh, we’re turning again,” he said, watching the shoes shift toward the right now.

“I think we may have reached our destination,” Olly said.

Dex looked up. The house he stood in front of was tall and skinny with an ivy-covered trellis covering part of the front. “Yeah, it could be.” He looked around. “We’re not far from the street where we dropped Elle off the first night we met her, so it makes sense.”

“She obviously didn’t want you knowing where she lives,” Olly reminded him quietly. “Probably because—”

“She’s a slave, yes,” Dex said with a sigh, gripping the two shoes in one hand and lowering them to his side. He’d decided to tell Olly and Xander the truth this morning before he began the tracking spell. Xander had simply shaken his head before heading out to answer a call from a palace guard, leaving Olly to remind Dex that getting involved with a human slave probably wasn’t going to end well. “But I’m going to free her,” Dex said as he walked toward the stairs that led up to the front door. “And then she won’t be a slave anymore.”

“Yes, as you’ve repeatedly told me. But—”

“But she’ll still be human, as you’ve repeatedly told me,” Dex said.

“And your father will hand the country over to vampires before he lets you marry her.”

Dex laughed as he reached the top of the stairs and faced Olly. “Who said anything about marriage?”

“Well she’s the only person you’ve shown more than a vague interest in, and we all know your parents are forcing you in that direction, so what am I supposed to think?”

“I’m just here to make sure she’s okay.” Dex turned to the door, raised a fist, and knocked. “And then I’m going to confront whoever her slave master is and get him or her to remove that damn charm from her leg.”

“And then?”

“And then …” Dex rubbed his free hand along the back of his neck. Everything Olly said made sense, and yet he couldn’t get Elle out of his mind. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to hang out with her in a normal setting that didn’t involve hunting for vampires or running away from them. He wanted to kiss her again. Man, he was so screwed.

“Right,” Olly muttered, as if he could hear Dex’s thoughts. “Exactly.”

“Look, I know everything you’re saying is true. I know I’m only making my life harder. And not just because of my father, but because of—”

Because of the Darkness, he’d been about to say. It wasn’t fair of him to get involved with anyone when he had a death sentence hanging over him. But at that moment, the door swung open. A young fae woman with shiny red hair and vibrant green eyes stood there. She smiled prettily. “Hi. Can I help you?”

Dex blinked. “I—I want to marry you.” He slapped a hand over his mouth. Where the hell had that come from?

“You—what?”

“Oh dear,” Olly groaned from behind him.

The young woman hesitated, then gasped. “Ohmygoodness. Holy stars. You’re him! You’re Prince Chevalier!”

“Uh, what? No, I didn’t say—”

“I made a wish that you’d want to marry me when you saw me, and now you’re here, asking me to marry you!” She clasped her hands together and bobbed up and down. “Yes, absolutely, a hundred yeses. I accept your proposal.”

“Whoa, hang on.” Dex clutched both combat boots to his chest, silently cursing whoever it was that first came up with wish magic. “I didn’t propose. I’m looking for—”

“Your royal highness.” A woman—probably older than the first, though also fae—swept from the shadows of the house toward the door. “What an honor! My daughter Meredith is most willing to accept your proposal.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I didn’t actually propose. I’m—”

“But you said you want to marry me,” the daughter, Meredith, interrupted.

Dex had said that, and there was an irresistible urge inside him to say the stupid words again. He could picture Meredith in a white dress, standing across from him beneath a canopy of flowers while saying ‘I do,’ and some completely helpless part of him wanted that, even while the logical part of his mind was repulsed.

“I wished for it,” she repeated, “and you confirmed it, which means you have to—”

“Which means he now has to wish not to marry you,” Olly said, moving a little closer. “Not the first time he’s had to do that, by the way,” he added with an awkward chuckle.

Dex gave Meredith what he hoped was a polite smile. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re very lovely, and someone will be a lucky man to marry you one day, but I’m afraid that man is not me.” Thank the stars for that, he added silently. If he remembered correctly from what Elle had told him, Meredith was the stepsister she didn’t particularly like. “Ma’am,” he said to the other woman, who he guessed was Elle’s stepmother. “I’m looking for someone. Her name is Elle. Is she here?”

The woman’s expression darkened, and her lips curled into the furthest thing from a genuine smile as she said, “No, she is not here. But I do apologize on her behalf for whatever she has done to you, your highness.”

“Oh, no, she hasn’t done anything to me. Do you perhaps know when she might be home?”

“No. My sincerest apologies, your highness, but I do not.”

“Did someone say something about Elle?” Dex’s gaze darted further back into the house as a girl poked her head into the entrance hall.

“Sienna, now is not the time,” Elle’s stepmother hissed over her shoulder.

Sienna. That was Elle’s other stepsister. The one she cared for and said was more like a real sister. Dex craned his neck, trying to get a better look at her, to see if he could at least read something in her expression. But the two women in the doorway moved closer together, blocking Sienna from view.

“Perhaps I could talk with—”

“I’m so sorry, I wish one of us could help you,” the older woman said, “but I’m afraid we’re all as much in the dark as you are. Elle disappeared last night while we were out—at your magnificent ball—and we haven’t seen her since.”

“Okay. Uh, perhaps I could leave a contact number,” Dex suggested, “and when you know something about Elle you can get in touch.”

“I’ll take your number,” Meredith said, thrusting her hand forward with a crazed glint in her eyes.

“Oh, well, it wouldn’t be my number specifically,” Dex told her with a strained smile.

“We will, of course, inform your people the second we know anything,” Elle’s stepmother said, her voice dripping fake politeness. “But I feel compelled to tell you that we’re also required to contact the police once we know of her whereabouts. They want to know all about her, uh, criminal activities.”

“Her criminal activities?” Dex asked, not believing the woman for a second.

“Yes. Elle is our slave, you see, but she’s become completely out of control. She’s attempted to break the slave charm multiple times, she’s stolen large amounts of Essence, and now it appears she may have succeeded in running away, despite the slave charm’s effects. Your highness, I would hate