This is a terrible mistake.
“Are you ready?” she asked, nudging me with her shoulder.
The glossy black stones marking the Forest mocked me from where they shined, as if they were just waiting to take away someone else I cared for.
Aveen stepped forward, both her boots landing on cursed earth. “There. That wasn’t so—”
Black roots coiled around her ankles like poisonous snakes. It took far too much magic to stop the first of many spells the Queen had cast to catch trespassers.
A strangled curse blew through my lips as I lifted my human onto the less-treacherous path that would lead us to the castle. “I know this is your plan, but I might take the lead for this part, if that’s all right with you?”
I’d been on the path so many times, I could have walked it with my eyes closed. Death surrounded us on all sides, but so long as we remained on that path, we would be safe. We traversed though the monstrous trees, past the three boulders—the smallest of which always used to remind me of a faerie perched on a fat fish.
Over and down and then up again as we climbed closer and closer to the sea. Crows circled, but without the Queen to see from her tower, I paid them no heed.
Aveen sucked in a breath when the Queen’s castle came into view, the black stones not nearly as dark as the witch who lived within.
We reached the gates—empty, as I’d known they’d be.
“Where are the guards?” Aveen asked, scanning the barren front yard.
“She doesn’t need them. No one in their right mind comes here.” I wasn’t sure where she kept the guards when she wasn’t using them. Perhaps in the dungeons. I’d never been concerned enough to find out.
I cut my palm to unlock the gate, then crossed the wards. When Aveen tried, she remained stuck on the other side.
“The old crow is so feckin’ paranoid,” I grumbled, lacing my fingers with Aveen’s, my blood smearing against her palm. I wasn’t sure if it was the blood or our connection that let her through—not that it mattered since this was the only time she would ever set foot in this cursed place.
I brought her to the foyer, knowing it was past time I returned to the castle. “You know where you’re going?”
Aveen nodded, showing me the map she’d drawn on her palm earlier when we were going over our plan one final time. I pressed a kiss to her head, begging once more for her to be safe, and then I crossed back into the Forest and evanesced back to the castle.
* * *
The Queen sat at the head of the dining room table, a pig’s head with an apple in its mouth sitting on a tray next to steaming side dishes. My brother’s face was decidedly green as he glared at that dead animal. I almost felt like laughing.
Until I realized he was wearing one of my waistcoats. When I’d warned my brother within an inch of his life to make sure he had on proper clothes, that hadn’t been an excuse to steal mine.
“It’s nice of you to finally join us,” said the Queen, cutting a thin slice of pork and slipping it between her lips.
“My apologies. I was delayed longer than expected.” I settled across from my brother, closest to the exit, and grabbed my serviette, draping it across my lap. Eating was the last thing I felt like doing, but there was no sense calling more attention to myself than necessary.
“As I was saying,” Tadhg began, reaching for his goblet of wine, “the situation in Airren is dire.”
Although the Queen nodded her agreement, it was clear from the way her jaw pulsed that she had more to say on the matter. “It’s nice of you to finally notice.”
Tadhg’s smile tightened. “The time has come for action. I’d like to keep to the treaty, wherever possible, but am aware that breaking it may be the only way to succeed in keeping our people safe.”
“I had advised my son to work with the merrow,” the Queen said, setting her utensils aside in favor of her goblet of blood, “but it appears their alliance has been severed.”
That was because Muireann had tried to sacrifice Aveen to the feckin’ Forest. “We cannot interfere with Vellanian ships arriving to their own territory,” I reminded them both. “Only if they cross into ours, which they have yet to do.”
“It is only a matter of time,” said the Queen, her black eyes like daggers as she glared at me.
“I agree,” Tadhg said. “Which is why I believe it is time for us to meet with King Bedwyr.”
The Queen’s brows flicked up. “You must know I cannot do such a thing. To leave the Forest unguarded would be a great folly, indeed. And if the humans learn you and I are both to be away from the kingdom?” She clucked her tongue. “No, I will not be visiting the king.”
Tadhg’s head tilted as he considered, and then his eyes found mine. “I could send Rían.”