Princess.Blake’s voice slammed into my head.Find yourself a supply of fae nightmares. If I can get to you, we’ll show ‘em what hell really means.
I’m here, too,a faint voice echoed after Blake’s. It was Clara.I’ll give you what power I can manage.
I’m on it,I thought back, still unsure if they could hear me. I rushed up to the Far Darrig Arthur had slain, and pressed my hand against its chest. The spiky fur beneath my fingers lurched my stomach. The faintest flicker of life still simmered inside the fae – enough that I could fall into its memories and dreams and pick at the threads of its nightmares?—
No.
I yanked my hand away just as the first nightmarish image slammed into me. It was a darkness darker than nothing, darker even than the black fog that crept across the marble toward me. I could see nothing, hear nothing, but every nerve and sinew in my body screamed that inside the darkness was something so terrible I couldn’t even comprehend it, and that encountering it would cause me to completely lose my mind.
I flung my body away from the dying fae. I blinked, trying to dispel the unsettling dark. I remembered my uncle’s twisted face as he lived his own horrible nightmares. No way was I going to look into another fae nightmare.
That shit is going to fry my soul.
I can’t do it,I tried to say to Blake inside my head.Their nightmares are too much for me. But let’s see if your compulsion will work again.
I whipped around, sliding my dagger out of my shirt and jabbing it at a Far Darrig barreling toward me. Before it could reach me, Corbin leapt on it, shoving his palm against the fae’s mouth and trying to pull the air from its lungs with his magic.
“Your powers are useless against me now,witch,” the fae rasped, digging its claws into Corbin’s arm.
But Corbin didn’t waste time. He yanked a dagger from his belt and plunged the blade into the fae’s neck.
“That may be true, but my blade is still sharp,” Corbin gasped out, yanking out his dagger as the fae dropped to the ground.
I ducked around them. Green blood splattered across my back. A dark shape lunged at me.
I raised my own knife, steeling myself for the Far Darrig’s fierce claws to sink into my skin.
“I know how much you want my body, Princess, but this is hardly the time.”
Blake. The dark shape was Blake.
I lowered the knife and thrust out my other hand. He grabbed it, wrapping his fingers around mine. His lips moved in some kind of chant but I couldn’t hear the words over the chaos around us and the pounding of my own heart.
The pillar of power inside me flared up, flowing through my fingers into Blake’s as his power sizzled against my skin and raced through my body. Behind him, I could feel the quiet addition of Clara’s power, bolstering our reserves.
Blake’s magic swirled inside my skull, probing into the recesses of my mind, wrapping around my thoughts and pulling out what he needed. I focused on feeding him more of my power. Random memories flew in front of my eyes. Kelly lying in the hospital bed. Me as a gangly teenager presenting a speech on black holes at an Arizona science convention. Me making demands of Uncle Bob while the fire blazed around us. Corbin and I squeezed into the priest hole. Arthur and I shagging under the stars.
You’ve been busy, Princess.Blake’s sardonic tone pounded inside my head. He was seeing my memories, learning more about me in moments than I might have told him in an entire lifetime.
Stop being nosy and focus on stopping the fae, I shot back at him. The room swam as more memories danced in front of my eyes, mere flashes too quick to distinguish. My mind blazed with bright light and blinding pain. Instead of shying from the pain, I fell toward it, bracing myself for the disorientation of seeing through someone else’s eyes.
My body toppled and spun. My consciousness flew out my ears, but instead of falling into a fae’s head, it slammed into a wall of darkness. The shock juddered through my body, rattling my bones and gnashing my teeth together.
Blake clung to me, his eyes wide with shock.
“They’ve blocked us out, too!” Blake cried. “We won’t get them like that.”
In the moments Blake and I had tried to perform the compulsion spell, things had become even more dire. Several more fae spilled from the inky depths, holding aloft bone knives and shillelagh as they raced around my boys, grabbing the screaming, scattering protesters and shoving them into the void. Screams cut off abruptly as the darkness took Dora’s mob one by one, leaving not a trace behind.
Arthur flung himself at another Far Darrig, his blade swinging and slicing. Green fae blood ran down his arms and drenched his trench coat. His hollow eyes and drawn face were the only clue that he was starting to tire. Behind him, Corbin battled a swarm of sprites, whirling his knives around his head, slapping at them with the metal blades while they pecked at his head. Dust and black ink swirled around us like a cloud. I couldn’t see Rowan or Flynn through the battle.
Blake still held my hand. He squeezed my fingers tight. “They won’t hurt you. Daigh wants you alive. Use that. Get to Jane and Connor. I’ll help the others.”
“But they’ll kill you all!”
Blake drew a long dagger from his belt and saluted me with it. “I’ll give ‘em hell for you, Princess.”
I gulped back the panic mounting inside me. “Blake, don’t youdarelet go of me.”
