Nathaniel grabbed my hand, pulling me along. “You must run.”

“I know,” I said.

“I can carry you.”

“You can’t carry me and fight at the same time,” I said. “And I think we’re going to have to fight.”

“You’re not fighting that spriggan,” Beezle said. “They’re barrow guards. Believe me, it’s seen anything you can throw at it.”

“I can’t run much longer,” I said.

Beezle looked behind us. “You have to. But I think it’s slowing down.”

The spriggan roared again, and it did sound like it was slightly farther away. Nathaniel gripped my hand hard, and I felt a little push of magical energy pass from him to me.

His magic burned through me, gave me the boost that I needed. My legs turned over faster and faster. Nathaniel kept pace with me, and after a minute or two we were right on Samiel’s heels.

It seemed like the trees were thinning out, the underbrush growing sparser. The sounds of the spriggan’s pursuit ceased abruptly. I risked a glance over my shoulder.

The spriggan was gone.

“Hold up,” I shouted, coming to a halt.

I bent over, my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. Beezle flew off my shoulder, hovering beside me in the air. Sweat dripped over my face and onto the ground. My fancy new leather pants stuck to my legs, and the sweater was sopping wet.

Jude and Samiel stopped and turned. When Samiel saw that we were no longer being pursued, he put Chloe back on her feet. She looked seasick. She sat on the ground, cross-legged, and breathed in through her nose.

“When I stop feeling like I’m going to puke, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” she said to Samiel.

Samiel shrugged. I could have let that monster eat you.

“I can run, you know,” Chloe said.

Not fast enough.

“Don’t argue with her, Samiel,” I said. “She just wants to pick a fight because she knows you’re right.”

“How do you know that?” Chloe demanded.

“I live with Beezle,” I said. “I recognize the symptoms.”

I straightened up, wiping the sweat from my face with my sleeve. I looked at Nathaniel. “What do you think happened to the spriggan?”

“Either it was called off by Titania, or we got far enough away from its barrow that it decided we were no longer a threat to its treasure,” he said. “But there will be more creatures like it in these lands.”

“I know,” I said. “We’ve got to figure out where we are in relation to everything else. And we need a more effective way of tracking J.B. than sniffing around for him. Sorry, Jude.”

Jude barked once in acknowledgment.

“Weren’t you here before?” Chloe asked.

“Yes, but the portion of the kingdom that we walked through was an illusion,” I said. “I have no idea where we are in relation to the place where Lucifer brought us. And we might be walking through another illusion now. Faeries do like to maintain appearances.”

“What was underneath the last illusion?” Chloe asked.

Nathaniel, Beezle and I looked at one another. “Umm, it was a kind of game board,” I said.

Her eyes narrowed. “A game board.”

“Yeah, and Oberon and Titania were watching us on the board…Never mind,” I said, because Chloe looked like she might lose her temper. “Nathaniel, could we do a tracking spell to find J.B.?”

Nathaniel considered. “The tracking spell is usually used to find traces of magic. If J.B. has not used magic in this place, it would be very difficult to find him that way.”

“We can’t just walk around the forest banging into things and hoping we’ll stumble onto him.”

The next moment, Nathaniel shoved me to the ground. I hit the dirt hard and rolled over, ready to tell him off. But he stood where I had stood a moment before, an arrow in his hand. If he hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I’d have that arrow in my heart. I don’t know whether he could have caught it before his legacy from Puck had been revealed, and I took a moment to be thankful before standing again. Nathaniel pushed me behind him.

Jude tore into the woods, nothing but a furry blur. We heard someone cry out. Jude snarled and yelped, and Samiel ran into the trees after him. There was a flash of light, and the distinctive sulfur smell of nightfire.

Samiel came out of the woods lugging Bendith, Titania’s son, under one arm. Jude trotted out behind him. The faerie queen’s progeny was out cold, a nightfire burn on his shoulder. Jude had taken a good-sized chunk out of Bendith’s leg, too. Samiel tossed him to the ground, a look of disgust on his face.

“Who is this guy?” Chloe asked, nudging Bendith’s still form with her shoe.

“Titania’s son,” I said. “He doesn’t like me.”

“Do you think Titania sent him?” Beezle asked.

