For months now, I’ve revised and revised and revised my current manuscript. I hadn’t planned to spend so much time doing that, but it’s the first book in a new trilogy, and there’s a lot I need to figure out. I’m still in the process of revising and hopefully soon my book will be ready to be professionally edited. In the meantime, I’m sharing the latest draft of my first two chapters. Happy reading!

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Chapter One

Maisie knocked on her brother’s door, calling out for him. “Jade?” Since there was no response, she knocked again, but this time with much more force. “Jade, hurry. We have to leave.”

The door creaked open, revealing a bare-footed Jade still in his pajamas and with his hair in a mess of brown curls.

“What?” he grumbled.

“Your college tour, Jade. We need to leave in ten minutes if we want to get to campus on time.”

With a grunt, Jade shuffled past Maisie and across the hallway, shutting the bathroom door behind him.

“Well,” Maisie said. “I’ll leave with or without you!”

Maisie finished packing her bag and headed out the front door. Cars, bikes, and pedestrians were rushing toward downtown, where the early sunlight glinted off skyscrapers. A breeze blew in from Lake Michigan, carrying with it the slightly crisp, sharp scent of fallen leaves.

Maisie released her breath, watching it cloud in the chilly morning air. Chicago was known for its harsh winds, something many despised, but Maisie loved everything about fall and winter. It was just a cozy time.

As she was about to set off, Jade stumbled out the front door. His jacket was unzipped, and his scarf slung over one shoulder. He was munching on a PopTart straight out of its wrapper.

“All right, let’s go!”

Once on the Red Line train, Jade plugged in his earbuds and turned up the volume loud enough for Maisie to hear. How his ears didn’t burst, she couldn’t understand. Maisie leaned into her seat with a book she was reading for her book club.

A few stops later, her phone beeped with an incoming message. Maisie tapped Jade’s leg to get his attention, and he grudgingly removed one earbud.

“Mom wants to have a pack meeting later today.”

“Why? It’s not like she lets us help.”

“She still wants us involved,” Maisie said.

“No, she doesn’t. Neither of us has been allowed on patrols since… since Ethan. So there’s no point in attending any meetings, is there?”

“She’s just cautious.”

“If it were up to her, we’d only ever leave the house to go to school or uni. And we’d certainly never shift again.” Jade put his earbud in again and pulled up the hood of his sweater.

Maisie replied to their mother: We’ll be there.

It didn’t matter that they hadn’t been on patrols in years. They were faoladhs, and one day, they would need to take over the pack from their mother and uncle. That was their duty, their purpose.

Decades ago, when their family’s ancestors had left the faerie realm and settled in Chicago, they had taken it upon themselves to be the invisible protectors of this city. Though threats from Tír na nÓg were few and far between, all faoladhs followed one motto: Troída ni domhúr; cósaina do clán. Fight for your home; protect your family.

For three generations, every faoladh had been serious about their duties to protect the humans from any otherworldly threat, to alter the minds of those mortals who had crossed paths with such creatures, to ensure that the Fair Folk’s existence remained a secret, and to punish anyone who failed to keep the secret. Thankfully, things had been calm in Chicago for a few years now, ever since an attack by the Unseelie faeries on Navy Pier.

Maisie looked out the window, watching the world rush by in a blur. When they were approaching Garfield station, she tapped Jade on the leg again. After putting away his earbuds, he followed her quietly off the train and to the bus stop.

“You came home late last night,” Maisie said.

Jade shrugged. “So?”

“Did you shift?”

“No,” Jade said, kicking a pebble on the ground. “I was just hanging out with Vanessa.”

Maisie leaned in closer in an attempt to catch her brother’s eye. He averted his gaze. With a sigh, she stood back. Last night, she’d seen him sneak back into his room, still in his wolf form. That wasn’t the first time, and again he’d told her the same lie.

They used to tell each other everything. They used to be honest and caring, back when they were still the three of them. But ever since their older brother, Ethan, died, it was as if Maisie and Jade had forgotten how to be siblings.

