THE WAY TO WINTER
“Finding” the way to Winter wasn’t difficult. Puck bragged he had been there countless times, obviously to cause trouble, so he knew several paths to Queen Mab’s territory. Of course, if we wanted to remain in Faery, we could tromp back through the wyldwood until we reached the border of Tir Na Nog. But that would take time, Puck said, and the chances of getting through the wyldwood without running into trouble were slim. The quicker way to the Frozen Wood, he explained, was back through the mortal world.
“Why are you helping us?” Keirran asked as we followed Puck down the sidewalk of some unknown city. It was snowing lightly, and the gutters were full of slush. Beside me, Kenzie hugged herself and shivered, and I found myself wishing for a jacket, too. I didn’t know what we were going to do when we got to Winter, where it was probably far colder.
Keirran frowned at Puck, his expression both puzzled and wary, though the Summer fey seemed oblivious. “You know what Titania wants us to do,” he said. “Shouldn’t you be searching for my father or at least letting the Iron Queen know where I am?”
“Hey, I’m just looking out for my best friend’s kid,” Puck replied airily. “And her kid brother. But let me ask you this. If I wasn’t here, would you still be trying to get into Tir Na Nog?”
“Yes.”
“And if I told you not to go, would you stop?”
“No.”
“So, there ya go.” Puck shrugged. “Better that I’m here to bail you out of trouble than let you face whatever it is you’re going to face on your own. Besides, I never turn down the chance to annoy the Winter Court. I haven’t been to Tir Na Nog in a while. I’m sure they’ve missed me terribly.”
Kenzie sneezed then, rubbing her arms. I wished I could offer her a coat or something, though I was freezing myself. “Quick question,” she said through chattering teeth. “This is the Winter Court, right? Not that I’m complaining, but I assume it’s going to be very, very cold. And from what Titania said, this Frozen Wood doesn’t sound very nice. How are we going to keep from freezing to death?”
“Ah, worry not,” Puck stated and ushered us down an alley. “I’ve already got that figured out.”
A door stood at the end of the alley, narrow, unmarked and black. I stared at it uneasily as we approached. It reminded me of the entrance to Mr. Dust’s, but this door had a rectangular eye slit near the top and what looked like a pet door near the bottom. Weird. Maybe Grimalkin used this door sometimes?
Puck strode up without hesitation and rapped on the wood three times.
The small rectangular slit near the top snapped open, and two bloodshot eyes peered out, wary and guarded. “Who’s there? Go away. We’re closed!”
“Mortimer,” Puck said, all smiles. “Is that any way to treat an old friend?”
The beady eyes widened as they saw Puck. “Robin Goodfellow?” the voice rasped, and it was difficult to see, but I think the skin around the eyes paled a bit. “Why are you here? I have nothing for you. Go away!”
The slit door slammed, but not before Puck had shoved his hand inside, stopping it from closing. “Ow. Hey, Mort, you realize you still owe me a favor, right? That time I saved you from those redcaps? Remember that?”
“No!” howled the voice on the other side, futilely trying to shut the eye slit. “I cannot let you into Tir Na Nog this time! Queen Mab would skin me alive if she knew.”
“Life debt, Morty,” Puck reminded him. “If it wasn’t for me, Mab would have to find a new trod gatekeeper. All we want is passage to Tir Na Nog. This wasn’t even my idea.”
I stood behind Kenzie, rubbing her cold arms and watching this little scene in wary amusement. I had no doubt Puck would get us into Tir Na Nog; when and how was the question. The trod keeper shouted a protest and tried shutting the door again, but Puck wasn’t going anywhere. I moved closer to Kenzie, protecting her from the wind, and sighed. This might take a while.
Suddenly, Keirran stepped forward, striding up to the door and bringing his face close to the opening. The bloodshot, beady eyes flickered to the prince as he leaned in.
“Do you know me?” Keirran’s voice was hard, the cold stranger that had reared its head on occasion. “Do you know who I am?”
Puck blinked, a dangerous look crossing his face as he stared at the prince, but Keirran wasn’t paying attention to him. The face peering through the crack nodded.
“I know who you are, Iron Prince.”
“Let us through,” Keirran ordered, sounding very much like his father. “Or there won’t be a trod to Tir Na Nog here any longer, or a gatekeeper.”
The bloodshot eyes narrowed sharply. “Is that a threat, Iron Prince?”
Keirran didn’t answer, but the air around us began to chill. My breath writhed out in front of me, and frost spread over the door and brick walls of the alley. Kenzie shivered and pressed back into me, but the gatekeeper on the other side gave a harsh laugh.
