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Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale
Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale
Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale
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Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale

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In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing -- her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.

Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth -- that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?

Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 1, 2008
ISBN9781416979449
Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale
Author

Holly Black

Holly Black is the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of speculative and fantasy novels, short stories, and comics. She has been a finalist for an Eisner and a Lodestar Award, and the recipient of the Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honor. She has sold over twenty-six million books worldwide, and her work has been translated into over thirty languages and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. Visit her at BlackHolly.com.

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Reviews for Ironside

Rating: 4.044178829002079 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Third in the Modern Tales of Faery series, but second focusing on Kaye. This volume takes place mostly in the Faerie world, as Kaye tries to prove her love and loyalty to Roiben, and figure out her place in both worlds, as someone not really of either.I liked this one better than Tithe, and read it quickly, but it faded just as fast. There's not much of substance here, and that's probably just fine for most readers. Like a mediocre Chinese meal, it will remind you of the real thing, and briefly scratch the itch, but ultimately will make you long for something more authentic and fulfilling.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Kaye, whose lover, Roiben, rules the Unseelie Court, has a quest so she can stay by Roiben's side: find a faery who can lie. Problem is that faeries can't lie.'Ironside' performs just as well as 'Tithe' and 'Valiant' do. It is well written, clever, gritty, and certainly worth buying.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story of Kaye continues to evolve in interesting and unique ways. Black does a very good job of taking seemingly inane ideas and making them new again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very intriguing continuation of the first book. I find myself absorbed by the Robyn-Kaye relationship. Not many authors are capable of writing a story that has you questioning the characters motives. This story had me guessing right up to the last page.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the third (and I am assuming the last) in Black's 'Modern Faery's Tale' series. I don't know if the authors writing matured or I have grown used to her style. But I didn't get as annoyed with Kaye's immaturity as I did in the first novel. Yea for progress.I enjoyed the tangle she got herself into by being peer pressured into declaring herself to Roiben. I enjoyed that we were shown Roiben and given flashes of his feelings and priorities.I feel that by the end of this book Kaye matured enough that I would really love to read about her being Roiben's consort in future books. For all this series flaws (the writing just doesn't flow very well) I think the story and imagery more than make up for it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Ironside starts off a few months after the events of Tithe and Kaye has been feeling lost as she doesn't know where she belongs, so she drunkenly declares herself to Roiben, and he sends her on an impossible quest. Meanwhile Queen Silarial is still trying to kill Roiben, so Kaye also has to prevent her, though they don't know what she's planning. She is joined on her quest by Corny, and also someone from Valiant(I wont give away who) which I was pleased with because i had not really seen Valiant as a sequel but more of a companion book. I have to agree with the previous reviewer that Ironside completely lives up to it's prequels. It is a great book that will not disappoint.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I like the way she ended Kaye and Roiben's stories. I wish she would have finished up, or tied in Val's story. I felt like she kinda left us hanging, and it made Valiant not make sense in the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book. So far I have really loved all the books in this series. This books continues where the book Valiant left off. Roiben is set to become king of the Unseelie court. Roiben struggles with what will happen when he is crowned king and the uncomfortable treaty with the Seelie court is broken; he wonders if war is inevitable. Kaye struggles with her place with Roiben and the Unseelie court. She is also struggling with the knowledge that the baby human whose place she grew up in is still alive and Kaye feels that she needs to reunite her "mother" with her true daughter. Corny struggles with his fear of fairy and his grief over the death of his sister.This book is an easy read. The characters are all likable. A few new main characters are introduced. Luis is a great character and as likable and angsty as the rest of them. The book is fast paced and is a great book about faery. I have always loved urban fantasy, Charles De Lint being the first urban fantasy author I ever read. This book is a great addition to my collection. There are new fairies, action, duels, riddles, curses, you name it. I love how there is a little romance in the book but it is not overpowering; relationships are kept to simple hugging, kissing, and cuddling. There are too many fantasy book out there that get too physically in depth with the love thing, if you know what I mean (see Laurell Hamilton book review). This book leaves you with a happy pleasant feeling at the conclusion.That being said I am always surprised that these are considered young adult books. There is a lot of swearing and also more "adult" topics to deal with. For example Corny is gay and the Unseelie court revels in a number of horrific forms of torture and killing. None of these things are gone into in overly explicit detail but still. I would say that mid to upper teens would be okay with these books; they are not books that I would read to my 10 year old or younger.Still these books are fun and enjoyable. The author definitely has a love of fine literature and I enjoy all of the fine literature quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Black seems to pick these quotes with care so that they reveal and foreshadow the chapter to come. I love it!I hope there will be another book; although this book is wrapped up pretty nicely so who can say.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wasn't *quite* as good as the first two, in my opinion. It was still good, but I think I wanted a little more action. Or something. I hope she writes more books in this world, though. I really have become attached to the characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Pixie changeling Kaye is in love with the king of the Unseelie Court. There is war brewing with his kingdom and the rival Seelie Court. Kaye finds herself in the middle as the possible key to bringing peace and stopping death on the faerie and human side. She also struggles with the desire to tell her human mother that she is not the daughter she gave birth to while her best friend, the human Corny, joins her on this quest.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Corny, Roiben, and Kaye return with all the other familiar characters in this satisfying sequel to Black's first YA novel "Tithe". The story opens with Roiben's coronation as King of the Unseelie Court. As a result, the longstanding peace between the Seelie and Unseelie courts is broken and the Faerie world finds itself in the midst of war for the first time in an age. With a backdrop of war and court intrigue Kaye is dealing with serious relationship problems and is coming to grips with the knowledge that she's faery, not a human girl she like she thought she was. A great read, but I highly recommend you read "Tithe" first.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maybe shy of four stars but easily tops 3-1/2. I really should have read this sooner after the first two books. The first two were so independent of each other that it didn't occur to me that the characters of the first two would come together in the third. It wasn't critical but it would have been advantageous.