During their bus ride, Maisie didn’t force another conversation, and once they reached campus, they went their separate ways. As usual.

#

After her morning classes, Maisie headed to the library. Whenever she had some spare time in between classes or had to stay longer to study, she liked to sit by the library’s windows overlooking the entrance to the main square. From that viewpoint, she spotted her younger brother and two of his classmates strolling across campus.

The memories of her own college tour came flooding back. She’d been sick the day her class was scheduled for their tour, so once she was feeling better, Ethan insisted on showing her around. He had just started his second year and loved every aspect of student life.

“I know you’ll love it here, too,” he’d said. “And just imagine all the fun stuff we get to do together, Mai!”

Of course, they never got the chance to do any of them. Ethan died soon after.

Maisie left her spot to gather some books she needed for her assignment. When she returned, the seat beside hers was occupied by a boy. He greeted her with a dazzling smile that sent a flutter through her belly.

“Ryan,” she said. “I didn’t know you’d be on campus today.”

“I’m meeting with a study group later. May I join you?”

“Y-Yes, sure.” A blush crept into Maisie’s neck and face. She’d known Ryan for months now, and she still got flustered around him.

She plopped down on her chair next to Ryan. He wore his long silver-blond hair tied back into a bun that revealed his pointed ears. Anyone who couldn’t see through a faerie Glamor wouldn’t notice them, but Maisie did. Maisie had noticed a lot of things about Ryan. Like how he often tasted of coffee when they kissed.

Ryan leaned in and brushed one of Maisie’s brown locks behind her ear. “Are you free tonight? I want to take you to a poetry slam downtown. It starts at nine, but I could pick you up at home a bit earlier to have dinner.”

“You know you can’t come by my house. If my mom sees you…” If her mom realized her daughter was sort of dating a Seelie faerie, Maisie would be disowned.

“Yeah, I know,” Ryan said, flopping back into his chair. “I could wait for you at the bus stop?”

“I’d like that.”

Maisie inched closer to place a kiss on Ryan’s cheek. When he turned his face in the last second, pressing his lips to hers, Maisie was so surprised she laughed out loud. Several students glared at her, and she clamped a hand to her mouth.

“I should get back to studying,” Maisie murmured.

Ryan gave her a smile, pulled his laptop from his bag, and started to work on his paper. The first page was barely halfway done, and Maisie knew it was due later today. She couldn’t understand how Ryan was so relaxed even with a big deadline looming over him. His approach to life was way more flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, whereas Maisie’s entire future had been mapped out for her since childhood.

Everything Maisie had ever done had been for the sake of her pack, so that one day she might live up to her mother’s expectations of a good leader. She was expected to train hard and study even harder. When the time would come, she wouldn’t just take on the role of leader. She would also inherit her mother’s martial arts school that had been providing the pack’s sole income for the past two decades. Of course, she would have shared her responsibilities with Ethan.

And everything had gone according to plan—until Ethan had died.

Grief and guilt had been gnawing at her heart ever since. After her brother’s death, a suffocating silence had settled over their pack. No one had talked much, and Jade had refused to eat. Now, three years later, Jade had embraced his solitude. Their mother had grown distant, too, and their father hadn’t visited them even once since he left. Maisie had drowned herself in her studies.

She forced her thoughts back to her current assignment—only to have her focus shattered by a high-pitched screech piercing her ears. All around her, the human students were blissfully unaware of whatever otherworldly threat had entered the campus.

Ryan shot to his feet.

“What are you doing?” Maisie hissed at him, grabbing his arm before he could run off. “We’ve got campus security for that, don’t we?”

“They’re just mortals with the Adder. Even if they can identify what they’re up against, what good does that do? I have to help.” Ryan leaned in for a quick kiss on Maisie’s cheek. “Stay here. You’ll be safe.”

As Maisie watched Ryan hurry toward the stairs, the last words her brother had said to her echoed through her mind. It’s too dangerous, Maisie. Stay home. And she had stayed. She had hidden while her brother had lost his life in an accident that could have been prevented.

