“I need time,” I tell her. “To consider.”
Her eyes narrow at me, but to my relief she takes a step back. “I will give you one thing more . . . to consider. A gift, you might say, between distant kin.” She licks her lips, like she can taste my fear and uncertainty. “Fey power cannot be taken. It can only be bestowed. Guard your secrets well, Young One, and be careful with what you offer him.” She gives me a smile that I can feel prickling at my skin. “Be careful of what you surrender.”
The pinpricks turn into a thousand razor-sharp slices, and I feel like I’m being flayed alive. And in a sudden flash, the world explodes in light, and Fiona is gone.
At first the field was quiet, and for a moment the boy felt an unspeakable excitement. Finally, the adventure he had so wanted was his. Then, quick as a thought, a shell burst overhead, lighting the field. Exposing them all. It hung, still as a star, flickering above as though it were alive. . . .
Chapter 24
ONCE MY EYES ADJUST AGAIN to the evening light, I head back into the fortress. I need to find Pan. I need to figure out if anything Fiona has just told me is true. But I’m no sooner through the entrance when a boy I’ve never seen before runs up to me. He’s barely as tall as I am, and he can’t be more than ten or eleven. Still, with the thick club he’s holding and the wild look in his eyes, I take a step back.
“You were there, weren’t you?” he demands, taking another step toward me. “Today, out at the End. You went with Himself, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I tell him, inching back as I eye the club.
“Did Liam return with you?” he asks, taking a step even closer yet. “I haven’t seen him. And then with the fighting . . .” His voice trails off, as though he’s unsure of what else to say. He chews on his lip nervously, his eyes darting wildly from side to side, like he’s afraid to look at me. From the state of it, I’d say he’s been chewing on his lip for a while now.
“I don’t know,” I say, trying to inch around him. I don’t want to be the one to have to tell him that no one came back from the End except Pan, Olivia, and me, but the boy is insistent. He won’t let me go.
“Himself said it would be fine. Just a bit of fun. But Liam ain’t come back yet, and I’m starting to worry.”
“A bit of fun?” I ask, confused. There was nothing fun about the morning’s excursion. The boys we found out at the End were beaten and bloody, and the gray mist. . . . I get a chill every time I think of what could have happened out there.
“It was just another game,” he tells me. “I should have insisted for us to be on the same side. Liam’s my best mate, see. We’re always on the same side, but . . .” He looks up at me. “You sure you didn’t see him?”
“What do you mean, a game?” I ask, ignoring his question.
The boy’s wide eyes regard me as though I’m something of an idiot. “Same as always. A bit of fun is all.”
The way this boy is acting, the things he’s saying have my instincts on high alert. “What about the Captain?” I ask.
“I dunno, but I ’spect whatever’s left of him is locked safe in the dungeon down below. I didn’t get a swing at him, though,” he says, his brows drawing together in disappointment.
“This morning, I mean,” I say, trying to get the boy to focus. “You were with Olivia this morning. Didn’t you see the Captain out at the End when you all were attacked?”
His face scrunches in confusion. “Weren’t no Captain,” he tells me. “Just a bit of fun with us lads.”
My stomach goes tight, and ice slides down my spine. “If there wasn’t any Captain,” I ask slowly, carefully, “who attacked you?”
He straightens his spine, tightening his grip on his club. “No one attacked me. Not this time,” he says defensively. “I should’ve maybe gone with Liam, but I had a chance to be on the hunting squad for once. Couldn’t pass up a chance like that, now could I?”
“I don’t know,” I say weakly, not wanting to accept what I think he’s implying. “You’re saying the Captain didn’t attack you? That it was just a game to take Olivia out there?”
The boy starts to answer, but then his gaze jerks up and focuses on something behind me.
“Gwendolyn,” Pan says, sidling up next to me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, easy and calm. “Are you well?” he murmurs, his clear eyes conveying the depth of his worry.
“I . . . Um . . .” I look at the boy, who’s now talking to himself, his eyes studying the floor as he shuffles nervously in place.
“This one wasn’t bothering you, was he?” Pan asks. When he turns his attention to the boy, Pan’s face transforms itself. All traces of warmth are gone.
“No,” I say quickly. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. I was just wondering where you and Olivia had gone off to and I was talking to . . . uh . . .”
“Amir,” the boys supplies meekly, staring at his feet.