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That night, in the dark, starlit sky, I flew.

The stars shone bright, and the air was thick with the promise of rain. I soared, swooping and gliding above the palace towers. I was free, finally, and because of that, I knew that I was dreaming.

The crescent moon offered a little light, but I didn’t need it to see. My dream-eyes could pierce through the darkness, seeing the world as if it were bathed in red. The world thrummed with life. I could sense it all around me, how it shifted like a ripple in still water. Biringan City was resting, but its pulse kept beating.

I spotted my shadow when it cut across the roof. There I saw the unmistakable shape of wings sprouting from my back, and I somehow looked smaller. My wings buffeted the air, carrying me into the sky, but all I could think about was the pain. It felt like I had torn myself in two. A hunger, desperate and furious, burned through me, and it made my limbs twitch and my throat seize up. I tried to cry out, but it came out like a mangled rasp. I could fly, but there was a price.

I was starving.

My eyes snapped open, and I was in bed.

It had only been a nightmare.

I held my head in my hands and curled into myself, waiting to calm down as the details of the dream started to fade, but my heart raced like I’d sprinted a mile. I forced myself to breathe.

Usually my nightmares were about school or running from a mambabarang, but this one had felt so real. It scared me.

I lifted my head and looked around, grounding myself in reality. I was in my bedroom fit for a queen. My four-poster bed draped with sheer lace; my settee, where I napped; my bookcase and vanity, all neat and organized; the privacy screen covered in painted jasmine flowers, where Jinky dressed me every day—nothing out of place. I was home. A relieved sigh melted out of me, but the dream had shaken me too badly to fall back asleep.

After another hour of twisting and turning in bed, I gave up and went for a walk. Naturally, I stopped by the kitchens to grab a snack, then navigated my way to the astronomy tower.

Scientists used to work here, foretelling the future in the stars, but a new astronomy tower had been built in Mount Makiling, leaving this tower abandoned. It was a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the palace, where nothing ever seemed quiet and peaceful.

To my surprise, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep. Nix was already here. She was sitting on the tower’s balcony, cocooned inside a down duvet and peering through a telescope, nestled in one of two beanbag chairs we’d set up here at the beginning of summer, our own little hideout. Her face brightened in the glow of the firefly lantern when she saw me come in.

“You’re awake! Did you come to see the meteor shower, too?” she asked, pointing skyward. Sure enough, a handful of stars streaked overhead, leaving a glittering trail of stardust in their wake. Living in Biringan often reminded me just how far from home I really was.

“I’m here purely by chance, but what do the stars say?” I asked, taking a seat on the beanbag chair beside her.

Nix peered through the telescope. “Hmm,” she said. “They say, ‘Reply hazy; ask again later.’?”

I laughed when she grinned toothily at me, and it made me feel immediately better, the remnants of the nightmare dissipating like smoke in the wind. I offered her some of the snacks I’d swiped from the kitchen, and she munched on some banana chips happily.

Instead of healer’s robes, Nix was in her pajamas—an old Lakers jersey she’d kept from her time in the human world and yoga pants. She opened the duvet for me and wrapped me up with her, stamping out the chill of the breeze coming from the ocean. Because we were so high up, it was a lot colder than usual, but it was warm and cozy by her side. Sometimes life in the castle was so stifling.

Jinky had scrubbed me down within an inch of my life with sugar and salt, shampooed my hair with sweet-smelling nectar, and slathered me in oils and serums that made me feel like I was an eel, slipping and sliding around my room while I got dressed for bed. My conversations with Lucas and Amador had replayed in my head over and over as I fell asleep, and my arm still ached from my magic backfiring. No wonder I’d had a nightmare. Even Jinky’s wonderful concoction of lavender-and-coconut sleeping oil couldn’t calm me down.

At first being queen was a dream. It was nice to have all my needs anticipated, never have to decide what to wear that day, always have Jinky do my hair, and awake to a hot breakfast, served in bed. But the novelty had started to wear off. I couldn’t so much as go to the kitchens to pour myself a glass of water without some dwende presenting one to me on a gold platter. Garnished with lemon and mint.

I knew I shouldn’t complain. People would literally kill me for my crown. But I was still a girl. I needed some semblance of independence, and being in the old astronomy tower with Nix, I could pretend like I wasn’t in charge of an entire island nation and act like a kid, even if it was just for a little while longer.

“Want to see what else I found?” I asked, grinning. Nix pulled her attention away from the meteor shower and raised her eyebrows expectantly. I didn’t wait for her to guess and pulled out two crinkly bags of neon orange cheesy curls.

