Page 41 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

“You see? She has locked!” Farrig patted her cheeks.

Her sisters joined in. “Too late!” “Go!” “Go now!”

Orion’s eyes narrowed and he closed the distance between us in a blink. He wasn’t too frightened to put his arm around my waist and pop me out of my perfectly comfortable bubble. When he lowered my feet to the ground, we were standing in a wide cavern. The floor was polished stone so cold it hurt my feet. Three walls and a high ceiling. The fourth wall was missing—a window that opened onto a familiar purple galaxy. Apparently, Daphne wasn’t the only one obsessed.

Though I couldn’t understand the language, I recognized cursing when I heard it. Orion turned in a circle, spitting mad. “They tricked me," he said. “Those little…”

The wordlittlegave it away.

“How did they trick you?”

“Made me move before I was ready, tricked me into leaving them behind. They’ll be long gone now.”

I tried not to laugh in case it might piss him off even more. “Those little women?”

“The Four Memories. Everything I need to know, they know.”

“Four Memories. That’s kind of…sweet.”

He took a deep breath and brought his attention around to me. I watched his eyes go from black and angry to brown, then green and pleasant. He was far too beautiful to have an ugly smile, damn him. Though I honestly tried, I couldn’t stop my face from smiling back.

“They were hidden from the world, just as I was, since almost the beginning. I was shocked to find them in the household of Carew’s mortal stepmother.” He shook his head. “As soon as I get Rowena’s power from your friends, I’m going to have a nice little chat with that Carew sister.”

“Rowena’s power. You mean Life and Death.”

“Very good.” His green eyes flashed. “What else do you know, DeNoy?” He turned and strolled to a large, elaborate throne I hadn’t noticed. “The first thing you will tell me is how you hid yourself from me the first time, at the police station. A nifty trick, that.”

“A magician never tells her secrets,” I said, then was relieved when my answer only amused him.

“Fair enough.” He waved his hand and another throne, slightly smaller and padded with royal purple cushions, appeared just a few feet from his, turned slightly. “Come. Sit. I have much to say.”

I laughed, relieved. “That’s good, because I don’t really have a lot to talk about.”

He chuckled. “I haven’t brought you here to entertain me, after all. But I must plead my case.”

“Plead your case.” I nodded, like I knew exactly what he was talking about. “Go ahead. I’m all ears.”

Boy, did he have the wrong DeNoy. If he thought he was King of the Fae, which he obviously did, then what did he need me for? Why suck up to an Uncast who couldn’t even figure out how to work her pet rock?

If he was feeling chatty, however, I certainly wasn’t going to stop him.

14

Death’s Doorway

Wickham…

The golden starlight ahead wasn’t the body or spirit of a Fae. It was square, like a doorway. A massive doorway. And just as Wickham relaxed, the block of gold rushed toward their party of six and swallowed them whole.

His sense of balance came rushing back and with it, gravity. No matter how quickly he reacted, he still ended up on the glowing floor with his friends. Only Griffon adjusted smoothly. His wings disappeared again, leaving him with nothing but pants, boots, and a bare torso.

“Yer lairdship.” An ancient man got to his feet and bowed officiously to Griffon. He stood behind a tall counter made of dimmer rays of light that was easy on the eyes. His white robes reflected the golden light of the room itself. The walls behind him were bronze with three darkened doorways along it, spaced evenly.

To Wickham’s right, the doorway that had swallowed them. Beyond it, the dark sky of that odd universe lit by the forms of sleeping Fae. To the left, another wide doorway with a different universe beyond. Very few stars. A purple cast to the distant galaxies.

Griffon turned toward it and took a few steps as if compelled to do so.

“Caution, milord,” the old man sang out. “Unless ye seek yer own death.”

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