JULIE KAGAWA is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and internationally bestselling author of The Iron Fey, Blood of Eden, The Talon Saga, and the Shadow of the Fox series. Born in Sacramento, she has been a bookseller and an animal trainer and enjoys reading, painting, playing in her garden, and training in martial arts. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and a plethora of pets. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  The Iron Vow

  Julie Kagawa

  To Nick

  Contents

  PART I

  Prelude

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  PART II

  Interlude

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Interlude

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  PART III

  Interlude

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  PART I

  Prelude

  Let me tell you a story.

  The story of a girl who went into the land of faeries, met a prince, and fell in love.

  She went on a journey to rescue her brother, and along the way, she learned many things about herself and the world around her. She learned her father was a faery king, which made her a faery princess. She discovered her best friend was a faery straight out of legend: Robin Goodfellow. Puck of the Summer Court. Once you meet him, you’ll never forget him.

  On the way to rescue her brother, the girl met many strange and fantastic creatures. One of them was a talking cat, who agreed to help her in exchange for a “small favor.” The girl didn’t know it at the time, but she had stumbled upon one of the wisest and most infuriating creatures in all of Faery, and without him, she probably would have wandered in circles until she fell into a dragon’s cave or was eaten by a giant spider. If you are ever lost in the Nevernever, look for a gray cat with golden eyes, or call the name Grimalkin into the wind. Chances are, he’ll hear you. He might ask for the impossible, but he’ll always get you where you need to go.

  But we’re getting off track, aren’t we? Let me start again, from the beginning.

  The girl went into Faery completely unprepared, knowing nothing about any of the things that I just mentioned. It was there, in the Nevernever, that she met a Winter prince. His name was Ash, and he was the most beautiful, dangerous creature she had ever encountered. He was also the youngest son of Mab, Queen of the Winter Court, which made him her enemy. And the laws of the fey forbade them to be together. But the girl was young, and she didn’t care. She loved him, and though it took him a while to admit it, the prince loved her, as well. They faced many trials: terrible monsters, faery wars, kings and queens trying to tear them apart. Despite every obstacle and law and ominous faery warning, they fought with all their hearts to be together. But, sadly, their happily-ever-after was not to be.

  The girl became a queen. A queen of the fey in the Iron Kingdom, and the prince could no longer be with her in her new realm because it was poisonous to him. And so, the prince went on a quest himself, a journey to find a way to be with the queen forever. His quest took him all the way to the End of the World, and he had to face unspeakable challenges, but in the end, he was triumphant and returned to the girl he loved. She was still waiting for him, in her realm of iron, and finally, at long last, they could be together. But the story isn’t over yet.

  The girl and the prince got married, and after a time, had a son. They named him Keirran, and Keirran grew up to be a handsome prince himself. The Prince of the Iron Realm. The queen and her husband loved him very much, but a dark prophecy hung over the Iron Prince’s head. A prophecy that said he would betray his kingdom and bring about the destruction of the entire world of Faery. The Iron Prince became friends with the queen’s brother, Ethan, who was also grown up now, and Ethan’s beloved, a girl named Mackenzie St. James. The three of them had many adventures together in the land of the fey. But Keirran had fallen in love with a girl named Annwyl, a faery of the Summer Court, and the law said they could not be together. The Iron Prince tried to defy that law as his parents had done, but all his attempts failed. And so, as the prince gave into despair, the prophecy surrounding him came true. He betrayed his best friends, betrayed his parents and his kingdom, and tried to destroy the Nevernever.

  A great war was fought, with the Iron Prince battling those he’d once called family. His parents were heartbroken, but they had to protect their kingdom from their own son. Many lives were lost, but in the end, the Iron Prince was saved by the very friends he had betrayed. Ethan, Kenzie, and the prince’s own love, Annwyl, faced the Iron Prince behind enemy lines, and somehow, they were able to bring him back. But the final battle was not without loss and, sadly, Annwyl sacrificed her existence to save the prince she loved so much. The Iron Prince returned home to face the consequences of his actions, and as punishment, was forever exiled from the Nevernever. He became King of the Forgotten and went on to rule a realm known as the Between, swearing to protect the world he’d once tried to destroy.

  But the story isn’t over yet.

  Several years after the great war, a monster appeared in the Between. A monster of nightmares that spread anger and fear to everything it touched. It threatened the Iron Prince’s kingdom, and the Iron Prince knew he needed help. He sent two messengers to the Iron Realm to ask for aid: Robin Goodfellow and a mysterious faery called Nyx. Nyx was a kind of faery no one had ever seen before, but she was beautiful and a deadly fighter, and she helped Puck reach the queen and the Winter prince in the Iron Realm. Together, the Iron Queen and her family confronted the monster and discovered the terrible truth. Long, long ago, there was another realm of Faery known as Evenfall. And Evenfall was home to a whole species of faeries called the Evenfey. The Evenfey were very much like the faeries of the Nevernever, except they were born of darker dreams and nightmares. They were ruled by a powerful entity known as the Nightmare King. But then, a selfish faery known as the Lady decided to seal Evenfall away, cutting the Evenfey off from the rest of the world.

