The world certainly didn’t feel like it was on the brink of the End of All Things when we left the Briars and returned to the wyldwood. Everything looked and felt normal; from the piskies that dropped pine cones on my head as they zipped by in the trees, to the large redcap motley that tried ambushing us near the border...until they realized we had the Iron Queen in our party and became very sniveling very quickly.
I myself was feeling rather cheerful, back to my old Puckish self. My horns were gone, and my bottom half didn’t look like I’d done terrible things to a goat. We had just defeated the big bad threatening the Nevernever, I had survived, and all of my friends were alive and well. Best scenario I could’ve hoped for.
But most of all, my senses were still buzzing from the kiss of a certain Forgotten. I could feel her beside me, an elegant, funny, dangerous, beautiful shadow, and holy balls I was in deep, wasn’t I? I hadn’t felt this way since...well, since a half-human princess had broken my heart all those years ago.
Would Nyx do the same, I wondered? Was I in even more danger now? Because not only could she crush my tender feelings, she could also very easily slice my throat from behind, and I’d never see it coming. I didn’t know, but at the moment, I was willing to take that chance. After all, my name was Robin Goodfellow. Flirting with danger was something I was very familiar with.
But even though I was feeling rather optimistic about my life in general, a shadow lingered over my thoughts. The Monster was just a fragment of something bigger, the nameless Forgotten had said, a thread of a consciousness just starting to wake up.
How much bigger, I wondered. Were we talking mountain giant, ancient dragon, or Godzilla? Or something even bigger than that? I remembered the grove of the Mother Tree, how Meghan had recoiled when she’d followed the roots down into the earth. Was that our big nasty? A darkness sleeping under the Nevernever, slowly corrupting everything it touched?
I shivered. Well, whatever it was, when it did decide to wake up and claw its way to the surface, bent on chaos and destruction, it would find all of us waiting for it. I gazed around at the people walking back with me: Meghan and Ash, Nyx, Coaleater, and Grimalkin. We wouldn’t stand by and do nothing, even in the face of prophecy. When the time came, futile or not, we would fight with everything we had. And just like today, if we stood together, we might just turn that prophecy on its head and win.
That was my plan, anyway.
At the edge of the Iron Kingdom’s border, a carriage stood, apparently waiting to take the rulers of Iron back to Mag Tuiredh. Turning, the Iron Queen gave us all a weary smile.
“I must return to the city,” she said, with the tired relief of a queen who knew her people were safe, at least for the moment. “We accomplished what we came to do, which was to kill the threat to the Nevernever and Faery. But I fear this isn’t the end of it. Something is coming. Both the oracle and the Forgotten mentioned it.”
“Evenfall.”
The word came from Grimalkin, and I felt a chill run from the top of my spine all the way to my nonhairy feet. “The onset of evening,” the cat went on. “The coming of dusk. When everything falls to twilight. I have not heard this prophecy before, which means it is either very new, or older than the Nevernever. I do not like the implications of either.”
“Whatever it means,” Meghan continued, “something is coming. And I want us to be ready for it when it finally appears. That means we need to warn the other courts of what we saw tonight. Puck,” she went on, glancing at me, “I need you to go back to Arcadia. Let Oberon know what is happening. Ash will do the same with Mab. Coaleater, return to the plains and inform Spikerail of what is going on. Let him know that I might need to call on the Iron herd before this is all over.”
“I will, Iron Queen.” The Iron faery straightened and put his fist over his heart. “The Iron herd will stand ready to aid you whenever you need us.”
Meghan nodded, then glanced at the Forgotten beside me. “Nyx...”
Nyx gave a solemn bow. “I will return to the Between and tell Keirran what has happened here, Your Majesty,” she said. Raising her head, she gave the Iron Queen an understanding look. “And whatever else you wish to tell him.”
I stifled a sigh. Yeah, I knew that had to happen, but it was still mildly annoying. Now, instead of relaxing and traveling the Nevernever in the company of a beautiful assassin, I was going to have to deal with this newest problem. Stupid End of the World prophecies, always popping up at the most inconvenient times.
Meghan smiled, but at that moment, movement near the border caught my attention. A trio of figures slipped around the carriage and came striding toward us, the sunlight flashing off their metal armor. I saw flickers of purple lightning and saw that Glitch was in front, his face intense as he walked straight for Meghan.
“Your Majesty!”
Meghan turned as the first lieutenant bowed and the two knights went down on a knee before her and Ash. “Glitch,” Ash acknowledged. “What’s wrong? Why are you here, away from Mag Tuiredh?”
“Your Highnesses.” Glitch rose, his expression grave and his already pale face nearly white. In that moment, a chill went through my stomach. I knew, somehow, that whatever news the first lieutenant had to deliver was not going to be good.
“I’m sorry, my queen,” Glitch said into the sudden tense silence. “But we received a message today...from the Between. Touchstone, the capital of the Forgotten, is no more. Prince Keirran, King of the Forgotten, has vanished.”
We hope you enjoyed this journey into the
magical and perilous world of Faery!
Look for book 2 of The Iron Fey: Evenfall trilogy,
The Iron Sword.
Only from Julie Kagawa and Inkyard Press!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa.