“So, a cocoon,” Cami said, looking up to the queen. “Like for caterpillars? Erm, Your Majesty? Should I--”

“Just call me Titania,” the queen said with a smile. “It's an old name that's stuck. Anyways--Gardenia will lead you to your chamber. I cannot say what you will undergo during your transformation, but just remember you are in no real danger.”

“Am I going to feel like I’m in danger?”

Trintio cringed beside her. “Well--”

“Don’t tell her,” Titania interrupted.

Cami bristled. Even now, before literal royalty, in the glow of the throne room, she was being kept in the dark.

“You probably won’t hear those words again after this,” Dee chimed in from behind. “At least, not as often.”

“Great.” Cami stood up a bit straighter, shaking off her nerves. “And this… procedure… it’s safe, right?”

The fey queen gave a small nod. Even that, when she did it, carried a regal air, light dancing through her scarlet locks. “I’m confident that you will not be physically harmed.”

“Psychologically, however--” Dee began, though it was cut short by a yelp. Turning to its source, Cami saw the verrai clutching her shoulder and Trintio glaring down at her.

“I'm being silenced,” she whined, face scrunched up like she was about to cry.

Titania studied the two, nonplussed. “Gardenia and I can handle things from here.”

“I don’t mind if they stay,” Cami blurted out. She wrung her hands together, burying the urge to flutter them about. Instead, the restless energy took to her wings, which buzzed softly. “I’m used to the company.”

Somehow, the seven-foot-tall menace with a fear of staplers and his pint-sized lying friend are the most familiar things in the room, she thought. I’ll laugh about this someday.

“I would be more than happy to accompany her,” Trintio added. “She’s imprinted on me like a baby duck, you know? I brought her into this world, in a way.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Cami grumbled. “Also, they’re called ducklings.”

“I’m not a biologist, Camilla.”

Titania pinched the bridge of her nose, groaining. Gardenia stepped towards her, and got as far as asking “Should I-” before Titania raised a pale, slender hand and she stopped dead.

“Do what feels right,” the queen said at last. “But know that the last time someone wasted this much of my time on meaningless chatter, he spent two months as a mushroom.”

“Of course, Your Majesty!” Trintio took Cami by the hand and practically dragged her away. Even now, when they were about the same size, he pulled her along like she weighed nothing.

“I’m going to sit this one out,” Dee called after them. “I have to start dinner and all. You know how it is, right? I--”

“Just go,” Gardenia interrupted.

Dee didn’t need to be told twice. She spun on her heel and disappeared down the hall.

As Cami walked, the fog came down again like a sheet. She was only scarcely aware of her company: Trintio on the left, Gardenia on the right. If not for the occasional brush of her arms against theirs, she would’ve thought them miles ahead, their voices and footsteps muffled by the fog.

“Is the cocoon painful?” Cami asked.

“Not physically, as stated,” Trintio replied. “It’s just a rude awakening, you know?”

And, as usual, Cami did not know. “Isn’t your job to explain these things to me?”

“In his defense, they’re pretty complicated,” Gardenia said. “We can’t guarantee anything, and because we can’t lie, there’s very little we can say. Anyways, we’re here.”

Cami looked around. The fog still hadn’t lifted, but a shape took form before them. Long, round, slender… a literal cocoon.

With a fairy-sized crack right down the middle.

Entranced, Cami approached it, hand outstretched. The ivory shell was rough on her palm, like the pages of an old book. Something squelched under her feet, and Cami glanced down to see a puddle of viscous, silvery fluid, a river of stardust.

“Huh,” she said. “Am I going to come out covered in this stuff?”

“Probably,” Trintio replied.

“Does it at least come off kind of easily?”

Neither Trintio nor Gardenia had anything to say to that.

Cami bit back a groan. Here she was, diving into the unknown to permanently transform herself body and soul, and what bothered her the most was the chance of coming out wet.

“I just climb in, right?” she asked.

“Sure do,” Gardenia said. “And when you come out, you’ll finally be your truest self.”

I feel plenty true already, Cami thought, but alright. She spun on her heel, and gave the two a wave. “See you on the other side, then.”

“Oh, Cami.” Trintio chuckled. “You’ve been on the other side all along.”

Not knowing what to say to that, Cami just closed her eyes, leaned back, and just as the cocoon was surrounding her…

“Cams,” murmured a voice in her ear. “You’re spacing out again.”

When Cami’s eyes opened, she wasn’t in the cocoon. She wasn’t in the fey realm. In fact, she was at the entrance to the park by her house.

And Abigail Burton stood beside her, not just alive, but grinning. Seemingly oblivious to the fact she was dead, last Cami had checked.

Cami opened her mouth to exclaim that this had to be a dream, but the words that came out weren’t hers.

“Sorry. Big day and all,” her voice replied on its own. “I wasn’t a party person before, so this…”

“Is a bit outside your wheelhouse?” Abigail finished. She laughed, taking Cami by the arm. “It’s okay. I’m here.” Surprisingly, Cami felt a blush creep up her cheeks.

“Unless it gets dangerous,” Cami said, still without thinking to. Like someone else was controlling everything she did. “If it gets dangerous, you have to leave. Promise?”

“Promise,” Abigail confirmed with a nod. Even then, she was giddy. “I wouldn’t worry, though. They must be a pretty stupid cult if they’re going to crash a party. That’s so many witnesses!”

