Author: Vivienne Savage; Dominique Kristine
Date: 2018-08-18 07:00:00+00:00
Description: Half-faerie Skylar Corazzi doesn't have to go hunting for trouble, it finds her on its own. After earning a spot in the university sentinel program, Sky thinks she has it made... until the first days of boot camp. The vampire and shapeshifter coaches mean serious business and have no qualms about whipping her into shape. Shortly after Sky witnesses a grisly automobile accident, sentinels rule it wasn't a case of poor human judgment. A string of negligent mortals making reckless choices indicates an evil faerie is interfering with fate. One by one, her friends land in the crossfire. It isn't Sk
Publisher: Payne & Taylor

The Scary Godmother

The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 2

Vivienne Savage

Writing as

Dominique Kristine

Illustrated by Merely Art

Edited by Hot Tree Editing

By Vivienne Savage writing as

Dominique Kristine

All material contained herein is Copyrighted © Payne & Taylor Publishing 2018. All rights reserved.

* * *

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your preferred e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Contents

1. No Surrender

2. My Personal Coach Beast

3. The Black Effigy

4. Sleep is For the Weak

5. Shifters Gone Wild

6. I am a Magnet for Cute Guys

7. Manufactured Happiness

8. My Unhappy Dream Box

9. That Stuff Only Happens in the Movies

10. The Power of Sweets Compels Me

11. A True Monster

12. Holy Hotness

13. Compassion Personified

14. I Date Him for the Abs

15. The More the Merrier

16. Flight School

17. Midterms are Murder

18. Becoming a Guardian Angel

19. The Endless Walk

20. Holidays are Magical (So are Mom’s Pies)

21. Some Bonds Trump Rules

22. A for Effort

23. The Spirit of Christmas

24. The Hardest Lesson

25. A Million Dreams

26. Déjà Vu

27. Creepster

28. Special Circumstances

29. And Life Goes On

30. Music on the Wind

31. Summer is the Next Great Adventure

Other Books by Vivienne

About the Author

1

No Surrender

I celebrated the start of my sophomore year at college by flying on my own from Virginia to Chicago without worried parents lurking over my shoulder. In one short year, Padraig N. Riordan University, or PNRU as we liked to call it, had become my second home.

Pilar reprised her role as the unofficial decorator for the second year in a row, transforming our four-bedroom townhouse into a sophisticated masterpiece with faerie magic. It was her idea, after all, to approach us in a group Facebook message over the summer about splitting the rent for a place on campus.

So, upon my arrival yesterday, I signed my name across the bottom of the lease and presented Pilar a check with my share of the deposit. Now we were waiting for Liadan, the third fae in our group, to make it in from Ireland, and for Holly to check into the university. As a Chicago native, our sorceress buddy didn’t have to travel far.

Just as I was drowsing on the sofa, the bell buzzed. Pilar and I raced to answer it, but she beat me to the doorknob and tugged it open.

“Buenas tardes, Holly.”

“Hey.” Holly lingered on the stoop, gripping the rail in a white-knuckled grip. Her luggage was piled behind her. Although it was still summer and the scorching heat lingered in the late afternoon air, she wore her full-length mage robe with the hood up over her blonde hair. The sun was a tiny gold sliver on the horizon behind her.

“Hey, girl.” I stepped down onto our tiny porch and pulled her into a hug. Tension tightened her body into a steel rod, but then she relaxed into my embrace and squeezed me back. Gently.

We hadn’t known it at the end of last year, but maybe I should have guessed after everything that happened. Carmilla had done more than kidnap Holly and try to replace her soul with a dead lover—she’d made her a vampire.

“I’m so glad you agreed to room with us, Holly.”

“Me too. Now I won’t be the only night student here.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

Laughter dissolved the awkward tension. Pilar hugged Holly next and tugged her inside to check out our sweet new digs.

I dragged my wand out of Neverspace, where fae stored things we didn’t want to hold in the physical realm, and then used a short-range Translocation glamour Dad taught me over the summer. All three of her bags reappeared in the living room behind the couch.

“Lia flies in tomorrow,” I said. “You have two rooms to pick from, but the room without eastward facing windows is free for you.”

Our townhome had special UV protected windows for vampire students who still enjoyed natural light and secure shutters to make it pitch-black at any time. PNRU took the safety of its students seriously.

Sometimes.

“Thanks. I’m not picky, so that’ll be fine.” Holly smiled. “What about Gabriel? Have you seen him yet?”

“He and Rodrigo should be driving in sometime soon. He texted about an hour ago.” And I couldn’t wait. We’d been in constant contact over the summer months, whether via text or video calls—so much that my mother walked up behind me during a FaceTime chat and asked if Gabriel wanted to stay with our family over the summer too. Ugh.

“Soooo? What’s happening there? Come on, give me the dirt while I pick a room.”

“Not much, really. I mean, I haven’t seen him except over chat.”

“Don’t let her fool you,” Pilar said. “She’s changed three times in the past hour just in case he arrives early enough for company.”

“Well, take my advice and stick with this outfit. Guys love yoga pants, and your ass looks hot in them.”

“Er, thanks.”

It took a few minutes to unpack Holly into her new space once she settled on the bedroom facing away from the sunrise. We ordered in and invited another mutual mage friend over to join us for pizza and movies. Ben never turned down free food.

My head lolled back around a quarter after midnight, and an hour later, when my phone’s notification chirp dragged me awake, Ben was knocked out beside me and Pilar lay sprawled across the other end of the sectional. Holly remained awake, staring at the television. She’d put on a subtitled French romance we liked.

“Gabriel and his cousin made it in,” I said after reading the text.

“You gonna go over?”

“Nah. They got stuck a few hours behind a traffic accident and they’re beat. He said he’d see me tomorrow.” I stretched my arms over my head and rose. “I’m gonna make some coffee. Want some?”

“Sure.”

To avoid disturbing our friends, we both retreated to the kitchen. I fiddled with the fancy Keurig Pilar brought with her and made some foamy and oversweet coffee with the flavored syrup. We settled on the barstools in the nook.

After a while of sipping in silence, I spoke up first. “I know we talked over the summer, but uh, how are you adjusting?”

“It’s been hard. Mom was… well, she was Mom. Lots of crying. Dad took it in stride. He said it’s cool because I get to turn into a cloud of bats now, and it’s more than he can do.”

Memories of my first encounter with vampire bats dragged an involuntary shudder from me. “Cool and scary.”

“Yeah, agreed.” She grabbed a cold slice of pepperoni and bit into it. “The Sanguine Court paid to have all our windows replaced in the house.” Pureblood vampires were born with resistance to the sun, but the same wasn’t true of the ones like Holly who were infected. She’d burn faster than an Irish redhead vacationing in the tropics, but she still wouldn’t go up in a dramatic blaze of ashes like a nosferatu at least.

“It’s the least they could do after what was forced on you.”

“Yeah…” Holly’s expression fell, and in a quieter voice, she murmured, “They staked Denise Buckland. Had you heard?”

My stomach dropped and left me feeling queasy. Last year, Denise had been at the Hidden Court meeting on campus. Gabriel had given the names of everyone there to Sebastian and Simon.

“I didn’t know,” I whispered.

“Apparently, she was a part of the attack in Chicago. The sentinels handed her over for judgement.”

“The queen told you that?”

“Actually, the Sanguine Court is pretty tech savvy. They send out a weekly newsletter to keep us up to date on all happenings.” Holly bit her lip and looked down. “I’m probably not supposed to tell you that, so don’t say anything, okay?”

“I won’t. So, um… what are they saying about the Hidden Court?”

“Not much except for the obvious. Report any suspicious vampiric activities to the court and stay clean. There won’t be any leniency. Just stakings and sunlight for us, burnings for the purebloods.”

I shuddered.

“I wish I’d told you guys about Matt. Said who he was.”

A year ago on Halloween night, Holly had met a hot vampire senior who swept her off her feet. It turned out he had ulterior motives and had seduced her at the behest of his mistress, Countess Carmilla. If not for me, Holly’s soul would have been sacrificed by the ancient vampiress, her body used as a new sleeve for Carmilla’s long-dead lover.

“Why did you keep it a secret? You know we wouldn’t have judged. Was that his idea?”

“No, it was mine. I didn’t want to jinx it, you know? I thought Matt was a good guy. He came from a good family.”

“I wish I had told you all about the Hidden Court meeting I stumbled across.”

“Considering how great it seemed at first, I probably would have dated him anyway. I can’t resist a bad boy.” She sighed. “The bites were nice. Like really nice. Better than those two-hundred-dollar vibes we checked out online.”

“Hey, you’ve totally opened yourself up to a whole realm of hot bad boys now. You’re not just any vampire, you’re a vampire mage. That’s totally the prime rib of vampires. All the best dudes will be fighting over you.”

A wry grin spread over her mouth. “Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Vampire or not, Holly was still Holly. It didn’t matter that she’d been turned—only that she had accepted her new life and was smiling again.

* * *

Gabriel invited me away from campus the next afternoon for a hike in Tir na Nog. I hadn’t noticed it before on Halloween night, but he cast a bird’s shadow after we crossed the barrier dividing the school grounds from the faerie realm.

And now that I’d Ascended, I looked different too—so different I caught Gabriel stealing peeks at me out the corner of his eye.

“What?” I finally asked.

He shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips. “Nothing.”

“It’s something. You keep staring at me.”

“I like looking at your wings.”

I glanced over one shoulder at the spectral butterfly wings. They’d emerged the moment we crossed the divide, glowing orange and pink with strands of blue filament and glittering rainbow shimmers.

A gentle breeze rustled through the gold and scarlet leaves above us. The eternal autumn provided the perfect weather for our walk, and I’d always favored the warm colors over the brightness of the Summer Glade.

“I can’t believe y’all rented a place in the Phoenix Townhomes. It’s more expensive than where I live with Rodrigo.”

“If Pilar didn’t suggest it, I probably would have stayed in our freebie dorm.”

Gabriel raised a brow. “You gonna be able to work enough hours at the campus bookstore to afford your share of the rent? Sentinel training is demanding, and you have faerie shit on top of that.”

“I’ll be fine.” I had to be fine, because quitting sentinel training wasn’t an option. “I already told Mr. Bennett I need to cut back on hours. Besides, Mom and Dad are going to pay my share of the rent. I did the deposit from my savings, but they’re really proud of me and wanted to help out.”

“That’s good. Sounds like you four are all set.”

“Hope so.” I laughed. “It’s so nice to see everyone again. When Liadan arrived this morning, even Holly woke up long enough to say hi before she crawled back into her bed.”

“How’s she adjusting to the new nightlife?”

“Pretty well. She’s still down about it, I guess, but she’s thankful she got to keep her powers, since most mages burn out their sorcery when they turn.”

“Carmilla picked well. But yeah, I can imagine what a double whammy that would be.” He whistled. “I bet the Sanguine Court is bending over backward kissing her ass after what happened.”

“Dude, yes. They bought her family all new windows and sent her a pair of ten-thousand-dollar coffins. One for here and one for home, so she won’t have to lug it around. They even explored all her new capabilities this summer, like controlled sunlight tests and stuff to see how much she can take, since she has Carmilla’s blood in her.”

“Yeah?” Interest lit his brown eyes. “Better to know what she can and can’t do now, rather than later in an emergency situation. Y’all can pair up in boot camp and encourage each other.”

“I don’t even wanna know what we’ll be doing in that class. Three hours of torture, I imagine.”

Gabriel’s grin widened. “You thought I was a hardass? Wait till Coach Bregman gets a hold of you. She’s a tough wolf to please.”

“Guess it’s a good thing you whooped my ass so much last year. I, uh, noticed they actually gave us a scheduled hour for training now.”

“Ninety minutes,” he corrected me. “And don’t think for a second I’m going to go easy on you.”

“Never crossed my mind. Though I thought maybe we could do some sort of reward system. Positive reinforcement is a great motivator. You know, Kit Kats. Kisses.” My heart thumped in my chest.

“Kisses, huh?” He stopped and turned to me, one hand skirting the narrow band of skin between my shorts and tank top.

“Just a suggestion…”

Gabriel dipped his head and skimmed his nose across mine. The tease made my pulse race with rising anticipation.

“Been waiting all summer for this.”

I was barely breathing—not at all sure I was actually breathing. “For what?” escaped in a hoarse whisper.

“This.” Gabriel turned his head and captured my mouth.

My imagination hadn’t played up the memory of our first kiss, because the second was as good, if not better. His lips moved against mine, barely parting them, teasing and keeping me on the edge of my seat before the first fleeting slip of tongue.

I wanted it to last forever.

Strong arms tightened around me, his body hard and unyielding.

I wiggled in closer and groaned in protest when he leaned back. “Totally worth the wait.”

A sly grin curved his mouth. “Much better than that underwhelmed ‘wow’ you gave me last time.”

I thumped my fist into his shoulder. As much as I enjoyed his laughter and our quiet moment together, ending the kiss allowed a dark cloud to resurface in my thoughts. “How is this gonna work between us?”

“Hell if I know.” His shoulders slumped, but he squeezed my hand and didn’t let go. “Technically, there’s no outright rule against interracial dating, but—”

“But it’s discouraged. Yeah, I read into things too.” As had Liadan, because that’s the sort of friend she was. “The way I see it, we have three choices. Firstly, we say screw it and do what we want no matter what anyone thinks or says.”

“It’s not the fact that you’re a fae and I’m a shifter that’s against rules, Sky. They could split us up as partners and make us swap to other teammates.”

“So second option would be to just not tell anyone. Keep it between us. I don’t need public displays of affection to know you care about me.”

Gabriel was quiet for a moment. The third option hung unspoken between us, but his thumb swept over my knuckles again. “Or we could drop it and continue as friends only. It’ll save you a lot of grief and bullshit down the line. The school admin may not be able to break us up, but your fellow fae have their own ideas about what’s acceptable.”

While it was true that anything would be better than losing him from my life completely, I just couldn’t fathom the idea of pretending I didn’t feel anything for him.

“I don’t want that,” I finally whispered.

“There’s a fourth option, but I’m sure you thought about it too. If we report it ourselves and have them reassign us—”

“No!” I took a deep breath and reined in my voice. “I don’t want another sentinel. Besides the fact that I’d never see you with my crazy schedule, I trust you. I know you have my back no matter what. We’re a team. Besides, no way am I gonna let you get stuck with another Monica-type bitch who treats you like a slave.”

He nodded. “All right. Guess we’ll just keep it on the downlow then. It’s just a few years until you graduate. A blink really, right?”

I could have cried with relief. A huge weight lifted from my heart. “Right.”

“Since that’s decided, c’mon. I actually had something I wanted to show you out here besides my excellent kissing ability, and if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss it.”

“Miss what?”

“That’s the surprise.”

Hand in hand, we continued through the forest, veering from the Yellow Brick Road onto an unmarked trail. He moved with a confident ease, so I trusted he wouldn’t get us lost in faerie territory. Tir na Nog seemed to stretch out forever, and I wasn’t familiar enough with the realm to make my way back on my own.

He took me through a gorge with a bubbling brook then into a thicket of tall, slender trees with silver trunks and dark violet leaves. A couple of moss-colored bunnies scampered away from us.

“How much farther?”

“Just ahead.”

The moment we stepped from the tree line into the meadow, a cloud of winged creatures took flight and swirled above us in a spiral of rainbow hues. There must have been at least a thousand of them, and no two looked alike, each little faerie creature no larger than my palm. Some were in earth tones and others in jewel colors, different patterns as unique as thumbprints.

I gasped, one hand on my chest, the other still joined with Gabriel’s. Minutes passed before either of us spoke, and when he did, his voice was a gentle whisper against my ear.

“So I figured since you’re a sylph that you might want to see the migration of the sprites. They move once a season from one grove to the next. Like it?”

“Like it? Gabe, I love it.”

In one thoughtful gesture, he proved exactly why I wouldn’t—couldn’t—surrender our relationship to the school’s archaic rules and regulations.

Gabriel was mine.

No one could make me let him go.

2

My Personal Coach Beast

It had been a mistake to take Channeling class first thing in the morning on Monday. Tristal taught as our glamours instructor for the third semester, promising to teach a dozen new charms, from spinning everyday clothes into ball gowns to turning squash into automobiles. We’d even learn to turn dilapidated shanties of plywood and tin into sturdy buildings.

Unfortunately, these acts were incredibly complicated, draining, temporary, or all of the above—thus requiring us to make our own Dream Boxes soon to hoard faerie dust.

I couldn’t wait.

As fae were like honeybees, we collected happiness and elation from mortals, gathering their warm emotions in our souls and clarifying it into particles of condensed magic—faerie dust. But we needed combs to store our figurative honey, hence when a Dream Box came into play. A fae could store near-infinite amounts of dust into one for emergency situations or large and exhaustive, intricate glamours.

I chugged an energy drink to make it through Tristal’s lecture and Biology but struggled to sleep during the afternoon, finding myself too full of nerves to doze for more than two hours. That night, while my faerie classmates and roomies crawled into bed after a long day of classes, I reported in for my first martial arts lesson.

The instructor was this enormous bear guy with a Russian accent, and the class size was small and personal. Just eight of us assembled in the padded gymnasium room.

Holly and I had organized our schedules together over the phone to make sure we signed up for the same block, but I didn’t recognize the six freshmen students. One was a raven girl, two were werewolves, another two were bears, and the last was a vampire guy who looked like he’d walked offset from shooting a scene for The Crow.

One of the werewolves appraised me from a distance. “You really the faerie who killed Carmilla?”

“I didn’t kill her. The sentinels did that.”

The raven snorted. She was dark-skinned and tiny, her eyes a golden-brown contrast in her round face. “Yeah, but they said you turned the room into day and softened her up so they could do it. That counts.”

Who was “they” and what else had the mysterious they said about me? Before I had the chance to ask, our instructor stomped his foot on the mat and called us all to attention.

“I am Antonin. No Coach. No Professor. I expect your full and absolute attention in my class. Phones and food are prohibited. Water is allowed. This is Gabriel,” he said, gesturing to the raven who entered from the locker room, “and he is my student assistant this semester. If at any time I am unavailable, you will find him.”

My jaw hit the floor. Gabriel crossed his arms over his chest, which only stretched his shirt tighter over his muscles. I smirked as the raven girl eyed him up and down.

“Do you think he’ll go easy on us?” Holly whispered.

“Hell no. He’ll make me work harder, because I’m his partner,” I whispered back.

“Warm up with five laps around the room,” Antonin ordered. “Then we will see what I have to work with.”

The two wolves took off at a sprint, but the rest of us paced ourselves. Gabriel jogged up beside me and flicked my clenched fists. I shook them loose and glanced at him.

“You’re his student assistant?”

Gabriel’s grin widened. “Did I forget to say that? Antonin kinda offered the job to me over the summer, and I couldn’t refuse when I found out you’d be in his baby class.”

“Baby class?”

“Yeah. Since you and Holly missed out on last year, you’re in the beginner’s martial arts class with the freshies. Didn’t you know that?”

I scowled at him. “You don’t have to rub it in that I’m behind.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll catch up.” He dropped back to talk to the other students.

In one hour, I learned the difference between legitimate martial arts lessons and the very basic self-defense Gabriel had taught me. Last year was about brawling, enduring a fight, and pure survival when against an opponent.

This year was about repetition, control, and self-inflicted bodily punishment, because Antonin forced us to spend the half hour after our jog learning proper punching and kicking form, then repeating the same strike over and over again. I had a slight advantage over Holly and the vampire freshmen.

After that, we broke into pairs with focus mitts but no gloves. We weren’t allowed gloves or hand protection, because real threats didn’t give a damn about our safety either.

I guess Antonin had decided if he couldn’t break our spirits, he’d at least bust our knuckles.

* * *

A cruel stroke of fate and conflicts in the scheduling meant that I was spared a mere half hour to lie in the grass on the quad before reporting to sentinel boot camp, but it was more like fifteen minutes, because Antonin had kept us over since we were so slow on the laps.

During the snowless months, sentinel boot camp took place outdoors on the obstacle course. Our class of about eighty students met there, the area teeming with shifters, vampires, and a dozen battlemages in training who watched me like I had two heads.

There were five coaches, two of them vamps, the remaining three each a different type of shifter, and all of them were badasses who looked like Spartan warriors in school polos.

A werewolf stepped forward and crossed her intimidatingly huge arms against her chest. “I’m Coach Bregman, and it’s my job to make sure you toughen your baby muscles until you can endure whatever life throws at you once you leave PNRU—even if I have to break you myself.”

A collective sigh shuddered across the lawn with groans of varying volume and depth.

“Gripe all you want, but we’re here to make sure you survive to actually be a sentinel one day. Three of your fellow students didn’t return this year, because they were Bound.”

One of the vampire coaches nodded. He had muscles like he powerlifted elephants for fun. “This is serious, y’all. Listen to her. Maybe you’ve heard this all before, but that didn’t save one of us from getting staked over the summer. Know what I mean?”

They had the crowd then, all eyes snapping to the group.

The other vampire coach took over. Her red-tinted gaze stared unwavering over our group. “Listen to Coach Bregman and Coach Willis. You may have heard the gossip, or even noticed the absence of Denise Buckland. What she did, you can’t come back from. A staking, much like a Binding, is a one-way street. When it’s done, it’s freaking done.”

The horrified silence persisted—worsened—faces ashen gray, eyes staring, mouths agape as people unaware of the story worked through their feelings. Hearing it from Holly beforehand didn’t help. Beside me, she’d turned paler than bleached bone.

The coach I suspected was a raven shifter spoke up. “And that goes for us as well. While no single type of shifter is more likely to turn than the others, a wolf, a bear, and a raven were all Bound. They will never again know what it’s like to run free, to sprint through summer grass, fly through clear skies, or enjoy the thrill of the hunt. Their gifts are gone.”

A raven had been Bound? My pulse hammered against my ribs. I wondered why Gabriel hadn’t mentioned it.

Coach Bregman clapped her hands together. “Now then, let’s get you all into shape.”

After her little speech—like she hadn’t petrified all of us—she took one look at me, eyed my scrawny arms, and directed me to the pull-up bar. I managed five chin ups before my arms started to burn.

“So, you’re our little experiment.”

“No, ma’am. I’m a sentinel trainee like everyone else.” I grunted and pulled myself up again. Six.

“Are you now?” Her mouth widened into a chilling smile before she barked, “Four more, Corazzi, then you can show me your best speed on the obstacle course. I’ve decided to give you my special attention this semester.”

Someone kill me now.

The coaches didn’t believe in speaking at a normal volume. Everything was raised voices or yelling. Coach Bregman hollered at me the entire way to the obstacle course. “Faster! Knees up! Hustle!” She clocked my time but didn’t give me any clue as to whether or not I met or failed her expectations.

Without time to even catch my breath, one of the vampire coaches called me over to do a series of burpees that may as well have been torture. After three sets of ten, every muscle screamed in protest. My thighs became jelly.

Fatigue set in before we reached the lecture portion of the boot camp, which was more of a demonstration than anything. We weren’t allowed to take notes or record on our phones. Everything we learned was designed to save our lives one day, and because we were new to boot camp, they performed a recap about slaying nosferatu.

“Though it would appear some of you are already experienced in the matter,” Coach Barrett said, glancing at me. A few dozen eyes followed the werebear’s attention, and I grimaced. “Corazzi! Get up here.”

Shit.

I moved to the front on trembling, uncooperative legs, my thigh muscles threatening to pitch me down to the grass every step of the way. He passed me a silver stake and took me to a training dummy.

“Fae are usually among the physically weakest of the races,” he announced to the class, while a few students snickered. “Followed by magicians and then wereravens.” Some of the giggling stopped. “But it’s important to know that strength isn’t needed to stake a nos. It’s all about where you aim. If you hit the bastards in the right spot, it doesn’t matter how strong you are. This stake’ll glide through them like they’re made out of butter.”

I nodded.

“Now, show me how you’d do it.”

I assumed the pose I’d seen some of the students take before when practicing and drove it forward. A red, heart-shaped light glowed in the chest cavity to reveal where I’d landed the blow. Not only had I failed to achieve the depth required, but the point was against the ribs.

“Not bad for a first try. You need to strike the intercostal space if you want a chance of piercing the heart. Otherwise, you’re just going to piss them off,” he explained. “Me, I can slam this home through the sternum or crack ribs if I want to, because I’m a big damn dude.”

The wereraven coach next to him chuckled.

“Where do I aim?”

“Like this.” He removed the stake and passed it to me again, directing me in slow motion at an angle that went beneath the breastbone toward the heart. I practiced it a few times before driving it in. This time, I didn’t miss. “Good job, Corazzi. Go have a seat.”

They spoke for a while longer, warned we would be doing staking drills next class, and dismissed us.

Moving as slow as an ungreased robot, I walked into the locker room to shower. Holly didn’t look any better.

“I want to die,” she said when we emerged.

“That was only day one.”

Gabriel met me at the food court with my favorite sushi in hand, as well as a big bowl filled to the brim with noodles and teriyaki chicken. I shoved it all down without a single word.

“You survived your first night.”

I grunted and guzzled a lemonade.

He laughed at me more. “Need me to roll you back to your room?”

“More like make sure I wake up in time for my morning classes. Pretty sure when I hit the bed, that’s it. Wanna tap your beak against my window and be my alarm?”

“I’ll do you one better. You can crash on my couch if you want. I’ll kick you out when I go to bed.”

“Okay.”

His brows shot straight up. Maybe he thought I would wave off his suggestion. We headed back to his place in silence, mainly because I couldn’t dredge up the energy to talk. Twice, he caught me by the arm when fatigue took my legs out from under me.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just really tired. Coach Bregman has it out for me.”

“Nah, she just wants you to succeed. Remember what I said about passing the obstacle course? You gotta make the time next year, woman. Then you gotta do it for the big license at the end of senior year.”

“It’s the first day,” I whined. Gabriel only laughed and led the way into his building. Lucky for us, we didn’t have to wait for an elevator to the third floor.

“Yeah, it is, but she doesn’t believe in waiting until the last minute to get in shape, and uh, unfortunately with you, we need to make up for lost time.”

His apartment hadn’t changed since last year. He and Rodrigo shared a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with a full kitchen. And the guys used lots of guns and weapons as decorations like an old spy movie or tactical armory.

His bear shifter cousin sat on the sectional in front of their high-def TV, the big screen flanked by a couple video game systems on the entertainment stand. He pressed the pause button and glanced at us. “What’s up, baby girl?”

“Hey, Rodrigo.”

Gabriel chuckled and disappeared while I dropped to a seat on the opposite end and kicked off my shoes. He reappeared a minute later with a pillow and a blanket.

“Sky’s gonna crash here so I can make sure she’s up for her next class. You mind?”

“Nah. Want me to turn the game off?”

“Nuh-uh, you’re fine,” I mumbled. Lying down had never felt so good.

“Get some sleep. You deserve it. I’m off to class.” Gabriel stroked my hair back from my face then headed out.

“It gets better,” Rodrigo said after a moment. He’d turned the volume down, but I enjoyed watching his character run around shooting aliens.

“Better needs to come soon.”

His low laugh sounded like a rumble, but in a pleasant way. Last year, I hadn’t really gotten to know him much. This year, I wanted that to be different.

3

The Black Effigy

Two things stood out in my foggy brain when I woke up hours later. First, I wasn’t in my room, and it took a full minute to remember I had crashed at Gabriel’s place. Second, there was something watching me—a colorful something.

A gold and green feathered gargoyle perched on the edge of the pillow, leaning toward me with her neck extended, devilish beak open. Startled, I jerked upright on the couch and away from her. The sun conure took off flying back to her cage.

Gabriel laughed from the kitchen. “Morning, sleeping beauty. I was about to wake you, but I guess Ama didn’t like you chilling in her space and beat me to it.”

“Pretty sure she was gonna eat me.”

“Nibble your hair a little maybe. It’s colorful.” He brought over two plates covered with scrambled eggs and sausage patties. His had salsa poured on top.

I shoveled everything down like I hadn’t eaten in years, then chased the meal with a tall glass of orange juice. My body had stiffened like my joints were made of rust, and I wondered how the hell I’d make it through the day.

“Stretch,” he said, as if reading my mind. “I know it sucks, but you’ll get through it.”

“Ugh. How am I supposed to focus on International Magical Policy when everything hurts?”

“Same way anyone else does. Remember, you had vampire students in your classes last year.”

“Yeah, I always wondered about that.”

He shrugged and took my plate. “They don’t need as much sleep as the rest of us.”

“I guess.” My knees protested as I stood. “Hey, can I ask you about something?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

I wet my lips with my tongue, suddenly nervous, like I was asking a question with an answer I already knew. And I did, didn’t I? “The coaches said a few shifters were Bound this summer.”

“Yeah. Sheldon, Abby, and Edmund.”

“Wait, your friend Edmund?”

Gabriel’s expression darkened. “Yeah. Ex-friend.”

“Not because of me, I mean us—”

“It had nothing to do with what we told Simon and Sebastian.” When I waited for him to clarify, he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “They got busted that night helping the Hidden Court. I guess Edmund was sabotaging efforts to find the nosferatu. He did something to the communication network. Then they found out Denise had been fucking with the sign-in sheets and letting them all sneak out at night to do Carmilla’s work. People died because of the shit they did. Helping the Hidden Court made them complicit in anything that happened, and they were lucky they didn’t go to prison too.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You had enough to deal with, and I didn’t want to ruin your summer with bad news. Besides, I guess I was still processing it. I didn’t think he believed in all that crap.”

“What about, um, the other raven?”

“Stark?”

“Yeah.”

His fragile smile wavered, thin and delicate as glass. “He’s handling it. It’s weird not having Edmund around, but we’re better off without him. I don’t need people like that in my life, you know?”

Two steps brought me in against him. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek over his heart, hugging him close. Gabriel returned the embrace and set his cheek atop my head.

“Take it easy today, okay? You’re doing great.”

Wishing I could crawl into bed beside him for a few hours, I turned my head and kissed his cheek instead. “Thanks for breakfast. See you tonight?”

“Yeah. I promise not to torture you too much. Think of our training time together as a refresher session. If some shit during the week gives you trouble, I’ll work on it with you.”

Gabriel walked me as far as the door and saw me out to the hall.

I made it to my first class with five minutes to spare. Pilar and Liadan had saved a chair for me, but our other friends had seats on the opposite side of the lecture hall with some of their mage pals. The hour may as well have been an entire day. Magical History wasn’t any better, but at least this time Holly and Ben joined us.

By some miracle, I stayed awake enough to take legible notes, but a sleep deprivation headache pounded behind my eyes when I stumbled into the sunlight at the end of the hour-long class.

“You two must be exhausted.” Ben glanced between me and Holly. She had an oversized umbrella open to keep her shaded from the sun. “I’m so glad I didn’t pass the battlemage trials.”

“You mean, you’re so glad you threw the exam,” Holly said bitterly.

Ben nodded. “I’m so glad I was smart enough to throw the exam.”

Holly stared at him so hard I expected him to combust.

Mage students took a battery of aptitude tests at the end of their freshman year. Those scores, along with their preferences, guided them into one of three study paths. Brainiacs like Ben tended to go for the scholarly pursuits. They were usually the alchemists, librarians, instructors, and healers.

Battlemages made up a little less than half of sentinel forces. As their name implied, they mastered magic in combative situations and became half of a sentinel pair devoted to law enforcement, like Simon and Sebastian.

Those with higher ambitions, especially the mages interested in politics, went into advisory and leadership classes. A lot of wizards aspired to be the next Merlin.

And then there was a fourth class no one counted. They were the unfortunate mages who couldn’t light a fire with a match, because magic was hereditary, not something someone learned purely by study. If they flunked out bad enough, they were rendered Talentless—a shame on their family that usually resulted in magicians getting disowned.

If they were merely mediocre but able to control their gifts, they found jobs within the mortal community.

“I’ll help you practice though,” Ben offered, appearing contrite. “Anytime. Really.”

“Thanks. Anyway, I’m off to bed.” Holly moved ahead of us. I didn’t know whether it was because she was really that tired or because she wanted to get away from Ben.

“Are you going to stay up and eat with us, Skylar?” Ben asked.

“Nah, I’m gonna go after Holly and follow her example. I’ll see you guys this evening for dinner.”

We walked together for a while longer before splitting ways at the next path. A long, hot bath and fresh sheets were calling my name. I hadn’t made it more than a dozen steps down the residential street before my phone rang, Holly’s name on the screen.

“Let me guess. You forgot your key, so now you’re locked out. I’m almost there—”

“No. You need to come quick. Like right now. Someone was in our place and your room.”

* * *

Holly met me at the door and wouldn’t let me inside when I arrived. Looking past her, I didn’t notice anything unusual or out of place in our living room.

“What happened? What’s up with my room?”

“We can’t go up there. I already called campus security, and they said to stay outside.”

“But it’s my room.” My stomach twisted into a lump of hard knots. “Holly, what’s wrong with my room?”

“Just stay here with me until someone comes, please. Actually”—she grabbed her parasol in one hand and dragged me outside with the other—“I’ll feel better waiting out here.”

I stood beneath the parasol with her, shivering without understanding why. The weight of her arm around my shoulders didn’t alleviate the gnawing pressure in my chest.

A scrawny mage arrived five minutes later, clothed in a black campus security uniform and holding a staff in one hand. “One of you report a break-in?”

Holly nodded. “I did.”

He asked a battery of questions while we stood on the green lawn, wanting to know if the building had been locked and if anyone else had a key. We shook our heads. Holly told him it had been locked still when she arrived.

“All right, I’ll take a look. Wait here, please.”

Each minute that crawled by worsened my anxiety. Holly continued to remain silent about my room.

Our neighbors stepped onto their porch and glanced over at us. We shared a wall with a trio of grad student alchemists.

“Hey, Sky! Everything okay?”

“Break-in. You guys didn’t hear anything, did you?”

“No, nothing. Sorry.”

The campus police officer returned. His face had gone chalk-white. “I’m going to call Sentinel Bostwick.”

“What? Why? Dammit, what is so bad?”

The cop unclipped his radio and pressed the button. “Sentinel Bostwick, this is Jensen. We have an incident at building eleven of the Phoenix Townhomes, home of—”

“I know who lives there. We’ll be right to you,” Simon replied.

“Holly, please tell me what you saw.”

“I smelled blood, okay? That’s why I looked in your room.”

Her words and Officer Jenson’s pasty face painted all sorts of gruesome pictures in my mind. I imagined a murder and wondered who the victim might be. A chilling thought crossed my mind, so I whipped out my phone and texted Gabriel.

Are you okay? Where are you?

Simon and Sebastian arrived by magic, stepping from a portal that shimmered into existence on the lawn. They strode past us, spoke with Officer Jensen a moment in hushed voices, and then they headed inside.

On top of administering summer entrance exams for soon-to-be freshmen students, Simon and Sebastian also each took on a class as faculty at the college. Simon was the wizard of their sentinel pair, Sebastian a werewolf he treated as his equal.

Gabriel still hadn’t replied. My hands started to shake, and my throat tightened. Prickling heat crawled up my neck, followed by a cold wave of panic and terror. That had to be why no one would say anything to me.

“Skylar? You’re trembling.”

“I…” Couldn’t breathe. Thinking that Gabriel might be dead up there in my room made me want to puke and scream.

“C’mon, let’s go sit down over—”

The phone chirped an alert as Gabriel’s response flashed across the screen. Relief turned my knees to jelly, and Holly caught me as I sagged.

In bed. Where else would I be? Is everything okay?

Someone broke into my place. Sebastian and Simon are investigating.

Shit. You want me there?

No. Just stay. Get some sleep. I’ll tell you later.

Are you sure?

I’m sure. I’ll catch you up later.

“Was that Gabriel you were texting?”

“Yeah. I had to make sure he was all right. That he wasn’t… That he hadn’t been hurt.”

My friend’s face blanched with understanding, and she hugged me tight. “Oh sweetie, God, no. I would have said something if he’d been involved. I swear. It’s just… it’s really gross, Sky. I don’t even know how to tell you.”

We remained outside, huddled together while Officer Jensen stood on the threshold of the building. Minutes later, Simon stepped onto the porch with Sebastian.

“Please. I need to know what’s wrong.”

Simon frowned at me. “I’m not sure that’s a wise idea.”

His partner raised a brow and crossed both beefy arms across his broad chest. “She’s not a child, man. You diffused it, so that means it’s safe for her to go up and look. Let her see it so she can know how serious this shit is.”

Simon released a held breath. “All right. Follow us.”

The two sentinels led us inside. The sense of wrong hit me all at once—an alien feeling that didn’t belong in our home. At the top of the stairs, we reached my bedroom door, which stood open to reveal the chaos inside.

I stepped beyond the threshold to find ripped sheets, shattered knickknacks, and blood, so much blood on the walls drawn in a great pattern of runes and destabilized magic. The spell was no longer active, but the malignance of it lingered like a stale odor.

In the very center of the rune, a sprite had been pinned to the wall with a dagger through its tiny chest. The creature had died screaming. Blood dribbled from the corner of its mouth.

“No,” I breathed, surging forward, only for Sebastian to grab me around the waist and draw me back.

“It’s too late to help it, Skylar.”

“But why?” The words left me in a ragged sob. “They’re innocent.”

Simon rubbed his face with one hand. “The sprite was… the central component of a trap for you. An effigy.”

Holly’s eyes flew open wide. “I thought so. But that’s black magic.”

The grim expression on Simon’s face didn’t fade. “It is.”

I blinked at them through a haze of stinging tears. “I don’t get it. What’s an effigy?”

“A puppet crafted by a dark wizard meant to represent their victim. Mercifully, Miss Burke is a vampire and a mage, and this was keyed to your kind specifically. Had a fae entered this room before I disarmed the curse, the death of this little one would have been displaced to them.”

“Wait, you mean if I had gone in my room, I would have died?”

Sebastian’s low growl raised the hairs on my nape. “Your heart might have exploded. Or maybe it would have just stopped beating altogether.”

4

Sleep is For the Weak

A team of mages cleansed the town house alongside Simon while Sebastian and more shifters ran a perimeter, following invisible scent trails and searching for clues.

I crashed on our neighbors’ couch, haunted at first by the memory of the little fae, but too fatigued to remain awake after one of them offered me a little sleeping draught. The potion put me out like a light.

By dinner time, our home was finally ours again.

Since the sentinel crew had taken all the evidence they needed, Simon stayed behind with Pilar to help restore my possessions to normal with Rewind glamours and Reconstruction spells.

Then Simon installed a twenty-four-hour guard to keep watch on our place. Our neighbors went on the alert, and campus security took all kinds of extra safety measures.

I didn’t make arrangements with Gabriel to see my charge until Friday afternoon, my body too fatigued by the upside-down sleep schedule and hours of exercise. In the months since I’d become her faerie godmother-in-training, Sharon’s life had improved by leaps and bounds.

She had an amazing record deal, a serious relationship with her boyfriend, and her grades were flawless. Sometimes I wondered if mortals like her realized their lives had been blessed by the fae.

They weren’t supposed to know, but some had to have connected the dots and made a guess.

“When I called you a trouble magnet last year, I didn’t mean for you to take it to the next level this semester, Sky,” Gabriel said the moment I slipped into his car, a dinged-up blue Chrysler 300 instead of the powerful truck from last year.

I grimaced. “I didn’t do anything.”

A quiet moment passed, the weight of his gaze heavy during the silence. “I know. It’s just… If I knew who the fuck did it, I’d tear them to pieces myself. Simon says it wasn’t executed well. Sloppy and rushed. Possibly a student trying to destabilize their soul for lichdom.”

I shivered. Becoming a lich was a big deal, basically turning an everyday magician into an undying warlock who fed on the souls of the living. “I know we defeated Carmilla last year, but do you think this could be the Hidden Court?”

“It’s definitely the Hidden Court, or at least someone trying to get in good with them. My guess is that you made yourself a target for your role in Carmilla’s death.”

“Great. Then why aren’t they targeting you and Rodrigo? Or Simon and Sebastian for that matter?”

“You found her and led us there. Besides, her beef was with you specifically, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. With my family and the Blackwoods.”

Gabriel’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “And since the Blackwoods are gone, that just leaves y’all.”

My friend Dedrik had been the last of his family, but another student murdered him last year to become a darkling.

“Looks like.” I reached over and smoothed my hand over his white knuckles. “It’s going to be okay. They’ll find whoever did it. You said Simon and Sebastian are the best in the region, right?”

He nodded. “If I wasn’t set on being your sentinel after school, I’d try to intern under Sebastian next year. We had spoken about it before, when I was still with Monica. They’re good. I mean… they’ve taken down entire nosferatu hives, necromancers, all kinds of dark covens.”

His sacrifice didn’t lighten my spirits. He was turning down an amazing opportunity for me? “Then finding a couple assholes at PNRU should be easy.”

I leaned in close enough to kiss his cheek, but he turned his head at the last minute and caught my mouth, drawing it out until my mind wandered to his spacious back seat and the privacy of the tinted windows. Gabriel pulled back first.

“All right, enough bad stuff. Let’s go see Sharon.” He started the car and pulled out from the garage. “We heading to the college, her place, or somewhere else?”

“Her place right now. This is just a check-in.”

“Where to after that?”

“Um….” He had me with that one.

He grinned. “You’re not a freshie anymore with a curfew, remember? You can stay out all weekend if you want. Just gotta work it out with your sentinel. And since I happen to be your sentinel...”

“Lucky me.”

“Yup.”

“I really don’t know. I’ve been so focused on what I’m gonna do if Sharon is having any issues that I didn’t consider anything else.”

“You worried about something? I thought the report from the summer watch fae was good.”

“It was, but some of the others have been having trouble with their charges this week.”

“What kinda trouble?”

I shrugged. “General assholery, I guess. Radha said her charge smoked a joint to wind down after a deployment, and she had to pull all kinds of magical charms out of her hat for him to pass his military piss test.”

“Sounds like a good hobby to start when you’re stressed.” When I rolled my eyes at him, he added, “If you’re not up for regular drug testing, that is.”

“Exactly. Anyway, he thinks he got super lucky and the lab did something wrong or fumbled the tests. He’s supposed to grow up to be some amazing admiral one day.”

“But not if he’s smoking pot and risking his career.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sure Sharon is fine.”

About fifteen minutes later, we reached her house, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Sharon sprawled across her bed with a textbook. Her aura glowed a vibrant shade of pink and gold. Months of nurturing her had truly blossomed over the summer.

The red thread of fate that had connected her and Oliver, her boyfriend, wasn’t so much a line as it was a scarlet ribbon now. Complete and absolute devotion. He’d definitely propose soon. They’d be one of those young couples who married at nineteen then saw their seventieth anniversary together surrounded by grandchildren.

How the hell had I done that?

Not much had changed in her room over the summer, but after Radha’s misfortune, I made sure to take a good look around. There weren’t any drugs stashed in the bedroom, and last time she’d gone out with friends, she’d even declined alcohol.

“This is going to be an amazing year.” I let that thought slip into her mind before I stepped from her room. Gabriel waited outside for me.

“Everything good?” he asked.

“Yup. She’s studying, and she’s in love.”

“Awesome. So, that means your obligations are met, right?”

“They are. Which means, if my sentinel is willing, that it’s time to go have fun.”

A wide grin spread across his face. “There’s a new superhero flick out, and I know the dude who works the ticket booth at the Mod. Balcony seats at a five-finger discount.”

I swatted him. “You’re awful. Still, sounds like fun. Let’s do it.”

* * *

We returned to the town house a little before midnight and ran into the sentinel on watch. The woman looked between the two of us and gave a little nod then disappeared again around the back.

“Do you think we’ll have a guard all year?” I asked as we lingered on the stoop.

“Probably. Or until Simon and Sebastian find out who tried to kill you.”

“Let’s hope that’s sooner than later. Anyway, did you want to come in for a bit?”

“Sure.”

We found Liadan with Ben and Pilar, their International Magical Policy books spread over their laps while the latter wrote notes by hand.

Moving aside for Gabriel to enter behind me, I shut the door behind us and played it natural. “Hey, guys. I figured everyone would be asleep.”

“We decided to get all our studying done now so we could enjoy the weekend. The weather is supposed to be great.” Ben looked up and grinned. “Hey, Gabriel.”

“We were just checking in on Sharon and thought we’d grab something to eat.” While my roommates knew about me and Gabriel, we’d kept Ben in the dark. As much as I liked him, the guy couldn’t keep much to himself, and his big-mouthed tendencies had only worsened when he became the new editor of our school’s boring newspaper and promised to breathe new life into it. The last thing I needed was to see our story ran in the gossip column.

No, Ben wouldn’t do that. Or would he? The entire secrecy thing meant too much, our relationship relying on no one in authority discovering it.

“There’s chicken and rice in the fridge.” Liadan’s voice cut through my thoughts.

Gabriel beelined to the kitchen. “Thanks!”

Trying not to take it all, hunger led me to scooping out two heaping servings for Gabriel and myself. We joined my friends on the couch and caught the tail end of Pilar shooting Liadan a dirty look. The dish had the hallmarks of Pilar’s cooking, and if my stomach wasn’t about to turn itself inside out to cannibalize my other internal organs, I’d have made us sandwiches instead to avoid demolishing her leftovers.

I’d have to make it up to her—make a pan of lasagna or something.

“So, who did you three get paired up with? I haven’t had a chance to look at all the assignments yet,” Gabriel said.

“I’m with Holden Augustine,” Pilar said.

“Bear shifter. Good form in his fighting class.” Gabriel gave an approving nod. “I don’t know him well, but he seems like a stand-up guy.”

“I got Anji,” Ben said. “She’s pretty cool, and it’s nice, because we’re all already friends. If it works out, we’ll probably keep it up after graduation.”

I swallowed down a scalding bite of chicken then grinned. “Anji? That’s great! We’ll be able to go out on weekends without much trouble.”

“You know, I have no problem chaperoning y’all around either,” Gabriel said. “Not that you need it if you go out in a group.”

School policies required fae and non-battlemage magicians to leave the premises in the company of a sentinel if they weren’t in groups of three or more.

“We know, but you have a job too, and your own friends,” Pilar said. “We wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Nah, it’s cool. Most of us don’t mind if we’re asked. It’s when people make demands that we take an issue with it. Rodrigo and Amalia don’t mind either. Honest. There’s actually a volunteer list of backup sentinels down at the student center.”

And since I never had time to explore the student center, that was the first I’d heard of it.

“What about you, Liadan?” I asked.

“Sai Varma.”

Gabriel’s brows slid together, forehead creasing beneath his wild, untrimmed hair. “He’s the vampire mage who transferred in this year from Shangri-La, but he’s in his third year, not second.”

Liadan dipped her head. “Yeah. He’s been assigned as Holly’s mentor, and my sentinel. We meet up Monday for our first introduction. Is he…?”

When she didn’t complete her sentence, Gabriel grinned at her. “An asshole?”

“Yes.”

“Nah, he’s cool. Real laid-back guy. Shangri-La’s a lot stricter, and he said we’ve got it easy here.”

“I wonder why he left. I mean, PNRU is great and all, but I hear Shangri-La is amazing,” Ben said. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “I mean, it’s basically a school in a magical realm all the time. Think of all the cool stuff they must see.”

“And no cars. No fast food. No movie theaters or televisions. No electricity.” Pilar checked each item off on her fingers. “I looked into it before deciding to come here to America. It’s dull.”

“Harry Potter without the fun and wacky adventures,” Gabriel confirmed. “My grandfather tried to send my father there, but he lucked out.”

Ben’s face fell. “Oh.”

“You know, there’s a student exchange program. The thing with Sai isn’t unusual or limited to Holly and Liadan. They have all the same courses, and you can spend a semester abroad.”

Ben jolted forward in his seat, eyes wide. “Really?”

“Yeah, for real. I did it my sophomore fall semester. You go over there and take the same classes then return here at the end.”

Pilar frowned. “But if he left, what would happen to his sentinel?”

Gabriel laughed. “It’s a complete exchange. Ben would go away to attend Shangri-La, while another mage would sleep in his dorm and work with Anji.”

“Maybe I’ll look into that,” Ben said. “Could be fun.”

We all hung out another hour before Ben excused himself to his dorm room. Pilar and Liadan didn’t stay up too much longer, which left me wide awake with Gabriel.

Pretending I hadn’t seen Pilar’s suggestive wink, I stretched out my tired legs, hamstrings protesting the movement. The longer I sat, the stiffer my body became during resting moments until I felt like a Tin Man in need of oil. “I didn’t know you did a semester away.”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to get away from Jada and Monica. Heading to the Himalayas seemed a for sure way to escape them both. By the time I told her, Riordan wasn’t accepting applications anymore, and Jada couldn’t come along to make my life hell.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. So, you see, I meant it when I said I’d already been thinking of ending things with Jada. The time away from her was freeing, and if I didn’t like America so much, I’d have probably transferred altogether on her. Kinda was thinking about it, to be honest. Until I met you.”

My heart did a little stutter in my chest.

When I thought he was going to lean in and kiss me again, he got up and plucked his plate off the coffee table. “I should get going. I promised Rodrigo I’d play a few Call of Duty matches with him.

After he was gone, I lingered on the porch long enough to locate the werewolf watching from beside the bushes. I shivered. It was a different sentinel from the one we’d encountered when we arrived.

Simon hadn’t assigned only one guard, and I wondered how many lives were put at risk now that I had my own mysterious enemy. While I wanted to hope the show of force would be enough to discourage future attacks, the tension surrounding my heart said otherwise.

* * *

Liadan shook me awake just after one the next day. I bolted upright, the remnants of my dream dissipating until I could barely recall what had been going through my sleeping mind.

“What? What’s wrong? Did someone break in again?”

“No, nothing like that. Provost Riordan is on the phone for you.”

“Huh?”

“The provost wants to talk to you.”

“On a Saturday? Shit.” What had I done? Had someone seen me smooching Gabriel? Was I failing my boot camp class? A million different scenarios passed through my thoughts as I stumbled out of bed for the phone in the living room. Pilar gave me a sympathetic glance and held out the receiver.

“Um, hello, Provost Riordan. Can I help you?”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Corazzi. I’m sorry to interrupt your Saturday, but Professor Tristal and I decided, in light of the circumstances, some changes will be in order.”

“The circumstances?”

“You’re neither a battlemage nor a true faerie godmother-in-training. Under normal circumstances, the latter receives a rudimentary lesson in combative magic during their junior and senior years.”

“Um… okay? I mean, yeah, I figured that was the case.”

“Considering your placement in the sentinel program, and the recent attack, we have decided further instruction is warranted. Were you attending Shangri-La, you would have several elective courses related to honing your combative magics. You are a unique case to PNRU, and we don’t have such classes available.”

My mouth went dry and my palms dampened, the phone slick in my hand. “Oh… Does this mean… Are you sending me away?”

“Absolutely not. I enjoy having you here as part of our institution and…” She paused, genuine mirth and grandmotherly warmth spilling through the phone as if by magic, instantly chasing away the dread churning in my stomach. “It’s quite a brag among the other headmasters to have the student who defeated Carmilla among our population. While Shangri-La would love to have you—”

“I’m happy here,” I blurted out.

Riordan chuckled again. “Great. Professor Tristal will contact you shortly to arrange a schedule for personal one-on-one instruction.”

Personal one-on-one instruction.

The daunting words echoed across the line, as thrilling as they were terrifying, because this was yet another difference dividing me from my half-fae peers.

“I… yes, of course. I’ll wait for it. Thank you.”

“Enjoy your weekend.”

“You too.” Elated, I ended the call.

“What was that about?” Pilar asked. “It must have been amazing news.”

“How did you know?”

“You’re floating.”

“Er.” I glanced down and noticed my feet were three inches from the ground. One of the spectral lights from my sylph wings curled around my left shoulder, bending, shifting pink and then orange, blue then violet. “They want—”

The phone rang. I raised it to my ear again. “Hello?”

“Miss Corazzi?”

“Yes. Hello, Professor Tristal.”

“I have looked at your schedule and determined that Tuesdays and Thursdays will best suit our hours. Training will begin in the gymnasium at eleven and last an hour.”

“That works just fine, Professor, thank you. Do I need anything specific?”

“Only yourself, for now.”

“Thank you.”

Both Liadan and Pilar watched me with expectant gazes as I hung up the phone and did a little hop in place. “I’m getting private lessons with Tristal,” I explained. “She’s going to teach me fae combative magic.”

Pilar’s brows wrinkled. “How would Tristal know that? She teaches basic fae charms.”

“I dunno.” My excitement dimmed for a brief moment. “But anything is better than nothing, right?”

* * *

The only thing that helped me through my Tuesday morning classes was the fact that I had a five-hour nap window between boot camp and my fae studies—longer if I skipped out on my early morning meal time. After slogging through politics and history, I headed for the gym full of giddy anxiety.

Of all the faerie professors on campus, Cordelia Tristal was the most solemn. She rarely smiled and always dressed for a funeral in black pantsuits. She wore her platinum blonde hair in the same ballerina bun every day. Like most middle-age fae, her appearance held a timeless quality that made estimating her age difficult. She could have been anywhere between her late thirties to middle sixties. She wasn’t gorgeous either like most fae. Very average. Very plain. She never wore makeup and didn’t paint her nails.

“The most versatile and useful spell any faerie has in their arsenal is Faerie Fire,” she began the moment I dropped my bag near the wall.

“I know Faerie Fire.”

Tristal nudged the center of her pink horn-rimmed glasses. “Show me.”

Raising my left hand, I turned my palm up and summoned a plume of orange and gold flames streaked with blue.

“Good. We can build upon that. While Faerie Fire is the most basic of glamours, it is also one of the most damaging to darklings and nosferatu. Burns inflicted by it will not heal under ordinary means. Unfortunately, many fae are incapable of creating more than you did moments ago, and never in a combative situation.”

“Why is that?”

“Fire has a will of its own. It takes focus to control it in a stressful situation. Consider it a destructive fluid that must be doused instead of dried. It spreads and seeps out, consuming all in its path but…” She raised her brows, waiting for me to finish the sentence.

“Plantlife.”

“Yes. Faerie Fire will never burn a living plant, even after a fae has become a darkling. Shifters, vampires, fellow fae, and even innocent mortals are another matter. All the more reason to master it.”

Tristal swept one hand in a carefree gesture toward the open space. A wall of Faerie Fire flashed across the floor in great waves of sizzling magic, twisting into every color of the rainbow with a solid, blue-violet heart that was almost black. Dazzled, I stumbled back from it and stared, mouth falling open.

She sliced the air with her hand. The flames died. “Nature magic.” The potted plants surged toward the gymnasium ceiling, burst from their vessels, and sprouted dozens of leafy vines, each one covered in more thorns than the last. Their root systems slithered over the polished floor and coiled like tentacles. Some of the thorns grew as large as sickles, and the blossoming flowers looked like alien life, or a creature from the prop department of Stranger Things. I shivered.

“And the element of your particular fae species—wind.”

This time when Tristal raised her hand, I prepared for the blast of wind, but I underestimated the power. The first gust blew me off balance. My arms pinwheeled as I staggered back and reached out blindly for anything to hold, but there was only Tristal and the cold fingers she wrapped around my wrist to anchor me in place beside her.

And the wind was only starting. It intensified from that moment on. The gymnasium doors banged open, slamming and shutting, pummeled by the force of a tornado.

“Find your inner self, Skylar. Don’t merely stand there as I shield you. Create your own.”

“I can’t resist against this!” I cried over the shrieking wind.

“You can. You are a sylph. This element is what you are made of. You will always command a greater power over the forces of wind than any other fae, than any mage who doesn’t specialize in the field of aeromancy. Wind is what you are.”

And then she released me.

It hit me like a brick, a blow to my entire body instead of just the face. I tumbled end over end, landing in a heap, clawing at the floor.

“Storms are your element, Skylar!” she called out to me.

And my element was kicking my ass. I scratched at the floor, too panicked and desperate to channel my wings—I had only managed to intentionally pull my sylph form out twice since Ascending. I leaned into it and raised both of my hands, but the ferocious gusts slid my sneakers over the smooth floor.

The wind howled once more, picked me up from the ground, and hurled me through the doors. I flew for quite a distance, not of my own volition, because my traitorous wings didn’t emerge even once, and I landed somewhere in the grass outside. A group of students nearby on a picnic stared at me while I groaned. A flowerbed of sweet alyssum and dianthus had cushioned the fall and saved me from busting my head open at least.

Tristal suddenly loomed over me, hands on her hips. “Every day, even if only for ten minutes, you must practice becoming acquainted with your element. Call up a breeze. Fly. Create a swirling gust in the leaves once they begin to fall.” When I groaned in response, she sniffed. “Return to the gym once you’ve recovered.”

She strode away without helping me up from the grass. The picnickers hadn’t stopped staring.

“Are you all right?” Julien’s familiar voice spoke up from somewhere behind me. He stepped into my line of view, a concerned look on his handsome face. Fortune blessed me, because for once, I didn’t feel anything in his presence, too disoriented by Tristal hurling me a couple dozen yards to fall prey to the selkie’s sexual aura. “Here, let me help you.”

Strong hands pulled me from the flowers and steadied me, holding me upright. He brushed dirt from my jeans and plucked grass blades from my hair, fingers lingering in my wind-disheveled curls. My hair was everywhere, like I’d practiced Ben Franklin’s kite experiment.

It took a moment to realize Julien was touching me.

“I’m good. Really.”

His brows raised. “You don’t seem all right. Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I, uh, better return to Professor Tristal before she comes back out here. Thanks, Julien.”

He smiled and tucked his hands into his pockets. “Any time. Maybe I can catch you after your lesson.”

“Sure.”

I hurried back inside, not sure which would be worse—falling sway to Julien’s charms or irritating Tristal. My strict fae instructor seemed scarier. She waited inside, arms crossed.

“What happened moments ago was a disgrace no sylph should suffer,” Tristal said, voice even and unamused. “I put minimal effort into the glamour—”

“Minimal?”

“Minimal,” she stressed. “Have you practiced transforming at all since your Ascension?”

“Well, I thought—”

Her brows raised. “Thought what?”

“School was over, so I thought—”

“Thought the end of the term meant it was time to loaf?”

“I changed a couple times.” Once to show my parents then again to show Mindi. My best friend back home had been even more excited than me about my wings. “Sometimes my wings come out without me realizing.”

“Skylar, you have great potential, but you must practice.”

“I guess I didn’t want to show it off. I mean, I don’t see any of the seniors running around in their Ascended forms.”

“What does running around have to do with practice? Do athletes run with a ball throughout the day, or do they set aside hours to practice and hone their skills each week? Every day?”

Her well-made point made me shift restlessly from foot to foot. “I understand. I’ll practice, I promise.”

“Good. Now, do you know how you summoned sunlight when you faced Carmilla?”

“No. I was scared witless, and all I could think of was protecting Holly.”

“Your natural instincts are strong, but you can’t rely on them to always help you. You need to learn to channel those abilities on command. With my help, you will be able to do so.”

For the next thirty minutes, she had me practice my Faerie Fire. Each time I conjured up a small handful of flames, she swatted my wrist and made me try again, until the fire engulfed my hand. Once she was satisfied with the size, she conjured targets for me to hit, but most of my flames sizzled out once they struck—which had happened when Gabriel confronted me with the phony wendigo in Tir na Nog.

“Not bad. Your aim is better than I expected.”

“Gabriel taught me to shoot last year, and I kept it up over the summer.”

“At least you’ve practiced something.” She checked her watch. “I expect to see some improvement on Thursday.”

“Professor?”

“Yes?”

“If you don’t mind my asking, how do you know all this?”

She studied me, eyes unreadable behind her glasses. “Ask me again another time, Miss Corazzi. For now, I suggest you get some rest. You have lessons tonight. Were this class worth a grade and credit, I would consider today’s performance to be worth less than an F.”

Leaving me with a bruised ego, Tristal strode away.

5

Shifters Gone Wild

Despite my enthusiasm for the weekend, I spent Saturday and Sunday stretched across the couch while my friends made plans to have fun without me.

They’d invited me and all, but my body refused to cooperate and do anything but collapse in a pitiful sprawl, alternating between the sofa and Liadan’s beanbag. Holly had retreated to her coffin Saturday morning and hadn’t emerged yet. Lucky bitch.

The second week of school hadn’t been any better than the first, perhaps compounded by the fact that Riordan and Tristal had added personal lessons to my crowded course load. By the end of Thursday’s practice, I felt like a ratty dishcloth that had been wrung dry. I’d still had to report to boot camp that night.

“We should ask again,” Liadan’s voice carried from the stairs. She moved around to the front of the couch and gazed down at me with sympathetic, worried eyes. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”

“Nah, I’m fine,” came out in a drowsy slur.

Pilar turned the television to a music station, dimmed the flat screen’s brightness, and shut the living room blinds, pitching the room into semi-darkness. “Well, if you need anything, send us a text.”

The bell buzzed.

I slipped out of consciousness again, stirring to the sound of Liadan saying, “She’s on the couch.”

Gabriel’s voice broke through the lingering haze of intermittent sleep. “Bad time for a visit?”

“Oh, no. We are leaving to see a movie,” Pilar said. “Maybe she’ll get up for you.”

The door clicked shut, and then Gabriel’s booted footfalls approached.

“Wakey-wakey, lazybones.”

“I’m not asleep. I’m just too tired to get up and do anything.”

He entered my field of view, leaning over the back of the couch to look down at me. “You had all weekend to sleep. Now it’s time for dinner.”

The mention of food made my stomach grumble in an unflattering way. Protesting back muscles screamed and strained as I rolled into a sitting position. “I’m not cooking for you.”

Gabriel moved into the kitchen. “I know how to cook, remember? Besides, leftovers will do.”

He removed a box of leftover pizza from the fridge then paused to stare at the door where Pilar had pinned our weekly household duties. “Dude, she put up a chore wheel?”

I sighed. “Yeah. A couple days ago.”

He squinted at it then glanced over his shoulder at the sink overflowing with dishes. “Looks like someone isn’t pulling their weight.”

“Shut up.”

“C’mon, I’ll help you wash them.”

“Back home, we have this thing called a dishwasher,” I grumbled.

“Think of it as motivation to learn the associated glamour.”

With his help, it wasn’t so bad, except he made me scrub while he rinsed. Then we nuked the leftover slices of four-day-old pepperoni with extra cheese and went back to the couch. There were only five slices, and we wolfed them down in minutes.

“So, why aren’t you out with your friends?” he asked.

“Why aren’t you with yours?”