    This was a very good series. The Spiderwick Chronicles were very much fun. I think I'll be moving White Cat to one of my short lists now that it's finally out.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Rated: R Language, Adult Situations

    Exciting. Great storyline.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I decided to listen to this audiobook a few years after not being very impressed with the first book in the Modern Faerie series while I waited for the second book Holly Black's Curse Workers series to be released. Well, Curse Workers is the series I prefer. The Modern Faerie series isn't for me. It's a little too gritty for me. Though I appreciate this book was a fantastic way of telling a story I didn't really like, if that makes any sense.I enjoyed the way Black uses the framework of the "Beauty & the Beast" tell to shape her story here without making it a straight-up retelling. I liked Val's independence, but I'd hesitate to call her a strong protagonist. I liked some of the magical elements, but like I said, this book wasn't for me.There's also a scene in the book that had me sobbing hysterically and feeling just disgustingly awful for a long time after. If I had known about it beforehand, I would never have picked up this book. So, here's my warning in hopes it may help someone (without being too spoilery) -- if you are sensitive to any kind of animal abuse, do not read this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I enjoyed this book because it has a lot of details about fairies. It also has a lot of action and the ending was good.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved the trilogy. Such a fun read. Such a good book.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Not really a sequel to Tithe, and absolutely nothing like it. The only likable character in the whole book is a troll. Could not relate and didn't want to.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not quite as good as 'Tithe,' I thought, but I still enjoyed this very much.
    Val, a teen from New Jersey, runs away when she finds out that her mom has been having an affair with her boyfriend. In shock, she goes to NYC, and falls in with some squatter kids living in the subway tunnels.