I shook my head, remembering the look on Bendith’s face when last I was in Titania’s court, when I had diminished Oberon in front of everyone. “He came on his own.”

I’d neglected to consider the possibility of a son’s desire for vengeance for his father. Well, Bendith thought Oberon was his father, and I was not going to be the one to disabuse him of that notion. Even though I couldn’t believe that he didn’t see the proof every time he looked in the mirror. His eyes were exactly like Puck’s. I stared at Bendith, possibilities turning over in my mind.

“So now we’ve got the faerie queen’s son,” I said. “And that means we have something to trade.”

“Bendith for J.B.?” Nathaniel said. “Are we going to return to the castle with a knife to his neck and demand Titania reveal J.B.’s location?”

“We could, if we had to,” I said. “Or we could make Bendith tell us where J.B. is.”

“If he knows,” Beezle said.

“Well, we’d better wake him up and find out,” I said.

“Shall I heal him?” Nathaniel asked.

“No,” I said. “He tried to kill me. He’s not getting courtesy from me.”

“Dark side,” Beezle murmured.

“I don’t care,” I said. “I don’t want him healed. If we have to kill him, then that’s a lot of energy wasted.”

“Are you really going to kill Titania’s son in cold blood?” Beezle asked. “I’m not sure I’m on board with this.”

“Me, neither,” said Chloe, who was eyeing me like she’d never seen me before. Even Samiel looked uncertain. It was hard to tell what Jude was thinking, as he was in wolf form. Nathaniel appeared unfazed. Nathaniel still thought like a member of the fallen, and that meant that whatever means were necessary were okay with him.

“Either I am in charge or I’m not,” I said through my teeth. “If none of you like it, you can find your own way home.”

There was an awkward silence that followed this.

“Wake him up,” I repeated.

Samiel shook Bendith roughly. Titania’s son groaned and opened his eyes.

“What…Where…?” He sat up abruptly as he realized he was on the ground, surrounded by enemies.

“You missed,” I said.

Bendith narrowed his eyes at me. “I will not miss again when next the opportunity arises.”

“You’re not getting any more opportunities,” I said. “Get up. You can save me a lot of time and energy by taking me to J.B.”

“And why should I assist my enemy?” Bendith sneered.

“Because if you don’t, I will make you hurt like you never have before,” I said.

“If you torture him, you’re no better than Titania,” Beezle said.

“She’s the one who changed the rules,” I said. “He doesn’t have to suffer as long as I get what I want.”

“No, I cannot allow this,” Bendith said. “You must pay for what you have done to Father.”

He pushed himself from the ground in a suicide strike, his hands outstretched, ready to strangle me. He moved faster than I thought he could have, given his injuries. My magic flared. But Nathaniel was already there.

Nathaniel grabbed Bendith’s wrists, and then something strange happened.

Electricity arced between them, and they were surrounded by a blaze of white light. The light faded as quickly as it appeared. The two stared at each other, identical stunned expressions on their faces.

“Your eyes,” Bendith said, and there was wonder in his voice. “Your eyes are like mine.”

I shifted so I could see Nathaniel’s face. It was true. The frozen blue had been replaced by the same sapphire as Bendith’s—and Puck’s.

I grabbed one of Nathaniel’s hands and pulled. He released Bendith, but Titania’s son took Nathaniel’s other arm so that the angel stood between us like a tug-of-war rope.

“Wait,” Bendith said, his eyes searching. “Who are you to me?”

I really didn’t want to have this conversation. I had enough family drama of my own. But maybe I could get Bendith to help us if he knew the truth.

“He’s your brother,” I said. I half hoped Titania was watching us with her magic. I hoped she was gnashing her teeth as I revealed the truth to her son.

“My…brother?” He looked bewildered, his eyes like a lost puppy’s.

Beezle shifted around on my shoulder so that he faced Nathaniel.

“I guess we know who you are now,” he said to Nathaniel in a low voice. “Should I start calling you faerie child?”

“Nathaniel’s a faerie now?” Chloe asked. She looked almost as confused as Bendith.

“Puck is no faerie,” Nathaniel said. “You should know this, gargoyle. You can see the true nature of things.”

Beezle muttered something so quietly that I could barely hear him, and he was perched right next to my ear.

“What was that?” I asked.