“You can tell our children how it was love at first sight,” he responds, staring dreamily into the distance. “I’m going to get the mating ceremony set up for tomorrow. Do you want to pick the witnesses? Or shall I just use my troop?”

“Lorcan,” Kitarni growls, steering me forward once more. “The mating of a Nicnevin to her Guard is an enormous event, which takes place in the Great Temple in Elfhame, as it has done since the city was built. And she mates all of her Guard. Not just one member.”

I blink rapidly. “Like a wedding?”

Kitarni nods. “Don’t worry, my lady. I have plans to get you completely up to speed with our culture, but the most important thing right now is gathering your Guard so you’re well defended against the Fomorians.”

“Jaro and Drystan are on their way here,” I murmur, feeling for their bonds. “They’re getting close. But so is he.”

“Caed.” Kitarni nods like she’s not surprised. “Your mother knew he would be a problem, but she had faith—as do I—that the Goddess would not have picked him for you without reason.”

So that’s his name? Caed? I try it out on my tongue. “He attacked us. His men shot me, and that’s how I… died.”

Lore’s grip on me tightens. “I’ll skin him for you, pet. You can wear him as a coat.”

The hard glint in his red eyes reassures me that he’s deadly serious.

“I’m not really fond of skin coats…” I murmur. “I appreciate the sentiment, though.”

He smiles, and Kitarni raises her brows. “Lorcan, she’s still wearing it.”

I blush as he scowls at her. “You don’t want to take it off, do you, pet?” His earnest eyes beg me to keep it on.

But I have a feeling Lore is going to just put it back on my head later, anyway, and I’d rather hear more of what Kitarni has to tell me than waste time with this argument. I release both of them and tug the helmet from my head, ignoring the way it seems to shrink, trying to stay on me.

When I hand it back, it transforms from a helmet into a bobble hat, and Lore puts it back on his own head with a muttered curse.

“This is the library,” Kitarni explains, pushing open the door to the room I first arrived in. “I’ve collected a whole lot of useful material to get you up to speed—although the language primers won’t be—”

“I can’t read.” I cut her off, my heart sinking. “English or Fae. It was never needed.”

Kitarni’s face never falls. She simply shrugs off my illiteracy like it isn’t something to be ashamed of. “Well, it’s a perfect time to learn.”

She walks over to a side table and pulls down a book from the top of a pile. “What would you like to start with?”

“Everything.”

Kitarni grins and ushers me to a wide, cushioned sofa. “We’ll get there. How about we start with your family?”

Lore groans and flops onto the seat beside me, resting his head on my lap. “Pet, just say the word, and we can go and do something fun.”

I hush him. “I know I have a brother.”

“You have six brothers,” Kitarni corrects. “Florian, the eldest, is the knight commander of your forces at Elfhame. He’s unmated and seelie. Your four middle brothers are all mated into the different courts, something which helped your blessed mother immensely as it meant she was never seen to favour one over the other.”

“And the youngest?”

“Bram.” Her tone shifts sadly when she says the name. “He’s been missing for close to a century. Most assume he’s dead.”

Oh.

Kitarni doesn’t give me a chance to process before she launches into a more detailed description of my living siblings.

She keeps talking until my mind feels ready to burst. We sit surrounded by books for most of the day, only pausing to eat. Eventually, Lore falls asleep in my lap. I have no idea how it happened, or what to do about it, but Kitarni pays him no mind as he snuggles my thighs while I study the primers she’s given me on the Fae language.

It’s written on vertical lines on the page and is read from bottom to top. Each letter is comprised of a series of small, horizontal or diagonal lines which intersect the stem-line. The overall effect is that each sentence looks like a geometric vine growing up the page.

When I first looked at the neat lines of letters, I thought they were pretty. Now, they’re giving me a headache.