"You shouldn't interfere with situations that don't concern you," the mistletoe-clad fae said, stepping forward and making my gaze snap up to him. "Many of the dancers were imprisoned in that circle for a reason."

But not all. I knew for a fact that some were tricked into joining the festivities and some simply stumbled in by mistake. Not that I was going to say any of that. Arguing with the two fae wouldn't win me any points and I wasn't about to apologize and indebt myself to anyone if I didn't have to, so I remained silent.

My heart crashed in my chest, each beat harder than the last as the silence dragged on, but slowly the sound of murmured conversation picked up around us again. The two fae stared at me a moment longer, and then without another word they turned and walked away. The mistletoe-clad fae sat at a table with two thorn fae, and the scorpion fae joined a cl.u.s.ter of goblins gambling on a dice game in the back corner. They just wanted to issue a warning?

I sank into my chair, relief making my hands shake enough that I shoved them in my lap. Edana had slipped away at some point during the conflict, so it was once again just Rianna and me at the table. Well, and Desmond. Not that I had any delusions of privacy-there were definitely ears turned toward our corner.

"So . . ." I said, tugging on the cuff of my glove. I wished I had something in front of me-food, pen and paper, anything at all-to focus on. But I didn't. I just had Rianna sitting across from me, watching me fidget.

"You're not going to come to Faerie, are you?" She phrased it as a question, but her voice betrayed her lack of hope.

I cringed. I'd had enough of Faerie for one day. Besides, I couldn't claim ownership of Rianna. "You're my friend. I can't claim you as property. It's weird and wrong."

"So you'd rather someone else who is not my friend and who may see me only as a tool, take over?"

Okay, when she put it that way, it was the lesser of two evils, but . . . I released a deep breath, letting the air drag out of me and take with it the panic fluttering in my stomach. But nothing. I couldn't let someone else, someone who wouldn't have Rianna's best interests in mind, walk in and make her a slave again. The least I could do was see if Faerie recognized me as the heir to Coleman's holdings. If it did, I could try to figure out a way to free Rianna.

"What do I have to do?"

"Thank goodness." She pushed away from the table. "Now, we go deeper into Faerie."

And somehow I'd gotten talked into going to the one place that scared me the most.

Rianna led me through the club, toward the large tree growing right through the floorboards of the bar. Over our heads, a swollen moon glimmered high above the tree limbs. I frowned at it. The full moon had pa.s.sed almost a week ago on the mortal plane. The full moon here was not a rea.s.suring indication of time.

"How do we get there?" I asked, lagging slightly behind. Desmond had glued himself to Rianna's side, and there wasn't room for all three of us to walk abreast between the crowded tables.

"We'll have to pa.s.s through the winter court," Rianna said without turning around. "Then we'll take another door to Stasis-that's the no-man's-land where the holdings are currently located."

She stopped as she reached the tree and turned back to me. Motioning me closer, she raised on her tiptoes and whispered, "I wouldn't mention where we are going. Coleman's holdings are nothing magnificent, and surely nothing to fight over, but the Winter Queen was miffed to say the least when Faerie didn't award it to her court. In her opinion, her knight is responsible for Coleman's death, even if he employed the help of a feykin. She doesn't take rejection well and she isn't the most pleasant person when displeased."

"I take it the winter court wouldn't be one to align with then?"

Rianna lifted one thin shoulder and let it drop. "I know you have . . . interests . . . in the winter court-which, by the way, I also recommend that you not mention. The queen is infamous for her jealousy. But any court you decided to join would be better than staying in Stasis, cut off from everyone."

Interests. I almost laughed. That's one way to say I slept with the queen's pet a.s.sa.s.sin and lover. Of course, I hadn't known he was either at the time. I shook my head. "You know that even if Faerie recognizes me as inheriting, I'm not going to automatically join a court. I don't know anything about the courts."

"I know. But at least if the holding is claimed, that will be taken care of." She gave me a weak smile. "Desmond and I can wait it out as long as we know we're not going to be tossed and traded around."

"Am I inheriting the dog as well?"

The dog in question rolled back his lips, showing fangs, and Rianna winced. "Not exactly. I'll explain later. Are you ready?"

Well, I guess this is it. I nodded and followed her as she walked around the back of the tree. I expected a trapdoor in the ground, or maybe in the tree itself-after all, folklore reported Faerie to be a subterranean land, and I'd heard Caleb say before that he was headed "under hill," but there was no door-there was just tree and the back side of the bar.

