Dalriada Valley (Borderlands Saga #3)

By Jennifer Silverwood

Beware the witch and her werebeasts, but fear the feasting shadows more...

Blackbriar Cove is dying. Lost spirits prey upon the weak, the Weaver is missing, and the Unseelie rule through terror. It's not the home Jo and Faye remember, but with the help of their friends and the Queen of Silver Hollow, they might change their fates.

Trapped in the hidden realm of Blackbriar Cove, Amie and the twins have no other choice but to face the dangers of Dalriada Valley. As their friendship is tested, and their loyalties questioned, each must find their own path. Even if it means choosing between sacrificing the ones they love or staying behind.

**The first trilogy is now complete, and the box set will release in 2023!**

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Silverwood
• Release date: Sep 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005827892

Jennifer Silverwood

Jennifer Silverwood has been involved in the publishing world since 2012 and is passionate about supporting the writing community however she can. After studying traditional art at university, she began helping Qamber Designs bring authors’ books to life. In real life, she’s a mom of two, a passionate reader, and an occasional artist. Jennifer is the author of three series—Wylder Tales, Heaven’s Edge Novellas, and the Borderlands Saga—and the stand-alone romance titles Stay and She Walks in Moonlight.Discover more with Jennifer’s blog on writing life and other bookish delights at www.jennifersilverwood.com

Book preview

PART 1

Prologue

A Time Before the Beginning

In the Cove, Nanny had often spoken of the dead as though they were still living.

But what about ghosts? Jo once asked from beneath their covers. Papa said to stay away from ghosts.

Nanny’s rasping laugh had soothed their fears as she’d replied, The dead haunt the living, so they say, but they’re just lost spirits, sugar. Don’t ever forget you were a spirit too, Joelyn. We’re all spirits in the end.

Jo had agreed, and promptly fallen asleep to the pop and hiss of firewood, but Faye lay awake long into the night.

Faye noticed Nanny hadn’t really answered Jo’s question, and wondered as she often would, all the things Nanny knew but wouldn’t tell them because they were too little.

As the years passed, and they moved from one territory to another, Faye Blackbriar forgot much of that strange other life she’d lived. Once, Faye had roamed the wilds around Nanny’s cabin with spirits and werebeasts. She had chased lightning and often thought she might fly if she really put her mind to it.

Never forget where you come from, Fayelin, Nanny’s voice sometimes came to her just before waking.

But that other life was the dream.

Time had hardened her, and Drustan bound her irrevocably to the Unseelie ways, as much as they pretended to be human. Faye happily lost herself to the flesh and the desires which grew from within.

Do you love me, Dru? she would whisper when they were alone, in secret, safe.

You are my heart, Faye, he would reply, without giving her a full answer.

There were moments, precious and stolen too far and few between, when Drustan was completely hers.

Faye knew her spirit was tied to his, but something held him back from giving her too much in return.

I understand, she wanted to say. It was too dangerous for Drustan to mate with her the way greater spirits were meant to. Too much, and they could no longer hide their love. Any closer, and the deception would crumble to pieces.

Faye wasn’t ready for her sister to know the truth, but she feared what Amie would think.

"Protect her, guard her mind for the time when the bindings loosen," Nanny had warned just before the twins followed their parents and the Seelie away from all they had known.

It’s worth it, she told herself.

One day, Melody would die a natural death, and Drustan could put aside the glamour of age.

Faye could pretend for him, and for Amie.

Becoming a knight had been the dream Dru helped her realize, but protecting Amie gave her purpose.

No matter how often they were forced to move, no matter the lies they lived by daylight, Faye was happy. So long as Dru loved her.

I could nay do this without you, Faye, he confessed between kisses.

Remember who you are, Fayelin… the Weaver’s whisper carried between realms.

I’m his heart.

Chapter 1

Night and Stars Return

She woke to arms slipping around her waist, long legs tangling with hers, and a cold nose grazing the back of her neck. Amie sank deeper into the unexpected embrace as relief settled over her anxious heart.

I’ve been so worried. Her voice held the rasp of sleep, and she hadn’t opened her eyes yet. Emrys had often held her in the privacy of her bedroom, and she’d always woke alone in the arms of her ghost.

