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Author's Note:

Lena’s mother stared at me. “Your mother was a Selkblood, yes? And your father a LeyGuard?”

After Kian made the statement about his missing friend and how his whole village had been destroyed, the mood in the room shifted.

The Earthside air was cool tonight, sharp with ozone, the pavement slick with remnants of rain.

The woman leading this conversation—Mara, or Lorie, or whoever she really was—didn’t seem very trustworthy to me.

I awoke in a dim room on a cold, hard floor.

An expectant silence fell over the room, awaiting my mother’s explanation.

I ended up not having to argue with anyone. Hart left the door to the meeting room open until Pops, Rake, and I were inside, then shut it behind us.

The woman who must have been my mother turned wide, shocked eyes on me.

“There’s nothing here.” I looked up from the blank journal to Rake. “Chairman Hart said she couldn’t read it, but she thought my mom had probably warded it to be read only by her own bloodline… to me.”

Rake’s face relaxed. “I made a promise, though,” I reminded him.

The wall of tension between Rake and I was as solid as a slab of concrete. We were still glaring at each other in silence when a knock sounded on the door, then it slid open.

Dragons were speeding in from the distance, circling the battlefield from above. A red one, just like the one we’d helped… and several more in other colors. Dragons hated dark magic as much as any creature—especially since they were particularly vulnerable to it. Were they here to help defeat the Dark King?

One Faeside day earlier… Fiska led us deeper into the woods, to a Gate just barely visible as a shimmer in the air between trees.

Aeldyn’s POV This human place smelled wrong. The soaps Azra left me were pleasant, but the air in the apartment had a tinnish, metal scent. It did not smell like nature.

“What agreement did you make, Lena?” Rake’s wary voice asked again. I hugged my mom’s journal to my chest and turned to face him.

“Yes, the red dragon has fallen,” Fiska said as she shoved the last of the scattered supplies into her sack, “and now we need to move.” She strode toward the edge of the clearing. “If we hurry, we may still reach Teionyr before the Dark Fae army does.”

Aeldyn hurried to the passenger door of my truck and slid in, scooting to the middle of the bench seat.

I pivoted sideways, gaping between Rake and Chairman Hart. “You know each other?”

We continued to channel our magic steadily into the dragon for a few more moments.