There was no sound of hooves. No crunch of wheels on gravel. Just silence, dense and unnatural, pressing against the glass windows like a held breath. She sat stiffly, hands curled in her lap, eyes fixed on the slowly retreating outline of Emberline.
Gone. Already blurred by mist.
Keira noticed she wasn't alone in the carriage.
A girl with golden braids and green ribbons sat across from her, her back straight, hands clasped delicately in her lap. She wore a traveling coat embroidered with tiny pearls and held herself like she was about to be presented at court, not taken to it like a lamb to slaughter.
"This is thrilling, isn't it?" the girl said after a long moment.
Keira blinked at her. "Thrilling?"
"Well, not the blood-marked lottery bit, of course, but the rest. The Midnight Court. The magic. The possibilities. The power." She leaned forward, her eyes shining. "My name's Sera. From Farwater district. My mother always said I was meant for more than mucking out stables and binding spellbooks. Maybe she was right."
Keira stared at her, dumbfounded.
"You do know it's not some joke, right?" she said finally. "You're not going there to earn favor. You're going because they took you."
Sera's smile didn't falter. "Oh, but everything's an opportunity if you know how to use it."
Keira leaned back against the seat. "You're a fool."
Sera tilted her head, but didn't argue.
The carriage passed through one village, then another , silent, shuttered places where no one stood in the streets. Everyone had already gone inside, locked their doors, whispered old prayers to old gods.
The line of black carriages snaked behind them, barely visible through the fog. Ten Chosen. Ten names. Ten stories ending or beginning.
Keira wondered what the others were thinking.
~
By midmorning, the last human town was behind them.
The road narrowed, the air thickening with magic. Trees on either side grew taller, older, their roots buckling the earth.
The border was near.
She could feel it, a shimmer in her teeth, like the air itself was vibrating. Her breath came colder. Her limbs heavier.
Sera, for once, had gone quiet.
Outside, the woods darkened. Sunlight no longer filtered through the branches. The sky was still blue somewhere above, but they could no longer see it. The forest swallowed sound and light alike.
Then the first rune appeared.
Etched into the stone arch that loomed above the path, a doorway of blackened rock crowned with ivy, curling and twisting with violet flowers that glowed faintly in the gloom.
The Obsidian Gate.
The border to the Fae lands.
The carriage did not stop.
It passed through.
And everything changed.
It began with a shift Keira couldn't quite name.
Not a jolt, not a crash, just a soft ripple through her bones, like something had peeled back a layer of the world and left her exposed. The air grew sweeter, but not pleasant. It smelled like crushed herbs, honeyed decay, the perfume of flowers blooming on graves.
Keira's stomach turned.
Sera clutched her coat tighter. "This is… not what I expected."
No one responded.
Whispers rode the wind, brushing Keira's ear like breath. Not words. Not yet. But the sound made her skin rise in gooseflesh. She glanced at the window and froze.
The stars were wrong.
It wasn't night, not really, but through the boughs above, stars blinked where no stars should be. Close. Moving. One of them winked, like it knew she was looking.
The carriage rolled on.
Ahead, a boy in one of the front carriages began pounding at the window. Keira heard the sound dimly, even through the thick enchanted glass. He was shouting, gesturing wildly, trying to open the door. One of the older girls with him tried to calm him, but he threw her off and leapt.
The door slammed open, and he jumped.
For a moment, Keira thought he might make it, watching as his boots hit the moss-covered ground, and he bolted toward the trees.
Then the forest moved.
The moss peeled back like a mouth. Roots surged from the earth, winding around his ankles. He screamed. One second he was running, the next, he was gone.
The roots dragged him under without a trace.
Sera gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "What just happened—?"
Keira stared at the spot where the boy had disappeared, and her voice came out hollow.
"He tried to flee."
"Did the forest… eat him?"
Keira didn't answer. She didn't need to.
The message was clear.
You do not run from the Fae.
A low sound filled the air, like singing, but not human, and the wind stirred. Keira shook from the sudden cold that engulfed her, and she turned toward the trees.
A pair of violet eyes stared back at her from the undergrowth. Not glowing, not ethereal, just watching, unblinking, filled with an old, inhuman patience.
They blinked once, and then they were gone.
Keira's breath came short.
"What is it?" Sera whispered.
"Nothing," she lied.
But the feeling remained, like a spider walking along the nape of her neck.
They were being watched.
By nightfall, the trees finally broke.
The carriages emerged into a clearing where the sky was a deep amethyst, streaked with green lightning. Towering above them was the silhouette of the Midnight Court.
It rose like a jagged wound in the land, all black stone, spires that curled like thorns, windows that shone like pools of ink. The palace looked half-grown, half-built, like something ancient that had been dragged out of the bones of the forest and told to behave.
Keira stepped out of the carriage.
The earth here was soft and dark, spongy beneath her boots. Every breath she took tasted like wine and ash.
Around her, the other Chosen gathered. Sera stood close, her earlier confidence drowned in silence. A few of them looked like they might cry.
Keira didn't.
She stared at the palace, at the way its gate twisted like barbed wire pulled from a bleeding wound.
She squared her shoulders.
And walked forward.