I flew harder than I’d ever flown before, my wings beating against the wind, the strain in my shoulders nothing compared to the ache in my chest. The dread in my heart. If only I hadn’t insisted on taking a detour, if we’d kept going straight, we’d have already reached his father’s homestead. Reached help. Zadok was a mage and, as of right this moment, my only hope.

I had to get him to his father. Whatever it took.

The distance that would have taken us a day to walk was mere hours through the skies, but it wasn’t fast enough. My mate’s heartbeat grew slower and slower with every mile, his breathing a shallow wheeze. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as I passed over the rift between the mainland and the outer island. I was losing him. I couldn’t lose him.

“Stay with me, little one,” I pleaded over the roaring winds. “We’re almost there.”

I forced my body to its limits and further, my lungs burning, my muscles crying out for a reprieve, but I paid them no heed. I scanned the lands, the fields upon fields of crops, the clusters of houses, and the towns that, in that second, meant nothing more to me than the wrong destination.

Where the fuck is it?

Defeat loomed with every passing second, my composure already frayed beyond all reason, my distress mounting. It had to be here. It had to be. I couldn’t acknowledge the possibility that I’d brought him all this way for nothing, that I’d wasted valuable time chasing a place that didn’t exist, a fantasy written in an old journal. No, it was real, it was where I’d find his father, and he’d be safe. I had to keep searching, even if my confidence was dwindling.

I couldn’t give up.

It wasn’t until I reached the farthest point of the island, retracing my course, that I noticed a contrasting patch of land from the corner of my eye. I’d almost missed it—a farmstead hidden by a forest of trees with rose-colored petals, secluded in its own little haven. I did a double take in case my desperation had conjured an illusion, but a trace of relief was rising in my stomach.

That was it.

Rosewood Creek.

I landed on solid ground, my ankles twinging with the force. The place seemed lived in, which was promising. There were horses in the stables, snorting and whinnying, and there were signs of a picnic in the grass by the flowerbeds, but there was no one around. The main house stood at the far end of a cobblestone path, so I marched ahead, aiming to knock on the door and praying that the one who greeted me on the other side was the Fae I sought.

Please be here.