Page 19 (1/2)

"Look above you," they whisper

My head tilts up to a cage suspending froernails painted a bright shade of pink "Aislin?"

The hand waves "Yeah, it’s s over "I’ve got bites all over ood What about you?"

"I have bites too" A pause as her hair slips through the cracks between the cage bars "I knew they wereto kill us"

"I know," I e totters and I plant a foot and hand on each side, steadying it "Aislin, where’s Laylen?"

Her cage swings in a circular motion "I don’t know, Gemma I didn’t even see hih hts went out, Laylen hit the floor, and then that gross Banshee showed up After that, he was gone Do you… do you think the Banshee took him?"

"The sprites killed the Banshee I think" She pauses "Gemma, as the Banshee there? And why did it look so weird? They usually look more human than that"

"Didn’t it coet a better viehat’s going on below The sprites are busy causingeach other

"Banshee’s are fey, but they don’t come from the Faerie Realm," Aislin replies "It came from somewhere else"

"It wailed at ainst the iron bars "That could mean there’s a death in my future"

"You’ll be okay," Aislin comforts "We’ll all be okay"

"Aislin, I hate to point this out, but it’s really, really bad that you’re here, especially if Luna knows you are"

"I know," she concurs "Now hold on We’re getting out of here"

"What?" I gape at the bottoe

Her hand sneaks to the lock Black and silver streaks glimmer in her palm "Hoc redimio quod solvo mihi" The sparks heat the lock Metal droplets rain into e swerves sharply, jolting up fro my head and blink wildly as I slide back to the floor

"Sorry," Aislin apologizes "Hold on, I’ down" She mutters under her breath With a poof, shefor inside the cage" Securing her hands on the branch, her feet glide over the edge The cage gripes, slanting forward, and I’ainst the door Her hands blunder, but she hitches the cage We’re face-to-face, the bars fenced between us

"Phew" She clings to the bars "That was close"

I nod, et out now?"

Her eyes journey up, down, and to the side of the cage Carefully, she inches from in front of the door Her palm hovers over the heavy lock "Hoc rediize fro the lock to a river of liquid She opens the door and the cage alrab the bars and clile, we make it to the branch overhead, breathless, leaves and dirt flaking our hair

"You know, I think you’re right" Aislin wipes the sweat from her forehead "I never realized how useful your Foreseer poas--you control it so h "Not quite In fact, I can’t even count the number of times I’ve dropped le over the side of the branch where the sprites continue to torture each other, oblivious to our freedom "So, what’s the plan?"

"We can’t teleport out of here--we learned that during our last visit" She collects her hair and twists it in a knotted bun, securing it with a bobby pin "But there’s got to be a way to bail without having to trek through the forest"

I pluck bits and pieces of leaves out of ers "What about Laylen? Should we make sure he isn’t here before we bail? And what about Aleesa?"

"It’s going to take forever to figure out if Laylen is here," she reround "We need a better way to find hi and to find where Aleesa is"

"You can’t do a Tracker Spell from here?" I question

She shakes her head, considering "I don’t have the stuff and there’s a slim to none chance the spell would work inside the Faerie Realm"

"So what do we do then?" I ask

She sighs "I’" A voice answers

The nearness of it surprises us We shoot around pulling our legs up

"Well, well, well," I say snidely, before he can "Look what the cat dragged in"

Nicholas grins, his golden eyesthe branch above his head, the other slack at his side There’s so shiver through my body

"I’d watch how you speak to ue across his lips