CHAPTER THIRTY
ONE YEAR LATER
Condensation rolled down the plastic sides of my iced coffee.
It rested beside me, all but forgotten as I frowned at a textbook splayed open on the table.
I held a highlighter in my other hand, and I fidgeted with it absently, my lips twisted in concentration as I clicked the cap on, off, on, off.
A dry breeze stirred the end of my ponytail.
Moments later, I briefly raised my eyes from the page, distracted by the trilling sound of a cyclist ringing their bell as they passed.
After the bike was gone, I allowed myself a temporary reprieve, my gaze lingering on the street.
I sat at one of the tables along the sidewalk, and all the windows and doors to the cafe were open behind me, allowing the sounds and smells to come through.
Clinking dishes, the hiss and spit of the espresso machine, music crackling from the speakers.
Contentment rested in my chest, a small, comforting weight that I was still getting used to.
There was a lot I was still getting used to, despite all the months that had passed since coming here.
It was a year ago today, I realized with soft surprise.
I stared out at the street without really seeing it now, my mind wandering.
It was a year ago today that I’d gotten in my car and driven into the horizon, leaving everything familiar behind.
And even though I missed so much about that old life, all the change was easier than I’d thought it would be.
I liked Tucson. I liked the heat, and the sunlight, and the endless blue skies.
And I liked the strange, new person I’d become.
If anyone in the world of Fallen came looking for me, this was all they’d see—a girl.
A quiet, pretty girl who went for jogs every morning and attended classes every afternoon.
A girl who worked at a bar part-time. A girl who seemed to have many unique-looking friends, like a pale man with bleached hair or a boy with horns growing from his head—Seth no longer wore his glamour.
A girl who didn’t laugh or smile very often, but when she did, it was genuine.
I wore that faint smile now as I finally refocused on the textbook.
I’d just skimmed the first sentence when a shadow fell across the page.
A moment later, chair legs screeched over concrete as someone pulled out the other seat, then sat in it.
I lifted my head again, annoyance dimming my good mood.
I opened my mouth to tell the bold stranger to get lost.
When I saw who was sitting there, the sharp words on my tongue faded. It felt like the ground had dropped out from underneath me, and my stomach hollowed out in shock.
“Nym?” I breathed.
He smiled, a breeze stirring his dark bangs. “Hello, my lady.”
A million reactions rushed through me. Disbelief, joy, hope.
Such wild, wild hope. Nym was alive. I kept staring at him—this was a version of my friend I’d never seen before.
He was still slender, but there was none of the gauntness that had clung to him before.
The constant haze in his eyes was gone, too, and Nym looked back at me with a clear, steady gaze that was almost unnerving.
He wore the clothes of a faerie courtier, and every button on his brocade vest was neatly done. He was even wearing shoes.
A second after that, it felt like my mind thawed. I’d been frozen there, gaping, but now I launched across the table and hugged him.
Nym made a soft, startled sound. He raised his arms slowly, and then I felt his hands rest on my back, the touch light as butterflies.
The street behind him blurred as tears sprang to my eyes.
I blinked rapidly, and I made sure I’d cleared them away before I settled back in my chair.
Nym watched me, probably waiting for me to ask one of the thousands of questions racing through my head.
We both knew what the first one would be.
“How?” I said finally.
He gave me another smile, but this one was sadder. “I have not come back to life, my lady. I’m merely breaking a rule or two.”
It took me a couple seconds to realize what he meant. The hope in my chest shriveled like a dying flower, and in some small, awful way, it felt like I’d lost him all over again. “You’re from the past?” I asked.
“That is correct, my lady.”
Something else occurred to me, and panic surged through my veins. “Doesn’t it cost you to Timewalk? Even one visit can affect your sanity.”
“I’ve come to tell you something,” Nym said. He spoke so firmly that my protests faded. He rested his hands atop his knees, which were primly crossed, and I was struck anew at this strange version of the chaotic faerie I’d known.
“Okay,” I said with a touch of apprehension. I realized I’d dropped my highlighter on the table, and I put the cap back on, knowing my studying was officially done for the day. “What is it?”
There was a softness in the way Nym looked at me then, as if he was memorizing this moment, too. “Collith Sylvyre did not accept the crown,” he answered.
