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Cate

W ar.

The word hung in the air before its weight plunged to the pit of my stomach and began to churn. Bile rose in my throat, my mouth watered, and the staccato beat of my heart flew into a sprint.

Oberon wanted to start a war.

The prince of the Hallow Court, the oldest of the ruling families, the man who had hidden in a corner with me and made jokes at the Midnight Feast—was not my friend. His warm smiles had tricked me. Already dressed for the day in a tailored blue suit, he was still handsome, but now cruelty shadowed his eyes. The lines of his face seemed sharper, deepening despite the unnaturally sunny day surrounding us. A breeze whispered over me, seeping through my thin cotton nightgown. Its coolness crept through me and deepened until my fingers and toes went numb.

Next to me, Titania groaned. “You are so dramatic,” she said to her twin, her rich brown hair and amber eyes the feminine mirror of his own dark features. She grabbed a scone from the platter and began smothering it in clotted cream, somehow managing not to drop it down her silk blouse. “She’s been here for days. Can we finally kill her?”

Days? I’d been here for days while Lach was being hunted. The realization made a dull pain radiate through my chest even as my heart continued to race. No one knew where I was. No one was coming to save me. I barely suppressed a gasp as another pang followed like a silent warning that Titania meant business.

“At breakfast?” Oberon glanced at the linen tablecloth like he was imagining my blood splattered across it and frowned.

Say something. I fumbled for words, trying to think past the onslaught of realizations, thoughts, and fears now crowding into my brain like a panicked mob. My gaze darted past him to beautifully manicured gardens, the hillside peppered with gold flowers beyond the grounds. There was an entire world out there—wild and unknown and potentially as deadly as my companions. But right now, it seemed eminently more survivable, whatever secrets it held. After everything—after Lach had sacrificed his own soul and had been marked by the Wild Hunt—I had to try. To run, to fight, to stay alive. I was going to save myself.

Not that I was going to make it past two centuries-old fae intent on killing me.

“Plotting to run?” Oberon asked. His dark eyes assessed me shrewdly as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

Adrenaline shot through me, my hands gripping the arms of my chair, my body poised to spring and make a run for it. But a deep, hard-earned sense of self-preservation locked me in place and loosened my tongue. “I don’t even know where I am,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.

“Let me draw you a map,” he offered. He flicked a finger toward the hills. “Over there lies certain death.” His hand shifted to point over my shoulder. “If you go that way, I’m afraid not even a god will hear you scream.”

“And I’m safer here?” I looked between the two of them, wondering which one would do it—or if they were too important to get their own hands dirty.

“She raises a good point.” Titania dabbed the edges of her mouth with a napkin. Dropping it next to her plate, she reached under the table and produced a 9-millimeter, but she didn’t point it in my direction. Instead, she fiddled with it, ejecting and checking the magazine as if she wanted to make sure it was loaded before shoving it back in place with a harsh click .

My eyes tracked every movement, especially the last, when she flicked off the safety.

“How many times must I request that we don’t bring guns to the table?” Oberon shot her a pointed glance over his newspaper.

Titania set the gun down, angling it so the muzzle was aimed at me. “I thought you wanted to start a war.” She shrugged. “Lach is living on borrowed time; delivering his little toy back to his court with a bullet between her eyes will speed up that process.”

Yes, it definitely would.

Oberon thumbed through the paper idly before disappearing behind it. “Lach believes Bain has her. It’s best to wait until after he attacks the Infernal Court,” he said absently like he was relaying the weather report. “The attack will draw him out of hiding and allow the Wild Hunt to take care of him. And I did promise she would be safe. There’s no need to kill her…”

Yet . My brain tacked on the unspoken end to his thought.

“You planned this. You framed Bain.” The accusation slipped out before I managed to clamp my mouth shut.

“I have my reasons,” he said, as if that explained everything.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Lach will figure it out. He’ll come after me.”

“Exactly!” Titania jabbed a finger toward me. “She’s a liability. If Lach finds out that we have her, he’ll come after us, and then how will you continue—”

“Lach won’t come after us when every sign points to the Infernal Court thanks to MacAlister’s mistake. That penumbra was an arrogant fool, but he did us a favor by dying. No loose ends. No one left alive knows we had anything to do with this, and if we’re lucky, the Nether Court will act rashly, attack Bain, and they’ll all kill one another.”

