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I leashed my beast. Though it was true. She’d fight her battles—with me at her side. At her back. With her. Always.

I tightened the restraints. I didn’t need beastly instincts. I needed a calm, calculating head. I needed to observe.

What sort of defenses did the faeries have? How many guards? What powers could they muster and how strong were they? Could we defend against them?

The path started to slope downward, the angle increasing sharply. Sharp enough we had to pause and climb down a ladder. It took Osheen and Veyka’s careful maneuvering to help Lyrena down with her wounded leg.

Another tunnel. This one, however, was actually lit. Soft golden light glowed on the walls at intervals. Lamps.

For Isolde, they were far overhead. But for me, they were level with my chin. I peered in—

And reeled backward at the indignant squeal. It wasn’t a lamp at all. It was a tiny, glowing faerie. Exactly like Isolde, from the pointed ears to the sharp clawed fingers. But small enough it could have fit in the palm.Shecould have fit it my palm.

But her entire body glowed with incandescent light. Including her wings.

A faerie.

“They bite,” Isolde’s high-pitched voice said from ahead.

I glanced at the other faeries lighting the way as we continued down the tunnel, glowing with their soft golden light. They too, were entirely monochromatic. All pale gold.

What other color faeries would we see before this was over?

I didn’t have long to wonder.

The tunnel was widening. Thus far, it had been narrow enough to act as a natural deterrent. It would be nearly impossible to push a force of any size and power through those narrow passageways. It would take too long, and the faerie fighting force could merely wait at the end and take out those who emerged one by one.

But now the tunnel was wide enough that three of us could walk abreast—three fae, taller and wider. And the walls weren’t sheared black stone.

There were alcoves.

Small openings, built for beings much smaller than me or my companions. Carved for the faeries who occupied them.

I didn’t duck down to see better—it seemed like an intrusion. Because those were not warriors or guards standing in the curved entrances to the alcoves, but families. A pale pink faerie with slightly translucent skin held one tiny child on her hip, another by the hand. All with claws, all with the same all-over coloring of the others.

They watched us with varying levels of interest. Children poking out heads, males with their claw-tipped hands crossed over their chests. But it wasn’t just the colors that were stunning—shades of vermillion, forest green, white like Isolde.

It was the magic.

Water dribbled from a mother’s fingertips into the child’s waiting mouth. Magical hands lit hearths that I only saw for a moment, at a sharp angle through the small archways that led into the alcoves.

My companions were as awestruck as I. Maisri was grinning, reaching into her pockets for mangled flower petals, growing them into blooms, and then tossing them to the faerie children. Cyara’s white wings were in a constant flutter, which meant her eyes were darting around as well.

Only Percival was stoic, eyes straight forward. He’d known they existed, then.

It is an entire civilization. A peaceful one.

My gaze flew over the heads of the others, finding Veyka. Her back was still turned to me, but I’d heard her words in my mind as clearly as if she’d been standing at my side.

My beast immediately let loose a soft, purring growl.They could have warriors tucked away.

I watched Veyka tilt her head to the side.They are leading us through the residences, the families. They know we are not a threat to them.

My beast growled louder.That doesn’t make them peaceful. Just stupid.

Veyka’s shoulders rolled. She turned her head to the side again—she was speaking to Isolde. Only an elemental would be able to hold two conversations simultaneously—and one of those happening entirely in her head.

Or chest? That was where I felt the force of the mating bond that allowed the strange intermittent connection between us…