I’d just agreed to go with her, but I found my feet reluctant to move as she tugged me toward the dressing room exit. “Won’t the Knights sense the magic and know that we’re sneaking past?”
I could hear the grin in her voice even though I couldn’t see her. “One advantage to me constantly using glamour is that people get used to sensing magic around me all the time. They won’t be able to sense what direction it’s coming from, and once we’re far enough past that they don’t sense it anymore, they’ll just think I dropped the glamour for a little while.”
I had the distinct impression this wasn’t the first time Al had pulled this particular stunt. I also suddenly realized her decision to bring about a million outfits into the dressing room was most likely a sign that this whole escapade was premeditated. She’d crafted an excuse to give us plenty of time before the Knights realized we were missing, apparently sure that she was going to get her way.
Maybe the constant annoying buzz of Al’s magic was messing with my
powers of reasoning, because I didn’t figure all this out until she’d dragged me out of the dressing room and we were sneaking past the Knights. I wanted to give Al another piece of my mind, but I wasn’t going to do it in front of our bodyguards while we were in the process of sneaking past them. That would guarantee I’d get in trouble with my dad. I couldn’t imagine how pissed he would be that I’d even considered going along with Al’s crazy scheme. I’d just have to wait until we were out of earshot before telling Al in no uncertain terms that I’d changed my mind, that we were going back into the dressing room so that no one ever knew we’d left.
Al, her hand still on my arm, half-dragged me out of the store. She must have used more illusion magic to keep the Knights from noticing that the door opened and closed with our exit, because neither one looked up.
Despite my resolution to put a stop to this the moment we were out of earshot of the Knights, I found myself meekly following along as Al led us down the street and around the first corner. I opened my mouth to voice my objection, but at that same moment, she dropped the invisibility spell and gave me another hug.
“Thanks so much for doing this,” she gushed again. “It’ll be an exciting little adventure, won’t it?” She sucked her lower lip again, looking so excited and hopeful that I found myself incapable of letting her down.
“Exciting,” I repeated dully. “Yeah, that’s one word for it.”
What the hell was I thinking?
But when Al hailed a cab to take us to the Southern Gate, I raised no objection.
____
We had to abandon the cab when we reached the Southern Gate, because we couldn’t pass through without passports. Al exchanged some euros for pounds, then we ducked into the ladies room, where she cast her invisibility spell again. Al held my hand so we could stay together, and we headed for the border crossing, dodging tourists and business people, slipping through gaps and under turnstiles whenever we could. I kept thinking that someone would sense her magic and stop us, but we didn’t run into any Fae—most of the Fae border control agents were stationed at the other end of the Gatehouse, where the border to Faerie was located.
The whole time we were crossing the border, I kept telling myself this was the stupidest idea in the history of the universe, and I should object. But somehow, that didn’t seem to be what I was doing. Instead, I let Al lead me along as my pulse sped ever more rapidly and my palms dampened with sweat.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding once we made it through the border crossing and set foot on English soil. Once again, Al guided us into a restroom, dropping the invisibility spell as soon as we were out of sight of prying eyes.
“This is insane,” I told her. “We have to go back.”
“This is exciting and fun,” she countered, doing that lip-sucking thing again.
It occurred to me for the first time that she was still wearing the dress she’d been trying on at the shop. Add shoplifting to the list of crimes we were committing.
I wasn’t convinced, but once again I found myself following her as she headed out of the restroom and got in line at the taxi stand. I looked longingly over my shoulder at Avalon, wondering what was wrong with me, why I was letting Al manipulate, bully, and cajole me into doing something I knew was both wrong and downright stupid. Sure, I’d taken some pretty reckless chances in the past, but it was always for a good reason, always because I was convinced it was the right thing to do. This time, I was convinced I was doing the wrong thing, and yet I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
We reached the head of the line and climbed into a cab. Al rattled off an address, and the driver took off. I still couldn’t believe what I was doing. I tried to rally my mental troops in hopes I could craft an argument that Al would actually listen to, but she turned to me with a frown.
“You look sleepy,” she said, then sucked her lower lip. “Why don’t you take a nap until we get there?”
Suddenly, my eyelids felt really, really heavy. A chill of alarm crept down my spine as it finally occurred to me there might be a very good reason I was doing this against my better judgment. Every time I came close to putting my foot down, Al sucked her lower lip and somehow talked me out of it. The most powerful of Fae magic-users can trigger spells with subtle gestures, and I’d guess that as Mab’s daughter, Al was definitely a powerful magic- user.
She smiled at me, and I might almost have called the look on her face apologetic.
“Sleep, Dana,” she said.
The compulsion slapped me upside the head with the force of a
sledgehammer, and my eyes slid closed.
Chapter Three
I woke up, groggy and disoriented, when Al grabbed my arm. I blinked in confusion as she pulled me out of the cab, and I almost fell flat on my face before my wits returned enough for me to straighten my knees. I tried to shake off the cobwebs as Al slammed the car door behind me and the cab sped off.
“You used magic on me!” I said, suddenly feeling much more awake as
indignation flooded my system.
She had the grace to look guilty about it. “My specialty is illusion magic, but I’m pretty good at compulsion, too. I’m really sorry about that, but you were my only hope.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at her. “This expedition is over,”
I said. “And if you try sucking your damn lip again, I’m going to make you regret it.”
I waved my fist at her. I probably looked pretty ridiculous making threats like that, but I’d had enough self- defense training that I figured I could break her magical concentration if it came to that.
“I don’t need the compulsion anymore,” she said with a shrug. “We’re here.”
I finally took a moment to look around and saw that we were in a kind of run-down-looking residential neighborhood. Narrow two- or three-story townhouses lined the street, their facades grimy and weathered. Most of the townhouses had bars over the first-floor windows, which didn’t give me much in the way of warm fuzzies. Nor did the fact that I could see no less than three buildings with boarded up windows and doors that made me think “condemned.”
Al didn’t seem to care about the shabby neighborhood. Ignoring me and my indignation, she skipped up the stairs of the nearest townhouse and starting ringing the buzzer, pressing it over and over again without waiting for an answer.
She was practically vibrating with excitement.
I stayed on the sidewalk, glaring at her back, wondering if there was any way I could salvage the situation. The cab we’d ridden in was already long gone, and there wasn’t another one in sight. Frankly, I didn’t think this was the kind of neighborhood that would see a lot of cab activity anyway. Not that I had any idea where we were, or how we were going to get back to Avalon from here. I didn’t even know how long I’d been asleep in the back of that cab.
My heart gave a little wrench as I realized my mom and dad must have heard about my disappearance by now. They’d be frantic with worry—assuming my mom wasn’t passed out drunk. I would owe them both a massive apology when this was all over.
As Al continued to lean on the door buzzer, I searched my purse for my phone. It wasn’t like my dad or Finn could come into London to get me, but at least I could let them know what was going on. Only my phone didn’t