He continued, but I stopped hearing him as what he meant hit me. My brother, Channing, was the other loose end. Channing had made a deal to deliver me to Oberon. Had Oberon…?

Fear swelled in my throat until I couldn’t breathe. I had failed to protect my little brother, failed to keep him out of this mess, failed him. I blinked against the hot prickle of tears and reached for the water goblet in front of me, forcing down a sip to swallow my panic. I couldn’t let myself feel it. I couldn’t assume anything. Not now. Not while I was trapped here. Not while Oberon’s plan was still in motion. Lach was still alive. His family— my friends —were still alive. I had to survive, if only so I could warn them and stop them from starting a war among the fae courts. I couldn’t fail them as I’d failed Channing.

“And since you tied up that loose end, there’s no need to continue upholding your side of the bargain,” Titania pointed out, eyes narrowing on me. “You promised to save her from the Nether Court. You did that. Why keep her around?”

Oberon remained silent, as if considering her logic. Death was one of the few ways to break a bargain with the fae. I tried not to think about it. Even if it was true, it wouldn’t do me any good to know. But being here, it was easier to forgive Channing’s recklessness. After all, Oberon had tricked me into thinking he was my friend, too. I’d foolishly believed once that the light courts might save me. That one of their dashing princes would rescue me from my deal with Lach. Now I knew better. I knew how the fae operated, so what was it that Oberon really wanted with me?

“She may prove useful,” he said after a moment.

I sucked in a reedy breath, eyeing the gun still sitting by Titania’s plate. Looking up, I caught her watching me. She smiled, and I quickly looked away.

“No, she won’t.” She rolled her eyes, tapping the white tablecloth. “Look, I can take her somewhere else if you’re worried that I’ll stain something.”

He sighed. “If it’s going to be like this every damn second, maybe you should just—”

“Wait!” I blurted out. I needed to prove useful sooner rather than later.

Titania was right about one thing: Oberon didn’t need me alive to start his war, which meant staying that way was up to me. It was easy to put all the pieces together now. Bain’s indignation at being accused of tainting the Nether Court’s clover supply. The half riddles MacAlister had offered before his attack: a desire to leave the shadow court, to serve as another prince’s penumbra. Oberon was the only prince without one. A role MacAlister thought he would be granted when he broke Lachlan Gage.

I had my doubts. With my adrenaline pumping, I hadn’t been able to think that night, but now it was too clear. Things might not have gone precisely according to Oberon’s plan, but he was still in control of this game. I needed to convince him to keep me alive before he made his next move.

“Did you have something to add?” Oberon pressed when I didn’t continue.

“Who cares?” Titania said, not bothering to hide her disgust. “She would say anything to stay alive.” It was clear what move she hoped he would make.

Suddenly, I was thankful for the shock that had held me in silence. I hadn’t said anything that would betray the truth. Yet. I just had to play dumb, pretend to be the fragile doll they assumed I was. That wouldn’t be hard. I just had to reinforce what Oberon already believed: that he was smarter than the rest of us.

The fae dealt in desire, and something told me that what Oberon wanted the most was his ego stroked. If he thought he’d not only bested his enemy, but that I was on his side and not Lach’s, he might let his guard down. But the idea of betraying Lach, of doing that now, doing that while his last kiss still burned on my lips…

Anguish tightened my chest, the sorrow aching in my bones, but I shoved it down deep.

“Lach doesn’t care about me.” Each word tasted like a lie, bitter and impossible to swallow, but I forced them out. I couldn’t let them use me against him.

Whatever they were expecting me to say, it wasn’t that.

Oberon met his sister’s dubious gaze before turning his attention fully on me. “He…doesn’t?”

I snorted, which was easier to do on the verge of hyperventilating. Thank you, panic attack. “Lachlan Gage doesn’t care about anyone. Surely, you know that.”

A smile ghosted his lips. Of course Oberon believed that. Clearly, the Hallow Court prince shared that trait.

But Titania planted her palms on the table, shaking her head with barely restrained fury. “But you love him, don’t you?”

“Love?” I channeled the pain of that thought, letting it contort my face into a grimace. “You think I loved him?”

