Stacey W.

When the fae king of Naenden returns home to his palace only to find that his human queen has committed treason by conspiring to assassinate him, he has the queen executed and decrees that once every mooncycle, he’ll marry a human woman from the kingdom, only to execute her the following morning. Unless one woman offers herself as a sacrificial bride for the rest.

Piper’s job is simple: Take the children. Don’t get caught. The rules she binds on herself, however… Well, they’re a tad more complicated. Kidnapped as a child for her connection with the Old Magic—the one that grants her the ability to enchant others with her music—Piper knows good and well the rules of the Coup, the underground organization intent on bringing down the fae regime. As the Coup’s first “recruiter,” she’s supposed to take the strong, the good-boned, the clever, the healthy. Except Piper doesn’t always do what she’s supposed to. Instead, she makes a few rules of her own

Ellie knows what she wants in life: Open a glassblowing shop in the art district; See her father retire; Marry for love (if she can find someone who can keep up, that is). Winning the fae prince's heart doesn't make the list. So, when Prince Evander throws a ball to find a human bride, Ellie respectfully declines. When she reads the morning paper and discovers the prince danced the night away with a mysterious stranger, only for the woman to flee at the stroke of midnight, Ellie can't help but laugh.