“How’d I know I’d find you in here?” Misha asks, strolling in through the arched doorway from the hall.
“Because this is where I spend most of my waking hours.”
“Right. That.” Grinning, he settles into the chair across from me. “How are you feeling?”
I shrug. Mentally and physically I’m better every day, but I can’t say my heart has recovered from all I went through this summer. I miss my sister, I miss Sebastian, and even though Misha and Amira have proven to be excellent companions, I’m lonely. “I’m . . . fine.”
Misha’s face twists in sympathy. Whether through my thoughts or deduction, he knows that’s a lie.
“It’s only been a couple of weeks. Even a faerie’s heart needs time to heal.”
I blow out a breath and change the subject. “How are you?”
“I’m fine. I have news.” He retrieves a letter from his pocket and passes it to me. “My goblin was able to deliver your letter to your sister, and she sent this back. He said she seems well. Spends her days making dresses and her evenings watching a child. She appears happy and healthy.”
My heart aches as I finger the envelope’s soft pink seal. I miss her so much, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about my transformation. I kept the update on myself simple. I missed her and hoped to visit one day—all true—and focused mainly on questions about her welfare. I long to open her response now and see her words in her own writing, but I’ll wait until I’m alone.
“I have other news as well,” Misha says. “My sister has sent word that she, Finn, and his people have arrived in my lands. They’re headed to the palace and should be here by tomorrow morning.”
I stiffen at the mention of the people I once considered my friends. So much for my safe place to hide. “What brings them here? I thought Finn had forces in the mountains and people all over the Unseelie Court who’d give him refuge.”
Misha nods. “He does. That’s not why they’re coming. We need to make plans for the queen’s first attack.”
“You’re sure it’s coming?”
“Her guard has been spotted moving east through the Goblin Mountains.”
“So Finn is coming to request your help? And . . . you’ll give it?”
Misha’s brows shoot up. “Have I given you any reason to think I’d be willing to let that monster have any more control than she already does?”
“No, but—”
“Even if I didn’t care about the atrocities she’s committed in her short life, I have my own people to think of. The queen will no longer settle for extending her territory to the other side of the Goblin Mountains. Now she wants the entire Unseelie Court as part of her own, and if that happens, my own lands will be next. It’s my duty as a king to protect the Wild Fae, but it’s my duty as a faerie to do everything I can to stop the queen from getting even one more ounce of control. And I plan to, Abriella, with or without your help and with or without the Unseelie Court’s alliance.”
I frown. “I thought you already had an alliance with Finn.”
Misha arches a dark brow. “With Finn, yes, but as we’ve established, Finn is no more in control of that court than Mordeus is from his grave.”
Which is why Misha needs me. When I arrived, I couldn’t imagine aligning myself with another member of faerie royalty, but now that I know more about the queen, now that I’ve seen her camps and Misha’s settlements, now that I’ve heard the terrified screams of one of the children she’s sent into those caverns, everything’s changed.
“They don’t know you’re still here,” Misha says. “Though they suspect. They wouldn’t have known at all if Sebastian hadn’t accused Finn of bringing you here. What happens next is up to you. If you’d like, you can sit in on our meetings, listen as they share what they know, and help us make a plan. Or, if you’re not yet ready to assume a role in our discussions, I can hide you temporarily. I think you could be an important part of the meetings—both because of your power and your perspective— but it is your choice. Either way, Finn and the others are unlikely to stay long. The Lunastal holiday is quickly approaching, and it will be the first in twenty years that Finn’s been able to spend in his homeland.”
“Why?” I ask.
Misha arches a brow. “Why what? I’m afraid I don’t understand the question. Your shield is working rather well today, I might add.”