The fae—if that was what they truly were—kept their promise. They led me through the city streets and into Central Park, never coming more than ten feet near me. They all stood tall and alert, their eyes darting across every shadow and passerby, as if they were on guard against unseen attackers. Maybe they were.

Within Central Park, they led me off the paved pathways that wound through the lush greenery. And my nerves began to falter. One thing I’d always learned growing up. Don’t go anywhere with strangers, and especially don’t go into the park after dark. And here I was doing both of them at once.

“Here we are,” Finn said in a cheery voice as we reached a clearing in a cluster of trees. It was pretty much a perfect circle, blooming red flowers lining the entire perimeter. The grass was perfect, lush, and a bright vivid green that almost glowed against the cloying darkness that surrounded us.

I hovered on the outskirts of the circle of flowers, unsure of what was supposed to happen next. “This is pretty and all, but I don’t understand how it’s supposed to prove that this whole faerie thing is real.”

“Step inside the ring,” Kael said in a soft, quiet voice that sent shivers down my spine.

“You mean, inside the circle of flowers?”

“That’s right,” he said with an eerie smile. “It’s called a Faerie Ring. When you step inside of it, you’ll see the proof that what we’ve told you is real.”

“You do realize that this sounds creepy as hell.” My feet were frozen to the ground. Logically, I knew stepping forward onto a patch of grass was not dangerous in the least. It was just grass. Those were just normal flowers. But my heart was pounding so hard against my chest that I could barely breathe.

Bree’s death still lingered in my mind, and a dull ache had filled my bones. I didn’t know how I could go on. I didn’t know how to move forward. The only thought keeping me moving was the idea of becoming the kind of girl who could hunt one of those monstrous creatures down. Because there was a truth that I’d tried to ignore, one that would make the ache explode into excruciating pain.

The Redcaps were drawn to me, if these four guys were to be believed.

If Bree hadn’t been with me, she wouldn’t have died.

So, I stepped forward onto the grass. For a moment, nothing happened. In the distance, I could still hear the familiar honk of yellow cabs, and I could see the lights of the buildings casting an orange glow on the cloud-studded sky.

But then everything began to change. The world rippled, the ground shook. And suddenly, everything went strangely, eerily silent. Night turned into day, and the dark sky morphed into light. I whirled in a circle, heart stuck in my throat. I was still in the Faerie Ring, in the clearing between the trees, but it was quiet now, so quiet. And everything had gone strangely bright.

It was as if the city had vanished and had been replaced by an endless sea of trees.

The four guys blurred in before me, and I jumped back with a sharp cry. One moment, they hadn’t been there. The next, they were mere inches away.

“Welcome to Otherworld,” Finn said with a wink. “So, now you see we weren’t lying.”

“I don’t understand. Where did everything go?”

“It didn’t go anywhere,” Kael said, voice gruff. Almost as if my very existence irritated him. “Manhattan is still where it’s always been. We’re just not there anymore. The Faerie Ring transported us into Otherworld.”

“Which is the…fae realm.” It sounded so insane that it felt like it wasn’t my own voice that said the words. We’d been transported to a fae realm through a ring of flowers? Maybe I really was going insane. Maybe this entire thing was a hallucination, a result of seeing my only friend in the world killed by a viscous wolf.

I felt a little lightheaded now, a dizziness sweeping through my body. Stumbling forward, I pressed my hand to my mouth and tried to breathe around the panic in my throat.

A strong pair of arms encircled me, saving me from face-planting onto the dewy grass. “Whoa there. Can’t have you passing out on your first night at the Academy.”

I twisted to look up into a pair of sapling green eyes. They were kind but mischievous, and a strange thrill went through me. He’d caught me once before. I was sure of it now. He’d been the one who found me passed out in the alley. And he’d caught me again now. I felt a strange tug toward him, a need to have him arms hold tight just a little bit longer.

My face flushed, and I yanked my gaze away. That was ridiculous. I didn’t want him to hold me up. This guy was a weird stranger who was calling himself a fae, and calling me a….changeling.

“Right.” I pulled myself out of his arms and brushed off invisible specks of dirt, hoping he couldn’t see the red in my cheeks. “So, you’ve convinced me that maybe the fae realm is real, though I don’t know how I’m supposed to know that this is really it. Still. Even if all that is true, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a changeling.”

Finn laughed and shook his head. “Norah, only fae can travel through Faerie Rings. If we want to bring a human here, we have to carry them through ourselves. In our arms. Kind of like how I was just holding you.”

He winked. He actually winked. The redness in my cheeks deepened another shade.

“So, because I was able to travel through by myself…” I trailed off, understanding immediately the implication of his words.

