THE UNSEELIE QUEEN’S MAGIC PUSHED me and the Chicago court’s knights out of Faerie and right into downtown Mayfair between two buildings. I swore under my breath. She was playing with me. It was still sunny out. Daytime. I couldn’t go far outside of the shadows, and I was surrounded by two dozen knights who awaited my orders on behalf of a queen I wasn’t entirely sure wanted me to succeed. The other fae royalty had tons of power, and they could probably get things fixed better than I could, if there was a better plan than getting the gems back. Sending me to do this was a test or something. A test of my power.
People walking past gawked at us in the alley. Weakly, I waved my hand at a witch I recognized from Beatrice’s friend circle and a ghost that always showed up at the farmer’s market. None of them stopped to say anything, and for that I was grateful. But I had no doubt one of them would stop at The Scale & Ale soon and open their big mouths where Mac could hear information worth selling.
News of Olympia Carter suddenly appearing in the heart of Mayfair with an unapproved fairy army would not look good, I was guessing.
I took out my phone and found the first contact on my list. She answered on the second ring. “Allie Godden speaking.”
“Can you meet me at”—I checked my surroundings—“Sugar & Spice?”
There was a huff on the other end of the line. “It’s not a good time, Olympia. Mayor Blair has me studying up on—”
“Beatrice is in Faerie,” I said.
She was quiet for a moment. And then, “Why the fuck is she in Faerie? How did you figure that out?”
“Long story. Can fill you in at Sugar & Spice, though, if you have a minute.” Hopefully, once she knew how bad it was, she would stay for longer than a minute, but sometimes she took things too literally. I didn’t doubt she actually was busy. Saving Faerie just had to be a higher priority.
“Alright, dammit. You owe me one, Olympia.”
“I’ll keep a tally.”
“Jesus.” She hung up.
I looked back across the street. My history with the Gallos, the lesbian couple that owned Sugar & Spice, was a tad tumultuous. We’d been friendly acquaintances for a long time, and I’d even had a crush on Griselda once, but I’d sided with Leandra on an important matter and ruined the ease of our interactions.
Well, it was worth a shot.
“Alright, everyone,” I said to the knights. “How can we get a vampire across the street and into that magic shop over there without incinerating me?”
❧
A borrowed tarp and a comical procession later, I entered the thankfully windowless back room of Sugar & Spice with the Gallos, leaving twenty-three knights wandering the shop. Customers looked appropriately alarmed at their presence.
“I don’t know if we can help with that,” Francesca said. She was sitting on an upside-down bucket. “It’s…”
“It’s a lot of damn responsibility, is what it is,” Griselda cut in.
“Just a place for us to plan,” I begged. “This could mean the end of Faerie.”
“You’ll still be able to live here, though. Why does Faerie matter?”
“Hon,” Francesca said pleadingly. The look that passed between them was so laden with meaning that it made me miss Leandra. I hoped she was doing alright at the queen’s side. If the queen hurt her, I would be within my rights to retaliate. But I had a feeling she wouldn’t cause her harm. Not directly, anyway.
“Alright,” Griselda said. “But don’t expect us to go charging into battle with you.”
“Of course not,” I said, relief making my throbbing thirst weaker. “Thank you so much.”
Someone began yelling in the store. Knocking over her metal bucket, Francesca swung open the door. I cowered toward the back of the room to avoid the ray of sunlight that pierced through.
“Olympia bloody goddamn Carter! What the hell is going on here?”
I winced at the severe reaction. “Allie,” I called. “In here.”
Allie pushed past Francesca, and the door was mercifully closed once more. “You’ve got to be bloody kidding me,” Allie said.
I hugged her. She was tense for a second and then eased into embracing me back. From the awkward stiffness of it, I had a feeling neither of us was very used to friendly hugs.
“Faerie’s dying,” I said once she stepped away.
“Faerie’s—how? Wait, don’t tell me yet. I need to let the council know. If word gets out that you brought a bunch of fairy warriors into Mayfair, it’s not going to be pretty. And mind you, this is not the first time you’ve done it.”
“Technically, my mom—”
“Zip it.” She made a quick call. Francesca and Griselda settled back into their spots. Affectionately, Griselda put her hand over Francesca’s shoulder. I smiled at them as best as I could given the circumstances.
“How has business been?” I asked.
“You don’t care how business has been,” Griselda said dryly. Sometimes, she could be kind, and sometimes she was just defensive. The rollercoaster of Griselda Gallo.
