Glaring at my lunch wasn’t going to do me any good. I wrapped the two orange squares around the ham and took a bite, nearly gagging at the taste. It was nothing like either meat or cheese, but was some indescribable third thing that my body nonetheless recognized as food. Even as I found the flavor revolting, my mouth demanded I eat the whole roll, and I found myself making a second before I finished swallowing the first.
“Great,” I muttered. “Guess this is something I ate before the world changed.”
“Yeah, your diet’s never been what I would call astonishingly well balanced,” said Dean. “If May didn’t cook, I think you’d probably have starved by now.”
Raysel looked alarmed. “I can’t cook,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” said Dean. “If May doesn’t feed you, Quentin understands takeout menus.”
I couldn’t sit through another discussion of Quentin as if he were someone I should voluntarily spend time around. “Excuse me,” I said, and stood, walking back over to the Luidaeg. She was still on the couch, eyes closed, clearly awake, since she was sitting perfectly upright and continuing to stroke Andrew’s hair with one hand. “Are we just going to sit around here until the Ride starts?”
“You have a better idea?”
“We could do something.”
She opened one eye. “Oh, very clever. The solver of problems has solved this problem as well. Tell me, o solver, what should we do?”
“We could . . .” I stalled. “We could find my sister. I can’t remove the spell from myself, but I think I can convince her to take it off me at this point, if I can just talk to her about it. Back at the tower, you said Chelsea could make it all the way to Golden Shore. She could take me there to look for them. Even if they aren’t there, I bet Arden could tell me where they went, and then I could see August. Won’t it be easier to break the Ride if I know what I can actually do?”
“That is, somehow, not the most ridiculous plan you have ever proposed to me.” She closed her eye again. “But no, Toby. I will not be sending you off on your own to try and find your historically fairly selfish sister and convince her to do something she doesn’t want to do. You’re staying where I can keep an eye on you.”
“Then we should—”
I didn’t get to finish saying what we should do. A strange ringing tore through the room, coming from the pocket of my jacket. I blinked, then fumbled to find the source, pulling out the mobile phone I’d been given all the way back at the start of this adventure. It was ringing. I hit the button to answer it, then raised it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Is this October?” asked a familiar voice, poisonously sweet and more menacing than I had ever heard it sound. “You’ve caused ever so much trouble today, my dear. It’s a good thing you’re to be executed at sundown, or I’m not sure you would ever be able to show your face again. Your mother is very disappointed, and your father—why, your father is heartbroken.”
“Hello, Aunt Eira,” I said, warily.
The Luidaeg stiffened, sitting up straight as she opened her eyes once again and turned to face me.
“Where are you, dear heart? I’ll send a detachment of knights to collect you. You must understand that this behavior only brings shame upon your house. Your sister’s prospects will be damaged for years, if not decades, by your behavior. You’re going to haunt her as she tries to move out into society, making everything harder than it had to be. If you can’t turn yourself in for your mother’s sake, do it for hers. I know you love your sister.” Her voice seemed to sharpen as she went on, going from knife to razor, ready to slice me open and let everything I was come pouring out.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” I said, stiffly.
“You know I only have your best interests at heart.”
“You just said that me being executed at sundown was a good thing, so no, I don’t feel like you have my best interests at heart,” I countered. “I like not being executed.”
“Hang up,” said the Luidaeg. It wasn’t a request.
“I have to go now, Auntie,” I said obediently. “I don’t think you should call me again.”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me, October. I am trying to save you.”
“By executing me? Goodbye, Eira. I’m sorry we never knew each other.” I could hear her shouting as I lowered the phone, until I finally cut her off with a press of a button. I looked at the Luidaeg. “They’re looking for me.”
“We knew they would be,” she said. “If the so-called Queen is herself—which is a possibility, since last time I looked, the real woman was imprisoned, not elf-shot or dead—she can hurt you. If she’s another of the Browns, she can hurt you. What’s more, if Titania doesn’t order her to do it, if she’s just acting according to her nature, I think she can do it without triggering Oberon’s injunctions. So yeah, they can execute you.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re not very reassuring?”
“Yes. You, several times.” She rose, leaving Andrew sleeping on the couch. “Okay, one good thing about this reality: Ginevra says Titania got rid of all the shapeshifting fae a long time ago. That means they don’t have Cu Sidhe, they can’t track you by scent. And all the magic you’ve used has been the sort that dissipates quickly, so that’s not going to . . . Fuck. Blood. Have you bled since we’ve been here at Home?”
“No,” I said, blinking at her. “I took a few of those blood gems you made for me.”
“Okay. Okay. We still need to figure out a place to move to, but that’s not as urgent. If you haven’t been bleeding . . .”
I wondered about mentioning that I’d bitten my tongue, and decided against it. She was already worked up enough, and that hadn’t been bleeding, not really. The blood had never left my mouth. It didn’t count. Right?
“Stay where you are, and keep not bleeding,” she said, and stalked toward Ginevra, clearly on edge. I blinked after her and didn’t move. What was she so worried about? The best blood-worker the Queen had was my mother, and Mom would never help them track me down. She might not approve of what I’d been doing, but I was still her daughter. If the Queen asked her to find me, she’d refuse. She was Firstborn. If she really didn’t want to do something, nothing in Faerie short of the Three could force her.
The Luidaeg started back toward me, Ginevra beside her. They were halfway across the room when the front door slammed open and a woman surged through, soaring through the air like a dandelion seed on the wind, feet never touching the floor. Flying is a skill inherent to only a few descendant lines, and most of them are bound to the Air Kingdoms, but this figure was as solid as we were, with hair the color of rotting gorse and fingers like long, emaciated talons. Those talons were extended in my direction as she rushed at me, howling.
I shrieked and turned to run, foot hooking on the edge of a nearby chair and sending me sprawling to the floor only seconds before the Baobhan Sith reached the place where I had been. I tried to scramble away, seized with the sudden, irresistible need to flee, and shrieked again as her hand closed over my ankle.