CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
MAEVE
Itoppled backwards. The world flipped around me, the grass falling over my head and the dark sky becoming a blanket beneath me. I toppled head over heels, my stomach lurching.
I slammed into something hard, my body jerking, as something heavy in my arms struggled to wriggle free.
I sat up with a start. Darkness surrounded me. I rubbed my eyes, and gradually, the room came into view. A dark wood ceiling. Swords hanging from wrought-iron chandeliers, bare wattle and daub walls and iron hooks for tapestries.
I was back in Briarwood, back in the real world.
I glanced down at the bundle in my arms, peeling away the top layer of blanket. Connor’s big eyes stared back at me. His face was all scrunched up, and a tiny fist flailed out from one corner of the blanket.
“Hey, little one.” I cradled him against my chest. “You’re home again. We’re gonna get you back to your mommy as soon as we can.”
Bodies scuffled and couches creaked as the guys started to wake up. Flynn sat up and stretched one arm in the air, his lean body extending like a cat. The second baby in his arms mashed a tiny fist into his chest. Rowan’s dark lashes flickered open,and he rubbed his cheek where a long cut marred his dark skin. Arthur rolled over and narrowly managed to avoid impaling himself on his own sword, which he once again gripped in his trembling fingers.
“We did it,” I grinned. “We actually fucking traveled to the fae realm in a dream and lived to tell the tale.”
“Youdid it.” Arthur winced as he touched a finger to a long tear across his shoulder. “That was some seriously powerful magic you pulled off, bringing us all into the dream with you and pulling us out right at that exact moment.”
“I guess we know what your power is now,” Flynn said. “You are one badass dreamwalker.”
I beamed. “So crisis averted?”
“For now.” Arthur prodded Corbin’s still-sleeping figure with the toe of his boot. “After the damage we did, I doubt the fae will be coming back for more children any time soon?—”
“I don’t mean to bollix up the celebrations,” Flynn said, his gaze focused on a dark shape on the floor. “We have a problem.”
I whirled around. There, on the floor next to Flynn’s couch, his hands crossed behind his head and a flirtatious smile on his face, was Blake.
CHAPTER FORTY
MAEVE
“What the hell are you doing here?”This is impossible, and since everything that already happened today was already impossible, this is impossible on a monumental scale.
“Howthe hell are you here?” Arthur said. “You can’t break our protection spells.”
Blake grinned. He placed a boot on the corner of the table. “I’m not fae.”
“What? But—” Arthur looked totally lost.
“Look,” Blake sighed. “I can explain it all, and I will. But right now you’ve got more important problems.”
“Oh yeah? Climate change? Pandemic? Publican strike?”
Blake pointed at the babies. “You need to give those babies a protection spell and return them to their mothers. Andthenyou need to give the bossy one over there something to wake him up.”
“How the hell are we going to do a protection spell without Corbin?” Flynn demanded. “He’s the only one who can find what we need in the library?—”
“Oh, for pity’s sake. Let me do it.”
Before I could protest, Blake grabbed Connor from my arms and pressed his hand against his forehead.
“Don’t hurt him!” I tried to grab his arm, but Blake flung me away. He muttered some words in the strange, singsong tongue of his.
Connor whimpered, but didn’t cry out.
