The urge to kiss her then was almost overpowering. Gently, I cupped her cheek, trying to convey my promise, what I felt, without words. Kenzie put her hand over mine and closed her eyes. “Be careful,” she whispered. I nodded.

“You, too.”

Opening her eyes, she released me and stepped back. “We’ll be at Belvedere Castle,” she stated, her eyes suspiciously bright. “So meet us there when you find Keirran. We’ll be waiting for you both.”

Todd spoke up then, his voice echoing flatly over the rest. “If you’re looking for the lady, she’ll be on the very last floor,” he stated. “That’s where the screams used to come from.”

A chill went through me. Giving Kenzie and the others one last look, I turned, gripping my weapons and disappeared into the tunnel.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Lady

I made my way through the darkness of the Forgotten hive, keeping to the shadows, pressed flat against rocks or behind boulders. In a real cave, with no artificial light, it would be impossible to see your hand in front of your face. Here, in the Between, the cave glowed with luminescent crystals and mushrooms, scattered on the walls and along the ceiling. Colorful moss and ferns grew around a clear green pool in the center of the main cavern, where a small waterfall trickled in from the darkness above.

Forgotten drifted through the tunnels, pale and shimmery against the gloom, though there weren’t as many as I’d first feared. Maybe most of them were out hunting exiles, since they had to feed on the glamour of the regular fey to live. Some were just transparent shadows, while others seemed much more solid, even gaining some color back. I noticed the less “real” the faery was, the more it tended to wander around in a daze, as if it couldn’t remember what it was doing. I nearly ran right into a snakelike creature with multiple arms coming out of a tunnel, and dove behind a stalactite to avoid it, making a lot of noise as I did. The faery stared at my hiding spot for a few seconds, blinking, then appeared to lose interest and slithered off down another corridor. Breathing a sigh of relief, I continued.

Hugging the walls, I slowly made my way through the caverns and tunnels, searching for Keirran and the lady. I hoped Kenzie and Annwyl had gotten the others out, and I hoped they were safe. I couldn’t worry about them now. If this lady was as powerful as I feared—the queen of the Forgotten, I suspected—then I had more than enough to worry about for myself.

Past another glittering pool, a stone archway rose out of the wall and floor, blue torches burning on either side. It looked pretty official, like the entrance to a queen’s chamber, perhaps.

Gripping my weapons, I took a deep breath and walked beneath the arch.

The tunnel past the doorway was winding but short, and soon a faint glow hovered at the end. I crept forward, staying to the shadows, and peeked into the throne room of the Lady.

The cavern through the arch wasn’t huge, though it glittered with thousands of blue, green and yellow crystals, some tiny, some as big as me, jutting out of the walls and floor. Several massive stone columns, twined with the skeletons of dragons and other monsters, lined the way to a crystal throne near the back of the room.

Sitting on that throne, flanked by motionless knights in bone armor, was a woman.

My breath caught. The Lady of the Forgotten wasn’t monstrous, or cruel-looking or some terrible, crazy queen wailing insanities.

She was beautiful.

For a few seconds, I couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t even tear my eyes away. Like the rest of the Forgotten, the Lady was pale, but a bit of color tinged her cheeks and full lips, and her eyes were a striking crystal blue, though they shifted colors in the dim light—from blue to green to amber and back again. Her long hair was colorless, writhing away to mist at the ends, as if she still wasn’t quite solid. She wore billowing robes with a high collar, and the face within was young, perfect and achingly sad.

For one crazy moment, my brain shut off, and I wondered if we had this all wrong. Maybe the Lady was a prisoner of the Forgotten, as well, maybe she had nothing to do with the disappearances and killings and horrible fate of the half-breeds.

But then I saw the wings, or rather, the shattered bones of what had been wings, rising from her shoulders to frame the chair. Like the other Forgotten. Her eyes shifted from green to pure black, and I saw her reach a slender white hand out to a figure standing at the foot of the throne.

“Keirran,” I whispered. The Iron prince looked none the worse for wear, unbound and free, as he took the offered hand and stepped closer to the Lady. She ran long fingers through his silver hair, and he didn’t move, standing there with his head bowed. I saw her lips move, and he might’ve said something back, but their voices were too soft to hear.

Anger flared, and I clenched my fists around my swords. Keirran was still armed; I could see the sword across his back, but he wouldn’t do anything that would endanger Annwyl. How strong was the Lady? If I burst in now, could we fight our way out? I counted four guards surrounding the throne, eyes glowing green beneath their bony helmets. They looked pretty tough, but we might be able to take them down together. If I could only get his attention…

A second later, however, it didn’t matter.