“Cheetos!” Nix let out a shriek and made grabby hands to get one, then cradled the bag to her chest like a baby. “From the human world? Are you kidding? I’ve missed these! Where did you get it?”

I laughed. “If I told you, I’d have to let you in on my black-market dealings. So then I’d have to kill you.”

Nix tore into the bag and dug in, crunching loudly. I pulled my own open and savored every bite. If Ayo, my dwende butler, saw me eating junk food, let alone human junk food, I was pretty sure he’d have conniptions and start foaming at the mouth. You didn’t hear it from me, but there was a thriving human junk-food market in Biringan City. It was entirely underground, seeing as most encantos rarely went to the human world without very good reason; otherwise they’d risk the safety of our people. But there were a daring few who ventured through the magical barrier separating our worlds to buy various human luxuries, like DVD box sets of American sitcoms and ballpoint pens. Most encantos kept them as collector’s items, but I had a different use for them. What was that saying about taking a girl out of the human world?

Sometimes I missed it; most times I didn’t. Growing up with my mom, always on the move, careful never to stay in one spot too long or risk my father’s enemies finding us, made for a terribly lonely upbringing. We hadn’t had a lot of money, and I hadn’t had a lot of friends. I was always the new girl, the girl with the wrinkled clothes, the girl with her wardrobe in a suitcase. My mom did her best protecting me in the human world, and I owed her everything.

My mom had gotten comfortable living in Biringan City, especially since I lifted the decree about humans being tricked into servitude and trapped here. She became an art and art history teacher at BANA—Biringan Academy of Noble Arts—and taught pottery classes to young encantos of all social classes, even taking curious encantos, with a security detail, to the human world for extended field trips to better understand humans as a whole. And now for the summer, while school wasn’t in session, she had taken her class to Paris, to see the Louvre and Parisian architecture. Before bed tonight, I had talked to her on the crystals—a kind of video call with gemstones—and she’d looked so happy. I often wondered if she wished my dad were still alive so they could spend time here together. But of course, even though there was magic in this world, it still couldn’t bring back the dead. She’d only been gone a week so far, and I missed her.

I hadn’t realized I’d eaten the whole bag of Cheetos until I reached the orange dust at the very bottom. I’d been eating on autopilot, lost in thought, and I mourned the fact that I had completely forgotten to actually enjoy it.

I folded up the bag and stashed it under the beanbag chair so it wouldn’t blow away while Nix was still eating hers, gazing out across the roofs of the kingdom, colored blue in the moon and starlight. Strange—it looked so similar to my nightmare. But it didn’t bother me. Being with Nix had comforted me the most.

“Do you miss it?” I asked her.

“Miss what?”

“The human world.” I jutted my chin toward her Cheetos. “You know, the little things.”

“Not really.” She wiped her mouth clean with the back of her hand. “Being a runaway wasn’t exactly the easiest.” Like me, Nix had also been hiding from encantos. Though instead of them wanting to kill her, they were trying to bring her home. She’d fled the imperial palace on Jade Mountain and hidden in the last place anyone would look for her: high school. She wanted to be free, away from the confines of royal life.

Of course, like me, too, she couldn’t stay in one place for long and found her way to Biringan, where she’d lived ever since. Maybe that was why we became fast friends; we were kindred spirits.

“I’ve made friends here,” Nix said. “Met you. Met—” She stopped herself, and I thought maybe she was getting emotional, because she cleared her throat and said, “Met people I care about. This is my home now.”

I was following her gaze out across the horizon when I spotted a dark shape on a balcony below.

It moved. Something was there.

I looked up, wondering if it was just a shadow from some flying animal. But as far as I could tell, there wasn’t anything.

I scanned the nearby towers again, straining my eyes to peer through the dark, but then a different shadow moved on the tower next to ours, darting behind a balustrade and out of sight.

“Did you see that?” I asked.

“See what?”

I didn’t know. I tried not to panic, but thoughts of assassins rammed their way into my brain. I was a queen. I was young. I was vulnerable. Elias had warned me of this exact thing.

I was a target.

There came a shrill birdcall from somewhere above us. Except it didn’t sound like any bird I’d ever heard.

I didn’t need Lucas’s power to know something was wrong.

“Nix, get inside,” I said.

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

Nix leapt up and hurried toward the door. But a figure dropped down from the shadows and landed in front of her. Tall, broad-shouldered, bulky—a man, masked and cloaked.

“No!” Nix yelped and backed away.

Ice-cold fear lanced through me.

I’d left my dagger in my room. I was unarmed. The guards were downstairs, but by the time they heard anything, it would be too late.

Someone had come for me.

The man looked at us for one heartbeat, then in one move, he grabbed Nix by the wrist and threw her over his shoulder.

