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My hand whipped out faster than I could ever remember being able to move and took up the fork that lay forgotten on his lunch tray and plunged it with all my strength through the gusset of his breeches, through the tender round sacks that they protected. I felt it wedge solidly into the wood below the seat of the chair.

Chapter 46

The screaming was immediate. I hadn’t expected him to scream quite so loudly as I leapt from his lap, dodging his impotently grasping hands. He was pinned firmly and soundly to the chair, but I did not spare him a single glance as I darted to the door and threw it open.

It was now. The time was now. I could almost taste the freedom on my tongue as I bolted as fast as my unnaturally long legs could carry me through the twisting passages of the palace. I had them all memorized. The way the roots of this castle grew and formed was like a map etched into the very flesh of my brain. I could see it all unfolding before me as I ran for the gardens.

Fae passed me as I did, none of them concerned with why a daoire was running. All of them content to think that no daora could escape. All of them satisfied that the only reason a daora could be running could be because they were trying to outrun their punishment. To them, it was a simple game for their amusement.

To me? I was outrunning the breaking dawn. I was trying to outrun the setting sun. I was chasing down my freedom and nothing would get in my way.

His screams had died out behind me long before I nearly slipped, turning at the edge of the hallway that would lead out into the gardens. Violet, Emerald, and a disheveled-looking Green Man, whose leaves were wilting at the edges as he paced, and Goose, who was idly chewing on a stick, were waiting for me at the landing. Four pairs of eyes turned up to me as I burst down the stairs.

“Goose! The bag!” Goose snorted his disappointment with my behavior and nosed a small rough woven bag into my path. I snatched it as I skidded to a stop, shoving my hand into the bag and pulling out the shard of my mother’s body. “Listen closely and don’t ask questions. Put your hand on this stone. And say, ‘My name was once’—then say your true name, the one you were born with—‘and I renounce my name. From now, until I claim another, my name is . . .’” I turned to Emerald. “You are ‘Nothing.’” I turned to Violet. “You are ‘No One.’” I turned to Green Man. “And you are ‘A Secret.’”

I swallowed a lungful of air. “Emerald, yes, I know you cannot speak. Say it in your mind. It should still count.”

She had already been trying to flash warnings and questions at me.

I had thought this through. Turned over every story and fairy tale I had ever read as a child in the long, lonely nights left to my own devices with nothing but time to think and hours to do it in.

One by one, they did as I said, Green Man going last. “My name was once Ailill, and I renounce my name. From now until I claim another, my name is A Secret.”

I quirked a brow at Green Man’s strange true name, no surname at all like Violet, but I let it pass. There was no time to dally on small details that didn’t matter.

“Good. Now, come on. We have a date with a viper.” I tossed the bag over my shoulder, took the newly dubbed No One’s hand, and plunged into the gardens, pulling her along with me.

I might need to pick her up. Her small legs were not going to keep up with us as we ran.

I knew exactly where that bitch would be waiting for us, in the exact place that we had made the deal. It was too fitting. I was pleasantly surprised as we rounded on the quiet area of the gardens that Oaken Rose was alone, pacing in her signature midnight-blue gown with the bright bloodred roses crowning her impossibly long hair.

Gods, I hated her. The two of them deserved each other more than anything else in this entire fucked-up realm.

She turned when she heard us running for her, a slimy smile reluctantly pulling at her lips. “You’ve made it. Good. And just in time.” Her cornflower-blue eyes turned up to the sky and then fell back on me as I let go of Violet’s hand.

“You said the orchards are full of spiders, and you promised a safe exit,” I said, crossing my arms.

“I did. Both. This is merely the place I knew you would come looking. I don’t have the time to explain either. You’re more of a burden to this court than a benefit anyway. It behooves me to get rid of you. Shame about the other three, though. But such is the price of business.” She took a piece of chalk from her sleeve and stepped up to the nearest tree. The chalk skipped and jumped along the uneven surface as she drew a door and then turned on me, fishing a key from her cleavage. “It’s a simple enough thing. Just unlock the gate and walk through it. And don’t come back.”

“No problem there, sister,” barked Green Man as I handed him the key.

“I’ll have them all through safely before I go.” I nodded to Green Man, who plunged the key into the chalk outline of a keyhole. It sunk in as if it were always meant to be. His vines creaked as he twisted the key, and a wooden door wavered into view. I nodded to him, and he opened it. On the other side was a forest like the one I had watched from The Raven’s window. “Go ahead.”

One by one, Green Man, Emerald, and Violet passed through the door. Goose stayed at my ankle, unwilling to move until I did.

The Oaken Rose smugly crossed her arms over her chest and turned to look at me. “Your friends are through, and with you stepping through, our business will be done. I will have my payment.”

“Fine. What do you want? I’ve got a hair comb, a rock, a book—” I looked up, and the smile working its way through her orange-and-purple sunset tinted face made me stop as fear took hold of me once more.

My heart stuttered, spitting small chunks of itself up as it tore at its enclosure to stumble away from the horror before us.

“Did you truly think the price would be something so small? Something so insignificant?” A delicate, practiced, aristocratic chortle rolled from her rosebud lips. “You humans truly are the dullest of creatures. I knew exactly what I wanted when I made that deal with you.”

Her hand whipped out and tossed the bag through the door as she stalked me. Goose began to rumble the sound like rocks tumbling over a great chasm and crashing against glass below. “Growl all you want, beast. Not even you can stop this. Snap and bite all you want, but she will not slide through that door without paying me.”

My eyes slid between her and Goose, who was bristling and growing with his ire as she herded me toward the door.

“You have something of mine. Something that rightfully belonged to me all along. I want it.”