War for the Oaks

In Minneapolis, two supernatural beings discuss a mortal woman they have selected for a coming war. The woman is Eddi McCandry, a rock musician stuck in a failing band called InKline Plain. After a dismal gig, Eddi decides to quit both the band and her relationship with Stuart Kline, the group's incompetent bandleader and her boyfriend. Walking home alone past midnight, she is pursued down the Nicollet Mall by a dark-skinned man and herded by a massive black dog. She stumbles down a flight of stone steps and loses consciousness.

When Eddi wakes, she discovers the man and the dog are the same being: a shape-shifter called a phouka. He and a glaistig, a water spirit, explain that they belong to the Seelie Court, one of two factions of the Fair Folk. The Seelie Court is going to war against the rival Unseelie Court over territorial dominion in Minneapolis. The Folk are immortal and cannot kill one another unless a mortal bound to the conflict is present, whose mortality makes all wounds fatal. Eddi has been chosen as that mortal, and the phouka is assigned as her constant bodyguard.

Eddi tries to escape and fails. She reluctantly allows the phouka home, where his presence accelerates her breakup with Stuart. Stuart arrives, sees the phouka, assumes Eddi has been unfaithful, and punches her in the face. The phouka pins Stuart to the floor, and the breakup is final. Her best friend and drummer, Carla DiAmato, watches the phouka transform from man to dog, which convinces her the situation is real.

When Eddi attempts to flee at a restaurant, a gray-skinned assassin from the Unseelie Court fires a translucent arrow at her. The phouka tackles her just in time. The attack proves that the Unseelie Court will kill her whether or not she cooperates with the Seelie Court.

Trapped, Eddi accepts the phouka's suggestion to start a new band, since performing allows him to stay at her side. She and Carla recruit Dan Rochelle, a keyboard player, and a painfully shy bassist who gives his name only as Hedge. A pale, green-eyed stranger named Willy Silver auditions on guitar and violin with extraordinary skill. The phouka reacts with visible unease, but Willy joins the band. That night the phouka leaves Eddi unguarded for the first time, and she and Willy sleep together.

The phouka buys Eddi a motorcycle with fairy gold that will revert to dead leaves by midnight. When Eddi objects that innocent people could be harmed, the phouka secretly makes the gold permanent. He reveals that the first battle will take place that night, May Eve, at Minnehaha Falls.

Before the battle, the phouka applies an ointment that strips all magical illusion from Eddi's senses, an act that violates the laws of Faerie, the Fair Folk's realm, and could result in his banishment. Eddi undergoes a binding ceremony presided over by the Queen of Faerie, beautiful and imperious. Able to perceive the ceremony without deception, Eddi eats a morsel of bread stained with the queen's own blood, and the magic of the Seelie Court surges into her.

The battle erupts. Eddi and the phouka fight redcaps, small vicious fey armed with oversized knives, as well as animated willows and gray-skinned warriors. They rescue Hairy Meg, a brownie, a small household spirit of Faerie. At a stone bridge, a warrior in black-and-white armor kills the enemy captain and rallies the defenders. When he is unhorsed, Eddi recognizes him: Willy Silver is a lord of the Sidhe, the ruling nobility of Faerie. The battle is effectively a loss for the Seelie Court.

Afterward, Willy confronts the phouka and admits he used glamour, a form of magical manipulation, throughout his relationship with Eddi, clouding her mind whenever he behaved strangely. The phouka explains that Eddi has a natural resistance to glamour because her creative power as a musician straddles the border of Faerie. Willy also reveals that Hedge is fey, placed in the band to watch over Eddi.

Eddi confronts her bandmates: Anyone who stays answers to her, not the Seelie Court. Both choose to remain, and she tells the full truth to Dan and Carla. The band christens itself "Eddi and the Fey" and begins performing. Their music compels audiences to dance, and Eddi unconsciously generates illusions during shows. The phouka reveals his deeper agenda: He chose Eddi because a mortal, free of Faerie's ancient hierarchies, can unite the ruling Sidhe and the neglected lesser fey.

After a show, the Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Unseelie Court, appears. She is elegant, catlike, and dangerous. She warns Eddi that the phouka can be corrupted.

At the Midsummer's Eve celebration, the phouka declares his love for Eddi. She admits she loves him too. Their happiness is cut short when the Dark Queen reveals she has captured Willy and demands the Seelie Court cede Como Park as ransom.

The Seelie Court queen decides to sacrifice Willy rather than surrender territory. Eddi persuades her to delay the decision, buying time. The phouka reveals a critical secret: Stuart is the mortal bound to the Unseelie Court, and his presence at Willy's capture made it possible to overpower him. Hedge confesses he fed information to the Unseelie Court but refused to help kidnap Willy. Eddi recruits him as a double agent.

Eddi devises a rescue plan. At the Como Park Conservatory, she throws rowan berries at the Dark Queen, breaking her magical hold on Willy. Meg rigs the watering system to spray St. John's Wort, toxic to the Unseelie fey, while carbon arc lamps blind the pursuing creatures. Eddi delivers Willy to the Seelie army on the motorcycle, and the battle begins.

Stuart appears with a gun and shoots Willy four times. Because a mortal bound to the Unseelie Court is present on the battlefield, the wounds are fatal, and Willy dies. Stuart also shoots the phouka in the shoulder. Eddi wrenches the gun away; Stuart does not shoot her, shamed by her presence into recognizing what he might have been. Overwhelmed by grief, Eddi challenges the Dark Queen to a duel at First Avenue, a Minneapolis rock club, on July Fourth: music against magic, with the Unseelie Court's claim to the city at stake. The queen accepts.

Before the concert, the stakes escalate. The Seelie Court queen pledges her Court's fate to Eddi's performance, and the Dark Queen demands the phouka as a hostage. If Eddi loses, the queen will kill him.

Eddi and the band take the stage. The performance becomes a war between music and magic. The Dark Queen sends waves of suppression into the crowd; Eddi counters with light, illusion, and the raw force of her voice. In the climax, Eddi conjures a transcendent shared experience that the Dark Queen's power cannot overcome. The phouka breaks free of his bonds. Defeated, the Dark Queen accepts the outcome and departs.

Afterward, Eddi and her friends gather at Cedar Lake, exhausted and grieving but alive. The phouka gives her a silver earring from the Seelie Court queen, a parting gift and token of respect. Eddi fears the gift signals his departure. Instead, the phouka asks if she thinks the band should tour, making clear he intends to stay.