  This made the Nightmare King very angry. He fell into a deep sleep, and he dreamed of revenge. Of darkness and destruction, and vengeance against all fey, the Nevernever, and the entire world.

  Years passed. The king slept on. But eventually, the seal to Evenfall weakened. The Nightmare King was waking up, still filled with rage toward Faery and the Nevernever. And so, to save their world, the girl and her companions decided to step through the weakened seal into Evenfall. To find the Nightmare King and stop him. Whatever that meant.

  They didn’t know what awaited them on the other side. They didn’t realize that what they would discover would cause them to question everything.

  But the story isn’t over yet.

  In fact, this is just the beginning.

  1

  EVENFALL

  My name is Meghan Chase.

  Queen of the Iron Fey. Ruler of the Iron Kingdom. Daughter of a human mother and the immortal faery king of the Summer Court. I have survived multiple wars, faced unspeakable evil, and stopped at least two End of the World prophecies.

  None of that was quite as terrifying as where I stood right now.

  The sky overhead was black. No stars, no moon. Trees surrounded us, bent and twisted as if in horrible pain. A flat gray luminance filtered through the trunks, turning them into skeletal silhouettes that seemed to move whenever you looked away. In the distance, I could make out things dangling from the branches: rotting cages and sacks that bulged as they swung lazily back and forth.

  I shivered. Remember those horror movies that you love so much? Well, congratulations, now you’re in one.

  A chill traced my spine. It was still out there, searching for us. I could feel its presence, old and patient, prowling through the trees. The monster that had been waiting for us the moment we’d set foot in this strange, terrible world. An Elder Nightmare, vicious and nearly unstoppable, that had attacked us as soon as we’d arrived. We’d managed to fight it off and escape, but not unscathed.

  Clenching my jaw, I pressed a hand to my elbow. Beneath the bloody cloth I’d wrapped around my arm, my bones throbbed with pain. But even that was a small inconvenience compared to the bigger problem. If things had been normal, I would have healed myself by now, my fey glamour naturally restoring torn flesh and broken bones, staving off complete exhaustion and keeping me on my feet. But things were far from normal, and dread, yawning and terrible, had settled deep in my stomach.

  There was no glamour in this place. None. It was a wasteland, barren and empty of magic. I could feel the deadness in the air, in the ground, in the trees around us. It made me sick. The Nevernever—the land of the fey—pulsed with magic; glamo
ur existed in every tree and rock and living creature. It fueled our power, our very existence. It flowed from the mortal world into Faery from human dreams and emotions. From their loves, their fears, their passions and creativity.

  This was nothing.

  This was Evenfall.

  Evenfall. A mirror realm to the Nevernever, Evenfall had existed alongside Faery since the very beginning. It was home to the species of faery known as the Evenfey. These were the true bogeymen, the monsters in the darkness. The Nightmares that everyone feared. The ruler of Evenfall was the immortal, immensely powerful Nightmare King, and even the fey of the Nevernever feared him.

  So much so that, in the age before the courts rose to power, the strongest fey in the Nevernever made the terrible decision to seal Evenfall away from the world. Worse, they erased all memories that Evenfall, the Nightmare King, and the Evenfey had existed at all. Cut off from the glamour of the real world and the Nevernever, the fey of Evenfall were doomed to slowly Fade into nonexistence. Starving and forgotten, the Nightmare King fell into a coma-like sleep, and the fey of Evenfall vanished from the world.

  Until recently, when the Evenfey had begun appearing again. No one knew how, or why, though it was suspected that the rising anger, division, and hatred in the world had been strong enough to reach the Nightmare King in his sleep. We—myself, Ash, Puck, Grimalkin, and Nyx—had been called to a place known as InSite, where it was rumored that the Evenfey had been gathering. Deep beneath the building, we’d found a circle of Evenfey attempting to raise the Nightmare King from his slumber. We intervened, only to discover we’d been tricked. Destroying the seal did not stop the ritual as we’d hoped. Instead, it tore open the way to Evenfall. And every faery on this side of the Nevernever—Summer, Winter, Iron, and Forgotten alike—now remembered Evenfall and the Nightmare King.

  With the opening of the seal, the Nightmare King had stirred. He was waking up, and if he did, he would take his revenge on the Nevernever and the fey who’d sealed off his world. The Lady and her circle, those faeries of old, were no longer alive, but the Nightmare King wouldn’t care. He had gone mad in his dreams and would destroy the Nevernever, the courts, and possibly the real world as well.

  We had to stop him. Even if the Nightmare King was unkillable, and our own powers were greatly diminished in his realm. Even though it meant traveling into Evenfall itself and seeing the exact horrors that awaited us on the other side.

  A world with no glamour. A realm of Nightmares, where the fey were starved, twisted creatures from mankind’s darkest emotions. Where the king’s own nightmares had taken form and now roamed the land, preying on all they encountered. Somehow, we had to cross this nightmare world, find the Nightmare King, and either put him back to sleep or...

