Page 118 of Broken Veil
The corner of the wolf’s mouth turned up. “I wouldn’t want to miss it.”
Night was fallingby the time Carys and her friends walked back through the fae gate and into the Brightlands. Joshua and Jibril were nowhere to be found, so they looked for a path through the woods and started to make their way out of the forest, hoping the van wasn’t too far away.
Laura patted her pockets. “Freaking fae thieves.”
Naida frowned at her. “Excuse me?”
“Not you,” Laura said. “I forgot to drop my phone before we went through the gate, and something must have snatched it.” She looked at Duncan. “You?”
“With all the pocket worlds and realms and gates we’ve been dropped through lately,” the man said, “I’ve taken to leaving my mobile in the van.” He patted Laura’s shoulder. “I’ll buy you another one when we get back to town.”
Laura turned to Carys. “Again, I do really enjoy that you have a filthy-rich boyfriend now.”
Duncan laughed and Carys smiled, but she didn’t miss Lachlan’s stormy look.
As they walked, Cadell filled them in on the news across Shadowlands Briton, where little had changed save for a surprising lull in dark fae activity as Dru consolidated power.
“Most of the dragons seem to approve his actions, though they note that many of the fae dislike the new king.”
Naida was conspicuously quiet as she walked beside a newly healed Godrik.
“King Diarmuid has spread power among the wild fae clans,” Cadell continued, “giving them control over many of the gates in their territory, and some of the ruling lords don’t like it.”
“Are the barriers thinning?” Lachlan asked.
“There is speculation that the Morrígan’s actions are having some effect in the Shadowlands as well as the Brightlands.” Cadell nodded. “Four Chinese tourists were found wandering along the Tamis embankment a few days ago. They had no idea what was going on, but the Kingsguard was able to return them to the Brightlands quickly.”
Laura shook her head. “That story is going viral.”
Cadell looked at her. “Like you, they seemed mostly concerned with their electronic devices.”
“Hey,” she said. “Not everyone has a Duncan who can just buy them new phones. That’s fair.”
Duncan muttered, “London police are going to have a hard time taking that report.”
“The barriers between the worldsmustbe thinning,” Godrik said. “Otherwise, I would not have been able to cross into the Brightlands in my true form.”
Carys turned to look at him. “How about now? Do you feel like you can shift?”
He shook his head. “The moment we went through the gate this time, I felt the magic leave my body.”
Cadell, Angus, and Godrik were all back in human form, and none of them seemed very pleased about it.
“Thank you for coming with us,” Carys said softly. “We missed you.”
He glanced at Naida, then offered Carys a subtle wink.
“One more thing of note,” Cadell added. “The spells the Frisians were using to ward away the sea monsters appear to be less effective. There have been few ships crossing the channel in the past two weeks. Briton is becoming increasingly isolated.”
“Are the spells becoming ineffective?” Angus growled. “Or is the continent cutting Briton off? They’re reading the stars. The bees visit their lands too.”
Lachlan nodded. “They’re worried about the Morrígan, just as Jibril said.”
After an hour of wandering along the road, they finally reached the turnoff for Joshua’s house. But though they found the van and the cottage, no one appeared to be at home. The windows were dark, and the chimney was cold.
“Well.” Carys pulled the card for Pages and Portals from her pocket. “I guess next stop Swansea?”
“Back to the house first.” Duncan opened the van door. “Let’s get some rest and get a decent meal before… whatever comes next.”