He nodded. “It was your final test. You’re fae. And you’ve got the ears to match, though they’re still growing.”

“But why now?” I couldn’t help but ask. “If I’m really one of you, wouldn’t I have noticed a long time ago?”

“Fae don’t begin to reveal their abilities until their eighteenth birthday. It’s a right of passage and cause for celebration here in Otherworld. For changelings, it’s a bit more complicated. You were lucky that your birthday was a mere few days before the Solstice, which is the day all changelings return to their realm. Otherwise, you would have had to deal with all of this on your own for months, like some others.”

I frowned. “Okay. But why? And why was I swapped at birth? What happened to the human baby? Does my mother know about this? Oh my god.”

My heart stopped as a new realization slammed into me.

“Does that mean…?” I whispered.

Kael gave a curt nod. “Your mother is not of your blood. As for the rest of your questions, all will be answered at Orientation this evening. If you go with Finn, he’ll take you to your apartment where you can settle in while we collect the other two changelings still in Manhattan.”

“The other two? There’s more?”

“Four from Manhattan. Sixteen in total each year,” Finn said, gently taking my elbow in his hand. “The four of us were tasked with collecting the Manhattan recruits this year. One is already at the Academy. She’s sharing your apartment with you. We collected her first, though that might have been a mistake…”

He trailed off, leaving the rest of his sentence unsaid, though I knew the meaning of his silence. If they’d come for me first, Bree wouldn’t be dead. It took everything within me to move my feet forward, out of that circle, and to leave my old life behind. Not that it was much of a life anymore.

* * *

A trail led through the thick forest. As we walked along the soft dirt, I began to notice just how different this place was to home. Specks of silver hung in the air, blowing this way and that along a soft breeze that smelled like sunflowers and the thick hazy musk of summer. Strangely, it was warm but not the same kind of heat that made the New York pavements feel so claustrophobic. This was a much different kind of warmth. One that felt soothing and soft, rather than cloying. There was humidity, but not too much. It was neither dry nor wet. It was, strangely, perfect.

Insects buzzed around our heads, but not any kind of insect that I’d seen before. They were like tiny golden birds with giant translucent wings. One let out a whistle as it darted in front of my face, a sound that was repeated by hundreds of others. It was a like a song. A familiar song. One I felt as if I’d heard before.

“What are those?” I finally asked.

Finn had kept quiet, almost as if he could sense my need for silence. Right now, there was still so much I had to process. And while I had so many questions, I didn’t even know where to start.

“Slyphs,” he said. “In the summer, they fill the forest, singing songs that can sometimes even be heard inside the Academy.”

Another slyph whispered by my ear and whistled a series of high and low notes that made my heart lift in my chest.

“They seem to like you,” he said with a smile. “Maybe you’re not a Winter fae after all. They don’t much like the cold.”

“And you…you’re a Summer fae?”

He let out a low chuckle. “Thank the forest, no. Summers are…hotheaded, to say the least. Fiery, passionate, easily angered. They’re far too dramatic for my taste. No, I’m a Spring fae. Liam back there is a Summer. The one with the red hair.”

I nodded. “I see what you mean. He got a little worked up about the Redcaps.”

“To say the least,” he said, casting me a sideways glance. “And his speech seems to have worked to get you to come to Otherworld. Like I said, maybe we were wrong about your Court.”

“But the Redcaps are attracted to Winter fae, right?” I asked.

“Indeed.” He pursed his lips. “Truthfully, it’s far too early to tell where you’ll belong. It usually takes the first full year to identify a changeling’s Court. Your abilities have not fully come to you yet, so you may demonstrate qualities of several Courts for awhile. Many do.”

“So, this training thing, it takes a year?”

“Oh, no.” He flashed me a smile. “Once we’ve identified your Court, you move on to more specialized training to hone your skills. The Academy is a three-year school. So, you should know that it will be your home for a long while to come.”

“Three years?” I stopped in my tracks. “No one said anything about three years when I agreed to come along. That’s not an option. My mom is stuck there with my step-dad. Bree’s killer is just out there in the streets. I can’t be gone for three years. I’m going back.”

“Ah…” Finn trailed off, giving me a bland smile. “Unfortunately, that’s not an option.”

I took three steps back, fisting my hands. “The hell it isn’t. What are you going to do? Pick me up and carry me to the Academy kicking and screaming?”

He lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug, and then flashed me a pair of perfect white teeth. “If that’s what it takes.”

“You wouldn’t,” I said, taking two more steps back down the path. Finn followed, mimicking my moves with a strange kind of fluid ease. Two more steps back. And then he followed once again, as if we were caught in some sort of magical dance routine.

