“Oh, no.” He waved his cigarette, gesturing to a little man scurrying past us up the hallway. “That one is a gnome. There’s a couple of vampires up ahead, too.”
I frowned. “They’re going to the centaur realm, too?”
“Looks like it.”
“Why would they be going to a centaur summit?”
“I guess they heard that the Devourer and the Chosen would be speaking to the centaurs, and they decided to come and watch.”
“Oh. I guess if it’s like a political debate, they might be—” A thought nudged me. “Oh! Oh, God, Cecil!”
He rolled his eyes. “What’s your problem now?”
“I’ve just realized what this is all about. I know what Connor’s planning.” God, I hoped that I was wrong. “He’s not here for me!”
“Of course he is.”
“He’s not! He already knows I’m in love with Donovan; he knows he won’t be able to seduce me. Not while Donovan is still alive.”
“But that’s why he devoured the seduire stone. So, he can try again with a little more magic.”
“That’s not why he did it!” I put on a burst of speed, hurrying past the change rooms. “He’s not after me, Cecil.”
We hurried past a handful of centaurs and emerged from the hallway, heading towards the two squash courts. The crowd had suddenly thickened, and a line of people waited outside the squash court to our right.
The portal must be in there. I forced myself to relax, to walk casually, so none of them would pay any attention to us while we joined the line, but they weren’t even looking. One by one, they strolled through the open doorway into the dark squash court.
I quickly glanced behind me and saw Cress join the line right after the little blond girl. Cress winked at me and mimed pulling on the girl’s ponytail. Donovan slid into line between two other centaurs. Nate and Eryk did as well.
Good, they had someone to hold onto.
We reached the doorway, and I looked inside. On the far wall, a glowing circle of bright-golden flames lit up the squash court. One by one, the centaurs filed through and disappeared. We shuffled forward in line.
I grabbed Cecil by the hoof. “Don’t let go.”
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
We popped out in broad daylight. Narrowing my eyes against the sudden glare, I kept moving, hearing the clip-clop of hooves as the centaur family behind us filed through the portal. In their centaur forms, these people were absolutely massive—the mom and dad strutted through, tossing their long hair back, and stuck their noses in the air. I pulled Cecil to the side and out of their way, waiting a moment for my eyes to adjust so I could see better.
“Ouch!” A little girl-pony skittered within the portal, her hooves clattering. “Something pulled my tail!”
That something was Cress, who sauntered through behind her, saw us, and winked. “Made it. So”—she wrinkled her nose—“this is the centaur realm.” A pretty stone courtyard stretched out in front of us, lined on all sides by massive leafy oak trees. She wrinkled her nose. “Not much going on, is there?”
I glanced left and right, trying to adjust to the brand-new world we’d walked into and saw only rolling green fields of grass as far as the eye could see. “We need to find where they’re holding this debate right now,” I said, my voice strained with tension.
Behind us, the swirling golden flames of the portal hung suspended between two huge trees. A handful of centaurs clomped through, one at a time. The earthy, woodsy scent of woodchips and leather gave the air a fragrant flavor in my lungs. I took a deep breath and got used to it quickly, but it didn’t calm my nerves.
Donovan stepped through the portal right behind a huge blond female centaur. The sight of him calmed me a little bit more. He saw me, and with two strides of his long legs, he was beside me. The closer he was, the easier it was to breathe. But there was no time for that now.
“Donovan,” I said, looking up at him. “We need to stop this debate right now.”
He frowned. “I thought our priority was Audrina.”
“It was. It is.” I looked around frantically. The path in front of us seemed to be leading up to what looked like a massive green hill lined on all sides by enormous leafy oak trees. A handful of centaurs stood in groups of two or three, their flanks and rumps twitching impatiently. “Where is this amphitheater where they’re holding the summit?”
“Right there.” He pointed at the hill. A low rumble came from that direction—at first, I was confused. Then, I realized the rumble was thousands and thousands of voices.
Oh, no. “We need to get in there, now.”
“They won’t have started yet, Chosen,” Cecil said, waving his hooves around me, turning my green-gold dress into a thick leather vest and skin-tight crocodile pants. “We’ve got five minutes. Centaurs are windbags. There will be an introduction from the herdmaster before they bring out the Devourer and the Chosen. We can stick to the plan, sneak into the dressing room underneath the amphitheater, and grab Audrina before they force her on stage.”
“We can’t let them start.” I began to walk and stumbled a little as Cecil dissolved my stilettos, replacing them with steel-toed boots. “We need to stop this whole thing now, before anyone can talk.”
Donovan yanked Cress out of the way and fell into step beside me as we charged through the courtyard, heading towards what looked like a stone archway framing a hole in the side of the hill, right at the bottom. Next to the hill was an enormous pile of rocks. The centaurs, for some reason, had draped a polka-dot sheet around it.
I pointed at the hole. “That’s the entrance to the amphitheater, right?”
Donovan wasn’t looking at the hill; he was staring at me. “What is it?”
“Connor isn’t here for me. He’s not here for you, either,” I said, breaking into a jog. “We’ve been looking at this all wrong.”
“What is he here for?”
“He’s here for everyone else.”
Cress let out a shout. “Donovan!”
