“Where have you been?” Sophia hissed when I took my seat next to her in our History of the Fae class. “You keep disappearing all the time, and people keep asking me where you are. I don’t want to get you in trouble, but there’s only so long I can make up excuses.”

“Sorry,” I said with a wince. “There’s been a lot going on. Kael and Liam have been giving me some extra training since I pretty much suck at everything. Guess they think I’ll be useless if I don’t get any help.”

I hated lying to Sophia. She’d been nothing but good to me since we’d met. She was always there to listen to me complain about Watch Duty, she’d never judged me once for my terrible skills, and she didn’t laugh when I fell flat on my face when I tried something new. And now I was repaying her by keeping secrets to myself. Truth was, I was just too scared to tell anyone what was going on. The entire Academy hated the Redcaps, and half the new recruits were hoping to join the Hunters when they graduated. If any of them knew I was trying to help one of the ‘monsters’...well, I didn’t think it would go down very well.

She frowned. “That’s strange, since Liam was one of the people who was asking me where you’d gone.”

“Right.” A pause. “Well, he and Kael aren’t great at letting each other know what’s going on.”

What a lame excuse. If I were her, I’d see straight through it.

Luckily, Finn saved me from having to come up with more nonsense to throw at her.

He strode to the front of the class, and his eyes met mine for a long moment. They sparked with something....dangerous almost. Frowning, I made a question with my eyes, but his gaze merely intensified. What was going on?

When he reached the front of the class, he dropped a heavy book on the table where it fell with a thump so loud that it made the entire class fall into an eerie hush. And then he smiled that devilish smile of his before shoving the book straight into the trash can beside his desk.

“If you look at your syllabus, you’ll see that we were scheduled to discuss the lineage of Gregor the Giant, but that’s pure nonsense. We don’t need to talk about that today.” He flicked his eyes toward me, and then away again. “Instead, we’re going to cover a topic that I believe many of you are very interested in. Marin, the Queen of Fae who was assassinated by the Autumn Court.”

Every single changeling in the room sat up straighter, including me. I’d been begging to hear this story. I’d even searched the library for information on her. If there’d ever been any books about her reign, they’d been removed.

He smiled, and his perfect teeth sparkled underneath the glow of the overhead lights. “That’s what I thought. You see, Marin is cloaked in a bit of mystery here at the Academy. And elsewhere in Otherworld, if you’re too young to have been there yourself. Luckily for all of you, I was alive during those times. I was even present at the event where she was assassinated.”

I glanced at Sophia and raised my eyebrows. She looked just as intrigued as I felt.

Finn continued. “You see, each year there is an Royals Ball to commemorate the new political structure of Otherworld. Before Marin died, there were Four Courts, but each of them was ruled by a Lord and a Lady. They were able to make small decisions for their fae, but at the end of the day, Marin had the last word. The Autumn Court yearned for sovereignty. So, they took it.”

I shook my head and leaned forward on my elbows just as Sophia raised her hand with a question. “Why did that give the Courts sovereignty? Surely if she died, her son or her daughter would take over instead? Or another family member? At least that’s how it works in the human world.”

“Indeed it does,” Finn said with a nod. “But Marin had no sons or daughters. She only had her harem, and they were assassinated as well. That left no living heir, which meant there was a vacuum of power. Something had to fill it, and the Autumn Court took the opportunity to present their version of what royals should look like. The Lords and Ladies became Queens and Kings, and here we are.”

Griff’s hand shot up in the air. “Did you say harem? Like, as in an actual harem?”

Finn’s eyes twinkled as he laughed. “Oh yes. Marin, the Queen of Fae had four husbands, one each from all the seasons. She was blessed with powers from Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, and so she decided that she would never be happy without all of her men by her side.”

My blood roared in my ears, and the entire classroom melted away. There was only Finn and me, and his words about Queen Marin. She’d had four mates. Four of them. One from each of the seasons. And no one had stopped her?

Four mates. Four husbands.

It sounded too good to be true.

“Norah, is there something wrong?” Finn’s laughing voice broke through my thoughts. Everyone in the room was staring at me. I realized that I’d been sitting open-mouthed with my hand pressed to my boiling neck. My cheeks had filled with heat, which no doubt meant I was blushing up a storm.

All because I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. Marin and her four mates.

“I guess I’m just surprised,” I said in a voice that sounded more like a squeak. “In the human realm, that kind of thing isn’t really...ideal.”

“Ideal?” Lila giggled. “Sounds pretty ideal to me. Can you imagine having four swoony men at your beck and call every day and night?”

Oh yes. I could imagine it very well. It seemed like the perfect fantasy come to life.

“Sounds awful to me,” Griff said with a frown. “You’d have to share your girl with three other guys?”

