“A…lamia?” he asked as I came up behind him, peering over his shoulder. A squat, four-legged thing with two heads stood amid a plethora of crayon drawings, looking distinctly unrecognizable.
The kid frowned at him. “A pony, silly.”
“Oh, of course. Silly me. What else can you draw?”
“Hey,” I muttered, as the little girl huffed and started scribbling again. “Where’s Kenzie?”
“In the office,” Keirran replied, glancing up at me. “She asked if she could use the computer for a little while. I think she’s researching the park. You should go check on her.”
I smirked. “You gonna be okay out here?”
“There!” announced the girl, straightening triumphantly. “What’s that?”
Keirran smiled and waved me off. I left the kitchen, nodding politely to Guro’s wife as I wandered down the hall, hearing Keirran’s hopeless guesses of dragons and manticores fade behind me.
I found Kenzie in a small office, sitting at a desk in the corner, the two dogs curled around her chair. The younger lab raised his blocky head and thumped his tail, but Kenzie and the older dog didn’t move. Her eyes were glued to the computer screen, one hand on the mouse as it glided over the desk. Releasing it, she typed something quickly, slender fingers flying over the keys, before hitting Enter. The current screen vanished and another took its place. The lab sat up and put his big head on her knee, looking up at her hopefully. Her gaze didn’t stray from the computer screen, but she paused to scratch his ears. He groaned and panted against her leg.
I eased into the room. Reaching into my shirt, I withdrew Guro’s amulet, pulling it over my head. Stepping up behind Kenzie, I draped it gently around her neck. She jerked, startled.
“Ethan? Jeez, I didn’t hear you come in. Make some noise next time.” She glanced at the strange charm hanging in front of her. “What’s this?”
“A protection amulet. Guro gave it to me, but I want you to have it.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” I felt the weight of the swords at my waist. “I already have what I need.” Looking past her to the computer screen, I leaned forward, bracing myself on the desk and chair. “What are you looking up?”
She turned back to the screen. “Well, I wanted to see if there was a place in Central Park that might be the nest or something. Thomas said something about a ‘big dark,’ so I wondered if maybe he meant the underground or something like that. I did some digging—” she scrolled the mouse over a link and clicked “—and I found something very interesting. Look at this.”
I peered at the screen. “There’s a cave? In Central Park?”
“Somewhere in the section called the Ramble.” Kenzie scrolled down the site. “Not many people know about it, and it was sealed off a long time ago, but yeah…there’s a cave in Central Park.”
Suddenly, both dogs raised their heads and growled, long and low. Kenzie and I tensed, but neither of them were looking at us. At once, they bolted out of the room, barking madly, claws scrabbling over the floor. In the kitchen, the little girl screamed.
We rushed into the room. Keirran was on his feet, standing in front of the girl, while Guro’s wife shouted something over the racket of the barking dogs. Both animals were in front of the refrigerator, going nuts. The younger lab was bouncing off the door as it barked and howled, trying to reach something on top.
A pair of electric green eyes glared down from the top of the freezer, and a spindly black form hissed at the two dogs below.
“No! Bad dogs! Bad! Go away!” it buzzed, and Keirran rushed forward.
“Razor! What are you doing here?”
“Master!” the gremlin howled, waving his long arms hopelessly. “Master help!”
I cringed. This was the last thing I’d wanted—to pull Guro and his family into this craziness. We had to get out of here before it went any further.
Grabbing Keirran’s arm, I yanked him toward the door. “We’re leaving,” I snapped as he turned on me in surprise. “Right now! Tell your gremlin to follow us. Guro,” I said as my instructor appeared in the door, frowning at the racket, “I have to go. Thank you for everything, but we can’t stay here any longer.”
“Ethan!” Guro called as I pushed Keirran toward the exit. I looked back warily, hoping he wouldn’t insist that we stay. “Go home soon, do you hear me?” Guro said in a firm voice. “I won’t alert the authorities, not yet. But at least let your parents know that you’re all right.”
“I will,” I promised and hurried outside with the others.
We rushed across the street, ducked between two houses, and came out in an abandoned lot choked with weeds. A huge oak tree, its hanging branches draped in moss, loomed out of the fog, and we stopped beneath the ragged curtains.
“Where’s Razor?” Kenzie asked, just as the gremlin scurried up and leaped onto Keirran, jabbering frantically. The Iron prince winced as Razor scrabbled all over him, buzzing and yanking at his shirt.
“Ouch! Razor!” Keirran pried the gremlin away and held him at arm’s length. “What’s going on? I thought I told you to stay with Annwyl.”
“Razor did!” the gremlin cried, pulling at his ears. “Razor stayed! Pretty elf girl didn’t! Pretty elf girl left, wanted to find Master!”
“Annwyl?” Abruptly, Keirran let him go. Razor blipped out of sight and appeared in the nearby tree, still chattering but making no sense now. “She left? Where—?” The gremlin buzzed frantically, flailing his arms, and Keirran frowned. “Razor, slow down. I can’t understand you. Where is she now?”
