Girls' Night Out

Praise for Jenna Black

Praise for Glimmerglass:

“The world building here is brisk, but accessible, the issues range from teen angst to faerie politics, and the skills needed to negotiate both include some magic-spell work and some sharp-tongue work. This is a promising start to a series that should have broad appeal among teens tiring of vampires but not dangerous romance.” — Booklist Online

“Every character was unique and surprising, and the secrets just kept coming and coming!” — By the Book Reviews

“Glimmerglass is an intriguing tale of adventure and discovery. The tightly woven plot takes you on a journey of romance, betrayal, revelations, and family secrets.” — Fresh Fiction

“A joy to read. Complex characters and complicated plot lines propel the story smoothly across the boundaries of fiction and fantasy. Black’s youthful, chatty writing style is friendly and believable, giving readers a protagonist who could be the nice and totally real young girl next door.” — Deborah Adams, Curled up with a Good Kid’s Book

Praise for Shadowspell:

“Black follows up her well-plotted Glimmerglass with another riveting episode in Dana’s new life as a Faeriewalker in Avalon. . . . Black’s fantasy world is finely honed and filled with realistic concerns as well as creative responses to them.” — Booklist

“Well-paced and thrilling, the second book in the series does not

disappoint.” — Voya Magazine

“This book was even better than the first! . . . A great book for all ages.” —

By the Book Reviews

“Avalon is a unique setting and serves the story perfectly, and Dana is still one of my favorite characters. If you haven’t started this series, I strongly urge you to do so! Highly recommended!” — My Bookish Ways

“Cleverly written, Shadowspell allows readers to enjoy a swift fantasy that weaves in the real-life concerns of its young protagonist.” — Fresh Fiction

“This is a must-read. When you open it, you won’t want to put it down, even after you’ve read the last page.” — Seduced by Books

Praise for Sirensong:

“Black’s talent brings the faerie realm to life with brilliant detail. . . . Fast paced and full of suspense.” — RT Book Reviews

“Sirensong is another amazing Faeriewalker novel by Jenna Black. I love reading about Dana as she goes through all the normal teen issues, such as boy trouble, overbearing parents and fights with friends.” — Night Owl Reviews

Also by Jenna Black

The Guardians of the Night Series:

The Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist Series:

The Faeriewalker Series:

The Descendant Series:

Prince of Air and Darkness

Dedication

For my readers. Thanks for all the love you’ve shown the Faeriewalker series!

Chapter One

At the risk of making myself sound like a geek extraordinaire, I was really looking forward to the first day of school. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that way—when school was out, I had to spend way too much time in the presence of my mother, the drunk—but it was even more welcome this year than most. This year, it promised a kind of normalcy that had disappeared from my life the moment I’d set foot in Avalon, the one place in the universe where Faerie and the mortal world intersect.

You see, I’m a Faeriewalker—a rare individual who has just the right mix of Fae and mortal blood to be able to travel freely in both the mortal world and in Faerie. I can also take magic into the mortal world and technology into Faerie. My unusual powers—and my late aunt Grace’s attempts to use me as a weapon to usurp the Seelie throne—had made me very unpopular with the two Queens of Faerie, and I’d been living in a bunker-like safe house under threat of death all summer. I had reached an agreement with Titania, the Seelie Queen, and she was no longer out to kill me, but my status with Mab, the Unseelie Queen, was less clear. I had recently revealed that unlike Faeriewalkers past, I could actually sense and use magic, and that my magic could turn a Fae into a mortal. I hoped the knowledge would encourage Mab to just leave me alone as long as I didn’t bother her.

My trip to Faerie, and my revelation of my power, had certainly made me safer than I’d been since the moment I’d set foot in Avalon. However, safer wasn’t the same as safe, and my dad, who had legal custody of me, insisted I remain ensconced in my safe house under twenty-four hour guard. Whenever I

complained, he pointed out that until I was eighteen, it was his decision to make, and that ended any argument. I wished I had another power: to speed up time so I could turn eighteen already!

My dad was paranoid enough that he’d categorically refused to let me go to school like a normal person. He thought having me out in public on a predictable schedule for seven hours a day, five days a week, would be inviting trouble. I’d wheedled, cajoled, begged, and otherwise made a major pain in the butt out of myself and finally got him to break down and compromise. To keep me from feeling like I was being buried alive in my safe house, Dad had agreed that I could audit one class at Avalon University so I’d be around other kids every once in a while. Kids who were all older than me, true, but after the things I’d gone through during the endless summer between my junior and senior years, I wasn’t sure I could even relate to ordinary high school kids anymore.

At first, I’d wanted to choose a class my best friend, Kimber, or my boyfriend, Ethan, were attending, but one look at their schedules had convinced me to strike out on my own. Kimber’s a brainiac sixteen-year-old who’s already a sophomore and studying to be an engineer. Her classes were way over my head and not even remotely interesting to me. Ethan is Kimber’s older brother, but he’s just a freshman, and his schedule is full of required classes—ones I would have to take myself for credit next year when I presumably would enroll in Avalon U full time.

I ended up choosing History of Avalon, because I was woefully uninformed about the history of my adopted home and because Kimber had had the professor before and said he was really good.

I was both nervous and excited as I made my way from my safe house to the university, carrying a backpack with my textbook, a notebook, and a handful of pens over my shoulder. Finn, my bodyguard, had offered to carry it for me, but I wanted to cling to any pretense of normalcy I could, so I stubbornly insisted on carrying my own bag, even if the textbook did weigh about thirty pounds.

I’d been anxious enough to get started that I’d managed to get us to the lecture hall almost a full fifteen minutes before class was scheduled to start, but at least I wasn’t the first one there. A handful of seats in the auditorium-style lecture hall were filled, and I paused for a moment at the back of the room to decide where to sit. I glanced back over my shoulder at Finn.

“Are you going to sit with me?” I asked, hoping and praying he would say no. He was a really nice guy and all, but he wasn’t exactly unobtrusive—he was a Knight of Faerie, and he dressed like he was playing a secret service agent in an action movie, complete with dark glasses no matter the weather, indoors or out. I might as well carry a billboard saying “Look at me, I’m not normal” if he was going to sit next to me.

Finn gave me an ironic half-smile. “I’ll sit in the back.”

The few kids who were seated had taken notice of us already. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see more than one curious face watching us. Even if Finn sat in back, people were going to know he was with me, but at least I wouldn’t be flaunting it.

“Thanks,” I told him, then blew out a steadying breath and started down the stairs with an eye toward snagging a seat in the center. I didn’t have the guts to actually sit next to some stranger, but I was hoping someone would eventually end up sitting next to me. Maybe someone who would come in later and hadn’t seen me arrive with a bodyguard in tow.

Pretty soon, the classroom started to fill up, students at first trickling, then pouring in. I was used to being the new girl in school, my mother having made us move about a thousand times while I was growing up, and I knew there were a lot of freshmen, who were all as new as I was, but I still felt a pang as people came in in pairs or groups, or as friends were reunited after the summer break. I even started to feel a bit sorry for myself, sitting alone in the middle of the room with empty seats all around me. People who already knew each other were sitting in little clumps together, and the really extroverted strangers were striking up conversations, but the more introverted people, like me, picked seats that weren’t directly next to others.