The dream had changed. She was still drowning, but then the sun flashed above water, so bright she had to close her eyes. When she opened them again, the three children had disappeared. In their stead, there was a figure—a male, she would have guessed. His face was unclear, but he had dark hair, and he smiled, extending his hand to her.

Devi wanted to take it more than anything, let him pull her to the surface, but her wrists were bound at her back.

She woke up sweating, her breathing erratic. Her room was intact this time, window and all.

Devi frowned. This dream had little to do with her memory. If anything, it seemed like a clearer warning.

She knew three men with dark hair like the shadows in her dream. Three men who smiled and fancied themselves her champion of sort. Rook—and every god knew there was no cause to be wary of him—Drake Night, and Valerius Blackthorn. What did the dream warn her of exactly? Relying on one of them, or not putting her trust in them? She shook her head, chasing away the nonsensical visions. A part of her wondered if she should reach out to Beck and ask him what he thought, but the healer might make a fuss about it.

She could ask Shea. But the queen had bigger problems with Devin Farel and his posse strolling through her city like they owned it.

There was someone else who crossed her mind, but she immediately dismissed the very notion. Valerius would just find a way to make fun of her and wouldn’t be of any help whatsoever.

She bathed, got dressed, and made her way down to headquarters.

At this time on any ordinary day, the castle would have just started to wake, but there was a full house of active servants rushing through the corridor. Where one guard would usually be posted, there were two. Everyone was visibly on their guard.

She arrived at headquarters and found the master’s office closed. Rook was resting against the door.

He was an odd one, a common fae as tall as any high fae, and with very long pointed ears—a lot longer than most high fae, like a handsome knight of old carved in ancient sculptures.

Rook was lean, seemingly frail—seemingly being the key word. Devi had seen him effortlessly carry loads that she would have struggled to move two feet. His features were delicate, almost effeminate. Above all, Rook distinguished himself by using his wings.

Every high fae Devi knew had wings, which they kept firmly hidden under their skin. Showing them was something akin to showing boobs in public. Common fae rarely were bestowed wings at all.

Rook’s looked like a bat’s, dark and velvety. Devi was certain they were soft, although she hadn’t touched them, of course. Grabbing his dick might have been less personal. He kept them out at all times and flew whenever he could. There wasn’t any regulation against it, but it certainly earned him his fair share of disapproving glances.

Devi’s bet? People were envious of his freedom. There was no noble name for him to disgrace and no patriarch who’d threaten to disown him, so he did as he pleased.

Devi was certainly jealous, but it was for another reason.

She had wings, all right. Wings that hurt like she was being split in two when she forced them out. Wings so heavy she couldn’t lift them to fly at all.

Flying was a skill parents taught their children, along with swimming and swinging a sword. After one try, Loxy had cried along with her little girl and promised she wouldn’t make her go through that ordeal again. She’d been six at the time, but Devi recalled it well enough to keep her own wings where they belonged—tucked inside her skin. She truly envied Rook, who was so very comfortable with his.

Rook had cut slits into his uniform so his wings could come out at any time. For once, they weren’t on display.

“Who are you and what have you done with my best friend,” he growled darkly, eyes narrowed. “Devi Star Rivers has never, ever been early to anything in her entire life.”

“Har, har,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “Couldn’t sleep.”

He shrugged. “You never sleep. You generally just hang out in your room until the last possible second. Not that I blame you. It’s like the size of my entire place. Plus the neighbor’s. And you have people wiping your butt too.”

Devi’s life was an unending source of entertainment to him. Sometimes she was a little ashamed of having so much when others worked very hard for little flats atop a fishmonger’s shop. Rook purposefully kept his uniform in his locker here at the palace so it didn’t smell of fish like the rest of his stuff.

Then she remembered why she had no reason to be ashamed at all, and she kept her head high.

Devi owned the land where she was born, Farj. There were thirty-seven thousand fae of all castes who lived there, and every day she served them by residing in the court of night.

As a landlady and member of the court, she had a seat in the House of Lords; she could give her opinion on things such as tax reforms. For ten years, she’d let a delegate speak for her, but when she’d turned twenty-five, she’d sat alongside him at every meeting to learn how she could be of service. She was one of the only voices who spoke for the good of the people, rather than out of self-interest.

