ANDORRA DIDN'T scream. But, she wanted to.

As soon as she sat back in the cab, it raced forward as though it was in Tokyo Drift, rushing away from Hornwell Academy and leaving the school in the dust. What was truly terrifying though wasn't the speed but rather the way the cab moved. It jerked from side to side, driving in-between and alongside cars. There was no pause, no break, no stopping at red lights.

Coralia and Hans looked at ease. Andorra was gripping the door for dear life, watching the scene outside of the window fly by, too fast to be human.

"We like to move fast here in Anlithamy. Can you tell?" Hans was finding delight in Andorra's fear. Or, perhaps it was seeing someone so out of this element that brought him delight. Andorra couldn't even muster a dirty look his way. Her stomach was turning, jumping into her throat.

Another cab came too close to her window, and she flinched away as if they would hit her. When they didn't, Hans laughed.

Bort swiveled in his seat, looking back at her. "You get used to the speed. It's the only way to travel, really. It's so you can get from one place to another without having to wait hours."

The idea was there, but the presentation... Andorra felt dinner from last night threatening to come up and out of her mouth.

"First stop is the market. Then, we just have to go shopping. Andorra, you are gonna lose your mind at the clothing stores in the city! They are unreal."

Hans rolled his eyes. "And just what are we going to do while you two shop until your drop?"

Coralia elbowed him in the ribs. "Stop being a baby."

"Leelee, that hurts. Ow." Hans pressed himself against the door, trying to move away from Coralia's bony elbow. He rubbed his side.

"Yeah, and that won't be the only place that hurts if you keep complaining. It's our first weekend back! The city will be full of Hornwell students having fun. I'm sure you'll find something to do."

The cab jerked to a stop. Andorra's stomach kept going though, and she thought for sure she would vomit in the cab. But, when the door opened and fresh air rushed to meet her, she found herself stumbling from the cab with last night's dinner still inside her stomach.

Andorra took in the city center beyond her. It was full of stalls and people walking about, buying things, eating things, sitting on the sloping grass in the middle of the center. Like a farmers market in a park, it looked like. Andorra found it comfortingly human.

Coralia looped her arm through Andorra's. "C'mon! There is this lady that makes the best dumplings in Anlithamy. Her stand is over there."

For a moment, Andorra remembered being in a similar town center with Oberon and Lithe, buying groceries for his mother, shopping at stalls just like this. Andorra swallowed the sudden tightness in her chest, willing it to disappear, but it was hard. This was all hard for her.

Bort was watching her, close enough to see the shift on her face. The pain and longing for an old life that no longer belonged to her. An old life she didn't realize she would lose upon entering Anlithamy.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his voice low enough not to catch the attention of others around them. Something in his face told Andorra that perhaps he felt similar to her, for whatever reason. There was an open kindness in his face that was comforting and endearing.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just... overwhelmed."

Coralia made a sound of agreement. "It can be overwhelming. It still is for me sometimes, too. My mom hasn't been Princess very long, but the change in our worlds was drastic. Staying friends with Bort and Hans was the only way I could feel normal during the change."

Andorra pictured in her mind what it would be like for Coralia, a girl with nothing suddenly given everything. It was alike to Andorra in a way the blonde hadn't thought of before. A similarity between them Andorra had overlooked.

"Do you miss it? Your old life?" Andorra couldn't imagine not missing it.

"Yeah. All the time, although mom makes it pretty normal back home. You saw our house and the shop. Mom makes me work there when I'm not in school, just to keep me humble. And she does a pretty good job of keeping our heads screwed on right. Can't say the same for some of the other kids, like Aihfie."

They approached a stall, and Andorra took a good, hard look at the person behind the table. They wore a hood pulled low over their face, cloaking it in shadows. When the person saw them approach, they went stiff.

"Princess. The Princess is here! The Princess!" The words came from a feminine voice and grew louder with each moment. A shaking finger was lifted, pointing straight at Andorra, and others began to look over at them with growing interest.

"Hello," Andorra said, not sure what to do or how to proceed. Coralia was gripping onto Andorra's arm with a surprising strength. The person behind the stall though continued on with the chant. "Princess! The Princess is here! The Princess!"

Andorra felt the pit of her stomach drop out. Something akin to fear skittered down her spine, and there was a sense of foreboding that settled around her. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

She didn't know how she knew it, or what tipped her off, but it was there: a glittered dance of danger all around her.

