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T he king’s tone could almost have qualified for gentle and considerate… until I named my mother. The way he froze at her name left me with no doubt: he knew her.

Was she alive?

Did he know where she was right now?

Would he look for her?

As seconds passed in silence, his expression morphed from shock to horror to anger to an attempt at an impassive, unrevealing expression. Finally, he spoke through clenched teeth. “I need to finish this conversation tomorrow.”

He closed the door and left me in silence.

I laid the dressing gown over a chair and crawled back in bed. What did the king know about her that turned his entire demeanor? Had she done something? Had he?

Possibilities swirled in my mind for the rest of the night. If the king had wanted to ruin my sleep, he could not have chosen a better way. At least I had the freedom to nap.

As soon as I heard birds outside the window, I climbed out of bed and put on clothes. Darkness still filled the sky, but we were in the middle of winter—I expected darkness for a few more hours. Since the birds were up, though, I might as well be too.

I cracked my door open just in time to see Koan disappear at the end of the hall. Mylo stood in front of my door and dipped his head in a polite gesture. “Can I help you?”

I nodded. “I’m afraid I woke up early and can’t sleep. I was hoping you might be willing to light my room?”

“Of course.” He offered me a kind smile and stepped closer to the room. I wasn’t sure what to think of this elf—he was loyal to his king, without doubt, but every word he’d said to me had been almost gentle. I suspected he’d throw me off the balcony if the king told him to but, unless he was instructed to hurt me, he seemed to be one of my best allies here.

He waved his hand in the doorframe, and magical light gathered into a ball in the middle of my ceiling like a hanging lantern. Just as I was about to thank him, a long shadow entered my vision.

The king stood next to Mylo in front of my door. He held a massive book and wore the same tunic he’d had on when I saw him hours ago. Had he slept in it? Or had his thoughts been as troublesome as mine?

He faced Mylo. “Is there a problem?”

“No, sir,” he said, stepping away from my door. “I was just lighting her room for her.”

The king nodded, as if approving of his soldier, and then turned to me. “Do you know anything of my parents?”

“No.” I shook my head quickly. Why did he keep asking such strange questions?

He raised a brow as if he didn’t believe me. “You’re sure?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, “but it’s possible I may have heard of them. I think…” I tried to think of everything I’d ever heard of the Hemlit royalty. “No, if I’ve heard anything of your parents, I don’t remember it. I might have heard of your grandparents, but I’m a little unsure.”

“How are you unsure?” he asked.

“Well… my mother knew King Dustan and Queen Ember. She talked about them often enough that I remember their names. She said they’d been very kind to her when she was young. But, you’re obviously not Dustan. I don’t remember their children’s names, but I think I would have recognized them. So, I’m guessing you’re a grandchild… or else you’re not related, and you came to the throne through a challenge?”

He huffed. “Dustan and Ember were my grandparents. What do you know of them?”

I rolled my lower lip inside my teeth. I didn’t want to remember the details wrong. “It’s obviously been a long time since she mentioned them, but I think she might have lived with them for a time. I really don’t remember much besides her saying that they’d helped her, and she had information that would help them—or their son, if he was king. That’s why she set off to come here.”

Mylo’s jaw fell and his eyes widened so big I thought they might explode. The king managed to keep his face impossibly unreadable while he asked, “And is there any reason why you might want me or my parents or my grandparents hurt or killed?”

“No.” I had to fight back tears. I hated how he kept asking me this. I pushed the tears into anger. “Not unless you count imprisoning me or nearly killing my brother.”

His voice lowered to a husky growl. “And is that not enough to wish us harm?”

“No,” I whispered. “It’s enough to wish you were kind.”

He stared at me, his green eyes trying to dig out any unspoken secrets. But he wouldn’t find anything. I’d always said whatever came to my mind. If he couldn’t believe the truth, then he had bigger problems than whatever fears a half-fae-half-human might present to him.

He extended the giant volume in his hands. I looked at the book, and he waved it up and down. “Take it.”

I shifted my gaze up to him, unsure of his motives. Was it some kind of trick?

“It’s a book,” he said. “Don’t look at me like I’m trying to hurt you with it.”

But he’d been so angry the last time I’d seen him.

He’d also said he wouldn’t hurt me—at least as many times as I’d told him I didn’t want to hurt his people.

How could I expect him to believe me if I couldn’t believe him?

I took his book, clenching my teeth in case it erupted into flames.

Nothing happened.

I read the title: Solantum’s Recent History of Hemlit . Was he letting me read a real book after all?

Emotions swirled in my throat as he spoke. “Koan told me you wanted to read history. This is the most thorough and boring volume on the subject. I hope…” His vo ice caught.

I raised my gaze to his. Did I hear a break in his empty expression? A vulnerable emotion? The possibility pushed tears out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t imagine what he thought he was risking by giving me decent reading material, but it felt like a peace offering—a strange extension of trust despite all the unjustified fears he had of me.

