“Be careful, Avery. Whoever has an agenda against us is close. I can feel it. They’re going to strike at any moment.”

  “Maybe you should just open a portal for us and send us both to Earth?” I asked, pressing a hand on his chest. “I could take you to Seattle, show you around, give you a real taste of the city…”

  Silvan’s lips tightened and he swallowed hard. “Tempting,” he growled against my ear, “Very tempting. But we have a job to do.”

  I shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

  “Go back to your room, now, and lock the door.”

  “And you? What will you do?”

  “I am going to stretch my legs for a while.”

  “What if you get caught?”

  “Then I’ll have to suffer Invidia’s ire once more, but I’m no stranger to that experience.”

  “Aren’t you worried they’ll execute you?”

  Silvan paused and looked at me as if I had just asked the most ridiculous question. “I’m a Fae noble,” he said, “No one is executing me.”

  I nodded. “Got it.” I turned to leave, but then stopped and turned around again. “Please don’t let this be the last time I see you, okay?”

  Silvan frowned. “Why would it be?”

  I shook my head. “Every time I feel like I’m getting close to someone, they leave.”

  “Avery… I didn’t know.”

  “Because I don’t talk about it. Now, don’t make a big deal and just go, okay?”

  It was Silvan who nodded, now, and with a quick turn he was gone, disappeared deeper into the dark corridor we had been standing in. The lights in the hallway seemed to turn themselves back on, instantly battling away the gloom and the dimness.

  I didn’t give it another moment’s thought.

  I headed off to my room, where I’d find Rell waiting—I had questions for him.

  CHAPTER 10

  For the first time since leaving for Darwood Forest, I found Rell in my room… eating. He was sitting on his perch, which had magically reappeared, and was happily chowing down on what looked like a large bone covered in meat. Rell was gold, now, instead of red, and he had a horn poking out of his snout, but he was clearly still Rell.

  “I never thought I’d be happy to find you eating in here,” I said.

  Rell swallowed, then looked up at me. “I’ve never been happier to be eating in here,” he said, “I forgot how well the Fae ate.”

  “I’m glad you’re back.”

  “Me too. You still look like crap, by the way. Didn’t you wash?”

  “No. Why would you think that?”

  “Well, because you took forever to get up here. I assumed you were taking a bath.”

  “No, I…” I made sure the door to my room was closed. “I met with the Viscount.”

  “Oh, he’s still kicking about, is he? How is the big guy?”

  “Under arrest, I guess.” I caught a whiff of myself and grimaced. I was starting to smell like swamp. “I don’t suppose you know a spell that’ll clean me up?”

  “I don’t, but even the Fae use bathrooms,” Rell said, gesturing to the door off to the side of my room.

  “Wait… where does that lead?”

  Rell shrugged. “Bathroom. It popped up while I was in here. I peeked.”

  “Are you serious?” I walked over to the door, opened it, and my eyes widened. There was a tub, a sink, a toilet, and cabinets filled with soaps and perfumes and towels—everything I could need. “Holy shit… my own bathroom.”

  “Didn’t you always have one?”

  I turned the light on and walked inside. Sparing no time, I ran the sink and started to wash my hands and face. “I did before, but then I left and cost the house Prestige, so it shrank. I’ve been having to bathe under strict supervision.”

  “You mean they watched you while you got naked in the tub? Perverts.”

  “No, not like that. But they’d wait for me outside and hurry me up. It was embarrassing.”

  The muck that came off my face turned the sink bowl brown, and black, and green, but after a few moments, it was gone. I looked at my face in the mirror, and even though it was Kady’s face and not my own, I looked at least a little better than I had a moment ago.

  “That did the trick,” I said.

  “So did this meat,” Rell said. “Is it mutton? I think it’s mutton, honey glazed… salty and sweet.”

  I smiled at my reflection. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I wish I could say the same, but I guess I was dead for a while and having company beats death.”

  I walked out of the bathroom with a towel in my hands. It was already turning black and brown, but I was only using the corners of it to pick dirt out of my ears. “What was that even like?” I asked. “I saw you go down, then I saw the flash, and you were gone.”

  “I wish I could tell you,” he said, setting down the mostly eaten bone. “I remember the flash, too… then there was white. A lot of white. Next thing I knew, I was on fire, and clawing my way out of an egg.”

  “Wait. On fire, inside of an egg? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Not to your squishy, human brain, but Drakes are born that way. We immolate in the egg, and if we aren’t strong enough to break out of it, we die.”

  “Yikes…”

  “It’s not all that bad. Well, not for me, I guess, since I happen to have a few more chances than most Drakes at succeeding.”

  “Because you’re part Sprite.”

  Rell stretched and yawned. “On my mother’s side.”

  “So, what happened? You crawled out of the egg, and then what? I don’t tend to know what day it is from one sunrise to the next, but it couldn’t have been much more than a week since the forest. How’d you grow up so fast? And how did you get here?”

  “Do you want me to tell you a story, or do you want to skip to the end?”

  I shook my head. “No, by all means, tell me the story.”

  “Only if you promise to fill me in on what’s been going on in this mad house while I’ve been gone.”

