“You are a disappointment, failing time and again to keep your people safe from the monsters that lurk across The Divide. The wolves are back, Father. But you’ve been too busy hiding in your castle to give a shit.” Ronan taps his dagger against his thigh, adjusting his grip on the hilt. “I’ve never understood why you insisted on keeping the bridge open when such danger lurks just on the other side. But the moment I met him,” he swings his blade toward Ever, “I knew. You kept it open because you were fucking one of them.”

The queen looks too calm. Too poised.

The king’s eyes bulge as he turns to stare at his wife. “You knew he was going to do this?”

Her chin lifts, and although she doesn’t respond, the answer lives in the angry set of her jaw and the rage snapping in her eyes.

A whoop echoes through the square and Maddox charges through the crowd, a blade swinging over his head. The rest of the Unseelie join in the charge, fighting their way through to the dais. Nolan stumbles, and Ever leaps free. The chains on his wrist jangle when he tries to grab me, but Ronan gets to me first.

If only I had some sort of weapon to incapacitate him, some way to break out of his grasp, but I’m as helpless as I was before, only this time, my eyes are open to the truth.

Maddox yanks Ever back, but Ever fights him every step of the way until Gryffin takes him by the other arm and drags him toward the rest of the Unseelie still holding off the guards.

Tears spill down my cheeks as they haul Everett away to safety.

Among the mayhem, a lone guard walks onto the dais and dumps my bloodied dress onto the worn planks. Not just any guard; the one with the mustache that I saw outside of Trevor’s cottage on the evening he died.

The cold slap of iron clamps around my wrists. “Kerris Dawn of Gravale, you are under arrest for the murder of Trevor Dillon.”

It doesn’t matter what happens to me as long as Ever is safe.

Even from this far away, I can see him struggling to get back to me as more guards flood the streets, heading not for Ever, but for me. He lets out an ear-shattering roar that turns my blood to ice.

Ever manages to get free, but it’s too late.

The guards have set the bridge on fire.

The Unseelie abandon the fight, their mounts, and their wagons, scrambling to make it back to their side before the bridge falls into the canyon, vanishing into the mist.

I’ll never know if he made it or if he fell into the abyss.