Francesca put her hand over Griselda’s and the other woman relaxed. “It’s been good. The ice cream shop next to us closed, though, and it was bringing in some extra customers. Grab your magic wart removal and your Rocky Road all in one trip. We did joint deals sometimes, too. So it’s hurting a bit for that.”
I barely remembered that there had been an ice cream shop here. Vaguely, I remembered seeing a giant, fake ice cream code on the way in. I knew the Gallos’ house was right behind the building.
“Alright, they’ve been notified. Mind you, they’re not happy,” Allie said, giving me a stern look.
“But you’ll smooth it over for me, won’t you?” I batted my eyelashes.
“You’re taking after Leandra too much.”
The reminder about Leandra sobered me. “Okay, rundown time. There’s a cult in the woods that Beatrice was investigating. Vampire cult. They worship the sun. Fae magic is like sun magic. They stole enough of it to fuck up Faerie.”
“Goodness,” Allie said. “Is that where you’ve been the last week?”
“Yes.” How simple, to boil it down to just that. It didn’t encapsulate the experience at all. Before I knew where the gems were from, it hadn’t seemed inherently malicious. Just…weird. Suspicious because of the level of power they had. I had the odd sensation of realizing I was the kind of person who would’ve really been indoctrinated into a cult-type setting. The reactions of Ren, Barty, and Seb all made more sense, now. None of them had known where the gems had come from.
“Olympia?”
I came back to myself. I could think about almost buying into a cult’s ideals later. “They have a witch with them who uses some kind of cloaking spell to keep the entire camp hidden. Can you get us in?”
“Sounds simple enough.” She gestured to Francesca and Griselda, who privately conversed in hushed tones. “It would help to have these two putting their magic together to find it, if we’re on a time crunch.”
“We are,” I said. “Would you?”
Francesca stood from her stool, brushing off Griselda’s hand from her shoulder. “We’ll help you find it. I don’t know that we’ll go in and do—whatever it is you need done.”
“Some of the higher ups have these rubies that are actually bits of Faerie. We have to get them back.”
“Sounds like you need people murdered,” Griselda muttered.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that,” I said. “There aren’t many of them. Maybe thirty with eleven newer recruits who don’t know much yet. Part of the problem is that it’s underground.”
Allie looked thoughtful. “This is great and all, but how did you find out about this without a witch of your own?”
I swore. There was someone important I’d forgotten.
❧
During the day, the vampire mall looked even more destitute. In some kind of power play, Diosa had covered the place in a nonsensical number of chains to make it look extra uninviting. More chains than a Kingdom Hearts character would wear. The effect was somewhere between intimidating and comical—like Diosa herself.
The fairy knights held the tarp over me as I walked up to the door. We must have looked ridiculous. “Are you sure she’ll let us in?” Allie asked. We’d dealt with Diosa together, and she was a wild card at the best of times. Behind us, Griselda grumbled under her breath about having to close the shop up early and lose sales.
I lifted the large lock from the front door and knocked hard. We didn’t have time to cross-check delivery dates for blood tablets or the trash schedule. All we had time for was the direct approach.
Nobody came to the door. I waited under my stupid sun tarp, feeling the eyes of twenty-three knights and three witches on me.
“Miss Carter,” one of the knights said, “do you need us to break down the door?”
That would go over well. “Diosa!” I screamed at the door. “Let us the fuck in!”
“Very subtle, Olympia. Classy, as always,” Allie quipped. She leaned close to the door, and then said at normal volume, “This place would look better without a roof over it. Or we could burn it down? Maybe both.”
The front door eased open. A meek vampire dressed in an ensemble with a plunging neckline stuck her head out. She’d answered the door for me back when Patricia ran things. It was odd to think she’d just swapped leaders like that, but then, some of them had.
“You can’t do that,” the vampire said. Her name was something literary. Leandra would’ve remembered it. By some French guy… It was on the tip of my tongue.
“Esmeralda!” I said victoriously. The vampire flinched at her name. “Esmeralda, go get Diosa, please. It’s very urgent.”
“She said not to open the door,” Esmeralda said from the open door. She seemed to realize the contradiction too late and then, without urgency, closed it.
“Can you actually blow the roof off of the building?” I asked Allie.
Allie gestured toward Francesca and Griselda. “I mean, with the three of us, probably. But I think I’d get kicked off the council.”