“Nix!” I yelled.

“Let me go!” she screamed, pounding her fists on the man’s back and kicking her legs, but it had no effect. The bear of a man barely flinched. From within his cloak, he produced a silver gun.

He raised the weapon and aimed, though not at me. He pointed toward the garden below us and fired. A long cable shot out of the barrel, whipping into the night. He secured the gun to the floor with a solid clang, bolting it to the tower, and then he jumped.

Nix’s scream fell away when she plummeted with him into the dark.

It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to move.

I watched as the assassin zipped down the line on a metal hook with Nix thrashing and kicking against him all the way, fighting with everything she had.

Before I could go after her, two more cloaked figures leapt down from above, blocking me. Their cloth masks hid the bottom halves of their faces, and their eyes were trained on me.

This was it. This was their plan. They wanted me alone before they attacked.

But they didn’t move in. They simply stood, blocking the exit, waiting.

Nix’s screams still carried all the way up here.

I called to my power, my blood pressure rising. I was going to fight.

I held out my hand to the assassins, commanding the elements to bend to my will. I wanted to turn their swords at their sides to liquid or melt their shoes to glue, but nothing happened. Nothing. It was like I didn’t have any magic at all. I stared at my hand, stunned. My power failed me.

I’d have to do this the human way.

I grabbed a beanbag chair next to me and tossed it at one of the men. He caught it, but it hit him squarely in the chest, and he grunted. I rushed to the other, who was caught off guard. My fist connected with his nose, and he howled in pain.

It gave me enough time to grab the telescope off its tripod and use it like a bar, holding tight to both ends. Without thinking, I jumped after Nix. The wind whipped around me, and my stomach leapt into my throat, but I held on with everything I had as I plummeted down.

Nix and her kidnapper had already landed safely on the ground, but he was not alone. A handful of other cloaked figures emerged from the shadows, flanking him, and they took off into the garden. The whole time Nix was screaming, “Put me down now!”

I nearly tripped when I got to solid ground, but I kept running after them. Nix’s screams were the only thing I could follow. The two men I’d fought on the tower landed close behind me, the zip of their hooks turning into solid footfalls as they got closer.

“Nix!” I cried. I’d lost sight of her, but I could still hear her. There was still time.

I sprinted through the garden. Where were the guards? We needed help. I tried to summon my power again, throwing my entire focus into anything that could slow the kidnappers down. I meant to turn the grass into wet cement, into mud, into tar, but nothing happened. I was left gasping, and my chest burned from exertion. I dropped my focus, and my head swam. I felt like I was going to faint. But I fought against it.

I didn’t care about the garden when I broke through hedgerows, tearing across the flower beds and splashing across shallow fountains, sprinting as hard as I could after them, but they were getting farther away. I was going to lose them.

At the edge of the garden, I burst into the yard just in time to see Nix being carried toward the open front gate. She looked at me, tears shining on her cheeks, and my heart plummeted.

I was too late. I couldn’t do anything.

Nix struggled and screwed up her face. “Put me down this instant; that is an ORDER!” she yelled. She raised her hand and slammed it into her captor’s lower back. He went stock-still, stiff as a board, and fell forward with a yell. She’d locked the muscles in his legs with her power. With a solid thump, she and the man hit the ground. She got on her feet while he lay crumpled in a heap.

I caught up to them, fists raised. Magic or not, I was going to fight.

The other cloaked men had come to a stop after swooping in, ready to take her again, when she held out her hand once more.

“Stop this at once!” she yelled. “Or do you plan to defy a command from your princess?”

The men looked at her for a long minute before, one by one, they dropped to one knee and lowered their heads.

What was going on? Were these assassins working for Nix? I stood there, baffled, not quite sure what to do, when I heard the two men coming up behind me.

“Easy now,” one of them said. He pulled his mask off. To my surprise, he was a boy, no older than me. His crooked nose was bleeding from when I’d punched him. He appeared to be East Asian, with straight black hair tied into a small ponytail at the back of his head. He wore a black shuhe and black trousers, similar to the Arnis uniform I had worn earlier.

“Relax, Phoenix,” he said, his voice confident and low, though slightly nasally from his bleeding nose. “You know we wouldn’t hurt you.”

Panting, I still had my fists raised, sweat beading on my forehead. Nix stared at the guy with a stony expression, her eyes hard.

But to my surprise, he wasn’t menacing. He was smiling.

I blinked a few times, not quite understanding. “Who are you? Nix, what’s going on?” I asked.

Nix straightened, lowering her hand. “This is my older brother,” she said. “Crown Prince Qian of Jade Mountain.”