The city never slept, but tonight it felt more restless than usual. Neon lights flickered against rain-slicked streets, casting fractured shadows that moved like ghosts among the cracked concrete. Jude stood on the rooftop, the cold wind biting through the fabric of her worn leather jacket, her eyes narrowing as she surveyed the tangled maze below.

This wasn’t the Court of Elfhame—no lush forests or silver towers. Here, power was wielded in whispered deals, broken promises, and the weight of a well-placed blade. And Jude? She was no stranger to shadows.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the rooftop, nails digging into rusted metal. The city’s heartbeat thrummed beneath her—a pulse of danger and opportunity. Every alley held a secret. Every silhouette could be an enemy. But that was the game she’d chosen. No throne to sit on, no faerie magic to call her own. Just grit, cunning, and a reputation carved from scars.

A faint shimmer caught the corner of her eye. She turned, muscles coiling, senses sharpening. Somewhere in the depths of this city, a new threat was stirring a collision of worlds she couldn’t ignore. Jude was ready to reclaim what she lost, not with royal blood, but with steel and will. But first she had to meet with someone she once betrayed in Elfhame to figure out why the fae were venturing into the human world in such numbers and how she got back.

She walked through the alley as quietly as a mouse and edged around broken bottles, puddles of what was likely urine if the smell was any indication and stacks of cardboard and rubbish as she got closer to their meeting point. Jude had scouted the area for days to make sure no traps were being put in place to capture her but she was still on edge, on guard. She unsheathed her dagger and leaned back against the wall, appearing casual as she picked at the dirt beneath her fingernails with her blade. "You're late." She said without lifting her gaze as her old friend who she betrayed terribly approached.