Page 73 of Be the Serpent

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Just please don’t spread it around too much? Oberon wants his privacy, and he’s the King of All Faerie. I don’t want to see what happens if he feels like we’re not respecting his wishes.”

“Not sure how much I care,” said Chelsea, with the airy casualness of the young.

Bridget put her hands on her hips. “Can you all please take a moment and explain to me what’s going on?”

“Yes,” said Etienne, stepping into the room. “An explanation of what you’re doing here would be dearly welcome.”

Fun.

EIGHTEEN

“Etienne,” I said, near-dizzy with relief. “Tybalt and I need to get back to Muir Woods right now, and it’s not safe for us to take the Shadow Roads.”

“Wait,” said Tybalt. “What do you mean, it’s not safe? How did we get here?”

“Yes, how did you get here in the first place?” asked Etienne. “I know you didn’t come in through the front door. I would have been alerted if you’d come through the gardens. You aren’t formally banished as yet, but you walk a narrow line in the Duchess’s eyes, and she will bid the Duke to release you from his service if you push her.”

“And if he’s willing to let me go because she tells him to, maybe it’s time we free up my fealty for someone else to claim,” I said, coldly. Etienne flinched, and I smirked faintly at the surprise in his expression. Loyalty is supposed to go both ways. I had always been loyal to Sylvester, and to Shadowed Hills. More and more, I was starting to feel like they were the ones who hadn’t been loyal to me.

“Titania is back,” I said, just in case he hadn’t been close enough to overhear when I dropped that little bombshell before.

Etienne blanched. So he hadn’t been. Okay. At least one person here wasn’t trading texts with my squire.

“She’s back, she’s hostile, and she knows everything Stacy knows,” I continued. Etienne looked understandably surprised at this, unlike Chelsea, who looked like this was old news. “She knew that if she wanted to get to me, the best way was by getting to Tybalt, and so she set a trap in the Court of Cats, and when he walked into it, she tied his mind in a knot and ordered him to stop me from getting in her way.” I couldn’t look at Tybalt as I spoke. I knew what I’d see in his eyes, and I wasn’t ready for it. “He pulled us both into the Shadow Roads and attacked me. I was able to subdue him by undoing her binding, which was enough of a shock to his system that he lost consciousness for a while. I couldn’t figure out how to get back to Muir Woods, so I carried him here.”

“You can walk the Shadow Roads now?” asked Etienne.

“Only under very special circumstances that I don’t think we’re going to be repeating anytime soon. If we’re going to stand around talking about this, could I have some of that bread, do you think?”

Tybalt made a small, surprised sound at hearing me actually ask for food without having it thrust upon me, and moved toward the basket without waiting for permission from any of its owners. If I wanted to be fed, he was going to feed me.

I kept my eyes on Etienne. “So Tybalt can’t take us back to Muir Woods, my car is there, so I can’t drive us back, and we need to get back, just as soon as possible. Please, can either you or Chelsea take us back to Muir Woods?”

“You say Titania is there?” Etienne shook his head. “I’m sorry, October, but no. I can’t make the trip so easily as that, and I won’t allow my daughter to risk herself so.”

“Oh, because my friends aren’t going to be putting themselves smack into the line of fire?” asked Chelsea. “Queen Windermere is evacuating the knowe. They haven’t managed to evacuate Quentin. He’s been texting me.” She held up her phone. That explained her lack of surprise. “He’s holed up in the orangery with Karen, and he says he’s not leaving unless you tell him to his face that you don’t need him there. So my friends are still in danger. Everybody’s in danger. If Titania gets loose, we’re all screwed.”

“Teenagers were more respectful in my day,” said Etienne.

“Toilets were buckets in your day,” said Chelsea. “Learn to adapt.”

Tybalt handed me a slab of buttered bread with cheese balanced on top. I looked to Etienne.

“Please,” I repeated. “This is urgent, or we wouldn’t have come here.”

“The girl is willing, the risk is minimal, and she’s right; if Titania gets loose, we’ll all have much bigger problems,” said Sylvester. I turned. He was standing in the doorway of Etienne’s chambers, hands by his sides and sword at his hip, expression weary. “The knowe informed me of your arrival, October. I am sorry that you feel so unwelcome in what should be your home that you had to sneak in through a back door, and I am further sorry to have listened to words that may not have been meant for me. Sir Etienne. I understand your desire to protect your child. It’s all a father should want. But a quick drop-off runs very little risk of harming Chelsea, while a failure to act could destroy us all.”

“Sire—”

“Her daughter destroyed my brother,” said Sylvester, bluntly. “She took him and she twisted him away from his family in ways none of us could see clearly until they were ended. She poisoned him, and because she was the daughter of Titania, none of those who loved him could see clearly what she did. And that was the child. The parent is more powerful by such a measure that we cannot measure it. We stop Titania now, while she still can be, or we don’t stop her at all.”

“Sylvester,” I breathed, staring at him.

He looked at me without flinching. “Your husband was correct when he said I had failed the laws of courtesy as they applied to you; I should have been more to you than I was. I could say I held back out of respect for my brother’s claim, but the truth is, I feared offending your mother. I feared what her anger could rain down upon my house. I regret that decision every day. I pledged to protect you when I took you to my service. I have too long allowed my wife’s feelings to dictate my actions.”

I wanted to believe him. I really did. But he sounded more like his brother than himself, and all I could do was stare.

Then Sylvester sighed, and sagged, and in a much more normal voice said, “Please, Toby. This isn’t some ploy to get you to give Raysel back. She would have objected if she didn’t want to go with you, and I want her to be safe and happy. I want that for you, too. And I miss you. So please, Etienne. I’m asking as your friend, not ordering as your liege. Let Chelsea take October and Tybalt back to Muir Woods. I’ll go with them, to be absolutely sure no harm comes to her.”