Glen and I stood up in unison at the queen's order, and to my complete astonishment, he didn't even tremble before the overpowering presence of Mab. He was smirking.

That's when I knew Glen was probably going to get us killed.

Which for some reason, was why I loved him so much.

Wait, what?

I shook myself out of my stupor to see the lords and ladies above us titter and mock us in their ridiculous outfits, jeering from the stands. My bones flooded with chills.

"Now," Queen Mab's voice occupied the entire throne room as her eyes swept across Glen and I. "Will someone explain to me why there is one fugitive that is not present at this trial?"

Diandre. My veins were flooded with hope and relief. The soldiers must not have found him. He must have escaped with The Summer Scepter.

Behind us, a few guards shifted uncomfortably at the entrance.

"Do not make me repeat myself." The queen threatened in a low hiss, and the men jerked in fear.

"Your...royal highness-" one stammered. "We l-lost the Sprite...in the pursuit of the prince and the knight."

Mab's eyes darkened and flashed like electric currents, and her knuckles whitened as she gripped her throne's armrests.

"You lost the Sprite." Her voice lowered in fury.

The guard whimpered helplessly in response.

"YOU'VE FAILED ME, YOU SPINELESS FOOL!" The Queen screeched.

In a deafening blast, the solider was tossed into the air and thrown against the crystal walls like a limp rag doll. His head crashed against the crown moldings, and the onlookers cheered as he crumpled to the floor in a motionless heap.

My stomach churned at the sight of the laughing faces of the royals.

Suffering of others. They enjoyed it.

Queen Mab's face was molded into complete tranquility by the time I gazed up at her again. Her features had molded like the smooth waters of a lake. There wasn't a single ripple to be seen.

"If that's what she does to her own solider," Glen snorted, eyeing the moaning guard. "I'd sure love to see what the queen's going to do to us."

Mab's head snapped in his direction, her raven curls drifting in the air. "Is something funny, Prince Glen?" She asked with hardly contained agitation.

Glen smirked up at her, unfazed by the rage sizzling beneath the folds of her diamond gown. "I do find something quite humorous."

"Glen-" I whispered in warning.

He didn't seem to notice my concern. Strolling around the room, Glen met the gaze of every faerie.

"How is it that instead of protecting your realm from a Sprite attack that is forming in your own mountains, you waste your time capturing the fugitives that have done more work than your entire army?" He asked, his green eyes clashing with Mab's sapphire ones.

I winced as the queen's dress rustled against her pale skin. Every move she made sounded like death.

"Now you've done it," I muttered to Glen under my breath as confusion rose from the spectators. "You've got a death wish, don't you, flower boy?"

Queen Mab went very still as she processed his words. There was a weighted silence that gathered in the air, choking us, until she spoke.

"I truly wonder how you can justify what you've done, Prince Glen." She said coldly. "Running off with some knight and creating havoc among both realms? You've murdered your own mother's servants, and caused chaos in Summer Court. The reckless actions of the crown's only heir must be paid for." The queen's face hardened. "You truly are a criminal, your highness." The last words she spat so poisonously, I felt as if I had been stung. "A disgrace to your entire kingdom."

Glen's jaw twitched, ever so slightly, as the crowd hooted with blood-thirsty laughter.

That's when I knew I needed to enact my plan. I gave Glen one last look, praying that he would understand.

"The prince is not responsible!" I declared, so loud that the entire room was plunged into awe-stricken quiet.

The royals blinked down at me, puzzled, as Queen Mab leaned back on her throne of ice. Her lips were tinted with steely amusement.

"I forced Prince Glen to aid me in a quest," I lied, standing tall on the glossy marble floor. "He is a valuable caster that I needed to complete a task against the faerie accords. So I threatened him if he did not obey me."

Glen's face filled with shock.

"Marissa-" he protested.

I gave him the most poisonous look I could muster. "Don't, Glen. I know you want to claim responsibility because you feel it is right, but you know the truth. This was all me. I blackmailed you into joining my cause."

I tilted my head back to gaze up at Queen Mab.

The only way to save Glen was to make myself the villain. This world needed him to be their hero, their king. And I would do anything in my power to make it that way.