She blinked, confusion flashing across her lovely face, and I seized my opportunity.

“I was trapped .” I let some of the agony I felt slip through to sell the lie, and Oberon lowered his paper. Now that I had his attention, I plunged forward, giving in to my churning emotions more. “He tricked me. I was forced to live with him. Lach isn’t the only one who can play games. I knew what he wanted from me. I didn’t have a choice. I’ve been trying to escape him for weeks—trying to break my bargain.”

Titania sneered, her amber eyes studying me like a bug under a microscope. “By any means necessary, it seems.”

I hated her implication—not because of what it might say about me but because of what it insinuated about Lach—but I smiled back. “As far as I’m concerned, you did me a favor. You freed me from him.”

Titania flinched, but Oberon pressed his lips into a bemused line. “I didn’t break your bargain, Cate. You are still bound to him.”

They might have known what happened with MacAlister, but they didn’t know Lach had broken our bargain in those final moments before he sent me away—sent me toward this fate. My thumb brushed the band of my ring. Somehow it had all hinged on my mother’s ring. I didn’t understand it. But I would let them believe the bargain remained, if only to see whether it could help me.

“He can use the bargain to track her here. Which is why we need to kill her,” Titania demanded. “Bargain ended. Problem solved.”

My heart pounded in my chest as I realized my mistake. “You told me I was safe here.” I knew that I wasn’t, so very real fear bled into my words, cracking and breaking them. I grabbed the edge of the linen tablecloth and clutched it as I stared at Oberon, dredging up his own words to use against him—the most dangerous weapon against a sociopath was always their own ego. “You said you weren’t a monster like Lach.”

I hated myself for smearing Lach like this, but what choice did I have? If I died, any chance I had of escaping, of warning the other courts about Oberon’s plans, died with me. I might have failed Channing, but I could still protect Ciara and Shaw and Roark. Maybe I could stop Lach from attacking Bain and delivering himself directly to the Wild Hunt. Still, I wanted to vomit all over their beautiful china, and my obvious distress only sold my lie.

“The Hallow Court is warded—spelled to prevent anyone from the outside getting in,” Oberon said with a smug smile that made me want to smack him. “All courts are.”

“But you came to the Nether Court. I don’t understand.” Playing dumb was working remarkably well. I just had to stomach the lie until he let his guard down. I didn’t know what was worse: the terrible things spewing from my own lips or that Oberon believed them.

“We were invited for the betrothal.” He looked like he might pat my head, and I braced myself to endure more of his condescension. “At least for the official celebrations, but that is why we stayed at the Avalon. We may enter New Orleans freely, but no one steps foot into a royal residence without an invitation. Lach cannot enter my home.”

I nodded, letting my shoulders sag as if I was relieved. I wasn’t. Despite everything, part of me hoped Lach would figure it out, nip right into this garden, and spirit me away. But I was on my own now. He had sent me away from New Orleans so that he could run from the Wild Hunt. He had no idea that my brother had betrayed me. It was a small comfort to know that Ciara, Lach’s sister—my newest yet closest friend—and all the others back in New Orleans would be safe if they stayed in their own court. Had Lach found time to tell them what had happened—to warn them?

“I wouldn’t concern yourself. He has other things to worry about,” Oberon continued when I remained silent. “He can’t hide from the Wild Hunt long. He’ll be dead soon.”

“Yes, he will.” A tremor cracked my voice, threatening to undermine my lies. I glanced around and frowned, hoping they didn’t catch it. “I would say thank you, but since she wants to kill me…”

“Titania wants many things she can’t have.” He leveled cold eyes at her. “Isn’t that right?”

Something unreadable flashed across her face. Her hand lashed out, seizing her gun, and I froze. But she tucked it away before rising from her seat. “Fine. Have it your way.” She smirked. “I’m glad we would be so helpful in aiding your escape .”

She didn’t believe me. That didn’t matter. For now.

Titania scowled at me, eyes as sharp as daggers, before she stomped toward the house, sunlight glinting off her dark hair. Ice filtered through my veins as she left. At least she let her disdain show. I knew where I stood with the Hallow Court princess. Her brother was another story. He was a spider spinning his webs to trap me.

