Still in his trance, the man launched himself off of his horse. His dagger was already drawn. I did not brace myself as he tackled me to the ground. Movement caught the corner of my eye. Both of his friends dismounted from their horses. The men hesitantly approached us, unsure if they should break up the fight or join in.

The moment my hood fell back and my silver-grey hair was exposed, the uncertainty in his friends vanished. They rushed forward with their weapons drawn.

The man on top of me, no longer in a trance, held his dagger tho my throat. The slightly glazed look in his eyes had disappeared. Only confusion and anger remained. I gave him a sneering smile that made his face go pale as if for the first time he was noticing my hair and eyes.

“It is not polite to attack a woman,” I chuckled as I grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard. I could feel it crushing under my grip. The man yelled in pain as I grabbed the knife from his broken hand and used it to slit his throat.

Blood sprayed on my face and neck, like warpaint. I could the metallic tang of it in my mouth. With both legs, I gave the dead man’s body a hard kick. It flew off of me, going farther than I had expected it to.

There was something about the forest that gave me strength that I did not have in the city. I was still abnormally strong in the palace, but I was strongest here, amongst the trees.

I turned to face the two other men, both frozen with fear. The green-eyed man growled. It was almost animalistic in sound.

“I am not sure you count as a woman,” His friend sneered, gripping the hilt of his dagger tighter. I supposed that was true. I cocked my head to the side as I looked at them. Not many women foud joy in killing human men, not as I did.

The man with green eyes bared his teeth at me. “Traitor,” his words sounded like a curse. There was an odd shift in the air like one would feel right before a summer storm blew in. The man stretched his hands out towards me. A burst of magic erupted from him, hurling towards me too quickly for me to react. The magic slammed into me. Throwing me backward into the ground. The force of it knocked the air from my lungs, leaving me gasping for breath.

I squeezed my eyes shut and could not keep the groan from escaping my lips. Slowly, I did a mental check of my body. Nothing seemed to be broken, just sore.

I could feel his presence above me without opening my eyes. As I looked up at the man standing above me, I was struck with a feeling of familiarity. His face was different, no longer human. His perfectly golden skin seemed to glitter in the sunlight. His brown hair was gone, replaced by brilliant coppery red hair that fell to his shoulders. His features had sharpened and his ears now came to two sharp points. Fae.

Something inside of me stirred to life as I stared up at the male. It was that something inside of me that spoke, “Kill me,” It begged and I did not argue.

The male let out a deep growl. One that I felt in my chest.

“Why do you serve the human King?” His voice sounded like many voices all speaking at once. I glanced around and his other friend was gone. I looked back at him and did not answer. I was not sure how to answer that. The male growled again, pointing his long sword at my throat.

“Answer the question, traitor,” he commanded. Anger stirred in me, anger and hurt. I felt pain in my heart that I could not describe.

“I am not a traitor,” I growled back, my own growl matching his own in ferocity. The honestly in my words caused him to pause. The magic swirling at his fingertips calmed.

“Then why do you serve the human King?” the growl had still not left his voice, but the anger in his face had lessened.

“I have no choice,” Panic rose up in me. Panic from knowing and not knowing. Something was keeping me from remembering but I could not remember what it was I had forgotten.

The male studied my face for a moment.

“Selene, what happened to you?” He asked, his shoulders slumped in true hopelessness.

There was something familiar about him. I winced as a sharp headache flooded my mind. It was hard to concentrate on the world around me. I focused on the male. The way he spoke. His eyes, and the way he looked at me. The way he had said my name felt too heavy. It was supposed to mean something more, but it did not.

“You know my name?” I whispered. The male nodded.

“What is my name? What is my full name?” I asked, ignoring the pounding in my head. I had to know. Why did I not know?

“Selene Blackthorne,” he looked confused as if it was odd that I would ask him. I blinked at him as something like a memory flashed through my mind.

The male before me stood beside another, older, fae male. The older fae’s sky blue eyes glowed in the dim light of the room as they huddled over a table that was too tall for me to see over the edge of. They spoke in hushed tones in a language that was not human, but I still could hear the name that the blue-eyed male with midnight black hair called the green-eyed male. Celtez.

“Celtez,” I whispered looking up at the male. A tear rolled down my face. I was supposed to know him. I knew this male, but I could not remember anything about him.

Celtez’s eyes grew wide as he reached for me like the King had done some many times before. I jumped to my feet and screamed, “No!”

Celtez paused and looked at me curiously.

“I can not forget more, please. I already forget so much,” The words tumbled from my lips in a whimper.

“I can not have you telling the King of me. You are his champion after all,” the way Celtez hissed the word champion told me enough about what he thought of the title.

“I will not speak of this meeting to him,” I swore. Somewhere deep inside of me, I knew the weight my promise held.

“And if we are to meet again in the presence of others?” He asked raising a brow.

“I will act as if we have never met. I met two men on the King’s road, who tried to take the property of the King. I killed the first and the second man ran. There was no third,”

“And why did you not chase down the second man?”

“He did not attack me,” I shrugged. Even if I had wanted to kill the second man, I would not have been able to, not without him attacking me first. The man with green eyes looked at me a moment longer before turning and walking towards the wyldwood.

“Who are you?” I called after him.

Celtez looked back over his shoulder, “I will miss you, Little Shadow,” he shook his head as he walked into the forest and vanished into the trees.

My mind reeled as more memories flooded my brain.

“Hello Little Shadow, what are you doing here,” Celtez picked me up out of a cabinet that I had crawled inside while playing hide and seek.

The memory shifted to the male with blue eyes, my blue eyes walking down a beautiful hallway laughing and talking with Celtez. I saw a female fae, with purple eyes and snow-white hair, crying while she thought no one was watching. There was a boy with amber eyes and dark soft curly hair smiling at me. The boy’s face aged to a young male’s face as he kissed me. His amber eye looked as if they could stare into my soul.

Mate. The word was strange in a language I did not recognize, but somehow I understood it.

I knew those amber eyes, the same amber eyes I saw every time I closed my eyes. Just think of them made my heartbreak inside of my chest. I fought back tears as I grabbed the reins of my large black mare. The mare I had named Little Shadow.