Like a reflex, Andorra turned behind herself as the chanting grew louder. "Princess! Right here! Right here!" It was so loud, it was a shrill scream. Everyone else in the shopping square grew silent, watching, waiting. When Andorra turned, she surveyed the square with deadly interest, her body on high alert.

Coralia was digging into her wrist. "We need to go. Something about this isn't right, something is wrong-"

There was no time to debate what was or wasn't wrong with the situation. There was a man across the square, shadowed along the side. Shadowed, as in shadows were crawling up his body, his legs, his torso, covering his face. If he had been young, Andorra would've assumed immediately it was Callum, but this was a man across the square. And in his hand was a bow knocked with an arrow.

Andorra knew who that arrow was for. The shadows began to leak out of him, pouring across the cobblestones, flushing out all around his body. It was an eerie darkness, a hand against a throat, but before Andorra could do something like alert Coralia, she was shoved to the ground.

"Get down! Where are your guards?" The voice above her was grave, angry, and familiar. It took Andorra a few blinks to realize it was Prince Puck.

Her mouth opened to form words, but nothing came out. Her guards? Was she supposed to have guards? Andorra hadn't given that a single thought this entire time in Anlithamy. And why would she? She'd never had guards before, and no one had brought it up.

She was beginning to feel foolish.

Her head turned towards the shadow man, right in time to watch another figure knock him down with nothing but power. Raw power from an opened fist, like the figure had blasted the shadow faerie with telekinetic power.

"Hey. Hey. Are you alright? Shit, I didn't knock you down hard enough to hit your head, did I?"

She turned back to Prince Puck, aware he'd asked her a question. "No, no. I uh, I don't have guards." Her eyes looked frantically for Coralia. "But where is Coralia? Is she hurt?" Andorra struggled against Prince Puck's arms, but he was quick to hold her down.

As the world began to come back to her, Andorra could hear screaming. Screaming from people in the square who noticed what was about to happen. Or perhaps they were acutely aware of the armed guards suddenly standing around them, ready to fight at any given moment.

The guards had to belong to Prince Puck. Who else would have them? And if she were on the same level of royalty as Prince Puck, if not higher...

Andorra made a mental note that getting guards was the first thing on her list.

"Princess Carling's daughter is fine." Prince Puck was still covering her, his eyes waiting for a cue to let up.

"You can get up, now. Threat is eviscerated."

Andorra's stomach plummeted at that voice. Her heart froze in her chest, then galloped faster than it ever had before. Suddenly, she was having a hard time breathing.

Prince Puck let up, standing back on his haunches in a fluid movement that told Andorra he was a clear fighter. He held a hand out to Andorra, and she grasped it tightly, her legs suddenly jello. She didn't want to look. She couldn't and wouldn't look.

But when she stood, she did.

Noah stood there, dressed in all black, which was fitting for him. His hair was cropped even shorter than before, and his eyes were dark, dark, dark. There was nothing on his face that hinted at anything, but that was expected from him.

And there was a darkness about him that was new. And a hardness that Andorra thought wasn't possible. There was something so cold about him that was not entirely the Noah she had left behind.

She couldn't look away. Her throat was closing up, and she wanted so much to touch him, to hug him, to kiss him. The urge to run her fingers down his cheek was so strong, it surprised her. The need inside of her heightened, like she'd never seen a man before in her entire life.

And her racing heart. Bless her racing little heart.

She opened her mouth to say something to him. Anything. There was so much she wanted to say, but also nothing to say, because he had been plotting to kill her. He had, all along, been plotting to leave her behind in the human world.

Her chest caved a little at the reminder.

"Noah-"

"Andorra!" It was Coralia's voice, shouting above the rest. It was then that Andorra realized that they were in a circle of guards - her, Prince Puck, and Noah - and that Coralia was on the outside. They were shielded from everyone, protected, safe.

"The grounds are secure. I'm sure your Rali is covering it as well, but my eyes have announced safety." Noah looked away from her to Prince Puck like it was the easiest thing to do, like he wasn't at war with his emotions like Andorra was.

And that killed her all over again, because it wasn't enough to be broken in the Snow Clan library that afternoon she heard of his plans. She was beginning to see just how true it had been. How easily crafted the lie had been. How easy it had been for him to pretend with her and then walk away.

She felt the tears in her throat, and she turned from them both. Faerie or not, it was human emotions that were coming up her throat, hard and fast. And she absolutely didn't want to cry in front of Prince Puck and Noah.

