I ran. I didn’t know where I was going, but I ran. At first, I flew down the streets with a sense of determination and purpose. Get away from the cops. But as the minutes ticked by and the pulsing red lights faded into the background, my feet began to falter as a horrifying realization washed over me.

I’d just run from the cops. They’d found me at a murder scene, and I’d done the worst thing in the world I could do.

With my heart constricting inside my chest, I swerved into the nearest alley and ducked behind a dumpster. Sobs heaved from my body, my mind engulfed by grief and fear. Bree was gone. She’d been killed right before my eyes, and I hadn’t been able to do a thing. And our final conversation had been so fraught with barely contained anger.

“We’re sorry about what happened to your friend,” came a foreign voice.

“We didn’t realize another Redcap was tracking you, or we would have taken care of it.” But that voice…that was the one from my dreams.

I looked up, peering through my tears to find the four strange guys standing before me. The ones from the club. The ones from the theatre. The ones who had battled the monster. But their fighting hadn’t helped. Because another monster had come along and killed my friend.

“Who are you?” I asked in a harsh whisper. “Why are you following me? And what the hell was that thing?”

“That’s a lot of questions to explain in one conversation,” the golden one said. “It would be easiest if you just came with us. I’m Rourke, and this is Liam, Kael, and Finn.”

“Came with you?” I fisted my hands. “Are you insane? After what just happened, do you really think I’m going to go with four random strangers who cornered me in a dark alley?”

Rourke frowned, and my eyes caught on his eyes. They were a deep golden color that matched his hair. There was something strange about him, more so than the others. He reminded me of dry cracking trees and the smell of fresh dirt. He was mesmerizing, a fact that I found more than a little annoying. Right now, I needed to get answers.

“I suppose that means you don’t remember your little tumble yesterday,” Finn said in that quiet, curious voice of his. He was like the opposite of the Rourke. His eyes were a sapling green, and everything about him seemed vibrant, as if death and despair were foreign things to him.

The other two hadn’t spoken, but I couldn’t help but stare at them, too. The one from the club’s eyes were still that strange endless black, his dark hair curling around pointed ears. I sucked in a sharp breath when I finally registered what I’d seen. Yes, his ears were very much pointed. Like…what mine were becoming.

I looked to the next, the fourth, the last. He was alight, his eyes a bonfire red with hair that matched. I’d never seen anything like him before. Everything about his presence was full and commanding, the very opposite of soft and weak. He looked like someone who you didn’t want to get in the way of…of course, none of them seemed particularly meek.

“I need to know what’s happening,” I finally said. “What killed Bree? Please tell me what’s going on.”

My voice cracked as tears refilled my eyes. The shock of her death was beginning to wear off, and with that came emotions I didn’t know how I could handle. My entire body ached, as if a part of it had been ripped from my guts and thrown all over the pavement. I couldn’t imagine life without her. I couldn’t imagine that smile as bright as the sun never brightening up the world. She had been a star amongst a world full of darkness, and now she would no longer shine.

“Shit,” Liam muttered. “She’s crying again. I don’t know what to do with crying girls.”

“Here’s a thought, Liam. Be a little more sensitive. Understand that she just saw her best friend get killed by a Redcap.”

Sniffling, I glanced up. “You said that before. A Redcap. What is that?”

The guys exchanged gazes before Rourke stepped forward. Suddenly, my nose filled with the scent of forest mushrooms, rotting leaves, and dirt. So much dirt. Why would someone smell like that? I glanced at his ears again, my eyes locked on the sharp points. A strange thought was beginning to sprout in my brain, but I didn’t dare let myself believe it.

I’d heard stories growing up. Anyone who had been born in the city had. Legends of the fae folk. Mysterious sightings in Central Park at dusk and dawn. Men and women who were not men but something more. Something other. Of course, they had only ever been stories with no more realism than Little Red Riding Hood. But I couldn’t help but make connections between those stories and these four boys.

No, not boys, but not men either. They were fresh-faced and young, probably around twenty, but they held a strange kind of strength and power that made them appear older than that.

As if they were ancient, as if they weren’t really men at all.

Finn was finally the one to speak up. “What attacked your friend was a Redcap. What attacked the man at the theatre where you work was a Redcap. Though, I don’t believe they were the same one. It seems they are drawn to you, and they’re coming out of the woodwork.”

My heart thumped hard. “But what are they? Some kind of wolf? And why would they be attracted to me?”

The guys exchanged glances again. Clearly, there were things about these Redcaps that they didn’t want to tell me. They were hiding something, and I was determined to find out what. One of those things just killed my oldest friend in the world, and I was barely able to concentrate on the conversation with the grief consuming my mind. I needed to know what the hell was going on.

“We should probably give her some more details or she’s not going to come with us willingly,” Finn said.

