Page 218 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Pete didn’t like where Dando was going, but his grin held firm.
Until Dando bent to his bag and retrieved a small glass case. Inside, an inky death poppy sat, a venomous spider ready to pounce.
No!
Pete’s innards squirmed at sight of that flower. At the oblivion it promised. And there was his satchel, a yard away, his Wolver’s Bite capsule within. He had to find a way to reach it. To swallow it. Now! If he turned demonic this close to Eden—catastrophe! Because demonic Pete would feel no qualms betraying everybody kind Pete had already saved. Shorty included.
Help me, Pete begged fate.Please let me keep them safe! Keephersafe!
Dando savored Pete’s horror, eyes alight as Elven Absinthe. “You’ve two options, McKenna. You can tell us where to find the princess, and we’ll release you without a word to Gentian. Or—” He raised the encased poppy for Pete’s panting inspection. “You can stonewall us, and we’ll feed this bloom to you petal by petal until your soul decays. You’ll happily tell us where we can find the princess then—Gentian’s puppet once again.”
His nostrils flaring, his agonized muscles straining on his bindings, Pete glared. “You run a dangerous gambit, Dando, wagering I won’t just kill you all once that poison takes hold.”
“Golly, we’ll be well away before you regain your strength, fella. With the princess, by all odds.”
Digging within himself for remnants of his prowess, Pete tightened his hold on the tethers binding his wrists. If he could yank them with enough force, he might well get free to fight. To reach his satchel and the quick death it held. But it was going to hurt.
Bugger, it would beexcruciating.
“You know I’ve never liked you, man.” An act of the worst sort—Dando’s sympathy. “But, please, for your savior’s sake, have mercy on yourself. Just tell us where you stashed the princess.”
Growling as he stood tall, Pete clutched his bonds and bared his teeth like the predator he was. “What princess?” he rasped, daring Dando to try him.
Dando clicked his tongue, sighing. “I won’t like this any more than you will.” He flipped open the case’s lid.
Gritting teeth coated in blood, Pete barreled into his pain, roared like a bear, and yanked with every ounce of strength left in his pounding heart. And the willow branches snapped.
Amy
“Howdidyoudoit, anyway?” I asked Morus as we trekked through oppressive heat. Thank Danu for the skimpy fashions in Eden, or I’d have sweated away my energy long before dusk.
“Do what?” Morus tottered ahead of me, chimplike. He’d taken possession of our travel provisions, the burlap bag Myrddin had given me hiked over his bony, furry shoulder.
“Make everything stop in Peregrine Patriot.” Maybe this new tangent of conversation would distract from my panic. Morus said we were on Pete’s trail, but would we be too late to prevent whatever awful thing would befall him? “The music, the lights, even my friend, Olivia—they all stopped before you stole my phone. Do you have powers that do that?”
“Ah, no, no. My powers lay solely in the sleight of hand realm—used them to swap your phone with a changeling, at that.”
I sneered.
“To stop everything, as you said, I used a werethistle root. Eating one gives you the power to dampen the flow of matter—even electricity, as it were. Was meant to work on you too, you see.” He cast me what I assumed was a wry look. “I suppose you have a natural resistance to it. Handy to know—for your future.”
“Why didn’t you warn me about the bogeybatsthere?”
Morus paused, sniffing the air. Scenting Pete, I prayed. “At that time, they hadn’t stolen through the portal yet. I did warn you that it was open, remember? Though, I likely sounded rather cryptic. Didn’t realize you were in the dark about your origins. Myrddin hadn’t read that snippet in the stars until I’d already left for Earth. He was heartily displeased to see it, by the way. He’d advised your father to always keep you in the know. But I see how the good feyr could be too afraid for your welfare on Earth to heed such advice.
“And I changelinged your phone because—”
“What does that mean? Changelinged?” Common knowledge on Earth held that a changeling was a fairy baby left in place of a human baby, kidnapped by fairies. The changeling looked just like the human baby, but the parents always sensed something was off. Just like the glitching phone. “How did you know all my contacts? The numbers? Even though they were all screwy, they were all in there somewhere.”
“I didn’t know them. Changelinging human devices requires little forethought or preparation. You only sprinkle a mimic potion over it—and well, then you have your changeling. It’s never a perfect mimic, you’ll know, but it does well to fool even the most observant mark.”
I sniffed. “And why did you choose to fool me?”
He had the grace to look ashamed. “Well, I happen to hanker for human devices of the like—but I also thought to warn you onlyifthe worst occurred. Dreadful sorry it did, forbye. I did so like your da.”
His regret soothed my temper. I was about to express my thanks when a breath nauseated me. “Ugh, what is that stench?”
“What?” Morus’s snout flared, making of his face a bad dream amid the dimming ferns. “I don’t smell anything frowsty.”
