“Out,” Tomas’s murderer said, dagger pointed at me as another fairy opened the door and pulled me out. Three more, this time with a mix of guns and blades, waited.

He strode toward the building, and I followed, the rest of the fairies walking behind us with weapons pointed. I needed a weapon of my own.

The gatehouse was dark and empty, but the doors into the courtyard were open and light streamed through—along with the prickle of fairy magic.

Ruadan stood in the yard with several dozen fairies. This time, instead of the V formation they’d taken at Grant Park, they stood in a long, straight line that cut across the courtyard, and probably traced the ley line that ran below it.

They’d abandoned the castle because they’d thought they could bring the green land here from Grant Park. And when that hadn’t worked, they’d come back to the castle to try again.

Firelight from the torches they’d reinstalled shifted across their bodies as they waited to work their magic. They were in tunics, although like the fairies outside, some had switched their blades and bows for guns. I guess they weren’t so concerned about being authentic anymore.

“She’s here,” Tomas’s murderer said as one of the fairies behind me pushed me forward.

Ruadan turned and looked at me, and the excitement in his eyes made my skin crawl.

“Kidnapping is illegal,” I said. “You have no right to hold me here.”

“I don’t think you’ll want to walk away.” He walked forward, arrogance in his stride, and looked down at me, the scent of green decay lifting in the air with his movements.

“Trust me,” I said. “I want to walk away.”

“Not when you learn of my plan. It was you who inspired it, after all.”

That made the knot in my belly flip over. “What?”

“You see, bloodletter, the magic is old and complex, and the ley lines are not strong enough. The rivers not nearly deep enough to accomplish our goal.”

“To bring the green land here.”

“To bring the green land alive,” he corrected. “There is a finite supply of magic in the world. Fairies used to control much of it, but the world changed. Djinn. Demons. Vampires. Shifters. Goblins, even the elves, who share some of our biology. More creatures, but no more magic. And we suffer because of it.”

“You can’t destroy Chicago because your magic has faded. That’s not our fault.”

He spun around, and his eyes had gone to angry slits. “Then whose fault is it if not yours? Humans’?” He gave a considering nod. “Maybe. So we take from them.”

“And you toss aside your own queen?”

His eyes flashed hot again. “She would rather we die than renew our kingdom.”

“You told her there was a vampire-shifter conspiracy,” I said. “Convinced her the peace talks were some kind of revolution. You’re the reason she broke into the session.”

“She should have fought then and there. We made it inside the room. You were outnumbered and outarmed. But your father spoke, and she lost her nerve . . . as she ever does.”

“And Tomas? The vampire you killed at Cadogan House?” I shifted my gaze to the fairy who’d killed him. “You wanted to implicate the shifters to disrupt the process more?”

Ruadan’s smile was thin. “Disruption is the first step toward revolution. And revolution—upsetting the current order—is the first step toward getting the power and recognition we deserve.” His smile fell away, replaced by a pouty look that would have been better suited to a teenager. “Claudia believes magic and history have sealed our fate. We disagree, and sentimentality is not a weakness we share.”

I thought I’d seen desire in Ruadan’s eyes when he’d looked at Claudia. Maybe he was lying, or maybe it hadn’t been romantic desire at all. Just want and need for something he thought she could provide.

He moved closer, until his magic surrounded us both and I was forced to look up at him, and could see the shadows under his eyes and the fear that lived in them.

“I am too young to fade away, to become a shell of myself. A husk. So we put aside the obstacle to our resurrection.”

“Your queen.”

“She was wrong about this magic. But when we succeed, she will see that we were right, and she will celebrate it.”

“Given you kidnapped her and stuck her in an abandoned church, I doubt that. She’s not nearly as grateful as you seem to think she should be.”

His dark eyes flashed. “She will thank us.”

“For what? Your plan failed. Look around, Ruadan. We aren’t in the green land, and she knows it.” I tried to remember what Claudia had told us, what tampering with the green land would do. “Trying to bring the green land here will only screw up this world. She wanted us to convince you to stop.”

His eyes were mean. “Lies fall from your lips, bloodletter. We haven’t failed. We merely have not yet been successful.” He took a step forward, voice low and menacing. “I saw what you were at Cadogan House, when our magic enhanced the natural bloodthirst of your kind. I saw the red of your eyes, the magic that flows through you. We cannot do this on our own. But we can do it with you.”

Fear was a vise around my heart, a vicious, sharp-tipped hand. I didn’t want Ruadan knowing anything about me, much less about the monster.

“You and I were born at the same time,” he continued. “We were brought here by the same magic, the power that Sorcha spread across the city. That power allowed fairies and vampires to breed again. You and I were born of that same power. That means you can help us.”

For a moment, I simply stared at him, and then nearly laughed in relief.

He’d gotten it wrong. Never mind that I’d been kidnapped, didn’t have a weapon, and was completely outnumbered. The fact that he didn’t know about the Egregore and only thought I was different because Sorcha had sprinkled around some pixie dust loosened that knot in my belly. And I wasn’t about to correct him.

“You think the ley lines aren’t strong enough, but a twenty-three-year-old vampire can help you?”

“I think you don’t give yourself enough credit.”

“I don’t even know how to do that. How to access magic.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Ruadan said. “We’re going to do it for you. Put her in position,” he ordered, and the fairies behind me prodded me forward again.

Magic began to tingle as thin green vines began to curl between the stones ahead of us. They’d tie me again, and this time there’d be no wolf to cut me free. So it was now or never.

I gasped, pretended to stumble forward. The fairy on my right stepped forward, reached for my arm. I grabbed his wrist, twisted it back, and reached for the knife belted at his waist.

“Secure her!” Ruadan yelled, and the other two fairies moved forward, grabbing my arms and pinning them behind me before I could take the weapon. They pushed me forward toward the crawling vines on the stones, and I began to feel very pessimistic about my chances.

“Begin!” Ruadan ordered, and the fairies held my arms wide while the tendrils curled into place around my left wrist.

The ground began to ripple as they began their magic. Ruadan stepped in front of me and pressed his hand to my wrist.

“Now,” he said, and the world became a blur.

It was like bees had taken up space in my body, an entire hive vibrating and moving beneath my skin as Ruadan sought to pull from me the magic he believed I possessed. But he hadn’t been right about the monster. He’d guessed wrong. And instead of convincing it to link its magic to theirs, he’d only made it angry. It climbed to the surface, claw over claw, and began to scream back its own vibration of magic.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to drown out the roaring tornado of noise in my head, trying to keep from losing my sanity in the vortex.

The monster flexed arm and muscle, and the tendrils at my right wrist snapped, and the magic fluttered in response.

“ATTENTION. ATTENTION.”

Was that Theo’s voice on a loudspeaker?

“YOU ARE SURROUNDED. RELEASE YOUR HOSTAGE AND PROCEED IN AN ORDERLY FASHION TOWARD THE GATE!”

“Do not stop!” Ruadan said as the magic stuttered around us. “Complete the charm!”

Before they could respond, the ground shook. And this time, it didn’t have anything to do with magic. Stones crumbled through the lower part of the outer wall about forty feet away, sending a ball of fire through the gap. Smoke began to pour into the courtyard, and chaos erupted.

I tried to make myself focus despite the spinning in my head and punched out, caught the closest fairy beneath the chin. He hit the ground and I fell on top of him, trying to wrap my fingers around his knife. I began to saw at the vines on my other wrist. But my vision was double, and I struck the ground twice—sending shocks of pain through my arm—before managing to break through a single strand.