“I guess I just wanted to be with you.”

His words turned me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Then he sighed. “Okay, and I kinda owe Rodrigo my share of the rent. Figured I’d avoid him until my last client pays for their photos and I actually have some cash to give him.”

“Rodrigo will understand.”

“Yeah, he does, but I still feel bad about it.”

“So…” I bit my lip and touched his knee. “What happened over the summer? You haven’t said much about it.”

“You really want to know?”

“I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

Gabriel sighed and set his empty plate on the coffee table. “Jada dropped by. A lot. Dad is trying to be understanding about it, but Mom… she really likes Jada, and she said I’m being unfair. We’d be married right now if she had her way, and since my dad is pussy-whipped, she made him stop adding money to my bank account.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. He passed me a few hundred on the sly before I drove up here, but Mom wears the pants in the family.”

“Our mothers would get along well.”

“Heh. Well, maybe one day they can meet. Though I’m not sure if that’d be a good or bad thing.”

“Well, my mom thinks you’re nice, and I’m pretty sure she figured out we’re dating.”

We were still on the couch three hours later when Liadan and Pilar returned from the movie. Gabriel had an arm around my shoulders, and I’d drowsed on and off, my cheek resting against the warm hollow beneath his chin.

He shifted lazily beneath me. “How was the movie?”

“Amazing.” Liadan collapsed into the seat on the sofa beside us and gushed for five minutes about the special effects, the romance, and how much she couldn’t wait for the sequel. Gabriel never interrupted her, and he smiled the entire time.

“Maybe I’ll check it out next time I’m in the city,” he said.

“Oh, you should. You must take Skylar to see it.”

“We also brought you two food,” Pilar said. “Mongolian.”

“And boba tea.” Liadan held up a bag and two large cups in a holder. “I got lychee for you, Sky, and jasmine milk tea for Gabriel.”

Gabe blinked. “That’s my favorite.”

She smiled brightly at my startled boyfriend and set her offering on the table beside our empty pizza plates. “I know. Enjoy.”

The tantalizing aroma of seared beef and shrimp in teriyaki sauce wafted up from the two takeout boxes. Despite having as much money as her father sent her, Pilar became the ultimate cheapskate whenever we visited a grill or a buffet, packing as much as she could into the bowl those Asian places provided.

“You two are the best. Thanks.”

Pilar placed her purse on the kitchen nook table. “There is a fae soirée in the student center. Will you be coming or…?”

I grimaced. “Make an excuse.”

She laughed. “We hardly need to manufacture excuses for your absences when you have a dozen courses this semester, Skylar.”

“True.”

After they left, Gabriel inhaled most of his takeout and slurped down his tea, eating like a starving hyena kept in a zoo on a strict diet.

Or rather, a disowned young man forced to rely on the university’s student meal plan, which really wasn’t enough when you were a gym-rat and a shapeshifter. As wealthy as the school had to be, they really should have been offering the shifters a buffet.

It made me angry. It made me furious any mother would disown her son over his personal choices, but it wasn’t my business.

Though it kind of was my business, wasn’t it? Gabriel’s well-being mattered to me.

“I’m full. Want the rest of mine?”

He waved it off. “Nah, I’m good. Pilar stacked that like she was feeding three bears.”

“I think she cheats with an Elastic Space glamour to fit more meat and veggies into the bowls.”

“Yeah? That’s useful.” He looked at his empty container again. “So, um… I know I invited all y’all fae types last year, but I wondered if you wanted to check out the Wild Hunt Club this semester. We’re always taking new members.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a sentinel-in-training now, so why not? It’s fun, I mean, if you’re into hunting.” Something must have dawned on him at that moment, because he grimaced, eyes tightening and smile flattening. “You don’t have to come if you—”

“Sure.”

He blinked. “Really?”

“Why not? Did you think becoming a sylph would make me too fragile at heart for your hunts?”

“Honestly, last year, I thought you’d become the new cu sith. You had the growl down. Rodrigo and I had a bet on it. He thought cat sith, but I put my money on dog faerie.”

Dammit. Had he and Ben talked about this together? He’d said the same thing. “I do not growl.”

“See? You did it again just now.”

When I leaned closer to swat him, he danced away with his empty cup and container to trash them in the kitchen. “Since we’re both fed and you have hours until your morning classes, wanna head over to my place for some Call of Duty?”

“I’m totally down for kicking your ass all night.”

* * *

The Wild Hunt Club met every first and third Thursday on the edge of the quad on the boundary to Tir na Nog. For our safety, we were only allowed to cross over into the faerie realm in pairs.

It wasn’t that the fae would eat us, but that most couldn’t pass up the opportunity to trick a baby half-breed like us into eternal servitude, and Riordan was sick of negotiating deals to get us set free.

A group of about two dozen members were already hanging out on the quad when I arrived in sweats and sneakers, prepared for an exhausting run in the dark with shapeshifters. Gabriel was beside Rodrigo and a dark-haired student with piercing blue eyes and a hooked nose I recognized from Matt’s attempt to recruit for the Hidden Court on campus. Anji waved at me from where she stood doing stretches against a tree.

The moment Rodrigo saw me—or was it he smelled me, because he had his back to me and turned suddenly—he crossed the ground in three steps and scooped me into his arms in a bear hug that realigned my aching spine. “Hey, baby girl. About time you showed up to chill with us. You’re just in time.”

Jada pinned me under a gaze that was pure hostility, eyes slit into narrow lines of hate. “What’s she doing here?”

“Skylar asked to join,” Rodrigo said, beating Gabriel to the punch. “I gave her the okay earlier this week.”

“She’s not even a preda—”

“She’s a sylph,” Gabriel’s blue-eyed friend said, stepping forward to my defense. “Doesn’t that make her a faerie huntress of the skies or some shit like that? If she has wings, that makes us birds of a feather, and gives her as much right to be here as I do. Or you for that matter.”

“Fine, whatever.” Jada stalked off and joined Amalia over by the borderline.

Drama already. I sighed. “Thanks.”

“No need to thank me.” Stepping in closer, he lowered his voice and murmured just against my ear, “None of us like her, but she’s not a bad officer. Just an obnoxious bitch.”

I laughed. “Understatement.”

“Maybe, but we tolerated her for Gabriel’s sake. Now we’re stuck with her ass. Anyway, I’m Stark. Nice to meet you.” He put out a hand. I shook it and smiled.

“You can call me Sky.” A couple more shifters strolled up, one with white hair and feral blue eyes that made me think wolf the moment I saw him. His name was on the tip of my tongue. I’d seen him last year. In fact, I’d seen him at the Hidden Court meeting I’d spied in on. “So… Gabriel wouldn’t tell me much. What are we doing?”

“Tonight is race night.”

My enthusiasm collapsed like a house of cards. “That’s not very exciting.”

Stark burst out laughing. “It will be. You’ll see,” he said, bumping me playfully with a hip.

Gabriel sauntered over and leaned into me while squeezing my shoulder, the gesture pure possessiveness. It almost pulled me off my feet. Stumbling to the side, I landed against his chest. Something like a growl rumbled from him, startling me and poor Stark, because he fell back a step. No, not a step. He scrambled back almost two yards.

What the hell?

I wasn’t the only one staring either. Everyone gawked at him, including Jada, her mouth open some.

“So, um, looks like almost everyone is here now.” Rodrigo coughed into one hand and drew attention to himself. “My dudes, I’d like to introduce you to Skylar, our newest member, just in case y’all haven’t seen much of her around campus.”

All the attention turned to me. A few moments passed in friendly introductions, accompanied by ambivalent, disinterested stares. Shifters had that down cold.

“Anyway, we were just gonna race in the Shadow Thicket,” he said, referring to a copse of trees with a canopy so thick and trunks packed so tight I wondered how anyone could race in it. I’d only seen paintings of it in our textbooks. “Though I wouldn’t mind seeing how fast you are with those wings. Maybe we could veer off into the Twilight Meadow.”

Shit. “Uh, yeah. Sure.”

Jada tore her gaze away from Gabriel and cleared her throat. “Excuse me, but you’ve been promising to guide us to the Shadow Thicket since last semester. Some of us haven’t been there yet and would like to learn the way.”

“I’m gonna second Jada. I’ve been looking forward to this hunt,” the only male faerie in attendance said. I’d only seen Jiro around campus once or twice, but I’d overheard Pilar gushing about his pretty green eyes.

They were really pretty.

“Fine, don’t get your panties in a twist. I’ll race Sky another time,” Rodrigo grumbled.

“Oh yes, of course. Next time for sure.” I made a note to get some flying pointers from Gabriel before then.

Rodrigo led the way across the boundary line at a jog. The grass and trees of the mortal plane melded into something from a dream. The sky transitioned from an inky, star-studded expanse to shades of swirling plum, cobalt, and dark magenta—an eternal aurora borealis. Glowing flowers swayed back and forth in a gentle breeze to either side of the narrow, golden-bricked path we followed.

The faerie students among the group transformed the moment we crossed the Veil dividing the magical realm from the mortal plane. My ears elongated, and the wings I struggled to materialize in the mortal plane emerged in a flare of light.

Stark stumbled. “Oh shit, my eyes! That’s blinding.”

Another student groaned. “A little warning next time, dude.”

“Sorry!” I dimmed them, grimacing.

There weren’t many of my kind in the Wild Hunt Club, but Rodrigo and Gabriel had mentioned that. Jiro had to be the rarest fae in the group, because the nightmare-eating baku only Ascended within Japanese families. The senior fae’s eyes took on a feral, amber gleam, and green scales dusted by a golden iridescence glittered over his skin. I couldn’t decide if he was gorgeous or terrifying. Maybe both. Why choose?

Not far behind him, Catlyn and Kitania—identical twin cat sidhe sisters a year ahead of me—traded their human guises for their fae forms. The oversized black cats darted ahead into the thick of the group, blinking in and out of the Twilight.

Julien hadn’t shown up for the meeting, which was probably a good thing for me. I couldn’t begin to imagine how much stronger his sexual aura would be across the Veil, and I had enough trouble as it was staying focused around him.

A rangy guy with brown hair and the start of a lumberjack beard moved up beside me and matched my pace. He hadn’t been there during the introductions. “Hey, I’m Justin.”

“Sebastian’s intern, right?”

“Yeah. Glad to have you join us. Sebastian’s said some good things about you.”

I nearly tripped over a root. “He talks about me?”

He laughed and reached out to steady me by the arm. “All good things, I swear. Anyway, be ready. It’s dark where we’re going, so try not to smack into a tree.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.”

A few of the shifters took their animal forms. When Gabriel fell into step beside me, Justin moved up to the front with Rodrigo, a honking big black bear named Isaac, and Blaire the white wolf. It had taken me a moment to remember his name. Eventually, the bricked pathway beneath our feet gave way to soft earth. Each step we took ignited bursts of pastel colors against the silver green moss.

Tir na Nog truly was beautiful. So beautiful that it was easy to forget the dangers lurking in the shadows. A few dark shapes darted past us, and I caught a glimpse of long, forked tails and bright, green eyes before they vanished again into the misty forest.

“Boggans,” Gabriel said when he caught me twisting my head around for another glimpse of the creatures. “They never bother us when we’re in a group like this.”

The trail wound deeper into the forest. Dryads peeked at us from their trees, and pixies weaved above our heads in the rustling leaves, but as the trees grew closer and closer together, the sightings decreased. Eventually, when I could no longer see the sky through the canopy, Rodrigo called us to a halt.

A year ago, I would have given up and begged for a rest ten minutes into our jog, but all the hours with Gabriel and in boot camp had improved my stamina tenfold. Even so, when we reached the Shadow Thicket, I gladly leaned against a tree and took in a few deep breaths while my heartbeat evened out.

“You good?” Anji asked, moving up beside me. She’d been running with Amalia and Jada in the rearguard.

“Yeah. If you’d asked me last year if I could run that long, I’d have laughed at you.”

“That’s what hard work gets you,” Gabriel said. He skimmed his fingers down my back, a light touch that fell away far too soon.

“All right, since we have a newbie with us, let me go over how this works,” Rodrigo said. He drew a wooden toy from his pocket that was carved to resemble a rabbit. “This here is our lure. I set it loose, it beelines away, and after a minute head start, we pursue. Whoever catches it gets a tally mark in the club journal. Member with the most tallies picks the location for the end-of-semester field trip. That’s a weekend hike and campout in Tir na Nog.”

Jada’s eyes lit up with interest.

I wanted to beat her on principle—a childish part of me desperate to ask Gabriel what she’d enjoy the least.

Rodrigo activated the spellwork on our lure and set it down on the ground. The wooden decoy glowed a soft green and doubled in size, the wooden surface morphing into a furlike appearance, almost like a real bunny. It twitched its stiff ears then took off, shooting into the thicket. I tried to follow it with my eyes, but the lure vanished, making me wonder how on earth I was supposed to track it when I didn’t have a predator’s sense of smell.

“Go!”

The area exploded into activity. I darted forward and followed the path I’d seen the lure take before I lost sight of it. One of the cat sith twins blew past me, a blur of black fur.

Long and slender, whip-thin branches slapped my face and tangled in my hair like wooden fingers. I ducked beneath a few more by instinct and stumbled over a gnarled root, nearly breaking my ankle.

What the fuck? Who called this fun?

Off to my left, a wolf howled. Crap. Did that mean the lure had been spotted? In need of a light, I summoned a palmful of Faerie Fire. The blue-gold glow lit up my path and gave me the confidence to pick up my speed.

A sensation like a static tickle buzzed in the air farther ahead to my left. Then it skimmed right. I ran that direction and saw tiny little tracks glittering on the ground. They faded so quickly I could have imagined them.

Maybe I wasn’t as impaired as I initially believed.

Now we were all running, wolves sniffing the ground, bears snuffling through leaves and ground flora that was somehow growing in this dim thicket. The lure was so damned fast it was hard to get a bead on it, even with their enhanced reflexes and shifter speed. If a werewolf hauling ass couldn’t catch it, how the hell could I?

Movement on the right and a flicker of green caught my eye. I lurched that direction, and then a raven swooped, its black shape blending with the rest of the shadows. It dove for something—missed—and then the silver-green blur of the rabbit lure was off again, a lightning bolt streaking through the woods.

Another howl filled the air, this time from behind me, but the cry cut off into a yelp. I froze in place and strained to listen.

Rodrigo shrugged out of his bear form and into human shape. “What happened? Who’s hurt?”

Gabriel landed a second later. “Sounded like Blaire.”

The raven who had swooped ahead of me to take the lure turned into Jada. “I think it was. Came from that direction.”

Another wolf cried out in the darkness, and then all chaos broke loose. Rodrigo shouted orders to regroup, and moments after I started toward him, two more voices shouted for help.

I ran for them, joined by many other shifter bodies. My wings exploded into existence again like twin lanterns lit by gold and blue flames. Instead of cursing, someone thanked me, the light appreciated, because at least now we could all see the danger.

Dozens of thick, thorn-tipped vines spread across the ground between the trees from a large plant with oversized purple flowers and a ginormous bulb that throbbed like a damned heart. I’d never seen anything like it before. The vines whipped into the air and struck out at the slightest movement.

And trapped amidst the thorns lay a white wolf with a blanket of crimson on its pelt. One of the vines wrapped around Blaire and rolled him up like a burrito toward its pulsating bulb. A hole filled with sharp teeth yawned open.

Holy shit. Tir na Nog had carnivorous plants?

“Skylar, watch out!”

Gabriel streaked down from the sky and shifted in midair, crashing into me and bringing me down to the ground. A heavy vine tipped in thorns whipped over our heads.

Then the burning began. There was fire in my blood, spreading down my arm toward my fingers and throbbing in my veins. I screamed and jerked from beneath Gabriel’s protective huddle, rolling from under him and leaping to my feet.

“Sky?”

“Fuck, the vines are everywhere,” someone yelled from our left.

Shadows detached from the trees around us and circled overhead like vultures. The first dove at me with sharp claws extended, and I fell back with a startled shriek, fire flaring against my fingertips.

“Get back!”

“Don’t use Faerie Fire here, Sky! It’s a trap. You’ll only end up burning us.”

“Ah shit, man, she got scrat—” Rodrigo’s words blurred into a distorted slur. I stumbled to the left then fell on my hands and knees as my world swam in and out of focus.

“Gabe? Gabe, where did you go?”

Another dark shadow with curved talons loomed over me, red eyes glowing in its black face. It called me by name, inky tendrils wrapping around my wrists before I could throw another fiery blast.

“Skylar,” it hissed.

When it ducked toward me, I screamed and thrust with both hands, issuing a jet of Faerie Fire that chased the shadowbeast away. It glided away like some sort of diabolical wraith. “No! Get back! Get away!”

Another beast joined the first and reached for me with skeletal fingers tipped in gore and blood. Shrieking, I took off running from both. Where were my friends? Where had everyone gone?

Then the glow from my wings shed light on the mystery, and I saw where my friends had gone. Gabriel and Anji lay on the ground in a broken tangle of limbs, their dead, bloodstained faces staring up at the bleak canopy.

No, no, no. That couldn’t be right. The vines couldn’t have gotten them.

“Gabe?” The motionless body didn’t answer me.

With tears blurring my vision and blood pulsing in my ears, I whirled on two nightmare beasts closing in on me and channeled a wave of Faerie Fire. One rolled away through the air, but the second was caught in the inferno, shrieking.

The first creature took me down to the ground and pinned both of my arms over my head to the dirt in a steel grip. Its hard body stretched out over mine, eerily familiar. “Sky, it’s me. I’m right here!”

“Gabriel?”

“I’m right here. Stop fighting me, Sky, please.” It didn’t sound like Gabe, but it felt like him. The monster had his warmth and his smell, and somehow I knew his scent even though I wasn’t a shifter. “No more fire, okay?”

“But I…” I’d seen him dead. I’d seen him and Anji both dead.

“Deep breaths. You’ve been poisoned. You can’t trust your eyes, okay?”

“But I saw—”

“Whatever you saw was a hallucination. Please, babe, no more fire.”

“Everyone fall back,” Rodrigo ordered. “Isaac and I got him.”

Gabriel scooped me up, though my eyes insisted a ghoul had me in its clutches. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his throat, breathing him in and focusing on what remained familiar.

A few minutes passed before I risked looking at our surroundings again. Through my hazy vision, I saw the twins making a stretcher for Blaire from a few sticks and glamour. Rodrigo took one end and the other big bear shifter grabbed the opposite side, even though both were bleeding heavily.

“I can walk,” I mumbled.

“The hell you can.” Gabriel tightened his hold on me and started after the others. “You’re going straight to medical until the toxin is out of your system.”

I didn’t argue again. When every shadow around us looked like a face-eating monster, there was nowhere safer than being wrapped in his arms.

* * *

Sebastian’s stern visage swam into view when I opened my eyes way later. I didn’t even remember arriving at medical. “Why is it every time I see you it’s either because you’re banged up or in trouble?”

“Um… bad luck?”

He cracked a smile and laughed softly. “You certainly have that. How are you feeling?”

“Like I went on a bender and have the world’s worst hangover.”

“Doomshade toxin will do that.”

“I’m just surprised the club went somewhere with a plant like that.”

Sebastian frowned. “That’s the thing, it’s not native to that area of Tir na Nog. Not enough sunlight. There’s no way it should have been there.”

“Except it was.”

“Yes. A strange little mystery we’re not likely to solve unless the fae get involved and care to share their findings. My best guess is some dryad was pulling a prank. Maybe she was fed up with the club trampling through her woods.”

“How’s Blaire?”

“About forty-five stitches. Broken leg and arm. He’ll heal, but it will take a little time.”

“Was anyone else hurt?”

“A few minor injuries. Amalia got hit with toxin same as you, Justin took a pretty good lump to his head, and Catlyn twisted her ankle. Everyone else is just a little battered and bruised. A few burns.”

My stomach clenched and rolled with nausea, the taste of sour bile filling my mouth. I’d done that. I’d hurt my own friends. “Who did I burn?”

“You weren’t in your right mind. Neither was Amalia.”

“Still, who did I hurt?”

Sebastian sighed. “Anji took some burns to her arms. Rodrigo will have to grow back some fur.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“As I said, doomshade toxin will do that to you. Besides, your singe was nothing compared to the chunk of flesh Amalia took off him, so don’t beat yourself up too badly over the whole affair.”

“If you say so…” Except his assurances didn’t make me feel any better. My gaze drifted away from him to the window then the bedside chair. Gabe’s jacket lay over the back of it.

“I sent him out to get some coffee,” Sebastian said before I could ask.

“I didn’t hurt him, did I?”

“Nah. Gabriel was one of the handful to make it out unscathed.” When my eyebrows raised high enough to probably disappear into my hairline, Sebastian continued, “I know, right? Guess there’s a first for everything. He practically lived in this medical center last year. Anyway, glad to see you up and clear-eyed again.”

“Thanks.”

“Not gonna lie, you were pretty hilarious before you finally crashed. Between you and Amalia, I’ve never laughed so hard. She thought I was a zombie out to eat her brains.”

He hung around with me until Gabriel arrived bearing coffee. Then the wolf excused himself to check on the other injured students.

The moment the door shut, Gabe scooted his chair close and kissed me. “How do you feel?”

“Better. Less like I’m starring as the final girl in my own horror movie.”

He stroked my cheek then smoothed a few strands of hair from my brow. “Sorry your first night out with us went to shit, Sky.”

“Not your fault. You didn’t stash a deadly, poisonous plant in the hunting grounds. I—” My attention drifted to the wall clock. I had missed boot camp entirely while passed out and was due to start my Intro to Cybercrime class in twenty minutes. Crap, I’d have to make up a quiz. “Don’t you have a class right now?”

“Yeah, I’m supposed to be in Global Business Perspectives.”

My eyes crossed. All his general classes sounded the same with titles like Economics This or Business That. “Then go.”

“I don’t wanna leave you a—”

“Go to class. I mean it. If you sit there staring at me all morning, I’ll just be grumpy and irritable. Please go.”

Gabe sighed. “All right. My phone’s on if you need anything.”

Nurse Kristi came in to check my vitals not too long after Mr. Overbearing left. Once she hung a new bag, added something to my IV line, and stepped out again, I was finally left alone with my thoughts.

Could it be coincidence that less than a month after someone had tried to kill me with black magic, I’d also been attacked in Tir na Nog? Something also told me that Sebastian didn’t really believe a mischievous dryad would do anything to endanger the group of us.

And I had a hunch that whatever it was, whoever was behind it, that wasn’t the last I’d see of their troublemaking.

6

I am a Magnet for Cute Guys

Most of us were out of the medical center by Friday afternoon and able to recuperate over the weekend, except for Blaire. The doctors kept him in the campus infirmary for closer to a week, which made me think Sebastian had downplayed his injuries.

After making numerous apologies to Anji, she threatened to ignore me for the rest of the semester if I begged for her forgiveness one more time, but I couldn’t help myself. Her arms had been shiny and pink from her palms to her elbows, and it made me feel like shit, because I’d done that to her. By comparison, Rodrigo happily let me grovel for a while. Buying him cookies made a successful bribe.

Then two weeks later, those crazies were arranging another run in Tir na Nog like nothing ever happened—except the Shadow Thicket was off the agenda, and Blaire was still recovering. I didn’t think any of them would want me there after how I freaked out, so I stayed home to skip the meeting until Rodrigo and Isaac hammered on my door.

Then a bunch of wolves started howling and the loudest ravens I ever heard kept cawing my name until I stepped outside. “What the hell is this?”

Rodrigo grinned. “We’re the ‘Skylar, Get Off Your Ass’ brigade. The fuck are you wearing? Go change.”

Isaac glanced at his watch. “Time is ticking, shorty. Get into your jogging shit.”

A half dozen werewolf eyes gleamed at me from the yard, including one dark-furred, blue-eyed sentinel. Sebastian tipped his muzzle up at me and gave a wolfish grin.

Apparently, everyone but Jada had shown up to drag me to the Twilight Meadow. Pilar practically kicked me out the door just to get them all off our lawn.

Our run went much better that time, with no carnivorous plants to be seen, and while I didn’t race Rodrigo, Sebastian did, and the big bear got his ass trounced.

I didn’t catch the lure either. Stark swooped in from nowhere and practically had it in his claws, only for Kitania to bolt in and dash away with the rabbit in her feline jaws. She won a tick on their logbook. Then we celebrated with pizza before splitting for our evening classes. Boot camp actually seemed to fly by for once. Instead of killing me, I emerged from the showers energized and full of vigor after the three-hour training session.

“Skylar, come sit with us.” Jiro waved me over when Holly and I went to look for a table in the student center.

“Oh, that’s Sai sitting there across from him,” Holly said. Since she needed a vampire mage for a mentor, and Liadan needed a skilled sentinel, Sai had the honor of performing both roles until our friend caught up on her new classes.

“Shall we, then?”

“You go on ahead. I’m actually meeting a guy for lunch. Wish me luck.”

“May this one not be a psychopath.”

Holly grinned.

While she took off, I veered to the table where the two upperclassmen were eating lunch—breakfast—whatever it was called for us night students dining at 1:30 in the morning.

Sai rose and offered me a hand. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Same.” His grip was strong and his skin surprisingly warm for a vampire, but he had the same telltale ice-blue eyes that identified all their kind who inherited magic.

“You looked good on the hunt today,” Jiro said. “I’ve been trying to convince Sai to join the club.”

“Thanks. To be honest, I didn’t expect to have so much fun after what happened last time.”

Sai shook his head. “Yes, I heard about that misadventure. I did not participate in the club back in Shangri-La either.”

I glanced from one guy to the other. Both were reasonably attractive—Jiro golden and sun-kissed like Gabriel, his eyes a brighter green than mine. Sai had a cool undertone to his brown skin, reminding me of how much I’d been in love with Tricia’s almost silver complexion. Vampires could be so pretty sometimes.

“So, uh, you two are friends?”

Jiro chuckled. “Yeah, we go a long way back. I attended Shangri-La back during freshman year.”

“Really? What made you decide to come back here? Gabriel said he’d been tempted to stay over there when he did his semester abroad.”

“My dad’s job transferred him from Okinawa to the States, so the whole family moved here. PNRU didn’t seem like a bad place to finish my education.”

“What about you, Sai? What made you decide to do your final year in America?”

Sai sipped a drink through a black straw, but my imagination filled in for what I couldn’t see. “Provost Riordan contacted me over the summer, as did the Sanguine Court. There is a shortage of vampire mages enrolled in any of the schools, and had that traitor not abandoned the school, she would be in my place. I understood Holly’s plight and volunteered to come.”

“Very noble of you.”

“It is how I would want to be treated if it were me.”

With only a few words, he’d put himself high on my list of good people. Liadan and Holly were lucky to have him. We chatted for a while until my rumbling tummy distracted me from the conversation.

I eyed Jiro’s bento box enviously, wanting one too. It looked homemade and shit, the kind of thing you saw on Pinterest or some bored housewife’s mommy blog. Before I could glance away and search out a food court kiosk, he grinned at me.

“Want to share? I’ll never finish all of this. Mom packs these like there’s two of me.”

Ha! I knew he hadn’t made it. Thank the lord for charitable fae. “Yes, please.”

A snap of his fingers turned a disposable fork into another pair of chopsticks for me. Then a gorgeous little plate appeared, upon which he passed me two of the longest shrimp tempura sticks I’d ever seen and a spring roll. More food followed, and I had to wonder if his mother utilized the same glamour Pilar used to pack our Mongolian grill bowls.

“Thank you, thank you.”

“I don’t mind feeding cuties.”

Heat rushed to my face. I cleared my throat and reached for a glass of water I didn’t have. Shit. That’s right. I’d sat down instead of buying anything to eat or drink. Jiro handled that too and poured me a cup of oolong tea. Where the fuck was that tiny tea kettle a second ago?

I sipped and let the smooth flavor roll through my mouth, startled by the hint of honey that lingered on my tongue. “So, do you think they’ll figure out what happened for that doomshade cactus to grow in the Shadow Thicket?” I dipped one of the three gyoza he’d given me into sauce then lifted it to my mouth. Perfect.

Jiro’s shoulders lifted and fell. “No clue. I heard the provost was speaking to someone from Tir na Nog, but that’s about it.”

“Any guesses?”

“It would have to be someone skilled with plants,” Sai said. “Someone who can freely cross the border and move within the faerie realm without fear.”

“Yeah, you’d have to be skilled to move something that big and dangerous.” Jiro shoved a rice ball into his mouth. “We’re lucky to come out with only a few injuries. Doomshade is known for viciously guarding its feeding grounds.”

No help there. They were as clueless as I was, not that I could blame them.

“Ah well, anyway, thanks again for the food. All that pizza we had earlier was burned off by Coach Bregman.”

Jiro shrugged, his bright green eyes practically glittering with amusement. “Like I said, I don’t mind feeding a cute girl. You’ll just have to pay me back somehow.”

Oh crap. After sipping down the rest of my tea, I jumped up and fumbled for my bag. Intro to Cybercrime didn’t begin for another forty-five minutes, but putting space between us seemed like a good idea. I didn’t want to lead him on.

“Gotta run. I’m expecting a quiz in my CJ class. Bye, guys.”

Sai inclined his head to me, respect personified. I smiled at them both then hurried off. Somehow I’d have to figure out a way to make it clear I wasn’t interested in anything more than friendship, but for right now, I really did have a quiz to cram for.

7

Manufactured Happiness

Nothing sounded better than a day away from PNRU, even if Gabriel and I were using Sharon’s concert downtown as a cover for leaving together on a Saturday. In the month since school had started, I’d finally adapted to the schedule, learning to catch naps whenever I could and how to hog the tub and soak the aches from my muscles.

And since I looked damned good lately thanks to Bregman kicking my ass, I’d borrowed a galaxy-themed mini skirt from Liadan and a flowy, off-the-shoulder, gold blouse from Pilar. I hurried across the quad toward the school parking lot to meet with my boyfriend.

Ben jogged up beside me and took an immediate hit off his inhaler. “Hey, Skylar. Where are you headed?”

“Checking in on Sharon. She’s performing with the symphony tonight, and I figure she could use a pep talk.” It wasn’t a complete lie. Lately, my charge had been brimming with her own confidence, so more than likely she wouldn’t need me to do a thing.

“And that’s what you’re wearing? Have you ever been to the symphony before?”

“I’m not staying for the whole thing, and no one’s gonna see me anyway. Besides, I’m a fae. I can glamour my outfit into something appropriate.”

“I’ve seen your clothing glamours. You’re about as likely to end up naked in the audience.”

I scowled at him. It wasn’t that he was lying, but that he told the damned truth too much. “Shut up. I’ve been practicing.”

Ben grinned. “I’m just tellin’ it like it is. Anyway, you have fun.”

“Thanks.”

I’d nearly made it to the garage, when I crossed paths with Julien. Other than my embarrassing tumble during Tristal’s lesson, I hadn’t run into him again.

There was no time to prepare for it, and perhaps that was what made his passive faerie talent so effective. Seconds after coming within a few yards of him, the full brunt of his selkie aura hit me like a punch to the face.

“Skylar, you are looking lovely, mon amie.”

A summer away from him had dulled my resistance, and for a moment, I forgot all about meeting Gabriel. Julien was six feet of gorgeous, breathtakingly beautiful man with glossy silver-blond curls and eyes bluer than the sky—eyes I could get lost in with glorious hints of green and silver shimmers like waves cresting the Mediterranean Sea.

An internal struggle took place between my brain and my ovaries until some intelligence returned to my head and I could treat him like a normal person. Tristal’s asskicking had distracted me the last time and dulled his effect beneath a barrage of pain. “Hey there. How was your summer?”

“It was nice. I spent most of it on the beach. You?”

The beach. Maybe in a Speedo, all cut and tanned to hell under the sun, because it felt like a crime to cover that magnificent body in dull board shorts. “I, uh…”

“Sorry.” His apologetic smile only sent my heart into a gallop. “I will wait a moment.”

Gabriel. Abs. Shifter abs. My boyfriend would look amazing in a swimsuit too. I dragged memories of his feather tattoo into my head along with visions of golden eyes and dark scruff. The attraction to Julien died down and faded. “I’m good now. Thanks.”

“I forget. I am still not so used to it myself at times.”

I could only imagine. “Well, it sounds like you had a good summer. I think I spent maybe three days total at the beach, if that.”

“You should come to France after school lets out. I will show you Deauville.” He smiled and looked me over. “You look fantastic by the way. Where are you off to?”

“Visiting my charge. She has a concert tonight, so I’m meeting Gabriel at the garage.”

“Ah, I imagine you will be out late then. Pity. I had hoped you might join me for dinner.”

My heart did a little double thump. Dinner? “Oh…” An excuse hung on the tip of my tongue. This was exactly the sort of thing I hadn’t expected and hadn’t planned for.

“Maybe another time. Your sentinel is waiting.” His gaze focused on something past my shoulder. A quick look confirmed my suspicion that Gabriel had come looking for me.

“Enjoy your weekend,” I said before I beat feet and retreated without addressing the dinner topic. Gabriel waited a few feet beyond the garage doors.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Yeah, sorry. Ben caught me, and then I ran into Julien.”

He led the way through the lot to his assigned spot and let us into the car. “Yeah? Let me guess, his sex aura got you.”

“My head goes all fuzzy when he’s around, and I’m totally reminded of that one Harry Potter novel with the veela, except I don’t have a dick. Does that happen with the girls too?”

Gabriel snorted. “Nah. There’s been about five female selkies through PNRU since I got here, and it’s not so bad. The unnatural attraction happens with the guys only. They’re rarer.”

“Huh. I wonder why that is.”

Without missing a beat, Gabriel replied, “Full-fledged selkie males make harems in the wild, that’s why. Then the sex appeal gets them laid to make a lot of little selkies,” as he clicked his seat belt into place. Selkies were one of the few faerie races with a higher chance of hereditary Ascendency. “Not sure if you noticed, but the whole consent thing is a new concept for humans and fae.”

“You’re not serious.”

Gabriel reversed from his parking spot and slid out onto the university street. “Dead serious. Mages weren’t any better with their love potions. You’ll learn about it this semester in Magical Ethics.”

“Ugh. That class.”

A big grin spread over his face. “Professor English is pretty fair and doesn’t hold back about your kind and the stuff fae used to do back in the day. Kinda treats everybody equal.”

“I get it. We all need to know how to be responsible supernaturals. But you should see the way everyone stares at me in that class.”

“Well, they don’t usually have fae in the night classes. I guess they figure they can’t talk smack with you there.”

“So what, it’s one big faerie bashfest?”

“Nah. Professor English doesn’t let it go on for long. Trust me, he’s an equal opportunity shit talker when it comes to all of our races’ fuckups. Y’all just get more of it, because the fae kind of… let’s just say that if there’s a law, it’s usually in place because a fae did it first.”

“Gee. Thanks.”

He reached across the center console and laid his hand on my knee. “Don’t worry. I still like you—even if you are predisposed to making trouble.”

His warm palm raised goose bumps over my arms, and when he returned it to the wheel, I missed the heat of it against my bare skin.

It wasn’t a long drive to the Chicago Symphony Center. Once Gabriel parked, we skipped the enormous line with our talents, my sentinel using his unique illusion skills to get us past security and the coat check since he was armed.

Finding Sharon wasn’t hard when our time together had formed a bond between us. She shone like a bonfire beneath a starless night no matter the distance between us or the obstacles in the way. When I peeked at Sharon backstage, she was glowing vibrant gold, unshakably resolute as ever to give the performance of her life.

Then I spotted a dark smudge against her aura no bigger than a thumb print.

Weird. Maybe she’d argued with someone prior to the event. I wiped away the murky stain, and from across the Veil in the Twilight, I hugged her.

“Your grandfather would be proud.”

I hung around for a little while in the Twilight, observing until I was satisfied that she wouldn’t have any last-minute nerves. It helped that Oliver was in the audience with her parents.

Gabriel and I watched from the uppermost balcony, where no one looked twice at us. Blending in with our surroundings came naturally, or maybe it was his gift at work again. I closed my eyes and let the music wash over me. Then his fingers twined with mine and everything felt perfect in the world.

We stayed through the first performance and the intermission, granting me one last opportunity to peek in on Sharon and bask in her happiness. She was pure radiance now, concentrated bliss, the stuff fae needed to recharge and continue to work our magic. Just a few minutes in her company sent energy coursing through me, melting away the stress of the previous three weeks.

I flitted back to Gabriel through the Twilight, traveling farther than I ever had before. The other viewers in the balcony remained oblivious to my reappearance.

He leaned close, whispering, “How’s she holding up?”

“She’s doing awesome.”

“You ready to leave then, or did you wanna stay for the whole thing?”

“We can go. Crap. I’m just gonna pop into the ladies’ room a sec before we get going. Meet you out front?”

“Sure.”

After we split up, I hurried down the hall to one of the nicest bathrooms I’d ever been in. They even had scented lotions set out on the counter by the sinks. With the performance back in full swing, I figured I could cross the Veil without anyone seeing me, but I wasn’t alone in the bathroom.

A faint shine winked around the woman standing at the vanity mirror, the telltale sign of a mortal with a destiny, a human watched by a fae.

I wondered if it was another student like me. It had to be, because the big guys—the powerful full-blooded fae from Tir na Nog, never guided anyone shy of royalty, presidents, and world-class physicists these days. Her godparent had to be a student or an alumnus.

She rummaged through her purse, darted her gaze around the room, and then pulled out a small silver compact. While I watched, she cut a line of white powder across the mirror with her credit card. It didn’t make sense to me until she rolled a dollar bill into a tight tube.

The woman leaned down.

“No, don’t do that.”

Technically, it was against the rules to mess with anyone else’s charge, but if it was me, if she was my charge, I’d want someone to help her. I touched her mind and skimmed the surface of her thoughts, plucking irritation and jealousy from a tumultuous storm of emotions.

Cassie. Her name was Cassie, and her older sister played in the orchestra. Their parents were sitting in the audience, and all that mattered was their oldest child, their perfect daughter, and her many dozens of accomplishments.

She paused and glanced around again before eyeing the cocaine.

“Don’t. It’s not worth it. They love you too. They’re just bad at expressing it. But they love you, and going back to rehab won’t punish them. It’s going to punish you, because you’re bright and so strong and smart, and you have everything ahead of you if you stay off drugs this time.”

Cassie paused, spine straight and so damned stiff. I waited with my breath held until her shoulders quaked, and I thought she’d throw the shit away.

Just when it seemed I was getting through to her, she bent down and snorted the first line. Euphoria crashed through her in patterns of molten teal, pink, and neon orange, all merging, rolling, blending together, and flooding out again in rippling waves of ecstasy.

At that moment, I understood the temptation of the darkling leanansidhe, and I wondered if her happiness would taste the same as Sharon’s or better.

It wasn’t worth finding out. I threw my hands in the air and sighed before slipping from the restroom and across the Veil again to find Gabriel. I’d pee at the movie theater.

8

My Unhappy Dream Box

Tristal’s course syllabus claimed Channeling would be where we learned to get the best bang for our magical buck. The bullet list beneath the class description promised we’d learn to conserve energy, hoard faerie dust for large-scale glamours, and imbue objects with temporary enchantments.

Basically, it was Advanced Glamours on ’roids, a course to teach us life-changing shit like turning mice into coachmen. Next semester, we’d have her for Enchantment Permanence, where she’d expect us to take all our knowledge from it and Magical Artifacts to create actual objects useful to our charges these days. Except this class was only for the fae. Mages like Ben had their own courses in magic.

The moment I stepped into the lecture hall, my ears picked out a loud, “Skylar was there.”

I jerked toward the sound of my name to see Radha huddled among a group of fae. Now that she was a senior, she’d taken a job as Tristal’s teaching assistant. “Skylar was where?”

“Nothing bad. I was only saying, I heard you were there when Gloria Stoltz decided to snort cocaine in the women’s restroom during her sister’s performance.”

“So? I mean, I tried to stop her. It’s not like I just stood there or passed her the dollar bill.”

A big-mouthed fae named Julia leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Do you think it was the Scary Godmother?”

“The what?” I asked.

“The Scary Godmother,” Pilar said. “There is a rumor going around that there is a darkling faerie in Chicago now, and that is what all the seniors are calling her.”

“That sounds like a story to scare us into doing our jobs,” I muttered.

“Why?” Radha asked. “Is it so hard to believe a leanansidhe could be in the area?”

“I…” It sounded like stupidity to me, with the university in the area, but last year had taught me evil didn’t always fear PNRU or its sentinels. After all, someone had placed a black magic curse in my bedroom. “Well, I didn’t see anyone there, if that’s what you’re hoping to hear.”

“Too bad you couldn’t sway her to stop. After you reported it, Emma had to hustle all weekend trying to fix shit.”

Pilar frowned. “We cannot be expected to fix everything, can we? I mean, human will must be factored into account. It makes me wonder how they decide if we pass or fail with our charges.”

“We have to do our best by them—not because we want a good grade, but because it’s the right thing to do,” Liadan said. “It’s the effort that counts.”

A few heads nodded until Julia snickered. “Not always. You can try your best until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t have the magic to sway a mortal loser from his plans of robbing a liquor store, what business do you have being a godmother?”

“Hey. I have plenty of magic, and I couldn’t stop her.”

“That’s different,” Julia said. “You were fighting against years of addiction in a person you’ve never influenced before. Emma is a senior and expected to have a grasp on her charge by now.”

Our professor strode inside, and everyone quieted. She adjusted her glasses up on her nose and cleared her throat.

“Dream Boxes. You should all know what they are, and I will assume you’ve all seen one.” Professor Tristal paused a beat to see if anyone contradicted her. No one did. My parents each had one of their own, plus one they shared like a joint bank account for faerie magic. “Good. Today you all will fashion your own box, and for the rest of this semester, you will work on filling it.”

One by one, we went to the front and selected wood from several unlabeled bins, tasked with discovering which woods “spoke” to us. I paused by a container on the end with pale planks stacked inside, positive I’d heard a subtle tinkling noise. When I leaned forward to investigate them, comforting warmth pulsed from the pile and bathed me in the very essence of hope and confidence. I plucked a plank from inside and turned it over in my hands, mystified by the subtle notes that seemed to play for my ears alone when I ran my fingers down its sanded surface.

“White poplar,” Tristal said in a quiet voice. “Not commonly chosen by most fae. Then again, you aren’t most. This one is for protection and shielding.”

“And these?” I looked down at the different woods I had collected, four in all. “I know oak is strength. That’s what this one is, right?”

“It is. This one here is ash, which is known mainly for healing, but in your case, I’d say it’s the lesser known aspect of its affinity for solar magic that has drawn you. And, this is elder wood. Good for driving out dark energies.”

“So basically, my box isn’t a happy Dream Box.”

The professor surprised me with a sympathetic smile and a squeeze to my hand. “You’ll be doing more than inspiring young mortals. Your magic will protect them, and your box will reflect that. Now, head back to your seat.”

Over the course of the next hour, she guided us through the glamours required to craft our boxes. Magic fused the wood bits together, and everyone ended up with a small chest the size of a shoebox, though the designs and hues varied. Mine was a plain, polished box with beveled edges.

Supposedly, no one but the faerie who had made the box could open it. Of course, back in the day, some of my more mischievous kin had started rumors among the mortals, which had birthed the story about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and all sorts of attempts by the mortals to get their hands on our magic.

Tristal returned to the front of the room. “Good, everyone is done. Now, each time you tend to your charge and feed off their energy, save a little. Store it in your box. That energy manifests itself as dust, if you will.”

Someone in the back laughed. “Pixie dust, y’all!”

“Yes, Mr. Gregory, though you won’t be sprinkling it on people to make them fly.” More laughter. “Now then, as you go along through your daily lives, you’ll tend to come across small objects infused with energy. Maybe it’s a marble your charge played with as a child and lost, or a down feather from the first robin born that spring. As you come across these talismans, place them in your box. The energy will add to your stored magic and enhance the effectiveness of each glamour you create.”

“How do we recognize these items?” Pilar asked.

“The same way you selected your wood. It will stand out and call to you. For your final practical exam at the end of the semester, I expect each of you to have gathered three items for your box. You will need them to pass.”

Outside, the clock tower tolled the hour. Tristal released us for the morning rather than making us stay for the last thirty minutes of class, on the condition that we walked the campus grounds in search of our first talisman.

Everyone rushed out before she could change her mind. Liadan waited for me, and we caught up to Pilar outside the building. They were both clutching gorgeous boxes—Lia’s sporting engraved flowers and Celtic knotwork, and Pilar’s covered in a brilliant mosaic rivaling ancient art, but mine looked plain by comparison.

“Your box is so pretty, Lia. Yours too, Pilar.”

Liadan smiled bright enough to make up for Pilar’s scowling face. “Thanks. Do you really think we’ll find items on campus?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her to have hidden things herself. Like a scavenger hunt,” Pilar grumbled. “Now I know why my father said to keep a keen eye out this year.”

“At least you got that much of a heads-up,” I said.

Ben caught up with us while we were strolling past the fae fountain dedicated to King Oberon and Queen Titania, the two portrayed in marble and forever captured mid-dance. “How are my favorite campus ladies?”

“Frustrated,” Pilar answered for us all. “Tristal sent us out on a wild goose chase.”

His gaze dropped to the boxes in our hands. “Oh wow, I’ve never seen one up close before. Can I see—”

When Ben reached out, I jerked my box away then blinked at my own rudeness. He stared at me, but then dropped his hand back to his side.

“Sorry,” I said. “These are sorta personal.” Instinct must have kicked in to protect it, even though I didn’t have a drop of magic funneled into the chest yet.

“Nah, it’s all good.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned. “I guess I’d be the same way about my Grimoire. We start those next week, and I can’t wait.”

“I foresee lots of tedious copying in your future,” Liadan teased. “With a quill.”

“Yeah, my hand is already cramped from practicing on scratch parchment.”

Despite our best efforts, we didn’t find anything to add to our boxes. So we gave up the hunt and hurried to our next class. Talismans would have to wait until after Biology.

And sleep.

* * *

Five hours of sleep was all I managed before I woke up and laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling. I tossed and turned another half hour before plucking my phone from the nightstand and texting Gabriel.

Are you awake?

A few moments passed before, I am now, appeared across the screen. What’s up?

Sorry, I replied.

Don’t worry about it. Shifters don’t need as much sleep, remember?

The resilience of shifters didn’t stop at their awesome regenerative ability. Since they could get by on little sleep, most of them used their bonus time pumping iron at the gym.

I forgot. You and Ama want some company?

Rodrigo has friends over, but I have a better suggestion. How about we hit the road and leave campus for a while?

Really?

Yeah. Get dressed for class tonight and meet me at the garage in twenty minutes.

I sent back a grinning emoji, then hustled out of bed into the shared bathroom between mine and Pilar’s bedrooms. Liadan had one of her own, albeit smaller, and Holly used the guest bathroom downstairs.

After rushing through a shower in record time, I piled my hair into a messy bun, slipped into a sports bra, tank, and shorts, and then laced my sneakers. Gabriel lurked outside the garage in his black gym shorts and T-shirt when I arrived, checking his watch.

“I’m not late.”

He snickered. “I didn’t say you were. Honestly, I was just figuring out how much time we had to chill before Martial Arts.”

“Depends on how fast you drive. I practiced my Inconspicuous glamour over the summer with Dad and his sentinel.”

“Sweet.”

Once we were in the garage and out of view, Gabriel trapped me between his body and the passenger door. One strong hand curled around my hip, anchoring me in place, before he claimed my mouth in the sort of unrushed, heart-pounding kiss I’d waited the entire week to have, because every kiss leading up to it had felt like a tease.

Gabriel made kissing an artform.

When he leaned away seconds later, I commanded my heart to stop double thumping. It didn’t listen, and I wondered if intimacy with him would ever get old. “So, uh, where did you plan to whisk me off to?”

“I thought we could pay a visit to Sharon’s neighborhood to save you from telling an unnecessary lie.” Fae were awful liars, and when we fibbed without just cause, it supposedly cost us a small portion of our light and ultimately became addictive, leading down a one-way road to the darkness.

I didn’t think one white lie was going to turn me into a cannibalistic orculli hellbent on descending from the clouds to eat my own kind, but I appreciated the gesture.

“And after I play peek-a-boo in Sharon’s bedroom window? What then?”

He opened the passenger door for me and crossed to the driver’s side. “Dunno. Enjoy a walk down Navy Pier maybe?”

I belted in and grinned at him. “Sounds like a plan.” We could get lost in the crowd, stroll through the garden, and grab something to eat. Maybe ride the Ferris wheel for fun.

“By the way, I’m shooting a wedding Friday evening. Can we reschedule our usual check-in with Sharon, or do you wanna just do that together after? It’ll be a few hours, but—”

“I just so happen to own a cute dress if you need a date.” Gabriel needed the cash from his freelance photography gig to make up for his parents cutting him off from the family bank account. “If I won’t distract you from your work, that is.”

“No, I’d love to have you come along.”

The car slid from the campus garage and onto the university road. Gabriel glanced at something through the window, tension filling his frame. When I leaned to look, whatever had bothered him was out of sight.

It didn’t take too long to reach Sharon’s neighborhood with a glamour making Gabriel’s vehicle difficult to discern from any other car driving the speed limit.

“Are you going to pop out with me, or stay in the car? It should only take a minute or two.”

“Nah. I’m good right here. Peeking through a girl’s window gives me the creeps. You spot them doing all kinds of things you can’t unsee. I’ll be here. Take your time.” His phone buzzed, but he didn’t reach for it.

Was it his ex?

Gabriel sighed. Jada definitely, because I’d learned to tell a Jada-sigh from a Mom-sigh over the past few weeks since school began. The latter always turned his eyes sad, but calls and texts from Jada put tension in his jaw.

I kissed his cheek and trusted him to handle it, leaving him behind to cross to Sharon’s window. With the sun beginning to set, it was still light out, but the clouds had gone all pretty and watercolored.

Crossing into her room through the Twilight, I stepped into a paradise of purple and complimentary shades, the decor accented with silver and pale touches of pink. As for my charge, she was downstairs eating dinner with her parents, so I decided to take the opportunity to do a little faerie magic on her behalf.

I crossed over to her dresser and picked up her hairbrush, imbuing it with a few subtle charms.

“Curls. You should give curls a try. Something soft though, and loose around your shoulders.” The brush sparkled with enough good luck for three good hair days. Like so many young women, Sharon tried to tame her natural waves with straightening products instead of allowing her hair to flow naturally.

From there I took my time going through her makeup case. Yes, no, don’t use that one, use the black pencil for a flawless smoky eye. I went through each piece and glamoured them with helpful insights.

A faint, pink shimmer at the bottom of the case caught my eye. When I picked up the silver link bracelet, a memory flickered through my mind, accompanied by a flurry of emotions—the warm glow of a first crush, giddiness as the same boy asked her to a school dance, and the crushing sorrow of her very first heartbreak. Sharon had worn this bracelet every day until the boy moved on to a different, prettier girl. Then she’d cried herself to sleep and tossed the bracelet away, never to wear it again.

“Well, we don’t need this in here reminding you of bad times.” I reached into the Neverspace where I kept my Dream Box and dropped the bracelet inside.

Noise downstairs and footsteps on the stairs warned me of Sharon’s imminent return. The rest of her room looked as it should, and I couldn’t think of anything else she needed at present.

As I headed back toward the window, a raven landed on a branch beside it. It wasn’t big enough or handsome enough to be Gabriel, who I thought I could recognize from a lineup now, but it was still definitely bigger than the average corvid. And it had a white spot on its breast, while Gabriel was pure blue-black from head to tail. I scowled down at the little spy and waved her off.

“If that’s you, Jada, you’re interfering with our work, so shove off.” And because I dared her to say something, I sent a little zip of static at the bird. For good measure, I pulled Sharon’s window shut behind me too. I didn’t need some snotty ex messing up my work.

The raven cawed inelegantly, ruffled its wings, and flew away.

When I returned, Gabriel was fast asleep in the driver’s seat, with it reclined and his head tilted back. He’d killed the engine and rolled the windows down, indicating I’d been gone too long.

Asleep, Gabriel looked like a different guy—more peaceful, almost boyish. A few dark strands of hair were in his eyes, so I leaned over and brushed them aside, torn between waking him or letting him snooze. If it weren’t for the damn stalker bird outside, I might have kissed him. Instead, I poked his ribs to see if he was faking.

“All done, sleepyhead. We better get out of here before our audience gets any ideas.”

“Huh? Wh—?” He shifted. Groaning, he rubbed his face and sat up, bleary-eyed. “Sorry. Guess I’m not the best sentinel today.”

“Don’t apologize. I woke you up. You may be a shifter, but you’re kinda burning the candle at both ends, Gabe. I mean… you’re studying for your own shit, working with me, and there’s the time we spend together.”

“Yeah, but I like spending time with you. Sure, it sucks needing to work away from campus so much this semester, but I’m not complaining. Anyway, what audience? Did Sharon catch on?” He leaned forward and looked through the windshield.

“A raven decided to peek in on me. Not sure who.” The bird skulked on the rain gutter and watched us with baleful eyes. “She’s right there.”

Gabriel leaned across me to peer out the window, his brows furrowed. “Naw, I’m fine, and uh, Sky, that’s not Jada. She has one blue feather on her left wing and this one doesn’t. It’s… actually, it’s a guy. Not sure who he is, but he looks familiar. Maybe I should go over and talk to him. See what the hell he wants with you.”

The moment Gabriel reached a hand for the car handle and opened it, the bird flew away.

I frowned. “Well, that was anticlimactic. Hope it wasn’t an instructor or a sentinel sent by Simon to keep tabs. I, uh, may have given him a little zap.”

He flashed me a weak smile. “I don’t think that was an instructor, babe. Anyway, he’s gone now.” He fired up the car again and pulled out into the street, cruising down the Chicago suburb until we merged into traffic on a main road.

“We can go back to the campus if you want,” I said. “I know tonight you only have Antonin’s lesson and no other classes until morning.”

“True, I don’t have classes, but I do have a girlfriend to babysit, because she doesn’t understand the concept of running from a fight and zaps strangely nosy shifters without knowing their identity.”

“It was a teensy bit of static. The last thing I needed was for him to decide to fly off with the shiny hair sticks I charmed for Sharon. By the way, I noticed a few of my barrettes missing.”

Gabriel grimaced at first, and then his expression turned sheepish. Almost boyish. “You left them in my car. Sorry, I’ll give them back with, uh, the rest of the stuff.” Raven shifters were the strange, eccentric ones who couldn’t help themselves. They picked up tiny, often useless baubles out of habit, but the honest ones always returned anything of value.

“I don’t mind, so no rush. It kind of tickles me that you’d hold on to stuff of mine like that.”

He cleared his throat. “So anyway, Navy Pier good for you?”

“Navy Pier is perfect. If it’s not crowded, we can grab some Bubba Gump’s or something.” Relaxing again, I stretched my legs and decided I liked his roomy, older Chrysler more than the truck he’d left behind in Texas.

“Bubba Gump is always crowded.” His belly rumbled. “But I’m totally willing to watch you try a Compulsion glamour to move us up in the queue.”

“I’m hungry enough to try it. Let’s see how starvation motivates me.”

Chuckling, Gabriel tapped Navy Pier into his GPS. Minutes later, he was on the road again, but the strange shifter remained on my mind.

9

That Stuff Only Happens in the Movies

My Compulsion glamour worked, although it helped that the popular tourist spot received less traffic on a weeknight in its off-season. We were shown to a table outside and placed our orders without looking at a menu.

Gabriel ordered enough food for two men with an enormous cocktail—as tall as my arm was long from wrist to elbow. I stared at it.

“I get a sip, right?”

“A sip for the underage? That would be illegal.” He took a deliberate pull through the straw while I gawked.

“Don’t you have to be an assistant teacher tonight?”

“It’ll burn off by then.”

Right. He ordered two refills that definitely would not burn off by then.

A black bird of some kind landed beside us and watched my strips of calamari. “I still don’t know how you tell each other apart. I can only tell a real bird from a shifter raven, because you guys are huge.”

He laughed at me and sucked down his margarita. “We all have different faces, remember? Peter has the biggest beak of all of us, and Lacy has those huge claws. Sometimes when she shifts, the nail polish remains. We recognize each other by the features we carry over,” he explained in a quieter voice.

“Your feathers are the same color as your hair. Blue-black.”

Both brows jumped up beneath the shaggy hair flopping onto his forehead. “You noticed that?”

“I like the color. The other birds are kind of… almost purple sometimes. But your shine is definitely blue.” The wind carried the smell of Lake Michigan toward us, and the Ferris wheel’s lazy rotation drew his eye. I finished the last bite of calamari then inhaled my drink. “Wanna ride still?”

“I’d love a ride. Perfect evening for it.”

We eased into the short line for the Ferris wheel and took seats together in our own private little box a short while later. Not to be obvious, I waited until we made one full rotation before I gave the machine a little... hiccup.

“Whoops. Looks like we’re stuck up here at the top.”

Gabriel raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I don’t believe you for a second. Fae are awful liars.”

“Moi? Whatever lie did I tell?”

Before he could answer, I twined my fingers in his hair and dragged him down to my level, claiming his mouth and savoring a hint of the sweet cocktail lingering on his lips.

Finally. No one could interrupt us in a glassed-in box suspended who knows how many feet in the air.

The kiss deepened, tingles dancing over my skin. Desire grew second by second and flourished as his tongue traced the inside of my mouth. I nibbled his lower lip and eased onto his lap, straddling both thighs. He dragged me in closer, holding a fistful of my gym shorts. In our new position, there was no disguising the hard bulge pressing against my inner thigh.

“Dammit, Sky. Did you influence me?” His lips skimmed my jaw. Then he found my ear and nibbled, sending sparks of delight shooting down my spine to every nerve ending. He snuck a hand beneath my shirt and trailed his fingers up my back until he reached the band of my sports bra.

“No. Not you. Never you. Besides…” It was hard to think, let alone form coherent sentences when he flicked his tongue against my ear. “Um, Ferris wheel was your suggestion. Mine was going to be a hotel for the night, but then I remembered we have class.” Shit.

The kisses stopped. “A hotel? Uh, for what I’m thinking of, or some other reason?”

He was talking and the words all sort of blurred together, but eventually I made sense of what he was asking. Heat flushed through my cheeks. “Well, I wasn’t exactly thinking of tearing your clothes off and tackling you onto the bed—” His hair had fallen back into his eyes, in desperate need of a trim, so I swept it aside and lowered my voice. “Honestly, I was more thinking of letting you get some rest. I’m not saying I’m not ready for that step, but I’m not in a rush either.”

“Yeah. I’m not rushing you.”

His dick said otherwise. I lowered my fingers between our bodies and traced the less-than-subtle outline of it beneath his shorts. Gabriel sucked in a sharp breath.

The attraction hadn’t moved yet. People waited restlessly while the operators down below argued about whose fault it was.

I drew my hand back. “Sorry. This is so not how I planned for the night to go. Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed you in public.”

“Hey…” He cupped my face between his palms, eyes filled with concern. “I’m not ashamed of us, if that’s what you think. I don’t want you to ever think I’m ashamed of what we have and that we have to hide in a Ferris wheel to have some time alone. Or a hotel room.”

“Trust me, ashamed is the last thing I feel about you. I just don’t want to risk Provost Riordan having to separate us. Or getting you into a shitstorm of trouble with Jada.”

“Fuck Jada and what she thinks. Honestly, she’s about this close to me visiting the provost about her behavior.” He held his thumb and forefinger a fraction of an inch apart.

“And your family?”

He sighed and leaned back against the padded seat. “It sucks that they cut me off, but none of that is your fault. Jada and I just weren’t right together. I figured that out a long time ago.”

“I know I had nothing to do with that, but still. You’re working so hard to pay for crap. Rodrigo sort of let it slip that you were doing some crazy shit.”

His chin dropped, eyes closing. “You mean like filming amateur pornography for bored married folks?”

“Hey.” I tilted his face up again. “I’m not worried as long as you stay behind the camera.”

“Trust me, it’s not as hot as you might think. I actually find it dull, but it pays decent.” He stroked my hair back from my face. “It’s all movie magic, clever angles, and being way closer than I want to be to someone else’s dick.”

“Ew.”

“Honestly? Absolutely worth it to be able to take you out tonight and not worry about the cash.”

“You don’t have to spend money on me.”

“I know, but I wanted to,” he said, kissing me again. “And I also think the rest of these people want off the ride.”

“Party pooper.”

Gabriel grinned. “Sentinels have a reputation for being party poopers. Antonin has a fae for a ward, and you know what he tells us?”

“What?”

“If a fae has a fun idea, it’s our job to shit all over it, because they’re never up to any good.”

I laughed and crawled off his lap. A snap of my fingers produced a magical spark, undoing the jinx and powering the Centennial Wheel again. To take advantage of what time we had left, I leaned against his side and placed my ear over his heart while stroking my fingers down the back of his hand.

We took our time walking back to the car, and I wished we didn’t have to head back so soon. Still, any time we got together was better than none.

“Want me to drive back since you had like six of those drinks?” I asked.

“Three.”

“Three huge drinks. More like nine regular-sized drinks.”

He shrugged then fished his keys from his pocket, only to give me a look when I tickled his ribs. “I paid my insurance this month. Why not?”

“Really?”

He tossed me the keys. Expecting a different answer, I fumbled them before heading over to the driver’s side. Of course, it took almost five minutes to adjust the seat and mirrors where I could reach and see. His long legs put the pedals out of my reach.

“Need a booster seat?” he teased.

“Shush. I’m not even short.”

Traffic wasn’t too bad to start, since it was late enough that rush hour was over and most people were home for dinner. Despite his teasing, Gabriel didn’t tense or nitpick my driving.

“Ugh, this idiot in the blue car ahead of us keeps veering over every time I want to pass.”

“Yeah, looks like she’s texting and not paying attention.”

Gabriel always had me respond to his text messages while he was driving, but the girl’s friend, a vague shape in the passenger seat, seemed disinterested. “You’d think the other person would say something to them about—shit!”

Another car attempted to overtake the blue Charger. The distracted driver, busy with her phone, sailed into his rear, and he fishtailed wildly into oncoming traffic. The scream of tearing metal filled the air with the thunderous crash of the Charger swerving then flipping down the road.

A whole string of colorful epitaphs filled the car as I swerved and slammed on the brake, hoping and praying I’d glide past the crash and that the people behind me weren’t going to hit us.

