Princess of Shadows: A Dark Fae Fantasy Romance by Olivia Hart (read me a book txt) 📕

predators if you didn’t know they were there and would have made the perfect assassins if they had been able to shadow walk.

I’d known Damian for a very long time. And he was one of the slowest Fae to adapt to this world when it changed. Glancing at the register, I noted how old it was. It looked to be at least a century old, kept in pristine condition. Made of brass, one of the metals that the Fae could touch without pain, the entire machine was mechanical.

“Good evening, Sebastian,” Damian said as he ran a pale hand through his short black hair. He kept his nails long. They were hard as diamonds and one of the most important weapons a vampire had. Unlike other Fae, they used little actual magic. Instead, they relied on physical strength and speed. Very few creatures were as effective as a vampire when magic was taken out of the equation.

“I was expecting you, so I left the door unlocked. I hear that you’re looking to hide a recent acquaintance.”

Damian was well connected with the immortals on this side, but I was still surprised that he knew so much about what I was doing. If he knew, then that meant that Seraphina and Nyx might know as well.

“Not in the mood for small talk?” I asked stepping closer to Damian. “It’s been a century since we last talked.” His eyes flared, but his expression remained unnervingly flat.

“I’d prefer that you left my shop as quickly as possible. Nyx has a reputation for leaving a trail of blood in his wake, and I happen to prefer not to be a part of it.”

“I wouldn’t have come here with a tail if it weren’t important. You know that.” I didn’t turn away as he walked around the counter even though a compulsion flowed through me. A generous Fae must have gifted him a compulsion trinket that he’d just tried to use.

It wasn’t uncommon for Fae to pay Damian in favors, but feeling the strength of that compulsion surprised me. Few powerful Fae lived in this Realm, and I knew of almost all of them. Most had a tie to one of the Courts. Whoever had made this for him was someone new or someone from the other side.

He didn’t seem to notice that the trinket hadn’t worked, but he did hesitate. I waited patiently as he moved just a little bit slower, not wanting to show his secret hiding place for magical jewelry.

Finally, he turned to a cabinet and pulled a drawer out. All the way out. He reached behind it, into the actual wall, and slid another drawer out. I watched him set it on the glass counter without making a sound.

He held up a simple necklace made of a strange silver metal I’d never seen before. The chain seemed slightly thicker than most jewelry he made. Hanging from the chain were medium sized circle-cut sapphires with diamonds set around them in a sunburst pattern.

In the very center hung a massive diamond that was also cut in a circle. It hung from a long chain made of that strange metal. Gleaming in the perfect light of the jewelry shop, the entire thing sparkled like a necklace that royalty would wear.

This would cost just as much as something royalty would wear. Unlike simple necklaces, this was an illegal one. Those sapphires would have been filled with the magical essence of another being, and it would slowly let out the scent like an oil burner set on a very low setting. The diamond in the center would be used to trap Rose’s scent before it left her body. The entire necklace would hang slightly lower than most so that the diamond would rest right between her breasts.

It wasn’t meant to be beautiful even though it was. It was meant to hide Rose. Only a skilled artificer like Damian would know how to make this and infuse it correctly. Damian didn’t have any magic of his own, but he knew how to work with distilled magic like a scientist from this world would work with various chemicals.

“Tell me about it,” I said. “Then we can talk about price.”

He nodded. “The diamond will hold the essence of the person until it is filled. For you, it would take almost a hundred years to fill that particular diamond. I do not know how long it will take for her to fill it.”

“The sapphires will slowly release the scent of a Selkie. They’re common enough, and they live on land regularly, so that shouldn’t arouse suspicion. You’ll obviously need to relocate her near a shoreline, but other than that, there are minimal limitations on her placement.”

“And how long will the sapphires last?” I asked.

“At least a hundred years. At least. I don’t want to have to refill them any more than I have to. If she has the eye of Nyx and Seraphina, they won’t stop hunting her anytime soon.”

I nodded. “Understandable. What is it going to cost?”

Damian didn’t hesitate. “A dagger.”

The words hung in the air. It was a well-known secret that I held a set of Assassin’s Guild daggers, given to me by Nyx.

They were special and one of my most valuable possessions. Just making a dagger from obsidian was an easy thing to do. They also were nearly worthless. They were easy to break and more than that, they were no different than any glass dagger.

The difference was in the power that they’d been enchanted with. An enchantment that only one man had ever learned how to do, and he’d only been able to do it to something made of obsidian.

Obsidian could hold magical power just like a crystal could. These particular daggers were able to siphon the power from any being struck by them. This caused the magical power to flow from a wound into the bearer of the dagger, giving them more strength while draining their enemy.

This made them some of the most powerful weapons in the