Roaring, I threw myself at the bed again, not caring about the claws on the tips of the monster’s fingers, or the barbed teeth in its mouth. That was my body, and I was going to get it back. This time, there was no resistance.

  The world simply turned dark.

  Chapter 16

  My eyes opened slowly, like they weighed a ton. I stirred a little, trying to shake the daze of sleep, but my body ached. Wincing from the pain of trying to sit upright caught the attention of someone sitting next to me. I felt them grab my hand—a soft touch, warm and feminine.

  “Avery?” Kady’s voice, as clear as day.

  Opening one eye, I caught a blurry glimpse of her blond hair under dim light. “Am I dead?” I croaked.

  “No…”

  “Did I do anything seriously stupid last night?”

  Kady leaned a little closer. “What do you mean?”

  I shut my eyes and let my head rest on the pillow. “I’m hungover as all hell. Give it to me straight, how much did I drink last night?”

  “You haven’t had a drink since we got here. You also haven’t eaten, I’ve been told.”

  “Got here?” I opened my eyes again, trying to blink back the blurriness. I couldn’t see where I was, not clearly, but I knew I was on a bed somewhere, in a room with a tall ceiling. The air smelled like flowers, and there were crickets chirping nearby, the sound floating in through an open window. I didn’t recognize any of it. “Where are we? Did we leave the city?”

  A long pause. “Avery… we’re in Emerald Hall.”

  “Emerald… what?”

  Kady moved closer again. “Oh shit,” she said, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Haircut.

  “I’m not sure. My brain’s all frazzled… stuff’s rattling around inside of my head so fast it feels like the inside of a maraca.”

  “Try to think. Where were you before you woke up?”

  The room was still blurry, but the figure that was Kady had started to sharpen. I recognized her rosy cheeks, her bright blue eyes, her golden hair. I couldn’t figure out what she was wearing, though. It looked… old. Like, renaissance old. She had a choker around her neck with green gems hanging off it and attached to it, gold earrings I’d never seen her wear before, and she had on a green dress with a laced-up bodice around her waist.

  Kady was never the kind of girl to wear a bodice.

  As the area behind her started to clear up, I noticed the walls were green too—a kind of light green with gold and cream floral patterns on it. There was a desk pressed up against it, deep brown and fixed with gold as well, and a tall, high-backed chair that looked like it could’ve won an award for being the world’s most regal-looking chair.

  “Where am I?” I asked again.

  “Emerald Hall… please, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten everything.”

  “It… rings a bell, but…” I trailed off.

  “Try to remember what you saw before you passed out.”

  Butterflies.

  “That blond bitch,” I said.

  Kady’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

  “The song. I was singing… wait, it was Burn It Down.” I chuckled. “No, I wasn’t, because I don’t remember the fucking words. I can never get the second chorus right.”

  “The bar is the last thing you remember?”

  An image flashed in front of my mind. A kiss in a dark corner. Fingertips plunging into thick hair, the smell of cologne; dark and musky, but also somehow flowery. A red reptile wormed its way into my mind’s eye. Gods, that thing could talk. Then I saw the mermaid, the statue. Her mouth was open, a torrent of water flooding out of it.

  She needed my help.

  Needs my help.

  I scrambled to sit upright now, despite the pain I was in, gasping the words “Holy shit.”

  It, all of it, was starting to come back to me in a wild, uncontrollable rush that made my heart race, and my breaths quicken. I wasn’t in Seattle anymore. I wasn’t on Earth anymore. I was in a place called Arcadia, surrounded by monsters.

  “Breathe, Avery,” Kady said, “You need to calm down and breathe.”

  “You’re one of them,” I snapped at her, “Aren’t you?”

  She grabbed my hand a little more tightly. “Listen to me, okay? Yes, I’m one of them, but neither of us are here because we want to be. I’ve been trying to get to you ever since we were brought here, but they’ve had me under guard and wouldn’t let me come and see you until you got sick.”

  “Sick?”

  “Yeah. Oh no… you really don’t remember, do you?”

  “I remember the guy I kicked in the balls. I remember my au pair, the mermaid, the Viscount. It’s starting to come back, but I don’t know how I got here. I was trying to escape, and there was a butterfly, and; next thing I know… what the hell happened to me?”

  “I’m not totally sure yet, and the Viscount didn’t explain much, but he was bleeding and needed to leave.”

  “Bleeding?”

  “Yeah.” She shook her head. “I don’t have a whole lot of time to explain what happened to you. I don’t know when they’ll come back, but now that we’re both here, we really need to talk.”

  “Damn right, we do. Something happened to me, and you’re not telling me what.”

  “Because we need to figure out how we’re going to get out of here!”

  I paused and stared at her. I wasn’t sure if she was serious or not. Usually, I would’ve been able to get a good read on her, but she didn’t seem like the same Kady I knew. She was talking a little differently, and the clothes she was wearing, I’d never seen her wear anything nearly as fancy before, and yet, she wore it incredibly well.

  Like she belonged.

  “You really mean that?” I asked.

