That made me wince. Aside from the stunted food and the fact that it seemed to rain at least once a day, the Spring Court wasn’t so bad. Winter? Autumn? If the rumors were true, the people in those courts might be seriously suffering.
“You said there was another important thing?”
“Uh, yes, but it’s not good news.” He looked absolutely apologetic to say it, but I waved at him to go ahead. “The magic is fading.”
“Fading? That sounds bad, but what does it really mean?”
“Well, they went into their investigation thinking they might be able to send you back, but now they’re just trying to learn everything they can before…before it’s gone.”
I sat back with a groan and covered my eyes for a moment. Powerful magic no one understood was fading and meant that I was about to be stuck here. No, it meant that Iwasstuck here.No one was going to come through the ring to save me, and no one on this side was going to send me home. I could feel the despair settling on my chest like an actual weight.
Arms wrapped around my shoulders and a sweet smelling head rested on my shoulder. Hydris was hugging me. I put my arms around him and kept my eyes closed, savoring the comfort he was trying to give me. He understood.
“I’m sorry, Bridge.”
I nodded a bit, not sure I could speak around the lump in my throat. I’d had hope until now. This place wasn’t horrible, I wasn’t suffering, but it wasn’t home. On top of not knowing what might’ve happened to the three most important people in my life, I was leaving behind a job, an apartment, the few things I had from my mother, the application I’d put in to adopt a dog… I was going to be a case number again, this time as a missing person instead of a foster kid.
Hydris eased back, and I let him go. The stark sympathy in his eyes had me clearing my throat and sitting up, getting my shit together again. Wallowing wasn’t going to help anything.
“Is there anything I can do?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“If you think of something…”
“Sure.”
I was suddenly exhausted down to my bones. A glance out the window showed me a dark sky, the moon glowing in at us. Normally, I’d be climbing into bed by now since I had to be up with the roosters.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said as I stood, “but I need to get going.”
“Oh, of course. Do you want me to fly you back?—”
“No! Uh, no, it’s fine. I’ll take my chances and sneak down.”
“Well, then, let’s see if we can make that a bit easier to accomplish.” He went over to a door almost seamlessly hiddenin the wall and listened against it for a moment. When he opened it and went in, I curiously followed and found a small bedroom. “This is my valet’s room. That door should take you down to…the kitchens, I think.”
The door he pointed to was more obvious and, when I opened it, I could hear the clatter of pots and pans and distant voices. Hopefully, no one would question it when I appeared down there.
“So, technically,” I said as I eyed Hydris, “I could’ve come up this way.”
He giggled a little and blushed as he shrugged.
I couldn’t help grinning at him. “Good night, Your Highness.”
“Good night, Bridge.”
In the morning,I went straight to the stables. I’d tossed and turned during the night until I finally decided that I needed to see one of the barriers for myself. The evidence of the curse in fruits and veg that didn’t ripen was kind of thin in my opinion, so I wanted to see this impenetrable boundary as real, unquestionable proof. I just wasn’t sure how to get there or whether I could do it with this job I was supposed to do.
“Hey, Sarosh,” I said quietly once I found him, “I need to visit the barrier.”
He didn’t miss a beat as he kept filling a bucket with grains. “Which one?”
“Whichever’s closest?”
He nodded and changed buckets. “It’ll take you most of the day to walk to Winter, and the same to walk back. We don’t normally get two days off back-to-back like that.”
“You get days off?”
