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Dranian was nudged through the kitchen doors, and the doors swung shut behind them.

Mor folded his arms as soon as they reached the back freezers. “Speak.” He waited.

Dranian sorted through a variety of things he might say aloud. Nothing quite fit, but he decided he might go with—

“There can only be one reason you’re here, Dranian. So, tell it to me,” Mor said for him. “Where is Luc? What happened? Please tell me…” He paused and swallowed with difficulty. “Please tell me Lily is alright, and the two of you have found a way to rescue her.”

Dranian grimaced and looked off to think.

A muscle feathered in Mor’s jaw. “Where. Is.Luc?” he asked again. Even though Mor was normally the most understanding of Dranian’s brothers, he had a particular way of sharpening his silvery eyes that could turn a fairy’s blood cold. Thankfully, Mor only brought it out for special occasions.

It seemed this moment was one of those occasions.

“Dranian,” Mor warned again, and so, Dranian cleared his throat.

“Luc… has vanished.” He bit down on his mouth after he said it, every inch of him feeling like a disloyal, loose-lipped traitor.

Frankly, on his walk back here, Dranian had resolved he wouldn’t tell a soul about Luc abandoning him immediately after Mor and Cress left. About how Dranian had thought about going after Lily and the girl with no name all by himself, and that he’d been so distraught by the idea that he had truly considered researching Luc’s magic walnut enchantment and switching bodies with Cress again. In fact, he’d resolved that his primary reason for returning here was to get Cress’s body back so he could return to the Ever Corners and save the day.

But alas, Mor had looked Dranian right in the eyes and askedthatquestion specifically, and so, Dranian had revealed everything. He would apologize to Luc later—if Luc ever showed up again.

For now, Dranian’s one plan was soiled. But perhaps it had been derailed the moment Dranian had arrived and seen that everyone was present instead ofonlyCress.OnlyCress would have been easier to trick into eating another walnut than everybody plus Cress. Dranian was no math wizard, but even he could tell that equation wouldn’t add up to success.

It occurred to Dranian that Mor had not blinked in a very long time. He had not spoken, either.

Finally, Dranian murmured, “Aren’t your eyes drying out—?”

“Do you know where Luc is?” Mor asked. “If you have an inkling, Dranian, tell me now.”

Even if Dranian did know, he was sure admitting Luc’s location to Mor when Mor’s eyes were doing their sharp silvery thing would be a betrayal to Luc. Perhaps Luc had betrayed their High Court first, but Dranian had always been loyal to a fault—except when asked direct questions with eye contact.

None of that needed to be said aloud though. So instead, he went with, “I haven’t a clue.”

Mor closed his eyes and let out a growling sigh of disbelief. “I’ll go get her then,” he said.

Dranian’s eyes widened. “Who?” he asked with dread.

“Lily, obviously!” Mor snapped back. He glared at Dranian for a moment, but then his shoulders relaxed. “I shouldn’t have left you alone with that fox. This is my fault, not yours. Thank you for coming to tell us about Luc,” he said.

Dranian opened his mouth to confess that he hadn’t actually come here to tell Mor about Luc, but then he thought better of it. In fact, he went with it.

“Of course,” he mumbled with a nod. “But Mor… how do you plan to get Lily back?” What he didn’t add was,“And will you be getting back the girl with no name, too?”

Mor shook a hand through his hair, dislodging a wild curl from its bun. “I suppose I’ll offer to purchase her, which will bind us to payments for the next twenty faeborn years at least. And if that doesn’t work…” Mor’s throat bobbed again, and Dranian wondered if he was thinking about instigating a death match—a one on one fairy battle that would result in the winner taking a very large prize—like a human. But Mor finished with, “I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

“That is outrageous, Mor!” Cress said from outside the kitchen doors. The doors swung open, revealing Cress, Kate, Violet, and Greyson who’d all been listening on the other side. “You’ll not be going to the House of Lyro. Not today, not ever.”

“What happened to Lily?!” Kate’s voice rang over everything—and Dranian’s heart stopped as he took in the humans and realized what they must have learned in this moment.

“Cress, are you out of your mind?!” Mor asked, nodding toward the humans. “Do you want Kate to have a heart attack? I thought we were going to tell her everything once we got Lily back!”

“Seriously, what happened to Lily?” Kate shouted as she took a step into the kitchen.

Cress jutted this thumb backward toward the café exit. “This is for Shayne to deal with. That was the responsibility placed upon him when he made the choice to fool us and run off in the night!” Cress tried to stand with his own words, but a slow, tight-lipped snarl formed across his mouth a second later. “Oh sky deities, have mercy. Fine, inform the Sisterhood they must be on guard,” he stated. Then he turned to Kate. “Put on your sweater.”

“What are you doing?” Mor asked him, and Cress lifted his eyes that were a fraction icier than they’d been a second ago.

“We’re going to find Shayne and Lily ourselves like we should have from the start,” Cress declared.