With her work came a generous income. Shea also had given her an allowance. On top of that, she earned a fair living as an apprentice protector. Devi only kept her protector salary. The rest went to helping orphans around the city, and perhaps building a dam where it was needed, or redoing the roof of a farmer’s house in her land. She did her best with the nice set of cards fate had dealt her. Having her own place would actually cut into the budget she spent on helping others, given the fact that living at the castle cost her nothing.

So she shrugged off the comment. Yes, she had servants, and never in her life had she thought of having to dust her own curtains. But Rook had never rebuilt a mill after a nasty storm, or taken in the three dozen children she fed and clothed in the little shelter that bore her mother’s name.

“Jiya isn’t in yet?”

“She’s off today. You’ve got tomorrow. They’ve changed our rotation so we can all be on duty this weekend.”

Devi groaned. The last thing she wanted to do was work over the solstice, but she got it. Everyone was on alert because of the seelie’s presence.

She could use a night off anyway.

“Jiya sent me an owl last night,” Rook said carefully, giving her a meaningful look. “If half of it is true, I missed quite an interesting gathering.”

Devi sighed. Rook used to have a crush on her, and she really, really fucking wished she could return the attention, because he was awesome. But her taste tended to lean toward assholes, so that was a hopeless cause.

She’d said no to a date three years ago. The awkwardness had lasted a few weeks, but now all was well. Except when he alluded to her dating life, of course.

Not that she was dating Valerius Blackthorn, but still.

“It certainly was interesting,” was all the reply she gave.

Thankfully, Drake Night walked inside the headquarters, interrupting the course of that particular discussion. Or so she thought.

The master looked worn out and ill-tempered; no doubt he’d stayed awake most of the day. He looked at her, slowly taking her in from the tips of her toes to the top of her head before saying, “Well, didn’t we have fun last night?”

Could someone kill me now?

“I don’t know what I’ve done to make anyone think that my personal life should be discussed at work,” she replied. “But if you’re done gossiping, I’d love to know my assignment for the day.”

Drake glared. Devi half expected to hear another warning about Valerius, but he simply waved toward the doors. “You’re both to assist the guard for the rest of week. We need all eyes in the streets right now. Should anything, and I do mean anything, seem out of the ordinary, I want to be notified directly.”

They saluted and walked out, hiding their smiles. It wouldn’t do to let the tyrant know that they enjoyed working with the guards. It was easy, and yet entertaining; plus, it actually meant that they got to see some of the festivities.

On their way to the main guard post, near the Square of Dawn, Rook dug some more.

“Do you really think you can get away with the evasive crap, by the way?”

“Watch me.”

“Devi, you and Jiya made me run a play-by-play of my night with Lily and Tristan, and it wasn’t that interesting. This is major gossip. Spill.”

She groaned.

“Come on….”

“There’s nothing to say, okay?” The walls had ears in the court of night, and she didn’t want people to whisper that it had all been a ruse by the time the guests woke in a few hours. So she did what she had to do. She lied.

Actually lied.

Devi only rarely made use of that simple and yet extremely useful gift. Fae couldn’t lie, and thus they often considered spoken words to be the absolute truth. No one had ever stopped to think that as a half-elf, Devi could say whatever the fuck she wanted.

She skirted the truth, knowing lies were more believable that way.

“We met when he arrived a couple of nights ago. I’d never interacted with him before.”

“Really?” Rook pushed doubtfully. “Carvenstone is close to Farj. The talks say you were old acquaintances, and that you’d frequently met up north.”

“Ew.” She grimaced. “I left Farj at fourteen.”

“But you’ve visited.”

She nodded, once. “Yes, to oversee projects, meet with contractors, and partake in official ceremonies. I just met Vale. He’s the reason I was so late to work the other night, actually. We randomly bumped into each other and, well, bumping a little more into each other seemed like a great idea at the time.”

She shrugged. Sex was simple to unseelie. Until someone was bound, mated, or promised, they were fair game. Devi knew most fae were bisexual and likely to jump on each other simply because they had nothing else to do.

She wished she was a little more like that, in a way. It took a copious amount of wine—or a glass of nectar—for her to feel like casual sex was a good idea. Probably the seelie in her. Seelie were monogamous and often heterosexual. That caused plenty of problems, given the fact that there weren’t as many high fae females as males. For three males, only one female was born, according to their recent census. No wonder the seelie seemed so grave and severe—they were sexually repressed.

