Page 135 of The Mirror of Beasts

“Maybe if you had come yourself instead of sending your little spy, none of us would be standing here,” I said.

“Spy?” Kasumi repeated, turning ever so slightly to me.

“Your pooka,” I said.

Her head angled. “I sent no spy.”

The others looked to Madrigal, who seemed offended by the suggestion. “Why would I send Dearie to such a place when I had an errand boy already there?”

Emrys drew in a deep breath; I was mad enough to spit nails, but he was clinging to his composure with white-knuckled tenacity.

“If you didn’t send it, who did?” Nash asked. “One of the other members of the Council?”

“No one would do such a thing without my explicit orders,” Kasumi said. “It would involve dismantling all of the careful spellwork we’ve put into place. However that pooka got into Avalon, it was not our doing. Perhaps it was there all along. What matters now is ending this, while we still have breath in our bodies.”

My thoughts whirled. You couldn’t trust a sorceress, I knew that, but she seemed genuinely surprised by the accusation.

The other sorceresses don’t like her, I reminded myself. We’d listened to them discussing her leadership in the vault, what felt like weeks ago. If the Council or other members were acting behind her back, what did that say about her ability to protect Neve?

Caitriona’s thoughts seemed to follow a similar path. She moved toward Neve again, as if to carry her away from all of this. But Neve still didn’t open her eyes, and when a surge of magic rolled over her, she cried out in pain.

And that was answer enough for me.

We have to, I thought, feeling my heart crack inside my chest. There isn’t another choice.

I had to believe that this was the path Neve would choose for herself.

“This entire time,” I told Kasumi, “all she wanted was to help the Sistren. To save you.”

“Then let us return the favor and help her,” Kasumi said. “We haven’t the time to debate this. The hours pass swiftly in our world. When we return, there will be less than two days until the solstice—until he opens the pathway to Annwn and allows the dead to spill back into our world.”

The thought sent terror skittering down my spine. “Time moves that slowly here?”

The High Sorceress nodded, though there was something victorious in her expression, as if she knew she’d played her trump card.

“Tamsin, you can’t be seriously considering this,” Caitriona said, her thick brows lowering.

“If you take her, we’re coming with you,” I told Kasumi.

“Tamsin,” Caitriona pleaded. “Don’t do this.”

“I would expect nothing less.” Kasumi cast a look of pure loathing at Nash. “I will even tolerate his presence.”

“Cait,” Nash said, drawing her off from us. “I understand, I do. But this is happening whether you will it to or not. Take a moment away to steady yourself. Fetch our things if you’d like. Just steady yourself.”

Caitriona looked me straight in the eye as she said, “All of this was a mistake.”

She sounded nothing like herself. It was as if the wounded animal we’d all sensed inside her, the very one we’d been trying to appease at every turn, had suddenly broken free of its cage. She looked utterly frantic, cornered—and in her pain, anger was the easiest thing to reach for.

I was surprised at how little her words stung once I understood what had fed them.

“Cait,” Emrys tried, but she whirled on him, daring him to say something. He did. “It’s only a mistake if we don’t fix it.”

She turned on her heel and strode out of the great hall, her footsteps echoing like hits to the chest. I started after her, only for Nash to catch my arm.

“Give her time,” he said. “She needs a moment alone.”

“She’ll need more than that,” Madrigal said. “I’d recommend copious amounts of wine, and, failing that, an hour or two in the iron maiden.”

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