Chapter 1

1

Ionce more found myself staring at a small, molting Christmas tree that looked like a definite fire hazard…and wondering how I’d gotten to this place.

Except unlike the last one, this tree was alive—well, more like only half dead. It was December again, come all too quickly and bringing the Faerie holiday of Yule along with it.

The little evergreen tree had no pretensions in terms of ornaments or lights or decoration. Someone had magicked the limbs to stay in place and the fake snow to fall in a continual stream from the empty air above the decoration.

Yikes. The snow didn’t really help.

“You’ve had a rough six months, haven’t you, Miss Alderidge?”

I jolted at the sound of my guidance counselor’s voice, and turned my attention to the Fae woman staring at me from behind a desk carved out of an old tree stump.

Miss Wicks tapped a long, spindly finger against the desk. Sure, she had a beard, but otherwise she seemed a perfectly nice lady. The beard and the spider web-like consistency of her hair went hand in hand, as did the rest of her, which more resembled the bark of a tree than actual human skin. I didn’t know what kind of Fae she was and didn’t have the nerve to ask her.

“Your classes are getting the better of you and your first full semester nearly did you in. You failed in the Solstice Games…” Wicks trailed off, glancing down at the paper in front of her as though checking to see she hadn’t made a mistake about my terrible performance. No mistake. “Yes, absolutely, abysmally failed.”

I wanted to shrink into my seat a little further with each word.

Selene thinks I was failed on purpose, I thought bitterly. Somehow, the nosy reporter dogging my every move during the Games became not only an ally but a friend. Did I trust her completely? That would be a hard no. Did I think she had a point about me being failed on purpose? I did.

Not that I would tell Wicks about our association. There was enough suspicion swirling around me already.

“Yes, it’s been exhausting trying to keep up,” I ended up saying to the guidance counselor.

Wicks nodded. “Exhausting is one word for it, certainly.”

She and I were in complete agreement then because honestly, it was true. The first semester at the Elite Academy in Faerie had nearly killed me. If I had anywhere else in the realm to go, I would have packed up my bags and bolted in seconds, leaving behind the heavy workload, the bullying from the pure-blood Fae, and my forced after-school work in the palace kitchen.

It was just before New Year’s Eve and my second semester at the Elite Academy of Faerie was poised to begin. More like it loomed, a giant mushroom cloud on the horizon, and I wanted to hide my face. Ostriches with their heads in the sand may have the right idea there, I thought.

Wicks was still speaking: “…accused of murder, and then fleeing the realm on a kidnapping claim. Of all the crazy things for you to do, Miss Alderidge! I’d like to think you should have known better, but then again I’m simply not sure.” She fixed me with a hard stare. “I suppose no one knows you well enough to make a case for you.”

I thought back to the tracking device the King of Faerie had forced me to wear after the whole murder debacle. It had been taken off before the new school semester began, but the humiliation still stung over having had to wear a tracking device. Still stung over how I’d been the prime suspect. Little ol’ me accused of harming someone, even a ridiculously dramatic gypsy like Madam Muerte? It was insane.

Odder still was the fact that I could now think about murder without batting an eyelash or breaking a sweat.

What has my life become?

“The kidnapping was real,” I insisted. “And I had nothing to do with Madam Muerte’s demise.”

Miss Wicks gave me a shrewd look. “As you claim. No one here witnessed the alleged kidnapping, or the fight you claim to have overheard the night of the murder.”

It had been right after the Solstice Carnival, when the famed gypsy palm reader and tarot card reader had delivered a death blow of a premonition about how I would bring about the end of the world. Me. Destroyer of realms.

Yeah, let that sink in.

And as if that weren’t enough, I remembered how Mike had danced with me at the Solstice Ball. How Michael Thornwood, the Crown Prince of Faerie, had whisked me off into the gardens around the palace and kissed me.

Kissedme.

The whole world had slowed down and narrowed around us and there was only the feeling of his lips against mine. And like all good things in my life, the steamy make-out session was cut short by events beyond my control: an argument, a scream, and death.

It was I who discovered the body—I was starting to think it one of my best skills—and unfortunately, the palace guard found me hovering over Madam Muerte’s lifeless corpse. He had jumped to his own conclusions about me and the king had followed along with the man’s unfounded suspicions. Thus I was the prime suspect in the murder of Madam Muerte.

My stomach sank again at the memory, as it did every time.

No witnesses to the crime, no real suspects, yet they’d frothed at the mouth to put the blame on me because I was new and an interloper, only recently granted citizenship to Faerie and not yet a part of their realm. Not really.

I shook my head and Wicks eyed me strangely, continually tapping her incredibly long fingers. I didn’t do the crime, but they also had yet to find out who actually did, so I remained a person of interest and was constantly on my guard.

“I had nothing to do with what happened to Madam Muerte, honestly,” I insisted yet again. My hands knotted on my lap, wrinkling my newly washed and pressed uniform for the Elite Academy, the black blazer with the royal crest on the right lapel and a crisp white shirt. I shifted my fidgeting fingers to the end of my long red braid, hanging just below my shoulders.

“I’m simply not sure what is going on with you,” Wicks said with obvious disappointment.

