A bone blade pressed against my throat and a soft voice whispered in my ear. “Move and I split you open.”
I inclined my head half an inch, indicating my agreement. The cool bone dragged over my skin. A tiny hand on my shoulder yanked me back onto the ground. Blackberry thorns clung to my shirt, tearing at the skin on my back and arms.
A familiar face loomed over me. The tips of two white-blonde braids tickled my cheeks. Despite the seemingly distressing situation I found myself in, I broke into a grin.
Liah. Just the fae I wanted to see.
“Blake Beckett, what are you doing here?” Liah’s mouth twisted into a smirk. She didn’t lower the knife. “Daigh said you’d betrayed the fae and joined forces with the witches.”
My heart pounded, but I managed to hold my smile. Liah could have cried out already and alerted the nearby guards to my presence. But she hadn’t. That meant something, although perhaps only that she wanted to toy with me before handing me over to Daigh.
The joke’s on her if that happens. As long as I’m alive I can jump leave this dream any time I want. But as long as I hold on, there’s a chance I might find something we can use.
“I’m just back for a visit.”
I noticed that Liah wore her Seelie green tunic and trousers instead of the loincloths and smocks of Daigh’s new Seelie slaves, and her bow with a full quiver of arrows was strapped across her tiny shoulders. She crouched over me, the shimmer of an invisibility glamour still clinging to her skin. I must’ve appeared right beside her.
But why was she crouching in the bushes with her bow at the ready, instead of serving at court with the other Seelie?
“Why are you hiding here?” I mouthed the words, rather than speak them. Liah still pressed the blade to my throat, and I knew my childhood friend well enough to know that she kept her blades sharp. If I moved too much I’d slit my own throat.
“Why do you think?” Liah’s eyes darted forward again, peering through the bushes at the sidhe. She barely spoke above a whisper. “I’m searching for a way to kill Daigh.”
My grin widened.Of course, she is.I cursed myself for not thinking of contacting Liah earlier. She and I had spent most of our childhood playing together. She taught me some of the simpler fae magic, and I taught her how to fire a bow and wield a sword – skills usually reserved for male fae. As I grew older, Daigh took issue with me spending time with a Seelie. He thought it made me look weak – and he’d always had plans for me and Maeve, and Liah could threaten his scheme. So no more Liah for me. Yet more goodness that he took from me. We’d seen each other at court a few times since, but we weren’t allowed to be alone together for long moments.
Liah removed the knife and held out her hand to pull me up. She didn’t embrace me. That wasn’t her way. Instead, she handed me the knife and removed her bow and an arrow.
“You appeared in front of me,” she whispered. “Even your magical abilities won’t allow you to cast an invisibility glamour.”
“I’m not really here. I’m dream-traveling. It’s sort of a new thing for me. Someone explained to me that it has to do with theoretical physics, but I fell asleep from boredom before I could find out what that means.”
Liah’s lips curled back into a smile. “If I slit your throat, you won’t really die, because you’re actually in a dream?”
“You don’t have to look so excited about it.” I huffed. “And no, I think I really do die, but I don’t want to test it, thank you very much. Can you tell me what’s happened since I left?”
“It’s horrible. Daigh has nearly all the Seelie in his court now, supporting his plan to return the fae to Earth. I’m leading a small group of Seelie rebels who refused to join his new court. Daigh burned our barrows, salted our magic places so nothing would grow, and now his soldiers hunt us out in the forest, oneby one.” Liah nocked an arrow and raised her bow, aiming for the entrance to Daigh’s barrow. “Well, not anymore.”
“You’ll never get a decent shot through the guards,” I reminded her. “Daigh’s not going to walk out unprotected. He probably has magical shielding.”
Especially after Maeve drove that iron sword through his hand.
“I have to try. I want to leaveTir Na Nogas much as anyone else, but this isn’t the way.”
I curled my hand around Liah’s wrist, pulling down her bow. “Even if you do kill him, it won’t matter. This is bigger than Daigh. He’s playing on the fae desire to return to our ancestral home, to our true sacred places. That’s why so many Seelie joined him willingly. Because they’re sick of living in this prison. If Daigh dies, some other fae will just step into his place.”
“Then what brilliant suggestion doyoupropose? After all, it’s your world on the line. Oberon forbid I might be allowed to do you a favour and shoot your enemy through the heart.”
She sounded just like the Liah I used to know. I grinned. “We’ve got to kill the idea, obviously. Or make this place somehow livable again. I don’t know. I’m no good at this. I’m much better at the arrow-through-the-heart stuff. It’s simply that I hate wasting an arrow.”
“You’d better figure it out quick,” Liah muttered. “You’re running out of time.”
“You know what he’s trying to do?” I demanded. It couldn’t be this easy, could it? I’d just ask her and she’d tell me? “He’s been stealing babies from the human realm, but I don’t know why.”
“Obviously, he plans to raise the Slaugh.” Her eyes narrowed. “The babies are an offering to the unhallowed spirits. As soon as they unblock the gateway they’re going through to take more. They already have the targets picked out. And the spirits willcome to collect as soon as the babies return, so no chance of you stealing them back this time. That’s as good a reason as I need to take him out.”
Oh, this was bad. This was very, very bad.
“But the fae haven’t had the power to raise the Slaugh since we were banished toTir Na Nog. That’s why you were sent here. The realm restricts fae powers.”
