Two years ago, October "Toby" Daye believed she could leave the world of
Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of
Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and
maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It's a
delicate balance--one that's shattered when she learns that an old
friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been
struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her
fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must
confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises
her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people
responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander's back, what's
her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby's mother,
Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen
of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game
than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take
the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most--because
if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be
forced to make the one choice she never thought she'd have to face
again....
"McGuire hits her stride with this fast-paced, sharply plotted, tense
urban fantasy (Artificial Night)...." --Publishers Weekly
