I woke to the scent of myrrh, to the feel of shadows whispering over my skin, to powerful arms carrying me over the earth.

I opened my eyes, staring in horror at Adonis, his features silvered in the moonlight.

My body tensed. Where are my weapons?

“Relax,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

My head was pressed against his muscled chest, and I could hear his heart beating against my ear. “You’re reassuring me? I just took down an angel. You should be scared of me.” Pretty tough talk from someone who couldn’t reach her weapons right now.

I knew my glamour had dropped completely, but I didn’t feel completely feral anymore. Some of the wildness had faded.

“I was watching,” said Adonis.

“Why didn’t you stop it?”

“I didn’t want to. I’ve been working against Johnny, against Kratos.”

“You have?”

“Why do you think I wanted Kratos to see you in my room? You’ve been utterly distracting him from his mission, and his jealousy threw him completely off course.”

I blinked, my thoughts hazy. Now that my secrets were all out in the open, I could ask what I really wanted to know. “What happened to my friends? The humans you saved?”

“They’re safe. I set them up in a cottage outside of London.”

I tried to make sense of what he was saying. “Why would you do that?”

“You risked your life for them. I thought their lives must be worth preserving for some reason.”

My eyes were drifting closed as I leaned against his chest, but I still had so many questions. “I don’t understand. Why are you working against the other angels?”

“To end the Great Nightmare. I’ve been searching for someone like you.”

A million questions raced through my mind. “What? Why? What do you mean someone like me?”

As the words tumbled out of my mouth, I winced at the pain in my shoulder.

“Shhhh.” His magic kissed my skin, soothing some of the pain away like a delicious salve. “Before we go back into the castle, you need to glamour yourself as a succubus again. Kratos can’t know that you’re a… fae.”

He said the word with such contempt that I still had no doubt he hated my kind. “Why were you searching for a fae if you hate our kind?”

He shook his head, his pale eyes gleaming in the night. “I wasn’t searching for a fae. I was searching for the Bringer of Light.”

“And what does that mean?”

“It means you can help lift the shadow of darkness from the world.” He met my gaze, his stormy eyes blazing. “You need to glamour yourself now, Ruby.”

“Fine.” With the last vestiges of my magic, I summoned my succubus glamour.

And then, with the sound of Adonis’s heart and the feel of his body lulling me, my eyes began drifting closed once more. Before I fell asleep, my last thoughts were of Hazel.

* * *

I woke to ruddy sunlight filtering into the room and the smell of cedar. I felt warm and protected in here, even if the ghosts of the Old Gods still whispered in my mind.

I blinked in the light, and when my eyes adjusted, I saw Kratos, sitting in a chair like a king on a throne. Warm firelight wavered over his tan skin and sparked in his amber eyes.

Coppery light beamed from his body. “The succubus awakens. Nearly in time for dinner.”

I blinked at him. I’d slept for a whole day, but at least I felt sane again. “Is Hazel here?”

“First things first. I leave the castle for a day, and all hell breaks loose. What happened to Johnny?”

I glanced at the door to my room, still smashed to pieces. “He must have been drunk yesterday. In a rage about something. Did you two have a fight?” I asked, all innocence.

“Something like that.”

“He said I was trying to poison your mind against him. He broke down my door, chased me through the woods. And then… he just disappeared.”

Kratos nodded slowly. “That’s exactly what Adonis said.”

“Well, it’s the truth.” I sat up in bed, my head still swimming. “Where is Hazel?”

He stood. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

As soon as he crossed out of the room, a tall, lithe succubus entered, dressed from head to toe in black leather.

Hazel?

My jaw dropped at the sight of her—the porcelain skin, black curly hair, eyes dark as the night sky. In an instant, I was out of the bed, folding my arms around her, breathing in her familiar smell. Tears pricked my eyes.

“Easy, sister. I’m not used to all this carrying on.” Still, her features were beaming, a grin lighting up her face.

I gaped at her, tears streaming down my face. “Are you okay? What happened to you? I haven’t seen you since… since…” Since the day I watched dragons slaughter Marcus and rip you from the Earth.

She crossed to the edge of my bed, kicking off her shoes, and sat cross-legged on the blanket. In her leather clothes and with her height, she didn’t look fourteen anymore.

