Where Did You Go?

The third installment in The Infatuated Fae series picks up with three travelers on a perilous journey through the in-between, an uninhabitable magical space separating the fae realms. Calypso (Caly), a human woman, is magically bonded to Mendax, the prince of the Unseelie realm and a Smoke Slayer, a fae who wields deadly smoke. She is also magically tied to Eli (Aurelius), the prince of the Seelie realm and a SunTamer, a fae who channels sunlight. In the previous books, Caly killed Queen Saracen, Eli's mother, to avenge Saracen's murder of Caly's own mother and younger sister, Adrianna. Mendax's brother Walter was also killed by Saracen. Both royal castles have been destroyed, and the Fates, the divine arbiters of destiny, have summoned the trio to Moirai, their seat of power, to stand trial. Because it is forbidden to be both bonded and tied, one of the three must die. Caly also plans to kill her estranged father, Zef, a member of the Artemi, a godlike race whose power far exceeds that of ordinary fae. Zef abandoned her family when she was a child.

The dual connections are slowly killing all three, especially Caly, whose near-total humanity makes her the most vulnerable. The bond between Caly and Mendax can be severed without endangering her, but the tie between Caly and Eli means the death of one kills the other. Both men have been secretly channeling their powers through the connections to keep Caly healthy, depleting themselves in the process.

When Eli hears a sickle, a massive ice-spider creature, approaching through the forest, he tricks Caly into climbing a tree and deliberately leaves Mendax in the creature's path, hoping to kill Mendax and sever the bond. The sickle impales Mendax and pins him to the ground, but Eli's guilt overwhelms him. He shifts into his fox form and uses his last SunTamer power to destroy the creature, saving Mendax but draining himself completely. Mendax acknowledges the setup with grudging respect.

Exhausted and powerless, the three shelter in a cave. Caly watches both men sleep and formulates a plan: She will kill her father before the trial, prompting the Fates to execute her, which would sever both connections and spare the men. When Mendax wakes, the two share a tender moment that escalates into sex. Eli, having woken during their intimacy, leaves the cave. Caly and Mendax track his fox prints to Lake Sheridon, a frozen black lake, where Eli holds broken shards of a glass scroll. Dead glasswing butterflies on the ice suggest someone has been sabotaging their path. Eli pulls Caly aside and confesses he is not romantically in love with her, explaining their connection is a deep friendship. Caly feels immense relief, having sensed the same shift. They agree to keep this from Mendax, partly because Eli enjoys antagonizing him.

The scroll instructs them to find "the weathered," a weather goddess whose emotions control the weather, and coax her into initiating a flood. The trio ascends a quartz mountain and discovers Jamie, a seemingly teenage girl who is the weathered. Her eternal grief over separation from her lover, Flora, the goddess of flowers, has locked the in-between in perpetual snow. Mendax manipulates Jamie's emotions, making her cry and turning her tears into literal rain. Eli later comforts her, causing brief sunshine that partially restores his powers. The combination triggers a massive flood, and Eli unfurls his restored wings to carry Caly and Mendax up the mountain.

At the mountaintop, Caly's father Zef appears. Before she can react, he summons a wooden skiff onto the floodwaters, then vanishes. The boat plummets over a waterfall, separating the trio. Caly lands in a fairy ring in her hometown of Willow Springs, Michigan. A sentient flower delivers a scroll offering a choice: Stay in the human realm, where the connections will be painlessly severed, or return to the fairy ring and continue to Moirai, where one of them will die. Caly chooses to return, unable to abandon the men she loves.

Reunited, the trio follows a final scroll to a grand black house. A strip of edible paper attached to the scroll teleports them there. Inside a vast library, they search for a book titled 538 Lilies. Mendax proposes to Caly, and she agrees to marry him if they survive. When Caly opens the book, glasswing butterflies burst from its pages and a glowing portal appears. They step through and arrive in Moirai, a lush paradise populated by Ascended Artemi, members of the godlike race elevated to live under the Fates' governance. Zef appears at the registration desk, distressed that Caly made it despite his sabotage. Anastasia, the woman at the desk who is secretly one of the three Fates, leads Caly to a replica of her childhood home, where ghostly projections of her mother and young Adrianna appear. The experience shatters Caly's emotional defenses.

Zef challenges Caly to a fight and overpowers her effortlessly, then reveals devastating truths: He watched her entire life from Moirai, left not by choice but because his ascension was mandated, and staying would have made his powerful daughters detectable to enemies. Most crushing, Adrianna is trapped in Tartarus, the fae underworld, because Caly unknowingly holds the last drop of Adrianna's Artemi power and a piece of her soul in the pendant of ashes she wears. Without the pendant, Adrianna cannot cross to the Elysian Fields, the peaceful fae afterlife. When Caly later sneaks into Zef's quarters intending to kill him, she freezes upon seeing his walls covered with paintings of her and Adrianna, finally accepting that his departure was born of love. Zef extracts the power from Caly and fuses it into the pendant. He also gives her a glass dagger crafted from the vine of accipere: Sealed with Caly's blood, the blade transfers the powers of anyone it kills exclusively to Caly.

Eli, who overheard the revelation about Adrianna, secretly makes a deal with the Fates. Mendax, sensing through the bond that Caly plans to sacrifice herself, makes his own deal: He will go to Tartarus voluntarily with the pendant in exchange for keeping Caly alive, though all her memories of him will be erased. That evening, Mendax confesses this to Caly, who is devastated and begs him not to leave.

At the trial, the three Fates, Anastasia the spinner, Genome the allotter, and Morta the decider of death, reveal the journey itself was the trial, testing the trio's integrity, compassion, and competence. The Fates originally chose to kill Caly, but they have accepted Eli's deal instead: Eli volunteered to go to Tartarus carrying the pendant, in exchange for severing the tie without killing Caly and keeping the bond between Caly and Mendax intact. Eli asks Mendax if he has the glass blade, confirming his consent. By dying on the dagger, Eli's SunTamer powers will pass to Caly, granting her fae-level abilities for life. As Caly screams and runs toward them, Mendax drives the blade into Eli's head. Eli dies holding Adrianna's pendant and whispering their shared phrase of eternal love and friendship. Caly's anguished screams fill the hall.

In a brief epilogue, Eli awakens in Tartarus, clutching a small cylindrical object. A familiar voice calls out, recognizing him as Aurelius. He turns to face a pair of familiar brown eyes, and the story ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the next book in the series.