  “I do,” she said, “And the sooner the better.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want what just happened to you to happen again. You’re not safe here.”

  “And because you don’t want to take part in the Favoring, right?”

  “You heard about that, huh?”

  “I did.” I turned my head to the side, eyes narrowed. “I feel like I’m forgetting something, though.”

  “Forgetting something?”

  “Something important.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. I think it has something to do with Rell…”

  Kady cocked her head to the side. “Rell?”

  I shook my head. “It was probably just a dream. Alright, how are we gonna get out of Arcadia?”

  “The same way I always do.”

  Eyebrows arched. “Which is? I tried using the front gate, but a giant butterfly did something to me, and now I have holes in my memory.”

  “I keep telling you, Arcadia isn’t safe for humans.” She shook her head, then leaned in a little closer, to whisper. “I know of a portal. Nobody else knows about it, only me.”

  “Portal?”

  “A way back to Earth. I know where it is, and I know how to get to it.”

  “So, why haven’t you left yet?”

  “Because I’ve been under guard, or aren’t you listening?” A pause. “And you’re here, obviously.”

  I stared at her, bemusement in my eyes. “That took a moment too long.”

  “If I’m going to head for the portal, obviously I’m bringing you with me. I need your help if the plan is going to work.”

  “Help? How am I supposed to be able to help? I got taken out by a talking butterfly, man.”

  “The butterfly was the least of what happened to you. I’m just glad you recovered.” She waved her hands. “Anyway, we shouldn’t be focusing on that. Here’s what we need to do if we want to get out of here. Are you ready?”

  I scanned the room. When I was satisfied that it was empty, and that no one was listening to us, I nodded. “Tell me.”

  Kady pointed across my shoulder. “We go out that window.”

  A pause. “And what else?”

  “Well, then we climb out the window, we make it down to the ground floor, and we run.”

  “You’re messing with me, right?”

  “No, why would I be?”

  “Because that’s… I was expecting, like, a really clever plan that needed, like, a distraction, or for us to sneak past some guards, or even some magic or something. You just want us to bail out of a window?”

  “Yes. Right now.”

  I wasn’t going to waste another second sitting in that bed, if I could help it. My entire body ached, from my head to my toes. Some of the pores on my face felt like they were on fire, my fingernails were throbbing, and I thought I had stuff clinging to my hair, but if there was a chance to escape this place, I was going to take it.

  Slipping out of bed, I heard a noise that I thought was a voice. Rell’s voice.

  Avery.

  I paused as my feet hit the ground. The little red dragon’s face beamed into my mind, and I remembered not only him, but our manner of communication. I thought my response to him. “Rell?” I asked, inside of my head.

  “I’ve been trying to get through to you forever,” he said. I could sense the exasperation in his voice—his thoughts?

  “I don’t know if you heard, but I was out cold.”

  “I did hear. I was there with you, remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  Kady turned to look at me. She’d reached the window. “You coming, or what?” she asked.

  I got up and started walking over to her, but it was slow going. Everything hurt. “Rell, we’re getting out of here.”

  “No, you’re not. Someone’s going to die tonight, or did you forget?”

  “Die? Who?”

  “I don’t know! You told me that Vito guy had made a shady deal with someone. The pendant?”

  “Rell, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  A groan rang out inside of my skull. “Of course. You’re human. Why would you remember what happened while you were projecting?”

  “Projecting?”

  “I don’t have time to explain to you everything that happened, but you were very concerned that someone was going to die. Are you just going to ignore that?”

  “Obviously I care, but Kady knows a way back to Earth, and there’s a chance we can escape together. I have to take it.”

  “Do you have any idea how stupid this is? You’re going to fail! But maybe not if you come and get me.”

  “Avery, are you okay?” Kady asked from the window.

  I realized I’d only taken three steps away from the bed, and was standing in the middle of the bedroom, frozen, having a conversation inside of my own head. I stared at her blankly, my mind in two worlds, my attention completely divided. When I tried to verify what Rell was telling me, I couldn’t. My memory was blank. As far as I was concerned, I fell unconscious outside of the manor’s front gates, and woke up in this bed.

  Everything else was empty.

  And even if someone was going to die tonight, if Kady and I could put enough distance between us and this place, what did it matter?

  “Rell,” I said aloud.

  “What’s Rell?” Kady asked.

  “It’s a… a thing, a friend, I guess. We need to try and help him.”

  “Help him? How?”

  “He’s in a cage somewhere, near the main entrance. Can we get to him?”

  Kady looked out of the window and scanned the area directly beneath it. “I don’t know,” she said, turning back inside and lowering her voice. “But the longer we wait, the more chance that door will open, and we lose our chance to get out of here.”

  I shook my head. “I’ve tried getting out of this place twice so far, and both times I’ve left him behind. I don’t want to do it again.”

  “Your friend in the cage… he’s a sprite, right?”

  “Part drake on his father’s side, actually.”

  Kady thought for a moment, her eyes narrow like she was thinking something through in her head. “We might not make it out of here if we try to help him.”

