“How long ago was that?”
“About two days? Faery time?” I shrugged, nodding to the gray lump of fur on the dais. “Ask him. The cat had us tromping all over the wyldwood. I don’t know how long it’s been in the real world.”
“They’re probably worried sick.” Meghan sighed, giving me a stern look, then seemed to notice Kenzie hovering behind me. She blinked, and her brow furrowed. “And you brought someone with you.” She beckoned Kenzie forward. “Who is this?”
“Kenzie,” I replied as the girl stepped around me and dropped into a clumsy curtsy. “Mackenzie St. James. She’s one of my classmates.”
“I see.” I caught the displeasure in her voice, not directed at Kenzie, but that I would bring someone into the Nevernever, perhaps. “And did she know anything about us before you dropped her into this world?”
“Oh, sure,” I said flatly. “I talk about seeing invisible faeries every day, to whoever will listen. That always goes over so well.”
Meghan ignored the jab. “Are you all right?” she asked Kenzie, her voice gentle. “I know it’s a lot to take in. I was about your age when I first came here, and it was…interesting, to say the least.” She gave her a sympathetic smile. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay, your…uh…your majesty,” Kenzie said, and jerked her thumb in my direction. “Ethan sort of gave me the crash course in everything Faery. I’m still waiting to see if I wake up or not.”
“We’ll get you home soon,” Meghan promised, and turned back to me. “I assume this visit wasn’t just to say ‘hi,’ Ethan,” she said in a firmer voice. “That token was only supposed to be used in emergencies. What’s going on?”
“Wish I knew.” I crossed my arms defensively. “I didn’t want to come here. I would’ve been perfectly happy never seeing this place again.” I paused to see if my words affected her. Except for a slight tightening of her eyes, her expression remained the same. “But there’s a bunch of creepy fey hanging around the real world that I’ve never seen before, and they really didn’t give me a choice.”
“What do you mean, they didn’t give you a choice?”
“I mean they kidnapped a friend of mine, a half-phouka, right from school, in broad daylight. And when I tried to find him, they came after us. Me and Kenzie both.”
Meghan’s eyes narrowed, and the air around her went still, like the sky before a storm. I could suddenly feel the power flickering around the Iron Queen, like unseen strands of lightning, making the hairs on my neck stand up. I shivered and took a step back, resisting the urge to rub my arms.
In that instant, I knew exactly how she had changed.
But the flare of energy died down, and Meghan’s voice remained calm as she continued. “So, you came here,” she went on, glancing from me to Kenzie and back again. “To escape them.”
I nodded shakily.
The Iron Queen regarded me intently, thinking. “And you said they were a type of faery you’ve never seen before,” she questioned, and I nodded again. “A new species, like the Iron fey?”
“No. Not like the Iron fey. These things are…different. It’s hard to explain.” I thought back to that night at the dojo, the ghostly, transparent faeries, the way they’d flickered in and out, as if they couldn’t quite hold on to reality. “I don’t know what they are, but I think they might be kidnapping exiles and half-breeds.” I remembered the dead piskie, and my stomach churned. Todd might already be gone. “A dryad told me all the local fey are disappearing. Something is happening, but I don’t know what they want. I don’t even know what they are.”
“And you’re sure of this?”
“These things tried to kill me a couple days ago. Yeah, I’m sure.”
“All right,” Meghan said, turning from me. “If you say you’ve seen them, I believe you. I’ll call a meeting with Summer and Winter, tell them there could be a new group of fey on the rise. If these faeries are killing off exiles and half-breeds, it could just be a matter of time before they start eyeing the Nevernever.” She paced back to her throne, deep in thought. “Mab and Oberon will be skeptical, of course,” she said in a half weary, half exasperated voice. “They’re going to want proof before they act on anything.”
“What about Todd?” I asked.
She turned back with an apologetic look. “I’ll put out feelers in the mortal realm,” she offered, “see if the gremlins or hacker elves can turn anything up. But my first responsibility is to my own kingdom, Ethan. And you.”
I didn’t like where this was going. It didn’t sound as if she would try terribly hard to find Todd, and why would she? She was a queen who’d just been informed her entire kingdom could be threatened soon. The life of a single half-breed wasn’t a high priority.
