CHAPTER36
“Oh Cathy!” On the other side of Motley’s portal, Daisy clasped her hands together, beaming. “You’re staying in the fae realm?”
“You’re staying in the fae realm,” Betty echoed, in a very different tone of voice. The hellhound shifter pinched the bridge of her nose. “My alpha is going to kill me.”
“Not literally, I hope,” Cathy said in alarm. She hadn’t anticipated that her decision might get Betty into trouble.
“No, but he’s not going to be happy. The Wild Hunt’s supposed to protect people from the fae, and he takes our duty very seriously.” Betty sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I’m going to have a hell of a time convincing him that you’re staying of your own free will.”
“Are you staying of your own free will?” Jack asked Cathy.
She squeezed Aodhan’s hand. “Absolutely.”
“Hmph.” Jack cast Aodhan a not entirely convinced look. “At least you’ve got iron by your side, I suppose.”
“She has a great deal more than that, I suspect,” Cuan murmured, a small smile playing around his lips. “Have you told her yet, Aodhan?”
“Told me what?” Cathy asked, glancing between the two fae.
Aodhan frowned at Cuan. “That’s what I was about to say. Told her what, exactly?”
Cuan’s gaze moved over them both, lingering on the mark around Aodhan’s wrist. “What she is.”
Aodhan stared at the other fae. “The woman is standing there in glowing armor. Since she is not entirely made of wood with nothing but sawdust between her ears, I think she has managed to deduce that she is my fated rider, thank you.”
“Yes, of course.” Cuan’s smile widened. “But what else is she?”
“Why do people keep asking me that?” Aodhan said, to no one in particular.
“Never mind, Cuan,” Tamsin said. She exchanged a glance with her mate. “I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually.”
Cathy was starting to have her own private suspicions as to what her friend meant, but she decided to keep them to herself for now. Aodhan was still battered from his fight with Morcant, after all. He’d had enough shocks for one day.
“I don’t want to get you in any trouble, Betty,” she said, changing the topic of conversation back to safer ground. “I could talk to your alpha, if that would help.”
“No, it’s all right. I’ll handle it.” Betty sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Though I’m already on thin ice with him over failing to prevent Tamsin from being tithed to the unseelie, and he nearly shit a kitten when I told him about Kevin.”
“At least you’ve got a bit of good news for him,” Tamsin said. “Kevin saw your dark wizard. There can’t be that many guys wandering around with glowing eyes.”
“You’d be surprised,” Betty said gloomily. “Hell, my eyes glow sometimes. At least now we know we’re looking for either a shifter or an escaped fae. Maybe that’ll stop my alpha from sacking me on the spot. But for the sake of my standing in the pack, please can no one else wind up in the wrong world?”
Aodhan glanced sidelong at Cathy, one eyebrow quirking. “Should we tell her about our plans to find some way to travel freely between the realms?”
“No,” Betty said firmly. “You absolutely should not.”
“You mean, open your own portal?” Daisy’s eyes rounded. “Do you really think you can?”
“I have decades of experience in spell crafting, an enormous collection of books on every possible branch of magic, a friend with the ability to stroll across any distance merely by opening a door, and quite possibly the most powerful sorceress this realm has ever seen at my side,” Aodhan replied. His eyebrow climbed higher. “If I can’t come up with a way to create a new portal with all that at my disposal, I might as well break my wand into kindling and take up turnip farming.”
“Oh!” Daisy clapped her hands, her curls bouncing. “Oh, Cathy, that would be perfect! We could all come and visit you!”
“Not all of us,” Jack muttered, fingering her crowbar and eying the portal as though worried it might suck her through at any moment. “But at least you could come back to the real world sometimes.”
“Although it was never my true home, I must confess that there are some things in the fae realm that I miss,” Cuan said. “With Maeve’s portal closed to me, it would be good to have some other means of traveling between the worlds.”
“La la la,” Betty sang, her fingers in her ears. “I can’t hear you. Definitely nothing I would have to report to my alpha going on here.”
“Perhaps we should discuss this at a time when a member of the Wild Hunt is not present,” Tamsin said, grinning. “Let’s not give Betty any more headaches.”