“Like Leanansidhe’s mansion,” I guessed. Keirran nodded.
“Or you can use the Between to slip between the mortal realm and the Nevernever, without a trod. No one does it, because they don’t know how to part the Veil, and because if they become lost for even a moment, they’ll wander the empty spaces forever.”
“How do you know all this?” Kenzie asked, surprising us. She’d been unusually quiet up until now, barely looking at me. I figured she was still furious at my abandonment but was trying to focus on the larger problem at hand. Keirran hesitated, then said in a quiet voice:
“The Lady told me.”
Annwyl flinched and drew away from him. Razor hissed, and I glared at the back of his neck. Keirran noticed all our reactions and sighed, looking out into the mist.
“I know,” he murmured. “And I know what you’re thinking. You have every right to be angry. That night in the throne room...” He closed his eyes. “Ethan, I never apologized to you. My actions that night were inexcusable. I don’t know why you’d even come for me, after what I did.”
Annwyl frowned, looking at him strangely, and he shrank even further. “What happened when you were with the Lady?” she asked. “What did you do, Keirran?”
“Nothing.” I broke in before he could reply. “It was a misunderstanding. I barged into the throne room, the Lady’s guards attacked and I got kicked around a bit. Keirran stepped in right before they would’ve killed me.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, of course. I left out the part where, when the four heavily armored knights had attacked, I’d yelled at Keirran to help me out, and...he hadn’t. He’d just stood there beside the Forgotten Queen, watching me get my ass kicked. Watching as they almost killed me. I remembered the look on his face as I’d fought for my life—cold, blank, impassive—and it made me very nervous. I’d seen that same look tonight, in Mr. Dust’s back room. That dark, icy stranger hadn’t gone away; he was still here.
I didn’t know why I was defending him now.
But the look Keirran gave me was neither cold nor impassive; it was just relieved. Suddenly, he paused, gazing thoughtfully at a portion of mist that looked identical to everything else in this place. “The Veil is thin here,” he announced, running a hand through the air, like he could push it aside. “And I don’t sense my father anymore. I think we’re safe.”
He lifted a curtain of mist away, and I could abruptly see the real world through the gash: a New Orleans street and a familiar building on the corner, orange lamplight flickering beside the doorway. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.
The sidewalk was deserted as we stepped out of the Between into the real world again, the streets empty and still. I checked my watch, frozen at 12:12 a.m., waiting as the numbers flickered and reappeared as 3:48 a.m. Better than I could’ve hoped. With the screwy time differences between Faery and the real world, we were lucky this whole crazy adventure happened in the same night.
“Where to now?” Keirran asked, looking at me. I rubbed tired eyes and tried to get my brain to function.
“Home,” I said. “Back to my town. Guro is the one who can help us.”
“The human we met before,” Keirran said. “Your master. Are you certain he can help?”
“He said he’d be willing to try. And he’s the only one I can think of.”
The Iron Prince nodded, looking weary. “I’ll try anything. I hope you know what you’re doing, Ethan. All right...” He glanced at the spot where we’d walked out of thin air, then raised a hand again. “Let’s go.”
I blinked. “Through the Between?”
“Of course.” Keirran looked back, confused. “How did you think we would get there?”
“Uh, with my truck?”
“It’s much faster to go through the Between,” Keirran explained. “Just like Faery and the trods, it doesn’t conform to normal space. You can walk from one end of the country to the other in a few minutes, if you know where you’re going and if you can find a place where the Veil is almost transparent.” A faintly horrified look crossed his face then. “You didn’t...drive Annwyl up, did you? In a car?”
“How did you expect us to get here?”
Keirran shuddered, then slipped his hand into the air again and parted reality like a pair of drapes. I shivered, too. Call it what you wanted, that was just creepy. “Fine,” I muttered, bracing myself for more shadowy Between and coiling nothingness. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Wait,” Kenzie said.
We all turned to her. “Before we go anywhere,” she began, gazing especially at me and Keirran, “I have to go back to my dad. I want to tell him where I’ll be this time—not that he cares, but I don’t want to worry Alex or my stepmom.” She gestured to the buildings around us. “I can’t just vanish in a strange city, with them having no idea where I am. Even Dad will freak out.” She pushed back her hair, suddenly nervous. “So, can we make one quick stop at my hotel before we head out? It won’t take long, I promise.”
I held my tongue. I knew, by the stiff set of Kenzie’s shoulders, the tension lining her jaw, that she was waiting for me to protest, to tell her to stay behind. She was gearing up for a fight, and I...had no desire to argue with her anymore. I still wanted to keep her safe, but her last accusation had shaken me up pretty bad. Kenzie had gotten the Sight knowing exactly what it meant. She wasn’t afraid, though she knew the dangers just as well as I did. And I had shut her out, trying to keep her safe. As if I hadn’t heard everything she’d told me about wanting to live, and people treating her differently, and not having time to be safe. She’d told me all that before; I just hadn’t listened.