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“Oh, shit,” Theo said quietly.
A carpet of thick and waving grass had grown over the road, which was no longer really a road, but a soft and undulating hill that stretched a full quarter mile in front of us.
In that stretch, the streetlights were gone. The electric poles, the asphalt, the sidewalk, the yellow lines. All of it replaced with waving grass and air that felt like magic.
“We are not seeing this,” I said quietly. “We are not seeing this.”
“Elisa.”
I ripped my gaze away to look at Theo, followed the direction of his gaze.
The problem wasn’t just this quarter mile of Madison. The grass, the hill, the absence of everything modern, was spreading. It reached the United Center, and the building began to simply... disappear. Floor by floor, the concrete and glass were replaced by waving grass, then empty air. Another hill, soft and rounded, began to rise, arcing into the space where the enormous arena had stood.
And above it all, the cold and heavy weight of old magic.
“That’s not... this can’t be real.” I didn’t dare move close enough to touch the grass, afraid the magic would infect me, just as it had spread down the road, across the street, and over the building.
“Do you know what this is?” Theo asked quietly. His tone said he already knew.
I didn’t know, not for sure, because I couldn’t figure out how I was seeing what I was seeing. But hadn’t we heard my mother’s story? Hadn’t she told us about exactly this? And hadn’t the fairies been trying to work some unknown, big magic?
“It’s the green land,” I said quietly, afraid the words woulddisturb it, would make it aware of our presence, and we’d be sucked into the spell. “The ancient home of the fairies.”
• • •
Theo pulled out his screen, scanned what had been the easternmost half of the building, sent pictures and video to Yuen.
We ran back to the car. With the squeal of rubber on asphalt, Theo made a U-turn and hauled back down Madison until he found a clear path north toward the church.
“Is this why they were in Grant Park?” I asked, gripping the tiny dashboard as the car swung around. “Using the ley lines? To bring the green land here?”
“I don’t know,” Theo said. He found a strip of asphalt, and we skirted the hills in silence, watching. “Maybe. But the fairies aren’t in Grant Park right now. So how are they doing it?”
“A different ley line? A different conjunction?”
“There isn’t another conjunction near Chicago. There’s the vehicle,” he said as the light on the tracking program blinked faster.
The church, a rectangle of white stone with a domed top, squatted in the corner of a two-block span of parking lot. In the front, two pairs of columns flanked the front doors and were topped by a triangular pediment. The entrance faced a park. The side of the church faced another parking lot, which made the building—with its boarded windows and overgrown trees—seem even lonelier.
The SUV sat outside, dark and empty.
Theo parked a block down, and we climbed quietly out of the car. I belted on my katana in the light of the moon. And that was a disadvantage on this cover-free street. We wouldn’t be able to hug the shadows to get closer to the building. On the other hand, no lights shone from inside the church, so it might give us more visibility once we made it in.
Theo checked the chamber on the gun he’d holstered at his waist.
“What’s the layout of the church?” I asked quietly.
“Doors on the front, east side. Doors open into a lobby, and the sanctuary’s directly behind that. It’s a big space with a domed ceiling and arches along the sides. The basement has classrooms and offices.”
“Most likely location?”
“I’m honestly not sure,” he said, hands on his hips as he looked over the church. “What’s the most likely place to store the fairy queen you’re attempting to peacefully depose?”
“Fair point.”
“Side door?”
I scanned the building, looking for easy ingress. An open window, missing plywood—something that would get me in quietly. “Let me get closer. I might be able to work something.”
