I could see hints of myself in his fae face. His eyes narrowed a moment, evaluating me.
“That’s not possible. The High King created and planted the amaranthine trees. They can’t be propagated. There are no spares.”
I frowned. “I found one. It was here, in Nekros.”
“Impossible. It must have only resembled the amaranthine.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “It was only a sapling, and it was sucking down belief magic already, but it hadn’t formed a door yet. It was most definitely an amaranthine tree.”
My father stared at me, and my back straightened in my seat as I met his glare head-on. Then he turned and pushed a button on a small control panel at his side.
“James, prepare to leave as soon as Agent Craft exits the vehicle.”
“Yes, sir,” a male voice said over an intercom I couldn’t see, and then the car, which had been idling this entire conversation, shifted as the driver put it in gear.
Welp, I guess that was my dismissal. I slid across the seat, reaching for the door handle, but my father speaking again made me pause.
“Alexis, you need to get out of this city before you begin fading. You should go to Faerie, but even another winter territory would be better than staying here. There is nothing you can do in Nekros. Do not go looking for an amaranthine tree. Leave. Faerie needs planeweavers, and you are not enough as the only one.”
I bristled, turning back toward him. “I’m not just abandoning all the fae in Nekros without at least trying to find a way to fix this.”
“What can you do here, Alexis? Are you planning on raising the dead? Would they know anything the survivors do not? Are you an expert on bombs? Or destructive magic? No? Then return to Faerie.”
I glared at him. “Even if I wanted to flee to Faerie, my agents are reporting that while all the other winter doors are intact, they are locked.”
“Your Andrews was too young to hold a court. I’m surprised he survived this long.” He waved a hand, dismissing the fact that Falin may be dead as if it didn’t matter, and my jaw clenched. He didn’t even notice, but continued by saying, “Invoke the right of open roads and walk through any other season’s door. Hunker down in the shadow court until this all passes.”
I glared, not even really seeing him through the haze of anger and pain washing over me. Then without a word, I slid across the seat and threw open the door, clambering out without another word—not that I could have uttered one through the grinding of my teeth.
“Get to the safety of Faerie, Alexis,” he said, his voice following me out of the vehicle.
He must have used magic to ensure only I heard his words, because there were several people in the street around the limo who no doubt would have found that command very odd for the Humans First Party governor. But no one reacted. I didn’t turn back and acknowledge his command. Slamming the limo door, I stepped back, and the limo rolled forward, toward the barricades, as soon as I was clear.
“That was a long briefing,” Nori said as she approached, her eyebrows high in an implied question.
I glared at her before reining in the expression. Nori wasn’t who I was infuriated with. Sucking in a deep breath and letting it back out, I forced my expression to soften. “I took a call in the middle of the briefing. Winter’s wasn’t the only door bombed. Spring and summer were attacked as well. I’m waiting to hear about fall.”
Nori didn’t blanch, or if she did, it didn’t translate through her glamour-created skin tone, but the sickly surprised expression that left her lips slightly parted and her eyes too wide made me guess that under the glamour, all the blood had just drained from her face. “That . . . Who would do this? And why?”
And wasn’t that the question.
“Are their courts also locked?”
“I don’t know,” I said, heading back toward the command tent. “I heard the news from a human source.”
Nori didn’t say anything, but fell in step beside me. Her unseen wings once again were emitting that earsplitting sound as she rubbed them together beneath her glamour.
My phone buzzed as I neared the glow of the command tent. I dug it out of my purse, hoping it was Agent Bleek with good news. It wasn’t the FIB office, but one of my roommates, Caleb. He was fae,