Jacque chuckled. "She grows on you."

Peri snorted. "What, like a fungus?"

It was Jacque's turn to snort at Peri's remark.

Peri finally took her hand away from Jen's mouth – only after giving her a pointed look that said, shut your mouth.

"This is how we will do this. I'm going to put the binding curse on them now while they are asleep and can't feel it working on them. You gals are going to take the gear I give you and go through the veil. I will give you a sort of compass that will take you to Rachel and Gavril. You must move quickly, quietly, and try to go unnoticed. Meanwhile, I will be here to incur the wrath of five very stiff, pissed-off wolves." Peri smiled and added sarcastically, "Won't that be fun!"

Peri turned to the door and closed her eyes. She began to mumble under her breath and Jen and Jacque looked on, waiting.

"So, how do you think our furry friends are going to be when they wake up and find us gone?" Jen whispered to Jacque, whose eyes were on Peri.

"Let's just say I'm glad that I'm going with you. And you do realize that if you thought Decebel was going to be bad about not letting you out of his sight before, it's fixing to be multiplied by like a million, right?"

Jen rolled her eyes. "He probably won't even let me pee alone when we get back."

"Fane won't be much better," Jacque added.

"Yeah, but Fane is so much more reasonable."

"That's just because you're married to someone from the dark ages who thinks men should hit their woman over the head and drag her back to their man cave by her hair."

"True that," Jen agreed dryly.

Finally Peri turned back to the girls.

"It's done."

Peri got them everything they needed. Jen and Jacque were both amazed as the fairy conjured things out of thin air. Once they had warm clothes, light packs on their backs, Fae food, and water, they were ready.

"Remember," Peri told them, "quickly, quietly."

"Q squared, got it," Jen told her as they followed her to the veil.

Jen and Jacque looked back at Peri one last time before they both stepped through the invisible shield between the two worlds.

Peri closed her eyes as the girls disappeared. What have I done? she asked herself. She was trying to decide if maybe she should just leave Alina a note explaining what she had done and then add that the Fae council needed her. Peri immediately threw that idea out of the window. She wasn't a coward. She would take responsibility for her actions. She would, however, be sure to stay out of reach of any snapping jaws.

"So, I totally feel like we should have the Mission Impossible soundtrack playing in the background as we embark on our little journey." Jen chuckled.

"Did you just say embark?"Jacque asked as she looked over her shoulder at her best friend.

"Hey, I died, I get leeway on any vocabulary improvements or issues."

"That sounds so familiar coming from you. Seems like anytime you get burned alive or die, you suddenly have a license to say anything you want."

"You're catching on, Red. You totally should have milked your catastrophes a little more."

Jacque rolled her eyes as she pulled out the pocket watch-looking apparatus that Peri had given them. All Peri said about it was that it was tuned, so to speak, to Rachel's pulse or whatever. Jen had politely told her that technicalities were not necessary as long as the damn thing worked.

"Okay, it's pointing us that way." Jacque pointed to the left, through trees, bushes, and who knew what else.

"How are we supposed to be quiet when we have to veer off the beaten path, stumbling through tree limbs, thorny bushes, and whatever else gets in our way?"

"Just try to step carefully. We can do this, Jen. For Sally, for all of us."

Jen took a breath, looking into the woods. I've died and come back, she told herself. I can stumble through some cold, dark woods. Anything should be a piece of cake after dying. right?

She nodded at Jacque and added, "I'm with you. We totally got this."

They started off into the trees, trying to be light-footed and not stumble.

"So, how are things with you and Decebel?" Jacque asked, trying to get their minds off the cold and the possibility that an evil witch was at that very moment tracking their every move.

Jen let out a whispered laugh, trying to be quiet like Peri had warned.

"You know how we argued about the whole not withholding sex as a form of manipulation?"

Jacque growled. "Yes, I can't believe he said that to you. I didn't tell Fane because he would've been very offended thinking that Decebel might've thought he just wanted to mate with me to get in my pants."

"He doesn't think that about Fane."

"He thinks I can manipulate Fane that way."

"Well, can't you?" Jen asked, raising her eyebrows.

Jacque turned red from the neck up. "Yes, but geez, he's not over a century old and been with other chicks. He's still pretty eager about the whole thing."

It was Jen's turn to growl."Yeah, Decebel was so kind to remind me that he isn't as white as freshly fallen snow. But I'm not holding it against him. I mean, multiple decades being celibate? I would begin to wonder if he was even attracted to women."

"So what happened when you guys went to bed?" Jacque wiggled her eyebrows at Jen suggestively.

Jen really laughed then and had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.