Orion leans forward. “A path where?”
“Through the Dark Forest.” The Morrigan’s face surfaces from the merged form. “To the Unseelie Court. To your queen.”
My chest tightens. “You told us to wait here.” I say it slowly, giving her time to hear how absurd this is. “If the forest was an option, we would have gone weeks ago.”
“It wasn’t.” Badb speaks for the first time. Her voice is rust and old blood and the sound of crows picking bones clean.
“The forest answers to our sister. Her creatures guard the paths,” Macha says.
“While I slept, even we could not grant you passage safely,” Badb adds.
“And now?”
She smiles. It’s not comforting. “Now I’m awake. And I can speak to what we made.”
She reaches into the folds of her cloak and withdraws something. A bone. Long, curved, carved with symbols that make my eyes water to look at.
“Carry this.” Macha presses it into my palm. Cold enough to burn. “Our sisters’ creatures will not touch you while you hold it. They will not hear you. They will not see you. It won’t help against the exiled.”
“What is it?”
“My rib.” Badb says it like it’s nothing. “Carved fresh this morning. The blood of the war triad runs through it now. You’re welcome.”
Orion makes a sound beside me. I don’t blame him.
“The passage was never possible before.” The Morrigan’s form flickers. “Badb’s waking was the final piece. Now you can travel paths that would have killed you.”
That’s why we waited. Not cruelty. Not games. We literally could not survive the forest without the goddess who made its monsters.
I close my fingers around the bone. It pulses against my palm like a second heartbeat.
Creepy. But also helpful.
“Finnian?” Dagda emerges from behind the bar. Same stubborn jaw as Orion. Same barely contained fury. Same refusal to acknowledge it.
I look at Orion. The same question has been eating at both of us since he vanished.
“Summoned. By the Seelie Court.” The words taste wrong. Summoned implies he’ll return. It’s been hours. He hasn’t.
We encouraged him to go. We’ve all been exiled, no summons. Nothing.
A summons is the quickest way to the courts.
“Then you have additional motivation to move quickly.” The Morrigan’s merged form solidifies briefly. “The Summer Sword binding grows stronger by the hour. Much longer, and there may be nothing left of your scholar to save.”
“Did you say the Summer Sword?” I interrupt.
“I did.” Morrigan nods slowly.
I need to sit. To pace. There’s no out for Finnian. Amarantha just locked the chains around his ankles.
“And Ash?” My voice comes out rougher than I intend as this news settles around my shoulders like a weighted blanket.
“Alive. Angry.” A flicker of what might be approval. “She’s made allies in the court. Your sister among them.”
Your sister.
“Is she safe?” The question scrapes out before I can stop it.