Maisie leaped from her seat and left the safety of the library.

The sound was coming from the main squad, where university students were flocking to one building. As they drew closer, Maisie caught snippets of nervous whispers, and someone mentioned a wolf. Her heart pounding in apprehension, Maisie pushed through the crowd.

At the center, they found a mass of writhing shadows, which flailed its misty tentacles. Maisie froze in her tracks. Ryan didn’t hesitate, and with a bellow, he charged the shadows. They dispersed at once, leaving behind the wolf that had been whispered about.

But it wasn’t any wolf. It was her little brother, Jade, lying unconscious by his friend’s feet—and everyone could see him.

---

Chapter Two

Jade had feared his sister would insist on coming with him on his tour, but thankfully, she had classes to attend. There had been enough prying from her end during their commute. Jade didn’t enjoy lying to his sister, but what other choice did he have?

After Ethan’s death, their mother had forbidden them from shifting into their wolf forms. She claimed they needed to focus on their human lives for now, while she would take care of all the dangerous stuff. But Jade was a faoladh, and his wolf form was a part of him. Denying him to shift was like denying him to breathe. It was suffocating, and on some nights, he just couldn’t bear it.

Like last night, when he had snuck out of the house again. He’d gone to Lake Michigan, where he’d raced along the shore as a wolf. He often went running along that spot because fewer people went there after nightfall. Out there, he didn’t even have to bother with a Glamor that would disguise himself as a normal dog. He could run as fast as he liked, and if someone saw him, he’d be too fast for them to ever consider he was anything but an ordinary dog.

Jade couldn’t understand why his mother wanted to take that feeling away from him when he’d already lost so much. He often wondered what his father would say, but they hadn’t spoken in months. That was mostly his mother’s fault, too, because she didn’t want her children to go back to Tír na nÓg, not even to visit their own father. She said it wasn’t safe.

Because of all that, Jade had to keep the truth from his sister sometimes.

Jade approached the university’s main gate, where his class was meeting for their tour. As soon as Vanessa spotted him, she greeted him with a hug, followed by a slap on the shoulder.

“Why do you always have to be the last one, Jade?”

“What? I’m on time, aren’t I?”

“Being early means you’re on time.”

“It really doesn’t.”

Vanessa scowled, and Jade smiled.

“You’re cute when you scrunch up your nose like that,” he said. “Did you change your hair again? I like it!”

Vanessa wore her hair cut to her chin, and though it was naturally brown, she loved to dye strands of it in different colors. The latest color was a deep purple that matched her earrings.

“Isn’t it a fantastic color?” Vanessa said with a big smile.

“Guys, the tour’s about to start.”

Jade glanced at the boy standing behind Vanessa. He hadn’t once smiled in Jade’s presence. He was about as lively as a statue—with the same pale-white complexion and perfect gold-blond hair—and yet all the girls in their class were swooning over him.

Jade loathed the very sight of him. Because Elias wasn’t just another pretty boy; he was a Seelie faerie. When he had appeared at the start of the new school year, Vanessa had taken it upon herself to make him feel welcome. And Jade couldn’t tell Vanessa that he despised Elias and his entire kin because then he’d have to give up his own secret.

“Yes, the tour,” Vanessa said. “I do have some bad news, though. Our class is going to be split up into two groups, and I’m in a different group than you guys. But maybe we can grab some coffee afterward?”

Ugh. Not only did Jade have to suffer through this mandatory college tour, he had to suffer through it with Elias.

“Sounds good,” Elias said, and Jade itched to punch him in the face.

“See you in a bit, then,” Jade said to Vanessa. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before joining his half of the class.

Their tour guide introduced herself to them, but Jade didn’t catch her name. He didn’t plan on paying any attention.

As their guide led them across campus, reciting the words she must have practiced at home, he studied the buildings surrounding them. He’d been here once about five years ago when his father had let him tag along as he dropped off Ethan for his tour. The second time he visited was during Ethan’s freshman year. He never set foot on campus after that.

