me.”

He moved in the shadows. I could see more of his form. He wasn’t a beast. He was a man. A tall, sinewy man, as tense and watchful as a predator on the prowl. He was watching me as I was watching him.

So very like your mother.

I straightened, my fingers curling into fists. “I never knew my mother, and I don’t care to.” How many times had I said those words? Every time I wanted them to be true, but they rang false, now more than ever.

And your father?

He was goading me, the bastard.

A father and a daughter. What a wonderful pair, don’t you agree? Have you ever considered it?

Something buzzing behind me made me turn. My dragonfly. She flew frantically near my head, darting, circling. “I don’t understand.” Her message was too confused, too crazed.

I should have known. I could hear the sneer in his voice.

But he wasn’t speaking to me. He was looking at her.

Try if you must, but you can do nothing in that powerless form.

She flew to my shoulder and perched there.

The move vexed him.

Leave!

That was her message now to me. Leave while you can.

But I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to know what this man or this creature or whatever he was knew of my parents.

You don’t want to know.

I shook off her message, but I turned to her. “Why?”

She only stared at me.

“Tell me.”

My sister will never tell you the truth. But I will.

He was moving in the shadows again.

“Then tell me.”

Another rumbling laugh. You already know. You’ve always known.

“You’re lying.” My voice cracked. I did know something, or at least I thought I did.

You belong to me, he repeated, his voice growing more commanding, more vicious. We can rule together, you and I. You can let me in.

“I will never help you. I stopped you from taking the Queen.”

I meant no harm.

“That’s a lie!”

The thought was mine, but the muffled words were not. I turned to find Mrs. Crossey, standing with Marlie and Mr. Wyck at the edge of the grove, behind the liquid wall.

My heart leapt and I wanted to go to her, to embrace her. She was up! She was here!

Stay where you are.

I stared at my dragonfly, not understanding her hesitation. “But she can help.”

If you leave, he still has you.

What did she mean?

Sister, you may have mastered that tiny form, but you will not stop me. I may not be able to claim the Queen, but any host will do, as you well know. Even my daughter.

I spun back. “Your daughter?”

Those red, vengeful eyes held me.

My knees buckled beneath me. Perhaps he answered, I don’t know. It didn’t matter because I knew the answer. As he’d said before, perhaps I’d always known. The dark parts of my heart. The envy and despair. The detachment. Even the stealing, I was sure. That was him. I was always part of him.

Yes, you feel it now.

My dragonfly lifted from my shoulder and flew at him, her brother, if he was to be believed. She aimed herself like a spear at those hateful eyes, and I rooted for her.

He tried batting her away, but she fell back and attacked again and again.

I knew she couldn’t win, but she persisted.

Fight me, sister, but we both know you cannot prevail. Not like this. Remember, it didn’t have to be this way, Druansha. You could have given me what was rightfully mine. But you horded this world for yourself.

She circled and dove at him again.

He batted her away, slamming her hard against a tree. You let them call you Lady of the Fayte, but now you will be Lady of Nothing.

Had he called my dragonfly the Lady of the Fayte? I whipped around to Mrs. Crossey, the answer to my question plain on my face.

But she couldn’t move. None of them could. Their bodies were lost in a tangled wall of tree roots and vines, slithering and wrapping themselves ever more tightly around my friends.

But I didn’t need to hear from any of them to know the truth. My dragonfly was not my dragonfly after all. I was not a friend. I was simply a means to an end.

Had it all been a lie?

I closed my eyes and said the word. “Father.”

The sound of it filled me. He was my family, all that I had. I truly did belong to him.

When I opened my eyes again, he was in front of me. A towering figure dark as ash and hard as rock.

He extended his hand, his skin rough and dry with a simple metal ring encircling his thumb. A crimson jewel perched upon that ring, glowing with the same fire in his eyes. Together, no one can stop us.

I slipped off my glove and put my hand in his. His touch sent a lightning bolt through my fingers and my limbs. That invisible power held me captive. I was part of him, and he was part of me. This was not a lie. This was blood and bone.

In a riot of sensations, everything flowed into me through that touch: his past, his present, his pain, his heartache, and now this, his victory.

He was telling me the truth. He wanted me beside him. He needed me.

Somewhere in the distance I heard Marlie, Mr. Wyck, and Mrs. Crossey call out. Their voices a cacophony of shrieks and screams that hardly registered.

Krol heard them, too. He stretched his other arm in their direction, and the trees responded to his will like minions, tightening around my friends’ throats, making them gasp and choke. He was squeezing away their breath, and they would die if I did nothing. I knew from his touch that was his intent.

“Leave them,” I said. “I’ll go with you but leave them.”

He turned to me, his fiery eyes a question.

I nodded, giving him the assurance he sought.

His hand lowered, and the tree limbs slackened. The gasps subsided. My choice was made.

Then that haunting awareness was there again. His message to me: We will rule these

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