User:DatSexiSceneKid/Draft of Ink Exchange

Plot summary
Leslie is a 17 year-old girl that works on the side as a waitress and pays the bills more often than not, because all the money from her family contributes to her father's alcholism and her brother Ren's drug dealing profession. She lives on the edge, never knowing when she's safe from Ren and his customers who had raped her not long before. Her bedroom door is locked at night, so she climbs out the window to go to work when they're around. She only finds solace in her school life and close friend Aislinn.

Aislinn is partly human, but is tangled in the world of the fey, which she tries desperately to keep Leslie from learning about. Aislinn is the Summer Queen, and rules the Summer Court alongside Keenan, who Leslie feels "[isn't] quite meant for civilizaiton." Aislinn's boyfriend Seth is human. Confused by Aislinn's sudden wealth, the presence of both Keenan and Seth, Leslie turns her attention to Niall, the mysterious and all too alluring "uncle" of Keenan. In truth, and unknown to her, he is her guardian. Under the orders of the Summer Court (mostly Aislinn), he protects her from the other, crueler, faeries. The only problem is, he holds a power that enables him to bind humans to him, have them addicted to his touch, with one embrace. He loves her, but he can never let her know.

Irial, The Dark King, leader of the Dark fey, seeks to create chaos with the seasonal courts (Winter and Summer) so that he can feed his starving court of emotion-feeding faeries. When one of his own is killed by a simple human bullet, he is desperate for a way to protect them. With the help of his "left hand" Gabriel and his pack of "Hounds", he keeps rebellions from getting out of hand and other Courts in check. Especially ones rallied by Bananach, a war hungry raven-fey in his own Court. Irial didn't want war, but balance between light and dark, enough to keep his court satisfied without truly starting an all out court war. An Ink Exchange with a human.

Leslie needs a change, something drastic. Ink. It's risky, she wont have electricity for a month, but it's what she needs. "she just wanted to not feel those horrid feelings, to escape herself, so there was no pain, no fear, no ugliness". She goes to Pins and Needles, owned by her friend Rabbit, to pick a design and decides to look through his sketches and finds herself drawn to a pair of eyes surrounded by celtic knots, raven wings and a chaos star. As she gets the outline of the beautiful tattoo, she thinks she sees shadows swirling around the strange vial Rabbit uses for her ink. The outline is the first step in their connection; their Ink Exchange.

Niall was previously with the Dark Court, in line to take the throne after Irial, who he still cares about despite his adamant refusal and his change of loyalties to the Summer Court. He longs to reveal himself to Leslie for what he is, he thinks she would understand. Leslie is starting to feel what Irial feels, she is tasting the flurry of emotions around her and beginning to see past faeries glamour, or human disguise. Niall subtly reveals himself to her on a trip to a museum. But she hardly notices. Irial shows up at the club Leslie and the others were at and she finds herself drawn to him like a moth to flame, though she hardly knows why. Niall, Keenan and Aislinn do their best to keep her away from the dangerous faerie and have the Summer Court claim her, not knowing about the Ink Exchange and her tie to Irial himself.

