Seven Black Diamonds by Melissa Marr

as if their pollution wasn’t crime enough, they had assassinated the royal heir.
    The Queen of Blood and Rage decided to strike back. At her order, the fae had bred and surrendered their young to be placed in the homes of people of influence across the globe. They’d allowed their children to be raised as humans, living in a world of disease and decay, because they believed . They’d sacrificed their own children because they’d believed. His real parents had believed enough to send him here, and Zephyr couldn’t let them down.
    Clara had explained repeatedly that their people were counting on him and the rest of the Sleeper Program. The humans had far outnumbered the fae, and the fae who had come forward openly were slaughtered. So the queen had turned to guerrilla warfare. The Sleepers were only one facet of her master plan. He saw the results on the news. There was a small city on the southern coast that was takenby the sea. Almost every casino in Vegas had been attacked by poison funneled into air ducts simultaneously; the death count there was high. Old Dublin had a siege of rats carrying the bubonic plague, and Chicago had been set to burn by over five hundred lightning strikes that were undoubtedly fae in origin.
    The attacks weren’t regular, and the media tried to explain them away, but the tabloids were filled with truth in this case. They cut through the government explanations and acknowledged that the Queen of Blood and Rage was steadily targeting humanity—and that humanity was defenseless.
    The queen was merciless when angered, and Zephyr hoped that he wasn’t going to anger her tonight.
    “I’ll let you know how it goes,” he told his teammates. “Right now, you better concentrate on getting well. No more of this, Creed.”
    Creed didn’t speak, neither agreeing nor refusing. He simply stretched in the sunlight, absorbing the nutrients it offered. Later, he’d do the same with the moon. Creed and Will were creatures of air, just as Zephyr and Alkamy were of the earth. Zephyr’s second affinity, metal, was peculiar in that it was only recharged via fighting. Alkamy had also started to show a second affinity, but hers was air. Consequently, unlike Zephyr, she could find nutrients from the sun and the moon, as well as from the soil. Violet was fire, so she drew from the sun as well. Only Roan and Zephyr weren’t able to be healed by sun alone. Roan needed water,and Zephyr needed soil.
    Zephyr stroked the plants nearest him.
    Creed drew his attention back to them by asking, “How was the explosion?”
    Zephyr flopped down on the ground, shucked his shoes so he could feel the earth against his skin, and brought both Creed and Roan up to speed on the explosion, Lilywhite, and the difficulty of what to tell the queen.
    He did not, however, tell them about the kiss. He didn’t admit that he was more stunned by the way she’d kissed or that she looked momentarily terrified when he called her Seelie. He didn’t tell them that she’d fled from him. Lilywhite was a mystery to him, and until he figured out more about her, he’d be keeping that mystery to himself as much as he could.

twelve
    LILY
    Lily felt out of sorts as she walked through the administration building and down that over-wide, shadowed hallway. The stone murmured under her feet; the heavy bass voice of it felt like a monastic chant that soothed her nerves. Sometimes Lily felt bad for people who couldn’t connect to one of the elements, but then again, they weren’t breaking laws simply by existing.
    After several minutes, she found Hector inside a surprisingly modern office. “The campus gates should have been closed after we entered. She could’ve been—”
    “Hector,” Lily cut him off.
    The headmistress had a pinched look as she turned to face Lily. “We take security very seriously here at St. Columba’s, Miss Abernathy. The gates are in place for areason. They keep threats out, but you should know that wandering into