I say that, but when we leave the old temple behind and find the long-lost demon pirate treasure that’ssupposedto have an amulet that can unlock a portal between the shadow realm and the Winter Court and it has everythingbutthe amulet, my heart sinks a little.
I kick the old iron chest, grateful for the steel-toed boots that Rez insisted on for saving me from stubbing my toe.
That portal was our one way of avoiding the war spreading through the fae courts. It was our ticket to Iradil’s and Liora’s old meeting place and the locket hidden away there. And it’s gone. Pilfered from the chest by whoever got here first.
I slam the chest full of diamonds, rubies and double my weight in pirate gold shut and sit down heavily on top of it, dropping my head into my hands.
Yaelyn, sensing the pit of disappointment in my gut, sits down beside me and wraps his arm around me. “There might be another way, Mischief. We can regroup at home, do some more research and try again. Or we can figure out a long way around the Night Court’s forces. We just won’t be able to do it before Aron’s Christmas party, and he’d be crushed if you missed it.”
I sigh and nod, slumping against him.
“This isn’t adding up,” Rez rumbles, pacing. His wings unfurl behind him, magnificent under even the shadow realm’s weak winter sun. “Lucy, you’re sitting on a fortune worth of treasure and whoever took the amulet left it all behind. Why?”
“They must have known the amulet’s significance,” Yaelyn muses.
I startle, alarm ripping through me. “Do you think someone found their way to the locket before us?”
“Worse,” Reznik grumbles. “I can guess where the amulet ended up, and it just so happens that a certain relics-hoarding druid librarian owes me a favor.”
* * *
The Renegade Libraryis my new favorite place in all the realms. Full stop. Roll credits.
It’s somewhere outside the realms, which seems like it shouldn't be possible, but Reznik assures me it is because something something ancient arcane magic, and it’s massive. Sprawling. Magnificent. Full to the absolutebrimwith treasures beyond even my greedy little magpie imagination.
And getting in was a bitch, and not the normal bitch way I’m used to that involves a lot of sneaking. Nope. We went in the front door. Which ended up meaning a lot of waiting, an incredibly suspicious druidess and the most thorough pat down of my life.
The pat down was warranted. As is the warning glare she gives me as I drift a little too close to a crystalline case housing an incredibly shiny, utterly impractical bejeweled ceremonial dagger. My fingers itch and I scan the case and the area around it before Arabella, the demon druidess librarian and keeper of the relics, clears her throat sharply. “Even if you got into the case, you wouldn’t make it out of the library in one piece, so don’t even think about it.”
Reznik rolls his eyes. “Too late for that, Bella.”
Bella?Bella? Just who is this druid tomydemon warrior?
Sensing my jealousy, Yaelyn snickers at my side and grabs my hand, lacing his fingers with mine, and I know the action is meant as a deterrent from acting on my itchy fingers as much as it is a comfort.
“And you doubt my Lucy,” Rez continues. “I’m not saying the Renegade Library wouldn’t be a challenge for her, but I bet she’d surprise you.”
“I’d really rather she didn’t. I’ll lend you the amulet—begrudgingly—but don’t make me regret it.”
“It sounds like you already do!” I chime in cheerfully.
Yaelyn elbows me lightly as Arabella unlocks a case with a series of runes she weaves so quickly I can’t follow them. She hesitates when handing the amulet over to Reznik, but finally does so with a sigh.
“We’re even now, so long as I get that amulet back when you’re done with it. Don’t make me send hunters after you. I have no war with the Light Bearer or her Light Guard, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
I give her a jaunty salute, which probably brings her no comfort whatsoever, and she escorts us from the library, muttering the whole way.
* * *
We shadow walk backto where we found the pirate treasure—and, okay, I slip some into my pockets—and bunk down for the night, planning to set out for the portal the next day. With patches of darkness still infesting the shadow realm, we have to be careful shadow walking through it, especially as we get closer to the portal. It may not be the main point of our little journey, but I do plan on whipping out my shiny crown and lightsaber and banishing what darkness I can along the way.
But tonight, tonight is for campfire snuggles and then bedding down on a bed of shadows, which is surprisingly comfy, and getting bound up by them, which is not surprisingly absolutely amazing. Ten out of ten recommend. Rez may be the master of knot tying, but I give Yaelyn full marks for shadow weaving.
The trek to the portal is slow and arduous, but not nearly as slow and arduous as the shorter but more treacherous trek through the Winter Court, because we portal straight into a fucking blizzard.
We’re pinned down in an ice cave for a full day until it relents, and let me tell you, we do not spend that day playing tiddlywinks.
I wake to a cup of pour-over coffee in one of our camping mugs the next day, and even though I’m eager to get to Liora and Iradil’s secret rendezvous spot and the treasure it contains, I’m more than content to take a few extra minutes snuggling between my two demonkin in front of the campfire, sharing coffee-flavored kisses.
