Spring

Please, I mentally whisper. Don’t make me hurt you.

The griffin’s wings unfurl, sending sprays of sand and water into the air. The air shrivels in my chest. I stumble back, tracking the center of its thick white chest as it lifts into the air—

And comes straight for me.

Shoot it. My trigger finger tenses, the wicked bolt tip glittering in front of my face. Pull the trigger!

I can’t. I just can’t kill it.

Shielding my face with my free hand, I lurch sideways, expecting those long talons to close around me any second.

Only . . . with an ear-splitting shriek, the griffin slams into the lake behind me. I whirl in time to see it lifting back into the air. Water droplets explode around the creature’s legs.

Caught inside its merciless talons, writhing and screaming, is a selkie.

The selkie’s fishlike lower end thrashes, its dark green and teal scales catching the light and refracting rainbow sparkles. The water creature’s too-large eyes are dark and filled with ravenous hunger, and they’re directed at me.

Me.

The griffin saved me. And I almost killed it.

Three powerful flaps of its huge wings and its arcing through the air and into the clouds. The caught selkie’s enraged screech grows dimmer and dimmer before abruptly cutting off.

Still clenching the crossbow, I slog to the shore, grateful I listened to my heart and didn’t release my projectile.

In the distance, Eclipsa sheaths her dagger and sprints toward us.

Water pours from my clothes and darkens the white sand as I march to the Spring Prince and toss the weapon at his feet. “You can have this back.”

He doesn’t even glance at the crossbow. His eyes are riveted to mine. One look at his intense expression and my triumph fades, although I can’t determine why.

I shift on my feet. “What? Aren’t you glad I didn’t have to hurt it? Now it’s free. It can find its mate—”

I don’t see him create the portal until it’s too late.

The dark hole warbles in front of me. He twists his fingers, drawing a sudden wind that slams into my back, and I careen head-first into the portal.

10

Hellebore follows me through the portal and snaps it closed before I can move. Panicked, I glance around. We’re inside what looks to be an overgrown garden. Climbing roses, clematis, and wisteria run wild over a splash of hedges. A family of centaur sculptures rise from the middle, their life-sized bodies entangled in vines.

Something about the air here, or perhaps the magic, feels wrong—twisted, even. Just beneath the sweet spring breeze lurks the stench of decay. Black moldy dust clings to sculptures and fringes the ends of the plants.

“Where are we?” I breathe as I spin around, searching for an escape.

“Welcome to the Spring Court gardens, once the most beautiful place in all the lands, before the scourge took it.”

“What? Take me back.”

He laughs. Laughs, for Shimmer’s sake. “How have you not been punished with a mouth like that?”

“Fuck. You.”

A lethal stillness overtakes him, the act so unnatural, so predatory that I’m frozen with terror. “Why did one of the most dangerous creatures in the entire academy not kill you?”

Just like the air here, there’s something in his voice that makes me recoil. Something unhinged.

I try to retreat—only I’m stuck. Too late, I feel his magic glide around my thighs, my stomach, invisible vines imprisoning me in place. The scent of tulips and lilies fill the air, their cloying sweetness causing me to choke.

“Let me go,” I snarl, but it’s hard to feel intimidating when you can’t move. I try another tactic. “They’ll notice I’m missing.”

“No, they won’t. These statues were a gift from Queen Titania herself. They have the marvelous ability to slow down time. I could hold you here for days and on the other side, an hour will have passed.”

I swallow. He takes yet another step. And another. His head cocked sideways as he examines me. I’m reminded of the animalistic way the griffin did the same, only I can’t control Prince Hellebore.

“Why did it not hurt you?” he asks again, this time softer, his voice almost melodic.

My pendant heats between my breasts; he’s trying to use compulsion to make me answer.

Frick. Gritting my teeth, I struggle against his voice, against the seductive power trying to invade my mind and override my will. The invisible vines keep wrapping tighter around me, growing thicker by the second.

“The water protected me,” I grind out, glaring murder at him.

“Someone found a way to protect you from compulsion.” He shakes his head in disappointment.

“Sorry to ruin your fun, psycho.”

Yes, keep taunting him, Summer. See how that works out for you.

The air wheezes from my throat as he cords his magic so tightly over my chest that my ribs crack. “Clever, guessing it hated water. And yet, when that selkie snuck up behind you, the beast braved its aversion and protected you. Why?”

