Page 159 of Ulune's Daughter

“You’re right.”

Kellan wriggles in against my chest and kisses my chin. “I am. But I appreciate you defending my honor. Very hot.”

That brings back my grin. “It is, huh? Want to role-play this afternoon? I could be a gallant knight defending my princess’ precious honor against a horde of invaders.”

“I’d rather you be the invader.”

I chuckle. “I wasn’t finished. The invaders outnumber the defenders a hundred to one. All hope is lost. Then the princess begs her gallant knight to ravage her himself rather than lose her maidenhead to one of the invaders. The gallant knight needs lots of persuasion. So. Much. Begging,” I say, watching her pupils expand.

“Okay, you can be the gallant knight.”

I wrap my arm around her waist. “The begging will take place on your knees.”

“Of course,” she breathes.

“With your face pressed to the gallant knight’s codpiece.” I have no idea why I like that position so much with Kellan, but it totally does it for me.

“The better to beg your noble manhood to ravage me,” she quips.

We laugh together.

“Cait House?” I ask since we end up there most nights.

“Actually, would you like to come into Faery with me? There’s a place I’d like to show you. We can explore it a little while we’re playing. I haven’t been upstairs yet, but I’m assuming there’s a bedroom somewhere.”

“Sure.”

She holds her hands out. “You won’t need your coat and things there. It’s on the edge of the Summerlands. It’s always warm.”

I strip off my coat, scarf, and gloves, leaving me in a silly, bright green Grinch sweatshirt Luca gave me last year. Kellan grins at it as she drapes my outerwear over her guest chair along with her own coat and our bags. She takes my hand.

“Okay, a few deep breaths and then breathe shallowly when we enter Fairy. I’m taking you to a place I think is safe but let’s just watch your breathing for a few minutes to make sure you’re not taking in too much of the Mists.”

“Right,” I say, breathing as instructed.

She smiles reassuringly before she drags her long fingernails down through the Air. Golden sunlight bathes my face. Kellan leads me forward, through what would have been a wall in her office and now is a grassy field dotted with fluffy sheep. Water tugs at me, running nearby, burbling over stones.

Instead of leading me toward the water, Kellan takes a worn path through the field toward a low hill and a stone tower that rises behind it.

“Where are we?” I ask, keeping my breathing shallow, even though I don’t feel any of the vertigo I’ve felt when Luca pulls me through the Fae Ways.

“It’s called Ceòfuar, the Court of Cold Mist.”

Kellan mentioned Ceòfuar during our first ski weekend. She didn’t make it sound like a place she’d take me to visit. But Luca’s mentioned it more often, giving me daily updates as Kellan’s rebuilt and mastered her court. The only time I’ve seen him more excited about something was when he got an A-plus on Jane Serpa’s Necromancy exam sophomore year.

“And you think it’s safe?” I ask.

She stops walking and holds her arms out. I expect to see the cloak of feathers I saw in Turkey, but she just turns in a circle, her red sweater flapping around her body in Faery’s gentle breeze.

“I feel everything,” she says softly, almost to herself. “I feel the Donnwater slipping over stones in the river. It’s brought trout and salmon and other fish to feed my Cait. There are merrow upstream, waiting for permission to enter my part of the river. An afanc is hidden among them, hoping for a new lake to live in, away from its brothers and sisters who bully it because it prefers the merrow to its own kind. I feel the whispering in the woods. Pwca are pruning a holly growing in the shape of a crown. They want me to give it to the Holly King and take back the Crown of the North. There are coblynau in the hills mining coal and gold to bring to me as tribute. There’s a clan of bwg waiting in the castle’s kitchen, hoping the fresh bread and cider they’ve brought will persuade me to let them make the castle their new home. I feel the Mists.” She turns and looks up at me. “You can breathe normally. The Mists won’t hurt you here.”

“You can feel that?”

She nods. “And more. I feel every blade of grass the piskie sheep are eating. Every stone that rolls free of its matrix under the pickaxes of the coblynau. If I focus, I can feel the breath of the Mother blowing through the pines. It smells like snow.” She smiles beatifically. “Rho, I can feel everything.”

I take her hand. “Good? Bad? Scary?”

“Good. I shouldn’t have been so afraid of this. Faery’s even closer to the Mother than the mortal world. I feel her hand everywhere. She gave me a hard push because she needed me to get things done. But she wasn’t trying to trap me or send me mad.”

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