And yet he knew more about this university than he ever needed to. When his sister was about to graduate High School, she hadn’t been able to shut up about UChicago, but luckily, Maisie’s studies kept her too busy nowadays and she had stopped pestering Jade about university.

What was the point of getting some useless degree when they would both have to lead their pack one day, anyway? And it wasn’t like they had to worry about getting a “normal” job, either.

Their tour guide stopped them outside a building that looked like all the others.

Jade had almost forgotten about Elias when he suddenly spoke.

“What do you think?” he asked. He was standing way too close for comfort.

“Think of what?”

“This.” Elias gestured at their surroundings. “It’s a pretty impressive university, isn’t it? Have you thought about your major?”

“Why do you care?”

With a sigh, Elias tucked his hands into the pockets of his expensive black coat, which he wore unzipped to expose his sleek, burgundy turtle neck. “You could at least pretend to tolerate me,” he said. “For Vanessa’s sake.”

“Don’t act as if you know what’s best for her.”

“She wants us all to get along.”

“Well, we were perfectly fine without you third-wheeling all the time.”

Elias arched an eyebrow. “Are you jealous?”

“Of you? Don’t flatter yourself.”

Jade scoffed and stalked past Elias—he tried to, at least. Elias blocked his path, cutting him off from the group.

“Maybe you’ve always wanted to be more than friends with Vanessa,” Elias said. “But you’re too scared to be honest about your feelings. And now you’re worried Vanessa will start to like me more than you.”

Jade had to bite down on his tongue before he said something stupid. If he pointed out that Vanessa was only interested in Elias because he tricked her with his faerie charm, Jade would give away the fact that he saw Elias’s stupid pointed ears through his Glamor. And consequently, he’d give away his own secret.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Elias crossed his arms before his chest, a smug smile on his lips. So he could smile.

“You’re an idiot,” Jade said. “I’m not even into girls.”

“Ah, I see. So you are into me?”

Ughhh. Jade pushed past Elias and hurried to join the group. He’d rather listen to that girl droning on about how great this university was than endure Elias’s presence for another second.

As he trailed after the rest of his class, he refused to even glance at Elias. Faeries were notorious for the Glamors that they could cast, either to blend in with the humans or to lure them to the faerie realm. Even a drop of a drink offered by a faerie would enchant the human mind, putting the victim into a trance. It was said that any lie would burn a faerie’s tongue, and so they had become masters of deception, twisting the truth the way they saw fit. And even though they no longer ruled the faerie realm, they would always consider themselves an elite. Superior to everyone else.

If Vanessa knew the truth, Jade was sure she’d feel differently about Elias. But the truth was dangerous, and Jade had held on to it for years. He wasn’t going to change that now.

#

After their tour, their class reconvened to split into smaller groups to explore the campus on their own. Of course, Vanessa insisted Elias join them. They grabbed a coffee and sat on the lawn in the main square. Jade watched two squirrels chase each other up a tree while Vanessa studied the pamphlets they’d been given.

“You know,” Jade said, “we can also just walk around and see where it takes us.”

“It’s more efficient if I plan a route first. We don’t have that much time left, and I want to make the most out of it.”

“Nessa, we live in the same city. We can come here whenever we want.”

Vanessa pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’m sure Elias will agree with me, right?”

“To be honest, I haven’t thought much about college.”

“Why not?” Vanessa asked.

“I guess I see no point in it if I don’t even know where I’ll be living in a few years.”

“Oh…” Vanessa leafed through her pamphlet again. “So… you think you’ll be moving back home, then? Back to England?”

“Perhaps.”

Jade eyed Elias. As convincing as his posh British accent could be, Elias couldn’t fool Jade. His actual home wasn’t England. He was a Seelie faerie, and Jade would bet he was born and raised in Tír na nÓg at the Seelie Court.

Vanessa shot to her feet. “Fine. You two might not be interested in university, but I am, and I will have a walk now.”

“Nessa!” Jade called. “I’ll still walk with you!”

He downed his coffee and followed Vanessa. Elias trailed after them like a pesky fly that Jade just couldn’t get rid of.

