Page 1 of The Iron Vow

PART I

Prelude

Let me tell you a story.

The story of a girl who went into the land of faeries, met a prince, and fell in love.

She went on a journey to rescue her brother, and along the way, she learned many things about herself and the world around her. She learned her father was a faery king, which made her a faery princess. She discovered her best friend was a faery straight out of legend: Robin Goodfellow. Puck of the Summer Court. Once you meet him, you’ll never forget him.

On the way to rescue her brother, the girl met many strange and fantastic creatures. One of them was a talking cat, who agreed to help her in exchange for a “small favor.” The girl didn’t know it at the time, but she had stumbled upon one of the wisest and most infuriating creatures in all of Faery, and without him, she probably would have wandered in circles until she fell into a dragon’s cave or was eaten by a giant spider. If you are ever lost in the Nevernever, look for a gray cat with golden eyes, or call the name Grimalkin into the wind. Chances are, he’ll hear you. He might ask for the impossible, but he’ll always get you where you need to go.

But we’re getting off track, aren’t we? Let me start again, from the beginning.

The girl went into Faery completely unprepared, knowing nothing about any of the things that I just mentioned. It was there, in the Nevernever, that she met a Winter prince. His name was Ash, and he was the most beautiful, dangerous creature she had ever encountered. He was also the youngest son of Mab, Queen of the Winter Court, which made him her enemy. And the laws of the fey forbade them to be together. But the girl was young, and she didn’t care. She loved him, and though it took him a while to admit it, the prince loved her, as well. They faced many trials: terrible monsters, faery wars, kings and queens trying to tear them apart. Despite every obstacle and law and ominous faery warning, they fought with all their hearts to be together. But, sadly, their happily-ever-after was not to be.

The girl became a queen. A queen of the fey in the Iron Kingdom, and the prince could no longer be with her in her new realm because it was poisonous to him. And so, the prince went on a quest himself, a journey to find a way to be with the queen forever. His quest took him all the way to the End of the World, and he had to face unspeakable challenges, but in the end, he was triumphant and returned to the girl he loved. She was still waiting for him, in her realm of iron, and finally, at long last, they could be together. But the story isn’t over yet.

The girl and the prince got married, and after a time, had a son. They named him Keirran, and Keirran grew up to be a handsome prince himself. The Prince of the Iron Realm. The queen and her husband loved him very much, but a dark prophecy hung over the Iron Prince’s head. A prophecy that said he would betray his kingdom and bring about the destruction of the entire world of Faery. The Iron Prince became friends with the queen’s brother, Ethan, who was also grown up now, and Ethan’s beloved, a girl named Mackenzie St. James. The three of them had many adventures together in the land of the fey. But Keirran had fallen in love with a girl named Annwyl, a faery of the Summer Court, and the law said they could not be together. The Iron Prince tried to defy that law as his parents had done, but all his attempts failed. And so, as the prince gave into despair, the prophecy surrounding him came true. He betrayed his best friends, betrayed his parents and his kingdom, and tried to destroy the Nevernever.

A great war was fought, with the Iron Prince battling those he’d once called family. His parents were heartbroken, but they had to protect their kingdom from their own son. Many lives were lost, but in the end, the Iron Prince was saved by the very friends he had betrayed. Ethan, Kenzie, and the prince’s own love, Annwyl, faced the Iron Prince behind enemy lines, and somehow, they were able to bring him back. But the final battle was not without loss and, sadly, Annwyl sacrificed her existence to save the prince she loved so much. The Iron Prince returned home to face the consequences of his actions, and as punishment, was forever exiled from the Nevernever. He became King of the Forgotten and went on to rule a realm known as the Between, swearing to protect the world he’d once tried to destroy.

But the story isn’t over yet.

Several years after the great war, a monster appeared in the Between. A monster of nightmares that spread anger and fear to everything it touched. It threatened the Iron Prince’s kingdom, and the Iron Prince knew he needed help. He sent two messengers to the Iron Realm to ask for aid: Robin Goodfellow and a mysterious faery called Nyx. Nyx was a kind of faery no one had ever seen before, but she was beautiful and a deadly fighter, and she helped Puck reach the queen and the Winter prince in the Iron Realm. Together, the Iron Queen and her family confronted the monster and discovered the terrible truth. Long, long ago, there was another realm of Faery known as Evenfall. And Evenfall was home to a whole species of faeries called the Evenfey. The Evenfey were very much like the faeries of the Nevernever, except they were born of darker dreams and nightmares. They were ruled by a powerful entity known as the Nightmare King. But then, a selfish faery known as the Lady decided to seal Evenfall away, cutting the Evenfey off from the rest of the world.

This made the Nightmare King very angry. He fell into a deep sleep, and he dreamed of revenge. Of darkness and destruction, and vengeance against all fey, the Nevernever, and the entire world.

Years passed. The king slept on. But eventually, the seal to Evenfall weakened. The Nightmare King was waking up, still filled with rage toward Faery and the Nevernever. And so, to save their world, the girl and her companions decided to step through the weakened seal into Evenfall. To find the Nightmare King and stop him. Whatever that meant.

They didn’t know what awaited them on the other side. They didn’t realize that what they would discover would cause them to question everything.

But the story isn’t over yet.

In fact, this is just the beginning.

1

EVENFALL

My name is Meghan Chase.

Queen of the Iron Fey. Ruler of the Iron Kingdom. Daughter of a human mother and the immortal faery king of the Summer Court. I have survived multiple wars, faced unspeakable evil, and stopped at least two End of the World prophecies.

None of that was quite as terrifying as where I stood right now.

The sky overhead was black. No stars, no moon. Trees surrounded us, bent and twisted as if in horrible pain. A flat gray luminance filtered through the trunks, turning them into skeletal silhouettes that seemed to move whenever you looked away. In the distance, I could make out things dangling from the branches: rotting cages and sacks that bulged as they swung lazily back and forth.

I shivered.Remember those horror movies that you love so much? Well, congratulations, now you’reinone.

A chill traced my spine.Itwas still out there, searching for us. I could feel its presence, old and patient, prowling through the trees. The monster that had been waiting for us the moment we’d set foot in this strange, terrible world. An Elder Nightmare, vicious and nearly unstoppable, that had attacked us as soon as we’d arrived. We’d managed to fight it off and escape, but not unscathed.

Clenching my jaw, I pressed a hand to my elbow. Beneath the bloody cloth I’d wrapped around my arm, my bones throbbed with pain. But even that was a small inconvenience compared to the bigger problem. If things had been normal, I would have healed myself by now, my fey glamour naturally restoring torn flesh and broken bones, staving off complete exhaustion and keeping me on my feet. But things were far from normal, and dread, yawning and terrible, had settled deep in my stomach.

There was no glamour in this place. None. It was a wasteland, barren and empty of magic. I could feel the deadness in the air, in the ground, in the trees around us. It made me sick. The Nevernever—the land of the fey—pulsed with magic; glamour existed in every tree and rock and living creature. It fueled our power, our very existence. It flowed from the mortal world into Faery from human dreams and emotions. From their loves, their fears, their passions and creativity.

This was nothing.

This was Evenfall.

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