Page 100 of The Innocent Sleep

“How dare you? He loved you!”

“He left me,” she said, matter-of-factly. “No one leaves me.”

“I did,” said October. “August did.”

“And now we all are,” said the Luidaeg. She slashed her hand through the air, and the vines released us all, withering even before they fell away from our bodies to hit the ground. “Toby, the key.”

October dug the key out of her pocket, slapping it into the Luidaeg’s blistered hand. One of the blisters broke, with a smell like low tide; small, squirming things oozed out of the wound along with the liquid. The Luidaeg ignored them.

“August, quick,” snapped October.

The Luidaeg closed her fingers around the key, the gesture clearly paining her, and used her taloned nails to lift it and thrust it into the air. It hung there, looking for all the world like it had been shoved into an invisible keyhole. At the same time, August shot Amandine a heartbroken look, then turned and ran to October, throwing herself into her sister’s arms.

October closed her arms tightly around August, and I moved to stand beside and slightly in front of them as I glared at Amandine, daring her to move.

She didn’t.

“C’mon, Aug,” said October. “Let’s go rescue our father. Oh, and Amandine? We made the right call in the divorce. I hope when you stop your dancing, you do it entirely alone and finally able to understand why.”

The Luidaeg turned the key, and pulled open a doorway in the open air. It was a rectangle of perfect darkness, a slice of nothingness hanging where it didn’t belong.

October turned away from Amandine, pulling August with her, and I turned alongside them, following the path to the door.

“You can’t stop this,” said Amandine. “You can’t save him.”

October didn’t hesitate or look back at the woman who had been her mother. “Watch us,” she said, and stepped through the door into the darkness beyond.

I stopped moving once she was gone, turning to Amandine. She was glaring after us, venom in her gaze, but remaining where she was.

“Hello,” I said, politely. “You may remember me, as we grew up together, for a time.”

“September’s little pet. How could I forget? My daughter, the discount Torquill, was the closest you could get to the one worth having, hmm? Do you make her pretend to be British when you fuck her?”

“Every word out of your mouth is an invitation to murder,” I said, forcing my voice to stay mild. “And please, be assured, that once I have finished securing the safety of my wife, I will be finding out how much of her skill at healing came from you. I’ll see you dead, Amandine the Liar, if it’s the last thing I do.”

She scoffed, clearly unafraid.

Someone tugged on my sleeve. I turned. Rayseline was standing there, looking up at me.

“Miss Sea Witch says we need to go,” she said, voice timid. “Please. I want this to be over. I want to go home.”

I looked at her, at her pleading eyes, and sighed deeply. I didn’t let my anger go, but pushed it back, relegating it to a later time. “All right,” I said, and moved toward the door.

The Luidaeg nodded to me as I stepped through, Dean and Rayseline close behind me. There was a short drop—two, three feet at most—between the door and the ground, which was soft with mulch and loam, easily absorbing the shock of my landing. I turned to catch Rayseline, who stumbled when she landed, nearly toppling over. She squeaked and latched on to my arm as the door slammed shut, leaving us in darkness.

I heard Garm catch himself, and then the Luidaeg pushed through our midst, throwing balls of glowing witch light overhead with every step. They cast our surroundings into dim, monochrome view.

We were surrounded by a dense, tangled forest, the individual trees bound together by thorny vines. Even in cat form, I would have been hard-pressed to leave the path that we were on. The others would have had no chance.

As a group, we stayed on the path. The Luidaeg took the lead, October close behind. August was still clinging to her, slowing her steps and making passage difficult. October paused to peel her arms away, then took a deep breath as August whimpered and tried to grab her again.

I couldn’t help. I was occupied with keeping Rayseline from falling into the thorns, and helping her find her footing. The darkness seemed to be pressing harder on her than on any of us, leaving her off-balance and uneasy.

October pushed August away, holding on to her shoulders as she said, “If we want to rescue our father, we have to walk now. We have to follow the Luidaeg, and trust that she knows where we need to go to intercept the Ride. All right?”

“She’s trying to do this the right way, which means the traditional way when you’re talking about one of the Three, which means she’s going to be following the established routes,” said the Luidaeg, voice carrying easily through the dark. “It was always about the route, almost as much as the Ride itself. It’s why she couldn’t just kill the Cait Sidhe. She needed the Shadow Roads to stay stable. We can take the Thorn Road to the Moorland Trail, and cut from there to the route she’s riding. She has to go the long way around. Even if her company was mounted and ready to go when we intercepted them, she had to grab Simon and get him onto a horse. That means they can’t be too far ahead of us.”

“I thought her sacrifices had to have seven years of paradise,” said Dean. “Simon didn’t get that.”