Page 103 of The Innocent Sleep

And there, next to him, on a matching horse, was Quentin.

Well. That complicated things.

TWENTY-SEVEN

OCTOBER WHIRLED TO FACE the Luidaeg. “What do we do, Luidaeg?” she asked, clearly pleading. “Can we save them both?”

“We’re gonna have to,” she answered. “But you have to hold on to the one you pull down.”

October hesitated, clearly uncertain how she was supposed to choose which one to save. I reached out and touched her shoulder, saying softly, “The boy will have his lover, and the Luidaeg. Your father needs both of you.”

The Luidaeg’s eyes were locked on Quentin, and I knew which one she would choose. Her fingers were finally melting back into their customary shape, talons retracting, although the blisters remained. October looked to her, seeking an answer.

“Go,” hissed the Luidaeg.

October grabbed her sister by the hand, and the pair of them bolted, heading for the white horses.

The Luidaeg reached back, fumbling for Dean’s hand, and he gripped on tight, not letting her go. She looked at him, nodding roughly.

“You ready for this kid?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, voice small and tight.

“You love him?”

“Yes,” he said, with much more conviction, and then they were running too, leaving me alone with Raysel and Garm.

Together, October and August got Simon off his horse, levering him to his feet and then dragging him through the wall of light. He screamed as soon as it touched his skin. On the other side of the circle, Dean and the Luidaeg were doing the same with Quentin.

“No matter what happens now, we can’t let go!” shouted October, and August nodded.

Titania pulled her host to a stop, looking more mildly annoyed than actually concerned as she faced our small company.

“Who comes for them?” she demanded.

“Dean Lorden, Count of Goldengreen, beloved companion!” yelled Dean.

“Antigone of Albany, mentor and friend!” added the Luidaeg.

“Sir October Christine Daye, Knight of Lost Words, daughter and friend!” shouted October.

August swallowed. “August Torquill, daughter.”

I wasn’t involved in actually pulling the riders down, but I had been through a similar ritual before, and I knew my lines. “Both these men are precious to me, and I stand for them,” I said, loudly.

“That’s my uncle!” called Raysel.

Garm was silent, staying behind me without breaking the circle.

“Very well, then: suffer,” said Titania. She sounded like none of this mattered, like there was no possible way we could win, and I knew she’d learned nothing from her time as Stacy. She still didn’t understand humility.

“We cast our compass ’round,” said the Luidaeg, grimly. “We knew what we were doing.”

The light flickered and both men were gone, along with the four people who had been holding them in place. I hissed in surprised fury, the hair on the back of my neck standing up as I turned, slowly, to face Titania.

She was getting down from her horse, walking toward the circle, and it took everything I had not to leap for her. I wouldn’t win, I knew. My only safety was inside the circle.

“I’m willing to negotiate, if you’ll break the circle,” she said, voice a sweet song of peace and plenty. “We could change the terms of my paradise.”