Niall didn't come to the park on the first day of summer. Or the day after, or the day after that. He never came. I waited for him. I waited and waited. I thought that maybe he was just busy and couldn't come see me right away, that he would come soon, and I tried to stay optimistic. But after two weeks, the flicker of hope within me went out and was diminished. I felt that Niall simply didn't want to see me. Who could blame him? I was a Summer Girl, a fey hopelessly devoted to the king that Niall hated so passionately.
My thoughts changed, though, when I returned to my secret place, my sanctuary, our meeting place, one last time. At the base of the oak we always sat underneath I found a single black rose laying atop a folded, slightly wrinkled parchment like piece of paper. Kneeling down on the ground, clutching Niall's coat to my chest (I always carried it to the park with me), I picked up the rose and set it on my lap. With trembling fingers I unfolded the small piece of paper. Only one word was written on it in scrawled, yet somewhat elegant writing.
Sorry.
Tears began to fall, rolling down my cheeks and dripping onto the paper, smearing the ink. Somehow I knew that the rose and note were from Niall. Leaving them for me to find didn't seem like something he would do, yet I knew that he had to be the one who had left it for me. Deep inside my heart I knew that he wanted to see me, but he couldn't.
After the day I found the rose, I didn't return to my special place. I stayed home, spending more time with the members of my court. I tried to stay hopeful that I would see Niall again, but I doubted that I would anytime soon.
A war was brewing in the world of Faerie.
A terrible war in which there may not be any survivors. And I knew that if that happened, Dark and Summer would be pitted against each other in a fight to the death. And despite many feys' attempts to keep the war at bay, I knew that it was coming. Nobody, not Keenan, not Donia, not Aislinn, could stop it.
A war was coming, and it would consume us all.