No, they were too close. Definitely going to hit us. The SUV behind us was right on my ass, and we’d be accordion crushed like a smashed soda can.

Instinct took over, a spark of inspiration from the dwindling sun in the twilit sky all I needed.

The Twilight. Fighting against the barrier between realms, fighting against the tremendous weight of the car, and fighting the rules of reality, I tore Gabriel’s vehicle into the spiritual realm and made it as insubstantial as mist. The effect lasted for only three seconds. Three vital seconds that felt like hours to a mind taxed to its limit.

I screamed the whole time until we rematerialized on the other side of the accident and came to a screeching halt, leaving a broken path of rubber tracks on the road. My heart raced, pounding hard in my chest, and my knuckles were white around the steering wheel.

Exhausted, I slumped against the wheel, sweat pouring down my face.

“We’re alive?”

I tested my mouth, wetting dry lips. “I… I think so.”

When I glanced at Gabriel, he was white as a sheet, his palm still pressed against the dash in front of him, the other gripping the arm rest. He stared through the windshield.

“We’re not dead,” he said out loud, half in awe, but possibly to convince himself too. Then he snapped out of it, jerked his gaze to me, and promptly examined my face. “Are you okay? You look like hell.”

I didn’t want to know what I’d just physically done to myself, so I didn’t look in the rearview mirror. “I feel like hell, but right now, I think we need to help those people.”

The guy who’d been hit stepped out of his car, which had crashed into the center divider and crumpled up his entire front end. Blood dripped down his face.

We popped our belts and rushed from the car, pure adrenaline fueling me after discharging what felt like every spec of faerie dust I’d had in reserve. The driver hadn’t moved from the other vehicle.

“Are you all right?” I called to him. The poor guy was in a daze. Another responder helped me guide him to the side of the road to sit on the guard rail.

Since I overheard someone else calling it in, I followed Gabriel to the flipped car with the two passengers—the ones who had caused this whole mess. We found one young woman hanging suspended by her seat belt, unconscious and bleeding profusely from a head injury. A hint of gold kissed her aura, along with the familiarity of Pilar’s magic. I’d recognize a glamour cast by her anywhere, on any person.

“Oh no, that’s Yasmina. She’s Pilar’s charge,” I whispered.

“You should call and let her know.”

The wail of sirens echoed through the noisy metropolitan night. I glanced toward the flashing lights in the distance, relieved. “Yeah, you’re right, but after we get this sorted out.”

Gabriel crouched beside the damaged door to look in through the window. With a little shifter muscle, he wrenched it open. “I don’t want to risk moving her.”

I crouched down beside him and searched the car. Her phone lay on the roof, the cracked blue screen displaying her most recent message about receiving an acceptance letter to the University of Chicago.

“Wait, where’s the other person? There were two people, right?”

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, I’d swear there were.”

“Could the other person have been thrown from the—” A sharp, metallic smell caught my attention, the subtle scent of magic lingering in the air. It reminded me of ozone but sour. “Do you smell that?”

Gabriel sat back on his heels and dragged in a long breath. “Another fae has been here.”

Had we just seen the Scary Godmother? Did Gabriel even know about the rumors? Of course he did. Gabriel knew everything.

His nose wrinkled. “I smell something else. Gas.”

“I think that car on fire stuff only happens in the mov—”

A spark ignited beneath the hood, and curls of smoke rose in the air. Before I could say a word, Gabriel dove into the opening and jerked Yasmina’s seat belt to pull her out of the vehicle.

“Gabriel!”

“It’s okay!” He slid her back across the rough asphalt road, panting as he did it, abrading his knuckles in the rush to pull her clear of the vehicle. The glass in Yasmina’s windshield shattered a moment later as the car went up in flames. Gabriel stared at it wide-eyed and turned to look at me. “Call Pilar now.”

Not natural. I tapped Pilar’s name in the contacts log, and the moment she answered, I blurted out, “Yasmina’s been in an accident. You need to get here right away. I...”

Exhaustion swam over me and distorted the surrounding world, pitching me backward and stealing the strength from my quaking legs. Strong arms wrapped around my middle and held me up. Gabriel’s heartbeat pounded beneath my ear, and though it sounded like he was miles away, I heard him complete the call to Pilar, telling her where the paramedics were likely to take her charge.

“Was she in the accident too?” someone asked.

“No. My girlfriend got a little weak at the sight of all the blood.”

The rest of their exchange blurred. When I stirred again, we were pulling into his parking space at PNRU and my head felt like someone had tried to open my skull with a chisel.

“What happened?”

“You passed out at the wreck. Expended too much energy saving our asses. Nurse Kristi said to make sure you rest and go see her if needed.”

“Shit, we’re way late for class.”

“Antonin knows why. We’ll make it up tomorrow during our training time.”

“I have boot camp tonight too.”

“Bregman dismissed you.”

I blinked.

“I told you, under that tough bitch werewolf shit, she cares about us. You aren’t any good if you’re magically taxed, Sky.”

“But—”

“No buts. Rest.” He killed the engine and helped me from the car. The world spun again, and then in the next moment, I was in his arms.

“You can’t carry me across the campus, Gabriel. People will see.”

“Don’t care. I’m your sentinel first, boyfriend second.”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not.”

He looked down at me, a serious look on his face. “No matter what happens between us, I’ll always look out for you. Always. Nothing’s gonna ruin that.”

Whenever a student stopped us along the way, Gabriel gave them the concise summary of events: his ward had overtaxed herself performing a serious lifesaving miracle.

It only took a few minutes to cross the grounds to my place. Liadan opened the door before we reached it, and then Gabriel set me on the couch while she fussed over me.

“I’ll report what we saw to Simon and Sebastian. You get a shower and some shut eye, okay? You were awesome tonight. I know older fae who can’t do what you did.”

“I didn’t know I could. I didn’t even really know what I was doing. I just—I couldn’t—” Lose him. I couldn’t lose him. I swallowed, mouth dry and chest tight. “I was terrified and didn’t want us to get killed.” And now that it was over, and hearing the awe in his voice, I could look back on what I’d done and marvel myself. “Maybe we can practice that. Without possible death looking over us though.”

“Maybe.”

He kissed me and left.

Silence fell over the living room. Liadan texted someone on her phone, giving me space and time. I needed a few minutes to think about how close I’d come to dying, not because there was a vampire in my way, but because a woman had decided to text while driving.

Could Yasmina be blamed when a fae had been whispering in her ear, likely encouraging her to send one more text? Yes, most certainly fucking yes, I decided, feeling less sympathetic for the girl.

A fae couldn’t force anyone to act entirely out of character. We only encouraged. We made okay ideas sound marvelous and transformed bleh thoughts into shitty ideas. Yasmina could have resisted.

Lia set her phone aside. “You look awful.”

“I feel awful, like I’ll never get my energy back.”

“You need a boost,” Liadan said. “And I’m sure Pilar will too when she gets back, but right now we need to get you perked up.”

“Just throw on a rom-com or something.”

She shook her head. “It won’t be enough. C’mon, let’s get you to the student center.”

The idea of getting up and moving made me groan. “Why?”

“The fae are gathered up for a jam session.”

10

The Power of Sweets Compels Me

Aside from squeezing in nine hours a week at the campus bookstore, I never visited the student center for more than a few minutes to eat lunch. The rec room was located one level beneath the campus store, a large, open space filled with multiple sofas, love seats, and squishy beanbags.

Flat screens spanned one wall for video gaming, a Dance Dance Revolution machine took up one corner, flanked by a couple classic arcade games, and a group of fae occupied a karaoke machine playing a hit ’80s song. They were actually pretty good.

While I drifted in and out of an overstimulated daze, Lia managed to get us a seat on one of the limited couches. Within minutes, I had a fruity drink in one hand and a plate of chewy, chocolate chip M&M cookies in front of me. I’d eaten at least five.

I nibbled one absently, letting the sugary treat console me until the scent of the ocean filled my immediate area. I glanced up at Julien.

“Skylar? What a surprise.”

“Hey, Julien.” Maybe I’d gotten used to him again, or maybe it was because I had no energy to even get a ladyboner over him, because he didn’t stir my interest even a little.

“You look…”

“Horrible?” I offered.

“I was going to say beat. What happened?”

“What happened indeed?” Jiro strolled up and set three more snickerdoodle cookies on my half-empty plate. “You looked like you could use some more sweets.”

“Thanks.”

Jiro inclined his head then turned to acknowledge Julien. “Sorry to butt in. I’d heard a rumor that Skylar was hurt and couldn’t help but wander over when I saw her here.”

“Hey, it’s a party. Everyone is welcome to talk to everyone,” Julien said. Then his gaze flickered back to me and his expression softened. “Really though, are you all right?”

“Yeah.” I went through everything that had happened, minus the fact that Pilar’s charge had been involved. That little fact could wait until the school decided to let it be known. Besides, I didn’t want anyone saying crap about Pilar, because there was no way she could have known.

“Wow. You jumped the entire car through the Twilight?” Julien stared at me in awe.

“Then I passed out not long after. Hence my party and sugar recharge.”

Jiro chuckled and offered a hand. “Well then, let’s get you up on stage or something. Play some music. The more pleasure you inspire, the more energy you can siphon.”

“Oh no. I am not musically inclined.”

“It’s true,” Liadan said. She glanced toward the corner. “Though…”

I followed her gaze to the DDR game. “Oh no.”

“Why not? You dance all the time.”

“In my room!”

“Sadly, I have never played the game,” Jiro said.

“But I have.” Julien’s eyes lit with glee. “Are you afraid I’ll beat you with an audience?”

“Nobody beats me at DDR.”

He crossed his arms and cupped his chin with the heel of his palm. “But if you do not dance… you certainly couldn’t have any amount of skill at the game.”

I knew what he was doing, and because I couldn’t take the slight against my nonexistent video gaming reputation, I shoved another cookie in my mouth, choked down my strawberry virgin daiquiri, and followed him to the machine. Jiro and Liadan trailed after us and took up spectating positions nearby.

“Do I get to pick the song?”

“Of course. After all, I challenged you.”

“Perfect.”

I kicked off my shoes and moved onto the metal pad to pick a song, choosing “Butterfly” and Expert mode. He raised both brows at me.

“Better than ‘Candy’ I suppose.”

“Shush.”

A crowd gathered around us as the countdown started. We took our places on the metal pads, and I braced my hands against the bar behind me until I glanced at Julien and saw he was standing between the four sensors, tall frame relaxed and loose.

Figured he’d be one of those guys who could play the game without needing the damned bar. I let go of it too and mirrored him as assembling students cheered.

“Kick his ass! He never loses!”

Damn, the pressure was on.

“Go, Skylar!” Lia called, clapping loudly.

Playing a beloved video game was like riding a bike. No matter how long you were away from it, the skill, the muscle memory, it all comes flooding back when you need it. Listening to the initial notes, I tapped a foot to the rhythm and waited for the dance prompts.

Arrows slid across the screen, easy opening steps surfacing from rusty memories of spending way too many hours in my living room playing the game with Mindi or at the arcade with our mutual friends. A dozen more flew over the screen, progressing in speed, complexity rising and requiring me to plot out movements a few steps ahead if I didn’t want to trip over my own feet.

Spinning, I tapped every prompt in time with the music, achieving scores of Great.

Our audience grew. I didn’t see them, but I felt their rising interest like the swelling tide, growing and gathering, a snowball rolling downhill.

The louder they cheered, the higher my mood soared until it was like the two went hand-in-hand, one elevating the other in a reciprocal pattern. Their amusement, happiness, and support washed over me in shimmering waves pulsating to the beat. I risked a glance over at Julien. He hadn’t even broken a sweat, but I stumbled over a step while keeping tabs on him. The game still registered it as a Good instead of a Miss, saving my flawless score.

Head in the game, girl.

“Go, Skylar! Go, Skylar!”

Admiration was basically crack for a fae, but a good and clean drug instead of an evil narcotic that would waste us away. And since you had to do good things—usually—to earn the admiration of others, there was no risk of harming anyone or becoming a darkling.

Warmth and golden light flooded the area, my wings emerging of their own volition as I drank in the crowd’s entertainment.

“Wooo!” someone cried. “Show them wings, girl!”

When the song came to an end, the room burst into cheering applause. Our scores popped up.

I’d beaten Julien by ten points.

He just grinned. “Nice wings.”

“Thanks.”

“Another song then?”

“Yes!”

He chose this time. As we neared the end, sweat poured down my face, my shirt stuck to my back, and hair plastered to my temples. I pushed a few lank, curling strands behind my ears and laughed. The scores were close enough that students took bets on which of us would win.

I didn’t have a chance. He knew the song inside and out, and I’d never danced to “Dynamite Rave” before. Julien had been grace personified, pulling off breakdancing moves that would have twisted my ankles if I tried without practicing.

It ended with him in the lead by thirty points. He wiped a wrist across his perspiring brow. “Feel better?”

“I do. Thanks.”

Better didn’t cut it. An exhilarated buzz zipped across my skin, flooding down every nerve ending until I bounced with joy. Avoiding their parties had been a mistake. I might not have been a muse, but the company of my fellow fae uplifted me.

His grin widened suddenly. “Do you want to learn to freestyle ‘Afronova’ together?” he asked, referring to one of the most difficult songs in the game’s catalog. “There are team competitions once a month, and we pool together prizes.”

“Dude, I am so there.”

* * *

It was just before two in the morning when Liadan and I returned to the townhouse. Pilar still wasn’t home, but Holly sprawled across the couch, texting on her phone.

“There you are, Sky. I didn’t see you or Gabriel in class, and you missed boot camp. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, um… Charge stuff came up.”

“Well, you missed a lot.” She tapped out something on her phone then sat up. “I have so much gossip for you both.”

I perked up. “Yeah?”

“Yes. So, I’m kind of dating this senior vamp guy—relax, this one is totally Sebastian approved—and he spends a lot of time at the sentinel office. He said there was an actual sighting of the Scary Godmother. A real sighting. Some students here saw her.”

Ripples of apprehension rolled through my stomach. Liadan took my hand, squeezed, and smiled bright enough to vanquish the dark shadows threatening to blanket my newly recovered good mood. I smiled back.

“Anyway, I’m trying to get Victor to give me a name. If I can’t get it from him, I’ll find out some other way.”

“You don’t have to look far, Holly. It was me.”

“What? Oh my God, are you okay?” She tossed the phone away and jumped from the couch, crossing the floor to hug me with a superfast vampire shadowstep that made it seem like she vanished and reappeared.

“Oof. A little lighter on the hugs, lady.”

Her embrace eased. “Sorry.”

I laughed and squeezed her back, soaking in the good friendship vibes that filled our house. “I’m okay now. It was a close call. I mean, we almost got pulled into the wreck.”

“I took her to the student center to recharge,” Liadan said.

Holly frowned. “Wow, it must have been bad if you managed to drag her to one of those parties.”

“I jumped Gabriel’s car through a pileup.”

She stared like I’d suggested I was the second coming of Titania. “What? Okay, now I seriously need details.”

It took only a minute to tell her everything, and by the end, her mouth hung open.

“Whoa. That’s terrifying. Is her charge okay?”

“We don’t know yet. Pilar is still at the hospital.”

“And the Scary Godmother? What’d she look like?”

“We didn’t actually get a good look. Brunette, that’s about all we know. I couldn’t even say for sure if it was her, but… it makes sense. A fae was in that car before it crashed.”

“And a good fae would have done anything to help,” Liadan said.

“Remember Gloria Stoltz? I tried to stop her, but she was so set on doing what she wanted. Like someone had already swayed her, but the wrong way.”

Holly raised her brows. “Is it possible it was a good fae, but they bailed out before the crash to save their own life?”

“Doubtful. Well… I mean, it is possible, but why didn’t they stick around to help after the wreck? If it was me, I would have bailed out too, but I would have at least tried to stay and help with the responders.”

“Damn. Point.”

“A mystery for another time.” Liadan tried to smother a yawn. “As for me, it’s bedtime. Night, girls.”

“Night.”

“You should do the same,” Holly said.

“Yeah, I think I will, thanks. Night.”

We split apart, and I went to my room, passing out the moment my head hit the pillows.

11

A True Monster

Despite sending a few texts to Pilar throughout the morning, we didn’t hear from her. After Magical History, I popped in at home with Liadan and Holly to dump my books in the living room, wondering if Tristal would cancel our lessons.

Pilar was on the couch when we came inside, face plain and freckled. I hadn’t realized she had freckles, because I’d never seen her without makeup before. She had her hands in her lap, picking at her nails while she stared at the powered-down television.

Dread pressed an iron weight over my heart. Liadan had gone sheet-white beside us, and I knew the answer to the question on the tip of my tongue before I even asked, because there were no longer any colors around Pilar. Her faerie light was bleak and muddy gray, like furious storm clouds preceding a hurricane.

Because there was always a chance, I asked the question on all our minds anyway. “How’s Yasmina?”

“Her family let her go this morning.”

Holly gasped. “Oh no.”

“There was too much to do. Her spinal cord had been severed by a piece of bone fragment, and her brain was swelling faster than we could coax it down. One of her lungs had collapsed. She was in cardiac tamponade.”

I held my breath.

“Tristal looked at the Destiny Lines. It was as if there was a tremendous kink in all the threads connected to Yasmina. For every knot we untangled, another one rose in its place. Tristal tried to call another fae in to help, but we were not enough. And… and she was suffering. She was suffering so much. I tried everything I could to help her, but her parents—” Raw and agonizing sobs cut her words off with choking, rattling noises from her chest.

“Sweetie, I am so sorry.” Holly sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around Pilar’s quaking shoulders.

When Liadan edged away to make tea, I took cues from her and fetched Pilar’s gourmet chocolate stash, adding a few of my special Kit Kats I never shared with anyone. Thanks to Gabriel, I’d been introduced to a world of Japanese flavors like matcha, sweet sake, and purple yam. He’d mailed me the latter over the summer.

Pilar blinked up at me when I placed the bag in her lap. “You’re giving me your Kit Kats?”

“Yup. You need them more than I do, girl. Start with the sweet sake.”

Moisture brimmed over her lashes. “Thank you.”

“I have to get to my lesson with Tristal. Want me to bring anything back from the food court afterward? Lunch is on me.”

“No, I’m good, but thanks.”

I nodded, hating to leave and wondering if I could get a raincheck.

No. As much as I wanted to stay with my friend, I needed to talk to Tristal about what I saw.

* * *

A charmed dandelion seed encountered me on the walking path, bearing an audible message in Tristal’s voice to meet her at the combat training ground in the sentinel compound instead of our usual spot in the gymnasium. I found her there inside the place where the sentinels usually trained in their spectacular gun-wielding fighting styles, resembling action heroes like Christian Bale in Equilibrium and Neo from The Matrix.

That’d be me one day. If I didn’t flunk my once-in-a-lifetime chance.

Wizards had enchanted the entire building, bulletproofing interior walls and equipment while also fortifying the spectating room’s glass shields. It still smelled like magic and gunpowder, since mages like Holly learned to combine spellcraft with ammo. A dozen or so pockmarked dummies filled the arena.

“Good day, Miss Corazzi. Thank you for coming.”

“There’s nothing good about today.”

“There isn’t,” she agreed. “But the day must go on.”

“It was a darkling, wasn’t it? That’s who messed everything up with Yasmina.”

“Yes. I was able to confirm a leanansidhe snarled the Destiny Lines. The provost shall make an official announcement this evening regarding the danger.”

“Is it the Scary Godmother?” When she cocked a brow, I resisted the urge to fidget. “That’s what everyone on campus dubbed her.”

“All we know is what I have told you. This leanansidhe is… quite powerful.”

“How do we stop something like that? How do we keep our charges safe?”

“You do what you have always done and guide your charge to the best of your abilities. We can’t always be there for them, Miss Corazzi. What happened to Miss Sánchez’s charge is a tragedy.”

My shoulders sagged. “I was there. Maybe I could have—”

“Done what, exactly? Did you know there was a fae in that car?”

“Well, no.”

“Did you know the car would crash?”

“No, but—”

“We are fae. Some mortals may see us as guardian angels, but we cannot save everyone from their bad decisions. There aren’t enough of us for every human in the world, and we cannot be with our charges every second of every day.” Her voice softened. “You were there, but there was absolutely nothing you could have done. You know that.”

It didn’t make it hurt any less. I thought of Pilar and the pain that had been radiating off her. If it had been Sharon in that car, I had no idea what I would have done.

“How long will it take for Pilar to feel better?”

“A few days at the most. As she and Yasmina were only in union for a few weeks, she will likely rebound before this week finishes. The damage is less severe than it would be if say, Sharon were to perish prematurely.”

“What about you? How long have you been with your current charge, professor?”

“I don’t have one. Now let’s move on to your lesson. Today, you learn to battle the fae.”

I blinked. “Say what?”

“At some point in your future, it will be necessary to know how to battle your own kind. Our remaining lessons will prepare you for the event.”

The distinction between will and may had never seemed more significant.

I couldn’t tell if she was speaking in generalizations or if she’d let slip a tiny peek into my future. Both disturbing possibilities raised the hairs on my arms. My dreams of becoming a sentinel had always involved staking nosferatu. I’d never even considered darkling fae, because our kind rarely went bad.

“Your instinct will be to use Faerie Fire, but—”

“It doesn’t work against fae,” I said. “Not even darklings?

“It does. In fact, it works tremendously well against darklings, as we discussed before. The problem with battling a leanansidhe is that she will take control of your fire from you, thus endangering all others in the vicinity, and should it be your fire that harms or slays a mortal, it will be the guilt you bear.”

“Whoa.”

“Yes. It’s a little-known fact we try not to spread around. Do you recall how it felt to discover you had harmed members of the Wild Hunt Club?”

“Awful.”

“Now imagine it is a group of innocent mortals instead of skilled shapeshifters able to regenerate from the flames.”

I sucked in a breath between my teeth. “Then how do I fight her?”

“You fight using the faerie talents acquired during your Ascension this spring. These are gifts unique to the sylph alone, and as your particular breed are rare, unlike mine, you will find your abilities unmatched. There hasn’t been a darkling sylph in centuries. Show me your wings.”

Mercifully, the weeks of practice had paid off. I drew the spectral wings from within my soul and let them flourish, becoming more than an invisible, perpetual state of warmth around my shoulder blades. The light glowed in strands of ruby, fuchsia, and gold as I swept both out to their full span.

“Excellent. You practiced.”

“I did.”

“Were you aware the most powerful sylphs are able to create storms?”

“Seriously?”

Professor Tristal dipped her head. “Wind and lightning fall within the jurisdiction of your powers. The provost has beseeched the Summer Court for a sylph to provide further instruction, but until they make a decision, I will do my best to guide you.”

The professor directed me to the center of the sparring ring across from a training dummy. She made a few gestures with her hands and dismissed the magical dome that usually arced over the open ceiling. Without the barrier, the sun radiated warmth against my head and a cool breeze snaked through the room. “Calling the winds to aid you can be useful in several ways. You can use them as deflection against incoming attacks, to speed your steps, or to push your opponents away.”

“So how do I do that?”

“Reach out with your magic. Feel the wind and try to nudge it toward the target. Imagine the breeze as something you can sculpt and mold to your whim without the need for glamours and silly mage’s spells, because the wind is part of you. It is in your blood, a living essence joined with your soul. As you are a sylph, you are forever bound to the sky and all things that are part of it.”

Being forever bound to the sky was a laughable notion when I hadn’t floated more than a few steps at a time, or flown higher than jumping distance from the ground, terrified of plummeting to my death.

She made it sound easy, but every time I reached out for the wind, figuratively and literally, nothing happened. It was only air, with nothing tangible for me to grasp. After several fruitless attempts, my professor directed me to fly laps around the room.

And those laps consisted of me jogging to gain momentum for my wings to carry me forward a few yards. After two rotations of that, Tristal sighed in disgust.

“Don’t you know how to flap your wings?”

“They move?” Feeling dumb the moment the words left my mouth, I added, “I guess I already knew that, but I’m not sure how to do it.”

“As luck would have it, you have no afternoon classes and I am free from other obligations until three. I refuse to let you leave my company until your negligence is rectified. Three laps flown by wing power alone shall be sufficient, of course.”

“But lunch—”

“Lunch can wait. The sooner you fulfill those requirements, the sooner you can eat, Miss Corazzi.”

I’d thought working one-on-one with Professor Tristal would be fun and educational. The truth turned out to be more like boot camp, and my ass belonged to the sternest faerie in PNRU until I learned to fly or she was due for her next class.

* * *

Emotionally and mentally exhausted, I grabbed an oatmeal banana smoothie from the food court and returned to a quiet townhouse a little after two. Since Holly had already shut her door, I tried to relax under a long shower with my favorite lavender aromatherapy bodywash, luxuriating away the trauma of the previous night.

My busy mind kept me awake long after I crawled under the sheets, restlessly tossing and turning.

Tap. Tap.

I tossed off the covers and moved to the window, throwing open the curtains to find a raven perched on the window planter amidst the roses. Some of the feathers around its face and neck were unruly, reminding me of Gabriel’s hair.

A quick search of the grounds below located the werewolf currently guarding the house. He waved from beneath our apple tree.

My visitor had to be safe then. The moment I raised the pane, the bird cocked its blue-black head. Pale brown eyes filled with a keen intelligence watched me.

“Gabe?”

“Up for some company?” the bird asked in a creakier version of my boyfriend’s voice.

“Yours? Always.”

I brought him inside on my wrist then shut the window and curtains. He was heavier than I’d anticipated, a large creature by species and even bigger since shifters were always the ideal specimen of their particular breeds. He weighed as much as a sack of sugar. Somewhere between five and ten pounds.

Sitting on the edge of the bed and placing Gabriel on my lap, I took my first opportunity to truly admire his avian form, to appreciate the beauty of him. There were other similarities between his human body and the bird perched on my thigh, his brighter eyes and crown feathers that, no matter how many times I smoothed them down, fluffed up again. I laughed.

“What?”

“You look like you still.”

“Are you just noticing that?”

“Well, yeah. All the other times I saw you like this, we were either fighting for our lives or I was being bossed around by Monica.”

“Point.” He fluffed up then preened a wing feather. “Well?”

“You’re beautiful.”

“I was hoping for handsome.”

“Nope. Beautiful. This is the prettiest shade of blue I’ve ever seen.” I stroked the feathers on his shoulders then dragged that finger toward his neck. He leaned into it and closed his eyes, making this low, quiet noise of pleasure and absolute contentment—bliss given sound.

“How come you aren’t asleep?” I finally asked.

“I wanted to see how you were doing. We have a training session tonight, but we can skip that if you’re not feeling up to it yet.”

“I…” Wanted to stay in bed wrapped in his arms instead of sweating on the training yard. After considering the benefits of each option, I kissed his beak. “I can train later if you’ll stay here with me now.” His feathered chest looked snuggly and warm.

He hopped off my lap and onto the spot beside my pillow, so I rolled onto my belly and curled in close, with my arm wrapped around his smaller body. His warmth and gentle preening through my hair lulled me to a peaceful transition between consciousness and sleep.

“Gabriel?” His name left my lips in a drowsy slur. I struggled to hold on.

He cocked his head. “Yeah?”

“Would you think less of me if I said I was scared?”

“Not at all. I’m a little scared too, but like you said, we’re going to get through this. Anyone who wants to hurt you, will have to come through me first.”

* * *

Gabriel gave me a pass on the hardcore training that night. Since skipping across the Veil was obviously one of my strengths, we spent most of the ninety-minute session practicing evasion tactics involving the Twilight and what he wanted me to do if we encountered danger away from the school.

He met my initial protests with common sense. If he was shooting a gun loaded with silver bullets, did I really want my ass in the way?

Whispers followed me throughout the halls during my journey to the social sciences building for Magical Ethics. By now, everyone on campus had heard about what happened on the highway.

Our teacher, an ancient raven by the name of Professor English, perched on one foot in his animal form on a chair back at the front of the lecture hall. He looked like he was asleep, but we knew better.

Anji waved me over. “Skylar, come sit with me over here.”

“Thanks.” My bag hit the floor with a soft thud, and I sank down in the padded chair. A few people twisted in their seats to look at me, which only added to the uneasiness churning in my gut. Being the center of attention was disconcerting when it didn’t involve dancing games.

When the bell rang, indicating the start of class, Professor English flew to his podium and landed in human form, gray feathers transitioning to sparse silver hair. He picked up the clicker for the projector and started the slideshow without fanfare.

“In light of recent circumstances, I have decided to rearrange the semester’s curriculum and begin the chapter covering fae this evening.”

Crap. I hadn’t read that far ahead in the book, but by the mutters rumbling through the room, neither had anyone else.

“Now, the fae have a natural ability to change the world around them by altering reality—glamour clothes, influence people, and even change luck. Can anyone tell me how these abilities could be abused?”

“Yeah, they get whatever they want,” someone behind me said.

“I’ve seen underage fae sneak into bars because they can glamour their license,” another girl added.

Professor English nodded. “Some good examples. Now, tell me, Miss Corazzi, why do more fae not abuse their power in this manner?”

“Because when we use our magic for selfish reasons, we can go dark. Glamouring clothes is fine, and little things like the fake ID are okay on occasion. It’s the other stuff like tampering with emotions or influencing someone for the wrong reasons that can add up over time. It’s… addictive, I guess you could say.”

Professor English crossed his wiry arms against his frail-looking chest. “Tell us about some of the basic transgressions a fae can make.”

“Um, we’ve already discussed some of them. It starts with frequently using glamour to break the laws of man. It’s a breach of their personal morals and behaving in a way they know is wrong. Bending the rules to help someone is okay, and so is the occasional prank if no one comes to harm.”

“Correct. It is the frequent and repeated disregard for the laws of man that places a fae’s light in peril.”

Professor English pressed the clicker. A radiant fae in an emerald dress posed in front of the fountain of Queen Titania and King Oberon, her golden-brown hair shimmering in the sun. “This was one of my students. Twenty-three years ago, she turned to the dark and began to prey on young men at beaches, draining them of vitality and life during sexual intercourse.”

One of the werewolves beside me grimaced. “That’s a selkie, right?”

“Yes. After she had drained them and they were no longer useful to her, she lured them away and consumed them.” He clicked to the next slide, revealing a deformed hellbeast covered in ragged strands of seaweed, its monstrous jaws open wide. A shotgun blast had opened its side, and an iron rod protruded from its chest. It had been slain. “She became a kelpie, a monster known to inhabit ocean depths and lakes.”

Several students jolted in their seats, and my blood ran cold.

“Holy shit,” the guy next to me breathed.

“Oh fuck, man. Couldn’t you warn us?” someone asked in the front row. “That is ugly.”

Professor English raised a brow. “Shall I swap to the slides of wendigos instead?”

The whole room fell silent. Professor English waited a moment for his point to sink in, and then he switched to the next slide.

“There are no warnings in real life, young man. Now, as I was saying, this young lady was once one of my students. A selkie is a sexual creature, as are many varieties of fae, but it wasn’t her promiscuity that threatened her safety. It was the deviant decision to feed endlessly on her lovers’ life energy—on their joy and happiness until so very little was left that their emotions became… unpalatable to her.”

I knew where he was going. Uncomfortable, I shifted in my chair, knowing he planned to call on me again before he said my name.

“What happens to the prey of a faerie darkling, Miss Crowder?”

I exhaled in relief.

Anji jumped and desperately thumbed through her textbook. “Uh, they get depressed, right? Suicidally depressed.”

“Yes. When so many young mortal men turn to suicide in a given timeframe, in one particular area, sentinels are dispatched to investigate. Consuming them became her way of hiding the evidence.”

Someone gagged.

The next slide displayed an unusual chimera with the long trunk of an elephant and the powerful, furry legs of a tiger. It was covered in gorgeous scales that shimmered from gold to green. “This is a baku, and their particular breed Ascends exclusively in Eastern Asia. There are dozens in Shangri-La, though we rarely receive such a fascinating addition at PNRU.”

I wondered if Jiro felt as lonely about being the only baku as I did about being the only sylph.

A werewolf in the front row glanced down at her textbook. “They eat nightmares, don’t they? Their darkling form is called a nue. They cause nightmares and feed on the fear.”

He nodded. “Yes, Miss Watkins. Though I’m certain most of you are familiar with a popular movie franchise featuring a dream demon with a glove of knives, I must say the nue is far more dangerous.”

A few chuckles spread over the class. Gabriel had the boxed set, and we’d vowed to make time to watch them all one night.

“The nue is considered a dream leech and attacks in a similar fashion, acquiring sustenance by draining the life essence and vitality of its host. They grow in power each time the victim is terrorized and slain in nightmares.”

A vampire raised her hand. “But why? Why not eat genuine nightmares instead of causing them?”

The answer slipped out of me, louder than the whisper I’d meant for Anji’s ears alone. “Why does a leanansidhe manufacture happiness?”

The taste. The flavor of ruined dreams had to be every bit as delicious as false happiness.

“Excellent, Miss Corazzi. It is a matter of taste, and I imagine, also for the pleasure. At any point in your future careers as sentinels, you may cross paths with a faerie who is well on his or her way toward the dark. You may even work alongside them. It is your responsibility, especially as their partner, to discourage such activities or… to report them to the proper authorities for destruction.”

The lecture went on with our professor covering other varieties of darkling fae, from gremlins to hags and barghests, always revealing the photograph of a beautiful faerie or half-fae before showing us what became of them. We spent the latter half of class discussing the dark decisions that led them away from the path of light, and ways budding sentinels could sniff out corruption in their wards.

“This goes for you as well, Miss Corazzi. Though you may be a fae, it is most important that you maintain constant vigilance when it comes to your peers. You must not allow friendships or even a misguided sense of loyalty to cloud your judgment.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

“Good. To conclude our hour together, I remind all of you that our ethics are what separate us from animals and true monsters. Let no one tell you otherwise.”

The slide transitioned from a defeated dullahan to a sad little cat with enormous, fishy black eyes and slimy brown fur. Its teeth were like needles, and despite it being a darkling, my heart ached for the creature. Of all the ones photographed, the cath palug was the only one still alive.

“Did they kill it after the photo or what?” the same werewolf in the front row asked.

The dismissal bell tolled.

“I will see you all next Tuesday. Be prepared for a quiz on today’s topic. Afterward, we will discuss the corruption of the aos sidhe and their descent into leanansidhe and gan ceanach behavior in depth,” he said, referring to the rarer, more violent male variant of darkling muses.

Outside the classroom, Anji and I walked alongside each other in silence. Eager to move on from what we’d learned in class, I broke it first.

“How are you liking being paired with Ben?”

She snapped out of her daze and blinked at me. “He’s great. Really easy to work with. Probably because he doesn’t leave campus much. And he’s cute too, so that helps.”

I raised both brows. “You think Ben is cute?”

“Um, well, you know, for a mage, I guess.” She shifted her backpack around and slid her notebook inside. “Did you notice he’s growing his hair out?”

My brows raised even higher. “Uh, no.”

“Oh. Um, so anyway, how are you doing? You were so late for class I didn’t get to ask about how you are after what happened on the road.”

“You could have called.”

“Scout said he saw Gabriel drop by your place, so I, uh, didn’t wanna interrupt if y’all were in the bone zone.”

“Anji. Seriously?”

She blinked at me. “What?”

“We’re not boning. We haven’t even talked about it yet. Much. I mean, we just started dating.”

“Oh. That’s a surprise, especially considering he—er, anyway, I meant to ask you something else.”

“No, considering he what?”

“Did you really jump a car through the Twilight?”

I scowled at her, wondering if Gabriel had said something to the shifters about me being off limits when our relationship was supposed to be a big secret. “Yeah, I did. It drained me though, and I’m still tired. Now, seriously, what did Gabriel say?”

“It’s not what he said. It’s what he did. Anyway, I need to run to Geology. I’ll talk later.”

“Anji, what did he—”

“Bye, Sky!”

She jogged away, leaving me to wonder what the hell my raven had done, and why Anji wouldn’t fess up about it when all of us girls told each other everything.

* * *

Biology would have been the ideal place to snooze if not for Liadan kicking my ankle every time my eyes closed for more than five seconds. She kept me up, signaling times when I should take notes, and even fetched me a mocha caramel espresso during the five-minute mini-break our professor gave us.

When Liadan headed to one of her art classes, I went home and found Pilar on the couch in front of her favorite telenovela. I’d been watching it with her most nights before my evening classes, since the lack of subtitles was great practice for me and the storylines were actually awesome.

“Pilar? Hey, we missed you in class.”

She lifted her shoulders and took another bite from the ice cream container on her lap.

And maybe because I’d never seen her looking so glum before, I crossed the room and settled beside her on the couch, trying to pretend I was Liadan and knew exactly what to do.

I hugged her.

Pilar leaned into me, shoulders shaking, face wet within moments of sinking into my embrace. I held her until the last of the sobs subsided and wondered how many times she’d cried on and off throughout the day while we attended classes.

At the end of the episode—Lia must have recorded it the previous night while Pilar slept—I rubbed her back again and stole a peek at her tearstained face.

“We’re worried about you, but we’re here. And we’ll be here for you as long as you need us to be.”

“I know.”

“You know, if you want, I could ask Gabriel to take us to the mall. I know he would.”

“I don’t want to go shopping.”

“Oh, okay. Well, do you—”

“I’m going to bed.”

She left the couch and tossed the ice cream in the freezer.

I bit back the swear on the tip of my tongue as we went forward one step and danced backward two more.

12

Holy Hotness

Frustrated with my inability to harness the wind, Professor Tristal kicked off our Thursday practice session by hammering me with Faerie Fire drills, since, as of now, it was my greatest offensive strength.

Tristal casually snuffed out the last fireball I threw at her. “Again. Perhaps you’ll singe me a little one of these times, Miss Corazzi.”

I closed my fist and smothered the blue and gold flames rising from my palm. “What am I doing wrong?”

“It’s not that you’re doing it wrong, but that it isn’t coming as a natural reflex. Not only is it slow to build, but it lacks power, and by the time it arrives, it is little more than a lick of harmless flame. Your faerie magic must arise without effort. Each precious second you take trying to draw on your power is a second for your enemy to strike or prepare a counter.”

“So muscle memory.”

She gave me a small, tight smile. “Yes, in a fashion. You are able to summon Faerie Fire quickly enough, but not at full strength. I want you to summon your full potential at a moment’s notice.”

“Okay, I’ll keep practicing on my own then too.”

“Excellent. In that case, let’s move on to flight. I’d like you to cross the gymnasium as fast as you’re able.”

Ugh. Figures.

Thankfully, a mere split second of concentration summoned my wings, because I’d practiced it off and on so much Sunday Holly had asked me to knock off the psychedelic rave. And to warn her next time, because their glow affected her like sunlight. I’d felt awful.

The professor watched me expectantly, so I bit back my grumbles and hovered a foot above the floor. Her lips pursed.

“Miss Corazzi, you do realize you’ll have to leave the ground for the sky eventually, yes?”

“I do, but I don’t really feel—”

A presence filled the chamber, an all-encompassing sort of aura that raised the hairs on my arms and buzzed over my bare skin. I heard music in my head, but not with my ears, like a song that only played for the soul.

My heart sped.

I turned toward the sensation and saw a trio of men by the entrance, each dude more handsome than the next, fair-haired and so gorgeous it almost hurt to look at them. The one in the forefront could have been a Norwegian heavy metal rocker, with blond hair that fell past his broad shoulders, spilling over a scarlet cape accented with gold feathers. He wore fitted black leather pants and a cobalt blue vest, revealing his muscled arms.

Professor Tristal tugged me back down to the floor then dipped into a flawless curtsy. “My king.”

The other two fine men flanked King Oberon, his escort on the left angelic and radiant with wings that trailed behind him like glowing streamers. The second had the broad-shouldered build of a bear-shifter and short, spiky white hair. He looked feral by contrast to the other member of the king’s guard.

After fighting with my uncooperative mouth, I found the power to squeak out a greeting and throw myself forward into a deep bow at the waist.

King Oberon gestured with both hands. “Rise, please.”

God, even his voice was sexy. My knees quivered.

“Your arrival is unexpected, Your Majesty,” Tristal said.

“Training a new sylph is a matter of urgency, is it not?” He smiled and stepped forward. “You must be Skylar. I’ve heard so much about you.”

He knew my name. He knew my name! I struggled to breathe, words stuck in my throat as I tried to determine if it was a good or bad thing that the king of the fucking fae actually knew I existed.

“You’ll have to excuse my student. She appears to be a bit starstruck.”

Starstruck didn’t begin to describe it.

Oberon chuckled, the sound rich and warm, wrapping around my heart and giving my ovaries a squeeze until I remembered I liked my men dark-haired and golden-eyed. Oberon’s were as blue as the heart of a flame. “Allow me to introduce my companions. Eldan is general of my personal guard, but Dain comes on behalf of your provost’s request for a sylph’s tutelage.”

Eldan, the big one with the muscles I didn’t think fae could grow, bowed respectfully. “An honor.”

Then the sylph dipped at the waist, silver and white wings sparkling behind him. “Honored to meet you.”

“I, uh… Thank you. Honored to meet you all.”

“Splendid. As we have all honored one another now, shall we begin?” Dain offered his hand and gestured to the central floor with the other.

Professor Tristal moved aside and stood with the king and his general. Watching me. Between their attentive silence and Dain’s expectant gaze, I floundered, with no idea what to do.

“Um, do you want me to do flying drills?”

He raised one brow at me. “No. I think we’ll try something else.”

Once again, he gestured to the center of the room, and this time I kept my questions to myself and moved where directed. As hard as I tried to ignore the king’s presence, I could feel his gaze on me, and the inner music continued to drift through my soul.

“You are a sylph, and yet you do not know what it means to be a sylph. You have yet to embrace your new form. Together, you and I will change that.”

“But how?”

“I will teach you, young one. Now, close your eyes. Feel the air against your face. Stir it with your wings. You can move them, yes?” There was no condescension in his voice, only a question.

“A little.” Enough to make slow laps around a room that even a toddler could outwalk.

“Good. There is a nice wind winding through the chamber from that opening above us. Can you feel it?”

My brows creased, but I didn’t open my eyes. Instead, I extended both arms until the gentle draft brushed the fine hairs on my bare forearms. “Found it.”

“Think of this air current as something that is not a malleable force, but something that simply exists within you. Part of you. It blows through you and creates music as wind chimes do, but with your wings instead of metal columns.”

Trying to block out my royal observer, I shifted both wings to their full span and felt for the bare whisper of air current that had tickled my arms. At first, there was nothing, but then a soft breeze brushed against my cheek. Thinking of it like energy from a happy human charge, I reached out with my magic to scoop the breeze toward me, cocooning myself in it.

“Excellent. Don’t fear the air. Let it aid you. Gather it around you.”

My feet lifted from the floor until I was levitating at least two feet from the ground. The wind continued to swirl and twist with increasing force. A tingle started at my shoulders and spread out through my body, suffusing me with energy both familiar and alien at once. It was almost like static electricity.

“Good, Skylar. Now open your eyes and release the power at this training dummy.”

I floated in a vortex, a miniature tornado of my own making. With my eyes on the target, I focused all the winds I’d harnessed and directed them toward my goal.

The resulting gale howled across the distance and threw the dummy into the far wall.

Dain clapped. “Well done!”

“Holy crap. I did it.”

My new tutor offered his hand and drew me back to the floor. A light breeze stirred my hair back from my face, but I wasn’t sure if I had done it or him.

“You must not fear your new gifts,” Dain told me. “Even the strongest tempest will bend to your will once you master your abilities. Now then, again. Let us see if you can attack faster.”

He restored the target and ran me through the exercise three more times before he was satisfied with my performance. Each attempt had become easier to draw the winds around me.

I turned to glance toward Tristal, hoping for some reaction, but found the room empty. Tristal, Eldan, and Oberon were gone.

I blinked. “They left you.”

Dain smiled. “I believe His Majesty intends to remain for the day and may have gone to announce his presence to your provost. He hasn’t paid a personal visit to this school in quite a while.”

“Oh.”

“Am I so frightening that you need a chaperone?”

“No, not frightening. A bit, um…” The right word escaped me.

“Usually my brother is seen as the intimidating one.”

“The general is your brother?”

“We share a father, yes.” He cocked his head, as if hearing something beyond me, then offered his arm. “King Oberon awaits.”

And one should never keep a king waiting.

* * *

We met up with what could only be described as a parade outside the gymnasium. King Oberon hadn’t come alone, accompanied by what looked like his entire court. Or at least a good chunk of them.

It struck me as almost sad and made me wonder if he ever got to go anywhere alone.

“Ah, Dain, there you are. How was the lesson?”

“She is a bright student, my king. I expect Skylar and I will make great progress throughout the year.”

I blinked and turned to Dain. “Wait, you mean we’re going to have more lessons?”

“Of course. While your professor has done an admirable job in your education, you won’t learn your true strengths from anyone but another sylph.”

“All right, but you’re…” My gaze darted to Oberon then back to Dain. “You serve the king.”

Oberon’s laughter filled the air, a rich, musical sound that should have totally been illegal. “I believe I will be fine without him for an hour or two, but your concern is touching. Besides, it is in my self-interest to see you trained by the best.”

“It is?”

His eyes glinted, and he smiled, offering his arm but no answers. I set my hand on his bicep—holy crap, he was muscled—and floated alongside him in a dreamlike trance, aware that my wings hadn’t receded yet.

“Where shall we go, Lady Skylar?”

“Lady?”

“You are of Tenanye’s blood, and as she is a duchess of Tir na Nog, it is only courtesy to recognize your relationship.”

“She has a lot of progeny.” My brows drew together. “And you’re a king. I didn’t realize kings called others by titles.”

“We do when the mood suits, and only when the recipient has earned it. As you assisted with the destruction of Carmilla, you have most certainly earned it.” He smiled again and gestured to the fork in the path ahead of us. “Where do you go after your lesson with Cordelia?”

“Left. I usually meet my friends for lunch before heading to bed.”

“Bed?” Dain asked from behind us.

I twisted around and nodded. “Yeah, most of my classes are at night with the sentinel students.”

He grimaced. “Ah.”

Students spilled out of buildings and onto the paths to watch the king of the fae escort me across the campus grounds. We were followed by a retinue of twelve fae lords and ladies, a gathering of aos sidhe, dryads, and undine in vibrant garments befitting royalty. Of them all, the king, Eldan, and Dain appeared to be the only ones who hadn’t overdressed.

All around us, as our procession moved through the quad, people dropped to their knees or bent in postures of deference. Countless eyes watched, and enough of them smoldered with envy for me to expect childish antics in the coming days, because if my people were good at anything, it was causing mischief and holding on to their spite.

My friends held our usual table outside the student center, shaded by a flowering maple tree some students had enchanted with glamours to sprout bell-shaped blossoms in autumn colors. Ben spotted us first and stared, his burger held halfway to his open mouth.

I smiled. “Hey, guys. I brought company.”

Liadan remained frozen in her seat, eyes wide, but Pilar stumbled to her feet and dipped into a deep, perfect curtsey. Ben hastily followed suit and bowed.

“Please, that is unnecessary. I am honored to meet those closest to Skylar.” King Oberon smiled and turned to Pilar first. He took her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. One of her knees buckled. “And you are?”

“Pilar, Your Majesty.”

“A pleasure.” He delivered a second kiss before releasing her hand. Then he turned to Ben. “A mage in good company. What might I call you?”

“B-Ben, Your Majesty. Benjamin Matthews.” After they shook hands, Ben gazed down at his fingers in wonder, as if he may never wash that hand again.

He’d probably scrape it later to see if he could gather essence of faerie monarch for his alchemy.

When Oberon’s gaze turned to Lia, she jolted to her feet at last. “Please forgive my earlier rudeness, King Oberon. I am Liadan Maguire.”

He took her hand and delivered the same courtly kiss to her knuckles. “There is nothing to forgive. I am the one who has interrupted your noonday meal. May we join you?”

“We’d be honored.”

King Oberon dismissed his attendants with a wave. Only Dain and Eldan remained while the others ventured off to explore the campus on their own. Two nymphs headed straight for a gaggle of starstruck male mages, and the others dispersed over the grounds.

The three fae took their seats among my friends, Lia shooting me a panicked look when she wound up between Oberon and Eldan.

Better her than me.

I shrugged helplessly and nudged Ben over until he made enough room for me to wiggle onto the bench with him and Pilar. Dain took the empty spot on Pilar’s left.

Eldan eyed the hamburgers on Ben and Liadan’s plates then turned his nose up at Pilar, her chicken caesar salad an apparent affront to him. “How does one dine in mortal lands?”

“This would have been a great day to order a pizza,” Ben muttered.

“Ben,” Pilar hissed. “We can’t feed pizza to royalty.”

Oberon cocked his head, studying us all with a wry smile on his lips. “Please, allow me.” He waved his hands across the table and conjured a miniature feast.

Lunch materialized in a shimmering cloud of non-burning embers, creating a feast with improved versions of what they’d already ordered—gourmet burgers, a gorgeous salad for Pilar with succulent slices of fruit from Tir na Nog, and a platter of sashimi for me. A crystal flute of bright orange Sunny D appeared before Pilar, and a small glass of brandy popped up beside Ben’s plate.

Ben gawked and turned to whisper in my ear. “Can I drink brandy out here?”

“You can when the faerie king serves it to you,” I whispered back. I sure as hell was going to drink my limoncello, underage or not. It wasn’t like it stopped me in the past.

I sipped the sweet Italian drink then plucked a piece of sashimi from my plate with the jewel-studded chopsticks that appeared.

Everyone but Pilar had a smile, even Eldan, who had appeared stern and serious moments before.

Oberon leaned forward. “Pilar?”

“Yes, my king?”

“I see great sadness in your heart and a heavy weight upon your shoulders. Will you tell me of them?”

“I wouldn’t wish to bother you,” she said, her gaze trained on her lap.

“If it was a bother, I would not have asked.”

When Pilar looked toward me, I gave her an encouraging nod.

“I lost my charge,” Pilar whispered. “She died. I didn’t protect her.”

“No, you can’t blame yourself,” Liadan said. She turned her head to look at the king. “It was a leanansidhe, the one we call the Scary Godmother. She inspired Pilar’s charge to make a foolish choice.”

“Ahh.” Oberon’s gaze lingered a moment on Lia, and then he turned back to Pilar. “A leanansidhe is a terrible adversary for even an experienced faerie to face. Not only do they inspire the wrong choices, but they block we summer fae from sensing anything is amiss. There was nothing you could have done. No way you could ever have known. The blame does not reside with you, dear Pilar, but with the bitter creature responsible for your charge’s fate.”

“But if I had been a better godmother, she wouldn’t have been compelled to text and drive to begin with.”

“If I have learned anything of mortals and their technology these last few years, it is that many hold an unhealthy fascination with their phones, and the young ones are especially reliant. You cannot fully separate them.”

“But—”

The king rose from his seat and rounded the table, exchanging places with Dain, though instead of sitting, the king drew Pilar to her feet and swept a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

All eyes in the courtyard were on them. Traffic halted, as if by magic, though glamour and spellcraft had nothing to do with it.

“Believe me when I say I understand your pain. Loss is a terrible burden to bear, especially when it is one for whom you care. But also believe me when I say you are not to blame, Pilar. This is what the darklings crave, for beings of the light to fall into despair. Do not let this Scary Godmother claim two victims from the attack.”

Pilar sniffled, but her spine straightened, and she dipped her head in a tiny nod. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

His solemn expression brightened into a smile. “Thank me by attending the ball at my side.”

Somewhere behind me at another table, a girl squeaked.

Pilar’s eyes went huge. “Ball?”

“Yes.” He turned his attention to all of us. “I and your provost have decided to hold a ball tonight. I imagine word will spread shortly.”

As if his words set off an alarm somewhere, a campus text alert beeped from our phones.

All afternoon and night classes cancelled. Please log in to your student e-mail accounts for further details.

“Shall I escort you from your domicile?” Oberon asked after we’d all had the chance to read through the details.

I admired the fact that Pilar wasn’t drooling or falling over herself in glee. She kept her dignity intact and managed a genuine smile. “I’d be most honored, Your Majesty.”

“Excellent. Now then, please enjoy the remainder of your meal.” He kissed Pilar’s hand then bowed to the rest of us. “Until tonight.”

As the three fae left, I had to wonder just what the hell kind of alternate dimension I’d stepped into when I crawled out of bed this day, because way too many good things were happening all at once for the circumstances to be natural.

13

Compassion Personified

With a mere hour to go before the scheduled start of the ball, my friends assembled in Pilar’s bedroom where she kept a floor-to-ceiling mirror large enough for all of us.

Holly eyed the enormous frame with skepticism. “I’m not even going to ask about why you need a mirror this big in your bedroom.”

Pilar made a face at her. “It’s for clothes, you degenerate. If I wanted it for sex, it would be on the ceiling.”

Liadan flushed rose-pink from head to toe. Contrasting her ordinary summer dress, I wore a T-shirt and leggings as the base to my wardrobe glamour, practicing magic on each other while Pilar changed minute details about her dress every two minutes.

“Ugh. Is this too much?” Pilar spun to face us, revealing a sweetheart neckline and generous cleavage. “Or should I…” When she gestured with the wand, it transformed the champagne gold dress into a high-neck halter.

Holly shook her head. “Boooo.”

Liadan pursed her lips. “Agreed. You’re dressed like a nun now.”

I nodded. “Put the titties back.”

“All right.”

While I flipped through look books and magazines for inspiration, Liadan created a stunning sheath dress in midnight blue, accented with silver specks that winked like starlight against the silk molding to her curves.

I envied her and Pilar. They were naturals at creating their own style.

Holly had stood back and watched the magic fly without comment most of the afternoon. I turned to face her. “Your turn, Holly.”

“I actually have a real dress, thanks.”

“Well then, go get it on and let me glamour your hair or something. I could use another extra credit point.”

“My hair is fine—”

“Bitch, if you don’t let me fix your split ends so I can move from an eighty-eight to an A, I will cut you.”

“Oh my God, fine. Gimme a minute.”

Due to the extremely short notice, Professor Tristal had stated any fae who played godmother to the student body would receive credit in her glamour and channeling classes. Ben had already popped by and let Liadan spruce up his best slacks and button-up shirt into a tuxedo worthy of James Bond.

A tap, tap, tap clicked against the bedroom window. Before Pilar could shoo away the peeping raven, I hurried over and raised the pane. I recognized Gabriel’s beak and his unruly crown feathers.

“Really? Can’t you use the door like a normal boy?”

He cocked his head and hopped up onto my offered wrist. “Who wants to be normal?”

Rolling my eyes, I carried him from Pilar’s room and downstairs to the living room. By then, he’d walked up to my shoulder and settled close to my neck. Turning my face into his feathers, I inhaled a deep breath of his unique, spicy scent and let the warmth course through me.

Our cuddle lasted a moment longer before he flew down to the floor and transformed. “So… special lessons from Lord Protector Dain?”

“How did you know?”

“Word travels fast around campus, especially when royalty is involved. This is the equivalent of the Great Fenrir showing up with one of his top dogs to train a shifter.”

“Yeah, well, it was a total surprise to me.”

“I bet.” He smiled at me, hands in his pockets. He wore a tux, but the trousers were too short with an inseam that revealed his socks. And they were unbearably tight—just shy of dick-outline tight. No wonder he’d flown over. “I’m proud of you, you know. It’s a pretty damn big deal.”

“Yeah. I don’t think it’s hit me yet. Sometime later, or tomorrow, I’ll freak out about it. So, why are you here?”

Gabriel gestured to his flooding pants hem. “Take a guess. I don’t have time to polish my shoes, and I’m like three inches taller since I last wore this tux. Think you could…?” He wiggled his fingers, mimicking spellcasting.

I laughed. “You trust me with your suit?”

“Don’t have much of a choice. I was planning to ask you before the wedding if you’d—”

“Say no more.” I swished my crystal wand. Motes of color surrounded Gabriel’s dress shoes and left a glossy finish behind. His pants hem dropped a couple inches, and the fabric loosened enough that girls wouldn’t be dividing their attention between Gabe’s package and the faerie king all night. “Haircut too?”

“Please.”

Another flick of the wand tidied his hair, though I left enough length for the classic broody look he had pinned down.

“Thanks, Sky. I wish I could take you to the ball without it looking funny.”

“I wish you could too.” After a beat, I added, “So… are you going alone, then?”

“Yeah. No one looks weird at a guy when we go to these things alone. You?”

“As of right now, Lia is my date. Pilar gets to go with King Oberon.”

“I heard about that.” He frowned. “How is she doing?”

“Loads better since the king arrived. It’s like he knew exactly what to do to drag her out of her shitty mood. The right things to say and everything.”

“Well, he is the king of faeries. If he didn’t have mad empathy skills, I’d kinda be worried.” Gabriel sobered, humor fading from his face. “So, did you ask him about the necklace?”

My hand raised to the enchanted pendant dangling from my neck. “No. I planned to ask tonight.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

“Why?”

He shrugged and glanced away. “Just figured you’re probably ready to solve the mystery. It’s meant for the reincarnation of Titania. Maybe he needs it back to give her.”

When I tried to study Gabriel’s face, he wouldn’t make eye contact with me and glanced away, angling his gaze down toward the floor. Tension rolled off him in palpable waves, the emotion trembling through him in sour notes of anxiety.

I’d never heard Gabriel’s heart song before. As we were bound by my role as her faerie godmother, I’d heard Sharon’s from time to time. Occasionally, I heard the inner melody of another fae, like King Oberon when he arrived at the combat room—but never Gabriel.

His heart song screamed in the erratic tempo of anxiety, and discordant notes crashed together like cymbals tumbling down a flight of steps.

“You’re worried I’m Titania.”

Gabriel didn’t reply.

“Gabe.”

He glanced up, brows knit in consternation. “What if—”

I took his face between both of my palms and stroked his unshaven cheek with my thumb. “I’m a sylph. Titania is a phoenix, remember? I already Ascended, so it can’t be me.”

“No one but Titania and Oberon know exactly how it works. For all we know, it could change you. Sylphs and phoenixes both have wings.”

“And if I were Titania, do you think he’d have blown me off to ask Pilar to the ball?”

Gabriel’s shoulders relaxed. He exhaled, like he’d been holding his breath for hours and could finally breathe again. The wrinkles in his brow smoothed with the next stroke of my thumb against his face. I stood on tiptoe, kissing him, and he melted into me, wrapping both arms around my waist.

“You won’t get rid of me that easy. You are so stuck with me. Now go so I can change.”

After letting Gabriel out through the front door, I returned upstairs to find Pilar’s hairstyle had changed again, from sleek tendrils and loose curls to a chic, face-framing bob.

Holly joined us a moment later in a strapless gown the color of dried blood, sporting perfect gothic makeup and eyeshadow I envied. She glanced at me after I tidied her hair, turning it from dull and dishwater blonde to glossy and golden. “All that talk about extra credit and you aren’t even ready. What about you?”

Less than thirty minutes to go, and I was still walking around my damned house in a T-shirt. Groaning, I pictured a dress I’d seen my mother wear in a prom photo and drew the Rags-to-Riches glamour from my repertoire of godmother spells.

A swirl of rainbow glitter spiraled around me then cascaded downward over my shoulders, transforming white cotton into a shimmering scarlet gown designed to reveal my back in lieu of showing off my super-average boobs.

“Ugh, I wanted silk, not satin.” I frowned at the mirror.

Pilar glanced at me. “I find it useful to think of silkworms or spiders when I’m glamouring silk.”

Taking her advice to heart did the trick. The fabric softened and fell in a gentle drape to my ankles. A few minutes on my shoes transformed them from wedges to strappy gold heels with an open toe.

Liadan clapped. “Perfect!”

“Your ass looks bangin’ in that,” Holly added.

Twirling in a circle bounced the skirt around my calves. Thrilled with my outfit, and also hoping Gabriel appreciated all of my effort, I slipped into the heels.

Then the bell rang.

Pilar shot a frantic look toward the bedroom door. “Oh no! Please tell me that isn’t him. I’m not nearly ready.”

Was three hours not enough? “What else is there to do?”

“My makeup and my nails. I have to paint them. And my hair needs curls instead. I don’t like this.”

I sighed. “I’ll get the door and stall if it’s your escort, but I think your hair looks great the way it is.”

Liadan stood a better chance of settling our nervous roomie down—not that I could blame her. I’d be freaking out if my date was royalty too.

With that in mind, I took a quick moment to make sure everything was presentable before I opened the door.

Julien, immaculate in a tux with a silver-toned vest and tie, stood on our stoop with a single yellow rose in his hands. He offered the blossom out to me with a smile and a little flourish.

“Bonsoir, mon amie. You look lovely this evening.”

“So do you. Handsome, I mean, not lovely.” I accepted the rose and beckoned him inside. “We were all just finishing up here. Did you need something?”

“I thought I might see if you would accompany me tonight.”

“Oh.” Somewhere in the back of my mind, I should have known better. All his little flirtations should have tipped me off. “Julien, I…”

Julien chuckled. “I know I am not the escort you truly want, but I am willing to be your date if it means you’ll be left alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is a particular raven who has caught your eye, no?”

His words were a splash of cold water, raising goose bumps over my bare arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“But you do. You and Gabriel are more than friends. The other fae are too blind to see it, but I do. I can tell by the way he looks at you that there is something more. I can also understand why you both hide what you have.”

“Why are you asking me out then?”

“Simple. Gabriel is a good man, and I enjoy your company. This way, should he ask you to dance, no one will think anything of it. I will be—what is the expression? Your beard, so to speak.”

“You’d do that for me?”

He shrugged. “We may not know each other well yet, but I consider us to be friends.”

“We are. Thank you, Julien, really. I’d love to accompany you. Give me a second to let the girls know really quick.”

“Of course.”

He waited downstairs while I ran up to check on my roomies. Pilar finally appeared ready to go.

“Is he downstairs?” she asked.

“No, it’s Julien. He’s going to escort me.” Three sets of eyes blinked at me. “What?”

“What about Gabriel?” Holly asked. “I mean, I know you two can’t go together, but is he okay with it?”

“He knows about me and Gabriel somehow, so I guess maybe they talked. Anyway, do you want me to wait around with you for the king, Pilar?”

“No, you go on ahead. I’ll be fine, I swear.”

“Okay.” Following impulse, I moved in and gave her a quick hug. “You look stunning. I’ll see you there.”

After hurrying back downstairs, I took Julien’s arm and we set off for the campus ballroom. Everyone we passed buzzed with energy, excited about the rare opportunity to mingle with fae royalty.

