The magic caught at once: I felt it ignite like a dynamite fuse, searing towards unstoppable explosion. The Queen’s attention was on us. It was like looking up at an impossibly tall ocean wave about to crash down on your head.

But Realen moved fast. The next thing I knew, I had toppled out of his arms to the hard ground. The air around me was an explosion of silvery Seelie magic and the golden burst of Sy’s invocation. I scrambled blindly forward over the broken stones, ...