I raised my head. Out of the glassless window, somewhere in the solid blackness, thin wisps of green approached in the distance, taking on the shape of a dog.
“It’s back.” I pulled myself to my feet.
“We need to board up the windows,” Nessa said.
“There isn't time.” I edged around the older female and walked into the dining area, where Cliach and one of the soldiers lay on the ground, their eyes open, their faces twisted with terror.
Rosalind knelt beside an unmoving Aengus. The muscles around my chest squeezed tight, and my throat thickened with grief.
She stared up at me through red-rimmed eyes. “He’s alive. Four Dearg Due tried to steal his air, but the shadows turned them into smoke.”
I exhaled my relief in a long breath. “We’re still in trouble, and I need your help.”
“What’s happening, now?” she asked.
“The cú sídhe is returning.” I swept my arm toward the window. “We need to kill it.”
She rose to her feet. “How, when his barks are so deadly?”
“It’s working with the Fear Dorcha, who needs me alive for Queen Melusina.” The painful prickling in my palms faded to a dull itch.
Her features tightened with apprehension. “What do you want me to do?”
I wanted to ask her to fly me out there, so we could confront the wretched dog, but I couldn’t leave Drayce and Aengus helpless and alone. The cú sídhe was trained to collect women for the fae. Now that the Dearg Due had revealed their association with the Fear Dorcha, I had no doubt that the dog was coming to collect me.
Reaching around the back of my sword belt, I unhooked the Dullahan’s whip. “Hold me as I lean out of the window.”
Rosalind’s gaze dropped to the bone whip, and she gulped. “Will it work?”
I eased a leather glove over my right hand. It was hard to tell if the cú sídhe was a corporeal creature like the Dearg Due or a wraith like a banshee. The monstrous dog might even be like the Banshee Queen, who could switch between solid and spirit. None of that mattered when I had the Sword of Tethra and the blood of Dana.
Rolling my shoulders, I turned my gaze to the open window, where the glowing green mass faced toward us. “My swords would do a better job, but I don’t want that thing close to the carriage.”
“Alright.” Rosalind folded Aengus’ torn cloak into a pillow and slipped it under his blonde curls. She and Nessa pulled the dining table aside, giving me the space I needed for my attack.
I braced a bare hand on the window frame and stared into the approaching silver eyes. The lighter shades of its green fur floated toward us but it still wasn’t close enough for an attack.
“Your Majesty.” Rosalind wrapped both arms around my waist. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold onto you if it barks.”
“Then I’ll have to attack before it tries,” I said.
The cú sídhe’s rapid, excited panting rasped against my eardrums, and hot bursts of blood-scented breath filled my nostrils. A shudder of disgust seized my muscles, and I pushed aside the thought that the monstrous dog ate its dead victims.
I raised the bone whip in the air and threw my arm down. The Dullahan’s whip flew through the air, its vertebrae separating as it raced toward its target. The cú sídhe dodged left, but the bones’ trajectory curved, slashing one of its eyes.
A high-pitched howl filled my ears, making my pulse flutter in my throat. After the whip completed its arc, its vertebrae retreated back into place with a snap.
The dog’s remaining silver eye glowered at me through a mass of shaggy fur. It bared giant teeth and snarled. Alarm spiked through my heart. I drew back the bone whip and struck once more, hitting the cú sídhe’s remaining eye. With a howl, the monster exploded into a cloud of green.
Rosalind released my waist with a long, relieved breath. “What now, Your Majesty?”
I stepped back, surveying the dead and unconscious bodies strewn about the floor, the sofa, the window seat. “Let’s tend to whoever’s still alive and stay alert for any more attacks.” I said.
Rosalind, Nessa, and I moved Cliach and the dead soldier’s bodies to the other carriage, which was now a mess of broken walls and windows. After laying Aengus and the driver on the window seat and sofa, I checked on Drayce to see if his soul had returned along with his power.
As I approached the sleeping area, the doe poked its head out from under the bed and stared at me with mournful, green eyes. Eyes the same color as Drayce’s.
“Drayce?” I asked.
The doe lowered her head.
I turned to Nessa. “Is he inside the deer?”
The older female’s shoulders sagged. “One of those Dearg Due creatures got too close, Your Majesty. It’s going to take a few days for me to be able to see anything.”
Guilt squeezed my heart. “I’m sorry—”
She raised a palm. “That surge of death magic that rescued us could only have come from one person. Whatever you did has brought us a step closer to rescuing King Drayce.”
The heaviness in my chest lightened a fraction, but the petrified faces of those guards, drained of air and blood and soul, would forever haunt my nightmares.
After a harrowing twelve hours of traveling through the Summer Court, the first signs of light pierced the darkness. We had spent the entire time wide awake, protecting Drayce and the two unconscious males from wraiths and specters and mischievous crows.
By the time we emerged from the shadows, the morning sun hung above the distant mountains, coloring the landscape gold. A warm, woodsy breeze circulated through the carriage, chasing away the scent of death.
The morning chorus filled my ears, a balm to my aching, fatigued muscles and to a throat hoarse from screaming. I slumped against the window frame and stared out at the dense forest of mixed trees, whose canopies of emerald and