They could have easily sorted that issue, had they simply been willing to pair up with a common or lesser fae. There were as many males as females among them for some reason. But while pairing below their class wasn’t encouraged in the unseelie realm, it was entirely forbidden to the seelie folks.

Stupid.

“So that’s it? You just had sex?” Rook frowned. “Jiya made it sound like you were basically tying the knot.”

Devi snorted. “Hardly. The fae king was making me feel uncomfortable, and you know how it is. No one walks away from the king in the seelie realm. Here, I could probably have told him to fuck off, but then….”

“Potential diplomatic incident that may or may not end up in a bloody war,” Rook guessed.

“Yes, that. So Valerius stepped in. Having him claim me as his in public like that was one way to make sure Devin backed off. I mean, if the seelie king was bothering the plaything of the unseelie prince….”

“Potential diplomatic incident that may or may not end up in a bloody war,” her friend repeated.

“Basically.”

They were in the middle of the square now, close to the large edifice that served as the guards’ headquarters.

“Poor you. So many sexy alpha males fighting for your attention.”

She rolled her eyes, laughing reluctantly.

“Hardly. Devin was more into Jiya, if anything. There are family matters that made the idea of talking to him quite awkward, that’s—”

She’d been about to say, “that’s all,” but suddenly, and without a single warning, a violent blast pushed her twenty feet back until her back hit the obelisk at the center of the square. Her ears buzzed. Everything hurt. Smoke and dust burned her eyes when she tried to open them.

But finally, she saw it.

There was nothing but ruins in front of her eyes. The guard tower had been blown to pieces.

“I’d attack right before dusk. Place my troops nearby and get a small group to kill the guards posted around the city first.”

“Devi!”

She heard it like a whisper, although the word had been shouted, no doubt. Devi grabbed the healing charm on the pouch tied to her belt and sorted out her ears first, then her leg, which was bruised or broken in two places.

“Vide,” she said, hands on her temples, and her vision cleared.

There was nothing but a mess of dust, fire, and ash, but now her eyes caught heat signatures where they couldn’t see farther than a few steps away.

Catching Rook’s silhouette high above the cloud, she yelled, “To the queen! Now! Warn the queen.”

The fae remained there for half a second before batting his large wings, heading toward the castle.

Her enhanced vision saw a volley of arrows aimed at Rook, coming from every side. She gasped. Had she sent her friend to his death?

Lesson one: when in danger, don’t fly.

She recalled that from her very first day as a protector. At the time, she’d shrugged off the advice, because she never flew anyway. But it made sense. Fae always had bows and arrows. It was smart to kill your enemy from a distance, given the fact that their race was strong, fast, and lethal. Hand-to-hand combat was messy. With so many archers among their kind, flying was one way of making oneself a damn easy target.

But Rook had signed up for this. He was a protector, just like her.

She removed her own bow from her back and got it at the ready, prepared to shoot the first thing that came at her.

“Once the gates are unmanned, I’d send my armies in and take the city while the court sleeps.”

At a distance, her eyes caught various explosions around the city. East, north, south. Not west. The enemy hadn’t taken the western flank, probably because the only way to reach it was through the elven realm, and no fae was stupid enough to venture there armed.

“Devira.”

She almost knelt before registering that the voice had come to her in her mind. The queen wasn’t actually there.

“They attacked,” Devi mentally sent back.

“I know. Never mind any of that. I need you to get out of here.”

She froze. Out of here? No, she had to fight. Push them back. Make sure whatever enemy dared to attack them was destroyed.

“It’s an order, Devi. Go now. Go to your father’s. Take the portal of Daryn. I need you to live.”

The words were downright terrifying, and Shea made it worse by stopping the connection the moment she’d said them.

Devi had her orders now though. She could work with that.

She started to run west when a sharp cry made her turn the other way.

There was a girl, little more than a child, screaming as she tried to run, and behind her, a legion of men in red and gold.

Red and gold. The colors of the overking. The male who ruled over all high fae. The male who’d forced every king to bow before his will and ordered them all to be at peace. The male to whom they owed seven hundred years of peace.

It made no sense.

Without even thinking about it, Devi released the first of the fifty-one arrows she had in her quiver, and the enemy fell. The child had half a second before the rest of the legion caught up, and she managed to use it, climbing up the first house and getting to its roof. The soldiers ignored her; she was of no consequence.

Instead of following the harmless girl, the legion descended upon Devi.