Chilled lips brushed against the pebbled skin along her shoulder blade. His reply came a velvet rumble. I came as soon as I could.

Amie squeezed her nails into her palms. Where did you go?

His smooth cheek grazed her ear and his chest expanded against hers as though he wanted to drown in her scent.

He always found comfort that way, reminded the echo of her past self.

I returned your knight and her kin as promised, Nim.

Amie stiffened and opened her eyes to find, not her suite of rooms in Wenderdowne, but a shadow-drenched room in a wooden house in the mountains. Her hand found his pressed over the space between her breasts and the telltale slow beat of Emrys’s unnatural heart pulsing beneath her touch.

Shallow breaths escaped as she struggled for the dreamy calm she’d felt on waking. She had been so relieved to wake to him.

Emrys? Amie whispered and watched the shadows dance like smoke and writhing flames about the room.

He curled his body more tightly around her. I meant to wait and watch, but I couldn’t bear this distance any longer.

Amie frowned. His speech had been slightly slurred before, as though each sentence had been a struggle for his new body to form. He spoke clearly now, but the timbre of his words was different, as though roughened by illness. Emrys had never been ill in all the years she could recall between two lifetimes.

All this she thought while running a soothing hand over his, as she twisted her head to find his eyes closed and his skin a sickly pale. More unsettling, Amie did not sense the pull of him drawing the shadow side to her mooncraft power. What happened? she dared to ask. Why were you trying to stay away?

Emrys opened his eyes, and it wasn’t like before, a black hole of endless stars, but an abyss of pitch flames nearly obscuring the iris. "I saved them, just as you needed. That’s all that matters, min tungol leoht."

Amie searched his gaze and hesitated.

Don’t you dare force him.

Emrys, I need you to tell me exactly what happened and why you stayed away. She waited, hating herself as his features contorted. A muscle in his jaw pulsed before a grim reluctance etched into the corners of his mouth.

Through clenched teeth, he replied, "I couldn’t steal your shadows without killing you, and I couldn’t let the spirits possess a Blackbriar. His grasp tightened on Amie and she held onto him in return. So, I took their ichor into myself."

Amie quickly blinked, determined not to cry out from the bruises he was leaving on her skin. What do you mean by ichor? Her voice wasn’t as steady as she would have liked. Faye hadn’t explained where they had been when Emrys found them. She had only known to be afraid because of Grim’s warnings.

Emrys shuddered and retreated, his hold easing as he pressed his nose again to the back of her neck. Forgive me, love, but it was the only way I could protect you.

Protect me from what? She felt his reluctance to answer in his silence.

Finally, he begged, Let me hold you, just for tonight?

And tomorrow?

Emrys pressed a kiss to the base of her neck and trailed a hand along her curves. Best if I watch over you from a distance until this is over. The others won’t understand. They already expect the worst from me.

Amie squeezed her eyes shut as she recalled her conversations with Grim and Faye. How close had he been at the time? Had he been watching her? How much had he heard?

Emrys took her shiver as a request for him to burrow her into his embrace. Please, sleep. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Nim.

Amie accepted his embrace and willed her limbs to soften into his hold.

He held her as though afraid she might disappear if he let her go, and Amie couldn’t deny she had both dreaded and longed for this. Waking in his arms again was as close to heaven as she’d come, since the burden of Henry’s power was thrust upon her. Even now, as she struggled to trust him, this golem she’d made to carry her love’s soul, Amie couldn’t help wanting him.

Don’t let him know you’re afraid.

It was a dangerous road to walk, with Creator only knew what Emrys had consumed to save her friend. He claimed he’d done it to save her, to keep from consuming her shadows, but Amie still felt the unnatural pull between them.

Wrapped in his arms, she was whole again.

She woke to sunlight pouring through the opened windowpane, and Faye’s chattering in the room.

Amie jolted from bed, reaching for arms that had been holding her. She gasped, blinking in confusion to find no impressions on the pillow behind her. It appeared as though she’d slept alone, as though it had only been a dream…

All I can say is it’s about time we pushed my uncle back into the game, Faye was saying as she laid out Amie’s clothes for the day. I understand wanting to hide when you have little ones to protect. But it’s not like Murchad didn’t have enough power to stop them if he’d wanted to. Creator, this house is so creepy, she muttered while peeking into the ancient wardrobe, the dark nooks and shadowed crannies.