But, Prince Puck wasn't finished. "You have no guards." His tone was flat, unbelieving, and at the same time, disapproving. Andorra was sure he was thinking, how can this be the next Queen? and he would be right to think that. Because, how could she be the next leader when there was still so much to learn?

She shook her head like a child being chastised. "No. I just... no one ever said anything about them. I... I didn't know."

There was a fury on Prince Puck's face. Something hard and dark. He towered above her, a man of the darkness, and he bent towards her face. "I will only say this once, Princess. You need to fall in line and learn our ways. You were almost killed today because of your foolishness and your naivety. What will happen next time, when we aren't here to save you?"

His words weren't cruel in nature, but the way he said them made Andorra want to cry all over again. She swallowed the lump of embarrassment in her throat and looked down. She was a child in this man's eyes. "You're right."

"You're very, very lucky Sir Nohx happened to spot him slinking against the outskirts of the square. Once he saw you, he put two and two together. But, Sir Nohx won't always be there, will he?"

Andorra wanted the answer to be yes, he always will! but that was a lie. The Noah in the kitchen, kissing the daylights out of her, that version of him always would protect and save her. But that version of Noah never existed in the first place.

"And to top it off, you don't have a -"

They were interrupted by a swarm of bats, heading straight at them, faster than Andorra could comprehend. Was this the next way someone would try to kill her? Through an army of bats? Before she could squeal in fear, Prince Puck waved an arm out, holding out a flap of his dark, velvet cape. Andorra saw for a moment the darkness that existed beyond the cape, into something far more shadow than physical object. The shadows stared back at her, hypnotizing her for a moment before the rush of bats raced into the shadows themselves, diving into the folds of the cape completely.

Once they were all swallowed up by the shadows, Prince Puck let his cape fall back into place, like nothing had even happened. It was the look on Andorra's face that must have surprised Prince Puck into muttering, "Don't mind them. That's my Rali."

"Your... Rali..." Andorra worked the word over in her mouth and her mind, as if she were supposed to understand that word. Those terms.

"A Winter Fae thing. Our Protectors come in different forms. Mine are bats. Now, moving forward. I am not Princess Carling. Do not mistake this kindness for that. Anlithamy is a cruel, cold world, Princess. We cannot be trusted. My motives exist beyond what happened today, and this protection was only to stop a far worse war. Do you understand?"

Prince Puck was exactly like his children; full of wicked riddles that made little sense to Andorra. "You also wish me dead." Her words felt like stones in her gut.

Prince Puck didn't deny or confirm her words. "Many wish you dead, Princess. Many find you inadequate to rule. This show today proves them very, very correct."

Andorra hated that she was having this conversation in front of Noah. Noah. Noah, who didn't believe in her when she'd opened the gate. Noah, who hadn't been proud of her when she had started showing off signs of gaining her skills. Noah, who clearly all along hadn't expected anything from her. She was nothing but a useless Princess to everyone in Anlithamy.

Shame burned in her cheeks. What could she even begin to say that would make a difference here? She didn't want this, and she didn't want to be a faerie either. The expectations for her were far too high when weeks ago, she thought she was nothing more than a human girl.

Her emotions must have been playing on her face. "Stop that," Noah growled, his voice venom in her ears. "The moment you let them see how you feel, the moment they figure out how to kill you."

Andorra jolted, just from his voice alone. She found his eyes, his dark, cruel eyes, and she found herself morphing her face into something she hoped was expressionless. It felt weird and forgein on her face. A mask, she told herself.

"Princess Carling seems to believe in you highly. And for that, I will grant you another piece of kindness. My children are very skilled and were trained and raised to kill. My son Callum and daughter Aihfie will act as your guard until you have found suitable replacements."

The word no echoed through Andorra's chest. She absolutely did not want them for guards. She opened her mouth, perhaps to voice this, but Prince Puck beat her. "You will find that they both are double edged swords, which will cause you to act fast in finding replacements. Am I correct? They also suit my motives nicely as well."

Andorra didn't dare ask about his motives. She wasn't even sure this was kindness on his part - this felt way more like spying on her every move. His children would surely report back to him on every matter that concerned whether or not she was fit to lead.

If Aihfie and Callum liked Anders so much, Andorra could piece together the fact that perhaps Prince Puck liked Anders as well.

And that was cause enough to spy on Andorra.

Prince Puck snapped his fingers, and the air around them felt like a vacuum. It whipped around the three of them, trapped within the circle of guards, causing a tornado of sorts. Andorra felt fear coat her tongue, and she watched Noah for his reaction, but there was none.

