“A lot of good that will do if he kills you.”
I feel the blood leave my face, but I refuse to back down. “Even so, what if he already knows I’m here? What if he’s coming to threaten Lunar for harboring me? I can’t let anyone get hurt for me.”
“What are you going to do? Sacrifice yourself?”
“If I must.”
She rolls her eyes. “What is with you and the constant need to put others before you? Is your life not worth more?”
The question catches me off guard. I’ve always wanted to help others and save lives. That’s why I wanted to become a surgeon. But her words bring to mind an unsettling question; what is my own life worth? I shake my head. “If there’s anything I can do to keep others from getting hurt, I have a right to do it.”
“Fine. But I’m making you invisible.”
“Invisible? How?”
She lifts her hands. “I’m putting a glamour over you.”
I step away, blinking furiously as a flash of betrayal ignites within. “You’re going to glamour me?”
She clenches her jaw. “No, Evelyn. You can stop blinking now.”
I take a deep breath and force my eyelids to stop fluttering.
Her hands remain raised. “I’m putting aphysicalglamour over you. It’s different from a mental one. A physical glamour doesn’t interfere with a person’s mind.”
“All right,” I say slowly. “You think you can really make me invisible?”
“I’ll try,” she says. She remains still for a few moments before lowering her hands with a shrug. “Well, let’s hope it works.”
“What do you mean, let’s hope? You can’t tell if it worked?”
“It’s my glamour. Since I know it’s there, I can see through it. You look as clear as day to me.”
I sigh and start back down our path. “Good enough.”
Lorelei shakes her head. “King Aspen better not have my neck for this.”
* * *
My feet acheby the time we reach the edge of the forest outside the palace lawn. Despite my glamour, we remain hidden behind the trunk of a tree while Lorelei scans the landscape. She tenses, and I follow her line of vision. Outside the southern end of the palace, where Lorelei and I had met Nyxia mere hours ago, stand dozens of armed fae, mostly wraiths and ghouls with weapons as ethereal as their forms. Their bodies are angled away from us as they face the distant tree line.
We creep forward, crossing the lawn toward the palace. Once we reach a row of towering hedges near the building, we make our way forward until the retinue comes further into view. We slip beneath shadows until we reach the nearest column. There we peek around it for a better vantage.
Before the soldiers stand Nyxia, Franco, and Aspen, as well as the rulers of Wind, Winter, and Earthen. Their postures are tense as they stare ahead at what appears to be nothing. Endless moments of chilling silence pass until movement flickers in the distant shadows. Three figures approach, and as they near, I recognize the middle as King Ustrin. He wears a red suit, its color dim against the radiance of his orange scales glinting in the moonlight. The fae on each side of him look like guards. They have scaled bodies like the king, but their coloring is pale yellow. The one to Ustrin’s right seems to be trembling, his steps slower than his companion’s.
The three figures stop several yards away from the gathering before them.
I hardly breathe as I strain to hear over my pounding heart.
“Queen Nyxia,” Ustrin says, his voice quiet but loud enough to carry to us. “How good of you to greet me with such a charming welcoming party. Although, when I requested my right to a peaceful exchange of words, I didn’t expect so many soldiers to take part. Did your owl not make my intentions clear? I did not come for a fight.”
Nyxia gives him a toothy smile, her canines conveying the hidden threat in the gesture. “Why are you here? You were not invited.”
“That’s no way to speak to a fellow council fae.”
“You and I both know I am no longer considered a council fae. The same goes for the rulers who stand beside me.”
“Ah, well I did want to hear it from your lips before I assumed too much,” King Ustrin says, a false smile on his lipless mouth. “Then my next order of business can commence. By order of the Council of Eleven Courts, I hereby deem you, Nyxia of Lunar, stripped of your right to rule. The same goes for you, Aspen of Autumn, Aelfon of Earthen, Minuette of Wind, and Flauvis of Winter.” He nods at each of the rulers in turn. The tension in the air is palpable, and even I bristle at this blatant omission of their royal titles.
