Chapter 30
“He should be back by now.” Tamsin twisted her sweating hands in the loose folds of her tunic. “It shouldn’t have taken him this long to find Betty.”
She’d changed out of her ballgown into plain, sensible clothes. For a while, she’d been able to distract herself with packing—spare clothes for her and Cuan, his cleaning kit for his armor, blankets and canteens and dried travel food. Everything they might need for a desperate flight into the seelie lands.
Everything, that is, except a destination.
And Cuan.
She moistened her dry lips. “What time is it?”
“Nearly midnight,” Aodhan replied, his voice grim.
Aodhan didn’t have any form of watch or clock that she could see, but she had to trust that he had some magical way of keeping track of time. The butterflies in her stomach multiplied.
Motley still had one hand clamped on the door handle. He’d been poised there for hours, ready to open the portal the instant Cuan contacted them. Tamsin had never seen him stay so still for so long.
“Are you sure your magic pebble thing is working?” Tamsin asked Aodhan. “It couldn’t, like, lose connection due to a flaky signal or something?”
The alicorn shot her an exasperated look. “Human, callstones do not stop working because someone is going through a tunnel. This is highly sophisticated enchantment, not your laughable human technology. Yes, I am very certain that it is still working.”
“Then why hasn’t he called?”
Aodhan’s mouth flattened. “Well, at a guess, either he’s unexpectedly picked up last-minute discount tickets to the opera, or he’s been attacked. Which do you think?”
The sarcasm was biting, but the alicorn’s sapphire eyes betrayed genuine concern. For all his studious, posed indifference, Tamsin could tell that he was worried about Cuan.
“Something’s gone wrong,” she said. “Even if he wasn’t able to find Betty, he would have returned before now. He wouldn’t leave it this late. Motley, can you open the portal so we can at least look through and see if we can spot Cuan?”
The raven shifter twitched, face twisting with agitation. “Can’t. Eyes. Something would come through. Not from your world. Not from this one. From the gap. Bad.”
“Bad is an understatement,” Aodhan said grimly. “A few mages have been foolish enough to attempt to study such things. I have to keep their notebooks chained in an iron-bound lead casket under a great deal of blessed water, surrounded by nine circles of salt. It is my considered professional opinion that we really do not want anything other than Cuan to come through that door.”
Tamsin stared at the plain wooden door. “There has to be something we can do.”
“At this point, I think Cuan would want us to go to the fallback plan.” Aodhan did not look at all happy about this prospect. “Run, and keep running. Pray we can stay one step ahead of every war band in the unseelie lands. Not to mention a prince who is likely to be extremely annoyed.”
“But if we leave the sidhean, Motley won’t be able to get Cuan back if—when—he does call.” Tamsin looked at the raven shifter. “You said you could only make portals to the human world from here, right?”
Motley’s chin jerked in a sharp, nervous nod. “Only at special places. Some other ones, elsewhere, but they’re guarded. Can only enter this sidhean because Cuan lets me. He’s part of this court. Gave me permission to go through the wards.”
“Permission that Maeve will override the moment she realizes what’s going on,” Aodhan said, jaw tightening. “Which she will, pretty damn quickly, if the human leaves the sidhean.”
“I’ve been out of the sidhean before,” Tamsin pointed out.
“Yes, but you were with Cuan then. Technically you were under guard.” Aodhan rubbed a hand across his face, grimacing. “The instant you set foot outside the sidhean without a high sidhe escort, nine kinds of hell are going to go off. And before you ask, no, I can’t undo those magics to let you slip away quietly. They’re all tied up in the tithe-curse. I’m a mage, not a miracle worker.”
“I’m not running,” Tamsin said firmly. “Not when it means abandoning Cuan. You two stay here. Do anything you can to try to make contact with him.”
“Where are you going?” Motley asked worriedly, as Tamsin reached past him.
She nudged him away from the door, opening it herself. She stepped over the threshold—not through a portal, but into the dark stone corridors of the sidhean.
“I’m going to buy us some time,” she said. “I hope.”
* * *
Tamsin hesitated just outside the archway to the great hall. She could hear the low, musical murmur of fae voices inside. It was pretty, as long as you couldn’t make out the words.