“I told you when you arrived that we’d been waiting for you for a long time. But I didn’t know then quite how much we needed you.” Annika swipes gently toward the hologram, and the picture morphs into multiple screens, all revealing different parts of a world I’m still so unfamiliar with. “Victory you know. But there is War. Famine. And Death. We’ve told you about the courts and their princes. But their customs? Their culture? We need to teach you about everything.”

I watch the images morph again into the four princes. Three are still strangers to me, but Prince Caelan is there, dressed in his white robes and silver crown, a strange mix of superiority and sorrow behind his silver eyes.

Eyes I was able to deceive.

A small tremor builds in my throat, but I swallow it down. “You want me to learn about the Residents.” It’s a reasonable request. Maybe even a beneficial one, considering I’ve been craving knowledge since I got here. But the glimmer in her watchful stare, like her thoughts are brewing too fast for me to keep up with…

It fills me with dread.

I lift my chin and ask the only question that matters right now. “Why?”

Annika blinks. She’s not ready to tell me everything, but she knows I need something. “It was your idea. To live among them. Move through the court as one of them.” She pauses like she wants me to fully understand her words. “You are the key to getting us closer to finding Queen Ophelia’s weakness. So yes, I want you to learn. I want you to learn how to be a Resident so convincingly that even you’ll start to believe it.”

She wants me to be a spy.

My stomach knots like it’s full of iron.

“And after that?” I ask, my voice hollow.

She smiles. “After that, we prepare for the fight.”

The sky is dusted with stars. I breathe in through my nose, the scent of woodland and grass filling my soul, and find the shape of Orion. It’s the only constellation I remember, mostly because it includes Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, the coolest star names in existence.

“There,” I say, pointing. “Can you see the three stars in the middle? That’s Orion’s Belt.”

Mei flicks a blade of glass from her shirt. She doesn’t have the patience for space these days. “Is this what you do with Finn? Because no wonder he hasn’t asked you out yet. This is worse than Dad making us watch the elves.”

I make a face in the darkness. “Oh, come on, it’s cool! There’s a whole world out there. Multiple worlds, probably.” I tilt my head to the side, looking at my sister, who is growing up too fast. “Besides, we never hang out anymore.”