he indicated that Aliette, her wood elves, and the two faerie knights should leave through the magically created exit.
“You will find your way to your homes through this gate.” He gave the Wood Queen a look of warning. “You can only enter your own world from this door.”
In other words, Donna realized, there would be no sneaking into Faerie for Aliette and her people.
Taran sniffed pompously. “It matters not. That one cannot walk in our realm without the permission of our queen.”
Cathal nodded in agreement. “Queen Isolde may have chosen to unlock the door to Faerie for this meeting, but it is still well guarded.” He met Aliette’s black gaze. “Very well guarded.”
The golden-haired knight was the last to leave, and Donna could have sworn he glanced at her before stepping through the door. The moment passed so quickly, though, that she wondered if she’d imagined it.
She felt hope sliding away like condensation on glass. “We can’t just let them go!” she cried. “We need those ingredients.”
Demian laughed.
She swung around to face him. “Don’t laugh at me.”
Her mother reached out to touch her arm. “Don’t let him antagonize you.”
“But I don’t understand how he expects us to do this at all, let alone in two days,” Donna said. “It’s obvious that we’re unlikely to get these ingredients—whatever they are—from either Faerie or the Elflands.”
Demian nodded. He was no longer smiling. “Not to mention the ingredient you need to collect from my realm.”
“What?!” Donna slammed her hand down on the table so hard it actually shook.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Rachel told her, with an expression on her face that communicated more than she seemed ready to say. “Okay?”
Trying to control her breathing, Donna nodded. “Okay.” But she didn’t stop thinking and planning. She couldn’t stop wondering crazy things like, How am I going to reach the Underworld without dying? What could be down there that Demian can’t just give to us if he wants the Stone so much?
“So, what do the alchemists hold?” Donna asked. “What’s our crucial ingredient?”
Miranda and Rachel exchanged a glance. It was Miranda who spoke. “Each Order’s library contains a copy of the Silent Book.”
Donna nodded. The Mutus Liber was something she was familiar with. It was an instruction manual that contained no words—just a pictorial representation of how to make the Stone. Still, that didn’t make much sense.
“But if we all have that, how is that something individual? I thought each race guards a unique ingredient or object … ”
Demian’s black eyes flashed. “The Mutus Liber is not the ingredient. What your fellow alchemists are trying to keep from you is that the most important element in the process—even more important than the fruit, the blade, and the cup—is the ingredient that binds all the rest. The ingredient that pulls all the others together and lights the match, so to speak.”
“Which is?”
“You, Donna Underwood.”
Her stomach clenched like a fist. “What do you mean, ‘me’?”
“The prima materia, of course. That which lives inside you.”
Donna immediately turned to her mother. “I’m an ingredient? So this is what you’ve all been trying to protect me from?”
Rachel nodded, although she wouldn’t quite meet her daughter’s eyes. “It is.”
“When were you going to talk to me about how, exactly, this might work?”
“Again, I was hoping we wouldn’t need to discuss it until we’d gotten home.”
“Home?” Donna snorted. “Which one? Does the potential end-of-the-world scenario mean I get to go back to Ironbridge?” She was acting casual about it, but her heart had begun to beat faster and she held her breath.
Rachel glanced at Miranda and then nodded firmly. “It does.”
Donna’s heart soared. “Really?” I’ll get to see Navin again, she thought. And Xan! “I can go home?”
Simon, who could unfortunately speak again, glared at all three of them. “Are you forgetting that Initiate Underwood’s place is in London now, with Miranda and the Order of the Crow?”
Her mother returned his hostile expression with a challenge of her own. “And are you forgetting who the Archmaster is? Quentin told me that, if events from this meeting warranted it, Donna could return to Ironbridge with us while we figure out what our next move is.”
The Magus looked away, and Donna wondered if he’d known about that. She liked the idea of Quentin using his authority—the way he should—to put Simon in his place. It didn’t happen often enough, in her opinion, and she tried to wipe the victorious grin off her face.
Rachel raised her eyebrows. “You’ll have to go back to London