“You’re really testing me, aren’t you, Norah?” He gave me a wink. “Fine. We’ll do things your way. If you take one more step toward the Faerie Ring, I’ll have no choice but to throw you over my shoulder. Be careful not to doubt me, Norah. I never lie.”

I narrowed my eyes. Surely he wasn’t serious. He couldn’t very well force me to stay here against my will. Then again, he was a fae. They all were, and there was no telling just how good or evil they might be. I mean, they swapped human babies with changelings. That in and of itself was wrong in more ways than I could count. And yet, I’d come with them willingly.

There’s nothing for you back in the human realm, Norah, a soft voice whispered in my ear. His voice. But he hadn’t opened his mouth to speak.

Frowning, I glared at him. Was he throwing thoughts into my mind? Whatever it was, I didn’t like it.

I took a step back.

With a laugh, he rushed toward me at an impossible speed, wrapped his arms around me, and threw me over his shoulder before I could even utter a yelp of surprise. I kicked my legs and pushed at his chest, but it was no use. His grip was iron-tight, and all my flailing did was make him squeeze tighter.

“Fighting this won’t do you any good, but continue to wriggle against me all you want if it makes you feel better.” He let out a light chuckle.

Irritation flickered through me. “It’s not funny.”

“Oh, it’s impossibly funny. And enjoyable, I might add.”

“Let me guess,” I snapped. “While Summer fae are hotheaded and passionate, Spring fae are annoying and irritating and frankly rude.”

He laughed again. “Curious. Mischievous. We are prone to see the lighter side of things than the dark.”

“So, you’re a big jokester,” I grumbled. “Makes sense. Though I really think you should add annoying to the list.”

“Some find us annoying, particularly those who don’t belong in the Spring Court,” he said. “It’s a shame. It would have been fun to have you by my side.”

Have you by my side. His words sent a sharp thrill down my spine. Which was weird. And annoying. Nothing about this fae thrilled me, especially not the thought of him being by my side. Nope. I wanted nothing to do with him. Nothing to do with his beautiful green eyes, his gorgeous glistening skin, that mouth that looked as though it knew how to…

What the hell, Norah?

“So, what about the others? What are they like?” I asked, desperate to change the subject, though there was a part of me that was also desperate to know what he meant.

“Rourke, the Autumn fae, is…strange, as I’m sure you’ve gathered. Strong, devious, fixated on darkness.” He cleared his throat. “People assume that’s how the Winter Court fae would be, but Autumn is the season when the leaves pack up and die.”

“Well, then what are Winter fae like?” I asked. “I mean, he seemed a little unnerving, I guess, but you all do. Sorry.”

He laughed again. “Trust me. We know how we come across to those who have spent their entire lives in the human realm. Kael is…sensible, I guess you could say. He focuses more on logic than on emotions, so he comes across as cold and unfeeling. He doesn’t have much patience for frivolous things.”

I shivered, remembering how annoyed he’d come across when he’d asked to see my ears. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“The opposite of Summer.”

We fell silent after that. The buzz of the thick forest rose up around us, sounds of insects and birds and rustling leaves. It was a nice sound, one I felt could lull me to sleep if I wasn’t careful. Maybe I really was part of the Summer Court. At the thought, I almost laughed out loud. How quickly the strangeness of this world and these people had begun to fade. Already I was beginning to feel as if I’d stepped out of a dream and into the true reality of my world.

And it gave me a sudden burst of bravery.

“So about that whole ‘stand by my side’ thing,” I started to say just as Finn came to an abrupt stop and deftly lowered me to my feet.

“Ah, here we are.” He dusted off his hands and grinned. “Sorry. It’s probably best if the other students aren’t introduced to you by me throwing you inside the Academy. Start off with a good impression, if you know what I mean.”

My heart began to thunder in my chest. The whole training to fight monsters thing had drawn me here, but I hadn’t really considered that I’d be training with other people. High school had never really been a pleasant experience for me. I’d been the weird girl, the one no one really liked. Sometimes, I’d made friends, but they’d only stuck around until they realized that I just wasn’t like other people.

The thought of going straight back into a school atmosphere? Well, it wasn’t making me excited, to say the least. I’d never planned on going to college. I thought school was in my past. Not in my future.

“I know what you’re thinking. Want to know how?” He grinned. “Because every single changeling who has come here has thought the same thing. You didn’t enjoy school. You didn’t have many friends. You got bullied, made fun of. Don’t worry. Everyone here has been through the same as you. You’ll fit right in.”

“If I try not to go inside, you’ll just sling me over your shoulder again,” I said. “Won’t you?”

He cracked a grin. “See, you’re catching on already.”