Rourke pursed his lips and frowned. “That’s not typically how we do things, and we still need to collect the other two.”

Kael spoke, ignoring the others. “Long story short, Norah. You’re a changeling, a fae who was swapped at birth with a human child. Now that it’s the Summer Solstice of your eighteenth year, it’s time for you to return to the faerie realm, Otherworld, and train at the academy to learn how to use your various…gifts. You’ll belong to one of four courts, but we won’t know which until we test your abilities. That said, Redcaps are typically drawn to Winter fae, like me.”

I gaped at him, his words tumbling over each other in my head. A changeling swapped at birth. A fae. A realm where they expected me to go. None of this was logical. None of it could be real. But words from the stories also tumbled through my brain, melting together with what he had said. The legends had talked of this, too. Of children stolen from their cribs to replaced with fae young.

But how could this be true? How could magic be real? And how the hell could I, of all people, be one of them?

“You do realize this sounds crazy,” was the only thing I could say.

Kael lifted his shoulder in a slight shrug. “Perhaps. But tell me, deep down inside, do you not sense this as the truth? Are you anything like your mother? Have you always felt as though you were an outsider? You’ve seen things, felt things, that no one else could. The Redcaps, your ears. It’s really not difficult to see the truth if you just open your eyes to it.”

“There must be some other explanation.”

“Usually it’s much easier to introduce a changeling to our world, but you’ve made it a little difficult.” Kael sighed. “Normally we just take you straight to the Faerie Ring, so you can see it for yourself.”

Finn nodded. “Why don’t you come with us, and we can show you some proof.”

I shook my head, crossed my arms over my chest, and took a step back. “I’m not going anywhere with you. My best friend was just brutally murdered, right in front of me, and you four strange stalkers, who just happened to be there, I have to add, expect me to just go along with you? When you’re spouting nonsense about faeries?”

Rourke scowled, and Kael merely let out a sigh. It was the one with the flaming red hair who stepped forward, his eyes sparking with a dangerous kind of fire. One, I had to admit, made my breath get caught in my throat. His eyes made me feel as though he could see right into my soul.

“Look, I know what you’re feeling. You’re devastated. You’re confused. And you’re angry. You’re so angry about what happened to your friend that you wish you could punch that asshole Redcap right in the throat. Am I right?” He crossed his arms over his muscular chest and raised an eyebrow.

My heart thumped. He was right. A hot anger burned through me, nothing like I’d ever felt before. The only times I’d ever come close was when my step-dad turned his rage toward my mother.

I nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Use that anger to do what you need to do. If you come with us and train at Otherworld Academy, you can learn to fight these Redcaps. We’ll give you all the skills you need. Hell, there’s even a team of Hunters you can join once your Court has been assigned to you. You can fight these things. You could even find the creature who killed your friend.”

My heart had been racing before, but it was going at light speed now.

“My mom…”

“Your mother is fine,” Liam said. “We’ve been keeping an eye on things. And don’t forget that you’ll learn how to stand up to that asshole step-dad of yours, too, if you’re ever inclined to return after your training.”

“I do find it necessary to add that you’re now wanted for murder,” Kael said in an icy voice. “You have no job or home. If you stay here in the human realm, your life will turn to ash.”

“Okay, we don’t need to pile it on top of her, guys,” Finn said. “She’s had a rough few days. Have a little heart.”

“She needs to understand the gravity of her situation,” Kael replied. “We’ve been protecting her for the past few days, but we can’t stay in Manhattan after tonight. She’ll be on her own.”

On her own.

I shivered, despite myself. I’d had a sneaking suspicion that they’d been following me, watching me, but I hadn’t known what that had truly meant. And as insane as it sounded, I knew deep down in my bones that it was the truth. They’d tried to keep me out of danger, but the danger had only kept following me around. And I couldn’t fight those monsters, those Redcaps, on my own. And I’d certainly never be able to make Bree’s death right unless I learned to fight back.

“Okay,” I said after taking in a long, deep breath. “I’m not sure I completely believe you. This still all sounds totally insane. But I’ll come with you to see your proof, if you have it. You have to keep your distance though. The second one of you comes too close, I’m gone.”

Finn pursed his lips in amusement. “She thinks she can outrun us.”

I opened my mouth to let out a retort, but Rourke held up his hand and shot Finn a sharp look. “Agreed. We’ll keep a reasonable distance.”

For a moment, I hesitated. I was so torn. On the one hand, it seemed impossibly stupid and dangerous to go with these four guys. On the other hand, I had no idea what other choice I had. Because they were right. I’d run from the cops. Monsters were stalking my every move, my step-dad never wanted me to step foot in my apartment again, and I had no job. No money. No nothing.

All I had was myself, someone who might end up being the impossible: a changeling fae.

I had to go to Otherworld. I just had to hope this all wasn’t some sort of trick. I had to hope it was real.