All the while, I couldn’t help but occasionally touch the necklace I had worn since the last semester, wondering if tonight would be its last evening in my possession.

* * *

Julien guided me into an enchanted wonderland, the campus ballroom transformed to sheer elegance despite the short notice. Flower garlands hung from the vaulted ceiling, lit by lanterns filled with multicolored light. I couldn’t tell if fire, magic, or fluttering sprites provided the illumination.

Students and professors mingled together in the massive space, everyone stunning in their formal attire. Yet none of them, not a single one, could hold a candle to the faerie delegation. They glowed like Tolkien elves, and their garments appeared to be made from magic itself, with living flowers, glittering jewels, and silks that shimmered like opals.

“Would you like to dance, or shall we walk around and mingle a bit first?”

“Walk around, if that’s okay with you.”

Julien smiled and dipped his head. “Of course.”

We started our circle around the room, pausing here and there to talk to his friends or mine. Several of his fellow seniors eyed me with curiosity, others with jealousy. If it weren’t for him helping me, he could have escorted one of them.

As if reading my mind, Julien led me away from the group and over to the refreshment table. “Don’t mind Natalia back there. She is sore I turned down her invitation.”

“I hope it wasn’t so you could be my pretend date.”

His soft, warm laugh set me at ease. “No. Truthfully, I have no interest in her at all, but she’s been a bit, ah, insistent. You are helping me as much as I have helped you.”

“I get that. Glad to be of service then.”

Trumpeting horns announced the king’s arrival. A hush fell over the room and everyone turned to watch his entrance. He wore a handsome, tailed frock coat, the perfect blend of old-world style and modern fashion, embellished with feather-shaped sidhe floral motifs on the lapels. The darker gold made me wonder if he’d made a last-minute color coordination with Pilar to match her champagne dress.

But as breathtakingly handsome as he was, my eyes went to the woman at his side. The joy in Pilar’s aura made her shine like the sun. She was radiance personified.

Dain and Eldan followed behind the pair, one in silver and blue, the other in gold and green.

Oberon escorted Pilar to the center of the room and led her into a dance. Music sprung up, and that was about when I noticed there wasn’t a band anywhere. I craned my neck, looking around the room, but the music seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“Shall we?”

Julien and I joined the others moving onto the dance floor, and the night truly began.

Oberon was such a compassionate monarch that, whenever Pilar needed to rest her feet, he danced with every girl—and guy—who had the balls to approach him. Somehow, he still managed to make her the star of the ball, treating her with such courtesy and respect that I couldn’t love him more as our leader.

When I wasn’t enjoying the bevy of Tir na Nog-inspired hors d’oeuvres and bite-sized desserts, I chatted with Liadan and Julien, since we decided to share him. He kept the other fae boys off us by the sheer magnitude of his presence. I even danced once with King Oberon, twice with Dain, and once with Eldan.

But the highlight of the entire evening was when my sentinel asked for a dance. Gabriel spun me out onto the floor for an upbeat number, but no sooner had we found our spot then the music changed, morphing into a slow, melodic ballad.

It felt like every shifter eye in the ballroom was on us.

By the end of the night, when the campus clocktower tolled 4:00 a.m., I was so beat I took off my shoes and stored them in Neverspace to spare my cramping, swollen feet another second of walking on four-inch heels.

Like a true gentleman, the king escorted us back to our townhome. At the door, he took the time to address each of us in turn. He started with Pilar, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. My friend looked ready to swoon.

“Thank you for the pleasure of your company tonight, Pilar. I hope you will take my words to heart. A woman such as you should not have her spark snuffed out.”

“I will, Your Majesty. Thank you.”

Pilar curtsied and stepped inside, positively glowing with happiness. Her aura shone gold with rainbow sparkles.

“Thank you for everything, my king,” Liadan said as she curtsied. “The ball was lovely.”

“I am pleased you thought so. It seems so little a thing.”

“No, it was wonderful,” she said in a rush. “It meant so much to everyone. To Pilar, especially. You didn’t have to do that, and it says so much about you that you did.”

Oberon took her hand and gave a courteous bow. “Then my work here is done. I bid you goodnight, Liadan.”

“Goodnight.”

I waited until she moved inside before I stepped away from the door and studied the faerie monarch. He returned my gaze with a placid smile.

“I trust you enjoyed the evening as well?

“Very much, thank you.”

He bowed. “My pleasure. However, I sense you lingered here because you wished to speak with me.”

“I wanted to ask you a question, if that’s allowed.”

“Of course, though I cannot promise I will have the answer you seek.”

“That’s all right.” I wet my lips and studied his earnest expression. He wasn’t the imperious faerie overlord I expected and had danced with anyone who took the time to approach him whether vampire, shifter, or belonging to fae blood.

“Your question?” he coaxed, patient and still smiling.

“I have something I think I’m supposed to give back to you.”

He cocked his head, a long sheet of golden hair sliding over one shoulder. It reminded me of something I’d seen some of the raven shifters do, especially Gabriel. “Oh?”

I removed my wand from Neverspace and tapped the end of it to Titania’s necklace. The illusion dispersed, revealing the true rubies I’d hidden since midsummer. “This appeared in my room last year. I can give it back to—”

“No.”

I stared at him. “No?”

The king shook his head. “It is not yet time for the Heartflame to part from your possession, Lady Skylar. You will know when the time is right.”

“Okay.” I pressed my lips together, watching him. His eyes shimmered and a hint of red lapped around the edge of the iris. Flames. “Did you give it to me?”

“No, I did not. It vanished from this world on the day my beloved Titania’s flame dimmed.”

“Not to press my luck, but is there anything you can tell me? Like who I’m supposed to give it to?”

“If I knew with absolute certainty, my love would be safely with me in Tir na Nog where she belongs until the day of her Ascension. Perhaps she is. One cannot say for sure. What I do know, is that at some point, you and she are fated to cross paths.”

Hearing it from him loosened the final knot of tension that had been building in my chest. A long exhale whooshed from my lungs before I could reel the relief back in.

“You worried the Heartflame may belong to you?”

“No. Worried I’d have to give it to one of my friends.”

His bitter smile tightened the corners of his eyes. “It seems that is not to be, young one. Three centuries ago, when my love last sought me, the mere sight of her was enough to stir my memory of the king I should be. I Ascended right away. Such is how it has always been.”

“The ball. That’s why there was a ball tonight. You hoped Titania would be among the student population to Ascend.”

He canted his head to me. “Apt deduction. It pleases me to discover you are as bright as you are beautiful.”

The praise made me flush with pleasure. “Now what will you do?”

“I will continue to wait for her, which means I shall continue to watch you.”

“Right. Because that’s not intimidating at all to know.”

His smile widened, and the flames in his eyes flared again. “If that is all, I should take my leave of you and return to Tir na Nog.”

“No… that’s all. Thank you again, Your Majesty, for everything. I appreciated Dain’s help as well.”

“Do not worry, you will see him again.” He took my hand and bowed. “Take care of yourself, Lady Skylar, and look after your friends as well. I foresee more trouble ahead, for all of you, but you most of all.”

As he turned to leave, I reached and caught his sleeve. Oberon paused, raised one brow, and turned his gaze on me. I dropped my fingers from his arm and sucked in a shaky breath.

“Please, what do you know about the prophecy that involves me?”

“I may be the king of the fae, but I am far from all-knowing. In my dreams, I see you dancing among shadows in moonlight, but you are not alone. Though you wear Titania’s Heartflame, many hands are at the edge of the darkness, pale and white and writhing like larvae, each of them reaching for you. And then the gloom overtakes all, and I know not what comes next.”

“What do I do?”

He stepped back, warm light beginning to coalesce around his body. Behind him, Dain and Eldan had already vanished, there in the shadows one second and gone the next, like ghosts. “What you have always done. Learn. Fight. Never lose hope.”

“But—”

Fire engulfed the king, a brilliant scarlet and gold pillar that rushed toward the sky. Then he was gone, leaving me with more questions than answers.

14

I Date Him for the Abs

After sleeping away most of Friday morning, I roused a little after noon to accompany Gabriel to work. He talked me through his photography process during the ride to Fiesta Chicago, an upscale Latin-themed restaurant where his clients had reserved an event room for their wedding.

A valet took the keys when we arrived, and I helped him carry the equipment inside without knowing what the hell most of it did.

“I can’t believe you convinced Tristal to give me extra credit points for this.”

“Oh, trust me, you will earn it.”

“You know, technically, we’re not supposed to help every Jane or Joe who crosses our path.”

“Yeah, I know, but this is a wedding, and Tristal gave permission for you to practice. My client is your guinea pig. Her name is Karina.”

“Awesome.”

“And if you fuck it up too bad, the deposit for my services is nonrefundable, so…”

“Ha, ha.”

He looked over and grinned. “Don’t let me down. I have a four-point-nine-star Yelp review average I’d like to keep.”

“What happened to the point-one?”

He shrugged. “Idiot one-starred me back when I was less discerning about the jobs I took. Anyway, this should be really easy. Do me a favor though and dull your hair before we meet the guests or the clients.”

“Oh! Sorry.”

A simple glamour shimmered over my hair, turning it wavy and glossy black instead of curly and multi-colored. Our kind stood out at weddings and family events, so it was a bad idea to draw more attention than necessary to myself. If someone figured out there was a faerie present, I’d be besieged by wishes and requests for help.

The venue was both colorful and classy, modern with an old-world flourish. While Gabriel scoped out the building for photogenic opportunities, a bridesmaid in a blush pink dress directed me upstairs to the room where the bride prepared for her special day.

I knocked. Another bridesmaid opened the door. “Hello. I’m Skylar, and I’m helping out your photographer. Mind if I come in to ask the bride a few questions?”

“Oh my gosh, yes, please.”

Karina sat in front of a vanity with a team of women bustling around her. One applied her makeup while two others worked on her hair. And her dress was this hideous and flouncy thing made from taffeta and too much tulle. She didn’t look happy.

“Gabriel is taking a look around, but he wanted me to ask if there are any particular places where you wanted your pictures taken.”

“Outside in the garden if the light is good enough for it. There’s a huge watercolor downstairs too.” As she described her vision, bridesmaids chimed in with dissenting opinions, negating all her ideas before she could even get most of them out.

Fuck. That.

I wondered if Gabriel had invited me along with an ulterior motive, hoping my faerie magic would diffuse pushy family and friends.

A thin woman with permanent frown lines in her forehead made a disgusted sound. “Dear, you shouldn’t take this dress outside into the garden. It’ll stain. Didn’t you see those filthy garden stones?”

Karina sighed. “That wouldn’t be a problem if I wasn’t wearing white, Roseanne.”

Another woman chimed in, “The gold dress was tawdry, Karina. This is your wedding. You don’t want to be tacky on your big day.”

“Actually, the garden idea sounds great,” I said. Her future mother-in-law—at least, the colors associated with their auras alluded the older, overbearing woman beside Karina was the soon-to-be MIL—turned to stare at me.

“We didn’t ask you,” Roseanne said nastily.

“And no one asked you,” came out of my mouth before I could bite it back. “I came to speak with the bride to ask her preferences for her bridal shoot.”

Karina sharply turned away, a tiny giggle escaping her. In the mirror’s reflection, I saw her struggle to maintain a straight face.

“And now I’ll just go pass on the word and get back to you in a little bit.”

With no one to see me outside the door, I stepped into the Twilight and returned to the bridal party. An argument over what color lipstick to wear raged between Karina and the young woman beside her.

“What a nasty girl,” Roseanne muttered. “I’ll be sure to have a word with the photographer. He needs to know his assistant is a mouthy little bitch.”

There was a mouthy little bitch in the room, but it hadn’t been me.

After reining in my temper—a fae needed happy thoughts to work happy magic—I turned back to the stressing bride. “Breathe. Nothing but good things will come to you on this day as you stand beside the man you love with all your heart. No one else matters.”

Karina’s tense shoulders eased.

Perfect.

Then I turned to the woman doing her makeup. They resembled one another so closely they had to be sisters. “Remember, this is her day. Don’t stress over what color she wants, just help her feel beautiful.”

The orange tinge to their auras softened to peach as they reached a compromise and settled on a third, overlooked option. Her makeup might have been flawless by the time they finished, but her dress was still an eyesore.

Before I left the room, I visited each woman and gave them a little dose of luck and love, sparing even a pinch of faerie dust for Roseanne, the monster-in-law. Nothing—absolutely nothing—was going to ruin this bride’s special day.

With my job done, I left them to their preparations and sought out my boyfriend, ready to do my job as photographer’s assistant.

And to fix that hideous tulle monstrosity Roseanne had called a wedding gown.

* * *

During the return trip to campus after the wedding, I tried to pretend I didn’t see Gabriel eyeballing me.

“What?” I posed the question as innocently as possible.

“I can’t believe you did a Rags-to-Riches glamour on the bride in front of everyone.”

“It’s not like they figured out it was me. They just thought some benevolent garden faerie passed by and saw her taking photos by the roses.”

When I saw the dress of her dreams from the Twilight, a gown her mother-in-law had hated, I knew I couldn’t let Karina walk down the aisle in that taffeta eyesore. So, the moment she entered the garden for her shoot, I crept into the Twilight and pretended she was my Cinderella, outfitting her in a dreamy, pale shade of rose gold with a figure-hugging corset and mermaid skirt that traveled behind her in a luxurious, dirt-repelling lace and silk train.

She’d screamed.

Gabriel had almost dropped his camera. Then six of her brothers had charged outside, ready to fight until they saw her.

The dress I’d created for Karina had a short, eight-hour shelf life, but the photographs Gabriel had taken on her special day would last forever.

I grinned. “You know you were relieved you didn’t have to photograph her in that ugly shit her mother-in-law picked out.”

He chuckled finally and pulled into his parking spot. “I guess bringing you along was a great idea after all. So, you ready for your share of the cash?”

My brows jumped up. “My share of the what?”

“Your share of the cash. You worked.”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to—”

Gabriel fished an envelope out of his jacket then removed a stack of crisp bills that belonged in a rapper’s music video or a night out with the boys at a strip club. “This is only the tip.”

I stared at the cash wad, too thrown off by the amount to toss in a that’s what she said quip. “That’s a lot.”

“They paid us four grand, Sky. And thanks to your performance, Eduardo gave me this before they left the reception. Someone among the guests took up a collection and everyone pitched in. Because of the fae.” He split the stack and passed me a few bills. I counted out two-fifty and screamed internally.

I couldn’t make that much in two weeks at the campus bookstore due to my craptastic schedule, but I definitely planned to use a portion of it to enter an upcoming DDR competition with Julien.

“I’ll give you another cut once they pay the remainder. I have to go through and edit all the shots I took then upload them to a private page on my site for them to look through.”

“Wow. Thanks.”

He folded the rest of the money into his wallet. “You were a big help. So much I wondered if you’re interested in leaving the bookstore and giving me a hand.”

“Seriously?”

“Why not? Putting you on the iPad to take videos freed me to move around the room for photos. I have several jobs lined up for the spring. I trust you not to fuck shit up, and it’s better than working with a stranger. And you have a good eye when you’re not so caught up in proving you aren’t an artsy fae.”

“Hey.”

“It’s true. Sometimes you’re so hyperfocused on proving yourself that you forget what you are. That’s not an insult.”

I quieted and focused on my hands and the money I held.

“Julien told me you had a great time at the faerie soiree.”

“It was fun.

“Wasn’t so bad hanging with your own kind for a while, was it?”

I stiffened. “I never said it was. I hang out with Lia and Pilar all the time.”

“You know what I mean.” He reached over and took one of my hands. “I’m not bashing on you, Sky. I’m just glad to see you getting along with your fellow fae. And glad no one’s snubbing you for becoming a sentinel instead of a godmother.

“Julien probably had something to do with that. He’s been trying to befriend me since last year, and I’ve been a dick and blown him off.”

“Heh. Nah, he doesn’t think you’re a dick.”

“I hope not. To be honest, I thought he was trying to hit on me, and I had no idea how to turn him down without spilling the beans about us.”

“Nah. He’d probably rather bone me than you.”

It took a moment for my voice to work, and when it did, it squeaked. “Julien is gay?”

“No. He’s, uh, shit, what’s the word? Pansexual. You know, down for whoever.”

“Equal opportunity, you mean.”

“Yeah, pretty much. I think he just leans toward the dudes. So yeah, no worries about him hitting on you. He called me right before the dance and asked if I wanted him to escort you and keep the other fae dudes off your ass.”

“You could have given me a heads-up.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

I jerked my hand back and thumped his chest, but he only laughed and caught my hand. “Jerk. Remind me of why I’m dating you.”

“My abs.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Gabriel walked me to the townhouse, but didn’t come inside this time, hanging back to chat with the raven shifter sentinel perched on a branch in the yard instead.

I stepped into the living room to the smell of fresh roses from Avalon, their origin apparent because they shimmered in rainbow colors, morphing from red to orange to yellow and carrying through the spectrum until they pulsed violet and pearl. The rosebush came up to my waist, the plant itself in an opalescent, five-gallon pot.

“Whoa, what’s that?”

Liadan grinned from the couch. “Pilar received flowers from a mystery admirer.”

The aroma of the fresh flowers filled the entire living room, and they emitted a soft glow. When I leaned down closer to breathe them in, the kind of joy associated with a stroll through Tir na Nog pulsed through me. “King Oberon sent these?”

Pilar practically floated down the stairs. “We think so. I can’t believe it. He’s so nice. I still can’t believe he went through so much trouble to help me when I am nobody to him.”

I touched the necklace and eyed my friend, wondering.

Was it my duty to protect and guard the Heartflame until Pilar Ascended? And if so, how much longer would it be until that happened and one of my best friends was swept away forever to Tir na Nog, never to dwell in this world again?

* * *

Gabriel sent a text early Saturday evening about meeting him on the northwestern quad for a surprise. I rolled off the couch, pulled on some sweats—anticipating he’d work the dogshit out of me—and arrived about thirty minutes later to find him in cargo pants, a T-shirt, and hiking boots.

“What’s up? I thought you and Rodrigo were going out today.”

“Nah, he managed to convince Amalia to go out with him finally, so they drove up to the Jelly Belly Factory this afternoon.”

“Seriously?”

“Hey, he loves jelly beans, and you can buy the funny looking ones cheap. Plus, you know, Wisconsin cheese.”

“Well, in that case, text him and ask him to get me some cheese curds. But you still haven’t told me what we’re doing out here.”

“You’re going to fly with me today.”

My brows raised. “Fly? With you?”

“Yeah. Why not?”

“I don’t know how to fly.”

“You do. I saw you during one of your private lessons with Tristal.”

“Gabriel, I crashed into the ground and almost broke my ass during the fall.”

He grinned. “Saw that part too. What I’m saying is that I’m your new flight instructor, and I don’t feel like waiting until our official training session to start on this.”

“Fine, but… do you think we could go to Tir na Nog? It’s bad enough for you to see me eat dirt, I don’t need the rest of the campus to see it too.”

“Not a horrible idea.” He shifted with ease, a man one second and a large raven in the next. He made it appear effortless. “But let’s start here. Come on, get ’em out.” He tilted his head a moment later. “Why are you making faces at me?”

I hadn’t realized I was making any face at all. “It’s kind of weird talking to you when you’re a bird. You still sound like you, but… not.”

He laughed and flew onto the back of a bench. “That’s because I am still me.”

I stroked the feathers on his glossy crown, smoothing down a few that were out of place. He tilted his head into it then rubbed the side of his beak against my finger. “You know what I mean. Wolves and bears don’t talk in their animal form, so it’s different hearing a human-sounding voice out of your beak.”

“That’s the benefit of being a bird shifter. We all have different advantages and drawbacks. Same as the different kinds of fae.”

“There are only three types of shifter.”

“And dozens of kinds of fae. Which means you need to work on your best advantage and exercise those beautiful wings.”

A pleasant flush of warmth surged over my cheeks. “You think they’re beautiful?”

“I’m not repeating myself and swelling your ego. Wings out.”

Finding it easier and easier with each time, I mentally flexed my wings out and spread them behind me. The lights curled and shimmered beneath the sun in opal waves. One push raised me from the ground a few inches, and I hovered in place.

“Good. I remember when you were struggling to do that.”

“Working with Dain helped a little. He’s nice.”

Gabriel grunted. “Yeah, well. Let’s go for a flight through the Spring Meadow.”

He flew across the boundary into Tir na Nog before I could ask what turned him into a Grumpy Gus.

Pushing my wings back in a downward angle sent me careening forward on a gentle breeze. I tested it again, opting to follow through the air instead of walking on foot. Everything went well until the trees started to thicken.

“I thought we were going to the Spring Meadow?”

Gabriel circled back and around me. “We are. Just the way there is kind of packed. You’ve got a choice. You can weave through all these trunks, or we can go high and break the canopy.”

“But it’s high.”

“Yeah, it is. Your choice. Both are difficult in different ways.”

“The canopy will cushion me if I fall, right?”

“It should. You don’t weigh much. Probably even less here.”

When I glanced up, he spiraled higher into the air where a gap in the canopy let in the sun.

Excuses lingered on the tip of my tongue, but I bit them back. “I can do this. I can do this,” became my mantra as I followed Gabriel through a narrow space between the branches into the open sky.

Above us, the sky shone gold and fuchsia, kissed by ivory clouds and streaks of blue. Time was never the same in Tir na Nog, some areas of the faerie realm eternal night, dawn, or daylight.

Gabriel landed on a branch. “You’re doing great, but you’re a little slow.”

I scowled. “Some of us didn’t learn to fly from birth.”

“Awesome. We have that in common.”

“Smartass.”

A balmy breeze swept in from the east. The current pushed against my back and sent me into a tumble. As the trees loomed closer, I had the terrifying image of being delivered home to my parents in pieces. A really pretty concrete angel on my grave too. Here lies Skylar. She fell.

“Spread your wings out! Glide. You’re using too much energy.”

Gabriel’s voice cut through my panic. When I snapped out my wings, the plummeting descent transitioned into a gentle, downward glide. A few beats brought me level again and eased my racing heart.

“You have an advantage over me and every other bird out there, Sky. Your wings are semi-corporeal. That means you can mold them to whatever size or shape you want and mimic any kind of flying creature. You can dive like a raven, swoop like a hawk, or soar like an eagle.”

“Dain did say I should birdwatch.”

“You should. You can pull off all kinds of maneuvers. It’s about practice and trusting in yourself.”

Gabriel made flying look easy. He led me deeper into Tir na Nog, though we stopped to rest in a leafy tree top that reminded me of Bilbo popping his head out of the canopy in Mirkwood, because a thousand butterflies lifted off and took flight when we disturbed it. I settled on the branches and didn’t sink through, light as air.

“Tir na Nog is really different up here.”

“Everything is different from above the ground, Sky.” He paused then tilted his head. “You’re a sylph, and your name is Sky. How did I not notice that until now?”

“Pretty sure my folks didn’t plan that.”

He laughed. “I guess everything always works out in the end. Come on. We still have a few miles to go, and I wanna teach you how to dive.”

“Are you not going to ask me if I want to learn?”

“Nope.”

“Fine, but when I hit the ground and splat all over, I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your days.”

“Wouldn’t be the first ghost to nag me.”

“There’s a story in there somewhere.”

“I’ll tell you another time. For now, break time is over. It’s time to dive.”

“Can you at least try to motivate me?”

“Your motivation is not breaking your neck and leaving me girlfriendless.”

Damn.

We dove, but it wasn’t as difficult as I’d made it out in my head to be. The hardest part was growing accustomed to the sensation of freefall and tucking my arms against my body to become an aerodynamic pin.

Gabriel made me practice it until my lips were wind-chapped. By then, I realized we’d reached our destination and the tree line broke, forest yielding to miles and miles of majestic meadow. After he landed, I touched down and collapsed in the sweet clover. Laughing, he shifted forms and joined me.

Sprawled on my back, wings still glowing and wrapped around me—around Gabriel too—we watched the pink and gold clouds drift across the azure sky. The occasional sprite darted overhead. Only one of the curious fae had bothered to venture close and investigate us.

Gabriel raised my hand to his lips and laid gentle kisses against every knuckle. Each soft touch set off flutters in my stomach. “You did great, you know.”

“I almost crashed, like, fifty times.”

“But you didn’t, and you’re exaggerating. I thought fae couldn’t lie.”

I rolled to the side and propped myself up on one elbow to look down at him. “That’s only the pureblooded ones, as you very well know. God, could you imagine growing up in the mortal world unable to fib? I’d have been busted by my parents for so many things.”

“Heh. I can imagine.” He reached up and stroked the pendant dangling from my throat. “Speaking of truth and lies, have you had any luck asking your new faerie friends about the necklace?”

“No. King Oberon was mum on the subject, but…”

“What is it?”

After I told him about the true motivation behind Provost Riordan throwing a spontaneous ball for the king, Gabriel’s mouth dropped open. “And then prism roses showed up for Pilar from a secret admirer.”

“For real?”

“Seriously. They’re really pretty. After everyone else went to bed, I looked it up and found out Titania grows prism roses in the gardens of Avalon Palace. So, that means it had to come from him. He sent an entire rose bush in a pot.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. So it makes me sorta wonder if she’s, you know….”

“Titania reborn?”

“She could be.”

Gabriel exhaled long and deep, the sound of a man with an enormous weight lifted off his chest. “There’s one mystery solved. Now we understand why the Heartflame turned up in your room.”

Rolling to the side, I wiggled onto him and straddled his hips, resting both hands on his chest. “Were you still worried it was me?”

“A little. I mean, I’d have been happy for you if you were—at least I think I would have been happy for you and not a jilted asshole. Being a Jada just isn’t my style.”

“Well, lucky for us, you’re the mature sort, right?”

Because deep down, I was pretty sure I’d have been devastated, and I might have had to be the first incarnation of Titania to not return to her king.

15

The More the Merrier

The arrival of October ushered in cool breezes and autumn fashions. With a portion of my share from Gabriel’s wedding shoot, I accompanied Pilar out to her favorite shopping center and we stocked up on warm clothes. Liadan came along for the company, but her finances were so tight all she did was eyeball things. Pilar and I took notes behind her back and vowed to return for birthday gifts.

Accompanying King Oberon to the ball had done wonders for her mood, but the old Pilar had come back to us with a vengeance within days of receiving roses from Titania’s garden.

Was it another sign?

We left Magical History together after crushing a pop quiz covering the effect of the paranormal community during World War II and stopped to fetch smoothies from the food court. Before we took our first sips, Pilar and Liadan received notice that their Divine Intervention class had been canceled for the day, freeing them both. Mrs. Robinson, the buoyant fae who taught us to make miracles, had an unexpected meeting with her charge. I’d taken her class the previous semester after Riordan kicked Monica out of school and made me Sharon’s godmother.

On top of that, Tristal hadn’t been in for her classes that morning.

“I have practice with Dain alone in the field, since Tristal is out sick. Do you two want to come with me?”

“Wouldn’t we be in the way?” Liadan asked.

“I don’t see why you would. I mean, some of the stuff I learn is for all fae, not just sylphs. You can totally eye candy him and cheer for me.”

The two of them exchanged glances, and to my surprise, Pilar was the one who straightened her shoulders and nodded. “I’ll go. I mean, how often is someone given the chance to learn from the king’s closest guard?”

“Exactly. What about you, Lia?”

“I’ll be your cheerleader.” She paused a moment, before adding, “And I’ll leer at Dain behind his back. He’s gorgeous.”

Smoothies in hand, we made our way across the leaf-strewn paths to the campus field. A solitary figure stood near the bleachers, and if it weren’t for his wings, I might have mistaken him for another student until we got closer. Dain had acquired a mortal look, trading silks and armor for jeans and a cocoa brown sweater, though his faerie nature was ruining any chance of him blending in.

“Wow, he looks good,” Pilar muttered.

I had to agree with her. Liadan mumbled an agreement under her breath.

Dain waited until we closed in on him before he arched a brow, arms crossed against his chest. “Greetings to you three. I had thought we were beyond the need for chaperones now, Lady Skylar. Honestly, I am well behaved, and I even know how to keep my hands to myself.”

Heat flashed down my neck. “No, I, uh, just figured maybe they’d like to pick up something too. And hoped you wouldn’t mind.”

He chuckled. “I’m only teasing, but you are cute when you blush. Anyway, knowledge is for everyone. Please, ladies, be at ease. I will happily teach all of you.”

Damned fae and their mischief.

“Oh no, not me,” Liadan said, clearly flustered. Pink color raced from her neck and into her face, reaching the top of her ears. “I don’t do fighting.”

Dain bowed deeply to her. “As you desire.”

“Thank you.”

While Pilar and Liadan got comfortable on the bleachers, I set my bag aside and followed Dain out into the grass. He turned to face me and gestured me into the air.

“I’m impressed with the speed of your progress. Has your flying improved since our last visit?”

“It’s been two days.”

“Your flight should be improving each day. In fact, from this day forward, I should like for you to fly to each class.”

“What?”

A grin spread across his face. “Any time you enter the courtyard, you will levitate or fly to your destination. I want you to practice using those wings until it becomes as natural as breathing.”

“You sound like Gabriel.”

“I may have had a word with him,” he said smugly.

A surge of annoyance swept through me, tinged with anger on my sentinel’s behalf. “Don’t boss him around.”

Dain studied me, his gaze so intense I had the urge to fidget. It was as if he was looking through me—into me—and reading me like a book. After a long, tense moment, he dipped his head.

“I meant no disrespect, only that you have a remarkable sentinel who only wishes to see you succeed. He and I spoke at length during the ball.”

“Oh…” Another hot flush worked its way up to my face. “Sorry.”

“Water beneath the bridge. Now, let us begin.” He slanted his gaze toward Pilar, and his smile returned with a calculating edge that turned my blood cold. Oh no. “Pilar, if you would please join me.”

While I flew laps under Dain’s instruction, he gave Pilar pointers in conjuring Faerie Fire and hurling it at me. Like Lia, she had minimal experience with offensive magic, so I ducked, dived, and swooped out of range until she clipped one of my wings, and I almost spiraled out of control.

So much for semi-corporeal. Note to self: Faerie Fire does affect my wings!

Over the next half hour, her aim improved fast enough for a fine sweat to bead across my brow. My hair clung to my nape, and it went from being an easy exercise to me working hard to avoid her projectiles.

Damn. Maybe she really was Titania, because she took to it like a natural.

“Liadan. Join us for a moment.”

“I don’t really—”

“Practice offensive magic, yes, I heard you before. Please join us, as I know a glamour that will benefit the three of you greatly, though it is difficult to master and at times tricky to apply.”

Once we gathered near Dain, a subtle glow surrounded him, shimmering in every shade of the rainbow. It looked like a Prismatic Cloak, but it projected outward around him in a flawless bubble until we were also included within it. I tapped it with a fingernail.

“It is called a Prismatic Barrier, a physical extension of your Prismatic Cloak conjured for the purpose of shielding yourself and others from physical harm. Your professor asked that I teach the three of you this glamour today—”

“You spoke with her?” Pilar asked, her flawless brows jumping up a mile.

My two friends were supposed to be in class. “Never mind that, how did you know all three of us were going to show up?” I demanded.

“How do you know where to guide a mortal charge?”

“Oh,” I said, feeling dumb.

The corner of his mouth raised, and then he withdrew his shield from around us, dragging it back until it snapped in place around him alone. “Now, the first step of creating the barrier is to summon your Prismatic Cloak. Spread out and do your best.”

One by one, we drew colors from the autumn afternoon, taking warmth from the narrow shafts of sunlight spilling through gold-kissed leaves and the tiny purple flowers that sometimes sprang from the manicured grass. I completed my Prismatic Cloak first, followed by Pilar then Liadan.

“Excellent. Cordelia taught you well, though I sense she worked harder with some of you than others.”

Pilar made a grumpy noise.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Pilar,” Dain continued. “Some of us are not meant to be discreet. We are meant for flash and color and noise. Take these cloaks and expand them around you as if there were another person present to conceal beneath your glamour—no, Liadan, much smaller please.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Like your friends, your power is great, though you have less experience with using it and must learn to manipulate it appropriately.”

Under his guidance, we each managed to morph our individual cloaks into a larger shield. Dain drew a sword from the open air then thrust forward into the barrier. I felt the pressure against my mind as the manifestation of our glamours buckled against the assault. Liadan shrieked and jumped back, losing concentration. Then our spell fell apart like a house of cards, shattering around the blade on the next stroke.

“Hm,” Dain said. “More practice is required, I see.”

Liadan held one hand to her chest. “You didn’t warn us!”

“Would an attacker warn you?”

I frowned. “Why do they even have to learn this at all when they’ll have sentinels? It’s different for me. I’ll be the sentinel.”

“Easy.” The sylph slid his blade into Neverspace and raised his blue eyes to us. They were like mirrors reflecting the serene sky above. “Your sentinel may not always be there. Worse, they may fall in the line of duty protecting you, granting you precious seconds to escape or take cover until help arrives. Do not let their sacrifice be in vain.”

“Would a glamour like this have protected my charge?” Pilar asked in a meek voice. “Would it have shielded her in the crash?”

Dain’s eyes softened. “Doubtful. Not in that situation, I fear. There are far too many variables when a mortal’s automobile is involved. Were one racing toward your charge as she crossed a street, and your will for her survival was strong, then yes. For that, your glamour must be absolutely impenetrable. There are also many other defensive glamours I may share, none of which are taught at your institution.”

Pilar nodded. “Then I want to learn.”

The little wrinkle in Liadan’s brow smoothed out. “Me too.”

“Grand. I’d hoped you would both say that, as I have decided to grant your lovely professor a break and assume responsibility for her tutorials. We shall resume future lessons each Monday and Wednesday at a time when the three of you are all available.”

We stared at him, but his handsome face only broke out in another wide grin.

“Now, please, do it once more. I would like the three of you to practice this glamour alone and together, as three united with one shield are stronger than one lone fae. It is always best to be prepared for whatever fate throws at you.”

* * *

We were all starved by the end of our group lesson with Dain. Practice had run over by nearly half an hour, but none of us wanted to cut the faerie lord off during his instruction.

Stomach rumbling, I suppressed the urge to stop for a snack at the food court, because as my mother would put it, we had food at home. Having money in my wallet didn’t mean I had to spend it all.

“Hey! Wait up!” Ben hustled across the courtyard to catch up to us.

On one hand, I wanted to keep flying, because the hunger pangs were real, but I also didn’t want to blow him off. Sighing, I slowed enough for Ben to close in on us. Our out-of-shape mage friend caught up seconds later, rosy-cheeked and a touch out of breath, because jogging more than a quarter-mile must have pushed his scholarly, asthmatic lungs to their limit.

“What’s with the flying, Sky?”

“Coach’s orders. I’m not allowed to walk anymore.”

“Sweet.” He grinned and looked to the other two. “We still on for study session during lunch? I didn’t see you at the food court, so I wondered if you’d forgotten.”

“That’s my bad, I guess. I convinced them to join me at my training with Dain, and the time got away from us.”

“Seriously? And you didn’t invite me?”

“You had class,” I said.

“Oh yeah.” Ben’s face fell, but after a heartbeat of disappointment that made me feel like I’d drowned a kitten, his smile returned. “We still have time to study though, right?”

“Only if you don’t mind eating at our place. I made risotto last night, and we have leftovers,” Liadan said.

Ben’s eyes lit up. “I don’t mind.”

Even Pilar chuckled at his enthusiasm. I drifted alongside my friends for the short trip to the campus townhomes, where I gratefully lowered to the ground.

A second later, we stepped into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. At least, it looked like the famed gardens at first glance, because we had so many plants and flowers blooming around the living room their floral scent probably permeated every inch of the townhouse.

“Holy shit,” Ben wheezed. Then he took two hits from his rescue inhaler, because there was probably a thousand things in our place for him to be allergic to.

Poor guy.

Liadan drew up short behind me and blinked. Flowering vines with starlight primrose crawled up our living room curtains, and fragrant spider moss climbed the fireplace brick.

“It looks like a dryad went hog wild in here,” Ben said.

It took some maneuvering to make our way to the couch. A golden planter overflowing with crimson blossoms took up the entire end table.

Pilar hurried over and squealed. “This is beautiful! It’s like he knew exactly what I would want from Tir na Nog. Oh, I love ribbon lilies.”

I plucked a card from a flowering bush and read the flowing script. It glittered. “Hold up a second. This card says the flowers are for Lia.”

Lia blinked. “What?”

When Pilar’s shoulders dropped and her smile deflated, I sighed. “Sorry, Pilar.”

“No, it is okay. Lia deserves flowers too.”

“I don’t know why anyone would send me flowers. Especially this many.”

Ben rubbed his chin. “Must be another faerie lord, or—er, lady who noticed you at the party.”

I grinned. Lia must have finally shared her preferences with Ben. “The handwriting is definitely different from the last one, so we have King Oberon and some other majestic dude hitting on Lia and Pilar.”

Ben glanced at me. “Nobody after you yet?”

“No flowers for me, only tough love.” Which was fine by me. There was only one guy I wanted flowers from.

And he hadn’t even sent me one.

With that sour thought in mind, I slung my backpack onto the couch and dragged out the magical history textbook we’d be studying, prepared to sulk through studies until I recalled one critical fact—keeping our relationship on the down-low had been my idea, not Gabriel’s, and no one but me was responsible for how much it sucked keeping the secret.

16

Flight School

A casual weekend of studying passed, and then a new week of fresh magical torments and training began. Dain had nothing good or bad to say about our group performance Monday afternoon. We’d met at the usual time outside on the quad, but he held me over for an hour while Liadan and Pilar received lessons in defensive magic.

Both resenting the hour of lost sleep and appreciating the time he gifted us, I hung behind after the other two left to fetch pizza and soda to ask him a question.

“Why are you doing this for us? I get that the school asked you to teach me, but no one said you had to help my friends too.”

He shrugged and broke eye contact. “It costs only an additional hour of my time, and time is rather fluid when one has the potential to live forever.” A subtle buzz filled the air, accompanied by the scent of ozone.

I glanced skyward toward the darkening clouds on the horizon. “If more students asked, would you teach them too?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

He shifted his stance, gaze flicking back to me. “You’re inquisitive today.”

“Only trying to understand what’s happening.”

“Worry not for what is happening, and place your concern on what will happen. Good day, Lady Skylar. Practice well for our next lesson. I will see you Wednesday.”

“Dain—”

A lightning bolt fell from the sky and lit the area where my faerie mentor stood. He vanished in that split-second of blinding light and left nothing but a scorched glyph behind in the grass. Even that faded away seconds later as little seedlings pushed through the earth and blossomed soon after.

Too exhausted to question the faerie lord’s weird antics, I returned to the townhouse—thankful to find no more flowers—and shoveled down half a pizza. Afterward, I slept the sleep of the dead until my martial arts class that night with Antonin.

There, we were learning Combat Sambo, which was a fancy name for a stupidly difficult Russian art dedicated to brutal takedowns and complicated grappling.

Our prior classes had been all about learning proper form, repetition, and building the muscle to pull off those moves, because we were sheltered babies and Antonin didn’t want to break us… too badly. He made our class practice the throws with 150-pound dummies that I couldn’t lift at the start of the semester.

Two months later, I heaved the six-foot-tall, human-shaped decoy over my shoulder onto the floor from a standing position without pulling every muscle from my neck to my hip. The vampires and larger shifters had received 250-pound decoys to start, but the sole raven shifter girl and I had been shown pity.

“Ah!” Antonin clapped his big hands together and crossed the floor. “Excellent throw, Skylar. I see you are ready to practice now with your fellow classmates as well.”

Elation zipped through me. The rest of the class had moved on to training with each other two weeks ago, while I lagged behind to strength train and master the basics. I hadn’t minded, because Antonin worked with me one-on-one, teaching me proper form so I didn’t injure myself. “For real?”

“Yes. A dummy does not fight back. In this class, students learn to handle and incapacitate real attackers.” He turned and raised his voice. “Holly, you are up.”

My friend popped up from the mat where she’d been taking a quick water break. In the time it took me to blink, she’d crossed the room. Damn, how was I supposed to take on someone who could move that fast?

“Holly will be the attacker, and it is your task to take her down,” Anton directed. “I expect you both to give your best effort.”

We both nodded. “Of course,” I said.

“Excellent. Begin.”

Antonin stepped back as Holly darted in, taking advantage of my unbalanced posture and catching me off guard. I barely managed to twist aside and evade her attempt to grab me.

So that was how it was gonna be.

Game. On.

If I couldn’t compete with her speed, then I’d have to be clever, and since we were able to use all talents at our disposal, I sidestepped into the Twilight. Holly breezed past me, catching nothing but empty air.

I stepped out again behind her and grabbed her left arm. Or, at least, I tried to. She sped around me faster than a snake and aimed a strike for my chin. Hard hours of training with Gabriel resulted in my arm automatically coming up in a block, deflecting her intended strike away from my face. Pain exploded in my forearm, because vampire strength was still a bitch.

We both backed away and faced off across the mat. Since Antonin had placed her in the role of attacker and me as the defender, I bounced lightly on the balls of my feet and mentally prepared for whatever she threw at me. She assessed my stance, watching me with calculating blue eyes. Then she dashed in. Fast. What Holly lacked in skill, she made up for by moving at what seemed to be the speed of light, her fists delivering hard blows that bruised to defend against them. Thanks to Gabriel’s hard work all last year, she couldn’t break through my defense even when she resorted to snap kicks.

Was I as fast as her, or was I just reading her right?

No time to think. Muscle memory and reflex guided me, apparently successful substitutes for vampiric speed. Slipping into the Twilight, I spun around behind her and kicked the back of her knee before attempting a throw. She flipped out of it, coming back with a vengeance.

Damn.

Sweat dripped into my eyes, but she kept my hands too busy to mop it with the back of my wrist. In my peripheral vision, I saw Gabriel and Antonin spectating the fight side by side. Then Holly lunged toward me—a literal blur of black and red athletic gear. Instinct took over, and instead of blocking the strike, I bent down and used her momentum against her, because if there was one thing I’d noticed about Holly’s new gifts, it was that she couldn’t yet put the brakes on her super speed.

Holly sailed over my shoulder and hit the mat with a grunt. For a moment, her wheezes and my heavy breaths were the only sound, and then the room erupted in applause. At some point during our spar, it looked like everyone had gathered around the edge of the mats to watch.

“Well done.” Antonin helped Holly up from the floor. “You both did excellent. And now the rest of you know why a faerie can be a formidable opponent.”

“Bad ass,” Felicia the wereraven said.

A few of my fellow classmates echoed her praise, but my gaze went straight to Gabriel. He grinned at me, and the pride shining in his eyes filled my chest with little butterfly flutters.

“Good job,” Holly said when she could breathe again. “I thought I had you for sure.”

“You almost did a few times.”

We laughed and left the floor together, taking seats on the side to enjoy a well-deserved break. Antonin dismissed the entire class a few minutes early.

“Race you to the field?” Holly challenged.

“My wings are no match for vampire speed.”

“And my vampire speed still requires navigating ground level traffic. It’s super awkward when you crash into a bear shifter and end up face-to-groin with him.”

I grimaced. “For the sake of your face, let’s just walk it.”

“Fine. Spoilsport.”

* * *

Tuesday evening, Gabriel sent me a text to meet him elsewhere, so after I crossed the quad, I found him in an enormous tree-littered field with dozens of orange markers in treetops and bushes. There were walls, ledges, rails, slides, and trampolines spread throughout like someone had decided to grow a park in the middle of a parkour training yard.

I found him leaning against a tree, watching my approach. “About time you made it.”

“You should have warned me you were changing our usual place. Is this a—”

“Airborne obstacle course. Yep.”

“What’s with all the stuff? Why are there walls breaking the line of sight between some of the targets?”

He grinned then shrank to his raven form. “Welcome to flight conditioning and endurance training, babe. Dain and I had a talk about it. If I focus on flying, he can benefit y’all in other ways during your training hour, like building up your sylph talents.”

“When the hell did you talk to Dain?”

“This morning. He showed up out of nowhere when I was heading back to my room after class and asked to speak with me.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Wasn’t need to know information.”

“Oh my God, I could just kick your ass.”

“But you won’t, because I’m adorable. Anyway, there are thirty markers spread across this training yard. Us ravens use this place usually to hone our transition and flight skills, which means it should work for you too. The walls break your line of sight so you can shadowstride through them while in flight.”

“What the hell, dude? It’s called a shadowstride for a reason.”

“Yeah, well.” He stretched out one wing then the other, like a runner preparing for a distance sprint. He was missing three or four feathers from the center of both. “You’re going to learn to shadowdive before this semester ends if it kills you.”

“It just might! Gabe, what if I crash into the wall?”

“You won’t, Sky. Take it slow. I don’t expect you to fly this thing full speed.” He cocked his head and watched me through one eye. “Do you think I’d ask you to do anything that could hurt you? Anything at all?”

Feeling silly, I glanced away first. “No.”

“Then trust me.”

“Okay. How do you want me to start this?”

Becoming a man again first, Gabriel led me to a long white tape stretched over the ground. He tapped it with his foot. “This is our starting line. When we race each other, we have to touch the markers with a wing or our beak in passing for it to count. You can use fingers.”

I nodded. “Are you flying it with me?”

“Do you want me to?”

“The first lap at least.”

“Sure.” Gabriel took his position on the line. I flexed both wings forward and focused on the closest orange banner. “On one.”

He counted back from five, giving me time to mentally prepare for hurling myself at solid walls, and at the end, he took off like a bolt. I lunged forward and thrust my wings back, putting enough power into the movement to match his running speed. I had an honest shot at keeping up with him until he transformed midstride to his raven form, the transition so smooth, so damned flawless, I was helpless to do anything but admire him for a few beats until I got my head back in the game.

The initial obstacles were straightforward, hurdles too high for me to jump on foot, but low enough that I elongated my body and soared above them with ease. My legs no longer mattered. It was about flight and becoming as natural in the air as I was walking on the ground.

Learning to fly had really built my core muscle strength, because as useless as my legs were while I was airborne, I still had to support them. My abs were going to be amazing.

We reached a hoop dangling from a tree branch with an orange marker taped in its center. Gabriel was seconds ahead of me. He dove through it with his wings pressed against his ebony body, so I followed his example, stretched in a perfect swimmer’s form with my wings tucked close. I emerged on the other end to the sound of his raven voice whooping and cheering.

“You got this! Wall up ahead!”

A wooden, military-style climbing wall stretched toward the sky ahead of us. Three ropes dangled on this side, but I ignored them and prayed to any deities listening that I didn’t splinch myself like a Harry Potter character and leave half of my body behind on the other side.

Arms outstretched before me, I parted the Veil with both hands and left the mortal realm behind. The vibrant colors of the spiritual realm shone all around me. As the Twilight and mortal realm were mirroring, identical planes, solid objects continued to exist in both worlds—which was how ghosts and vengeful spirits affected real-life objects all the time.

When a fae used their shadowstride, they bent reality around them and fused through solid objects, displacing matter and moving through it.

I’d never done it in flight before.

“You can do it, Sky!” Gabriel’s voice reached me through the miasma separating the realms. “You did it to both of us in a car. This is a piece of cake.”

Damned right I could. Even though I was sweating bullets, even though I was petrified of crashing headfirst into a solid wall at speeds probably approaching a hundred miles an hour, I applied the same method of shadowstriding to flight while coasting through the air. My body turned incorporeal and formless, thin as smoke, crossing distance, flying through substance, remolding, shaping, and emerging again on the other end in less than a split second.

I entered the real world again about twenty yards ahead of where I meant to emerge with the breath squeezed from my lungs.

Success. Sorta.

“Holy shit. You did it!”

Then I landed on the grass in a crumpled heap, rolling a few times before lying in a sprawl, my chest heaving. Gabriel landed next to me and came out of his raven form in a crouch, concerned brown eyes on my face.

“You okay? Dude, you did it.”

“Ugh, yeah, I’m fine. Slamming back into the real world caught me by surprise.”

“What does it feel like flying across the Veil?”

“You know how when you’re diving into a pool, the water is ice cold and frigid, and it kind of slaps you?”

He nodded.

“It’s like that. Haven’t you been in the Twilight before?”

“A few times for Subterfuge and Surveillance last year, but I don’t think stepping through at a mage’s leisure is the same as crashing across on your own.”

“It’s definitely not. I didn’t dislike it though.”

Gabriel rose first and offered me a hand. It swallowed my smaller fingers, his grip rough and calloused, a reassuring warmth I didn’t release even though we were both standing. “You did good. Next time, don’t wait so long to thrust out with the wings and swoop them down. Slow it down evenly on both sides so you don’t come out of it and eat dirt, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Ready to try again?”

I stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “Now I am.”

“All right. Let’s start from the top.”

Despite the ache in my shoulders and tension in my back from my tumble across the grass, I loped back to the starting line. Gabriel paced himself beside me, leading me from one obstacle to the next.

He landed on a rail beside me as a bird, and then completed his vault over it in human shape. He made it an artform, moving in and out of one body into the other without ever missing a wing beat or losing stride.

Each time I passed through a wall, I came out on the other side closer than I had the previous shadowstride. Like fighting, it was about muscle memory.

Gabriel landed first, though I thought I had enough energy to make at least two more laps. “Good job, Sky.”

After landing, I stretched both arms over my head. My back ached a little, but the mental fatigue wasn’t there. The pleasant buzz of a runner’s high raced through my veins, because somehow I’d completed the obstacle course from hell and wasn’t lying on the grass in a sweaty heap.

He cocked his head, watching me. “How do you feel? Tired this time?”

“Not really. I guess flying isn’t as draining as it felt before.”

His beak parted a bit, almost like a grin. “Good. It means you’re becoming stronger. Was I too hard on you?”

“No. Sorry for giving you a hard time at first. That was… actually fun.” Not as easy as our visit to Tir na Nog, but he’d pushed me harder then, not because he was a hard-ass who wanted me to suffer, but because he wanted me to succeed.

I scooped Gabe from the grass and cradled him in the crook of my elbow. He had a few white pin feathers sticking out from his cheeks, reminding me of his stubbled, unshaven human face. I scratched them until the sheaths broke apart and freed the new feathers. I did the same for a couple on his back that must have been a bitch for him to reach, aware of his keen eyes studying me.

“Molting?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you notice the ragged feathers?”

“They’re not that bad.”

His quiet and throaty raven chuckles still sounded like his human laughter. “Shit’s been going on forever this time. I’ll be glad to have them all back again.”

“Here.” I scratched my thumbnail against another pin feather beside his beak. His eyes closed, and he sighed quietly. I couldn’t imagine how good it must have felt to him. “Is that better?”

“Yeah, it’s great.”

Settling in the grass, I placed Gabriel on my lap then searched along his ribs and down his sides, prompting him to raise both wings. He wiggled and made a little chortling sound. I paused. “Did you just giggle?”

“No.”

“Bullshit. You’re ticklish.”

“I am not.”

My fingers returned beneath his wings. He shuffled again and nipped my fingers when I touched near his belly. “You are!”

Gabe grunted and settled. “It’s just… a sensitive area.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

“You’re getting really close to the jewels.” When I jerked my fingers back, he cackled and hopped. “Nah, just kidding. You weren’t anywhere close.”

“You’re awful, you know that? Now you can get those pin feathers yourself.”

His head bumped beneath my hand. “Aw, c’mon, I was only teasing.”

“Nope, you ruined it.”

He made a quiet sound, a little warble, and rubbed his feathered cheek against my fingers. I held out for maybe thirty seconds. Then I laughed and scratched the spot against his beak.

After that, he hopped off and returned to his human body, hands in the pockets of his jeans and a boyish smile on his handsome face. “Lunch after your ethics class?”

“Only if it’s pizza at your place.”

“Deal.”

17

Midterms are Murder

I crashed for a few hours after our group lesson with Dain and paid a late evening visit to Sharon with Gabriel. Once again, I saw a black thumb print on her aura, but I wiped it off and hugged her extra tight from the Twilight, because whenever I embraced her, she glowed like a Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.

Gabriel made a report that we thought the Scary Godmother might have taken a shot at my charge, and Sebastian warned us to be on our guard. She’d gotten two other charges over the weekend, though no one but Yasmina had died as a result of her meddling.

A call of my name stopped me as I entered the sentinel compound along the way to Surveillance and Subterfuge. Anji trotted up with her backpack slung over one shoulder, a friendly smile on her face. “Hey. What’d you score on yesterday’s Magical Ethics quiz?”

“I only missed his trick question about iron stakes.”

“What’d you put?”

“That it kills darkling fae.”

“Girl, you put an iron stake through almost anybody’s heart and they’re going to die. Even vampires. Humans, vampires, and technically even liches.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know that. I just wasn’t thinking at the time. Not gonna sweat it, since it’s only one question. But he did give me an extra-credit point for adding that driving it through a lich’s chest won’t kill them since their heart isn’t actually there.”

A shudder ran down my spine. While it was rare, when magicians went bad, they went real bad, often choosing the path of necromancy by sealing their vital life essence into an unholy reliquary. The little container held their heart and small keepsakes from their mortal life, used to bind their soul in this mortal plane no matter how many times sentinel squads destroyed their bodies.

Because the first step to becoming a lich was for the wizard to cut the heart from his own chest, there was nothing there to pierce with an iron shard, wooden stake, or any other weapon.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to see any mage questions, since he was all about telling us faerie stuff recently.”

Anji snorted. “You should know better. It was in the reading assignment list.”

“But we skipped talking about it in class,” I grumbled. School had become an intimidating balancing act, and I’d let my reading for Magical Ethics fall aside in favor of putting more study time into Channeling. Everything early in the semester had been about turning cotton to silk and making designer clothes out of rags.

Now we had to turn garden mice into henchmen.

There was nothing more disconcerting than turning a mouse into an incredibly dumb man and knowing my grade might one day hinge on him following orders.

“You know what’s weird?” Anji asked, yanking my attention back to the present.

“What?”

“So, they issued iron stakes to all of the sentinels assigned to protect fae students. Nothing to anyone else. It’s almost like the Scary Godmother doesn’t care about magician charges. She’s only going after the ones with fae caretakers.”

“Yeah, I noticed. I swear, I think she’s been around Sharon twice.”

“Good thing you’ve put so much love into Sharon already. It’ll be ridiculously hard for her to sway Sharon into doing dumb shit. How’s Pilar doing? I haven’t seen her around school much.”

Pilar had met her new charge this week, a young doctor destined to perfect fetal surgery and improve survival rates for children requiring life-saving measures in the womb. She had to help him get through his general surgery residency at a local hospital, and since Liadan’s ward also worked at the hospital, they carpooled together with their sentinels. They were both putting in lots of extra hours to catch Pilar up, and neither Sai, Holly, nor Holden minded. Pilar had a great sentinel.

“She’s great and totally adores her new charge. He’s an awesome guy. You know, you can always come over and hang with us, right? You never come to our place.”

“I know… I just wasn’t sure Pilar was okay with the rest of us, you know? You know how people are nice to your face, but when you’re gone...”

“Oh, Anji, no. I mean, she was sort of uppity about stuff last year, but… a lot of that crap was her doing what she thought was expected of her. I, uh, actually told her to get over herself and be who she wanted to be, not the person her folks wanted. It’s not like they’re standing over her shoulder now.”

“Good to know. But what is she going to do if they spontaneously show up and see she’s cool with non-fae?”

My brows squished together. “I dunno. Never thought of it.”

“I wonder what they thought about her losing a charge.”

I paused in my tracks, uncomfortable with discussing Pilar behind her back, but even more disturbed that she hadn’t mentioned her parents once. “I don’t know. I mean… she hasn’t mentioned it.”

Pilar had taken me and Liadan home with her to Madrid over spring break a few months ago, but her father hadn’t been there. The three of us spent the entire week checking out the tourist sites, museums, and dining on amazing Spanish cuisine.

Her parents hadn’t been part of the picture. Now I wondered how often they ever were.

Probably not at all. As far as I knew, they hadn’t even called after she lost her charge.

“Why the sudden interest in Pilar anyway?”

Anji shrugged. “People say things, so I was curious. Anyway, I just didn’t want to like… make trouble by showing up at your place if she doesn’t like shifters. I do want to hang with you guys more, I just…”

“I get it.” A bunch of students passed us by, filtering into the training room for our next class. “Hey, I have an awesome idea. I’ll talk to Lia and maybe we can all get together Saturday for dinner at our place.”

Anji’s eyes brightened. “Yeah?”

“Sure, why not? We’re long overdue for a get-together. I’ll even cook.” She stared at me. “Fine, I’ll ask Lia to cook, if she’s willing.”

“All right, I’m in. Just shoot me a text when you detail it all out, okay?”

“Great, will do.”

The idea of bringing my closest friends together for something other than studying brought a smile to my face and a pleasant buzz. Happy, that’s what I was. A shame a fae couldn’t gather up faerie dust from themselves, because if we could, I’d have a pile to add to my Dream Box.

With my mind set on how best to approach Lia with my idea, I followed Anji into class.

Professor Atkins, a scrawny little battlemage who didn’t seem capable of firing a shotgun without being blown away like a dandelion seed, taught our surveillance course alongside Coach Willis. The room we used resembled a warehouse—a huge empty space with high ceilings and lots of catwalks. They could change the room on a whim using illusion magic and what I could only describe as Hollywood movie sets. Last week, we worked on sneaking through a “house” while the occupants watched television. And the week before that, it had been set up to mimic a mall. We learned to tail someone through a crowd.

Tonight, the huge space had been covered with an illusion of a highway in miniature. Professor Atkins ushered everyone in and gathered us to either side of the track.

“Today, we will talk about mobile surveillance. As sentinels, you will be put in all sorts of situations. Sometimes you might be asked to follow a target.” He snapped his fingers and a car on the diorama glowed blue. “This is our target. This car back here will be our tail.”

One by one, we took turns controlling the tail vehicle. It reminded me of playing with remote control cars as a kid.

“You want to keep distance between you and your quarry. It’s a delicate balance when in town. You need to stay far enough back to remain unnoticed, but close enough not to lose them through a light.”

“But our fae wards can glamour the car,” someone said.

Coach Willis crossed his arms over his chest. “You won’t always have a fae with you, or a mage with the power to cloak a car long term, which is why you need to learn this method.”

It made sense to me. My turn came up, and I took control of the car. Professor Atkins changed the illusion from a highway to a city block and ran me through a few drills.

“No, no, wait until the car is farther up the block before you pull out,” the mage chided.

Outside, the clocktower chimed the one-o’clock hour. Our professors finished up with a short lecture, and twenty minutes later, class dismissed.

“Ugh, I’m starving.” Anji shifted her backpack up on her shoulder and steered us down the path toward the student center. “I hope they have burgers on the line today. I could eat, like, three.”

“Psst. Hey, Anji, did you hear about Sheldon?”

Anji and I both swiveled our heads toward our fellow classmate, a raven named Cole. He moved to keep step between us.

“Sheldon… Wolf, right? I haven’t seen him this year,” Anji said.

The name rang a bell, and then it hit me. Sheldon had been one of the students at the Hidden Court meeting last year.

“That’s because he was one of the students who was Bound end of last year after the Carmilla thing.” Cole’s gaze flicked to me, and then he continued, “Anyway, I heard from my sister that he was found this past weekend out in Rockford, dead.”

“Damn,” I said. “Accident?”

“That’s the thing, no one knows. They got it down as unknown causes, because they can’t figure it out. He was at some farmstead and—get this—there were three bodies there with him. All of ’em ravaged. Police thought it was bath salts until the coroner ID’d him and he popped up in their system as a Talentless.”

Anji whistled. “Wow. How’d your sister find out?”

“She’s working at the field office out there.”

“And you’re just offering this juicy tidbit for free?” It didn’t sound like good raven politics to me.

Cole huffed. “Yeah, well, I owe Anji a favor.”

“More than one.” Anji grinned, leaned in, and kissed his cheek. From the way Cole’s cheeks flushed and his eyes brightened, I had a feeling he’d have given her the information for free. “You’re the best, Cole. Catch you later for a pool rematch?”

“You’re on.”

I waited until he moved off before sidling in close enough to bump our hips together. “What was that?”

“Nothing. We’re just pals.”

“Uh-huh. And pigs fly.”

“Shut up. Anyway, what do you think of Sheldon’s death? Sort of weird circumstances, isn’t it? I mean, once you’re Talentless, you can’t shift, so it’s weird that he died while…” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “So gross.”

“There has to be more to the story, because nothing about that makes any sense. Do any of the shifter senses remain after they’re Bound?”

Anji shook her head. “Once you go Talentless, you lose your sense of smell, your taste for hunting fresh meat, everything.”

“So, if he was no better than a human, what the hell made him resort to cannibalism?”

The question sent a cold trickle of dread down my spine and lingered with me throughout the morning long after our breakfast hour.

* * *

By the time I finished my International Magical Policy midterm, I wanted to crawl into bed and never get back out, but there was still history to deal with. Taking a written exam after a long night of sentinel classes sucked. My essay portion of the exam was mostly me babbling in written form.

“Let’s get some coffee,” Lia suggested.

“A small one for me, or I’ll never get to sleep afterward.”

Pilar, coffee snob that she was, wrinkled her nose. “You two go on ahead. I’m going to sit in the library and go over my notes.”

Normally, I might have suggested our townhome as a compromise so she could brew up the fancy stuff, but I needed her gone to lay out my dinner ideas with Lia. So I gave her a wave and waited until we split ways on the path. Liadan gave me a curious glance but, bless her, waited to ask questions until after we grabbed our caramel lattes.

“Something on your mind, Skylar?”

“Yeah, actually. How do you feel about a surprise dinner party for our friends this weekend? I thought maybe you and I could go halfsies on some stuff and maybe you could whip us up an Irish feast. I’d help, of course.”

“I think it’s a lovely idea. You don’t want Pilar to know?”

“I know the ball cheered her up, but I thought this would be a way for us to kinda add to that. Plus, we could feed our shifter pals without her muttering about people eating the stuff she makes.”

Liadan’s warm laughter lifted my spirits way better than coffee. “How many people are you thinking?”

“Anji, Ben, Gabe, Holly, Rodrigo, Radha, and anyone else you can think of. Uh, a lot, I guess.”

“Well then, we’ll be needing lots of meat and potatoes to feed shifters. Do you trust me with the menu?”

“Absolutely. I trust you with anything.”

“Then I’ll text Sai and ask if he’ll drive me to the grocery store tomorrow evening. May as well let him in on the secret and pass an invitation his way, right?”

