Page 24 of The Iron Vow

Oh, Puck,I thought. I’m sorry. But we can’t jeopardize the mission, even if Varyn is part of Nyx’s past. Whatever happened, I hope you both can work it out.

“The Nightmare King is waking up,” I told Other Nyx, and all of them froze. “That is why we had to seal the portal again—the glamour influx from the Nevernever and the real world was enough to rouse him from his sleep. He is starting to wake, and if he awakens fully, he’ll destroy the Nevernever with his vengeance.”

“So, it’s to save your own world that you’re here.” Varyn’s voice was flat. “You didn’t come because you suddenly remembered the Evenfey. You came to stop the Nightmare King from destroying your own Nevernever. To save yourselves.”

“To save both our worlds,” Ash responded, his voice cold. “Because if your king wakes up, the Nightmares providing you with glamour will cease to exist, and the Evenfey will Fade along with them.”

“How convenient for you.”

“Enough, Varyn.” Other Nyx shot him a firm look, and the Evenfaery assassin relented. Which was good, because by the look on Puck’s face, he was a breath away from saying or doing something that might’ve ended in a fight. “They are not our enemies,” Other Nyx went on. “They are not the Lady, or the sidhe of her circle. And even if they were, I will welcome any who are here to aid us. Even if they have betrayed us in the past. Even...” Her gaze shifted to our Nyx. “Even if I don’t understand how I am seeing myself staring back at me.”

“Yeah, I’m a little concerned about that, too,” Puck added loudly. “Forget the Nightmare King for a sec—there are two Nyxes standing here. Does anyone have any ideawhythat is? How can there be two of them?”

Another rumble went through the ground, making everyone tense. I bent my knees, ready to leap away should the earth shift below my feet, or the ground erupt with grasping hands. Thankfully, the shaking didn’t last long, nor did any tentacles burst out from below. As the rumbles faded away, I took a quiet breath of relief, but I still felt extremely exposed standing out in the open. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

“It is not safe to talk here,” Other Nyx said, glancing warily at the sinkhole. “We’ll attract too much attention. There are still Elder Nightmares wandering about.” She turned her gaze to me, pausing a moment, as if struggling to come to a decision. “If you think you can trust us,” she began, “we’ll take you to a place that is safe. It is underground, and the Nightmares can’t follow where we’re going. Maybe Gilleas will have an answer for us.”

“That would be appreciated,” I said, and shot a furtive glance at our Nyx. She still stood in the same spot as if frozen, her back rigid and her expression unreadable. Puck hovered beside her, and though he wore a lazy smirk, I knew it was one of his dangerous ones. “Answers would be nice. For all our sakes. My name is Meghan Chase, Queen of the Iron Fey,” I went on, and saw Varyn’s eyes narrow. “This is my husband Ash, my friend Puck, and my son Keirran, King of the Forgotten. You already know Nyx.”

Other Nyx gave a somber nod. “You know me,” she said with a glance at her twin. “But regardless... I am Nyx, leader of the Order of Crescent Blades. This is Varyn, my husband and second-in-command, and the rest of my unit can introduce themselves later if they wish.” The male assassin offered a brisk nod, and the dozen or so figures still waiting in the shadows bowed. “The Order is at your service,” Other Nyx went on, turning back to me. “We protect the city and everyone here from the Nightmares.” She shot a look at the assassin beside her. “No matter who steps inside its borders.”

The Evenfey did not use roads, traveling the city entirely by rooftops. The reasons were evident; Nightmares roamed the streets and narrow back alleys below us, most of them smaller than the monstrous Elder Nightmare we had seen before, but still creatures I did not want to run into. And there was the constant threat of the giant Nightmare worm, reaching up from the ground and dragging us under. Here on the rooftops, we were safe from its snatching tentacles.

“Why do you stay here?” Keirran asked Other Nyx. “Not that I’m ungrateful you showed up when you did, but I wouldn’t think anyone could live here safely.”

