CHAPTER 1
Morella
My brother tumbledfrom the sky in the earliest light of dawn. He shifted from a raven, black as night, to a Ravenfae Prince—exhausted and keeled over in the morning dew. His hands dug into the grass as his breath came in labored, heaving gulps.
His wife, Seraphine, tossed their daughter into my arms and bolted from the door without a word.
“Papa!” my niece squealed, reaching out her chubby little arms.
“Yes, Avici, just give your papa a minute with your mama,” I grunted, doing my best to keep the soft downy feathers at her back from slapping me in the face. Her name meantfledglingand she lived up to it in her many attempts to fly at only two years old.
I plucked the very last honeysuckle blossom from the vine growing over the cottage door, distracting her enough to keep her on my hip while I watched my brother recover.
Korven, Ravenfae Prince of the Brackish Wood and Cursebringer of Revelry had just returned from a night of a Cursed Moon. On these nights, the Cursebringer brought curses from the Veil to all those unlucky to receive them and all babiesborn under that moon. A Cursed Moon occurred twice a year, but sporadically. This moon came only four weeks after the first, and the hardship of the Cursebringer of Revelry remained plain on my brother’s face.
For eighteen years, my much older brother had taken on the duties of Cursebringer from our mother, the Ravenfae Goddess. The duty would have gone to me as her original heir, but by the time I had turned ten, Korven had decided he would take over the Cursebringer burden instead.
I looked on in guilt and shame as my brother and his wife reunited on the soft path that led to their cottage door. Seraphine pulled him into her arms, kissing his forehead many times before trailing down his cheek—all the way down to the bramble berry tattoo inked along his neck.
He let himself fall to her lap, still breathing hard from his long night. I stepped out of the stone doorway and unfurled my black feathered wings tipped in gold. Avici dropped the yellow bloom in her little hands and reached for the sky. “Let’s fly, little bird,” I laughed.
Holding her back to my chest, I launched into the lightening blue, understanding perfectly well that my brother and Seraphine were going to need a minute. Or by the looks of the kiss she just gave him…several.
My niece giggled in unbridled joy as I flew over the trees in the midst of exchanging their summer green to the rich colors of autumn. In precisely two minutes, we would arrive at our favorite cliffside in Moonstone Wood—the one where the golden rays of sunrise glinted off a waterfall, lighting up the valley below. Three minutes of flight was my current limit, so a rest watching the sunrise was the perfect start to the morning.
I landed softly, nestling Avici into my lap as we sat near the cliff’s edge. She pointed to the stream of water gushing over the side of the rocks, ensuring I was watching for the spark of goldenlight to appear. Her cry of joy was bright as the sun when it glinted off the spray of water, and I laughed with her, soaking in my last few hours before I’d leave her for months.
Within twenty-four hours, I’d begin my journey, traveling across the acres of Moonstone Wood to enter the realm of the Changelingfae, right to the Citrine Cliffs of Revelry. The trek would take three whole days, but only because my brother and I would travel by carriage instead of flying—something I’d never have the strength to do.
In three days, I’d be married.
In three days, I’d be bound to a husband I’d never met.
In three days, I’d be queen.
I wasn’t sure which I was excited for most.
CHAPTER 2
Killian
In three days,I’d be married.
If she showed up.
If she didn’t finally get the cold feet I’d been relying on to excuse us both from the contract I’d penned thirteen years ago.
The Ravenfae Princess had written to me thirty times since then, and I’d gotten rid of every letter, sealed and all with the wax stamp of the Brackish Wood.
At what point would she rebel?
At what point would she realize that marrying a complete stranger was…stupid?
I’d gotten what I needed from that betrothal contract and left an escape clause so she could grow up from a mere fifteen years old and easily break it.
Why didn’t she break it?
“You look a bit vexed.”