Patrick watched as the bones shifted on the doors, pulling the mouth higher until it sat at the fae lord’s head height. Patrick didn’t think the door was alive like a human was, but he couldn’t tell what sort of magic powered it, not with his own bound.
“I think it’s unfair you won’t let me eat them and that thing is gonna eat us,” Wade muttered.
Patrick squeezed his hands. “It’s not going to eat us.”
He hoped.
The fae lord stepped up to the door and leaned forward. The mouth moved a little against the bones, and Patrick tried not to think about what was happening. A few seconds later, the fae lord stepped back, half turning to address the Red Caps. Wade made a gagging sound, and Patrick couldn’t blame him.
Tentacles curled out from between the fae’s lips, moving in the air. As they watched, the fae sucked them back inside his mouth, but Patrick was never going to get that sight out of his brain.
“Guard the entrance,” the fae lord ordered.
The Red Caps turned and headed for the crack in the tree to stand guard outside in the meadow. Patrick didn’t move, not even when the bone doors opened, the mouth still moving even as it was split apart. The fae spun the halberd in his hands, pointing the blade at them.
“Move, or I will make you move.”
Patrick figured that would consist of a lot of spilled blood, so he gripped Wade’s hand hard and walked through the open doors.
On the other side was a stone corridor lit by will-o’-the-wisps that hovered in the air above them. The light followed them down the sharply sloping corridor that led underground. Patrick bit the inside of his cheek, using the pain to remind himself that this wasn’t New York, and there were no vampires here.
He half thought about sneaking his dagger back from Wade, but his reaction times were shit at the moment. Patrick set aside his desire for murder in favor of surviving another hour.
They walked until they came out on a rocky terrace that overlooked a vast cavern. The air didn’t smell much better. Beams of weak sunlight filtered down through the huge underground space from holes up above, revealing stalagmites and moss-covered boulders rising out of a subterranean lake. The terrace they were on connected to a granite pathway that led down to the cave floor.
If they weren’t being held prisoner, Patrick might think the place was beautiful, but he knew the fae of either court were never all that they seemed.
Something splashed down below in the lake water, a large shadow coming to the surface before disappearing again. Patrick thought they were being watched, but he couldn’t pinpoint from where.
“You go first,” the fae lord said.
Patrick tugged Wade after him, not liking having the enemy at his back but unable to do anything about it. He wished they had more light to see where they were going, but the will-o’-the-wisps had floated closer to the roof of the cavern rather than the floor. Rocks rolled beneath his boots a couple of times on the trek down, but Patrick managed to keep his balance. They made it to the floor of the cavern, and the fae lord took the lead again, striding toward the single row of rocks that spanned the length of the lake.
The spine of something too large to be a fish rolled above the surface near a clutch of stalagmites in the center of the dark water before disappearing back into the watery depths. The fae paid the creature no mind, and Patrick wished he could do the same.
“If it eats me, I’m biting my way out of its stomach,” Wade whispered.
“Stay close,” Patrick told him.
They followed the fae onto that stone pathway, and Patrick had to let Wade’s hand go in order to traverse the lake. Some of the stones were close together, others required a bit of a jump, and Patrick knew that if they fell into the water, they’d be dinner for what lived in the lake. With his magic bound, it took all of Patrick’s concentration to make it across. Once or twice he nearly lost his balance, arms windmilling until Wade steadied him.
When they made it to the other side, Patrick let out a harsh breath of relief, unsurprised when Wade immediately latched onto his hand again. Wade stayed close as they walked deeper into the cavern, the path snaking underground, past stalagmites, pillars of quartz crystal, and sheared smooth granite cave walls until they reached a tunnel.
This one seemed carved out of quartz crystal, their reflections in the walls distorted shadows. In the far distance, a pinprick of light grew and grew until it became a way out. The tunnel opened onto a bridge built of stone that connected the cave system they’d traversed to a castle built atop a lone mesa rising from a foggy canyon. Patrick couldn’t see the bottom and wasn’t sure he wanted to.
The bridge they walked on wasn’t the only one connected to the castle from some distant point. There were other bridges, with distant figures heading toward the place that housed the Unseelie Court.
Something heaved itself up from the cliffside, the creature bigger than the Red Caps. It wore no clothing, its skin pebbled like rocks, with bits of moss pressed into the creases of its elbows and over its skull in lieu of hair. It carried a club made from a downed tree, which it slammed down between them and the bridge. The earth shook beneath their feet, and Patrick hoped they weren’t all about to go crashing down into the canyon.
“Who dares to pass?” the troll asked in a deep voice. Its breath smelled of dead things, and its teeth looked rotten in its mouth.
The fae lord pointed his halberd at the troll. “You know me and the favor I carry.”
The troll grunted, raising its club, its earth-dark eyes staring at Patrick. “Proceed.”
“Okay, I wouldn’t eat him. I’d get food poisoning,” Wade whispered.
Patrick pulled him forward after the fae lord, the bridge covered in a light dusting of snow. The wind that blew through the canyon was ice-cold, howling around them. It made Patrick wish he still had his beanie, but he’d lost it during the fight. Even the heat charms in his leather jacket weren’t quite enough to counter the cold in Tír na nÓg.
