Page 19 of The Innocent Sleep

“Maeve’s creations took the Shadow Roads for their own these many years ago,” she said, as if this were a reasonable and well-known fact. “The dark is filled with monsters, and none may pass there save the royal, whose duty it is to hunt and feed us, that the Court of Cats might endure until fair Titania has the time to cleanse the shadows.”

I blinked, very slowly. Of course there would be a reason. Of course her illusion would have its own terrible internal logic. It was very tidy, in its own way, and readily explained why an entire community of fae would lock themselves away and no longer hunt or fend for themselves.

“Can you even access the shadows?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not since they were sealed.”

“If you know that royal cats can still pass, why would you attack a stranger with such immediacy and vigor?”

“Roland saw the shadows open, and knew you were not our Queen, and thought to protect the kittens from a monster,” she said.

The one who had attacked me hissed a final time before melting into a grizzled tabby tomcat and stalking away, losing himself in the crowd.

“Will you come down?” she asked.

“Will you swear I’m not to be attacked again?”

“Not until our Queen returns and vouches for you.”

“Then no, I think I’ll remain where I am, and wait for her to come back from— Where did you say she’d gone?”

“Hunting for the Court, as is her duty, as you should know, if you’re the King you claim to be.” She looked at me with narrowed eyes. “I have my doubts about you.”

“The feeling is most mutual.”

She turned and followed her friend, still in humanoid form, and I remained where I was, balanced on the rafter, feeling a little bit of foolishness and a great deal of fury at the same time. For Titania to remake the lives and history of my people so casually was unforgivable, and all the more so because I had no doubt it would result in deaths. Shade was a single Queen, with no heirs that I was aware of, and her territory was twice the size of my own. Some of her older subjects would surely starve if we didn’t end this quickly.

My own Court was in a much better position to survive Titania’s reality, with myself, Raj, and Ginevra all able to hunt for our people—but that hunting would leave us with no time to do anything else. Titania had said there wasn’t a place for me in what she was doing, and that I wouldn’t ruin this for her. It seemed she was willing to use the lives of all the Cait Sidhe as a lever to make sure she got her way.

Every time I thought I couldn’t think less of her, she found another way to dig the pit she was already standing in a little deeper. Maybe when she hit the center of the Earth, she’d plummet into burning lava and cease to be my problem.

It was a pleasant-enough thought to pass the time with while I waited. I didn’t dare leave the Court to go seeking Shade; the chances that I’d be attacked again upon my return were too great. So I stayed where I was, and watched, waiting for her return.

Shade would have been within her rights to make me wait for days, as an uninvited intruder in her space. Instead, it was less than an hour before the shadows rippled and Shade emerged in her bipedal form, dragging a massive bag of dry cat food with one hand, an entire dead deer with the other. I dropped down from the rafters. She recoiled, still halfway in the shadows. I moved to grab the deer’s other hind leg and pull it properly into the Court. She relaxed.

“Tybalt,” she said, Taiwanese accent coloring the syllables of my name in a way I rarely heard from anyone else. “I was wondering where you had gotten off to in all this chaos.”

“I’ve been looking for my wife,” I said. “Raj and Ginevra have been keeping my Court.”

“And have you come to offer the help I so obviously need?” She hoisted her bag of cat food onto her shoulder, shooting me a frustrated look. “Your Court has three sets of hands to protect it. Mine has one. I haven’t slept in days.”

“Unfortunately, no. I came hoping your Court was in better condition than my own, and that we might be able to ask for aid from you.” A foolish thought, clearly enough.

Shade laughed, bitterly. “I wish it were so, but no. We fare poorly.”

“So I’ve seen. One of your people attacked me upon my arrival. Another told me the shadows were filled with monsters and forbidden to all save the royal.” A few cats were coming to sniff around, clearly interested in the food. I hissed, warning them off. “Is there someplace we can speak in private?”

“Yes, if you’ll help me get another bag of food when this one mysteriously vanishes,” she said.

“It’s done.”

“Then come this way.” She dropped her burden and stepped into shadow. I released the deer’s leg as I followed her, and together we emerged into a small, square room with mirrors on the walls and coats piled on the floor, like something out of an old-fashioned theater. Shade sighed and flopped into the coats, clear exhaustion on her face.

“I don’t know how long I can do this, Tybalt,” she said. “I spend every waking moment gathering food for them, and they try to eat reasonably, not glut themselves, but some of these cats were abused by humans before this happened, some would never have chosen to live within the Court, and their self-control is lacking. And then there are the kittens . . . oh, Tybalt, the kittens.”

Her tone was bleak, and I wanted very badly not to ask. “How bad is it?”

“Their mothers have to fight to get enough food to keep their milk coming, and the children go hungry. They cry. I’m sure the same is happening in your Court, even with the three of you to keep them fed.”