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Eli.
Mama Lauren.
Jesse and Christy.
Sera and one of the fae guards, Roisin.
Iggy.
Beatrice.
“Geneviève?” Eli said, carefully reaching out toward me. He pulled me toward a chair. “Where are you injured? Talk to me. I can grab the kit, but I need words, love.”
“I was trapped,” I said softly, concentrating on each letter, each word. It was easier simply because Eli was in front of me. Slowly I explained, “He . . . Chester . . . helped Marcus so you would abandon me.”
“I would not. Ididnot.” Eli took a glass of water and poured it onto a stack of linen napkins. He did not flinch away from my blood-soaked body. Instead, he said, “Let’s see were the wound—"
“That is not her blood.” Beatriceflowedtoward me and stared down like a warrior goddess glowing with pride. “You make my heart proud, Daughter of Mine.”
“Touching as this is,” Iggy pronounced loudly. “Our enemy is not dead, and none of us want to be in his path. She”—he pointed at me—“needs to get the hell out of Dodge. You and me, Bea? He’ll come for us next.” Then he made a sweeping gesture. “Friends. Family. Chester will slaughter everyone you love. All of the dead.”
“Run,” I whispered. “We’re going to run.”
“Together? And make ourselves into a big target?Greatidea.” Iggy paced. He pointed at my family. “They’re defenseless. We need tohidethem somewhere.”
Roisin spoke up, “My vow, prince and princess, that I will take these to safety. I will not abandon you.” The last was said to Sera. “My home is yours.”
Silently, Sera reached out. “I would be happy to have more time with you.”
Jesse and Christy looked at me, and the weight of keeping them safe was daunting. “Go with them. Take Mama Lauren.”
“Why can’t we all just go there?” my mother asked. “Or I stay with your grandmother and—”
“Queens do not run,” Beatrice said. “I stay to fight.”
“Please, I need you safe, Mama Lauren,” I said louder. “Grandmother would be an asset in a fight that I would appreciate. You . . . I cannot risk you.”
“Those whocango toElphame,do go. Those who cannot . . .” Eli interjected, cutting off what was about to be an emotional outburst.
I shot him a grateful look.
He continued, “Your safety matters, and you will be safe over there. Chester has no grounds to pursue any of you there. Only Geneviève, Beatrice, Iggy, or me. We stay here.”
Tears tracked through the blood that was all over my face, turning the salty sorrow pink. I understood the fear that they were abandoning me to a dire fate. It wasn’t unfounded.
“There is a weapon that can contain him,” I told my mother. “But I cannot protect you and go find it. Please. Gowhere you are safe while I deal with this.”
My mother hugged me, coming away with blood on her arms and dress but not hesitating or flinching from it. “I’ll be at your home over there. Waiting for you to come to us.” Her voice sounded like an order, but there was a catch in it, all the same.
She hugged Eli and Beatrice, next, trailing blood between us as if it were nothing of note. Witches and mothers, they were made of stern stuff.
Finally, Mama Lauren gestured to Roisin. “Well, let’s get going.”
The fae guard looked at my mother with a bemused smile, but she still led them toward a wider space and in a blink, they were all gone. Safe inElphame.
Then it was only Beatrice, Iggy, Eli, and me. I’d realized that Eli’s words answered my questions about his conversion with his uncle.
That’s when it hit me. “Allie! Did she already go toElphame?”
