“I should have you on my council rather than those nitwits the Regent employed,” I said. “You ask all the right questions and you never mince words.”

But there was another reason why the Winter fey hadn’t descended on the Isle; only I couldn’t speak of it to anyone, because it had come from that fateful conversation where my debt had been incurred. Winter wouldn’t have forbidden me to reveal what I’d learned if the information wasn’t important, but as yet, I wasn’t sure how it factored into her game.

“Those men on the council were born to the position, they didn’t earn it,” Sabine replied, then hissed in irritation, catching at her hood as the wind threatened to take it again. “Can we go inside?”

“Soon.” I’d told Cécile I’d take one of the seeds at dawn. Which would be any minute now.

She was quiet for a few moments. “What if what the Queen wants to talk to you about is an alliance? Would you consider it?”

“Even if that’s what she’s offering,” I said, choosing not to answer her query, “it begs the question of why? What’s in it for her, and what would she want in return?”

“Might it be worth it?”

Though my ancestors had been trapped in this world millennia ago, that fact remained that we were Summer creatures, and the idea of allying with Winter felt traitorous to the core. And misguided. We were the descendants of her adversary.

To Sabine, I said, “Just because she’d help us defeat our enemy doesn’t mean we’d win in the end.” Too easily, I remembered the gleam in her verdelite eyes as we’d struck the bargain that had allowed me to keep my life. We were nothing more than pieces on their Guerre board, and I couldn’t even begin to guess how we’d be played.

It was time. Reaching into my pocket, I extracted the folded handkerchief holding the seeds.

Sabine leaned over my arm. “Stones and sky, what are those?”

“They are the product of one of Anushka’s spells.” I swiftly explained what they did as the sun crested the horizon.

“And you don’t know exactly what they will do or how long the effects will last?” She caught hold of my wrist. “Tristan, this doesn’t feel right. Please don’t take them.”

“And if something happens to Cécile? I…” Breaking off, I chewed on the insides of my cheeks, thinking of how the Regent would be alive if I hadn’t gone running her direction. If I’d kept my head. “It’s easy to stand here now and say that I wouldn’t go to her the moment she was hurt or afraid, but history has proven otherwise. It’s my weakness, and this… this is a solution.”

Sunlight fell upon her face, turning her skin golden. Her lips parted in mute appeal, then she shook her head and let go of my wrist.

I wished she’d argued with me harder.

Plucking up one of the seeds, I stared into its swirling depths. And before I could lose my nerve, I swallowed it whole.