Page 1

Chapter 1

Wings.

I have wings.

The iridescent black feathers glint under the dim lights of Des’s royal chambers: now black, now green, now blue.

Wings.

I stand in front of one of Des’s gilded mirrors, both horrified and transfixed by the sight. Even folded, the tops of my wings loom well above my head, and the tips brush the back of my bare calves.

Of course, wings aren’t the only difference about me. After a particularly nasty skirmish with Karnon, the mad King of Fauna, I now have scaly forearms and claw-tipped fingers too.

And those are just the changes you can see. There’s nothing—except maybe the wounded look in my eyes—that I have to show for all those parts of me that were altered in different, more fundamental ways.

I spent the better part of a decade fighting the idea that I was a victim. I’d done a damn fine job of it too—if I do say so myself—before I came to the Otherworld. And then came Karnon. A small shiver courses through me even now as I remember.

All those cleverly crafted layers of armor I wore were shucked away by a week of imprisonment, and I’m not quite sure how to deal with it.

To be honest, I really don’twantto deal with it.

But, as bad as I have it, the Master of Animals got it worse. Des vaporized the dude so completely that all that’s left of him is a bloodstain on the remains of his throne room.

Apparently, one does not fuck with the Night King’s mate.

Mate.

That’s another thing I’ve acquired recently—asoul mate. I’m bound to Desmond Flynn, the Bargainer: one of the most wanted criminals on earth and one of the most powerful fae here in the Otherworld.

But even that—matehood—is more complicated than it appears.

I still have so many questions about our bond, like the fact I never knew I had a soul mate until a few weeks ago. Other supernaturals find out this kind of thing back when they’re teenagers and their magic Awakens.

So why didn’t I?

There’s also the fact most soul mates can feel the bond that connects them to their mate like it’s a physical thing.

I place a hand over my heart.

I’ve felt no such thing.

All I have is Des’s word that we’re soul mates—that and the sweet ache in my bones that calls for him and only him.

I drop my hand from my chest.

Behind my reflection, stars glitter just beyond the arched windows of Des’s Otherworld suite. The hanging lanterns dangle unlit, and the sparkling lights captured along the wall sconces have long since dimmed.

I’m stuck here in the Kingdom of Night.

I doubt there are all that many supernaturals who would complain about my situation—mated to a king, forced to live in a palace—but the simple, sobering truth is that a girl like me cannot waltz back onto earth with giant wings protruding from her back.

That sort of thing wouldn’t go over well.

So I’m stuck here, far from my friends—okay,friend, but, in all fairness, Temper’s got the power and attitude of atleasttwo people—in a place where my ability to glamour, a.k.a. seduce, others with my voice is essentially useless. Fairies, as I’ve learned, cannot be glamoured; my magic is too incompatible with theirs.

To be clear, that’s not a two-way street. They can still use their powers on me; the bracelet on my wrist is proof enough of that.

My eyes return to my wings, my strange, unearthly wings.