A fresh wave of nerves hit me but I couldn’t dwell on it as I took in the landscape trees were fluffy and green, coating the rocky landscape and making it seem like another world in the early morning light.

Before I knew it, the carved wooden sign that I knew well came into view.

Rockwood Valley

Artisan Capital of the South

Maybe at one time it was. From the sound of it, and what I saw happening before I left, it wasn’t anymore.

The roads were still empty as Maverick took the main road past Main Street, then wound his way through the smaller roads until we just hit the outskirts of town.

Whitaker Ranch

It wasn’t even a ranch anymore. It was when my parents bought it, but my dads founded Whitaker Family Brewery and never looked back.

“Kneel,” Kitarni orders. “And recite your Oath.”

They drop as one, and I shiver without their eyes to warm me. A second later, the air heats a little. Drystan’s consideration melts the knot of anxiety balled in my chest.

“My Nicnevin has called, and I answer. I pledge my body, my magic, and my soul to the protection of Danu’s beloved daughter. All that I am is hers. I forsake all others and swear to guard her with my life for as long as she reigns. She is all.”

I’m not crying. It’s just… I’ve never heard the oath in its entirety before, and my chest aches as I realise they had enough faith to swear this all those years ago, even though they knew nothing about who I’d become. Kitarni swipes the tears away discreetly as she kisses my forehead.

“May Danu bless and protect you all.”

A statue of a nude fae reclines against a giant tree on the far side. Water cascades from a jug on her shoulder over her full breasts and down her legs into a broken pond at her feet. There, at the base, and drinking deeply from the flowing water, is the largest white stag I’ve ever seen.

He’s huge, looming taller than I am, even without the magnificent rack of golden antlers atop its head, and that height becomes even more obvious as he straightens and pins me with a pair of coal-black eyes.

The weight in them lances through me like a burst of thunder. Dark, ageless knowledge, the likes of which does not belong in the realms of mortals nor fae, pierces me like a knife. I feel seen, flayed, broken, and reformed all in the space of one glance. My skull shrieks, ears ringing as the intensity grows until I can’t take it anymore.

Bowing my head and breaking contact is a matter of survival. Still, my head pounds and my eyes water as the ache in my chest finally falls silent.

The white hart.

What was it Titania said? The white hart is a sign from Danu and bestows wisdom on the fae who finds it…I don’t feel like it bestowed wisdom. In fact, I’m pretty sure it just split my brain in two.

“Announce the trial complete,” I say, my voice deceptively calm.

My guides flicker in the corner of my vision. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen them in Aiyana’s presence, and I smile in savage satisfaction.

The spring queen makes a final attempt to save face. “Technically, the trial is only…”

My eyes lock with her honey ones, and her words trail off.

Finally, Aiyana realises she’s crossed a line.

“The trial is over.” Is that a quiver in her voice? “Goddess…”

I can feel Aiyana’s power desperately clawing at my own, trying to smother my magic. She can’t. Though the spring queen is a descendant of Mab, and powerful in her own right, the Goddess’s strength is infinite.

She was arrogant enough to believe she had a chance.

All she can do as I approach her is fall to her knees and begin furiously uttering the vow of allegiance. Does she honestly think that will save her after everything she’s done?

“I swear my fealty to Nicnevin Rhoswyn. Never will my deeds bring harm to her, nor shall I hear of harm to her, unless it is to obstruct it. I accept her as my Nicnevin, on the condition that she rules my subjects with the Goddess’s fairness, and that she will perform all duties as they are written in the Treaty of Marlen. May Danu witness my vow and strike me down if I recant.”

“Too late.” It’s not me speaking now, though I wholeheartedly agree.

No amount of breathing is going to control the Goddess this time, and I don’t want to.

“Anyway,” Florian continues, changing the subject. “We’ve got the final plans for your pilgrimage ready, if you want to see?”

“Pilgrimage?” I ask, confused.