“It’s…been a rough transition. And the whole kidnapping thing didn’t help.” I thought if I brought up the kidnapping again, maybe she’d take pity and go easy on me.

Apparently not.

“Ah, yes. Of course. You told me you were kidnapped by someone from your past, who somehow managed to break into Faerie and grab you during the Wild Hunt.”

I grimaced. Kendrick Grimaldi, the murderous alpha of the Grimaldi wolf pack—and my betrothed. A shifter who apparently used black magic to keep himself looking young because I knew for a fact he had a half Fae son hiding here, a son in his twenties.

The last time I’d seen Kendrick Grimaldi, he’d tied me to an engine block and had a priest ready to marry us against my will. If it hadn’t been for my training at the Fae Academy for Halflings, and my short time at the Elite Academy, I never would have known how to transfigure into a crow and escape before he forced me to say I do.

Now I had to wear a special glamour potion my friend Nurse Julie gave me so that Kendrick would not be able to see me even if he somehow found a way to break into Faerie again. Now that he knew where I’d run off to.

I didn’t tell Counselor Wicks any of these things. I needed to keep them all to myself. No wonder I couldn’t sleep at night! I had so many messed up secrets circling my brain they made any real rest impossible.

“Well, Miss Alderidge, on the bright side, the king seems to think you are worthy of this education.” Wicks sighed. I wondered when she’d start to stroke her beard in thought. “He insists we take the necessary steps to keep you here and improve your grades. Not to mention I have heard the prince seems mighty taken with you. You have some powerful allies on your side, which no doubt speaks in your favor.”

Yeah, except the king thinks I really did kill Madam Muerte. And Mike… My insides melted at the thought of him, the golden-haired prince who’d first befriended me in the mortal realm when I’d been a stranger in need on the side of the road and he’d stopped to help me.

“Miss Alderidge?”

I barely paid any mind to Counselor Wicks and her concerns. I was consumed with thoughts of Mike.

We hadn’t been as close this semester. Honestly, I didn’t know where we stood now. Were we still friends? Were we something more than friends, after those flaming kisses we’d shared?

I had no clue.

He’d blown hot and cold since the moment we met. I’d been so busy with classes and work, our relationship hadn’t been a priority. The only thing I could do was study with Mike on the occasional free day I had.

Last June, I’d thought something was happening between me and Mike, but it fizzled out before it became anything substantial. Not because I didn’t still like him and wanted to kiss him, but because we started a new school semester and drifted apart a little. Mike turned into a different person around his friends, those fellow High Fae attending the Elite Academy, and it bothered me.

He hadn’t made much of an effort to hang out with me since then.

“Tavi! Are you listening to me?”

I snapped to attention, putting thoughts of Mike out of my head.

Wicks’ expression was grim as she said, “I know you arrived in the first few weeks before the summer term began, but your first semester grades are finally in. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

Not really. “Okay. How did I do?” I asked just to satisfy her.

“Well…” Wicks trailed off before sliding a folder toward me. “Dismal, to be honest. You failed most of your classes. I’m not going to try and sugarcoat this for you. You’re in trouble.”

My numb fingers opened up the folder and I glimpsed the terrible grades written in cursive next to my course descriptions. As amazingly well as I’d done at the Fae Academy for Halflings back in the mortal realm, I’d damn near flunked out after my very first semester at the Elite Academy here in Faerie.

“This isn’t really fair,” I blurted out, sweat beginning to bead along my hairline. “I’m a second-year student doing fourth-year studies and expected to keep up!”

“I understand,” Wicks continued gently, “but it’s the situation you’re in.”

“What am I going to do?”

“This situation may be unusual, but it is not unheard of, Miss Alderidge. I know of a wonderful teacher at the Fae Academy for Halflings sister school here in Faerie, and I’ve already spoken to her and she is willing to work with you three nights a week to get your progress up to par.”

I glanced up at this. “Like a personal tutor?”

“Exactly. Think of her as a tutor who will assist you and support you with your class load.” Wicks clucked her tongue. “It is my opinion you need all the help you can get, and this woman was the only one willing to step forward on your behalf.”

The only one willing to help me? What kind of crap was that? “I’m already going to school and working,” I insisted, leaning forward, hands gripping the edges of the folder. “How do you expect me to find extra time in the day for another commitment? I’m grateful, of course, but this takes time away from other things.”

Not to mention my mentoring with Onyx Grimaldi, who happened to be the only son of Kendrick Grimaldi. Onyx was another half Fae, half wolf shifter, who had been working with me several nights a week to help me master my transfiguration magic.

“I have no free time as it is,” I finished lamely.

I already knew that nothing I said would make a difference. The matter was decided and out of my hands.

Wicks shook her head, and the four walls of the office closed around me like a stone cage. She didn’t care. It wasn’t her job to care. She merely carried out the orders of her superiors, and as far as she was concerned her obligation to me terminated at the end of this meeting.

“There is no other option, Tavi. If you don’t get your grades up this semester before the Trials begin, you won’t just flunk out of Elite and lose your position of favor with King Tywin. You could end up dead in the process of trying to compete.”

Wicks looked like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me.

And although it wasn’t my first time hearing the warning—probably wouldn’t be my last, either—the word echoed through my brain during the entire walk into town once the meeting ended.