Page 52 of A Killing Frost

“He also saw Quentin’s true identity, which is why he seized him. He said he was going to use Quentin as a bargaining chip to get access to the elf-shot cure.” My phone, tucked in the pocket of my jacket and with my battery recharged, remained stubbornly silent. Arden would have called me if Simon had reappeared with my squire in tow... wouldn’t she have?

I was starting to second-guess absolutely everything I thought I knew. This night had been dizzying and convoluted, and it wasn’t over yet. “He’ll also have seen you helping to wake Dianda at the conclave,” said the Luidaeg. “He knows Patrick is alive, and that the Undersea has access to the cure.”

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Meaning he’ll have gone for both his goals at the same time. He was always a man who valued efficiency. Poppy!” She cupped her hands around her mouth as she shouted, amplifying the sound. Even that couldn’t account for how loud she suddenly was. She didn’t have the physical stature to yell that loudly.

There was a distant clatter, too deep into the apartment to make sense with the apparent floor plan, and then a much more ordinary voice yelled back, “Doing the things as you told me wanted to be doing, aren’t I? Should I be all for giving up now?”

“I have her sifting lentils out of fireplace ashes, for practice,” confessed the Luidaeg, before she yelled, “Stop for the moment, and come out here. I need to talk to you.”

I somehow managed to resist the urge to put my hand over myface. “Luidaeg, we don’t havetimefor this,” I said. “You already made me explain everything, and that wasn’t fast. We need to be getting to Goldengreen before Simon shows up there and does something to Dean.”

“Oh, Simon’s already there,” she said, waving my concerns away.

“What?” Attempting to throttle the sea witch wouldn’t end well for me. In that moment, I was still deeply tempted. I stared at her instead, opening and closing my mouth without another sound.

“Stop making that face, you look like a koi,” she said. “Patrick’s son holds Goldengreen, which used to belong to my sister, may she never tread those halls again. Simon’s going to see that as an affront to his lady’s honoranda way to get to his lost friend, all at the same time. Simon’s at Goldengreen. And since he was there when most of the wards were set, he’s inside by now. Haring off half-cocked isn’t going to make it easier for us to win this. It’s just going to make things worse. Like you did when you decided to go looking for the failure on your own.”

“I wasn’t—”

“Your Fetch, who only has your memories up to the point of her creation, when, might I note, you weren’t a hero yet, and didn’t know your ass from an answer, and your half-trained squire, don’t count. They’re friends and companions. They’re not backup, and if your kitty-cat wasn’t so worried about you calling off the engagement if he so much as sneezes, there’s no way he would have agreed to you walking away with just the pair of them for protection. It doesn’t work. So we do things my way.”

I glared at her and was still glaring as Poppy came bounding down the hallway, ash on her hands and smudged on her cheeks. She looked like an orange-haired Daoine Sidhe, apart from her wings, which were long and thin and patterned in a dozen shades of sunrise orange, like the world’s biggest and most ridiculous piece of wearable stained glass. She was wearing jeans and a loose tunic that had clearly seen better days, and she beamed at the sight of me.

“October!” she exclaimed. “I knew we had company, and suspected as it might be you, what with the good officer stirring in his sleep—he likes you better than he likes much of anyone else, because when you come to see us, he almost wakes up, and he doesn’t do that when you’re gone. But I had ashes to tend.”

“How’s it coming?” asked the Luidaeg.

Poppy held out her hands, opening them to show sooty palms full of lentils. The Luidaeg nodded.

“Good,” she said. “You can get back to work. October and I are going to Goldengreen.”

“Am I for coming?”

“No,” said the Luidaeg. “I want you to stay here. If anyone tries to get in before I come back, seal the door. No matter who they are. No one in and no one out, do you understand?”

Poppy hesitated, worrying the corner of her mouth between her teeth before nodding solemnly.

“Good,” said the Luidaeg. She gestured for me to follow as she turned to walk away from her apprentice. “You, come on. We’re taking a shortcut.”

“If you have all these shortcuts, why did you need to send Arden to pick me up?” I asked, following her across the living room.

“I wanted to. Sometimes she needs to remember who she belongs to, and this seemed like a good way for both of us to get what we want.” She stopped at the only door on this side of the room, yanking it open to reveal a closet cluttered with cleaning supplies and stained towels. She scowled. “Wrong door.” She slammed it and pulled it open again, this time revealing a stretch of beach beneath a Summerlands sky. The stars were so close and clear that it felt like I could reach up and touch them.

“Out we go,” she said, planting a hand in the small of my back and shoving me through. The world spun uncomfortably, but I didn’t lose my balance or what little remained of my lunch. Whether this was a door she used with reasonable frequency or I was just that much more fae, I couldn’t tell. Either way, the sand was soft beneath my feet, and I stumbled before getting my balance back and turning to glare at her.

“Not cool,” I said.

“Sort of cool,” she replied, and stepped out the door after me. Her clothing changed as she crossed over, going from overalls to a long blue gown that appeared to have been sliced out of the night sky itself, even down to the little flecks of silver glistening on the skirt and bodice. She pulled the door closed behind herself.

It was set into a crumbling stone wall that looked like something out of a Scottish castle. I had never seen it before, and I like to think I know most of the landmarks in and around the fae side ofSan Francisco. I lifted an eyebrow. She glanced over her shoulder at the wall, then waved her hand. The door disappeared. She looked back at me.

“Better?”

“Not really.” I waved a hand vaguely at the wall, which hadn’t disappeared. “I’ve never seen that before, and I thought I knew all the local Summerlands beaches.”

“Ah. This one’s isn’t local. This one’s mine.”

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