Cami shook her head, and dizziness overtook her. “So many victims.”

“Which is why you’re here!” Abigail pointed out. “You’re going to knock out the bad guys, like the badass you are.”

“Hopefully just knock them out.”

As the two of them walked, Cami’s brain raced to keep up. This was last summer, no doubt about it, from the lush green of the trees to the smoky scent of wildfires in the north.

This was that party she’d been asked about.

This was where Abigail died.

This was a memory.

Her body trekked on, nothing more than an echo of the inevitable. Cami fell away from it, the questions taking hold.

I knew I was a changeling.

I held a party to bring in the Children of the Lone Angel?

Cami’s body moved with a swagger, cracked jokes, gave handshakes and high-fives with practiced ease. Faces flew by, all beaming at the sight of her. Some Cami knew by name, most she didn’t. They were people who waved at her when they walked past each other on campus, but she’d never known why.

Well, that’s one mystery solved, she thought. I threw a huge party they all went to.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Jane and Rachel. They sat beside each other, faces sharp and eyes alert.

Cami, lulled by the idle chitchat and thrumming bass, sunk further into herself. She felt her own heart hammering in her chest, Abigail’s arms linked with her own, and the air alight with tension.

Even her eyes moved on their own, scanning the crowd. Her stomach dropped at the sight of a platinum-blonde head at the forest clearing’s edge.

Lillian.

Again, her body moved on its own, marching with purpose. Abigail was at her heels, and though Cami couldn’t see the girl’s face, her shaky fingers on Cami’s wrist gave away her nerves.

As they approached, Lillian’s eyes glittered. Like a beast spotting its prey.

“Quite an affair you’ve put together,” she purred. “I know I wasn’t invited, but I get the sense you were expecting me anyway.”

“Cut the crap, Lillian,” Abigail spat. Still, her hands trembled against Cami’s skin. “We’re ending this.”

Lillian raised a brow, cocking her head to the side. Her gaze was probing, in a way that made Cami’s blood run cold.

“How do you expect to do that?” she murmured. “Are you going to kill me, in such a public place? I was hoping to use these kids, you know.”

“Use?” Cami echoed.

Lillian chuckled, sweeping her arms out to the woods that surrounded them. “Someone here is a fit host for our angel. It’s just a matter of sniffing them out.”

“So you’re just going to kidnap someone in the middle of a party?” Abigail took a step forward, shoulder-to-shoulder with Cami now. “I knew you guys were crazy, but this is next-level.”

“Believe what you wish,” Lillian said, “but it’s your partner that set this stage and the trap within it.” Cami’s eyes were fixed on the ground, but she felt the other girl’s gaze burning into her. “You glamoured this place, right, Camilla?”

Some part of her twinged at being called Camilla--was it a memory or her present-tense self?

Cami gave the tiniest nod. “So no one would see me deal with you.”

“But that goes both ways, doesn’t it?” Lillian twirled a string of golden-white hair around her finger. “If anything were to happen to you, nobody would notice.”

“Why would anything--” Cami was cut off by a rustling in the woods. Jane emerged, a hooded stranger right behind her. It was only when Cami noticed the knife at her friend’s throat that her heart stopped, the weight of it all sinking in.

Another hooded figure took shape beside Abigail, melting out of the forest greens. Without a word, they pulled out a blade like their partner's and yanked the girl back, pinning her to a tree. Beneath the hoods were masks, black streaked with white, painted feathers.

The Children of the Lone Angel.

“You were saying?” Lillian murmured.

Cami opened her mouth--whether to threaten or beg, she wasn’t sure--but nothing came out. The chatter and the music mere feet away sent her head spinning. She took in a breath, but it wasn’t enough.

“I can’t kill you,” Lillian went on. “Making an enemy of the fey realm would be foolish, this early into the game. But I can make a statement.”

“Don’t do this.” The pleas bubbled from Cami’s lips before she could even think. “They’re just human, please don’t hurt them. I-I’ll get Trintio to erase their memories, and they’ll step off.”

Lillian rolled her eyes. “You can’t promise that, Camilla. If you tried, your tongue would fall out. You know that, right?”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s no way to talk to the girl with your friends at knifepoint,” Lillian cooed, clucking her tongue. “Oh, well. On with the show.” She drew a finger across her neck.

Twin blades glittered gold in the fading sunlight. One to Cami’s left, one to her right. Time slowed down as her body sprang into action, leaping to save…

Cami hit the ground hard, and Jane crumpled beneath her, breathless.

“Interesting choice,” Lillian remarked.

There was another thud as Abigail’s body hit the forest floor.

So this is how it went down, Cami thought. Even now, her mind struggled to keep up. It could’ve been Jane who died. If I’d leapt in the other direction.

“Cami?” Jane whispered. Her eyes were wide. The lens on her glasses had cracked in the fall, and Cami found herself focused on that, even as her best friend rambled on. Even as her heart beat so hard it hurt, even as her knuckles went white in clenched fists.

“You’re changing,” Jane pressed. “Like Trintio warned you not to.”

Sure enough, she felt it. Her skin prickling, bones shifting underneath. Her vision blurred. The air crackled around her, alive with energy.

Cami’s fey form had never felt like this.

Something was wrong.

A growl rumbled low in her throat. Not fey, but sure as hell not human either. Something entirely animal.

Cami rose to her full height…