The Stone Demon - By Karen Mahoney Page 0,56
to the end, and you will reach another door. That will take you to where you most need to be.”
She stared into the darkness, then back at Cathal. “It’s that easy?”
“This time, yes,” he said. “There are many entrances into Faerie, but they move on a daily basis. We have not had need to monitor these doors for two human centuries.”
“It must be weird for you to deal with us again, after all this time.”
“Indeed. It is strange to meet with mortals again, but I find I enjoy it.” Cathal’s handsome face broke into a smile. “I always did.”
Donna smiled in return, thinking about Xan’s human birth mother, but her expression felt forced. She couldn’t stop her mind turning over everything that still lay ahead of her—not least of which was to find a way into Hell, of all freaking places. And now she had to kill a magus. Murder. Could she do that? It wasn’t like she hadn’t contemplated it before, like where Demian was concerned. But thinking about it in a flash of anger was one thing …
She pushed the thought away. She’d worry about it later. Her grip tightened on the box that held the Ouroboros Blade. It wouldn’t matter, anyway, if she couldn’t fulfill Demian’s terms. Nothing would matter, because the Demon King would begin tearing apart the world that she knew.
Cathal touched her shoulder. “I wish I could help you further, but my place is here. With my queen.”
“Sure. I know that. You’ve already done enough—I didn’t expect you to help me as much as you did. Thank you.”
“For my son, I will do what I can. I hope to have the chance to make amends to him one day—even more so now that his mortal life is at stake.”
Donna turned her back on the dangerous beauty of Faerie and walked through the doorway in the tree, into its trunk. Her feet found steps in the darkness and she used the rough-hewn walls to guide her as she descended a helter-
skelter staircase. Round and round she walked, until she hit the bottom and made for the door that Cathal had described.
It will take you where you most need to be, he’d said.
Donna saw the night sky and stars as she pushed through, back into her own world. She could only hope she hadn’t lost too much time.
Seventeen
Looking around, desperately trying to get her bearings, Donna felt disoriented, like Dorothy after the tornado deposited her in Oz. She hugged herself against the cold and wished she had better night vision. At least it didn’t take too long to figure out that she was in the Ironwood.
It was dark and frosty. Donna gazed into the sky and was relieved to see a familiar stretch of bruised purple clouds. The smell of pine filled the air and frost crunched beneath her sneakers as she took a tentative step forward.
She had no idea where she was in relation to any of the exits from the Ironwood. Sure, what remained of the forest was hardly sprawling, but it covered a big enough space that, were you to find yourself dumped in the middle of it at random, you didn’t have much hope of finding your way out. At least, not any time soon.
Twilight made the winter trees look bleak and sinister. Even the evergreens seemed to loom dark and threatening as she turned around, trying to get her bearings. She looked up at the sky again, wondering if there were any hints up there. But of course she didn’t have a clue what she was doing when it came to stargazing.
I’m truly lost, Donna decided. Though maybe that was a good thing—she might somehow wander into the Elflands, whose main point of entry was in the Ironwood. But the only way to gain access to Aliette’s realm was to locate an Old Path—the pathways of the wood elves—and use fey magic to request entry.
Donna had never thought this would be something she’d want to do, but right now she was willing to take all the lucky breaks she could get. Since Xan wasn’t with her, she didn’t have much chance of searching out the Elflands on her own, and she’d never been a very good navigator when map-reading for Aunt Paige as a kid. But she couldn’t avoid the fact that getting the Cup of Hermes from Aliette was the next logical step—the next thing she must do if she had any hope of creating the Philosopher’s Stone by dawn