Thrilled with our top-secret plan, we hurried to catch up to Pilar at the library and found she was none the wiser.

Operation Gang Banquet was on.

18

Becoming a Guardian Angel

The scent of burning meat and singed hair woke me from a nap on the living room couch. I tasted rum in my mouth. Even though I hadn’t had anything to drink, the flavor was as fresh as it would be if I’d been guzzling it in my sleep.

When I dragged in a few panicked breaths, the odor faded, replaced by the corned beef and cabbage Liadan was making in the kitchen since I’d asked her to make something stereotypically Irish.

Was something on fire?

Jolting up to my feet, I spun to face the kitchen behind the couch. “Lia!” My chest heaved, anxiety sending sparks of discomfort down my spine and raising the hairs on my arms, reminding me of back when I used to have nightmares as a kid after Dad let me stay up to watch scary movies with him.

Lia crossed the room to me in a step. One moment, she was stirring food—the next, she had a hand on my shoulder and a spoon in the other. “Sky, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Yeah. Bad dream, I think. I woke up thinking there was a fire in here.”

“Ah, grand. I finally cook something for you all and now you’re having nightmares.”

I laughed off the lingering unease and rubbed my face. Pilar’s old grandfather clock said it was just a little after six, and the sky beyond the windows was painted in the watercolor hues of dusk.

Everything was right on time for our big, friendly, Saturday dinner. The pot on the stove was large enough to serve a dozen people. Anji had done me a solid and lured Pilar out of the townhome earlier in the afternoon with a request to help with her wardrobe—and we all knew Pilar couldn’t resist offering up her fashion advice.

“Is it almost done? I’m starving.”

Lia laughed. “About thirty more minutes. I just put the shepherd’s pie in the oven to brown, so you’re welcome to call everyone together.”

“All right. I don’t have Sai’s number. Was he gonna come too?”

“I invited him, but he had plans already. He sent his regrets and hopes we have the opportunity again.”

“Sounds like a plan. Hopefully this goes well.” After digging my phone out of the couch cushions, I sent a group text to Anji, Ben, Pilar, Gabriel, and Radha. Dinner’s on me and almost ready. Come on over.

My phone chirped two seconds later with a text from Radha. Say what?

Lia cooked for everyone. We both paid for it and want all of you to join us.

Ben replied next. Seriously? What’s on the menu? Can I bring a friend?

I grinned. We’d anticipated that. Of course. Gabe can bring Rodrigo with him too.

How did I not know about this? Pilar asked.

Feeling smug about our achievement, I sent back, Surprise! 😘

The only response I didn’t get was one from my boyfriend, so I went to our private messages. Hey, you coming over for food? It’s delish, I swear. Bring Rodrigo.

Gabriel didn’t reply.

A few minutes later, Ben showed up with a wizard friend. The moment Lia removed the shepherd’s pie from the oven, Holly and Victor—at least, I assumed the random pale dude in her bedroom was her boyfriend—blearily wandered out, rubbing the sleep from their eyes.

“Something smells delicious,” Holly said.

“Uh. Hi?”

“Hey there. Sorry. I’m Victor.”

“I thought so. About time we finally met you. You were like Holly’s best-kept, mysterious secret.”

He laughed. “Nah. Just really busy this semester. Sebastian works the dogshit out of us. It’s constant go, go, go if you get into his program.”

Something for me to strive for next year, since Sebastian only worked with the juniors and seniors at the top of the sentinel class.

Anji, Pilar, and Radha showed up together five minutes later. Pilar stared at all the food, hands on her hips, and laughed. “I can’t believe you kept this a secret.”

“It was tricky,” I admitted. “Thanks, Anji.”

“Hey, we picked out some awesome outfits at the outlet store, so no complaints from me about being your distraction. Pilar is like a master couponer. You should see all the shit we got.”

Pilar’s cheeks turned rosy with pleasure, and I was glad to see the two of them had found some common ground.

Lia dished up heaping plates of food for everyone. We didn’t have enough seating, so a few of our friends ended up on the floor, but no one had any complaints. I stood at the breakfast counter with one eye on my phone while I shoveled in a mouthful of steaming mashed potatoes and ground lamb.

“Hey, Lia, did something spill in the oven?”

“No, why?”

“Huh. Caught a whiff of something burning, but I don’t smell it now. I’ll clean out the bottom later I guess.”

I texted Gabriel again. Hey. Is everything okay? Are you all right?

“I’m sure they’re wrapped up in a video game or something and will show up here starving,” Lia assured me. She set aside two generous, serving-platter-sized portions of dinner and placed a lid over them, going so far as to label both containers with Rodrigo and Gabriel’s names.

“Yeah, maybe.” Anxiety closed a tight fist around my heart. “You guys go ahead and finish up. I’m gonna run over and check on Gabriel. Drag him over.”

While they started up movies and broke out the booze we weren’t supposed to have, I slipped on sneakers and dashed down to the Wyvern Quarters, where a cluster of apartment buildings housed all the students with cash for single and one-bedroom apartments.

I rode the elevator up to Gabriel’s floor and knocked on the door.

Rodrigo answered a few seconds later and let me in. “Hey, Sky. What’s up?”

Stark waved to me from the couch. The noise of a Call of Duty game blasted from the home entertainment system. “Sup, Sky?”

“Uh... hey, guys. Is Gabe in?”

Rodrigo shook his head. “Nah. He went out to play in a pool tourney with Julien and Isaac. What’s up?”

I wrung my hands together and composed my thoughts, hoping not to sound like a clingy girlfriend. “He isn’t answering my texts or calls.”

“Eh, he probably doesn’t hear it. The Roadhouse is usually pretty loud. Why? What’s going on?”

“Look, I know this happened a few months ago with Trisha and it wasn’t really a vision, but something’s wrong. I can’t stop thinking about Gabriel and feeling like he isn’t okay.”

His thick brows slid together. “One of your premonitions?”

“I don’t know. Sorta. I—are you burning something?”

“Ha! Cook? Me? No way. I’m a train wreck in the kitchen, so we ordered takeout. Gabe gets pissed if I go in there and fuck shit up.”

“I swear I smell something burning. I smelled it when I woke up too.”

Instead of brushing aside my worries, Rodrigo drew in a deep breath through his nose. Then he opened the door and did the same thing out in the hall. “Nothing, Sky. Can you describe it?”

“It’s like… Now it smells like burnt hair. I keep getting a whiff of sulfur now too.”

“You think it’s related to your vision?”

“I do, yeah.”

Stark tossed the controller aside and stood. “That sounds like an aura.”

I blinked. “A what?”

“An aura. They sometimes happen with minor premonitions. You taste or smell something that’s occurring in another place in time. You don’t start learning about those until later this year.”

Rodrigo slipped on a gun holster and plucked a big hand cannon from their collection of firearms. “Remember when Trisha was sending you those visions last year?”

“Yeah?”

“A mage can’t fake an aura. They can send you visual cues and auditory hallucinations, but they can’t make you smell. A raven with a powerful mastery over illusions probably could, but they wouldn’t be able to wake you from a dead sleep.” He tossed Stark a short-barreled shotgun. The raven slid it under his jacket and made it disappear like a magician’s trick. I stared.

“You both believe me?”

Stark shrugged. “Why not? If you’re right, we head off a fight. If you’re wrong… we get wasted and have a good time.”

Rodrigo nodded. “Lemme grab my keys. If anything’s going down, we’ll call Sebastian and Simon as per protocol. Cool?”

“Cool.”

* * *

We circled the block twice before we passed an empty spot. When Rodrigo started fumbling for money to pay the parking meter, I jinxed it to malfunction and dragged him away. That’d buy us at least an hour before the magic faded.

Stark laughed. “I like how you operate.”

The Roadhouse occupied a gravel lot, a three-story building with blinding neon light signs hanging in almost every window. The clashing, flickering colors gave me a headache.

Rodrigo stopped me. “Hold up a sec. You’re not twenty-one yet, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Glamour your ID then or you aren’t getting past the door.”

“Oh, right.”

A little dose of faerie magic scrambled the numbers on my ID and made me legal. The bouncer shooed us past after scrutinizing it, even giving me a dubious look like he knew I didn’t belong but couldn’t prove it. Inside, the place was less of an eyesore, lights kept dim. Peanut shells littered the scuffed wooden floors, and the smell of old beer hung heavy in the air.

Rodrigo led me across the floor with a hand between my shoulder blades. “Pool tourney is up on the third floor. The whole space is dedicated to it with their own bar.”

We took the stairs to the third floor. There were three pool tables in the center of the spacious room, but only one in use at the moment. A scoreboard said the game was down to the semifinals, and I picked out Isaac’s huge body among the players at the tables.

A crowd of people on barstools and at small tables sipped drinks while observing the competition. I picked out Julien’s white and gold head among spectators closest to the table. Gabriel was next to him.

“Either of you smell anything funny?” Rodrigo asked.

I shook my head. The panic was already fading.

Stark sniffed the air. “Just smells like booze and way too much cologne to me.”

“Yeah.” Rodrigo’s comforting smile eased the hard knot in my chest. “See? He’s right there watching Isaac shoot. Nothing to worry about. I bet he’s got his phone off so he can concentrate when he’s up.”

It made sense. Feeling silly, I forced a smile and nodded toward the bar. “Buy you guys drinks then to make up for this.”

Stark raised a brow. “Not going to say hi to your boyfriend?”

“I don’t want to bother—wait, how—? He isn’t my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, whatever. Can’t nobody tell me you two aren’t boning.”

Heat surged over my face. “Why does everyone assume that? We’re not—”

Rodrigo dropped his heavy arm around my shoulders. “Don’t worry. Stark isn’t a snitch.”

“We aren’t boning.”

The raven smirked. “Are you more worried about that, or that I know you’re together?”

“What? No, it’s not like that. Ugh. How did you even know? Did Gabriel tell you?”

“Technically, he did. Did you not see the dirty look he gave me for touching you at the club meeting? I thought he was going to take my hand off.”

The two guys exchanged looks and silence fell over them before Rodrigo grinned. “Everybody kinda figured it out then, but you’re one of us now, so it’d be like… against the bro code to narc on y’all.”

“What about Jada?”

“Nah. If she says anything, people will think she’s just sore for being dumped.”

Stark snickered. “Yeah. On the highway.”

We grabbed seats at the end of the bar, not far from a trio of sailors in their Dress Blues.

“Three Flaming Assholes.” One of the sailors peered across his pals toward me. “Unless the sexy lady wants one too.”

“Oh no,” I said, both hands out to ward off the bartender. “No, but thanks. I’ll watch this round.”

“You sure? Ah… well, still, her drink’s on us.”

Brows notched together, I watched the bartender prepare their drinks in layers then move down the line lighting them aflame. One of the guys drank his through a straw, but the second tossed it back all in one go.

“Damn, that was good.”

“More?” the bartender asked.

“Yeah, fill us up again.” He glanced to the third guy who was staring down at his drink, everything about his expression mirroring how I was feeling when I thought about voluntarily putting flammable liquid near my face.

A cold chill crept down my back, and an electric buzz tingled over my bare arms.

His friend nudged him. “Don’t be a pussy, man. Drink up.”

The sailor raised his shot glass and tilted it toward his mouth. The fiery cocktail went everywhere but where it belonged, coursing down his chin and onto his shirt.

Blue flames glowed against his face and raged across his jumper, growing larger and more intense by the second. He stumbled away from the bar in a panic while beating his cheeks and chin.

“Oh fuck,” Stark breathed. He and Rodrigo froze beside me, staring in wide-eyed horror. I couldn’t look away either.

The sailor’s buddy swung around to help but knocked his own drink over, sending a splash of flaming liquid into the path of the rum streaming into a third glass. Flames raced up the arc of liquid, and then the bottle exploded in the bartender’s hand and showered them all with flaming rum. The guy directly in front of the bartender collapsed to the floor with a large chunk of glass in his throat.

As if that wasn’t enough, the contents of the rum bottle hit the bar and splashed everywhere, including the bartender’s sleeve. He jerked back and shrieked in terror, knocking over a row of shelved bottles behind him and spreading the fire.

A woman screamed somewhere, chairs skidded across the floor, and people rushed over to help as the bar dissolved into chaos.

It had all happened in a span of seconds.

Rodrigo snapped out of it first, lurching off his seat and tearing off his jacket. He tackled the burning man to the floor and smothered the flames. The sailor writhed in agony.

At that moment, more explosions came from behind the bar as their shattered stock booze set other bottles aflame. Stark pulled me off my stool a second before a wall of blue fire flashed down the counter in front of us. I knelt beside the bleeding sailor, but it was already too late for him. He was just making these awful gurgling sounds as he drowned on his own blood.

The second bartender grabbed a small fire extinguisher to try and put out his screaming coworker. After a single burst, something sparked and the canister ruptured.

I screamed, and instinct took the lead. Magic surged from within me, a Prismatic Barrier expanding outward in a shimmering, rainbow globe of defensive magic. It surrounded the three of us, but the two bartenders and the remaining sailor weren’t as fortunate.

Stark glanced at me in respect. “Holy shit, girl. Thanks.”

My heart slammed in my chest. “A save for a save, right?”

People stampeded through thick black smoke, trampling anyone in their paths during their rush for the stairs. The light directly above them flickered then went out, dropping the entire third floor into darkness aside from the raging inferno spreading over the wall beside the bodies behind the bar.

A loud thump and the creak of wood filled my ears. Someone had kicked in the door to the fire escape. Light and clean air flooded inside, fueling the flames and letting out the smoke.

The stairwell became a clusterfuck congested by people who were no longer moving forward. Some of them spilled back inside, shouting about a fire downstairs too.

I glanced up at the inactive sprinkler system and frowned. “Gabriel! Where’s Gabriel?”

Stark shook his head as Rodrigo moved away. “Don’t know. I lost track of him when all the fireworks began.”

Wary of anything else exploding, I dropped down to one knee and shouted at the top of my lungs. “Gabriel!”

“Skylar?” He appeared through the thick smoke and crouched down beside me. “Fuck. I thought I smelled you here. The hell are you doing at a bar?” His gaze darted to Stark.

“Her idea, dude. Rodrigo’s here too. Long story for later. Right now, we need to get everyone out to safety.”

“Already started. Isaac had to bust down the door to the fire escape. Some idiot locked it. We were helping people out, but I heard your voice. There’s something going on downstairs. Julien went to go see—”

Julien stepped out of the Twilight, red-faced and perspiring heavily. The heat must have been awful for him. He coughed into one hand. “There are fires downstairs as well, mon ami. Several of them. Flaming liquor somehow dripped through crevices in the floorboards and carried it down below. This entire building is a death trap. I got out everyone I could on the second floor.”

Gabriel swore. “Sky, how many people can you take through the Twilight?”

“I don’t know. Two? Maybe three.”

“Help Julien.”

“Right.”

I grabbed two women by the hand who were huddled by a cracked window trying to breathe in the clean air. “Come with me.”

“There’s nowhere to—”

“Just trust me.”

Dragging them across the Veil into the Twilight took concentration, but we passed through the curtain and into a world of perpetual dusk. I skipped us through it like a stone skimming water, and we emerged seconds later in the parking lot in the mortal plane again.

Both ladies stared at me in awe, the twinkling glimmer of my wings reflected in their eyes.

“Oh my God, you’re a faerie!”

“You saved us!”

“I can’t believe it.”

I stepped right back into the Twilight and went to rescue another two people. During the third return trip, a small dark shadow darted across my path when I reached the bar. I spun around and tried to follow it with my gaze, but whatever it was moved fast and vanished into the ceiling. A fine shower of sparks rained down from above.

Rather than waste time chasing shadows, I hurried inside and took hold of two more people. By then, the room had filled with choking smoke and the heat seared my skin and lungs. A third person sagged against me. With no other choice, I made the leap and brought all three into the Twilight. We all stumbled out again coughing and gasping.

An ear-splitting noise rent the night air, sending a shiver down my spine. I turned toward the sound of shrieking metal to watch part of the fire escape collapse. The second story rail broke away from the wall, and the entire thing shuddered beneath the load of a half dozen people descending it. Just as an older man leapt from the second-story landing, it started to sway, and then it tore free altogether. The people on it screamed and grabbed on to the fragile pieces of metal still fastened to the bricks.

A loud roar came from inside the building, and the roof collapsed inside the third floor. A bright gout of flames rose skyward, and orange embers kissed the night sky.

“Gabriel!” I screamed up to him.

He and Rodrigo remained trapped in the fire escape door with Hell’s inferno raging behind them.

The remaining rail snapped, and a woman swung out into open air. When she managed to grab hold of the ledge, a few people down below ran over to stand beneath her, only to quickly scatter when a section of stairs tumbled down.

Gabriel crouched down by the door, stretching to reach her. Her fingers touched his, but then her grip on the ledge slipped.

The woman plummeted, screaming the entire way.

Gathering the wind behind me, I swept my wings back and thrust them down with all my power. A surge of wind launched my body forward and up toward the escape, the world around me blurring. I reached the woman and grabbed her by the seat of her jeans, and suddenly, all those hours of pumping iron in the gym finally helped.

Or maybe it was the magical nature of my wings, because instead of crashing to the ground with her, we soared away from the wobbling escape.

Julien emerged from the Twilight at that moment and cast a glamour, transforming the rubble beneath into an inflatable cushion like what stuntmen used for falls.

I landed and set her down as fire engines arrived, sirens screaming into the night.

Glancing up, I saw Gabriel coaxing the remaining survivors clinging to the stairs to jump down to the crash pad. They did it one by one, and then Rodrigo jumped down.

Gabriel and Stark shifted and flew off seconds before the doorframe collapsed. One raven—I couldn’t tell which, thanks to the smoke streaming from the blaze—wobbled and floundered in the air. With what little strength I had left in me, I zipped over to the two birds and caught the injured one against my chest.

He’d been burnt badly, hints of pink, scorched flesh visible beneath what down remained on the left wing. The odor of my premonition filled my nose: smoke, sweat, and scorched feathers.

19

The Endless Walk

By the end of it, there were about three unaccounted for mortals who probably perished in the flames, because their friends kept shouting for them and crying out their names. And there was Isaac. I hadn’t seen it, but Gabriel had given a solemn accounting of what happened in my absence. The floor had caved in and plummeted the big bear down to the first floor, where he’d been caught in the inferno.

Not even a bear shifter could survive that.

A pair of motorcycle sentinels arrived on scene a few minutes after the police sorted us out, one a vampire named Christian I’d only seen around the school once, the other a red-haired werewolf chick who introduced herself as Dani. She took over the investigation, called in backup from the nearest sentinel field office over the radio, and dismissed us after we answered her questions.

The mortal police detective frowned. “Excuse me, but we’re not finished—”

Her sharp gaze cut toward him. “Finished with what?”

“Questioning these… students about their version of the events.”

Christian crossed his arms. “Their version?”

“A fire spontaneously began in the bar while several paranormal beings were present.”

“Are you suggesting, after these students singlehandedly rescued dozens of people and witnessed the death of a close friend, that they were responsible for this?” Dani asked.

“I’m suggesting there may be more to learn about the event.”

Dani rose to her full height, towering above the human cop. “No. One of these young men has severe burns. I will take their statements myself and forward all pertinent data to your department.”

“But—”

Christian’s eyes gleamed red in the light. He licked one of his fangs, and the cop went chalk white. I was used to pairs who were good cop and bad cop, but right now, they were both the bad cop and freaking awesome. “These kids have been through enough. Dani, you want me to escort them back to the campus?”

“I’ll do it.” She turned and looked us all over. “You good to drive?

When I fished Gabriel’s car keys out of his pocket, he didn’t say a word. “We’re good.”

She nodded. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I drove Gabriel’s car with him in the passenger seat and Julien in the back. Rodrigo rode with Stark, the two trailing behind us with our sentinel escort.

Gabriel stared out the window in absolute silence for the entire drive, practically catatonic.

Once we reached campus and pulled into the garage, I turned to look at him. “Gabe—”

“I wasn’t fast enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard the floor giving way, but I wasn’t fast enough to grab Isaac.”

Julien leaned forward from the back and touched Gabriel’s shoulder. “It was not your fault.”

“If I’d been quicker—”

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for this,” I said.

Julien nodded in agreement. “There was too much happening. None of us were fast enough to save Isaac, and we barely saved ourselves, Gabriel. We cannot do it all.”

“I’m trained to.”

My heart broke. I blinked a few times to clear the stinging sensation creeping beneath my eyelids, furious and hurting for him. “You aren’t.”

“She’s right. You are trained to save lives and to protect others. You did that splendidly today, but you cannot save everyone.” The other fae shivered. “What happened there was not natural. The way the fire just consumed everything so quickly. It was not natural.”

I thought of the little shadow darting into the ceiling and sparks raining from above. “Did you see it too?”

Julien’s fair brows drew together. “See what?”

“I saw a shadow… I don’t know what it was though. Only that it was small.”

“Then you must tell Sentinel Danielle everything once we have Gabriel in the infirmary.”

“I don’t recognize her at all from around the campus.”

Gabriel sighed and leaned his head against the seat. “She transferred in a couple weeks ago from Manhattan. Guess she goes back a long way with Sebastian and Simon.”

I got out of the car and helped Gabriel from the passenger seat, mindful of his red and blistered left arm. And because I didn’t want to be bothered by nosy assholes, I drew a Prismatic Cloak around the both of us.

Julien glanced over at the motorcycle pulling in with Rodrigo’s car. “I’ll go speak with the sentinels. Get him some care.”

“I will. Thanks, Julien.”

Leaving our friends behind, I led Gabriel down the road to the campus medical center, thanking whatever force of magic who was listening that I’d been there to catch him when he needed me.

* * *

The medical center had surprisingly comfortable chairs in all their rooms. At some point during the night, someone had come in and draped a blanket over me and snuck a pillow behind my head. I woke up without a sore neck or a chill.

In the nearby bed, Gabriel remained asleep.

My friends had left over a dozen messages on my phone. I replied to the most recent text asking if everything was okay.

At medical with Gabe. I’ll explain more later.

“Knock knock.”

I fumbled my phone in my lap and looked up. The same sentinel who’d escorted us home stood in the doorway with three steaming cups in a holder and a paper bag from the food court bakery. She smiled.

“Feeling better, Skylar?”

“Yeah, I guess so, considering all that went down. Gabe isn’t up yet though.”

“Nah. He’s awake.”

I glanced at Gabriel’s sleeping face. They’d drugged him good a few hours ago. “Huh?”

A warm smile brightened Danielle’s face. “I caught him watching you while you were texting.”

Gabriel sighed. “Dammit.”

“If this isn’t a good time, I can come back later. I’ve already gotten a solid report from Rodrigo, Stark, and Julien.”

His brow furrowed. “No. It’s fine. I mean… I’m pretty sure I don’t know anything more than they do.”

“Same. I was there for it all, and I’m still confused,” I added.

“I wanted to ask about the shadows you saw. Julien mentioned it.” Danielle passed us each a coffee and a huge chocolate croissant. As far as interrogations went, this was one of the friendliest, because with Simon and Sebastian, I usually felt like I was talking to Dad and one word away from getting sent to my room.

“Honestly, I don’t know much more than that. I noticed it in the Twilight while I was bringing people out. Something small and fast, I didn’t get a good look.”

“Would you say this shadow seemed to be affecting anything?”

“It must have realized I saw it, because it shot away into the ceiling, and then there was like a ton of electrical sparks.”

Her brows raised. She and Gabriel both exchanged quiet glances.

“What?” I asked.

“The lights suddenly went out, and we lost power in the building,” Gabriel told her. “A few minutes before that. The sprinkler system didn’t activate either.”

“Right. How did the fire start? Give me your take on it.”

“Three idiots decided drinks on fire were cool. I was sitting a few seats down with Stark and Rodrigo, because we wanted to watch Gabriel play in the pool tournament.”

Gabriel nodded. “Isaac was taking his shot when it happened, so I missed the start of the whole thing. The place was packed, man, and way over the fire code occupancy limit. When I realized shit was going wrong, the fire had already jumped down the counter.”

It took us a couple minutes to relay the events of the fire as we knew it, taking turns to fill in the holes for each other.

“Basically, everything that could have gone wrong, did,” I said in closing.

“All right, I’ll get started on the official investigation. If I have any more questions, I’ll call. Do either of you want me to send the crisis counselor in?”

Gabriel shook his head. I did the same.

“You two get some rest. Gabriel’s burns are already on the mend.” She paused in the doorway. “There’s going to be a vigil for Isaac at sunset, but everyone will understand if you want to pass.”

“No, we’ll be there,” Gabe said.

I waited until the door shut behind her before moving from my chair to the edge of Gabriel’s bed. “How are you really feeling?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He drew in a deep breath and held it. Seeing Gabe in pain like this twisted me up inside, and I waited until he released his pent-up breath and shook his head.

“Not right now. I don’t… I’m not trying to push you away, okay?”

I silenced him with a kiss, keeping it brief and light against his lips. The tension in his shoulders released, and he sank against the bed.

“Go back to sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Gabriel stroked the top of my hand. “Don’t do that, Sky. Go get changed and relax some.”

“But—”

“You made me real proud of you out there.”

“So did you.”

Everything in me screamed to stay, but the last thing I wanted to do was pressure him. Given time, he’d work through it all himself, and we’d talk about it when he was ready. So I kissed his cheek, promised to bring him food before the vigil, and made my way out.

Pilar and Liadan crowded me as soon as I stepped inside the townhouse. Ben rose from his seat on the couch.

Holly appeared at my left. “How are you? Are you okay?”

“How’s Gabriel?” Pilar asked. “Did he get injured again?”

Liadan squeezed me so hard I squeaked. “Were you both hurt?”

“Gabriel got a bad burn on his arm. When he tried to shift and fly down, I don’t think he realized he’d have damaged feathers too, and…”

Their eyes grew larger, and Lia cupped a hand to her mouth. “Oh no.”

“I caught him somehow. I flew better yesterday than I’ve flown in all these lessons with Tristal and Dain.”

“You had a reason worth flying for. Look.” Pilar pointed to the television. They had been watching the news report of the fire where a reporter was interviewing several witnesses.

“It was a faerie. A beautiful faerie with wings like an angel. She saved my life. I… there aren’t enough words to say how much I appreciate it. She saved so many of us. I just knew I was going to die. One moment, I was falling toward the ground, and then suddenly she appeared and rescued me.”

The camera cut to the reporter’s concerned face. “Had you ever seen this faerie before?”

“No, never. I didn’t think I had a faerie godmother. My life is so dull, and I’m no one special.”

The news station played a video uploaded to Facebook by someone’s cell phone of me hurtling through the air, amber light and faerie dust streaming behind my wings. They didn’t look like my usual butterfly wings, instead resembling a set belonging to a hawk or an eagle.

“Huh. I don’t remember changing my wings.”

It was all too surreal, seeing myself on the news. I glanced down at my phone, half expecting a slew of worried texts from my parents. Nothing. Either this hadn’t warranted airtime yet in Virginia, or my folks were keeping their promise about not fussing over me for every little thing.

Ben gave me a funny look. “What were you even doing in a bar, Sky?”

“I, uh…”

He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. “Did Gabriel sneak you in? I didn’t think sentinels did that sort of stuff.”

“No, it wasn’t like that. I actually went there looking for him, because I had a bad feeling.”

“Really? I thought you guys only got insights about your charges.”

“No, for anyone we care deeply about,” Pilar said. She immediately slapped a hand over her own mouth.

Ben looked from me to Pilar then back to me again, both brows raised. “I’m not following. I didn’t think the insight theory included friends.”

Boys. So dense at the best of times. I sighed and fessed up like an adult. “Gabriel and I are dating.”

For a moment, Ben gave his best fish impersonation, his mouth opening and closing a few times. “What? Since when? How did I not know about this?”

“Look, no one can know, all right? That’s the only reason I didn’t tell you. I was trying to keep it need-to-know, because if the faculty finds out, they’d split us up with different partners.”

“You didn’t trust me?”

The hurt in his voice made me wince. “I’m sorry, Ben, really. The girls only knew because Gabe would come over here sometimes.” And Lia walked in on us kissing at the end of the year.

“I get it…” Except his glum voice said otherwise. He glanced away from me, back to the news. “I guess it’s a good thing. You helped save a lot of people because you were there.”

“Ben, I’m really sorry.”

When he looked back to me, his usual easygoing smile had surfaced. “I get it, I do. I just want you to know you can trust me with things. I would never rat you out. Sharing news with the paper isn’t the same as digging into your personal lives.”

One step brought me within reach, and then I hugged him. He squeezed me back, and just like that, we were good again.

* * *

Dain met me outside of the science building after Biology the next day. I knew he was there before I saw him, before the telltale buzz of his magical presence even raised the hairs on my arms, because there was a gaggle of girls squealing and trying to stealth-shoot photos of the sylph lord leaning against a tree beside the stairs.

I shook my head and strode forward to meet him on the grass.

“You’re early, Dain.”

“I wanted to speak with you alone before your friends arrived.”

Apprehension spread a blanket of pins and needles across my skin.

“It’s nothing bad, Skylar.” He nodded to the path, aware of our spectating crowd. “Walk with me.”

Dain led me down the path away from busybodies lingering to catch snippets of our conversation. He didn’t speak until we reached our destination in the usual field.

“You’ve come a long way since our first lesson. Your rescue of that falling woman was quite impressive by the standards of even the Fair Folk.”

“You saw that?”

“I was not present for the event, but I am aware of your spectacular deed. Your Gabriel has done right by you.”

My Gabriel. I didn’t even try to correct him, because Dain would have seen right through the lie. Heart thundering behind my ribs and mouth dry as a desert, I watched him and waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Under his tutelage, I have watched your flying reach new levels, flourishing as a rosebud would blossom beneath the sun.”

“He’s a good teacher.”

“He cares for you deeply.”

A silent lull continued between us, my pulse galloping through my veins while Dain fixed me with this serene, too innocent smile.

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I wouldn’t. It isn’t my place, but I do wish to warn you.”

A sickening lurch dropped my stomach as I tried to imagine what sort of dire warning he might pass on. It may have been unusual and not particularly smiled upon to date a shifter, but there was no actual rule against it. Social expectations kept our kind apart.

“Such affairs between our kind and theirs are ill-fated, Lady Skylar. Though you are only half-fae, you will live several mortal lifetimes longer than any shapeshifter. Perhaps one day, you will transcend your halfblooded status and become a full-fledged faerie.”

“Dain—”

“You will watch him age, dear one. As he welcomes gray hair and smile lines, you will remain eternally youthful long after he reaches his sunset years and wanders into the Twilight, leaving you behind to grieve for him as all fae mourn those we love who are not of our kind.”

Love? I swallowed the lump in my throat. It may as well have been a boulder behind my sandpaper-dry tongue. “We’ve only dated a few months, Dain. We haven’t discussed love and marriage or anything like that yet.”

“Yet.” Those solemn blue eyes burned through me. “I only wish to warn you. It is not that we see ourselves as better than the shapeshifters, but that we must remain distant to protect our own hearts. We cherish them, and we honor their sacrifices to defend us, but they can never walk alongside us as equals during our immortal lives, for our walk is one that is endless long after their finish line is in sight.”

“I don’t—we’re not in love.” Saying it hit the center of my chest like a chisel driving into stone. “There’s no need to warn me about it. We’re only dating.” And I enjoyed the hell out of his company, his cuddles, the warmth of his arms around me, the way his soft breaths stirred my hair whenever I leaned against his chest, and the scent of his feathers mingled with his human essence.

But I didn’t think I could call it love. That would be insane.

20

Holidays are Magical (So are Mom’s Pies)

Halloween wasn’t the same. I considered reprising last year’s costume as a dark godmother since Gabriel offered to ride on my shoulder to complete the look, but Scary Godmother’s bullshit made it feel like it would be in poor taste. Plus, none of us could really drum up the enthusiasm to party so soon after losing a fellow student. Poor Rodrigo missed days of class because he and Isaac had been super tight.

It’d be like me witnessing Pilar or Liadan’s death.

Or worse, Gabriel. That sobering thought never stayed out of my head for long, because if I’d been a few seconds late, if I hadn’t listened to my gut, it would have been Gabriel along with their friend.

Our whole squad ended up staying at my place with a stack of horror movies while the rest of campus tried to celebrate the blues away. Somehow, Amalia managed to drag Rodrigo over for our Saw marathon. Liadan even cooked for us again, so the night became a gathering of close friends spread across our sectional and the massive beanbags we glamoured to fit everyone.

The next day, the Wild Hunt Club met a few hours ahead of schedule since we’d decided to run Crystal Gorge in Isaac’s honor. We wanted to hunt for silver dagger fish, because those had been his favorite.

My lessons continued with Dain, but he didn’t bring up my relationship again. His focus shifted more toward Pilar and Liadan, and even I recognized the growth in them both under his tutelage.

Down to the final days of our fall semester, we all gathered on the sofa in my living room and enjoyed a Friday evening in to discuss our holiday plans. Victor had even rented a movie and brought a few pizzas with him.

Something about Halloween night had cemented our friendship circle, because from that moment on, it was the norm for everyone to chillax at the townhouse, a group of shifters, vampires, mages, and faeries crossing social boundaries each weekend—often during the week too.

Life had to go on.

Since Thanksgiving wasn’t a national holiday in Ireland or Spain, neither Liadan or Pilar intended to go home. Holly’s parents lived in a nearby Chicago suburb, and she planned to take off early Wednesday morning with her boyfriend.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come, Sky? Mom totally said it’s cool for me to bring home whoever I want, and Pilar will be there.”

“Nah. You have that vampire metabolism working for you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You know, a little self-control at the dessert table is all it takes.”

Victor glanced at her. “Says the girl who drinks half my blood bag for me when I buy the expensive vegan shit. Where’s your self-control then?”

“Vegans are delicious,” Holly mumbled. Her cheeks flushed red hot.

“Your blood blushes are adorable,” Victor teased.

“Anyway, what does your crazy, unnecessary diet have to do with coming home to my house?”

“I was supposed to—”

“Glad someone else agrees it’s unnecessary,” Gabriel cut in.

“—be going home to my place with Lia, but when I went to check prices, everything was booked up except for the super-expensive flights. Guess I’m just bummed I won’t be eating my mom’s sweet potato pie. Dad was right; airfare is ridiculous when you miss the early specials. Who wants to spend six hundred bucks on one round-trip ticket?”

On cue, my cell phone rang and Mom’s number and picture enlarged on the screen. I mouthed what the fuck quietly before accepting her call and raising the phone to my ear. “Hi, Mom.”

“Hi there, baby. So, did you decide?”

“Decide what?”

“About coming home with any of your friends.”

“Huh?”

Mom made an impatient little sound. “I asked you a month ago to ask any of your friends if they’d like to join us for the holiday.”

“Oh, well… um, the airfare is kind of a lot.” My brows knit. Liadan had planned to come with me, but when she’d called home, her father said they couldn’t afford the fare anymore. I sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you reminded me, but midterms happened, then a bunch of other stuff, and I forgot. By the time I remembered, Liadan and I had already missed the best deals.”

“You’re not coming home?”

I bit my lower lip. “I really meant to get tickets a month ago.” Then my boyfriend almost died in a bar fire. All the odds had been against me.

Gabriel glanced away from the TV. “I can drive you.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll drive you and Lia home. I get good mileage, and it’ll be less than airfare.”

“Is that Gabriel?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Tell him we’ll reimburse him for gas, and we’d love to have him too.”

“Er…”

Gabriel chuckled and leaned in closer. “I’d love to join you, Mrs. Corazzi. I promise to deliver Skylar home for turkey day safe and sound.”

* * *

To take advantage of the deserted pre-dawn interstate, we left a little after midnight early Wednesday morning with Gabriel behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Liadan in the back snoozing with Amaterasu. Rodrigo had an early morning flight back to Texas, so he wouldn’t be in the apartment to care for her.

Gabe’s family rang his phone a dozen times, because they wanted to know if he’d fly home with his cousin. He answered the first call and ignored the rest. Eventually, he turned his phone off to focus on driving in the dark.

A little after sunrise, we stopped for overpriced coffee and woke Lia to join us for breakfast. A little Compulsion glamour from me convinced the manager to let us bring Ama inside the diner, because it was too damned cold to leave Gabe’s feathered friend in a chilly car while we ate.

“I’ll go get her. You two take a seat and get some coffee to the table. Maybe if Ama sits with me for a while...”

Gabriel canted his head. “You sure?”

“Yeah.”

When I returned with Ama, Gabriel and Lia were waiting on one side of the booth, sipping their respective hot drinks. The moment I pulled the warm blanket off her travel cage, she hustled out of her fleece hammock and performed a cheerful dance that gave me some hope of us becoming friends.

I touched her tummy the way I’d seen Gabriel do a hundred times.

She bit the hell out of me.

“Ow!”

Gabriel choked on his coffee, and Liadan sputtered tea.

“What a pretty bird,” the waitress said. Ama, the vile little hater bird, preened and chirped for the older woman. Evidently, she liked everyone but me.

“Give her time, Sky. She’ll come around.”

My little stare-off with the demon spawn indicated otherwise. I was pretty sure she and I were destined to be eternal enemies. As if to emphasize the point, she bit the bars hard enough to make a loud twang then banged her beak against the metal without breaking eye contact.

“Just ignore her,” Gabriel said.

“How is that going to help her like me?”

“Show her she can’t intimidate you. She’s trying to assert that she’s the boss of you… and succeeding.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

We placed orders with the waitress and chatted amongst ourselves while waiting for our breakfast. I pigged out on strawberry-stuffed french toast while doing my best to ignore the beady-eyed stare aimed my way. Her daddy fed her a blueberry from his fruit salad. She took it gratefully and forgot I existed.

“The GPS said we should reach Virginia around two or three this afternoon. If you want, I’ll swap places with you around then.”

“Sure.”

Taking cues from Gabriel, I picked a little piece of strawberry from my plate and offered it to Ama. She accepted it.

Yes! Score! She liked me—

The little bitch threw it down and seized my finger before I withdrew my hand, clamping down hard enough to almost draw blood.

Somehow, I bit back the swear.

Gabe sighed. “Ama, no biting.” When she let go and shuffled away, he shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth then chugged his coffee. “Sorry, Sky. Y’all ready?”

“I’m finished,” Lia said, giggling against the edge of her tea cup.

When Gabriel plucked his naughty baby’s cage off the seat, I noticed a fallen, golden-orange feather left behind. I picked it up out of habit, and a buzz traveled through my fingers. It was Ama’s feather, but it was filled with all of his warmth and love for her.

When no one was looking, I tucked it into my Dream Box.

Maybe she didn’t like me, but she meant a lot to someone I cared about, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

Gabriel and I swapped seats with about two hours to go, and I brought us into my hometown.

“Welcome to Suffolk, you two. We’ve got great pizza close by, a mall about an hour from here, and plenty of pine trees.”

My raven groggily raised his head then glanced at me. “Didn’t realize pine trees were a positive tourist feature.”

“Oh, they aren’t. They shed all year, and during pollen season the air is yellow. Still, I figured you may wanna roost somewhere.” I grinned at him.

He scowled.

A few minutes later, we cruised through my quiet neighborhood and slid into the drive of the two-story brick home where I’d been raised. Mom and Dad had managed to snag one of the largest corner lots, so the neighbors to either side weren’t right on us. I hadn’t even turned off the engine before my mom rushed out the front door. She swept me into her arms the moment I stepped out of the car.

“Hi, Mommy.”

“I’m so, so, so glad you’re home. Liadan, sweetie, it’s good to see you again.” Mom swooped from me to her, hugging us in turn. Then she skipped through the Twilight a step to reach Gabe on the other side of the car and squeeze him tight. “And you as well, Gabriel. Thank you so much for driving the girls down.”

“I was happy to do it, Mrs. Corazzi.”

“He only did it because he wants your sweet potato pie. He would have starved this week if we’d managed to come without him.”

Gabriel grunted. “She wouldn’t stop talking about it.”

Mom glowed with happiness. “Lucky for you that I made extras. I’ll freeze one to send back with you. You kids must be dying for a bite to eat after a long drive like that. Come on inside, I have snacks ready.”

Lia reached in the back and pulled out Ama’s cage. The conure screeched until Gabriel took possession of her.

“Oh, I see we have a little friend. Well, hurry inside with him—her?”

“Her name is Amaterasu, but she prefers Ama.”

A big grin spread across Mom’s face. “Prefers, does she?”

Gabriel’s cheeks heated a little.

“Can you talk with her?”

“A little. I used to understand her more when I was a kid. It was almost like we were speaking the same language then.”

After a flick of her wand Translocated our luggage from the car, Mom hustled us inside to unwind after our fifteen-hour journey. “I know the perfect place for your friend to sit during the day.” She guided Gabriel to the window where the morning and afternoon light streamed in each day. “You can wheel her into the guest room when it’s dark.”

“Um, her travel cage doesn’t have wheels.”

One tap of her wand to Ama’s travel cage made it jump and expand in size, becoming an enormous, toy-filled wonderland resembling her bigger home in the apartment. Bells dangled from strands of colorful rope yarn and a maze of perches snaked from wall to wall. Ama screamed and jumped on a rope with a spiraling paper ribbon. She shook a bell and chirped again with joy.

Mom, Lia, and I laughed, then Ama laughed, mimicking us. Bird laughs had to be either the cutest or the creepiest sound I’d ever heard.

Meanwhile, Gabriel stared at the transformed cage. “Whoa.”

“She had a little memory of home tucked inside her. Does this look about right?”

“Yeah, it does. Thanks, Mrs. Corazzi.”

“No problem.” She tapped the coffee table with her wand, conjuring a snack platter covered with sliced meats, cheeses, and fruit. I only managed to grab two bites before she called me into the kitchen to help.

“Does pot roast sound good, or should I make tacos? What do they like?”

“Whichever will take less work. Really, you don’t have to go all out. You don’t wanna know how we eat when we’re at the school.”

“I know, but I want to make sure everyone has a good time.”

Since the choice was up to me, I decided on tacos. She asked me about my classes while we diced lettuce and tomatoes the long, magicless way.

“Anything I can do to help?” Gabriel asked from the doorway.

“Yeah, you can come grate this ch—”

“No, no, you go sit and relax.” Mom smiled and shooed him off.

Dismissed from helping, Gabe wandered to Ama’s cage and offered her a grape. Soon as he sat down on the couch with Lia, she flew to him and shrieked for more until he gave in and passed her a baby carrot.

“Does he always share his food with her?”

“Yeah. She loves to eat yogurt off his finger or take food from him. I tried at breakfast today, and she bit me.”

“What did you do to make her mad?”

“Me? Nothing. She just really, really loves Gabe. He said he grew up with her, so he treats her like family.”

Mom nodded. “How a man treats his pets and his family is a good indication of character. Your Gabriel is definitely worth keeping around. I’d even say he’s the marrying kind.”

“Mom.”

“What?”

“We haven’t been dating long enough to discuss anything related to marriage. Can you not?”

“Fine, fine. Just saying, I knew the moment I met your father I’d be happy to be with him the rest of my life.”

“Dad also wasn’t dating anyone when you first met. We’re not rushing.”

Still, I couldn’t help but glance out the kitchen again to look at my boyfriend and best friend. They were both playing games with Ama now, making her do tricks for morsels of food and laughing together.

And I felt like the luckiest girl in the world—far, far away from my problems at PNRU and for the first time in weeks, able to believe we were completely safe.

No one could hurt me here.

* * *

After dicing veggies for Mom, I returned to the living room to give my friends a brief tour of the house. We had four bedrooms, three baths, and an attic where we stored all our Christmas junk and all the shit from my childhood days my packrat parents couldn’t bear to toss out.

I opened the door beside the stairs to reveal Gabriel’s luggage in the middle of a room filled with standard bedroom furniture. Mom’s Translocation glamour had placed his stuff there. “Guest room where you’ll be sleeping.”

“Cool.”

Upstairs, photos of me as a child decorated the walls along with professional family portraits.

Gabe paused by my sixth-grade school photo. “Damn, you were cute. I can see when your hair started to turn.”

“Yeah. I lied for a long time and claimed my parents let me dye it before I realized being a faerie is okay. Here’s the other… huh?” I was going to show Liadan to the other guest room, but it was locked and a slip of paper had been pinned to the door.

Your mother and I are redesigning this room. Please leave the door closed for now.

I shrugged it off and kept going. “Bathroom is the door on the left, and here’s my room.”

Nothing had changed since I left at the start of the semester, my room smelling of fresh linens and sunshine despite being shut up for weeks. My bed was up against one wall, computer desk against another, but my PC and TV were missing since I’d left them behind in my room at the townhouse.

My bag was in the center of the floor next to Lia’s suitcase. “Guess you’ll sleep in here with me, since Mom and Dad are all about fixing up the house lately.”

Just a few months ago after my birthday, my mom had hired a contractor to build an attached greenhouse, because there were some things we fae didn’t trust glamour to do in the long term.

Gabriel drifted over to a line of shelves decorated with unicorn and pegasus statuettes. Some of them had butterfly wings. He glanced over his shoulder at me and raised one brow. “Unicorns. Really?”

“Shut up.”

“With butterfly wings,” he continued.

“Perhaps your subconscious already knew what you would be,” Lia teased.

We chilled in my room for a while then investigated the new conservatory accessible through a door on the rear wall of the den. Mom and Dad had done a little work on it since I returned to school, adding a sofa and a hot tub. They’d also planted enough flowers, fruit-bearing bushes, and tropical plant life to resemble a zoo’s butterfly habitat.

Liadan’s mouth dropped. “Your family has a hot tub?”

“Yeah, I have no idea why they suddenly wanted a hot tub.”

Gabriel glanced at me. “You don’t? Isn’t it obvious?”

“Um, no? I mean, I’ve been asking for a pool for years.”

“You’re an only child gone eight months out of the year. Your folks are probably running naked around the house every day that you’re gone.”

“Ew!” My desire to soak in the hot tub died.

The grin on his face widened. “What’s wrong?”

“Look, I’m perfectly happy believing my dad’s story about making me with pixie dust and rose pollen.” I’d believed that story until I was eight and my mom told me the truth about where babies came from.

Even Liadan laughed at me.

When we exited the conservatory, my father’s black Impala slid into the drive beside Gabriel’s Chrysler. He eyed the car, snapped his fingers, and all the road grime vanished from my boyfriend’s ride.

Then he came inside, and despite being an adult, I ran straight into his arms for a hug.

“There’s my bambolina!” My father swept me up in a hug and spun me around like I had come home from my first day of preschool.

“Missed you, Daddy. You remember Liadan and Gabriel, right?”

He set me down and laughed. “Of course I do. We’re so pleased to have you both over for the holiday. I remember my first Thanksgiving here in the States. Gloria brought me home, and I fumbled the engagement ring right into the sweet potato pie.” Dad shook his head.

I laughed at him. I loved my ditzy dad and wondered if I’d inherited his clumsiness too. “No wonder she makes it every year.”

But if they hoped for a similar proposal from Gabriel, they had a long wait coming.

* * *

Since it was usually only the three of us and Sam, my dad’s sentinel—unless Mom’s family dropped in from Georgia—we had small Thanksgiving dinners with a few turkey legs, dressing, and a couple sides of my choice.

Now that we had an additional shifter among us with a huge appetite, Mom went the whole nine yards, dragging me and Dad into the kitchen, because she wanted to impress Gabriel and Liadan.

She pulled out all the “Southern Fixin’s” as she liked to call them, baking macaroni and cheese, two freaking birds, Granny’s cheddar biscuits, and so many potato-based side dishes I facepalmed and apologized to Lia. We had all kinds of flippin’ pies and a few Italian dessert dishes courtesy of Dad. He made the best cannoli, but he’d never dragged out the recipe for Thanksgiving before.

What the hell was up with my parents?

We gathered around the dining table early in the afternoon, and Dad glamoured a miniature place setting for Ama to sit among us. She got her own seat and a special china dish with turkey and some of the raw veggies.

Thanksgiving in my family was never fancy—plentiful, but never fancy. Besides us, my folks had invited a few local fae over, and their sentinels had dropped by.

Usually, dishes were my job at the end of the day. Except this time, my parents excused me from the tedious chore and handled those together with magic. My mom had been on her feet all day, and she looked so tired that when I tried to sneak in to help them, I overheard Dad urging her to go sit down and rest while he glamoured the kitchen for her.

Eventually, Mom, Lia, and I retired to the newly built sunroom with Ama while Gabriel and Dad watched the game on TV.

“This is lovely.” Lia relaxed in a thick-cushioned seat beneath a flowering ornamental tree.

Mom stretched out on the sofa and offered Ama an apple slice. The conure happily remained on her shoulder.

Dammit. Why didn’t Ama like me?

“I swear, you two are spoiling the bird like she’s your grandchild or something. If this is a hint, I am sooo not cranking anything out anytime soon.”

“Good, because I’m not ready to be a grandmother.”

“Phew. The mom thing is not my style yet.”

“What about the big sister thing?”

“You and Dad would have to give me a little brother or sister first.”

Mom raised one brow at me.

I glanced down at her tummy, and suddenly their weird behavior and her fussing over everyone made all the sense in the world.

“Oh my God. Are you…?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

I jumped up and squealed. “When, when, when?”

“May, May, May.”

I screamed again and clapped my hands then tossed myself on Mom—carefully—hugging her tight above the waist while Liadan laughed at me.

“That’s excellent news, Mrs. Corazzi. Congratulations.”

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Lia squirmed. “I… suspected. Your mom has been like a buoyant ball of joy since we arrived.”

“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me earlier.”

“We wanted to tell you in person, sweetheart. We haven’t even told Sam and Patrick yet,” she said, referring to their sentinels.

I kissed her belly. “You are going to be the most spoiled baby sister or brother ever.”

21

Some Bonds Trump Rules

A few days wasn’t enough, but I was grateful my friends had the chance to meet my family and be there when Mom shared her amazing news. I even got to see Mindi for our traditional Black Friday shopping. Seeing Lia’s absolute bewilderment at the horde of aggressive shoppers had been totally worth it. Plus, I managed to snag the perfect birthday gift for Gabriel right under his nose.

I called that a win.

To make things easier, Liadan and I packed up that night, which showed how much we’d actually bought during our shopping spree. We stared at our joint pile of presents and laughed as I dragged out another suitcase to charm.

Saturday, we enjoyed some downtime at the house before we had to head out. Mom busted out the old photo albums, much to my friends’ delight and my embarrassment. After that, we watched movies and helped chow down on the bounty of leftovers in the fridge before lying down for naps.

Dad wouldn’t let us leave until Gabriel had gone over every leg of our drive home with him. He wanted to check the probability lines for accidents and roadside mishaps. He claimed it would save us trouble, but he was so adamant about it that deep creases furrowed in Liadan’s brow.

Having a new baby on the way brought out the worrywart in both of them.

“Daddy, we’ll be fine.”

He frowned. “It never hurts to plan it out in advance. There may be accidents and construction delays.”

Mom placed a canteen of chamomile tea into Lia’s hands. “Have you three decided where to stop for the night?”

Gabriel grinned and hefted up my suitcase. He didn’t get far before it vanished from his hands, presumably to the trunk. “Thanks, Mr. Corazzi, and no, I plan to drive straight through the night while the girls sleep.”

I glanced at Lia. My zombie friend stood beside the front door with a blanket around her shoulders, canteen clutched between both hands, and red hair mussed around her tired face. “While Liadan sleeps, you mean. I’ll be up alongside you.”

Mom pursed her lips. “Still, if you kids stop, look at any hotels and rest stops through the Twilight. It’ll help you narrow down the good ones from the trash. Places with a good reputation for cleanliness and hardworking staff stand out.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“I hope you’ll come visit us again, both of you. And bring the rest of your friends next time.”

Mom hugged each of us then shoved an insulated lunch box into my hands. “Snacks and drinks for all of you. There’s a grape and some veggies for Ama too. And the extra pie.”

“Thank you. I wish we had more time to visit,” Gabriel said.

Dad shook his hand. “We’ll see you again soon, I’m sure.” After helping Lia into the back seat with Ama, he passed me a four-pack of my favorite caramel mocha coffee drink, still ice cold.

“You’re the best, Daddy.”

“Of course.”

My parents watched us from the driveway until we made the corner that took us out of sight.

Five hours later, my kidneys punished me for guzzling three lattes to stay awake.

“I need a rest stop pronto. Those coffees spilled into my bladder all at once.”

Gabriel snickered. “I told you to take it easy on the drinks.”

“Yeah, well, you got an extra two hours of sleep,” I grumbled, not that I could really complain much. I’d used that time to sit alone with my folks and discuss the baby.

“You excited about becoming a big sister?”

“Dude, I can’t wait. I mean, it wasn’t awful growing up an only child, but sometimes I wished I had someone to game with besides my friends. Whenever we went to theme parks, Dad rode every ride with me, even when he was dog-tired, and I was like, man, if I had a little brother, this would be awesome.”

“I have a little brother and a little sister. And an older brother. Growing up in a crowded house sucked most of the time, but… there are times when I appreciated having them around.”

“What’s everyone’s names?”

“Samuel is my older brother. He graduated from PNRU the year Rodrigo and I got here. Jasmine graduates high school next year. Alejandro turned eleven two months ago, and after Mom had him, she shut the baby factory down. She claimed we all gave her heart attacks when we were learning to fly and she couldn’t take anymore of it.”

Conversation about Gabe’s family and life in a household of shifters carried on until he found an exit with a gas station. I hurried across the lot while he topped off the tank, leaving Lia to snooze in the back seat.

Whether by fortune or because Gabriel had a sixth sense about things, the restroom wasn’t a hellscape. I emerged minutes later and checked out the fresh donut display beside the refrigerated drinks.

A guy perused the contents of the beer in the cold case, the big dude wearing shades and a leather jacket, but something—a flicker of intuition maybe—told me he was armed. He had a kind of feral grace about him, shaggy dark hair streaked brown and gold like a brindle dog.

I realized I’d seen him before, shopping at Hot Topic beside us in the mall.

Remaining composed on the outside, but losing my shit with heart-pounding anxiety, I pulled three glazed donuts from the case and walked to the checkout.

A tense moment passed when the guy walked past me to step outside the gas station. He trotted to the pumps where a lovely older woman with white hair filled their sedan. He passed her a coffee, and she smiled up at him. They pulled away minutes later.

Okay. False alarm. Nothing to fear. Total coincidence.

Life was made of coincidences, wasn’t it?

* * *

I woke up after a short snooze and swiped my mouth out of habit. The subtle glow of the vehicle displays cast a pale green light against Gabriel’s face.

“’Sup, sleepyhead?”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to pass out on you.”

He grinned. “It’s cool. Get all the sleep you can now before we’re back on campus.”

“You make that sound so ominous.”

“You’ve never enjoyed a post-holiday workout with Bregman.”

I groaned, able to imagine what tortures awaited us as our coaches beat off any pounds we gained gorging on turkey and sweet potato pie. Gabriel laughed and laid a hand on my leg. The warmth from his palm seeped through my leggings.

“You’ll survive, I promise.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t splurge as bad as I did last year.”

“I probably shouldn’t say this, since I should be encouraging you to get fit, but those five pounds you packed on last year at Christmas did wonders for your ass.”

“Are you saying my ass isn’t nice now?”

“It’s still awesome. It was just worthy of a few rap bars by Sir Mix-a-Lot then.”

“I love that you actually know that reference.”

Without disturbing Lia, I reached back and snagged the lunch box from the floorboard. She had sprawled across the back seat with her My Little Pony blanket drawn up to her shoulders. Ama didn’t stir either, the parrot fluffed up inside a little fleece hammock. The rear seat appeared wider than it should be, but I chalked it up to faerie magic, because my dad was always casting spatial glamours.

“Now to see what my mom packed. Ooh, what do you know, cookies. I should have looked in here before I bought donuts.” The small container held more than was physically possible. I pulled out a can of LaCroix sparkling water and offered it to Gabriel. “Want one?”

“Shit tastes like someone ate fruit and breathed on an open glass of water. No thanks.”

“Heathen.” More for me then.

Some more digging rewarded my uncultured boyfriend with a Red Bull. I managed to resist the cookies and settled on nibbling jerky instead to occupy my hands and keep me busy.

“Hey, Gabriel? Call me crazy, but I think we’re being followed.”

“It’s the highway, Sky. Everyone is going the same direction.”

“Yeah, but that gray sedan hasn’t passed us even once. They’re always two cars behind us.” It was a trick we’d been told about in class.

He didn’t even bother to look in the rearview mirror, but he did give me a quick glance. “It’s our escort, for lack of a better word.”

“Excuse me? You knew about this?”

“Think about it, Sky. Someone tried to kill you. You’ve had a guard on your townhouse. Did you think they wouldn’t arrange the same protection over the holiday?”

“Isn’t that an insult to you? You’re my sentinel.”

“I’m a sentinel-in-training, and right now, we aren’t on campus.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Did you forget I have to pass a battery of tests after graduation to receive my license and become an official sentinel?”

“Well, no. I just figured if you were good enough to guard me in Chicago, then you were good enough for a cross-country drive.”

“I am, but backup never hurts. Besides. There’s two of you here.” He nodded over his shoulder toward Lia. “Twice the fae to protect if someone wants to capitalize on us being away from PNRU.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry for not telling you when I noticed. I guess I didn’t want you to worry.”

Suddenly, the guy I’d seen at the last stop made total sense. Hell, I should have pegged him for a wolf or bear straight off.

“So back at the gas station, did you talk to them at all?”

“Talk to who?”

“Our escorts.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Nah. I noticed them, but that’s about it.”

The sun was on the horizon before Gabriel pulled over at a nice rest stop that glowed golden in the Twilight. Liadan groaned from the back seat and raised her head.

“Potty break time?” she asked.

“Yup. I think I’m about to burst.”

“You two go on first. I’m going to sit with Ama for a little bit and rest my eyes,” Gabriel said.

“Your bladder must be made of steel. When we get back, I can drive for a while, and Lia can sit up front with me while you give Ama some attention.”

“Sounds good.”

A short walk down a narrow stretch of pavement brought us to the well-lit building. While Lia was in the stall, I splashed water on my face.

“You going to be okay to drive?” Lia asked while washing her hands.

“Oh yeah. I can give Gabe a few hours’ sleep at least. What’s gonna suck is getting back into schedule for class after the past few days of resting when I want. Thankfully, we only have to endure next week and finals before Christmas break. Ready?”

Cool morning air greeted us beyond the restroom door. Lia paused on the path and stretched her arms above her head. “It’s so nice out. I thought I’d need my coat.”

“Next stop, we probably will.” Still, I chafed my hands up and down my arms, a chill creeping up my back. The breeze rustled through the tall pines and maples.

Then the nearest lamppost flickered and went out.

Liadan moved closer to me until our hands brushed together. “We should get back to Gabriel.”

“Yeah, we should.” I took her hand and started down the path away from the building. Somewhere to our right, a twig snapped and the grass rustled.

A tingle danced down my spine, and anxiety made Gabriel’s car seem a mile away at the edge of the parking lot. Before I had the chance to speed into a run, the earth exploded beside us.

I lunged forward into the Twilight with Lia’s hand gripped firmly in mine. We were halfway across the lot between the restroom and Gabe’s car when bony fingers clawed down the back of my shirt.

In the mortal realm, my sentinel had jumped out of his car and sped toward us, but there was nothing he could do for us, because shifters couldn’t cross the Veil.

Shit.

Igniting Faerie Fire in my left hand, I thrust Lia away from me to the right and spun to face my attacker while wielding the flames like a blowtorch. She would have towered above us if not for her crooked spine, like an emaciated giant carved from sodden wood. Rotting, blackened bark covered her withered body, and whatever beauty she’d once had as a dryad was long faded.

My fire sizzled over her torso but didn’t catch aside from a few sparks where it ignited sap oozing from fissures in her thick exterior. Tristal was right. I didn’t have enough power in my Faerie Fire to cause true harm, but our assailant gave me wide berth, salivating dark spittle from her crusty lips.

When dryads went bad, the darkling corruption defiled everything about them, not only their personalities, but their beauty too. If not for Professor English’s slideshow, I would have never recognized the creature in front of me had once been a fae.

Hags delighted in pain and destruction, drawing strength from the blood they spilled over the roots of their trees and the human carcasses fertilizing the soil. Most people didn’t know it, but the tale of Hansel and Gretel was a true story based on a German forest hag. Using what remained of her dryad powers, she’d sprouted trees of peppermint candy and other delights to lure the children, only for them to get the upper hand.

Man, too bad an oven wasn’t handy now.

A salvo of blush-tinted flames soared past me and struck the ground at the hag’s feet. She recoiled from the attack, her earsplitting screech making me cringe. During the distraction, Lia and I lunged back to the mortal plane.

Gabriel was at my side in an instant, but hard fingers jerked me back by the hair, bringing tears to my eyes. “Lia, get to the car!”

I threw my elbow back into unyielding wood, sending an unexpected jolt of pain through my funny bone. Skipping into the Twilight wouldn’t work again—she’d only move with me—and Gabriel had his gun aimed at us. The darkling gave my hair another sharp jerk and put one of her jagged talons against my side, pressing through fabric into my skin.

“I take the faerie.” Her voice sounded like a hundred raspy whispers, dry and brittle against my ear.

“I don’t think so.”

“Then I leave her corpse.”

Even though I knew what to expect, I still flinched when Gabriel fired. The bullet whizzed past me, so close I felt the air stir, and struck the hag. She howled in pain and steam arose from the leaking, ragged gouge the round punched through her shoulder. Rotten sap instead of blood congealed around it. I threw myself aside and rolled back to my feet in a move Coach Bregman had beat into me over the course of weeks.

Then Lia was suddenly there with her arms around me, a Prismatic Barrier surrounding both of us that would have made Dain proud. I funneled my glamour into it too, until it glittered like diamonds under the rising sun. We fell to our knees, embracing each other to decrease the size of our dome, giving Gabriel a clear shot.

He pulled the trigger again, and she jerked, once, twice—what?

The report of a second gun echoed from the other side of the rest stop where another parking lot spanned. Our attacker yowled in pain. A few moments passed, and then a brindle wolf streaked across the grass, followed by a smaller, snow-white beauty. Tree roots lifted from the ground in their path like animated whips, each one transformed into a nightmarish living weapon with barbs on their tips. The wolf pair never flinched, ducking under thorned roots, leaping then dodging and weaving through the danger.