  I sat on the edge of my bed. “I promise.”

  “Right, well… like I said, egg, fire, crack—freedom. I wasn’t sure where I was when I woke up, or even whose egg I was in. I was in a nest, high in the mountains, and there were other eggs around me, but they were all cracked and open. I could barely move, and I was in no condition to fly, so I had to eat the shells as fast as I could before mama drake came back and spotted me in her nest.”

  “You ate the shells?”

  “When it’s, eat shells or die, you’ll eat shells. Anyway. Once I’d scoffed the eggs, I clawed my way out of the nest I was in and headed for solid ground. I was lucky, too. I had managed to make it to the opening of a small cavern I was just the right size to fit through when I heard the Drake whose egg I had hatched out of roar. She was pissed, let me tell you.”

  “She didn’t catch you?”

  “Not for lack of trying; she just couldn’t fit. I was safe in the cave, but I was still hungry, so I started eating everything I could find. Moss, bugs, little rodents. If it fit in my mouth, I was eating it.”

  “I’m noticing a theme, here. You don’t just eat because you love food, do you?”

  “Trust me, I love eating, but I have to eat constantly. It’s my curse for being a half-breed, I guess. I’m always hungry. In this case, that came in handy, because I needed to eat to grow. Once I was strong enough that my wings would carry me, I found my way out of the cave and came down here—against my better judgment, might I add.”

  “Against?”

  “I always thought I wouldn’t be like you. I wouldn’t come back to this place. But I did, I couldn’t help myself. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. And mutton. Hey, glutton for mutton—I’m amazing.”

  “Are you done congratulating yourself?”

  “Maybe. Anyway, that’s my story. Nothing glamorous.”

  “My takeaway from the story is, you woke up, ate, ate, and ate, and now you’re here. If it weren’t for the fact that you reincarnated, it would’ve been a pretty average Tusesday in your life.”

  “I would agree with that.”

  “It doesn’t explain why you’re gold now, though. Or the horn.”

  “I told you, I made those choices myself.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Yep. Sprites get to choose their forms when they’re born. I’m part Drake, so I’m limited to… well, this. I have to look like them. But I got to make a couple of alterations that, I think, better suit my character.”

  “A horn better suits your character?”

  “Well, you’re always calling me an overgrown iguana. Do iguanas have horns?”

  “No, but they also don’t have wings, so I’m not dropping the insult.”

  “Dammit.” Rell rolled his eyes. “Alright, I told you mine, so you tell me yours. What the hell has been going on here?”

  “That’s… complicated,” I said. “The Favoring is still a thing. I ditched it to help the Viscount, so the house lost prestige, which means it shrank. I didn’t know they could do that. Invidia was pissed that I left, so she arrested me and the Viscount, but she still forced me to continue the Favoring. I had to fight a big plant thing in my last trial, and I won. I had to pick up a crown in this trial, and I won too. Oh, and I think Elaith is trying to kill me and or the Viscount.”

  Rell frowned. “That pompous elf?” he asked. “What makes you think that?”

  “They’re sabotaging my chances of winning my trials, for start. They didn’t tell me I would have to pull a gem out of the creature I had to fight in my first trial, and then they gave me a potion that basically knocked me out for my second one. They also kept me from training how to fight during my first few trials.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’re trying to kill you.”

  “No, but I know they’re lying to me because I confronted them about my training, and they told me Invidia didn’t want me to win the Favoring. But that’s total bullshit, because why wouldn’t she want me to win? I’ve seen what losing does to this house, and that bathroom right there is proof of what winning does to the house. I know they’re lying.”

  “And the Viscount?”

  “Elaith had access to the stores where the cure for the Viscount’s illness was kept. It has to be them.”

  “We could project, you know.”

  “Project?”

  “Do the astral thing? Hunt around the house for them, see what they’re up to.”

  “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I’m not supposed to leave this room unless it’s for a trial.”

  “And who says you’re going to be found out?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe Invidia has set up some magic spells to alert her if I try anything funky. Besides, I don’t want to cause too much noise now that you’re back. The last thing I want is anyone knowing you’re here with me right now. I don’t know what they’ll do to you if they found out.”

  “You think they’d try to hurt me?”

  “They’d split us up again, and I don’t know if I could deal with that. Not after the forest.”

  Rell rolled his eyes. “Don’t get all gooey on me, human.”

  “What? It’s been hard without my wingman.”

  “I never agreed to be your wingman.”

  “Well, you’re stuck with me, now. We’re bound, remember? Wait, does that still count if you died?”

  “Good question. I’m afraid I don’t come with a manual, so I have no idea.”

  “Huh… I hadn’t even considered it until now.”

  “Don’t worry about it too much. There’s clearly a lot on your plate already, and unlike me, you don’t like a loaded plate.”

  “I like food as much as you do, but I get bloated easily, you know?”

  A sudden banging at my bedroom door sent my pulse into high gear. Rell perked up, leapt off his perch, and threw himself onto my bed. I didn’t have to tell him to hide—he knew what to do. After a few moments of wriggling around, he was gone, disappeared behind my pillows. I straightened myself out and headed for the door, trying my best to compose myself.