“Winter magic, Iron Prince? I am the gatekeeper of the Frozen Wood. I do not fear the cold—”
A flash, and the acrid odor of smoke and metal. Keirran didn’t move, but the wooden door suddenly erupted with long spikes tipped with metal at the ends. Puck yelped and leaped back, barely missing being impaled, and the gatekeeper inside gave a piercing scream. Smoke began billowing out of the eye slit, along with the sudden stench of burned hair.
“Let us pass,” Keirran continued in that cold, lethally calm voice, “or I will infect your entire trod with Iron glamour, and then we’ll see how well it fares.”
“All right!” The eyes appeared again, wide and frantic. “Enough! Stop! I will give you passage to Tir Na Nog, but you’ll say nothing of how I let you into Winter. If the queen finds out, she’ll have all our heads.” A groan, and the eyes drew back a little. “One moment. I will prepare the trod to the Frozen Wood. It will take but a moment.”
“Be quick about it,” Keirran said, and the eye slit snapped shut.
Puck glared at the prince. “You didn’t have to do that, princeling,” he said in an annoyed voice. “I had it under control.”
“You probably did.” Keirran’s soft, cold tone hadn’t changed. The icy stranger stared unwaveringly at the door, frost continuing to spread over the pavement around him. “But he was in our way. I don’t have time to play with trod keepers, not with Annwyl’s life on the line.”
“Maybe,” I agreed, frowning at the prince over Kenzie’s head. “But that was kind of a dick move, Keirran.”
Keirran didn’t answer, and a moment later the slat opened again, the eyes peering out sullenly. “The trod is prepared,” the raspy voice announced. “And the door is unlocked. When you are ready, just open it, and the way to Winter will be revealed.”
“Not so fast,” Puck said, rapping the door as the eyes started to pull away. “We’re going into the Frozen Wood, and we have two humans in the party. Aren’t you forgetting something?”
The gatekeeper glared at the Summer fey, but a second later, the flap at the bottom swung up, and a bowl of strange orange fruits was shoved out. They were the shape of a pear but the size of a strawberry, and the air around them shimmered with heat. Then the eye slit slammed shut once more, and I knew it wouldn’t open again.
Puck sighed. “Well, better grab a few of those things,” he said, nodding to the fruit in front of the door. “You’ll need it where we’re going.”
Kenzie immediately stepped forward and snatched one, lifting it up curiously. The skin had an odd rippling effect, like the air around a fire. “What is it?”
“Flamefruit,” Keirran answered, sounding back to his normal self, though his voice was slightly weary. “It’ll keep you from freezing to death in Tir Na Nog. Don’t eat too many, though. It’s pretty potent for humans. Not as bad as summerpod, but still...be careful.”
“Ah, summerpod.” Puck sighed, sounding wistful. “Lots of fun with that little fruit. Good times, good times. Well...” He glanced at me and Kenzie with a grin. “Are you two ready for this party?”
Kenzie handed me a trio of the small orange fruit, and I took them reluctantly. “Ready as we’ll ever be, I suppose.”
“One more thing,” Keirran warned as Puck marched up to the door. “The Cold in the Frozen Wood is a living thing. The flamefruit will protect you from freezing, but if you get sleepy or want to close your eyes for a moment, don’t give in to the compulsion. Creatures that fall asleep in the wood never wake up again.”
A chill not related to temperature skittered up my back. With a grand gesture, Puck flung back the door, and a blast of icy cold whooshed into the alley, making me shiver. Kenzie stepped forward, her eyes bright as she gazed through the opening. Beyond the frame, a pristine, snowy forest stretched out before us, sparkling in the afternoon sun. Leafless trees grew close together, the sunlight peeking through their branches to dapple the snow, and every tree, trunk, twig and branch was coated in ice. Not just a little ice, either. Entire trees were encased in crystal, though you could still see every detail through the frozen shell. Huge icicles hung from everything, and the air swirling through the open door was so cold it hurt to breathe.
“Brr.” Kenzie shivered and quickly popped a fruit into her mouth before I could stop her. Instantly, a flush darkened her cheeks, her skin losing its paleness and regaining some color. “Oh, wow. That little thing works fast.” She looked at Puck and grinned. “You’ll have to get me some seeds one day. Think of the money we could make if we bottle that stuff.”
