The witch's laughter slithered through the shadows once more, a sound both mocking and chilling. "Oh, dear Luna Queen, so bold yet so blind," she crooned, her voice twisting around us like ivy. "Paul's loyalty to you, his unwavering devotion to the South pack-it unsettled the balance."

"Balance?" I spat the word out like poison. "There is no balance in cowardly acts of ensnarement!"

"Balance, power, it is all one and the same to The Black Faes," she replied, her tone dripping with malice. "Your ...