A chill spread through my insides. Destroy the Veil, allowing all humans to see the fey. Forever this time. Meghan said it wasn’t possible to permanently rip it apart, but I’d heard enough to know we could never let that happen again.
“Could she really do that?” Kenzie whispered. The Thin Man raised his wiry shoulders in a shrug.
“I do not wish to find out,” he said solemnly. “I simply want the balance restored, the First Queen stopped and the Forgotten put to rest once more. But I cannot face the First Queen alone, not with the power she wields now. The Iron Prince is at the heart of the prophecy. He will be the one to unleash hell upon both worlds. He is the one who must be stopped.”
“And Annwyl?” Kenzie asked. “What do you plan to do, once we find her?”
“The Summer girl is the key to the Iron Prince,” the Thin Man replied. “She may be his only weakness. But worry not,” he added, holding up a hand as Kenzie glared at him. “I do not intend to threaten, kidnap, put her in harm’s way, or drag her back to Phaed. She is in no danger from me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I will not allow anything to damage the girl before we reach the Iron Prince.”
Kenzie crossed her arms. “I want a promise,” she announced. “Can you swear to me that you mean Annwyl no harm?”
I smiled at her, surprised. Getting a faery to promise anything was a big deal, as They absolutely could not break Their vows, even if They wanted to. I was amazed at how fast she had learned Faery’s many quirks and idiosyncrasies; navigating the fey world was tricky to say the least, but Kenzie had pulled it off all on her own in a matter of months. She would, I realized with a flicker of both pride and regret, be just fine when it came to the invisible world. She didn’t need me to handle Faery for her; she was more than capable of dealing with it herself. Put a sword in her hands and teach her how to fight, and she would be unstoppable.
The Thin Man made an annoyed gesture with his hand. “Oh, very well.” He sighed. “Stubborn humans. If this is what it takes.” He straightened, putting both spiderlike hands on his chest. “I, elected mayor of Phaed and caretaker of the Forgotten, do swear to aid Ethan Chase and...friends—” he eyed Razor, peeking out of Kenzie’s hair, and curled a lip “—in the search to find Annwyl, the former handmaiden of Queen Titania. I also do swear not to threaten, kidnap or physically harm the Summer girl in any way. This I swear, on pain of death, unraveling and nonexistence.” He paused and stared at Kenzie in defiance. “Is that sufficient enough for you, my girl?”
Kenzie glanced at me. I shrugged. There was probably some hidden faery loophole in that promise, some funny turn of phrase I wasn’t seeing, but it sounded good enough for now. “Okay.” Kenzie nodded, looking back at the Thin Man. “I guess we can accept that.”
“Finally.” Grimalkin sat up and stretched, arching his back. “Then, if we are quite finished babbling at each other, perhaps we can get on with saving the Nevernever?” His half-lidded eyes fixed on me. “There is a group of Forgotten converging on this area right now. I suggest we hurry, unless you think you can talk them to death.”
I straightened. “The Forgotten are coming? Now?”
“I do find that human habit of repeating everything they are told so very endearing.” Grimalkin scratched an ear and looked to the Thin Man. “But perhaps we can speed things up a little? I assume you can get to the Between from here.”
“Yes,” the Thin Man said, and disappeared. I jumped, looking around for the sneaky faery, but he reappeared on the other side of the pool, walking toward us. “Though the trod to the Exile Queen no longer exists here, the Veil between it and the Nevernever is still quite thin. So we should be able to enter the Between fairly easily.”
Reaching out, he stuck an arm between the pillars, and his fingers vanished into empty space as I’d seen Keirran’s do several times before, parting the curtain between worlds. The Thin Man eased the Veil aside, and a dark tear appeared through the archway, mist boiling out of the opening. The Thin Man smiled. “After you, humans. Oh, but a word of warning.” He held out his remaining arm, stopping us. “The Between, much like the Forgotten, is an empty space that can be shaped and re-formed into whatever it needs to be. Mansions, towns, even whole kingdoms—all can be created out of nothing, if one has a strong enough will and desire to see it born. Of course, without some kind of anchor, these embodiments of will simply vanish into nothingness again, but many things have been created in the dark spaces between worlds. And at the moment, the Between is quite sensitive, unstable even. Do not let your emotions get the better of you, or you could will something into existence that might prove...problematic.”
Well, that sounded awesome. Sheathing one of my swords, I reached out and took Kenzie’s hand. She laced our fingers together, squeezing hard, while Razor peeked out of her hair and bared his teeth at the cat peering down at us.
“Bad kitty,” he growled, as Grimalkin yawned and very deliberately raised a paw to lick it. “Evil bad kitty. No like. Go ’way.”
Kenzie looked up, as well. “Are you coming with us, Grimalkin?”
The cat gave a slow blink. “I am curious as to what has happened to Leanansidhe’s mansion,” he replied. “She has proven most elusive to track down, and it is uncertain if she and her minions are even alive after the destruction of the Veil. So, yes, humans. I will be accompanying you. That was part of the bargain.” Grimalkin sniffed and curled his whiskers at me. “If you ever get started, that is.”