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  And the rest, as they say, is history.”

  My throat tightened as the story of my parent’s history washed over me. “You got all this from reading his mind?”

  The boy nodded. “When his father was close to death, he forcibly summoned Desmond back here before he was able to tell Susan anything, I’d never seen anything like it. He was beyond furious. He was ready to move mountains to get back to her—and stay with her in the human world, even if it meant turning his back on his duties here. He sent a scout—his best friend at the time—to the human world to check. It was this friend who told him that Susan died in a car crash. Since it came from a reputable source, he believed it. It destroyed him, but he believed it.” I gulped a mouthful of air, trying to clear my head. “How did you—I mean, you’re not that old. How did you see this? You make it sound that this isn’t just mind reading, that you actually saw it with your own eyes.”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “I see stuff. And I’m not nearly as young as I look, Princess.” That was disturbing.

  “When he sensed that I existed, how did he react to that?” I had to know. I wasn’t sure if I believed anything that came out of this guy’s mouth, but I had to know.

  “Disbelief. Denial. But not for long. His best friend, who then worked as his closest advisor, was called before the king to answer some tough questions. His friend finally admitted that he’d lied about Susan’s death—that the previous king had given him no choice, and he’d been afraid ever since of telling the truth. King Desmond banished him to Hell about fifteen seconds later. It wasn’t pretty. But I guess he was lucky the king didn’t actually kill him. I know he wanted to.” I raked my hands through my hair and paced the hallway. This would have happened only a month ago, just after my birthday. “Served him right. If he was really a friend, he wouldn’t have lied in the first place.”

  “I totally agree.”

  “But is he lying to me?” I asked quietly. “Is my father lying about anything he’s told me?”

  “Your father has been very honest with you. Too honest, if you ask me. Lies might make things easier.”

  “Why does he refuse to let my mother know he’s here?”

  “You know why, but you keep trying to deny it.”

  He was right, I did know. My father had accepted that pursuing a reunion with my mother would put her life in danger, thanks to the outdated laws of the demon world that prevented demon/human relationships. In other words: no humans allowed. Ever.

  “He has been trying to change that law,” the boy said, answering me as if I’d spoken aloud. It was extremely unnerving. “But he hasn’t had much luck. Queen Sephina likes things her way—

  only her way. Handing any power over to King Desmond might make her seem weak to her subjects. But you know who might agree with your father and help change things?”

  “Who?”

  “Sephina’s ex-husband. He despises the queen.”

  That possibility made my stomach clench with fear. I’d never met him, but the queen’s ex was the most powerful being in all the dark worlds. He was the king of Hell. Apparently he went by a lot of names. I wasn’t positive, but I thought I already knew a couple of them.

  “Has my father contacted him?” I asked.

  “Not yet. There’s bad blood between them. King Desmond hasn’t even tried...but sometimes he wants to. Right now his first priority is to keep you safe and figure out what’s wrong with Michael. Changing laws can wait until all is well again.” The boy gave me a big grin. “It’s so great to talk to somebody. You don’t know how boring it can be here.” I tried to digest all the info this kid had provided to me. I felt battered. “Why don’t you talk to anyone? I mean, Michael’s not much older than you—” I eyed him uneasily. “At least, he doesn’t look much older than you—and there are the other servants.”

  “Can’t show myself to just anyone. They need to be special.”

  “I’m special?”

  “You are. You’re the princess here. That makes all the difference. I could show myself to the king, too, but I haven’t.”

  “Why?”

  “Just haven’t. I need to choose carefully, you see. There’s a lot at stake here, Princess. More than anyone even realizes. So I wait, I watch, and it’s been so very long.” He yawned. “So very, very long. But here you are. Finally.”

  I shook my head, more confused now than at the start of this strange conversation. “What are you talking about?”

  “Patience, Princess. I mean, I’ve been patient. Why shouldn’t you be, too?” He studied me for a moment, the smug look lifting from his face. “I need to give you something. I think it might help you.”

  I took a step back from him. “No gifts. I’ve had enough trouble with gifts from boys this week.”

  “This is different. Besides I’m not exactly a boy.”

  He looked like a boy to me. A short, skinny one. There was no way he was a girl.

  He held his hand out. A small black rock was in his palm. “Take this.” I eyed it warily. “What is it?”

  His gaze met mine. “I promise that I mean you no harm, Princess. I mean it.”

  “Sure, why wouldn’t I believe you? I only met you five minutes ago. We’re like best friends now.” Despite my better judgment, I closed the distance between us and took the rock from him.

  It was cool to the touch, a bit heavy, but didn’t feel strange otherwise. “What is it?”

  “Just a little piece of me. Use it well, Princess.”

  “What?” I frowned and looked up at him. “A piece of—” But he was gone.

  He’d disappeared completely in the blink of an eye.

  Chapter 6

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “What just happened?”

  He’d disappeared into thin air. I searched up and down the hall for him but there was no sign where he’d went. Then I stared down at the small black rock in my hand.