"Rianna, wha-"

"Keep walking."

I took another two steps around the tree, and the world seemed to slide around me. I wasn't moving, or at least it didn't feel like I moved in s.p.a.ce, but the warm amber light in the bar smeared into darkness, and a cooler, bluer light filled the air.

I looked around: the bar was gone, the tree was gone, and I stood next to a giant pillar carved from shimmering gla.s.s. No, not gla.s.s. Ice.

The air had a bite to it, but it wasn't cold, and surely not frigid enough for the enormous pillar beside me, but though the ice shimmered, the intricately carved fae dancing in spirals up the pillar were sharp, the details too precise for the pillar to be melting. My eyes followed the dancing fae up the column until it disappeared into a gla.s.sy ceiling that sparkled like hundreds of small stars were caught in the frozen ma.s.s. Music emanated from somewhere, the soft, plucked notes mournful.

"This is Faerie?" I asked. Where are the fae? There was no one here, unless the carved ice sculptures lining the walls were alive. Which was possible.

"This is a hallway. Little more." Rianna crooked her arm through mine. "We shouldn't tarry."

She set a brisk pace, all but dragging me down the long pa.s.sageway. I expected the smooth ice floor beneath us to be slick, but it was no worse than walking on marble. The only light in the pa.s.sage was from the stars caught in the ice overhead, but it provided more than enough illumination, even for my bad eyes. I reached out with my ability to sense magic. The very air buzzed with enchantments and magic. It was as if I were drinking the magic of Faerie in with every deep breath. I tightened my shields before the buzz of magic overwhelmed my senses.

We'd made it only a couple of yards when three figures stepped out in front of us. At first I thought the statues really had come to life, but these were fae of flesh and blood. Not that we could see a lot of that flesh. All three wore hooded cloaks as white as freshly fallen snow, and in the gap where the cloaks fell open I could see intricate armor that looked like plated scales carved from blue-tinted ice. Two blocked our path while a third moved to intercept us, a sword naked in his hand.

"You've entered the winter court's territory. Identify yourselves and your purpose," the guard with the sword said, coming to a stop directly in front of us. This close, I could see thin, shimmering lines of glyphs tattooed across the exposed skin of the guard's face and hands-at least I thought they were tattoos, though the ink glimmered like hundreds of ice crystals tracing the man's skin.

Welcome to Faerie.

"I'm the changeling Rianna, currently in Stasis. And this is . . ." She glanced at me, squeezing my hand once before dropping it. "My dear friend. I have permission to use this hall to travel between Stasis and the mortal realm."

The guard held out his hand, palm up. "Let's see it, then."

Rianna dug a thin chain out from under the collar of her dress and tugged it over her head. A blank pendant shaped like an ice crystal hung on the end of the chain, and she dropped it in the guard's palm.

He whispered a musical-sounding word and the pendant glowed a deep cobalt blue. With a nod, the guard handed the chain and pendant back to Rianna. "Follow me. I'll escort you to the door."

Rianna followed silently, so I did the same. Desmond brought up the rear, his nails making the softest clinking sounds on the ice. At first I tried to memorize our route, but as the guard led us down one identical hallway after another I lost track of how many lefts and rights we'd taken. I'll definitely need a guide to get back out of this place.

Finally the guard stopped. He gave Rianna a nod and then stepped aside, motioning us to a doorway. Except it wasn't a doorway at all. It was a large archway set into the wall.

I stared at the unbroken ice wall inside the arch. "Um." "It's the door," Rianna said, locking my arm with hers again. "It will take us anywhere we want to go in Faerie, as long as we know where we want to go. Now you have to trust me. And don't let go."

She stepped forward, into the wall. Oh, c.r.a.p. I squeezed my eyes closed and followed.

The world froze around me. I gasped, sucking in solid frozen air, and a sharp ache filled my lungs. Panic stung my mind, flooded my muscles, but I couldn't move. Then, as suddenly as the world had frozen, it thawed, turning as comfortable as bathwater. I released the frozen gasp I'd taken, and the pain in my chest vanished as warmth spread over my body. Again I didn't feel like I was moving, but the world slid out of focus, like a child smearing his hand through a painting that was not yet dry. Then it solidified again, and I was standing in a cavern that held a castle. Not just a big house, but an honest-to-goodness, large-stonefacade-with-turrets-and-towers castle. There was even a moat-though why anyone would build such a thing in the belly of a cave was beyond me. As I stood there staring, the drawbridge lowered and a portcullis made of twisting vines lifted to clear our path.

