My life at the Academy went from bad to worse after that. Finn, Liam, Rourke, and Kael seemed to think my life was in danger at every turn, and I was forbidden from stepping outside of the Academy walls. That included restricting me from participating in Watch Duty, something I would have once thought I wanted, but I hated that I could no longer breathe in the fresh air of summer and smell the wildflowers that dotted the campus grounds.

Instead, Kael had taken it upon himself to add some in-depth one-on-one training to my curricula, which meant I spent an extra four hours a day doing coursework. He seemed to think it was the only way to keep me alive, a fact that did little to calm my fears.

Tonight, we were holed up inside the Academy library. It was almost midnight, and my eyelids were heavier than a Redcap’s paw. He was having me recite, from memory, the various types of shrubbery found in the Winter Court’s lands.

“There’s the Winter Moonlight,” I said, chin on fisted hand. “It’s a white flower that turns to pink toward the end of winter.”

“Wrong.” He tapped a finger against the the bandage on his arm, something he’d had only the past several days. I’d been dying to ask him how he got it, but Kael wasn’t the most forthcoming fae I’d met. “It’s called the Winter Moonbeam. Come on, Norah. This isn’t rocket science. You can do better than this.”

“I’m exhausted,” I said, frowning at him. “And I don’t see how this is at all relevant for fighting Redcaps.”

He let out an irritated sigh. “Because you need to understand and know your world before you start swinging swords around.”

“Why are you even helping me?” I fisted my hands and leaned forward. “You act like being in my presence is the most annoying thing in the world. Like you’d rather be anywhere else than training me.”

“You’re just not what I expected.”

“Gee, thanks.” I rolled my eyes. “You know what? Neither are you. So, I guess you’re stuck with me.”

“At least I am trying to prepare you to join my Court,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “You? You act as though you’d rather be frolicking around with Liam in the woods.”

“Maybe that’s because you left me for dead on a cliff with nothing but a bow and arrow I clearly can’t handle.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “Of course, maybe that’s what you wanted. That way you wouldn’t be stuck with a mate you don’t want.”

“This is tedious.” He pushed back his chair and stalked over to the window, peering out into the darkness of summer midnight. His whole body was tense, the back of his neck rippling underneath the soft glow of the library lamps. Of all four of my instructors, Kael had been the hardest to get to know. He was so cold and distant, much more so than the other Winter fae who studied or instructed at the Academy. And it was as if he held all of it against me, in particular.

It seemed like it was more than just the fact I was a lot different than what he’d wanted.

After a moment of strained silence, Kael let out a bitter sigh. “The reason I want you to study the plants is because knowing them may come in handy one day. Winter Moonbeam looks a lot like another flower, one that can heal a Redcap bite wound if used quickly enough.” He looked over his shoulder and met my eye with a pained expression. “That one is called Winter Starlight, and it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the two flowers unless they are studied very closely.”

I swallowed hard, my head ringing at his words. “So, it could have saved Bree?”

“Perhaps.” He pursed his lips. “Perhaps not. Some wounds are too deep and too fatal, but others are...”

He trailed off as he clenched his hands around the window ledge. That was strange. Had he lost someone to the Redcaps? Had he tried to save them but been too late? They were questions I was dying to ask, but I never would. Not with him. He’d only brush me aside like an irritating fly that wouldn’t stop buzzing around his head.

And as much as I hated myself for it, I felt a small piece of my heart soften towards him. But only a small one. Because he was still a jerk.

“Well, can you show me then, please?” I asked. “If there’s something out there that can help save someone who gets attacked, I want to know what it is. Hell, I want to know everything I can about the Redcaps.”

With a nod, he strode back over to the table and dropped into the chair. His dark eyes met mine, and for a moment, my breath caught. He no longer looked as though he couldn’t stand the sight of me. He almost looked as if...as if the raw depths of his soul were yearning to make me see something no one else could. But then he blinked and sat back.

“As with everything, there’s a lot you don’t yet know about the Redcaps.” He held up a hand when I began to ask what. “Don’t worry. I’m going to fill you in, but there’s a lot to learn. We’re going to continue with the basics. How to fight them. Then, we’ll get into exactly who and what they are, and why it’s essential to prevent them from taking more lives. For the future of Otherworld.

* * *

I took the books back to my apartment. Sophia’s door was ajar, and her light snore drifted toward me while I tiptoed past the sofa and into my bedroom. Kael had taken me through plant after plant for the entire next hour, pointing out the various properties of each. I had to admit, my eyelids hadn’t been as quite as heavy as before, mostly because I finally understood the importance of what he was trying to teach me.

