Scarlett sensed Raith’s bad mood the moment he entered the room. Even before she could see him, she felt something was off. Ever since she’d entered Faerie, things had felt different. She’d sensed the emotion of others on multiple occasions, but this was something else. Something stronger. It was as if Raith’s mood was her mood, too. Like they were connected, two parts of a whole.

“Okay, time to teach the mortal to fight,” Jaser said. “This should be fun.”

When Scarlett first saw Jaser, she nearly ran the other way. He had a fierceness to him that intimidated her. Then he said, “Hey, human.”

She relaxed. Something about his nonchalance assured her he was okay. A nice change to the stares of all the other fae.

Now that Raith was there, they got started on training.

“So, what combat experience do you have?” Jaser asked Scarlett.

“Um, none.” Unless they counted the fistfight she got into in third grade because a bully made fun of Natalie’s haircut. The cut was awful, but that didn’t give him the right to embarrass her, so Scarlett tackled him on the playground. She was clearly winning when a teacher pulled them apart and she got suspended for three days. Her mom was not very happy when she picked her up from school, but when Scarlett told her why she got in the fight, she lightened up. Thankfully, she’d been on her medication then. Otherwise, who knew how she would have reacted.

“Okay, so a beginner.” Jaser turned to the wall of weapons. “Let’s start with a staff.” He pulled it from the wall and chucked it to Scarlett.

She caught it.

“She can catch, that’s a start,” Jaser joked.

It was a simple wooden staff. Scarlett held it awkwardly, not sure what she should do.

Jaser grabbed a fancier looking staff from the wall. It was metal with a white orb in its center. When he gripped the staff, the orb lit up orange. “Step one, hold it firmly in front of yourself.”

Scarlett did as he said. He hit his staff with hers. Her staff flinched toward her, but only a little.

“Good.” Jaser swung again, this time lower.

Scarlett moved the staff to meet his hit.

Jaser looked at Raith. “Well, if you’re going to have a human as your second, this one has good reflexes.” He winked at Scarlett.

Jaser refereed to Scarlett as a human, but there was no malice to the tone of his tongue. Both Cade and Raith had treated Scarlett like she was more than something to be spit on, which was the vibe she got from the other fae in Faerie, but the brothers seemed possessive of her. Jaser’s attitude toward her was different—like she was a friend.

Jaser continued, “Since we only have a week to prepare, I think we should stick to the staff. It will be less threatening to Cade and Poppy, so they’ll feel less pressure to kill you.”

“That’s a plus,” Scarlett said, half-serious, half-jokingly.

“I agree,” Raith said. It was the first thing he’d said in a while. Scarlett felt sadness from the bond. Something was on his mind. Either Jaser didn’t notice, or didn’t care, because his focus was solely on Scarlett.

Jaser continued to show Scarlett defensive moves with the staff—how to block from one attack to the next. Even she was pleasantly surprised at how well she defended herself. She was sure Jaser was going easy on her, but still. She was far better at it than she could have hoped for.

“Okay, now you take this one, and I’ll grab a sword,” Jaser said. “It has fae magic in it which won’t do you much good, but a wooden one would do a piss poor job against a blade.”

Scarlett switched staffs. When she took the metal staff in her hand, the orb glowed purple.

“What in the hell?” Jaser said. “Raith, look.”

Raith glanced at the staff in Scarlett’s hand. “Well, look at that.”

“What?” Scarlett asked. She remembered when the dagger had glowed when she was here with Cade. She was careful not to let him see then—in case it meant something, which, apparently, it did. Somehow, Raith didn’t seem surprised.

“Did you know?” Jaser asked Raith.

“I had a hunch.”

“How?”

And they were both ignoring Scarlett’s question. Great.

“Come here, Scarlett,” Raith said.

She went to him. He placed his hands on the side of her head and closed his eyes. Then a memory came flooding into Scarlett’s mind—when she got bit by the banshee and Raith saved her. He took her to his tree house and then back to her room and erased her memory.

“You messed with my head,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Raith said. “Truly. I don’t like to do that to people. I just didn’t want you knowing it was me who saved you, at least not then.”

If she couldn’t feel the bond between them, she may have thought he was lying and didn’t care at all about what he’d done. But regret trickled from him and Scarlett couldn’t find it in herself to be mad about it.

Raith told Jaser how the banshee bit Scarlett and he couldn’t find any serum to heal its poison, so he thought Scarlett would die. But she didn’t.

“What does it all mean?” Scarlett asked.

“You have fae blood in you,” Raith said.

Scarlett remembered her healing powers. It all made sense. Yet, how could it be?

She thought long and hard for a moment—should she tell them about her ability to heal or not? She hated to get even more wrapped up in this world than she already was, but if she and Raith didn’t win the battle, she could die.

What choice did she have but to trust them?

“Let me show you something,” Scarlett said. “Do you have a blade that isn’t made with fae magic?”

Jaser gave her a small knife. “This work?”

“Yes.” Scarlett took the blade and asked Raith for his hand. “I need to cut you.”