I was looking at Griff when he said that, but I suddenly felt as though I was being watched. My breath caught, and I slid my gaze away, only to find Finn’s sparkling eyes staring my way.

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind sharing,” he said with a wink. “If another female fae just as fierce, as powerful, and as breathtaking as Queen Marin came along. In fact, I dare say there’s a woman out there who’s even better.”

My eyes nearly popped out of my head at that. Who did he mean? His gaze was locked on my face, but surely he didn’t mean me. I was a first-year changeling recruit who could barely dismount a horse without falling flat on her face.

But I didn’t get to find out because the bell rang, signalling the end of the class. And Finn was out the door before the rest of us could budge an inch.

* * *

After everything that had happened, I wasn’t entirely certain that Kael would be waiting for me in the library tonight. But when I pushed open the door, I found that not only was he there, as always, so were Liam, Finn, and Rourke.

At the sight of Liam, I couldn’t keep my face from turning five darker shades of red. We hadn’t spoken since our shared kiss in the stables, and I had no idea what he thought of the whole thing. The Head Instructor had taken him away for some kind of scolding, and I didn’t even want to imagine what he must have said to her about us.

“What are you all doing here?” I asked by way of greeting. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like their answer.

“We need to talk to you about Bree,” Rourke said in a matter-of-fact tone that betrayed none of what they felt about the matter. Did they want me to stop looking for her? Did they want to hunt her down themselves? Liam had heard what the Head Instructor had said. Were they now tasked with trying to kill my friend before I’d had a chance to heal her?

“Speaking of that,” I said, narrowing my eyes as I turned to Kael. “I can’t believe you told them.”

“You didn’t leave me much of a choice after you ran off to find Bree by yourself,” Kael said, his voice holding none of the warmth it had in that cave we’d shared that night. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s for the best. These three are trustworthy. All they want to do is keep you safe.”

With a heavy sigh, I dropped down into one of the chairs, all the fight draining out of me. “I know they’re trustworthy. You all are. It doesn’t matter though. I told Bree to hide out in the Autumn woods, but they chased her out of there several days ago. I have no idea where she is now. She could be anywhere in Otherworld.”

Rourke pursed his lips. “Unlikely. If you were scared and on the run, where would you go?”

“Me?” I raised my eyebrows. “I’d...well, I’d probably go home. Or near home, anyway. I wouldn’t want to be roaming around in a place I didn’t know very well.”

“Exactly,” Rourke gave a nod. “Which means she’s probably sticking close to the Academy. You’re here, the only familiar thing in these strange lands. After the ball, I’ll send a few trusted scouts out to look for her. We can then take her someplace safe, and administer that plant.”

“The ball?” I looked from Rourke to Finn. “What ball?”

“The annual Royals Ball,” he said with a quirk of his lips. “I mentioned it today in class, or were you too distracted by all my talk of harems to pay attention to that part?”

My cheeks flamed. In fact, he was right. I had been too distracted to remember much else. My mind kept replaying the facts. At one time, a female fae had mated with four males. She’d had a connection with each of them, just like I did with my four instructors. If only I could have been in her position. If only I didn’t have to end up with only one. Because now that I had the idea in my head, I truly wanted them all.

“You shouldn’t have taught that today,” Kael said with a sharp glance in Finn’s direction. “When Alwyn finds out, she’s going to be pretty angry. Queen Marin is not a topic we’re supposed to be teaching.”

“She’s an important topic,” Finn countered. “What happened during her reign matters greatly to who and what we’ve become now.”

“I still don’t understand what’s going on with this ball.” I stood, interrupting their back-and-forth. They all sure liked to bicker a lot, though I could tell it was done in a lighthearted way. A brotherly sort of banter without the hard feelings of a true feud. “Why does it mean we can’t try to find Bree now?”

“The Royals Ball is this weekend, Norah,” Rourke said. “Which you’d know about if you weren’t dashing off to the stables every day.”

He cut Liam a look, who merely smirked in response. He must have told them then. Great.

“Each Court sends representatives to attend the Academy’s event. The Lords and Ladies won’t come, of course, but some lesser Royals will attend.” Kael shook his head and grimaced. “That means there will be extra guards roaming the grounds. If any of them spotted a Redcap, they’d kill it in a heartbeat. We can’t risk going for Bree while they’re here.”

I puffed out a frustrated sigh and sunk back into the chair. I hated waiting. Bree needed my help, and the clock was ticking. And this stupid ball was only going to delay what shouldn’t be delayed any longer.

“Don’t look so glum, Norah,” Finn said, cocking his head to the side. “I thought you’d be excited about the ball. It’s your first chance to dance in Otherworld, and it’ll be nothing like you’ve ever danced before.”