In the dim light of the hall, Maescia’s pale green hair looked almost silver, and for a second, Seraiah saw Sterling in front of her instead of the faery. She blinked, and it was once again Maescia, beckoning for her to follow. Seraiah shook her head and hurried after her.

  It was not the madness. She must be tired because the visions were not a true sleep. It might be beneficial to get a full night of sleep before trying again, but Seraiah wasn’t sure she could spare the time. Sterling—and the shadow creature—could be wreaking havoc even now.

  No, there was no time for rest. Seraiah picked up her pace.

  After Maescia had told Seraiah she would take her to the King, she’d told Wisteria and Kai that they were not invited.

  “The seer only. The seer only,” she’d singsonged as she’d skipped away from the door.

  Kai had given her a worried look, but Seraiah had only shrugged. “I’ll be back soon and will tell you everything anyway. Try not to fall asleep while you wait for me.” Then she’d left Kai and Wisteria standing in her room to chase after the faery girl.

  She hoped she was right, and there wasn’t another, more nefarious reason the Summer King only wanted to see her.

  A flash of movement from the corner of her eye distracted Seraiah from her thoughts. She turned her head and spotted a small figure shrinking back into the shadows along the wall. She was about to dismiss it as another faery going about their business, when the figure moved, revealing its face to the light.

  Seraiah stopped in the middle of the hallway. Maescia didn’t notice as she skipped along, singing her seer only song.

  “Lonan.”

  The fletching of the arrow driven through his chest was barely visible as he slid along the wall.

  “What are you doing here?” Seraiah whispered. She took a step toward the shadows, and Lonan retreated.

  “Are you talking to someone?” Maescia asked, coming up beside her. She must have figured out Seraiah had stopped following and come back to see why.

  Lonan was still there, silently staring at them, but Maescia didn’t give any hint that she could see him too.

  Because it is all in your head. This is the madness.

  A wave of cold fear washed over her. She’d thought the madness hadn’t progressed because she hadn’t seen Lonan in her vision, but she’d been wrong. This was the first time she’d ever seen him outside of a dream, and it couldn’t mean anything good.

  How many more visions would it take before she could no longer distinguish between what was real and what was made up?

  Maescia bounced from foot to foot at her side, still waiting for an answer.

  “No. No, I was only speaking to myself,” she said. “I thought maybe I had seen something, but it was only a trick of the light.”

  “Tricky, tricky,” Maescia said, offering a razor-sharp grin. “Light can lie, and shadow can show the truth. We must go. We must not keep the King waiting. Come, come.” She took Seraiah’s arm, tugging her down the hall and away from dead Lonan still lurking in the shadows.

  Maescia led Seraiah back to the abandoned-looking houses where she and Kai had dinner with the Summer King the previous time she’d informed him of her vision. The houses were located in a cluster of similar buildings in disrepair on the outer edges of the Court. She remembered seeing them on her very first visit to the Court and thinking they were creepy. She’d assumed they weren’t used for anything, but apparently she’d been wrong. It seemed strange that this was where the Summer King would make his home, instead of somewhere more central to the Court.

  “This one,” Maescia said, leading her to one of the more run-down looking houses. It could have been the same one as last time, or it might have been different. If asked, Seraiah wouldn’t have been able to say. This house’s roof was mostly gone, none of the windows were intact, and the front door appeared to be hanging on by one hinge.

  “Are you sure it’s this one?” Seraiah asked as Maescia reached for the knob. She was afraid that if the faery pulled the door open, the entire structure would collapse.

  “Where else would my King be?” Maescia tugged on the door, and it swung open as if it had two functioning hinges. For a second, Seraiah questioned whether this was another sign of the madness. That door couldn’t possibly work like that.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “In you go,” Maescia said.

  Seraiah stepped hesitantly over the threshold and found herself in a lushly furnished sitting room.

  A faery trick. It had to be. There was no other explanation.

  "Welcome, welcome," the Summer King greeted her. He didn't bother to rise from his seat on a throne that looked remarkably similar to the one in the courtyard.

  “Is this . . . real?” Seraiah asked, running her fingers over a divan that appeared to be upholstered in red velvet. It felt soft and luxurious against her skin.

  “Have a seat and see for yourself,” the Summer King said. He gestured for Maescia to leave, and she scurried out the door, which from this side appeared to have two functioning hinges, as it should.

  Seraiah settled herself on the divan, and it didn’t disappear beneath her.

  “So is it real?” The Summer King watched her run her fingers back and forth across the rich fabric.

