Chapter 1

One

The fae gate cracks open and light spills out.

Arion, Lord of the Summer Court, has betrayed me, and worse, he’s my brother?

I stumble back, but Arion is behind me, cutting off my escape.

I pivot at the last second, stumble over a rock, and pitch forward…and someone catches me.

I look up into the face of the most dazzlingly handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on.

“Hello, princess,” he says in a voice that sounds like silk brushing over stone.

“Who—” I start, but the question is cut off by the loud clank of metal.

Something heavy and cold settles around my neck. I reach for it instinctively and try to pull it away, but there is no give. The metal is thick and strong, the fastening solid.

“What is this?” I yank at it again. It feels like a collar, but I can’t see it to know for sure. Beneath my fingertips, I can feel sharp etchings in the metal.

“Ah-ah,” the man says and bats my hands away. “It’s for your protection as much as ours.”

I turn around to face Arion. “What is this?”

His eyes sweep over the collar, his dark brow furrowing, before he looks past me to the newcomer. “Was this necessary?”

“Queen’s orders,” the man answers.

“What queen?” I say, looking between them. “What the hell is going on? Who are you?”

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The man spreads out his arms like he’s a performer on stage. His hair is the color of saturated daybreak and it’s long and straight with several small braids throughout. The tops of his pointed ears stick out through the braids.

There is something vaguely familiar about him. The sharp slant of his nose, the cut of his jaw, and the bright, flecked blue of his eyes. But I can’t place it.

“I am Maven,” he says. “Prince of the Summer Court, and this one’s smarter, better-looking older brother.”

I glance back at Arion, looking for confirmation, because if he’s Arion’s brother, then that means…

“Different mothers,” Arion answers. “No blood is shared between you.”

When I turn back to Maven, he’s grinning again. “Fear not, princess. You can pine for me freely and openly.”

“Good god. Is he always this egotistical?”

“Yes. I had forgotten just how much, though.” Arion frowns. “Time has weathered my memories, it would seem.”

Maven chuckles. “I missed you too, baby brother.” He turns back to me. “I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, princess.” He sweeps his arm across his flat stomach and gives me a shallow, courtly bow. “And how pretty you are.” When he straightens, he wrinkles his perfect nose and adds, “Though I had hoped you’d look less, well , mortal.”

Embarrassment flames through my face. I don’t care what he thinks and yet…

I am fae. That fact is established. But I don’t feel fae and having someone else point it out makes me want to crawl beneath a rock.

“Come.” Maven turns back to the gate. “The queen is expecting you.”

Arion steps beside me. “Will Jessie be assured her safety?”

“As if you care,” I tell him. “You did drug me, kidnap me, and steal my blood.”

He tilts his chin down so he can appraise me from the sharp tip of his nose. “If I wanted you dead, faeling, you’d be dead.”

“True!” Maven stops in the slant of light pouring through the open gate. “He did kill your mother in cold blood after all!”

My stomach twists, being reminded of that fact. But when I glance up at Arion again, there is sorrow on his face that he quickly tries to hide beneath a scowl.

“We have no time to waste!” Maven claps his hands and disappears through the gate, the bright light swallowing him up.

I turn to my brother. “Did you notice he didn’t answer your question?”

He furrows his brow. “I did.”

“If I turn around and run…if I run back to Midnight and to Bran…what will happen?”

Arion considers it, his gaze trained on the doorway. “They will come for you,” he finally says. “And they will turn everything you love into ash.” His voice catches on the word love and then he blinks, as if catching the emotion. His teeth grind together so loudly, it makes my own molars ache.

There is something he’s not telling me.

I know there are always two sides to a story. I could easily blame my current predicament on my mom for hiding who I was, not only from others in Midnight, but from me too. But I know she had a good reason for doing what she did.

So how did Arion find himself here? His mother’s— our mother’s —blood on his hands? How did he become trapped on our side? Did he know I was under his nose the entire time? Or did Mom’s actions hide me so well, not even my own flesh and blood knew who I was?

My head is still reeling from all of this, and I might still be a little drunk. So many questions. So many revelations to digest and sort out into their neat little boxes so I can make sense of them. I’m desperate to reorder my world, but there’s no time for that.

“What is this thing he put around my neck?” I finger the metal. It’s still cool to the touch.

Arion barely looks at it, as if the sight of it pains him. “It’s called a Prisoner’s Quell.”

“That already doesn’t sound good.”

“That’s because it’s not.”

“What does it do?”

“First, it subdues the magic of the wearer. They’re likely trying to steal your voice from you.”

“And second?”

“ Second ,” he repeats and sighs. “If you go outside of the bounds they’ve deemed acceptable, it will kill you.”

I take a deep breath, then another, but it doesn’t help. My lungs don’t want to expand fully. They’re squeezed tight by panic.

Bran isn’t going to be able to save me from this one. It’s still early morning and he may not even be awake yet. I don’t know how fairy wine affects vampires. I don’t even think that was normal fairy wine.

But more than that…I don’t want him endangering himself. Not until I know what we’re dealing with. This is my problem. Not his. If something were to happen to him because of me and my fae family drama, I would never forgive myself.

“Bran will come eventually,” I say, more a statement than a threat.

“I know he will.” Arion glances at the gate again. The door is still cracked open, hazy light shining through. Maven is nowhere in sight. I could almost pretend he was a fever dream. A mirage. “If your vampire boyfriend is wise, he will stay away.”

“He is wise,” I answer. “But not always rational.”

Arion laughs, but it almost sounds sad. “Love and rationality are two different sides of the same coin. One will always be face down.”

I glance up at him again and find the line of his dark brow furrowed, his gaze distant. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He scowls at me. “I’ve told you before, faeling, you are asking for secrets you have not earned.”

“So tell me how to earn them.”

He pulls back. “Excuse me?”

“Tell me how to earn your secrets.”

I may not have known Arion long, and he may have betrayed me in order to get this gate opened, but I feel like we can come to trust one another.

He is my blood, after all.

I just hope it’s not my mind playing tricks on me, my intuition clouded by the desire to know my fae sibling.

But I have to hold on to something, even if it’s the scant hope that he and I could be on the same side.

“You earn my secrets by earning my trust,” he answers. There is no hint of gruffness to his voice. No abrasiveness in his answer.

“Where do I start?”

He turns to me, arms clasped behind his back. “Just like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

His frown deepens. “Fine. Walk through that doorway and go to the queen and help me fix this mess that our mother began.”

Schooling my features, I try really fucking hard to hide the fact that he’s just given me his first secret. I thought he just wanted to use me to open the gate to go home, but now I realize it’s much more than that.

He was betrayed by our mother. Or at least that’s what he believes. And he wants to make amends for what she did.

I can see the guilt in the fine lines around his eyes, the shame buried in the sharp, rigid way he carries himself.

He does not want her legacy and now he wants me to help prove it.

By using me to open the gate, he’s taken the first step in his own redemption tour.

“Okay,” I tell him. “Let’s go see this Queen of the Summer Court.” I follow the overgrown path to the open doorway. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Just as I’m about to step through to the light, Arion adds, “Yes. If the same woman is still sitting on the Summer Throne, it’s probably best you should know…”

I glance at him over my shoulder, ready to walk through.

“…she was our mother’s greatest rival. And it was she who commanded my hand in killing our mother.”