As Vanessa looked at buildings they had already seen and dragged them into three different libraries, Jade did his best to seem interested. He asked questions he didn’t really want the answer to, but it made Vanessa happy, and he liked to see her smile.

When they stepped out of their third library, the sky was overcast with clouds, and the temperature had cooled down quite a bit.

“I’m going to grab another coffee,” Elias said. “Want some?”

Jade glowered at him in response.

Vanessa jabbed her elbow into Jade’s side, then she flashed a polite smile at Elias. “No, thanks. I’m good. There’s one more building I want to check out.”

“Don’t tell me there’s another library,” Jade said once Elias had left to get his coffee.

“There’s two more, actually.”

Jade groaned. “Why? They all look the same anyway!”

As Vanessa went on a rant about how they were not all the same, Jade’s attention shifted to a building ahead of them. A shadowy figure perched on the roof, inches away from falling. Jade’s heart lurched into his throat. Was that a student about to jump?

Then Jade sniffed the air. The wind carried the usual scent of magic—sweet like a field of flowers with a hint of an oncoming rainstorm—but there was something else. He tasted something charred on the back of his tongue. When he glanced up at the shadowy creature again, it was no longer perched on the roof.

It was hurtling to the ground.

Wings unfurled from the shadowy mass, like a terrifying human-sized bat, and with a screech, it raced straight at them.

Vanessa screamed. Jade pushed her aside, focused his mind just as he’d been taught to, and cast his Glamor to hide what he was about to do.

For some faoladhs, the transformation from human to wolf was agonizing. Bones and tissue reformed, claws broke through the skin, the spine bent to force them on four legs. Jade had never experienced that kind of pain. Whenever he shifted, immense energy rushed through his veins, and his heart pounded in his chest.

Even now, Jade let out a euphoric howl. It was such a rush that he didn’t even care about ripping his clothes.

Jade leaped. He collided with the creature mid-air, buried his teeth into its surprisingly solid shape, and tore it to the ground.

The creature slipped away from him. As it built itself up again, Jade got a good look at what he was facing—and the blood in his veins froze. Swirling shadows shrouded its body, leaving only its skeletal goat’s head exposed.

With a snort, it blew smoke into Jade’s face.

Ethan’s voice rang in his ears, an echo from the past: Jade, run! But fear paralyzed him, locking him into place, just like it had the day Ethan died.

The creature hissed as shadowy tentacles unfurled from its shape and wound around Jade’s torso. Jade thrashed and wriggled, but the more that he moved, the tighter the tentacles constricted.

Someone was calling his name. He thought it was Ethan. He wanted it to be him. Then the voice grew louder, more panicked, and he realized it was Vanessa.

Jade pressed low to the ground and stilled. His aching lungs screamed for air, but he couldn’t fight this creature with raw force. He needed to lull it into a false sense of victory before launching his attack.

But the creature wasn’t fooled. The shadows swirled around him, spinning faster and faster.

Maybe this was a stupid idea. Maybe he was going to be the first person to drown in shadows.

He gasped for air. His lungs filled with smoke, and he coughed. No, he needed to hold on.

Just… a little…longer—

#

Jade woke up with a brain-splitting headache. His throat was so parched that it stung, and as he propped himself on one elbow, a sharp pain cut up his left side. He was also naked.

“Take it easy.”

His sister’s voice. He tilted his head to face Maisie, who was kneeling on the floor in front of his bed. It wasn’t his bed, though, and this was certainly not his room. Was he still on campus?

“You should drink something.” Maisie offered him a glass of water, which he snatched from her and downed in one big swig. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” Jade grumbled. He was about to push off the blanket when he remembered he wasn’t wearing anything. “Where are we?”

“In a dorm room on campus. When I found you in the main square, you’d lost consciousness. I brought you here so that you could shift back in peace. Do you remember what happened?”

Jade slumped back onto the bed and draped an arm across his face, blocking out the too-bright afternoon sun. “Some weird shadow creature attacked. I had to shift.”

