The massive gray house before them had turrets and oddly shaped windows that were filled by faces of creatures that had once seemed stranger than she could’ve created in her darkest hours. Those same faeries were no longer a threat to her, but back then she’d been the Winter Girl cursed by the old Winter Queen, who had seemed to live to terrorize everyone.

The house seemed less ominous now even though faces still peered from the windows, and the yard was snow-draped despite it being spring. Rika’s grasp on Jayce’s hand tightened as they approached the iron fence that still wrapped around the property. She was briefly surprised that Donia hadn’t had the poisonous metal removed, but with the upheaval between the courts, maybe that touch of menace was wise. Winter was still the strongest of the courts, even though Summer was recently unbound. A reminder that Donia could be a force to fear was a good move politically.

“Everything should be fine,” Rika whispered, but she still shivered as she stepped through the gate and onto the elegantly curved sidewalk that wound between trees that were bowing under the weight of snow and ice. She wasn’t sure that everything would be fine. An awful lot of things were very not fine in her life, but she’d known Donia since the girl was a mortal. Like Rika, Donia had been one of the unlucky girls who had caught the then–bound Summer King’s attention. Rika had done all she could to convince her not to take the test. Afterward, she’d worked hard to hide her own bitterness from Donia, hoping that she could ease the newly fey girl’s pain by creating the illusion that one day forgiveness and freedom would come. Donia had been the last Winter Girl, though. Recently, she had been freed from the curse and replaced Beira, the Winter Queen who had made them all suffer for so long. Of all the faeries Rika had met, none were so easily trusted as the former Winter Girls. None of them spent much time together, choosing instead to forge new lives, but they all helped when one of their sisters needed them. Rika would be surprised if Donia refused her offer—especially when what she’d come to propose would also be an asset to the new queen.

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17