ungrateful bitch who couldn’t see how amazing he was.
I hated that man. But the good news was he would likely act faster now that Daniel was here.
Or he would be free to do whatever he liked. Daniel had set up the Council to work even in his absence, but I was sure Myrddin would be right there to guide the Council during this dangerous time. If we found a way home or he finally rescued us, he would have an enormous amount of power and I would be in a corner again.
I took a deep breath and turned away. We had things to do as long as we were stuck here, and we weren’t the only ones who’d drawn the short straw. “I need to find Arwyna. Apparently Liv hasn’t lost as much of her power as we thought she had. She’s just started using it for evil.”
“I’m going to have a long talk with her about that.” Daniel moved to my side again, but it was easy to see he wasn’t working at one hundred percent. “I understand experimenting with spells, but if she truly did that without Arwyna’s consent, she’s broken the laws of our Council and she’s subject to punishment. Kelsey’s going to be upset.”
“We don’t have to talk to her about it until we get back.” At least I didn’t have to argue with him about whether or not it was okay that they’d treated the pixie queen like a lab rat. Liv would have a lot to answer for, but maybe Kelsey wasn’t the one to do it. I would talk to Hugo when we got back. I looked across the field and saw that Arwyna was still trying to find her priest. The spell compelled her even from another plane.
Liv still had power, and it looked like Nimue was helping her tap into it.
“She’s gone that way.” I had to believe this was where Dev had gone. Every wolf we had tracked him to Daniel’s office and lost the scent there. Kelsey had disappeared from Danny’s office. Marcus had been obsessed with that painting for months before he’d gone missing. They were all here and I would feel better when I figured out how much time had passed for them.
Or worse. Or I would panic and lose my shit again.
Danny jogged to keep up with me. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll fix this and we’ll fix your pixie friend. Maybe the spell will wear off once she makes it to Devinshea. That was the point of it after all. Hopefully she’ll be fine once she’s satisfied the intent of the magic.”
We had to hope that the spell hadn’t done permanent damage to her. She was moving from the field toward the forest.
“Hey, Z, look at that. I think she’s definitely on the right track.” I glanced over and Daniel had a grin on his face. He was pointing ahead of him. “Look at the grass.”
My heart caught in my chest and I suddenly teared up. “Dev.”
He’d told me once that in his sithein he could never hide because the grass grew wherever he walked. I was sure when he was a child that had been a messy thing, but he was an adult now and an ascended god, and he knew how to leave a trail. The grass had grown a few inches above the rest of the field, forming an easy to follow path. The grass was gleaming and glossy, more full of life than the rest.
Our fertility god was here and he’d left us a way to find him.
“If it had been weeks since he’d been here, the rest of the grass would have grown,” Daniel said, likely because he’d been afraid of the same thing I had. “This couldn’t have been here for more than a week. More than likely only a day or two.”
It gave me great comfort to know Dev hadn’t aged and died on this plane while we’d been sitting on our asses trying to figure out how to find him.
“I hate how sick she looks.” Her flight had gotten more erratic. She was steady one moment and then dropped a few feet the next. She fought to gain some altitude. “How can I help her?”
“I don’t think she’ll let you. I don’t know if she can even hear us. We have to hope Dev is close. I would call out, but I have no idea where we are and who’s…well, we know who’s not here anymore.