“To visit the courts,” he explains. “You’re leaving the night after your coronation.”

He takes a spot on the long chaise opposite me and spreads a scroll out on the table in front of me, turning it and pinning it in place with the artfully sculpted weights.

It’s a map of Faerie, annotated in bright red ink.

“I thought Lore would just…”

“I wish,” Jaro mutters. “No. It’s traditional for us to pass through practically every town and village on the route so you can bless their temples and shrines. It’s symbolic of the new Nicnevin reconnecting the land to Danu after the death of the old. Besides, blinking our full party every two miles along the route would just waste Lore’s magic.”

“Surely we’re at war,” I mumble. “And I already reconnected the land to Danu. Couldn’t blessing all of those shrines wait until after we’ve achieved peace?”

All of them shake their heads. “Fae are long-lived,” Florian cautions. “Respecting the old ways is—for many of them—respecting the times of their youth. Plus, it will do them good to see you. Twenty-five years without a Nicnevin has been hard on everyone.”

A voice on my left startles me, ringing out over the silent nobles who are bowing deeply across the room.

“Announcing Nicnevin Rhoswyn, fifth beloved daughter of Danu and High Queen of all fae.”

“All hail!” The answering call echoes throughout the room, so loud that it startles me again.

It’s eerie when an entire room full of people bows before you. A single, clear path has formed between their bodies, leading from the grand doorway I’m standing in to the throne at the other side.

The ballroom is hung with flowers. Literally. A dozen wisterias grow gnarled trunks around the columns of the room, only to burst into multicoloured pastel bloom above us. Their vines—which appear gold in this light—crisscross the open space where there should be a roof, forming the ceiling with their intricate web. From here, it almost looks like the chandeliers themselves are hanging from those vines… which must be impossible.

Only it isn’t, because this is Faerie. Those same chandeliers are lit with glowing spheres of magic instead of candles.

The walls are dominated by enormous windows that let the light from the party spill out into the forest beyond.

While I was getting ready, Titania told me that the fae way of building around nature and allowing it to come inside is their way of inviting Danu into every aspect of their lives. Because Danu is woven into the natural fabric of the world. That philosophy naturally led to the conclusion that wherever nature is, Danu is also.

I’ve got to admit, while I might be questioning the practicality of it, it’s beautiful to look at.

I’m gaping at everything like an idiot, but thankfully, none of the assembled fae have noticed. None of them are looking up. Even my Guard, who wait for me at the other side of the room, keep their eyes trained on the floor.

“You’re doing beautifully,” Titania encourages, appearing at my side. “Now, remember, head high. Don’t bow to anyone, unintentionally or not. You’re in charge here. Make sure they know it.”

It was the end of our time together as Holywell students. Our journey back to each other began right here in this dining hall less than three years ago. I came here to deceive my old best friends, to steal from them, to begin my quest to destroy their Families in the name of the parents that had been stolen from me.

And I’d done it. We’d done it. None of it had brought my parents back, but the emptiness I’d expected to feel for the rest of my life once I’d gotten my revenge had been filled with them.

I was whole, because this journey brought me back to Zach, Noah, and Bennett. We had each other, and we had our City.

“I love you guys,” I said with only the slightest crack in my voice from inside our huddle. “I’m so proud of you.”

“We love you, too, sweetheart,” Noah replied, his long fingers threading through mine.

“Forever and always, baby girl,” Zach said.

Bennett’s stare burned into me one more time as he tilted his head down to press his forehead to mine. He whispered, “Ours.”

The sound of the doors flying open again pulled our attention to the hall’s entrance, and the room fell silent as Jolie appeared in the doorway.

The three of us watched as wordlessly as the rest of the crowd as our girl marched down the aisle, headed straight for us. My heart thumped in my chest, anticipation and excitement thrumming in my body at her approach.

She still looked like the Princess the three of us had grown to know and begrudgingly obsess over last semester, but she was now also so much our Jojo that it was almost physically painful to look at her.