Puck laughed. “Oh, believe me, I’ve thought about it,” he said as we went through the door. My feet sank into about a foot of snow, and the air burned my nose and lungs when I inhaled, it was so cold. Shivering, I gritted my teeth and marched doggedly forward as Puck and Kenzie continued talking like they were on a forest stroll. “Sadly, there are two reasons that could put a damper on that plan,” Puck went on, holding up a finger. “One—flamefruit only grows beside pools of molten lava, so unless you want to move next to a volcano, it might be difficult to harvest. Second—eat too many, too fast, and you might...uh...spontaneously combust. Though that might make for some interesting conversations.”
“Can we please stay on target?” Keirran asked in an exasperated voice. “We have to find the creature that lives beneath the woods, and I haven’t any idea how to do that, do you?”
An icy wind cut through the forest, rattling icicles and making my skin shrink with cold. I’d wanted to hold off eating the faery fruit for as long as I could, but my willpower was rapidly disintegrating with all my body warmth, and I shoved a fruit into my mouth, swallowing quickly.
Instantly, I felt warmer, like I’d just taken a huge swallow of hot tea or coffee, except the sensation didn’t fade, and it spread to all parts of my body. Now that I could actually feel my face again, I concentrated on what Puck was telling Keirran.
“There’s a series of caves several miles north of here,” Puck said, nodding to where the snowcapped tops of a mountain range peeked over the forest of ice. “Stumbled onto them a few times with ice-boy, but we never went all the way to the bottom. Dunno what could be living down there, but that’s probably where you’ll find your beastie.”
Kenzie drifted closer and took my hand, holding it tightly as we made our way through the forest, the only sounds being the crunch of our feet in the snow. “I’m worried about Keirran,” she told me in a whisper, watching the Iron Prince stride purposefully through the snow ahead. “He’s been acting really weird lately, not himself. I think whatever the amulet is doing has started to affect him.”
“I know,” I muttered. I was worried about him, too. “But there’s nothing we can do right now except get this stupid task done as quickly as possible. Then Annwyl can go back to Summer, and we can destroy that amulet.”
As we passed a clump of trees, a large shape between the trunks caught my eye and made me jump, hand going to my sword. It was an elk, shaggy and massive, with huge antlers branching out from its skull. It knelt in the snow between two trees with its head up and its eyes closed.
And it was completely encased in ice.
Kenzie blinked and stepped toward it, even as I hastily backed up. “Kenzie,” I warned as she put out a hand to touch its frozen muzzle. The stag was perfectly still, a motionless statue, but I had visions of it surging up with a roar and lunging at us. It was just too still, like the “corpses” in horror movies that you know will leap up and take a swat at the hero the second he gets close. “Don’t mess with it,” I told her. “We don’t know what it will do.”
Kenzie, of course, ignored me. Her eyes were wide as she ran a finger along its snout, shivering. “It’s so cold,” she whispered. “How long has it been like this, I wonder?”
“Kenzie...”
A shout boomed from behind me, and something grabbed my arms. I yelped and spun, drawing my swords and slashing wildly at whatever had sneaked up on me from behind.
Puck—of course it was Puck—staggered away, gasping with laughter, having already dodged my swords. I relaxed, lowering my weapons as annoyance swiftly replaced alarm.
“Hilarious.” I sheathed my blades and glared at him. He cackled, and I stifled the urge to march up and punch him in his grinning mouth. “I could’ve cut your head off, you know.”
“You’re way too uptight, kid,” Puck said, giving me a friendly wink. “Man, you’re just like your sister when she first came to the Nevernever, jumping at everything like a startled rabbit. And no, you couldn’t have. I spent decades tormenting ice-boy, who has far better reflexes than you. I’m afraid you’re no touch-me-and-I’ll-kill-you Unseelie prince, human.”
A few yards away, Razor cackled with glee on Keirran’s shoulder, bouncing up and down and shouting “Funny, funny!” in a high-pitched voice, but the prince looked far less amused. “We should keep moving,” he said, sounding like he was trying to hide his impatience. “Kenzie, Ethan, you’ll probably see several more frozen animals, or even people, before we reach the caves. It’s best to leave them in peace.”
Kenzie stroked the elk’s furry neck. “Will it ever wake up?”
“It’s dead,” Keirran told her gently, and she pulled her arm back in horror. “The Cold took it when it lay down to sleep. And if we stand in one place for too long, it will try to take us, too. Come on, let’s keep going.”
