Garnet Prologue

The early November wind whipped past Lily Whitmoor, the former White Queen, screwing up her long blond hair, biting cold even through the coat the Black Queen had loaned her. She hated that coat. It wasn’t black, which was nice, but it wasn’t white, either. It was blue—one of the two colors worn by demons. Not a witch-color. Not the color meant to be worn by the witch-Queen of the White Court, the Queen of Hearts of the Twilight Chessboard.

Lily gritted her teeth and turned to glare at the Black Queen, to spit out something scathing…but something in Alyssa Carde's face held her back.

The Black Queen stood huddled inside a black leather jacket, hands stuffed in her pockets, the wind tugging at the feathery strands of her chin-length auburn hair. Her bizarre, amber eyes remained fixed on the tombstone jutting out of the dying cemetery grass. The wind stung Alyssa's eyes; that was why a few tears ran down her cheeks. Had to be why. Why else would she be crying? What did she have to cry about?

In the last three and a half months, Alyssa Carde had ruined Lily's life. She'd swept into Pillar Preparatory Academy; refused to fall in with the status quo of the White and Red Courts; stolen Lily's Knave of Hearts, her queen-secondary, and her Knave of Spades; publicly humiliated the White Queen again and again; and finally, on the night of Homecoming, had ripped away Lily's coven and Court, stealing them for herself, and stripping Lily of her rank as one of the two most powerful young witch Queens at Pillar. Yes, Lily had surrendered in the end, because Alyssa had made a bunch of promises about how Lily would be protected from her enemies now that she couldn’t defend herself, how Alyssa would be Lily's friend, she could stay at Alyssa's house since she'd been kicked out of her and disowned by her parents, blah-blah-blah. And like an idiot, the former White Queen had believed her.

The two weeks since Homecoming had proved Lily had been stupid to trust her. Alyssa had only wanted to steal Lily's power so she wouldn’t have to contend with a rival; she wanted to take over the school, make it hers. She'd even said so. And she'd only brought Lily to live with her so she could rub it in Lily's face that Jack Knightly, Lily's former Knave and the only person she'd ever trusted, no longer cared what happened to her. He only cared about his new Queen.

And that was what made living at the Carde house even worse than living with Lily's parents. Jack didn’t care about her anymore. In fact, Lily was pretty sure he hated her. She just didn’t understand why. What had changed? Besides Alyssa showing up…

"Do you want to say anything, Lily?"

Alyssa's soft voice broke through the whirlwind of Lily's thoughts. The former White Queen's eyes flashed to the other girl's face. Hard, topaz eyes locked with soft, wet amber. Lily hesitated. What was her deal, anyway?

Lily glanced at the tombstone. Why were they even here? Alyssa came to the cemetery every few days after school to put something on this grave. Sometimes flowers. Once it had been a picture in a pretty frame, of the Black Queen and Jack dressed up for Homecoming, looking like they would’ve rather been murdered than had their picture taken. Lily knew Jack hated having his picture taken, but he'd suffered through it for Alyssa. And today it had been a pretty candle—pumpkin-cupcake-scented—tied with a pale gold ribbon.

She'd never done that for someone in her Court who'd died. Then again, there were a ton more people in the White Court than the Black. Or had been.

The name on the tombstone stood out to Lily, though. It burned her eyes, had her chest tightening painfully as her gaze traced over the letters engraved in the stone. Something heavy and choking always settled in her throat when they came to the cemetery and stood in front of this tombstone.

Julianna Marie Frost
Beloved Daughter & Friend

Lily remembered Alyssa's question. She tore her gaze from the gravestone and raised a cold, golden eyebrow. Alyssa sighed and turned back to the stone. The wind and the distant sounds of traffic were the only sounds between them for a long time. That was just fine with Lily. Whenever the other girl opened her mouth, Lily was almost always torn between wanting to scream, cry, or punch her in the face. Except she'd break a nail if she punched Alyssa; the Black Queen had a skull like a robot's.

"Why did you kill her?" Alyssa asked suddenly. Lily stiffened. Glanced surreptitiously at the other girl. Alyssa didn’t look at her as she added, "You murdered my best friend. I don't understand why you'd do that."

Liquid ice spilled into Lily's stomach. For some reason, Alyssa sounded serious. Like she really didn’t get it. Like Julie really had been her best friend, and she missed her terribly.

Like a slap across the face, Lily suddenly remembered Julie's funeral; Alyssa crying in front of everybody, trying to talk and sobbing halfway through, She was my first chick friend at Pillar Prep. Now I have other friends, but...but not as close as Julie and me. And now I’m kinda lost, you know? She helped me navigate school and deal with people. I don’t know what to do now. And I miss her! I really do.

Swallowing, Lily narrowed her eyes, glaring at the grave-marker. "It's your own fault," she muttered, trying to ignore the ice churning in her stomach. "I put a hit on you, not her. And if she hadn’t tried to help you—"

"Why did you want to kill me?" Alyssa asked. Her voice vibrated with a dark, chilly strain that made Lily wonder if the Black Queen were seriously thinking about killing her. "What did I ever do to you, that you'd want to actually kill me?"

Shock and fury snapped through Lily's veins like crimson lightning. She whirled on the other girl, blond hair flying out in a curtain, golden eyes flashing. Long fingers convulsed into fists as she sucked in a sharp, cold breath. Glared at the Black Queen. Seriously? She was seriously going to ask that?

"You stole him," Lily spat.

Alyssa turned to her fully, both eyebrows sliding toward her hair. "What?"

"You stole Jack."

A slow, deliberate blink. "So Homicide Barbie tries to kill me because I stole her smexy Ken-doll counterpart? That's why you came after me like that?"

"You took away someone I love," Lily said too softly. “I took away someone you supposedly love."

Alyssa's eyebrows snarled together as she frowned at the former White Queen and cocked her head. Her gaze drifted to the side, and she mouthed something. A word Lily couldn’t decipher. Then those amber eyes flicked back to the other girl's face and Alyssa said, "You don't feel any remorse over killing her, do you?"

Lily swallowed hard. She couldn’t answer, because the right answer was no. That was what her parents had always taught her—to do what was necessary without apology, without regret. Eliminating a traitorous witch from her coven, from her Court, had been a necessity. So why should she feel bad about that? But if she said no, she didn’t know what Alyssa would do to her, and her soulbond with the other girl prevented Lily from fighting back physically or with magic. And on top of that, the word no refused to come to her lips when she called it. A tangle of other words tried to shove out of her mouth instead. But she couldn’t let them. She couldn’t show weakness to the Black Queen.

So she didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t be weak in front of Alyssa, the person who'd ruined her life. But there was something about the way she looked at Lily that made her wonder if Alyssa knew more about what was going on inside her head than Lily wanted her to.

Neither of them spoke again. Instead, when Alyssa turned and began to walk toward the cemetery parking lot and the diminutive werecat leaning against a massive white truck waiting there, Lily followed her. There was nowhere else for her to go.