“We’ve been over this time and time again,” Neve said. “We won’t forget. Or fail.”
Thyra did not respond, just walked through. The moment she disappeared, someone nudged me to the side.
Thantrel stepped by, and my eyes widened. “What are you?—”
He sliced his finger and applied blood to thewall.
“I can’t let my mate go into danger without me,” he said as he passed through the portal, and it closed behind him.
Neve’s mouth fell open. “Hedid notdo that! Thyra is going to rip him open!”
“She might send him back.” Luccan shook his head slowly. “I should have guessed Than would pull something like this.”
We waited to see if what Luccan said would come to pass, but the portal didn’t open again. I imagined Thantrel was earning a tongue lashing and not the kind he desired.
“Skies, I’m glad I’m not in Bitra right now,” Caelo said after a full five minutes had passed. “I think Thantrel might have won that fight, but at what cost?”
“A high one,” Luccan confirmed. “Should we move on to Avaldenn?”
Everyone agreed, and Luccan opened a second gateway, this one leading to his home on Lordling Lane.
I took Neve’s hand. “You’re ready?”
“As ever,” she replied, and together, we stepped through.
Chapter 33
NEVE
Sweat poured off Caelo’s brow as he finished applying Freyia’s glamour. As the sole vampire on our team, she’d required a more thorough glamour than the rest of us. Usually, that would be a minor task, but Caelo had already altered me, Vale, and himself since we could not freely travel the streets.
The Crown wanted me in chains, Vale and I were married, and Caelo was a knight, a Clawsguard, and Vale’s dearest friend.
So we glamoured ourselves and had borrowed the plainest clothing possible from the rebels before leaving Valrun.
Out of everyone who had lived in Avaldenn, Luccan alone got to wear his usual clothing, and because it would be best if the leprechauns recognized him, he also bore no glamour. Bac and Tanziel, a nymph with blue hair down to her knees, would also walk the streets of Avaldenn undisguised.
I’d only met the nymph last night, and quickly realized that even though Tanziel’s powers allowed her to see events and share them with others later, she was only present to watch us. A recorder, the nymph called herself. It was an intriguing talent, though we would have done better with a stronger sword in our party instead.
But my sister doesn’t trust me,so we get a recorder of events rather than another competent fighter.
I hoped Bac would make up for the skills that Tanziel lacked, but that remained to be seen.
“Everyone is armed, right?” Luccan asked.
We’d decided to carry at least four daggers each, all of them hidden in our cloaks and boots. Freyia and Bac also had throwing stars.
While onecouldwalk into a coinary with a sword or mace or bows and arrows, those weapons would grab notice. Potentially, the leprechauns would ask us to check them. If we said no, they would monitor us far more thoroughly, and we wished to get in and out quickly and undetected.
“I think that’s enough of a disguise. Does she look fae enough to the rest of you?” Caelo stepped back from Freyia.
I examined the vampire. “It works. None of us looks like ourselves enough to alert a normal citizen.” For the time being, we vanished our wings. Our hair and eye colors appeared changed and the most prominent parts of our faces altered. My new dark hair, brown eyes, and larger nose would trick even those in Avaldenn who’d known me best, like Saga and Sayyida.
Luccan led us up the stairs to the main living area of his house. I looked around for servants.
“I released them when my brothers and I left town.” Luccan handed us the cloaks his servants wore outside when on errands for him. These cloaks bore the signet of the ice spider in red and black and told shop keepers that the servants could charge to Luccan’s accounts or pick up items for the younger Lord Riis. “I didn’t want anyone here if the king came calling with questions.”
“Ah,” I said. The Riis brothers and the spymaster always danced two steps ahead of others.