We kept marching, our steps muffled by snow, barely making any sound as we forged ahead. The forest around us remained eerily silent and still, except for brief flashes of color from once-living creatures trapped in ice. A fox sleeping in a hollow log, its bushy tail curled around itself. Another stag, its antlers entangled in the branches of a low tree, now immobilized for all time. Countless birds frozen to the twigs they perched on, feathers puffed out against the cold, looking like fuzzy golf balls. Even a gray wolf, its fur bristling with icicles, lay curled in a ball at the base of a tree. Solemn and beautiful, in a morbid kind of way. Kenzie and I ate another flamefruit as evening approached and the effects slowly wore off. But our supply was dwindling, and I hoped we could do whatever we had to do here quickly and return to Arcadia before we ran out and froze to death.
As darkness began to fall and the sky overhead turned navy blue, the temperature dropped sharply. Even through the warm haze of the flamefruit, I could feel the chill prickling my skin. Puck glanced nervously at the sky and made a comment about picking up the pace.
“Why?” Kenzie asked, briskly rubbing her arms. “Does something happen at night?”
“Oh, nothing serious,” Puck said cheerfully. “It’s just the frost wraiths come out at night, and we probably want to avoid running into any. Nasty buggers, no sense of humor at all. Will suck the warmth right out of you, and all the flamefruit in the world won’t save you from them.”
I felt a weird sensation along my own forearms and looked down to see frost creeping over my skin. Shivering, I followed Kenzie’s example and quickly scrubbed it away.
“The caves aren’t far,” Keirran said, looking up at the mountain peaks. Razor peeked out of his collar, his huge ears and eyes the only things visible. “If we hurry, we should be there in a few...”
An unearthly wailing rose from the trees around us, making Puck wince and everyone else jump. Razor buzzed with alarm and hid down Keirran’s shirt.
“Well, I told you so,” Puck said and drew his daggers. “Better get ready. Here they come!”
Figures floated through the trees, blurred and indistinguishable. As they drifted closer, I saw they looked like gray wisps of tattered cloth, fluttering over the ground. Glowing blue eyes stared out at us as bony hands slipped from within the layers of rags and reached out, clawing and grasping.
I shoved Kenzie behind me and met the first two that flapped toward us, pale fingers reaching for my face. My first slice hit one right in the center of the floating rags and it frayed apart with a wail, the cloth fluttering to the ground. The second one tried sliding around me and going for Kenzie. Snarling, I whirled, slashing viciously at the wraith as it passed, cutting it from the air. It flopped limply to the snow, an empty pile of rags, before the wind blew it away. More ragged figures floated toward me from the darkness. I glimpsed Puck and Keirran a few yards away, slashing and dancing around their own attackers, blades whirling. Kenzie stood protected in the center of the triangle, and I intended to keep it that way. Raising my swords, I faced the next three swooping down from the branches of the trees.
Two wraiths came shrieking at my face, skeletal arms outstretched. I jerked back as one clawed at me, lashed out and sliced through its neck. The next attacker flung itself at me, right onto the tip of my sword as I stabbed upward, impaling itself on the blade.
The last dodged my swing and swooped low, darting beneath the second blade like a jerky puppet. Before I could move, it latched on to my leg, wrapped itself around my jeans and sank needle-sharp teeth into my calf.
The cold that lanced through me from the thing’s bite was a physical pain, sharp and burning. It was like I’d plunged my leg into a vat of ice water. My leg nearly buckled, and my howl of pain came out as a strangled rasp because my jaw was clenched so hard.
With shaking fingers, I put my weapon between my leg and the thing clinging to it and shoved hard, hoping I wouldn’t cut myself by mistake. By this time, my arms were shaking violently as well, but I managed to pry the wraith off and hurl it away. It darted back at my face with a shriek, and I slashed wildly, cutting it in two by sheer dumb luck.
That was the last of the wraiths, but I was shaking so hard now I thought I might throw up. I couldn’t keep ahold of my swords; they dropped from my numb fingers into the snow, and I didn’t think I had the muscle coordination to pick them up again. My teeth chattered, and breathing had suddenly become a painful chore.
“Oh, God, Ethan.” Kenzie put a hand on my arm; it felt like a hot coal, searing and wonderful. “Your skin is like ice. Here. This is my last one.”
She pressed something to my lips—one of the flamefruit pods, which was good, because my hands were shaking too hard to hold anything. I swallowed and felt the little fruit burn a path down to my stomach, easing some of the pain. Just a little, but it was enough for me to be able to move again.
Keirran and Puck walked up, both looking grim. “One of ’em got you, huh?” Puck muttered, peering at my face. “Nasty. Good thing you managed to get a flamefruit into your system before everything shut down. Even so, you probably won’t be able to get completely warm for about a week. But hey, better cold than dead, right?”
