“I don’t have the foggiest idea, brat.” He looked down at his linked fingers. “Confusing?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“But also maybe . . .” He trailed off, and then he turned to me again, and then his hand was on my cheek, pulling me closer, and his mouth was on mine, hard and hot and possessive.

I am kissing Connor Keene.

I tried not to think about that, tried not to think about anything, tried not to let rules or roles take me out of the moment. Instead, I put a hand against his chest, grabbed a handful of T-shirt, and pulled him toward me.

He growled happily and deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue between my lips, wicked and teasing.

“Brat,” he said against my mouth.

“Yes?” My voice sounded husky, even to me, and I could feel his smile against mine.

“I’ve got to take care of something,” Connor said. He pulled back and looked at me, and his eyes were swirling and stormy blue. He was almost unfairly gorgeous, like every line had been carefully and intentionally carved.

“You are . . . beautiful,” he said, then kissed me again, softer this time. “I have to get the vehicle back to Eli.” He stood and looked down at me. “Take care of Theo, Lis. I’ll see you.”

I didn’t have the courage to ask him when.

* * *

• • •

  Three hours later, Theo hobbled on crutches, his leg thoroughly bandaged, into the waiting room.

“You really should stay overnight,” said the doctor who followed him, and who looked barely older than me.

“Things to do,” Theo said, swinging into the room. “It didn’t hit anything vital, and you gave me some fluids, and I’m now at one hundred percent. And she’s a vampire. You don’t let us go, she might give your blood bank an extra look.”

The doctor gave me a skeptical look before sighing and heading back through swinging doors.

“Ready when you are,” Theo said.

“There’s an Auto outside.” We walked outside, and I got him settled in the backseat. The Auto was too small for his crutches, so the ends stuck through the open windows. But at least we were getting the hell out of the hospital.

“Why did you call Connor?” I asked Theo on the way back to Cadogan House.

“He was the only person I could reach.”

“My parents?”

“Deal with the Ombudsman’s office,” he said. “Sending them to the castle to accost fairies seemed a little over the line, even for me. But they’re so busy, anyway, and the story had a happy ending.” He glanced at me. “I take it he left for Alaska?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” And I didn’t like that I wasn’t sure. But there was nothing to do about that now. “Either way, probably better not to mention that he helped us. At least until he talks to Gabriel or whatever.”

“Not a problem. They tricked you, huh?”

“What?”

“The fairies. They tricked you.” He yawned, dropped his head back on the seat. “You didn’t know they were in the car.”

“Yeah, I guess they did.” And that had me thinking. . . .

“Typical Big Fairy,” Theo said, closing his eyes. “Could you maybe keep it down a little? I’d like to rest a little bit.”

I hadn’t made a sound, but I didn’t argue. I let him sleep, and I thought about fairy tricks . . . and whether they’d work in reverse.

* * *

• • •

We were greeted at Cadogan House like heroes, or Theo was, anyway, as my mother proceeded to ply him with food and drink. Lulu had dropped off my katana, and it felt good to belt it on again. Gabriel and Miranda waited with my parents in my father’s office, and I felt a momentary pang that Connor wasn’t with them.

He’ll come back, I told myself. He said he would, and he will. But he wasn’t here yet, and I had to put that out of my mind.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Theo said. “Your daughter did the heavy lifting.”

“Literally,” I said. “And I owe you for showing up in the first place.”

“The OMB owes you one,” Yuen argued.

I looked at him, nodded. I was enough of a Sullivan to accept a good offer. “Okay. I’ll take that on credit.”

“Let’s start with the fact that Riley will be released within the hour,” Yuen said with a smile. And a little of the weight that had pressed down on my shoulders fell away.

I closed my eyes in relief.

“The pin you found tested positive for Tomas’s blood,” Yuen said. “Adding that to the surveillance video from Cadogan House, the fairies’ subsequent activities, and the remains of a bloody tunic found by the CPD in the castle’s keep’s main fireplace, the prosecutor became convinced she had the wrong man.”

I opened my eyes again. “He burned the tunic in the castle?”

“He did,” Yuen said with a smile that said he was less than impressed by the fairy’s effort to conceal evidence. “Most of the tunic was destroyed, but scraps of the fabric near the collar remained. They tested positive for blood—and there are visible holes from the pin.”

My only regret was that I hadn’t found it myself, since I’d walked right by that damn fireplace.

“The fairies were gone when the CPD got to the castle,” Yuen said. “Presumably hiding in the green land again.”

“Ruadan wants to complete his plan,” I said, “and he hasn’t been able to do that yet because the ley lines weren’t strong enough. He kidnapped me because he thought I could provide the missing power.”

“Why?” my father asked.

“Because we were born around the same time, right after Sorcha, during the fairy Renaissance. He thinks that makes me magically similar to the fairies, and that he could use that power to complete the switch. He started the magic, but didn’t finish it before Theo showed up. And he’ll try again, because he’s convinced that’s the only way fairies will survive.”

I hadn’t told my parents the entire truth about me, but I’d been honest about what Ruadan had said. I decided that didn’t make me entirely a liar.

“In order to do that,” Theo continued, “they’re going to have to show themselves again. Pop back into this world.”

“Yeah,” I said. “And when they do, I think we should take advantage of it.”

“How so?” my father asked.

“Fairies like to play tricks. They like cons and games, because they think they’re innately smarter, braver, and more talented than any other supernatural. I say we turn the tables against them. We trick them into believing we have something they need.”

“Which is?” Yuen asked.

I smiled. “A solution to their magical problem. We give them one. We give them Claudia.”

* * *

• • •

  An hour later, after the idea had been talked and argued through, and Yuen had secured Dearborn’s and the mayor’s approval, my mother opened the door of my father’s office to the fairy queen who stood in the hall.

Her hair fell loose in waves over pink scrubs, and she was escorted by Delia on her left and Kelley on her right. The vampires in the room looked curious. The shifters still looked dubious. The humans looked amazed.

Claudia tossed her head. She might have been physically and magically weak, but the woman knew how to get attention.

Since she was in my father’s House, he and Yuen had decided my father would take the lead. While the rest of us looked on, he stood with his hands in his pockets, wearing his coldest—and, to my mind, scariest—expression.

“Claudia,” my father said.

“Bloodletter. I am being held against my will. I wish to be released.”

“Excellent news, as we are here to offer you the terms for your release. Your protégé has tried again to shift the green land to Chicago. Thus far, he’s tried and failed. And, as a result, he has spread, shall we say, bubbles of your world around ours. Theo,” he prompted, and Theo sent images of the affected areas to the wall screen.

Claudia’s gaze flicked to the grasses that waved in the pockets of Chicago. Her eyes widened instantaneously. “He is no protégé of mine.”

But the lie showed clearly in her eyes.