“You must excuse my sister. She’s been like this since the day we were born, or so I was told.” Oberon pushed up from his seat and held out a hand. “Allow me to show you the grounds and prove that we aren’t monsters.”

Something only a monster would say. It took considerable effort to accept his outstretched hand. I forced a smile, my skin crawling where it met his. “I would like that.”

Not exactly a lie. I needed to learn whether or not he was telling the truth about what lay beyond his estate. But I wasn’t sure how long the adrenaline fueling my act would hold out.

Oberon led me into the gardens, toward the carefully trimmed hedgerows. Pink blossoms punctuated the bushes, straining toward the sun overhead and overshadowing the tiny white flowers growing in the shrubbery’s shadows. The herbal scent of freshly cut grass mingled with the delicate, fleeting smells of primrose and oleander, the grounds looking as if it was early spring rather than October. But nothing in the Otherworld operated the way my own world did. Here, beauty distracted and cajoled—just like the man at my side.

“I was rude earlier.”

“When you considered killing me?” I asked carefully.

“You were never in danger. It’s a good rule of thumb to not mistake Titania’s tantrums with my plans. Best to let her have her fits.” He laughed like it was a silly misunderstanding. “No, I assumed, like my sister, that you were in love with Lach. But you must know that it was about more than politics when I came for you,” he said as we wandered. Such a smooth liar. I’d expected that, just as I expected him to be arrogant enough to believe the lies I’d fed him about Lach.

“It was?” I kept my gaze pinned to the flowering bushes ahead, aware that he was watching me closely. I, however, was listening with equal calculation.

“I was genuinely concerned that you would be caught in the middle of all of this.”

It was really hard to summon the words I knew would stroke his ego while vividly picturing throttling him to death, but I persevered.

“Your war, you mean?” I brushed a finger over the velvet petals of a white rose and dangled an irresistible morsel for his ego. “I confess I don’t understand why the courts would go to war, but then I must also confess that I don’t care if they do. I’m only a prisoner to the fae.”

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, his lips turning up, and I knew I had him. It was mildly insulting that Oberon believed I was so stupid I hadn’t figured out the truth, or that I was heartless enough to not care about the war he planned to start. Then again, he clearly didn’t have a heart of his own. Or someone to check his hubris.

“I’m sorry you feel that way.” He squeezed my hand, and I nearly gagged. “A man like Lach believes he can own others, tricking them like what happened to you. Lying to them about what he’s really after. Even now, you have no idea why he trapped you with that bargain.”

I stumbled a little, but Oberon caught me before my knees hit the grass. “Sorry. I should have put on shoes.”

“Soon,” Oberon promised, and my heart collapsed around the word.

I tamped down the curiosity he’d provoked—another web spun to ensnare me. Did he really know, or was I being tested? If I asked, Oberon would suspect I cared. “I’m just glad I’m free…or that I will be when he’s dead.”

But there was someone I could ask about that wouldn’t raise suspicion—something I needed to know before I lost my mind with worry.

“You said that you made a bargain with my brother…”

I was going to kill Channing for being stupid enough to get involved with another fae after everything, but right now I just wanted to know that he was alive.

Oberon nodded. “I was concerned after he came to the Avalon looking for you.” My surprise must have shown, because he frowned. “I have a sister. I know what it’s like to worry.”

I really doubted that, but I gave him an encouraging smile. “Where is Channing? Is he here?”

“No. I’m afraid he fears us. I can’t blame him.” Such a fucking liar. “He stayed behind.”

Behind? I held my breath, praying he was telling the truth, even as I ignored the doubt creeping into my mind. “In New Orleans? Is that safe? If Lach—”

“Lach won’t step foot in fae territory now that he’s death-marked. But if you’re worried, I can have him brought—”

“No!” I blurted out, adding quickly, “Maybe when I’m less mad.”

If there was a chance that Channing was alive—that I’d misunderstood what Titania had said—I had to keep him as far away from this clusterfuck as possible.

Oberon paused to regard me. “You’re angry with him for protecting you?”

“I’m angry that men keep deciding what’s best for me.”

His mouth twitched, but he inclined his head. “Very well. Tell me about the night Lach killed MacAlister.”

“It all happened so quickly.” I drew a deep breath, weighing what to tell him to get more information without finding myself ensnared in his web. “I don’t understand half of it. I guess that’s why Channing didn’t tell me he was calling you.”