A sarcastic retort came to mind, but I couldn’t force it past my chattering teeth. Keirran swept up, shrugging out of his black cloak, and wordlessly handed it to Kenzie. She smiled at him gratefully and turned back to me, wrapping the dark fabric around my shoulders. I was beginning to feel a little embarrassed with their concern; I was just cold, not bleeding to death. But I couldn’t think of an argument right now, and besides, another layer of cloth between the air and my bare skin felt pretty good.
“Let’s get out of the open,” Keirran muttered as an icy breeze tossed his hair and made my teeth clack together painfully. “The caves aren’t far now.”
* * *
We finally reached the cliffs, following Puck through a gorge with huge sharp crystals spiking out of the ground and walls. I was still freezing, shivering badly even with the flamefruit and Keirran’s cloak, and moving around didn’t seem to be helping. So when we stumbled upon a large black hole in the cliff wall, surrounded by jagged blue crystals that looked sharp enough to impale yourself on, I was relieved to get out of the wind, at least.
Inside the cave, the walls and floor glittered with more jagged crystals that glowed with a faint blue light and threw weird toothy shadows over the cave. I glanced up and saw that the ceiling was covered in dangling icicles, insanely long and sharp enough to worry me if I wasn’t so freaking cold.
Farther back, the cave continued into the darkness. Keirran walked to where the shadows hovered at the edge of the glow and stared into the black.
“There’s a tunnel,” he murmured. “It looks like it goes down, below us.”
Puck shot me a glance and shook his head. “Yeah, well, we’re not going anywhere tonight. Not until Popsicle Boy thaws out a little.” He gave an exaggerated shiver, rubbing his arms. “Geez, it’s cold! I hate winter. Don’t see how ice-boy can stand— Oy, princeling, where do you think you’re going?”
Keirran had taken a few steps into the tunnel, but paused and turned to stare at us. In the looming darkness, his eyes glowed an eerie blue-white.
“I can feel it,” he said, his voice cold and lethal again. “It’s down there, waiting for us.”
“Yeah, well, like I said, we’re not going anywhere for a while.” Puck glanced at me. “Fire first, then when this one can hold a sword again, we’ll see about marching down and taking on the big nasty. So you’re just gonna have to sit tight and cool your heels until we’re ready, princeling.”
Shaking his head, Puck moved to an open spot on the floor, kneeling down to start a fire. How he was going to do that with no wood and everything covered in ice was beyond me, but that was where magic came in, I guessed. After a moment, Keirran went to help, leaving me shivering in the middle of the room, wishing I could help but grateful not to move right then.
Kenzie came up beside me, peering into my face. “Your lips are blue,” she stated, her brow creased with worry. I tried managing a shrug and a smirk, but I couldn’t quite feel my face.
“I’m okay,” I gritted out, clenching my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering. “Once the fire is going, I’ll be better.”
Kenzie’s frown deepened. Stepping close, she pried my arms away from my body and slid beneath the cloak with me. I winced at the rush of cold air, but then Kenzie wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed into me, and the warmth of her small body against mine almost made me groan with relief.
She shivered. “God, Ethan, you’re freezing,” she whispered. Reaching up, she placed a warm hand against the side of my face, and I closed my eyes, leaning into it. I felt her gaze on me, imagined her faint smile. “You’ve got to stop throwing yourself in front of dragons for me, tough guy,” she murmured. “I know you want to do the whole knight-in-shining-armor thing, but I don’t want you to get killed because of it.”
“Can’t help it,” I murmured, still keeping my eyes closed, basking in the warmth of her palm on my skin. “I already told you that. Not negotiable, sorry.”
“There you go again.” She shifted against me, but instead of withdrawing, her fingers traced the side of my cheek, softly stroking with her thumb. “Being stubborn and all.” I opened my eyes and stared down at her.
“Wait, was that actually you calling me stubborn? Me? This from the girl who practically stalked me until she was dragged into Faery? Who bargained with a faery queen even though I begged her not to? Who tracked me into a goblin market because she didn’t want to be left behind?”
Kenzie looked like she was trying not to grin. “What’s your point?”
Hell with it. I dropped my head and kissed her, the touch of her lips sending tendrils of heat curling through me. I forgot about the cold. I forgot why we were here. I was just aware of Kenzie, her warmth, her soft fingers on my skin. The emotion burning me from the inside.
Don’t stop. Don’t ever leave. Stay with me, Kenzie. The Nevernever, the Between or the real world, I don’t want to face anything without you.
