Which explains why the others are collecting it. I turned to look at the knights and my breath caught in my throat. Their hair was no longer black. Each of them had long strands of varying shades of the rainbow. No, no, no, no.

I turned. I had to get help. There was only one idea in my head. The fairyflies. I ran until I saw them huddled together behind a tree. They swarmed me in an instant. “Please, go get help. I’m stuck,” I spoke softly, holding my hands up so they could fly around my fingers. “Please. Get Saffie. The Coven. Thorne and Sage. Get help.”

They took off instantly.

The world spun around me. My projection was moving again, bringing me someplace else. I wrapped my arms around my waist and braced myself. When I stopped moving, I stood at the base of the largest trees I’d ever seen. I craned my neck back and looked up. They were basically skyscrapers. It reminded me of the treehouse community the Ewoks lived in in Star Wars. I slid behind a tree trunk and watched in confused horror as knights shoved plants and flowers into leather sacks. Some of them flew down from the village above our heads carrying books, clothes, food, bottles, and anything else they could get their hands on, then shoved those into big satchels that looked like the potato sacks we used to race as kids. Magic fired left and right. Women screamed up above. My stomach rolled. A few knights flew up and over their heads like they’d been thrown. In the distance, I heard people shouting orders, but it wasn’t in English so I didn’t know what they were saying.

A woman with long rainbow hair leapt off a tree and sprinted away from the village, but the Unseelie Prince landed right behind her just as she passed. He snatched her by her long hair and dragged her back against his chest. In quick, easy movements, he tilted her head back and sank his fangs into her throat. Her light-green eyes went wide in fear. Her red-freckled skin paled until I couldn’t see a single freckle. Bile shot up my throat.

“LUKAT, NO!” a guy shrieked from above. “Let her go!”

The Unseelie Prince tossed the rainbow girl aside and she crashed to her knees. “Oh, but she tastes so good,” he purred, looking up with yellow eyes.

I gasped. My fingers dug into the bark of the tree trunk. Yellow eyes. His eyes were yellow. They’d been black. Jet black. Now they were a shining, bright yellow. What just happened?