Rianna beamed at me. "Welcome home, Al!"

Chapter 9.

"Home?" I stared at the large stone wall. At the moat of crystal clear water. At the jutting spiral towers. "This isn't a home. This is a castle!" Like a castle straight out of the Middle Ages. Or a fairy tale. Welcome to Faerie, Alex.

"Do you want to go inside?" Rianna all but bounced on her toes as she asked. "It opened for you. It's yours."

"And it's about time," a rough female voice said behind me.

I turned, but didn't see anything. My confusion must have shown on my face, because Rianna pointed toward the ground. I obediently looked down.

A woman who stood no higher than my knee stared up at me. She was nearly as wide as she was tall, so she looked like a waddling basketball wrapped in burlap as she gave me a quick once-over, and then, with a nod, marched past me.

"Well, get a move on," she called over her shoulder. "I'm sure there's a layer of dust on everything by this point."

I gaped at the small woman and then looked to Rianna for explanation.

"Wait, Ms. B," Rianna called after the woman. "This is Alex."

The small woman paused. "Well, of course she is." Ms. B curled her lips in what might have been a sneer or a smile-I wasn't sure which. "Now, I've work to do." She hopped onto the castle's drawbridge, the hair that exploded around her head like overgrown spider-gra.s.s trailing behind her as she walked away without a backward glance.

"Uh, Rianna . . . ?" I looked at my longtime friend.

"Ms. B is a brownie. Think of her as a housekeeper, cook, and general organizer of all things inside the castle."

"I can't afford a housekeeper!" And I certainly couldn't afford to keep a castle. I was barely able to stay on top of paying rent on an efficiency.

"Don't be silly. You don't pay brownies. Faerie may say you own this property, but trust me, this is Ms. B's castle. She went absolutely crazy when she couldn't get inside-tried to take the wall apart stone by stone. Not that Faerie let her. She was here before Coleman claimed the castle, and she'll still be here when the castle changes hands again." She didn't elaborate on how I might lose the castle, but hurried on. "My suggestion is to make friends with her. She never liked Coleman. On the few occasions he stayed in the castle every meal came out burned, the ceilings leaked, moths attacked every sc.r.a.p of material, and sand wound up on the bedsheets. He'd leave and everything would return to gleaming order. Brownies are good at holding a grudge."

"Coleman couldn't get rid of her?"

Rianna shook her head, and the dog at her side made a huff that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. She ignored him. "You don't get rid of brownies. You could burn the place to the ground, but I've heard they will stick around to tend the ashes. Though, sometimes, if they particularly like a family or a person, they will relocate with them rather than remain attached to a domicile." She shrugged, like she used to when we'd study together at academy and she didn't think the subject was particularly interesting.

"Right." My head was spinning. This is all a little surreal. "Are there any other, uh, inhabitants I should know about?"

"Just a garden gnome. He tends the grounds, but he's shy. I rarely catch sight of him." She leaned closer. "I think he's sweet on Ms. B."

I stared at her, trying to decide if she was joking. She wasn't. How do I get myself into these things? I turned back toward the castle. "So are we sure Coleman's holdings are now mine? I mean, I didn't exactly claim anything-I just showed up."

"Faerie locked this place up tight as soon as Coleman bit the big one. The castle opened for you. It's yours."

Great. A castle, really? I turned away. "Well, then, I guess I should head back."

"You haven't even looked around yet. Aren't you curious?"

I was, but I'd just found out I owned a castle in Faerie, complete with house- and groundskeepers; I wasn't up for much more yet. "It's claimed. Everyone can get inside again." Which was what I was a.s.suming was the real issue. Homeless in Faerie land-it sounded like a bad TV show. "You don't really need me for anything else right now, do you?"

"You'll need to choose a court," she said, quickly adding, "eventually, of course."

"What happens if I want to stay in the mortal realm and be independent?"

Rianna threw out her hands to stop my words, her head swinging back and forth and her gaze sweeping over the castle like she was afraid it might jump up and run. "Don't say that," she hissed. "Faerie might listen. Doesn't happen often, but once in a while, Faerie will try to move the independents' holdings to the mortal realm. I don't think anyone wants this castle to suddenly force itself into Nekros City."

