Faster. Faster. The voices urged her on. Her body was tired, but her mind was not. Kai had said they were close.

  Then it was there. The spires of a castle rose in the distance. Home. At long last, she had made it home.

  Sterling slowed her horse. “Is that it?” she asked Kai, as the voices chattered at her to keep going.

  She could feel the way he watched her warily while she studied the horizon. He’d been distant with her ever since the incident when she’d bandaged his wounds. It hadn’t been her fault, but she’d allowed it to happen. The voices had taken over, and she hadn’t tried to stop them.

  Before Kai answered, her heels pressed to her horse’s sides, and they were off again—only she hadn’t been the one to issue the order.

  What are you doing, she hissed at the voices. I did not give you control.

  Soon. Soon. The voices chattered over and over, ignoring her. Again, they pressed her horse faster.

  Sterling supposed it didn’t matter. The sooner they arrived, the sooner the city would be hers. Then she could rest. Then she could deal with the voices.

  She told herself this as they flew over the ground, eating up the distance. Her eyes were so focused on drinking in every detail of Nyrene that she almost didn’t notice the small camp that had appeared in front of her.

  “No. Stop,” she said, trying to make her arms pull back on the reins. They would not obey her.

  Faster. Faster.

  If they kept going like this, they would plow right through the camp. They could kill someone. Sterling had done that already, and she had no intention of doing it again.

  No! Sterling wrested back control and yanked her horse to a stop at the edge of the camp.

  Several pairs of wide eyes stared at her, seeming frozen in place. As she scanned the faces, she recognized some of them. There was her sister and Kestrel. And in the back was Papa.

  Leave them. They are of no consequence to you, the voices whispered.

  Kai thundered up next to her. He said something, and the others said something back, but Sterling heard none of it over the voices.

  We must keep going. We must take the city. You will have the throne. You will wear the crown.

  I will greet my friends and family, she told them. The rest can wait. We are here now.

  No more waiting. They are not needed. Go. Go. We must go.

  Around her, conversations continued on. Kai had gotten down from his horse. She wanted off this horse, too. Her legs and butt hurt from so long in the saddle. The voices had somehow masked the pain, but it was leaking through now. She needed rest. She needed time to think.

  Faster. Faster.

  Shut up already. I’ve had enough of you. I will summon you when you are needed. Sterling gave a great mental shove, and the voices went blessedly silent.

  Her body was once again her own.

  Sterling took the chance to greet Papa, who asked after her well-being. She lied and told him she was fine, even though she knew she was far from it. She did not want to worry him. Then she spied Ren.

  So, her sister had found him.

  There were three other elves among the group she did not recognize, though she could guess based on Seraiah’s stories who they might be.

  Sterling slid stiffly from her horse. Her legs almost gave way beneath her. When was the last time they had rested? She couldn’t remember. Kai should have stopped them, but then look at what had happened when he’d shown any sign of resistance.

  Kestrel was by her side in a moment, but everyone else soon followed.

  “Glad to have you back. Allow me to make some introductions,” she said. “You, of course, have already seen your father is here, and you already know Ren. This is Eryx.” Kestrel gestured to the dark-haired elf at her side. This was the elf who Kestrel had been seeking news about.

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  “A pleasure to meet you, my Queen,” he said with a bow.

  Sterling immediately liked him.

  “And this is Wisteria,” Kestrel said, pointing to a girl about Sterling’s own age and height. She dipped a curtsy and didn’t meet Sterling’s eyes.

  Seraiah had told her this girl had acted as a servant during her stay in the castle, and she had stayed behind while she and Kestrel escaped.

  “And last, we have Virelai.”

  The auburn-haired elf studied her with cool eyes. She neither bowed nor curtsied. Sterling couldn’t recall Seraiah ever speaking of her, but she must be someone of higher rank if she wasn’t showing deference.

  While Kestrel had been making the introductions, Sterling noticed Kai and Seraiah had slipped away.

  Most likely to discuss her, she thought. She wondered if Kai would tell her sister about the man she’d murdered or how they were now wanted by King Berenger and couldn’t return the human lands. Would Seraiah be disappointed in her?

  They don’t matter, the voices whispered. None of them matter. They are nothing, and you are a queen.

  I thought I told you to go away.

  “Sterling?” Ren said.

  Everyone was watching her. She realized Ren must have asked her a question and was waiting for an answer. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long journey. What did you say?”

  “I asked you how your magic was coming. Are you all-powerful yet?”

  The way he said it made her want to believe he was teasing.

  He’s jealous, the voices whispered.

