Page 1 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

Chapter One

TellmeI’mwrong,Garion.Tell me this isn’t yours.

We faced each other in the deserted hallway behind The Rain’s kitchen, me holding my breath and hoping, Garion tilting his head and frowning.Until his gaze dropped to the palm-sized black object in my open hand.

All at once, he went rigid.

I became a broken body squeezed in a giant’s fist, caught up in a story I never wanted to be part of.The only things grounding me to reality were the door-muffled clanks of dishes on the other side of the wall to my right and the rhythmicthumpthumpof laundry tumbling in a dryer in an alcove to my left.

“You shouldn’t have that.”Garion’s voice was almost inaudible, yet it hit me like a gut punch from a friend, bruising my heart.And he was right.I shouldn’t have a djinn token in my hand, a token that I’d promised to give to a fey king in exchange for the key to open the magically-sealed envelope my parents left me.

“Nora and I were cleaning out my parents’ room,” I said.“It was hidden in—”

“Did Nora see it?”Garion demanded.

“No.”

“Good.”He folded my fingers around the token.“Tell no one about it.”

“Garion—”

“Pretend you never found it.”His dark eyes were too urgent.Too serious.“It’s nothing.I’m no one.”

“You’re dji—”

He struck fast, slapping his hand over my mouth and pushing me against the wall.

“I amnothing!” he growled, eyes now fierce.This was even worse than I’d expected.Garion was one of the most steadfast people I knew, his calm confidence respected by everyone.He wasn’t hurting me, and I wasn’t scared, but I felt the future tilt.Everything I’d been fighting for, the changes I’d made to the status quo, all of it was being dismantled by one manipulative fey king.

Garion lowered his hand.“Hide it.”

He didn’t understand.I couldn’t fulfill my bargain while keeping Garion and his secret safe.Every scenario flashing through my mind ended one way, with me learning what it felt like to betray a friend.

“I made a bargain with a fey.”

Though my words had been quiet, Garion flinched as if I’d lashed him with a whip.“What?”

“On Beltane,” I said.“I went to the fey’s dimension because my parents left me an envelope sealed with fey magic.I found the person who gave it to me, but the only way he would tell me how to open it was if I found something for him.He described…” I lifted the unnaturally heavy token.“…this.I didn’t know what it was.”

“You…” The way his voice broke made me feel like I was twisting a knife in his back.

“I’m sorry.I don’t know why I agreed.My memory—”

“You agreed to find an artifact you knew nothing about.”His voice remained as quiet as a killing frost.

“I didn’t know it was yours.I didn’t know it was a… a relic.He described it more like a piece of jewelry, a challenge coin.Something belonging to him that he wanted back.”

Garion shook his head as he stared at me, and I remembered what he’d told me only a few days ago.I’d asked him to defuse tensions if Arcuro took the bait I’d set and descended on The Rain, but Garion had refused to step forward and lead.When I’d pushed harder, when I demanded to know who he was and what he was hiding, he’d erupted, claiming the knowledge would change our relationship.

Just like it had changed his relationship with my parents.

I looked at the token, blinked, then looked back up at my friend.“My parents used this?Used your magic?”

His mouth tightened.“They didn’t want you tied to The Rain.”

Astrid, my childhood friend who’d disappeared over a decade ago, had said the same thing when I’d tracked her down in Cincinnati.The claim hadn’t made sense then.It made even less now.“Iamtied to The Rain.More tied to it than before.”

“I know.”