Oh, yeah, I could see trying to explain that. And with the way reality tended to bend around me, it would be my luck that my castle would appear downtown-probably in the middle of the statehouse lawn.

"I'll look into courts," I said, though I had little intention of looking quickly. From what Caleb had said, if I wanted to remain in Nekros, I'd have to align myself with the winter court, but when that court moved on, I'd have to go as well. Not a good option. "So, you're good here?"

She nodded. "For now. Come on, I'll lead you back."

She headed toward a small arch in a cavern wall, which I a.s.sumed was what we'd stepped out of despite the fact it looked like solid stone. As before, she took my arm and we stepped through the arch. Guards once again met us in the deserted halls of the winter court, and after Rianna once again produced the pendant-did I want to know what she'd gone through to acquire that?-we found ourselves with a snow-cloaked guide leading us through a maze of icy corridors.

As we walked, I leaned closer to her. "So, what do you do here?"

"I'm guessing you don't mean 'here' as in the winter court. In Stasis, there isn't much to do, and most of the fae won't have anything to do with me. Inside the courts, there are b.a.l.l.s-lots of them-games, arts, legal proceedings. I don't know, faerie stuff."

"And you never leave?"

She shrugged as we reached the large ice pillar I'd seen after I left the Eternal Bloom. "There is no decay in Faerie. Practically no death. That means no shades to raise, and you know what it's like if you don't raise shades on occasion."

I nodded. It hurt. A grave witch ached from the inside out if she didn't raise shades on a regular basis. And grave essence tended to slip through even carefully maintained shields, the magic reaching out and filling corpses that the witch had no intention of raising. But if there was no grave essence . . .

"I slip out every once in a while, just long enough to raise a shade." Noise and light filled the air as we stepped through the winter court and into the Eternal Bloom. "Well, I guess this is where I leave you."

I held up a hand to stall her. "Wait. Do you remember your last year at academy when we mingled our magic and raised that ancient shade? The one whose body had been found mummified in a bog and was believed to be a witch or a priestess but no one else could even sense it?"

"The one that turned out to speak absolutely no English, so even though we raised it, we couldn't get an intelligible thing from it?" She smiled-a slow, creeping smile, like the memory had reminded her how to make her lips do it. "What about it?"

"This is going to sound strange, but feet have been washing up from the Sionan. A single foot isn't enough for me to raise a shade, but if we mingled our magic . . . I thought that together we might have more luck."

The smile fell from her lips as I spoke. She was frowning by the time I finished. "I would have to leave Faerie for that."

"You said you're able to leave," I said, and her hand dropped to Desmond's coat. She did that whenever a subject she wasn't comfortable with arose. I stuck my hands in my pockets and stepped back. "Never mind. It was just a thought." Sharing magic was personal, and not always comfortable or safe, which was why I hadn't thought about it when I'd first been unable to raise the shade. But Rianna and I had successfully merged our grave magic before. I shrugged. "I'll see you around, okay?"

I turned to go, but Rianna called after me.

"That's it?"

I frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"You could tell me to help you," she said, her gaze dropping to the floor. "Could command me."

My stomach twisted, soured. I stepped forward, lowering my voice so it didn't carry to the tables surrounding us. "Rianna, I don't care what the laws of Faerie say. You are my friend. That's it. If you aren't comfortable sharing magic or are nervous about leaving Faerie, I'm not going to force you." I smiled. "I might beg a little once in a while, but you'll remember that well enough from academy-all those times I tried to get you to help fudge the results of my spellcasting homework, or that one time I was convinced I could get the attention of that super-crushable guy in meditation if I could cast . . . I don't even remember what spell it was."

Rianna's smile was reluctant, but it slowly crept across her face. "A doppelganger spell, so you could skip cla.s.s while still being there. Didn't you end up managing to make a copy of yourself that talked backward and totally failed at wearing clothing?"

"Yeah. I never sent it to cla.s.s."

She laughed, her fingers slipping from Desmond's coat and lifting to her mouth as though she could catch the sound of her own amus.e.m.e.nt. "I'd have loved to see the teacher's face if you had sent it."

"No way. She was a total prude. I'd have been kicked out of academy before anyone managed to dispel the stupid double."

She nodded, but her smile remained. The laughter had done her some good and brought color to her cheeks. "Okay," she said after a moment. "When and where do you want to attempt to raise this shade?"

"You don't have to-"