Winter

Also, the prince is back with Inara.

Soon after that, I asked her to stop mentioning the prince at all.

A few weeks later a package arrived with a cell phone inside. Now we chat daily. Mostly she tells me she misses me and I say I miss her too. Sometimes we talk about Asher and their flirtatious—but platonic—relationship.

Between what happened to me and Evelyn, any potential romance between Mack and Dragon Boy is gone.

Occasionally we bring up Evelyn, but her disappearance is still too painful.

Currently, the conversation revolves around the Wild Hunt.

That’s today, by the way.

My stomach has been in knots all morning knowing how nervous Mack is. She and the other first year shadows will be dropped into the Forest of Eyes just outside the scourge lands with their keepers. They’ll be split into teams as they face off against trolls and other ancient monsters. Each team will be sent to find one hidden artifact.

“Summer, lunch is ready!” Aunt Zinnia calls. She stands on the back porch, wearing an apron that says, ‘It’s always five o’clock somewhere,’ over a pink robe and slippers. She watches me for a moment longer, shielding her eyes, before the porch screen slams shut behind her.

When I showed up on the front porch at the crack of dawn two months ago, wearing a Fae dress and a gold crown, my eyes rimmed from crying, Aunt Zinnia screamed. Then she wrapped me in a hug so warm it chased away any of the lingering cold from Everwilde.

She hugged me for a good five minutes. Then, like any good Southern woman who discovered a girl in tears on her porch, she fixed me grits and tea so sweet it made my teeth ache.

Aunt Vi’s icy demeanor has taken a bit more time to thaw. But I catch her checking on me late at night when she thinks I’m asleep. We don’t speak about what happened, but they’ve taken to running salt over the windowsills and doorways, and I’ve found extra rowan berry charms inside my clothes.

I don’t have the heart to tell them none of that matters. If the Fae want to come back for me, very few things can stop them. The mark on my arm ensures that.

It’s the only part of the prince I can’t erase.

I finish hanging up a pair of jeans and then grab the blue plastic laundry basket. For a moment, my gaze wanders to the east, where the Shimmer glints softly in the late morning sky.

I wish I could say I was okay. That I didn’t miss the academy and the purpose I’d found there. That I didn’t think about my friends daily. I’ve taken to running again, usually in the mornings. But it’s not the same as training with the best Fae assassin in Everwilde.

Hefting my empty basket, I stride toward the house. I make it to the front porch steps when I see him. Cal leans against the top step with two of his friends. He’s laughing and slurring his words like he’s already drunk. When he sees me, he waves them back to the trio of four wheelers parked in our driveway.

The moment they leave, his demeanor changes. Gone is the drunk, stupid bully. In his place is a very alert, cruel Fae. His ears don’t change, but the Fae cunning glints inside his dark eyes.

“Wow,” I say, holding the laundry basket up like a battering ram. “What makes me special enough that I get to see the real you?”

A clever smile reveals large white teeth. “I thought you might have met him over there. Tell me. What’s my human changeling like?”

“Decent. Kind. Basically the opposite of you.”

“Ouch. You hurt my feelings.” He jerks his head toward the woods. “Come. I want to talk to you.”

I set the basket down and begin to follow him.

What am I doing?

I will my legs to stop walking, my mouth to scream. In my head, I know I don’t want to follow him, but I can’t help it. The long grass scratches against my bare ankles as we near the woods.

He turns, grinning. “You know, I always wondered why I couldn’t glamour you into doing things like the others.”

My heart lurches. I reach for my necklace . . .

“Looking for this?” His thick fingers pinch the stolen pendant as he holds it up, sunlight catching inside the ruby.

“When did you take it?” I demand, rage swirling inside me. That necklace contains the memory of my parents inside.

He plunges the pendant into his pocket and takes a step closer. “Why, while you were sleeping, Summer.”

A shiver wracks my body.

“It’s so easy to get inside your window. You should really stop leaving it open at night. And the salt . . .” He tsks. “Salt can’t hold out a powerful Fae like me. You know that.”

“What do you want?”

“Well I already got what I need. What I want is a different story.”

For some reason, my body begins to tremble. “Cal, what have you done?”

“So the Winter Prince has a name, after all,” Cal continues amiably. “Valerian Sylverfrost. Catchy.”

My blood runs cold. “Who have you told?”

