An Unwelcome Guest

This had to be very bad or Mom wouldn't be soft shoeing her way around me.

"Mom," I said.

"I'm sorry, Syd," she said. "I'm under a great deal of pressure to accept him." Her eyes pleaded with me. "Don't freak out. Promise me."

"No promises," I said, whole body tense, Charlotte's too, from the grip I still had on her hand.

Mom turned and headed for her office, gesturing for me to join her. "It's a complicated and delicate situation," she said, lowering her voice as her hand settled on the doorknob. "Do you understand?"

I sighed, forcing myself to relax before nodding. "Okay fine," I whispered as I crowded behind her, not sure I wanted to uncover her mystery guest or not. "No freaking out. But I might swear."

Second year of witch college has been a little boring for Syd so far. She suddenly wishes she could go back to her boredom when the Unseelie Lord Venemeth appears, a guest lecturer at Harvard. Despite all her warnings to her mother and the board of governors about him, Venner is given free rein. But what his handlers don't understand is he's not working alone—and his partner has her own plans for the Sidhe realm that have nothing to do with him going home...