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Rook watched me carefully, and I stared right back. There was nothing more to say on the matter. Whatever was between Goose and I was just that, between Goose and I.

I had been slow on the uptake when I first got to Magh Meall. It had taken too long for lessons in my new world and self to set in. I had made promises and tied knots before even knowing where and what I was. That was over now. I was not that foolish, bitter girl that had been snatched at a job interview. I was the pissed off, wary, bitter girl now.

“Are we just going to stand here and eye fuck each other? No offense Rook, but you watched me get my organs scrambled like breakfast, and I’m not in the forgiving mood.” I crossed my pale, golden arms over my chemise as Cora snickered behind her hand from a few feet away.

Rook sighed in exasperation. “You’re much more—”

“I am.”

“—exhausting when you don’t have a tongue lock,” he finished, undeterred by my interruption.

I smirked. “Thanks. One of my best features is being utterly exhausting.”

Rook led me to a cabin close to a stable that backed up to the edge of the picket perimeter. A gate was swung open wide, leading into the forest, and a small basket lay next to the gate. He followed my look. “This is the new member cabin. You can leave whenever you like. That basket has some dried food and a skin of water. You get the urge to run, do so. No one is keeping you here but you. Cabin’s not much, but it’ll keep you warm and dry. When the others show up, I’ll bring them here. No one will bother you. The well is on the other side of the stable. All we ask is you don’t take any of the horses. Fair warning, if you get a mind to test that, they are assholes and they will just come straight back here anyway.”

I nodded, taking in his instructions. It seemed fitting, Rook had ushered me into this life, giving me the lifeline of knowledge when I was new to the world, and now here he was doing it again. I wondered if he had quietly drawn the same parallel.

“Thank you, Rook.”

He didn’t answer, just opened the simple wooden door to the cabin and tossed his head indicating I should go in. I noted that he didn’t bother to close the door behind me. Instead, he just walked away, taking a path that would keep him in plain view of the open door until he disappeared behind another.

Chapter 5

Cricket

In the quiet loneliness of the four walls, I was alone with nothing but myself and the pain within me. It was a shard of glass embedded deep within the flesh of my heel on a cross-country hike. It gripped me tight, and I could barely breathe around it whenever I acknowledged it. If I didn’t pay attention to it, I could ignore it for a short time. Until I had to take another breath and then I was reminded of all that I had given up.

I tried to convince myself I hadn’t even liked The Raven, Emrys. Tried to remind myself of all the bullshit he had put me through. I tried to hate him. But every time I did, I’d remember the way my body lit up when he touched me, the way my soul seemed to melt when he kissed me. The soft voice he used with me. The way he never lied to me. The way he meant every single thing he said. Even when the entire world around him was nothing but liars and manipulators.

“Him too,” I whispered to myself, as my gaze landed on the single place setting at the table.

“Him too, who?” Violet asked as she stomped up the two stairs into the cabin, her lavender eyes giving the place a once over.

“A Secret. I was saying bring him too.”

“You’re still a terrible liar,” she huffed as the walking bush of a man, a self-satisfied black cat, and the living emerald jewel brought up the rear. Rook was behind them, but he did not stay long enough to interject into our conversation.

Emerald watched him with a silent, suspicious glare before she closed the door.

“Did he give you the explanation about this place?” I asked, taking a seat at the table.

“Yeah, he met us at the river with Goose and told us everything on our way up.” Violet dusted off her doll’s dress and then glared at me. “You trust him?”

“Not even as far as I can throw him.”

“Good. Me either. You?” she asked the other two.

Green Man had become introspective and quiet in our flight from the palace. I didn’t like it, but we all processed things differently. I had thought his way was through humor, but it seemed that the fall through that wretched door had stolen that from him. He eventually shook his head, and Emerald mimicked him.

“What’s the plan?” he asked as he lowered himself with creaking vines onto the bed, smearing barely dried mud all over the coverlet.

“Stay here for a few days, rest up, get clean, and then I think one of the others here might know how to get you all home.” My eyes rolled up to stare at the ceiling. I had thought about this all night, what comes next, and had made my decision. The fact that we found a path to it so quickly must have been the luck of one of the others. “I don’t know how to use magic, but The Raven seemed to think that a Fae can mold the flesh of a human just as easy as clay. So, I will give it a try and see if I can get you guys looking somewhat human before that.”

“And you?” Green Man asked. Violet just scowled at me. Emerald had grown still and silent, even more so than usual. Her glittering smoke even seemed to stand still.

“I’m going to the House of Magic.”

“So, you’re just going to abandon us?” Violet finally piped up. The sound of her face plates slowly beginning to drift away from each other sang of the slow swell of restrained anger.