My mind is still too full of all my past, and whilst I can’t forget what happened, perhaps I don’t have to let it define me.
Linton shakes his head, hard enough I think it might come off. His feathery antennae lift until they’re fully erect and his eyes are huge.
“What is it?”
He scents the air. “Tam Lin.”
“He’s here?”
“He’s on the move,” Linton growls.
His hand is still around mine. I curl my fingers between his. In the last strange, strange twenty-four hours, I’ve shared more than space with Linton. There has to be something in my heartand something in his which has made me give him even one iota of my trust.
But then Linton has done nothing but look after me. The Redcaps in the bakery, the inn, and now landing here in the middle of nowhere when it clearly isn’t safe.
“What do we do?”
“Stick to the plan.”
“You have a plan?”
Okay, so yes, I trust Linton, but his brand of havoc is completely unique. I had not expected there to be a plan.
“We return to my lair.”
“Does Tam Lin know where that is?”
Linton studies me for a while. “Probably.”
My mothman is a chaos monster. Complete and utter chaos.
“Perhaps going there is not the best idea?” I suggest.
Linton does one of his long, slow blinks at me. I think it means he’s thinking, but I can’t be sure. I’m not convinced he has thoughts, only vibes.
And those vibes are completely different to the ones the rest of us have.
“Then we will go to the stronghold.”
“What is the stronghold?”
“It’s on the outskirts of the Night Lands,” Linton says, his wings shivering. “Tam Lin won’t go there when there’s a risk Warden might take him.”
He sweeps me up into his arms.
“Who is Tam Lin?”
“He was the original human taken by the first Faerie Queen, but now he is not human anymore.” Linton knits his eyebrows together. “At least I think he was human? I’m not sure.”
“I’m guessing it probably doesn’t matter anymore. But why does he want me? The Faerie have been vanquished. Reavely is the king of the Yeavering now.”
“No one ever controls the whole of the Yeavering. Even the Faerie didn’t have it all. Where were Reivers in the Night Lands or the Shellycoats on the coast. There are plenty of places they would fear to tread.”
This isn’t what I was led to believe about the Yeavering. I mean, I knew there were plenty who feared the Faerie and the monsters, but I thought the entire place was under their control.
It’s something I should have known. My secret runs deep, something even Linton can’t know. Not yet, not until I get to the very heart of the Yeavering.
Until I have the absolute proof.