    The best part of the book is the portrayal of the squatters, and the culture clash between their reality and that of the sheltered suburbanites. The author really captured the milieu - how such kids can be troubled, yet smart, have issues, but yet be welcoming, supportive and accepting. Still, she doesn't romanticize it.
    It reminded me (a lot) of stuff I did in my teen years. I found it convincing.

    Of course, urban vs. suburban isn't the only conflict here - the squatter kids are in touch with faeries, and involved with running a magic potion that helps urban faeries survive in the presence of iron. Unfortunately, for humans, the effects are an awful lot like those of heroin.

    When faeries start turning up dead, the mystery of who's killing them needs to be solved... and that's where I didn't think the book was as strong. It ended up being a pretty typical drugs-and-murder-mystery kind of plot, with a bit of supernatural romance thrown in. It wasn't bad, but, as I said, I liked 'Tithe' better. (I thought this was a sequel, but they both work as stand-alone novels; they're just set in the same reality.)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I decided to listen to this audiobook a few years after not being very impressed with the first book in the Modern Faerie series while I waited for the second book Holly Black's Curse Workers series to be released. Well, Curse Workers is the series I prefer. The Modern Faerie series isn't for me. It's a little too gritty for me. Though I appreciate this book was a fantastic way of telling a story I didn't really like, if that makes any sense.I enjoyed the way Black uses the framework of the "Beauty & the Beast" tell to shape her story here without making it a straight-up retelling. I liked Val's independence, but I'd hesitate to call her a strong protagonist. I liked some of the magical elements, but like I said, this book wasn't for me.There's also a scene in the book that had me sobbing hysterically and feeling just disgustingly awful for a long time after. If I had known about it beforehand, I would never have picked up this book. So, here's my warning in hopes it may help someone (without being too spoilery) -- if you are sensitive to any kind of animal abuse, do not read this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's amazing. It's wonderful, and it completely captivates you.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was really hoping to like this book. I was disappointed however. The characters were not well defined or built. The relationship between Valerie and her mother isn't explored well enough to elicit the type of response that Valerie expressed. Valerie isn't well defined either to explain why she would choose to go so far off the deep end over one incident. The sudden unexplained feelings between Ravus and Valerie also seemed dis-jointed and unaccounted for within the story, a sideways glance or two doesn't constitute undying love. I feel that the author could have done so much more with this story if time was taken to fully develop the characters. The plot is interesting but moves along in fits and starts. I'll continue to read this author because I believe that there is the good beginnings of great writing; I just hope to see it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    well writen story my kids enjoyed this book as we read this book at bedtime and they liked all the ups and downs as they said about this story and I had to get more of Holly Black's book for them
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I've only read the first 100 pages but I hate the main character so much I just can't continue, and I am not usually one to give up on a crappy book/ movie that I paid actual money for.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Holly Black is beautiful. I am not commenting on her appearance, though I am sure she is a very pretty person, I am stating that the way she creates these fair-tale-nightmare-dreamscapes in the modern world is nothing short of art and therefore beautiful. Even though this book has nothing to do with the star-crossed lovers of the first book the new couple is still as weird, messed up and cute as the first. The start of the book is one of my favorite parts, because Black takes a normal suburban teenaged girl and finds such a life changing event that it would cause her to go live in the city as a drug dealing hobo. This was indeed a stretch, yet at the same time it gives Valerie a very rebellious side and the idea that she was never content with her home life. One theme prevalent in the series is how things that seem nice are really horrible and deadly. I really enjoyed how messed up some of the events in the book are, they play on the fact that life is grimy and gritty and messed up, but there is always a way to find happiness or at least a happy ending. The cameo of Kaye and Robin was so perfect though!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Just as pretty as Tithe, and with some more meat; of the three books so far published I do like this one the best.


