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My knuckles turned white, my grip on Cooper’s shirt strangling my fingers as we stepped through.

A gasp punched my chest. Magic batted at my skin, slipping over and charging the hair on my arms, feeling like I was walking through jelly. Magic pummeled my senses, everything shifting in color, humming at my ears. The man zigzagged us down a hall. Then through a door, which looked like a vast desert, before going in another door. Doors would multiply and disappear, alter locations mid-step. Everything sped up, slowed down, tilted, and spun until I no longer knew which way was up or down. Nausea burned in my stomach, confusion distorting my mind. It took everything I had to keep holding on to Cooper.

I could see how easy it would be to get lost in here forever, giving up and wandering aimlessly around, tangled in the magic, lost in the contents of your mind.

I had to be going mad because I kept hearing Croygen, not so much in words, but I sensed him right in my ear.

Don’t you dare let go,Kitten.

For what could have been minutes, hours, or days, our guide hurried us through another door, spitting us out into a small space. My bare feet hit cement floor, my eyes taking in a river in the distance, night heavily blanketing the city with only a few lights dotting the landscape.

Arms came around my figure, grabbing me before I hit the wall at my running speed. Croygen pulled me into him, cushioning my landing. His warmth circled me, my skin instantly feeling the change in weather, prickling with goosebumps.

“You okay?” he muttered in my ear. It felt too easy to stay here, to not move from his arms. To let myself sink into his embrace.

“Yeah.” I pulled away. “Fine.”

“Fuck.” Cooper leaned on the railing, his hand on AB’s back as she threw up over the side. We looked to be in some kind of bell tower, the dome of a church below us. “That was… fucked up.” He brushed her hair away. “You okay, babe?”

She nodded, wiping her mouth.

“That was no joke.” Croygen rubbed his head. “How the hell do you know how to get through those?”

“Strength of mind.” The man stared at Croygen, his underlying jab very clear.

“Getting sassy for a guy who hasn’t been paid yet.”

The man held out his hand.

“Tell us everything you know first. Like where the hell we are?” Croygen inched around the space, trying to stay clear of the fae door.

“Budapest,” he replied dryly. “A boarded-up church. That is all I know.”

Croygen stood over him, his shoulders eclipsing the small man.

“They said they wanted to go to Budapest. I brought them. They paid me, and I left.”

“You have no idea which direction they went?”

“They motioned over that way, across the river. That is all.”

My head poked through the open arches, taking in the view across the river. On the other side of the Danube sat what looked like a palace up on the hill. Firebulbs made the pristine baroque-style building glow like a cake topper, showing off its glory with arrogance. The beautiful structure stretched out over its perch above the city like a white, fluffy, spoiled cat, giving no heed to the darkness that suffocated the other side.

“Look.” Cooper pointed to a flag flapping in the wind above the building. The same insignia that crested the men’s clothes was on the flag. That was the fae ruler’s home.

“I know no more.” The man held out his hand again. None of us had money except Cooper, and I doubted he had enough to cover the fee.

Croygen’s hand slid down, stopping on the pure gold handle of my father’s blade. My muscles locked up, air leaking from my lungs. Melted down, a chunk like that would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the market today.

Croygen’s eyes flicked up to me before his hand slid down farther, gripping the handle of his own sword. The one he got when I was just a baby. A gift from Blackbeard. It had a skull and two cutlass swords designed on both sides of the hilt carved out of gold, hidden gems in the skull’s eyes. It was subtle, but you felt its power, its history. I used to ask to hold it so I could gain the magic from the lineage of buccaneers, to feel the pirate blood running through it. To hear their tales whispered in my ears and feel their kills. I wanted so badly to be part of the history of those legends.

As children, Killian and I used to “borrow” it from Croygen, pretending we were sea captains, battling for sovereignty.

Yanking it from his sheath, Croygen inhaled. “You’ll have to melt it down, but the gems in the handle are worthfarmore than our price. For this, I ask another favor. See that my crew on the ship,The Silver Devil,in Shanghai knows where we are. I assume you can find your way there through the doors.” Croygen waited for the man to nod, then started to place his sword in the other man’s hands.

“No.” I stepped up, pushing the sword back to Croygen. “You can’t.”

“We don’t have a choice.” His eyes searched mine. I knew how painful this was to him, but he was doing it anyway. He wouldn’t offer my father’s because he knew that meant something to me.