“I hope you enjoy it,” he finished. Then he glanced at Mylo. “Also, if Mylo consents to supervising you, you are free to leave the room. You can explore the tower and the main levels of the castle, or the grounds, frozen as they are. Do not go into the lower stone levels.”

My heart soared. I was allowed out of the room! I thought our conversation last night had been a disaster, but now… now I had every bit of hope that my life in Hemlit would someday be as open and free as it had been in the hills.

Mylo looked even more surprised than I felt. The king gave me a short, jerky nod, and then strode away.

“Thank you.” I intended to call it out, as loud as his drekkan voice, so he could hear my gratitude easily, but my throat was too constricted. The words came out breathy, like I’d run across the mountains to speak them.

I didn’t think he’d heard me, and I braced to shout it louder, but he stopped. I clamped my mouth shut, nearly biting my lip. What was he thinking?

He turned slowly, and the emotions I’d first felt when he came to the dungeon returned in full force. He had more power than I’d ever felt before, but he kept it under a tight control—a control that was almost as attractive as the kindness and trust he’d just offered me.

Once he held my gaze, he spoke slowly in the same low, emotional voice. “It is my honor.” He looked at me for a few more seconds, and then marched away.

I clutched the book closer to my chest. What did he mean by it all? Did he believe I didn’t want to hurt him or his people? Had I convinced him that all fae were not evil? Why had he looked so horrified last night when I told him about my mother? And why was he being so generous now?

Mylo interrupted my thoughts. “Well, I did not see that coming.” He waved at the book. “Would you rather read or go on a tour?”

“Tour.” I did not even hesitate. “I would love to see more of the castle. Let me put this down.”

Mylo led me down several corridors and spiraled staircases I recognized from my first time on them, and then down several more until we came to a large indoor courtyard I hadn’t been to before. The walls surrounding us divided into eight different corridors. He waved toward three of them. “Those paths will take you outside, but as it’s still cold and dark, I suggest we don’t start there.”

He ignored the hall that we came from and pointed at the next nearest tunnel to us, marked with a rose over the arching corridor. “That takes you down into the lower stone levels, so we won’t go there either.” Finally he gestured at the last three corridors. “These go to different parts of the castle. Do you have a preference?”

I studied each corridor. They were all made from stone, which made the name of the “lower stone levels” confusing, but I could ask about that later. From our vantage point, I couldn’t see anything different in the three tunnels, besides a different flower carved into the stone above each entrance. Maybe Mylo could suggest a starting point. I turned from the tunnels to him at the same time a soldier burst out of one of the paths that led outside.

“Captain!” the new soldier shouted. “We have a situation in the stables!”

I turned away to give them a semblance of privacy when a flicker of light caught my attention.

Not light. Magic.

The only fae-like power I possessed was the ability to see other magic and, like my mother’s magic had flickered in front of me when I first saw the drekkan king, fae magic now flashed at me from the hall that led to the lower levels.

The only levels I’d been forbidden.

But that fae magic was the best hint I’d had about Motab in thirteen years. And what if it didn’t linger? What if it only flickered for a few seconds? What if my mother was in some dungeon or hidden room down there? What if this was my only chance to find her?

I’d have to ask Mylo to take me. I’d plead. I’d even beg. This—

“—the fae.”

I spun toward Mylo and the soldier he’d been talking with. I’d been so distracted with the magic I’d seen that I hadn’t realized they were discussing me. I raised my brows, curious at what I’d missed.

“I’m so sorry, Callista,” Mylo said. “I need to go help with this. Will you go back to your room? I’ll come get you as soon as I can and show you the castle.”

I nodded slowly. Maybe this would work out better. I wouldn’t have to ask Mylo to betray his king. And I would go back to the room—right after I found out why fae magic was coming from the lower levels .

Mylo dipped his head. “Thank you, Callista.” He pointed toward my room, and a line of light raced from his hand across the ceiling of the corridor for as far as I could see. I assumed it went all the way up to my room. I started walking back, but when I heard their boots disappear down another tunnel, I turned around.

I paused in the courtyard, scanned each dark corridor for other elves, and then turned into the tunnel with fae magic flickering through its halls. The magic carried an iridescent pink hue that fizzled into purples and blues as it pulsed from deeper down the corridor. No lights, no lanterns, and no torches lit this hall, but… why would they? We were in a land where elves could summon light at will.

The fae magic provided enough light for me to see the stone hall. I wanted to run, but I did not want to slip and twist an ankle, so I just walked, following the pinks and purples and blues ahead of me.

The tunnel twisted and then dropped into a spiral staircase. I followed the pink light down the stairs… down, down, down. At least a hundred feet down. And the stairs kept coming.