    --

    Still not the biggest fan of Holy Black, but six years later I still really like the end of this story. Really needed a dose of the bizarre that only faery can give.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black. Some interesting ideas. Fairly suspenseful. However, I thought it odd that a seventeen-year-old would have unprotected sex and share a needle while taking a new drug with no mention of pregnancy, HIV, or any STDS. Addiction was very lightly mentioned. It was all too casual, I felt, for a Young Adult book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Read this book after Tithe.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    By far my favourite in the series, full of the wit charm you expect from Holly Black.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Ironside is the third and final book in the Modern Faerie Tales trilogy and it was a pretty good ending. Valiant is still my favorite of the three, however I really did like this book.Ironside was hard to put down. It didn’t pull me in as much as Valiant, or even Tithe, but I still wanted to keep reading to find out how it all would end. I have to admit though that I was just a tiny bit disappointed in the ending. It just didn’t feel finished.Holly Black is a fabulous writer. She creates a gripping story filled with friendship and danger. So of course I would definitely recommend this trilogy to everyone. All three books are fast, fun and well written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It's time for Roiben's coronation to be made the offical king of the depraved Unseelie Court. Kaye, who is just getting used to her pixie state after being raised as a human, is having trouble fitting in to the court. During the celebration, Kaye drinks more faerie wine than she should and drunkenly declares her love for Roiben in fae tradition. It's customary for him to give her some sort of trial, an easy one if the love is returned, and she can't see or speak to him until the task is done. His task is for her to find a faerie who can lie, which is completely impossible. Shocked and reeling, Kaye returns to her home and goes into a shame spiral, resulting in telling her mother that she is a changeling. When trying to retrieve her human counterpart, Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court, attempts to ensare Kaye into her plan to take the Unseelie throne from Roiben. How can Kaye hope to beat the ancient queen of the faeries at her own game?I seriously love this series so much. I have no idea why I waited so long to read it. It combines so many things that I love: dark faeries, realistic characters, twisty plots, unconventional romances, sword fights, and games of wit. While there is one fairly one dimensional villain, both sides of the conflict are largely in shades of grey where both do good and evil for different reasons. How they appear is not usually how they actually are and it has led to many surprising and turns in the series. This installment also merges the characters from Tithe with those from Valiant, but I felt they were underutilized considering an entie book was spent building up their characters. I especially loved returning to Kaye and Roiben and seeing that the events of Tithe didn't magically make all of their problems go away. Kaye is still lost as a newfound pixie and Roiben still holds all his feelings inside without sharing all of himself with Kaye. Now that Kaye knows what she is, she no longer truly belongs to the faerie world or the human world. Faeries view her as ignorant, socially inept, and someone to play tricks on, as close to human as a fae can get. She sticks to the human world most of the time because she can at least glamour herself to fit in even though she knows she doesn't belong there anymore. As before, she's prone to drowning her sorrows in booze instead of facing them head-on. This paired with her eagerness to be accepted into fae society as Roiben's mate drove her to declare herself to Roiben. Roiben also has a lot of baggage. He feels similar to Kaye about the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. While the depravity and cruelty of the Unseelie Court disgusts him, he has found that the Seelie Court isn't much better after being blind for so long, especially since he has seen his former Queen and former beloved Silarial's true colors. Kaye is his escape from all of it and he didn't want to endanger her by putting a big target on her forehead as someone to torture or kill to get to him. While his reasonings aren't terrible, he doesn't share anything with Kaye. leading to her spiral after he very publicly and soundly rejects her declaration. Ironside is an amazing end to a strong series. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the end since I couldn't figure out how Roiben and Kaye would get out of their predicament. The clever thinking and faerie logic that leads the story in unexpected places is unparalleled. Holly Black is the queen of faerie stories as far as I'm concerned and I can't wait to read The Cruel Prince when it comes out. She always writes unexpected stories with engaging characters and I will read every book she writes, especially if it's in the fae world.

Book preview

Ironside - Holly Black

PROLOGUE

Through the mosses bare,

They have planted thorn-trees

For pleasure here and there.

If any man so daring

As dig them up in spite,

He shall find their sharpest thorns

In his bed at night.

—WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, THE FAIRIES

Despite her casting him down to this place, despite the fresh bruises on his skin and the blood under his nails, Roiben still loved Lady Silarial. Despite the hungry eyes of the Unseelie Court and the gruesome tasks its Queen Nicnevin set him. Despite the many ways he’d been humiliated and the things he wouldn’t let himself think on while he stood stiffly behind her throne.

If he concentrated hard, he could remember the flame of his Queen’s copper hair, her unreadable green eyes, the strange smile she’d given him as she’d pronounced his fate just three months past. Choosing him to leave her Bright Court and be a servant among the Unseelie was an honor, he told himself once more. He alone loved her enough to remain loyal. She trusted him above her other subjects. Only his love was true enough to endure.

And he did love her still, he reminded himself.

Roiben, said the Unseelie Queen. She had been eating her dinner off the back of a wood hob, his green hair long enough to serve as a tablecloth. Now she looked up at Roiben with a dangerous sort of smile.

Yes, my Lady, he said automatically, neutrally. He tried to hide how much he loathed her, not because it would displease her. Rather, he thought it would please her too well.

The table trembles too much. I am afraid my wine will spill.

The hollow hill was almost empty; what courtiers remained to amuse themselves beneath garlands of hairy roots did so quietly as the Queen took her supper. Only her servants were close by, all of them grim as ghosts. Her chamberlain cleared his throat.

Roiben stared at her dumbly.

Fix it, she commanded.

He took a step forward, unsure of what she wanted him to do. The hob’s wizened face looked up at him, pale with terror. Roiben tried to smile reassuringly, but that seemed to only make the little man tremble further. He wondered if binding would make the hob steadier, and then was disgusted with himself for the thought.

Chop his feet so they’re even with his hands, a voice called, and Roiben looked up. Another knight, hair dark as his coat, strode toward Nicnevin’s throne. A dull circlet sat on his brow. He smirked broadly. Roiben had seen him only once before. He was the knight that the Unseelie Court had sent up to the Seelie as their symbol of peace. Roiben’s twin in servitude, although he could only suppose this knight’s thralldom was easier than Roiben’s own. At the sight of him Roiben’s heart leaped with an impossible hope. Could the exchange be done with? Was it possible he would be sent home at last?

Nephamael, the Queen said, has Silarial tired of you so quickly?

He snorted. She sends me as a messenger, but the message is of little consequence. I rather think she doesn’t like me, but you seem better pleased with the trade.

I could not stand to part with my new knight, Nicnevin said, and Roiben bowed his head. Will you do what Nephamael suggests?

Roiben took a deep breath, struggling for a calm he didn’t feel. Every time he spoke, he was half afraid he would snap and say what he really thought. I doubt his plan’s efficacy. Let me take the hob’s place. I will not spill your wine, Lady.

Her smile widened with delight. She turned to Nephamael. He asks so prettily, doesn’t he?

Nephamael nodded, although he looked less amused than she had. His yellow eyes seemed to take Roiben’s measure for the first time. And no concern for dignity. You must find that refreshing.

She laughed at that, a laugh that seemed startled from her throat and as cold as ice breaking over a deep lake. Somewhere in the vast, dim cavern, a harp began to play. Roiben shuddered to think what it might be strung with.

Be my table, then, Roiben. See to it that you do not tremble. The hob will suffer for any failing on your part.

Roiben took the place of the little faerie easily, barely counting it as a humiliation to get down on his hands and knees, to bow his head and let the silver plates and warm dishes be set gingerly on his back. He did not flinch. He remained still, even as Nephamael seated himself on the floor beside the throne, resting yet another goblet on the curve of his spine. The man’s hand rested on his ass, and Roiben bit his lip to avoid flinching in surprise. The stench of iron was overwhelming. He wondered how Nicnevin could bear it.

I’ve grown bored, Nephamael said. Although the Seelie Court is lovely, certainly.

