Kai stood in the center of Seraiah’s room, staring at the place she’d vacated. One minute she’d been close enough to touch and then the next she was pulling away and leaving. A wall had gone up between them, but he couldn’t figure out why.

He sighed and tried to run a hand through his hair before remembering he was wearing a circlet that made it impossible. He was about to rip the thing off and throw it across the room when Wisteria returned.

“Is there something else you require, Your Highness?” she asked, curtsying to him.

“No, carry on. I’ll get out of your way.” He brushed past her and out of the room, ignoring her curious stare.

He should go down to the stable yard and see them off. He’d had every intention to, but now something held him back.

Instead, Kai headed for his study.

He was still mulling over their conversation when he took a seat behind his desk with its piles of paperwork. Kestrel would know what he’d said wrong, but it wasn’t like he could ask her. She was on her way to the Seelie Court now.

He picked up a paper at the top of the stack near his right elbow. It was a report on the kingdom’s finances. Lines of numbers danced before his eyes as he skimmed the page. He should care about this since it was his responsibility now, but he couldn’t bring himself to focus.

Kai was relieved when someone knocked on the door. “Come in,” he called, setting the report aside.

Eryx entered, closing the door softly behind him and approaching the chairs in front of Kai’s desk. He did not sit.

“I take it they’ve left,” Kai said.

“They have, and I sent two others with them for all the good it will do. At least they won’t be entirely alone.”

“You know I didn’t force her to go. She made the choice on her own.” Kai could have been talking about either of them, but there was only one Eryx cared about.

A smile ghosted over Eryx’s face, there and then gone again. “I don’t think you could force Kestrel to do anything she didn’t want to do.”

“She seems to have taught Seraiah the same thing. I should have told her not to go, even if she wouldn’t have listened.”

Eryx’s brows rose. “Is she the reason you didn’t come to the stable yard?”

Kai appraised him, wondering exactly how much Kestrel had told him. “I had work to attend to.” He gestured to the paperwork.

“That’s a yes, then. What happened?”

“Why does everyone always think something’s happened?”

Eryx leaned on the back of one of the chairs. “I’ve known you almost as long as Kestrel has. You aren’t that hard to read. Besides, I may have heard a thing or two when the girls were talking about you on the beach.”

“They were talking about me?”

Eryx grinned.

“Not that I care about what they may have said.” Kai picked up the finance report again and pretended to read it.

“Good, because I wasn’t going to tell you. For my own safety, you understand.”

“Shouldn’t you be more afraid of me, given that I’m your prince?”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Eryx shook his head. “We both know you aren’t the scary one.” He straightened up. “I’ll let you get back to your work.”

“They’ll be back in a fortnight,” Kai called after him.

“Let’s hope so,” Eryx said over his shoulder before pulling the door shut behind him.

----------------------------------------

The journey to the Seelie Court took a little over four days. The Court was buried deep within the forest she and Kestrel had first traveled through on their way to Nyrene.

Something buzzed near Seraiah’s ear, and she swatted what she thought was a small insect away from her face. She startled when the thing let out a high-pitched squeak.

“What the—” she murmured, trying to get a closer look at the creature she’d smacked.

“It’s a tree sprite,” Kestrel said, swatting one away from her own face. “Annoying little things.”

A different one zoomed by Seraiah’s face, giving her a better look at it. It appeared human-shaped with tiny stained-glass wings, almost like a dragonfly’s. She reached out a finger to touch it, but it darted away.

“We have about two hours until we reach the Court if the sprites are any indication. Just in time for dinner,” Kestrel informed her.

“Are the sprites part of the Court?” Seraiah asked, tracking one of the little creatures with her eyes.

“Sort of. They live on the outskirts, but they don’t seem to be ruled by the Summer King like the other fae.”

“Ow!” Seraiah exclaimed as one of the sprites tugged a piece of hair that had come loose from her braid.

Kestrel laughed. “Like I said, they’re annoying, but mostly harmless. The faeries are the ones to be concerned about.”

“Wonderful,” Seraiah murmured, rubbing the sore spot on her head.

Kestrel dropped back to ride beside her. “When we reach the Court, try not to engage any of the faeries in conversation. I’ll do the talking.”

Seraiah nodded. That was fine with her.

“Also, I wouldn’t eat or drink anything they give you. Stick to what we brought with us.”

“You think they might poison us?”

Kestrel shrugged. “You can never be too careful. Oh, and one last thing, don’t agree to any favors even if they sound insignificant. The faeries have a way of twisting words, and it will always be in their favor. It’s better not to agree to anything at all.”

“But I thought faeries couldn’t lie?” Seraiah seemed to recall that much from Sterling’s book, at least.

“They can’t, but they find ways around it.”

“So, let me see if I have this right. I’m not to speak, eat, drink, or breathe while we are there?”

Kestrel grinned. “I suppose you can breathe, but I would be careful about that, too.”

Seraiah could tell the moment they truly entered the faery court. There weren’t any signs of the faeries yet, but the air had taken on an unwelcoming feeling, leaving her with a sense of unease.

They let their horses walk, riding in pairs down the path. Seraiah and Kestrel led the group, while the other two elves took up the rear.

The forest growth around them was lush and dark green. A tangle of vines with bright flowers the size of her head seemed to blanket everything, filling the air with an enchanting perfume. She half expected the trees to start speaking with how magical they looked.

The tree sprites who had been following them suddenly disappeared, perhaps unwilling to get any closer to the Court.

It should have been a sign.

Abruptly, the trees thinned out to reveal houses lining the path. Seraiah would have said they were exact replicas of the houses back home in Ratha, but there was a sense of wrongness about them. She was so busy staring at the houses, trying to figure out what was so strange about them, she didn’t notice Kestrel had pulled to a stop until Seraiah’s own horse jerked to a halt.

A girl stood in the middle of the path, seemingly having appeared out of thin air. She looked young—ten years old at most. The first word to come to mind when Seraiah laid eyes on her was fragile. She was so thin Seraiah suspected a strong gust of wind would be enough to knock her over.

At first glance, the girl could have passed for human. And just like the houses, the longer Seraiah stared at her, the easier it was to sense the wrongness. Her face was narrow—much narrower than any human face, and her skin molded to her bones in a way that made her look skeletal. Her hair, that at first appeared blonde—was actually a pale shade of green. The tips of her ears poked up through the strands.

The girl must have felt Seraiah scrutinizing her and shifted her gaze from Kestrel to her. Seraiah was unable to stop the gasp from escaping her mouth.

The girl’s pupils were vertical slits like a cat’s.

If the girl heard her gasp, she gave no indication. “Welcome to the Seelie Court,” she greeted them in a gravelly voice, as if she were unused to speaking. “What an interesting group you make—three elves of Nyrene and a human seer.” She tilted her head as she studied them, and then she grinned, revealing a mouthful of pointed teeth.

“You may call me Maescia. What brings you to us?” She paused a moment. “You are seeking something, I think.”

“Well met, Maescia,” Kestrel greeted her. She introduced the others, leaving Seraiah for last. “We are seeking information and an audience with the Summer King.”

“Information. Yes.” She looked thoughtful. “Perhaps, perhaps,” Maescia singsonged. “Follow me. I will take you to the King.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and skipped up the path, looking for all the world like any normal human child.