“Okay,” Maisie said. “And is there a reason you forgot to cast a Glamor?”

“Forgot…?” Jade peered at his sister again. Her brow was in a deep frown, and she was plucking at the frayed sleeve of her cardigan. “I didn’t forget to cast a Glamor.”

“You sure? Because everyone could see you as a wolf, and Vanessa said she saw you shift.”

Jade shot up in bed. The sheet slid down to his waist, but he didn’t care any longer. “Vanessa saw me shift?! I have to find her.”

Maisie placed a hand on Jade’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Vanessa is still on campus. I asked her to keep an eye on everyone who saw you, and I’ve called Dahlia so that she can alter their memories. Once she’s done, no one will remember what happened, not even Vanessa.”

“But—”

“Please, just rest for now. You were bruised pretty badly by that creature, and I want Dahlia to have a look before you jump out of bed.”

“It isn’t that bad.”

Maisie glanced at his bare chest, and Jade would have felt embarrassed if he hadn’t learned at a young age to be comfortable around his pack even without clothes. He looked down to find several oblong bruises streaking his chest and stomach. Thanks to his fast healing, some had already faded, but the one along his side was still a deep purple.

“Did you see it?” Jade asked. “The thing that attacked?”

“I only caught a glimpse as it fled. It was nothing more than a blur, though. You don’t know what it was?”

“It wasn’t anything I’d seen before,” Jade lied.

The door to the dorm was thrown wide upon, and Maisie leaped to her feet with a shriek. A familiar person stood in the doorway: Dahlia, the local faerie cat.

“My, are you easily startled!” Dahlia said as she waltzed into the room as if she’d been here plenty of times. Soil splattered the apron she wore over a woolen dress, and mud caked her shoes. Her auburn hair was swooped into a messy ponytail, exposing her furry fox ears.

A pitch-black raven fluttered in after her. He circled the room once before settling on top of a drawer, from where he watched Jade with beady eyes.

“Now,” Dahlia said, clapping her hands, “let me have a look at those injuries.”

“Did you already wipe everyone’s minds?” Jade asked.

“I did. Will you please lie down? And do tell me why you failed to cast a Glamor.”

“I didn’t fail.”

“Then what happened? Or are you just that clumsy?”

Jade glared at Dahlia, who flashed him a sharp-toothed smile. While he told her about the creature that had attacked Vanessa, thus forcing him to shift, Dahlia rubbed a foul-smelling ointment all over his torso. She then muttered some spells that wiped away his bruises as if they were just stains on his skin.

When she finished her work, she dried her hands on her apron. “You must have been attacked by a boggart.”

“Aren’t boggarts more like grizzly bears? What I saw was a shadowy creature with wings like a bat’s and a skeletal goat’s head. And it had tentacles, too!”

“What you’re describing doesn’t sound like any creature that I can think of. It seems to me it was a mixture of things, and since some boggarts are capable of transforming into whatever their opponent fears, my guess is that it took some of you and your friend’s fears and combined them.”

“But it looked so much like—” Jade broke off. He glanced at Maisie, who gave him a quizzical look. “Never mind,” Jade mumbled.

“All right, then.” Dahlia rose to her feet and turned to Maisie. “You two should get home and tell your mother what happened. Maybe it was just a one-off incident, but in case it’s not, she needs to be prepared.”

“I’ll let her know,” Maisie said. “Thank you for your help. With everything.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” Dahlia clicked her tongue and her raven soared from the drawer to her shoulder.

Once Dahlia had left, Maisie tossed Jade’s backpack onto the bed.

“Get dressed,” she said. “I’ll wait outside.”

“You’re going to tell Mom that I shifted, aren’t you? And that I failed my Glamor.”

Maisie paused by the door. “She needs to know.”

“Why? All I did was protect my best friend. That’s supposed to be a good thing! Besides, Dahlia wiped everyone’s memory, anyway.”

“That’s not the point, Jade.”

“Why can’t you be on my side for once, huh?”

Maisie held his gaze for a second. Then, with a shake of her head, she headed out of the room.