“What’s the plan?” Keith asked.
Patrick turned to face Gerard. “We can’t wait on the rest of the Hellraisers. We need to go to Tír na nÓg today.”
“The Hellraisers can be wheels up in less than an hour and here by tonight. We should wait,” Gerard replied.
“Still not fast enough. If we’re going to find your fiancée, then we need more information, and I don’t trust Tiarnán to give it to us straight.”
“Not trusting a fae. Shocking,” Keith muttered. “Present company excluded, sir.”
Jono held up a hand. “Hold on a moment. Fiancée?”
Gerard tapped the heel of his spear against the hardwood floor, the sound like soft bells ringing in Patrick’s ears. The spear disappeared before the sound faded. “I’ll pay for the damage to your floor, Ms. Zhang.”
“Don’t worry about it. We can afford to fix it. And call me Emma,” she said.
“You shouldn’t give your name so freely to my kind.”
“You’re Patrick’s captain. I trust his judgment.”
“Hey, now,” Marek joked, which Patrick couldn’t even be mad about.
Emma shot Patrick a tired smile. “When it comes to the few people he considers friends.”
Jono frowned at Patrick. “How long have you known the Summer Lady is Gerard’s fiancée?”
“Since last night at dinner. I was going to tell you when we got to the bar, but I was a little distracted by the Wild Hunt trying to take you for a ride. I’m the only one who gets to do that,” Patrick said.
Wade made a gagging sound as he came back from the kitchen, carrying a bottle of hot sauce for his eggs. “Gross.”
Everyone ignored him.
“Are yousidhe?” Sage asked slowly, staring at Gerard.
“I am of the Tuatha Dé Danann, for all that it’s worth something to be called such in this day and age,” Gerard said.
It wasn’t a straight answer, but Patrick shook his head at Sage when she would’ve pushed for more. “Leave it, Sage.”
Gerard crossed his arms over his chest. “We really should wait for the rest of the team.”
“You can, but there’s a hawthorn path in Central Park that I’m planning on taking a walk down. If I have to get Tiarnán to come open it for me, I will. I can tell whoever we meet on the other side of the veil that you sent us, but I’d rather you be there with us, Gerard.”
“I haven’t missed your impulsiveness at all.”
“Look, we need answers. Who better to give it to us than Brigid herself? Besides, you said it yourself. She called her warriors home, and that includes you. Waiting any longer isn’t going to change what you’ll face over there.”
Gerard’s jaw tightened before he let out a heavy sigh. “If I told you no, you’d still go, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t wear a uniform anymore.”
“That’s a yes,” Jono told Gerard.
Gerard snorted. “I know.”
“I thought you couldn’t cross the veil? That it took too much power and you’d need a bunch of sacrifices to do it?” Leon asked.
“The fae are more tied to the mortal plane than others. The roots of the Otherworld have burrowed into this one for centuries, and human memory won’t let that connection die.”
“Like Yggdrasil,” Patrick said, thinking of the Norse world tree.