Of course, she wasn’t fourteen anymore. She was sixteen, I had to remind myself.

“I was living with a horde of dragons in a Scottish castle.” She bit her lip. “They were terrifying at first, but they kind of grew on me. They like having women and girls around, but they didn’t touch us or anything. They just like hoarding things. What have you been doing? I thought you were in New York this whole time. How did you get here?”

“We’ll get to that.” I blinked. “So you lived with a whole bunch of other women and dragons in a castle?”

She nodded. “The food was quite good there. Dragon shifters are very into fine cheeses. And there was gold everywhere.”

None of this was what I had been expecting, but my stomach rumbled at the mention of fine cheeses.

Already, I was heading for the wardrobe to get dressed. “Hazel, we have a lot to catch up on, and I’m taking you to breakfast. I mean, dinner.”

“Where exactly are we going?”

“To the bar.” I frowned at her as I pulled on a dress. “You don’t seem nearly as traumatized as I was expecting. Considering we had a whole apocalypse and everything.”

She shrugged. “Maybe the Earth needed a reckoning. Maybe it was time for a purification.”

What. The. Hell. Was she saying this for the benefit of people who might be listening, or did she really believe that?

“Purification,” I repeated.

“Keep the humans in balance,” she said lightly. “Is there alcohol in this bar? Because the dragons let me drink whisky.”

As I grabbed her hand, I scowled at her. “You are sixteen, and you are about to find that the dragons and I do not have the same rules.”

She rubbed my arm gently. “Sweet sister. You don’t get to make the rules now.”

I bit down on an angry retort. We’d only just reunited, so I wasn’t going to start arguing with her. Plus, I had to accept the fact that we’d been separated for nearly two years now, and a lot had changed. Maybe people grew up fast in the world of the Great Nightmare.

Hell, I’d never killed anyone before all this started, and last night I’d gloated over the body of a convulsing angel.

As I led her into the bar, I grinned to find Elan sitting at the counter over a glass of whisky. Bruises and scratches marred his pale skin.

“Elan!”

“Ruby!” He grinned, pointing at me. “You know, for a demon, you really got into the spirit of Eimmal. I’m always impressed with someone willing to throw themselves into new cultures with such abandon.”

I took a deep breath. “I can’t say I’ll be doing the same next year. Took me a while to get the dirt out of my nails.”

“Anyway, I’m glad to see you’ve recovered from Johnny’s drunken attack.”

So the rumors had spread around the castle already. “Not only have I recovered, but I’ve got my little succubus sister with me. Elan, meet Hazel.”

Elan lifted his whisky glass. “To the succubi! Creatures of ancient terror and seductive legend, mothers of all demons…” He trailed off, frowning. “That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

I was already behind the bar, pulling out bread for sandwiches. “Hazel, apparently, has been living in a castle with amazing food.”

She beamed, “And I learned how to ride on the back of a dragon.”

I smiled uneasily. “Great.”

“What have you been doing?” She gestured at the empty bar. “Have you been in Hotemet Castle the whole time?”

I glanced at the arched doorway, catching a glimpse of an angel with dark wings and stormy gray eyes drifting past. Was it really true—that Adonis and I were on the same side after all? The fact that I was standing here, still breathing, suggested it was.

Adonis was working against the other angels, and that meant I had a lot of questions to ask him as soon as I could get him alone.

“Helloooo!” Hazel waved her hand in front of my face. “Did you hear me? Have you been here the whole time?”

“No, not the whole time.”

We had a lot to catch up on, a million stories to swap, but I didn’t want to tell her all of them—didn’t want to tell her about the things I’d done, or the starvation that had gnawed at my ribs. I’d be leaving out the rats, and the murder of Dickhead. The raw, overwhelming terror.

I’d put on a show. I’d stick to the funny stories—Elan’s cat sweatshirts, a jaunt through the night sky with an angel, my accidental entrance into Adonis’s bedroom.

In the world of the Great Nightmare, only our stories kept us sane, and as we sat in the warm light of the bar, I’d be telling her only the ones I wanted her to hear.

* * *

We hope you enjoyed Covert Fae. To read about Ruby’s first encounter with Kratos—and her experiences on the day the Great Nightmare began—you can . We will also keep you updated about upcoming releases.