I didn’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand, it meant no heroics that would get my mom killed. On the other hand … it meant no heroics that would get me away from Aunt Grace.
The doorman gave me a puzzled look as I left the hotel with Aunt Grace. I’m sure he remembered opening the door for Ethan and me, and he probably thought there was something strange about me leaving with someone different—and looking absolutely terrified—but Grace gave him a look, and he suddenly lost interest in us. The cameo hadn’t heated, so maybe it had been straight intimidation.
“To the right,” Aunt Grace ordered, and I obeyed.
“So where are we going?” I finally found the courage to ask.
Grace flashed me a sly little smile. “To Faerie.”
I was so startled and horrified that I stopped in my tracks. “You have to be kidding me!”
She stared down at me with her icy blue eyes. “Do I look like I’m kidding? Now start walking, or I’ll give Kirk the go-ahead to have some fun with your mother while you listen.”
My head swam, and for a moment, I was afraid I was going to pass out. I forced myself not to think about what Grace had just threatened, instead putting one foot in front of the other.
“Why are we going to Faerie?” I asked in a choked whisper, though I already had an idea. An awful, terrifying, unbelievable idea.
“Seamus told us—Alistair and me—about what happened to your Knight. And Alistair told me what happened with the Spriggans. They are both fools, thinking we can keep you safe and eventually exploit your powers for our own purposes.” She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “As if even the three of us together could foil both the Queens of Faerie.”
I slowed my pace a bit, trying to postpone the inevitable, but Grace gave me a little push to hurry me along.
“If the Queens wish you dead, then you will die,” she said. “Faeriewalkers aren’t born every day, and it would be a shame not to get any use out of your unique powers while you are still among the living.”
By now I was sure I knew where she was going with this, incredible as it sounded. But I had to hear her say it to believe it, so I kept pressing.
“So why are we going into Faerie?”
Holding the phone precariously with one hand, Grace reached into her purse and opened it just wide enough to show me the gun concealed inside. I know absolutely nothing about guns, but even I could tell this one was a nasty piece of work, so big it barely fit even in that large bag.
“The Fae are hard to kill,” she said. “Especially in Faerie, where cold iron doesn’t exist.”
Yep, she was as crazy as I thought.
“This little baby,” she said, patting her purse, “would not work in Faerie, even though it is not cold iron. But, if it is in the hands of a Faeriewalker—or in the hands of someone who is within the Faeriewalker’s aura—it will fire. And even a Fae Queen can be killed by a mortal bullet to the head.”
“You want to assassinate one of the Queens,” I said, and it was only half a question.
“I might try for both,” she mused. “I have the power to hold Titania’s throne if I take it. Perhaps my first official act as Seelie Queen will be to eliminate Mab. I’m not arrogant enough to think I can hold both thrones, but with Mab dead, whoever inherited the Unseelie throne would be less powerful and easier to work with.” Grace gave me an evil grin. “And with you at my side, no one would ever dare threaten me. I will be Queen forever!”
Nope, she wasn’t a bit arrogant. I honestly had no idea whether the world would be a better place if she succeeded or if she failed. All I knew was that I was running out of time to come up with a brilliant escape plan. Because we only had another hundred yards or so until we’d be on the bridge and crossing the moat to the Southern Gate.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Rain fell steadily as I trudged miserably toward the bridge that would lead me into Faerie. Grace was so cheerful she was humming under her breath. I kept trying to figure out some way to escape her without getting my mom killed, but I couldn’t even come up with a crazy idea, much less a sane one.
Because the only delaying tactic I could think of was talking, I decided to ask some more questions.
“Dad said he didn’t think you wanted to go back to Faerie,” I said through chattering teeth.
“Did he?”
“Yeah. Something about Lachlan.” I watched her from under lowered lashes, but she showed no reaction to Lachlan’s name.
“For all his ambition and delusions of grandeur, my brother is, I’m afraid, a rather unimaginative person,” Aunt Grace said. “If I were to go into Faerie and take up with Lachlan as things stand now, then I would be…” She frowned. “I’m afraid shunned is too mild a word to describe the reaction, but it’s the best I can do. But Seamus forgot that if I went back to Faerie, it would be with you at my side. I will be Queen, and you, my dear child, will be a terrifying enough threat to discourage the rest of the Sidhe from treating me with anything less than the utmost respect.”
“So, what, you’re going to keep me at your side all the time, like a dog on a leash, in case you feel like shooting someone?”
She smiled that mad smile of hers, her eyes glinting with an ugly humor. “I hadn’t thought of it before, but I think a leash would be a wonderful idea. That long white neck of yours would look so lovely with a jeweled collar around it.”
I shut up, because I didn’t want to hear any more about what she had planned for me. We had reached the bridge now, and my last remaining hopes started dying one by one as we crossed toward the gatehouse.
Grace pointed at a door on the far right end of the gatehouse. A small light at the top of the door cast a faint glow on a sign written in a language I didn’t know.
“You see that door?” she asked, but apparently it was a rhetorical question, because she didn’t wait for my answer. “That door will lead us directly into Faerie without having to bother with any annoying human customs.
“It’s beautifully simple and ingenious. In Avalon, there’s a long hallway, which leads directly to the border. On the mortal side of the border, there’s nothing but a reinforced concrete wall, so for mortals, it’s a dead end. But in Faerie, there is no barrier, so we shall be able to walk right on through. There are border patrol officers stationed in the hallway, of course, but you know better than to make any kind of scene.”
Yes, I knew better. Even if Aunt Grace didn’t have my mom as a hostage, I couldn’t rely on the border patrol for help. After all, Aunt Grace was their captain. No, it seemed like there was nothing to stop her from whisking me off to Faerie. I hoped if nothing else that it would be warmer there, because my clothes were now thoroughly soaked through, and though I hugged myself for warmth, my teeth chattered more and more with every passing minute.
The parking lot I remembered seeing when I first encountered the gatehouse was nearly empty tonight. There were three cars parked close together right near the ultra-secure official entrance. And there was one other car, a nondescript sedan, parked under a burned-out light near the door to Faerie.
As Grace and I stepped into the parking lot, she seemed to notice the car for the first time, and her footsteps slowed. She grabbed my arm with her free hand, pulling me to her, magic prickling across my skin.
At first, I didn’t know what she had seen that alarmed her, but moments later a man stepped from the shadows.
He was tall and very thin, almost frail-looking. He looked like he’d been roused from bed, his long blond hair fastened in a frazzled braid, his clothes wrinkled and mismatched. Even in the dim light of the parking lot, I could tell that his shirt was navy and his pants were black, like he’d grabbed them in the dark and just thrown them on.
I thought he was a total stranger to me, until he stepped into a pool of light and I got a look at his eyes. Fae, of course, but of an unusual shade of teal blue. Just like Ethan and Kimber’s. Grace confirmed my guess by speaking, even as she backed away, pulling me with her.