  “I think so, but then does that mean the outside isn’t real? The house looks like it could fall to pieces from out there, but in here . . .” she trailed off, looking around at the walls adorned with paintings of nature scenes. She hadn’t noticed any of this on her first visit. Then again, she still wasn’t convinced this was the same house, and she doubted the Summer King would tell her if she asked.

  Seraiah’s eyes caught on one of the paintings showing a storm rolling in over the ocean. It reminded her of the night she and Kestrel had spent in a cave after fleeing Nyrene. She could almost see the crack in the rock face where the cave would be.

  It bothered her that she couldn’t decide if this was a faery trick or the madness.

  "I do hope you have brought me news," the Summer King said, changing the topic.

  “I have,” Seraiah said, pulling her eyes away from the painting.

  The Summer King slung a leg over the left arm of the throne and reclined his head, gesturing for her to go on.

  "I saw Sterling again, but as with last time, I wasn't able to make contact." Her eyes strayed back to the painting again.

  "Unfortunate."

  “Yes, well, my sister was in a meeting with someone else. I don’t think it would have been a good thing to interrupt.” The little whitecap waves almost looked like they were moving, but that couldn’t be. This must be the madness again, she decided.

  The Summer King dropped his leg back to the floor and rested his elbows on his knees. “Someone I might know, perhaps?”

  “Yes. Sterling met with your sister. In person.”

  His brow furrowed. “She went to the Winter Court?”

  Seraiah shook her head. “The Winter Queen came to her.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, that’s why I didn’t dare reveal myself. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if she knew I was watching.”

  “Oh, she likely knew anyway. Do you know how she got there? It couldn’t have been a summoning spell. What did they speak of?”

  “There are summoning spells?”

  “Mmm, yes. Mages use them, I believe, but as I said, never work. Or perhaps they do sometimes, or they wouldn’t bother with them. But as I said, I don’t think even the elven queen could summon my sister.”

  "When the vision started, your sister was already there, so I'm not sure what Sterling used, if anything. There was a bowl on the table with liquid in it.”

  "Ah, a scrying bowl. It would allow communication but not travel. It must have been a transportation potion then. She would have been able to see the room the elven queen was in thanks to the scrying bowl, and that would be enough to use the potion.”

  The same potion the Summer King had given her when he’d sent her on a quest for a nonexistent golden dragon scale, and then she and Kestrel had used them to escape the Unseelie Court and return to Ren’s cabin. It required the user to picture their destination; otherwise, they could end up anywhere, like she had on the dragon scale quest.

  “You know,” the Summer King said absently, “your elf prince was just here asking to make a deal for the same potion.”

  “What?” Kai hadn’t mentioned any such thing to her. Sure, he had talked about leaving the Seelie Court and speaking directly to Sterling instead, but he’d suggested using the same hole in the wall that the others had used to escape Nyrene.

  “Oh, don’t look so worried. I assumed it was something for you. We did not, however, come to an agreement, but perhaps in the future, something might be arranged.”

  They hadn’t asked for a potion of transportation to avoid whatever the Summer King might ask for in return, and now Kai had gone on his own, seeking the potions, anyway? She was going to have a word with him after this meeting was over.

  “Back to your vision,” the Summer King said. “What did your sister and mine discuss?”

  Seraiah relayed the part of the conversation she had heard.

  “Hmm, so you didn’t learn anything important then,” he said when she finished. “If there is to be another meeting, as my sister suggested, you must be there. We might learn something of her plans then.”

  “I can’t control exactly what the vision will show me. I can focus it on a person, but I don’t know how I would be able to ensure I’m at the meeting, especially when neither of them said when the meeting would take place.”

  “I suppose you’ll just have to keep trying then until you get it right,” the Summer King said.

  But she’d promised Kai this would be the last time. She couldn’t keep trying.

  “If I need to leave the Court, would you still give me potions to see the meeting?” she asked. It was worth a try.

  “That was not our deal. You were to remain here and report to me.”

  Seraiah thought fast. “Yes, but I could still report to you if we could do the scrying thing like Sterling did.”

  The Summer King tapped a finger against his lips.

  “Or I could contact you through a vision. I can focus them on certain subjects and communicate with them. You said your sister would know I was in the room when I was in a vision, so that means you would be able to tell as well, right?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Of course I could.”

  As she’d suspected, the Summer King would not let his sister be better at something than he was.

  “Then I would not need to be here physically to report to you, and as you said, you weren’t going to keep me like a pet as your sister wanted to do.”

  “Fine.” The Summer King flicked a hand at her. “We will change the terms of the deal. I’ll have the potion delivered to your room, but it may take a few days to procure enough. Would a dozen suffice?”

  Seraiah nodded. It sounded like more than enough.

  “Good. Then you may go.”