My eyes widen with rage. “You saw the selkie about to eat me and you didn’t tell me?”

“I’m an Evermore. Did you expect me to care one way or the other if you die?”

Fury sends searing heat bubbling over my chest. “If that’s true then why did you save me this morning?”

“Save you? Is that what you think I did?”

Oh, God. When did he take another step closer? I strain harder as a sense of doom starts to set in. The magic feels just like real binds, and my body is starting to freak out.

“Do you know what we do at Whitehall to mortal shadows who break our rules?”

“Drag them to creepy time-warped gardens and bore them with questions?”

“We drop them in the middle of Ranth Forest and then watch as the predators hunt them down.”

“Stop. Please. I don’t want to hear this.”

“When the predators draw close, they have to fight for the right to claim their prize.”

I shudder as his meaning becomes apparent. “I’m that prize?”

“Prize isn’t quite the right word, but yes. No one plays with my toys until I’m done with them.”

For frick’s sake, somebody needs to punch this guy in the pretty mouth. Take him down a peg or ten. “Why me?”

He shrugs, as if my selection was completely arbitrary. But the burning hatred in his eyes says otherwise. “Because you represent everything I despise about mortals. You’re soft. Weak. You don’t belong here.”

“Unbind me and I’ll show you weak,” I growl.

He tsks. “Now. I’m only going to ask you this one more time, and then you won’t like what happens next. Why did that creature protect you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t protecting me. Maybe it thought I looked too stringy and the selkie would taste better.”

His heavy-lidded eyes make a point of looking me up and down, and then his turquoise blue irises go scary-dark, the ominous shade of raging storm clouds.

Fuck buckets. This guy is horrifying when he’s mad. A tremble starts deep in my core. I can’t breathe. From my fear or his invasive magic constricting my chest, it’s a toss-up.

I flinch, shivering against his touch as he closes the distance between us. Strange golden light swirls inside his dark eyes, and something about the molten light fills me with innate fear.

He can’t touch you.

His eyes suddenly shift behind me just as the ripping sound of a portal fills the air. A wolfish grin plays over his face. “Are you following me, E? I thought we already discussed appropriate boundaries—”

Eclipsa flies through the air, smashes her knee into his chest, and connects her elbow with his sharp jaw.

Hell. Fucking. Yes!

The magical binds snap from around me as Hellebore rockets backward. A human male would have dropped, but Hellebore barely flinches as he finds his balance and rights himself.

“Get behind me, Summer,” Eclipsa growls, her eyes never leaving the Spring Prince’s. A part of me hesitates. I’ve never seen Eclipsa turn full Fae assassin. Even when we were fighting the darklings, she was lethal—but calm.

This Eclipsa could make the Darken her bitch.

Deciding to take my chances with the monster I know, I scramble to her side as Hellebore circles us. “That was uncalled for, E.”

“Screw you and your twisted aunt,” Eclipsa snarls.

He chuckles. “I don’t seem to remember you wanting to bring my aunt to bed when we—”

Twin daggers slice toward him, spinning end over end. Last second before they sink into his chest, he turns sideways and they thunk into the haunch of the closest centaur statue behind him.

Hellebore has the audacity to look wounded by the attack. “If I’d known breaking your heart would have made you this exciting, I would have done it sooner.”

Her voice is cold and terrifying as she snarls, “Next one won’t miss, Hel.”

He sighs. “Hey, it’s not my fault she stumbled into my portal. You know the rules. Once she enters my court’s territory without permission, she belongs to me.”

“Screw your permission. Summer belongs to the Winter Prince, so unless you fancy kicking off a war with the Unseelie Court, back the fuck off.”

Her words are like a punch to the gut. I know in Everwilde, everything is fair game to be stolen, like some cruel game of Monopoly, which makes the Fae possessive with everything they own. But to hear Eclipsa talk about me like a possession—

Ugh. I try to make excuses for her words. She’s pissed, not thinking straight. But stupid tears prickle my eyes.

No. I will not cry. Straightening my shoulders, I blink the tears away before either Fae can notice.

“I see the Winter Prince still hasn’t given you your freedom. Although after owning you myself, I don’t blame him.”

The balls on this guy. An emotion too brief to name passes over Eclipsa’s face, and then rage takes over. A deep, alarming rage that only ends with someone dead.