Page 16 of The Innocent Sleep

I could understand why Titania would want to rid herself of the Court of Cats. But why relocate where we kept our gathering? It made little sense.

Then again, none of this made much sense, and as all of it seemed openly designed to piss me off, I wasn’t that interested in her reasons anymore. I closed my eyes and stood where I was, listening to the Court around me, waiting for someone to demand my attention.

The demand, when it came, came in an unexpected form as a body slammed into my own, arms wrapping tightly around me. Their owner was slightly taller than I was, with a slender build and sufficient strength to crush my own arms against my sides in a firm embrace. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but it was enough that extricating myself would have required some effort.

I knew who it was even before I smelled the black pepper and bonfire scent of his magic. As with many young things, his magic had shifted as he matured, going from the clean, uncomplicated paper of his childhood to something more akin to a backyard burn. The fire was a constant, and the smoke, but whether what burned was fallen leaves or crumpled paper was more difficult for me to tell.

October would have known. October would have known without even asking the question, pulling the knowledge out of the air like a gift from the universe. Since she wasn’t here, I bent my head to the side enough to rub my cheek against his, and murmured, “Hello, Rajiv. Is there a reason you’re behaving in such an uncouth manner?”

“Toby’s cats are here and they said you brought them but you weren’t here and I was afraid something had happened to you since you kept not coming back,” he said, rapid-fire, his voice half-muffled by the fact that his cheek was pressed against my shoulder. “Are you okay where have you been have you seen October have you seen Quentin?”

“If you breathe and speak at the same time, you can take things called ‘pauses,’” I said. “They’ll make you easier to understand. Now let go of me, before I’m forced to scruff and shake you.”

Raj obediently let me go. I opened my eyes and turned my head, following his movement.

I wasn’t the only one. As before, every surface in sight was covered in cats, most of them sleeping snugly. The ones who weren’t asleep had raised their heads to watch us with vague interest, as if we had become their afternoon’s entertainment.

Raj looked about like I felt. There was a hollow cast to his cheeks that hadn’t been there a week before, and dark circles around his eyes. His clothing was stained in several places, as if he had been wearing it for that entire time.

“Now,” I said. “What’s going on? Assume I know nothing, and tell me what you’ve been able to ascertain from the last five days.”

“Something locked all the Cait Sidhe in the Court of Cats,” he said, promptly. “All the Cait Sidhe. The thin-blooded feline changelings who can’t transform are here too, and some of them spent the first three days crying to go back to their mortal companions.”

“What happened after the first three days?”

“There was a . . . ripple, I guess. Like everything was adjusting itself again, like it hadn’t finished the first time, and after that all the cats who’d been crying just went to sleep. They didn’t ask to go home anymore. They didn’t even seem to remember they had homes to go to. But they were all still here. I— Would I even have known if some of them were gone?”

“You would,” I said, firmly. “You are a royal cat, and royal cats cannot be held long by illusions without focused effort on the part of the one who casts it.”

“This is an illusion?” he asked, dubiously. “How is an illusion locking us in?”

“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned being locked in,” I said. “Can you not leave?”

“I can,” he admitted. “And Gin can. But no one else can even open the Shadow Roads right now. It’s like someone took away the doors when they try. How is that even possible?”

“Titania,” I said. “Wait—if all the Cait Sidhe are here, and no one can leave, how are they being fed?”

Raj looked at me wearily, and his obvious exhaustion took on a whole new layer of meaning.

“Gin and I have been hunting and stealing food for them,” he said. “Sometimes I can steal a human’s wallet, and then we go and buy all the food at the nearest pet store and carry it through the shadows to rip open in the middle of the gathering room. But most humans don’t carry that much cash, and we won’t be able to keep going back to the same pet stores and using credit cards under different names for much longer before someone catches on.”

“That’s when you rob a bank, or spin a new human disguise and start over from the beginning,” I suggested. “We can also target grocery stores, and warehouses. There are many ways this can be addressed, but we need to buy ourselves some time to come up with something more sustainable. If all the Cait Sidhe are here, how many cats are inside the Court?”

“I don’t know exactly,” said Raj. “Probably around three hundred, between the purebloods and the changelings who can shift and the ones who can’t shift. And since that second ripple, none of them have known anything was wrong. They’re all hungry, but they’re almost resigned about it, like they think this is just the way things have always been, and are always supposed to be. But you didn’t answer my question. October and Quentin. Have you seen them?”

“No,” I said, and looked around until I spotted a wooden crate with no cats curled atop it. I walked over and sat down, resting my elbows on my knees. “I’ve been absent because I’ve been searching for them, or for anyone who might tell me where they are. I’ve been to the Undersea and back again, and there’s been no sign of them, or of anyone else from our household.” I was almost ashamed to realize that I hadn’t spared a thought for May, or Jasmine, or Rayseline, since this all began. I wouldn’t have questioned Simon or August’s locations, either, if not for my time in Saltmist.

“I’ve tried to go looking,” said Raj in a small voice, sitting down next to me. There was a time when we would both have been able to fit easily on the crate. Now it was a tight squeeze, and there was almost no one else I would have tolerated that kind of closeness from. “The house is empty.”

“I know,” I said. “I found the cats outside. They don’t know what happened, either. They’re not Cait Sidhe. They wouldn’t have survived on their own.”

“I thought that must have been what happened, when I found them and not you,” he said, voice soft. “The Luidaeg . . . the Luidaeg isn’t there, either.”

“I know. And I know the knowe at Muir Woods is gone.”

“Not gone—sealed.”

When I turned to look at him quizzically, he shrugged.