Her white-blonde hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and she wore a loose sweater and tight black pants. But it wasn’t lost on me, nor would it be on Noah and Bennett, that her clothes were now expensive, high-quality pieces. Her pants were real leather, fitting her tight body like a glove, and her white sweater looked like cashmere. And to top it all off, instead of her old, ratty shoes, she wore shiny black high-heeled boots, making her legs look miles longer than they already were.

Our Jojo had grown up to be so fucking sexy. The hard-on I’d had for Joanna Miller last semester had only increased tenfold now that I knew who she really was, and my dick stirred under the table as she neared.

“She’s coming up here,” Noah murmured, sounding just as enraptured as I was.

Bennett said nothing, but he watched her approach our table with the same intensity that he always had back when he thought no one noticed how consumed he’d become by the Southside Princess.

I couldn’t smother my wide grin as she climbed the short steps up to our table, looking each of us in the face with those gorgeous aquamarine eyes. It made my chest ache to see them again after all these years. She dropped into the chair at the other end of the table with all the grace and poise of royalty, putting her directly across from Bennett—who was smoldering at her—with Noah and me in the middle, facing the crowd.

If we’d had any lingering doubts about her being exactly who she said she was, the cherry blossom charm on the necklace that hung between her perky tits would have assuaged them. I distinctly remembered when her dad had given it to her as a late birthday gift not long before she “died.” She’d hardly ever taken it off.

“Gentlemen,” she said lightly as she gave Bennett a big, taunting smile. “Thanks for saving my seat for me.”

The entire room watched us, the gasps and whispers just audible from where we sat.

“Jojo,” I said in greeting, since the other two could only manage to stare at her. “Welcome back, baby girl. We… we missed you.”

I’d just whipped my phone out to check in with Max when the chatter in the hall suddenly dimmed, and the crowd that had been lingering around the doors parted as if the movement had been rehearsed.

Three boys strode into the hall, their steps easy and confident, and they marched straight down the center aisle without so much as a glance around them. They took up their seats at a small, private table at the front of the room that was perched on an honest-to-God dais.

My stomach had flipped and my adrenaline had spiked the instant they’d entered the hall. The reverent behavior of the rest of the students told me without even having to look that these were my marks.

The Heirs. Bennett Spencer, Zach Ferrero, and Noah Hargraves.

My former best friends.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to feel when I laid eyes on them for the first time in seven years, but as they turned to face their adoring public up on that dais, and I was able to really look at them, it was as if someone had put their fist straight through my chest.

My memories of them suddenly rushed to the surface of my brain after having long been buried and threatened to overwhelm me completely. I could still make out the boys I’d once known in their faces, but they were definitely grown men now. Bennett had just turned twenty, and the other two were nineteen—and apparently, they were now also gorgeous, all fucking three of them.

“And how is your sexy neighbor?” Val asked, waggling her eyebrows at me like she always did every time I came in.

The apartment between my top-floor place and Mrs. Byrne’s ground-floor apartment belonged to Nate, who I thought might have been her nephew. I hadn’t really had a single conversation with him in the last five years, just passing pleasantries. Sometimes, he’d help me carry my groceries to the top floor. He did all the handyman stuff and yard work for Mrs. Byrne, and I didn’t know if that was in exchange for food too.

There was one small reason I’d never really spoken full sentences to Nate.

Simply put, he was smoking fucking hot. Like, holy shit, my ovaries had started a fan club and named it the Let Nate Impregnate Us Club. Total members: two.

I mean, the rest of me kinda wanted to join the fan club too. He was universally handsome, in a rugged kind of way. Messy dirty-blond hair, sparkling blue eyes, sun-browned skin, and so many damn tattoos that I daydreamed about tracing every single one with my tongue.

Every time he was in my presence, I turned into a bumbling simpleton. So eventually, I’d decided to be cool and mysterious myself, and usually ran away anytime he came close.