Page 29 of Be the Serpent

“No. Why would she have done that?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t know why she would have done that, but I’m down on the trail with Stacy and Quentin, and the path up isn’t here, so I don’t know how we’re getting in.”

There was a long, bewildered pause before Simon said, sounding alarmed, “I’ll be right there,” and hung up.

I lowered my phone, tucking it back into my pocket, and turned to Quentin. “Simon’s coming to get us.”

“Why’d you call him?”

“Because I knew he’d be here, and I knew he’d be free to come out and get us.” Stacy was looking at the side of the hill, head slanted slightly to the side, like she was watching something I couldn’t see. I was suddenly direly afraid that she was.

“Hey, Stacy?” I stepped closer to her, pitching my voice a little higher, like I was talking to someone who might fall apart at any moment. “What are you looking at?”

“Why don’t we just go up the stairs?” She pointed to the spot where the path up should have been, finger steady enough to make it clear she was pointing at the lattice of roots. She turned to blink guilelessly at me. “I don’t understand.”

“Whatever’s stopping me from dropping our illusions seems to be keeping me from seeing them, too,” I said. “So I can’t see the trail up, and neither can Quentin.”

“Nope,” he agreed. “And it’s sort of existentially terrifying in a way I don’t really know how to express, so I’m going to keep standing here and looking pretty.”

“You’re good at it,” I said, reassuringly. “Just a few minutes and Simon will be here.”

“I don’t like waiting for Simon Torquill to come to my rescue,” he grumbled.

“Lucky for you, we’re not,” I said. “Simon Lorden, on the other hand, should be coming down that hill at any moment.”

Stacy wrinkled her nose but didn’t say anything. Since she’d been the one to make sure he had a role to play at my wedding, it seemed a little odd for her to react that way. I wanted to ask about it. Before I got the chance, Simon was stepping off the side of the hill, face flushed and shirt askew. He looked as human as we did. Standard protocol for entering the mortal part of the park, at least during the daylight hours.

“Can you really not see the way back up?” he asked, focusing on me.

“Nope.” I shook my head. Quentin was looking increasingly freaked out, which wasn’t fun.

Simon stepped fully onto the path. “That’s not normal.”

“No, it’s not.” I raised an eyebrow. “Can you see it?”

“What?” He turned and looked back the way he’d just come, sudden tension in his shoulders. It grew as he stared. “I can, but it’s flickering, like it doesn’t want to be seen. October, what—?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be standing here trying to hold it together,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get inside before someone has a total panic attack and we have to deal with the park rangers.”

I offered him my hand and, when he took it, reached back to offer the other to Quentin. As soon as Simon’s fingers closed around my own, I saw the trail bloom into being where I would have sworn it hadn’t been before, an easy pathway through the brambles and toxic vegetation. Not to be left out, Stacy reached for Quentin’s other hand, and with Simon at the lead, our little group began making our way up the hill.

A new problem waited at the top, where Simon let go of me. I could see two people standing in the clearing for no apparent reason, but no sign of a doorway in the tree behind them. Neither of them was armed, either. They looked strangely formal for two people hanging out in the woods, but not like guards on duty. And while there was no reason for them to be disguised when they were in a place that mortals generally couldn’t even find, they both looked perfectly human.

This was bad. “Quentin . . . ?”

“I see it too,” he said unsteadily, stepping up next to me.

“Is something wrong?” asked Simon.

“Neither of us can see Faerie right now.” I turned to him. “Do you know how to mix faerie ointment?”

“I do, but my lab is back in Saltmist, and that’s a long way,” he said. “If the Queen has a lab that I can utilize, I’d be able to mix something up for you, but if not . . .”

“Dean has one at Goldengreen,” said Quentin. “Marcia can’t see anything without faerie ointment, so he has to make sure she has a steady supply. One of the Silene who lives there serves as an unofficial Court alchemist.”

“Most of Count Lorden’s Court dislikes me, for good reason,” said Simon. “I’m not sure I would be allowed access to any equipment he has there.”

“We can figure something out,” I said. We were in enough trouble. We didn’t need another reason to be miserable right now.