35. Chapter 35
thirty-five
“ Damnit!” I growled at the empty air that had, an instant before, held Pae’s portal.
Hadn’t Dorothy warned me not to trust Pae? Hadn’t she warned me I’d pay for that trust?
I gritted my teeth, hating myself in that moment. Because it was Dorothy paying the price of my lapse—and not me.
Whirling, I went to Sebastian’s side. I needed to get him up. I needed him to wake and follow me into the passageways to go get Dorothy—try to get her. My only other option was to leave him here, vulnerable, and unguarded. And Pae already said Sebastian would be missed.
The heads in Rye’s crown corridor had no doubt already alerted Langwidere to a breach of her personal quarters. And if her heads were in Rye’s old chambers, that had to mean those had been her quarters. Right?
But then. Why had Sebastian’s things been in there?
“Sebastian,” I hissed, patting his cheek. His lids fluttered, too, but he didn’t wake up. I was going to have to leave him here.
Dorothy needed me. And if anything happened to her, Rye was going to kill me.
“Sebastian!”
He stirred. “Zariyah?” he murmured, brow furrowing.
I frowned, my guts twisting. That name. Hadn’t I heard it spoken once before? By Morella. Right after…
The sickening crunch of Jack’s pumpkin head slamming into the stones replayed in my mind followed by the sight of Sergeant Lance—Langwidere—smirking.
Morella had spoken the princess’s first name to distract her from ending me next.
“Sebastian,” I said, shaking his shoulder, “it’s me. Tip.”
His frown deepened into a scowl. “Tip…” he murmured. “Tip left.”
My heart collapsed. And I stood—torn between remaining with my best friend and abandoning him to rush back into the passageways to find Rye’s.
Just when I’d made the decision—that I would have to risk trying to find Pae and Dorothy—another of Pae’s portals opened.
To my relief, Dorothy rushed through first, her arms wrapped around the book she still held, her cheeks flushed with color. Pae entered after her.
“What are you doing?” he demanded in a snarl. “You were supposed to make your portal.”
“I didn’t know what the hell you were doing!” I shouted back.
“I was having a chat with Slippers,” the demon growled, eyes flashing with that same feral and unhinged light—that dangerous flare that told me something had brought him to the edge of this facet of him I’d yet to meet. The demon everyone had assured me up to this point he truly was.
“Dorothy, are you okay?” I asked.
“The portal,” she said, breathless. “We need to go. Now.”
They weren’t telling me something. The meeting they’d had. Something told me it’d had everything to do with me.
Still. I could trust Dorothy even if I couldn’t trust Pae. And they were both right.
Since we were all together now, Sebastian among us, we did need to go.
Saving my questions for how Pae got Sebastian—not to mention why he’d knocked him out, and why my best friend happened to be naked—for later, I knelt beside the bath. Touching the surface of the water, I connected my mind to Nick’s palace, to the room we’d left, and the mirror we’d used.
This time, the image of our destination appeared at once. Pae didn’t hesitate. Grabbing Dorothy, he threw her in. Dorothy shrieked, though this time her impact failed to create a splash. Still, her yelp had been enough to prompt male voices in the hall of the Emerald City Palace—guards most likely.
“Take Sebastian,” I said.
“Please,” said Pae, a bit of that familiar (and admittedly comforting) wryness creeping back into his demeanor. “Give me more obvious instructions. I need them.”
The demon stalked over to me, that strange too-serious glint still in his eye. And something else now, too. Pity, perhaps. I couldn’t say.
Gathering Sebastian into his arms with more ease than should have been possible, Pae glared at the open doorway to the bathroom. The approaching voices had grown stronger, louder—as had tromping footsteps. Without a word, though, Pae jumped into the bath—vanishing.
The door leading into my old rooms burst open with a bang. Guards garbed in black and teal rushed in. I kept my hand in the water, the portal open. I could jump in after my friends. I should.
For some reason, I didn’t.
Instead, I waited as they piled into the bathroom, spears raised, the tips aimed at me.
“Move!” bellowed a voice among their ranks—this one familiar.
That’s when one pale violet arm—Pae’s—shot through the portal to grab me by the wrist. He yanked me hard, into the pool-turned-portal. I went without protest, though my eyes remained linked with those of the stunning red-haired woman who shoved her way to the head of the guards, her garb matching theirs in every respect but one.
The golden crest pinned to her shoulder—a crest designating her, Ginger, as a superior officer.
Of Langwidere’s guards.