Órlaith looked at Gerard. “You made a bargain with that bitch?”
Gerard shrugged one shoulder. “Your life and Patrick’s for the Morrígan’s staff.”
“Clearly you make terrible decisions when I am not around. Medb will never give that artifact up.”
“I wasn’t prepared to giveyouup.”
“A bargain is still a bargain, and we need to keep it,” Patrick said.
“How the hell do we get through the veil? Are we taking the Wild Hunt again?” Keith wanted to know. “Not all of us can ride, Captain.”
Gerard straightened up. “Status?”
Keith jerked his thumb toward the team’s sorcerer. Desmond looked a little worse for wear. “Those Dominion Sect assholes kept trying to knock him off the island.”
“Nothing broken, just a few bruised ribs. I can still fight,” Desmond said.
The rest of the Hellraisers echoed his assertion. Patrick pressed a knuckle against his temple, digging it in against the throbbing in his skull. “Can you guarantee the Wild Hunt can get us to the Unseelie Court in time?”
“No need to call upon Gwyn ap Nudd’s hunters,” a familiar voice interrupted. “Medb’s throne belonged to me long before the stories gave it to her. I will take you to the heart of winter.”
Everyone turned toward the person who spoke. Walking up the incline, her staff creating pockets of ice over all the greenery Órlaith had summoned with her freedom, came the Cailleach Bheur. Her hunched form moved with a fluidity the old never had, and her single eye gleamed beneath the hovering witchlights.
“My lady,” Órlaith said, dipping her chin in a respectful manner at the goddess.
“I see you still live, child. Cú Chulainn would not have found you without my aid.”
Órlaith frowned at Gerard. “What does she speak of?”
“I’ll explain later,” Gerard said, staring at the Cailleach Bheur. “After we have brought you to the Unseelie Court to fulfill my bargain with Medb.”
“No. You will tell me now.”
Gerard looked at Órlaith, his expression softening. “The Cailleach Bheur asked for me to return home in exchange for bringing us to you. I could not say no,mo chroí.”
Órlaith framed his face with both her hands and stood on her tiptoes to press a soft kiss to his mouth. “I will stand by your side on any land you choose, but I refuse to go back to Medb.”
“You are not the only one whose life I bargained with.”
“Gerard twisted words when he agreed to what Medb wanted. He’ll bring you to her, but he’s not giving you to her. That keeps his promise and keeps you and Patrick free,” Nadine said.
Órlaith glanced at her. “Medb will not see it that way.”
“She will have no choice,” Gerard replied.
“Save your rage for her, then. We need to get there first without losing too much time,” Patrick told him.
“As I said.” The Cailleach Bheur banged her staff against the ground, causing the entire island to shake as a crack opened up in the rock between their group and where she stood. “I can take you there.”
Ice grew out of the jagged tear in the stone, lining the space that had opened up. It wasn’t a hawthorn path, but Patrick supposed an immortal could part the veil wherever they liked when the need arose.
“Wade,” Patrick said. “You can’t fit down there like this. You need to shift.”
Wade folded his wings against his back and sat on his hind legs. Within moments, he started to shrink, his form getting smaller and smaller until his scales blended into human skin, and everything that made him a dragon disappeared as his human body took form. It wasn’t like a werecreature shift, where the body broke apart and twisted into something new. This was smoother and quicker by far.
Wade still ended up standing naked on the rocky incline. He leaned over and gagged, spitting out a glob of saliva and making the most disgusted face.
“Oh, man, demons tastegross,” he said.