And there is nothing to amuse you there? I find that hard to believe.

There are things. Roiben thought he could feel the smile in those words. The hand slid across the hollow of his back. He stiffened before he could help himself, and heard the goblets tinkle together with his movement. But my delight is in finding weakness.

Nicnevin didn’t so much as reprimand Roiben. He doubted it was out of any generosity on her part.

Somehow, she said, I wonder if you are speaking to me at all.

It is you I am speaking to, Nephamael said. But not you I am speaking about. Your weaknesses are not for me to know.

A charming, ingratiating answer.

But take your knight here. Roiben. I know his vulnerability.

Do you? I would think that would be rather obvious. His love of the solitary fey has him on his knees even now.

Roiben steeled himself not to move. That the Queen of Filth spoke about him as though he were an animal didn’t surprise him, but he found that he was more afraid of what Nephamael might say. There was something hungry in the way that Nephamael spoke, a hunger Roiben wasn’t sure what might sate.

He loves Silarial. He declared himself to her. And the quest she gave him was this—to be your servant in exchange for peace.

The Queen of the Unseelie Court said nothing. He felt a goblet lifted from his back and then replaced.

It is delightfully cruel, really. Here he is, being loyal and brave for a woman who used him poorly. She never loved him. She’s forgotten him already.

That’s not true, Roiben said, turning, so that silver dishes crashed around him. He leaped to his feet, uncaring of the gaping courtiers, the spilled wine, the hob’s frightened cry. He didn’t care about anything right then but hurting Nephamael, who’d stolen his place—his home—and dared gloat over it.

Stop! Nicnevin called. I command you, Roiben, by the power of your promise to cease moving.

Against his will, he froze like a mannequin, breathing hard. Nephamael had twisted out of his way, but the half smirk Roiben expected to find on his face was missing.

Kill the hob, the Unseelie Queen commanded. You, my knight, will drink his blood like wine, and this time you will not spill a drop.

Roiben tried to open his mouth to say something to stay her hand, but the command forbade even that movement. He had been stupid—Nephamael had been goading him in the hope of just such a mistake. Even the Queen’s lack of rebuke earlier had probably been planned. Now he had made a spectacular fool of himself and cost an innocent creature its life. Self-loathing gnawed at his belly.

Never again, he told himself. No matter what they said or did or made him do, he would not react. He would become as indifferent as stone.

The grim servants were quick and efficient. Within moments they had prepared a warm goblet and raised it to his unmoving lips. The corpse was already being cleared away, open eyes staring at Roiben from beyond death, damning him for his vanity.

Roiben could not stop himself from opening his mouth and gulping the warm, salty liquid. A moment later, he gagged and retched on the dais.

The flavor of that blood stayed with him through the long years of his service. Even when a pixie accidentally set him free, even when he’d won the Unseelie crown. But by then he could no longer remember whose blood it was, only that he had grown used to the taste.

1

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape—the loneliness of it—the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it—the whole story doesn’t show.

—ANDREW WYETH

Human girls cry when they’re sad and laugh when they’re happy. They have a single fixed shape rather than shifting with their whims like windblown smoke. They have their very own parents, whom they love. They don’t go around stealing other girls’ mothers. At least that’s what Kaye thought human girls were like. She wouldn’t really know. After all, she wasn’t human.

Fingering the hole on the left side of her fishnets, Kaye poked at the green skin underneath as she considered herself in the mirror.

Your rat wants to come, Lutie-loo said. Kaye turned toward the lidded fish tank, where the doll-size faerie had her thin, pale fingers pressed against the outside of the glass. Inside, Kaye’s brown rat, Armageddon, sniffed the air. Isaac was curled in a white ball in the far corner. He likes coronations.

Can you really understand what he’s saying? Kaye asked, pulling an olive skirt over her head and wriggling it onto her hips.

