Page 60 of Demure
Once they did, she sat up slowly in bed, grimacing as she realized she was still in the white dress, and she had laid in Aodhan’s pristine bed without even removing it. She would have to offer to wash the sheets before they departed.
Rising from the soft and silken sheets, Sierra noticed some clothing laid out on the end of the bed. The clothing wasn’t large enough to be Aodhan’s, but it looked too large to belong to another woman of her size.
Willing to do anything to get out of the white dress, Sierra stripped down, sliding the leggings up her legs and pulling the jacket top over the top of her body. It didn’t exactly fit, but at least she would be able to move more easily than she had the night before.
Walking over to the window, which was covered with a dark curtain, Sierra slid it open slowly, her eyes meeting the dim light of sunset. She had slept the whole day away.
She stood there for a few moments longer, willing the stress of the past few days to leave her muscles, but of course, it was useless. She wouldn’t truly be able to relax until she saw Aodhan again and was able to sort out exactly what had happened. It would also help if she was out of the danger of being captured by Conlan. Sadly, she had no idea when that would be. Admiring the golden glow of the sunset over the trees, she remembered the time andher task and readied herself to join the others in the main room to see how the planning had turned out, since she was pretty sure she had missed it at this point.
Opening the door, she found Braan, Kaye, and Aislan huddled around a small wooden table, arguing in hushed voices. The moment the door creaked open, Braan and Aislan paused, their Fae hearing clearly coming in handy.
“Good morning, or should I say evening?” Aislan offered, motioning for Sierra to join them around the table.
“Sorry, I guess I was more tired than I thought,” she apologized sheepishly.
Kaye waved her hand in the air. “Don’t worry about it, we only got moving about an hour ago. Trapezing through the forest all night will do that to you.”
Sierra approached the table to find a colorful map spread out over the surface. Her eyes widened at all the names of the unfamiliar towns and territories. Sidhe was much larger than she anticipated. Her eyes searched the surface of the map, but nothing familiar came into focus. “Where are we?”
“Here.” Aislan pointed to the far-right side of the map, colored green with foliage. “Even in Sidhe,Teach Crannis one of the best-kept secrets, so you won’t find it on many maps.”
Sierra nodded. “Is it still inFuinseog?”
“Partially, but some of the buildings are inFuniunterritory, and others inSceach Gheal.”He pointed to an area in the forest. “The borderline between the three territories is in the forest belowTeach Crann.” Braan clarified. “Which is good for us because the specialty prison is inSceach Gheal.”
Sierra looked at Aislan. “But I thought you said Aodhan would be in the regular prison?”
“That’s what we are currently disagreeing about. I think Aodhan is inCuileann, at the main prison there.” Aislan pointed to a larger town on the coast. “But Braan is pretty sure he’s inSceach Gheal.”
“Is there any way to know for sure?” she asked hopefully.
Aislan shook his head. “No, that’s the problem. Basically, we have a 50/50 chance, and we don’t want to waste time by going to the wrong one.”
“My vote is that we go toSceach Ghealsince it’s only half a day away from here,” Braan said.
“But if he’s inCuileann, and we get caught atSceach Gheal, we won’t be able to rescue him at all until we figure out how to get ourselves out of the strongest prison in Sidhe.”
“So, just to make sure I’m following, Aodhan could be in either prison, butSceach Ghealis closer to our location but also more dangerous, meaning if we fail, we are all screwed. But, if we checkCuileannfirst, and he isn’t there, we’ve wasted time and energy on the two days it takes to travel there from here.” Kaye pointed at each location as she mentioned it before raising her eyes to meet Sierra’s. “And splitting up isn’t an option?”
Aislan shook his head. “We need all four of us to even have a chance atSceach Gheal, but it is possible that two people could likely be successful atCuileann.”
“I don’t get it,” Sierra interjected. “What makesSceach Ghealsuch a big deal both for prisoners and for us to break someone out?”
All three sets of eyes in the room came to rest on her. “Cuileannis a basic Fae prison, similar to the one I broke you out of. It is run by the Fae and human servants who are easy to outmaneuver and manipulate,” Aislan explained. “Sceach Ghealis run by Typhon.”
“Who’s Typhon?” Sierra asked.
Aislan shook his head a second time. “Don’t they teach you anything in the human world? Typhon is the child of Gaia, also known as the father of all monsters. He’s a snake and human shifter. He also has many dragons in his employ, guarding the prison. They are faster than Fae, often smarter, and they breathe fire. Typhon is often rumored to be more snake than human, slithering himself into places where he doesn’t belong.”
“And in the past few years, there have been several instanceswhere he took prisoners just because he wanted to, and most of them were never seen again.”
Sierra’s eyes grew wide, and she hastily looked back at the map. “And you think we truly have a chance to break Aodhan out, if he is there?”
“Well, everyone has to have their weakness, right?” Braan said pointedly at Sierra.
“Okay, and what’s Typhon’s weakness?”
“Humans,” Aislan said pointedly. “Imagine being one of the only human creature shifters in Sidhe. Supposedly, Typhon is a true immortal, unlike the Fae, and he’s been living in the mountains since the beginning of time. He has gotten lonely, and human visitors are the only ones allowed in his court without an invitation.”
