Gil’s voice drifted through the stillness, coming from above. “I may be immortal now, but I swear I can still feel myself getting older.”
“I’ll probably behead that vampire before the night is through,” Laurie informed me.
Hiding my relief, I forced myself to turn away and grasp the bars of the ladder as if I weren’t affected by him. I felt Laurie’s attention on me as I began the climb upward. The train of my heavy gown lifted out of the water with a wet sound. I cringed and kept going, toward the moon, toward fresh air. Away from the Seelie Prince and everything he made me feel.
Because, just as Laurie had on the day he gave Collith that bespelled mirror, I knew there would be a price. Mercy Wardwell had foretold it, as well. The three of us had already paid so much for our choices and mistakes.
And I wasn’t sure any of us would survive another payout.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I emerged into the streets of Munich weary, injured, and covered in shit.
Being able to see the sky was comforting, and the fresh air even more so. The moment I was clear of the hole we’d come out of, I stopped and inhaled several times. My damp clothes felt like a layer of ice against my skin, but I was so glad to be back aboveground that I welcomed it. Wind stirred the sweaty strands of hair clinging to my neck and cheeks. Still taking deep, greedy breaths, I did a swift scan of the street.
We appeared to be in a residential neighborhood. To my relief, there were no people within sight. Cars lined the curb, empty and dark. Even the streetlights seemed subdued. It must’ve been that time of night after everyone had gone to bed, but still too early for the bakers to emerge.
As Laurie materialized beside me, I found myself reluctant to move. From the edge of my vision I saw his fingers made quick work of the buttons on his coat, hiding the torn and stained shirt beneath. The blood could have just as easily been hidden by a glamour, or his abilities, and I’d spent enough time with Laurie to know that he was conserving whatever power he had left.
Which meant he was nervous how things would go at the Unseelie Court, too.
At the same moment Gil appeared on my other side, Laurie’s phone trilled into the stillness. My pulse leaped at the sound—was it news on Finn? He pulled it from his pocket in a smooth, practiced movement and put it to his pointed ear without bothering to glance at the screen.
A low voice spoke on the other end, the words too muffled for me to hear. I bet Gil can hear everything, though, I thought. My gaze flicked over to the vampire to gauge his expression, but he wasn’t paying attention to either of us. His head was turned toward one of the houses and he stood alarmingly still again. I wondered if he could smell or hear the humans inside.
Without thinking, I reached for Gil with both my hand and my mind. The bond brightened like a spark and I felt its heat, comparable to the heat of Gil’s feverish skin. For a disorienting instant, it felt like I was staring at my own face, and I saw that Tabitha’s carefully-applied makeup really hadn’t fared well in the sewers. Not important right now, Fortuna.
“Hey,” I said, blinking to set the world right again. Gil’s eyes met mine. He stared at me for a beat, then two. After another moment, the frantic light in them dimmed.
I’d just let out a breath of relief when Laurie’s call ended. He moved so quickly that his phone seemed to vanish mid-air, and he turned back to us. I dropped my hand from Gil’s arm. “That was Lensa,” the faerie prince said briskly. “She and the werewolf got out. I told her to bring him to Emma Miller instead of where we’re bound.”
The fact that he used her name showed Laurie’s regard for the old woman. I suppressed a smile, and calm spread through me like the heat of a campfire. Finn is safe. Out loud I said, “Good call. Until I know how we’ll be received, I don’t want to put him in any more danger. Where is the closest Door, by the way?”
Whatever awaited us at the Unseelie Court, I wanted to get it over with. Not only was my body caked with blood and refuse, but I’d used my powers a lot tonight. The high was over now and I felt like a battery in its final moments.
“It’s not far,” Laurie said, inclining his head to indicate we should leave.
I couldn’t even summon the energy to be annoyed at this nonanswer, but I was still considering pressing him when Laurie’s phone rang again. This time he did look at the screen before putting it to his ear. He quickened his stride to put some distance between us, crooking his fingers as if to say, Keep moving. As we obeyed, his voice floated back to us in pieces. It was already a longer call than the last. Gil and I walked next to each other, neither of us saying a word for several blocks. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on Laurie, but I wasn’t sure what to say. This seemed to keep happening to me. Suddenly I wished I was more like Emma, or Ariel, or Gretchen, who never seemed to be at a loss for words.
“You use your emotions,” Gil said abruptly, solving the problem for both of us.
I glanced at him, frowning. “Excuse me?”
“When you’re using your abilities,” he clarified, his bleached hair glinting when we passed beneath a working streetlight. “I was there when you went head-to-head with the Rat King, remember? I got to observe the legendary Fortuna Sworn in all her glory. You’re powerful, no denying it—I’ve never seen a Nightmare’s eyes turn red like that—but if you depend too much on rage or pain, it’ll make things harder to control.”
“What do you use, then?” I asked without thinking. It was a personal question, and I was trying not to ask Gil those. Now that I had access to his every thought and feeling, it was the least I could do to let him volunteer that information.
But the vampire didn’t seem bothered by my prying. His gaze continued darting around the street, and I couldn’t discern if he was looking for threats, as Lyari always was, or if he was overwhelmed by his heightened senses. “It’s like a muscle,” he answered. “You can use your arm without adrenaline, right? Same concept applies for a Nightmare. You just need to work it.”
I took a large step to avoid a frozen puddle. “Practice more? That’s your big advice?”
“Do what you want. But next time you get dumped and end up killing the poor fellow, don’t come crying to me.”
“As if anyone would dump me,” I muttered.
Up ahead, Laurie made a sound suspiciously like laughter. He’d finished his phone call and now stood waiting for us. Once we were within earshot he said, gesturing at a shop beside us, “Here we are.”
Gil and I turned in unison, and I felt my eyebrows go up at the sight of the mannequin. She stood in a window, and the edges of the glass were lit up with red neon lights. She wore a leather contraption that crisscrossed over her nipples and disappeared between her legs. The Door we’d use to reach the Unseelie Court was, fittingly, the entrance to a sex toy shop.
Or the back entrance, I corrected silently when Laurie led us down a surprisingly clean alley, then stopped at the bottom of some steps. He waited until we’d caught up before moving on.
Picturing the Court of Shadows, I ascended the stairs and braced myself as I drew closer to the Door. There was no need to open it, or so much as touch the knob—it could be locked, for all that mattered. The magic itself was in the frame. The outline. The intent. We were beginning to understand each other, magic and I. Since performing the spell on Gil, I’d developed a fascination for it.