A must-read prequel novel to the Faerie Festival Trilogy. A villain origin story unlike any other.

Orla is a young lady in the glittering northern court of the Otherworld. But for all the glamour her privileged life has to offer, it can't mend Orla's broken, lonely homelife.

Her beautiful mother-whose approval Orla would do anything to earn-is nearly as absent as Orla's warrior father-who fights in the king's army and returns home less every year.

Her only hope in repairing her parent's marriage? Securing an advantageous union, no matter the personal cost.

And yet, Orla is not truly alone-not while Bay lives at the castle as an apprentice groundskeeper. They have been inseparable since childhood, and he is the only faery Orla trusts completely. Wholeheartedly.

But relationships both old and new are tested when the arrival of High King Rauri brings the opportunity Orla has spent her entire life preparing for-perfecting herself for-

As he is in search of a queen.