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She won’t look at me, even as she nods. And damn it, I feel bad about everything I’m doing and not doing right now because enslavement twists it all up into something ugly.

She turns to leave.

“Hey, wait,” Temper says to the woman.

The human woman pauses. Then, hesitantly, she turns back around.

Temper pats the empty seat next to her. “Sit down.”

The woman looks like sitting is the last thing she wants to do, but reluctantly, she does in fact sit down.

“What’s your name?” As Temper talks, she begins fixing the woman a plate of sandwiches and a cup of tea.

“Gladiola.” The woman fidgets, glancing around us nervously.

“Hi, Gladiola. I’m Temper and this is Callie,” she says, introducing us.

Gladiola’s eyes dart to me. “I’m not supposed to talk with you.”

“Why not?” Temper asks. “We’re all humans here.”

I stare warily at my friend, trying to figure out what she’s playing at.

Gladiola lets out a shaky breath. “The fairies are uncomfortable that a human woman is going to become the next Night Queen. They’re afraid you’ll put ideas in our heads.”

“About equality?” Temper says. “What a terrible thing indeed,” she says sarcastically.

The woman presses her lips together and glances down at her hands in her lap. I assume that’s all she’s going to say, but then she admits, “They also don’t trust the Night King. He killed another king, and the Fauna fae want revenge. And—” She hesitates, as if realizing she’s doing the very thing she wasn’t supposed to.

“And what?” Temper encourages.

Gladiola’s hands twist in her lap, and her eyes move from Temper to me then back to Temper. I see her swallow, but then something resolute enters her features. “People have been saying the Night King is behind the disappearances,” she confesses. Her chin shakes a little.

My stomach drops. That’s the second person today to say such a thing.

“They say,” she continues, “that he’s the last person they see.”

Unease skitters up my back.

It’s just a rumor.

Gladiola glances at me, and it’s as though she’s only now realizing who she confessed these rumors to. “I’m sorry,” she whispers softly, looking horror-struck. “Can I leave?”

Before either Temper or I can respond, Night soldiers come running through the gardens.

Several of them flash past us before I snag one by the shirtsleeves. “What’s going on?”

He almost doesn’t stop. It’s not until he sees who caught him that he pauses.

He takes a deep breath. “Another soldier has disappeared.”

Chapter 32

Another soldier disappeared. That’s all I can concentrate on that evening as fairies enjoy yet another dance inside the Flora Kingdom’s castle.

Since we arrived in the kingdom, three Night soldiers, four Fauna soldiers, one Day soldier, and two Flora soldiers have disappeared from the outskirts of the palace grounds. The numbers are staggering, even for the Thief of Souls.

Whoever he is, he’s growing bolder—or more desperate.