Chapter 4
It’s an unseasonably warm day, even for a summer morning in the south.
The temptation to peel off the thick coat I’m wearing is almost unbearable, but Selena has assured me I’ll need it in the Unseelie lands.
Not that she’s been herself, but her cousin’s new husband is the King of Fire, and he has plenty of first-hand experience with such things—much as he wishes it were otherwise, Selena assured me.
Two elders—one a tall, wiry man in thick glasses, the other a short and stout woman with a taste for clothing in bright colors and bold patterns—stand on either side of an area sparsely spaced flat stones.
They dip their fingers into a wooden bowl full of…
I don’t even know what, and then use it to paint symbols on the rocks.
We gifted can’t do magic anymore. Not the lightning and fireballs flashy type of stuff anyway. But some small skills persist here and there. This is one of them, the ability to work with certain runes to lock and unlock doorways to Faery.
“Once they finish redrawing the runes, the doorway will open,” Madeline says.
Long before any of us were born, this door was sealed shut. Given that it’s literally a door to another world, and the Unseelie territory at that, I expected some kind of maximum-security situation with big signs saying, “Warning! Keep Out!”
There are some of those. But not for the reason I expected.
Chain-link fencing topped with barbed wire surrounds us on all sides.
Aside from the overgrown grassy area with the circle of stones marking the door—ones you can’t even see from beyond the fence, thanks to the overgrowth—there’s just one small building that’s supposed to house electrical equipment for underground lines that don’t exist.
Much like the gifted, it hides right in plain sight.
We’re not far outside Atlanta. Hell, we parked in a public lot to get here.
Humans probably pass by all the time on hikes through the woods and such and have absolutely no idea what the fence really guards.
The chipping graffiti spraypainted on one wall says someone got through the fence at some point but not in a long time.
“It should only take a few minutes,” Madeline says in her clipped, matter-of-fact tone. “Once through, we’ll give you a day to change your mind and return to us. If not?” She clicks her tongue. “We must seal the door again, or it will be even harder to do so. You understand, correct?”
The coven headmistress would make an excellent professor, the scary kind that not a single person would dare cross.
She certainly speaks to me like I’m a student of hers.
Interestingly enough, Selena is one of the few people she doesn’t treat like a child, despite the fact that she could pass for her granddaughter age-wise.
Maybe it’s a kindred spirit recognizing another.
Either way, I’m just glad she let Selena come along.
She wasn’t supposed to at first. But I think Selena knew I needed someone to give me some last encouragement, and she pushed to make sure she could be the one to do it.
“I understand.” I have one day to decide this was a terrible idea, call it off, and go home. Not that I will, but I guess it’s nice I have an exit plan if all goes to hell in a heartbeat. Which it might.
The Unseelie’s record of wrongs is pretty lengthy.
For years, it was smaller incidents, random raids on the Court of the Forest due to its weakened borders.
The occurrences were often disorganized and mostly failures on the part of the Unseelie.
But things changed about a year ago, when players finally came into the light that had been unknown or at least unconfirmed to the Seelie.
Namely, the rise of a new Unseelie King and his sister, who was a null, able to walk through Seelie wards undetected.
The last Unseelie King had been killed many, many years ago, or so the Seelie say.
And since he had no close heirs or relatives, the magic did not choose a successor and lay dormant, a damning thing for the fae since the magic of their land is linked with that of their king.
But something must have changed. A new Unseelie King has risen to power and has been organizing the desperate clans of the Unseelie, unifying them.
And his last big attack? It rattled the foundations of Faery. He was able to kill the King of Fire after shattering a hole in the wards of his territory.
If the Unseelie King wasn’t already seen as a threat, that would have sealed it. And now his armies continue to build, to organize, and it’s only a matter of time before he attacks again, with far worse possible consequences.
And the human coven’s plan to help their Seelie allies?
Me.
It sounds like a joke but somehow it isn’t.
I shift on my feet as I watch the elders work, nodding along to reminders from Madeline and Selena about my mission and what is riding on me.
“Every three days, about an hour after dawn, we will open the door to see if you have returned,” the headmistress says.
“Our Seelie allies will keep a watch on the area within Faery, as it’s not terribly far from the border to the Court of Air.
Once you arrive with the Unseelie King, they will descend with their armies, securing him and bringing you to safety. ”
Right, right. So simple. I nearly laugh. “And the promise of an open door, of more humans, will be enough to get him there?” I ask, half to myself.
Madeline's already thin lips disappear further into a pressed line.
Internally, I wince.
“Humans are the most valuable thing to a fae,” Selena replies calmly, either oblivious to the headmistress’s displeasure or used to soothing it. “It’s humans they’ve spent years trying to steal from the Seelie courts. This opportunity should be too valuable to pass up.”
“Precisely,” Madeline tacks on, smoothing a manicured hand down her suit jacket. “The time for questioning and cold feet has passed us, Miss Sutton.”
All too soon, the work is done, and there’s a slight shift in the air. A ripple of tingling magic rolls through me like a wave.
Shit. It’s time. I’m really about to do this.
It doesn’t matter how dead set I am on going through this or how many times I’ve thought through this moment.
Every instinct within is telling me to turn and run.
Taking the first step toward the circle is hard.
The second is almost as bad. I cling to the straps of my backpack as if it’s a lifeline and look back over my shoulder.
My gaze locks with Selena’s.
“You remember what we promised?” I ask.
She nods. “I’ll take care of Matt. I promise.”
It’s my belief in that promise that has me turning back toward the circle and taking the last few steps that plant me inside it. I focus on thoughts of Faery, of wanting to be there, of saving Matt.
And suddenly, I am.