Alexandra was huddled down between Herbert and the others. She protected her daughter as best she could. The rain on her back wasn't harder to bear than the years of insults and cruelty by Anaeth at the school. The noise wasn't louder than the doubt that had screamed that she was a fraud, a fake. She had resisted the pull of this fairy's magic before, she would again. For her daughter's sake, for her sake, for the sake of all the Kingdoms.

She saw the fairy's feet standing in front of ...