He’s just a rat, Lutie said, turning toward Kaye. One of her moth wings dusted the side of the cage with pale powder. Anyone can talk rat.

Well, I can’t. Do I look too monochromatic in this?

Lutie nodded. I like it.

Kaye heard her grandmother’s voice calling from downstairs. Where are you? I made you a sandwich!

Be there in a second! Kaye shouted back.

Lutie kissed the glass wall of the cage. Well, can the rat come or not?

I guess. Sure. I mean, if you can get him to not run away. Kaye laced up one thick-soled black boot and limped around the room looking for its mate. Her old bed frame was in pieces in the attic, her old dolls were dressed in punk-rock finery, and above the new mattress on the floor Kaye had painted a mural where a headboard might have been. It was half finished—a tree with deep, intricate roots and gilded bark. Although she’d thought it would, the decorating still hadn’t made the room feel like hers.

When he’d seen the mural, Roiben had remarked that she could glamour the room into looking any way she wanted, but a magical veneer—no matter how lovely—still didn’t seem real to her. Or maybe it seemed too real, too much a reminder of why she didn’t belong in the room at all.

Shoving her foot into the other boot, she tugged on her jacket. Leaving her hair green, she let magic slide over her skin, coloring and plumping it. There was a slight prickling as the glamour restored her familiar human face.

She looked at herself a moment longer before pocketing Armageddon, scratching behind the ears of Isaac, and walking toward the door. Lutie followed, flying on moth wings, keeping out of sight as Kaye jogged down the stairs.

Was that your mother on the phone before? Kaye’s grandmother asked. I heard it ring. She stood at the kitchen counter, pouring hot grease into a tin can. Two peanut butter and bacon sandwiches sat on chipped plates; Kaye could see the brown meat curling past the edges of the white bread.

Kaye bit into her sandwich, glad that the peanut butter glued her mouth shut.

I left her a message about the holidays, but can she bother to call me back? Oh no, she’s much too busy to talk. You’ll have to ask her tomorrow night, although why she can’t come down here to see you instead of insisting you go visit her at that squalid apartment in the city, I will never know. It must really gall her that you’ve decided to stay here instead of following her around like a little shadow.

Kaye chewed, nodding along with her grandmother’s complaints. In the mirror beside the back door, she could see, beneath the glamour, a girl with leaf green skin, black eyes without a drop of white in them, and wings as thin as plastic wrap. A monster standing beside a nice old lady, eating food intended for another child. A child stolen away by faeries.

Brood parasites. That’s what cuckoos were called when they dropped their eggs in other birds’ nests. Parasitic bees, too, leaving their spawn in foreign hives; Kaye had read about them in one of the moldering encyclopedias on the landing. Brood parasites didn’t bother raising their own babies. They left them to be raised by others—birds that tried not to notice when their offspring grew huge and hungry, bees that ignored that their progeny did not collect pollen, mothers and grandmothers who didn’t know the word changeling.

I have to go, Kaye said suddenly.

Have you thought more about school?

Gram, I got my GED, Kaye said. You saw it. I did it. I’m done.

Her grandmother sighed and looked toward the fridge, where the letter was still tacked with a magnet. There’s always community college. Imagine that—starting college before the rest of your class even graduates.

I’ll go see if Corny is outside yet. Kaye started toward the door. Thanks for the sandwich.

The old woman shook her head. It’s too cold out there. Stand on the porch. He should know better than to ask a young girl to wait outside in the snow. I swear, that boy has no manners at all.

Kaye felt the whoosh of air as Lutie flew past her back. Her grandmother didn’t even look up. Okay, Gram. Bye, Gram.

Stay warm.

Kaye nodded and used the sleeve of her coat to turn the knob of the door so that she could avoid touching the iron. Even the smell of it burned her nose when she got close. Walking through the porch, she used the same trick on the screen door and stepped out into the snow. The trees on the lawn were encased in ice. Hail from that morning had stuck to whatever it had touched, freezing into solid sparkling skins that covered branches and flashed against the dull gray sky. The slightest breeze sent the limbs jangling against one another.

