of faerie drugs, his golden eyes glancing at me sidelong. I kept perfectly still, hyper aware of the dog’s enormous teeth.
The dog’s ears went flat against his head, and he sneezed several times before pawing the dirt.
“Hunt, Ceri,” Gwyn commanded.
Ceri wagged his tail once, whipping me across the leg, and vanished into the spiral of the tunnel.
“Let’s go, Bananas.” Gwyn took my hand. I took a deep breath, praying to the trees that the stitch in my side would stay gone, and followed the dog.
The tunnel ended in another branching fork, but Ceri didn’t hesitate. He plunged directly down the middle path, his white fur gleaming like a ghost in the darkness.
He was nearly out of sight when I heard a distant, strangled yell.
“That’s him!” I gasped, pushing past both Gwyn and Hellekin, who had crept up on my other side. Ceri’s snarls filled the tunnel like thunder.
I felt Gwyn right behind me as I sprinted down the tunnel, following Ceri’s ghostly glow.
The enormous dog of the Otherworld had a figure backed up into a corner, his teeth bared and dripping silver strings of saliva.
Brightkin held out his hands like he could fend the dog off. His fingers were still shimmering with the faintest remains of evanesce. “Call your dog off!” he shouted, reddened eyes rolling in his sockets.
“By King Arawn’s balls,” Hellekin whispered, joining us. “It’s Prince fucking Brightkin.”
“Prince.” I stopped several feet away, the badge clutched in my left hand like a weight. “Show me where the girls are. This bullshit is over.”
Brightkin cringed into the corner when Ceri growled, low and vicious. “Go fuck yourself, fish.”
I hadn’t wanted to rely on Robin’s badge for this, but…
I forced my hand open and winced, realizing the back of the pin had pierced my palm. I hadn’t even noticed the pain. A drop of blood welled up when I pulled it free and held it up, letting the gold catch the light.
“By order of Queen Titania’s acting Left Hand, you’re under arrest,” I said quietly. I saw Gwyn look at me sharply out of the corner of my eye. “If you give up their location, you can plead for mercy. If you don’t… well, I’m sure the Queen will have something very pleasant in store for you.”
Brightkin shivered, staring at me with so much venom that if looks could kill, I would’ve been curling up like a salted snail on the spot.
Then the corner of his mouth jerked up in a one-sided grin. “All right. I’ll take you there, fish. Get your fucking mutt off my ass.”
Gwyn whistled sharply. Ceri got in one last, deep growl before slinking away to crouch by his legs, but his golden eyes remained fixed on Brightkin.
As soon as the cŵn annwn left, Brightkin straightened up. “It’s right this way,” he said in an oily tone.
I carefully poked the Left Hand badge through the ragged top of my dress and followed him down a tunnel with faintly-sparkling granite walls. Puddles began to appear again as we drew closer to the harbor, high overhead.
There were also vines growing from the ceiling, each laden with heavy clumps of fruit.
It was faerie fruit, their skins as pale as flesh, pulsing with reddened and purple interiors. Unlike Robin’s, these ones looked sickening in a way, like they’d taste like meat and blood.
“Right through there,” Brightkin said, pointing at a dark door, and hiccupped on a giggle.
I didn’t want to get any closer to that door, but what would Robin do?
It’s a trap, Bri. This is too easy.
I took a step closer, my heart pounding against my ribs, and pushed the door open.
25
There was a stone room beyond the door. The ceiling dripped with more faerie fruit, their flesh pulsing with internal light.
That same light reflected off the eyes of the human girls.
Ten of them sat sprawled across the floor in various positions, most of them wearing simple, fruit-stained dresses.
One of the girls, no more than sixteen, still wore a pair of bright blue sneakers. She slowly pushed a slice of faerie fruit into her mouth, tears spilling over her cheeks.
All of them were covered in grime, uncared for and forgotten down here in the depths.
My heart seemed to stop hammering for a second. Like it stopped dead in my chest, becoming a cold stone before remembering that it was living muscle and jumping back to life.
There was someone standing behind them. Someone so tall that in the cramped space, he had to hunch over, and his long arms dragged