Page 93 of Samhain

That made her smile, at least.

Miri nodded to the alcove, gesturing for the rest of us to come with her so we could have a private conversation.

“You stay here and eat,” Lex said to Poppy, rubbing a hand over her messy hair. “We need to have a grown-up talk, okay?”

Poppy sighed, scribbling a pen over a piece of loose-leaf paper. “Okay.”

“We can’t stay here,” Miri said once we were in a circle far enough away from Poppy. “Bill is already asking when we’re headed out.”

We told Miri about Poppy’s teleportation ability, how she’d taken Ivy and me on a wild carpet ride last night only to return with a tale of gifts from time and space.

“She’s one of us,” Miri said, her hands covering her mouth in shock. “She needs us. She belongs with us.”

“Are you volunteering to take her back to grandmother’s house?” Lex raised an eyebrow.

“Well, no.” Miri furrowed her brows.

“Exactly.” Lex sighed.

“We need to figure out what to do next,” I said. “We can’t go home with her, but we can’t stay here.”

“Should we check on Smythe?” Ivy said.

“Smythe?” Lex asked.

“He lived in Faerie for how long?” she said. “He might know who her father is. He might know where to hide her.”

Lex cleared his throat. “Yeah, or he might steal her to sell to the highest bidder.” All our gazes snapped to him. “They kicked him out, remember? What would he do to get back in? Abduct the Great Gift and barter her to the king, perhaps?”

Ivy scratched her fingers over her X and clenched her features. “Well, I don’t have any other ideas.”

“I do.” Lex licked his lips. “Last night, I made a few calls.” He scrubbed his palms over his face, stalling.

“Out with it,” I said.

“My uncle Dmitri.”

I tried to swallow my reaction. Dmitri Romanov was the brother of the emperor of Russia and a powerful man in his own right, even before the country became a parliament. He was corrupt, sure. But from what I understood, he loved his nephew. Blood was the most important thing to a man in his position, and he’d doted upon Lex his entire life. Lex’s mother used to say Marcus had been born a Fairfax, but Lex was Romanov blood through and through. I’d never asked him what that meant, but I could have guessed.

“Will that work?” Miri asked.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Ivy agreed. “Would it be safe?”

“I think so, and if we go down the rabbit hole far enough,” Lex continued, “she’d be completely removed from all of us, me included.”

I didn’t like the thought of Poppy in Russia alone with more strangers. Perhaps it was a risk to put so much distance between us. But what else were we going to do? The only people I could call were my family, and they’d be in just as much danger as she was if Alberich came to this realm.

I blew out a breath, the weight on my heart damn near a ton.

“Let’s do it,” Poppy said, snapping all our heads in her direction. “Russia, you say? Sounds nice. If your family is as kind as you, I’m sure I’ll be safe.”

I looked back at Lex, who glanced between the four of us. After my conversation with her in the bathroom last night, I knew there was more going on with Poppy. She may be ten years old physically, but mentally, she seemed as old as us. Time worked differently in the land of the fae. A night or two had been twelve days. How old was Poppy really?

Ten years in Faerie could be the equivalent of sixty here in the human realm. Did that mean that Poppy’s mind was like a sixty-year-old? I didn’t have the qualifications to answer that.

“Well?” Lex looked at me, followed by Miri and Ivy, like they were awaiting my permission to go forward with the plan.

“Let’s go to Russia,” I said.

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