Corny wasn’t coming, but her grandmother didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t lying. After all, faeries couldn’t lie. They only bent the truth so far that it snapped on its own.

Above the doorway, a swag of thorn wrapped in green marked the house as watched over by the Unseelie Court. A gift from Roiben. Each time Kaye looked at the branches, she hoped that being protected by the Unseelie Court included being protected from the Unseelie Court.

She turned away, walking past a ranch house with aluminum siding hanging off in patches. The woman who lived there raised Italian ducks that ate all the grass seed anyone in the neighborhood planted. Kaye thought of the ducks and smiled. A trash can rolled in the street, bumping up against plastic bins of beer bottles set out for recycling. Kaye crossed over the parking lot of a boarded-up bowling alley, where a sofa rested near the curb, cushions hard with frost.

Plastic Santas glowed on lawns beside dried grapevine reindeer wrapped with fiber-optic lights. A twenty-four-hour convenience store piped screechy carols that carried through the quiet streets. A robotic elf with rosy cheeks waved endlessly next to several snowman windsocks fluttering like ghosts. Kaye passed a manger missing its baby Jesus. She wondered if kids had stolen him or if the family had just taken him in for the night.

Halfway to the cemetery, she stopped at a pay phone outside a pizza place, put in quarters, and punched in Corny’s cell number. He picked it up after the first ring.

Hey, Kaye said. Did you decide about the coronation? I’m on my way to see Roiben before it starts.

I don’t think I can go, Corny said. I’m glad you called, though—I have to tell you something. I was driving past one of those storage places. You know the kind with the billboards that have quotes on them like ‘Support Our Troops’ or ‘What Is Missing in C-H-blank-blank-C-H? U-R.’

Yeah, Kaye said, puzzled.

Well, this one said ‘Life Is Like Licking Honey from a Thorn.’ What the fuck is that?

Weird.

No shit, it’s weird. What is it supposed to mean?

Nothing. Just don’t dwell on it, Kaye said.

Oh, right. Don’t dwell. That’s me. I’m so good at not dwelling. It’s my skill set. If I was going to take one of those tests to see what job I was best suited for, I would rate a perfect ten for ‘not dwelling on shit.’ And what job do you think that would qualify me for exactly?

Storage unit manager, Kaye said. You’d be the one to put up those sayings.

Ouch. Right between the legs. She could hear the smile in his voice.

So, you’re really not coming tonight? You seemed so sure it was a good idea for you to face your fears and all that.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Just as she would have spoken, he said, "The problem with facing my fears is that they’re my fears. Not to mention that a fear of megalomaniacal, amoral fiends is hard to rationalize away. He laughed, a brittle, strange cackle. Just once I’d like them to finally give up their secrets—tell me how to really protect myself. How to be safe."

Kaye thought of Nephamael, the last King of the Unseelie Court, choking on iron, and Corny stabbing him again and again.

I don’t think it’s that simple, Kaye said. I mean, it’s almost impossible to protect yourself from people, forget faeries.

Yeah, I guess. I’ll see you tomorrow, Corny said, and ended the call.

Okay. She heard him hang up the phone.

Kaye walked on, drawing her coat more tightly around her. She stepped into the cemetery and started up the snowy hill, muddy and grooved by the sleds that had gone over it. Her gaze strayed to where she knew Janet was buried, although from where Kaye stood, the polished granite stones looked the same with their plastic garlands and wet red bows. She didn’t need to see the grave for her steps to slow, weighed down by the memory like sodden clothes must have weighed down Janet’s drowning body.

She wondered what happened when the baby cuckoo realized it wasn’t like its brothers and sisters. Maybe it wondered where it had come from or what it was. Maybe it just pretended nothing was wrong and kept on gulping

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