“The police and the FIB were already there. At first I thought they’d already grabbed you and shuttled you away to Faerie. When I learned they hadn’t, I went out searching for you. I spent most of the night searching any spot I could think of that you might go. Where were you, by the way?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I replied, which was probably true, but again, with the shadows whispering in the corners, I didn’t want to reveal too many secrets, even in the corners, I didn’t want to reveal too many secrets, even if these secrets belonged to my father.
“Wel , sometime after midnight I returned to your apartment and these wooden blocks flung themselves at me. Then a pen lifted itself and started scratching out letters.”
“Roy.” He’d actual y managed to find Falin and get a message to him. Of course, it sounded like it was the wrong message. “So if Roy told you I’d been nabbed by the skimmers, how did you end up in Faerie?”
“It took him thirty minutes to write ‘ Alex kidnap,’ and once he got that far, I just assumed . . . Incorrectly, apparently.”
Falin looked away.
“It worked out,” I said, and shrugged, but the movement went off course somehow and ended up a slight sway.
“Come on, let’s get some sleep,” Falin said, his arms moving to mine to steady me. “You can’t save the world if you fal over from exhaustion.”
I let him lead me toward the bed, but as we walked I muttered, “I’m not trying to save the world. I’m just helping my friends and—” I cut off as we passed a large ebony desk. In the center of the desk sat a five-inch dagger with an ornate hilt. A dagger that looked suspiciously like my dagger, which I’d last seen when Caleb had dropped it in the hal way of the winter court. I shrugged off Falin’s hands and moved to the desk, the sight of the dagger pushing back my exhaustion, at least a little. “How did this get here?”
The dagger buzzed lightly as I picked it up. It was definitely my dagger.
“Any number of ways,” Falin said, looking at the blade from over my shoulder. “It’s enchanted. This is Faerie and things move unexpectedly. The dagger likes you. Maybe a combination of al that. Maybe something else entirely.”
Right. I fought the layers of skirt in the gown and shoved the dagger back in its holster. However it got to me, at least I was armed again. Like that will do me a lot of good if I I was armed again. Like that will do me a lot of good if I need to draw it fast. What I wouldn’t give to have my hip-huggers back, even with the pink chalk print. I resumed my pacing, using the energy that the short adrenaline burst had given me. Falin sighed as I passed him.
“If I could figure out how to open a rift like the planebender’s door, I could search al of Faerie for Hol y,” I said, fidgeting with the amulet attached to my bracelet. I’d seen the boy close the rift. Could I open a door as easily?
The accomplice could be preparing to attempt the next ritual while we were stuck as guests of the shadow court.
I stopped, rocking back on my heels. I could try to open a rift. I could think of several worst-case scenarios, but none quite as bad as the land of the dead merging with mortal reality, and preventing that was one of the items on my to-do list—once I got out of this room. I lowered my shields. I hadn’t been able to completely drop my shields outside a circle or heavy wards for years without grave essence reaching for me. Hel , even inside a circle, the world always decayed around me and chil ed wind tore at my skin. But there was no land of the dead in Faerie. I dropped my shields, and it was as if I’d shrugged off a weight I’d been carrying so long I didn’t even notice it until it was suddenly lifted.
No wonder Rianna prefers staying in Faerie. I could get dangerously used to this freedom. There wasn’t even Aetheric energy to entangle my psyche or for me to accidental y pul into reality. Of course, that also meant I had no magic except the energy stored in my ring, and I couldn’t draw on the grave. The feeling of freedom washed away in a sense of powerlessness, though there was stil magic in the air, just not a magic I was used to. But I could feel it, which meant I could touch it.
That didn’t mean I should. I thought back to the skimmers standing around the rift by the river, drawing down energy they never should have been able to touch until one skimmer actual y ignited.
skimmer actual y ignited.
I would leave the foreign energy alone.
Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on the space directly in front of my face. There was no Aetheric, no land of the dead, but there were multiple realities. I could feel them. Okay, here goes. Lifting my hands, I focused my wil on parting the air in front of me as I forced my hands farther apart.
Reality moved but it didn’t open.