not too seriously. Isn’t it better to escape with us?”
She was silent for a moment. “Then she said, “No offense, but I don’t know you. I want to talk to Silas.”
“That’s not safe,” I said, and then added, “For Silas.”
I thought that would carry more import than she might care about herself.
She just smiled faintly as if she knew what I was trying to do. “I think Silas and I can find a way. How is he doing anyway?” She tilted her head to one side. “You’re Maddie Northsea, correct?”
Being named surprised me. “Yes. How did you—”
“He mentioned you.” She was studying me curiously, and I had a feeling maybe Silas had said more than a mention. “He seems quite taken with you. Must be that right hook you’ve got.”
“Must be.”
“You’re pretty, too.”
Isabelle was also quite pretty, with thick, dark hair and even, caramel skin.
“So are you,” I said coolly. We sounded more as if we were strategizing than complimenting each other.
“Find a way to get me some time alone with Silas,” she said. “Then maybe I’ll believe you can get me out of here without damning us all.”
I’d never seen anyone less enthused about the idea of being rescued. She waved her hand, dismissing me.
I stepped back out into the night, feeling far more perplexed by the Greyworld than I had been before.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tyson
* * *
While we were riding the rest of the way to Faer’s castle, I asked my friends everything I could about the shifters in their world. They told me about how the Dark Collar..or the Dark Crown, depending on one’s perspective… had been used by the shifters as a weapon, then turned into a weapon against them by the Fae. The Crown drew magical power. Raura told me that some believed that the Fae and the shifters grew from the same core of magic, but Fae didn’t like to believe that they were all the same, deep down.
“I don’t know if I’m going to stay in this world long enough to try to fix the shifter situation,” I began.
Raura scoffed. “No one can fix shifters.”
I fixed her with a look. “I’m a shifter.”
“Yes, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about,” she shot back. “You’re impossible.”
“You want a promise, don’t you?” Lake asked. He rode beside the two of us. “You want to know that we’ll try to make life better for the shifters.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I’ll do everything I can,” Lake promised.
Raura scoffed again. Arlen gave her a hard look, then turned to me. “You can count on me as well.”
“What are you all going on about?” Raura asked in exasperation. “Arlen, Lake, what exactly do the two of you think you’re going to accomplish? An unrecognized bastard of a royal and a refugee from the winter court?”
Arlen fixed her with a cold look. “We might be nothing, Raura, but we’re also the best friends you have.”
“And one day, you’ll realize that,” Lake shot back.
The two of them spurred their horses, riding ahead. Raura’s lips were parted in shock.
“As I said,” I started, about to remind her that she’d be a good queen with them by her side.
“No, don’t start,” she hurried to cut me off.
I drew my horse up. She went a few steps past me, then turned as well.
“Raura,” I said. “I don’t want the three of you to come any further with me. It’s too dangerous for you in the Summer court.”
“You can’t go in there alone, “she warned me. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I never do. It usually works out.”
She hesitated. “I see your point. You can pledge allegiance to Faer, then leave, if that’s what he demands. But if he forces me to as well…”
“There will be consequences from the magic if you break that vow,” I finished. I didn’t entirely understand why magic operated the way it did in the Fae world, but after what I’d seen, I believed in it.
She nodded. “I don’t want to volunteer either of them right now… not that they feel they need to listen to me anyway, apparently… but you should take Arlen or Lake. Or both. Faer has no reason to care about them, but they can guide you.”
“And when I get back, you’ll help me go home to Maddie,” I said. “As long as there’s no fresh disaster.”
“Oh, Tyson, you innocent thing,” she told me. “This is the Fae world. There’s always a new disaster.”
Raura hid in a local village while Arlen, Lake and I rode on to Faer’s castle.
When we