She could get kicked off the council for doing this even if our scheme didn’t end in exploded buildings. She really did care enough to help me—enough to put what she’d been working toward at risk. I had the urge to hug her again, but I was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.
The door opened all the way. Diosa stood in its frame, taking up nearly the entire width of it, her muscles gleaming in the sun. The red gem at her collarbones swung a bit and then settled. “Olympia, I do hope you’re not bringing a goddamn army to my door and threatening my poor watchdog.”
“It sure does look that way, doesn’t it,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “It really does.”
“What if I told you I figured out where the gems come from?”
Her eyes widened with greed. “You always know what to say.”
Allie gave me a dirty look as we dodged under the giant lock to get inside.
❧
Diosa must have noticed how I eyed everyone like a food source, because a few minutes later, I had a large jug of blood in my hands with a convenient bendy straw sticking out of it.
“Paper straws only,” Diosa said, “for the environment.”
“How conscientious.”
“I try.” She leaned against the wall. From the abandoned stores, vampires poked their heads out, observing us. Diosa made no move to formally invite them to come out, but she let them look. I’d never heard her snap at one of her subordinates. They seemed to respect her without fearing her—something Patricia lacked during her own reign.
“Where’s Leandra?” Diosa asked once I’d had half of my blood. I nearly choked on it.
“In Faerie,” I said.
Diosa looked thoughtful for a moment. “I haven’t heard from Ren. You weren’t supposed to leave until you’d infiltrated the inner circle. Did you or did you not?”
“Um, kind of. It’s a long story.”
Allie absorbed the information like a sponge. The expression on her face told me she was connecting all kinds of dots, filling in things I hadn’t had time to tell her. She was sharp as a tack.
“Is Ren in danger?” Diosa asked, and her voice betrayed her. She really was worried about Ren. It was weird to think of her as someone who could have a softer, romantic side.
“I don’t think so,” I said. I thought of Ren, not warning us about the initiation. Seemingly setting us up for failure. I had a sinking feeling that Diosa didn’t know about it. “Actually, I don’t know. I don’t want to promise that. We had our initiation, which she didn’t tell us about. And she—confiscated my dagger, which they used against me. I’m, um, not sure where I stand with her.”
“What was your initiation?” Diosa asked.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you have to go through it too?”
“It’s different for everyone,” Diosa said. “They cater it to your weaknesses. What was yours?”
Was it possible I’d just expected Ren to betray us? “They pitted Leandra and I against each other.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. And?”
“And then someone from the inner circle turned out to be the guardian of Faerie’s tree of life. Where the gems come from, by the way. And it’s draining Faerie every time they take more of the magic.”
Diosa fingered her necklace. “Shit.”
“Yeah.” I hadn’t thought of it until now, but I didn’t know Diosa well enough to say if she’d let Faerie die so that she could keep stealing away into the sunlight. My stomach twisted into knots.
“You’ll help us, won’t you?” Allie chimed in.
The sound of me sucking blood through my paper straw filled the silence. Embarrassed, I stopped and wiped a bead of blood from my lips. Diosa didn’t seem to notice; she wore a faraway expression, still holding onto the gem. “I have to give up sunlight again, don’t I?”
The blood restored my energy, filling up my veins and making me feel powerful. Like I’d just downed three Monsters—without the heart attack part. “Yes, but—it’s necessary. It’s not yours to have. And I know it’s a lot to ask for.”
All of us waited in the ensuing discomfort. There was a clanking of metal as one of the fairy knights shifted. It felt like everyone in the entire building was watching.
“I’m not heartless, Olympia,” Diosa said suddenly. She brushed her hair back behind her ear, a human gesture that made her look almost cute, if someone capable of snapping your neck with her bare hands can be cute. “I knew they were up to something terrible. That’s why I came here in the first place. Not just for revenge. I just hoped it wasn’t about this. Walking in the sun is one of the few things that brings me joy these days.”
I thought of Leandra telling me I had no idea what it was like to not experience sunshine for over a hundred years. Diosa had lived even longer without it. This wasn’t a light ask. This was a huge sacrifice to her.
I cleared my throat and then took a gamble. “Doesn’t Ren bring you joy, too?”
Diosa’s eyes snapped to mine. It was tempting to waver under her intense gaze. All of the air was sucked out of the room as we waited for an answer.
After what felt like a lifetime later, the corners of her lips curled. “I’ll go get my spare gem for you so you don’t have to hide under a tent,” Diosa said. “And then we’ll go storm the castle together.”