I hoped this worked.
We didn’t enter the Playground. This is a barrow,I thought as loudly as possible.
For a moment, I wasn’t sure it had worked. Liam’s face was an impenetrable mask. It wasn’t until he dipped his chin in a microscopic nod that the tight feeling in my chest relaxed.
I’d gotten through to him.
Ahrun and Thomas looked over at me a second later. I guessed Liam had managed to pass the message.
Nathan’s slight squeeze on my hip let me know he’d gotten it too.
Good. Now we were all on the same page.
“We’re here,” the gnome declared as the elevator came to a stop with a slight jolt.
Thomas tossed a gold coin to the gnome. “For your troubles.”
The gnome demonstrated a surprising speed as he snatched the coin out of the air, disappearing it into his uniform in the next second.
The elevator dinged, the doors parting to reveal what looked like a night club. Bodies heaved under the onslaught of music. Limbs and torsos illuminated by a light that was the color of blood.
The gnome bowed. “Enjoy tonight’s fight.”
Thomas and Ahrun glided out of the elevator without acknowledging the gnome’s comment, the enforcers prowling in their wake. Liam followed, but not before shooting one last look in my direction.
I nodded to show I was okay.
Nathan patted my back before dropping his arm. “Our turn.”
He and Deborah preceded me, leaving me the last to step out.
“Do be careful while searching for what you’re looking for,” the gnome murmured, straightening from his bow with an enigmatic little smirk. “The worst monsters wear the faces of friends with good intentions.”
I whirled back toward the elevator, taking a step toward it as the doors began to close. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Watch yourself, dearie. And if you see that awful nephew of mine again, give him a slap from old uncle Sylvester.”
The elevator doors shut, leaving me staring blankly at what was now nothing but a wall.
“You know him?” Nathan asked, looking from me to the empty wall.
I shook my head. “No. Never seen him before in my life.”
There was only one gnome I knew of. A shitty piece of work who’d been my co-worker for a short time when I was a courier.
I hadn’t seen or thought of that gnome in years.
“We should get moving then,” Nathan ordered. “The others are already gone.”
I scanned the crowd around us, not spotting Liam, Thomas or any of the others. “Where did they go?”
Nathan shook his head. “It’s a syncing issue. You know the stories of mortals spending an hour in a Fae barrow only to step out and find a hundred years have passed? It’s like that. The slight discrepancy between their arrival and ours landed us somewhere entirely else. It’s common in barrows. Keeps people on their toes.”
“A barrow? I thought we were going to the Playground,” Deborah said, looking mildly freaked out.
“We all did.” Nathan sent me a grim look. “I don’t like this.”
I shook my head. “Neither do I.”