Amie glanced from the clothes, back to her best friend. Dream or no, some of what Emrys had said was too unsettling to keep quiet. Before we go downstairs, I need you to tell me exactly what happened when Emrys saved you.

Faye twitched, her faintly violet-brown skin brightening and fading as she plopped onto the end of Amie’s bed with a groan. Do we really have to do this now?

Amie pulled her unbound braid over her shoulder and focused on undoing and redoing the unruly mess. You avoided telling me last night, but I need to know before we go gallivanting off to spy on Morcant. Amie cast a quick, meaningful glance at her friend, gratified by Faye’s wince. "You might have forgotten, but Emrys is bound to me, and anything that happens to him will affect me."

Okay, fine. Faye fell back onto the straw mattress with a huff. "I—we didn’t go looking for trouble, first of all. In fact, I was looking for you and him when Dom showed up. His siblings followed us into the woods and the next thing I know, we’re running into James, who’s carrying a half dead pixie out of this… place."

Amie stilled and gripped her half-done braid as she listened.

Faye rubbed her face with her hands. "I don’t have a word for it in your language, but this place is wrong. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before, Amie. It was like all the rot and darker spirits had gathered there and it frankly scared the hell out of me."

Amie slowly finished her braid. Why couldn’t you tell me this last night? Faye sat up and again, Amie sensed the reluctance she had from Emrys in what may have been a dream.

In a subdued tone, Faye replied, "Dom warned me that there was some kind of evil in the Cove. I didn’t want to believe him, but after James brought Puck out… I couldn’t feel you anywhere and I had to go in, just to make sure they didn’t have you."

Who? Amie pressed a gentle touch to Faye’s shoulder.

Faye met her eye, and for a moment, seemed far older than she appeared. The lost ones. The spirits my grandmother abandoned.

Amie withdrew her hand. Your grandmother? I thought your Nanny was dead? Grim’s revelation about the twins before, all the unanswered questions Amie had about their shared past, had slowly given way to a bitterness it was growing harder to hide.

Just tell me the truth for once!

Faye rested her elbows on her drawn-up knees and shook her head. No, I don’t think she’s dead. Jo and I would have felt it. Faye ran a hand through her short plum colored hair. "Amie, there’s a lot we’ve kept from you, a lot of things we swore we’d tell you, and I promise we will. But not today. Not until after we make sure Morcant and the people who attacked Silver Hollow can’t hurt us anymore."

Amie bit her lip as Faye stole back her hand. There was more behind what her friend, her sworn knight said. And there were years when the twins had been the only people Amie could rely on, the only ones who had made her feel safe after Drustan and Melody’s deaths.

Amie wanted very much to trust her best friend, but she couldn’t shake the voice at the back of her mind screaming caution. The voice that led her to say, I’ll wait until we make it home, if you’ll tell me one thing now.

Faye’s smile didn’t reach her wary eyes as she nodded. Sounds like a deal, Wentworth.

Amie leaned in closer and closed her grip around Faye’s hand as she said, What did Emrys do to save you?

Faye’s arm jerked, but Amie held fast. A harsh laugh escaped her friend. Didn’t I already tell you? When Amie didn’t answer, Faye’s smile faded. They would have taken us, but he stopped them—somehow—and then he…

Amie released Faye and watched her friend rub her trembling hand. Faye’s gaze shifted from the door and the window, then to Amie. Something shifted in her, a ripple of power filling the air as Faye’s eyes widened and she whispered, He swallowed the shadows.

Amie wrapped her arms around her chest and recalled the writhing shadows in the room, the way those same shadows had burned in Emrys’s haunted eyes.

"I took their ichor into myself," he’d said.

Amie drew in an unsteady breath and picked up on things she wouldn’t have noticed before, giving so much of her power away. The harvest ready in the grounds beyond the big house, the people mulling about the rooms below and nearby them, the fear coming off Faye in waves.

Faye shook herself as she rose from Amie’s bed. I don’t know how this could affect you, she said. "If I’m honest, I was trying not to think about it last night. I’ve never seen so many neglected spirits, and I’ve never known of anyone who could just… consume them like he did. He—he did save us, Amie, but if we’re lucky, he’ll stay far away until we can deal with Morcant."