  Sterling ignored them. “What do you mean? I’ve always been all-powerful. Isn’t that why you kidnapped me?” She matched his teasing tone.

  The others in the group were eyeing him now.

  “It was you?” Papa asked.

  “Ah, well. Not quite.” Ren held up his hands, gloved as usual. “It’s kind of a long story.”

  Kestrel cleared her throat. “This has been quite the exciting night for everyone. Perhaps we should all get some rest before the sun comes up.”

  There were murmurings from the group.

  “Unless someone has a better idea?”

  We must take the city. It is time.

  Her body moved without her telling it to.

  “Sterling, where are you—”

  A cry cut off the rest of whatever Kestrel had meant to say as two newcomers joined their group.

  “There’s more,” Kai said.

  “More?” As Seraiah had told him about her plan to keep Sterling from taking her throne, Kai had grown more and more agitated. She’d thought it was because of what Kestrel said about Kai wanting a sister and not seeing the monster.

  But she was wrong.

  Seraiah listened with growing horror as he’d explained how her sister had murdered someone in Daralis and everything that had come after. It was worse than she’d expected. So much worse.

  “There has to be something we can do. I have to talk to her,” Seraiah said. “She knows me better than she knows you. Maybe I can get through to her.” Even as she was speaking, she knew it was likely a lost cause. Sterling may know her, but the thing using her body as a puppet did not. “I can try to convince—”

  A cry cut through the air.

  Seraiah whirled, afraid Sterling had done something to one of her friends.

  Gavaran and two elves had appeared in the middle of the group as if out of thin air, and one of them seemed to have taken hold of Virelai. He held a knife pressed to her throat. To Seraiah's relief, everyone else, including Sterling, was untouched.

  "What did I tell you, Virelai?" Gavaran was saying when Seraiah and Kai reached them. He glanced at them, but otherwise didn't acknowledge their presence. "Did you think I wouldn't realize you would try to escape?" He went on talking to his daughter as though the rest of them weren't there.

  The elf holding Virelai chuckled and pressed the knife closer. "It was so easy to follow you when you never realized I was there."

  An expression of defeat seemed to come over Virelai at his words, and she sagged in his arms, not even putting up a fight.

  "Come along, daughter. Let's get you back to where you belong. Harloth will be looking for his bride."

  It took Seraiah a moment to figure out how she knew that name. Harloth was one of the council members—one of the old council members. She may not have liked Virelai, but she did not deserve such a fate.

  Sterling moved closer to them, her movements jerky as though she were fighting with herself. “It’s you,” she hissed, her voice sounding unlike her. “You’re the one who took my throne.”

  Seraiah pushed through the others, squeezing in between Ren and Sterling.

  Gavaran stared down his nose at her sister. “Do you want it back?”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Seraiah whispered frantically to Sterling.

  “The crown is mine, and I will have it.”

  Something like a wall slammed into Seraiah as she tried to reach for Sterling. Her eyes had gone dark with shadows.

  “No, Sterling. Please. You have to fight it.”

  “It’s mine.”

  This was not how Seraiah had wanted to have this conversation, but Gavaran’s appearance left her no choice.

  “Please, Sterling. You have to believe me. If you take the throne, things will only get worse. I don’t have time to explain now, but I promise I will. Please, fight it. Walk away from this.”

  Sterling’s body jerked again, and she lurched toward Gavaran. If he saw the shadows in her eyes, he didn’t appear afraid of them.

  “You don’t have to fight this alone. We can find a way to fix things. Together.”

  Behind Gavaran, the gates of Nyrene stood open, and elves were pouring out of the city.

  “Come with me,” Gavaran said, holding out his hand to Sterling, “and you shall have your throne.”

  Seraiah glanced around desperately for help, but her friends all appeared to be frozen. The elves looked to be fighting against the magic, but they were losing.

  “Please, Sterling. Don’t do this.” Seraiah pounded her fists on the invisible wall between them.

  “I will join you,” Sterling said. “I will take back what is mine.”

  A smile of victory spread across Gavaran’s face, and he motioned for the other elf to let go of Virelai.

  “Excellent, my dear. I think that is a fine plan. Come.”

  Sterling took a few steps forward and placed her hand in his.

  Seraiah had been so na?ve to think she could stop this. Now, she could do nothing but watch.

  A tremble ran through the ground, and then the soil pushed up beneath Gavaran and Sterling to create a platform. Once it had stopped moving, Gavaran lifted Sterling’s hand in the air.

  “Your Queen has returned,” he announced to the waiting elves. “Long may she reign.”

  The crowd chanted back, “Long live the Queen.”

  End of Book 2