Behind the scenes, Irial is trying his hardest to think of some way that he can "feed" himself and his court on mortal emotions, using Leslie as a sort of funnel but without killing her like all the others, because for some reason that is beyond him, he actually cares what happens to this human. Niall is agonizing over how to save her from Irial, and considers leaving his own court because he loves her so much. Suddenly Leslie can't seem to feel sadness, anger, fear, pain....yet she tastes them in those around her and knows she should be having those feelings but she just passes it off as the tattoo changing who she is, who she wants to be. She ends up falling in love with Niall and kisses him, but he refuses to reveal the world of faeries, even though she's almost figured it out for herself. When she goes to the tattoo shop to finish it, she finds herself hearing Irial's voice in her head. Irial has come to the conclusion that he loves her, and refuses to let any harm come to her. Leslie goes to the club to celebrate the finished tattoo, and realizes that Keenan scares her, and when he tries to keep her from Irial she lashes out at him verbally, calling him "kingling" though they aren't her own words. She finds Irial in the club, and it is done. They are connected by a shadow vine that represents the Ink Exchange. Irial takes her "home" and cares for her, tells her about the world of the fey and his court and why he needs her. She agrees to help and is used as a funnel for Irial's Dark Court. She blurs in and out of conciousness as the weeks pass, unable to do much of anything and finding herself incapable of leaving Irial's side for more than a minute until she realizes that he freedome has been taken away and that Irial takes all the "bad" emotions from her and feeds on them, so she wont feel them. She tries to make herself feel them by jumping off of barns and moving away from Irial for as long as she can. Irial wants her to be happy, but needs to keep his court fed, he doesnt know what to do and doesn't want to show weakness to his court. Especially Bananach. Niall tries to consult the Summer King (Keenan) about what to do to save her, and the king suggests using Niall's power to capture her back, take advantage of her. He admits that he knew about the connection before Leslie was taken but didn't say anything because he wanted a connection to the secrets of the Dark Court. Niall is so outraged he leaves the Summer Court and revokes his pledge to the king. Now a courtless, homeless wanderer, Niall tries to find Leslie and think of how to save her. Leslie eventually comes to him and Niall admits that he could get rid of the tattoo, and the connection. At first she tells him she wants the choice, just to have it but when she witnesses Irial's faeries murder several human companions at once and display them in scenes from plays in a gross attempt at humor, she goes to Niall. He asks her to forgive him and takes a ball of sun from the Aislinn, the Summer Queen and ice from Donia, the Winter Queen. This bleaches the ink from her skin and at the very last moment, Irial reaches out to her, " I'm still yours, though. That won't ever change, Shadow Girl." Sick, but alive, Leslie tries to restore her human life by leaving the faerie world and the fey behind. Even Niall. But before she does, she goes to Irial one last time, requesting that he will never connect with another human with the Ink Exchange. He agrees, though he didn't plan to in the first place because he loved her too much. Leslie walks away from it all for the final time. The book ends with both Irial and Niall watching her and her new human friends. Irial tells Niall that he will always care for him like a brother, and asks him to leave Leslie to her new life, to be happy, and kisses him on the brow, which swears his fealty and passes the Dark throne to him. He doesnt want it, but Irial knows that he no longer is fit to rule, and Niall is. He leaves his court, Niall and Leslie behind. "To look after the Dark Court Irial had found them a better king, to care for Niall, Irial had given him the court. And to love Leslie, Irial would stay away from her."

Reception
Ink Exchange is the second installment in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Mar. And has won New York Times Bestseller [2008], Book Sense Summer 2008 Children's picks, and Locus Recommended Reading ( Young Adult 2008). It recieves many reviews about it with opinions split right down the middle between "This book bored me and i believe it could have been ALOT shorter. The story line lacked depth and it basically was just confusing." and "In the end I ended up really enjoying this story. It was darker than the first one, which I liked. Marr once again painted a beautifully dark and edgy world that exists within our own. I am ready to read the next one in the series!"

Character Descriptions

 * Leslie: Human, and connected to Irial by Ink Exchange, a magical tattoo. She also loves Niall, her guardian, and ends up having him use Summer & Winter Court Powers to sever the connection.
 * Irial: (e'ri-uhl) Faerie King of the Dark Court, and connected to Leslie by the Ink Exchange so that he can "feed" his emotion-eating, deteriorating court of dark fey. He ends up falling in love with her and giving his court to Niall.
 * Niall: (n ee l) Faerie who previously served Irial and the Dark Court, but left them for the Summer Court. He watches over Leslie, and comes to love her, though he knows he shouldn't. He ends up leaving the Summer Court in an attempt to save Leslie and becomes the Dark King.
 * Aislinn: (ASH-LEAN) Previously (still somewhat) human, but is the Summer Queen and Keenan's companion. She tries to protect Leslie from the world of faeries.
 * Keenan: Summer King, he tries to use Niall's power to totally seduce humans so they can keep Leslie away from Irial.
 * Gabriel: Irial's "left hand" and trusted enforcer. The father of Rabbit, Ani, and Tish. He is forever loyal to Irial and is known for his violent methods of keeping the Dark fey in line and rebellions squashed.
 * Seth: Aislinn's human companion. They were best friends before Keenan took her as his queen. She refused to leave her human life behind, and stayed with Seth. Their story is in the first book: Wicked Lovely.
 * Rabbit: The tattoo artist that carried out the Ink Exchange between Leslie and Irial. He is Gabriel's son, and half human. Irial has him and his sisters under protection against the wrath of the less tolerant Dark fey.
 * Ren: Leslie's brother. Deals all kinds of drugs to at least TRY to pay the bills, when he's in the mood. Often times, his "customers" come over and at one point he drugged his sister and sold her to someone and let them rape her.
 * Tish: Rabbit's sister, Gabriel's daughter and half human/faerie. She is the responsible sister between herself and Ani.
 * Ani: Rabbit's sister, Gabriel's daughter and half human/faerie. She is the irresponsible, rebellious sister that is able to feed by tasting the blood of someone. Irial finds her interesting and potentially helpful.
 * Bananach:(BAHN AHN AHK) The embodiment of War and in Irial's court. She hungers for war constantly and will do anything to get it, even overthrow Irial. She tries to entice Niall into overthrowing Irial and start her war. She is always giving Gabriel trouble.