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What should’ve been a dull read is enlivened by Des’s narration. One by one, he moves through the remaining books, taking on various accents as he does so—sometimes it’s an Irish or Russian accent, other times it’s German or French, and once (to my utter delight) he impersonates a Valley girl.

Des was right: some of the later books he reads don’t need fanciful narration at all; they are quite a bit more engaging than the earlier reads.

From these later tomes, I learn the Day King’s father had a harem full of men, that it was considered a miracle that he fathered Janus, the current King of Day, and his now deceased twin brother, Julios.

And that Mara Verdana, Queen of Flora, wasn’t heir apparent—her older sister, Thalia, was. However, before she ascended to the throne, Thalia fell in love with a traveling enchanter posing as a minstrel. He bewitched Thalia into believing the two were mates, and she gladly gave him most of her power. It nearly tore the kingdom apart. Eventually, the enchanter was put to death, and Thalia, in her heartache, fell on her own sword.

I stiffen when the text moves on to tales from the Kingdom of Fauna and, more specifically, Karnon. Apparently, according to the author of the text, he was a “softhearted” youth.

“Fear stirred in the kingdom’s breast. Kind souls make for poor rulers, especially in a realm of beasts,” Des reads.

Absently, my thumb moves over the scales of my forearms.

“But Karnon grew to be both soft and strong, the way a bear might be tender with her young but vicious to outsiders. Under his rule, he brought true harmony to a realm that had waged many civil wars throughout the long centuries.”

Des closes the book. My eyes flick between it and my mate. “Wait, that’s it?” I say. “That’s all it says about him? Nothing about his madness?”

“His madness is too recent to be included in such an old book.”

“How could they say he was a gentle ruler?” I ask. He raped and imprisoned women.

“Callie,” Des says softly, “you and I both know monsters aren’t born, they’re nurtured into existence.”

I know that’s true, but right now there’s a bitter taste at the back of my throat. “History should remember him how he was.” I pick at one of my scales, the book’s words getting under my skin.

“It will.”

The heat of my anger dies down a little at Des’s words, but I can’t get the image of Karnon’s mad eyes out of my head.Pretty, pretty bird, his voice echoes in my memory.

Now that I think about him, the mystery I’m supposed to be solving comes bubbling back up.

Karnonisn’tsolely to blame; there’s someone else out there doing who knows what to the missing men. And as for the King of Fauna, what of him and his blackened heart? Where did his death get anyone?

The women still slept, and their children still terrorized other fairies. Whatever dark spell Karnon cast, his death didn’t break it.

“Death undoes enchantments?” I ask Des.

He searches my face, probably trying to figure out just where my mind is. Only seconds ago I might as well have been carrying a torch and a pitchfork.

“It does,” he finally says.

“Karnon’s death hasn’t undone the enchantment.”

“It hasn’t,” he agrees.

We’re back to where we were over a week ago, when I stared into those casket children’s eyes and saw no evidence of Karnon’s paternity in them.

Only now, knowing there’s more than one perpetrator out there, and hearing about the Fauna King’s gentle disposition…

What if Karnonwasn’tbehind the dark spell?

Just the thought of lifting any blame from Karnon’s shoulders has me nauseous. But I push past all my hatred and my twisted memories of being a captive, and I try to see it through a clearer lens.

When I visited the Fauna King, there seemed to always be two Karnons: one who was wild and strangely gentle and another who was calculating and sinister. The former liked to pet my skin and whisper promises about wings and scales; the latter would force dark magic down my throat. Karnon could slip from one version of himself to the other in an instant, like putting on or taking off a coat.

I was disturbed by the wild Karnon, the oddly tender ruler who was still very much insane, but I feared the sinister Karnon—he was both cruelandlucid.

I’d always assumed these sides of him were two aspects of the same man, but perhaps…perhaps there was something more going on there. Could it be possible Karnon wasn’t two different personalities residing within the same flesh but two different beings taking up space within one body? Maybe Des killed the primal, wild man who gave me scales and claws but not the man who was trying to subdue me with his dark magic…