Cold. Everything was cold. And why was she on the ground?

  Sterling blinked to clear the film from her vision and lifted her head. She was no longer in her room in Nyrene.

  People had gathered around her, forming a circle. Every single one of them was beautiful, with perfectly symmetrical features. None of them spoke as they stared at her.

  She was about to ask them where she was when they parted, letting a familiar face through the crowd.

  “Welcome, Sterling. I’m happy to see you’ve accepted my invitation. Sorry for not warning you about the potion’s aftereffects. It should wear off in a few minutes. You get used to it with regular use, but I suppose that’s not something you would want to do.” The Winter Queen smiled at Sterling and snapped her fingers. Two of the faeries gathered around her stepped forward and lifted Sterling to her feet. They remained by her side as a wave of dizziness made the world sway around her. She was still trying to wrap her head around the Winter Queen’s words, searching for some hidden meaning. Was it meant to be a warning about visiting the Unseelie Court or perhaps only about the use of the potions themselves? Sterling couldn’t be sure, and the more she tried to figure it out , the more her head ached.

  “The rest of you return to what you were doing,” the Winter Queen ordered.

  The crowd dispersed like ice dropped into boiling water, giving Sterling her first look at the room where she’d landed. She’d only remembered the Winter Queen’s words about picturing either her or the room Sterling had seen in the scrying bowl after she’d swallowed the potion. In her panic, she’d been unable to recall the details of the room and so had changed to picturing the Queen instead. That must have been what brought her here since she recognized nothing in the room except for the fae queen.

  From her quick glance around, it appeared she stood in a receiving hall. Everything was some shade of blue or silver except for the throne, which appeared to be carved from a block of ice. Thin spikes like inverted icicles rose from the back of it. On either side of the ice throne sat two large creatures that weren’t quite dogs but weren’t bears either. They also had a strange sort of human quality about them—like they might be more intelligent than normal beasts.

  “It is impolite to stare,” one of the creatures said.

  Sterling blinked. She hadn’t been expecting it to talk.

  “Don’t mind them,” the Winter Queen said, waving a hand as if to shoo them away. “Let me give you a tour of my Court. Come.”

  The two faeries supporting her stepped away, and the Winter Queen took her arm. Sterling could feel the cold from the Queen’s fingers seeping in through her sleeve.

  “This is obviously my throne room where I receive visitors.” The faery gestured to the ice throne. “Nothing terribly exciting. Let’s take a walk outside.”

  The Winter Queen led her out of a pair of double doors and into a hallway adorned with wall hangings. She kept going, heading for another set of double doors. These ones led to an outdoor courtyard covered in snow. Pathways crisscrossed the space between large ice sculptures. The sculpture closest to them was carved into the shape of a tree, including tiny leaves.

  “This is one of the many gardens scattered around my court. Some are larger than this and others smaller. They tend to be a favorite place for our guests to spend time.”

  Sterling didn’t know how she could call this place a garden. There wasn’t a single growing thing in sight. Ice trees did not count as real plants.

  “What do you think?”

  “What do I think?” Sterling repeated. She couldn’t tell the Queen she hated everything about it. The constant snow. The cold. The lack of greenery. None of it appealed to her.

  “Yes. Do you think you would like to spend time in my garden? It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “It reminds me of—” Sterling stopped before she could say home. Ratha was not her home. That was Nyrene. “It reminds me of the place where I lived in the human world,” she finally said.

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  “Yes, yes, it would, wouldn’t it?”

  At Sterling’s confused look, the Winter Queen added, “I may have done some redecorating there. My beasts rather enjoyed it.”

  Her beasts.

  Sterling recalled the rumors of a creature in the woods outside of Ratha that was eating people and leaving nothing but pieces behind. Oh, gods. It was those things she’d seen in the throne room. And the snow. The endless snow they’d all suffered under. That had been the Winter Queen as well.

  “Why?” Sterling asked. “Why did you do it?” She should have left it alone. It wasn’t any of her business. She was the queen of Nyrene now. Not a girl barely scraping by in a world wrapped forever in winter.

