"The expression is 'if it kills me,'" Eleanor pointed out.
Jack's smile suddenly had a lot of very sharp teeth. "Let them try."
"I guess we're off to Jack's house, so I can climb down inside a well," I said brightly. "This is feeling like déjà vu all over again."
30
Tess
Eleanor wanted to keep packing, so I hugged her again and promised to let her know what we found out, and then Jack, Jed, and I went to Jack's house. We put the dagger box in the back of the truck again, on the off chance that the Fae queen might actually show up in Jack's yard.
It might at least be something to bargain with.
Fifteen minutes later, the three of us stood looking down into the well, and my head was throbbing again.
"Let's just do it," I said with a remarkable lack of enthusiasm. I was going to have to hold the brooch up to the runes on the wall of the well, Jed said, and I was concerned—okay,scared to death—that if anything would cause my brain to explode, that might do it.
On the other hand, total destruction of Dead End.
I didn't share my fear with the Shepherds, because they both looked like they were on the verge of picking me up and bodily carrying me away from there.
"I heard something on the waves about someone named Timmy and a well," Jed said out of the blue. "Have you ever met this lass? She seemed remarkably capable, especially when it came to rescuing that fool Timmy."
It took me a beat, but then I laughed. "Oh. Lassie was actually a TV show about a dog, a collie, who was super smart and brave and rescued a little boy all the time. It was like a play. They were pretending to be those characters."
"So the lass wasn't a lass at all?"
"Well, it was a female dog named Lassie, but—"
"And this Lassie could play a role?"
"Yes."
"Then she was still smarter than Timmy, it seems to me," Jed concluded.
I couldn't argue with that.
"Maybe we can talk about TV dogs later," Jack said. "Tess, for the last time, are you sure?"
I decided to be honest. "I'm mostly sure. If holding the brooch causes me too much pain, though, I'm going to call it off. It won't do any of us any good if I pass out."
I courageously kept my exploding-brain fears to myself.
Just then, Jed made a sound like a cross between a gasp and a shriek, and then he grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him.
I glanced over my shoulder to see what had spooked him and saw a silvery oval forming in the yard. "This might be her!"
Jack slowly shook his head. "I don't think so. I recognize this portal."
Before I could ask, a man stepped out of the oval and into the yard, glanced around with hard eyes like he was assessing the threat level, and then strode over to Jack and held out a hand.
While they shook hands, I studied the newcomer. He looked a lot like the king and prince of Atlantis, so I was guessing he was from there, too. They all seemed to be tall, dark, gorgeous, and deadly over there. This man, though, had none of the easy charm of Ven and King Conlan.
Instead, he looked like he cracked heads for a hobby—and hereally, really likedit.
He wore all black—pants, shirt, and boots—but looked like he should wear a cloak that flared dramatically in the wind. Or maybe I'd seen too many old movies.
Jack turned to wave us over. "Tess, Granddad, this is Denal, one of King Conlan's elite warriors. Denal, this is Tess Callahan and my three-hundred-plus-year-old grandfather."
