The doe huffed and puffed down the stairs with jerky movements, making the occasional high-pitched whine when her front leg stumbled.
As her front hoof reached the bottom step, I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck and clenched her scruff. The muscles underneath the loose skin twitched, and Erin let out an alarmed bleat.
“Take me to the Fear Dorcha,” I snarled into her ear.
Both ears twitched. “Don’t do this, please.”
“Where is he?” I twisted the loose skin.
“They sent for reinforcements.” Erin shuddered under my tight grip. “You’ve got to leave, now.”
Anxiety rippled across my skin. The Fear Dorcha’s ability to trap people within dreams was one of the most dangerous I’d ever encountered. If he and Melusina hadn’t gloated, I might never have known she’d taken my body before it was too late.
But his power wasn’t absolute. If it was, he wouldn’t have needed the giant spider, wild beasts, blood-sucking faeries, carnivorous tree, and the spectral dog with its deadly bark.
What else could they possibly have left to throw at us, and could I defeat it alone?
Erin lurched forward into the dark, nearly escaping my grip. I wrapped the arm holding the torch around her neck and squeezed. She’d probably fabricated these reinforcements to knock me off balance and escape.
“You were happy enough for us to get eaten by that tree.” I twisted her scruff. “You probably watched Melusina and the spider attack my mate and me. Why would you warn us now?”
“Help,” Erin screeched into the dark. “Queen Neara wants to kill me!”
A gentle, whistling wind swept across the hallway. It filled my ears and chilled my bones to the marrow. I raised my head, finally noticing the Summer Court Palace’s downstairs for the first time.
My torch illuminated floors of white marble and arched windows that stretched up to a high ceiling. I held out the torch for signs of the source of the wind but found only empty walls stretching into the gloom.
The muscles underneath the doe’s skin rippled—with fear or disgust or anticipation—I didn’t know.
Ignoring the knot forming in my intestines, I lowered the torch to the ground and placed my hand on the Sword of Tethra’s grip. It was time to act.
“Where is he?” I tried to keep the tremble out of my voice.
“He’s coming,” Erin moaned.
Darkness crept toward us from the gloom, taking the shape of a long shadow that absorbed the light. I sucked in a breath through my teeth and gathered my courage.
My pulse fluttered within my dry throat, and I gulped several times in quick succession. The only light source in this hallway came from the torch at my feet. Unless his power was similar to Drayce’s, how could the Fear Dorcha generate a shadow from within the dark?
“It’s him,” Erin whispered. “Run.”
“No.” I gripped Erin’s neck tighter, using her body as a shield. If the Fear Dorcha wanted to hurt me, I would hurt his precious doe.
“Foolish child.” His voice echoed across the hallway, reminding me of the moan and howling of the wind. “Do you presume to defeat me in my realm of dreams?”
My breath stilled. Was this another of his illusions? Nothing around me apart from the shadow appeared stranger than usual. In every dream realm, someone or something had tried to restrain me, either with plants or persuasion. Here, I was the one holding the doe captive.
“This isn’t a dream,” I said.
The shadow paused.
An excited breath caught in the back of my throat. I was right. Standing straighter, I said in a much clearer voice, “If this was a dream, you’d be up on a stage somewhere, watching me struggle. Instead, you’re making threats down a hallway, and Erin is quaking in her hooves.”
Nobody spoke for several moments, and my ears filled with the roar of my blood, the boom of my heartbeat, urging me to strike out at the creature in the shadows.
Perhaps the Fear Dorcha was powerless without an ability to put his enemies to sleep. After all, he only ever attacked indirectly through monsters, desperate faeries like Erin and the oak sprite, or in dreams.
“I have your doe, your shadow, and your mistress.” I tightened my arm around Erin’s neck for emphasis. “You’ve lost.”
“Queen Melusina is eternal,” he snarled. “And you would be foolish to think I care for a pet.”
“Alright then.” I reached into my belt and pulled out the Sword of Tethra. Dried blood coated its blade, which glinted in the golden light. “Seeing that this doe caused me so much trouble, you can watch me slit her neck.”
Erin bucked and cried, “Help me!”
“Wait,” the Fear Dorcha bellowed with a blast of cold wind.
I poised the blade at Erin’s throat and snarled into her ear. “This is no ordinary sword, so stay still if you don’t want to end up mounted on somebody’s wall.”
The doe stopped struggling.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“End the curse on the Summer Court, leave this place and never attack anyone in my kingdom or the human realm.”
The Fear Dorcha didn’t reply for several moments. Maybe he was thinking of a way to sprinkle sleeping sand on me, maybe he was waiting for reinforcements, maybe he had crept through the shadows and was now standing behind us.
I shook away the paranoid thoughts and inhaled a breath of stale air. His dark form still remained in the middle of the hallway.
Erin trembled under my grip. If the Fear Dorcha called my bluff, I would spill her blood in revenge for Aengus getting swallowed by a tree, for Drayce getting his insides eaten by a spider, and for me. I brought the blade to her throat, making her release a high-pitched wail.
The Fear Dorcha’s shadow lengthened toward us. “If I do as you ask, will you set her free?”
“Yes,” I said from between clenched teeth.
“Very well,” he replied. “I will—”
Erin threw her head back and screamed.
“What are you doing?” I lowered my sword and turned to find her
