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I would not force them to die for us; not yet.

The day might come when we’d have to call upon the Faeries of the Fen. I could only hope that by then…

I wasn’t sure what I hoped.

Part of me wanted to leave them here in their underground sanctuary forever, protected from the evils above.

But Arran was right.

If we couldn’t stop the succubus now, if we didn’t get the answers we needed in Avalon… they wouldn’t be safe. None of us would.

“We will leave in the morning,” Arran said, opening the door.

Taliya inclined her head. She was far above us, but I thought a bit of that sadness remained in her face as she said, “Luck be with you. You shall need it.”

80

ARRAN

Maisri crossed her arms, jutted out her lower lip, and glared with the ferocity that only an adolescent feeling themselves so deeply wrong could muster. “I want to go.”

Osheen shrugged his shoulders, the picture of unmoved parental nonchalance. “Too bad.”

The child didn’t stomp her foot in the dirt, but a flower did burst out of her pocket. Followed by another. How many petals did she have in there?

“Youare going,” Maisri said accusingly.

He straightened from where he’d been bent over one of the traveling packs. “No, I am staying here with you.”

That gave her pause. Calculation gleamed in her bright eyes.

The decision hadn’t been hard. Bloodshed awaited us in Avalon. It was one thing to bring a child along on a journey that might include any manner of encounters. It was something else entirely to knowingly expose her to danger.

We’d asked. The priestess had shown. Now we knew… precious little. But enough to cement that Maisri would stay behind the in safety of the faerie caves. And where Maisri went, so did Osheen.

I’d miss his steady presence, the easy interactions between us as soldier and commander. But he had something—someone—to protect. I understood that.

Maisri was having a harder time.

“Veyka!” Maisri squealed, struck with brilliance. She dove for the opening to the alcove.

I threw up an arm to catch her. If she got free into the tunnels, we’d spend the next several hours tracking her down. She might miss our departure. Neither she nor Veyka would be able to stand that.

“Sorry, young one. But you stay.”

She squalled in my arms with the voracity of a skoupuma. But I managed to get her down onto the bench—and block the exit with my much larger body.

“Why?”

Because we will risk our own lives, but not yours.

Because you are good and whole, and we want to keep you that way for as long as possible.

Because we don’t want you to die.

Evading the truth served no one. But I could choose a softer one. “You know about what we face up there.”

Maisri bit her lower lip. Then nodded. The mutiny faded slightly from her eyes.