Folk

I first saw the Folk when I was a little boy, when they started appearing in my garden, with their unnatural, cruel beauty and honeyed words and veiled taunts. I grew up with big green eyes watching me from the forest. Whispers from the trees. Shimmering skin darting between the bushes. Black creatures always lurking in the shadows. While they were here, I thought nothing of them. It wasn’t until they were gone that I realise it wasn’t…normal. But it isn’t until I’m twenty-one, when my life is in ruins, that they come back to take me away.

My mortal skin is gone. I’m one of them—one of the Folk—and all I feel is anger. I’m going to kill the Carlin and her sons for everything they did to me. It’s all I care about. But first, I have to navigate this new world, my new skin, my new brother, and, when I fall into her clutches, my fae mother—the Brid, the Seelie Queen. I don’t like what I’m becoming, but I can’t stop it. Something’s wrong with me. Something’s missing. There’s a hollow ache in my chest, and I can’t fill it, no matter what I do. It’s like I’ve forgotten something vital from my time on unseelie land.

Everything should be fine. The Brid is dead. I'm the new Seelie king. And Lonan is with me, safe from the Unseelie queen—his mother—and terrible brothers. But it's not fine. Nothing is fine. I can't seem to let go of my old life, even as this new one—and my new responsibilities—overwhelm me. Something is wrong with Lonan. He's closing himself off even more. He's quiet and distant, and every day, the rift between us seems to get bigger, no matter what I do.