"You see," I explained. "I wanted revenge on The Master of the sprites. He and his army were stealing magic from the human realm in the form of children."

Shock waves circulated through the spectators, and many of the women gasped in horror.

Queen Mab glared down at me. "I have received no such report of a Sprite army. Or a master and his abduction of human children, for that matter."

I stumbled backwards, my shackles rattling.

This wasn't going how I had planned.

"What do you mean?" I exclaimed, stunned. "A caster named Nicholas died trying to save those children! You can't just tell me you haven't even heard of this rebellion!"

The Queen quirked an eyebrow. "Winter Academy informed me that young Nicholas perished in a training accident."

My heart plummeted, beating rapidly in delirious confusion.

"A cover up." I whispered. "There's a damn cover up."

My attention jerked back to Queen Mab. "I'm telling the truth, your highness." I insisted. "Glen and I visited the Sprite lair ourselves and rescued the children from an underground tunnel in Colorado." I gazed at her defiantly, not backing down. "The sprites have a plot of attack. They were seeking the Objects of Power using a globe stolen from the witch Lorely."

At my mention of The Objects of Power, Queen Mab stiffened. Her cloak went rigid around her shoulders.

"The Summer Scepter and The Winter Wand do not exist." She snarled. "They are legends. Myths."

"Tell that to The Master when he enters the realm with the Winter Wand itself." Glen snapped.

The spectator's giggles were transforming into concerned babble.

"You speak lies!" Queen Mab shrieked. "Lies!" Her eyes were flickering frantically as she realized she was losing control of her people.

I stepped forward. "The sprites plan to attack tomorrow night at Queen Titania's festival. They will use the wand to override the boundaries of their curse. They have armor of iron. They will slaughter all of us if we don't fight back."

Cries of fear escalated. The queen's face paled, her ruby lips parting in terror.

"Prince Glen and I tried to beat the sprites to the Objects of Power." I continued, my voice rising to be heard over the noise. "We were able to secure The Summer Scepter. It should now in the custody o fSummer Court, thanks to the Sprite Diandre who has been aiding us." I took a shuddering, grim breath. "As for The Winter Wand, we were led into a trap set by The Master. He stole it."

"Why wasn't I told about this?" Queen Mab seethed. "My Knights that were supposed to claim you at The Empire State Building. They should have told me this news."

Glen laughed. "If you're talking about that one psychotic woman that we killed, she was loyal to the sprites the whole time. She was never your knight. She stabbed Marissa with a cursed dagger." His face darkened. "Face it, your highness. We've all been tricked. But you most of all."

For a moment, my mind flashed back to the battle at New York. I remembered how I had spared Noel's life, leaving him unconscious. The female knight told me herself that he wasn't loyal to the sprites. How come he hadn't told Queen Mab about The Objects of Power?

"We tried to warn you," I said grimly to the queen. "But it's not too late. We can still protect the fae."

Queen Mab's fingers went still.

"Even if what you say is true," she told me. "You and the prince have both disobeyed faerie accords. You ran away from the academies, as well as murdered your own people."

"Technically, those people were trying to kill us." Glen pointed out, but the queen ignored him.

"Your actions will not come without consequences." She continued, her eyes darkening. "So I will need to punish you according to our laws. You both are hereby expelled from the magical academies."

The weight of her sentence crashed heavily upon my shoulders. I knew that I would never see Winter Academy again when I fled from its gates that fateful night, but the suffocating reality had never reached me until now. I was never going to roam those halls, enter the electric fighting ring, or sit at a desk. All of that had vanished through my fingers like slipping water. They were just distant memories now, memories that would grow further and further into a clouded haze in the thick hands of time.

My throat closed as the crowds began to slowly return to their original, merry illusion of thought. Happily grasping the chance of watching despair, they latched onto it and feasted on it. I could sense them desperately sneering down at Glen and I, wanting to restore that oblivious sheen in their eyes. They drowned their doubts in nectar. They gorged themselves with food. But I could sense their fear.

"And," Queen Mab added. "You must serve imprisonment."

I nodded, accepting this.