I snorted quietly to myself. Man, I was going soft. Next thing you knew, I’d be writing song lyrics and spouting poetry.
“Kissy,” said a new voice, and I felt a tug on my jeans, like something was climbing my pant leg. I jerked and looked down to see that Razor had wedged himself between us and the cloak and was using me as a ladder.
“Ow!” I yelped as his sharp little claws poked my ribs. “Razor, get out of here!”
“Cold,” he replied, curling up in the space between us. “No like. Too cold.”
“Go bother Keirran, then,” I said, glancing to where Puck and Keirran had a cheerful fire crackling on the rocks. “I’m sure it’s warmer where he is.” Razor shook his head and curled tighter into himself.
“Master cold,” he whimpered.
I frowned in confusion. Keirran was part Winter faery; subzero temperatures didn’t faze him at all. “Master cold,” Razor insisted, sounding sad and a little frightened. “Master scary now, feels cold all the time.”
Oh. Damn, now even the gremlin was starting to notice Keirran’s slow change. I wasn’t sure whether it was the amulet or his worry for Annwyl that was driving it, but we had to finish this task and destroy that thing before Keirran was sucked away to nothing. Or became that cold stranger permanently.
“Come on,” Kenzie whispered, tugging me and Razor toward the fire, cloak and all. “Let’s get both of you warm.”
Puck grinned at us from where he leaned back against a rock, hands behind his head. But Keirran, brooding into the fire on the far side, didn’t look up at all. Carefully, I shrugged out of the long cloak, gritting my teeth as the frigid air hit my skin, sending goose bumps crawling along my arms. But I was feeling slightly warmer now, standing close to the flames. At least, I didn’t feel like my veins were full of ice water. As I removed the cloak, Razor whimpered, crawling beneath Kenzie’s hair and burrowing into her neck. I held the garment out to Keirran.
“Thanks,” I muttered. He eyed me without expression, then smiled.
“Anytime,” he replied, reaching out to take it. “You’re my friend, and I’m just grateful that you’re here.”
“Well,” Puck said, rising to his feet and stretching long limbs. “It’s been an exciting day. Why don’t you three get some sleep if you can? Don’t worry—it’s safe enough here. The Cold won’t come into the cave, especially if there’s a fire, and being nearly frozen to death tends to be fairly exhausting.” He wrinkled his nose. “Trust me, I know. So get some rest. You’ll need it for the big nasty beastie we’ll be facing tomorrow. I’ll take watch.”
He wandered off toward the mouth of the cave. I sat as close to the fire as I could, brooding into the flames and trying not to think about what came next.
Kenzie stepped between my knees and sat down, wedging herself in front of me like she was always meant to be there. I was startled, but I wasn’t complaining. Sliding my arms around her, I lay my chin on her shoulder, ignoring the gremlin who buzzed “Kissy, kissy” in my ear, and soaked up the heat.
“So,” she murmured after moments of contented silence. “I guess tomorrow we go fight a big ice monster or something, huh?”
“Mmm,” I grunted, not wanting to think about it.
“Do we have any plan for how we’re going to do that?”
“Mmm-mmm,” I mumbled, in an “I dunno” tone. I was sleepy all of a sudden, and the heat felt good against my skin, as did the girl in my arms. My eyes closed, and my head dropped lower onto her shoulder. I didn’t want to think about anything right now. Kenzie sighed, and I felt her shift to get more comfortable, her breaths becoming slow and deep, as if she, too, was drifting off.
Wait. This wasn’t like me. Wasn’t I way too paranoid to fall asleep in Faery? Something was wrong. I struggled to open my eyes, but they felt stupidly heavy, almost sealed together. I finally managed to crack them open, to see Keirran on his feet, the cold, eerie glow of his eyes trained on me.
“I’m sorry, Ethan,” he murmured, and though his voice was full of regret, his face was resolved. “It’s better this way. I’ve dragged you both through enough.” Swirling the cloak around himself, he drew up the hood, becoming hidden in shadow. “Take care of Kenzie. And Razor.” He paused, a flicker of agony crossing the stony expression. “If I don’t make it back, tell Annwyl I’m sorry.”
Dammit, Keirran, I wanted to yell. Don’t do this. But my eyes were slipping shut again, and I couldn’t force out the words. The Iron Prince turned, the cloak swishing behind him, and walked silently into the tunnel. I tried moving, shouting after him, but the glamour dragging me under finally overcame my will, and I fell into darkness.