  “As I said, it is beautiful. What other reason could there be?” The Winter Queen smiled at her, but her eyes remained icy chips.

  If she had a real reason, it seemed the fae queen wasn’t going to bother divulging it to her.

  “Come. Let’s continue on.”

  The Winter Queen swept Sterling out of the garden and back inside the building, leading her around to room after room. She saw dining halls, libraries, and guest rooms. Every possible room one could ever need, and more ice gardens as well. Some of the gardens even had themes, but all of them were covered in snow.

  “It should be almost time for the midday meal,” the Winter Queen said as they walked down another hallway. Sterling had long ago given up trying to remember where they were in relation to the throne room. It felt like they’d gone in circles, but she couldn’t be sure. “You will have to join me before you return to Nyrene.”

  Sterling started to protest. Iris or one of the other servants would notice if she wasn’t there for her midday meal. They likely had already noticed she was missing. She wondered what they would think, coming in to find her breakfast tray largely untouched and an empty vial on the floor. Would they run straight to Gavaran? Not that it would matter. It was clear that Gavaran feared the Winter Queen if their meeting was anything to go on.

  Something caught Sterling’s eye, and she forgot all about the servants and Gavaran. Coming toward them were two faeries with a human woman between them. Sterling only knew she was human because she didn’t have the same perfect features as the other two. There was also something familiar about her. The way she carried herself reminded Sterling of someone, but she couldn’t think of who.

  The woman stared straight ahead with a vacant-eyed stare, seeming not to see them. The two faeries bowed to their Queen as they passed and continued down the hall. They didn’t make it far before the human woman let out a blood-curdling shriek. Sterling whirled around just as the woman tried to launch herself at her. She fell short of her target, and her faery companions were quick to get her back under control.

  The Winter Queen watched the entire scene with no expression, as if this happened frequently.

  “What was that? Who is that woman?” Sterling asked after the trio had rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

  “Oh, that was our seer. You know how they can be.”

  Sterling’s heart lurched. “A seer, you said? I’m not sure I know what you mean about how they can be.”

  “Oh, you know.” The Winter Queen lifted one thin shoulder and let it fall. “The side effect of their visions is that they can go a bit mad. One too many trips to the future with the help of our potions, and they start to see things that are not there.” The Winter Queen sighed. “Eventually, their mind snaps, and then they have to be replaced. Humans are so fragile, you know.”

  Sterling quickly arranged her face into a neutral expression. “Oh right. That. I thought perhaps there might be something else.”

  Inside, her mind was racing. Was this the fate that awaited Seraiah? She’d used a faery potion in order to find her in the Cave of Faces. Did she already know what would happen? Not that Sterling could warn her. She had no idea where her sister might be. The voices had pushed everyone close to her away.

  Then another thought occurred to Sterling. During her time with the mages, they’d given her potions, and it wasn’t until then that she’d started hearing the voices. Did that mean the potions had caused the shadow creature inside of her? Seraiah also had a black mark on her neck, but she’d been sure Ren had left it on her. Sterling’s head throbbed again, and she rubbed at the bridge of her nose. She’d just used a faery potion in order to get here. Would it make the voices stronger somehow? They’d been silent this entire time, but that didn’t mean anything.

  “Is everything all right?” The Winter Queen asked.

  “Do all faery potions have these side effects?”

  “Nothing is ever free.”

  It wasn’t quite an answer.

  She decided to try a more direct route. “You made the one the mages were feeding to me, didn’t you?”

  The Winter Queen dipped her chin in acknowledgment, seeming amused by Sterling’s agitation.

  “And what was the cost of that one?”

  The Winter Queen smiled, stepping closer to her. “Oh, my darling,” she said, reaching out and stroking Sterling’s cheek. Sterling swore she left ice crystals wherever she touched. “That potion was nothing more than water colored with star berries. A distraction, if you will.”

  Sterling thought back to the potion. Unlike the flavorless transportation potion she’d taken that morning, the one the mages had given had always been slightly sweet.

  “Then what did you do to me?” It was as close as she could get to revealing the voices she heard.

  The Winter Queen dropped her hand and gave her another indecipherable smile. “Nothing yet, but there is still time.”