The male wolf leapt aside and landed in his human form, confirming my suspicions of him being the big dude from the gas station. He spun to his right and whipped a weapon from beneath his leather jacket. The shotgun blast roared, discharging a shell at point-blank range into the dryad’s side.

Then he was a wolf again, ducking beneath the swing of her tree trunk limbs and slamming into the darkling’s legs.

Gabriel removed a dull metal shard from his jacket—so he had been issued an iron spike too—and thrust it toward her chest, but it rebounded off her tough skin like he’d struck rubber. She backhanded him away and tried to run for it, only for the pair of wolves to tackle her down to the ground again. Desperately, she thrashed beneath them. I tried to leave the circle of Liadan’s Prismatic Barrier, but she held me tight.

“No, Sky!”

“I have to help them—”

“But she’s after you.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m training to be a sentinel, so that’s what I need to be right now.”

The worry on her face didn’t go away, but she nodded and dropped her shield. The brindle wolf had been tossed aside and slumped by a tree in a daze. The other wolf and Gabriel continued to keep the hag busy, working together to keep her off guard, but she was stronger. Faster. For every wounding strike they gave her, she delivered twice as many. Blood glistened against the white wolf’s pelt, and a red line marred Gabe’s cheek.

She’d hurt him. My partner.

Fuck that.

The hot fury that swept through me manifested as more than feelings. An electric buzz tickled over my arms and across my cheeks, like static beneath my clothing. The air was alive with current, and the skies had darkened to a murky, storm-cloud gray, sweeping in from the east.

Tristal’s words rushed back to me. If I could control the wind, why couldn’t I harness the storm as my weapon?

“Lia, do you think you can put a prismatic barrier around all three of them?”

“I think so, if I can get them together.”

“Then be ready to throw one up and hold it with everything you’ve got.”

Lia skipped through the Twilight and emerged next to the injured sentinel. Good. Now I only needed to get the other two over there.

The energy around me continued to build until the air became alive with static, and lightning flickered across the sky.

“Gabe, get to Lia, both of you!”

He fell back without question, trusting me. The same couldn’t be said for the white wolf, though she followed Gabe’s lead when another flicker lit up the sky.

The moment Lia’s shield was around all three, I released the tightly held control I’d been maintaining. The power rushed through me, and in that moment, everything around me was sharper—more vibrant.

A sizzling bolt fell from the sky. It collided with the top of the hag who towered above the others like a putrid oak, blowing the bark from her body. Her chest split open and hot, gooey sap splattered over the grass. Her howls of pain raised goose bumps over my arms.

And then the same roots and foliage she’d used to attack the sentinels wrapped around her legs, pulling her into the ground. Her feet disappeared first, then her knotty knees vanished.

Gabriel bounded toward her with the iron stake and thrust it through the gaping fissure in her chest, into a fist-sized lump of muscle glistening like black tar. The sound of iron striking wet tissues echoed across the empty green lot.

Her submersion into the soil ended, retreat abruptly halted as a wailing cry parted her lips. She thrashed and shuddered, spewing fetid blood and rancid sap like a geyser in every direction until, at last, she collapsed backward.

All my concentration was divided between concern for Gabriel and not puking all over my new shoes. Before I could take a step toward him—or vomit everywhere, because the smell of rotten plant matter and decaying darkling was offensive as hell—he beelined to me and touched my arm.

“You okay?”

“Me? I’m fine. She knocked the three of you all over. What about you?” Besides his bloody cheek, I’d seen him knocked around a few times and imagined all sorts of bruises on him.

“Nothing major, I promise.” He cut his gaze to the two sentinels and Lia.

“Are you two okay?” I called over.

Chest heaving, the white wolf rose from four paws to two legs, becoming the woman from the gas station with the pristine ivory bob. She crouched beside her partner and touched his ribs. “I think so. Matt?”

Low whimpers became wheezing groans of pain when he transformed to his human shape. “The bitch got me good, but I’ll live. Definitely got a few cracked ribs. Go check those two out.”

The white-haired sentinel chuckled. “Are you serious? They came out of it better than us. Come on, big guy.” She helped him to his feet despite bright red blood staining her sweater.

“Nice work there, kids. Never seen a sylph in action before. And you, that was a damn fine shield you put up.”

Lia managed a small smile and dipped her head. “Thanks. We had a good teacher.”

“I can tell. Anyway, I’m Matt, and this is Patty. Figures the moment I go to take a piss, something would actually come after you.”

My brows drew in. “How long have you been escorting us?”

“Since you left Virginia.”

“And how far were you two gonna follow us before someone else took over?”

“About another hour. Bostwick and Kane were gonna pick you up after that for the second leg into Chicago.”

I didn’t know how to feel about that. Simon and Sebastian were sort of a big deal, and I didn’t think bodyguard detail was their usual schtick.

Gabriel’s shoulders dropped an inch. “Thank you. If you two hadn’t shown up...”

“Yeah. We’re totally not ready to be fighting darklings on our own, I guess. I couldn’t even escape her in the Twilight.” And that was my ace, my best talent I had over my peers.

Patty’s motherly smile eased the tension. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Your sentinel had the situation well in hand before we arrived.”

Matt nodded. “She’s right. Now, c’mon, there’s a field office about an hour from here. I imagine you’d all like to clean up a bit before you finish your drive.”

“Oh, Lia and I can just use glamours—”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “Absolutely not. Magic is no substitute for standing under actual hot water. I insist.”

And with a sentinel insisting, who were we to argue? Especially when she was right.

* * *

When we reached the campus around two that afternoon, Holly was sprawled across the couch in the living room with her head in Victor’s lap. They both flinched back from the pale-yellow rectangle of daylight cast by the open door.

I pushed it shut behind me. “Sorry. Maybe we need a ‘Vamps at Large’ sign to put on our door, like when people have angry dogs in their yards.”

Holly snickered. “It’s fine. It only stings after a while. How was the trip?”

Lia clutched her travel blanket against her chest. “Interesting.”

Gabriel glanced at his watch. “Hey, Holly. ’Sup, Victor? Y’all are up late.”

Victor laughed. “Yeah, we started a Friday the 13th marathon around midnight.”

I glanced around at the living room. “Where’s Pilar?”

“At the student center,” Holly replied. “Oh, and by the way, Provost Riordan’s secretary called about fifteen minutes ago and asked me to send you both to the administration office as soon as you got in.”

“Seriously? But we just got here.”

Holly shrugged.

“Lemme take Ama home and I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay.”

Gabriel and I met up again about a half hour later at the administrative building. We headed inside together, checked in with the secretary, and stepped inside Provost Riordan’s office to find her sitting opposite Jada.

My gut dropped to the floor, plummeting like it was transmuted into lead.

“Hello, Mr. Fujimoto, Ms. Corazzi. Please, have a seat.”

Heart crashing against my ribs, I settled in a chair that put me between Gabriel and his ex.

“Do you understand why you are both here?”

I shook my head. Gabriel did too.

“I’d assumed it was about what happened at the rest stop.”

“No, though I would like to discuss that incident with you later, once you’ve both had a chance to settle in and relax.” The provost folded her hands atop her desk. “Ms. Harrington would like to lodge a complaint. She’s brought some troubling evidence to my office.”

“Evidence of what?” I wiped my sweaty palms against my thighs.

One photo after another revealed Gabriel and me at our most vulnerable together. Holding hands at the concert, kissing in the Centennial Wheel, and… sprawling across my bedroom floor. Someone had taken a photograph through my bedroom window.

Each one tightened my chest a little more. One of the pictures was an enlarged shot of me holding his hand as we shopped at the mall in Norfolk, surrounded by my high school, non-magical friends.

“These photos imply you have a relationship together. Is this true?”

Shit. What did we say to that?

Gabriel’s knuckles went pale on the armrests. I heard a small crack, a creak, and a pop, the splintering of wood. “It’s true. It’s my fault. I told her it was okay and I—”

“Don’t you dare take this on yourself. It’s true, and I’m as much to blame. But I don’t see why there’s a problem.”

Jada pulled out her student handbook and opened it to a dog-eared page. “On page sixty-nine, it says, ‘Romantic relationships between student sentinels and their wards are prohibited. Likewise, in situations involving a sentinel-sentinel pair, one half of the team shall be reassigned.’ That means those two are breaking the rules.”

Nothing about the provost’s stoic expression revealed her opinion. Riordan was a damn master at concealing her thoughts.

“That is correct. According to the student guide, they have technically broken policy.”

“Isn’t spying against the rules too?” I shot back before I could rein myself in. Knowing that Jada had been outside my bedroom window only yesterday replaced my distress with cold fury.

“As an administrator of PNRU, I can’t punish Miss Harrington for behavior conducted away from campus grounds.”

Jada’s gloating face sent my pulse into a gallop. “It’s stalking.”

“Indeed,” Simon said.

I jerked around in my chair to look behind us at what had previously been empty space. The two hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Sebastian removed a notepad from his leather jacket, the front of it stamped with the official insignia of the Sentinel Bureau of Affairs. “We were told a student needs to make a report.”

Gabriel blinked. “A report?”

Simon squeezed Gabriel’s shoulder. “An official report for stalking, harassment, and misuse of paranormal abilities by a shifter. The provost informed us you would need to make a complaint.”

The color faded from Jada’s face, turning her ash-gray. “A report? I didn’t do anything but take a couple photos of them.”

“You fucking followed us across state lines to Virginia and took incredibly personal pictures of us, violating Skylar’s privacy and mine. Her family too. And a bunch of humans.”

She sputtered for a moment then snapped her mouth shut. Finally.

The provost passed the manila folder with our photographs to Simon. He tucked it inside his coat. “You’re dismissed, Miss Harrington. I trust you’ll take this as an important lesson in restraint.”

“But Pro—”

“You are dismissed. Sentinels Bostwick and Kane will interview you at their convenience.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The moment she left, Simon’s questions began, a whole battery of them aimed at Gabriel, asking when he’d first noticed Jada was stalking him and the extent of the behavior. Had she been physical with either of us or made any threats? Sebastian took notes the entire time with a stoic expression on his face.

At the end, the wolf snapped his notebook shut and tucked it away. “We’ll get in touch with you in a few days after this complaint has been processed. Most likely she’ll receive a few months of probation and an order to stay away from you. I’ll push for more, because I warned her ass—”

“Ahem.”

“Sorry, Niamh.”

“I really had no idea she’d pull this kind of move.” Gabriel’s shoulders slumped, and he slouched in his seat.

I toyed with my jacket zipper. “What’s going to happen to us now?”

Simon chuckled. “Nothing.”

Gabriel’s gaze shot up. “But we broke the rules.”

The three staff members glanced at each other, a moment of eye contact seeming to convey a thousand words between them, before Simon said, “It’s an archaic law. It was actually struck from practice twenty years or so ago, and the school hasn’t printed new books.”

Gabriel’s dark brows notched. “Huh? But… that doesn’t make any sense. Why not mention that during orientation?”

“We don’t make it widely known on campus, because we need you all to focus on your work instead of getting laid,” Sebastian said.

I choked.

“You two have never let your relationship conflict with your responsibilities, so nothing’s ever been said,” Simon continued.

Provost Riordan looked at us both. “Ensure that doesn’t change.”

I blinked. “Th-thank you.”

“Enjoy the rest of your weekend.”

Simon and Sebastian walked with us from the office. Gabriel had his hands tucked into his pockets and a pensive look on his face. Jada’s invasion had been awful for me, but I imagined it was so much harder for him. He remained silent as we joined the two sentinels in the elevator.

“It’s because of you two, isn’t it?” I asked.

Simon raised a brow and glanced down at me. “What do you mean?”

“The law. You said it was changed almost twenty years ago, right? Isn’t that when you two paired up as partners?”

“Astute assumption.”

“Our case was unique,” Sebastian clarified. “Some bonds trump rules.”

Gabriel blinked. For being so observant, he could be really obtuse. “You mean…?”

Sebastian shrugged. “They reassessed the policy. It’s still preferred for partners to remain professional, but it happens. Don’t go spreading that around, though, okay?”

“We won’t.”

“Good. You let us know if Jada causes any more trouble.”

Long after the two men strode from the building, Gabriel and I lingered in the vestibule to watch the onset of a tranquil snowfall beyond the administration building’s double glass doors. Neither of us moved to return to the townhouse, and instead, stood mesmerized by the dancing flurries.

Finally, Jada could hold nothing over us.

“So,” I murmured, breaking the silence because he had gone broody, lost in his own thoughts. “What do you wanna do about this?”

His thick brows drew in. “About Jada?”

“Well, yeah. You’ve gotta be pissed. I know I am.”

“Nah. I’m not mad at Jada. Not really.”

My brows quirked. “Really?”

The hand holding mine let go. My heart did a petrified double thump.

Then he raised it to nudge my chin, cupping my face. “I can finally take you out on a date without hiding.” His lips touched mine, igniting my blood and filling my chest with delightful warmth. “Kiss you in public and hold your hand. Hiding you was the last thing I ever wanted to do, Sky. So no, I’m not pissed at Jada. She did us a favor.”

“You’re okay with everyone knowing that you’re dating one of your faerie overlords?”

Gabe’s other arm wrapped around my waist and yanked me against him. “Completely okay. So okay I think I’ll drag my ass out of bed this evening to take you out on a date. You down for a night on the town?”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

22

A for Effort

During the days that followed Jada’s super inappropriate behavior, Provost Riordan made a campus-wide announcement reminding students of the school’s honor code. Everyone knew the message referred to us because Ben, wonderful and sweet Ben, decided to burn Jada up in the gossip column of the Griffin Daily. He asked permission first and kept our names anonymous, but since there wasn’t another fae and shifter love triangle at PNRU, someone figured it out and word rushed across the school like wildfire.

I almost felt bad for her, but it was too damn delicious, and I was just petty enough to enjoy it.

And then finals week was upon us, and I didn’t have a spare scrap of time to rub it in Jada’s face by prancing in the open with my boyfriend when I was straddling the line between a C and a D in Biology.

The rest of my non-sentinel grades earned Pilar’s scorn.

“You must learn the meaning of the term ‘moderation.’ It does you no good if you pass your sentinel classes and fail out of your general courses.”

“I knooow,” I wailed. “I’m trying my best. Biology hates me.”

“You don’t study it.”

I grunted and bent over my notes again. “Everyone can’t be like you and Ben.”

Ben had confessed to listening to recorded lectures as he went to sleep at night, and he even played them again during his morning routine. That was just one step too far in the pursuit of education.

As much as I needed a good grade, I wasn’t desperate enough to listen to a recording of Professor English droning on about irresponsible mages and love potions while I took a pee or brushed my teeth first thing when I woke up. A line had to be drawn somewhere.

Fed up with cramming, I shut my Channeling textbook and stood. “I’m done. Gonna head to the gym.”

“Take your Biology book,” Pilar suggested.

“Ugh. No. At this point, if I have to retake it, I just retake it. I’m sick of it all. I just don’t want to fail these magic classes.”

The risk of becoming a Talentless already loomed ahead of students struggling to learn the rules and history governing our society. On top of that, I had to prove fae in our region had what it took to become sentinels, because sometimes it felt like the entire world was watching me.

Stressed to hell, I dragged on a sweatshirt and a heavy coat before heading out. The cold air helped clear my head, a brisk breeze blowing through the campus with the occasional sprinkling of white dust from above. A few other students loitered in the courtyard, but for the most part, everyone seemed to be staying inside. Even the gym was empty of its usual crowd.

I changed into athletic gear in the locker room and tossed most of my shit into Neverspace, because some idiot was always losing something and asking us fae to help track it down. And I didn’t want to be that idiot.

Thirty minutes on the punching bag worked out my test frustration. Last year, I had abysmal form and couldn’t do more than a few minutes in a row before my arms wore out. Even though it was blasphemy to mix arm and leg day, I hit the weight room and scooted under the squat bar. Someone had left about 175 pounds of weight on it.

Crushing my previous record by twenty pounds sent adrenaline coursing through my veins. I squatted three sets of ten reps, then thought of the first time I’d surpassed my limits on the same machine. Anji and Dedrik had been my encouragement.

Thinking of Dedrik brought on a sense of melancholy that made me lose my mood for more punching drills.

I approached the counter to buy a drink, my aching muscles protesting every step along the way. A sporty, bronzed fae with rainbow hair was opening boxes of high-protein, meal replacement goodies. She tapped them with her crystal wand and dozens of bars flew onto the shelves. Beside her, a pale vampire dude rifled through a calf-high box marked Lost and Found.

“Brooke, are we going to clear this Lost and Found box or what? Some of this shit in here has been hanging since last spring.”

Brooke rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we’re running out of space, Rick. It totally doesn’t hurt anything to let them stay for another semester.”

“Nobody forgets their stuff for a year.”

“There’s space.”

Rick ignored her and spilled the box’s contents onto the counter. “Seriously? Why are we holding on to ratty-ass hairbands?”

A gleam caught my eye, drawing my gaze to the scattered items. Nestled amidst the random mittens, scarves, water bottles, earbuds, hairbands, and other miscellaneous items lay a small wolf, no larger than my thumb. The moment I picked it up, a familiar, comforting warmth spread through my fingertips.

“Yours?” Brooke asked.

“No, but I recognize it.” The little charm had been carved from dark petrified wood, glossy and worn smooth on one side from a rough thumb. Blackwood. I knew who owned it. “Can I take it?”

Rick shrugged and scooped a few forgotten objects into the trash bin despite Brooke’s disagreement. “It’s been here forever. Sure.”

“Thanks.” I whisked the little wolf charm into my Dream Box.

Nothing could round out my trio of talismans better than a lingering gift from a friend—especially a deceased friend who would have given his life for me if needed.

* * *

I knew I was in trouble when I woke Monday morning to a dozen texts wishing me good luck on my Biology final exam, since everyone had heard me bemoaning my failing grade. Gabriel promised me dinner at Koharu Japanese Grill and Sushi Bar if I passed, and Pilar said if I made a B, I could have the gold blouse I’d borrowed from her and “forgotten” to return.

It looked better on me anyway.

At the end of the ninety-minute final, I returned to the townhouse to find Victor helping Holly, Lia, and Pilar with their Magical History studies.

“Don’t you have your own final exams?”

“Yeah, but the shit is going to be easy. I’m not worried. Get your notes out and have a seat. Fujimoto is on his way over in a couple hours to quiz you guys on Ethics when I leave for my exam.”

When I’d last spoken with Gabriel via text on my way to the science building, he hadn’t mentioned anything about indulging in study time. “The hell?” I whipped my phone out to check for another text, but he’d been silent since our last conversation promising the sky was the limit on my appetite if I pulled through.

“We’re doing study relays here to make sure everyone passes. Julien called dibs on International Magical Policy. He loves talking about France’s outlook toward the paranormal.”

Great, so I’d have to listen to unknown hours of Julien drilling data about the cooperation of foreign human governments with the magical community and their policies related to supernatural issues.

“Feckin’ grand,” Lia muttered, making me wonder if she’d read my mind, because I couldn’t tell if that was a sarcastic grand or a genuine grand. I put my money on it being somewhere in between, since we had a lineup of eye candy tutors—Holly had amazing taste in guys, because Victor was super dreamy—at our disposal.

And no time to admire and ogle them. Damn.

Victor shuffled his packet of notes. “In what year did the Great War of the Magi take place?”

Pilar and Liadan rushed to their notes. I flipped through mine as Ben wandered in fresh from whatever hellish final he’d been scheduled to take. He spent more time studying than all of us combined.

“Pull up a seat, Ben. You’re just in time for the magic hour with Victor.”

He groaned something unintelligible and collapsed into a beanbag face-down. “I’ll learn by osmosis. I had two finals this morning and one practical. I am dying.”

“The Great War of the Magi ended in 1865 shortly before the conclusion of the American Civil War,” Pilar read from her notes, “when wizards of African descent joined the north.”

Victor nodded. “Right. Even though they were free on account of the Wizard’s Pact of…?” He gestured with a hand, urging one of us to answer. I fumbled my notes.

“The Wizard’s Pact of 1619, when Archmage Frederick ruled no mage could ever rule another regardless of religion or skin color,” I blurted out first. Pilar shot me a dirty look for stealing her moment.

Victor nodded. “Right. So by the time of the Civil War, there were hundreds of black wizards across the north and hidden in the south. Archmage who—?”

“Burnside,” Lia said.

“Archmage Burnside didn’t approve of any wizards joining mortal wars and tried to prevent them from participating to free their non-magical brothers and sisters. Conflict broke out between both sides, magician against magician, until Queen Titania intervened. It wasn’t like the Emergence though, because they worked in secret without revealing their magical powers. You’re going to see a question asking you about the difference between the Civil War and World War II. Remember that. When the Emergence of the supernatural world happened to end Hitler’s reign, it was a complete and absolute exposure of everything magical.”

He drilled so much history into us that my head pounded like a herd of stampeding wildebeest by the time Gabriel came to take over for him.

I logged into my student account and checked for my exam grade.

Nothing yet. Shit.

Gabriel removed a pair of black wire spectacles from his pocket and slipped them on before standing straight, hands behind his back and chin raised to look down his nose at us. “And now, students,” he said in the best impression of Professor English I had ever seen or heard, “prove to me that you deserve anything more than a C for your mediocrity. Go ahead. I am waiting, Miss Maguire. What have you learned in my class?”

Lia snort-laughed until her entire face turned pink.

Giggling, I set down my phone. “That faeries are selfish, mages are arrogant pricks, and shifters are hungry assholes.”

“And vampires are hedonistic twats,” Holly added.

“Outstanding. A-plus,” Gabriel said.

We all burst out laughing.

He mimed removing the phony glasses, but I saw there was nothing in his hands at all—had it been one of his illusions?—but a notebook I didn’t recall him holding before. Gabriel didn’t show off his talent with illusions often. “All right. In all seriousness, the three of us agreed to make sure y’all get through this semester. You wanna start with fae and mages, or shifters and vamps?”

We began with fae and worked our way through the races, reaching werewolves before my phone dinged with a text from Anji.

Biology and Geology finals are up!

A tiny scream escaped me as I stabbed the student gradebook icon on my phone touch screen. The living room grew quiet, everyone watching me. Pilar leaned forward on her seat.

I scrolled through older grades to the bottom where it displayed test scores and my final exam, the grade coming in at an 81.7. My final Biology grade from the semester had raised from a 67.2 to a 69.9, rounding up to a passing score. I’d only needed a 70. Ds were no longer acceptable for credit, a change put in by the university’s Board of Governors over the summer. A lot of people were on academic probation now.

“Well?” Pilar demanded. “Did you pass or not?”

“I got a B on the exam!”

Gabriel raised his brows. “But did it raise your average to passing? We eating out this weekend or what?”

Tossing the phone aside, I sprang from the couch and into Gabriel’s waiting arms. “I want the Kobe steak again!”

He swung me around and kissed me while my dramatic friends clapped, applauding either my success or the fact that we didn’t have to hide anymore.

Pilar threw a decorative pillow at us. “You two are sickening.”

Definitely applauding my success.

“They really are. More studying, less making out please,” Ben said.

We broke a couple hours later for Pilar and Liadan to take their afternoon Divine Intervention practical, the rest of us watching a movie with pizza and ice cream to defeat the exam blues until they returned. Dain had released us from lessons to focus on our studies, promising to resume meetings with us after the mortal holidays.

Julien arrived for the tail end of our action flick and chilled with us for a while until the girls returned. Once they decompressed with snacks, Gabriel left and Julien launched into his lecture with so much enthusiasm I remained awake instead of passing out on the couch.

God, I should have taken an afternoon nap, but test anxiety had pumped oceans of adrenaline through my veins and turned me into a jittery mess.

“Are you three prepared for your Channeling practical? I can give you pointers before I go.”

Liadan pressed both hands together. “Please.”

“Well, she has a dozen different practical exams prepared and rotates them at random, so no one can perfect only one glamour. So, it is wisest to do a little of everything leading up to your exam. Don’t overexert yourselves or draw from your Dream Boxes until then. Whatever the task she assigns during the practical, you will need all the magic you’ve saved this semester.”

“What? What’s the point of us gathering it if she’s going to make us waste it all on a test?” Pilar’s frown creased her brow.

“To prove you can do it,” Julien replied. “This is why it is called Channeling, mon amie, as you are meant to channel the entire contents of one Dream Box into a single impressive glamour. You have two more years after this to refill your box. Have you all acquired at least three talismans?”

We nodded.

“Good. You will need those as well.” He rose from his seat and smiled down at us. “I trust you will all do well. As for now, I suggest you get a good night’s sleep and leave the studying alone. As for you, Skylar…” He turned to me and put on his sternest expression. “Grab a couple hours of sleep. Gabriel assured me you would need it.”

Hating that he was right, I glanced at the clock and figured I could grab at least three hours before my meeting with Coach Bregman. And I’d need every minute to snooze before she crushed my confidence into paste.

* * *

Martial arts and boot camp operated on a pass/fail basis, since the instructors didn’t grade our performances. You either learned the shit they wanted you to learn, or you failed and had to take the course again. Coach Bregman told Holly and me that we’d be joining our sophomore peers next semester, which meant we’d be facing the dreaded obstacle course for our spring finals. I still couldn’t make the passing time, but that was a worry for later.

International Magical Policy and Magical Ethics made my eyes cross, but I actually felt good about my scores. Waking up Wednesday morning to passing grades in both—a B and an A- respectively—perked me up and put a pep in my step.

Now I just needed to get through Channeling.

Lia fed us a full breakfast, and then we headed to the exam hall together. Our classmates loitered outside the closed doors, everyone buzzing with anxious nerves while watching the clock. A few people muttered worries about lacking the talismans or faerie dust to meet the exam’s requirements.

The doors opened at the hour, on the dot, and everyone filed inside. Cages in varying sizes occupied a long table set against the back wall. Small ones with mice and hamsters, larger terrariums with snakes, a kennel filled with kittens, and other furry or scaly critters. Another table off to the side was covered in various fruits and vegetables, and in the center, a trio of perfectly round pumpkins.

“Oh no.”

Tristal glided into the room from an adjoining office. “Oh yes.”

I restrained from punching my professor in her too-perfect nose and took a seat. A few of the other panicking fae were on their phones, rushing to online documents to review their notes on what we fae dubbed “Cinderella Charms” because most of them had been created by my ancestor Tenanye on the night she guided Cinderella to the ball.

“You all know the story, so I have given you the means to recreate a portion of the tale in your modern vision, within your capabilities. And now that you’ve had a chance to see what you have to work with, I’d like everyone to step out into the hall. I’ll bring you in one by one.”

Pilar waited until we’d taken seats out in the hallway to have her little breakdown. She wrung her hands together and leaned her head back against the wall. “Oh no, this is awful. I barely managed to get this done last time.”

“What are you talking about? You glamour up the best dresses—on the first try, I might add—and you managed a maid in class a couple weeks back.”

“One who didn’t do anything,” she muttered. “I shouldn’t have used a cat. Ugh, I wish I didn’t use so much dust to make her. What if I don’t have enough today?”

Liadan rubbed her shoulder. “Well, at least you know cats are unsuitable, and now, so do we. No kittens for this project if we need them to do anything more than be snobbish twats.”

That got a laugh from our panicking friend. Pilar’s tense frame relaxed, and she dropped her hands into her lap. “You’re right. We can do this.”

Whoever entered to take their practical left through another exit, because no one returned to regale us with their passing or failing scores. Eventually, Pilar was up, then after her, Liadan. The time crawled by, and I hoped my friends had good luck with the whole thing.

“Miss Corazzi, your turn.”

As I stepped into the classroom, my insides quaked. The door shut with an ominous snick.

“Please step down, Miss Corazzi. Let me see what you’re capable of.”

If I was lucky, I could probably make a carriage from a pumpkin—for a toddler, but I didn’t think she wanted a battery-operated toy car—so I skipped over the vehicle bit for the moment and went straight to the animals.

A glossy crow cocked his head at me and hopped closer on his perch. When I walked over and offered my hand, the bird shuffled back and forth a few seconds before lowering his cool foot to my wrist.

“Let’s see what we can do with you, huh?” Once I unhooked his tether, I walked into the open space in the middle of the room and set him on the floor.

He was such a handsome bird—and perhaps it was my experience with watching the raven shifters transform—that it wasn’t difficult to imagine him as a man. I swirled my wand and drew a stream of concentrated magic around his small body with a vision in my mind of the human I wanted him to be. Faerie dust infused his feathers and glittered against his ebony down, glistened on his beak, and made him shine.

All at once, the glamour took root. The crow grew in size, wings becoming arms and beak becoming lips in a human face that was equal parts handsome and rugged. In my head I’d been imagining Italian underwear models. He looked down at himself, smoothing his hands down the tailed black tuxedo jacket I’d fashioned for him, and smiled with genuine joviality. “I hoped you’d choose me. I love this game. How may I help?”

Finally! My mice never talked to me, only stared and sniffed around for cheese.

I glanced at Tristal. Her unchanging, stoic impression sent knots of apprehension tightening through my guts. Was this not enough?

“I’m not sure yet,” I said to the crow. Moving closer, I lowered my voice. “What can you tell me about the vehicle portion? I don’t think I can make a car. Can you even drive?”

“Poorly, but let me ask you this: any manner of moving from place to place counts as a vehicle, does it not?”

“Can you ride a bike?”

He cocked his head and smiled. “I’ve never tried, but I learn quickly. This will be fun.”

I walked back to the table covered in produce and plucked an unblemished red apple from the pile. After motioning my crow back a little, I set the apple in the middle of the floor and then fetched my Dream Box from the Netherspace. One tap of my wand to its lid then a flick toward my component did the trick.

Currents of glittering faerie dust spiraled from my hoard and circled the fruit. From the apple sprang an elegant rickshaw with two black leather bench seats and a scarlet cover. The wheels shone brand new, the rims glossy gold.

“Now, for the final touch…”

A few swishes of my wand sent sparkling motes swirling around my professor. Her pewter gray blouse and black pencil skirt transitioned into a slinky, black sleeveless dress. Which may have been a grand mistake, since it revealed why our professor favored high-necked tops.

Someone had hurt Professor Tristal once. Her body told a story I’d only seen on some of the most grizzled sentinels passing through our campus. Numerous scars slashed across her collarbones, each of them red and raised, while the shiny discoloration of a severe burn spread from her shoulder down one arm.

An awful, awful feeling in my gut said those were only the scars I could see.

Her chin raised slightly, dark eyes watching me. Daring me to say something.

I didn’t. I flicked the crystal wand again, an alteration to the glamour raising the neckline up above the scarring, then added opaque lace sleeves to camouflage the burns beneath. Another wave and her prim ballerina bun became a stylish updo with a few curls piled on top. Last, but not least, I switched her ballet flats for low heels—crimson red for a splash of bold color.

“Could you please help the professor into her seat?”

The crow executed a formal bow and offered Tristal his hand. Once she accepted, he walked her to the rickshaw and assisted her up. Despite all that magic, despite running low on the reserves in my box, her expression still betrayed nothing.

Shit. Was this not enough to impress her?

Maybe the car would have been a better idea.

With the final dredges of faerie dust lingering in the Dream Box, I wove another Rags-to-Riches glamour around myself. Thinking of silkworms spinning luxurious cocoons, I transformed my leggings and sweats into a cocktail dress, because no one wore ball gowns anymore.

To my immense relief, the emerald fabric came out as silk. It only took me a moment to decide green wasn’t really my color, and with another swish of my wand, the color shifted to a dark plum.

A final tap glamoured my sneakers into golden heels as a little homage to the original charm. Glass had been a French addition to the tale and wasn’t practical footwear.

The crow—shit, I should have asked his name, if he even had one—took my hand and guided me into the rickshaw to join my professor, sitting opposite her before he took his seat.

True to his word, he learned fast and pedaled us down the floor. “Where shall we go, mistress?”

“The courtyard will do, Nero.” Tristal removed her own wand and the emergency exit doors blew open to reveal the quad. Pilar and Liadan waited among a host of other students eager to see me pass or fail. With his back straight and proud, Nero pedaled us down the curving stone path down a line of vehicles in varying quality and states of magical decay.

We passed a zucchini limousine, a sleek eggplant race car, and a guava carriage that smelled amazing. Then we passed a soggy turnip truck that was already halfway through the reversion process to a vegetable. Most of the vehicles still resembled fruits and vegetables, until we came to a gold Mercedes with the top down that I suspected belonged to Pilar. On the return loop, we passed a few more cars with probable passing grades.

On her instructions, Nero parked the rickshaw, helped us down, and escorted us back inside.

“Now then, for your grade…”

Licking my lips didn’t help. Worry had turned my tongue to sandpaper.

Professor Tristal’s smile warmed. “An A-plus. Well done.”

“An A?” My voice squeaked up.

“Plus. You demonstrated creativity within the boundaries of the assigned task, displayed empathy for my personal needs, and you did not frivolously squander your reserves on unnecessary flash beyond your capabilities. I imagine you still retain some dust.”

“A little.”

“Good. Unless you have no other option, you should never use every last speck, because you never know if an incident will occur after you’ve depleted it.”

“I’ll remember that, Professor, thank you.”

“Good. Now, please restore Nero to his former body and exit into the quad.”

“Must she?” Nero asked, frowning. He ran his fingers down the front of the sweet jacket I’d made for him, apparently liking it.

Tristal sighed. “It will only last a few hours.”

“A few hours is all I need.”

She raised an incredulous brow. “For what?”

I didn’t wait to see what the hell a male crow could possibly want with a human body, hurrying outside and leaving the pair to their conversation.

The moment I stepped outside, the cold wind cut through my dress, a harsh reminder to unravel the glamour back to my original sweats, leggings, and snow boots. Tristal must have used a glamour to maintain our personal warmth while inside the rickshaw.

Pilar and Liadan crowded around me.

“Well?” Pilar demanded.

Liadan rubbed her mittened hands together to conserve heat. “How did you do? Your rickshaw was lovely, Sky.”

“She gave me an A-plus for creativity and empathy. What about you guys?”

Pilar mumbled something about a B and Liadan received an A.

“It was the car. The engine died right as we left the room,” Pilar admitted.

“Well, it looked beautiful. One day you’ll have the oomph to keep it running.”

For now, all that mattered was that we had passed. We’d survived one of our hardest faerie exams and would pass through to the next semester.

23

The Spirit of Christmas

With final exams behind us and another semester under my belt, I hurried outside Friday evening to meet Gabriel in front of the townhouse. He’d already pulled up and was chatting with one of our mage neighbors as they conducted a bizarre experiment on their half of the snow-covered lawn.

God, I hoped they didn’t blow another sinkhole into the flowerbeds. Pilar hadn’t forgiven them for a week the last time they’d wrecked the property while testing out their volatile concoctions.

“Wow. You look great.”

Thrilled to be in the open, sans final exam stress, I looped an arm around his shoulders and stood on tiptoe, kissing him once. “Thank you.” I’d borrowed a curve-hugging, cream sweater dress from Lia, worn with tights and knee-high boots from Holly. Pilar’s glamour had transformed my hair into the perfect mane of silky coils and curls.

Despite all the dates on the downlow and the brief outing after Jada had exposed our relationship, my friends had all fought over who got to dress me for what they considered our first real date.

Gabriel had promised me a fancy dinner as a reward for passing my Biology final, but we had three awesome reasons to celebrate. I’d passed, we were out together, and it was his 22nd birthday.

And judging from the way he’d behaved the past couple days, he wasn’t aware that Rodrigo had spilled the beans and told me it was his special day.

Good.

He opened the passenger door for me, and then we were off for our seven thirty reservation. Meanwhile, his gift was burning a figurative hole on the bottom of my purse, because I’d never spent so much money on anyone before and it had been a chunk out of my savings, even more than my share of the deposit for our townhouse.

More important than the cost, it was a gift I’d seen Gabriel gaze at with longing, the way I saw Rodrigo eyeball pizza or takeout whenever I dropped by with food.

A little over an hour later, he was passing the keys to the valet and escorting me inside the cozy Japanese grill owned by another raven shifter family. The hostess wore a genuine smile when she greeted us, and though she spoke something to Gabriel that I couldn’t translate, I did recognize the humble “thank you” he murmured in return. At least I’d learned that much Japanese from years of watching Sailor Moon.

Minako guided us to a candlelit table for two on the upper level beside a gorgeous marine aquarium I hadn’t noticed during our Valentine’s Day visit to oversee my charge’s special night out. “Enjoy your dinner.”

I smiled up at her. “Thank you.”

We perused the menus, placed orders with the waitress for the anticipated Kobe beef I’d looked forward to devouring all week, and sipped the fragrant green tea brought to us.

“Hey,” I murmured conversationally, leaning forward to grin at him across the table. “Wanna play Find the Sentinel?”

“Sure.” We both glanced out over the floor below us and searched the faces of the crowd.

Gabriel nodded toward an awkward couple by the window down below with an obvious age difference between them. The guy’s brows were knit together in consternation, intensifying the network of frown lines on his craggy face. His blonde date glanced around the floor, her eyes alert.

Rich guy creeping on his wife with a mistress, or sentinels pretending to be on a date for our benefit?

“Sugar daddy or sentinel?” I whispered.

“Hard to tell. What do you see?”

I gestured discreetly toward a solo diner at another table, the man grimacing down at the menu. “Nobody who loves sushi or teriyaki dinners makes that kind of face at a good restaurant. Either he realizes he’s made a big mistake, or he’s not here because he wants to be.”

“Point. I’m getting a magic vibe from him. Looks like a mage. The other two… maybe wolf shifters.”

We both scanned the floor again, searching the faces of both the waitstaff and the diners.

“There are four sentinels here,” Gabriel concluded.

“Four?”

“Yeah. Just noticed Hiro Watanabe staring us down for the fifth time since we got here. He’s a sentinel at the Cook County office and has no reason to be waiting tables at his dad’s restaurant. I guess after what happened on the road, no one is taking any chances.”

“Four seems like overkill.”

He nodded. “Yeah, but somebody tried to kill a bunch of us in a fire, tried to snatch you, and still hasn’t been busted. I guess they felt we needed extra security in case Scary takes it to the next level, you know? Don’t want what happened at the Roadhouse to happen here too.”

“I guess you’re right.”

The arrival of our dinner cut the discussion short, and every tender bite was heaven melting in my mouth. Like euphoria for the tastebuds. No cut of beef had ever been so delicious as the rich slices of Japanese steak the Watanabe family imported from Japan.

At some point, I must have stolen one too many envious looks at Gabriel’s plum sake, because he nudged the glass toward me and laughed. “So, uh… I have a steady job lined up over the next couple weeks.”

I sipped the delicious drink without shame. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, at the mall. I’ll be photographing for the Santa, and I could use an assistant with a cute pair of natural pointed ears. Know of anyone who might be interested?”

I pursed my lips and feigned ignorance, pretending I didn’t realize he was hinting to me. “I may know someone. Will there be tights involved?”

“Peppermint-striped tights and gold bells on little green shoes.” He grinned at me and plucked a slice of seared ahi tuna from his plate.

It sounded ridiculous—fun, maybe, but ridiculous—and no doubt an opportunity to load up on tons of faerie dust as enthusiastic kids lined up for time with Santa.

“So, how about it? Wanna be Santa’s little helper?”

“Do I get to sit on your lap afterward?”

Gabriel missed his mouth. It never failed to satisfy me when I took him by surprise.

“I, uh… I’m not playing Santa.”

“That’s okay. I’m sure we’ll find time.”

“Does this mean you’ll be my assistant?”

“Absolutely.”

Flanked by Minako and an older Japanese woman, our waitress stepped over and set down a dessert, a large square of cake filled with cream and fresh strawberries. A few candies shaped like cherry blossoms and leaves decorated the top and looked especially delicious.

“Happy birthday, Gabriel.”

“Whoa, this is awesome. Thank you. Y’all didn’t have to do this.”

The older woman replied in Japanese and gestured toward the cake until Gabriel leaned forward to blow out the candle. Her smile widened, and the longer they spoke, the more I tried to remember the damned glamour for translating foreign languages to a common tongue. Fae had the magical ability to understand and speak all languages, but it was a glamour requiring a continuous use of magical power.

The conversation ended with Gabriel slouching back against his seat, stunned features making me worry, while the trio moved away.

“What happened?”

“Minako’s mother said the bill was already paid by my dad. It’s all taken care of. Everything.”

He fell silent afterward and looked so choked up I pushed my seat back and slid it to his side of the table. I took one of his hands and squeezed. “You okay?”

“They still care about me. I figured… I wasn’t expecting anything from them. Especially after… especially after Thanksgiving.”

All semester long, he fretted about his family, how they treated him, and the arguments related to Jada.

“Of course they still care about you, silly. They’re your family.”

His expression softened, and then he picked up a fork and gestured for me to do the same. “Share my cake with me?”

We both dug into the creamy strawberry shortcake and took bites at the same time. Specks of vanilla bean added a rich taste to the cream, the strawberries were perfectly ripe, and I’d never had such a moist cake. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to take the last bite. Gabriel speared it but offered the tasty morsel to me.

Who was I to turn it down?

Afterward, we strolled down the street, eventually ending up by the same playground where we’d battled a nos and a wendigo last year on Valentine’s night. This late, no one was there, so we made our way to a bench and sat down. Somewhere out there, I knew my usual sentinel shadows were lurking, somewhere out of sight but close enough to help should we need it.

When I leaned close to kiss him, Gabriel met me halfway.

“Happy birthday, Gabriel. I’m glad we got to do this.”

“Tonight was supposed to be about you.”

“We can celebrate both. But first…” I reached into the Neverspace and pulled out his gift. I set it in his lap and grinned, but he only stared.

“What’s this?”

“Well, it’s wrapped in pretty paper and shaped like a box, so I’m pretty sure it’s a present.”

“Ha, ha. I mean, what’s this for?”

“Your birthday, of course.”

His fingers hovered over the curly ends of the blue and silver ribbons. Then, like a child on Christmas day, he tore into the wrapping without further indecision. I perched on the edge of the bench and chewed my bottom lip.

“Do you like it? I mean… it’s the right kind, right?”

“Sky, how the hell did you afford this?”

“I won that DDR tournament last month with Julien, remember?”

“You won a grand.”

“Yup.”

“Sky, this lens costs at least a grand. You spent your winnings on me?”

I nodded, biting my lower lip, suddenly incredibly shy and self-conscious about the decision to blow a chunk of cash on a man despite the generous Black Friday discounts. My debit card had been weeping after taxes and a warranty for his new toy were added to the receipt.

He blinked down at his gift then at me. I never would have guessed that gifts made my boyfriend emotional. “I don’t know what I did to be so lucky.”

The way he gazed at me was how I always felt whenever he entered a room, but I’d finally seen my emotions reflected in one raw, honest expression. I took his face between both of my hands and leaned in, kissing him. “Everything.”

* * *

The Saint Nick Gabriel and I worked alongside came in as a last-minute replacement for the usual mall Santa, the dude sporting genuine white whiskers and charming everyone he met with his ridiculously friendly disposition.

He also emanated a subtle field of mana that a less observant fae might have overlooked, so it didn’t take long to piece together that he was an old mage enjoying his retirement. Mages lived a long time—much like half-fae—so for him to have real silver hair, he had to be ancient, like grandfather of my grandfather old at the very least.

I didn’t spy any sentinels out in the mall lurking around when we worked with him, which also meant Gramps had to be packing some serious magical heat in those fur-lined gloves.

Just for the hell of it, we all performed real marvels for the kids on occasion, Gabriel using his illusions to augment my glamours. Our harmless pranks and fun made the mall so damned popular they gave us a generous bonus on top of our already considerable contract wages.

Hot damn. At this rate, I’d be able to afford a car on my own without Mom and Dad helping me.

Then Gabriel received the worst kind of news on Christmas Eve. All of us were snuggled up in the living room while Liadan made delicious hot cocoa with way too much Baileys, just the way we all liked it, watching marathons of Christmas-themed horror movies.

His entire mood changed, and his heart song, which had been so beautiful and at peace moments earlier, turned cacophonous and filled with sharp, thundering notes.

I didn’t wait for him to set the phone down. “What’s wrong?”

“Stark just told me our friend”—he closed his eyes and dragged in a long breath—“ex-friend, Edmund, is dead. Happened a couple days ago. Stark was catching up to the news in their home area and came across the article.”

I blinked. “What happened?”

“He broke into a home out in Poughkeepsie and was shot. According to the report, the father heard a noise and the baby crying and walked in on him in the nursery. There was a serial killer in that area a couple decades back, and that keeps the residents on edge.”

“Oh my God.” Picturing it made me nauseous. “What was he doing there?”

“No idea. Apparently, his parents reported him missing a couple months ago. He disappeared after the Conclave handed down their judgment and Bound him with the others.”

Victor shifted from where he was sprawled on the other sofa with Holly. “So, he disappears and turns up in some kid’s room? Weird as fuck, man. You think he was still working for the Hidden Court?”

“Maybe.”

The news put a damper on our cheerful moods.

It was hard to be jolly after discovering a fellow student had gotten himself blown away.

And it took a lot more booze to put the spirit of Christmas back into us.

* * *

A few days after the awful news about Edmund, I surprised Gabriel at his apartment with a basket of groceries. Armed with my dad’s manicotti recipe and a bottle of Grandpa’s limoncello, I invaded his kitchen to whip together a special dinner to raise his spirits again instead of ordering pizza as usual.

“You’re cooking for me now?” Gabriel didn’t just look incredulous—he looked absolutely freaked out, and I wasn’t sure if I should take his concern as a slur against my prowess in the kitchen or not.

“Yeah. Why not?”

“It’s a lot of work. You usually bring pizza on our Fridays in.”

“I figured we could do something different this time, if that’s okay. Is it? I don’t have to if—”

“No, it’s cool. I just… I mean, I didn’t…” His brows knit in consternation.

I hadn’t expected one random act of girlfriendly kindness to reduce my eloquent boyfriend to a stuttering mess. “Didn’t what?”

He smiled sheepishly. “I forgot the word in English. How do you... No espero—”

“Expect?”

Gabriel nodded, and the rare flush I’d only ever seen once before, when he owned up to liking the way I smelled, warmed across his cheeks. “I didn’t expect you to come actually cook for me. You’ve never done it before.”

I had to have really shaken him up for Gabriel, master of three freaking languages to my two, to forget English.

Sometime later, I presented him a meal that was entirely edible and not screwed up in any way after putting every ounce of my concentration into it—and maybe a little magic too, because I was a cheater. Ama stared at me the entire time we ate. Stared hard. If I moved, she moved. Sometimes she ran her beak against the bars like an unspoken warning.

Why did she hate me so much?

Did I dare to spend a load of faerie dust to make her human and find out why? The idea tempted me, but ultimately, I wussed out, because I didn’t think I could bear to hear the words of disapproval from Gabriel’s best friend. Then there’d be no more speculation—only the truth.

“That was great, Sky.”

“Thank you.”

Since we were going to be in the living room with movies that would keep Ama awake, Gabriel put her to bed in her smaller travel cage and moved her from the area. He handled her with the care of a doting father tucking his daughter into a crib then carried the cage to a closet where he told her goodnight.

When Gabe returned and sat next to me, I sighed and glanced at the closet door. “She still doesn’t like me.”

“She’ll get used to you.”

“She likes everyone but me, dude.”

His eyes lit up with amusement. “Maybe she realizes you’re where I like spending all my free time, and she’s jealous.”

“Maybe.” I sighed then stroked over the bare patch of skin on his forearm. The hair hadn’t grown back yet, and the skin was slightly discolored—lighter than the rest of his arm. “Did your feathers grow in yet? You haven’t taken your raven form around me lately.”

He chuckled. “Most of them. Guess it was a good thing I’ve been going through one hell of a molt this time. I was due to get new secondary flight feathers. A bunch of pins started coming in last week.”

“If you want my help when it’s time to break the sheaths, let me know.”

He smiled. “I will. Should be soon.”

We both tuned in to the cool action flick he’d rented about a hitman with a dog. For a while, life seemed normal.

“Gabe?”

“Hm?” His gold eyes darted to me. He’d been distracted by the movie, but the moment we made eye contact, something shifted. Suddenly, he was hyperaware, alert, cocking his head slightly to one side. “What’s wrong?”

I licked my lips and tried to condense my thoughts into words, to crystallize a semester of worries into something that made sense. “Are you keeping something from me?”

“What makes you think that?” His entire tone changed and gained the mysterious nuance I’d always picked up from secret agents movies.

“Um, aside from the fact that you just brought out your sentinel voice like I’m the one under investigation here?”

Gabriel chuckled. “Sorry. Seriously though, what makes you think I’m hiding anything?”

“A lot of the shifters are acting weird, and it’s like most of them knew we were together before we came out. Stark and Anji outright assumed we’re having sex.”

“I didn’t say—”

“I know you didn’t say anything. Everyone says it’s what you did. On top of that, you’ve been acting weird on and off sometimes.”

His pupils narrowed into tiny pinpricks, and his shoulders tensed up.

“Gabe, you can tell me anything. What’s wrong? What’s going on with you?”

Once, twice, he opened his mouth to speak, only to growl in frustration and rake his fingers through his hair. “I don’t want to pressure you, Sky. Because if I tell you, that’s what’s going to happen.”

“I can be the judge of that.”

He held my eye contact. A few silent heartbeats passed while I waited for an answer.

Only he didn’t speak it. Hot and hungry lips met mine, the scorching heat of his kiss dissolving my concentration into dust. I struggled to remember there was a serious conversation, while a tiny—super tiny and annoying—little voice in the back of my mind told me to push him away and resume our talk.

His tongue stroked mine, and when I returned the gesture, he made a masculine sound of pleasure that rocketed through me like a sucker punch to the soul. I slid onto Gabriel’s lap and straddled him, framing his face between both hands.

It wasn’t the usual kind of kiss between us. This had a forceful, almost desperate urgency to it, like every taste of my tongue was as valuable as the air in his lungs. Something felt different, the air charged with an unfamiliar undercurrent of power that tingled across every inch of my body.

One of his large palms slid over my tummy, rising until he cupped my breast. The other squeezed my ass and hauled me in tight against him. “My Sky. God, how are you so gorgeous?”

His Sky. Desire spiraled through me, and suddenly, I realized I didn’t think I could want anyone as much as I wanted this man. Getting off him and holding off on the sex we’d never really discussed would be hard.

Super hard, because he had one hell of a boner going on beneath me, but my uncooperative legs refused to shift me off his lap.

Every inch of my body was hot, tight, and prickling with need, my muscles tensed and my mind screaming against the rush of endorphins slamming through my veins, telling me now was the time to take a step forward with my shifter boyfriend.

His senses must have told him the same thing. Gabriel tilted his head back to break our kiss, holding eye contact with me when he unsnapped my jeans.

Oh God, oh God.

“Pink lace. Why am I not surprised?”

The moment I parted my lips to fire off a witty retort, his fingers breached those pink panties and brushed against bare skin. I moaned something unintelligible instead, rendered dumb by a single stroke.

“That okay?”

Okay?

It was fucking fantabulous. Only I couldn’t quite bring myself to say it when he made another stroke and hit the perfect sweet spot.

Gabriel’s fingers traced and gathered the wetness there before he plunged inside me, gliding in and out on a smooth rhythm that sent pleasure barreling down my spine. My pulse became a wild drumbeat between my ears, and I couldn’t think, let alone figure out what to do with my hands besides curl both over his shoulders and hold on for the ride. His hungry kiss muffled my low moan then nothing else mattered. It was just me and him and those damned talented fingers doing everything right.

And he still had one hand free. A hand he used to drag my sweater up and expose my bra. I’d known from his kisses that his mouth would be just as skilled, but the heat of his tongue against my nipple took me by surprise, tightening my body until I was close, so close, all I could do was frantically ride his fingers, because I couldn’t figure out how to get him out of his jeans without disturbing his hand. There had to be a glamour for vanishing clothes.

His teeth scraped through a thin layer of fabric. Then his index finger curled, thrusting me over the breaking point. My orgasm didn’t just happen—it crashed into me like a freight train and carried me away to heaven. Pleasure pulsed through my body until my pants became cries of his name, over and over until the last tremor ended and all I could do was slump against him.

I was still waiting for the world to cease spinning when he cupped my chin and kissed me with the same raw, primal hunger. Then he lowered a hand to his belt.

A click and subtle buzz behind us indicated the door had been unlocked. Before I could scramble off Gabriel’s lap, Rodrigo shoved open the door and stepped inside.

“My dudes, there is like one hell of a Yule celebration going down at—uh.”

Never mind that my shirt was askew and Gabriel still had his hand down the front of my pants.

“Uh…”

No one moved.

“I’m just gonna… Yeah, I’m heading back out. See ya.”

Rodrigo rushed out as if hellhounds were on his ass. The door slammed shut behind him.

Gabriel sighed and slipped his hand out of my panties. He adjusted himself—holy cannoli, it looked like there was a lot there to adjust. Then he leaned forward and grabbed the limoncello bottle off the coffee table. A deafening silence passed while he took a long pull off it, emptying it.

Something didn’t seem right.

“Gabe? Are you okay?”

He paused, still not looking at me. “Yeah. I’m good. Just need a second.”

“I’m so—”

“No, don’t apologize. I’m not mad.”

“I didn’t say you were mad. I’m asking if you’re okay, because you clearly are not okay.”

Gabriel laughed and ran his fingers through his hair, roughing it up and making a mess in his frustration. “I need to come clean about something. And I’m kinda worried about how you’re going to take it if I tell you.”

“Is this about that whole pressuring thing you started to talk about?”

Nodding, he glanced down at both of his hands. “Something happened earlier this year. To me, I guess. Something I didn’t really expect to happen, because you’re not a shifter.”

“Okay. So, it’s a shifter thing. Care to elaborate?”

“I… laid a public claim on you at the Wild Hunt meeting.”

“Huh?”

“When Stark was talking to you, I asserted dominance and made him back off. I didn’t mean to do it. It just happened on its own.”

“You put your arm around me.” Then poor Stark had almost jumped out of his shoes. “What’s that got to do with anything? I mean, Stark and Rodrigo mentioned they knew we were together because of that little stunt, but that’s all.”

“Anyway, us shifters… we don’t do that unless it’s someone we care about. Or in my case, someone our animal half recognizes as our mate.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, I stared at him and tried to wrap my head around what he’d just said. Mate. The word rang a bell, something I’d either heard or read about, but the full context eluded me.

“And I’ve spent all year trying to resist it, because I didn’t want to put you in a rough place.” I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed heavily. Then he licked his lips, still not making eye contact with me. “We don’t have to act on it. I can keep it under control.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“It means we carry on as we have, Sky. That’s all.”

“Gabe.”

“What?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Gabriel finally glanced at me, cocking his head to one side. “I thought it was pretty self-explanatory. It means I’m always fighting the urge to bend you over when I see you, and I want you so bad it hurts. My raven half thinks we should have a lot of little fae babies, since your genes trump mine.”

His words conjured up a vivid image in my mind. My entire body flushed, heat curling in my gut and between my thighs where only minutes ago his fingers had been. I picked up my drink for a sip to clear my dry throat. “That doesn’t sound too serious. Aside from the hurting part. And the babies I’m not ready for yet.”

He grunted. “It’s worse than that. The biggest problem is that when a shifter’s claim is accepted, it’s deeper than marriage. It’s a magical bonding of the soul, and it’s pretty fucking rare, because there has to be a connection. Like a real connection.”

Marriage. How could one little word be so terrifying? My heart raced, warming my body one second and then chilling it the next. For a moment, it seemed like there wasn’t enough air in the room.

When we agreed to date, marriage had never crossed my mind, let alone a soul bonding. Despite the limoncello I’d brought over to share, I wasn’t even legal to drink yet. Kids were the furthest thing from my mind.

“Did I freak you out?”

His expression was so earnest, so concerned, I considered lying. But I liked having an honest relationship with him. “A little,” I admitted, taking his hand and squeezing it. “I wasn’t expecting anything this heavy when I asked, but I’m glad you finally told me.”

“Like I said, I didn’t want to put any pressure on you. I don’t know if you fae have anything similar, but that’s how it is for most shifters.

I shook my head. “Mom said she knew the moment she saw Dad that he was the guy for her, but she never said anything about special mating bonds.” Somehow, thinking about my parents and their deep love calmed my rising panic. They’d been young, and they’d made it work, holding off on marriage until after they both graduated. “What happens now?”

“I walk you back to your place. Then I go beat Rodrigo’s ass for coming back two days early without calling.”

24

The Hardest Lesson

I awakened the next afternoon to an invitation from Anji, her text inviting us fae out with her and Ben on a trip into the city. She wanted to buy a birthday gift for a friend’s baby, and Ben had received a brand-new car for Christmas that I totally envied.

Sai came along for Lia’s protection, so the burden of being a sentinel wouldn’t land squarely on Anji’s shoulders. The three of us squeezed into the rear seat while Ben played chauffeur. As an added bonus, we gave Sai a quick tour of the sights and stopped to have dinner at an upscale bistro. Then we loaded up in the car again and headed out to see Anji’s friend in Country Club Hills.

“So the baby has a fifty-fifty chance of being a mage or a werewolf. Rachel isn’t sure yet if Sammy is going to take after her or Trevor, and they probably won’t know for another year at the most. That’s usually when we start to emulate our parents and try to change,” Anji explained.

“Trevor…” My lips pursed. “Why does that name ring a bell?”

“You’ve probably heard his name once or twice, since he’s Mrs. Hansford’s spoiled asshole nephew,” Ben said.

Anji snorted. “The campus fuckboy.”

“Oh yeah! That’s right. My former mentor’s cheating boyfriend. Man, does he really get around as much as everyone says?”

Ben laughed. “Oh yeah.”

Lia shook her head. “I don’t understand what would make women fight over a guy like that. Unless he has a golden dick, there’s nothing special about him to warrant so much angst, and even then, I’d be skeptical.”

I stared at Lia.

“Nor do I,” Sai said, chiming into the conversation for the first time. “The school administration approves of this behavior?”

“The provost doesn’t interfere in personal matters unless they affect academics,” I explained. “Having a harem of girls isn’t against the rules or the school honor code, because it isn’t like he’s compelled them with any kind of magic spell. They chose to be stupid.”

“I see. Shangri-La operates differently in that respect. The faculty encourages a positive atmosphere and student unity. Such behavior would be discouraged and nipped before it could poison the community.”

“I’m seriously considering going up there for a semester,” Ben said. “Sounds tranquil.”

Anji scrunched up her nose. “Sounds kinda boring. No offense, Sai.”

“None taken. It isn’t for everyone. I understand why others like Gabriel would prefer PNRU. Your people enjoy a certain level of freedom we are denied in Shangri-La.” He paused and glanced down at his jeans, the edge of a cell phone poking from the pocket. “And I enjoy having a phone again. Living without technology is a hardship in itself.”

“See?” Anji said, “Ben, you’d make it one week then plead to return.”

He grumbled at her. “Anyway, get back to the gossip.”

“Okay, okay. From what I understand, Trevor actually dated Rachel first. Then he started seeing Monica. Sometime after that, he started seeing, um, crap, I never recall her name. Some fae. By then, Rachel had already laid a claim to him and wouldn’t back down.”

“I guess I better learn more about shifters and your mating habits. It has to suck to be a total slave to what your body tells you.” I frowned, wondering how much Gabriel struggled to control his physical urges when around me. “Hey, um… Anji, what can you tell me about shifter claims?”

Anji became very still. “Um…”

“It’s okay, Gabriel told me last night that he laid a claim on me, but we didn’t get a chance to discuss it in depth. I know the basics of what it means.”

“Finally!” Anji twisted around and grinned. “I’m so glad you guys actually talked about what’s going on. It was totally killing me to keep that in.”

“Yeah, well, I still don’t quite understand it fully.”

“I promise to fill you in later. We’re here. Just pull into the drive behind that white Camry, Ben.”

We parked and spilled out of the car. Anji led the way up a pretty hedge-lined path to the front door of a modest two-story home.

Carrying a bag full of adorable toddler clothes for the birthday boy, Anji tapped the door knocker with her free hand and called, “We’re here!”

When Sai stepped forward onto the porch, his muscled arm shot out in front of Anji—whoa, he was big for a mage—and he shoved her back behind him.

“The hell? What was that about?” she demanded, but dude was in the zone and paying us no mind. He leaned forward, inhaling deeply through his nose before cocking his head and glancing at us. His lip curled back from his sharp fangs. I’d never seen them until now, since Sai always kept them retracted.

“I smell blood. I thought it was my imagination at first, but I smell fresh blood. And faerie dust.”

He could smell faerie dust? Before I could question him, a loud crash reached us. Straining to listen, I heard piano keys and wood splintering, followed by someone screaming and a snarl.

“Holy shit,” Ben breathed, whipping out his phone and punching the 7-key three times. That would connect us to the nearest sentinel field office to make a report. He waited with the phone raised to his ear. Then he blinked and lowered it again. Sparks raised from the device and it fizzled—making this awful electrical noise that didn’t seem possible—before he jerked his hand and dropped it on the concrete, swearing because it must have zapped him.

“Gremlins,” Sai said. His blue gaze darted around. “Several.”

The moment I looked into the Twilight to see the little fuckers, an explosion rocked the two-story home and blew out all the windows.

“We need to go in there.”

Sai glanced at me. “No. Protocol demands we wait for backup to arrive from the sentinel office.”

“They’re not coming because we can’t call them!”

“We don’t know what kind of threat is inside—”

“Bust the door, Anji.”

She kicked it in, reducing heavy wood to fragments and shattering the frame. Ben and I filed in behind her into a trashed living room. The sofa had been flipped, and the place stank of magic and smoke, but it was a rancid kind of smell instead of the cleansing flames of Faerie Fire. Flames climbed the walls and leapt to the curtains in twisting tendrils before crawling to the ceiling.

Not far from the couch, a black and brown wolf lay on a scorched rug, bleeding on one side and covered in burns on the other, the sickly odor of her roasted flesh and fur heavy in the air.

Shit.

And not far from Rachel stood a haggard leanansidhe in a tattered skirt and the stained remnants of what had once been a blouse. Ratty dreadlocks hung around a gaunt face deformed by her descent into darklinghood, home to two eyes shining like ember nuggets. Her body was all sinew and bones, skin stretched taut and shiny like a snare’s drumhead. It had to be the Scary Godmother.

Double shit.

Anji transformed and bounded forward. Scary smacked her out of the air with a powerful backhand that flung my werewolf pal across the room. She yelped and landed somewhere to the side of us, but was up on her feet again, shrugging it off.