“What? Are you serious?” I stared at him again. My mind raced, thundering with wild questions, and my heart became a herd of horses in my chest. Collith wasn’t the king? Why hadn’t he told me? What had he been doing all this time if he wasn’t ruling the Unseelie Court?
But I hadn’t heard a thing from Collith since I’d left the coronation. Not even a text. Same with Laurie.
I started to consider whether their silence indicated they just hadn’t wanted to talk to me, but almost immediately, I dismissed that fear.
I knew better now. I knew the depths of how much Collith and Laurie loved me, because I felt the same for them.
It had no limits. Not death, not distance, not time.
They’d only stayed away because they thought it was what I wanted.
My thoughts came to a screeching halt when I realized I hadn’t asked the most obvious question of all. I refocused on Nym and leaned forward, my voice low with urgency. “Wait. Who rules the Unseelie Court, then?”
This was the part Nym had been waiting for—his arm moved. A moment later, he set a picture down on the table and said, “All hail Her Majesty Queen Lyari of the Unseelie Court. Long may she reign.”
My gaze latched onto the image, and I stared down at it for several seconds. I touched Lyari’s solemn face with the barest brush of my fingertips. She sat on that twisted, gnarled throne, the crown resting on her head. “No fucking way,” I breathed.
“Collith Sylvyre was the one who suggested it,” Nym said, nodding. “He told the entire Court he’d never seen a fiercer warrior or a better protector. Then he walked over to Lyari and put the crown in her hands.”
I absorbed this with another awed silence, still unable to take my eyes off the picture. The first goblin queen in Fallen history. The first Paynore.
The fact this photograph existed spoke volumes—Lyari hadn’t just broken the rules she’d once lived and breathed by, she’d tossed the rulebook out altogether. I touched her face again and shook my head wonderingly. My voice was soft. “Well, I’ll be damned. Good for her.”
“It seems the Unseelie Queen is not the only one who deserves congratulations,” Nym commented. As he spoke, the faerie’s eyes flicked toward my textbook.
I smiled. “Thanks. I’m not sure it’s something worth congratulating, or at least not yet. I just finished my first semester at the University of Phoenix. Pre-med. I still have a long way to go.”
“Going to be a doctor, then?”
“Veterinarian, actually.” My smile grew as I said it.
A car passed with all the windows down, music blasting through the hot afternoon. Once the noise had faded Nym asked, “Why Arizona?”
“Because of someone I used to know.” I propped my chin on the heel of my hand, thinking of the man who had been so kind to me.
“His name was Fred. I grew up listening to him talk about it. ‘When I get to Phoenix’ this and ‘Thank God I’ll be living in the desert’ that.
I guess it was always at the back of my head, and that day I got in my car, it just … came out.”
Nym smiled at whatever he saw in my expression.
He’d never looked at me that way before, and I found myself wishing I’d gotten the chance to know this person more.
It was a strange thrill, meeting Nym’s gaze and knowing he was actually looking back at me.
Seeing me. It was addictive to hear his voice without any of the pain or the confusion it had always carried before.
But I loved the Nym that I’d known, too. Along with the rest of my Shadow Court, no matter how much had changed since the last time we’d all been together. My eyes dropped back to the picture.
“I still can’t get over the news about Lyari.” I shook my head again. “It works, though. It fits. She’ll make a good queen.”
“They added her to the mural. Viessa, as well. Our historians are calling it the Year of Three Queens,” Nym told me.
“They always were so original with naming things,” I remarked dryly. My voice went soft again. “Still. I think I’d like to see that sometime.”
The prospect of going back didn’t disturb me like it used to.
In the dirt passageways of the Unseelie Court, I’d experienced fear and pain, yes.
But it was also the place I’d met Nym and had become friends with Viessa.
It was where I had started to fall in love with Collith.
It was where I’d made love to Laurie for the first time.
“I am certain Her Majesty would welcome you back,” Nym said.
But he wouldn’t be there, I remembered with a pang. I refocused on the faerie sitting across from me, wishing some things could be different, no matter how content I might’ve been with how it had all turned out. “I’m sorry about what happened to you, Nym. I’m so sorry.”