There was a plant out there that could cure a Redcap bite. A flower that could save someone’s life.

I didn’t understand the how or why of it, but a lot of things about Otherworld didn’t make sense.

After changing into sweats and a tank top, I settled into bed with the books, scanning the words until my eyelids finally drifted shut. I wasn’t sure how long I sat there like that until a long, sharp screech whispered through my open window. Immediately, I was on my feet, eyes wild and heart pounding madly in my chest.

The curtains fluttered in the soft summer breeze, bringing with it the stench of sweat and blood. And then a long, sharp claw slid onto the window-frame, hooking around the wood.

I stumbled back, wildly casting around my eyes for anything I could use as a weapon. A broom handle. A kitchen knife. Anything at all.

But I only had me.

Another claw hooked around the frame, and I watched in horror as a Redcap slid through the billowing curtains, landing heavily on the hardwood floor of my room. My heart thundered in my ears as the dark creature, covered in mounds of grimy black fur, cocked its head and stared at me.

Those eyes, I thought as I stumbled back another step. They were a rich, deep blue. So different than the black eyes of the Redcap I’d fought on the cliff. For a moment, I almost forgot I was facing off against the creature of my nightmares with nothing but my fists. There was something so familiar about those eyes. And they looked so horribly, horribly sad.

The creature began to shudder, its dark mangy fur trembling in the night air. For a moment, I thought it was a strange form of pre-attack, like it was readying itself to launch my way with its claws. But then something different began to happen. The fur transformed, the thick darkness of it melting away to reveal pale skin.

The fangs began to shorten, and the claws disappeared into long and slender fingers. I stumbled back, barely believing my eyes. For the first time since I’d arrived in Otherworld, I suddenly wondered if I was going crazy again. Because the beast was melting away, to reveal a form that was very much human.

A human that looked a whole lot like...

A girl, one with long dark curling hair that was matted around a pixie face. The girl glanced up at me from where she heaved deep breaths, clutching the ground as her entire body trembled. Those deep blue eyes locked on my face, and everything within me exploded at the sight.

I stumbled back, eyes wide, my hands clutching frantically at my throat.

“Bree?” My voice was small and timid. My mind was unbelieving.

“Oh, Norah,” she said with sob. And when I heard my best friend’s familiar voice, all I could do was fall to my knees and weep. I crawled toward her and took her dirt-painted face in my hands, searching those familiar eyes for the truth.

“Is it really you?” I asked as the tears streamed down my face. “I thought you were dead. That thing. It killed you. How are you here? How are you alive?”

And why did you look like one of the monsters two seconds ago?

She shuddered, her body soaked in sweat. In an instant, I ripped the sheet off my bed and draped it around her shoulders. Her body felt like ice. I stayed there silent next to her while her chest heaved, waiting until she felt as if she could speak.

Finally, she said, “When that thing attacked me, it turned me into one of them. I’m a Redcap now, Norah. That’s how I’m here. And it’s how I’m alive.”

With a deep breath, I shook my head, even though I’d seen her transform right in front of my eyes. “That can’t be right. It must be something else. Some kind of weird magic that makes you look like one.”

“No,” she breathed as she slowly lifted her eyes to meet mine. “And it’s worse than you think.”

“What do you mean?” My heart hammered hard. I couldn’t even wrap my head around Bree being alive, much less the fact that she was now one of the very monsters I’d been training to fight. She was Bree. My best friend. My family. And now she was here. Alive and well, though a hell of a lot worse for wear. All I wanted to do was hug her tight and wipe away the tears, but there was a cloud of dread hanging over our reunion.

“I followed you through the Faerie Ring,” she began. “At first, I was going to try to talk to you, but you’re constantly surrounded by those four fae who would kill me in a heartbeat if they saw me.”

Frowning, I shook my head. “They wouldn’t.”

“Yes, they would,” she said in a harsh voice, wrapping the sheet tighter around her shoulders. “To them, I’m a Redcap. A thing to be hunted and killed, even though they are the ones who created them in the first place.”

Dread dripped down my spine. “That can’t be right.”

“Oh, it is,” she said bitterly. “When I realized I couldn’t get to you, I went in search of other answers. I ended up stumbling on a pack of Redcaps, ones who can still change back into humans like I can. Have they taught you where the wolves come from yet? Have they told you what happens to the human babies they steal?”

My heart jumped around in my chest. Because I knew without a doubt that I would not like whatever would come next. These had been questions I’d been asking. Questions that had been expertly dodged for days. The Academy didn’t yet want the recruits to know the truth about the human changelings, a fact that had been niggling at me since I’d arrived. And yet, I’d blindly accepted it. The vague answers. The dodges. The carefully changed conversations.