“We protect the city,” Other Nyx replied. “Not this one, but the one below it. Hollownest. There are those who still live there—the original residents of Hollownest—who have not Faded or turned into Nightmares. And through the years, other fey have found their way to Hollownest as well. Maybe they heard rumors of the library, or maybe they were just looking for a safe place to live. But as you saw, the roads and the ruins above are dangerous. If anyone wants to find Hollownest, they have to fight their way through the Nightmares. We try to get to them before the Nightmares do.”

“I see.”

“We’ve collected quite the eccentric population now,” Other Nyx went on, the hint of a smile crossing her face. “And of course, there is Gilleas, the historian at the heart of the city. If you have come from the Nevernever, he will be very interested in meeting you.”

“Why is that?” Keirran wondered.

“Because he has been trying to find a way out of Evenfall for centuries,” Other Nyx replied. “Ever since he found the library, he’s been consumed with opening the seal and releasing us all. But no matter what he tries, nothing works. We cannot leave Evenfall, and it has been so long. Most of us have given up hope, and the rest have forgotten that there was another realm at all. Evenfall is all they know now. But Gilleas keeps trying.”

I shook my head, feeling that familiar prickle of sympathy, anger, and guilt. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “Had we known there was an entire second realm of Faery right under our noses...” I made a helpless gesture. “I don’t know what would’ve happened, and there’s no use in speculating, but I hope we would have been here sooner.”

“You said you were a queen.” It was Varyn who spoke, drawing both Ash’s and Puck’s warning gaze. Though the assassin’s voice wasn’t hostile, it wasn’t exactly friendly, either. “Are you part of the Lady’s circle, then?” he asked. “Does she rule the Nevernever now?”

“The Lady is gone,” I told him. “She and the fey who sealed off Evenfall no longer exist in the Nevernever.”

“Hmm.” Varyn’s faintly hostile air faded a bit. “Well, I would be lying if I said I’m not pleased to hear that,” he said begrudgingly. “But who rules the Nevernever now? You?”

“It’s complicated,” I told him, seeing Other Nyx watching us now, listening intently. I sighed and tried to explain the current political state of the Nevernever. “There are four formal courts within the Nevernever,” I began. “Summer, Winter, Iron, and the Forgotten in the Between. Each of these are considered different territories, and a different monarch presides over each of them. There is also the wyldwood, which surrounds the courts but is ruled by none, and the Deep Wyld across the River of Dreams.”

“So many territories.” Varyn’s voice turned rather disbelieving. “How many kings and queens of Faeryarethere?” he asked.

“Currently? Five,” I said, making him blow out an incredulous breath. “And those are the ‘official’ titles. That’s not counting certain self-proclaimed Exile Queens.”

“It’s amazing that they can live so close to each other without fighting,” Varyn muttered. “If they’re anything like the Lady, I’m surprised they haven’t torn the Nevernever apart.”

“Oh, they keep trying,” Puck said with a smirk. “Lucky for them, we’re there to stop the worst catastrophes.”

“It has been a very long time since the Lady became the First Queen of Faery,” Keirran added softly. “A lot has happened since then.”

We continued through—or rather,over—the ruined city, traversing rooftops and hopping over exposed walls. Several blocks from the cathedral, Other Nyx paused, then dropped to the edge of a stone culvert below us. She ducked into the stone tunnel, and we followed her through a series of damp underground passageways, until we reached a dead end. A wooden hatch was set in the ground, and as the assassin pried it up with a rope handle, I peeked inside, expecting a stairwell or ladder descending into the underground. Instead, a stone chute slid away into utter darkness, like a playground slide from hell. My heart started a loud thump in my chest.

“This is one of the entrances to Hollownest,” Other Nyx told us. “And there are no easy shortcuts. We’ll be entering a point in the city known as the Crossroad Maze. It’s one of the more dangerous places to come in because of its proximity to the ruins and all the Nightmares on the surface, so be on your guard. Nightmares sometimes make it down to the city and are known to wander the Crossroads, and we haven’t done a sweep in a while.” She started to go down the chute, but paused, as if just remembering something else. “It is also very easy to get lost in the Crossroads, so I’d suggest you stay close,” she added. “The Crossroads branch out to every part of Hollownest, to deep places even we have not set foot in. If you go down the wrong path, you could end up on the other side of the city, or worse.”

---