“She is with the lady, little boy.”
We spun. A section of mist seemed to break off from the rest, gliding toward us, becoming substantial. The cat-thing with the old woman’s face slid out of the fog, wrinkled lips pulled into an evil smile. Behind her, two more faeries appeared, the thin, bug-eyed things that had chased Kenzie and me into the Nevernever. The screech of weapons being drawn shivered across the misty air.
The cat-thing hissed, baring yellow teeth. “Strike me down, and the Summer girl will die,” she warned. “The Iron monster speaks the truth. We watched as she entered the real world again, looking for you. We watched, and when she was away from the Between, we took her. She is with the lady now. And if I perish, the Summer faery will become a snack for the rest of my kin. It’s up to you.”
Keirran went pale and lowered his weapon. The faery smiled. “That’s right, boy. Remember me? I watched you, after you killed my sister with your foul poison glamour. I saw you and your precious Summer girl lead the humans to the Exile Queen.” She curled a withered lip. “Pah! Exile Queen. She is no more a true queen than that bloated slug Titania, sitting on her throne, feeding on her ill-gotten fame. Our lady will destroy these silly notions of Summer and Winter courts.”
“I don’t care about Titania,” Keirran said, stepping forward. “Where’s Annwyl? What have you done with her?”
The cat-faery smiled again. “For now, she is safe. When we took her, our lady gave specific orders that she was not to be harmed. How long she remains that way depends on you.”
I saw Keirran’s shoulders rise as he took a deep, steadying breath. “What do you want from us?” he asked.
“From the mortals? Nothing.” The cat-thing barely glanced and me and Kenzie, giving a disdainful sniff. “They are human. The boy may have the Sight, but our lady is not interested in humans. They are of no use to her. She wants you, bright one. She sensed your strange glamour while you were in the park, the magic of Summer, Winter and Iron. She has never felt anything like it before.” The faery bared her yellow fangs in a menacing smile. “Come with us to meet the lady, and the Summer girl will live. Otherwise, we will feed on her glamour, suck out her essence, and drain her memories until there is nothing left.”
Keirran’s arms shook as he clenched his fists. “Do you promise?” he said firmly. “Do you promise not to harm her, if I come with you to see this lady?”
“Keirran!” I snapped, stepping toward him. “Don’t! What are you doing?”
He turned on me, a bright, desperate look in his eyes.
“I have to,” he whispered. “I have to do this, Ethan. You’d do the same if it was Kenzie.”
Dammit, I would, too. And Keirran would do anything for Annwyl—he’d proven that already. But I couldn’t let him march happily off to his destruction. Even if he was part fey, he was still family.
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” I argued. “We don’t even know if they really took her. They could be lying to get you to come with them.”
“Lying?” The cat-thing growled, sounding indignant and outraged. “We are fey. Mankind has forgotten us, the courts have abandoned us, but we are still as much a part of Faery as Summer and Winter. We do not lie. And your Summer girl will not survive the night if you do not come back with us, now. That is a promise. So, what will it be, boy?”
“All right,” Keirran said, spinning back. “Yes. You have a deal. I’ll come with you, if you swear not to harm my friends when we leave. Promise me that, at least.”
The cat-faery sniffed. “As you wish.”
“Keirran—”
He didn’t look at me. “It’s up to you, now,” he whispered, and sheathed his blade. “Find us. Save everyone.”
Razor buzzed frantically and leaped from the tree, landing on Keirran’s shoulder. “No!” he howled, tugging on his collar, as if he could drag him away. “No leave, Master! No!”
“Razor, stay with Kenzie,” Keirran murmured, and the gremlin shook his head, huge ears flapping, garbling nonsense. Keirran’s voice hardened. “Go,” he ordered, and Razor cringed back from the steely tone. “Now!”
With a soft wail, the gremlin vanished. Reappearing on Kenzie’s shoulder, he buried his face in her hair and howled. Keirran ignored him. Straightening his shoulders, he walked steadily toward the trio of glamour-eaters, until he was just a few feet away. I noticed that the two thin faeries drifted a space away from him as he approached, as if afraid they would accidentally catch his deadly Iron glamour. “Let’s go,” I heard him say. “I’m sure the lady is waiting.”
Do something, I urged myself. Don’t just stand there and watch him leave. I thought of rushing the glamour-eaters and slicing them all to nothingness, but if Annwyl died because of it, Keirran would never forgive me. Clenching my fists, I could only watch as the fey drew back, one of the thin faeries turning to slash the very mist behind them. It parted like a curtain, revealing darkness beyond the hole. Darkness, and nothing else.
“Do not follow us, humans,” the cat-faery hissed, and padded through the hole in the fog, tail twitching behind her. The thin fey jerked their claws at Keirran, and he stepped through the hole without looking back, fading into the darkness. The two fey pointed at us silently, threateningly, then swiftly vanished after him. The mist drew forward again, the tear in realities closed, and we were alone in the fog.