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"In. Now," Luis told her.
Ethine climbed into the backseat and skooched over the cracked vinyl and the crumbling foam. Her face was stiff with fear and fury.
Corny drew a swirl along the hood that turned almost immediately to rust. He didn't seem to notice that he was standing barefoot on snow. "I'm a murderer.”
"No, you're not," said Luis.
"If I'm not a murderer," asked Corny, "how come I keep killing people?”
"There's plastic bags here," said Kaye. She reached into the well of the backseat and fished them out from the piles of empty cola cans and fast-food wrappers. "Put these on until we get gloves.”
"Oh, very well," Corny said with a lunatic half smile. "Don't want to wither the steering wheel.”
"You're not driving," Luis said.
Kaye wrapped Corny's hands in the bags and steered him to the passenger side. She jumped into the back, beside Ethine.
Luis started the car and, finally, they were moving. Kaye looked through the rear window, but no faeries seemed to follow. They did not fly overhead, did not swarm down and stop the car.
The hot, iron-soaked air of the heater dulled Kaye's thoughts, but she forced her eyes open. Each time dizzy slumber threatened to overtake her, terror that the host were almost upon them startled her awake. She kept her eyes on the windows, but it seemed to her that the clouds were dark with wings and all the woods they passed were full of hungry wet mouths.
"What are we going to do now?" Luis asked.
Kaye thought of Roiben's long fingers knotted in Silarial's red hair, his hands pulling her down to him.
"Where are we even going?" Corny asked. "Where's this safe place that we're in such a rush to get to? I mean, I guess we have a better chance with Roiben than Silarial, but what happens when we give Ethine back? Do you really think Silarial's going to leave us alone? I killed Adair. I killed him.”
Kaye paused. The enormity of how isolated and helpless they were settled into her bones. They had taken a hostage that both of the courts wanted back, and Silarial needed something that only Kaye knew. There was no secret weapon this time, no mysterious faerie knight to keep her safe. There was only a crappy old car and two humans who hadn't deserved to get dragged into this. "I don't know," she said.
"No such thing as safe," said Corny. "Just like I said. Not for us. Not ever.”
"There's no safe for anyone," Luis said. Kaye was surprised at how calm he sounded.
Ethine moaned in the backseat.
Luis glanced at her in the rearview mirror.
"It's the iron," said Corny.
Luis nodded uncomfortably. "I knew it bothered them.”
Corny smirked. "Yeah, watch out. She might puke on you.”
"Shut up," Kaye said. "She's sick. She's not even as used to it as I am.”
"'Welcome to New Jersey,'" Corny read off the sign. "I guess we can pull over at the next rest stop. Get her some air. We should be in Unseelie land by now. “
Kaye scanned the skies behind them, but there was still no sign that they were being followed. Were they going to be bargained with? Shot with arrows that would burrow into their hearts? Were Silarial and Roiben working together to get Ethine back? They had left the map of what Kaye knew, and she felt as though they were about to fall off the edge of the world.
A gust of fresh, icy wind woke her from her reverie.
They had pulled into a gas station and Luis was getting out. He headed toward the station while Corny started filling the tank. His bag-covered hands slipped, thin plastic tearing. He staggered back in surprise, gasoline splashing the side of the car.
Kaye stumbled out. The air was heady with vapors.
"What happened back there?" she asked him quietly. "You killed Adair? Why?”
"You don't think I just did it because I could? I killed Nephamael, didn't I?" Corny shoved the nozzle back into the car.
