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“How did they know how to find us?” Muir asked, as though any of that mattered now.
But I needed to act though it did. I needed to convince Muir to let it go so that he could focus on protecting the others while I saved the captured monster folk.
I needed him to trust me.
“The Queen of Light had a former monster,” I replied. “She kept her in a dungeon and interrogated her. Her mind magickers must have extracted the knowledge of my whereabouts since every former monster can find me through the connection in our minds.”
Muir glared at me.
“And you’re going to say that you knew something like this was going to happen,” he said. “That’s why you didn’t want to lead us.”
“No,” I replied. “If I had thought of it, I would have broken off our connection long ago.”
“Breaking off the connection would not have worked,” Ellaria said. “You broke off the connection now and I can still feel your presence.”
The other monster folk inside the cave with us nodded. Surprisingly, some of my guilt was lifted with that revelation.
There wasn’t anything I could have done to stop the queen after all.
“They captured most of us,” Muir said, gesturing at the meager number of monster folk hiding with us in the cave. “We cannot save the others. Not without help.”
“We can go to Qam to ask Kieran and Fiona’s help,” Casja said.
“If they succeeded,” Amarra said.
“If they had failed,” I replied. “I would have felt it. Gethin is with them.”
“So what?” Muir asked. “We’re gonna run off to Qam and abandon the others?”
I looked at him. He was a good man. He wanted to protect, and he was prepared to risk his life for that end.
It was admiring.
But I didn’t have time to deal with that.
“We will open a portal to somewhere safe,” I said. “Preferably near Qam. If Kieran and Fiona managed to take back their crown, they’ll help. In the meantime, I’m gonna send a message to the Queen of Light and tell her that if she releases the prisoners, I’m going to surrender.”
“You cannot!” Amarra raised her voice.
And she wasn’t the only one objecting.
Brigid and Casja reacted at once and every monster folk inside the cave who could, jumped to their feet. Ellaria shouted, and Muir stopped pacing. Relly seemed like she was about to burst into tears.
They wouldn’t peacefully let me surrender.
But the queen hadn’t given me much time.
So I could not give my friends any time to try and stop me.
I opened myself back up to the monster folk. The captured monsters were no longer being hurt by the queen’s soldiers, not since we’d come to an agreement. She was waiting for me to fulfill my end of the bargain, and she wouldn’t hurt the others while she waited.
I reached for the monster folk inside the cave with me, and for the first time since we’d been connected, I used that connection to make them to my bidding.
It was frighteningly easy to do.
Amarra was the only one who could resist my mind magic, but as Muir went to her and grabbed her by the arm, she had no means to fight him off.
“Open a portal,” I told Relly. “Go to Qam. Live freely. Forget about today.”