  After a deep breath, I opened the door… to find the hallway empty.

  There was no one standing at the door, no one had come to knock. Even the two guards who were posted at my bedroom at all times were gone. The house felt quiet, a little empty—eerily so. I stepped into the corridor and looked around, searching for whoever it was that had banged on my door, but a ghost may as well have done it.

  Frowning, I turned around and headed back into my bedroom, only to find the lights out, the window open, and someone standing there, wreathed in darkness and shadow.

  CHAPTER 11

  The intruder didn’t move. It was a mass of darkness and shadow standing behind the fluttering curtains. Not even the fresh scent of spring wafting into my room through the open window could calm the sudden surge of anxiety and adrenaline rushing through me right at that very moment.

  How had they gotten in? Weren’t there bars on the window? Where had they gone?

  I didn’t think I could move. I felt chained to the spot I was standing in, my heart pounding inside of my chest, my head throbbing with a beat to match. Someone was in my room; someone who wasn’t supposed to be there. Someone who had done something to the guards posted at my bedroom door.

  Instinct kicked in, forcing my muscles into action. I went to turn around and rush back out into the corridor, but the door slammed shut before I could reach it. I tried the handle, pulling as hard as I could, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  Finally, I turned around and faced the dark figure that had let itself into my room. Rell was in here with me. He had to be. But I didn’t want to call to him just in case the intruder had no idea we weren’t alone in my room.

  “Who are you?” I called out.

  “Don’t you recognize me?” came the distorted reply.

  “I don’t. But you had better get out of my room, or I’m—”

  “—going to scream?”

  “I was going to say I’d kick your ass all the way out of that window.”

  “Why don’t you come over here and try?”

  I had no idea who the voice belonged to, or even whose body I was looking at. The sun was setting over the mountains on the other side of the house, so it was already dark enough that I couldn’t find any distinguishing features on their face. The body of the person I was looking at was slender, and tight, but short and a little feminine.

  A woman?

  But who?

  “Alright, enough of this,” I said, and without thinking much about it, I grabbed the nearest lamp I could find, and I hurled it at the dark figure standing by my window.

  The lamp soared through the air, but the figure was on the move before it could strike. It struck the curtain first, then shattered against the wall behind it, sending a spray of ceramic bits in all directions. The figure was already on the move, leaping onto my bed and rolling across it to get a little closer to me.

  I had enough time to take a defensive position, digging my feet into the floor and preparing my hands in the way Elaith had taught me. But when I saw the gleam of the knife in the figure’s clutches, the blood drained from my face.

  Whoever this was, they were here to kill me.

  Right now.

  I threw a right hook, but the figure effortlessly ducked under it. They aimed a swipe of their knife directly into my chest, hoping I was off balance from the hook I had thrown. I shoved my arm into theirs, deflecting the blade, and then shoved them hard enough to send them back a few paces, giving myself a little breathing room.

  The lack of sunlight and the wreath of darkness around the assassin made it difficult to puzzle out who they could be. Being in the middle of a fight for my life also didn’t make things any easier. I was about to step toward them, but they stuck their hand out toward me and an invisible blast of energy struck me in the chest and sent me flying toward the far wall.

  I hit it so hard, the wood splintered under the force of the impact. When I hit the ground, I found myself gasping for my next breath. That magic blast had knocked the wind right out of my lungs and left me more than a little dazed. I was outmatched, here. There was only one thing I had going for me, and that was my speed, but I needed to get back up first.

  Get up, asshole.

  “I’m getting really tired of assassination attempts,” I said, planting my palms on the floor.

  “Let me make it easy for you,” came the distorted voice. “Lie still, and I’ll send you to the afterlife in a flash.”

  There was something about that voice, something familiar, only I couldn’t quite place it. I paused before getting back up, my brain searching through memories to try and place the voice. Whoever it was, I knew them; it was someone I had spoken to before, someone I’d interacted with. But who?

  I heard their footfalls rise as they thudded toward me. Summoning all of my strength, I picked myself up off the floor, grabbed the dresser, and threw it in the assassin’s path. That gave me a moment to center myself, to breathe, and to contract time around me so I could act faster than I should’ve been able to.

  I felt time slow to a crawl, a sensation that made my stomach twist even now. The assassin stared at the dresser I had just thrown in front of them, then slowly turned their eyes up at me. The swirling darkness around them had also started to slow, and for a moment I thought I caught a glimpse of a face—or a nose, at least.

  Crooked, and a little pointed.

  “What… the fuck?” I asked myself.

  The figure with the pointed nose arched its blade arm up, holding it in a reverse grip in their hand like the ghost-face killer from those old movies. Their movements were slow, and sluggish, and I was able to use that advantage to hurl myself over the dresser and onto them. I grabbed their wrist, pulled them across the room, and slammed their hand into the wall, forcing them to drop the knife.

  I had the advantage, now. I was a lot faster than they were, and when I spun the assassin by the arm and threw them into the bathroom door, they had no defense against me. I saw them fall in slow motion as they went staggering over their own feet and crashing into the door.