Chapter 1
"Coercive as coma, frail as bloom
Innuendoes of your inverse dawn suffuse the self;
Our every corpuscle becomes an elf."
—Mina Loy,"Moreover, the Moon."
The Lost Lunar Baedeker
I sat at the long wooden tables in the queen's court, I still wore my black armour, and how did I kill that innocent. He hadn't done anything and his death was slow and painful. I shook my head to clear the image of my blade sliding into his leg then his arm. He wouldn't stop screaming I wanted to silence him but the queen just kept staring at me, daring me. "No" I told myself, I tried to forget it but that only brought back
memories of the smile and the confusing irritating dream. Who was the girl and why was she appearing in my dreams.
Kaye and her mother had been staying at her grandmother's a week already, and even though Ellen kept saying they'd be leaving soon, Kaye knew they really had nowhere to go. Kaye was glad. She loved the big old house caked with dust and mothballs. She liked the sea being so close and the air not stinging in her throat.
The cheap hotels they passed were long closed and boarded up, their pools drained and cracked. Even the arcades were shut down, prizes in the claw machines still visible through the cloudy glass windows. Rust marks above an abandoned storefront outlined the words SALT WATER TAFFY.
Janet dug through her tiny purse and pulled out a wand of strawberry lip gloss. Kaye spun up to her, fake leopard coat flying open, a run already in her stocking. Her boots had sand stuck to them. "Let's go swimming," Kaye said.
I couldn't take it anymore; the queen had taken it too far, killing innocents so close to the tithe. I couldn't help but think what the solitary fae were thinking, did they think she was doing this for them. I shook my head in frustration and stood up pushing the delicate hardwood bench back and knocking over the red wine in front of me. I didn't bother to clean it up or even attempt to move the bench back. I had to clear my head of today and my solution was to storm off.
I had gotten as far the edge of the solitary fae's forests when I heard my attacker. I swung around to face them only to be greeted by darkness and howling I ignored the feeling in my stomach that was telling me to stop and fight this unknown darkness but I was in no heart to listen I just wanted to forget or blissfully ignore.
I kept walking trudging onward. It had begun to rain by then big, fat drops. The rain had made my pewter hair stick to the sides of my face and the wind was whipping around me. The world was almost peaceful outside the storm that's when I knew something was wrong. The rush of wind signalled to me the problem seconds before it pierced my chest just below my collar bone.
