“Might?” Keirran asked and shook his head. “What if he can’t? What will happen then?” He glanced at Annwyl, his expression tormented. “If this doesn’t work, what am I supposed to do?”
The Summer faery’s eyes were gentle as she touched the side of his face. “You could let me go, my prince. Sometimes, that is the only choice.”
Keirran’s gaze turned defiant, but before he could reply, another voice pierced the darkness above us.
“Master!”
A spindly, bat-eared creature with huge green eyes scuttled down the wall like a huge spider and leaped at Keirran, landing on his chest. “Master!” the gremlin cried again, tugging on his shirt. “Master, he is coming! He is coming!” His head swiveled around then, catching sight of Kenzie, and he flung himself at her with a joyful cry. “Pretty girl! Pretty girl is here!”
“Hey, Razor.” Kenzie grinned as she caught him. The gremlin buzzed and scrambled to her shoulders, flashing his blue-white smile. “I was wondering where you were.”
“Who is coming?” Keirran asked, and the gremlin’s ears pressed flat to his skull.
“Dark elf,” he almost whispered. “Dark elf coming. Now.”
Dark elf? Oh no. That could only mean one person. And by the way Keirran went pale, he was thinking the same thing.
Cautiously, we edged up to the wall and peeked around the corner.
A silhouette was striding down the center of the road, heading for the alley we’d just vacated. Lean, tall, a long black coat rippling behind him, he was instantly recognizable. Even from this distance, I could see the glow of his sword, blue-black and deadly, and the glint of a cold silver eye.
Keirran lunged back from the edge.
“This way!” he whispered and grabbed Annwyl’s hand. “Hurry, before he sees us!”
“Keirran, wait!” I hurried after them, Kenzie right behind us, still holding Razor. “Why are you hiding from your parents?” I demanded as we ducked out of the alley into the goblin market, Keirran looking around wildly. “Are you in trouble? What have you done?”
“I haven’t done anything,” Keirran replied and seemed to pick a direction, jogging toward it with us hurrying to catch up.
“Right. That’s why we’re running away from the freaking Prince Consort of the Iron Court!”
“Keirran!”
The deep, booming voice made me wince. I glanced over my shoulder...to see Ash on the rooftops across the street, the full moon at his back, staring right at us.
Keirran took off, weaving through the groups of fey, dodging unearthly vendors and shoppers and trying to melt into the crowd. The rest of us scrambled after him, and I didn’t dare to look back to see how close Ash was.
“This way!” Keirran urged, ducking into a small, deserted side street. No fey walked the sidewalks, and the road seemed eerily abandoned. Worse, a tall fence stood at the end of the street, preventing us from going any farther.
I panted and glared at Keirran. “Dead end. Looks like we’ll have to face him after all.”
“No, we won’t.” Keirran ran his fingers along the wall, his gaze narrowed. “Where is it?” he murmured. “The Veil is thin here. I can feel it. Where...”
A tall silhouette appeared at the end of the street, just as Keirran pushed his hand into the wall and moved it aside, parting it like a curtain. Beyond the sudden crack was darkness and mist, and the prince gestured to us impatiently. “Hurry! Through here!”
Annwyl and Kenzie vanished through the tear, Razor jabbering on Kenzie’s shoulder. Keirran glanced at me and jerked his head as Ash came steadily closer. “Come on, Ethan!”
I muttered a curse, ducked my head and plunged into the once-solid brick wall, feeling like I was passing through a film of cobwebs. Keirran was right behind me, dropping the curtain as he did, giving me a split-second glance of the street through the gap. Then the opening swooshed shut, closing the tear between realities, and the real world vanished behind us.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE BETWEEN
“Where are we?”
My voice echoed in the vast emptiness surrounding us. I gazed around in shock; when we’d gone through the gash, I’d fully expected to appear in the Nevernever. Probably in some lonely corner of the wyldwood. But upon reflection, I realized how unlikely that was. Only the fey rulers—the kings and queens of Faery—could create trods between the Nevernever and the real world. I knew Keirran was strong and all, but he didn’t have that kind of power. At least, I didn’t think he did. Maybe I was wrong. But more important, Annwyl had been banished from Faery, so she couldn’t go back to the Nevernever; the trods had been sealed off to her by Titania. And yet, here she was, standing beside Keirran and gazing around in awe like the rest of us.
So, logical conclusion: we weren’t in the Nevernever.
Where were we?
The ground under my feet was hard, though I couldn’t see what I stood on due to the thick gray mist coiling around my legs. In fact, I couldn’t see anything except mist and fog, swirling around us in eerie patterns. There were no lights, no shadows, no glimpses of trees or buildings or anything through the writhing blanket of gray. There was no sound, either. Except for the four of us and one gremlin perched on Kenzie’s shoulder, there didn’t seem to be anything alive out there at all. I felt like I’d been dropped into a vacuum.
I looked to Keirran for an answer, and he sighed.