His eyes though slid to hers, holding them. There were so many questions she wanted to ask. How is Oberon? And Lithe? And how are you doing with being the Clan Leader you never wanted to be? Andorra wanted to ask them all, so badly, but she couldn't.

And, even if she did, she had no guarantee that Noah would answer them.

Before Andorra could announce her growing fear that she was about to be swept away Dorothy style, two shadows dropped into the center like droplets. As soon as they did, the wind died immediately, and the two drops of shadow began to build into people.

Andorra watched, horrified as the shadows turned into figures, and then as those figures were revealed to be Callum and Aihfie, in the flesh despite their entrance as nothing more than drops of darkness.

Aihfie let out a whine. "What, daddy?" And then, her eyes found Noah's, and she smiled slyly. It was all predator. "Hi, Sir Nohx."

Andorra felt queasy at that alone, jealousy stirring in her chest. She didn't have time to examine Noah's reaction, because Callum was in her face. "So, you're still alive. Interesting."

She spun on him. "You sent that assassin?"

His face was in shadows still - a clear shield. He gave a shrug. "No, but I knew the assassin would be in town today."

Red hot anger flooded through Andorra like a match being lit. It was that anger from the day in school, the last day spent in Maine, when she had killed that man. There was no stopping it, no taming it down, and she bared her teeth at him. "I could have been killed-"

"And I told you not to come, didn't I? But you didn't listen."

The anger was building. Higher and higher, burning in her body, turning her into something not like herself. She was slipping, losing her sanity, losing hold on herself completely. She let out a roar, loud enough to shake the trees around them, and she set her flaming eyes on Callum.

She would kill him. She would kill him. It would be easy, a snap of the neck, a simple break would do the trick. And she would relish in his pain, in his death, in the thrill of the kill.

But, before she could get there, she was doused in ice, frozen to the core so she couldn't make a single move, not even to turn her head towards the source of the ice.

She was still not herself. Callum was staring, eyes wide open at the ice statue of the golden girl he had just barely met. Fear skittered down his spine as he realized her immediate intent. His eyes found Aihfie's, then his father's, and then the newest Clan Leader.

He had met Sir Nohx a few times. Aihfie had met him more, her obsession with him obvious. Even then, in that circle, she stared at the Snow fae with adoration. "Wow," she breathed, her voice clearly impressed. "That'll teach the wannabe Princess who is in charge."

Callum watched Sir Nohx carefully. His face was a blank slate, devoid of anything that would tip of emotions or motives of any sort. But, he wasn't imagining the bite in his voice. "She isn't a wannabe Princess, and she is in charge. This isn't to prove that to her." Then, his dark eyes met Callum's in a dangerous dance. "And you should be careful. Her death today would have caused the next Great War. And, the fact that it was your father's Court, that alone could have sent us all to be banished."

Callum swallowed his tongue. The ice in Sir Nohx's voice made him want to cower. There was pure power behind the voice, power Callum would never possess, despite who his father was. Power that Aihife so clearly wanted for herself, despite the putdown she had just received from the Snow Clan Leader.

Aihfie though wasn't finished. "Aren't you tired of protecting her? First in the human world and now? You never get a break."

Sir Nohx's eyes slid to hers, but he looked like he was promising death. He didn't say anything, didn't have to. Callum could see it in his eyes and in his voice: protecting Princess Andorra wasn't a job to him, it was so clearly more.

"Well, it just so happens, he's about to have a break from it. I'm appointing the both of you to be Princess Andorra's bodyguards until she has found suitable ones."

"What?" Aihfie roared. "I am not protecting a useless fucking Princess. I will not. You can't make me. I couldn't care less if she dies. In fact, I want her dead!"

Prince Puck tutted at her. "You don't have a choice, dear daughter. I am binding the both of you to her as bodyguards. If she dies, you die. Understood?"

Shadows erupted from around Aihfie, exploding around them and coating the entire square in darkness. "And what happens when we are found dead, father? Your two precious children, dead because of a princess you don't even fucking like or want."

Prince Puck didn't look at his daughter. "Then I suppose I will be preparing for war." His eyes found Callum. "Once she finds new guards, you will be freed. I think you both understand the position and leverage this gives the two of you."

Callum nodded, not liking this, but understanding this. "Of course."

Aihfie was not on board. "Callum, why are you agreeing to this, this madness? What about our classes? What about our lives-"

"Being her guards will grant you power over her. You will control her movements, control her actions, control everything. Do you understand?" Prince Puck's voice was sheer power, strong enough to bring Aihfie to her knees. She bent before her father, her acrylic nails digging into the cobblestone beneath her.

