My heart begins to slow, my throat straining against the rope cutting below my jaw.

My feet kick but there’s nothing except air beneath me.

Blackness swells, swarming until all I see is a pinprick of light and the panicked face of the man I love.

Something brushes my legs. Squeezes and lifts. The pressure on my throat eases. Through the haze I find Nolan gripping my legs, holding me up as I gasp, filling my lungs with sweet air. The other guards watching the dais don’t seem to know what to do. Their heads swing from their new king, to me, to the onslaught of Unseelie fae emerging from the settling dust.

Ronan launches to his feet, bellowing for the men to kill the Unseelie warriors.

There must be hundreds.

Everett’s village had seemed so small. Where did they all come from?

One man towers over the rest, leading the charge, shouting orders of his own in a language I’ve never heard before.

Ever moves like lightning, and when I open my eyes again, he’s here, his bone-handled dagger slicing through the rope still holding me aloft. Nolan stumbles under my weight, but Ever catches me, cradling my trembling form in arms as steady as the ground beneath us.

Carefully, he cuts away the length of rope, tossing it aside with a growl. “Kerris?” he breathes, his dark eyes desolate and his calloused hands cupping my cheeks. “Speak to me.”

“You came for me.” The words break from my lips, jagged and hoarse. This man found a way to traverse the treacherous Divide without a bridge.

He made one.

His lips twitch, followed by a flash of sharp white teeth. “Always.”

“Guards!” Ronan roars, desperation in his demand. His plans are falling apart around him and there’s no telling what he’ll do to try and keep things together.

There’s been too much death already.

Why can’t he see that he’s been beaten⁠—

A haunting howl lances through the melee and the whole world stills. Men with swords raised, fae running for cover—it’s as if time itself stops.

There, on the far side of the square stands a red-eyed wolf with a string of drool clinging to its gaping maw. Its head reaches nearly to the top of the fountain, as tall as the unicorns the Unseelie usually ride.

The terrifying beast isn’t alone.

Four more wolves emerge from the alley, their sharp teeth painted red.

The closest one lunges for a Seelie guard, its teeth closing around the man’s arm. The guard lets out a terrifying scream as he’s dragged away and his cries for help fall silent.

The other guards tremble in their armor, their swords swaying like branches in a breeze.

All this time, I thought the threat wasn’t real.

And all this time, the wolves must have been lying in wait…on our side of The Divide.