Amie reached for her clothes, borrowed from Murchad’s daughters, clothes to make them blend in. You already know he’ll come back, one way or another. I… I’ll use the bond if I need to.

And pray it will be enough.

Faye nodded and rested her hands on the hilts of her daggers at her belt. I’m gonna go check on Joey. See you downstairs for breakfast?

Amie nodded but couldn’t meet her friend’s eye. She didn’t want to wait and worry about what Emrys had done to save her best friend. Especially when her best friend was keeping secrets.

Chapter 2

Light on Broken Glass

Breakfast was a nerve wrecking affair, where Amie pasted a smile for their hosts and kept Puck as close as possible. After nearly losing the pixie to shadows, Amie had no intention of letting them out of her sight again.

Puck preened at her attention, buzzing happily in her palm.

There’ll be no living with ‘em now, Arthur mused.

Amie snorted. Puck deserves to be pampered, after yesterday.

Her grandfather, and oldest friend, wrapped an arm about her shoulders and squeezed. Do nay worry on that account, Jessie. We have you now, and shan’t let you out of our grasp, magpie.

Amie rolled her eyes.

Across the table, the twins rose almost in unison. Jo, to follow Fox to the kitchens, James a pensive sentinel at her heels. Faye stalked after Murchad, Dom, and one of the elder daughters following.

Amie cursed her hesitance. She had meant to corner the twins’ uncle before they convened in the barn to begin the first step in the plan. She needed to be certain before risking their lives to hunt down a mad Unseelie.

What is it, Jessie? Arthur posed the question closely for her ear alone.

Her mask must have slipped. Just… worried about Emrys.

Arthur’s blue gaze held hers, heavy with knowing. You know old Myrddin. He won’t leave your side longer than he can help it.

Amie swallowed back the urge to confess her possibly-a-dream.

Not here.

She glanced at the sole remaining occupant at the table and found Grim lazily swirling his drink in his wooden cup, lips quirked in a private smile.

Not in front of him.

Amie didn’t want to examine all the why’s or how’s. She shook her head.

Not now.

If she’d only been quicker, she could have pressed Murchad to tell her what Faye wouldn’t. Amie needed to know what she couldn’t remember.

She hadn’t noticed Grim leave his seat to approach her until his gloved hand filled her vision. Come with me if you want to live, dearie, he calmly insisted.

Excuse me? Amie blinked. Did you just quote… hey!

Grim snatched her free hand and tugged her to her feet with a wink. Best to manage this while they’re distracted, wouldn’t you say, Arthur?

What are you—I’m not a child!

Debatable. Arthur chuckled and Amie whipped her head to glare at the traitor. Oh, Jessie, just hear the Rumplekin out.

Since when are the two of you so friendly? Amie tensed as Puck sent a note of concern through their connection to her thumb.

Arthur pushed his chair back, laughter dimmed. Since I happen to know his intentions are noble, for once. Best manage this before we follow through with this mad plan.

Amie was no longer a child, but she was not above stamping her foot in want of a better outlet for her frustration. It was that, or her hands were going around his neck.

Grim arched a single brow as she twisted around with a jab of her elbow. "I don’t need full use of my powers to take you out, Grimwich." He held fast, and she didn’t dare jostle Puck too much but for the telling twitch of his full lips.

"And I say, you are weak enough right this moment, even Arthur could overtake you."

Oh, kip your chide, Arthur said. "I would nay go that far, even if Jessie has seemed a mite… poshumicked, since we came through the gate."

Amie closed her eyes and pretended they didn’t also have an audience of werebeasts casually pretending to go about their business outside the dining room.

Well, then? Grim squeezed her hand. "Contrary to popular belief, and the fact there are other things which need doing, I am beholden to help your Royal Majesty."

Oh, yes, it’s such an inconvenience. You’ve been going out of your way to give me magic lessons for a year now. She lifted her chin at the last, proud that he looked away first. True, it was to roll his eyes heavenward, but that was beside the point. Amie was done pretending she didn’t matter to Grimwich Rumplekin.

Creator knows why, though.