  Or what? I frowned at my own thoughts. I didn’t like the idea of killing him. What would happen to Evenfall if we did? What would happen to the rest of the Evenfey? I didn’t know exactly what we would do when we found him, just knew that it was up to us—again—to save our world from destruction.

  Even though we had no magic here.

  I sensed his presence behind me before his strong but gentle touch warmed my back. Leaning into the caress, I glanced up. Ashallyn’darkmyr Tallyn, former prince of the Winter Court and my husband, gazed solemnly over my shoulder into the woods. His silver eyes scanned the shadows between the trunks, ever alert for threats, though the hand against my back was of silent support. I wanted to lean into him, to close my eyes and forget this terrible place existed. But I couldn’t. A queen had to remain strong, even if the only ones to see it were her family and closest friends. I was the Iron Queen. In this empty world bereft of glamour and magic, I had to give them hope.

  “It’s still out there,” Ash murmured behind me.

  I nodded. “I haven’t seen or heard it in a while, but I’m sure it’s still stalking us.” The Nightmare had chased us for a while after we had fled. Or, rather, when Keirran finally convinced the rest of us to retreat. It was not in the Iron Queen’s nature to run away, even less so for a warrior son of Winter and the infamous jester of the Summer Court. Ash, Puck, and I probably would have fought the creature until we killed it or it tore us apart, but the Forgotten King had reminded us that we had an important mission to accomplish. If we died here, there would be no one to stop the Nightmare King from waking up, and the Nevernever—and possibly the real world as well—would be doomed. Realizing this, we finally retreated, and eventually lost the Nightmare in the twisted forest surrounding us.

  I didn’t like running away. Rulers of Faery did not give ground to their enemies. And I hated the fact that I was weak now. But Keirran had been right. Our mission was too important to waste time fighting. We were here to stop the Nightmare King and save the Nevernever. And somehow, we would do that, with no glamour, no allies, and no idea of how to accomplish anything.

  “Has Nyx returned yet?” Ash asked, interrupting my bleak musings.

  I shook my head. “Not yet.” The Evenfaery had left several minutes ago to scout the area, hoping to spot the Elder Nightmare before it found us. Nyx was unmatched at remaining unseen, and this was her world. We would have a better chance of avoiding the monster if we knew exactly where it was.

  Cool fingers slid over my arm, brushing my elbow. “Come inside,” Ash urged. “Nyx will be back when she’s ready. There’s nothing we can do until then.”

  “Yeah.” I sighed and let him lead me back into the cave. It wasn’t a large cavern, just a hole carved into a hillside, but it was sandy and dry and, most important, free of anything living in it.

  A reddish-orange fire burned sullenly in the center of the cavern, lighting the interior. Puck sat cross-legged in front of it, feeding twigs into the flames. His bright red hair glowed in the flickering light, making it seem like his head was on fire. Opposite him, a fluffy gray cat lay comfortably on a flat rock, feet tucked into his chest, golden eyes half-closed in the dancing shadows.

  I crouched in front of the small fire and spread my hands before it, letting the warmth seep into my cold fingers. “How’s everyone holding up?” I asked.

  Puck’s green eyes met mine over the firelight. The gash on his forehead had stopped bleeding, though his left cheek still looked a bit bruised.

  He shrugged and managed to dredge up his old devil-may-care grin. “Never better, princess. Who wouldn’t want to go gallivanting through a literal nightmare world filled with horrific monsters and no magic? I’m thinking of setting up a lovely vacation home in that grove of trees with the screaming heads.”

  I gave a faint smile. Not even a literal nightmare world could stop Puck from making a joke about it. “Then you’d at least have a captive audience,” I replied, making him snort. “Sleeping might be a challenge, though.”

  “Trust me, princess. No one is ever going to sleep in this place.”

  Ash knelt beside me, deliberately close. I resisted the urge to lean into him. “You managed to get a fire going, at least,” he observed.

  “Yeah.” Puck snapped his fingers, and a tiny flame appeared over his thumb for a split second before he snuffed it out. “By virtue of being me. This is it, though. This is how much glamour I have left, and it ain’t a lot. What about you two?”

  Ash shook his head. “Mine is gone,” he said grimly. “I used the last of it fighting the Nightmare.”

  “Princess?”

  I sighed. “The same,” I admitted. “It took nearly everything I had to re-seal the portal to Evenfall. I have maybe enough for one more big attack, and then everything will be drained completely. I know Keirran is in the same boat. I’m not sure about Nyx.”

  “So, we have no magic,” Puck said. “No glamour, no power, and we are in the literal plane of Faery hell.” He grimaced and scrubbed a hand through his crimson hair, making it stand on end. “Yeah, this is gonna be all kinds of fun.”

  I clenched a fist. They were both putting on brave faces, but even though he hid it well, I could sense Ash’s fear. Without glamour, he was weaker; still a skilled and deadly swordsman, with a few natural Faery perks that made him more dangerous than the strongest human, but he would not be able to bring the awesome power of his Winter magic to bear. I knew he was worried, not for himself, but for the rest of us. His greatest fear was that he wouldn’t be able to protect the ones he cared for.