“Cathy!” Just as Cathy had done, the blonde woman jumped for the portal. “Is that really you?”
With a long-suffering expression, the hellhound clamped a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, hauling her back. Aodhan felt a flash of immediate kinship.
“How many times do we have to tell you, Daisy?” the hellhound said to the blonde. “Don’t launch yourself at Motley’s doors. We can’t actually go through them.”
“Are you okay?” Tamsin shouldered past them both, though she took care not to get too close to the open portal. “Aodhan! How did you find her so fast?”
“We must not waste time,” Aodhan said, glad of the excuse to obfuscate that particular subject. “If we leave the door open too long, we’ll attract the attention of the things that live in the void. I think we can all agree that we have enough problems as it is.”
“No kidding.” Cathy held up her hands, forestalling any further questions. “It’s so good to see you all, but let me talk. We found out what happened to Kevin.”
She quickly outlined what they’d learned. Aodhan found himself watching her as she spoke, unable to tear his gaze away from her. Worry still clung to her like a shroud, but there was a new animation about her.
It’s them, he realized, glancing at the other women. She trusts them, and they trust her. They are strongest together, like any band of warriors.
It was an odd thought, given that apart from Cuan and possibly the hellhound woman, Aodhan was willing to bet that none of them had ever so much as touched a sword. Yet there was a fierce unity to the way they listened to Cathy—nodding in agreement at some points, inhaling sharp breaths at others—that reminded him of a wolf pack. Come what may, they would guard each other’s backs, and woe betide anyone who tried to come between them.
What would it be like, to share in such trust? he couldn’t help wondering. Bound not by magic or chains, but by loyalty alone?
When Cathy explained the current plan to infiltrate the seelie territories, the hellhound woman—Betty, Aodhan had learned (a hellhound of the Wild Hunt called Betty, the human world was quite mad)—hissed through her teeth. She shook her head, mouth setting in a flat, grim line. The other women exchanged worried glances, looking equally unhappy.
“I beg you to reconsider, Mistress Cathy.” Cuan flexed one hand, as though longing to summon his swords and leap through the portal to take on the quest himself. “The seelie are even more dangerous than my own people. Aodhan, I am dismayed that you would allow her to undertake such a perilous venture.”
“Allow?” Aodhan lifted a cynical eyebrow at the half-breed warrior. “You want to try to stop her, be my guest. I’ll be over here, standing well back from the flying body parts.”
“I’m going to find Kevin,” Cathy said, in tones that suggested anyone who dared to argue further would quickly regret it, even if they were currently standing in another realm. “Maeve said that as his mother, I have the right to demand him back. If I can just get to him and break the spell blocking his memory, the seelie will have no choice but to hand him over.”
“That’s assuming they don’t find a loophole,” muttered the hard-faced woman, whose name Aodhan hadn’t managed to catch. She fingered an iron crowbar. “Maeve certainly did, sending you off to your death like this. I don’t trust any fae.”
“Jack’s got a point.” Tamsin looked past Cathy to Aodhan himself. “Do you really think this will work, Aodhan? All Cathy has to do is get to Kevin?”
“That ‘all’ contains enough pitfalls to trap an entire herd of centaurs.” Cuan spread his hands. “But in essence, yes. A mother has the right to claim her child. It is an old magic, as deep as the laws that govern the movement of the stars. Even the seelie must comply.”
“I still don’t like it,” Betty said. “And it relies on Cathy making it across hostile territory. It would be much safer to send a seelie in to fetch Kevin.”
“Undoubtedly,” Aodhan agreed. “Unfortunately, my friends in the seelie can be counted on the fingers of one hoof. And I will be astonished if the Wild Hunt have a friendly Summer Knight on speed dial, to use a metaphor from your own world.”
“Then hold on to your jaw, because we do.” Betty showed sharp teeth in a smug grin. “We’ve been working with a secret seelie contact, trying to locate missing women from our world who we think were sold to the unseelie. I’ve already sent a message to him—”
“Or her,” interrupted the curvy blonde woman, Daisy. “You admitted that the Wild Hunt didn’t actually know anything about your mysterious ally. It could be a lady elf.”
“Or an ogre,” Jack said darkly. “Who’s eaten all those tithed women that they claim to have rescued. It’s not like this so-called friendly seelie has managed to return anyone to our world.”
Betty pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment, possibly counting to ten. Aodhan was starting to feel a great deal of empathy with the hellhound.
“Can we please try not to get distracted?” Betty said wearily. “Whoever our seelie ally may be, they should already be on the way to Maeve’s court to try to rescue Cathy. I don’t have any way to send them an update, but they should quickly figure out she isn’t there. Hopefully at that point they’ll get back in touch to ask what’s going on, and then we can send them after Kevin.”
“There were two ‘shoulds’ and one ‘hopefully’ in that statement,” said Aodhan, who had been counting. “This does not fill me with confidence.”
Cuan blew out his breath. “I must agree. No seelie can be trusted, except to further their own self-interests. Forgive me, Mistress Betty, but your unknown ally is fickle and faithless. Remember that you begged them to come to my Tamsin’s aid as well, yet they never appeared.”
Tamsin squeezed her mate’s hand. “Cuan’s right. If it hadn’t been for him, I’d be Morcant’s prisoner right now.”
Morcant. The name sent an icy chill across the back of Aodhan’s neck. The right hand of the Winter King himself; one of the most powerful of the unseelie high sidhe. He was rumored to covet human women, capturing any unfortunate enough to stray into unseelie lands. Aodhan could only pray that he would not get wind of Cathy’s arrival and come in search of her. Not even the most powerful mage could hope to stand against a high sidhe prince.
“I can’t wait around hoping that someone else will rescue my son,” Cathy said firmly. “But it wouldn’t hurt to have a backup. Keep trying to get in touch with your seelie friend, Betty. Just in case.”
“Hurry.” Motley, who was still gripping the door handle with the focused, full-body concentration of someone battling a powerful gale, spoke for the first time. “Things moving, underneath. Can’t keep this open for much longer.”