“Where is Count Felford?” I demand sternly.

The stranger cocks his head towards the car. The windows are tinted and I can’t see a thing. My heart is pounding, but I cannot let it distract me.

The man’s gaze rakes over me, taking in my dress and probably my shimmery tights. I think my hair is still in bunches, though very disheveled ones by now.

“If Felford is not alive, we have nothing to discuss!” I snap.

The man grins. The car door opens. Gregory climbs out. He turns around and drags someone out. Someone in crumpled clothes with their hands cuffed behind their back. Someone with blood all over their face and down their front. Someone with eyes swollen shut and a head that lolls like a ragdoll.

I suck in a breath.

My Drew.

Rage coils within me. I wish I was a mage. I’d flay Gregory alive. How could he do this to someone who was once his friend?

But Gregory isn’t even looking at me. He is too busy trying to hold Drew up.

“So, I bet you can guess what the deal is?” drawls the stranger.

I nod. “Open the portal or you will kill him.”

The stranger grins. “Close. Open the portal or we won’t kill him. We will keep him alive for a very, very long time. In a state worse than this.”

It feels like something is clawing at my heart. Digging in and shredding it to pieces. My poor, sweet, kind Drew. He doesn’t deserve this. It’s not his fault he was tricked into marrying a Revivalist and caught up in all my mess.

If I had any doubts before, they are gone now. Ground to dust by the sight of Drew’s broken body.

I nod sharply and turn on my heels. The gravel crunches. Leaving Drew with those monsters feels so wrong. But I’m no match for them. This is the only way I can help him.

A loud wolf whistle cuts through the air, and my shoulders hunch. Mocking laughter rings out, and it feels like it is chasing me.

Assholes. For fuck’s sake. Why did I have to show any reaction at all? I wish I hadn’t flinched. I wish I was strong enough to hold my head up high and ignore them. Damn them. Damn them to hell.

As I reach the front steps of the house, Katy runs down them. A gleam of silver in her hands. I snatch it from her. The power flares and soothes my heart.

“Where did you find it?” I ask. Not that it matters.

“Under his bed,” she wheezes.

That’s almost funny. If only there was time to laugh.

I stride towards the shrine. Katy hurries after me.

“Where are you going? I thought the plan was to give them the dagger?”

I grind my teeth and quicken my strides. “The plan has changed.”

I reach the walled garden. Katy gasps. She has figured it out.

“No, Luci! You can’t! Drew wouldn’t want you to!”

I heave the hidden door open and step through. Katy chases after me. Her blue eyes are wild and frantic.

“I can’t let you!” she says.

I lift the dagger up high and snarl all my rage at her. “Don’t make me hurt you!”

All color drains from her face. She stumbles back. The look of terror and dread in her eyes is going to haunt me forever. As will many things about this day. But it will all be worth it in the end. Drew will be safe, alive, and able to put his arms around me and hold me.

I glare at Katy for a moment longer. I think I have defeated her. I’m acting like this dagger gives the power to do terrible things to her, and she seems to believe me. Good. I don’t want to have to hit her over the head with it.

I draw a fake rune in the air.

“Step any closer and your insides will turn into mush,” I say.

And then I turn away because I cannot look at her anymore. The devastation on her face is too much to bear. However much I deserve it.

Three more strides and I’m standing right before the sleeping portal.

For hundreds of years, people have been trying to get to this moment, and here it is.

A relatively intact portal. A tapped vessel who has been raised for this. A fey dagger of extraordinary power. All coming together on Imbolc. A day of great alignment.

Four things. And now they have all clicked into place, it seems so ridiculously easy.

I plunge the dagger into the ground by my feet. I close my eyes. Open up my arms.

I let the magic of the dagger pour into me. I fling it at the shrine. I am the siphon. The conduit. The catalyst. Magic flows through me. It passes through my being so quickly it is not trapped. This magic does not need a mage to free it from my body. This magic is merely passing through.

I feel the runes carved around the portal begin to smolder and stir towards life. They are hungry after their long sleep. The dagger is not going to be enough. Luckily, there is raw power everywhere. In the trees. The earth. The air. It’s all around me. I draw it all in and feed it to the portal.

The runes ignite. They flame to life. The ancient magic weaves and spins like cogs of a machine clicking into place and turning.

The portal forms in a blaze of shimmering light. It’s open. It’s done. A doorway between realms has been born.

The fey can step through and conquer this world.

And I’ll have my Drew back.

Chapter twenty-nine

Drew

This feels like my bed. The sheets are soft and the mattress plump. It smells like home. I must be hallucinating. They’ve finally broken me.

Though surely I wouldn’t fantasize about being in this much pain? Unless it is too intense to ignore. Guess it means I’m still alive. Which is a good thing. I can’t leave Luci. If they are going to do this to me, what are they going to do to him?

I need to wake up. I need to escape. I need to protect Luci.