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Together, we rushed past the petals around the building. At first, I wondered why she’d bothered. Then I brushed against the petal as it opened to let us in, and I realized that she’d made it almost as hard as metal. This was a barrier. No one was getting in, and no one was getting out.
At the entryway, I stopped and made sure that all of our forces found their way inside. The Sluagh filled the dining room and lit every little nook and cranny.
Hilda paused, hands on her hips. “This place used to be so nice. Now it’s drab as hell.”
Cerri stopped dead in her tracks and stared down at the brownie woman. “You were here before Beryl took over.”
“Aye. Your mother made a mean potato chowder on those cold Syracuse days. She didn’t shy away from small folk like myself. I’m guessing that’s where you picked it up.”
Cerri’s eyes swam with tears. My queen was getting emotional. I understood since this could very well be the culmination of everything we’d been working towards. However, I needed her to keep her mind on the fight ahead. If she started crying and getting lost in memories, she’d be too distracted to wind this battle.
I didn’t have to say anything. She met my gaze, wiped away her tears, and donned a determined expression. As one, we turned towards the door that would lead into the underground court.
Beryl used to turn the winding stairs into her own kind of trap, using them to lead invaders elsewhere. Sure, the stairs could still be trapped, but we didn’t need them. As one, we stepped in-between and reemerged downstairs in the court.
The wretched screams filling the air were no match for the shock overwhelming my senses. What had once been a cold hard earthen floor with bloodstains and a few lounges and chairs had become a brilliant nighttime garden. The scent of jasmine and other white flowers filled the air as the light of the lake-water window danced over their petals.
This was no longer Beryl’s court.
And she knew it. She clenched her fists at her sides and screamed until her throat was raw and the sound was ragged. The howls of her anguish shook the flowers, but that was not enough for her. She grabbed ahold of the vines embedded in the walls and pulled.
While Beryl was distracted, I gave a nod to the Sluagh. They rushed around the perimeters of the room and grabbed ahold of the Unseelie too stunned by their queen’s temper tantrum to move. One by one, the Sluagh stepped in-between and dumped those Unseelie elsewhere.
“I didn’t know she would have this big of a meltdown,” Cerri whispered to me.
Upon hearing Cerri’s voice, Beryl spun. She whipped her hands out at her sides and unleashed inhuman claws that looked as sharp as splintered glass. I brandished my weapon to ward her off.
Beryl pointed a sharp finger at me. “I should have killed you and used your inked hide as a tapestry in my bedroom. Better yet, you would have made a beautiful rug tostompon every day. Maybe then the little princess wouldn’t have had anyone to save her from my assassins, and this would all be over by now.”
“Calm down,” Cerri said. “You’re acting out. I completely understand how it must feel to be powerless in a situation, but that doesn’t give you the right to say mean things.”
Beryl’s head swiveled towards Cerri. “And you. Treating me like you’re my disappointed mother.”
Beryl spat in Cerri’s direction. A flower petal rose up from the floor and caught the spittle before it could make contact.
There was something in Beryl’s words that felt prophetic. I had no time to understand what was happening here tonight before a spider fae launched herself at me.
“What is it with spiders?” My frustration pulled the words out of me.
The woman with six arms shoved me back and hissed in my face. Her mandibles spread apart, and a questionable substance dangled between them as her forked tongue lashed out and hit my cheek. My stomach churned.
I shoved her away, stepped in-between to appear behind her, and whispered a soft apology. My kindness was just enough to give me away. I swung out with the blade, but it hit empty air instead of a neck. The spider fae leapt out of the way and jumped onto the wall. She hissed, almost in pain, as she skittered along the floral layer.
I spared a moment to glance back at Cerri. She still stood in front of Beryl, who towered over my queen rather menacingly. I ordered the Sluagh beasts to go stand at Cerri’s side, and they did as I asked even though neither Cerri nor Beryl moved.
CHAPTER 23
CERRI
We’d fallen into a dreamscape.
A part of me knew that I was still standing in the court with my eyes wide open. The rest of me wasn’t there. I stood on the back patio of the restaurant again. The waves of Lake Onondaga lapped at the rocks beneath us.
Beryl sucked in a deep breath, straightened herself, and lowered a smoldering glare in my direction. I should have been terrified, shaking in my boots, even. Instead, I felt nothing. The dreamscape belonged to me.
Though I knew Beryl had pulled me in here to keep me away from the court that I’d claimed, she couldn’t fully sever the connection so long as my feet were touching the ground back in the real world.
“Are you done here?” I asked.