"Lock me away," I told the queen, stepping forward. My wings drooped defeatedly onto the ground. "Keep me here for as long as you want, even." Queen Mab's expression faintly hinted at mild surprise as I kept going. "But don't you dare keep him here." I pointed a finger at Glen, and he exhaled, his eyes moistening.

"Stop, Marissa-" He whispered, his green eyes pleading. "Please don't do this."

"I don't care if I have to die in a cell," I plowed on, my voice growing. "I'm cursed to die on Midsummer's Night anyway. After the sprites attack, my own heart will stop beating. Kill me, if that pleases your accords." My breaths shuddered in my chest. "But Glen is twice the ruler that you'll ever hope to be, your highness." My insides flared in triumph at seeing the outrage surface on the queen's face. "He's gone through hell for all of you ungrateful fae that I see sitting before me. I was once one of you. And I pity you. I pity all of you for running from your problems and turning your eyes blindly from the only faerie that can ever save you." I turned to Glen, offering him a proud smile through my watering eyes. "Even after all the pain I have caused him, he's the one who saved me."

Glen exhaled, his breath stolen away as his eyes locked with mine.

"GUARDS!" Queen Mab commanded, her words booming through the palace.

The heavy doors were thrown open, and a wave of knights surged inside. My heart galloped in my chest as they surrounded me, their hands gripping my arms.

"Marissa!" Glen yelled, charging at my captors. "You can't take her! I won't let you!"

Waves of metallic armor were engulfing me, dragging me on my knees out of the throne room. Glen fought against them, his hands blazing with magic power in their handcuffs. He struggled through the wall of knights, stumbling towards me.

"Glen," I cried. "You need to let me go!"

"I'm not leaving you!" He shouted. "I promised that I wouldn't leave you!"

I watched helplessly as three knights tackled him to the ground in front of me, driving their boots into his side. They kicked him over and over again, but Glen's gaze never left mine.

"Stop it!" I screamed, thrashing against the hold of the guards. "STOP IT!"

Queen Mab watched on, her expression detached and frozen as she sat motionless on her throne. There was a cold victory shining in her eyes.

"Take the knight to the dungeon as she requested," She ordered. "As for the prince, take him to the guest suite. I will uphold my promise. But make sure that no one comes in or out until he is sent back to his palace."

Glen winced in agony as the knights hauled him to his knees, struggling and kicking with every ounce of strength he had left. They pulled him, thrashing, across the glossy floors alongside me. My shackled hands reached out and grasped his for a fraction of a moment. Glen's wild eyes met mine in a collision of color, and I found tears streaking down my face.

"You need to stop fighting." I whispered. "I didn't give myself up to watch them kill you too."

His fingers lightly brushed my tears away as they danced across my face.

"I should have protected you." Glen said softly. "I'm so sorry, partner. I told you that I would keep you safe. That I would save you." His face contorted with pain that made my entire heart explode and break.

"You idiot," I smiled. "Weren't you listening? You already did."

Then, I was wrenched away from him. My hands were torn roughly from his, and my body slammed heavily against the floor as I was dragged down another corridor. It happened so fast, I could only glimpse Glen's face for a second longer. I memorized his luminous eyes, his auburn hair, the angles of his body. I didn't want to ever forget.

"Marissa-" He began to shout, but I was already being shoved up a flight of stairs into infinite darkness.

I never heard what Glen said after that.

All that was visible were torches that dimly lit the passageway as we ascended up the stone steps. The guards would occasionally bark at me to move faster, kicking me in the shins. My mind was racing rapidly as we climbed higher and higher. Meaty, fleshy arms pinned my shackled arms behind my back as my wings hummed anxiously. I could hear nothing but my own ragged breathing as the scent of mold lingered in my nostrils along with the reeking stench of the knights' breath. We continued to travel in a dizzying upward spiral.

It felt like ages and ages until a barred door visible in front of me. The guards grunted and thrusted it open, and the hinges protested as they dragged me inside. I cried out as they pushed me to the ground, my face slamming into cold stone.

"It looks as if you'll be rotting in here until you die tomorrow, filth." One guard spat.