  Who was he? Why could he read my mind like that? How did my father not know he even existed? And where did he go?

  What was going on here?

  After wandering the empty hallways completely bewildered for another five minutes looking for the kid, I finally stopped walking and concentrated.

  Michael? Where are you?

  It only took him a moment to answer. ::Princess? Are you finished talking with your father?:: My fingers closed tightly around the rock. Yes, all finished.

  ::I’m in the courtyard setting up our first lesson. That is, if you’re still interested in starting our training today.::

  Tell me how to get there.

  He did. The spot wasn’t that hard to find. A few turns and down another flight of stairs I’d never seen before and I emerged into the courtyard, which was surrounded by the black walls of the castle. Still the castle, but... not the castle either.

  In fact, the courtyard took my breath away when I saw it.

  The area was outside, despite being walled. A balcony looked down on the grounds, which were ten times the size of my backyard at home. While the rest of the Shadowlands was dark and gloomy and rocky, I was surprised to see that this area wasn’t. The green grass I recognized from the field between here and the Faery Realm lay across the ground like a blanket. Flowers like violets, hydrangeas, and sunflowers bloomed in well-tended and groomed gardens running the circumference of the enclosed space. A large willow grew in the middle of the area along with many oak trees and evergreens.

  The courtyard was warm and it felt like a summer’s day rather than the chill of the rest of the Shadowlands. I took off my winter jacket, which I’d been wearing since I’d arrived, and placed it at the top of the six steps leading down to the courtyard.

  Michael stood there waiting, watching my reaction to the beauty before me. My heart did a flip-flop at seeing him again, but I still hesitated a bit after what my father and I had discussed. I had to watch him carefully and see if he was different. I’d do whatever I had to in order to protect him from nasty Queen Sephina.

  “You
like?” he asked.

  I nodded, still shocked. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

  “I’ve wanted to show you this place for a while, but whenever you’ve been here you haven’t stayed very long.”

  “You come out here a lot?”

  He nodded. “Frequently. It’s my job to look after the garden.” That almost made me smile. He was a gardener. And, by the looks of those flowers, an incredible one. My gaze moved upward and widened. “Wait a minute. The sky is blue. What happened to the storm clouds of misery?”

  He looked up. “It’s magic. The sky is the same as before, but this gives the illusion of a bright summer’s day.”

  “It’s amazing. All of it.” I couldn’t stop staring at the sky. Bright blue, but no sun. My father had once told me that he hadn’t seen sunlight in over sixteen years. I guess fake sky didn’t count.

  Still, it sure was convincing.

  “What’s wrong?” Michael asked with concern. “Did you have a difficult conversation with your father?”

  The look on my face must still have been bleak from before, despite being surrounded by all this unexpected beauty—and Michael was rather beautiful himself.

  “No. I mean...yes. Of course. We never seem to see exactly eye to eye on a lot of things”— to say the least—“but that’s not why I’m feeling shaken right now.” He drew closer to me. “Then what is it?”

  While something kept stopping me from sharing my scary “evil Michael” dream with him, I did tell him about meeting the boy in the hallway and our strange conversation. Then I showed Michael the rock he’d given to me before slipping it into my pocket for safekeeping.

  “Who was he?” I asked, worried.

  He frowned deeply during my story, especially at the part where I told him the kid could read everybody’s minds—even his. “I wish I could tell you. I’ve never seen anyone like that before.

  And you’re trying to tell me that he’s been here for years? That he’s been able to observe the king all that time—and read his mind?”

  “It sounds crazy, I know. But I swear it’s true. He was there, talking to me, giving me that rock, and then, poof, he was gone.”

  Michael looked disturbed by this. That made two of us. “No one is permitted to enter the castle without King Desmond’s permission. He’s in control of everything here. He would sense an unknown and unwelcome presence if one existed. The walls of the castle are magically enforced to help him do this.”

  I paced to the willow tree and back, worry churning in my gut. “Then who did I just talk to in there?”

  His dark brows were tightly drawn together. “I honestly don’t know. But are you okay?”

  “Okay? Yeah, I’m fine. But I—I might be going completely crazy if I’m seeing people that don’t exist.” I began to shiver and it wasn’t long before Michael moved closer to me. Without thinking twice about it, I hugged him hard for moral support. He hugged me back.

  It felt really good and more than a simple hug of comfort. He smelled like freshly cut grass and warm spice. My arms tightened around him. I never wanted to let go.

  “Princess, your father seems to be observing our training session from the balcony.” I reluctantly pulled back from Michael and glanced over his shoulder at the spot where my father stood, leaning over the stone railing.

  “Don’t worry, we’re not making out yet!” I called up to him. “That was just an innocent hug!” I probably shouldn’t have, but I honestly couldn’t resist.

  My father gave me a very stern look and his shoulders tensed, but he didn’t respond. I almost laughed out loud.

  I glanced at Michael. He didn’t look amused.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Private joke.”

  “Yes, hilarious. That is, if you want me banished from here forever.”

