Page 2

He laughs against my skin, his warm breath drawing out my gooseflesh. Slowly, the laughter dies from his features. “I lost you once, Callie,” he says, “and those seven years nearly killed me. I don’t intend to lose you again.”

My gut clenches at the memory. Even now I can feel the ache of his absence; it was a wound that never healed.

Des presses a hand to my heart, “Besides—is this not worth it?”

He doesn’t need to elaborate on whatthisis.

Beneath his palm, I feel the warmth of Des’s presence—not just against my skin, butwithinme. It feels like I’m being kissed by pale moonlight, like the stars and the deep night rest under my skin, and I know that makes no sense, but there it is.

His magic even has a sound. It’s a low melody, the faint notes just beyond my reach. It makes me feel the same breathless excitement I used to feel at Peel Academy when evening was coming and Des was coming with it.

We were once mates separated by worlds and magic. Separated no longer, thanks to the lilac wine.

There are other perks that came with the wine. I now have the ability to make my claws and scales and wings appear and disappear at will. And I can sense fae magic in a way I never could before.

Of course, there are drawbacks too—fairy giftsalwayshave drawbacks.

I’m still coming for you. Your life is mine.

The Bargainer catches my wrist, examining my bare forearm.

“Three hundred and twenty-two favors—a lifetime’s worth,” he murmurs.

I follow his gaze. It’s weird looking down and not seeing the Bargainer’s bracelet. The skin there is paler than the rest, and I admit, my arm feels naked without the weight of all those black beads. I’d worn that bracelet every day for nearly eight years … and overnight it disappeared.

It was a lifetime’s worth of beads, but in the end, it was even more than that—it was alife’sworth. Those beads brought me back from the edge of death. And now I have to wonder if from the very beginning Des’s magic somehow knew it would come to this. If all that debt and all those years of waiting were its way of gathering magic so that one day it could prevent my untimely death.

Or maybe I just got really, really lucky.

I lower my wrist so that I can look the Night King in the eye. “Anger aside—thank you.” My words come out rough.

Thank youis a pitifully small show of gratitude for what Des did. Because, in the end, he saved me.Again.

For once I’d like to return the favor.

Des’s hand tightens around my forearm, and he brings my wrist to his lips and presses a kiss there. “Does this mean you forgive me for the lilac wine?”

“Don’t push your luck, fairy boy.”

“Cherub, hasn’t anyone told you? Getting what I want has nothing to do with luck. I deal in favors.”

Chapter 2

“Not a slaveanymore, I see.”

My shoulders hike up at that voice.

Thatvoice.

Last time I heard it, I was in the Flora Queen’s sacred oak forest, my life bleeding out of me. And now it’s at my back.

“We meet again, enchantress,” the Thief of Souls says.

I feel the monster’s fingertips trail like velvet up my arm.

“Your wings are gone—” He leans in and breathes me in, “and is that fae magic I smell? Could it be that the mighty Night King gave you the lilac wine?”

“Don’t act like you’re surprised,” I say.