“Do you know how many Fae want the prince dead? Man, that guy really isn’t popular.” He shrugs and then glances down at his gold watch. “He’ll be dead in about, say, four hours, give or take. Isn’t that what you want, Summer?”

Oh, God.

“You probably don’t remember, but after I took your necklace and glamoured you last night into giving me your precious prince’s name, I had you tell me all about your experience at the academy. Wow, that was entertaining. And that ending . . .” He laughs. “The irony is that it wasn’t even the prince who broke your heart.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oberon’s beard, you’re adorable. You were so over your head at that school.” He closes the distance between us. I try to back away but he says, “No, stay.”

And I can’t resist him.

“Now, where was I? Oh, right. Bane Winterspell. He’s a nasty character. Did you know he can make his face look like anyone’s?”

My brain whirs as I try to make sense of his words. Where did Bane come from? He wasn’t even there that night . . .

He wasn’t even there that night. But if Inara was finally going to get her revenge on me, Bane would have been front and center with a bowl of popcorn.

Unless he was there.

I play Cal’s words over in my mind. He can make his face look like anyone’s.

Even a prince’s.

“You see the truth now, don’t you? Clever girl.” He reaches up, pushes a strand of hair from my forehead. “The prince wasn’t even at the academy that night. He didn’t betray you, after all. But you betrayed him. You gave up his name as easily as you let him kiss you.”

“Screw you,” I growl.

“Oh, I’ve always loved your fight. After the prince is dead, I’m going to visit you every night. We’ll have so much fun, Summer.”

“How?” I say, trying to drag out any details possible. “How will they kill him? Even with his name . . . he’s too powerful.”

His nostrils flare in anger. “Powerful? Let’s see how powerful he is when he’s faced with an army of darklings and his magic is bound. Did you know, there are ways to control darklings? To use them as assassins? All you need is a name and you can focus all that savage hunger on one single Fae prince.”

An army of assassin darklings . . . all trained on Valerian. I shudder. Still, after the last darkling attack, they reinforced the wards over the Island and the academy. They wouldn’t be able to get that many darklings past those defenses.

But off campus . . .

“The Wild Hunt,” I whisper.

“Ding ding ding.” He beams at me. “Stop frowning, Summer. You don’t need to worry about him anymore. You have me. In fact, why don’t you come back with me for a little while. We’ll have a party.”

“They’ll notice I’m gone.” Panic constricts my chest. I can’t leave with him; I have to warn Mack somehow. She’ll be with Asher and the prince . . . she could get hurt.

She could die.

“So what if they do?”

He reaches for me. At the same time, a blur catches my eye. A thunk, like a hammer hitting raw meat, fills the forest. Cal’s face changes, his smirk twitching into surprise. He cries out, collapsing to one knee.

An arrow sticks from his shoulder, silver blood sticky around the entry wound.

Jane walks up with another arrow nocked and ready. They’re not iron-tipped so they can’t kill him. But they can hurt like the devil.

“She isn’t going anywhere, dickwad,” Jane shouts.

While he’s still trying to process the situation, I slam my palm upward into his nose with a satisfying crack. He flails backward onto his back.

My heart is in my throat as I lean down and fish my pendant from his pocket. Then I grab Jane and we run. We don’t stop until we’re in my room. I watch from my window as his friends help him to their four wheelers. The same window he came inside last night.

How did I not know?

I don’t stop watching until they disappear into the forest.

Then I run to my new cell phone and message Mack.

She doesn’t respond, and the message remains unseen.

Crap.

“Summer?” Jane says. She’s shaking, but her voice is steady.

“It’s okay.” I wrap her in a hug and then begin throwing on warm clothes. “You did good, Jane. Cal won’t retaliate against you. It’s me he wants.”

“He’s one of them, isn’t he?” she asks, her voice way too calm for having just shot a Fae with an arrow.

I nod. “They call them changelings. How much did you hear?”

She tugs at one of her braids. “Enough.”

I pull her close. “Thank you for saving me. But now, I have to go back to save someone else.”

“The prince he mentioned?”

“Yes, but also my friends.” Her hazel eyes narrow and I add, “They’re human, and they’re innocent bystanders.”

She nods as if she understands that part of my speech, at least. But tears glisten her eyes. Tears she’s too old and too stubborn to spill.