“Shields, Ben,” Sai said. He made a gesture with his hand, and his staff appeared in a snap with a blinding burst of white-blue light. Ben stared at him with wide eyes, so petrified it took a moment for him to respond.

“Right!”

Then I heard Sai’s voice in my head, clear as if he’d spoken it out loud. You and Liadan remove the wolf from the living room. Get her to safety.

But I can help.

He ignored me.

Without access to the sky, I couldn’t call the lightning to help us. Anji circled around the Scary Godmother’s long, emaciated legs, searching for a weakness. At the same time, Sai vanished from beside me and reappeared behind Scary—not directly behind her, but at seven o’clock—for a two-pronged attack.

Scary stepped into the Twilight, but Sai jumped into it with her. They moved in and out of the other plane, here one moment and gone the next. Her long, clawed fingers batted away his staff thrusts, but vampiric reflexes broke through her supernatural strength. Spellwork and glamour clashed together, sparks and reality-bending effects that always worked in her favor, like pieces of the ceiling showering Sai, or the rug forming a bulge in a convenient place to trip up his fancy footwork. He faked her out by feinting with an ice shard spell that sent a wide cone of powerful flurries hurtling across the living room, but her sidestep in and out of the Twilight to avoid it placed her in Anji’s path.

Had they coordinated that?

It didn’t matter. The snarling werewolf crashed into Scary and took her ugly ass to the ground. They rolled across the floor, but the evil godmother wiggled free before Sai could bring his staff down into her. Black blood stained Anji’s red and brown muzzle and glistened against her white teeth. She’d practically shredded the bitch’s quads, and still she was standing.

That all happened in the seconds between Sai’s order and me crossing to help Lia. When I reached her, the front door slammed shut and currents of force blew the inferno of Faerie Fire over the wall until a writhing mass of flames covered our exit.

Then, by an act of sheer bad luck, the ceiling fan came loose and fell on Anji. I lunged for my friend, but Ben beat me to her and pushed the fan off.

“Fuck. I don’t know if we should move her, Sky. What if that damaged her spine?”

“If we don’t, she’ll burn up.”

He swore softly again and glanced at Lia. Despite her size, she made progress dragging Rachel across the floor on her own. “Go help her. I got this.”

“Are you—”

“Just get them out.”

I dashed from Ben and Anji to help Lia. The flames blocking our path were gone, as was the door itself. When we got the wolf outside on the snow-covered lawn, I noticed humans watching the spectacle, some on their porches, others in windows, because they didn’t dare leave their safe homes while there was paranormal activity.

Sirens screamed in the distance. Good. If the police were on the way, maybe someone would notify the Cook County Sentinel Field Office that we needed their asses here now. I ducked inside again to see Ben almost had Anji to the door. As a wolf, she must have weighed as much as he did.

Scary’s frustrated scream jerked my attention back to her and Sai. It was like watching a World of Warcraft tank in real time, in real life, with graphics better than any video game, because every time she tried to get around him, Sai was there, an immovable wall who kept the heat off us.

Then the floor caved in. Sai and Scary plummeted through the hole out of our sight into what was presumably the basement, a cloud of dust arising with the chaotic sound of shelves toppling and possessions shattering under them.

I waited for Sai to appear from the mouth of the yawning hole.

Scary floated to the edge instead, smiling. “Did you think I’d just let you take that pathetic bag of fleas?”

My racing heart wanted to burst out of my chest. I rubbed my sweaty palms against my jeans. “Try and stop us.”

The television beside Ben sparked. Whether that was his only warning or he saw something beyond the Veil of the Twilight, Ben whirled toward it with his hands out and summoned a magical shield. When the television exploded a split second later, its glass shards pelted against the arcane barrier like hail on a tin roof.

I took advantage of Scary’s distraction and swept my arm toward her, treating my Faerie Fire like a shotgun by channeling a load of dust behind it. The cone of fire that flew at her was monumental, a blaze of golden and blue light that spiraled through the air.

She cut her hands through the flames, unharmed, and swept them toward Anji’s prone body in a vicious funnel, the once beautiful colors becoming a desaturated wave of bleak faerie magic. And since Ben was bent over her, dragging our werewolf friend over the hardwood floor by her rear legs, he was also in the line of fire.

“No!” The scream tore from me.

Before I could move, Ben lunged forward over Anji, landing hard on his knees with both hands out. The shield exploded into place, semi-translucent and glossy, golden with the flow of his power. He gritted his teeth and remained between Anji and the onslaught, flushed face sweaty and blond hair clinging to his brow.

The attack was relentless and brutal, seeming to last longer than it probably did until his shield faltered. His hands were scorched and raw, blisters already rising from the smoldering flesh.

A mage was nothing without his hands. My one attempt to take her on had failed and come back on us. Then I felt the pain of my own Faerie Fire for the first time. It consumed my hands and arms and spread over my wrists. It singed my hair and licked at my face. Shrieking, I stumbled back, blinded by the flame’s intensity.

Something slammed into my chest. I hit the floor, defenseless and blinking away the stars in my vision. When it cleared, I was still in a world of agony and Scary stood above me, hands on her hips, sadistic smile on her purple lips.

“Not so tough when birdbrain isn’t here to save the day, are you? You’re actually quite pathetic.”

She laughed and pinned me to the floor beneath one of her bare feet. She smelled of musk and rot, like old sweat and fetid swamp someone tried to cover up with the cloying scent of cheap perfume. Her sharp toenails prickled against my throat, all of them curved and yellow like claws.

“Go to hell.”

Her blazing eyes narrowed into pinpricks of hatred. “I’ve been there already,” she hissed between her sharklike teeth. “Now, what do I do with you and your little friends?” She clicked her tongue a few times while gazing around her at the smoldering ruin. Faerie Fire was mostly smokeless at least. “Which should I kill while you watch? How long do you think her barrier will hold up against me?” I couldn’t move much, only enough to see that Lia had rushed to Ben’s side and channeled her glamour into a Prismatic Barrier.

“Keep the glamour going, Li—”

Scary applied enough pressure to cut off the air from reaching my lungs. “We’re going to have so much fun. She can’t be stopped, and neither can I. This little shithole city is mine now, and I think I’ll leave you here to suffer as we take away everyone you know and love. Everyone who crossed us will be destroyed, because I’m way better than a bunch of pissant nosferatu.”

Black spots swam in my vision, and my oxygen-starved lungs practically screamed.

Her weight receded suddenly. Scary snapped her head up and gazed at something in the distance. Then she strode away and left my line of sight. I lay there, racked with agony and unable to follow her. My chest hurt, and every breath was like hell.

A baby shrieked from upstairs, and then the cry abruptly ended and all was quiet aside from the moans of my friends. I crawled to the edge of the damaged floor and glanced down below. Sai had been impaled by a floor beam, the bloody and jagged length of it protruding from his chest.

* * *

The days that followed the Scary Godmother’s confrontation were the two worst days of my life. Sentinels had arrived not long after, but I had no recollection of what happened. One minute, I was in Rachel’s burning living room, and the next, I was tucked into a bed at the medical center with an IV line taped to my arm.

I had to beg my parents not to come. Plead and beg with them to stay in Virginia while lying about how badly I was injured, because I didn’t think I could face them.

About a dozen friends sent worried texts, and Gabriel came by once the attending doctor allowed visitors, but I couldn’t really look him in the eye and pretended to be asleep or too drowsy to talk every time. Now I knew how he’d felt when they lost Isaac—except that hadn’t been Gabe or Rodrigo’s faults.

If I’d listened to Sai, he’d be alive right now.

So instead of returning their texts, I laid in my hospital bed and stared at the wall until the doctor discharged me. A nurse helped me dress then set a jar of alchemical salve in my palms, because I was “too pretty” to have permanent burns.

“Provost Riordan would like to see you,” Nurse Kristi relayed from the desk as I headed to the infirmary door. My shoulders drooped.

“Thanks. I’ll head right on over.”

Before stepping outside, I pulled up the hood of my coat and ducked my head. Hopefully no one would recognize me, because frankly, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t want to answer questions from my peers.

Since it was New Year’s Eve, it didn’t surprise me that the provost’s secretary was missing from the main administrative office. Riordan’s open door revealed the interior of her personal office. The room itself was really breathtaking, but I was doomed to always miss the chance to admire it. My forays into her domain always involved injuries or incidents.

I stepped over and rapped my knuckles against the frame. She looked up from her desk and gestured me inside. Then I noticed Simon and Sebastian sitting on the couch by the window.

Great. Just great.

When she didn’t invite me to take a seat, I stood in front of the desk and resisted the urge to fidget. No one spoke, only looked at me. The provost had this way of staring a student down until they drowned in disappointment. I’d never heard her raise her voice at anyone, and she didn’t need to.

“Please be seated, Miss Corazzi.”

I wiped my damp palms against my jeans and lowered into a chair across from her desk.

Provost Riordan folded her hands together. “Your rash, irresponsible actions could have cost every student their lives.”

“I know, and I… I’m ready to be expelled for my actions. It’s the least I deserve for getting Sai killed.”

The provost’s icy shield melted, thawing only for a split second. “What? We’re not expelling you, and Mr. Varma is quite alive, though his injuries mean he’ll be recuperating for a time, depriving Ms. Maguire and Ms. Burke of his tutelage.”

“But he was impaled. I… that was the last thing I saw. I didn’t dream that.”

“Missed his heart by a few inches,” Sebastian said. “He was lucky. It could have gone very differently.”

“And it wouldn’t have happened at all if correct procedure was followed,” Simon added.

Every admonishment squeezed around my heart. A hot wash of shame swept up my neck to my ears while cold, icy dread trickled down my back.

“What were you thinking?”

“I—” There was no excuse good enough, and the words died on my tongue. My gaze dropped to my tightly folded hands, shoulders falling with it, because I wanted to shrink into a tiny, microscopic ball to hide from their scrutiny. “I’m sorry, Provost Riordan. I know I messed up.”

Her heavy sigh made me feel so much worse.

“I’m glad you understand the gravity of the situation, but that’s not the only reason I asked you here. We’d all like to hear your account of what happened.”

Going over it all again only drove in that I’d been incredibly arrogant and stupid—especially when I used Faerie Fire, because I knew better, but I’d panicked.

“Scary said everyone who crossed ‘us’ will be destroyed. Plural. I think the Hidden Court is cleaning house. They’re going after everyone who was involved in that meeting—”

“We’re aware, Sky,” Sebastian cut me off.

“Huh?”

Simon nodded. “That’s why we’ve had sentinels on you and Fujimoto both. And on the rest of the students who were involved in the midnight meeting with Matt Sinclair. You aren’t the only one with a twenty-four-hour guard.”

“Oh.”

“Unfortunately, the pair assigned to follow you that day were detained due to car troubles.”

“Let me guess. Gremlins?”

His brows knit. “You’re very observant.”

“I try. Well, then there’s only one other thing you should know about the Scary Godmother.” I paused and took a deep breath, half-expecting them to all laugh me out of the office. “I think she was Monica.”

“What?”

I licked my dry lips and flicked my gaze between the three campus administrators. “The Scary Godmother is Monica Cunningham.”

The provost blinked a few times, opened her mouth to speak, and then snapped it shut again, only to stare at me with a deep furrow in her brow.

Simon shook his head. “Miss Cunningham was Bound last year during the winter break. It’s impossible for her to be a darkling.”

“I know, but… it was her. I swear it was.”

“Darklings have a way of making themselves look like those you fear or feel negatively toward,” the provost said. “It’s one of the leanansidhes’ greatest talents.”

“It wasn’t how she looked—I mean, she was hideous—but it was what she said. I know that probably sounds stupid, but… she knew me. She mentioned Gabe and called him an insult Monica once used. Plus, she has reason to hate Rachel, because they were dating the same guy.”

Riordan’s gaze flicked toward Simon, so quick I almost missed it.

“What? Do you guys know something?”

“Another child was taken earlier that same day, from a former student on sabbatical,” the provost admitted.

“It was the other girl Trevor knocked up, wasn’t it? The fae girl.”

“It was, yes.”

“Don’t you see? That’s all the more reason to tie Monica to this,” I argued. “She had personal beef with both of them. Maybe… maybe she wasn’t actually Bound? I mean, could her dad have paid someone off?”

A low growl reverberated in Sebastian’s chest. “No. Simon and I were both there as witnesses in the Conclave’s meeting chambers when they performed the ritual. King Oberon, Archmage Mubarak, Fenrir Nanuq, and Queen Nadezka were all present.”

“Oh.” Crap, so much for that theory. No way were Simon and Sebastian on the take, and four reigning members of the Conclave wouldn’t be bought. “Is it possible something went wrong?”

Sebastian’s expression softened, eyes sympathetic. “I watched the color fade from her hair, Skylar. She was absolutely mortal. You have to be mistaken.”

“But I’m not. Please believe me. It was Monica. You had to hear what she said to me. After riding a semester with her as my mentor, I…. She had this way of making everyone feel like shit and talking down to us, but when Scary was there, it was like… she didn’t look like Monica, but she felt like Monica. It’s a feeling I can never forget.”

“Simon, can you please do a phone check on Miss Cunningham?”

“Of course.” Simon pulled out his phone and stepped outside the office.

For a moment, I simply stared down at my lap and waited. No one spoke, but I felt the provost’s gaze, like a heavy weight on my shoulders. When I looked up, she had the same frown on her face. She looked… tired. Knowing I’d failed her, after all the trust and faith she’d placed in me, cut deep.

“Are you kicking me out of the sentinel program?”

“No, Miss Corazzi. Not today, at least.” Riordan sighed and rubbed her temple. “I will be noting this in your record, however, and hope you will have taken this as a hard lesson learned. Protocol exists to protect not only you, but those around you as well.”

“Yes, ma’am, I do. I’m…” Tears burned behind my eyes. “I just wanted to save Anji’s friend. There was a baby in the house, and I… I just wanted the baby to be safe.”

The provost’s stern features softened. “I know.”

“The sentinel office is doing everything they can to find both babies,” Sebastian added.

Simon stepped in before I could ask anything more about the situation, and one look at his face was more than enough to know something wasn’t right.

“What did you find out?” Riordan asked.

“Mr. Cunningham says he hasn’t seen his daughter since June.”

Sebastian grunted and mumbled something under his breath before speaking in a louder voice, “And it didn’t occur to him that he should report her missing?”

“Apparently, since we took away what made his daughter ‘special,’ he didn’t think it concerned us. Nor anyone else, for that matter. I rang up a contact at the precinct, and no missing person’s report was ever made there either.”

Monica’s dad was a first-rate asshole. I couldn’t imagine my parents ignoring me, even if I did something stupid enough to get my powers Bound. They didn’t love me because I was fae; they loved me because I was their daughter.

My fleeting empathy dissolved. Having shitty parents didn’t excuse Monica’s crappy attitude and racist behavior. Pilar was proof enough of that.

“What does this mean?” I asked.

“It means, Miss Corazzi, that I suggest you focus on your studies and schoolwork. And, I would suggest, that for the remainder of the break you consider staying on campus.”

That was a dismissal if I’d ever heard one. She may as well have grounded me and sent me to my room. I rose from my seat and dipped my head. “Thank you, I will.”

Because leaving campus meant I’d have to face Gabriel, and I wasn’t ready to endure his disappointment too.

25

A Million Dreams

Pilar charged into my room around noon and threw open the curtains, letting in the blinding light. I recoiled beneath the blankets until Liadan dragged those off me.

“The hell are you both doing?”

“Getting you out of bed. Oh God.” Pilar shrank back and waved a hand. “The funk. Get into the shower now before we throw you in, clothes and all.”

It had been two, maybe three days—I wasn’t sure anymore—since New Year’s Eve, and I’d missed out on plans with Gabriel to lay in my bedroom, unable to face him or anyone else. I was so mortified that when the small welcoming party of Liadan, Pilar, Holly, and Victor—I think he must have moved in, because he was always in our place—greeted me after the meeting in Riordan’s office, I headed to my bedroom and didn’t emerge for anything but food. Not that I’d eaten much.

“I don’t smell.”

“I beg to differ. Water has not touched you since you went into the infirmary.”

“I’m not—”

“Holly, get her.”

Before I had the chance to acquiesce, a hard arm circled around me, my feet were off the floor, and I was deposited in the shower. Maybe a couple seconds had passed. “Fine! I was planning to shower anyway.”

Once I stripped out of my tank and shorts to stand beneath the hot spray, it had a domino effect. I washed my hair, untangled my curls with my shower brush, and made the effort to shave my legs. By the time I brushed my teeth and emerged in a towel, Pilar and Liadan had worked magic on my room. The open window let in a refreshing breeze that was the embodiment of winter and spring blended together, like mint, berries, and flowers had some kind of chilly, fragrant baby.

I breathed it in.

“Feeling better?” Pilar asked.

I nodded.

Holly was in the doorway, shrinking back from the bright sunlight. “We tried to give you time, but we were all worried about you, dude.” She turned to the others. “Come on, guys. Let’s give her a chance to change.”

“But if you do not come down to talk to us, we will be back,” Pilar threatened.

Liadan flashed me a smile, and then my three roomies filed out and shut the door.

After donning comfy leggings and an oversized PNRU athletics sweatshirt featuring our griffin mascot, I traveled downstairs. Holly deposited my winter coat around my shoulders.

“I don’t want to leave campus.”

When Pilar tapped my snow boots with her wand, they appeared on my feet in a golden flash. “We are not leaving campus. We are meeting Ben at the student center for lunch then taking flowers to Anji and Sai.”

“Oh.” I chewed my lower lip. “Maybe I should—”

Then gentle Lia stared me down. “You’re delivering flowers to Sai, and that’s final.”

I blinked. “Well, okay.” I’d scrub the bathroom tiles with a toothbrush for her at this point after the way I’d fucked up.

Hustled across the snowy courtyard by a group of pushy but very loving, well-meaning friends, I kind of floated along in a daze, surrendering control and letting them guide me to the deserted recreation center. Ben sat in one of the chairs with a pile of pizza boxes, way too many for just us.

I knew the moment Gabriel arrived, because I heard his soul before I even saw him. He stepped into view with Julien and Victor on his heels, entering the recreation room through its other set of doors.

Shit. I wanted to see him, and I didn’t.

Lia squeezed my hand. “Sorry, we didn’t warn you, but Gabriel was worried. He bribed us to lure you out.”

I swallowed and nodded, my voice a mere whisper. “How much was I worth?”

“A hundred, but I would have done it for free.”

Gabe took a step toward me but stopped and tucked his hands in his pockets, looking suddenly unsure. And I felt like the world’s absolute worst girlfriend for avoiding him. I’d lost count of how many times he’d tapped his beak against my window or texted to ask if I was okay.

After a few steps bridged the space between us, I wrapped my arms around his waist. Gabriel hugged me close and laid his cheek atop my head, all without saying a word. But it was enough, his warmth surrounding me like the missing piece of a puzzle my friends had already started assembling.

I didn’t resist when he guided me away to the edge of the recreation room. “How you holding up, Sky?”

“Fine, all things considered. Hey, listen—”

“It’s all right.” He cupped my chin. “Just glad you’re back now.”

“I thought you’d be mad at me.”

“Oh, I’m furious, but fury isn’t what you need right now. You learned your lesson.”

I hugged him again.

A few yards away, Julien and Victor were in an argument with Ben over his double bacon, ham, and pineapple pizza not being real pizza, but Pilar took his side. “It may not be real pizza, but it is delicious.” Then she took a deliberate bite from one slice and sat down with Ben to share from his box.

At the beginning of our freshmen year, she wouldn’t have been caught dead with our group.

Gabriel and I rejoined them and each took a slice from Ben’s box at his invitation.

“Heathens,” Julien said with a good-natured smile.

We stuffed our faces and caught up on campus gossip unrelated to my shitstorm. Julien offered a few juicy tidbits about who was dating who among the faerie students, and Victor told us about a fist fight between one of the mages and a vampire.

“Simon assigned them both to trash detail for the entire semester.”

“I guess I should count myself lucky not to be joining them.” I sighed and tossed my bunched-up napkin into an empty pizza box. “Especially after what I told Riordan in front of him.”

“What was that?” Ben asked, perking up at the slightest whiff of additional gossip.

“That the Scary Godmother is Monica.”

They all stared at me, the room so quiet I could have heard a pin drop. Gabriel’s brow creased, and Pilar’s eyes went round as saucers.

Holly set down the pizza slice she’d been holding. “Ha, ha, quit playing. Seriously though, what did you tell them?”

“Exactly what I said. When she had me on the floor, she was gloating about crap and she mentioned Gabe. I couldn’t believe it myself, but it was her. I’m sure of it.”

“Dude, if Monica was Bound, how the hell could she be a darkling? The Binding ritual removes all magic, down to the most minute trace.” Ben frowned and rubbed under the edge of the bandage wrapped around his left hand.

Liadan swatted his arm. “Don’t mess with it.”

“It itches.”

“You’ll make it worse.”

After grumbling under his breath, Ben stopped and turned his expectant gaze back to me. “Well? You can’t just dangle us over a cliff after making a claim like that.”

“I have a theory.” When all eyes turned to me, I continued, “A few weeks ago, I was hanging out with Anji when another sentinel told her a werewolf named Sheldon turned up dead at a farm. He’d murdered the family there and… eaten several of them.”

“Besides being disgusting, what about it?” Pilar asked.

“That’s how shifters become darklings,” Gabriel answered. “Eating their kills.”

Victor’s dark brows knitted together. “He was also Bound, but the cause of his death was inconclusive. Nobody knew what killed him.”

“What if the cause is magical? What if he was so desperate to un-Bind himself that he was willing to risk murdering and devouring a human being?” Pilar gave a little shudder as I concluded my suspicions.

Gabriel jolted upright in his seat. “Edmund was busted in the middle of a child abduction. Valravns need to eat a heart to go to the dark.”

“More powerful if it’s a child’s heart,” Victor said.

“No, it couldn’t be.” The corners of Julien’s mouth dipped into a severe frown that didn’t belong on his usually cheerful face. “If such a thing could be undone, the Conclave would know of it, would they not?”

“Why would they know if no one has tried?” I countered.

His frown deepened. “People have had centuries to attempt it.”

“When you’re Bound and your powers are gone, you have no reason to try.”

“Well, whatever the cause, we should all be concerned. Hell, I can’t believe it’s Monica causing all this chaos,” Ben said. “I dunno. In a way, I’m kind of let down it wasn’t some major badass.”

Gabe scoffed. “I can believe it. It makes a weird, sick sort of sense. I mean, look at everyone who was involved.”

“So, let’s humor this theory and assume Edmund broke into that kid’s room for a late-night snack,” Victor said. “What the fuck does a faerie do to restore their gift? Last I checked, most don’t go over to the dark by eating people, and Monica was an aos sidhe. It’s not the same as Julien deciding to eat a surfer or a fisherman.”

“Darklings still retain their glamours, though it’s twisted. But they don’t gather dust like we do,” Lia said, speaking up for the first time in the dark conversation. “They have to take it from others.”

Ben snapped his fingers, at least he tried to, but his finger pads were all blistered and he ended up biting back a swear. “Your Dream Boxes.”

“Yeah.”

Victor wiped his hands off on a napkin and rose. “Okay, as much as I wanna call bullshit on the entire idea, it has some merit. Anything is possible when magic is involved. You mind if I head over to the field office and tell Sebastian?”

“No, go ahead.”

Gabriel got up too. “I’ll go with him. Meet you guys at campus medical?”

I nodded, sort of petrified. Ben had only been in the hospital for about a day before they released him, and Liadan hadn’t been hurt at all, but Anji had some vertebral damage that required delicate care.

And then there was Sai. He’d been impaled through the back and had a collapsed lung because of me.

Wiping palms as damp as a swamp against my thighs, I crossed the campus with them to the medical center.

“Two visitors at a time,” Nurse Kristi warned us.

“Oh, come on, Nurse Kristi. Please? Can’t you look the other way just this once?” Holly held up a pizza box. “We brought these for them.”

“He shouldn’t be eating pi—” The bear shifter nurse sighed and waved her hands. “Go ahead. But I’m kicking you all out in fifteen minutes, you hear?”

“Thanks, you’re the best.” And because we had more than enough, I set one box on her desk, and from what I observed during numerous visits to the medical center, the nurses didn’t take nearly enough breaks. They were always caring for us students, mending someone up, applying stitches, or doling out potions and medications of some kind. Being magical didn’t mean we all had flawless health.

“I’m going to go see Anji first,” Ben said. “You know, give you some privacy with Sai.”

“Me too,” Lia added.

“Oh, okay.”

She guided me to a door, and then they all disappeared into another room farther down the pristine corridor.

Damn.

Bearing the sole mushroom pizza, because Liadan said Sai didn’t eat beef, I knocked on the hospital door. A quiet voice bid me to enter, so I stepped inside to find the older student reading a book in bed, the curtains drawn and room dimmed save for a single light.

A week ago, when I’d last seen him, he’d had a hint of color and vitality in his face, but blood loss had robbed him of that, turning his skin ashen gray. He looked gaunt and sickly, his cheekbones more pronounced than usual and black hair lank against his brow.

“Hey… I wanted to see how you were doing and to save you from the lousy clinic food.”

Sai raised his attention from the novel in his lap to me, and to my surprise, he actually smiled. “Skylar, I am pleased to see you up and looking well.”

“Really? I thought I’d be the last person you wanted to see.”

Sai shook his head. “I’m not upset with you.”

“But you almost died because of me. If I’d listened—”

His weak chuckle ended in a grimace and him pressing one hand against the bandage covering his chest. “We saved the girl. She would have died if we waited for sentinels to arrive. It’s a fair trade. I’m a little hurt, but she is alive.”

“A little hurt? Dude, there was a spike in the middle of your chest.”

“Not quite the middle, and it missed my heart, which is all that matters.” He grinned. “What can I say? I’m a tough bastard. The doctors think I’ll be out of the bed in a week or so.”

“Just in time for classes to start.” When I set the pizza box on the bedside table, his blue eyes lit up.

“You are a true blessing.” He dipped his head then gestured to the bedside chair before tearing open the box like a ravenous shifter instead of a vampire. “The nurses and Doctor Kalarjian have kept me on a liquid diet the entire week. I never thought I could miss solid food as much as I do now.”

“Ew, no fun.” Then again, a liquid diet for a vampire couldn’t be that horrible. Holly seemed to enjoy her blood bags well enough, but I’d also seen her nom way too many orders of fries and bacon cheeseburgers.

He wolfed down two slices before speaking again. “Were you in much trouble?”

“Well, I’m not expelled at least.”

“But…?”

“But yeah, and I should be. Look what happened to you and Anji due to my stupid decision to charge in.”

“We made a choice. You didn’t twist our arms.” When he reached for the big cup of water nearby, I flew off the chair to pass it to him. “Which Simon acknowledged when he visited the next day. Supposedly on my deathbed, and he comes in to rant at me about irresponsible behavior. That I am a role model who should have guided you better.”

“But you can’t control us. You were—”

“Had I truly wanted to stop Anji from barging in, I could have. And so you see, neither you nor I alone are responsible for what happened. We all take blame and share the burden when a poor choice is made. This is what it is to be part of a sentinel team.” He slid another slice of pizza from the box. “I hope there was another of these for Anji.”

“They took her a triple meat.”

His nose scrunched up. “Well, she’ll enjoy that. She’d enjoy your company more, however.”

“We’re really okay?”

“We are. I hold no grudges. There is a saying one of our professors in Shangri-La is fond of telling us often. ‘Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.’”

It took a moment for my brain to wrap around what the hell he’d said. “That sounds like a fae proverb.”

“No, Buddha. He was an amazing sage, but I consider him to be as wise as any faerie. What happened is behind us. Learn from it to be better today, Skylar.”

With some of the crushing weight lifted from my spirits, I smiled back. “I will. Thank you, Sai.”

After pulling the door shut behind me to leave Sai with his pizza in peace, I strolled three doors down to Anji’s room and let myself in to join the party. She’d already torn into her pizza and had tomato sauce on her face.

“Sky!” she blurted around a mouthful.

I hung back. “Hey.”

“If you don’t bring your skinny ass over here, I’m gonna have to get up and drag you over.”

“Heh. Nurse Kristi would have my ass if you got outta bed because of me.” Which meant I crossed over to the bed and took the hand she offered me. She pulled me down close enough for a one-armed hug. “How are you? They said your back…”

“My back’s great now. A couple fractures but no spinal cord damage. Doctor Kalarjian said she may even release me tomorrow.”

The vice-like tension around my chest loosened. “Nurse Kristi made it sound like you were paralyzed or something.”

“Nah, I’m good. We shifters heal fast, remember? She just exaggerates a little, since she likes to mother bear all of us.”

“Good, I’m glad. I felt… I felt awful, Anji.”

“You get in any trouble with the office?”

“Yeah, I did. They probably didn’t have much to say to you, though.”

Anji snorted. “Oh no. Sebastian was mad as hell. He had all kinds of things to say to me about that stunt. I got a mark in my record and everything.”

“Really?”

“Yup.” Anji nodded. “I mean, none of us would have gone in if I didn’t kick in the door. I made that decision. And almost roasted for it. Ben saved me from getting barbecued.”

Ben flushed deeply and mumbled something incoherent that sounded like, “Wasn’t much.”

“It was, and you know it. But you and I will be having a talk about who’s protecting who, mister, so don’t you forget it.”

The color in Ben’s cheeks flared hotter than a pyromancer’s spell. “Okay.”

My pal would have made a great battlemage, I thought, but I respected his choice not to pursue that path of magic. Still, he had the natural instincts for a sentinel. If he and Anji did remain together after college, I imagined they’d become as close as Simon and Sebastian—without the hippity dippity.

“So, the girls tell me you have a theory about the Scary Godmother but wouldn’t tell me what. Wanna clue me in? ’Cause I am itching to nail the bitch.”

“We can talk about it later.”

“No,” Anji said. “C’mon, Sky, I’m bored to tears in here. Don’t leave me hanging.”

I sucked in a deep breath and held it a second before releasing it on a heavy sigh. “Fine. I think Scary is Monica.”

“Your bitch mentor from last year? Wasn’t she Bound?”

“She was, yeah, but… she said something just to me, and if I closed my eyes and imagined the voice was different, it could have been Monica. It’s hard to describe it. I just know it’s her.”

“Hey, girl, if you say it’s her, I believe you.”

“Really?

“Well, yeah. You’re not a liar, Sky. You don’t do shit for fun. So, if you say this fae boogieman is Monica, who am I to argue? Besides, I thought she smelled familiar.” Anji’s brow furrowed. “Something struck me as familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”

It came as a relief that someone other than me noticed the similarities. Once I laid everything out for Anji, she took the time to consider everything I’d said. In the end, she agreed with me.

“Crap. Monica was enough of a bitch as a good fae. As a bad one, she’s gonna be the worst.”

Anji had that right. I was just glad my friends didn’t think I was nuts. Because, if I was honest with myself, sometimes I wondered.

* * *

We stayed a while longer with Anji, and when we finally left her to rest, some other students dragged us into a battle in the courtyard. A few of Julien’s senior fae friends had organized a massive snowball fight on the quad, and we found ourselves conscripted into a snow war of Red versus Blue the moment we walked within the field of enchantment, magic glamouring our respective clothing to indicate which team we’d serve on.

Shit.

Ben pleaded that he couldn’t participate due to his recuperating hands and was allowed to sit out as a referee and additional scorekeeper with Brooke.

As a member of the Blue team, I got to team up with Julien, but had to face off against Jiro and Radha. And in a snow battle as fierce as this one, friendship did not equal mercy. I fired off several good shots propelled with an extra dose of glamour, but in the end, Jiro stuffed a snowball down the back of my shirt when I crouched down to scoop up more ammo.

My screams and the really dumb dance I did to shimmy it all out became everyone’s amusement until Brooke blew a whistle, declaring the match to be at an end while Ben tallied up the points.

Red team won.

Dancing in front of me in a transition state halfway between human and baku form, Jiro grinned. “Sorry about that, Skylar.”

“Nah, it’s all good, and I did peg you between the eyes.”

Victor and Gabriel rejoined us a few minutes after the match ended, the raven landing on my shoulder and the vamp appearing beside Holly, who was pale from all the blood she’d spent zipping around the field.

She jabbed Victor in his chest with one finger. “Oh, now you two show up. Where were you five minutes ago when we were getting our asses kicked?”

Victor nodded his head toward the left. “Watching from that tree over there.”

Holly’s face fell. “You’re joking.”

Gabriel gave one of his creepy bird laughs. “No. When we saw the fight going on, we stayed off to the edge and watched. What good is all that vampire speed doing you if you’re just going to run into the snowballs super fast?”

I tried to shrug him off my shoulder, but he held on with his little scaly feet, flapping his wings for balance and buffeting my ear until I stopped. “You’re both asses.”

“Smart-asses,” Gabriel chirped. “You girls looked good though.”

Pilar grumbled something unpleasant in Spanish, but he only laughed at her.

“We’d have beaten them for sure. That’s why they hid away.” Liadan grinned and winked at me. “Which means cocoa for us. C’mon, I’ll whip up a batch.”

“What? None for us?” Gabriel whined.

“You didn’t get all chilled up, now did you?” Lia smiled sweetly and headed off ahead of us, humming a cheery tune.

“Wanna join us, Jiro?” I asked. Julien, Radha, and the others had already headed off to set up another ambush near the student center.

“I would, thanks.”

Dain lounged in Lia’s rocking chair on our porch, looking way too at home and hot as hell with his angelic wings pillowing his back and big-ass feathers draped over the snow. The primary flight feathers were so long they flowed over the porch’s edge onto the ground. His smile broadened when we approached, and then he rose and dusted off his pants. He’d dressed semi-appropriately for the weather, lacking a coat but at least clothed in another of his handsome sweaters that had me wondering if it was all glamour, or if he’d stopped at some high-end menswear shop.

“Hi, Dain.”

“Greetings, Skylar,” he said, bowing to us. “And to the rest of you. Did you enjoy the game?”

“No,” Pilar muttered bitterly, still sore that a pack of freshmen had gotten the best of her by working as a cohesive squad, walling her in between two shelves of ice then dropping a miniature snow mountain on her.

It had been hilarious to watch, but in hindsight, probably hadn’t been too pleasant for her.

Dain stepped forward and raised one hand to Pilar’s dark hair, brushing away clumps of snow in one long sweep. “I have a feeling next time you will not be caught so easily, now that you know their tricks. I might suggest a Misdirection jinx.”

She blinked up at him. “Really?”

“Oh yes. It always works on Eldan. Don’t mention that I told you, but it fools him every time.”

I tried to imagine the two handsome fae lords frolicking in the snow. It wasn’t hard, actually. I could pretty much imagine them anywhere, but the idea of them having a snowball fight really tickled me for some reason. Probably because Eldan’s stoic countenance never changed, and I’d never seen him smile.

“I’ll try that, thank you,” Pilar said, drawing my attention back to the present.

“Hey, Skylar?”

I turned to Jiro. “Yeah?”

“Raincheck on the cocoa?”

“Sure. Is everything okay?”

“It is, yes. I just remembered I had to do something, so I’ll catch you another time.”

Jiro headed off without further explanation, but I wondered if Dain had something to do with it. Not that I could blame the guy, since being around fae nobility was sort of intimidating. Holly and Victor were still staring at the sylph, as if he were a museum exhibit given life.

Lia moved to the door and unlocked it. “I’m going to make cocoa for all of us. Would you like a cup, Dain?”

“The game was well-played, and you are all certainly deserving of a warm beverage. However, I find myself in need of Skylar’s company for a moment.”

“Uh, guys, go ahead and start up a movie or something. I’ll be inside in a sec.”

Gabriel cocked his head. “Do you want me to stay?”

“No.” If Dain was going to chastise me, I totally didn’t want my boyfriend to hear it.

After the others filed inside, Gabe glided down from my shoulder to the open doorway and shifted in the threshold before walking inside. He shut the door behind him.

“I expected better of you.”

“Dain—”

He held up a hand. “Excuses are for the weak, little one. Apologies were given to the individuals harmed by your reckless mistake, but what will you do to prevent it from happening again?”

My tongue didn’t want to move to form more words, practically glued to the roof of my mouth. For some reason, Dain’s disappointment cut deepest of all, the salt in a raw wound that had only begun to heal. “I’ll train harder.”

He crossed his arms and stared me down, magnificent wings partially unfurled behind him. “Faerie Fire. Of all the idiotic stunts…”

“I panicked, Dain.”

He raised one hand to the pendant around my neck, breaking the illusion surrounding the Heartflame when he tapped the central ruby with his index finger. “If not for this, you would be dead, and with your loss, a million dreams would also die. You must take greater care, with not only your own life, but those around you.”

A million dreams?

“But I’m not learning to become a godmother. How could so many hinge on my survival?”

He merely smiled. “I’ve said more than I should. Simply keep my words in mind, and in the future, when similar threats loom before you, know what you face before charging into danger.”

“I will. Hey, Dain, can I ask a question?”

“Of course. But will I answer?”

“If you can.”

He nodded.

“If a fae is Bound, is it possible to become a darkling?”

“You ask me a question that, until recently, I believed to be impossible, Skylar.”

My breath caught. “So it was Monica.”

“It was… an anomaly. One the Court is most interested in.” He gestured to the door. “Shall we?”

“You’re coming in too?”

“I was invited, was I not?”

“Of course. Just, uh, please excuse the mess. Well, it’s not so much of a mess as it is a jungle in there.”

Dain followed me inside and all chatter died, my collection of friends staring at the faerie lord standing in our midst. Victor and Holly were fighting over the decorative pillows on the love seat end of our sectional, and Lia was in the kitchen already, Gabriel helping her.

Pilar had a strict no-shoes-allowed policy, so everyone had dumped all their shit beside the door, a pile of boots beside the slush-dampened welcome mat.

His gaze moved around the room, lingering on each blooming plant. Between Lia and Pilar’s gifts, we could have opened a flower shop.

“I see you were not exaggerating when you said it was a jungle.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know who’s been sending them all, do you?” Holly asked.

“It would be poor manners to reveal the gifter.”

“But you know,” she insisted.

“I do.”

“Sky, can you give us a hand?” Gabriel called over.

Between the three of us, we managed to carry a mug of steaming cocoa out to everyone. Homemade marshmallows floated in every cup, and the sweet scent of vanilla wafted up on the fragrant steam. No matter what Lia prepared in the kitchen, she took everything to the next level.

“I have never seen anyone make hot cocoa this extra before,” Victor muttered.

“Well give it to me then.”

He twisted away to evade Holly’s grasping hands. “Drink your own.”

Sitting on the floor between Lia and Pilar’s beanbags, Dain almost looked like one of us, though his wings were so damned huge he didn’t need a seat of his own. I caught Lia reaching for one of them then jerking her hand back, like she knew better than to touch a faerie lord without permission.

I totally didn’t blame her.

“How much longer until your classes begin?” Dain asked.

“Almost two weeks. Registration starts tomorrow.”

And I hoped that nothing else happened in that time, because this, right here with my friends, was how I wanted my winter break to be.

26

Déjà Vu

As soon as online registration unlocked the next morning, Holly and I hurried over to medical with our laptops to help Anji sign up for classes. Now that I was firmly in the sentinel program, I didn’t need Mrs. Hansford’s example of “guidance” anymore and was permitted to choose my own classes as long as there weren’t prerequisite courses.

I managed to snag the same time slot as my friends for our sentinel courses and discovered a bevy of online classes Mrs. Hansford had never told me about, some of which would suit my busy schedule and allow me to pursue a criminal justice degree without committing suicide by sleep deprivation.

Once home again, I repeated the process for morning faerie classes with Pilar and Liadan. All in all, I felt good about my schedule.

Us girls had brunch together and set aside a fourth portion for Holly in the fridge. Then I crashed in bed for a mid-afternoon nap snuggled in blankets that still smelled like Pilar’s housekeeping magic. She really did cast those glamours the best out of all our group, infusing the linens with sunshine and spring breezes carrying floral aromas from Tir na Nog.

Disorienting, nebulous dreams woke me a half hour before my alarm was due to beep. I laid in bed, my heart racing and palms hot, because I’d made a big mistake and should have taken a ride home after all. Whatever I’d been dreaming about, it didn’t want to let me go, a lingering chill making me pull the blankets in tighter around my body.

It took me a moment to realize the feelings were Sharon’s emotions filtering through our link.

I rolled and grabbed my phone from the bedside table then hit Gabe’s name in my contacts. He answered on the fifth ring.

“Hey, Sky. I thought you’d still be sleeping.”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“Everything okay?”

“I dunno. I have a funny feeling about Sharon and realized I hadn’t checked in on her lately. Last I saw her, she was having second thoughts about how serious things had become with Oliver.”

“You wanna head on over to see her?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Nah. Rodrigo and I are playing video games, and I’m tired of staring at the screen.”

“He means I’ve been kicking his ass.” Rodrigo’s deep voice boomed through the line. “Your boy is a sore loser. Speaking of losing, when are you coming over again for a taste of this?”

“You name the day, and I’ll show you how it’s done.”

Rodrigo laughed. “Challenge accepted, short stuff.”

“Anyway,” Gabriel cut in, “how about we meet in the garage in twenty minutes?”

“Thank you.”

Once we disconnected, I hustled from bed and into some clean clothes. The cold weather demanded boots and a heavy jacket, and I grabbed my gloves as well on my way out. Gabriel had beat me to the garage and already started the car. He passed me a Red Bull after I climbed in.

“Sorry again about this.”

“Hey, it’s your job to watch after Sharon, and I’m happy to help. Monica would have either ignored the feeling or banged on my door and told me to drive her the fuck over.”

“True enough.”

We headed down the campus drive, pausing at the gate to check out at the security booth. Then Gabriel pulled out onto the road and headed toward the freeway.

“Where to? Work, school, or home?”

“None of the above. She’s somewhere new.”

Every fae had an innate sense for their charge’s general whereabouts, but those of us with a closer bond were able to pinpoint their location with ease. It’s how godparents like my folks hopped directly to the people they looked after without hunting them down. I couldn’t do that, but I could direct Gabe in the right direction.

“She’s not too far from campus, so if we head that way, I should get a better idea of where to go.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

We both chugged our caffeine and sugar laden drinks before we reached the highway. This time of day, the traffic sucked, so I was thankful when Gabriel took the next exit and opted to take another route, passing a pretty church with gorgeous stained-glass windows.

“Hey, Sky?”

“Hm?”

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What’s up?”

“What are your plans this summer?”

“Mom’s due date is May 23rd, so I wanna be there for that. Help her out, you know? Why?”

“You planning to fly?”

“Pretty much. I figured since we’re going to keep the same townhouse, it’ll be easy to leave most of my stuff behind.”

“What if I drive you instead?”

“Really? I sorta figured you’d wanna go home and see your folks.”

“I do, but… I’m not in a rush. Besides, I’d really like you to come with me.” He looked straight ahead through the windshield, but both hands tightened on the wheel.

“Come home with you?”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“No—I mean, yes, I’d like that. But is it going to be okay with your family?”

“If they want me there, it better be.”

“Gabe—”

“I mean what I said, Sky. It’s… you’re special to me, all right? And it’s not that I’m choosing you over my family, just that I’m asking them to choose me.”

Over Jada. He didn’t need to speak the words for me to understand what was on his mind.

“I’d love to go to Texas with you. I just hope you don’t mind a couple weeks with a newborn in the house.”

“Nah. I love kids. Back when Alex was a lil’ dude, I’d try to steal him and make a nest in the closet for him like he was my kid. Mom has pictures of me hiding him there.” After a pause, he added, “I grew out of that, by the way.”

“That is adorable.”

He grinned at me. “Promise I’ll refrain from doing the same with your baby brother.”

“You had better. I’m not saving you if Dad turns you from a raven to a toad.”

We laughed together, and for a while, the promise of another cross-country drive back home made me wonder how much trouble we’d cause for the Sentinel Bureau of Affairs, and whether they cared enough to assign another relay of guards to track us from Chicago to Suffolk, and then from there west to Houston.

Traveling beyond PNRU property for the first time since unveiling Scary’s identity should have terrified me, but Monica’s behavior made it obvious she didn’t want to kill me. Just make me suffer.

And since she shirked her responsibilities with Sharon for two years, there wasn’t a shred of a bond between my charge and her former godmother for Monica to do a damned thing. Coercive glamours performed on Sharon would just roll off.

Yawning into one hand, I glanced down at my phone through blurry eyes. The Red Bull hadn’t helped much, lacking the usual kick. I stared at Holly’s most recent text and tried to make sense of it.

“Hey, Holly says Victor left on a sudden emergency mission. Did Simon and Sebastian call you in?”

“Nope. Nothing.”

“That’s weird.”

“Not really. They sometimes take different people out on jobs. It wouldn’t be fair to everyone else if they always chose me.”

“Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I wonder if it has anything to do with finding those babies.”

Endless Chicago suburb passed us by, each house as bland and dull as the last. I texted for a couple minutes and glanced up at the serene landscape of gray street slush and ivory lawn. Another church with stained windows. How many did Chicago need?

Maybe they were like Starbucks, available on every corner.

“Hey, didn’t we pass that church already?”

Gabriel peered past me and frowned at the white steepled building on their left. “Shit, it does look familiar, but I haven’t made any turns. I hate to say it, but most churches look the same to me.”

“Maybe…”

Except five minutes later, we passed the same church. I recognized the pine garlands and red ribbons decorating the signpost.

Twisting to my right, I paid closer attention to the neighborhood. “Gabe?”

“Hm?” He squeezed my knee. “What’s up, babe?”

“You really did pass that church before. Something is wrong.”

“I haven’t made a turn. We’ve been on this same goddamn stretch of road for…” He shifted, sitting straighter in the seat. “What time did we leave the campus?”

I looked down at my phone and frowned at the display. We’d left at four, I was sure of it, but the time showed only ten minutes had passed.

Which was impossible, considering we were at least thirty minutes out from the university.

Gabriel slowed and veered for the side of the road, but another car came up beside us and cut him off. He swore and swerved back into our lane.

“Where did they even come from?”

“No idea. I’m gonna turn here, okay? Something’s definitely up.” Gabriel slowed and took the next right turn. We hadn’t gone more than a mile before we passed the church again.

“What the hell? That’s not possible.” Gabriel stopped the car and stared out the windshield.

The ground quaked and shuddered, snow toppling from branches onto the ivory ground beneath their skeletal limbs. Another rumble set off several alarms from cars parked along the street, strong enough to rattle us in our seats.

Gabriel hastily threw the car back into drive and took off. A streetlight toppled over behind us. Another few seconds parked back there, and it would have crashed down on Gabe’s vehicle. I twisted around in my seat to stare at it and my stomach dropped.

“Um, Gabe?”

“What?”

“The road…”

Earthquakes weren’t a natural occurrence in Chicago, but the street fractured as if we were on a California fault line and became two distinct halves. Lightning fast, the crack spread until it was at our rear bumper and we were speeding just ahead of it.

Gabriel looked in the rearview mirror, and his eyes grew large. “What the fuck?” He slammed his foot on the pedal and pressed it to the floor. His car picked up speed to keep ahead of the damage flying down the roads.

A sinkhole opened to the rear of us, and cars parked on the curb tumbled down into a smoldering abyss below. Balls of flame exploded upward, red light casting an ominous glow over the lip of the widening crevice.

“Gabe, drive!”

“I’m driving as fast as I can!”

When I twisted around in my seat again to look behind us, I saw houses crumbling into the snow and sending up plumes of dust and debris. Gabriel took a right onto the next street, but the fissure in the road followed us, like some living, conscious thing wanting to devour us as well.

“Sky.”

“What?”

“Unfasten your seat belt and prepare to go out the window. Phase into the Twilight if you have to. Just get those wings out.”

“What? No way.”

“You promised you’d do what I said.”

I had, and I regretted making the vow. “What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

“You’d better be.”

I went to unbuckle my seat belt, but the little red eject button had vanished. When I tugged the strap, it only tightened against my chest.

“Sky, get outta here!”

“I’m trying!”

Desperate to escape, I gave up on the seat belt and tried to will myself through the Twilight. Nothing happened.

The road exploded in front of us. Gabriel tried to swerve, but we remained on a straight course. Helpless and trapped, we plummeted into the yawning abyss toward the flaming hellscape below.

I jolted in the seat, holding the armrests so hard one of my fingernails had snapped. Gabriel sat beside me, staring straight ahead and holding the steering wheel just as tight. We were stopped on the road by a long stretch of trees.

“We just—did something weird just happen?”

He swallowed and nodded. “Something’s up.”

“It felt so real.”

He glanced at the rearview mirror then checked our surroundings. We hadn’t made it more than ten minutes from the school and had apparently hallucinated over thirty minutes of driving. “Yeah. It did. And it happened to both of us.”

Still shaking, I pulled my phone to check the time against the clock in his car. Four seventeen.

“Phone the school. I’m gonna turn us around and head back to campus until we get backup.”

“Okay.”

Gabriel put the car into drive and pulled out onto the road again while I dialed the sentinel office. I described the unusual event to a bored senior on the other end who promised to report it to Simon and Sebastian.

We coasted five miles above the speed limit before the rainfall began in a gentle drizzle against the windshield, hardly anything more than a fine mist.

Remaining on edge, I watched out the window, determined to focus on our surroundings this time. The mist thickened and became a steady drizzle. After another minute, the rain pounded against the windshield until Gabriel was forced to slow down to a crawl, distress whitening his knuckles and creasing deep lines across his brow.

“Fuck, I can’t see a thing.”

“I didn’t think rain was even in the forecast.” It had been clear skies when we left.

The rainfall intensified, and the car lurched forward at a sickening angle. Before I even had a chance to wonder what the hell was happening, we plummeted. Water splashed up against the windshield and over the roof, transforming the world of gray haze beyond the storm into a black canvas.

“Are we… are we under water? How are we under water?”

Gabriel stared, gripping the wheel so hard I expected it to crack. “No. No way. This has gotta be an illusion. We’re just seeing things.”

Except there was frigid water seeping into the car through every crack, and the floorboards were already soaked. The car was descending faster by the second, no doubt growing heavier. I summoned light in my palm and screamed as a school of fish flashed by, their glittering scales reflecting my faerie light.

Gabriel unsnapped his seat and reached for mine. The little red button that had been missing before was present, but when he pushed it, nothing happened. Jammed. Water pooled around my feet, soaking through my sneakers.

“Burn it, Sky!”

My glamour sparked in my hands. Instead of burning through the seat belt, it fizzled out. Gabriel tugged on it next, gritting his teeth and tearing at it while water rose to our legs. Desperate, I pushed the eject button again.

“It’s gotta be another illusion.”

“What if it isn’t, Gabe? What if we’ve been driving through illusions all this time and we’re really in Lake Michigan?”

He fought harder with it, tugging until the strain turned his face red with exertion, until his shifter strength yielded nothing but a few cuts on his palms and fingers from the belt edge slicing through his skin. “Would an illusion prevent you from shadowstriding?”

I tried, but nothing happened. I remained firmly restrained by the seat belt, submerged to my knees in icy water, and we still hadn’t hit the bottom.

We were going to drown, and no amount of magic, no glamour, and no Dream Boxes could help us.

27

Creepster

The seat belt bit into my shoulder when I bolted upright in my seat with a startled gasp. Warmth lingered against my neck, a soft red glow fading from the Heartflame. We were parked on a narrow, one-way residential street lined with brick houses and a single church on the right-hand side. The sun had already set, but a few smudges of pale violet light remained in the darkening sky. A few minutes ago, the sun had been bright against the snow-kissed ground.

At least, it had only seemed like a few minutes.

One quick look at my phone declared the hour to be a quarter past seven, which meant we’d been dreaming for almost three hours.

And in those hours, Sharon’s anxiety had transformed to absolute terror. I still felt her, the bond that connected us telling me she was nearby in a house farther down the road. This time, when I unsnapped my seat belt, it released and slid into the retractor. For a moment, I’d worried it wouldn’t.

I rubbed my bleary eyes and turned to look at Gabe. His head leaned back at an awkward, uncomfortable angle.

“Gabriel, wake up.” I patted his face, and when that didn’t work, I shook his shoulder until his chin fell down to his chest. He didn’t stir. “C’mon, please. Gabe, please, I need you.”

Was this another illusion or a crazy nightmare? My heart still raced from the last one, but something told me this time I was really awake.

I fished Gabriel’s cell phone out of his pocket and pressed his thumb against the unlock button. The moment it lit, I scrolled his contacts list to the entry Sebastian Kane.

The phone line went straight to voice mail. Calling Simon yielded the same result, and when I hit up the local field office, I received a familiar message warning me of placing a call during a period of high call volume. Please hang up and try again.

The moment I dialed in the school office, a different student picked up from the one I’d hallucinated calling in the dream.

“PNRU Sentinel Office. Junior Sentinel Patrick speaking, how may I direct your call?”

“This is Skylar Corazzi, and I have a big emergency. Something magical happened, and my sen—my partner won’t wake up.”

“Partner name and location?”

“Gabriel Fujimoto.” I rattled off the street and the address of a house beside us as Gabriel made an alarming gurgle beside me.

“All battlemage sentinels are occupied at the moment, but I’ll dispatch someone to drive out.”

“It’ll take them way too long to get here, and he needs help now. There are no hostile parties visible, but he’s in distress.”

“I can patch into the Lake County field office and try to get someone to you. It’s a long shot. There’s some largescale investigation going down right now, and all battlemage units were called in to duty. Like all of them. Even the guys over in Gary. I don’t have anyone here capable of a teleport to your area.”

“Please. If there’s any chance…”

“I’ll do my best, Skylar. Please keep the phone at hand.”

After ending the call and setting Gabe’s phone in the beverage holder, I twisted around in my seat to study our surroundings. The neighborhood was only five blocks over from where Sharon lived, its street occupied by many single and two-story brick homes.

I glimpsed at it through the Twilight, and to my right, the lovely little white chapel with the gorgeous stained glass became a murky glob sucking in the surrounding light.

Bingo. Whoever it was, whatever they were, they had to be there.

And it could be forty-five minutes or longer until aid reached us from across the Indiana state line.

“Think, Sky, think.” It took immense power to do the sort of illusion or mind altering we’d experienced. I couldn’t even remember driving here, let alone parking.

It couldn’t be a mage. Magician’s tricks could only affect sight and hearing, never a sense of smell. Ravens could do it all, but Gabriel wouldn’t be dead asleep, trapped in his own nightmare.

Nightmare.

Understanding came to me with a shiver when I realized the source of the magical attack was another of my kind.

Gabriel’s gurgling ended, but I could imagine what had happened in the dream, because the wrinkle in his brow remained and he made a low groan of anguish even in his sleep that ripped the heart from my chest and sent fury boiling through my veins.

He became visibly paler, the warmth of his natural golden glow fading.

The nue harming him was eating his life, devouring his soul bite by bite, one dream death at a time, and if I sat in the passenger seat wringing my hands until a real sentinel arrived, I’d watch him die for good.

In the old tales, when Emperor Nijō fell into a deep sleep plagued by a prolonged illness, a master archer pursued the beast and slew him. I didn’t have a bow, so Gabriel’s handgun had to suffice.

I thrust Gabriel’s phone in my pocket then tore open his jacket to claim his sidearm. Due to Scary Godmother, all the junior sentinels and the licensed officers were carrying rounds packed with iron shavings along with their stakes. I took both and stumbled out of the car.

In my head, I heard the voices of everyone I’d disappointed for charging blindly into a danger zone, but this time, I knew my enemy and what I was walking into.

Besides, in this scenario, I really had no other option.

I picked my way carefully down the icy sidewalk toward the church. Locks barred normal people from entering the closed building, but I stepped inside through the Twilight and into a dim church lit only by a few candles on the altar. A figure in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt sat on the floor in front of it, surrounded by an indigo miasma.

Counting on the element of surprise, I raised Gabriel’s gun, spent one split second glancing down the sight, and I pulled the trigger. My shot went wide and hit the altar instead, splintering the wooden panel in front.

The nue jerked its head up, eyes gleaming pinpricks of dark green in the shadows of its black hood. Before it could move, I squeezed the trigger again. The second round glanced off the crucifix behind the altar, but then the third struck my target in the shoulder. The iron inside the round didn’t sizzle or make the telltale sound of reacting with darkling faerie flesh.

Bile flooded my mouth when the fae howled in pain—a very masculine shout—and rushed to his feet. By the time I realized he was gone, I’d emptied Gabriel’s gun. I’d never shot anyone before.

Somehow, the nosferatu of last year had been different, barely alive corpses thirsting for our blood. But this faerie hadn’t yet completed the change to become a darkling.

I vomited in the snow halfway to the car, desperate to see if I’d interrupted the spell. When I reached the door, Gabriel had just begun to stir, groaning quietly and raising one hand to rub the back of his neck.

All at once, the exhaustion fled him. He jerked toward the passenger seat, brown eyes opened wide with fear, the worst kind of fear I’d ever seen in his face. Then he jerked his seat belt off and was out of the car with his arms around me. A shudder tore through him, shoulders and body trembling like a petrified bird. I placed one palm over his heart and felt the wild flutters.

Later, I’d ask, but not now.

“Are you okay?” he asked first.

“No. I just shot… I shot a faerie, Gabe.”

“What?” Then he must have realized I still had his handgun, my fingers white-knuckled on the grip. Tenderly, he loosened my hand and took it. “What happened? One moment, we were driving, and then…”

“When you wouldn’t wake up, I went to investigate the church. I expected to find a nue, but it was a baku. He hadn’t made the turn yet. He was like… halfway there.”

A deep furrow creased his pale brow, skin almost waxy and covered in a fine layer of sweat from his chain of deadly nightmares. “There’s only one baku in all of Chicago area, Sky.”

“Jiro? But he’s our friend. He’s a student.”

“Monica was a student too. So were Sheldon and Edmund.” He checked his pockets for his phone then twisted back toward the car. “Did you already call this in?”

“I tried. No answer from Simon and Sebastian, and apparently every battlemage in the state is on some job. The campus office is supposed to send someone out, but it’ll take forever. That’s why I went to the church alone. You… you didn’t look good.”

He waited a moment before he replied, still looking shaken and upset. “It was risky, but you did the right thing,” he said slowly, words measured. “If backup can’t provide assistance, you do what you gotta do. Now, how far away is Sharon?”

“Not far. Maybe down the block. She’s terrified, Gabe. I know we’re supposed to wait, but I don’t think we have that luxury. I—”

“No, I agree. This isn’t like what went down with Sai and Anji. Backup can’t come, because there is no backup. Try checking the Destiny Lines.”

Moistening my wind-chapped lips, I raised one hand and skimmed my fingertips over the Veil. Channeling my concentration into the bond linking Sharon to me, I brought her fate to the surface and anchored the web in place. It was like the branching veins of a butterfly’s wing, thousands of roads splitting into infinite space at the edges.

Wherever I touched the thin barrier separating the mortal realm from the Twilight, it glowed in subtle shades of green and blue, each Destiny Line as radiant as a sunbeam. Some sang harmonious notes, and others were the dead silent, dull, and bleak futures that awaited mediocre mortals.

I searched for Sharon’s current path, clenching my jaw until it ached.

Beside me, Gabriel ejected the magazine from his handgun and reloaded it with a box of bullets in his jacket. “What do you see?”

Flashes of colors, shapes, and shadows assaulted my vision, accompanied by thousands of murmuring voices blending together as one.

“Can’t focus. There’s too much going on. It’s...” My heart rattled against my ribcage, pulse thundering inside my skull. Nothing about it made sense, but her apprehension continued to ebb and flow down the probability line. Fae didn’t take official classes on reading them until our junior year, but some of us like Pilar and Liadan had a natural knack for peering at them.

Gabriel placed his hand against my hip and squeezed. “Take a deep breath and focus. Loosen your shoulders, Sky.”

His other arm circled my waist, palm flattening to my stomach. I focused on the slow rhythm of his breaths, his chest expanding against my back, the warmth of him there after narrowly saving him from a living nightmare.

I traced the Destiny Lines from my initial meeting of Sharon until my finger came to a huge snarl, the cords of fate all tangled with another web. Fear. Terror. Obsession. Darkness overtook my vision, blended with intermittent glimpses of Sharon huddled on a concrete floor in a dank place in the fetal position.

Touching the adjacent Destiny Line presented the scream of emergency sirens on a dark Chicago night.

Jerking my hand away, I twisted in Gabriel’s arms to look up at him. “We need to get to her.”

“Lead the way.”

After our drowning nightmare, I was in no rush to get back in the car. Walking on foot and letting my senses guide me to Sharon, we stopped about five houses down in front of a two-story home with a wide, covered patio. Snow-crusted ivy crawled over the gray bricks.

“She’s here.”

Gabe rubbed his chin. “House looks pretty normal. I don’t smell any bad magic.”

“Yeah, but Sharon’s still terrified. Maybe I can take a peek through the Twilight.”

“Let’s try the old-fashioned way first. The more you peek over there, the more power you use. Conserve that shit until you need to kick ass.”

While he knocked on the door, I hung back a step behind him and to the side, wearing my most authoritative, no-nonsense expression. A middle-aged man opened the door and peered out through a crack.

“I don’t want to buy anything.”

“We’re not selling anything,” Gabriel said. “We’re from the sentinel field office investigating a disturbance in the area. You haven’t heard anything strange, have you?”

“That’s like… magic cops, right?”

“Right. Had a run in with a darkling not so far from here, and we’re just making sure all y’all in the area are okay. Any problems?”

The guy shook his head. He looked average, medium-length brown hair, brown eyes, a hint of stubble on a square jaw. Everything about him screamed mediocre, down to his plain gray T-shirt and jeans. “No. Nothing.”

He started to shut the door, but I caught a tickle of magic. Just a hint, a whisper of a Compulsion glamour. I placed a hand on Gabriel’s back.

“Are you the only one in the house, sir? Maybe someone else saw or heard something.”

“No, man, it’s just me. No one else here.” He licked his lips and glanced around.

Big. Fat. Lie.

“Thanks for your time.” Gabriel stepped back and nudged me down the steps. He kept walking until we were near the next house.

“What are we doing?” I hissed. “He’s lying.”

“I know, but if he’s watching, Sharon’s safer if he doesn’t think we’re on to him. I’m going to call the school and find out where the sentinels are. You go take a look through the Twilight, see if you can find out what’s going on. In and out, Skylar. This is surveillance only. Find what you need and get your ass back here to tell me what’s happening.”