“Do you remember much?” he asked as we took a set of stone steps into a sunken, lower garden.

I shook my head. “MacAlister attacked me, and Lach killed him.”

“MacAlister attacked you?” He feigned surprise so well, I nearly believed him.

I shivered at the memory. “Lach told me he was marked by the Wicked Hunt—”

“ Wild Hunt,” he corrected me.

I pressed my free hand to my forehead and managed a tiny giggle so he would buy my contrived mistake. “Yes, whatever that is. Lach warned me to get out of town. I didn’t know what to do, so I called Channing and told him everything.”

I planted my own lies carefully to see how he might nurture them, keeping my voice soft to hide the emotions threatening to give me away. People will always tell you more when they think you know less.

But I knew one thing he didn’t: I hadn’t told Channing shit. There hadn’t been time between meeting my brother and being betrayed.

“I do apologize for the unorthodox manner of your arrival. After Channing called, he told me what had happened with Lach and that the Hunt was on. That was how I knew you were in danger.” His face softened, the darkness in his eyes fading. Another carefully crafted mask of lies. It was little wonder that he’d fooled me when we’d first met, that he had fooled Channing into believing his intentions to protect me. “I was afraid for your safety.”

“Why would MacAlister try to hurt me?” I peered up at him. Was that MacAlister’s plan or his?

“Revenge, perhaps? He must have been upset over your part in ending Bain’s engagement to Ciara,” Oberon offered without missing a beat.

And the Academy Award for best smarmy, lying bastard goes to…

Oberon’s fingers tightened around my hand. I hated that I was still touching him. Could he feel my cold dread? Smell the sweat slicking my forehead? His giant ego must have prevented him from seeing the obvious. We were all our own worst enemies, a fact even fae princes weren’t immune to.

I was so preoccupied, he guided us through an arch and around several bushes before I realized we’d entered a hedge maze. Shaped yews stretched toward the sky, boxing us in and blocking any possibility of escape. My heart pounded harder with each step we took, with each turn and twist of the maze, every ounce of me wanting to pull free of his grasp and run back in the direction we’d come from. But that would give me away, and I didn’t know the way out.

Oberon fell silent, and in the warm sunlight I caught a glimmer of moving letters creeping along his neck. They weren’t inked in black like the tattoos that covered Lach’s body. These were iridescent, shimmering like scars. More easily hidden but no less telling. I halted, gently tugging my hand away.

“You’re thinking,” I whispered.

He didn’t respond for a long time. “You are quite convincing,” he said with a cold smile. “I almost want to believe you.”

Another trap—this one I’d walked into willingly, believing I was the predator, and now I was cornered. “I could say the same. Is that why you sent MacAlister after me?”

“I had my reasons.” He gestured toward another bend in the maze. When I didn’t budge, he sighed. “But I was telling the truth. I never planned to kill you. You’re more useful to me if you’re alive. If MacAlister wasn’t dead, he would pay for his zealotry.”

It might have been a relief to hear him admit it, but not while I was alone with him.

“Well, I feel safer now,” I said dryly. I crossed my arms, wishing I was wearing more than the flimsy nightgown as a chill ran through me.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be dead. As I told you earlier, I know what Lach wanted from you. It’s what I want, Cate. Let me show you.” He tipped his head for us to continue before crooking his arm.

Death waited beyond the hedge. I couldn’t trust him, but I would rather confront my fate head-on than wait for Oberon to stab me in the back. I brushed past him, ignoring his offered arm, and walked through the break in the yews. Oberon followed me…out of the maze and to the edge of the gardens.

The ground swelled a few short steps from me—the hills I’d glimpsed from the breakfast table. Did he expect me to run? Was this part of his manipulation, so he could claim he didn’t kill me himself but let me die at the hands of whatever lay beyond those hills?

“This is the Otherworld,” he said as he stepped beside me.

“No shit.” I rolled my eyes. At least the false pleasantries and games were over.

“No, this is the Otherworld .” He waved one hand, and the scene before us changed.

