Chapter 14
“ T he Spring Equinox is tomorrow night. The demons will descend on Faerie. Be careful,” Dae announces in a tired voice a few weeks, and many fights, later, as he ascends the stairs. His eyes flick to me, and he looks a little disappointed when I don’t run after him like a dog. He finishes his slow crawl up the stairs, and I dash to Obi.
I pick up a chair from beside Obi and follow him to the cupboard. “I know how to get back to England if we can get out through that front door.”
Obi’s eyes widen. “Are you serious?”
“It’s the mist?—’’
Obi sighs and keeps moving. “I told you, I don’t know where that thing is and you trust everything you hear in Faerieland.”
“No, I swear. I know where it is now. I watched through this thing, look, it’s hard to explain,” I say, not wanting to get into the details of how I found out where the Nori is by watching the hag travel across realms. “But I swear, it will take us home if we can get to it. And it’s out the door and to the right. We just need to get past those guards.”
He shakes his head, like he can’t believe it. A small smile lights up his face. “Getting past the guards is the easy bit. The problem was always knowing where the Hell to go.” His eyes flick to the guards. “They’re too aware right now.” I frown—I didn’t mean now, I meant after secure Mum’s future. “Tomorrow. I’ll set a fire in the kitchens, and we use the distraction to sneak out.”
“Wait,” I say, and he gives me a long look. I want to get Obi out of here, and I’m not completely untrusting of my father’s ability to fix this now that I know how to undo a curse, but if there’s a chance I can bargain with a demon first, I have to at least try. “There’s something I need to do first.”
His eyes flick to the stairs. “Right.” Turning his back to me, he goes back to stacking chairs.
“No, it’s not like that. Look, three nights. In three nights, we run,” I say. I count the days. If I don’t manage to make a bargain while the demons are here, Mum’s still got loads of time for me and Dad to figure it out together.
“Are you sure? I can’t get halfway and come back. They’ll kill me,” he says. “You have to be sure.”
“I’m sure. Three days. Should we tell Shiva?” I ask.
He frowns. “Let me figure that out. Where do we meet once the fire starts?”
“Walk out the door and turn right. Run in a straight line. You’ll come to a long stretch of mist. You can try to get through it, but there are little beings in there, and sometimes they can be mischievous.” I watched the hag grapple with the nymphs during our trip. “If you can, wait for me, and we’ll try to go together. I’ll wait for you and Shiva. No matter what.”
“So, to the right, and run, that’s the way home?” Obi raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah. That’s the way home. Three nights from today. I’ll see you there.” I turn to follow Dae up the stairs, but I don’t miss Obi’s slow smile as I do.