“All right.”

Through the Twilight, it didn’t take long to get to the house. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t magical. I didn’t see a single ward in any of the doors or windows. A quick search downstairs revealed nothing looked odd, just a bachelor haven with a lonely dude. An old black-and-white romance played on the television, empty beer bottles littered the coffee table next to a closed pizza box, and the kitchen was spotless.

But no sign of Sharon.

I headed upstairs, and that’s when I heard him, the guy’s voice low, the way someone would talk to a scared or wounded animal. Following the voice led me to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

Blackout curtains covered the three windows, but an overhead light lit the cluttered space. The entire room was made of bad decisions, from the shrine dedicated to Sharon on the wall to the assorted bottles scattered on every stable surface, some on the computer desk in the corner, others on the floor and nightstand.

And like the twisted centerpiece of a morbid presentation, there was Sharon bound and gagged in a chair. Twin rivers of drying mascara streamed down her cheeks, and empathetic tears snuck under my lashes.

This wasn’t the future Sharon had been designated, but I’d worry about how it came to be later. For now, I put my feelings aside and focused on my surroundings and committing everything to memory.

I stared at the mosaic of photographs taped to the wall, a blend of professional magazine spreads, images from her Facebook, and blurry photographs of her performing at the restaurant he’d probably taken while at dinner.

Photographs of her in the music room at the school. Photographs of her on a street corner waiting for a bus. More images of her at a store shopping for cereal. Queasy, I dragged in a few deep breaths through my nose and kept it together, because the worst of it all was right in front of me.

Sharon’s stalker stared down at her, unblinking and fixated. He had the cold, black eyes of a great white shark, a predator on two legs instead of a fish cruising the ocean depths. He stroked her hair like she was a kitten then raised a curl to his nose. The euphoric expression he made belonged on screen during the money shot of a cheap porn video.

“I love it when you use this shampoo.”

She trembled.

“We’re going to be real happy together here, Sharon. Soon as I finish getting everything perfect, I’ll show you to your new home. I’m gonna go down and make your favorite, now. Spaghetti, right? I don’t know how you choke down that garbage served at the college cafeteria, but I promise, you’re going to love mine.”

When she didn’t answer, he grabbed her chin and forced her gaze to his. Sharon flinched then nodded, and the guy released her.

“Good. I’ll be back soon. Everything will be better after dinner, you’ll see.”

Heart in my throat, because no faerie godmother enjoyed leaving her charge in a shit situation, I completed my surveillance of the house. Although navigating certain areas of the house sent chills trickling down my spine, I took note of every shadowed corner and doorway. It didn’t matter that the guy was human, because we’d been taught to never underestimate mortals. They could be unpredictable and dangerous in their own way.

Downstairs, I discovered a door with three locks, and apprehension raised the hairs on my arms. I stepped through and down the stairs to find a finished basement furnished with a toilet area, shower, and sink without a door, though the makeshift bathroom had all of Sharon’s preferred toiletries. On the other side, a king-sized bed had already been made with comforters sporting her favorite colors.

I circled around a karaoke machine beside an electric keyboard and glanced into a fridge stocked with all kinds of food. That corner of the basement even had an oven, like he planned to make her his happy homemaker slash personal entertainer.

When I returned outside to the sidewalk where I’d left Gabriel, I spotted him in the snow-covered branches of a nearby tree. He fluttered his wings.

“Psst. Over here. What’d you see?”

“She’s in there upstairs, tied up and stuff. He’s fucking psycho. A total stalker.”

“We’ll call the cops.”

“If he sees a cruiser pull up, there’s no telling what he’ll do to Sharon. He’s obsessed with her.”

“He’s mortal, Sky. We don’t have any jurisdiction over mortal crimes.”

“The handbook for sentinels says in a situation where a charge’s well-being is jeopardized, faerie godmothers are allowed to take corrective action as deemed necessary.”

“Sky—”

“Just hear me out. Please?”

He became a man again, biting his lower lip and glancing at the house. “All right.”

“He’s in the kitchen cooking dinner for her right now. I can get in and sneak her out before he even realizes I’m there. We can call the cops then once she’s in the clear.”

He nodded. “Fine, but I’ll create a distraction by getting him to the door again. I don’t trust him not to wander off and check on her.”

“Deal.”

When I returned to the upstairs bedroom and glimpsed at Sharon’s current predicament through the Veil, Creepster proved Gabriel right by standing there in her personal space again, massaging her shoulders and crooning to her about loosening up and being less tense, promising not to hurt her.

The doorbell rang, sparing Sharon further physical contact with her abductor. I waited, heart pounding, until his steps faded and Gabe’s voice carried upstairs from the landing.

When I stepped from the Twilight, Sharon jerked hard enough to almost spill the chair over onto its side. I grasped it before she toppled sideways. The gag muffled her sharp scream.

“Shh, Sharon, it’s okay.” I glanced over my shoulder toward the door but didn’t hear anyone coming up to investigate. “Look, I’m going to ungag you, okay? I need you to keep quiet.”

A fat tear rolled down her cheek, but she nodded. I untied the knot behind her head and pulled the fabric away.

“W-who are you?”

“A friend. I’ll explain more once you’re safe.”

My Transmutation glamour turned the plastic cables binding her legs and arms into tissue paper and confetti. She rubbed both wrists and twisted around to stare at me. “Are you a mage?”

“No. C’mon, we don’t have much—”

The hairs on my neck and arms raised a split second before a howling, dark shape crashed into me. I landed on one knee in the Twilight with the wind knocked out of me, gasping from the cold shock of involuntarily crossing the Veil.

The Scary Godmother, my former mentor, stood above me. The longer I stared at her, the closer the resemblance grew to the aos sidhe I’d accompanied to Chicago for a semester.

And knowing her identity stripped everything that had been pants-wettingly terrifying about her away, leaving only the raw, naked truth of a spoiled and vindictive little half-fae child who couldn’t cut it in our school.

“Why do you have to ruin everything?” Monica snarled, spittle flying from her thin black lips.

“Because you suck. Suck so much you weren’t even worth a wand,” I said, repeating the words I’d overheard at the Hidden Court meeting.

Growling, she dove at me, but I braced one hand on the floor and swept my leg out. She moved, but I anticipated her evasion and turned my acrobatic tumbling into a move that would have made Antonin proud, scissoring up with both legs and catching her in the face. She stumbled back, her furious scream an eardrum-rupturing wail.

On the other side of the Veil, Sharon scrambled away and moved to the window. She struggled to open it, so I popped the lock with glamour from the Twilight. The window slid open, but Monica made a sharp slicing gesture with her hand. The window came crashing down and narrowly missed smashing Sharon’s fingers. She screamed.

Creepster’s voice echoed from downstairs. “What the hell? Hey, man, get out of my house!”

Monica returned to the real world and advanced on my defenseless charge, hands blazing with Faerie Fire. I followed her.

“Don’t wanna fight me anymore? Too much of a pussy to fight someone with magic, Monica?”

Sharon dashed for the bedroom door. It slammed shut in her face, and the doorknob vanished, leaving her to claw at the empty space where it belonged. When I tried to undo the glamour, my magic fizzled against Monica’s brute force. Too much hatred fueled her for my power to compete.

“You know what’s really sad? Nobody at the school even remembers you. You did Trevor a favor when you got yourself Bound. Now no one has to pretend to like you anymore. Not even your dad misses you, not that I can blame him, since you lost the only thing that made you special.”

Her scream was raw and primal, fury condensed into a single inhuman vocalization that triggered my fight-or-flight response. But running wasn’t an option while my vulnerable godchild counted on me to save her. I pushed through the terror, reminding myself again of Scary’s identity.

Monica Cunningham. A bratty, narcissistic girl. A girl who had thrown away everything and taken her blessings for granted.

I was not to blame for her expulsion.

And she was not scary.

A narrow jet of Faerie Fire surged toward me from Monica. Knowing better than to meet it with magical force, I darted toward her—at the flames like a lunatic, because I had to be crazy to think this plan would work—and slid beneath them, another glamour turning the floor slippery as a waterslide.

Screw her fire. My feet connected with one of her knobby knees, destabilizing her position. I jumped up, slamming the top of my head into her chin. Rage fueled me.

“Skylar!” Gabriel’s bellow could have shaken the house if it was any louder.

“Sharon, get away from the door!” I called out.

One split second of distraction cost me a ton of skin, Monica’s claws rending my winter coat and slicing through to the flesh beneath. Without it, she’d have probably disemboweled me. The cut spread like fire through my gut and brought tears to my eyes. As soon as Sharon backed away into the corner, Gabriel kicked the door open.

It’s only a flesh wound, girl. Just a flesh wound. I told myself that over and over until I believed it was true.

“Sky!”

“Just get Sharon out!”

Monica snapped her fingers, recreating a door out of fucking steel in place of the one Gabriel had busted down. At the same time, he whipped his gun from his jacket and pegged her in the neck with an iron round. She reared back, hissing and screaming, her magic temporarily disrupted as smoke rose from the bloody hole and black ichor dripped to the floor. Two more shots followed. One only nicked her arm, and the other hit the bureau.

“Yes!” I screamed loud enough to go hoarse. Sweeping my wand at the door, I morphed the steel into plywood. The moment my partner gathered Sharon in his arms and burst through it with her, Monica launched herself after them.

“Oh no, you fucking don’t!” My wings flashed out, one sweep of them throwing me forward. I crashed into Monica’s back and dragged her with me into the Twilight.

Due to the iron and rust flooding her bloodstream, her ability to shadowstride had been hampered. She flashed across the Veil and back, carrying us down instead of forward after my escaping boyfriend and charge. It didn’t help that I was tagging along for the ride.

We tumbled through space and Twilight, falling through the floor together and placing her at my mercy.

As we transitioned back into the mortal plane, I managed to get the upper hand and she cushioned my fall. We landed in the living room a few feet away from the glass coffee table.

If Gabriel hadn’t disrupted her reality-altering powers, the glass probably would have been my death. Sai had learned that lesson the hard way, and that sobering thought guided my hands into action. I punched her in the face.

One after another, I pounded Monica with hard rights and lefts while straddling her chest, desperate to keep her beneath me and distracted as Gabriel rushed Sharon down the stairs and out the open door past the unconscious kidnapper.

My lungs starved for oxygen, burning because I couldn’t breathe fast enough to fuel them. The knuckles on my left hand bruised and split. I punched her again anyway until she wriggled free and threw me back, a glamour tilting the floor beneath my feet like we were in a weird funhouse.

Monica came at me like an animal, taking advantage of my uneven footing. Her nails raked against my shoulder, and then she managed a lucky strike past my guard, her bony fist catching me beneath my jaw. My teeth snapped together, and blood filled my mouth. I stumbled back as the room spun around me in a disorienting blur. Monica’s indistinct shape lunged at me.

Suddenly, Gabriel was there between us. He struck her chest with a roundhouse, thrusting her back from me. A second later, the report of his handgun echoed in the close quarters living room space. The bullet ricocheted off the fireplace as Monica appeared on the other side of him, but he twisted into a spinning rear heel kick and caught her in the stomach. Her shrieks were sharper than nails on a chalkboard.

Another shot missed, and then the handgun jammed. More faerie jinxes.

Rather than struggle with his firearm, Gabriel tucked it away and drew a stake from his coat. Before he could stab her, Faerie Fire exploded in his face, a handful of weak sparks hampered by the poison in her body. Her backhand knocked the iron stake aside, and it flew somewhere across the room.

Gabriel swore, but a dull gleam near the fireplace caught my eye. I darted over and managed to wrap my fingers around the cold, hard handle of the nearest fireplace tool before Monica came after me again.

Then he caught her in a rear chokehold. She swung from side to side, grasped at his arm, and tried to free herself, putting her deteriorating darkling strength against his shifter muscle. His biceps bulged, and his face flushed with exertion.

“Do it, Sky!”

I thrust with the fire poker the way Coach Barrett had taught me, angling up beneath her knobby breastbone, through the diaphragm, and piercing her heart.

Coach was right. It slid through her like she was made of butter.

She sucked in a sharp breath, a wheezing gasp, eyes wide open, startled. One of her bony hands closed around my wrist, the touch scorching through my flesh like fire.

Too late. I shoved it inches deeper, ramming the tool home to finish the job, even though the first stab had probably been enough.

Wailing like a beansidhe, Monica flailed away from us and fell to the floor, scooting a few steps with the poker protruding from her chest. Every sound, whether it was a cry or a gasp, was wet with the blood probably filling her lungs, because there was no way I didn’t get one of those too. Black liquid leaked around the wound and trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Unlike Jiro, the iron reacted with her skin and sent up intensifying curls of smoke and ash while consuming her from the inside. I watched until she ceased twitching. Then I placed my boot against her chest, wrenched the poker free, and stabbed her again, imagining it was for Pilar. Or maybe for Yasmina’s parents, because they’d lost a daughter just to sate this petty creature’s need for vengeance.

I didn’t realize I was crying, or that I was still stabbing her, until Gabriel’s arms wrapped around me from behind. Until he pried my hands loose from around the poker and hugged me tight to his chest.

“Shh, shh. Hey. She can’t hurt anyone anymore. She’s gone.”

I’d wanted to be strong the first time I killed a darkling faerie by my own hands. Instead, I blubbered. “Fae aren’t supposed to be like this.”

“I know.”

He held me long past the time my tears had dried up, leaving me exhausted and sick. My chest ached.

Her death hadn’t hurt. If anything, the sad waste angered me, because she’d had so much potential and squandered it to be a vindictive bitch.

And now I had to pick up the pieces of what she’d shattered.

28

Special Circumstances

Gabriel and I sat on the porch for five minutes, holding each other and babysitting Creepster until the police arrived. The boys in blue handled Creepster’s arrest and EMS took Sharon away. Once Gabriel had gotten her out of the house, he’d had her run to the neighbor’s to call 911. I hadn’t even gotten the chance to check on her.

Not long after Scary’s corpse freaked out the mortal law enforcement, Danielle and Christian slid their motorcycles through the congestion of police cars and dismissed the grateful officers. I waited on the steps of the house as they crawled all over the building, searching for clues or whatever it was experienced sentinels did at the scene of a major magical disturbance like this.

The crime scene belonged to the SBA for now, the police too petrified of anything related to magic to rush the investigating sentinels out. That didn’t stop a bunch of them from blocking access to the area with their cars, standing out in the street like major magic-fearing tools, and stringing up yellow strips of police tape. Nosy neighbors watched from their windows and lawns, some of them filming with their phones.

Which meant all of YouTube would get to see my pathetic butt sitting sadly on the porch while the real sentinels took over.

Then finally, about half an hour later, Simon and Sebastian emerged from a magical portal looking like pure hell. The odor of singed fur surrounding the latter, and spots of blood stood out on the cream Henley beneath Simon’s sweet overcoat.

“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Sebastian asked, crouching down in front of me.

“I think so. I… Yeah, I’m good.”

“You two did good, from what I hear,” Simon said. He squeezed my shoulder, gave Gabriel an approving nod, and then moved past us into the house.

“He’s right,” Sebastian said. “Now that your part is done, I’ll have Dani take you two back to campus.”

“What? No. I want to stay and see this all the way through. There’s so many questions that haven’t been answered.”

“You kids have done enough. Go back and get some sleep.”

Before I had the chance to argue further, Dani stepped over and stared Sebastian down. “No. They’re not kids, Sebastian. If they’re old enough to assist with nosferatu attacks and take down leanansidhe, they’re adult enough to finish the job here. This was their kill. Don’t shut them out.”

“Yes, Sebastian. They’re not kids,” Simon’s voice carried to us from inside.

A flash of red spread over Sebastian’s face. He raised his hands in surrender and straightened upright again. “All right, what do you want to know?”

“What the hell was going on with the sentinels earlier tonight, for one? We tried to call and report in, but nobody was available. Not even you two.”

The older sentinel grunted and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I saw the missed calls. You’ll be pleased to know we recovered both babies, including a few other kids. As for the sentinels from campus, the ones assigned to follow you were also hit by the baku. They weren’t as fortunate and ended up in a ditch.”

“Are they all right?” Gabriel asked.

“Just a few broken bones and bruised pride.”

“Was it Jiro?”

Sebastian’s breath escaped him on a long sigh. “No idea, not yet anyway. We’ll have someone on campus question him about his whereabouts.”

“You seriously believe he’ll be on campus?”

“If he’s innocent, yeah. I’d say him being gone would be pretty damning, and we’ll have our answer. Until then, I’d like to assume the best.”

Except, deep inside, I knew Gabriel was right about Jiro. The odds of another baku showing up weren’t high.

“Looks like it’s a positive ID on Monica Cunningham,” Simon’s voice sounded from behind me. I twisted around to look at him standing in the open doorway. “I know. You told us, but now it’s an official statement.”

Sebastian grimaced. “That’s two now.”

Gabriel’s head swiveled, and he blinked at the wolf. “Wait, two?”

“Abby Monroe was there when we found the kids—as a grendel—despite being Bound over the summer.”

All the blood drained from my face and left me cold inside. It hadn’t just been Monica. It wasn’t only a faerie thing, which made it all the more frightening to contemplate that someone out there had the ability to overturn a Binding and restore powers to paranormals denied their magical abilities.

Christian shook his head. “This changes everything. If the Conclave cannot trust Bindings to remain permanent, what will happen from now on?”

Sebastian’s broad shoulders dropped. “I don’t know. We have Abby in custody, but whether we’ll glean any information from her remains to be seen.”

That was a part of sentinel business I knew nothing about—interrogations weren’t covered until senior year—and something told me now wasn’t the time to ask. Gabriel had glanced away, staring out at the yard.

“What now?” he asked.

“There’s gonna be one hell of an investigation and lots of changes, I imagine, but school will go on just as it always has,” Sebastian replied. “And you two will have one hell of a story to talk about.”

“Are we even allowed to—” I stopped and canted my head, a tingling sensation starting in my chest and traveling down my arms. Magic, a lot of it, filled the air. The others sensed it too, and Sebastian groaned, muttering something about they should have expected this.

It all made sense a second later.

The triumphant orchestra of King Oberon, Eldan, and Dain’s combined heartsongs filled my ears with beautiful music before the three faeries moved into my line of sight. When they shimmered into existence on the lawn, the snow vanished beneath their feet. The gathered crowd watched, a lot of them with slack jaws. More phones appeared to capture the moment. The police had to push back a few people who tried to cross the barricade.

I hurried to my feet and started to bow with everyone else, but Oberon shook his head.

“No. As you were, Lady Skylar.”

The four sentinels around us stepped away to help contain the crowd.

“What are you doing here, Your Majesty?”

“To see this darkling with my own eyes.”

“Such a thing has never been done.” Eldan offered me a hand. “Will you take us to her?”

Gabriel moved with me when I stepped toward the fae warrior. Eldan took one look at Gabe’s face and withdrew his hand, instead gesturing for me to lead the way.

Even knowing what I’d find in the living room didn’t make seeing Monica’s corpse any easier. I swallowed back the bitter taste in my mouth and crossed over.

Eldan crouched beside the body. “You took her down?”

“Yeah.”

“You did well.”

Dain laid a supportive hand on my shoulder while Oberon studied the body with a weary, defeated frown on his face. He sighed, and those broad shoulders drooped beneath his cape.

Either Gabriel was more in tune with my emotions than I anticipated or my expression mirrored Oberon’s, because he squeezed my fingers, and the warmth of his support surged through me with renewed encouragement.

“I know this soul and the true face hidden behind her self-inflicted disfigurement. It was only a year ago that I and the other members of the Conclave found her incompatible for magical life.”

“Monica was…” I struggled with finding the words.

“Selfish,” Oberon said for me. “She had no care for anyone beyond herself. I saw into her soul and knew this was a path she would take on her own if left with her powers. This, however, I did not foresee.”

“How was she able to do so much? I mean, I didn’t think fae darklings were powerful after first turning.”

“Under typical circumstances, they are not, but there is nothing ordinary about this. So, let us see what she’s been hiding away.” Oberon ripped the air above Monica’s prone body before reaching into nothingness. While every fae had their own personal slice of the Neverspace, the most powerful among our kind could reach beyond the barrier at any time.

Oberon dragged out a deteriorating Dream Box that had seen better days, its surface once polished cherrywood, now reduced to a half-rotten husk. He placed it in Eldan’s hands. Another box followed in similar condition, then another. By the time he reached the seventh Dream Box, the cu sith’s arms were full. The faerie hound’s nose turned up in disgust.

The final one was gorgeous and shining ivory, still glowing with joy, power, and warmth. A photograph of a smiling infant had been embedded into an oval depression on the lid.

“How did she get so many boxes?”

The king sighed. “A few fae from my court vanished earlier this year, but we never discovered their fate. It seems the Hidden Court has been busy with more than your campus.”

“Will this box’s rightful owner be able to use it again or did Monica ruin it?”

He turned the box over in his hands and smoothed his thumb across the picture. A lot of love had gone into the box, the picture recent. “I believe she will. The magic has not yet been tainted. Not completely. Enough love and memories of her child remain to cleanse the darkling’s corruption.”

Ending the silence that had fallen over him since the fae lords arrived, Gabriel stirred beside me. “What happens now?”

“That remains to be seen. For now, all I can do is extend my gratitude to you both. You stopped a dangerous threat and saved more lives than you know.” The king’s gaze settled on me. “I should think, in this instance, you may want to speak with your charge face-to-face.”

“But we’re not allowed to speak—”

“Special circumstances call for special measures, and I can think of no reason greater to blur the rules. She needs you, Lady Skylar. Go to her.”

* * *

Gabriel and I emerged from Simon’s portal, landing in a bustling emergency room lobby much to the shock and awe of everyone sitting inside. After Gabe explained we were from the sentinel office, a shocked nurse directed us to the examination room where they’d taken Sharon. I’d spent too much energy to get a bead on her.

Hand in hand, we walked down the hall, but Gabriel paused beside the door. “I’ll stand out here.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. She’s your charge, Sky. I think this is a talk you two need to have alone.”

Mouth suddenly too dry to do anything more than nod, I walked inside the room and shut the door behind me. This wasn’t how I imagined meeting my charge—not that I’d ever expected to be face-to-face with her, introducing myself and saying, “Hi, I’m your good luck charm!”

Sharon stirred in the bed. “Mom?”

I licked my lips and forced my mouth to cooperate. “No, sorry, but I’m sure she’s on her way.”

Dark swirls muddied her aura. Monica hadn’t been able to affect her directly, but she’d managed to cause damage by using Creepster as her avatar, working through him to do her evil. I wanted to wash away the anxious gray and mustard yellow bleeding across Sharon’s once golden aura.

“You’re the one who rescued me.” She pressed a button to raise the incline on her bed.

“Not alone. My name is Skylar. Gabriel is the guy who got you out of the house.” A few steps brought me to her bedside. Sharon studied me, her hands twisted together in her lap. “I wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

“I don’t know. It’s all been sort of crazy.”

I nodded. “Have you called Oliver yet?”

“How did you…?” She stared at me, and something like recognition surfaced in her gray eyes. Her gaze shifted from my face to my hair and then back again. “Are you… are you my faerie godmother?”

I nodded again, pure eloquence. “Yeah.”

“Wow.” Some of her tension eased, and her aura lightened. “I didn’t think… I mean, I’m no one special.”

“Sure you are.” Ignoring my pounding heart, I sat on the chair beside her bed.

“I wondered sometimes, you know? I mean… it’s just when I’m scared, or I’m nervous, suddenly everything is okay again. Or it feels like someone just gave me a hug.” Sharon smiled shyly. “Last year, you said I was wearing a pretty dress. We met on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant.”

“You remember that?”

“It really helped me that day, and I never forgot it.”

“You would have found your confidence eventually, but I’m glad my compliment meant so much. I really meant it too. No magic involved.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m just sorry I didn’t help you sooner. I never even noticed that guy was following you. I’m not even sure who he is.”

“He was a custodian at the college. I’d see him when I stayed late to practice. He’d always say hello and seemed so nice…” Her voice drifted off, and her gaze went out of focus. After a minute, she shook it off and drew her knees up under the thin hospital blanket, quaking beneath it. A quick tap of my wand changed the blanket into a thick quilt embroidered with purple butterflies.

Her eyes practically jumped out of her skull. “Whoa.”

I froze. “Sorry. Habit. I can—”

“I’ve never seen magic up close like this before. Thank you.”

The tension left my shoulders, a breath whistling out of me as I returned the wand to Neverspace. “You’re welcome.”

“So, does this mean you used magic to get me my job? Oliver?”

“No,” I said quickly. “I didn’t cast any spells on people to get you what you needed. I only nudged you a little bit to help you gain the confidence you needed. You earned that job, because you’re talented, and you won your man all on your own.”

“You didn’t do anything?”

“All I did was introduce you, and the rest happened because… you’re a really good person. And I’m honored to have been your godmother.”

“Wait, does that mean you aren’t anymore?”

The panic that seeped into her eyes prompted me to lay my hand over hers. “Sharon, you don’t need me anymore. Not really. But if you ever really need me again, I’ll do my best to be there.”

“Oh.”

I squeezed her fingers. “You’re going to do great, trust me. Besides, I’m not saying I won’t see you again. In fact, I’m quite looking forward to attending your concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this spring. Any chance to get my boyfriend into a suit.”

“Seriously?” Her voice squeaked. “You waste your date nights on me?”

“Trust me, Sharon, seeing you play music is never a waste.”

Knuckles rapped against the door, then Gabriel peeked in. “Sorry, thought you should know her mom is coming down the hall.”

Shit. We needed to be gone before her mother arrived and we had even more answers to give. I jumped up from the chair.

“Thank you,” Sharon blurted. “For saving me. Both of you.”

Leaning in, I hugged her like I’d done a hundred times from the Twilight whenever she needed a burst of warmth or encouragement. Except, this time, she was aware and able to hug me back.

And that one embrace was worth a thousand given in secret. I didn’t need to look at her aura again before we left to know it was burning bright and gilded with delight.

29

And Life Goes On

“Bragging rights” didn’t begin to describe the tone of our remaining winter break. Classes resumed, and everyone wanted me as a study partner after rumors flew across the school that I would receive an honorary doctorate with the graduating class for slaying two monsters. I squashed that thread of gossip before the end of the first day.

I’d be insane to hope Bregman would let me out of bootcamp for the next two years, no matter how many darklings I killed.

Jiro didn’t show up when the semester began. After three days of speculation among the students and mounting tension spreading throughout campus, Sebastian e-mailed the remaining members of the Wild Hunt Club and asked us to meet him an hour before our appointed time.

We met at the boundary line between the mortal realm and Tir na Nog. Rodrigo had already lit a campfire and pulled up several logs for us to sit on. I took my seat between him and Gabriel, aware of Jada outright snubbing me instead of acknowledging my existence.

Sebastian paced in front of us. “Most of you guys probably already know why I’m here tonight. I wanted you to hear it from me before the provost makes her announcement tomorrow. But until she says a word, everything I say here is confidential and to be kept between this group. All right?”

A few dozen solemn faces watched him, heads nodding. Most of us already knew what he planned to say, but it didn’t ease the queasiness rolling through my gut.

“Jiro Yamazaki won’t return to PNRU.” The group exploded into questions, but Sebastian held up a hand. “His whereabouts remain unknown and neither of his parents have seen him in a couple weeks. We also tested the blood stains in the church, and it’s a DNA match. It’s confirmed.”

Catlyn’s shoulders dropped. I wondered if she’d been seeing him and how many of us he’d befriended under false pretenses while spying for the enemy.

“What does this mean now?” Julien asked. “What will happen next?”

“He’s been added to the list of wanted criminals and darklings. When found, he’ll be Bound and confined. Not that the former appears to be a foolproof way of removing a dangerous menace from the supernatural pool. That’s the other reason I had for bringing you guys together.”

Tension thickened in the air, the weight of it oppressive enough to drown me.

On the edge of my seat, I watched Sebastian run one hand through his dark hair and sigh. “Now that it’s confirmed the Hidden Court has discovered a way to strip a Binding, the Conclave is in an uproar. It’s possible we’ll see a shitload of changes next year. If they can’t trust Bindings, they may adopt other methods.”

Sebastian’s words and solemn expression trickled ice cubes down my back. When I shuddered, Gabriel slipped an arm around my waist and squeezed me closer.

“What’s going to happen to Abby?” Stark asked.

Sebastian’s jaw clenched. “The Great Fenrir executed Abby this evening. She wouldn’t talk. We gave it all week and did our best to encourage her to speak up, but in the end, she wouldn’t. There was nothing we could do for her.”

My eyes burned. I hadn’t known Abby, but the other members of the Wild Hunt Club had been her friends, and their grief billowed over the campground like a noxious fog.

“I need to address a few rumors now. Everyone here knows that Monica was a shitty godmother, but that’s not why she was Bound. Her sentence was passed down for the safety of the public and her own well-being. It had everything to do with her unsafe practices and failure to follow the rules of this institution.” He gestured to Gabriel. “Did you warn her about driving alone with Skylar?”

“Hell yeah. But she insisted on driving to Chicago instead of waiting for me to return to campus. Said it was stupid and she was tired of the school being up her ass over every little thing.”

“Her Binding was about more than a single incident of Monica skirting the rules. That was only the one strike against her. The other was her complete lack of empathy. She didn’t care about using her powers for anyone but herself—or her father, as we’ve recently discovered. Skylar took care of Sharon long before she was officially assigned to.”

Murmurs arose from the group. I shifted uncomfortably on my seat and ignored the swell of interest. Even Jada glanced over, for once without a dirty look.

Sebastian raised his hands for quiet and continued. “I know some of you were friends, but you deserve to know the truth, which is that Monica was already headed down the dark path. King Oberon made the ultimate call after reading her Destiny Lines. Does that clear things up for you?”

“So if we don’t want to be godmothers, they won’t Bind us?” Catlyn asked.

“Or worse?” Kitania queried, leaning forward.

“Nah, kids. When I graduated, I planned to go back home to work on my dad’s farm.”

Rodrigo blinked. “For real, man?”

“Oh yeah. I only took the Sentinel Licensure Board after graduation for kicks to prove I could pass it. PNRU and the Conclave want you to succeed at more than learning to slaughter darklings to defend yourselves. They want you to be a good person. You’re not a slave. You don’t have to do this shit the rest of your lives.” He glanced at Blaire. The wolf dropped his shoulders. “Contrary to what someone said about your parents being watch dogs, pets, or anything else. We take these jobs because we want to.”

“But—”

“Talk to your father about why he works for the Dupree family. This isn’t the draft. The role of a sentinel isn’t a lifetime conscription.”

A collective sigh exhaled from most of the group, and the bubble of tension popped. I could breathe again.

“What happens now?” Gabriel asked.

Sebastian sat on a log and steepled his fingers between both knees. “Like I said, everything is going to change. Now that a Binding can’t be trusted for removing problematic supernaturals from society, the Conclave may resort to other methods. You need to be the very best people you can be. Learn your glamours and be safe,” he said, glancing at Kitania and Catlyn. They nodded.

He glanced at Jada. “Learn to follow the moral rules of society, because they matter as much as your shooting and boot camp skills.”

Jada dropped her head.

I never thought I’d pity her, but I did, because as much as she’d pissed me off with her hazing and invasion of our privacy, it wasn’t worth losing her gift for the rest of her life—or worse.

“And no matter how much it fucking tempts you, no matter who bullies you, who taunts you, who harasses and stalks you, stay away from the Hidden Court.” This time, he glanced at Justin. The poor guy turned red beneath his mountain man beard. “Their words are poison, and all of you are too good for them.”

Silence fell over our group. Sebastian studied each of us then rose. “Any questions before we head out into the Emerald Pass?”

No one spoke up at first, but since the others didn’t have the balls and I sensed someone else had to wonder, I decided to be the nosy one. “You really didn’t want to be a sentinel?”

“Fuck no.”

A few wrinkles creased Gabriel’s brow. “What changed your mind?”

He grinned. “The right partner.”

* * *

Since the final days of the spring semester boiled down to review sessions and group study periods for our upcoming finals, seniors began scheduling appointments to take their licensure exam. They’d already taken all of the necessary practicals required by PNRU, and all that remained were the tests for their general courses.

Gabriel had those in the bag, blowing off studies for his host of business degree courses to memorize the SBA handbook instead.

While Ama stalked me and occasionally flew over to investigate us, either eyeballing me or making threatening noises, I rubbed my boyfriend’s shoulders from behind the couch, quizzing him with random questions about the guide. “So explain to me, under what circumstance is it okay to use deadly force against a human?”

“It’s not something we ever want to do, but if a supernatural being or human’s life is in immediate jeopardy, a sentinel is authorized to use the least amount of force required to resolve the situation.”

“But what’s that?”

“You always begin with non-magical means, but you go one step above the threat that you’ve assessed. A vampire’s fist is a step above a mortal’s fist, but they wouldn’t be permitted to use their fangs.”

“Meaning Simon could take a gun to a knife-fight, but not his staff, right?”

“Right.” My fingers discovered a particularly tense knot of muscle. As I applied greater pressure, his head lolled forward, and he sighed. “You’re the best girlfriend.”

“Of course.”

“Are you sure this isn’t boring you to death?”

“Not at all. We both benefit. You get to reinforce by teaching me, and I get to learn a little of what to look forward to next year and senior year.” I paused. “I want to be in Sebastian’s special class. I want to work with him and Simon.”

“Baby, given what’s happened to you, it’s probably mandatory by now. You might not have an honorary doctorate coming your way, but you have a personal faerie tutor from Tir na Nog. You’re special.”

“Gabe—”

He reached up and took one of my hands, covering it with his larger grip. “I’m not just saying that because you’re my girl. You have Titania’s necklace. You’ve faced down shit most seniors hope to encounter before graduation. There’s prophecies about you.”

“Incomplete prophecies,” I muttered.

Gabriel tossed his book on the coffee table then pulled me over the back of the couch and onto his lap, giving me no opportunity to wiggle away. “Anyway, what I’m saying is, the interest is probably mutual.”

“I don’t want in because I’m some prophesied whatever.”

“It’s not just that and you know it. You have real courage and talent. And you don’t freeze under pressure. No matter how much some of us train, we know who isn’t cut out for the sentinel life, because the moment they encounter a real danger, they choke up.”

“I almost got a bunch of us killed.”

“You learned from it. You think I haven’t made a few mistakes? Everybody fucked up at Rachel’s house, but you all survived. Ask Sebastian and Simon to tell you a few stories from their early days sometime.”

Worries assuaged, I nodded and leaned my head on Gabe’s shoulder. He didn’t reach for the handbook again and turned the television on instead.

“Aren’t you going to study now?”

“Nope. I’m done. Either I know it or I don’t, right?”

“Right!”

Ama landed beside us again on the back of the couch, stretched her body, and opened her beak in a threat. I hissed back at her. She shrieked, the loud scream tearing through my eardrums when she startled back and hurried to the other side of him, where she hid on his shoulder and tucked herself beneath Gabriel’s messy hair.

His baby didn’t have to love me now, but I couldn’t let her disrespect me anymore. Gabriel’s low chuckle stirred something in my chest, a bloom of warmth and affection snaking around my heart. I glanced up to see him grinning at me.

“What?”

“If I’d known that was all it would take, I would have had you do that from the start.”

* * *

Thursday morning, Gabriel reported to the Cook County Sentinel Field Office for a three hour long exam and a battery of physical tests. And since tomorrow we were leaving for our Wild Hunt Club field trip, he brought Ama over in her travel cage for Liadan to babysit on his way out.

For once, the sun conure didn’t snap at my fingers when I opened the cage door, but she didn’t play nice either and blew me off entirely.

Our magical jungle turned out to be our single saving grace. Ama flew from one flower to the next, standing on branches and thick stalks to examine each colorful blossom. She sniffed some things and nibbled others, even coming out of one planter with a terrifying, winged insect clasped in her powerful beak. It resembled a sprite, and Liadan called it a mimic beetle. Apparently, this one was attempting to mimic me.

I didn’t know whether to be grateful or disgusted when she ate it, though she stared at me the entire time, as if imagining I were the squishy pest in her mouth.

“I think she likes the sun lillies best,” Lia said after a few hours of watching Ama play. “She keeps going back to them and rubbing her cheek against the petals.”

Risking a quick glance toward the plant confirmed Lia’s observation, but I stayed quiet. We’d noticed earlier in the day that the awful little beast snubbed anything of interest to me. She’d happily perched on the speckled pansies until I sniffed one and smiled. After that, she’d torn a flower to shreds and abandoned the plant for another.

Baby steps, I reminded myself over and over again. At least she knew now that I couldn’t be intimidated.

Pilar arrived home about an hour later with two grocery totes packed to the brim. Ama trilled a jubilant greeting then resumed preening herself.

“Well hello to you too, pretty bird. Any word yet from Gabriel, Sky?”

“No, not yet. He should be running his practicals about now. Why?”

Pilar carried everything to the kitchen and beamed at me across the breakfast counter. “I am going to prepare him a celebratory dinner.”

Bless her for having the same faith in Gabriel that I did, because there was no way he wasn’t going to pass.

“What can I do to help?”

Leaving Ama with Lia, I retreated to the kitchen to help with dinner—a traditional Valencian paella. She trusted me enough to dice veggies while she browned three different types of meat.

“Ugh, Pilar, why are you boiling snails?”

“Because you can’t have paella without them,” she insisted. “Don’t be such a wuss. You eat raw fish and their eggs all the time.”

“But those are snails.”

“You will love it.”

“Be adventurous, Sky. Didn’t you say you ate tuna testicles when you visited family in Sicily?” Liadan called from the living room.

“Lia!”

Pilar cackled at me. Ama joined in the laughter. Sometimes, I didn’t think it was coincidental that she picked certain moments to mimic our amusement.

“I didn’t know what it was when they put it on my plate.”

Gabriel’s triumphant heartsong alerted me to his arrival, but Ama made so much noise when he peeked in I’d have known it was him by that alone. She zipped across the room and landed on his chest. Refusing to be outdone by a parrot, I crossed over in one shadowstride, grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt, and kissed him while she buffeted her wings between us like a spoiled child.

I’m totally on to your game now, Ama.

“Mm. I can totally go for this kind of welcome every day.”

“Well? How do you feel about it?” I asked.

“I feel like I kicked serious ass until we got to the hostage negotiation part.”

“And…?”

“Well, I’m not crying. The test proctors all took turns shaking my hand at the end and presented me with this.” Gabriel whipped out one of those glossy black, stereotypical federal agent credential wallets you see in movies. Opening it revealed a gold badge with his last name and agent number.

I squealed and kissed him again. “Congratulations!”

Liadan and Pilar called it out too, and then the gravelly little voice of Ama joined us. I blinked down at her. That was a big word for a parrot.

Gabriel blinked too. “Thanks, Ama. Weird time to pick up a new word.” When he stroked the top of her head and kissed her beak, she basked in his affection and nuzzled him. Deciding to be the bigger person, I relented and returned to help Pilar finish dinner while they settled on the couch. Afterward, I helped Liadan Transmutate an ottoman into a spacious dining table for our celebratory feast.

The moment we sat down, an explosion of gold faerie dust and blue sparkles burst over an empty space at the end. A bright yellow box appeared with the words “Congratulations, Gabriel” scrawled across the top in my mom’s finest calligraphy.

Damn, they didn’t even present me flashy gifts like that.

The box unfolded to reveal the largest tiramisu my dad had ever created, a multi-layered masterpiece of epic proportions. My mouth watered as the aroma of fine Italian espresso spiked with Marsala wafted off it.

We ate like gluttons. Between the paella and the tiramisu, Gabriel curled up on the couch and passed out. I covered him with a blanket then settled on the other half of the sectional.

“You should sleep, too,” Lia said on her way upstairs with Ama. “Big day tomorrow.”

“I will. Gonna crash here on the couch with Gabe.”

“All right then. Goodnight.”

“Night, Lia.”

I played on my phone instead, because the excitement buzzing through my veins wouldn’t allow my overactive mind to rest. Tomorrow, I’d be embarking on a three-day hike into Tir na Nog.

“Sky, take your ass to bed.”

“I can’t sleep.”

Gabriel muttered something drowsily into one of Pilar’s decorative pillows and promptly passed out again. I envied his ability to do that when the best weekend of our college lives loomed before us.

30

Music on the Wind

Gabriel woke me before dawn. We took turns in the shower—not that it helped me wake up at all—then shouldered our packs and met with everyone else at the boundary line. Rodrigo looked wide awake, eyes bright and body thrumming with energy. Meanwhile, I regretted not going to sleep earlier.

Big mistake.

Justin ambled up and passed me a steaming cup of coffee from a huge thermos. Across the way, I noticed Julien passing out the same to other members as they arrived.

“Thanks, man.”

The bearded wolf winked and moved on. Stark took his place a few seconds later with a donut box in hand.

“You guys ready for this?”

Part of me wanted to punch Stark in his pointy nose for being so chipper so early. “We don’t even know where we’re going yet. How are you so excited?”

“That’s half the fun, girl. We never know who won and where they’re gonna pick until we’re ready to go.”

“Club tradition,” Gabriel said solemnly.

I grumbled, much to their amusement.

It took a few more minutes for the other hikers to arrive, Sebastian included. He and Simon approached together, and it took my fuzzy mind a few seconds to realize the latter wasn’t wearing his usual trenchcoat. It was so foreign—so alien—that I wasn’t the only one staring.

“You coming, too, Simon?” Rodrigo asked.

“I thought I’d finally tag along, if that’s all right with the rest of you.”

Sebastian grinned and elbowed his partner in the ribs. “I told him he needed some fresh air away from campus.”

“Sweet.”

The whole club echoed Rodrigo’s sentiments.

Once we’d all been properly caffeinated and dosed with sugared pastries, Rodrigo called us to order for the year-end results. The final tallies came in at a near tie, with Kitania beating out Jada by one point. Even though I knew it was petty, I whooped and cheered extra loud for my fellow fae. Totally worth the dirty look Jada aimed my way.

“Where are we going for our campout, Kit?” Rodrigo asked.

“Windsong Peak.”

Rodrigo let out a low whistle and glanced to his left at Sebastian. The older sentinel shrugged his shoulder, but a grin spread across his face. “Ballsy choice, but totally doable,” he said.

“All right then.” Rodrigo rubbed his hands together. “Looks like we’re going to make a long trek and finish by mountain climbing. Everyone got what they need?”

Unanimous cheers went up from everyone. Since we fae had the Neverspace, we stashed away everyone’s gear and all the food supplies. The campus cafeteria had provided us with enough to make sure no one went hungry if the pickings were slim, but I didn’t think we’d get around to eating it all, because most of the guys wanted to hunt rare faerie game—non-sentient but delicious creatures, of course—while we explored the wilderness.

Our day-long trek took us through places both familiar and new. Once beyond the Twilight Meadow, we crossed the silver bridge spanning the Crystal Gorge and passed into the Garden of Embers.

The sky overhead transformed from star-studded indigo to swirling magenta streaked with golden and purple clouds.

“Watch out for the flowers,” Simon warned.

“Is it true they explode?” Anji asked.

Stark gave her a playful leer and bumped into her gently, nudging her a few steps to the left, toward a crystalline cluster. The red blossoms sparkled like rubies. “Do you wanna get close enough to find out?”

“Ass.”

“Wuss,” he countered.

The flowers didn’t explode, but they shone with an inner light and some emitted puffs of glowing embers into the sky. The delicate sparks floated upward on gentle wind currents, reminding me of fireflies.

My necklace warmed—not in a burning sort of way, but more of a comforting heat. My fingers raised to the glamoured stones, each of them the same deep red as the blooming crystal flowers.

“Whatcha thinking so hard about?” Gabriel asked.

“Huh?”

“You have that look you get, and the little crease right here.” His fingertip skimmed down between my brows. “Means you’re thinking deep thoughts.”

“I think the stones in the necklace came from here. I get this sense of… peace. Like I’m home or something.”

Rather than dismissing my random epiphany, Gabe wandered closer to the nearest flower cluster for a better look. After a minute, he moved back to my side. “Could be. Did you know there’s a tale claiming the Garden of Embers is the birthplace of the first phoenix?”

Both my brows shot up. “Look at you, Mister Lore Nerd. Been reading up on Tir na Nog or something?”

He glanced away and chuckled in the soft, abashed sort of way that told me I’d caught him at something. “I may have been motivated to learn more about the fae. You know, since I’m dating one.”

I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“All right, break time’s over, kiddos,” Rodrigo hollered out from the front of the group. “We’re gonna have to pick up the pace if we want to reach camp before end of day.”

Leaving the stunning gardens behind us, we ran through golden fields under a pink sky. Stark and Gabriel shifted to their avian forms, so I joined them in the air. We passed over Simon and Anji, but a few seconds later, I spotted Simon jogging alongside Sebastian farther ahead. Then Rodrigo burst into a sprint against Kitania and Catlyn, all three of them racing ahead of the group, only for them to end their sprint at a tree where Simon was leaning.

What the hell?

“Dude, no fair using magic,” Rodrigo grumbled as he took his human shape again. Simon only doubled over and laughed.

The rest of us caught up, Sebastian going from wolf to man and straight into loud bellows of laughter. “Damn, I’ve been waiting for him to pull that trick on you guys all day.”

“Remember how much it used to piss you off when I did it in Central Park?”

One day, I imagined Ben and Holly would be pulling the same stunt with short range teleportation spells.

Eventually, we went from fields to dense forest with a canopy so thick we couldn’t see the sky. Between my wings and Simon’s staff, we had enough light to make our way through. Emerald hills greeted us beyond the tree line, and towering in the distance, Windsong Peak stretched toward the sky like the pale bones of the faerie realm.

The mountain shone like an opal, light pink with cool glints of green, blue, violet, and gold sparkling from the rocky crests. The sky appeared to dance, a perpetual aura borealis shimmering above us.

But more beautiful than that was the music carrying on the breeze.

Celestial harmonies ebbed and flowed, muffled at first but louder the closer we drew to the mountain. Each time the wind picked up, more notes joined the melody. The music called to me.

And then some poor creature screamed in the distance behind us, absolutely ruining the moment. Sebastian and a gang of the shifters had diverged from the main group while Rodrigo carried the rest of us ahead.

I glanced over my shoulder toward the sound. “Are they all right, you think?”

“Sounded like a cerbul de aur,” Julien said as he moved up to join Gabriel and me. “Good eating, but they scream like a horror movie heroine when they die.”

“Right, ’cause that’s not disturbing at all.”

Gabriel laughed and bumped his shoulder into mine. “You’ll get used to it. Stark and I are hunting leaf-tail rabbits tomorrow from the mountain top.”

“But they’re cute.”

“And delicious,” Julien said. He and Gabriel high-fived.

Boys.

The hunting party caught up to us not long after. One of the bears carried the golden stag they’d taken down draped across his enormous back, while the energetic wolf pack raced back to us.

“We bagged dinner, y’all!” Blaire shouted as he came out of a shift onto two legs.

A small grove near the narrow stream at the mountain’s base became our camp. A couple students raised tents, but most of us stretched sleeping bags beneath the open sky. Gabriel and I claimed a spot on a thick patch of clover.

While the others salivated over their kill, Simon and I ate sandwiches from our supplies.

Tomorrow, we’d climb the third-highest peak in all of Tir na Nog, but for now, our group had earned the night of rest.

* * *

Gabriel abandoned me to hunt with the pack, so I enjoyed eggs and bacon for breakfast alongside Simon. Even Catlyn and Kitania had gotten into the groove by shooting some kind of waterfowl out of the sky with a spike of earth magic, and Julien had wandered off to fish in the stream trickling down from the mountain.

Once the gang was all fed, we packed our camp and approached the daunting mountain. The bears began the ascent in their animal forms, since their clawed feet resembled hands, but the ravens and werewolves remained human for the climb. Catlyn and Kitania struck up a bet to race each other to the top in their feline forms, so I stood back for a few moments and watched the girls leap and dash over the rocks, their black bodies flashes of ebony beneath the tranquil blue and violet sky.

What I loved about the Wild Hunt Club was that our time together over the school year had made us more of a family than an actual club. Skilled climbers like Gabriel, Rodrigo, and Justin helped the rest of us by lending a hand when we were stuck, while Simon pointed out gentle slopes without steep walls. I hiked uphill every chance I had.

“C’mon, Sky, reach. You can do this.” Gabriel crouched above me on the ledge with one hand out, but he may as well have been a mile away. With faith in my legs and all the strength-training I’d put them through, I pushed my thigh muscles to the limit and jumped for him. Our fingers met, and he pulled me up to safety onto a shelf two-hundred feet above the rest of Tir na Nog.

Sure, I could have flown to the mountaintop, but that would have been taking the easy way out. I wanted to climb with the others and test my strength, all with the comfort of knowing that if I slipped, I wouldn’t plummet to my doom.

Rodrigo passed us in his bear form when Julien and I stopped for a break, joined by Sebastian and Simon. Gabriel and Stark took off after each other with a few other ravens in a game of tag, the group of them diving and floating on the wind currents, looking majestic as hell while I poured sweat and guzzled water alongside my fellow fae.

“They look good out there,” Julien muttered. “Meanwhile, I am dying.”

“It’ll all be worth it when you make it to the Mirror Pools,” Sebastian said. “There’s a cave near the mountaintop with the best whitefish in all of Tir na Nog.”

“Are we there yet?” Catlyn whined. Amalia and Jada looked equally as tired.

“Almost,” Sebastian said. “C’mon, guys, this is the last stretch. All we gotta do is get up this final bit here and then you can relax or explore to your heart’s content.”

As far as I could tell, there was no quick way up.

Justin crossed his arms over his chest and peered up at the mountain. “After you, boss.”

Sebastian eyed the steep wall for a few moments before shifting. He charged toward the mountainside, and then jumped at a wide chimney in the cliff face. Somehow, he bounded back and forth between the two walls, making his way up with nimble agility.

At the top, he jumped onto the next outcropping, twisted on his hind legs, and made a death-defying, impossible leap onto a jutting shelf. The group of us watched with our mouths hanging open.

“No way am I gonna be able to do that,” Anji said.

“Yeah… Not even sure if I could,” Blaire agreed. He cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered up at the black wolf looking down at us from above. “Yo! You’re crazy, man!”

A few wolves tried to make the same ascent, but no one made it more than halfway up. Anji didn’t even try, not that I could blame her. Sebastian was just a badass, and by the way Simon puffed out his chest and grinned up at his partner, he felt exactly the same way.

Another two hours of climbing took us to our goal, and even though my arms ached and my legs felt like jelly, I was damned proud of myself for making the climb the hard way.

Pity that cellphones didn’t work in the magical realm. I’d have loved to snap pictures to commemorate the moment, but maybe… maybe I’d learn to paint. Or see if an old-fashioned camera with film would work, which meant returning some day with Gabriel or our friends again.

Gabriel moved up to my side and passed me a water bottle. “Did you want to fish or explore some?”

“Explore.”

He helped me up from my sprawl across a smooth boulder, and together we ventured across the spacious plateau. Small silver flowers grew from cracks in the pale stone, but little else. Sprites whizzed back and forth above us, bright specks of jeweled color against the perpetually twilit sky. Hand in hand, Gabe and I moved farther away from our companions.

The melody in the wind drew me onward.

Hollow channels through the mountain peaks created the various notes for the haunting symphony drifting on the perfumed breeze, much like a pipe organ in a church, but prettier.

“It’s so beautiful from up here,” I murmured after a few minutes of introspective silence.

“Yeah, the view is great.”

Except, a glance at my boyfriend revealed he wasn’t looking out over the colorful landscape of Tir na Nog. He was watching me.

31

Summer is the Next Great Adventure

A lot of our friends and fellow classmates had older siblings graduating in this year’s senior class. I sat in the audience with Anji, since her sister Suzie would be receiving her diploma too. Gabriel lent me his camera—with promises of shunning me forever if I damaged it—to take photos after giving me a two-hour-long primer on how to take shots that weren’t crap.

Despite all the bullshit and stress he’d endured beside me for the past two years, Gabriel graduated summa cum laude. It took all my control to retain my composure and not scream and shout from the audience when he shook hands with the provost. As the rest of the senior class crossed the stage, I realized how many friends I’d be losing—Rodrigo, Amalia, Radha, and Julien chief among them—but I’d also be rid of my rival. Jada graduated with honors too, and I clapped so enthusiastically that Anji snickered and pulled my hands down.

After the seniors filed outside with their diploma cases in hand, I scrambled from my seat to meet Gabriel.

His family would be here. They’d been somewhere in the audience on the upper balcony watching.

The family who no doubt hated me. I took calming breaths, put steel in my spine, and strode from the auditorium to meet them.

Gabriel and Rodrigo weren’t far from the entrance, surrounded by a gang of people on one of the campus paths, though his mother and father stood out in the crowd like a classy power couple. The raven shifter patriarch towered over his wife, a flawless Latina in a white pantsuit and gold ballet flats.

While I debated whether or not to interrupt, a breeze tousled my hair. Gabe sniffed and glanced toward me, prompting both of his parents to turn too. His older brother—I assumed the guy was his brother, as they had the same glossy, blue-black hair and pale brown eyes—scoped me out. His younger sister appeared to be in high school, and his little brother couldn’t have been more than ten.

I’d have a little brother soon. My own little brother.

When Mrs. Fujimoto and I made eye contact, she spun an abrupt about-face and walked away to speak with the family gathered around Rodrigo.

Gabriel’s shoulders dropped an inch, making me want to shake some sense into her, because her son should have mattered more than snubbing me, whether I deserved it or not.

I dragged in a breath and reached them just as Mr. Fujimoto hugged Gabriel tight and whispered something in his son’s ear.

“But Mom—”

“Needs a reminder,” the elder Fujimoto said, this time speaking loud enough for me to hear. His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. He and Gabriel looked so alike that it was like a glimpse in the future at the ridiculously hot man he’d become when he hit his fifties. “Soon, she’ll remember that you haven’t done anything to forgive.”

“Thanks, Dad.” He straightened and offered his hand to me. I took it and moved to his side, relaxing. “I’d like you all to meet Skylar.”

Gabe’s older brother grinned. “So, this is the troublemaker? Kinda pretty. I see why you dropped Jada like a bad habit.”

“Samuel,” Gabriel gritted out between his teeth.

Heat spread to my cheeks. “I’m not that bad.”

His father shook my hand. “No, I’m sure you aren’t.” He smiled, polite expression strained but genuine at the same time, two conflicting emotions warring for dominance inside him. I didn’t normally pick up on shifter moods and sucked at empathy when it wasn’t Gabriel, but Mr. Fujimoto’s blazed like a beacon. “Gabriel has had nothing but good to speak of you. Are your studies going well?”

“Yes, sir, thank you for asking.”

“Good, good. I trust you two will enjoy a safe summer together. Also, please take this, a small gift for the upcoming sibling.” He offered a long, thin box wrapped in a colorful green cloth. I accepted the gift and held it to my chest, aware of his wife’s disapproving gaze from a few yards away.

“Thank you, Mr. Fujimoto, that’s very kind of you.”

His sister pouted. “You really won’t be coming home until July?”

“Yup. Sky and I are gonna take a road trip after she’s spoiled her baby brother rotten. We’re going to hit up a few tourist spots in the south and then spend a few days in New Orleans. She’s never had gator and legitimate creole food.”

After whooping with glee, Alex grinned up at him. “Bring me souvenirs from the NOLA Vampire Museum!”

“And pictures of the baby,” Teresa begged.

“I’ll post some on Facebook—I mean, if you have an account and want to friend me.”

Teresa whipped out her phone and snapped a photo of me. I hoped I didn’t look stupid. “Here. Put your number into my contacts too.”

“You’re coming to dinner with us, right?” Samuel asked.

“Huh?”

His father smiled again. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fujimoto’s stare intensified to laser-hot, should-be-melting-my-face-off levels. “We are taking Gabriel to a celebratory dinner at Koharu. You’re invited to join us, Skylar.”

Gabriel lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles, the sweet gesture making my stomach do a little flip. It never grew old. “Of course she’s coming. Sky loves sushi.”

I considered excusing myself and making up some silly lie to avoid crashing the family dinner and pissing his mom off, but then I realized the problem here wasn’t mine. It was hers.

And since I had no intention of letting Gabriel go, she had better fucking get used to me.

“I’d love to go with you.”

* * *

Boxes of Rodrigo’s stuff filled the living room when I arrived to help the guys Sunday afternoon. Like Gabriel, he’d accrued a whole lot of junk over the four years at PNRU, but he planned to move on instead of hanging around for graduate school.

When I arrived, they’d just finished sorting the bear shifter’s personal gear and firearms from Gabriel’s crap and dividing their ammo cache, though Rodrigo relented and left most of it.

Where he was going, he wouldn’t need to buy his own ammunition. He’d received a coveted, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to intern under the Great Fenrir himself in Newfoundland. And he had one hell of a two-thousand-mile drive ahead of him to eastern Canada.

“You ready for some faerie magic, guys?” I asked.

“If you can pack all this shit up with faerie magic, you deserve another dinner at Koharu.” Rodrigo clapped his big mitt against his cousin’s shoulder. “On his dime, of course. But you’re not gonna.”

A swish of my crystal wand thrust his belongings into three neat, outrageously heavy packages that mystified the guys.

“You were saying? Dad taught me that one. Mom and I call him the Tetris champ, because he could probably fit a herd of elephants into one suitcase if he wanted.”

Rodrigo grunted under the weight of the box and hefted it up. “I don’t think you’re too far off from doing it yourself. Damn, girl. You have seriously packed on some magic muscle since we met you. Kinda disappointed I won’t be sticking around now, if it means I won’t get to see you continue to beef up.”

Before he made it a step to the door, I flicked my wand again. The Translocation glamour swept everything away on a magical breeze to the truck he’d rented.

He stumbled initially from the sudden loss of the weight he’d balanced then darted his puzzled, wide-eyed gaze to me before grinning. “You sure you can’t come with me? I’m gonna need all the help I can get unpacking this crap.”

I chuckled. “Nope, you’re on your own for that.”

“Gotta get your own faerie girl, primo.” Gabriel glanced past us toward the entertainment stand. “Hey, man, you forgot your PlayStation.”

“Nah, you keep it. Pretty sure I’m not gonna have time to play while working with the Fenrir. Besides, leaving that one gives me an excuse to upgrade to a unit with more storage space once I’m in the groove.” Rodrigo winked then turned to face me. “You watch out for this big idiot, now that I won’t be around, ’kay, Sky?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep him outta trouble.”

Rodrigo grabbed me in a tight bear hug. Right when it seemed like he’d squeeze me to death, he set me back on my feet and let go.

“I’m gonna miss you. You’re not half bad—you know, for a faerie.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not so lazy for a bear.” Of all the interactions I’d ever had with Rodrigo, I’d miss his leadership at the Wild Hunt Club and our video gaming sessions the most. Before he could move away, I hugged him again. “You be careful up there. And stay in touch.”

“Will do, short stuff.”

Rodrigo stopped to rub Amaterasu on her golden-red head then left without much fanfare, but I imagined the two cousins had said their goodbyes before I got there. For a moment, after the door shut behind him, Gabriel’s shoulders slumped.

“What about you?” I asked. “You gonna move apartments? Look for another roommate?”

“I didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

The sadness in his eyes faded and his smile returned. “Now that I’m an official, licensed sentinel, I get to keep the apartment for free while assigned to the campus. All mine for the next two years until you’re ready to go.”

“Lucky you.”

“Yeah, it’ll be nice having my own place. Now then, you ready for our summer adventure?”

I slipped my arms around Gabriel’s neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him, savoring the moment that no roomie could interrupt. “When do we leave?”

A sly grin raised the corner of his mouth. “How soon can you pack?”

* * *

Watch out for the next part of Skylar’s story this fall told in Gabriel’s POV!

Birds of a Feather

When Gabriel arranges a vacation in New Orleans with his half-faerie girlfriend, he expects creole cuisine and opportunities to watch her prance in a skimpy bikini. The local sentinel bureau that polices paranormal activity has another idea in mind—agency numbers are dwindling, vampire turnings are high, and they need his help on the case.

It’s not the kind of action he hoped to get over the summer, but the local sentinel chief is family, and raven shifters stick together.

Other Books by Vivienne

Fairy Tale Retellings

Beauty and the Beast

Red and the Wolf

Goldilocks and the Bear

Belle and the Pirate

Zarina and the Djinn

Rapunzel and the Griffin Prince

Sci-Fi Romance

Super Sexy Aliens, Cyborgs, Psychics.

Reverse Harem Romance

Three Greek gods, one reincarnated modern goddess

Divine Ambrosia

Paranormal University

College has never been this exciting. Or hot.

The Hidden Court

Dragons

Loved by the Dragon

Smitten: Dawn of the Dragons #2

Crush on a Dragon: Dawn of the Dragons #3

God of Mischief: Dawn of the Dragons #4

Military Shifters

Hot and Wild military alphas

The Right to Bear Arms (Book #1)

Let Us Prey (Book #2)

The Purr-fect Soldier (Book #3)

Old Dog New Tricks (Book #4)

Texas Pride (Book #5)

Impractical Magic

Impractical Magic

Better Than Hex (Impractical Magic #2)

Blood Heiress

Blood Kissed

Werewolves of San Antonio

Training the Alpha

Mythological Creatures

Making Waves

Epic Fantasy by Dominique Kristine

Shadows for a Princess

A princess who would rather die than wed. A warrior priest who would rather kill than see her harmed. A kingdom of shadows and treachery that threatens them both...

* * *

At the age of twenty-eight, Princess Ysolde Westbrook is a spinster duchess, the adopted daughter of Hindera's eccentric monarch. Commoners love their benevolent leader, but the kingdom's gentry take offense to the outsider among them. Amid noble plots and demands for her to marry a local aristocrat, an assassination attempt places her life in peril--if she will not have one of them for a husband, they would sooner see her dead.

Finding allies in strangers with powerful gifts and even darker secrets, Ysolde must learn what it means to lead and find her own inner strengths. Whether or not she survives the tangled web of treason will determine the fate of her duchy, the royal family, and the kingdom she loves.

About the Author

Vivienne Savage is the pen name of two best friends who write everything together. One works as a nurse in a rural healthcare home in Texas and the other is a U.S. Navy veteran. Both are mothers to two darling boys and two amazing girls.

All of their work varies in steam level, so pop by the VS website for details on which series is right for you!

For more information
www.viviennesavage.com
vivi@viviennesavage.com

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