  “He won’t banish you.” Not yet, anyway. Not unless there was something seriously wrong with the Shadow in front of me. And it was up to me to determine if there was. If killing Jonas had done something bad to him deep down, then I had to figure out what it was and how to help him get back to normal as soon as possible.

  Michael kept his attention on my father. “I’ll tell the king about what you saw. There has to be an explanation for it.”

  “A ghost?”

  “Ghosts don’t exist.”

  “Hooray. Finally something that doesn’t exist.” I wasn’t sure if I should feel relieved about that. “After dealing with demons, dragons, and faeries lately, I wasn’t positive anymore.” Michael headed up the stairs and emerged on the balcony a minute later where he spoke to my father. The king glanced down at me again, a frown creasing his brow.

  He was always frowning. I tried to remember if I’d ever heard him laugh. It disturbed me that I couldn’t recall a single time.

  I bet he’d laughed when he and my mother were together.

  Come on, Nikki, I told myself. Let it go once and for all, will you?

  I was making both myself and my father miserable the longer I dwelled on this subject.

  Besides, my mother had moved on when he disappeared. Most recently, she’d moved on with Mr. Crane.

  At least, I thought she had. He actually hadn’t been around the house since Christmas dinner.

  And they hadn’t spent that much time together since they first started dating. A few dinners out.

  A couple at our house. I’d felt obligated to buy him a Christmas gift, which was totally awkward.

  I got him a book—a legal thriller. He seemed happy with it. He gave me a gift card to the mall. I was happy with that.

  Same old, same old. I just couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm for my mother’s continuing quest for true romance. Maybe, now that she’d thrown her time and attention into writing her latest book and stopped being quite so social, neither could she.

  But that didn’t mean anything when it came to my father. Even if he did suddenly show up at her door with three dozen roses, she’d never speak to him again after he left her all by herself all those years ago.

  But wait, a little voice piped up inside me. She doesn’t know what really happened. He didn’t abandon her at all, did he? He had no choice. And he thought she was dead, or he would have done anything to find her again.

  “Stop it, little voice,” I whispered to myself. “You’re not very helpful right now.” Not helpful, maybe. But it spoke the truth.

  A few minutes later, Michael returned. My father wasn’t on the balcony anymore.

  “Well?” I asked, anxious for some real answers.

  “King Desmond agrees that there couldn’t be someone who is physically here in the castle.

  It’s impossible. But someone might have astrally projected himself here to spy on him. It’s not likely, but he’s looking into the wards around the castle to see if there’s a malfunction in the primary magic.”

  I stared at him. “I didn’t understand a word you just said. Astrally, what? Primary magic wards, huh?”

  He grinned. “Let’s just say, there’s nothing to worry about. Whatever happened before won’t happen again.”

  While I did prefer not worrying, this didn’t exactly ease my mind. I’d seen that boy and he’d even given me something tangible to prove his existence—the black rock. He knew things from reading minds—Michael’s, my father’s. He could read my mind, too. Unless I was the one going crazy, something was really strange here and I wished I could figure out what it was.

  I suddenly felt like punching something.

  “Are we going to start practice, or what?” I asked. “Tick tock. Got to be back fairly soon or my mother is going to send out a search party for me.” Michael grabbed a plastic shopping bag from behind a tree. “First you need to change clothes.”

  I took the bag and looked at it. It was from the Erin Heights Town Center. “You bought me clothes? At the mall?”

  He shrugged. “I tried my best. Trust me, they’re adequate for this. If you’re going to shift form right now, I didn’t think you’d want to ruin what
you have on.” I didn’t know why the thought of shifting form in order to train hadn’t occurred to me. I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it.

  “You’re right,” I finally said.

  He nodded and crossed his arms, his lips curving. “To quote you, Princess. Tick tock.”

  “You’re strict, coach.”

  He gave me a mischievous look. “Oh, you have no idea.” I ran into the castle and quickly changed into what was in the bag. Shorts like what I’d wear in gym class and...a halter top. It wasn’t what I’d call a perfect fit, but it was comfortable enough.

  I was pretty sure I knew why he’d chosen a halter top that tied behind my neck and left the majority of my back bare. It wasn’t just so I could look cute.

  One word: wings.

  I ran back out to the courtyard, and Michael swept his gaze over me in an assessing manner. I now wore way fewer clothes than before. I looked perfectly dressed for the beach, not for January in Erin Heights.

  After his gaze moved over my bare skin, his eyes seemed to darken slightly as they locked with mine. “You look good.”

  A shiver went through me and it was hard to breathe for a second. “Thanks.” He finally tore his attention away from me. “Let’s begin. There are three main components to being a Darkling—which is just like being a demon, powers-wise. You can shift your form.

  Darklings remain half-human in appearance, though.”

  I tapped my foot. “I know this already, coach.”

  “Secondly, you have strength and speed, which can be practiced and assessed. Thirdly, you have the ability to manifest energy and use it as a weapon.”