Aihfie glared up at her father through the shadows. "I absolutely will not-"

"ENOUGH." Prince Puck's voice dropped several octaves and the power in his voice brought everyone to their knees, including Callum and Sir Nohx. His voice was pure command, a hand fisted in your hair, pushing you to the ground. "You will. This is no debate. You are bound to her now, both you and your brother. Convince her to find new guards, but before then, you will be watching her. Waiting on her hand and foot. Reporting back to me her every movement."

And then, the shadows in the square dissipated and the control was gone, done, over with. Prince Puck tightened his cape around his shoulders. Callum and Sir Nohx stood, both adjusting their clothes, but Aihfie stayed on the ground, tears in her eyes.

"Why us? Why not him?" She threw the words at her father, but she was talking about Sir Nohx. Callum watched as the Clan Leader's face darkened, the only emotion, and then it was gone. A blip. A mistake.

"I have plans for Sir Nohx that do not include the Princess, or you. Now, stand up. You're making a fool of yourself and of your Court."

Aihfie didn't want to stand, but she did. Her eyes flew to Callum's, and in them, she called him a traitor.

"Now, Sir Nohx is going to defrost the Princess, and she will be in your care. I want no slip ups, from either of you."

In an instant, Andorra began to defrost from the ice sculpture she was trapped in, all anger gone and instead, she was exhausted. So exhausted, that the act of unmelting made her slump forward, falling towards the ground.

Callum, on instinct, grabbed her before she could hit the cobblestone. His eyes found his father's, but he couldn't be angry. His dislike at this task would fix nothing. Unlike his sister, Callum had an easier time controlling his emotions.

Andorra blinked up at him. "C-Callum?"

She sounded like she'd just woken up, a sleepiness to her tone that had Callum's eyes widening. And then, there was a growl in a throat, so low Callum wouldn't have heard it had he not been a faerie. His eyes collided with Sir Nohx, but there was nothing on his face that would show any reason to let out that growl, that warning, that sense of displeasure.

And then, Andorra was looking around, still out of it. "I'm so c-cold. So cold." Her teeth were chattering. Her eyes looked up, and she seemed to melt in Callum's arms. "Noah?"

Noah? There were questions on Callum's tongue, but Aihfie beat him to them. "She calls you Noah?"

Sir Nohx's face didn't change. No thoughts in his eyes. He shrugged. "I had to have a human name when I stole her from the human world. Noah was the closest one to my real name that I could find."

His voice was icy, detached completely, but Andorra wasn't. She stiffened in Callum's arms, almost pushing away from Sir Nohx in that moment, like she remembered where she was. What she was. Who she was. She looked back to Callum, leaping from his arms in that same moment.

"We- you- no!" She sensed the fact that the siblings were bound to her in that very instant. She whirled on Prince Puck, then on Sir Nohx. Her finger jabbed in his face. "You froze me!"

"You were going to kill Prince Puck's son. It had to be done." The chill in his voice was enough to make Callum and Aihfie stand at attention, but Andorra looked as though she hadn't even noticed it.

"Stay away from me," she warned him. Then, she looked around the circle. "All of you, stay away from me! I mean it!"

"Not possible Princess," Callum grinned. "We're bound to you, now. Just want until Anders finds out."

"He won't find out because neither of you are saying anything." Prince Puck tucked his hands in the pockets of his pants. "Now, this has been charming, but we must go. Stay safe, Princess. You're in sharp hands."

She didn't want to be in sharp hands. She didn't want to be in anyone's hands. "Wait a second-"

But, there was no waiting. Just like how Callum and Aihife had appeared, Prince Puck and his entourage of guards turned into shadow and smoke and were gone in an instant, Noah included. Andorra watched with a dropped jaw, shocked but not surprised.

Coralia was suddenly there, tears in her voice. "Andorra. Andy, what happened? Are you okay?"

She was numb, but Andorra couldn't say that. Instead, she looked Coralia in the eyes and nearly collapsed. She hooked her thumb at the Shadow siblings. "I was almost killed, and now these two are my bodyguards. You need to wake me up from this nightmare, right now."

But, it wasn't a nightmare. And there was no waking up from this.

* * *

Noah is back baby

Although, not quite the same boy we last saw in the first book

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and this progression. Can't wait for y'all to learn more about Anlithamy and the world these characters belong to

Love you all! XOXO