Raith nodded, eyebrow raised. The blade was sharp and his skin sliced easily. He winced slightly as a wound appeared on his hand. Scarlett felt his pain through the bond.

She covered the wound with her hand and reached inside herself to heal it. Energy flowed from her into where the knife had pierced his skin. When she moved her hand, the cut was gone.

Raith inspected his hand. “I would have healed on my own from that small of a cut,” he said. “But not that quickly. How did you do that?”

“I’m not sure,” Scarlett said. “Kassandra stabbed one of the servants with a spoon and when I pulled it out of her, I just knew I could fix it.”

Had she not seen the magic the fae possessed or felt the change in herself when she stepped into Faerie, she’d be certain she was losing her mind. What would she have thought if her mom told her that she could heal someone? Scarlett would have done everything she could to convince her to take her medication. But her mom never claimed any special powers. Chances were, she was mentally ill.

But Scarlett wasn’t. She was fae—well, part fae, at least.

“She’s got to be part Seelie,” Jaser said. “That’s crazy. They aren’t supposed to mate with humans.”

“We all know how well fae follow that rule,” Raith replied.

“But the high and mighty Seelies are supposed to be perfect.”

“Hello? Can you fill me in?” Scarlett waved her hands back and forth.

“The Seelie and Unseelie like to think of themselves as the elite fae. Seelies are supposed to be the lighter fae, the Unseelie the darker. A few decades ago, to show their superiority, the Seelie Queen banned her court from commingling with mortals. Looks like someone didn’t listen,” Jaser said.

“How does it help us in the battle?” Scarlett asked.

“Well, I don’t think anyone else knows,” Raith said. “So we’ll have the element of surprise. And you should be stronger and faster than a regular human.”

Scarlett was always quicker than the other girls, and a lot of the boys, too. She never thought much of it until now. And the ease of taking down the bully on the playground that time was remarkable. He was a lot bigger than she was and she tackled him like it was nothing.

“That should be enough for today,” Jaser said. “We’ll see what we can figure out about your power tomorrow.”

Scarlett hung the staff back on the wall—the purple in the orb fading when it left her hands.

Raith walked Scarlett to her room. As he left her there alone, he said. “Don’t let Cade know.”

Scarlett had kept it from him this long, so what was another week? It ended up being especially easy that night because Cade didn’t come to her room before she fell asleep like he normally did. Scarlett tried desperately to fall asleep, but her thoughts were too busy—her mother’s death, Ashleigh’s harsh words, her time in Faerie, and now the battle—everything swarmed her, making sleep impossible.

At first, she thought she had a grip on it all. She focused on her breathing, trying to clear her mind. It didn’t work. She felt the pain and panic grow and swirl together inside her chest. She needed to get it under control. If only she knew how.

Scarlett felt trapped in this room. She’d spent too much time in it, waiting for Cade to arrive and take away her pain. He wasn’t coming tonight, and even if he did, the bargain prevented him from feeding from her emotion. Her pain was hers alone now. She needed out.

Still in her nightgown, the cold stone floor sent a chill up her leg as her bare feet pounded against it. She needed air to think. Getting away from her human troubles seemed like such a good idea. Now, she felt lost. She went out the castle backdoor without anyone noticing.

The moonlight lit the garden. Out there, the fresh air relaxed her. She breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of the rose bushes she stood next to.

“It’s awfully late for a lady to be outside alone.” Raith whispered behind Scarlett, his breath on her neck causing a quiver.

“I’m not a typical lady.” Scarlett turned. Raith towered above her. His steel blue eyes glistened in the moonlight.

He placed a hand on her back. “I never thought you were.”

“Cade wouldn’t like us out here alone. It isn’t part of the bargain.” Scarlett didn’t care what Cade thought, but she wondered if Raith feared his younger brother enough to leave her alone. After choosing her for his second, her guess was no.

Raith pulled Scarlett closer. “All the more reason for us to be here.”

This was dangerous. Scarlett knew from the tingle in her stomach that she was tempting herself, being there with Raith. The pain she felt lingered in her bones. The memory of her mother’s lifeless eyes. The coldness of her hand when Scarlett finally let go when the paramedics arrived. Everything she’d come here to escape had been hurled at her at once. Running from it lasted for a while, but that luxury had vanished. She could feel grief coming from Raith, too. Was it just the bond that let her into his head or was it part of her fae ancestry? She’d felt the emotion of the servant girl, and at times she thought she might have even known what Cade was feeling.

“You told me you can take my pain away better than Cade could,” Scarlett said.

“I did.”

“By taking my memories?”

“Yes.”

Scarlett leaned into Raith. He could make the anguish inside her stop. Scarlett's heart raced. He could take her memories. How could something hurt her if she didn’t remember it? “Away forever?”

Raith nodded. “If you want them gone forever.”

Is that what Scarlett wanted? She thought about her mother’s gentle touch. Her laugh. The way her eyes squinted together when she smiled. The happy memories hurt as much as the bad ones, reminding Scarlett of what she’d never have again. Most of all, a part of her now wondered if her mother hadn’t been crazy. What if Scarlett had believed her?

“Do it.”