“Tell me, Bree.”

She winced and placed a trembling hand on her neck. Deep red scars crisscrossed her skin. The place where the Redcap had slashed her with its massive claws.

“The pack of Redcaps told me that the humans who are brought to Otherworld are corrupted by the magic and the power here. Humans weren’t built for this world. So, they change. Into something dark, something vicious. Something part-fae themselves. They become these monsters.” She took a deep breath. “And then they’re let loose in the human realm, spreading their disease with a swipe of their claws.”

“No,” I whispered, eyes full of burning tears. “They must have been wrong. The fae wouldn’t do something like that.”

Or would they? I’d only been here a couple of weeks and already I’d come face-to-face with how devious, dangerous, and dark they could be.

“It’s part of their Tithe to the demon realm,” Bree continued. “In exchange for the demons leaving Otherworld alone, the fae create sixteen Redcaps every year. On the Summer Solstice, they’re sent to prey on humans.”

With a shuddering breath, I stood the floor and began to pace across the hardwood. As happy as I was to see Bree, the news she brought me was worse than anything I could have imagined on my own. To hear that the fae were behind this...

“But they have a team specifically formed to fight the Redcaps. Why would they—”

“The Tithe only says they have to return the monsters to the human realm. It doesn’t say they can’t kill them after they do. And don’t forget that it’s more than just the human changelings who get transformed. Any innocent who comes into contact with one, well...look at me. I got attacked, and now I’m one, too. And there are hundreds of us. Some have come back to Otherworld, like me.”

“Hundreds,” I repeated before I dropped to my knees in front of her. “But Bree, you seem so...”

“Normal?” She let out a bitter laugh. “I’m far from it. When I’m in my wolf form, all I can see and smell is blood. I haven’t killed anyone though. Not yet anyway.”

That last bit she muttered so softly that I almost didn’t hear her.

Her hand snatched my wrist, and her fingernails sunk into my skin. So hard that my veins began to pulse. “Not all of them are able to control themselves as well as I can, Norah. They’re more beast than human. I came here to warn you. You need to learn how to fight. One day, they’re going to come for you.”

Soft footsteps thudded on the living room floor, and Bree’s body went razor sharp. She stood, letting the sheet pool around her feet. Slowly, she backed up to the window, her eyes so wide that they reminded me of twin full moons.

“Norah?” Sophia called out. “Who are you talking to?”

“Go,” I whispered furiously, my gaze locked on Bree’s waxen face. “If you’re right about all of this, you need to get out of here.”

“You’re not safe here, Norah,” she hissed back.

“I’m safe enough.” In two quick strides, I crossed the room and took Bree’s arms tight in my hands. She was so solid, so real. And I had to make sure she stayed that way. “I don’t know what they’ll do if they find you in here, and I don’t aim to find out. There’s a few small villages on the edge of the Autumn woods. Go there. Hide. Steal food when you need it. I may be able to fix this, but I need some time.”

A soft knock sounded on my door.

Bree swallowed hard and nodded. She backed up to the window and disappeared behind the billowing curtain just as Sophia cracked open my door. I stayed there, gazing outside with my back turned her way. My heart trembled, but I suddenly felt a clarity of mind that calmed the frantic beat in my chest.

Bree was alive. She might be in some serious trouble, but she was alive.

“Norah?” Sophia’s voice held a frown. “What are you doing? Is someone out there?”

I took a moment to ready myself, but then I turned her way with an expression of intense weariness painted on my face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. Kael has me learning about some plants, and I have to recite a bunch of stuff out loud to him tomorrow. I was just practicing.”

She scrunched up her face, her eyes flicking to the discarded bedsheet on the floor. “I could have sworn I heard another voice in here. A girl.”

I laughed and shrugged. “Must have just been me talking to myself. I think I’m so tired I’m getting delirious.”

“Okay.” A pause. “You should get some sleep. We have History of Fae in the morning. It’s so dull that you’re going to nod off if you’re this tired.”

“You’re right. I should get some sleep,” I said with a nod. “Probably a bad idea to burn out during my first month here.”

With a smile, she moved back to the door but hesitated before she left my room. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.”

And I was. For the first time since I arrived at Otherworld Academy, I felt as if I knew exactly what I needed to do. I would no longer flail around, seeking answers to questions I didn’t even know I was asking. I would find a way to cure Bree, even if it meant lying to every single person here. And if any Redcaps came at me? I’d be ready.