The Lady suddenly stopped talking to Keirran. Raising her head, she looked right at me, still hidden in the shadows. I saw her eyebrows lift in surprise, and then she smiled.

“Hello, Ethan Chase.” Her voice was clear and soft, and her smile was heartbreaking. “Welcome to my kingdom.”

Dammit. I burst from my hiding spot, as Keirran whirled around, eyes widening in shock. “Ethan,” he exclaimed as I walked forward, my blades held at my side. The guards started forward, but the Lady raised a hand, and they stopped. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you think I’m doing here?” I snapped. “I’m here to get you out. You can relax—Annwyl is safe.” I met the Lady’s gaze. “So are Todd and all the other half-breeds you kidnapped. And you won’t hurt anyone else, I swear.”

I wasn’t expecting an answer. I expected Keirran to spin around, draw his sword, and all hell to break loose as we beat a hasty retreat for the exit. But Keirran didn’t move, and the next words spoken weren’t his. “What do you mean, Ethan Chase?” The Lady’s voice surprised me, genuinely confused and shocked, trying to understand. “Tell me, how have I hurt your friends?”

“You’re kidding, right?” I halted a few yards from the foot of the throne, glaring up at her. Keirran, rigid beside her, looked on warily. I wondered when he was going to step down, in case we had to fight our way out. Those bony knights at each corner of the throne looked pretty tough.

“Let me give you a rundown, then,” I told the Forgotten queen, who cocked her head at me. “You kidnapped my friend Todd from his home and dragged him here. You kidnapped Annwyl to force Keirran to come to you. You’ve killed who knows how many exiles, and, oh, yeah…you turned all those half-breeds mortal by sucking out their glamour. How’s that for harm, then?”

“The half-breeds were not to be harmed,” the Lady said in a calm, reasonable voice. “We do not kill if there is no need. Eventually, they would have been returned to their homes. As for losing their ‘fey-ness,’ now that they are mortal, the Hidden World will never bother them again. They can live happier, safer lives now that they are normal. Wouldn’t you agree that is the better option, Ethan Chase? You, who have been tormented by the fey all your life? Surely you understand.”

“I… That’s…that’s not an excuse.”

“Isn’t it?” The Lady gave me a gentle smile. “They are happier now, or they will be, once they go home. No more nightmares about the fey. No more fear of what the ‘pure-bloods’ might do to them.” She tilted her head again, sympathetic. “Don’t you wish you could be normal?”

“What about the exiles?” I shot back, determined not to give her the upper hand in this bizarre debate. Dammit, I shouldn’t even have to argue about this. Keirran, what the hell are you doing? “There’s no question of what you did to them,” I continued. “You can’t tell me that they’re happier being dead.”

“No.” The Lady closed her eyes briefly. “Sadly, I cannot. There is no excuse for it, and it breaks my heart, what we must do to our former brethren to survive.”

A tiny motion from Keirran, just the slightest tightening of his jaw. Well, at least that’s something. I still don’t know what you think you’re doing, Prince. Unless she’s got a debt or a glamour on you. Somehow, I doubted it. The Iron prince looked fine when I first came in. He was still acting of his own free will.

“But,” the Lady continued, “our survival is at stake here. I do what I must to ensure my people do not fade away again. If there was another way to live, to exist, I would gladly take it. As such, we feed only on exiles, those who have been banished to the mortal realm. That they will fade away eventually is small comfort to what we must do, but we must take our comfort where we can.”

I finally looked at Keirran. “And you. You’re okay with all this?”

Keirran bowed his head and didn’t meet my gaze. The Lady reached out and touched the back of his neck.

“Keirran understands our plight,” she whispered as I stared at him, disbelieving. “He knows I must protect my people from nonexistence. Mankind has been cruel and has forgotten us, as have the courts of Faery. We have just returned to the world again. How can we go back to nothing?”

I shook my head, incredulous. “I hate to break it to you, but I promised someone I wouldn’t leave without the Iron prince, there.” I stabbed a sword at Keirran, who raised his head and finally looked at me. I glared back. “And I’m going to keep my promise, even if I have to break both his legs and carry him out myself.”

“Then, I am sorry, Ethan Chase.” The Lady sat back, watching me sadly. “I wish we could have come to an agreement. But I cannot allow you to return to the Iron Queen with our location. Please understand—I do this only to protect my people.”