Well, if you are so sure… Grim huffed and then shook his head with what could only be a fond expression as he casually walked backwards, relinquishing his grasp. He was all elegant grace and power rolled into one combustible star, this man. His power was as great as it had ever felt, a touch too soothing to her ruffled senses. He stopped beside the doorway. Reach out with your inner nixy and find mine.

Amie frowned as she tried to find that inner spark, to see in the way Emrys had once taught her. But that spark was gone, eclipsed by shadows. She pressed her free hand to her stomach and passed Puck on to her grandfather’s shoulder.

It’s because we’re so far from a gate… that must be the reason.

Are you ready now? His solemn voice drew her gaze. Anyone who saw Grimwich would think him nothing but a snooty golden prince, with his brown skin aglow in the morning light, and his golden eyes alight with superior knowledge.

But they had spent so much time gazing at one another through a mirror, as she sought to understand the complex rules of magic as Grim understood them. To her horror, she recognized the concern behind his mask. She even managed a half smile to take some of the bite from her tone as she replied, Fine. Let’s get this over with.

Grim beamed and his might-as-well have blinded her in his sincerity as his long legs ate the distance between them. He had her hand tucked into his arm and was leading her away before she was half aware. Not until Arthur called after them, "Hark, Rumplekin! I asked Jessie to hear you out, but you’re daft if you believe I will allow you, of all beings, to abscond with my grandchild unchaperoned."

Suit yourself. Grim chuckled, but there was none of the venom that might have previously tinted their conversation. To her great astonishment, Amie realized they had a… rapport now, as between allies.

Puck most certainly is not, Amie hissed, tugging at Grim’s arm.

The pixie alighted from its new hiding place in her grandfather’s beard to shake its fist at Amie.

No, Puck, and you cannot convince me otherwise. She stamped her foot as she argued. Puck flitted closer so Amie could clearly see the skepticism replacing its former rage. She tried for a soothing tone. I need you to stay here and hold the others off if they come back before we do. At the very least, a warning would be nice.

Grim’s smile turned slyly up at the corners. "Clandestine meeting, then? Even better. Let the others return and stew on just what that blasted Rumplekin has their charge doing up the mountain. He winked and Amie grumbled under her breath in the old tongue. Shall we?"

During one of the first lessons he’d given, in the days when she was mistrustful about speaking through mirrors, Grim told her something that rocked her world on its fragile axis.

"Everything they’ve taught you is wrong."

Amie hadn’t believed him yet.

"How could they be wrong? It worked, didn’t it? We won."

To which Grim had replied, "Your father showed you how he wielded his inner nixy, but Henry Wenderdowne was also a being wholly of the light. You, on the other hand, were born with the capacity and a memory of darkness. Not even Emrys Myrddin could fully help you grasp the full capacity of your unlocked potential. Worse, they relied on Nimue’s memories, and your instincts more than they would like to admit."

"You’re lying," she’d growled, fists curling and wishing she could reach through that mirror.

Grim had only smiled. "Why would I lie, when you lie so prettily to yourself, dearie?"

She had quickly learned that, while she might never fully trust him, Rumplekin was right. Amie couldn’t help resenting her uncle’s and Emrys’s shoddy handling of her bound self. They had seemed torn between keeping the inconvenient parts of herself hidden, and in Emrys’s case, pushing her to become someone she wasn’t anymore.

Grim approached nixy, or magic—"why must we bother with semantics"—in terms of balance, and in surprising ways.

"Think of it like the law of the conservation of energy, Amie, he’d once said. As a Gatekeeper, and Queen of the Seelie, you pull energy from the sun and moon to sustain your power and give that power back to the land. You are a conduit, without which the magic in the land would die."

That conversation, alone with him on her side in a dusky room in the West Wing, had been Amie’s first true enlightenment since coming to Silver Hollow. Greater than recovering memories of a past life she struggled to keep in the past was the discovery that mortal science was just as relevant. That, yes, magic was real, but so was science. And what was science, if not a sort of magic? And why, if this was true, did Grim speak like a magician one moment and a muggle the next?

Their impromptu lesson in Blackbriar Cove took place beneath the misty clouds within a tiny clearing masked by a thick copse of trees slightly up the