realize how sad it was, but back then, I remember the thrill when the man working there sat me next to this full grown lion.
The lion basically ignored me as I posed for pictures. But there was a moment near the end where the lion looked at me and something passed between us. An understanding. That with minimal effort, he could kill me.
That’s exactly what I’m feeling now as I stare into this Fae’s eyes. Not that he wants to kill me, exactly—but the shared knowledge that he could.
And there’s something else. A familiarity I can’t place.
A spark of remembrance flickers inside my heart. The shock like seeing a loved one you think is dead. I clutch my chest as an invisible tether snaps taut between us. The reaction to his presence visceral and raw. What is happening?
I know you. I know you. I know—
My skin goes clammy. “I . . . I should go.”
His gaze chills my back as I hurry across the rooftop, and it doesn’t stop burning until the door to my room slams shut.
12
Morning comes too soon. Clad in everything I own, I wheeze and lunge my way down a dark, endless stairwell to another door of marble that leads to an outdoor courtyard. Someone knocked this morning to inform me that I was needed for . . . something. I’m still not sure what.
I must have been tired because I slept way past noon. I think. There are no clocks in my room, and the sun is imprisoned behind a layer of dirty winter clouds so deep I’m not even sure it’s there.
As soon as the door opens to the courtyard, cold air slaps me in the face, knocking every bit of sleep from my body along with my soul.
Lord, I hate the cold.
I inhale sharply. The space is big enough to fit two football fields. English primroses and winter jasmine decorate the grounds, crystal waters from countless fountains sparkle, frozen mid-spurt, and hedge mazes crisscross the paver stones, dusted white. Snow drizzles the many statues and forms mounds in the corners.
I barely have time to take in the place before a noise catches my attention.
“Hurry up!” a female orders in a tinkling tone.
I whip left to right, pulse pounding as I search for the voice. A ginormous magenta butterfly swoops at my head.
On instinct, I swipe at the papery, iridescent wings.
“Hey!” the voice screeches. And that’s when I realize the butterfly is not a butterfly, but a miniscule person with abnormally large lungs. She screeches at me again, the sound earsplitting, buzzing around my head so fast I can’t make out her features.
Suddenly she hovers in place, her eyes traveling over my clothes. “Fae hells. You’re a weird one.”
Curiosity gets the better of me, and I snatch the creature from the air, holding her gently around the waist. My fingers cover her entire body. She wriggles and kicks, and I can’t stop staring at the tiny clothes she wears. The shoes made out of bean pods and soft dress spun from spider silk.
She’s like the Barbies Julia plays with, only her hair isn’t colored with crayons, but a deep, beautiful magenta, and she’s warm and alive.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demands. Her wings beat the air in a blur, sending cold puffs of wind at my face.
“What are you?” I ask.
She gives up on trying to pry my pointer finger back with her hands and glares up at me, arms crossed. “I’m a sprite, and your escort for the next four years. And if you make any Tinkerbell jokes—any at all—I will cast a spell to give you hemorrhoids so bad you’ll never sit down again.”
Well, that sounds horrible.
She bares her ruby lips, revealing razor-sharp teeth. I think I recall something about sprites carrying a toxin, so I release her before she can bite me.
The moment she’s free, she buzzes around my head, a string of curses spewing from her little mouth.
Then she says in her tinkling voice, “Follow me. We’re already late for the Shadow Selection.”
“The what?” I call. But she zooms so fast over the courtyard that I have no choice but to run to keep up. I zigzag around a statue of a faun and lunge over hedges, my boots slipping and sliding on the gravel.
Why did I ever love running?
Her sparkling form disappears through a propped open door into another building, this one tall and spiky. I follow. Those orb thingies from before spin inside delicate glass bulbs