Meghan glanced at Kenzie, who looked confused but still trying to follow along as best she could. “I’ll have someone take you home,” she said kindly. “I’m sorry you had to go through all this. You should also be aware that time in the Nevernever flows differently than time in the mortal realm, which means you’ve probably been missing for several days now.”
“Right,” said Kenzie, a little breathlessly. “So, I’ll have to make up a really good story for when I get home. I don’t think ‘stuck in Faeryland’ is going to go over well.”
“Better than the alternative,” I told her. “At least you can lie and they’ll believe you. After this, my parents aren’t going to let me out of the house until I’m thirty.”
Meghan gave me a sad smile. “I’ll send someone over to explain what’s happened,” she said, and my nervousness increased. “But Ethan, I can’t let you go home just yet. Until we figure out what’s going on, I have to ask you to stay here, in Mag Tuiredh.”
Chapter Fourteen
Keirran
“Screw that!”
I glared at Meghan, feeling the walls of the Iron Court close in. She watched me sadly, though her stance and the determined look on her face didn’t change.
“No way,” I said. “Forget it. You can’t keep me here. I have to get home! I have to find Todd. And to see if Mom and Dad are all right. You said it yourself—they’re probably going crazy by now.”
“I’ll send someone to explain what’s going on,” Meghan said again, her voice and expression unyielding. “I’ll go myself, if I must. But I can’t send you home yet, Ethan. Not when something out there is trying to kill you.”
“I’m fine!” I protested, somehow feeling like a toddler again, arguing to stay up one more hour. “Dammit, I’m not four anymore, Meghan. I can take care of myself.”
Meghan’s gaze hardened. Striding up to me, she reached out and pulled up my sleeve, revealing the filthy, bloody bandages wrapped around my arm. I jerked back, scowling, but it was too late.
“You’re not as invincible as you think, little brother,” Meghan said firmly. “And I won’t put Mom and Luke through that again. They’ve been through enough. I can at least tell them that you’re safe and that you’ll be home soon. Please understand, I don’t want to do this to you, Ethan. But you can’t leave just yet.”
“Try to stop me,” I snarled, and whirled around intending to stalk out of the throne room. A stupid move, but my anger—at myself, at the fey, the Nevernever, everything—had emerged full force, and I wasn’t thinking rationally. “I’ll find my own way home.”
I didn’t make it out of the room.
A figure melted out of the shadows in the corner, stepping in front of the door, a sharp silhouette against the light. He moved like darkness itself, silent and smooth, dressed all in black, his eyes glittering silver as he blocked my exit. I hadn’t noticed him until now, but as soon as he appeared, my gut contracted with hatred and the blood roared in my ears. A memory flickered to life: a scene of moonlight and shadows, and sitting on the couch with Mom and Meghan as the door slowly creaked open, spilling his shadow across the floor. Of this faery, stepping into the room, his eyes only for my sister. He’d said that it was time; he’d spoken of bargains and promises, and Meghan hadn’t resisted. She’d followed him out the door and into the night, and from then on, nothing was the same.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my shaking hands. How many nights in kali had I imagined fighting this very demon, taking my rattan and smashing in his inhumanly pretty face, or stabbing him repeatedly with my knife? Wild fantasies—I stood no chance against someone like him, even I realized that. And I knew Meghan…cared for him. Loved him, even. But this was the fey responsible for the state of our sad, broken family. If he’d never come to our house that night, Meghan would still be home.
I raised my weapons and spoke through gritted teeth. “Get. The hell. Out of my way, Ash.”
The dark faery didn’t move. “You hate me, I can understand that,” Ash said, his voice low and soothing. “But you’re being irrational. Meghan is only trying to keep you safe.”
Rage and frustration flared, thirteen years of hurt, fear and anger, all bursting to the surface at once. “You know, I don’t remember asking her to!” I seethed, knowing I was way out of line and not caring. “Where was she when I was growing up, when I couldn’t go to sleep because I could hear faeries outside my window? Where was she when they followed me to the school bus, when they chased me into the library and set it on fire, trying to flush me out? Or when I ruined a girl’s life, because the damned fey can’t seem to leave me alone? Where was she then, Ash?”
“Enough.”
I shivered, looking back. Meghan’s voice had changed. It was now steely with authority, and the girl who faced me when I turned around was no longer my sister. The Iron Queen stood there, blue eyes flashing in the aura of power that glowed around her.
