“If I may, darling.” Leanansidhe twiddled her cigarette flute, a dubious expression crossing her face. “You don’t look so good. Right now, it is a few hours until dawn in your brother’s part of the world. The Chases are likely sound asleep. A few hours of waiting is not going to make much of a difference, and you look like you could use the rest. I will send a messenger to the Chases’ house first thing tomorrow—he knows the way to get around the antifey defenses your brother has in place.”
“That’s awfully nice of you, Lea.” On the couch, Puck crossed his arms and gave the Exile Queen a wary look. “Why so helpful all of a sudden?”
“I’m always helpful, darling.” Leanansidhe waved an indignant hand. “I won’t have anyone who comes to my home accuse me of being inhospitable—it’s bad for business. If it gets out that I was rude to any of my important guests, despite how they threatened me, that would impact my bottom line. Don’t worry, Puck darling.” The Exile Queen gave him an evil smile. “If I want revenge, I take my time. While within the walls of my home, you’re perfectly safe, I assure you.”
Puck grimaced. “Funnily enough, I don’t feel reassured.”
“Regardless.” Leanansidhe waved off his comment and turned back to Meghan. “Meghan, dove... I can still call you Meghan, yes? The offer stands. Please use this time to rest and heal and do whatever planning you need for the next step. I’ll have a minion show you the guest rooms.”
Meghan hesitated. I could sense the struggle within. We hadn’t had a chance to rest since we’d started the hunt for the Monster, and the last battle with the creature took a lot out of us. Everyone, even Puck and Nyx, was mentally and physically exhausted. I myself still ached from where the Monster slammed me several times into a stone floor. The bruises and broken ribs had almost healed, but they were still painful. A few hours’ sleep sounded very tempting right now.
But Keirran was still out there. And there was a new type of fey on the rise. The Monster that had destroyed Touchstone and the tiny nightmare piskies flitting around the real world might look vastly different, but both creatures had one thing in common: they attracted and spread negative emotions wherever they went. Clearly, they were connected somehow, and I didn’t want Keirran to have to face them alone.
As if she could sense what I was thinking, Meghan glanced at me, and her eyes shadowed in concern. “Maybe some rest is a good idea,” she admitted, turning back to Leanansidhe. “Everyone is tired. I don’t want too long of a delay, but we won’t be able to help anyone if we’re so exhausted we can’t function.”
“Exactly, darling.” Leanansidhe clapped her hands, and a redcap slid into the room, seemingly from nowhere. The short, squat man with the jagged shark teeth and wool cap drenched in the blood of his victims gave us a surly look, then turned his attention to the Exile Queen. “Take our guests to the VIP quarters,” she instructed him. “Make sure they have everything they need. And minion, if I hear anything of Razor Dan harassing my guests for favors again, all of you will be spending the next few months regrowing your teeth, after I yank them out of your head and sell them to the goblin market.”
The redcap cringed. Turning to us, he gave a rather jerky bow and growled, “Follow me, if ya would,” in a slightly less surly tone than was expected from a redcap. We followed the short faery down more elegant corridors until he stopped at a pair of arched doors and grunted for us to go inside. He then fled our presence without looking back, leaving us alone in the hall.
“Only two guest rooms?” Puck gave the doorways a dubious look, then raised his eyebrows at Nyx with a faint grin. “Huh. Guess that means we’ll have to share one. Unless you object.”
The Forgotten’s voice was dry. “Well, I was not planning on sharing a room with the queen.”
Surprisingly, Puck hesitated. Glancing at me, he looked as if he wanted to say something, and a flicker of worry crossed his face. But then his gaze shifted to Meghan, and something on the Iron Queen’s face caused him to nod and turn away. “All right, then,” he announced, following Nyx into the first guest room. “But if you snore, I can’t be held responsible for what happens.”
There was a disdainful sniff near our feet. “Clearly, you have never heard yourself, Goodfellow,” Grimalkin remarked as the door to the guest room closed. The cat shook his head, then padded away with his tail in the air. “I will return when it is time to depart,” he said without looking back. “Do not wait for me.”
Rounding a corner, the cat disappeared.
I entered the second room with Meghan, then closed the door and locked it firmly behind us; probably a useless precaution in this mansion of rogues, exiles, and outcasts, but one I did out of habit. I wasn’t planning to sleep regardless; any faery that tried sneaking into this room unannounced would find itself with a sword at its throat. If it was lucky.
I could feel Meghan’s gaze on my back, and turned to find her watching me with worried blue eyes. “What happened out there, Ash?” she asked quietly. “You’ve never threatened Leanansidhe before, and we knew we were going to have to bargain with her for information. This isn’t like you.”
“What would’ve happened if we tried to reason with Titania?” I asked. “She is never going to lift Leanansidhe’s exile, and she would have demanded something impossible from you, something that you would not be able to grant. We would have ended up in a worse situation than before.”
Inside, that same anger stirred. The Unseelie within still raged, annoyed that I hadn’t made good on my threat to destroy the Dark Muse and her entire kingdom. I had never fought a queen before; part of me wished I had remedied that today.
I shoved down that voice, and the bloodlust faded somewhat. “I know there were other options,” I continued as Meghan frowned. “But I made the call, and I’m sorry if I overstepped. Although, sometimes, I think Leanansidhe sees us as mostly human. She wouldn’t try these games with Oberon or Mab.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Meghan said, and her lips tightened. “And she conveniently didn’t mention that she didn’t even have any real information, either. She was just going to send us to Ethan and Kenzie.”
“I did notice that as well, yes.”
“I hope they’ve seen Keirran,” Meghan sighed. “I don’t want to drag Ethan and Kenzie into another faery mess, but... I keep having these terrible thoughts. What if...?” Her breath hitched, and she closed her eyes. “What if this new monster turns him back into the Soulless One?” she whispered. “It was able to change those Forgotten, and it even turned Puck into the old, sadistic Robin Goodfellow. If the Monster brings out Keirran’s shadow side...” She trembled violently, shaking her head. “Ash, what if we have to fight him? What if he goes and does something unforgivable again? I can’t... I don’t think I could go through that a second time.”