Lily Dusk spluttered across the horizon, dripping between the trees, the last vestiges of sunlight pooling across the uneven ground. Lily watched her step as she strode through the undergrowth, wary of everything from fallen branches to malevolent creatures lurking in the shadows. Her pack thumped against her back and, exhausted, she drooped against the trunk of the nearest tree. Darkness trailed her, swallowing her whole as she crumpled onto a carpet of moss and twigs. Brushing strands of stray, wavy hair from her face, Lily bit her lip. Uncertainty stole her breath. Had she done the right thing? Though she was well trained in combat, she had never spent a night alone in the woods – let alone tried to make her home there. Yanking her pack to her front, Lily dug through its contents and pulled her canteen free. She had to ration her water intake until

  Unknown He was in the bathroom, deftly sweeping shower-damp, dark hair across the pointed tips of his ears when he felt it. Grey eyes turned to steel, cutting through the mist fogging the mirror. Alongside the steady thumping of his own heart was the beat of another. This was a feeling he had grown used to, one normal, natural, even, for his kind. For two long years, he had learnt to live without that feeling, that echo. Her cruel words had taken its place, pumping through his veins and turning his heart to stone so as to lessen their sting. Until he had seen her eyes in that dappled wilderness, and felt the purity of love’s kiss all over again. This was different. This was not the steady, reassuring beat of her heart alongside his. His gut clenched, and his hands felt too light for his body. His eyes unfocused, until he was no longer able to make out

  Lily Unbidden, her feet were moving, traipsing through the undergrowth bordering a small, treetop town. Ladders were strung between branches, some dangling to brush the ground, others acting as bridges between homes and other, larger buildings. In the dim, dawn light, Lily could not make out quite what they were. Keeping her gaze low and her breath steady, she peered around as discreetly as she could. The eleve – still posing as her father, a fact that made her lungs stumble for air and her gut clench – was dragging her towards a ladder beneath an ornate arch, with a beautiful creature settled on a seat carved of oak tucked beside it. The creature smiled as they neared, its unearthly face shimmering softly in the first rays of fractured sunlight. The light itself did not look entirely real: it fell in curling waves, more like clouds than sunlight, and it was too glos

  Lily She had a plan. “A lifetime in my service?” Efaffion repeated, eyes flickering with an emotion she couldn’t read. Her chest tightened, and the air in her lungs suddenly did not feel like enough. Of course, she had no idea if her plan would work. She didn’t know enough about the eleve to be able to count on it, and she doubted that such a creature – ageless, immortal – would be stupid enough to allow her to trick him. Then again, maybe it was simple enough that it might just work. “Yes,” Lily said, courage failing. The way he watched her was unnerving, as if she were a gift to be unwrapped slowly, layer by layer. Steeling herself, she managed to continue. “But only if I lose.” “And if you win?” “I – I walk out of here alive. And w

    Lily   She was falling.   Not just physically – though she was, indeed, hurtling towards the ground at a sickening pace; something within her was lurching, changing, shifting. She squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to see her body plummet as her heart gave way, too.   Time stretched and warped as the wind whipped her hair behind her, stinging her cheeks and whispering in her ears. A branch smacked her face, and then time sped up. The pain brought tears to her eyes, but she did not let them spill.   She crashed through twigs and pine needles and thorns, feeling them scrape against and then through her skin. Her temple and cheek stung, angry heat pooling in a sharp line down them.   She smacked into the ground. It was like being struck by lightning, like colliding with a star. Every part of her burned, and she lay there for a moment, adrena