na nÓg. I wish we’d had Summer on our side then, but she was a child. I understand why they protected her. Just let her know she’ll be welcomed home with open arms, and we will find a way to save the outer planes.”
I nodded and wished them well as Kaja changed and they took off, Dante jogging beside her.
The queen strode up and she’d found a bunch of new friends.
“You suck,” I said.
She merely smiled. “Of course I did. It would have been rude not to.”
Sometimes I think she’s spent way too much time with faeries.
“I thought you were going to give me a heads up if you decided to release the lust mojo,” I pointed out. “No one was ready for that. Do you know how much I’ve heard that vampire complain about lube?”
She flushed slightly but there was a satisfied expression on her face. “We thought the wards would hold. Apparently it was a bit more powerful than we imagined. Dean, are you all right?”
“I kept most of it out.” Dean seemed more confident to me after a good night’s sleep. “That was some strong magic. I’m actually pretty good with what we call dirt magic. It’s agriculturally based. I would love to learn a bit from the Green Man. I know he doesn’t do spells and stuff, but I’ve found my spells are better when I understand the magic behind them.”
Zoey grinned. “Oh, there is nothing Dev loves more than teaching. You’ll probably rue the day you asked.”
“I doubt it. I’m a pretty curious guy,” Dean admitted. “And I have to say I love having the pixies around. Apparently they don’t like the barrier magic near the brugh. I thought it kind of sucked that I was spending so much time on a faery plane and never got to meet a pixie. I’ll go help finish getting ready. I’m excited to go back to Tír na nÓg. I haven’t been in years.”
“He seems happy,” the queen said as she watched Dean join the Taggarts and Adam.
“He thinks he had a prophetic dream.” The bikes were humming again and my adrenaline started to flow. No matter what they said, I couldn’t help but think something would go wrong. What can I say? I’m a realist. Dev might be able to delay those angry witches, but he wouldn’t stop them. Even with the bikes it would be a race across two planes to get to the finish line where I hoped Dante and his cousins met us with an army escort. “He believes the sex magic from last night gave him a vision of his fated mates. He thinks they’re on the Earth plane.”
“That’s a lovely thought. I hope it’s true. He’s got a hard road ahead of him. He needs partners he can count on.” She reached a hand out and Arwyna lifted off her hair and landed on her palm. “Arwyna believes there’s something wrong with the energy here. She’s talked to the other pixies and they say there’s a wall around Summer.”
“A wall?” I was confused. “Dean has said nothing about sensing a ward around her. Is it something Erna could have done to her?”
“I think Erna’s done much to my daughter, but I believe this is something she’s done to herself,” the queen concluded. “Arwyna claims she felt Fae magic coming off Erna. She believes that is why the demons went to the brugh. They were looking for Summer but found Erna.”
“She’s funneling magic to herself.” I’d thought a lot about it. “I think she tricked Summer. She used the tragedy of what happened to Summer’s tribe to convince her to take that charm. But according to Charlotte, the magic needs somewhere to go. Dean believes Erna is planning something and has been for nearly a decade. I’ll admit, I saw her nearly shift into something that wasn’t human-looking. It was like I caught her in mid-transition into something vicious and terrible. We’re going to have to deal with it at some point, and I worry that she’ll use whatever power of Summer’s she’s stored up against us.”
The queen allowed Arwyna to fly back to her place of honor. “I would assume we will. There’s something odd about Danny, too. None of this makes sense. Him being human again that is.”
“Because Marcus retained his power. We all did.” Only Daniel had been affected. Could it have been a plot of Myrddin’s? Perhaps, but I couldn’t be sure.