The door slammed shut. I listened to the doomed turning of a lock, combating the uncontrollable hopelessness that crushed the air out of my lungs. I sat up, my eyes blinked furiously as they adjusted to light.

A single window, the size of a small air vent, provided a gray gloom into the tower's dungeon. There was a ratty mattress that was falling apart in the corner, and a patch of musty straw next to me. The walls were aged and cracking with strain as they stared back at me, bleak and dismal. I felt them pressing in around me, pushed closer by the torturing silence.

I was aware that my heart was slowing, the curse continued to linger in my veins. It was nearly enacted now. It would be only hours until I was dead. I wouldn't be able to defend Summer Court when I was held here, I could only wait until I saw the tongues of fire swallowing screams in the dark. I could only wait until the chaos rose over the mountains, hundreds of blood-thirsty sprites ravaging the festival tomorrow night.

I could do nothing to stop them. All I could do was watch from above as my soul withered away into nothing.

"Dammit!" I screamed, leaping desperately to my feet.

I lunged for the barred door, slamming my weight against it. It groaned in response, but didn't budge. I jangled the handle ferociously. I listened for the cracking of a lock as it gave way, but all I heard was squeaking rust. Swearing, I tore away from the door and bashed against the crumbling walls. My shoulder crashed against the plaster over and over, and I gritted my teeth against the aching pain. The walls didn't give way.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I gripped the little window ledge. Straining my arms, I pulled myself up until I could peer through the small opening. A bitter, winter blizzard shrieked outside, swallowing the city and the Grimwood. Gloomy, thundering clouds mocked me from above.

Somewhere out there, Diandre was safe. Somewhere out there, he had The Summer Scepter.

"I still believe in you." I whispered.

That's when I let go.

The last thing I remembered was falling onto the concrete floor, my vision engulfed in black as the touch of iron sizzled on my skin.

*****************************************************

Feverish dreams shook me in and out of consciousness for an eternity. The hands of time ticked onwards for hours on end, counting down the precious moments I had left. I was aware of the sun setting, the sky blackening, before being brought to life with the streaks of a pink dawn. The sun rose higher. Noon. I didn't move. I was still, breathing in the mold as my mind wandered through lonely reaches of space. Memories floated like phantoms: some bright, some dark and sinister. I would drift away again. My throat would dry, my eyes would water, my lips heavy with unspoken words and regrets.

Death loomed above me, grinning triumphantly down at my fading soul as he sharpened his scythe. Illusions. Hallucinations. Realities. On and on.

I have you, the curse rasped. You're mine, you know. Your heart is weak. It has fought valiantly, but nothing can vanquish my hold.

I wasn't aware that the barred door to the tower had opened until I squinted weakly at a pair of boots in front of my face.

"Midsummer's Night has arrived," A guard grunted. "And Her Royal Highness has requested your presence before she departs for the festival."

My eyes traveled up to his weathered, tanned face. His wings flickered powerfully as his lips split into a wolfish smile.

"She wants to watch me die, doesn't she?" I croaked, my voice hoarse. "I can't say that I blame her; I am the girl that blackmailed a prince, broke every faerie law while I was at it, and had the indecency to scold her in the middle of her own court."

I let out a wheeze of laughter. I should have felt fear at the fact that I was going to blink from existence in a matter of hours, in the heat of the red stained war. But all I felt was defeated numbness.

Diandre wasn't coming.

The guard's hands gripped my elbows, and he forcefully tugged me to my feet.

"You've given up, haven't you?" He growled in my ear.

"I'm a dead girl already," I chuckled. "But I'm grateful for the life I had and the people who were in it."

My throat closed as I saw Diandre shielding my body from the falling debris in the harbor, his hand gripping mine. I could see Glen and I in Colorado, how I had started in astonishment as he held me in his arms at the motel in his sleep.

Those were the times when I had never felt more safe. They were warm memories to me now. Memories. Ones that I wanted to take with me when I left.

The guard hauled me out of my cell, and the last thing that I glimpsed were the stars sparkling through the small window before he was shoving me down the stairs.

It wasn't until darkness enveloped me that I realized that without Glen and Diandre, the stars were dim and had lost their light to me.

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