The air shifted from the cool, magic-moderated temperatures above to a moist coldness that made me think I’d entered an underground cave.

The stairs finally ended and a stone tunnel, much smaller than the tunnels above, led me forward until it branched into four different paths. Only one of the options had the fae magic that I saw as a pink light, so I walked into it.

I sped up. This small diversion was taking much longer than I’d expected. It made me anxious. I didn’t want to lie to Mylo, or get him into trouble. If the king discovered I’d broken his one rule—I didn’t want to think about the consequences. My new freedom would certainly disappear, and that was a terrifying thought.

After a few more minutes, the tunnel widened, dramatically. Instead of wet stone lining the walls, layers of roots framed the corridor. Pink magic emanated lightly from every root. I reached out and touched one. It wasn’t exactly my mother’s magic, but it was definitely fae. It had a vibration like my mother's and Alastor’s that was completely different than all the elves' magic that I’d seen since I’d come.

Why would roots leak fae magic?

The answer had to be at the source of the light I’d been following. It had intensified, as if I was getting closer to its source.

I started walking again.

The tunnel twisted a few more times, and then opened up into an enormous cavern, easily a hundred feet tall and at least that wide. In the center, on a raised mound, a gorgeous rose bush grew in the shape of weeping willow tree. Hundreds of blossoms lighted its branches and glowed in the same pink fae magic I’d been following.

It was the rose bush.

The magic came from the plant.

Its roots trailed down the mound where it grew like a pedestal and intertwined with the walls and ceiling in a way that made me wonder if the plant was holding up the entire fortress. These roots looked strong and deep, and I couldn’t see the end of any them. And the magic that surrounded the rose bush was so bright it almost overwhelmed my ability to take it in.

Was this rose bush connected to the scraggly branches I’d seen by Alastor? And had he detected the fae magic too? I knew he couldn’t see it the way I could, but he used to be able to feel Motab whenever she was around .

And Motab always knew when we were close.

As I studied the great rose cavern, a new branch grew up from the ground by my feet. In ten seconds it sprouted up from a flat spot on the ground to three feet tall. Leaves popped out on its stalk, and then two roses. The branch leaned toward me, and I extended a finger to touch it.

“What are you doing?” The soft outrage echoed through the cavern. I knew that voice. I’d heard the king project it with magic before.

I straightened up and turned to face him.

He stalked toward me, fury rolling off his broad shoulders like smoke falling from a fire. Was it really smoke? Or was I seeing his magic? I couldn’t tell the difference.

But I knew I hadn’t seen him this angry since he’d wanted to incinerate my brother.

And even though he’d been a monster of legend on that day, I was more afraid of him right now than I had been then.

I stepped backward as he marched closer to me. I stumbled over a root and fell to the floor. I threw my hands out to catch myself before my head hit the ground.

He loomed over me, like a terror from nightmares. “I trusted you,” he snarled. “I gave you more freedom than I thought was wise because I wanted to do right by you. And you turned around, in less than an hour, and betrayed me.”

“No!” I cried from the ground. “I haven’t done anything to hurt you.”

“You lie!”

“No! I haven’t lied to you. Not once!”

He bent over me and reached a hand toward my neck. I closed my eyes and waited for his grip to choke me. Or his fires to destroy me. Or whatever a drekkan king did when he thought someone had betrayed his trust.

But the violence I expected did not come.

Seconds passed.

I opened my eyes.

He still loomed over me. Anger—and maybe hurt—filled his entire countenance and rose off him in great waves. I saw the conflict in him—a debate between his most basic instincts: kill or protect. He battled with himself, and I did not dare enter the arena. How could I know which direction anything I said would tip him when I did not even understand the conflict? No conversation I’d ever had with him had made sense, and now my life hung somewhere between his unknown value system and his uncertain self-control.

I met his furious gaze. It took every piece of strength I possessed, but if he was going to kill me, I wanted him to know that I hadn’t lied to him.

“Get out,” he hissed, before I could say anything.

I opened my mouth to attempt to explain, but he cut me off.

“Get out!” he roared, sounding more like a drekkan than an elf.

I rolled over onto my hands and knees and pushed off into a run. I raced out of the epic cavern and did not look back.

I stumbled twice, nearly fell to my knees, but caught myself on my hands and kept running. When I finally reached the courtyard where all the tunnels met, I slowed to catch my breath. My hands shook and my legs burned. I glanced down the corridor I’d come from and shivered. The king was not close enough to see, but… I did not want to see him again. Whatever I had done had ma de him so furious that I expected him to kill me for it eventually.

And he’d told me, “Get out.”

I glanced down the corridor to my room, but shook my head just thinking about it. If I went there, the king could march back up and roast me any time he wanted.

“I’m sorry, Mylo,” I muttered as I turned into a tunnel marked with a tulip. “I really didn’t mean to lie to you. I hope you’ll forgive me.”