It gives me hope that, when I finally confess about Grimly and the hair, she’ll brush that off as easily as she does the guards when she says, “Living in a cottage doesn’t so bad now, does it?”
I laugh. “Not even a little.”
We end up spending the night within her shadows. By the next moment, Morgan tells me that it’s safe to continue. Since I want to believe her, I do, and we start off a little more cautious than we had the day before.
I keep looking over my shoulder. As if Grimly and Veron’s bounty weren’t bad enough, now I know that Siúcra’s guards are nearby. Morgan tries to tell me not to worry since the Seelie guard wouldn’t be able to last in the wilds woods of the Shadow Realm without weakening from the lack of sunlight, but what about Coal? He’s Unseelie.
She doesn’t have an answer for that. That’s okay. Neither do I.
The closer we get to the borders of the two Courts, the warmer it gets. There’s no snow, and the ground is a mess of mud and flattened grass. It’s still that strange dark green color tinged with purple, but there are a few stray blue blades that remind of the springy, cotton candy-like grass I saw near the former Fae Queen’s gardens.
Mud sucks at my boots. Sweat slicks my neck, dribbling down my tank, making my leather jacket stick to my back. I’d just about kill for a shower box or, hell, even a lake to jump into to wash some of the grime off.
Despite being a part of the Shadow Realm, Morgan doesn’t seem to notice as the heat creeps in. Probably because, no matter where she goes, she brings some of the winter with her. While I fight with the mud, cursing under my breath as I slip or get stuck again, Morgan glides forward, ice forming under the soles of her shoes.
She’s smiling. I’m a hot, sweaty mess who wants to just lay down for a week, and she’s smiling as if she’s having the time of her life.
Ugh. I’d hate her if I didn’t like her so much.
“Hey. Do we have any water?” When she pulls a jar out of her bag, I nod. It’s my only way of showing appreciation without getting caught in a bargain and, so far, it seems to work. I twist off a lid, then take a sip. “I needed that. I thought I wouldn’t miss the chill, but the shadow cloak might be too much now.”
“You don’t want to take it off yet.”
I know. Just because we managed to lose the guards, that doesn’t mean some of the other faerie folk aren’t waiting for us to slip up.
I can’t wait to get out of these woods.
“How much longer do you think we have?” I ask.
Morgan thinks about it for a moment. Pursing her lips, she says, “Perhaps a day or two. I’d say tomorrow, but that’s if we don’t get followed again.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”
Of course it is. They certainly weren’t following Morgan.
She’s spent the morning trying to cheer me up. In an attempt to distract me from the threat of the guards, she keeps the conversation going by asking me about the human world. She loves hearing about movies, especially the ones that give humans a little insight into Faerie. By giving her detailed summaries of some of my favorites—no surprise, she especially loves hearing about Elsa, the snow-powered ice queen of Frozen—I let my mind escape my troubles if only for a little while.
I forgot something, though. Being distracted in Faerie? It’s never a good thing.
I thought Morgan was paying attention to where we were going. I’ve gotten used to blindly following her lead so, when she steps directly onto a flat patch of grass, I don’t even hesitate before I follow her.
I’ll never know what triggers the trap. Whether it would’ve held if Morgan was the only one
who walked on it, or if we were doomed either way.
But, as the ground gives out, all I can think in the instant before I drop is that I should’ve told Morgan about Alice.
Between the cakes that shrink people, the glass green growing potion, and falling down another rabbit hole, Faerie is way more like Wonderland than I ever would’ve guessed.
8
I have got to stop falling.
Seriously. My poor body can’t take much more of this. I thought being tossed around like a ragdoll was bad enough, but when the ground drops out from beneath us, it feels like I left my queasy stomach behind me again, the lurch and the fall are so sudden—and so unexpected, too. And, because it was unexpected, I don’t have time to brace myself for impact.
“Oof.”