But it wasn’t Fee who answered. I wasn’t even sure it was the puppy magic.
The meadow shimmered. Spangles glittered in the air, three feet above the ground. The breeze died. Stinging nettles snapped at my skin. Bitter ash stung my mouth. Something like a reptilian eye opened, a cleft in the air—but instead of Amal’s monstrous pigs charging through, only welcoming energy vibrated from the passage.
My energy.
I called to the nymphs. “Looks like a shortcut.”
Once we entered, the passage opened in front and closed behind with a shimmer of magic. I kept going, afraid to stop. I had to trust my intuition. The air held the fresh warmth of early spring—a sure sign of Aine—along with the blooming flowers. Natural light was as normal as the smooth path beneath our feet. The walls and ceiling were black obsidian, and although the sting against my skin continued, along with the grit on my lips, it was a contradiction I’d puzzle through some other day.
“Are you sure this is going anywhere?” Effa asked with her chin propped on my shoulder. Her warm breath caressed my cheek. Her arms wrapped around my neck, although she studiously resisted strangling me.
“It’s keyed to me.”
“We should probably trust it, then,” she agreed. “I don’t think I’m getting any smaller.”
“Lighter would be nice,” I teased. “You’re heavy enough as it is.”
Indignantly, she squeaked, “If you’d put me down, I would walk.”
“And risk you falling into a crack where we can’t get you out?” Caerwen joined in with a light laugh.
I was wondering, not for the first time, if Caerwen had been more alarmed by the encounter with Pelonie than she let on. There’d been no clashing weapons or booted feet, but she’d run once before from mindless destruction. She’d locked that nightmare away. But Pelonie might have reignited the memories. The fear and helplessness.
“Is it possible,” I asked, glancing at the grotto nymph, “that we were a trojan horse for the Gemini Coven?”
“I was considering the same thing,” Caerwen murmured. “Use you to get the effigy close enough to the sorceress for the runes to react to her power. Null her ability to wield the magic. She withered at the end.”
I hadn’t noticed. I’d been too intent on saving Amal’s rune stone. But I might have achieved the coven’s goal. Disabling Pelonie, while recovering what was lost. Perhaps this was a realignment, changing things back to what should have been.
Caerwen stared straight ahead. “Aine needs to fortify that prison. Bury it beneath the earth. Or the depth of the sea. Make sure she never escapes.”
“Even if she withered,” I said. “We can’t trust the nulling to last.”
“A faithless witch, Pelonie,” said Caerwen. “Why Aine trusted her is beyond me, lady.”
“The magic allows deceit. Only mutual desire matters.”
“What will you do now?”
“Try to make the magic right. End the cycle.”
“They’re already fighting, you know,” Effa said. “Where you have to go.”
She was referring to Grayson. The alphas had been arguing before we left, and I’d known he would take his fighters north. Join with the other packs to attack Amal.
I asked, “Can I find them?”
Effa leaned her head against mine. “We’ve been gone longer than you realize, No-ee. It could be weeks. Time, in Aine’s wrinkles, always moves differently.”
“Is that why you shrank? Because time caught up with you?”
“You, too. I mean, time catching up. If you find him, it might still be too late.”
I let her slide to the ground. Breathed, fighting the rush of panic. How many days had I lost by challenging Pelonie?
I rubbed the sigil on my wrist.
“What’s wrong?” Caerwen asked as I blinked and swiped moisture from my cheek.