  “I’m pretty sure we aren’t gonna make it out of here anyway. Why would they have left this window open knowing you’d try to escape? It has to be a trick, or a test or something.”

  “Because they posted a guard right down there.” She jammed her thumb toward the floor near the window.

  I approached, leaned across the edge, and saw the man in the suit of armor standing directly underneath the window, one floor below us. Already my vertigo was settling in, making the world spin just a little. I swallowed the ball of anxiety as fast as I could.

  “Ah,” I said, “That presents a problem.”

  “Yeah, it means we’ll have to shimmy past him and make our way to the front of the house. In the dark. On that tiny ledge.”

  My stomach rumbled, and somehow, that made the muscles in my entire body ache. I was tired, weak, and hungry. I wasn’t up for this, but I had to give it a shot—and this time, I was going to try to save Rell, too. We were all going to get out of here tonight, once and for all.

  “Alright,” I said, “Fae first.”

  Chapter 17

  We were only one floor up from ground level, but looking down still made my stomach turn itself inside out. It was like being back on that gantry by my apartment, racing up to find Kady who I’d feared had been brutally stabbed through the chest by a psychopath or something. Instead, she’d stubbed her toe.

  Somehow, that had warranted a night-piercing screech.

  Kady looked over at me, placed her finger in front of her lips, and climbed out of the window. The ledge was short, and precarious, but she was able to stand up and find good footing. I watched her carefully move to the right while simultaneously keeping my eyes on the guard beneath us. He hadn’t moved, and he hadn’t turned his eyes up, either.

  Once Kady had cleared the window, I went through, navigating the window ledge until I found solid footing. Easier said than done when one has a fear of heights. Everything was swimming, spinning, and my feet didn’t want to move when I asked them to/

  “You’re insane,” Rell said in my head, his voice coming through loud and clear. For once, I agreed with him. “But you’re coming to help me, so I appreciate you.”

  “You had better,” I said, thinking the words for him to hear. “Don’t suppose you could cause a distraction or something to help us?”

  “No, but I can tell you I’m only a few feet away from the main doors, and there’s no one down here. You should have a clear shot to me from it.”

  “That’s good news, at least.”

  I felt the breeze kiss my face as I straightened up outside of the window. It was soft, and cool, and it smelled like roses in bloom. I was going to miss that about this place. The air back home was full of toxins and pollutants that were slowly choking the planet. This place didn’t seem to have that problem. Every single breath I’d taken so far had been fresh, and full, and probably good for me.

  On second thought, no, I wasn’t going to miss it.

  Bring on the fumes, and the beer, and the music.

  I missed the music. I missed my band. I missed the Blind Raccoon, the shitty bar we played in. We were close to making it—I could feel it. Any day now, an agent or some corporate fish was going to come into the dive looking for a band to sign; and I was going to douse him in beer, punch him in the face, and tell him to get the fuck out.

  Ah. The dream.

  “Are you okay?” Kady whispered.

  I watched my feet, turned my eyes up at her, and nodded. “I’m good.”

  She had already moved across the next window. We were taking a path away from the soldier posted underneath us, one that would keep us out of his line of sight. If he decided to turn around, though, then we were toast. There was nowhere to hide up here, no cover to take.

  With a nod, Kady continued toward the front of the house. We were somewhere on the back of the building. From here I could see the expansive backyard, a vast area of green surrounded by tall, brown walls that stretched for what felt like miles. There were winding paths back here, benches, small ponds, lights, even fireflies.

  It was beautiful, and quiet, and peaceful. A half-moon that was too large and shone too brightly hung high in the night sky, its light glittering on the surface of the pond and catching on the bugs that drifted silently through the air. There was nobody out here, not a soul, but the sheer number of windows along the wall we were skirting across was worrying.

  Most, if not all, of the windows were dark, but that didn’t mean the rooms beyond them were empty. It was night out, people were asleep, or at least I hoped they were, but all it took was for one person to notice us and we were done.

  I looked down at my feet. They barely fit along the short ledge that jutted out of the wall, but that same ledge went all the way across the building itself, so I got moving, leaving the window and the safety of the room behind. At any second, I knew, someone could go barging in looking for us and notice the room was empty.

  Against my instincts, I had to pick up the pace.

  “On the plus side,” Rell said in my mind, “If you were to slip and fall, you would probably only hurt yourself a little bit.”

  “This place is all vaulted ceilings, which makes that fall nearly twenty feet.”

  “True, so if you do fall, try to land in one of those bushes or something and you’ll be fine.”

  “Please don’t say anything that’ll make me regret deciding to come and rescue you.”

  “I don’t think even I can do that in the time it’ll take you to get to me.”

  “Let’s not test that, shall we?”

  “Wait,” Kady hissed, her voice a harsh whisper. The light in the room directly in front of her had just flicked on.

  My heart leapt into my throat and started pounding, hard and slow. They weren’t quick beats, but they were loud enough they made my chest shake. Someone was in that room, behind a window that was easily five feet across. It was shut, for now, but I had this awful feeling that whoever was in there was going to open it, and quickly.