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“Always so chatty, cousin,” Talwyn went on. “And now you have nothing to say?”

Scarlett tilted her head to the side as if contemplating, and godsdamn Sorin stepped in. “Maybe you could explain why you think she knows more than she is letting on?”

Talwyn settled back in her chair and summoned a cup of tea, holding her cousin’s stare. She could see the challenge in her eyes, daring her to speak on this further.

She’d faced far scarier things than her.

She took a sip of her tea and said, “We were not alone in the plane we visited. We had a guide. A man that your queen apparently knows very, very well. A man bonded to Altaria.”

Sorin’s head whipped to his queen. “Who?”

Scarlett’s teeth were clenched, and Talwyn recognized that she was working to control her own temper. That her rage was leashed as tightly as Talwyn’s own was.She merely sent her a sweet smile and sipped her tea once more.

Scarlett let out a deep breath. “As I have already told Talwyn, I do not know who he is.”

“You certainly conversed with him as if you knew him. You recognized him as soon as he made his presence known,” Talwyn retorted. If Scarlett wasn’t going to tell her what she needed to know to protect her people, she’d get every godsdamn person in this room on her side.

“How many times have you seen him? Who is he?” Sorin demanded, turning back to his wife.

“I do not know who he is,” Scarlett reiterated. “He’s been in my dreams in the past.”

“Mikale?” Sorin asked sharply.

Scarlett shook her head. “No. I mean, he’s been in those dreams, too, but as an observer. He’s only spoken to me a few times. I do not know who he is,” she replied.

“And he is bonded to Altaria?” Briar asked curiously from Scarlett’s left.

“I would assume so. They seem to have a connection similar to the one I’ve seen between Sorin and Amaré.”

“What has he said to you?” Sorin cut in.

“Nothing of importance, or I would have told you about it,” Scarlett snapped, meeting his stare.

Ashtine’s lilting voice cut through the voices. “He has only appeared in your dreams before now?”

Scarlett’s gaze flickered to the princess. “Yes. He was there when…when Shirina and I were bonded.”

Ashtine merely propped her head on a delicate hand and studied the new Fae Queen.

“How often does he come for you?” Sorin asked, his entire body tense.

“He does notcome for me,” Scarlett drawled. She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. There was a flicker of shadows as they coiled around her arms, then they were gone. “He…”

Sorin reached over to touch her hand, and she jerked it back from him.Talwyn’s brows rose in surprise at the reaction. She watched as Sorin’s lips thinned. “This…man is the one who took you to the rip in the plane? Told you what it was?”

“Yes.” Scarlett’s voice was hard and sharp.

“And you believe this…dream?”

“Clearly what happened today was not a dream, Prince.”

“And you, Queen Talwyn? Do you believe what this man told you both?” Briar asked, his icy blue eyes hard as they settled on her.

“I believe there are beings in the mortal lands that we have never encountered. This plane we were on was layered over Baylorin. I do not believe these two things occurring are independent of each other,” Talwyn answered. With the attention on Scarlett for those few minutes, she had been able to breathe and get her irritation under control.

“You think this rip or tear or whatever is part of how they are entering the mortal lands?” Cyrus asked slowly from beside Sorin.

“That is one possibility, yes,” Talwyn said, her eyes fixed on the Fire Court Second. She could see the concern there, the one she had been voicing repeatedly these last two days. She narrowed her eyes at Cyrus and purred softly, “Say it, Fire Warrior.”