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That was several impending demises ago. May’s been living with me since the first time I failed to die, and she makes a pretty good roommate. Best of all, being a Fetch, she possesses one trait that was about to come in extremely handy.
Fetches are indestructible.
While she was peering down at the waves beating themselves against the base of the cliff, I positioned myself behind her, checked my footing, stepped forward, and shoved. May screamed as she fell—more with surprise than actual fear—but the sound was cut off after only a few feet, when she vanished into thin air.
“I thoughtthis was the back entrance,” I said, and jumped after her.
MY FALL ONLYlasted a few seconds. Reality did a dizzying dip-and-whirl of transition as I passed from the mortal world into the Summerlands, and my feet hit the solid stone floor of Goldengreen’s main hall. May’s palm hit my cheek about five seconds later.
“A little warningnext time?” she demanded.
I’m not fond of being slapped, but I had to allow that she’d been justified. “Would you have let me push you if I’d warned you?”
“What? No!”
“Well, that’s why you didn’t get a warning.” I waved a hand to indicate the hall around us. It was twilight-dim, saved from absolute darkness only by fae vision and the traces of a distant glow from somewhere up ahead. “We’re here. That was the goal. And what’s the worst that could have happened?”
“I could have been eaten by a giant shark swept out of its natural habitat by freak ocean currents caused by global warming.”
I let my hand drop back to my side, eyeing her. “That’s it. No more late-night horror movies for you. Come on. Let’s see if we can’t find the light switch.”
May fell into step beside me, sticking a little closer than was strictly necessary as we walked along the darkened hall. I couldn’t exactly blame her. The air had a sepulchral quality to it, like we were walking into a tomb that had been sealed since time began. Even our footsteps failed to echo, dampened and deadened by the shadows pressing in around us. In Faerie, the regent is the land. By leaving Goldengreen untended, the Queen had left the land without a regent . . . and that’s never good.
“It’s like we’re in a big zombie movie,” said May.
I glared. “I was trying really hard not to have that thought.”
Her smile was visible even through the gloom. “That’s what I’m here for.”
I started walking a little faster, making May hurry to keep up. She snickered as she quickened her pace.
“Oh, c’mon, Toby. If you just watched a few more horror movies—” The hall shifted around us.
It wasn’t a big shift—just enough to knock me off balance, sending me stumbling into May, who caught me easily. She looks like a changeling, but she’s a pureblooded Fetch, and her balance is much better than mine.
“What was that?” she demanded.
“Oh, nowyou’re not making jokes?” I straightened, tilting my head toward the join of wall and ceiling as I snapped, “Cut that out! I am the new Countess of Goldengreen, and I’m here by right of Crown and Claiming.”
Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.
The hall shuddered, for all the world like a dog trying to shake something off its back. This time, May and I both staggered backward, stopping only when we hit the wall. Doors were slamming deeper in the knowe, and dust and cobwebs were begi
Being buried alive didn’t sound like a great idea, and with Lily’s subjects camped in the entry hall, I couldn’t take the risk that the entire knowe would fall in. The Queen might approve—it would take out a lot of troublesome riffraff in one “regrettable accident”—but I certainly wouldn’t. I didn’t know why the knowe was objecting to us and not to them. That was something to worry about later.
I grabbed May’s arm. “I’ve learned something from horror movies, too.”
“What’s that?” she asked, raising her voice to be heard above the shaking.
“When the house tells you to get out, you get out!” I took off ru
The door swung shut behind us, but not before I saw the knowe stop shaking.
May sat up, beaming as she brushed her hair away from her face. “That was awesome! What now?”
I groaned, sagging backward against the sign. “I have no idea.”
MY ALLIES AREa motley bunch, defined more by their stubborn refusal to stand back and let the professionals deal with things than any other characteristic. Da
He parked sideways across three parking spots before climbing out of the car, a process that took longer than would have been necessary for almost anybody else. Da
“Tobes!” he declared jubilantly, spreading his arms in greeting. “An’ May! How’s it going, girl?”
“Pretty good,” said May, walking over to hug him. “Jazz sends her love. She’s off with the flock this weekend. Something about the a
“That’s, uh . . . that’s special.”
May gri
The two of them continued exchanging pleasantries as I walked around Da
Quentin obligingly rolled it down. “Hi, Toby.”
“Don’t you ‘Hi, Toby’ me. What are you doing here?”
“Da
There were so many issues with that sentence that I barely knew where to start. I settled for asking, “Why were you with Da
“He picked me up from the Luidaeg’s.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Do I want to know why you were at the Luidaeg’s?”
“Just visiting.”
It’s a sign of how much time Quentin has spent with me that the idea of “just visiting” the Luidaeg didn’t seem to strike him as odd. Most people refer to the Luidaeg by her title: the Sea Witch. She’s Firstborn, almost as old as Faerie itself, and tends to be viewed as one of the bogeymen under our collective bed. No one “just visits” her. No one but me, and now, apparently, Quentin.
Quentin and the Luidaeg met when his human girlfriend was kidnapped by Blind Michael and transformed into a horse to serve his unending Ride. We got the girlfriend back, Blind Michael’s Ride was stopped for good, and Quentin wound up forming a personal relationship with one of Faerie’s greatest monsters. Nobody can say our friendship hasn’t been educational for him. I just hope his parents—whoever they are—will agree. Quentin is a blind foster at Shadowed Hills, which means I don’t know where he’s from, beyond “somewhere in Canada.”