Darkness descended, the sun blotted from the sky in a near total eclipse that allowed only a slender ring of light to escape. The birdsong stopped, replaced by an unnatural silence that settled like a weight on my shoulders. Black vines twisted like poisoned veins across the pastoral hills, a graveyard of withered flowers peeking out from under them. A sickly rot flooded my nostrils, and I covered my mouth and nose against the smell. Heavy gray clouds choked the blue sky, blocking the sun as lightning splintered through them.

Oberon gazed at the distant nightmare. “Our magic has been warped— cursed . Light and shadow converge. Chaos nears. We must stop it, especially now that the curse on Earth’s creatures has been lifted.”

“You’re afraid of a bunch of vampires? I’ve never even met one.”

“Vampires?” He laughed. “No. I have a way to keep them under control, but others are stirring. Old monsters and even older gods. Our magic must be balanced again. Light and shadow and the earth that binds them. The Otherworld must be united before it’s too late.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, unable to keep my voice from trembling. Oberon wasn’t telling me the truth. Not the whole truth, at least. He was dangling bits of it like bait, waiting for me to bite. “You want to go to war .”

“I want to be king . War is a necessary evil.”

He had the evil part right. “There is no king.”

“There will be.” His smile turned my blood to ice. “When the Terra Court rises again and magic is made whole. That’s what Lach was after, but he will not be king. He will not be the savior. Not anymore.”

“The Terra Court is gone. It’s ash.” I spit the words at him, even as dangerous thoughts began to swirl in my own brain. I refused to let them take root.

“Such a child.” He clucked his tongue. “Nothing is ever truly gone.”

“They all died .”

“Not all of them.”

Lach. Ciara. Fiona. Shaw. That bloodline ran through each of them, but Lach had renounced the throne.

“You know the royal bloodline lives,” he said, adding, “for now .”

“If you touch my family—” I snarled before I could stop myself.

His smile was as smooth as the polished marble of his estate and just as cold. “I knew you loved him—loved all of them. The family you never had. But how much?”

“What do you want?” I breathed.

Oberon swiveled to face me, his eyes dipping to the ring on my finger. “We’ve been looking for that ring for a long time. It disappeared with the penumbra who wore it, long before the war. But the magic that links it to the Terra Court endures.”

“It’s just an emerald ring. Lach said it was worthless…” The words faded, the truth demanding to finally take hold.

The bargain.

Lach’s demand.

Swear that you will never take it off…

“Can’t you see, Cate?” Oberon pressed. “Lach was using you to get that ring. It’s not an emerald. It’s an esmeraude —one of our rarest gems.”

It wasn’t true. It was…impossible. This wasn’t a fae ring. Oberon was lying, but if he wasn’t… “Why? He is the true heir of the Terra Court. He doesn’t need the ring to claim it.”

“He chose the Nether Court so he could strengthen his empire and prepare to seize more power. That’s why he tried to ally with the Infernal Court. He needs the ring to reclaim his mother’s throne, and if he succeeds, the darkness you saw will spread. Not just through the Otherworld but to the earth itself. You’ve seen the monster that lives inside him.”

I tried to sort the truth from his lies, but it was impossible to know what to believe.

“Tell me how you got that ring.”

I didn’t answer him.

“Who gave it to you?” he needled.

Lie , a quiet voice whispered in my head. I wasn’t sure why, but I listened to it. “The woman who raised me after my parents died.”

“Interesting.” He studied me, and I wondered if he saw through my dishonesty. “It hardly matters. Give it to me.”

My blood roared in response, pounding as if trying to drown him out. I pressed a hand to my spinning head. Oberon wanted my ring just like Lach had. Why didn’t they just take it? I had offered it to Lach that first night, and he had refused. It didn’t make sense. My stomach clenched like an invisible fist had grabbed hold of my guts, and I gasped.

But Oberon continued without noticing. “Lach planned to retake the Otherworld. With that ring and Terran blood, he might have succeeded, might have become like an icon. But I won’t fail.”

Terran blood . He needed Terran blood. My friends…

“If I give it to you…” A sharp jolt of fear rocketed up my spine, but I shook it off. “You won’t touch them?”

“Are you offering me a bargain?” he asked.

Don ’ t , the whisper warned, but this time I ignored it. If Lach was running from the Wild Hunt—running for his life—the Nether Court was without a leader. I couldn’t help them fight a war, but I could protect them. “If you meet my terms.”